New Druid Healing…First Thoughts.

Originally posted 2010-10-19 11:14:54.

First a quick apology for not being very “posty” these past few days. My husband and I are planning an unexpected move so my brain has been mush…wait…it may be mush because of the pregnancy, but I really cannot tell anymore! 🙂

I have done two 10 man runs in ICC over the past week and have had some time to sit and think over what I like and what I am not liking at the moment with the state of Resto Druids and some other WoW features.

Spells:

Mana – After the patch, my mana pool went to around 42K, which was way higher than before. I know costs can seem a bit skewed at the moment so I think the high mana pool is really not letting me see any of the mana issues that I will be having when I reach 85. I think this is a good and bad thing. Before the patch, I was already having little to no mana issues so I am used to cruising though fights. Not much has changed with the patch with that aspect. I am thinking there might be a harsh reality check when we hit 85 and are in raids.

Tree Form – I cannot count on both hands how many times I hit the number 5 on my number pad and went into Tree Form accidentally during these raids. It was happening to the other Resto Druid in the group too. This is something that is so automatic for me. For example, after we killed Rotface, I was just standing around when I saw a trap went off, I shifted to cat, dashed to the scene and….went Tree Form. Wasted that cooldown. In general, I already posted how I am unhappy with the cooldown, and I can say that playing with it has not made me happier. Most fights I would not even enter Tree Form and I feel awkward and clunky in caster form (weird seeing that I used to be a tree huh?).

Regrowth – I do enjoy the instant cast Regrowths in Tree Form, something that I will probably hate at 85 with the mana cost associated with it, I am not a fan of the 6 second HoT tick. I feel with the mana cost and the limitation on Lifebloom on only one target, then the tick should be for at least 10 seconds or more. This is something that will call for  a major adjustment and mostly will be used as a “Flash Heal” that will help for a few seconds later. In fact, I have currently taken this spell our of my rotation for now, and only using it when the “Oh crap” situations arise.

Lifebloom – I am someone who used Lifebloom ALL THE TIME back when it first came out and was way too overpowered. I loved rolling LB, especially on the tanks, and now I feel only being able to cast it on one target unless in Tree Form is very limiting. And I cannot even count how many times I forgot and started stacking it on the second tank therefore not even healing the main tank at all. At this moment, I feel the healing is there, but not quite. There are times when large spikes of damage are on the tank and my HoTs are seemingly doing nothing. The only way to counter act would be to let the LB bloom, which has always been counterproductive in the past (mostly due to mana cost).

Swiftmend – This has always been a spell that I used as my “oh crap” button. I would save it for just the right moment and use it on the dps that accidentally pulled aggro. Now, it is more advantageous to use it whenever it is off cooldown on the tank to help with healing (or where ever there are group members clumping up). The other druid in the raid was WAY better at remembering to do this than I was. This is another aspect that will take much practice to perfect.

Effloresence – Speaking of Swiftmend, its counterpart Effloresence is cool, but like I said I forgot to Swiftmend all the time so there was very little healing done for with it. I will need to practice this rotation better.

Rejuvenation – Currently there is no real change to this spell for me. I was not having any mana issues so I could cast this freely. I know at 85 there will be some major differences because of the mana cost but for now I feel ok casting this on the raid and tanks for the healing it does. Plus it is always nice to make sure I have a HoT on someone so they can be Swiftmended as needed.

Nourish – Boy to I miss the fast casting time of Nourish. I really feel I am lagging when I cast this spell, although there was no lag at all. This was one of my favorite spells to cast on Tanks and raid members that needed a big heal before they would die. I found myself casting this in the same situation and they would either get healed by someone else or…they would die because of my slowness. I really am not a fan of using this spell now, I know it will be better when I am just tank healing, but for now I am really not in a situation where I am solely doing that job. I will need to practice on timing and try to use this spell, especially with the Mastery help you will get when it is used on someone with a HoT on.

Healing Touch – This is a spell that I will need to force myself to remember to use. Before, unless I was using it with Nature’s Swiftness, I never would use Healing Touch. Again, one of the many in my “oh crap” arsenal. I did use this spell when doing Dreamwalker, I actually got to go in the portals! I was having some great crits and generally high hits with it. With the same cast time of Nourish, in fights like Dreamwalker it was awesome. But, with the very high mana cost, I will need to closely pick and choose when I use it.

Wild Growth –  I have always loved Wild Growth, and since not much has changed for me yet (ie no big mana effect) I am still casting this spell with glee. I am not too worried about the longer cooldown. I remember when this was an instant cast and we druids were just insane, so I have been through cooldown changes before. I think a longer cooldown is good here. With the increased mana cost, we need to have the reigns pulled back a little bit so we are not draining ourselves dry.

Tranquility – I am hoping there are more good fights to use this spell in. So far I using it very sparingly, but it would be cool to see a fight where it is a needed spell to blow.

Talents:

Swift Rejuv – Right now I do not think this talent is working. I read you needed to have 2 points in it for it even to work at all. I placed two in it but have not seen the benefit yet. Hard to tell if there actually is a decrease in the global cooldown or not.

Addons:

While raiding, I was having the addon day from hell, mostly with Grid since I could not seem to get it to work right for me. As I have stated in the past, I use mouseover macros and Grid combo to heal with. Well, my old version of Grid would show me icons of the spells on the player they were on. For example, with Lifebloom I would see the icon and a little 3 when I hit 3 stacks. Without that addon, I was flying blind. I know, I should not need a crutch to heal, but they are always helpful. I ended up keeping the tank targeted at all times and counting them manually on him with Pitbull. Way more annoying. Plus I could not see all the correct debuffs with Grid either.

I hear Grid is being fixed, but if you have any idea as to how to get my icons back, please let me know!

I tried the new raid frames that Blizzard provided since I could not get Grid to work before my first raid. I was impressed with the amount of info you could see, but the inability to completely resize was annoying. They would only go to a certain size and they were way to big for my area I wanted them in. My OCD was making me insane with them looking too big for their spot! Plus the ugly bar/arrow thingy on the side of my screen was an eyesore.

I have yet to try out all of the new Blizzard features, I really have not had the time, but I would like to soon.

Gylphs: 

I am really happy with the new glyph system allowing you to only buy them once. I feel bad for inscriptionest though. Seems their money maker is gone. But really, were they rolling in the dough before? I never had one so I am not sure what changes they are making for them. But I will say, not having to glyph and reglyph is great!

Conclusion:

All in all, I am still on the fence about Resto healing. There are aspects I am really enjoying and there are some I still feel need some work. Reading other blogs and posts has got me thinking of trying new healing ways out and working on my rotation better. I will see what I think after a few more raids!

What do you think? Are you completely happy with your Druid?

Sarindre

I am a 29 year old from Pennsylvania. I am married to a wonderful husband and we have two children both named after super heroes! A girl who is 4 and a boy who is 1. Most of my time is spent working, being a mom, and gaming.