New player starting out restoration druid .need tips

[Mistdame-silvermoon]

i will start playing resto druid from today .need tips and advice on what to lookout for .
and will it be a good thing to put different shapes of druid on my actionbar so that i can change them in instant ?

[Arthrid-argent-dawn]

For generic questing/pug’ing, it’s a very solid spec.

There’s not a lot to look out for, as such, except perhaps that the whole class is very Hot/DoT oriented. It takes some getting used to if you played a big-bada-boom kinda class before. Your mastery lends itself to spamming rejuvenation, so put that where it’s easy to reach.

You hit really hard, with spells and melee both, so when not entering prolonged fights, (aka. when questing and single/few targets), you will vastly outdamage both feral and balance for the alpha strike. That is usually all that is needed for regular mobs anyway.

If you put a few points in the left side of your class tree, you can run a quite capable cat form, (semi-capable bear form too, though not that great), and shift fluently between all forms to enjoy the full versatility of the class.

If you just want to run a lot of healer runs, then don’t bother, you’ll just need cat form for the run speed and the occasional prowl.

Also, if you haven’t played druid before, be careful when switching back to your other toons, because you’ll get used to jump off from high places and rely on insta-flight. (A friend told me… yeah.)

[Kurse-ravencrest]

Hi, restoration Druid? Nice! They’re super fun, truly.
Advice wise I’m not the best because I only play restoration like once or twice a week.
But I’d like to inform you on universal abilities that are sometimes used in different specializations, so you might want to put those abilities on the same action bars so they stay the same when you change role.
Starfire (Restoration, Balance)
Ursol’s Vortex (All Specs)
Soothe (All specs)
Stampeding Roar (All Specs)
Dash (All Specs)
Typhoon (All Specs)
Innervate (Restoration, Balance, Feral)
Nature’s Vigil (Restoration, Balance, Feral)
Heart of the Wild (Restoration)
Grove Guardians (Restoration, Balance)
Rejuvenation (Restoration, Balance, Feral)
Wild Growth (Restoration, Balance, Feral)
Remove Corruption (Restoration, Balance, Feral)

I might have missed a few like Wrath & Moonfire for example, those are both used in Restoration and Balance, but I hope I got most of them.
And yes, I agree, you should put Cat Form & Bear form on easy to access key bindings, I have Cat form on Shift + Q and Bear form on Control + Q.
But that is up to you.
Best of luck, have fun!