Shifting Perspectives: Restoration Druid 101, part 2
Basic rotation and gameplay
Healers don't really have a "rotation" as such but should instead choose the best and most efficient spells for a given situation.
If you are tank healing Your first priority is to keep a full stack of Lifebloom and Rejuvenation on your designated tank at all times. Refresh the Lifebloom stack as necessary with Nourish for maintenance healing and Healing Touch for more significant damage. Try to use Clearcasting procs (you should be getting a decent if somewhat unreliable stream of them, assuming 2/2 Malfurion's Gift) for this purpose, given HT's expense. Swiftmend for burst damage if it's up; if not, use Regrowth or (in a real emergency) Nature's Swiftness and Healing Touch. If the tank's health is stable, spread a few HoTs around the raid as necessary.
If you are raid healing Resto druids generally use Rejuvenation for raid healing, coupled with Wild Growth. If you have the global cooldowns and mana to spare, maintain Rejuvenation on the tank/s as much as possible. Keep in mind that Nourish can basically be used forever without running out of mana, so don't reach for a more expensive spell if damage is minor.
If you are 5-man healing Follow the directions for tank healing for your tank with Rejuvenation/Wild Growth/Nourish on the party to address damage as necessary.
Gems
Generally speaking, you want to gem for as much intellect as possible; no other stat will have as much impact on your healing.
Meta Ember Shadowspirit Diamond; because you'll need two yellow gems for this, socket two Reckless Ember Topaz or two Artful Ember Topaz elsewhere to fulfill the meta requirement.
Red Brilliant Inferno Ruby should be your default choice.
Blue Purified Demonseye (See below for note concerning socket bonuses).
Yellow If you're below 2,005 haste, choose Reckless Ember Topaz; if you're above 2,005 haste, Artful Ember Topaz.
Should I gem for socket bonuses? If it's convenient and you'll get a >20 intellect bonus from doing so, sure. If not, don't bother.
Glyphs
The question over which glyphs to use is arguably less interesting now than it was in Wrath, but to be frank, that's fine by me. Carrying around an expensive stack of glyphs to swap in and out of fights was never fun.
Prime Glyph of Lifebloom, Glyph of Swiftmend, and Glyph of Rejuvenation.
Major Glyph of Rebirth and Glyph of Wild Growth are your two best bets. While Glyph of Innervate was a popular choice for druids giving their Innervate away in raids, its future is in serious doubt after yesterday's patch 4.2 announcement. The only other major glyph that affects healing is the Glyph of Healing Touch, which can be useful if you typically use Clearcasting procs on HT.
Minor No minor glyphs have any significant effect on us, but Glyph of Mark of the Wild and Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth are the two that most directly affect the restoration spec -- unless you can't stand Captain Disco Tree, in which case Glyph of the Treant is your best buddy.
Enchants
Helm Arcanum of Hyjal (available at revered with the Guardians of Hyjal).
Shoulders Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone (available at exalted with Therazane).
Bracers Enchant Bracer -- Mighty Intellect.
Belt Not really an enchant as such, but you'll want an Ebonsteel Belt Buckle for an additional socket.
Boots Enchant Boots -- Lavawalker is hard to top in a raid environment (run speed is just too valuable), though some prefer Enchant Boots -- Mastery or Enchant Boots -- Haste.
Weapon Power Torrent if you're not worried about mana; Heartsong if you are.
Offhand (if you have one) Enchant Off-Hand -- Superior Intellect.
Shifting Perspectives helps you gear your bear druid at 85, tempts you with weapons, trinkets and relics for bears, then shows you what to do with it all in Feral Druid Tanking 101. We'll also help you gear your resto druid.
