New PTR: WoW -> Test Realm Patch Notes

The HOT coefficient nerf is gone.

WOW...

Allthough, I dont really see how that = lb nerf gone? Maybe I'm reading you wrong or it wrong, or I just don't understand? Going to go test it in light of a response.

But Regrowth cost reduced by 20pct really rocks for me....Could it be they actually *want* us to do more than roll lifeblooms now?

In fact, now that I think about it, maybe thats all this really was. Bliz wants rolling lifeblooms used more situationally rather than all the time. They thought one way to get druids casting other spells was to nerf lifebloom's effectiveness and increase druid's regeneration so that they *could* cast other spells. After testing, they realize druids will still try to roll a nerfed lifebloom rather than spam regrowth or healing touch so the next option is to remove the LB nerf and reduce the mana cost on spells like regrowth and healing touch. If this holds true, it will probably just be a matter of time before they allow healing touch in tree form.

I'll admit, its all speculation, but I have to assume there is some *plan* that some guy has for us, right? They aren't just throwing darts at a dartboard...or are they?

With 2056 +heal and the usual Resto talents (GON and ERJ), I was getting 251/502/753 Lifebloom ticks with blooms of 1592 on the latest PTR (build 8031) .

I believe the nerf on the HOT portion of Lifebloom is indeed gone.

Well the euro test server torrent is fucked so can't update and check myself, but I think what he meant was that it'd be reverted since the original change(Lifebloom coeff has been nerfed) has been removed and this one popped instead. However this nerf actually doesn't nerf anything. Currently since empowered rejuv doesn't affect lifebloom last heal, in 2.4 you'll gain the bonus from that, then get it nerfed to what it is now on live. It seems to me they're just nerfing lifebloom final ticks for non restos. Could argue their original nerf was also to compensate the empowered rejuv fix(but only affected pve while they probably wanted it to affect pvp).

The regrowth change is somewhat uncalled for though. I mean it's nice, but I would have rather seen regrowth changed like we discussed before, so it'd end up as a more useful spell overall(in terms of overhealing/wasted hot). Still a straight buff so I'm not gonna bitch too much.

If the 9% nerf has been reverted, this looks like just a straight up buff to druids healing, which does sound pretty weird though. Waiting to see that by myself.

I didn't do very extensive testing, but the healing coefficient on Lifebloom ticks does appear to be back to what it is on Live or at least close to it.

With 2281 Healing on Live:

821/820 (3 stacked)HoT, 1736 Final Tick

With 2281 Healing on PTR:

819/818 (3 stacked)HoT, 1694 Final Tick

And on a side note, Regrowth heals for the same on PTR as it does on Live for a cost of 675 mana instead of 845 mana.

Yeah seems blizzard has no idea what they're doing with those changes. Not very surprising and actually good for us, but well, between this and the lifetap changes, I wonder what's the point of the stuff if they're just going to revert it. Maybe they're working on new nerfs, but this one fails on every level, simply a feral/moonkin lifebloom nerf, and doubt that was overpowered to begin with.

The nature of PTR is to implement changes even with a high impact on the game and then revert them or change them to a better form if it doesn't play out as they thought up in there limited manpower team aka "public testing".
There is a very viable balance/resto specc for pvp with SL/SL. It's basically DS and Moonkin for pet bashing (yes the aura effect gets used there), which will put the regen/mana burn side of this aspect in pvp to an absurd level in 2.4. The nerf affects that specc aswell as resto druids with feral charge and natures reach for larger cyclone range.
The 4set bonus change to regrowth and the mana cost reduction is also rather a pvp buff to make druids more 3v3 and 5v5 viable. 90% of the changes in the patchnotes are for pvp, its pve consequences are only considered, not intended as it seems.
Oh and the LT change was poorly implemented, it penalized getting more gear which is very tricky to scale and psychology wise not a good mechanic either.

So where does the new regrowth fit in HP/m wise now assuming usual resto talents and in ToL?

Confirmed the fact that the coef LB is gone on euro PTR =)

Great changes indeed, especially concerning Regrowth - interesting, unexpected and welcome

Im going to be able to go from R8->R10 pretty solidly now with the idol making the cost pretty much the same as R8 on live, there's also that buff to regen which can easily cover the deviation.
The difference is around 2.5 crits into 3.3 crits (+800) for me which is around a 20-25% gain on the initial heal, and ofcourse the ever unwanted ticks going up some small amount too - quite nifty.

I doubt there will be any revolutionary changes in healing styles now, perhaps others wont be so afraid to use Regrowth and the ones who already used it can get a better return on it.
Raid healing with it before was always possible but never ideal, this isn't going to change that really as its more of a co-ef issue than an efficiency one.

It does give much more incentive to use haste gear to allow us to get Regrowths' cast time down to acceptable levels (of which to be fair if they do all the cast time reductions via talents then their new loved haste stat really is crap) where before it was still rather dubious, as said it will be interesting upon further thought and experimentation.

I am glad this change was reverted and the regrowth buff is just icing on the cake. Like others have said, I don't see druids adding this as a constant in their spell rotations just yet, but this has definitely got me thinking about it, especially with down ranking and the idol..


Anyway, I also tested and can confirm that Lifebloom is pretty much what it is on Live.

Why PvP? Huge buff for smaller "raiding" instances like ZA and Karazhan as well. 20% more regrowths for camphealing make it even easier to run a two healer timed run without a shadow priest.
And on trash of any raid size, you should be capable of outhealing lazy coh priests and chainspamming shamans. Our trees allmost do so, and i guess it will be now even easier for them.

The 20% off regrowth is a big boost to feral pvp together with agility --> +healing. I'm in no way a hardcore pvp player and just do the occasional BG or a few arena matches for fun. I'm rolling a setup of 3xs3 and 2xt5 (feral set, instant regrowths on /cancelform) which is gonna be divine in 2.4. Very welcome even tho we already are a strong class in BG context.

Can someone post me example WWS-es of top notch druid healing. my GM just sent me a random tell that while looking over my WWS, that i have NO IDEA what i am doing, which i find completely odd seeing as i rarely drop out of the top 4 healers in any given fight. I want to be able to compare my WWS from this week's Hyjal to another WWS. Thank you.

I think a more useful exercise would be if you posted your WWS and the folks in this forum could confirm or deny your GM's opinion. That being said here are some web stats from our most recent Hyjal:

Rage Winterchill
Anetheron
Kaz'rogal
Azgalor
Archimonde

On Rage I was kind of doing whatever, since we have a paladin doing most of the MT healing and flash healers doing most of the icebolt healing. On Anetheron, Kaz'rogal, and Azgalor I was assigned to the main tank (Slimjimm on the first two and Rideingbeard on Azgalor). On Archimonde our guild's strategy has most healers doing a mix of raid healing and MT healing, so that's what I was doing.

Our Sundays Rest of BT and MH clearing. (EoS, Mother, Council, Illidan, MH)

Spec Subtlety if you aren't, but in general, if healers have aggro issues it is the tank's fault. There are a few exceptions to this (don't drop a big heal right after an aggro reset, and in a 5 man you may need to wait a few beats before beginning to heal) but in general it is not your problem.

As far as your spells not being able to keep people up, 1800 healing should be good enough for all of T5 and good enough to start T6 with. It's possible that your raid leader is giving you assignments that are too tough to handle, but it's also possible that you aren't using your spells right. Read the first post in this thread and see how closely what you are doing compares to what it suggests.

This is last week's WWS. There are two resto druids within the healing ranks. there is a NOTICEABLE difference in gear between us. He has well over 200 more +healing than i, and is just overall a different playstyle.
Wow Web Stats
I was only in the fights up to archimonde.

There are our two armories:
Boca: The World of Warcraft Armory
Mitaka: The World of Warcraft Armory

they say my optimal itemization is all wrong, and my spell rotation is all wrong, but this is how i've been healing for the past year with no problems until now. these comments are also coming from a person who has never been a druid before and doesn't know how to heal as one. it's a huge blow to the ego if you ask me.
any constructive criticism is appreciated.

also, what are the top three best boots for resto druids now?
my guild is pressuring me into picking up two-toed sandals from ZA, but i'd rather have Boots of Divine Light from trash in Hyjal/BT.
are there even any good leather resto boots out there?

Hyjal Clear. A lil sloppy, but another parse to set your eyes on.


About boot selection...

Assuming you spend 95% of your time within the 5 second rule and are placing 22 heal gems in every socket...



I leave the item weighing up to you. Personally I'm a +heal whore, so went with Boots of the Divine Light. Kazzak boots have the most +heal possible, but absolutely no HP, making them unacceptable in some encounters. You already have the leather boots with the most iLvl, unfortunately, they don't have sockets making them somewhat undesirable. Personally, I wouldn't be focusing in on just leather gear unless you're worrying about stepping on your priest's toes. On the other hand, if your guild is farming Hyjal all your priests should have those boots by this point...

About your gear, I'd say the biggest issues is your gems. There's no reason whatsoever to ever gem heal+int. Heal+mp5 maybe, if you want set bonus, and you actually need the regen, but else you should always full gem for heal.
This alone could probably give you like 50healing. You definitely want to replace your weapon too, ethereum is only good to swap in during innervate, a combo like prince's mace and exalted CE offhand is much better in my opinion(and very easy to get). Spellsurge is also a very bad enchant, but that's just my personal opinion, I'd rather just have everyone enchant healing and use pots. Same for meta gem, 26heal over restore mana. At least in my case.


As for the WWS, very hard to tell from such little info. On rage you die, so hard to tell anything, Anetheron healing is very random depending if you get swarm or not, kazrogal requires like 2healers total to keep the tank alive so you can't tell much about it, only leaves azgalor. It's still hard to tell with precision what happened from WWS and I'm too lazy to look in details, however, it seems you let your lifeblooms bloom on the tank(thus having to restack), and don't cross much at all. You also don't keep regrowth up while it's probably the one fight it's useful to.

Overall I wouldn't say there's glaring issues, but you definitely want to post a better WWS next time, 3.5fights with 3 which require very low healing isn't a very good way to check what's wrong or not. Try to get an illidari council WWS, imo it's the easiest fight to see if you're playing right or not. If you're not top healing on this fight, there's stuff to improve.


So overall, regem, change weapons, use consumables if you don't, keep lifebloom and rejuv up all the time on the tank(use timer bars or whatever) and you should be fine.


P.S.: About shoes, definitely divine light, unless you want spirit. No idea why ZA shoes are even mentionned, when I quick checked I'm pretty sure my old T5 orca boots were better.

thank you for this input. the reason i am stacked with 9/11 and mp5 gems and the rare healing + int is because of one, my meta requirements, which i enjoy, and receive a lot of mana restore from, and so i don't run low on mana. i was advised by a previous guildie to run with mostly those gems to be mana efficient while casting. it helped a ton, i will say that.

about the weapon..i have been in the guild i am in now from the small weeks when they started running kara till they downed illidan. with the SAME gear besides the new neck i finally got tonight, the belt, and the ZA trinket. i have received nothing otherwise. when investing in a new weapon, which i hope i can get lucky this week, i would get an apostle of argus with 81 healing on it. it would help me overall SO much. i have been running with that ethereum lifestaff for nearly six months now. unfortunatly in most guilds i end up as a bottom priority for any gear, and it hurts not only my healing, but my feelings. i won't get into that, but i know my weapon could be upgraded tremendously.

with the boots input, that is some great stuff! i passed on a pair of hyjal trash boots, and boy do i regret it. i hope they drop again this week.


EDIT: Pyros, i just looked up the WWS from last week's council fight, here it is: Wow Web Stats
i was put on raid healing for this fight.
looking over the stats i used regrowth a large amount this fight to save people from burst damage and with my 2piece T5, the extra ticks evened out. any ideas would be great.

EDIT2: Sheshonk. My GM has an issue with me not using NS+HT or swiftmend as much as the other druid. what is your take on that. also this question is open to anyone who wishes to put in your two cents. i try to use those two spells as a serious last resort or if the tank or someone is taking spike damage. i don't want my swiftmend always on cooldown because if something does go wrong, i won't have it. thoughts?

(lost 2 fully hotlinked and nice posts, so forgive me if this one is slightly rough)
I dont get how you can go from KZ->Illidan and still have weapon problems, you have 2 ranks different from your comparison Druid, have you gone casual or something at a point (hence gear stop?).

Your main healing loss compared to the other Druid is Weapons + Trinket.
Trinket: Diabolic-> LCPB (If you need Regen) else Battlemasters. (+70/88)
Weapon: S2/S3 or ZA mace. (+20/40) - Enchanted with healing (+80)
Offhand: EoS, Badge, or ideally Archimonde. (+60~/77)

That alone should give you around +200 healing which around what the other Druid has.

Other ways to boost your healing somewhat easily:
Belt: Spinel/Ruby the red socket.
Chest: ZA robe from Bear Boss (cloth...) with 3x 18healing.
Cloak: Gurtogg.


Regarding IC, your healing seems fine there (I do the same job and it's not far off) for the role your doing.
I'ld question the worth of 2T5 for this boss (it's good for Naj'entus though) because the majority of the damage is in spikes not general low periodic damage, if your using them for that purpose on this fight that is.

Your Illidan seems low, and from my glances it seems your MT healing (just rolling LB and keeping RJ up) is the problem here rather than just gear, there shouldn't be any job here stopping you atleast doing that (Boca 9%-200k, you 2%-40k of his healing recieved).

SM/HT... well your GL/RL can't really control that, the only thing you can do is just try to become faster at assessing the situation and anticipating things (ie SM'ing Illidan MT when he gets a 5k chunk lost before the others steal that juicy healing) better, reaction speeds/ping ofcourse help alot.