I don't think that will even be feasible in practice. As far as I know, the gcd on weapon swap is 1.5 seconds and not affected by spell haste. I'm at work so I can't test this or look it up even, so if this is wrong, then never mind this post. But assuming it is, then the following applies:

Given the fact you got some haste gear, your global cooldown will be lower than 1.5 seconds. Therefore the global cooldown after you've cast your instant and swapped your weapon will take a longer time. It will probably even be longer than the gain you get on Regrowth (this is dependent on the amount of haste you have and for situations were this is truely valuable, you will probably have a 'lot' on your gear already). So in the end, your total time casting Regrowth + waiting on the global cooldown will take longer with swapping weapons than if you would not swap weapons at all. The only 'gain' you get is that your Regrowth will land sooner, but in turn you have to wait longer on your global cooldown to finish. I don't know how accurate macros are, but probably some lag between casting your instant and swapping your weapon will extend your global cooldown even further.
Given the nature of a fixed 7 second timeframe between Lifebloom cycles, this will not work in your advantage. For "pure" Regrowth spam something like this would mean that you have to put an instant after every Regrowth in order to not waste the "weapon swap" cooldowns, which completely removes any flexibility and is not worth the gain you get from either the spellhaste or +healing weapon. Therefore I don't think you can cheat using a weapon-swap macro/add-on and it will be like Kalaghan said - useful for different phases in a fight at best.

Idol swapping is already a decent way to increase your moonkin dps. Cast the MF with the idol equipped, start to cast your SF's and during the first cast you switch to the SF idol. You end up using both idol effects. And yeah, there is a bug at the moment that you can actually equip the MF idol in the same macro as firing the MF and still get the effect but only one gcd. Its been discussed at length in the moonkin section if anyone is interested. For a MF/SF rotation this weapon switching will add another 3-4% dps, maybe more if it can work on all SFs.

It would need a serious overhaul of the not so old client/server cast system to fix. Its not been used so far with haste weapons because the gain would be neglectable and maybe even harmful as you have ways to mishandle the macros and get part of a gcd in your cast rotations.

I agree that for instant (e.g. hot) spamming it is not a serious issue, but in the big picture this will get abused as the haste on this new weapon is actually considerable enough to jump through some hoops for it. "Clever use of game mechanics"

I picked up the SS Pendant of Restoration, but I was wondering what happened after the proc wore off. Is the healing bonus removed when the buff is taken off, or does it last until LB is refreshed? Also, if you have a 2 stack up, and it procs before you have the 3rd up, how does it affect the tick? Thanks!

It works the way temporary +healing buffs work in general, which is to say that the tick value of lifebloom is determined based on what your +healing is at when you last cast lifebloom on that person. Meaning, when the buff is taken off, it will last until LB is refreshed. If it procs after you put on stack 2, but before you put on stack 3, it will apply to all 3 stacks (i.e. it will be the same as if you put up all 3 stacks while the proc was active).

True, healing meters arent everything, but in an enoucnter where theres x total raiddmg in a timeframe, you need to bring x total output for that. Priests and druids have more throughput and therefor the higher potential to cut another healer for another dps to minmax dps race encounters. For checking if you use that massive output healing meters are a good tool and if they show up higher there, it either means that you were overhealed which is also indicated on overhealing by direct heal casters or that you used the druids healing output correctly.

Overall wipes to tank deaths has been reduced greatly since we put druid healers on that job back on... hm... Mother? I guess expertise and lack of crushing blows on some bosses helped aswell, but its mostly the extra hp buffer on every spike due to LBs and the very efficient high amount of "base heal" that you need to bring to every single encounter.

This post sounds like a rebuke and frankly I don't see where it's coming from. Nobody was ever arguing in favor of 'the druid raidhealer'. This line of discussion was about what a druid can do when he is forced to raidheal by circumstances, nothing else.

There are times at which I have been put in a position to heal the raid, such as the bloodboil group rotations on Gurtogg. I managed to do so extremely effectively by applying a single lifebloom to every member of my group and cycling through. The key was allowing it to bloom.
However, this tactic would only be really effective in cases where a large percentage of the raid was taking regular, predictable damage, which is the same scenario in greater scale in which single target druid healing is most effective. This is far from the ideal raid healing tactic, but it is an answer to the question posed.

Not really correct. On Felmyst I have a lot of spare time to keep up a full stack of lifeblooms or other hots on MT aswell. If I have a spare cooldown or my party is healed enough, throwing in several hots at the tank, always helps.

Now, about the reasons I decided to write this post. Seeing as how almost all my questions about druid mechanics got answered by playing more and getting experience, I decided to write a "share your opinion" type of review on the druid raid healing subject.

Healing Ways of a Druid. By Selavie

1) Introduction
2) Arsenal and healing abilities explained
3) Raid roles
4) A few extra words


1) Introduction

Hello. :p When back when I started reading this thread, I got the impression that druid healing is somewhat borring and predictable ( just roll 3-4-5 lifeblooms +-rejuv, regrowth on fixed targets ). It was only recently that I really started enjoying playing my druid and getting in-depth understanding of how to interact with other healing classes in a raid more efficiently. I hope I can share it with you.

2) Arsenal and healing abilities explained

I'll list the healing spells available for a druid in the order from the most frequently used, to the least frequently used:

Lifebloom - a hot that stacks up to 3 times. Most versatile and mana-efficient spell we have available. Consider 35-50% usage percantage in a raid normal. I play a somewhat agressive heal style with lifebloom rolled on all the people who can possibly take damage if the tank and other key players are fully healed up.


Rejuvenation - It's a hot that let's you make use of your Swiftmend ability properly and for tank healing that's just some extra heavy healing. On Felmyst it really shines, as you get a constant aura damage prevention + urgent encapsulate healing. I usually see 20-30% usage. Don't be afraid to throw it in before the target actually starts taking damage, it does last longer than lifebloom.

Rejuvenation + Swiftmend is the way to go if target got agro and is below 50-60% HP. It's THE fastest heal you can provide if Nature's Swiftness is on cooldown, of course.


Regrowth - with recent patch changes you can actually see some heavy usage of this. Chain casting it on MT during Brutallus stomp if you have the burn targets healed up really helps, also on last 20 seconds of burn. Consider using this in the following situations:

- You already have a full stack of hots on the MT/OT and you want to add some extra healing on top of that. Note: You can and probably should sometimes finish the cast even if tank has full hp, just for the hot part of the spell.

- You >>KNOW<< the target will take some heavy damage and don't have time to stack up all of your hots, with Swiftmend being on cooldown.

- You >>KNOW<< the target will take some heavy damage and have your hots stacked, but still want to chain-cast it. Example would be mage or warlock AoE. Take note, however, that proper mage or warlock aoe does not imply taking 15k damage in a second, so if those guys die like that, it's totally their fault.

- You will need heavy healing done on the target in the next 2-3 seconds, bearing in mind Swiftmend can just go off the cooldown (or already is) while you cast Regrowth.

- Target needs at least some healing here and now and all your other instant heal abilities are on cooldown.

An example of how not to use it would be: a raid member has 50-70% of health and is not taking any predictable damage and doesn't have agro. You'll just waste your time, because other healing classes do the job better in this situation, providing they don't slack or are not really busy topping-off someone else.

Swiftmend - Despite some druids claiming it's a waste of time and mana, I found this ability mandatory for every possible healing role a druid can take. 8-10% usage normally. It's usually used with Rejuvenation for the role of that flash-type of heal spell we're missing. Remember it can use other druids' hot spells.

Healing Touch - I can't ever remember casting it without Nature's Swiftness used, you can always deliver more healing to your target using other spells available to you.

Tranquility - This spell is going to see some extra use in the expansion. Currently I use it to heal of really massive amounts of aoe damage ( ZA trash packs, would be an example ) or tricky low threat situations requiring party healing (I take 2 restoration talens just for that). For me, seeing a druid actually use it sometimes on the right time is a clear indication the person has brains and experience.

3) Raid roles

No matter which role you're assigned to, remember, you can almost always have some spare time available to heal up the raid to throw in a hot or two. For example, even if I'm on tank healing duty, I frequently find myself instant-healing raid members that took large amounts of damage fast. Druids are best at this.

If I hear my RL say I'm in charge of tank healing that doesn't mean I just sit there watching hot timers on 1 target. I never ever stop casting. Not a single cooldown should be wasted.

To make healing with druid the way it's been designed in the first place you need to know several things:

1) Boss tactics (obviously)

2) How to play other healing classes efficiently (Yes, I have to admit it, knowing a few extra tricks that other classes can do or can't do - REALLY helps. Example - why bother hotting up your group in mass damage situation, if you have a holy priest in it?)

2) Raid healing capabilities and healing setup (Example would be my yesterday's raid for Felmyst, Shammie was in charge of healing up our group, he couldn't always heal everyone up very fast, so I began casting up hots on the whole group aswell and we did have several occasions where it helped tremendously)

3) Knowing game mechanics. (Example - if a pug occuses you of getting agro because of the healing you did and tank did have 2k hp when you instant-touched the guy, you can safely suggest something non-decent , on the other hand, if you did heal the tank during the pull when he had 16k hp - it's totally your fault)

4) A few extra words:

Yes, you can heal with stacking lifebloom on 3 tanks and still top the healing meter just by doing that, but it's not what the Lord intended for healing classes (exception would be bloodboil, ofc). Working as a team, knowing all those situations that can happen and knowing that you do have proper healing abilities to counter them - that's the thing you should be aiming for.

Example 1 - I had done a pug kara this week with 3 healers: 2xdruids, 1 holy priest.

Holy priest had 50-60% flash-heal usage which is pretty lame by my standards, but could be justified that the tanks had 2 full stacks of druids hots, making efficient GH non-viable.

I had my usual ability percentage usage. The other druid had 95-99% lifebloom usage. In real-life situation it ment that mage has been taking damage from several mobs on AOE, had about 3k hp, the druid hotted him with lifebloom instead of rejuv + swiftmend. But yes, he did top the healing meter several times, if it's the thing you're aiming for.

Example 2 - ZA PUG.

Some 7-10 birds get out of control and target me. I run away (kite mode on), throwing full stack of hots on myself. Got 2k HP, eat a healthstone, after 2-3 seconds again have 2k hp, eat super healing potion, tank finally grabs agro. By the time it happened I had 3 lifebloom stack, swiftmended rejuv and extra 1 stacked. If I switched to bear form - I would have probably died. If I didn't watch the battle and only stared at Grid - I would have died. If tank wouldn't have waked up after 8-10 seconds - I would have died.

Example 3 - Using visual AND frame healing.

It's pretty tricky, but most abilities and most people that could possible take damage could be visually seen on your screen. Sometimes 0.2-0.3 seconds faster than frame addons show it up. You should know and make use of this.

Addons

A bit about addons that you can't live without. You can find a competent list of the in the first post. The only ones that really make a difference for me are - GhostPulse and some sort of macro's announcing Innervate and Rebirth. Proper GRID configuration is almost a must also.

And grand finale - ask yourself if ANY other healing class has so much versatility and actuall heavy decision making required? Be proud you're a druid. Don't ruin it for the rest of the community with healing-touch or lifebloom spamming. :/

I believe the technical term for that one is "holy priest".

And it seems Rawrz is a heavy proponent of "keep eye on the tank for Swiftmend". Even though there are other classes better suited for raidhealing, I find myself a lot more useful by using all my global cooldowns on the raid when I'm assigned to healing the tank (next to keeping all hots up on him of course), just as I also rather keep a Lifebloom rolling on the tank when I'm assigned to the raid. Imo that's what the strength of the druid healing class is, being able to give more breathing room to both raid healers and tank healers, instead of having to bring one of each to get the same effect.

Just had a very interesting new healing mod referenced to me. I haven't had the opportunity to try it out at any length, but I thought I would reference it here:
Instant Health Updates

The gist of it is (from what I was told...reading through thread at the moment), WoW servers apparently send out health updates in batches every 0.3second. This add-on uses the combat log to update health levels in real time, thus on average updating health 0.15 seconds earlier. It also lets you see all those fluctuations that are missed within the 0.3second interval (you know how it looks like the tank stays perma-topped off? he's not...this is why). Anyway, I downloaded it yesterday and plan on trying it out this week while raiding and will post an impression after, but I thought others might be interested to check it out.

My point was that aside from druids, no other classes can instantly heal for 4-7k every 13 seconds, whereas plenty of classes have spells that are much better suited to raid healing like chain heal, poh/coh.

Obviously, this doesn't mean I let people in the raid die - I'll heal them if it's needed (e.g. putting a rejuv on encap target for swiftmend if other healers fall behind). It does mean however that I trust the other healers to carry out their assignments just as they are trusting me to carry out mine. I'll float on felmyst, but not during corrosions. I'll keep lifeblooms on the current tank on brutallus even though I am assigned to burn healing because I have enough time to do both.

Just because damage is in DoT form doesn't mean that HoT's are uniquely suited to heal it. Bloodboils and the felmyst aura are way more efficiently healed with group healing spells (and may often take less time). Our efficiency and effectiveness doesn't really start kicking in until a target is taking >900 dps sustained.