Unraveller

So I'm healing in Kara last night, and I realize that Treeform is basically useless on a significant portion of the fights:

For trash mobs, I can't possibly be in treeform for:
- Ushers
- Stagehands
- Ghosts

And for the Romulo and Julianne fight, I can't even idle in treeform as an off-healer, because I am Abolishing Poison...

Now don't get me wrong, I love my HoT's. I think lifebloom might be the thing since sliced-bread, but I found that 80% of my healing was being done by Healing Touch.

So, the next step in this logic is: How can I make healing touch better?

Well, you only need 28 points in restoration to max out Healing Touch. So, can these 33 points be uses elsewhere to maximize the healing by Healing touch? Turns out you can, by adding 33 points to balance. This isn't a Balance spec, I couldn't care less about wrathing/oomfiring.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...d/talents.html

The relevant talents out of balance are:
Moonglow: Reduces that Mana Cost of Healing touch by 9%. That's 9% more healing done.
Lunar Guidance: Increases Healing done by approximately 125 (at 500 intellect)
Dreamstate: Grants 50 mp5 (at 500 intellect)

These are not insignificant contributions.

The improvements to Healing Touch can be summarized as follows:

Assumptions:
1200+ Healing
5 minute duration fight
75 mp5
16,000 base mana (11,000 + innervate)

Original amount healed: 144,540
With Balance Talents: 193,112

That is a 33% increase in healing done. I speculate, that in these endgame, high HPS fights, that this might be the way to go...

Thoughts?

 

• Apate

You can probably find some thoughts here: Druid Healing specs: HoT vs. HT

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• Playered

Ive found 33/0/28 (Regen Spec) or 27/0/34 (Swiftmend + Cheap Spec) to be my favorite specs atm for healing.

It really depends if you use Swiftmend alot or not, as generally all that Dreamstate is providing you with is mana regeneration you can simply get from consumables anyway and with consumables ontop you generally end fights on high mana while other healers are near empty.

Its also somewhat dependant on your stance with Lifebloom, I used to be a Rejuv spammer quite alot, but after mathing it up and realising I get about 6HPM from Rejuv, and over 10HPM from Lifebloom (same healing, half the price basicly, however im only doing 1cast, not 3 stacks), not to mention its also healing the amount in 7seconds instead of 12, so its better HPS aswell.
Nowdays I rarely cast Rejuv on anyone except the MT in raid situations, so my Swiftmend usage has shot down so low that even when I respec back into it, I so rarely use it im contemplating dropping it again for Dreamstate.

You will probly need to have Swiftmend for viability in 5man heroics as a main healer however =/

 

◊ Lord BEEF

Nitpicking but it's 9% more healing done if you never regenerate mana. Since you do, it's a good deal more than that. I'm sure you knew that already though.

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• Playered

^ Indeed, it also provides you with 9% more healing out of every consumable you use.

However if you are truely using only HT pretty much on most fights, then consider that like other healers, you will be canceling your heals fairly often and thus getting the 5sec rule regeneration quite abit, so the pure MP5 from Dreamstate is not really 'needed' so much as you will benefit from spirit regeneration more notably.

You will probly find This to be fairly good as you then dont need to 'waste' some points in dps talents to get up to Dreamstate and honestly if your not chain-casting HoTs alot then I doubt you will have many mana issues that cant simply be resolved by basic consumables

 

Mordinm

On a bit of a tangent but I was wondering how the trinket Bangle of Endless Blessings would impacts the equations. Not sure I got the name exactly right but it's the healer trinket off the last boss in Botanic I think. The description reads chance on spell cast to allow 15% of your mana regen to continue while casting and it has an on use effect to give 120 spirit or so for 20 seconds. I am not really sure how well this trinket works as for me it has been very buggy, it will proc on anything from melee attacks in cat form to crossing from one zone to another and there is even a typo on the tool tip in the buff. Can anyone confirm that it's chance on cast buff is working properly and that it stacks with the talent that provides the same thing? Coupled with innervate and living spirit on a full resto this seems like a very power full trinket for mana regen that would not be quite as good with the balance/resto vs the full resto. 15% spirit in general seems like it might out regen stright mana/5 from dreamstate with enough time outside the five second rule.

 

• Playered

The trinket basicly procs from anything, and I cant even comprehend replacing it at any stage in TBC as I love it so much.

Wierd Procs : Mining / Opening Abilities Tab / Opening Smelting Tab / Flying over a sub-zone / Flying / Walking / Drinking a potion / Equiping Gear etc...
I was actually bored once and during a fight I just spam opened/closed my Smelting tab to make it proc more often & by walking I litrally mean walking, no new sub-zone or anything.

And concerning Innervate, the spirit proc increases your mana/tick by about 100-200 (never really tested exactly) which is an insane amount, you can also activate it 2 times after you use it with Innervate before its needed for it again, ideally when it procs so you get 30% incasting regen with it, or if you are going to be sitting out of the 5sec casting rule, pumps it up too

 

◊ Twid

I wouldn't build a spec or strategy around the Bangle. It will likely go the way of the Blue Dragon Card. Just consider it a neat bonus until it is fixed. On a related note, our priest discovered that it proc's off dying.

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<Vontre> What is a KITT?
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Liryn

Errr... I think the spec in the original post is blank?

 

duostrike

Does Nature's grace proc from heals? The way it is worded would seem to indicate that it would. Would be another boost to healing in the balance tree.

 

Vernichter

Yes, Nature's Grace proc's from heals. That is one of the reasons I asked in a previous thread if anyone has tried a Nature's Grace + Imp. Regrowth build now that Regrowth is more efficient than it used to be. My gut feeling is that regrowth is still too clunky to make this build as effective as an HT balance/resto build, but I'd still love to hear if anyone has tried it.

 

Mordinm

Yes it does

 

• Playered

Yes Nature's Grace procs off any spell crit you get, and I never really thought of imp Regrowth + Nature's Grasp for healing purposes, its worth a test next time I respec xD

 

• Umph

Speaking of Druid talents, I really wish that Improved Faerie Fire were further up the balance tree, as that would be a great addition to a 33/0/28 build.

 

• Playered

To be fair there are/should not be many issues of hunters or rogues having a lack of +hit, the only real gain would be to feral druids and dw warriors, neither of which are of such an importance/quantity that would require you to spec to help them.

If they made it also work for spells (Which would also help the BALANCE druid side) however...

 

• Tristanian

I've been specced 34/0/27 since the moment we got our second free respec and never looked back ever since. The synergy between NG, Moonglow, Guidance, Dreamstate and Intensity/Swiftness is simply amazing and unsurpassed when it come to single-target spike damage healing (which is the direction endgame content seems to be moving). Your spells will cost less mana, they will be faster on occasion (especially combined with haste trinkets) and focusing on pure healing/regen can easily bring ht 4 back to its former glory, assuming you are standing above 1200-1300 healing.

Fully buffed/potted i'm sitting at more than 150 mp5 which makes mana more or less not an issue on 5 mans except heroics. Definetely a very viable raiding spec and the best thing of all, it doesn't gimp your soloing/grinding ability to the same extend that a full resto build (or at least a 31+) would do, that is ofc depending on playstyle and gear.

Improved FF while good and viable isn't really a necessity assuming your guildmates are properly geared, you are way better off spending the points elsewhere if you intend to go for a hybrid build.

 

Mencius

I like being a tree druid and I found that I could easily heal all the fights that the OP talked about, given the rest of the healing team was doing their job as well.

However, always looking to maximize my healing this thread is great.

One thing I thought about was the tree aura. 25% of my spirit is about 120 +healing to all incoming spells on the 5 people in my group by all healers, even out of group healers.

Is the efficientcy that you would gain from speccing out of tree form comparable to the overall loss of healing via the aura, over the course of a raid, assuming that your other healers are doing their job well?

In my mind, at least without math to prove this theory, I basically see speccing out of tree aura and into a HT spec is putting the burden of direct healing more on the druids in the a raid and making you more like a pally and a priest.

Now, if the effectiveness of the HT spec was such that it was worth making the change than by all means, I'd do it.

I guess it'll require a little investigaion on my part to see how much healing by other healers would be lost of the course of a raid when you lose the aura.

If they were about equal, that is... the healing lost by other healers would be gained by the druid, than you would basically just be putting more responsibility on yourself to heal a larger portion of the raid.

Sort of just spitballing here.

EDIT: Nevermind, I just run some numbers here and the aura is fucking worthless. Wow, the HoT stacking and mana cost reduction are the only reason to be a tree druid. I'll be respeccing tonight and let you guys know how it goes this week in Karazhan and our Gruul learning runs.

Actually, now that I think back to the days when we didn't have Tree form how much more fun healing was. The loss of utility in tree form just doesn't seem worth it anymore. I knew something didn't feel right...

 

• Tristanian

The aura of the Tree is good since it affects all healing effects (even from people NOT in your group) and you cannot possibly compensate for it via directly healing. BUT (there is a huge 'but' in here). Almost every other aspect of the Tree form is so limiting that it gimps the druid himself up to the point where not only actual utility is lost (in the terms of mobility - hello Gruul ground slam, decurse, depoison, CR, HT), but the so called stacked healing via hots and the occasional swiftmend isn't actually helping to the extend that is expected by the more demanding content, in its current incantation.

Don't get me wrong, hots are good, but that doesn't mean that they don't have their limitations. Direct Heals are more accurate than Heals over Time, in the presence of uncontrollable factors, even post downranking nerf. These factors include other healers using alternate heal styles and random incoming damage to your heal target. Patchwerk used to be a good example of this, I guess now nearly any boss capable of huge spikes can be used an example (eg Nightbane, Gruul). Things such as crushing, criticals and thrashes make heals over time actually heal more effectively but they lack the magnitude to heal the target accurately, that is to say return the target's health to a reasonable amount in a timely fashion, before he gets the next damage spike that will kill him.

Swiftmend fixes this weakness in HoT healing for the most part, but with a 15 second cooldown, there is only so much it can do. Most clever Swiftmenders (HoT specced druids) use it as a way to spot heal the raid while maintaining direct heals on the primary tank and other targets as needed rather than a way to spam rejuvenation/lifebloom across the raid and react to a spike. This is simply a heal difference, but for the most part relying on spammed hots to provide real effective healing is foolhearty and reliant on the rest of your healteam to ignore damage as it arrives on the raid. Other classes overhealing your hots and mana efficiency are also issues to consider.

I only have the experience of the current raid game, but heals over time lack heal accuracy in that they are unreliable for actually providing heals while consuming the full mana cost of the cast. It is this reason that using rank 4 (or maybe 5 post nerf depending on reaction time/incoming dmg) healing touch is generally superior to using whatever rank of rejuvenation (lifebloom has it way better if you stack it once). You get real results to your mana consumption and a way to avoid using the mana if it is unneeded. Cast abortion is a very powerful tool for healing efficiently, and something you do not get with HoTs. Perhaps a shorter Swiftmend cd would remedy the problem to some extend.

Unfortunately Blizzard has envisioned the restoration druid as more of a HoT/support healer (there are 3 talents that focus almost purely on hots) rather than a direct healer. This ofc does not disprove of a viable direct healing strategy but due to the long casting times and mana inefficiency on specs, a balance/resto druid has significant advantages when it comes down to ht healing than a pure resto one. Just my 2 copper.

 

• Playered

I just still cannot fathom while Abolish Poison / Remove Curse is only available in caster form, when each could be suitably used in their respective forms (Poison = Tree / Curse = Moonkin) which would atleast provide them with abit more utility and use within raids other than a really limited niche spec, heck Priests can use PW:Shield in Shadowform ffs.

 

Lrigatonmai

Rogues are going to gain from the +hit until the next round of gear plateaus. They have the same DW penalty as warriors (24% against equal level mobs).

 

• Playered

Yes but really once you hit around 18% hit theres really not many noticable benefit to having more over crit or other stats, and with the current void of crit itemization in lue of hit I highly doubt it will be hard to reach that level.

And honestly the next round of gear plateau will simply be existing gear with a random mix of [+1 Agil, Hit Rating, Crit Rating, +2 AP, +2 Sta] on them coupled with a different colour socket and perhaps a small upgrade on the socket bonus

 

Boevis

3% Hit is worth less than 2% Crit for almost every class in the game, I think shadow priests and affliction locks are the only exception and they are casters, that's why it's itemized cheaper per %. Is it still good? Absolutely, I know tanks love actually landing their big threat abilities on the pull, rogues and DW warriors can always use a bit more hit.

It's just not worth taking in a healing build over Empowered Touch. Even Dreamstate and Moonfury just seem like selfish talents compared to Imp Rejuv, Swiftmend, and Living Spirit. I'm aware not everyone can spend the time/money to drink Mana Potions like candy on boss fights, but 10% more spirit makes a big difference when you innervate yourself and the usefulness of swiftmend is unquestionable. If you really want to talk consumables, ask a hunter how many potions they drink per fight (mine at least, use Agi, AP, Mastery, Mageblood, Mana Oils, and drink mana pots as often as my healers do)

If Imp FF is something you are seriously considering and want in a raid ... get a moonkin for ranged DPS. The boost to DPS they provide from IS, iFF, and their Aura is rather immense.

 

Monsanto

Now that I've been raiding for ~3 weeks or so, and doing heroic 5 mans the rest of the time, here are my thoughts:

HoTs seem extremely weak in the face of many, many mobs (including trash) hitting for several thousand damage. It seems to me that in WoW 1.0 Patchwerk was this one-of-a-kind encounter, but in WoW 2.0 it seems that the Patchwerk model is what they went with for a great deal of encounters.

Another observation, and this may be just my guild, but I've found that the immediate solution to AoE damage to the raid is..... shadow priests, not HoTs. I know that vampiric embrace is getting nerfed a bit, but I think it will still remain as a great way of dealing with AoE damage. Chain healing, by shaman, seems to be another excellent choice, as it has for a while.

Because I feel that HoTs are ill-suited to handle most of the content, and that other methods to deal with AoE damage have evolved, I believe that a HT spec is superior to a HoT spec for raiding.

On a similar topic, here is another reason I like the HT spec. When I look at gear upgrades, I only see marginal improvements to mp5 gear. But what I do see, are massive upgrades to pure stats, like INT or SPI. Having lots of raw INT synergizes well with two of the balance talents in the HT build, giving you more +healing and more mp5. The same goes for SPI if you tip your hybrid more to the resto side, and pick up the 15% more spirit talent. If the above paragraph seemed rambling to you, my point is that due to talents, the HT spec seems to get more out of the type of gear Blizzard has added to the expansion.

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◊ Lorewanderer

I've been looking at gear now for healing and have decided (particualarly coming from my EQ Cleric healing background) that I'll be going 34/27 HT spec. My (very small) guild has a good paladin who is interested in tanking and we're short on healers. I'm not sure what we'll be doing when the nerfbat swings at the paladin tank-- we don't have a single warrior at the moment, let alone one who wants to tank. Let's hope that takes a while.

Now my question is about healing gear and what I should be after. I'm using HealPoints now to help make some generalized decisions, but I like to be able to play with the weighting myself as I find my own healing groove.

Does anyone have a good weighting for Pawn (discussed in another thread) or a suggestion of where to start?

My current (rough) heal stats with 34/0/27, MotW as the only buff
390 int
240 spi
88 mp5 within the 5sr
+700 heal
(Yeah, I'm working on improving it.)