Warning for Ten: Profile Infraction

◊ Kaubel · 12/28/07, 11:56 AM

Post: Druid - Tree Concerns and Issues
User: Ten
Infraction: Profile Infraction
Points: 0

Administrative Note:

Message to User:

You mention a guild, but I don't see one in your profile.

Original Post:

I've been following this thread for a while and finally mustered up the energy to stop being lazy and register. My guild is done with content, and I'm currently running ~2300/190 unbuffed (although if you check my armory you'll see something different because I got bored). My lifebloom in caster form usually ticks for about 275 and blooms for 1700/2600. There's a few points I'd like to make, speaking from the perspective of a tree who has tried many things.

1) I may be hallucinating, but I also believe I have noticed a slight decay in my lifebloom ticks since 2.3, although it is most noticeable when I'm fully buffed and trinketed (~3000 +healing). I'm not in the habit of recording my lifeblooms on a monthly basis or anything so I have no proof, but I do think there may have been a small nerf, perhaps some sort of diminishing return at high levels of +healing. I could be wrong. Regardless, it's inconsequential.

2) You do NOT need tree form to heal exclusively through HoTs, although I certainly recommend it. I got bored the other day and went 34/0/27 (the number of the devil, I know) to kill brain cells, and I healed a bunch of 5mans, Archimonde, and a full TK clear easily. Would I recommend this spec? No. I have 330 mp5 and can never run out of mana no matter how hard I try, but I lack the control that swiftmend gives, and my heals tick for a little less. The only real plus to this spec is that I can do a small amount of dps to kill adds. Essentially, trying to heal with this spec gives you the freedom to spam whatever spell you want and always have full mana.

2.5) Gem choice, assuming you have >120-130 mp5, should always be red +healing. Always.

3) The difficulty in solo healing small (10man or less) groups in tree form scales inversely with gear. If you are somewhat undergeared (<1400 +healing), you will likely find it more difficult to stick it out in tree without spamming some hard heals. At my current level of healing, if someone gets a rejuv, they know they've fucked up. If they get swiftmended, they're a mage.
The #1 thing to remember in small groups is that tree healing is OVER TIME. This means if you try to heal reactively, you are already too late. You must anticipate the damage and preemptively heal that person in order to be a truly effective tree.

4) Healing in raids is a matter of perspective. If you want to top meters in every fight, make four macros which go something like

/cast [target=x] lifebloom

and make x any four people who are likely to take damage in the fight. Trinket at the start and use these macros sequentially for the entire fight without stopping. This is the highest possible healing output that a tree can do.
Recently, as the other resto druids in my guild have begun to gear up, I've stopped trying to top meters and started healing selectively. This means I'll keep a stack on the MT/OT and then use rejuv/lifebloom on anyone who takes damage, swiftmending anyone who takes burst damage (2 piece t6 helps). The result? Fewer people die to random damage (Illidan, Supremus, Azgalor, Archimonde, Al'ar, Vashj, Leotheras, Karathress come to mind) and more people bitch at me for not healing them when they do. The downside of this is that I only top meters in a few fights where meter spamming (what I call using macros) is the best way to heal to assure success. These fights include Naj'entus, Bloodboil, Council, Anetheron, Illidan (phase 2 only), and Hydross.

If you've actually made it through this without falling asleep, I'm impressed. Additionally, you've probably noticed a pattern here. The best way for a tree druid to heal, where best is maximizing healing output, is basically to become a machine and maintain four trinketed lifebloom stacks. It is not uncommon for me to autorun in a large circle (to avoid aoe) during most fights while watching movies/tv or just generally not paying attention. This sucks and it's boring. That's probably my biggest concern with being a tree in the future.

The only other concern I have is itemization. As long as you have ~200 mp5 raid buffed, you'll have enough regen for even the longest fights. As you may or may not have read previously, I have about that much regen unbuffed. This means whatever I gain from raid buffs/consumables is superfluous and unnecessary, which should not be the case. Instead, it would be much more helpful to see some of the mp5/spirit on druid gear converted into more +healing, or perhaps for the socket colors to be all red and the bonuses to also be +healing. Additionally, set bonuses (except for 2piece t4 and 2piece t6) suck pretty hard. Furthermore, almost all non-set leather healing gear blows. Check out [Veil of Turning Leaves] if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Oh, and what's with the gimmicky move speed reduction on tree form? Does that make sense to anyone?