Major Glyphs for Restoration Druids

*EDIT* Now updated for 3.1 and Innervate change! *EDIT* Confused about what to pick for your major glyphs? Well, I’m not going to tell you what your choices should be, but I can perhaps make it easier for you. How is that? I’m going to run down all the Restoration (and a few multi-purpose) glyphs, detail their pros and cons, and just give you a better idea of what you’re getting into. Ready? Let’s go (in alphabetical order)!

Glyph of Barkskin
This glyph was created in 3.1, probably to try and offset the high damage now taken in PvP encounters. This is not a PvE glyph, for if you're getting hit with physical damage, it's highly situational and something is very wrong (note that this is a guide for Restoration Druids; not Ferals). It's also important to remember that the glyph only affects melee criticals; not those brought about by spells.

Glyph of Entangling Roots
Wait, what? Glyph of Entangling Roots? Isn’t that a Balance glyph? Well…yes, yes it is. However, it’s not strictly Balance. Sure, in a 25-man raid group, it’s not going to be the best use of your slots. Perhaps not even in a 10-man group. Where this would shine is PvP. It would allow for more splash or focused damage to be applied to your immobilized target before they could move again (barring their release due to various abilities and items). Overall, this may be best for a Dreamstate PvP spec, and not for a straight Restoration or raiding spec.

Glyph of Healing Touch
The Glyph of Healing Touch is actually a highly debated glyph of questionable help. It cuts down cast time and healing of Healing Touch by 50%, but the mana cost by only 25%. Therefore, casting two glyphed HT’s in a row would do the same amount of healing in almost the same amount of time, but cost 50% more than a single unglyphed HT. Many people seem to be picking it as a sort of “Flash Heal” for a Restoration Druid; however, at level 80 we achieve the spell Nourish. It has the same cast speed as a glyphed, non-talented HT with arguably more healing done. It is rather expensive, however, but it leaves your long cast HT as an emergency button with your Nature’s Swiftness. The argument for this glyph is almost always that it’s for leveling Druids and Moonkins/Ferals who need a quicker straight heal. Since it’s available at level 15, this argument makes sense.

Glyph of Innervate
Glyph of Innervate changed a bit from its original. Now it returns 90% of your base mana to yourself if you cast it upon someone else, or combines the 90% with the 450% of base mana return when cast upon yourself. This means a return of 3146.4 mana to yourself (at 80) when you cast it on someone else, or a total return of 18878.4 mana if cast upon yourself, since you receive 15732 mana normally. This isn't a bad option if you're constantly having to boost that silly Priest or Paladin up from a dead mana pool, especially as it no longer relies upon Spirit.

Glyph of Lifebloom
This, at first, looks like a rather under-powered glyph. Only one more second on the duration of Lifebloom doesn’t seem like a lot, until you add in the talent Nature’s Splendor, which increases Lifebloom by 2 seconds. This greatly increases the timing of your Lifebloom, giving you more room to cast more spells, raid heal, run Lifebloom stacks on more people, or cast Nourish, Regrowth, or Healing Touch without letting a stack drop off on someone. With the nerf to Lifebloom’s ticks, it may not be the best choice for PvP, where the bloom portion can be more important than the periodic.

Glyph of Nourish
This handy glyph came in 3.1 as well, and it basically copies the bonus from your T7(.5) set. A 6% increase to Nourish's effectiveness with each HoT application isn't too shabby, and with the T7 set bonus, it's pretty intense. This glyph was most likely created to make Restoration Druids less hesitant to break their set bonus when heading into Ulduar. It is a very tank-centric glyph; not many people other than your tank will be taking enough damage to have stacked HoTs. If you're not often healing the tanks, this may not be the glyph for you, despite its power.

Glyph of Rebirth
This Glyph is a very raid-oriented glyph, as it can never be used purely for your own benefit. However, if you’re learning new content, facing bosses that will always kill people in your party just because that’s how the fight works, or you’re always having to use your Rebirth during the course of a raid, this isn’t a bad thing to invest in. It provides a buffer so that your reborn target is less susceptible to rezzing in a bad place and immediately going back down.

Glyph of Regrowth
Though it’s been nerfed, it’s still a good glyph depending upon your situations. I can foresee it being much more beneficial to five and ten-mans where your healing may need to come in bursts that ticks can’t cover, and you won’t have a wide range of healing abilities within your party. It’s not a bad glyph, but odds are you won’t be spamming Regrowth too often.

Glyph of Rejuvenation
I was under the impression for a while that this glyph was not functioning properly. However, after reading the comments on Wowhead and doing my own experiments, I found it to be the case that the 50% extra healing when you’re under 50% total health comes as an extra, in-between tick rather than on each normal tick of Rejuvenation. So, if your Rejuvenation would normally tick for 1k, at 50% health with the glyph, instead of going 1.5k---1.5k---1.5k--- it goes 1k-500-1k-500-1k-500. Extra healing, especially at those points, is never bad, and if you’re keeping HoTs rolling on a tank, Rejuvenation should be up in any case.

Glyph of Swiftmend
This glyph used to be the number one most important glyph of a Restoration Druid. However, since 3.1 and the introduction of new glyphs, this may not be the case anymore. Though being able to cast Swiftmend without worrying about refreshing your HoT immediately is more mana effective, Swiftmend has been rendered even more situational due to its cooldown and the variety of other tools available. Though by no means a bad glyph, it is no longer a necessity.

Glyph of Wild Growth
The final new member of the 3.1 glyphs, it extends your Wild Growth to another teammate, so it now hits six members of your raid or group. Though not the best choice for five mans unless you're running with a pet-heavy team, if you're often placed on raid healing, it could be invaluable. Since the cooldown of Wild Growth is six seconds, that's one less person to worry about during that time.

I hope this helped your choices!