Blizzard on Upcoming Restoration Druid Talent Tree Changes in Dragonflight Beta

Posted 2022/09/02 at 2:20 PM by perculia

And hello, Restoration Druids! A new Restoration tree will be sprouting into the next Beta build with spell changes, layout adjustments, multi-point node reduction, and new abilities! Players can also expect many previously Not Yet Implemented (NYI) talents to be ready for testing. We would like to give our thoughts on some of these upcoming adjustments.Build Diversity and SupportA good amount of feedback for the Restoration Druid tree has been it felt very similar to the current Shadowlands build and there weren’t many variations to playstyle throughout the tree. To open build diversity we’ve focused on adding new tools to existing builds to change their gameplay and creating spells to support new playstyles. Lifebloom, for example, is seeing more talents throughout this tree now.Mastery MatteringRestoration Druid’s Mastery is a very compelling stat, but generally does not have a lot of areas of the game where it gets to shine. We are looking at old bonuses and new effects to incorporate Mastery further into the spec and give players more reason to think about their Heal over Time placement as they parse their group’s damage intake.Layout ChangesThe layout of the Restoration Druid tree has changed significantly from its previous iteration. The new layout is intended to provide more options and improved pathing. Here’s what players can expect to see:New Talent AdditionsNature’s Splendor. New Talent, row 3. The healing bonus to Regrowth from Nature’s Swiftness is increased by 50%.Flash of Clarity. New Talent, row 3. Clearcast Regrowths heal for an additional 30%.Waking Dream. New Talent, row 4. Ysera’s Gift now heals every 4 seconds and heals for an additional 5% for each of your active Rejuvenations.Nurturing Dormancy. New Talent, row 6. When your Rejuvenation heals a full health target, its duration is increased by 3 seconds, up to a maximum total increase of 9 seconds per cast.Dreamstate. New Talent, row 6. While channeling Tranquility, your other Druid spell cooldowns are reduced by up to 10 seconds.Verdancy. New Talent, row 7. When Lifebloom blooms, up to 3 targets within your Efflorescence are healed for X.Budding Leaves. New Talent, row 9. Lifebloom’s Healing is increased by 6% each time it heals, up to 90%. Also increases Lifebloom’s final bloom amount by 15%.Embrace of the Dream. New Talent, row 9. Wild Growth has a 100% chance to momentarily shift your mind into the Emerald Dream, instantly healing all allies affected by your Rejuvenation for X.Regenerative Heartwood. New Talent, row 9. Allies protected by your Ironbark also receive 75% of the healing from each of your active Rejuvenations.The complete list of changes will be released with the next beta build. Thanks so much for your continued feedback!

Comment by gringoboy70I was convinced to main aff lock and then they pull this on me...Comment by ScreamehWOW. This is amazing, especially Budding Leaves and Verdancy! Going to be closely watching this. Good job Bliz!Comment by TehquoEmbrace of the Dream. New Talent, row 9. Wild Growth has a 100% chance to momentarily shift your mind into the Emerald Dream, instantly healing all allies affected by your Rejuvenation for X.Comment by VladrukUnless its tuned to do 20% more healing than other healers you wont have a spot in raid still. Still no option to sacrifice healing throughput for a damage reduction or anything useful to the raid. With the addition of another healer, Druid is going to have a even harder time getting a spot.Comment by gringoboy70Unless its tuned to do 20% more healing than other healers you wont have a spot in raid still. Still no option to sacrifice healing throughput for a damage reduction or anything useful to the raid. With the addition of another healer, Druid is going to have a even harder time getting a spot.Comment by KramlmarKMastery Mattering
Restoration Druid’s Mastery is a very compelling stat, but generally does not have a lot of areas of the game where it gets to shine. We are looking at old bonuses and new effects to incorporate Mastery further into the spec and give players more reason to think about their Heal over Time placement as they parse their group’s damage intake.Comment by SeniaaMastery Mattering
Restoration Druid’s Mastery is a very compelling stat, but generally does not have a lot of areas of the game where it gets to shine. We are looking at old bonuses and new effects to incorporate Mastery further into the spec and give players more reason to think about their Heal over Time placement as they parse their group’s damage intake.Comment by skinnybobDid anyone ever complain about resto's throughput? I don't think so. the problem is it has only situational utility and almost no externals besides ironbark which is only ok. For raids comp, you should never get a druid, it's just useless coz all the healers can still heal AND bring stuff like devo-aura, barrier, Pi, etc...

In M+ still no druid coz it's damage is not very good, and you have to switch to cat/moonkin form to do damage which disables your healing stuff. I personally feel the form changing is very cool but it is the number 1 thing crippling resto in dungeons.

PS: RIP treant form, it was cool and I know it's never coming back as a real permanent formComment by klineshrikeMastery Mattering
Restoration Druid’s Mastery is a very compelling stat, but generally does not have a lot of areas of the game where it gets to shine. We are looking at old bonuses and new effects to incorporate Mastery further into the spec and give players more reason to think about their Heal over Time placement as they parse their group’s damage intake.Comment by CodemagusMastery Mattering
Restoration Druid’s Mastery is a very compelling stat, but generally does not have a lot of areas of the game where it gets to shine. We are looking at old bonuses and new effects to incorporate Mastery further into the spec and give players more reason to think about their Heal over Time placement as they parse their group’s damage intake.Comment by Sunni011Thank you for this, not sure what all was removed, but seems like most of what you removed was good, useless multipoint nodes that shouldn't have existed, so good on you. I applaud you for bringing back the emerald dream mind shift legion artifact trait, that gave you some sort of burst healing on wildgrowth and promoted good prehotting, I applaud you for finally putting back Amanthul's Wisdom. Makes me look forward.

One suggestion though, the blurb about mastery makes me happy because its an issue I've pointed out all of bfa, and since the nerf in bfa which made it even worse. That said, I really wouldn't want you guys to switch it up too much bc as you said, its already strong where it should be, the only issue is it not bringing dmg where dmg is more important and you aim to "heal enough for people not to die while doing dmg". My suggestion: you make all tank masteries increase AP for a reason, because otherwise it would be a dead stat for most tanks as well. Look at the meta right now, there is one tank using it (prot pally) and most other tanks avoid it like the plague even though it gives some dmg increase. Do the same treatment for all healers mastery, make it give some increase in dmg or increase in X dmg, or increase in your "super efficient dmg spell only: say cons for hpal, sunfire/moonfire for rdruid, etc" while also unnerfing what you guys did in bfa, maybe not completely, but in some form unnerfing how much mastery we get per point. This will at least make it not a "100% dead stat" in keys because we're getting some dmg increase, while brings that benefit we're begging for. Balance is obv key, but at least it will change it from something we will never use to "maybe not sought after but a welcome addition on some pieces."

Obviously that is a big change, but if done right could benefit every spec and give you another knob to turn on healers that "don't deal great dmg" to maybe increase what they get outa their mastery.Comment by KramlmarKMastery Mattering
Restoration Druid’s Mastery is a very compelling stat, but generally does not have a lot of areas of the game where it gets to shine. We are looking at old bonuses and new effects to incorporate Mastery further into the spec and give players more reason to think about their Heal over Time placement as they parse their group’s damage intake.Comment by zolphinusDid anyone ever complain about resto's throughput? I don't think so. the problem is it has only situational utility and almost no externals besides ironbark which is only ok. For raids comp, you should never get a druid, it's just useless coz all the healers can still heal AND bring stuff like devo-aura, barrier, Pi, etc...

In M+ still no druid coz it's damage is not very good, and you have to switch to cat/moonkin form to do damage which disables your healing stuff. I personally feel the form changing is very cool but it is the number 1 thing crippling resto in dungeons.

PS: RIP treant form, it was cool and I know it's never coming back as a real permanent formComment by RestoCaprinaI'm sooooooooooo tired of reading about the lack of damage Rdruid brings.

Please for the love of everything Blizzard, just make everything do like 50-100% more damage so healers actually need to heal as much as dps need to dps.

I'm not saying as a healer I don't want to contribute to my groups success, I'm not saying I want to stand afk, what I'm saying is I don't want to have to dps on a healer as the only way to feel my place in a group is valid.Comment by InnamorI miss the explosive shrooms we had during Cataclysm. I found the gameplay funnier than the current one :/Comment by PeacemoonResto Druid damage is just not ‘easy’. It doesn’t have its own damage abilities, it has to ‘borrow’ from either Feral or Balance which involves switching forms, and that costs a GCD when sometimes 1 or 2 GCD is all you have for damage.

Resto needs one or two damage abilities unique to resto, like how holy priest has Holy Fire and Holy Word: Chastise.

Maybe Wrath could become something else for resto, and Moonfire given a cool-down and more ‘oomph’ when cast?Comment by KramlmarKResto Druid damage is just not ‘easy’. It doesn’t have its own damage abilities, it has to ‘borrow’ from either Feral or Balance which involves switching forms, and that costs a GCD when sometimes 1 or 2 GCD is all you have for damage.

Resto needs one or two damage abilities unique to resto, like how holy priest has Holy Fire and Holy Word: Chastise.

Maybe Wrath could become something else for resto, and Moonfire given a cool-down and more ‘oomph’ when cast?areComment by princesstonixoxoOverall, really solid changes. I cannot wait to see how the tree feels to play around with next week.
With that being said, the PvP talents for Rdruid are in a very dire state. Most of them are boring and/or completely useless and do not matter, aside from Keeper of the Grove (tranquility bubble), which is a lock-in anyways. It would be really nice to see useless ones like Reactive Resin, Entangling Bark, and Master Shapeshifter redesigned or outright removed, especially with Mark of the Wild becoming a baseline class buff and the mana cost being increased.Comment by Chr1st0phI'm sooooooooooo tired of reading about the lack of damage Rdruid brings.

Please for the love of everything Blizzard, just make everything do like 50-100% more damage so healers actually need to heal as much as dps need to dps.

I'm not saying as a healer I don't want to contribute to my groups success, I'm not saying I want to stand afk, what I'm saying is I don't want to have to dps on a healer as the only way to feel my place in a group is valid.Comment by LumikarhuWhaaaaat this is so nice!