[Druid] How is Resto feeling in WoD currently?

[AutomaticBadger]

Let me start off with I know beta is beta and most of our oolkit is either undergoing changes or still needing number tweaks but I'm not able to play in the beta and wanted to know how it is feling.

From everything I have read it seems like we are becoming very reliant on Spirit if we are going ino a fight with a large amount of AoE since WG costs us an arm and a leg, coupled with SM also costing a far amount it seems that we are going to get into 2 different play styles.

Either you take SotF and RG and have lots of down time between phases or SM>WG. You will basically just keep lifebloom on the current tank and use a rejuv or 2 while consuming OoC procs on Regrowth. DoC can be taken to give us something else to do while we are waiting for procs or the ~30 second window between WG since the cost is so high curently. If I remember Wrath is going to become free for us somehow which should allow for something at least. Feels like a mix of Atonement and Holy Priests got mixed together into something. With higher Spirit levels it should be easier for us to get away with shorter windows between WG right?

The other being Rejuv heavy where we almost drop WG from our toolkit and only SM when we need an instant spot heal. Talents to be taken being ToL, NV and Germination. I'm just wondering how that feels currently. How much will we be using Rejuv? Will we be attempt to blanket and get the most out of using Genesis since our on demand raid heals will be fewer between with a dropping of WG? ToL would be used as a mana regen tool to balance out our Rejuv spam right?

Overall how is it feeling to Tree Form currently? Are you feeling like we are lacking something or are we in a spot that can be grown out from looking into later patchs?

[Ogait]

Right now Rampant Growth is too strong but insanely mana intense. We need a lot of Spirit to maintain our mana for the entire raid (specially with premades gear) but with the right gear should be okay.

Other than that, Blizzard must fix Rejuvenation so we can see how OP druids are right now.

[stormgust]

Right now Rampant Growth is too strong but insanely mana intense. We need a lot of Spirit to maintain our mana for the entire raid (specially with premades gear) but with the right gear should be okay.

Sorry, but all rampant growth currently does is add 400%SP to SotF/WG. That's certainly not "too strong". Though I'll give you that a non-CD instant heal, which also happens to be the strongest in game, ought to be too much for PvP.

Other than that, Blizzard must fix Rejuvenation so we can see how OP druids are right now.

What exactly needs to be fixed about rejuvenation?

[Ogait]

Sorry, but all rampant growth currently does is add 400%SP to SotF/WG. That's certainly not "too strong". Though I'll give you that a non-CD instant heal, which also happens to be the strongest in game, ought to be too much for PvP.

Rampant Growth also increase the Healing done by Swiftment for 100%, which in numbers, Swiftmend was critting in Oregorger for ~145k with an average of 80k.

An ability that heals for 80k with no CD and still gives you Soul of the Forest. If you think that is not too strong right now, I'm not sure what is "too strong" for you.

What exactly needs to be fixed about rejuvenation?

Not sure if you raided, but if you did, you should have noticed that you can only have right now 1 rejuvenation per player. If you've two Resto Druids in the raid, their Rejuvenations will replace each other.

[stormgust]

Rampant Growth also increase the Healing done by Swiftment for 100%, which in numbers, I was critting in Oregorger for ~145k with an average of 80k.

I'm fully aware that a 80k instant heal without CD is too strong on paper (an certainly is in PvP). Doesn't change the fact that given the mana constraints we face, there'd be literally no gain by speccing rampant growth (over germination) if it didn't provide the 100% increase on Swiftmend.

An ability that heals for 80k with no CD and still gives you Soul of the Forest. If you think that is not too strong right now, I'm not sure what is "too strong" for you.

It's always simple to call a spell "too strong" by looking at it in a vacuum, but that can at best be an indicator of the underlying design beind bad. If you need ridiculously high numbers to make us want to use a spell/talent, it's likely that the mechanic at hand is just bad.

If you really want to get a good picture on how strong each talent/involved spell is, you start by looking at the RG/SotF spec and then step by step remove certain parts of it (SotF, RG, SotF then RG, RG then SotF) and consider wether you'd want to use the involved abilites even in that case (ideally: yes - also compare to alternative specs at each step involved to see if the net result is too strong). Once you're down to the base toolkit, you'd realize that neither SM nor WG are spells you'd want to use by themselves. Then you remember the basic fact about building houses (namely: it's all about a good foundation) and from that procede onwards to first fix the base toolkit, then SotF and finally realize that rampant growth has to be scrappedg (solely because either SotF will have to be to weak relative to ToL without RG, or RG requires SotF to be on par with germination)

Of course that's assuming blizzard get's the progression of mana regen down correctly this time round (i.e. no hefty shifts on our spell useage in favor of the more expensive spells when going from T17 to T19). Though given the current T17 bonuses, I have my doubts here.

Not sure if you raided, but if you did, you should have noticed that you can only have right now 1 rejuvenation per player. If you've two Resto Druids in the raid, their Rejuvenations will replace each other.

To be fair, it's quite a strong assumption that every raid has at least two resto druids.

[Keiyra]

To be fair, it's quite a strong assumption that every raid has at least two resto druids.

Nevertheless currently multiple druids can each have their own rejuv on a target (same for nearly every other heal except for earthsheild and PoM- which are being changed specifically to allow it in WoD - and PW: Shield).

So it's either a bug or a pretty huge undocumented nerf. (I assume it's the former)

[Zol]

It's still Beta so there could still be changes (and I expect there will be), but currently Resto Druids/Holy Priests are the best healers for PVE in a raid setting.

[Keiyra]

It's still Beta so there could still be changes (and I expect there will be), but currently Resto Druids/Holy Priests are the best healers for PVE in a raid setting.

Well considering tuning hasn't happened yet, pointing out who is the "best" healer (no doubt you mean highest HPS) is rather besides the point.
I will say however, that both holy priests and resto druids seems to have decently fleshed out mechanics and kits (same cant be said for some of the other healers)

[stormgust]

I will say however, that both holy priests and resto druids seems to have decently fleshed out mechanics and kits (same cant be said for some of the other healers)

I've no clue on how fleshed out holy priests mechanics are, but I'd say that our rotation shifting from one extreme (pure reju) to another (pure sm/wg) depending on a single talent choice (no sotf/sotf) is far from what I'd consider "decently fleshed out". Then there's also the problem that your T60 choice more or less dictates which option you're going to pick at T100.

[Trubo]

Nevertheless currently multiple druids can each have their own rejuv on a target (same for nearly every other heal except for earthsheild and PoM- which are being changed specifically to allow it in WoD - and PW: Shield).

So it's either a bug or a pretty huge undocumented nerf. (I assume it's the former)

This had better be a bug or I'm going to drop Resto and just be Guardian/Feral.

[Zathan666]

Long time veteran rdruid here. I might be the only one who thinks like that, but I would like to see a restriction on rejuv. Rejuv spam can get ridiculous and "tedious". I don't think it's good gameplay to spam rejuvs all over the raid. I'd put a limit of 3 targets max and add a new spell or something

[Scrysis]

Long time veteran rdruid here. I might be the only one who thinks like that, but I would like to see a restriction on rejuv. Rejuv spam can get ridiculous and "tedious". I don't think it's good gameplay to spam rejuvs all over the raid. I'd put a limit of 3 targets max and add a new spell or something

You're not. This new emphasis on rejuv blanketing and genesis, is making me go play my priest.

[tein]

You're not. This new emphasis on rejuv blanketing and genesis, is making me go play my priest.

May be it's a right choice for you. Druids are first of all hotters and it's bad that in WOD healers are losing their individuality (I'm talking about 1.5 sec WG for example). Rejuv is our main spell. If I wish to cast spells more I would probably choose another class.

Talking about theme of the post, the most obvious choice now is ToL and Germination. Moment of clarity was good until it was nerfed and Rampant Growth, as it was said, has too high manacost at the moment.

[Deleted]

You're not. This new emphasis on rejuv blanketing and genesis, is making me go play my priest.

On current beta, disc isn't even playable and holy's only viable "rotation" consist in blanketting renews on the raid and refreshing them via direct spells. It currently looks very similar to rdruid rejuv spamming.

[AutomaticBadger]

You're not. This new emphasis on rejuv blanketing and genesis, is making me go play my priest.

I heal as a druid because we use hots, move around like crazy people and still have a gameplay that favors blanketing the raid with something. I'm not saying that everyone loves it but that's just the way my flavor of healing has to be.

[Huggykaze]

I heal as a druid because we use hots, move around like crazy people and still have a gameplay that favors blanketing the raid with something. I'm not saying that everyone loves it but that's just the way my flavor of healing has to be.

Well, I for one fell in love with resto druid in late vanilla/TBC, where I didn't have to cover raid with Reju and WG then go make a coffee. Actually healing got shitty after WLK where you had to spam instead of healing smart and foremost mana efficiently. Seeing other healers spam their spells all the time is painful. Blanketing is not cool, it's boring, healing is supposed to be reactive job, not something a bot can do. Right now it feels like DPS in different direction, if I wanted to dps I'd roll afflock. But it's kinda connected to whole lot of other changes which came with Sunwell and WLK.

[Deleted]

I've played 2 of the raid tests and we're in a good shape right now. I wasn't playing with SotF though. I went incarnation and healed as i would on live. The only issue was mana, the regen with the current test gear and the scaling for the raids seems abit undertuned.

[theburned]

I've no clue on how fleshed out holy priests mechanics are, but I'd say that our rotation shifting from one extreme (pure reju) to another (pure sm/wg) depending on a single talent choice (no sotf/sotf) is far from what I'd consider "decently fleshed out". Then there's also the problem that your T60 choice more or less dictates which option you're going to pick at T100.

in most cases you will have to use regrowth on OoC proccs and rejuv/HT to sustain mana. and rejuvs to use swiftmend on.


Also having a talent which allows heavy throughput in return for mana heavy spells is good, it allows us to pick talents depending on fight.

[bclumas]

Restoration is actually in a good place. While I understand that long-time Restoration Druids might find this change annoying, it certainly isn't anything terrible. It's definitely better than BC Restoration Druid healing (take off the rose-tinted glasses) where you were stuck with three tanks and a warlock in the main group in order to provide the aura for increased healing while your healing partners got "stuck" with the Shadow Priest (AKA, mana battery). It's more fun that Lifebloom spamming everything, and less complex than today's Restoration Druid healing (may be a matter of preference).

With regards to the final point, Restoration in its current state of the Beta takes an adjustment of your toolkit. Wild Growth is entirely unusable and should probably go the way of Nourish if its mana cost stays where it is. While its cast time is quite annoying, it doesn't limit the use of the spell, as there are plenty of instances where the spell COULD be cast (but isn't because mana). The change of Omen of Clarity to use all cast time spells to only Regrowth is also an adjustment, but since optimal play already dictated such a rule, it really isn't a major change. I guess you lose out on free Wrath casts? Efflorescence persisting only for 30 seconds makes the spell more prohibitive, especially due to its high cost, and the loss of Bloom is painful.

Overall, Restoration is still a fun spec to play on the Beta and I look forward to playing it on live. We will be quite powerful--believe me.

[Snaige]

Overall, Restoration is still a fun spec to play on the Beta and I look forward to playing it on live. We will be quite powerful--believe me.

This is something that worries me pretty much at the moment. Even with much more mana issues than other non broken healing classes (poor disc priests), we produce significantly higher hps than other healers which might lead to a flood of people complaining about it and then it might cause us to be nerfed to the ground on release.