Resto Druids - the struggle is real

**Devia** · 2016-09-12, 09:05 PM

Originally Posted by Nythiz

On top of that our best healing stat for 5 man healing (mastery) is the only stat that doesn't increase DPS; which in mythic+ can be an issue.

Wait are you saying that healers are expected to put out DPS in mythics? I haven't played since Cata so I have not experienced mythics yet. Is that a thing?

**Holtzmann** · 2016-09-12, 09:54 PM

Originally Posted by Devia

Wait are you saying that healers are expected to put out DPS in mythics? I haven't played since Cata so I have not experienced mythics yet. Is that a thing?

To be fair, it's not that far-fetched. My friend who's already running Mythics told me that if the rest of the team is good at avoiding damage you're probably going to have a decent amount of downtime you might as well use for DPSing in most fights. I'm already practicing as I level up!

**Cheze** · 2016-09-12, 10:25 PM

in higher-end mythic+ a lot of trash strats revolve around stunning/kiting mobs for an extended period of time, since the damage they do isn't realistically heal-able and CC slows you down too much

in that environment the healer might as well throw some dps, since there often isn't much damage to the group

**Auxora** · 2016-09-12, 11:36 PM

As far as the OP, you can go in every class forums section on this site and outside of maybe DH every single one has a big thread to the effect of "my class is awful, Blizz ruined my spec in 7.03, and can't get in any mythic groups as this class". Resto druid is not only fine, they are towards the top end of healers right now.

Also on the dps comments, for a couple expansions and now Legion I throw up dps when I can. Every trash pack and some bosses I at least sunfire and moonfire here and there, especially sunfire since it spreads. I'll throw some wraths out also as the situation allows. It's not as nice as back in wod when you could heal with wrath almost like disc, but the dps helps. Faster runs are always good, and it also helps offset groups with lower dps. So especially on poorer performing dps groups it makes a big difference. Plus you'll regret not doing it if you wipe on a boss at 2% where it would have been a kill with a couple extra moonfires. Always, healing takes priority, but unless you are undergeared or need more practice at lower difficulties on the content you should be able to contribute a little dps here and there in a run. That said, DPS and tanks should look at healer dps as a nice small bonus though and not expected, and definitely not kick a healer just because they aren't dps'ing.

**golden6911** · 2016-09-13, 02:15 PM

I'll admit to struggling as new resto druid. I have played Shaman and MW and it is hard to adjust to the proactive style, but I am slowly getting there. I find it a bit of a juggle to keep all the hots rolling at all times sometimes. Also, I have been pugging, and the difference between a good group and bad one is like night and day. In good groups, it is boring as hell. In bad groups where tanks aren't using mitigation and dps is standing in shit, people are dying left and right.

**Thaelath** · 2016-09-13, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by golden6911

In bad groups where tanks aren't using mitigation and dps is standing in shit, people are dying left and right.

Once you start giggling when the DPS die, then you will be a true Druid.

**ItachiZaku** · 2016-09-13, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by Thaelath

Once you start giggling when the DPS die, then you will be a true Druid.

True story.

Oh, and last nights Maw for the 840, I thought the DK was the worst DK tank ever... until I realized that he wasn't the tank and the tank was 4th on heals received. Oh, guess who died on Heyla? Yep.

**Animalhouse** · 2016-09-13, 02:38 PM

Not sure where op is going wrong but resto druid feels fantastic and consistent with how the class has functioned for several years...of course there have been minor changes but we are pretty much the same strong HoT healers we always have been. My druid is 843 ilvl resto atm and heroics are easy and mythic feel fine as long as tank is competent. The ONLY time I get nervous is when a DH tank or an under-geared pally is taking massive spike damage, spamming regrowth can feel a little weak but having 2x swiftmends helps greatly. To be honest I had planned to tank all xpac but after running a couple mythics as guardian I decided to switch resto to get an idea how other tanks handle content/trash and fell in love with resto again...it feels very powerful. I have now decided to heal from here on out unless the guild needs me to tank something. Wish I had not put so much AP in guardian, could have tranquil mind already and that will drastically change our play and power.
I recommend op to re-evaluate your play style and change up your talents and maybe take a close look at better add-ons.

**Kitanii** · 2016-09-13, 02:39 PM

Originally Posted by ItachiZaku

Oh, and last nights Maw for the 840, I thought the DK was the worst DK tank ever... until I realized that he wasn't the tank and the tank was 4th on heals received. Oh, guess who died on Heyla? Yep.

Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this story because the exact same thing happened to me and I started to doubt myself <3

Deleted · 2016-09-13, 02:46 PM

I suppose a big problem for many druid healers is that they're wasting fucking mana.

I'm a bear tank (iLvL 836) and we ran some heroics with my guild this weekend.
Our healer is resto druid and she was constantly oom in Black Rook Hold.
I was overhealed by 90m or something like that.

**apelsinjuice** · 2016-09-13, 02:47 PM

Resto druid is top 1/2 healer in dungeons right now, so your "struggle" is probably you doing something wrong or if talking about mythics just you playing with bad people taking alot of extra damage etc. Every single top guild used resto druids in beta for mythic+ etc.

**Nythiz** · 2016-09-13, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by Devia

Wait are you saying that healers are expected to put out DPS in mythics? I haven't played since Cata so I have not experienced mythics yet. Is that a thing?

Very likely so. There is a time component to certain mythic+ encounters.

A lot of fights also revolve around not standing in stuff, good crowd control and/or interrupts. I've been running a few mythics with some bad groups where I was mostly healing, but also with some really good guildies/pugs and there was basically nothing for me to do other than dps.

Main advantage of druids might be that our feral affinity is really really good for dps. I mean on some of the trashpacks i can easily get 100-150k dps as resto druid by simply dotting all the mobs (sunfire / rake / rip as much as needed and possibly moonfire depending on the situation). On the other hand, as I mentioned our best mythic healing stat doesn't add to dps, so there might be a point where certain other healers take the cake.

I wouldn't even be surprised if certain groups would run Disc priests for speed runs; because really: Nearly all damage in mythics is avoidable to a certain degree.

My buddy plays blood DK so we have some teamspeak comms, and I can easily sit in catform while he keeps himself alive. I can apply Cenarion Ward without shifting out of catform, in case he takes more damage and in the worst case I can make sure my Rake/Rip are running, shift out to throw some hots, apply some moonfire/sunfire and shift back into cat.
So if you can sustain the tank at such a degree, it mostly becomes a question of: "how much shit can your dps avoid". And in my experience so far that can range from really bad, as in certain dps taking nearly as much damage, if not more as the tank over the course of a whole dungeon run; to practically nothing outside of unavoidable mechanics.

It's also very very encounter dependent. There are fights where I simply can not afford to drop heals on DPS, as they might just chunk from certain damage and then I need to be ready to toss out some solid heals.
Take Halls of Valor, a raid most people know. There are fights where you simply need to heal because people take damage (e.g. Fenrir has that jumping bleed and summons adds), but there are also fights where if people do their shit they should take minimal to no damage. Fights like Hyrja (boss down the left side of the hall) have a lot of stuff going on, but if you avoid the orbs on light side and stack in the shield on storm side there isn't that much damage. Same goes for Odyn, as long as you stun and kill the adds there is practically nothing that is unavoidable damage for non-tanks.

**Wild** · 2016-09-13, 03:30 PM

I feel great as a resto-druid so far. No problem healing the tank and sure no problem healing the group @5man. I dont think we lack anything, we have constant heal, some good CDs, even some oh-shit-CDs.
The only thing I might be worried about would be mana when going to Mythic+. However I'd rather say the trash will oom u, not the bosses.

**Sprucelee** · 2016-09-13, 04:42 PM

Just be smart about drinking at any point combat drops, mana should never be an issue in dungeons.

**draganid** · 2016-09-13, 10:51 PM