The Midnight expansion brings a major overhaul for Restoration Druids. With Beta running, this guide walks through the big changes, what’s gone, what’s new, and how the spec might feel. This isn’t a full rotation guide — it’s an easy-to-read look at the biggest changes so you can keep up during testing.
Big Picture
Blizzard’s notes for the Midnight Beta make the plan clear: reduce buff clutter, make raid frames easier to read, and make Mastery stronger per heal-over-time. The spec can now apply up to five HoTs per target. Many old HoTs and some active buttons were removed or turned into passives. The overall goal is fewer moving parts and more sustained healing instead of short, big burst windows.
Core Removals and Changes
Restoration got a near-complete rebuild. Several periodic effects and buttons were removed, and Flourish was reworked.
Removed / Heavily Changed Abilities
| Spell / Talent | Change |
|---|---|
| Spring Blossoms | Removed |
| Cultivation | Removed |
| Cenarion Ward | Removed |
| Grove Tending | Removed |
| HoT portion of Tranquility | HoT portion removed |
| Wildwood Roots | Removed |
| Overgrowth | Removed |
| Invigorate | Removed |
Cooldown Revamps
Midnight shifts healers away from huge cooldown windows toward steadier healing.
- Flourish is no longer an active minute-cooldown button. It now triggers as a passive effect when you cast Tranquility. It extends HoTs for longer but no longer speeds up their tick rate. It’s stronger per use but happens less often.
- The ramp tool Wildwood Roots, which made Regrowth casts extremely fast, was removed. The spec will feel a bit slower without those instant casts.
Spec Pruning & Simplification
Midnight trims passive buffs and redundant interactions:
- Grove Guardians now spawn passively when you cast Swiftmend or Wild Growth.
- Soul of the Forest and Power of the Archdruid now proc together.
- Skull Bash was removed from the Resto tree (most healing specs lost an interrupt).
Mastery got a big buff — it is much stronger per HoT but we now have fewer HoTs to latch onto. That means each HoT you keep matters more.
New Talents & QoL
A few new talents replace removed options; some are straightforward healing buffs and others change gameplay:
- Nature’s Bounty — adds cleave to Regrowth.
- Lifetreading — makes Efflorescence automatically move to your Lifebloom target on a timer. Big mana saver and removes a maintenance spell.
Apex Talents — Everbloom
Apex talents are new in Midnight. They’re special spec-tree talents you can sink up to four points into. They are technically optional, but Blizzard will likely make them strong enough to be worth taking.
Our Apex is Everbloom and it centers on Lifebloom.
Everbloom Effects by Point
- (1 pt) — Lifebloom stacks every 5 seconds, up to 3 stacks. Each stack increases healing done, but you still only get one Mastery stack.
- (2 pts) — Causes your Lifebloom to splash 15/30% of its healing to two nearby allies. This applies to both the HoT ticks and the Bloom. Each tick/bloom can pick different targets and will avoid full-health targets when possible.
- (final pt) — When you consume Soul of the Forest, your Lifebloom blooms 5 times in rapid succession. Each of those blooms cleaves to two nearby allies.
Why This Matters
Putting Everbloom on Lifebloom is a smart choice. Lifebloom has been a staple, but it hasn’t always been a main loop spell. Everbloom makes a chosen target extremely hard to kill (five extra blooms every ~15 sec is a lot of healing) and gives good overall HPS through cleave. It should shine in Mythic+ where you often cleave healing to most of the group. Picking a squishy teammate like a Moonkin and pouring Lifebloom into them becomes very useful.
Hero Talent Updates
Hero trees are not hugely changed, but each tree got three new talents and a few simplifications.
Wildstalker Tree
- Simplified: Strategic Infusion now passively gives HoTs a 4% increased chance to crit (used to be a 10s buff when casting Regrowth).
- Odd change: Symbiotic Blooms no longer appear on party/raid frames — unusual because it’s one of our strongest effects.
- New: Green Thumb — increases Symbiotic Blooms growth rate by 20% (previously part of a tier set).
- New: Rampancy — passive healing increase (also from an old tier set).
- New: Patient Custodian — HoTs +6%.
Keeper of the Grove Tree
- Simplified: Dream Surge is now a passive AoE when Grove Guardians spawn, but weaker than before.
- Redesigned: Cenarius’ Might now simply boosts Swiftmend healing by 20%.
- Redesigned: Durability of Nature increases Grove Guardian duration (old mini-Cenarion Ward effect removed).
- Redesigned: Early Spring reduces cooldowns on Wild Growth and Swiftmend by 1 second.
- New: Sylvan Beckoning — periodic spells can summon a Dryad that casts mini Tranquility and Regrowth.
- New: Spirit of the Thicket — Ironbark summons a Dryad that heals the target heavily over 6 seconds.
- New: Dryad’s Dance — Dryads from the above talents reduce Swiftmend cooldown by 25%.
Quick Comparison Table
| Area | War Within / Retail Resto | Midnight Resto |
|---|---|---|
| Big cooldowns | Flourish & Wildwood Roots ramps | Flourish passive (on Tranquility), Wildwood Roots gone |
| HoT tracking | Many HoTs, heavy addon use | Max 5 HoTs per target, simpler tracking |
| Maintenance spells | Manual Efflorescence upkeep | Lifetreading auto-moves Efflorescence to Lifebloom target |
| New major talent | None | Everbloom (Apex) |
| Hero trees | Many small toolkit talents | Simpler passives + a few new choices |
Overall Thoughts
It’s early — we need content tests to see how this plays out — but I like the direction. Restoration keeps the things that make it interesting: Abundance playstyle, a Mythic+ DPS rotation, and two different hero trees. I’ll miss being able to control big Flourish windows, but fewer huge cooldowns and a focus on steady healing could be healthier for the spec overall.
My biggest worry is the UI. Resto has relied on clear raid frames and WeakAuras to show upkeep spells like Lifebloom, Efflorescence, and stacks like Abundance. Hiding Symbiotic Blooms from frames seems strange because it gives Mastery, healing, and a 20% healing boost to the target.
Still — even with simplifications, the spec should remain fun and deep. If Blizzard keeps iterating on UI and tuning the sustained healing model well, Restoration will likely land in a great spot for Midnight.
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