Eilt

My tactics:

Q1 - Load your tribloom before the pull, try and refresh the LB stack just before the tank pulls, if you can get tribloom + rejuv up PRE pull it is a great barrier. Once you hace your regrowth up as well I have come to LOVE using nourish to heal spikes at this point. Just keep LB, Rejuv, Regrowth, Wild Growth (if needed) rolling and use nourish to top off the tank if needed.

Q2 - Casting 3 LBs as your warrior pulls will pull extra mobs at you, if you have your tribloom on the MT and refresh it before he pulls, you should not have a problem with him getting the mobs. Just make sure he is using AE threat generators (like Tclap)

Q3 - Skill makes up a lot...Stamina is easy to come by at this point, so just make sure they have a decent amount of avoidance and mitigation. When doing a PuG I always Armory the people before inviting them, you can tell if someone knows the class by the enchants/gems etc. Someone who takes the time to properly enchant and gem will probably be okay even if slighly undergeared.

 

Ploppy

I have one additional tip to add regarding prestacking HoTs. Since timing is essential spend some time to carefully look at your tank before each pull. No, not at his healthbar. I know thats where us healers tend to rest our eyes the most, but look at his toon. Carefully watch everything he does before a pull. Most tanks have small details in their bodylanguage that can show you precisely when they mean to pull. One of the warriors I play a lot with for example has a tendency to make an ever so small tap forwards before he´s going to charge. Also he does not do this when he´s planning to use his gun to pull. Theres more small details he does too, but you get the idea. So from studying him a lot I can tell both if he plans to charge or use his gun and I know exactly when he´s going to do it and can prehot him just at the right moment. This is one of my best tips I can give as a healer. Takes some learning for each tank but isn´t very hard once you learn what to look for besides obvious preparing spells and abileties.

 

Maraili

With such a massive amount of our healing coming from hots, has there been any word that we might (3.1?) get a new talent that functions similar to the Shadow Priest/Affliction Warlock ones that provide extra damage (or in our case healing) on dot (hot) ticks based on your crit chance?

Maybe I'm looking at it wrong, but I pick up haste to get me to a 1 second GCD for hots and then I really don't care if my gear has haste OR crit on it (with mp5 being the ideal 'extra' stat but there aren't many items set up this way). If I want something to crit, I use Regrowth, and I have enough haste (raid buffs etc etc) that my spells are already casting a good bit faster.

Now granted, I wasn't raiding SWP at the end of TBC (Up to Illidan pre nerf then we cleared first 3 of SWP post nerf), but from what I understand, Shadow Priests and Affliction Warlocks started to fall behind in terms of effectiveness because they scaled from Spellpower effectively and not much else. I just see us being locked into a situation where we have tons of wasted stats on our gear, especially considering that with raid buffs we can already hit a 1 second GCD. Priests, Shamans, and Paladins all make excellent use of both Haste and Crit, while I'm feeling kind of left out in the cold here. I thnk there's been some discussion either in this thread or one of the others that we have better coefficients on our spells and this is supposed to make up for the fact that we aren't scaling on every stat on our gear, but will this truly make up for it in the long run?

 

Nitz

You can't compare damage dealing and healing this way. I don't think there is a class that is able to match our throughput once we hit the haste softcap on AoE heavy boss(es ?) whereas SPs and Affliction Warlocks were broken scaling wise and left without encounters with multiple (3+ mobs) where multidotting could be viable. We will never lack targets.

 

• Playered

There has been nothing confirmed or really spoken about by Blizzard about giving us any form of Crit conversion for our HoTs.

I believe it is their aim for us to use our direct healing spells more often though instead of further enhancing our HoTs (slight PvP issue).
I do not really see a way around this without weakening HoTs further in order to let direct heals become more prominant in our style of healing although giving Nourish some talents might make it more appealing to be used more frequently... doubtful that could do enough to shift the balance.

 

Whïspur

Question 1: I open with Rejuvenation because 3 seconds till first tick = time for tank to get aggro, and it allows me to swiftmend if he takes a lot of damage right off the bat. I like to Rejuv and start casting LB, but stop and cast Regrowth if I notice tank getting hit down fast. I more recently put up a regrowth on the tank before the pull so that I can get the 20% more healing from the next regrowth.

Question 2: Warriors enrage before the pull, to get some rage at the sacrifice of their health. If your hots are rolling on the warrior, they will heal the warrior and you will get healing aggro possibly before the warrior has enough rage/time to get aggro on all the mobs. Shadowmeld if this happens! On Patchwerk and Malygos I have my hots rolling on the tanks before the pull, and I'll make sure the enrage portion has been healed before he actually aggros the boss.

Question 3: Ask if they are uncrittable. Druid tanks are regardless of gear, but Paladins, Warriors and DKs need to have a good amount of Defense before they are uncrittable. If the tank doesn't know if he is uncrittable, then he probably has spent 0 time looking into tanking theorycrafting and likely will not do so well.

 

Nilaus

About Imp. Tranquility: I personally love this talent even though I never use it more often than the 10 min original cooldown. I think it is more of a psychological thing for me in many cases: Do I need it more in the next 10 min than right now? Asking myself that question cost valuable miliseconds (yeah I think that fast ). With 4 min then I don't have to ask this question and can just use it if the proverbial shit hits the fan.
In 5 mans I use it immediately if the groups gets a double pull: massive group healing + 0 threat is tailormade for bad pulls.

Someone mentioned the shortcomings of being Group only, but I love that fact (granted I only play 10man so that may affect my judgement). So few abilities are group only that it is no problem to be put in the same group as the tanks i.e. the people who most likely need the massive healing.

Overall the talent ranks very high on the fun-scale for me because it adds new functionality to good old Tranq,

Real men have infractions on their EJ account!

 

Mondas

When you say 1900 heals you mean 1900 spell power right? 1900 healing is only about 1010 spell power and that would be a big problem. Also, only 203 mp5 in combat seems low to me if you have 1900 spell power. Maybe your first task is to bring that spell power up 200 or 300.

1 - As others have said I make sure there is a Swiftmendable hot on the tank ASAP. Rather than going for 3xLB so early mix in Regrowth and maybe a Nourish in while building your stack. Nourish is pretty bad for mana, but if mana is not a concern then it's a decent heal. Basically, bring the big guns in earlier in your rotation. The Rejuv glyph might be a worthwhile swap for Innervate if your tanks spend a lot of time under 50% health. Once they are better geared you will likely swap back to Innervate or the Lifebloom glyph.

2 - Simple thing... always have Thorns on the tank. It's not huge, but it's extra free damage and threat for the tank. Also, don't be shy with Shadowmeld. I use it a ton now, for wipe prevention and if I see mobs coming my way that the tank will not be able to stop. Make sure you are not in melee range - you generate more threat - try and stay 30-40 yards from the mobs where possible. It'll also give the tank more time to intercept or whatever he has to do. Have any class that can do so Misdirect onto the tank. I don't have experience playing a warrior, but these are little things that tip the threat balance away from the healer. Grab a threat reduction enchant on your cloak and/or a threat reducing meta if issues persist.

3 - I only run with guildies so I feel pretty safe with our tanks. That's the best defense... use tanks you know.

 

Promi

What bracers are you resto druids shooting for? Have not been able to really decide on what are best in slot.
If someone could come up with a chart or direct me to one with best in slot in all slots that would be great.

 

red

[Esteemed Bindings] for haste,
[Swarm Bindings] for crit.

Although Restoration Itemization or Druid: Simple Questions/Simple Answers are probably better places for your question.

Just search wowhead for epic leather bracers ilvl 200-230 with spellpower and no resilience. There aren't many of them.

 

Promi

What about the valor token ones

 

• Playered

Cloth is much more itemized at ilvl 226 (most likely as it can be used by more and us included) and for that reason do not exclude it from BiS setups.
The clothies may whine but as there is often no leather alternatives at ilvl 226 and we have access to the *same/equal* options at the ilvl 213 tier.. well it's down to you. Your chances on the belt will be slightly more difficult though.


Woodsyresto remember to use your Shadowmeld as a Night Elf - it's a very valuable tool we have access to now in all areas of the game from leveling, doing 5 mans or raiding (Sarth+x when whelps spawn for example). It takes some time to get used to using all the time but really it becomes amazing provided you have reaction speeds <4~ seconds.


The Tranquility thing still bugs me because of the innate cooldown it has making me treat it as some prized relic to be saved until I really cannot do enough without it. I used to have this issue way back pre BWL days in classic regarding Innervate and gosh that was annoying to break out of.
I kind of wish it was a base 5 min cooldown with the talent reducing it by 2/4 allowing us to have it as a tool (when talented only) to be used as a standard once per min. Going from 10->4 is still pretty much a once per encounter thing and is only removing waiting time between attempts, the hefty mana cost would still be enough to make us manage it correctly.

 

Glory

Sorry but you dont generate more Threat in Melee Range, dont know who told you that, but you generate the same Threat no matter where you stand, but in Melee Range you get aggro at an aggro Level of 110% of current tanking Player, while Ranged you need 130% Threat to get into the Focus of the Enemy.

For Warrior Tanks, they should use Thunderclap Shockwave at first, because it has 2 nice Effects: First one is they get a nice Threat Level and 2nd every Monster is Stunned für 3 Sec, so they don't need heal for the next 3 Sec -> no Threat for you, after 6 Sec a new Thunderclap and you shouldn't get Aggro.

Well for you gear dont see why you got problems to heal Tanks with only 22k Life. My Twink Druid got less SP and I heal 20k Paladin ie, if they got 3 Lifeblooms at the begin of the fight + Regrowth + Rejuve + Wildgrowth, they have about 3k Heal or more per sec, even Grobbulus on Heroic does only 2k dps. If the Tank goes lower than max life, throw a Regrowth or Nourish like told.
I can hold lifebloom stacks on a tank for an 10 Mins or more, im Always full with Mana, i often cast Lifebloom befor the fight beginns just to charge Sarth 10man Trinket, and i hold them up until the fight ends.

Well Rejuvenation Glyph is not really an option I think, because a Tank who drops below 50% with 4 Hots on him and you throwing some Nourish/SM/RG is no tank, when your Rejuvenation Glyph will tick next hit he bites the dust.

Dont underestimate Wildgrowth as Tank heal in 5 Mans, but its a 700 Hps that heals every Second so its a good Buffer for bad geared Tanks. 700 Heal every Sec (at the end 450 or something like that) is like you buff him with 1-2k Life.

And if the Tanks are really bad i even Throw 3 Lifeblooms and Rejuvenation on me, like that i survive a Heroic Caster/Grouped Melee for about 15 Sec that should be enough for your tank to Taunt, if that is not the case then get a new Tank.

 

woodsyresto

That's the answer I was hoping for. Didn't want to start a holy war just wanted to make sure I wasn't seriously missing something.

 

Etam

Alright, I might be in the wrong section but I check here frequently and have been working on my gear to the best of my abilities. I have been building a Haste build due to what I thought was the way to go for a Resto Druid but yet I see alot of druids that are building a Crit/SpellPower setup and I thought that was not the way to necesarily go.

I thought with upcoming patch GCD on Wild Regrowth and such that druids wanted to build up their haste and that having anything more then 8% Crit for Tree wasn't necessary.

Please let me know if I have mis-understood my research and if my build is wrong to what you guys can tell.

Here is my Armory link The World of Warcraft Armory

Any help would be appreciated and since this is labeled Healing Discussion is why I posted here.

 

Oktan

The debate over crit or haste, at least in my opinion, is like debating over which tastes better-- coke or pepsi? I suppose your primary healing role, and general healing classes you roll with, could influence your decision. Both sides have figures and logic to back up their arguments, and you can't seriously screw up your character either way. With that said, I'm aiming for the softcap of haste (fully raid buffed, and with GotEM, I believe is 222 haste) then opting for crit over haste, if it comes down to that decision. I.E. if deciding between 2 pieces of loot with identical SP and identical stats, I would opt for crit instead of haste. Simply put, i get more synergy from talents like living seed and nature's grace from crit than i do from haste.

I am curious to understand why you opted for 2/5 tranquil spirit over 2/2 empowered touch? Having more power on your "oh crap" spell seems to be a better choice than 4% mana reduction on direct heals. I have zero mana problems what-so-ever in a raid setting with replenishment.

 

Norfair

Yes, I've been thinking about speccing into that talent for a while now. When WotLK just released I experimented a bit with a full talented Healing Touch build and after I found out it's useless I changed to a Master Shapeshifter build. Unfortunately for me I accidentally specced into Empowered Touch (just copied my old build except for the 2nd/3rd tier), and I'm wanting to respec for several weeks now. If I look at other resto druids builds, almost all druids have the following build: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

That leaves 4 points. You can put 3 in Replenish since it ain't all that bad, but where you put that last point? 1 point in imp Tranquility is useless, you either put 2 in there or none. If imp Tranquility would move up the tree it would be possible to take it (or have full Replenish) since you could then just take 2/3 Subtlety. At the moment I'm thinking to go with imp Tranquility and spec 2/3 into Replenish. I seriously think the 2nd tier of talents needs some work though as all options are extremely bad in a raid environment.

Keep f**king that chicken.

 

Raikagi

You probably already know this, since you were the author of the thread with the Haste/GCD info in it, but you seem to have enough Haste on your gear to justify taking one point out of GotEM and moving it into something else, assuming you have WoA totem avaliable.

 

Norfair

Yes, I know. The problem is we don't always have WoA available (but most of the time we do) and I was planning to replace my head and my alchemy trinket soon which will reduce my haste down to 430ish. I guess I'd rather have 1 point less in Replenish then, instead of sometimes (and outside of raids) not having a 1 sec gcd since that is a lot more noticable.

Keep f**king that chicken.

 

◊ Lord BEEF

I'd like to share one kinda dumb trick I've discovered.

With the glyph of the wild, gift of the wild costs around 1114 mana, and in a 25 man is pretty much guaranteed to proc omen of clarity. So if you want to save mana on tranquility or hurricane you can cast that beforehand and save a few hundred mana. Not practical in many situations but hey, I said it was a dumb trick.

 

mordrood

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I am new to the resto tree. With the changes in threat in WtLK, is sublety necessary? I'm currently doing 5-mans and heroics, but want to get into 10-mans.

 

Lightflower

Subtlety shouldn't be necessary in normal & heroic 5 mans and is not really necessary in raids either. However, on some fights (namely Sarth 2/3D), the tanks are pushed to pick everything up and healers are pushed to keep everyone topped up as much as possible. The combination of constantly spawning adds & large numbers of rolling HoTs means that you'll be generating a lot of threat there. Anything that reduces it and keeps you from getting gibbed seems to be a good investment to me.

Besides, where else would you put the points

 

George

If a tank has threat then a healer shouldn't need 30% less to not pull off the tank. If the tank has no threat then having 30% less will still put you over the tank, either the mob will still go after you or pick another healer who is above you.

I started 2 drake sarth without threat reduction then specced into when I died all the time. Even with it I still died to pulling threat on adds, it really made little/no difference. Part of that was due to our group make up, 2 prot wars and pally healers but the only way I could stay up with warstomp/BoP.

 

Ploppy

Well... while I agree its rarely that I have threat issues unless you have some kind of combination of addspawning and really spamming lots of people with heavy healing I dont really see what you take instead of subtlety. Is it for 3/5 Tranquil Spirit you wish to drop subtlety? Cant say I have evaluated that talent to further extent in wotlk but it really feels like a small managain to trade the times where threat is sensetive. 30% could be the diference in one attack or two attacks a tank has to get off to get an add off your bank, meaning it could also be the diference in one or two swings that add aims at you rather than the tank. But to be fair it is just a hunch of mine. Untill Im starting to feel really pressed for mana I´m not going to investigate Tranquil Spirit.

Regarding Shadowmeld there is another neat trick to it that applies only to 5 mans. While raiding one of the druid mana tricks is to use your inervate early enoughe to get two in one fight. However in 5mans the trick is to pot early and use shadowmeld immediatley after since that starts the pottimer and in another minute you get to use another pot. So even if you havnt built up your mp5 and manapool for real durability yet (or if you´re healing a crappy tank you can squeeze two pots and an inervate on nearly all bosses if you time them right. (put simply chainpotting isn´t dead for druids.) For alchemists you can also extend your durability the middleway, I play a bit with people who like speed and chainpulls, but chainpoting runics would really be overkill even with my current crappy gear so I use the shadowmeld trick together with endless pots wich most of the time gets me right over the top where I dont haveto stop and drink anywhere for speedy clears.

 

Isambaard

Not to dispute that you personally saw no difference, but on paper the benefit would be that tanks who are trying to pick the adds up primarily with AOE threat abilities (consecrate, pestilence, thunderclap type stuff) the less threat you generate the more easily they will peel mobs off you. I agree that once they have them its unlikely the talent will change whether or not you pull them back.

I'm in the camp that there's no place else worth putting those points to move down the tree compared to Subtlety at the moment.