Originally posted 2015-04-28 12:00:02.
/start rant
Last Thursday I finally listened to Final Boss podcast on Resto Druids and it was kind of a bummer. I cannot lie, I still live in the moment when I was in the guild Fallen Heroes and Resto Druids were king. We were running all the Wraith content then and we always were running a Resto Druid, a Pally, and a Priest for sure. But Resto Druids were always needed and wanted. In my current guild, we do not have many options and are running with three Resto Druids like I mentioned in my last post and a Holy and Disc Priest, so it not like we are going to be subbed as healers, but should we be? We are healing well and maybe we are not at the point that this matters but is our core healing team the problem? Are we the reason we have only downed 2 bosses in BRF and 4 in Highmaul? There is always the excuse that “oh the tanks are taking too much damage” or “we do not have enough DPS” but what if the real reason is “we do not have the right kind of healers.” I think that it would be best to see if the raid leaders/guild leaders can take a look at the logs all together and see what we are lacking. It could be all three of the major issues or a combination of them.
The hindrance of having three Resto Druids was a bit noticeable when we ran BRF on Saturday. We ended up getting Gruul and Beastlord Darmac down on the first try which is really great. Then we moved onto Operator Thogar. We are doing pretty well on the fight but seem to lose it on the raid splits. I am the one chosen to follow the tank over to the one side and heal them. Normally I believe this roll of single tank healing would fall to a Pally, someone with great burst healing that will not let the tank die while he is being smashed in the face by a boss and tons of mobs. I am able to do it, basically I HoT the tank up and Regrowth/Heart of the Wild spam, but as I think about it, it would be way more effective for a non-HoT healer with great single heals to do this role.
I have two Holy Pally’s, one for the Horde side and one for the Alliance side that are almost level 100 and I am now seriously considering finishing leveling them and then trying one out in raid. I am for sure going to play the Pally on the Horde side; I am just not sure about what to do on the Alliance side. I love my Druid, I really do, but there comes a point in when progression is important and I want to do the best I can for the guild. I have never been one to change a class. I have been playing a Resto Druid almost since the beginning and it is the only character I have seriously raided with. It would feel weird not to have her around. I do not like being at the crossroads like this and as I said before, maybe in Normal things like this are not important and you really only need to get up to Heroic and Mythic for it to matter, but I really am not sure.
In the end, I think I get jealous that I am not at the higher content yet. I know jealously is ugly but I really miss not being able to take a few nights a week and raid with a consistent group. I love the feeling of downing bosses and hitting the achievement of being in a high-end raiding guild. But that is not the situation we are in right now, and that is OK. I would just like to progress a little more. So for now, I will continue to raid with my Druid changing up my talents a bit with the advice from Jarre and Affinity and I will level my Pally and see what happens.
What do you think of Druids currently? Are we viable?
/end rant!
Happy Healing!
Druids in my opinion are amazing and always necessary. You make a great point about a non hot healer though!
But dps was a huge issue (and sadly I am part of the problem. I am only at 637 item level).
:). Druids are awesome!
Druids are awesome and I love mine, have for many years. I think the worst part is that Blizzard has made it to where many of the healing classes cannot do the same things. This is something I hear talked about a lot in other blogs/podcasts/ect. The desired healing Combo is Pally/Disc Priest as the main healers and then filling that in with another Pally and a Shammy/Druid. If the main raids are bringing 2 Pally’s and a priest that only leaves one spot for another class since most groups are running with 4 healers. Seems like they put everyone in a bit of a pickle that do not play a Pally or Disc Priest. That is the hardest part for me. Back in the day Druids used to be great Tank healers and Raid healers and now we are pretty good raid healers. I think they need to do another rebalancing and try to get the healers more on par so that groups that want to run 3 Druids can and will be effective. 🙂