Heal Alacrity Druid

December 2022

Heal Druid is a long-standing build that can provide Alacrity, Regeneration, Protection, Swiftness, Vigor, Fury for your party as well as bulk of Might. It also provides moderate amounts of healing with a more bursty healing profile and high amounts of Crowd Control.

Build Fundamentals

A popular misconception is an assumption that Druid’s Celestial Avatar is the primary healing tool of this build. While this is not entirely false, your priority will be to always upkeep boons on your party, and outside Celestial Avatar you will have multiple healing sources to help you keep your group HP high, the main one being Regeneration.

That being said, you absolutely should utilise whatever healing abilities you have to help your group when in Celestial Avatar form, and if needed, you should delay Celestial Avatar if you know burst healing will be required soon.

Be aware of your spirits, summon Water Spirit, Frost Spirit, Sun Spirit, and Stone Spirit at the start of each fight (you need at least 3 spirits outside elite to upkeep your Alacrity with full Harrier build).

Use spirits’ active abilities off cooldown and in range of your party to upkeep permanent Alacrity with Nature's Vengeance. If you know that fight mechanics will force you to move soon, delay using spirit active abilities.

Summon Spirit of Nature and use its active ability when you need emergency revives.

Throughout the fight, you will want to utilize Quick Draw to shorten the cooldown of your skills (entering and exiting Celestial Avatar will count as Weapon Swap too). The most popular strategy is to use it on Call of the Wild for Fury and Might (which you have least of). For example, you should start each fight on Staff and immediately swap to Axe/Warhorn. Use Call of the Wild and then go into Celestial Avatar.

Staff

Stand slightly behind the group when using Solar Beam.

Use Sublime Conversion to convert projectiles into healing bolts or for extra healing by blasting the water field with Ancestral Grace or Call of the Wild.

When swapping to Staff, use Astral Wisp first if it’s off cooldown to proc Quick Draw as it’s most valuable healing tool on this weapon.

Ancestral Grace can be used for extra mobility.

Use Vine Surge if you need an Immobilize.

Pets

• Fanged Iboga for damage and a pull from Fang Grapple.
• Rock Gazelle for CC.

Crowd Control

Have your pet attack the boss at the start of the fight. Hold off on using its skills as you will need them for CC.

• Vine Surge
• Winter's Bite
• Call of the Wild
• Natural Convergence
• Primal Echoes Swapping to Staff or Celestial Avatar will trigger this.
• Call of the Wild
• Lunar Impact
• Fang Grapple
• Head Toss
• Lightning Assault

Alternatives

Pets

Fanged Iboga for:

• Electric Wyvern if you need more CC.
• Smokescale For a smoke field if you have multiple Mirages in your squad.

Rock Gazelle for:

• Jacaranda for extra Immobilize.
• Brown Bear for additional condition cleanse.
• White Tiger for Aegis.

Utility Skills

Water Spirit for:

• Healing Spring if you need extra condition cleanse. Take Trapper's Expertise in Skirmishing trait line and Cultivated Synergy in Druid trait line.
• Glyph of Rejuvenation if you need even more burst healing (while in Celestial Avatar). Take Verdant Etching in Druid trait line.

Sun Spirit for:

• Glyph of the Tides for CC or to push enemies away (Vale Guardian, Soulless Horror).
• "Search and Rescue!" for a long-range revive on an ally.
• "Protect Me!" for a party-wide stunbreak and self Protection and barrier.
• Storm Spirit if you struggle with Fury or to CC.
• Glyph of Equality for extra CC or a stunbreak and Stability (while in Celestial Avatar).

Spirit of Nature for:

• Entangle in fights where you need extra Immobilize.
• Glyph of the Stars to remove conditions, heal and provide Stability or to revive allies, heal and provide Stability Regeneration and Vigor (while in Celestial Avatar).

Traits

Swap Celestial Shadow for:

• Verdant Etching if you are actively using Glyphs to reduce their cooldown.

Swap Grace of the Land for:

• Lingering Light If Might for the party is covered by somebody else.

Swap Windborne Notes for:

• Spirited Arrival if you don’t swap your pet often to benefit from a more passive bonus of lower Warhorn cooldowns.