I want to take my healing a step further.

[Ashrr]

I consider myself a pretty good healer and my guild shares the sentiment. I put out high numbers consistently and have ranked multiple times in top 10 WOLs. However, I'm always trying to get better. A couple of things I feel I could improve upon are:-

1. Better Lifebloom uptime - I play with a 200ms ping so my Lifebloom sometimes falls off when I try to Nourish refresh with 2 seconds left. I'm trying to correct this by refreshing with another LB but I'm all ears to suggestions.

2. Tree of Life usage - During high damage phases, I often pop ToL and spam Rejuvenation + Wild growth as much as I can (with SM on CD of course). I'm wondering if multiple Lifeblooms on everyone would be better. I've tried this but I've never really gotten the hang of blanketing the raid with LB, much less stacking them up to 3. I can't seem to get used to spamming a spell with a higher GCD. Should I bother with trying to time the LB blooms during the high damage phase by popping tree earlier? Is it worth it?

3. Berserking + Tranquility - I'm always using them together. Would this be a bad idea in certain situations?

Thanks in advance. This is all on live BTW, I don't have the beta.

edit: for reference, I am not a new healer asking for advice on going from 60% LB uptime to 90%. I am looking for tips on improving reaction or optimizing my casting to squeeze out the maximum. This is probably very hard to comment on without any insight into my healing style and / or other factors but some people might have overcome similar situations.

[jijiel2002]

Im not sure what to take serious and what not from your post.

1. For to refresh a LB hot choose the optimum mana cost / cast time spell. If you have 200ms lag, i highly doubt anyone can time the nourish so precisely ( 2seconds before hot expires ) considering whatever external factors are coming into play, like movements and so on. Better for you use LB to refresh a LB.
2. TOL - again something very strange in what are you asking. TOL comes with 2 things : 15% increased heal, and some bonuses to your spells. You say that you spam Rejuve and WG as much as you can. Sorry, but you dont need TOL for rejuve spam. TOL brings you no benefit to rejuve. I think you are using TOL just like a trinket with an on use proc, wich is ok but is not the main reason TOL was created. What TOL brings in my opinion is the option to use LB on as many targets as you can, so that you can benefit from OmenofClarity procs for free Regrowths. Regarding Wildgrowths , TOL brings you 2 more targets, but nothing like a shortened CD to "spam as much as you can". So, in TOL , get used to have as many LB up, on different targets, even each of them is having just 1 LB, use OOC for free Regrowths , and in rest do you normal job. And dont use nourish in TOL, is a waste of time .
3. Berserk - is a end tree feral talent. And you are healer. So , maybe in case you are playing feral. But i just reread the typo from wowhead. Nothing about increased agility to benefit into Nurturing Instinct. Tranquility will not benefit at all from berserk.

Overall, those are my toughts about your questions.

And some of the questions are a bit let say childish considering your intro.

Regards,
Tauroku@Sylvanas@EU

[Deleted]

Im not sure what to take serious and what not from your post.

1. For to refresh a LB hot choose the optimum mana cost / cast time spell. If you have 200ms lag, i highly doubt anyone can time the nourish so precisely ( 2seconds before hot expires ) considering whatever external factors are coming into play, like movements and so on. Better for you use LB to refresh a LB.
2. TOL - again something very strange in what are you asking. TOL comes with 2 things : 15% increased heal, and some bonuses to your spells. You say that you spam Rejuve and WG as much as you can. Sorry, but you dont need TOL for rejuve spam. TOL brings you no benefit to rejuve. I think you are using TOL just like a trinket with an on use proc, wich is ok but is not the main reason TOL was created. What TOL brings in my opinion is the option to use LB on as many targets as you can, so that you can benefit from OmenofClarity procs for free Regrowths. Regarding Wildgrowths , TOL brings you 2 more targets, but nothing like a shortened CD to "spam as much as you can". So, in TOL , get used to have as many LB up, on different targets, even each of them is having just 1 LB, use OOC for free Regrowths , and in rest do you normal job. And dont use nourish in TOL, is a waste of time .
3. Berserk - is a end tree feral talent. And you are healer. So , maybe in case you are playing feral. But i just reread the typo from wowhead. Nothing about increased agility to benefit into Nurturing Instinct. Tranquility will not benefit at all from berserk.

Overall, those are my toughts about your questions.

And some of the questions are a bit let say childish considering your intro.

Regards,
Tauroku@Sylvanas@EU

Berserk != Berserking.

[jijiel2002]

Berserk != Berserking.

Yeah still old school cannot imagine a druid who is not tauren

I am not so good at haste math, you may check http://theincbear.com/math/resto-haste-breakpoints for Tranquility breakpoints.
5 ticks of tranq need 12,51% haste. For 6 ticks of tranq you need 37,50% haste. 2005 haste rating is 21.43% haste. Berserking is 20% increase cast speed. If is additive , 120% x 21.43% haste = 25.71%. Also without other external haste improvements you will not gain the extra tick.

[Ashrr]

Im not sure what to take serious and what not from your post.

1. For to refresh a LB hot choose the optimum mana cost / cast time spell. If you have 200ms lag, i highly doubt anyone can time the nourish so precisely ( 2seconds before hot expires ) considering whatever external factors are coming into play, like movements and so on. Better for you use LB to refresh a LB.
2. TOL - again something very strange in what are you asking. TOL comes with 2 things : 15% increased heal, and some bonuses to your spells. You say that you spam Rejuve and WG as much as you can. Sorry, but you dont need TOL for rejuve spam. TOL brings you no benefit to rejuve. I think you are using TOL just like a trinket with an on use proc, wich is ok but is not the main reason TOL was created. What TOL brings in my opinion is the option to use LB on as many targets as you can, so that you can benefit from OmenofClarity procs for free Regrowths. Regarding Wildgrowths , TOL brings you 2 more targets, but nothing like a shortened CD to "spam as much as you can". So, in TOL , get used to have as many LB up, on different targets, even each of them is having just 1 LB, use OOC for free Regrowths , and in rest do you normal job. And dont use nourish in TOL, is a waste of time .
3. Berserk - is a end tree feral talent. And you are healer. So , maybe in case you are playing feral. But i just reread the typo from wowhead. Nothing about increased agility to benefit into Nurturing Instinct. Tranquility will not benefit at all from berserk.

Overall, those are my toughts about your questions.

And some of the questions are a bit let say childish considering your intro.

Regards,
Tauroku@Sylvanas@EU

I don't see how they're childish at all. TOL brings you a 15% increase to all healing, whether this is rejuv or WG or anything else you choose to use. I don't see how using it like a trinket along with your normal "rotation" is bad. This is what I do during say... when we stack up in Madness Heroic and ignore the last set of tentacles on the 4th platform (since I use my tranquility right after the bolt on the 4th). Maybe my choice of words weren't the best but when I meant "spam as much as I can" I was talking about getting off as many Wild Growths as I could within the 30 seconds of Tree of Life so that I benefit from the extra 2 players healed. It seems like a waste if you don't do so.

I'm well aware of fishing for OOC procs in ToL for free Regrowths but I usually use this when I'm trying to conserve mana, not when I'm trying to maximize my healing output. Let's assume I have no mana problems at all - with that scenario in mind, I want to know what would be the best way to maximize HPS during Tree of Life. I don't nourish at all there. I read about a few druids preparing Lifebloom blankets using ToL about 10 seconds before heavy unavoidable damage (Think of 4th platform bolt or Rag HC 2nd phase) and then letting them all bloom after the damage goes out. This requires very good timing and execution so I was wondering whether it is worth it at all.

As for the Berserk thing... you misunderstood. I was talking about the troll racial http://www.wowhead.com/spell=26297/berserking It boosts your tranquility afaik (at least the cast time is reduced). Look at this post for more information - http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post15983051

With the Nourish question, when I had better ping, I developed the habit of using Nourish to refresh both LB and Harmony at the same time. Most good druids I spoke to were doing the same. It isn't working so well for me now and I end up wasting GCDs to get Lifebloom back up to 3 stacks.

[Deleted]

As long as you don't hit another haste breakpoint, any haste benefit is useless for tranq and all your hots. I'd go with Jijiel here:

I am not so good at haste math, you may check link for Tranquility breakpoints.
5 ticks of tranq need 12,51% haste. For 6 ticks of tranq you need 37,50% haste. 2005 haste rating is 21.43% haste. Berserking is 20% increase cast speed. If is additive , 120% x 21.43% haste = 25.71%. Also without other external haste improvements you will not gain the extra tick.

It might be better to use Berserk with ToL. But you should do the math there, I play Worgen.

As for your other points.

I don't think that the perfect lifebloom uptime will make you a better healer. Healing always is very situational. Sometimes it might be better to let the lifebloom run out on the tank to save another. I know that's yesterdays news, but I too am a perfectionist and go through my logs after every single raid. I sometimes have to remind myself that healing is about ppl not dying and not hitting every single number perfectly.

As for tree of life, I don't agree with Jijiel. In my opinion, the use of tree of life also is very situational. There are 2 major purposes for me:
1. Increase healing output in a heavy heal situation. Spamming Rejuv/WG (while keeping up Harmony) definitely is the best heal output you can have as a Resto Druid. (Rejuv is better in AoE HPS because of the GCD reduction and the longer duration, not because it heals more than LB => wowpedia.org/Healing_comparison)
2. For mana saving in AoE healing situations. Spamming LB on the raid costs nearly no mana at all. It's most efficient to first get 1 LB on every target, then start stacking/refreshing it. If the bloom doesn't go into overheal, your overall HPS won't go down significantly in comparison to Rejuv spam. Clearcasts don't proc that often from multiple targets anymore, they fixed that a while ago. I wouldn't count on them as heavily as suggested from Jijiel.

I think that playing a good Resto Druid in Cataclysm is mainly a question of cooldown usage, keeping up Harmony and pre-thinking.

[Ashrr]

In that post I linked, Dendrek has written down some math for Berserking + Tranquility. To quote him -

Raid buffed and with Berserking you'd have: 1.15658*1.05*1.20 = 1.4573 = 45.73% haste. This amount of haste gives Tranquility an extra tick (with about 8% excess haste).

I am full raid buffed of course. I agree with you that Healing is very situational and not about numbers but right now, my guild is well past progression and people don't really die. I don't have access to the beta, so I'd like to use this time to improve my "rotation" and overall execution. You're right when you say that playing a good resto druid is about CD usage and being ready for whatever comes at you. However, once you have those under control, it comes down to small things making a big difference.

[Deleted]

As my only source of help, being a Rdruid as well and "feeling your pain"... there's a tool that you *might* want to control.
someone already linked the resto breakpoints sheet.
Now, from here you might want to start paying attention to the NG part and see where does your 2005 breakpoint ends up on those... and see the benefits of a NG
and if you don't know what NG stands for its nature's grace, the 15sec/60sec proc you get from casting a RG/MF/IS....
Like someone said, ToL and OoC RG spam is a good strategy to follow up now that mana is no longer a issue ( i find myself only reforging into spirit on spine HC) yet IF you can... try to HT those OoC and save a RG to proc the NG part... it can boost your healing further on a really bad scenario.
Now... I use Weak Auras to track if either im on NG CD, NG ready or NG active, and then tend to "adapt" to the situation... as NG on CD allows me to spam RG without fear of using a proc and NG active i tend to focus on LB/RJ/SM/WG to avoid downtime and cast time. dunno if helped and sorry for any typo as I'm not a native English speaker.

[Ashrr]

Yes saving NG is indeed something nice to think about. Do you think you could pass on your Weak Aura string? I could never get an NG tracker going in WA for some reason.

I'm not very good at math but I did some basic HT vs RG testing on myself. With 3/3 Nature's Bounty, almost every Regrowth I cast crits. I found that a Regrowth crit + the HoT component + shield from 1 point Living Seed did slightly more healing than a Healing Touch hit (non-crit). As a result, I almost always cast a Regrowth on OOC procs. Controlling Nature's Grace is something I'll try though. Thank you for pointing that out. I'd almost forgotten about it.

Another resto druid I talk to set up an ICD tracker for his Deathwing Mace so he could run into position like a Paladin using LoD. This seemed like another good idea but we're probably ditching the weapon really soon and MoP spells / talents look like they're bringing some other interesting positioning options.

[nooty]

1> I use blizz UI for healing it tracks Lifebloom very accurately and if u have problem with refreshing Lifebloom somtimes Less 2 sec its better to cast lifebloom manual then refreshing with nourish . U can also use Power aura to track it .

2> Tree of Life is nice Cd on high intense phase make sure that you time your WG properly so when you Pop TOL you can use WG as soon as possible .
Through out rej / spreading lifebloom depends upon damage completely . But i suggest through couple on low players and start using Lifebloom 2 stacks .
U will have nice omen clarity giving u fast regrowth . Also spread lifebloom around also regens u some mana back due to talent .

What i have experienced TOL with WG and rej blanket the raid gives very high output and make sure your Harmony is up all time

3> Berserk won't get effected with Tranq .

[Chimaera]

Rejuvenation is higher hpet/hpct than Lifebloom unless you are getting Lifebloom to 3 stacks and then rolling it for a bit. If you can get a 3 stack rolling on a few people it can be worth doing but this detracts from spread raid healing which is usually why you are popping TOL in the first place. Otherwise you are using it for mana conservation and this conversation is pointless.

It is possible that if you are healing with a priest you can 3xLifebloom up one entire group while they poh the other to keep things even and then you can see a benefit out of this. You might also be able to get away with this with a shaman since they are spamming a smart heal or single targeted riptide around the healing rain cooldown.

Berserking is absolutely of benefit when used with Tranquility. Not only does it affect the cast time so that you can get back to casting other spells sooner, but it will add an additional tick to the hot portion unless your haste is somewhere in no druid's land.

[Myrrar]

Lot of different convos going on so I'll try and cover everything:

1. Better Lifebloom uptime:
If anyone else taking dmg or there is dmg about to go out, it's better to refresh with a LB and move on. Nourish does such little healing it's only worth casting if you literally have nothing to do, and yes, this will happen some phases.

If you do have time for nourish, you have a few other things to consider. Letting LB bloom probably isn't efficient. Even if it does more than the nourish, nourish procs harmony and takes less time than 3 GCDs. Are you having mana problems? Nourish at this point can honestly be taken over by RG or HT. Nourish is almost just a waste of time to cast now. Before, filler was good. Now, we have enough mana for other spells to be filler and not a problem.

So basically, if you have the time to nourish, cast HT or RG based on what is more efficient. If anyone else can be healed or you can pre-hot upcoming dmg, just refresh with LB.

2. Tree of Life usage:
The people saying don't use RJ in tree are incorrect. Also, them saying don't use WG is wrong too. You don't want to ignore the basic +healing tree brings. It's fine you use RJ in tree OP. Sometimes Rj is going to be better than LB. CC procs aren't as important anymore, because even in HMs we shouldn't be having much trouble with mana. So, you are doing fine when it comes to tree.

You don't want to over complicate your spell choices to the point where you can possibly hurt effective healing. Just consider the amount and kind of dmg going out, consider what your other healers are doing. Can you easily time blooms to proc and will lead to more healing than RJs? Will RJs just go to overheal? Are you on a mana intensive fight where those CC procs are really important. ToL is a spell that can be used 100 different ways based on 100 different things. Trust your instinct, you know what you're doing. =]

3. Nat Grace:
It's going to do more harm than good trying to time procing NG with a high healing phase. Just use an addon like poweraura so you know when it's up so you can use it as well as possible. Don't not direct heal trying to not waste it though. You will just lose more healing than add.

[Ashrr]

@Chimaera, From what you're saying, I think it might only be worth it in certain phases where you have a small group of targets to heal. Nefarian P2, Zonozz black phase come to mind. Even then, it seems easier to go with RG + WG and direct heals.

I'll try the group thing the next time I heal with a priest. Our healing team has all the classes covered but I'm usually healing with a paladin these days. I play 10 man.

@Myrrar:

Lot of different convos going on so I'll try and cover everything:

1. Better Lifebloom uptime:
If anyone else taking dmg or there is dmg about to go out, it's better to refresh with a LB and move on. Nourish does such little healing it's only worth casting if you literally have nothing to do, and yes, this will happen some phases.

If you do have time for nourish, you have a few other things to consider. Letting LB bloom probably isn't efficient. Even if it does more than the nourish, nourish procs harmony and takes less time than 3 GCDs. Are you having mana problems? Nourish at this point can honestly be taken over by RG or HT. Nourish is almost just a waste of time to cast now. Before, filler was good. Now, we have enough mana for other spells to be filler and not a problem.

So basically, if you have the time to nourish, cast HT or RG based on what is more efficient. If anyone else can be healed or you can pre-hot upcoming dmg, just refresh with LB.

Well I got into the habit of using Nourish to refresh LB + Harmony at the same time, not for the healing it did. Although, I did a run today and it was easy enough to break this and simply refresh with LB. I have no mana problems now but this is all practice for MoP. I expect things to go back to the way it was at the beginning of Cata with Nourish coming back into play again.

2. Tree of Life usage:
The people saying don't use RJ in tree are incorrect. Also, them saying don't use WG is wrong too. You don't want to ignore the basic +healing tree brings. It's fine you use RJ in tree OP. Sometimes Rj is going to be better than LB. CC procs aren't as important anymore, because even in HMs we shouldn't be having much trouble with mana. So, you are doing fine when it comes to tree.

You don't want to over complicate your spell choices to the point where you can possibly hurt effective healing. Just consider the amount and kind of dmg going out, consider what your other healers are doing. Can you easily time blooms to proc and will lead to more healing than RJs? Will RJs just go to overheal? Are you on a mana intensive fight where those CC procs are really important. ToL is a spell that can be used 100 different ways based on 100 different things. Trust your instinct, you know what you're doing. =]

I agree but again, I have time now to experiment with new rotations and spell choices. I was mainly wondering whether I should invest some time into getting that LB bloom timing trick I mentioned. It sounds like it could be very effective (burst healing for relatively low cost) but of course, the window would be very tight and even one second early could result in only a lot of overhealing. I wanted to know if other druids were doing this and whether they were seeing good results. If things get too complicated, I could always just stop doing it and roll back to my safe and effective healing method

One fight where I think this could be useful is Blackhorn heroic when the entire raid has to soak an onslaught. Paying attention to the timers and throwing out LBs on fragile classes seems like it could work well, especially since those nasty rushes go out soon after and people are in the risk of dying. That's probably the only fight in all of Cataclysm where I found myself wishing for more bursty heals than RJ + WG. The 4pc t12 helped a lot here but I still felt "weak".


3. Nat Grace:
It's going to do more harm than good trying to time procing NG with a high healing phase. Just use an addon like poweraura so you know when it's up so you can use it as well as possible. Don't not direct heal trying to not waste it though. You will just lose more healing than add.

Should I be doing anything differently when it's up? At the moment, I just consider NG procs a simple boost to my overall healing. I use a lot of regrowth so it procs as much as it can.

[Myrrar]

In 10s if you can time blooms it's definitely helpful on progression fights. Most of the time it's just going to go to overheal, but on new bosses it's smart if possible. Things exactly like Blackhorn, though, it's harder to time on that fight. I did it a lot in the beginning of heroic FL.

If you have the 5% raid buff(2005) and no DI, NG gives you 2 extra LB ticks, a Wg, a tranq, and a RJ tick. Depends on the fight, but I normally try and refresh as many RJs as possible while using WG on CD and refreshing LB if possible also(not as important).

If you know there is going to be a phase that your group can barely get past even using CDs, that's a good time to hold back and try to proc NG right before you tranq.

[Alzu]

3. Nat Grace:
It's going to do more harm than good trying to time procing NG with a high healing phase. Just use an addon like poweraura so you know when it's up so you can use it as well as possible. Don't not direct heal trying to not waste it though. You will just lose more healing than add.

How so? I the high damage phases are quite usual in Dragon Soul and won't cause a sever delay on Nature's Grace's activation. I at least prefer saving it for moments like black phase on Zon'ozz, Lightning Phase on Hagara, Amalgamations explosion or roll on Spine etc.

Besides, healing is not about HPS, it's about keeping people alive. Of course it can and should be used in emergencies but usually in the low damage phases, no one is dying. So saving Nature's Grace there would definetly be a benefit.

[Myrrar]

If you don't RG or ignore CC procs to try and save NG for a later time, you are just hurting yourself.

Unless you are on a fight with 1-2 big heavy phases, don't not RG to save it. It really isn't going to make a huge difference. Even in high dmg phases, all it adds is ticks. If you are healing correctly the extra ticks will hardly make a difference if at all. Hots tick faster, but when considering cross healing and you are are using Wg and SM, it's not going to save a life. Tranq is the one case it's important, like I said. The 5% haste on a direct heal is nice, but again, not going to save a life.

Use RG like you normally do. Use CC like you normally do. If you see a high phase coming up and you only have to not RG for a few seconds, that's a good place to try and save it.

Keeping people alive is important. If 1 tick on WG/Rj is somehow a life saver you have other issues in your raid you need to address. In this case, overall effective healing is more important. If you don't need to RG, ofc you aren't going to waste it or not blow it before a big phase. But tracking NG and not using RG isn't productive.

[Alzu]

I don't know about that. As a druid, I've gotten used to healing mainly with my hots. That means my heals are slow but effective and efficient. That only requires, that I trust the people I'm healing with to do their part as well. Yes, I do swiftmend and heal fast people dipping low, but like generally. My CC procs are used about 50/50 by Regrowth and Healing Touch.

During the low damage phases nourish is a great filler. It costs next to nothing but heals little and is slow. But it's just a filler. Why not spend a bit more time using CC procs with Healing Touch and thus using only less Nourish? Healing Touch is slow and sometimes even too slow but when you're not in a hurry, why not?

When high damage is imminent and you really need to keep everyone alive, everything counts. If you're with attitude that "Ok, it won't make any difference" why even bother? Like we delayed our first Warmaster kill by a week as our tank got overkilled by ~1.5k damage and didn't have the tank meta gem. He went with that attitude, didn't pay off. Wipes with minimal overkills happen, and kills with near death experiences happen.

There also is just the fact that those extra casts are sometimes worth it. During our Zon'ozz HC progress, I had to save my Nature's Grace for the first black phase. If I accidentally used it, I started worrying before the phase already. It was just because I was charged of keeping 5 ranged alive who are spread. Getting a stack of 3 Lifeblooms on each was very effective and efficient after I got them rolling but getting them all up in time required both Berserking and Nature's Grace. Bear in mind that with Firelands gear, it was very healing intensive.

The Zon'ozz example is like the best case scenario for Nature's Grace, yeah. But I still feel that the extra casts make up for the lost uptime during the easier phases in any almost any situation.

[Ashrr]

Besides, healing is not about HPS, it's about keeping people alive.

While this is true, there's one very important thing to note: Healing is about keeping people alive as a TEAM. Resto druids don't have great life-saving tools, barring Tranquility. It isn't really our forte. What we do bring is a lot of overall healing and the more healing we do, the more mana saved by other classes who can then blow everything on their lifesaving tools when things get really rough. Each class playing to their strengths makes sense to me.

I tend to play my resto druid with this mindset. I use a lot of Regrowth on CC procs as a result, even when it's technically not needed. In just a little over the time taken to cast a Healing Touch, I can cast a Regrowth (which almost always heals for more with 3/3 NB and 1 point in LS) AND a Rejuvenation.

Sorry if I'm not explaining myself clearly. I haven't gotten any sleep

[Myrrar]

Hot healing isn't slow. Between RJs, SMs, efflor, and WG hot healing is plenty fast. HT with CC is normally a healing decrease. Why?
1. A lot of it will go to overheal. If it doesn't, your partners heal will probably go to overheal. With hots and cross AoE heals, HT is never really needed unless your tank is just really getting smacked. Even then, throwing out 2 RGs which will crit and give you LS is still normally better.
2. Unless the person needs it or they die, HT is just not worth the cast time.

As for it making you use nourish less, that's not how it works. Damage isn't constant. Using HT during CC isn't going to have anything to do with nourish. As I said:

Nourish does such little healing it's only worth casting if you literally have nothing to do, and yes, this will happen some phases.

I never said don't nourish. I said if you can fill with other spells without it being a hit to your mana, no point nourishing. If you can pre-hot, no point nourishing. HT doesn't heal that much more than RG when considering RG will always crit, LS(even if you only have 1 point), and the hot. I use HT, but only if I know I'm going to need to spam it on someone. If you have to throw multiple HTs to keep a tank/targeted member alive, it's going to be better HPM wise.

I never said it's not a big deal so don't worry about it. I said you will end up hurting yourself more than helping. Adding additional overheal vs effective healing, you want to do the effective healing. You don't want to miss out on multiple CC chances or direct heal chances because you are worrying about NG. If you let NG proc on CD, it will be a lot more effective then saving it for a phase it's not needed.

We aren't in beginning progression anymore. We aren't talking about how we heal when we 1st enter HMs. My guild cleared 25HMDS in early January and most people not that many months after that. No one should heal like that 6 months later with a % buff and being overgeared. As I said, if you NEED to have NG for phases, ofc you save it. But, there is no point now where that is necessary unless your other healer is really bad. Even then, it's not necessary. I easily healed Zon Hm in 10 and 25 without needing NG and as a NE not having berserking.
I even said:

Unless you are on a fight with 1-2 big heavy phases, don't not RG to save it.

Don't kill your effective healing just to add overheal in a phase that doesn't need it. It's like not using ToL as many times as possible so you can save it for a phase you don't need it in. NG is a 'CD', use it as a CD is you really need to, if not you want to use it as many times as possible.


And I agree, we are support healers. If you want to be the hero, this is the wrong class. Overall stability for a raid is probably the most important thing we do. If you really trust your other healer, no matter what class they play they are better spike healers than we are. Trust them to not let someone die while you stabilize the raid.

[Alzu]

As the website maintenance took my post away, I'll just say things short now as I can't be arsed to write it all again :/.

A non-crit Healing Touch heals slightly less than a crit Regrowth, so it won't give any more overhealing than Regrowth.

It doesn't matter if its progression or not. This thread was about improving as a healer and you can do it very well outside progression as well. Just think what you do and really try to focus on improving a single aspect first, as an example.

My original point was and still is that why would using Nature's Grace when it's not needed at all useful? The moments when you can easily top people with Swiftmend, Nourish, HoTs and Healing Touch on clearcasting procs don't really require those faster casts or one extra tick more on HoTs, so might as well save the cooldown for a moment when you do.

To OP:
As I haven't really shared my thoughts on your questions, I might as well do it now.

1) You can always start refreshing that Lifebloom stack when it has 3 seconds left, instead of 2. It's a slight loss but better than dropping the stack.
2) Using Rejuvenation during ToL is great if you have mana to spare. But if you really need every mana you have, go with Lifeblooming everyone and using Regrowth for Clearcasting procs and Swiftmend and Wild Growth on CD.
3) It fine using them always together. I sometimes use Berserking to get more Lifeblooms up during ToL which is great as well but it doesn't hurt much if you don't do it.