A lot of what I am presenting here is a
summary of what I have discovered after researching various websites on how to optimally perform as a Restoration Druid in PVE, specifically at level 70. It is hard for me to say this is the absolute best method however I have had immense success using these setups and strategies. I am sharing them here for others to discuss constructively in an effort to improve our performances. We are the only level 70 theorycrafters left:
This is the single most useful web page I have found for Resto Druid PVE healing. Understanding the information on in this link will allow you to maximize your potential in a raid setting.
RAID HEALING:Generally our roles in a raid as Resto Druids will nearly always be raid healing (not necessarily exclusively) due to the incredible amount of raw healing we can put out consistently with hots and wild growth. So we will not find our selves focusing on healing tanks solely. This means that lifebloom is no longer a significant part of your over all healing.
The first thing you can notice on that page I linked above are the coefficients for our healing spells with and without talents.
Right away it is completely obvious that Rejuvenation and Wild Growth (WG) are by far our most efficient healing spells.Because of this Spell Power is our most important stat so you always want to gem and enchant for it! If you are having mana problems you are either not using innervate or are spamming regrowth too much. Gear wise, you still want to consider a balance of stats since you will not generally be making up mp5/spirit/int/etc with gems and enchants. So just because a piece of gear has more spell power does not necessarily mean it is better. Talents such as Moonglow and our best idol, Idol of Budding Life.
Literally, in aoe-damage heavy raids such as SWP (Think Phase 2 Illidan, Felmyst or Mu'ru) I find myself spamming WG and then Rejuv while WG is on cd, swiftmending those who are taking consistent damage. Lifebloom and Regrowth (although very rarely) on tanks if there is nothing else to heal. Typically you will rely on Holy Paladins and Discipline Priests to heal your tanks as they depend on you to cover most of the aoe healing.
A Tip on Healing Efficiency:Resto Druids by class design and game design are limited by globals (global cooldowns) more than anything else. This is why I am often very reluctant to cast regrowth especially in fights where everyone is taking lots of damage. Again an exception to this is when there are few things to heal and you can spend the extra second casting a regrowth on the tank. With haste generally your regrowth will cast ~1.8 seconds. With the proper gear, that's 2 globals you could have spent casting another WG or Rejuv or even a LB which combined would do more overall healing. This brings me to another important subject.
HASTE AND THE SOFT CAP:Haste is very easy to get, especially once you acquire SWP gear. There is what is considered a "Soft Cap" for haste and that's the only aspect of the stat which is relevant to Resto Druids since very little of our spells have cast times.
The "Soft Cap" is the amount of haste it takes to reduce the global cooldowns of druids to 1 second, down from 1.5 seconds. Again, referring to the link I posted above you can find the exact amount of haste you need after considering talents and raid buffs to achieve this. This is one of the most important ways you can increase your overall healing performance; more globals means more instants which generates more healing.
Wrath of Air and Improved Moonkin Aura/Swift Retribution Aura
5/5 GotE = ~10.95% =~359 Haste Rating @ 80 (~175 Haste Rating @ 70)Above is the amount we should all aim for as 70 Resto Druids. We nearly always have a retribution or Moonkin and Shaman in 25man raids these days for their respective buffs. If you get a little more haste than this, it's okay, just don't go out of your way to acquire it since the only spell it will really benefit is Regrowth. It is not practical to spec for Celestial Focus at 70 so disregard that part of the chart on EJ link above.
TALENT AND GLYPHS:Restoration PVE
The above is what I consider to be the most optimal PVE healing spec at 70. After extensive tirals in SWP I have found Revitalize to be far superior to Living Seed. Ordinarily you would want to maximize your healing potential, Living Seed is technically the obvious choice, however I consistently found Living Seed to be less than 1-2% of my overall healing for the entire raid night. Since I rarely use Regrowth and Swiftmend has a low crit chance it just would never proc. Revitalize on the other hand procs off of Wild Growth and Rejuvenation and these are up on perhaps half the raid every single boss fight--that is a lot of energy regen! Although it is hard to map, I cannot justify Living Seed considering how poorly it has performed for me; it is more suited to 80 druids would have nourish as a major asset in their arsenal.
Major:
Glyph of Wild Growth
Glyph of Swiftmend
Minor:
Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth
The above are the ideal glyphs you should be raiding with. Wild Growth is responsible for so much of your healing output, its glyph nearly makes it overpowered. Glyph of Swiftmend has great synergy with our need to conserve globals. Not only does not having this glyph make Swiftmending and recasting a Revuj/Regrowth much less mana efficient it forces you to waste more globals in doing so. It is easy to see why these two glyphs are pretty much mandatory. Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth just happens to be one of the only ones really relevant to Restoration druids in a raiding environment.
Last Notes:These are the basics of what I believe every raiding resto druid at 70 should shoot for. I have encountered some more complex issues already but they are not really relevant until you acquire nearly all your BiS gear. Below I have linked my druid's armory and a couple other websites for reference.
Júrei, my druid
Elitist Jerks Druid Class Mechanics Forum
WoW Druid Class Forum
WoW Armory (Look up your toon, and use the 'search for upgrade' feature to look for gear upgrades; it is very very useful!)
I am open to discussing any of the subjects I covered above. Unfortunately at the time of this post (repost*) I am the only raiding restoration druid in the guild. I am looking forward to having some others to bounce ideas off of
