Future 90 Druid looking for Guidance [Resto]

[Xantes]

Good morning/evening/afternoon everyone!

Just wanted to ask a few questions about Druid healing, and its current "state".

First of all I absolutely LOVE healing. I healed with my Shammy and Druid alt back in BC, WotLK and a bit of CATA I love/LOVED it. I bounced in between my alts and my "main" which is a afflic/destro lock dps, and has been for almost 7 years now, going into MoP. I have tried my shot at tanking in WotLK (with my current drood) and liked it...for a little while. It got old REALLY fast unfortunately for me, but to each his/her own right? With that being said, since then I have always wanted to go "full on" healing...however. I was the top/second dps in my previous progression guild (heroics) so unfortunately I was so focused on my Lock I neglected my druid and shaman for a long time.

Before I go on, I just want to express that I have NO desire to level up my shaman (85 now) and get him geared. I loved shaman healing and leveling WAS fun, but druid healing was more "fun" to me and I find more enjoyment in leveling, running around as a kitty around ripping faces off.

I am currently leveling my Druid and intend on going restoration when I ding 90. I wanted to get some friendly wisdom / light on this decision. I have read through many forums, websites and class forums dedicated to druid discussions, particularly Resto. I am not closed minded towards, tanking however I feel as if it will become "boring" for me again, but I never know till I try, right?

__________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

From my research and observations I can definitely tell the Resto Druid community is not happy with the results Blizzard has produced in has attempts to "fix/balance/boost/mechanic change" the class. I...frankly don't care too much about HPS and the ability/advantage to "top the charts' however I DO care about the feeling of being "needed", and being there when it counts. My individual skill as a healer overall is good. I may be a bit rusty but rust can fade overtime with practice, research and determination. Or as much determination I can provide seeing as I have a fulltime job, hahaha!

To all those resto druids out there:

1. How do you feel about being low on the meters overall...?

2. From experience, do raiders and guilds take restoration druids seriously? 10 man and 25 man? In my opinion dungeons pretty much eliminate that worry because of LFG, you're "stuck" with the druid to heal and no one really cares who heals, as long as they blow through the dungeon with all of their limbs and no frustration. I would love any feedback/comments to prove me wrong on that...I like stories.

3. Does anyone have any other experiences they would like to share?

Thank you very much for reading this post, I have been in and out of the MMO Champion forums and decided to finally be productive in the community and make a forum name, haha! Any constructive criticism is appreciated as well!

[land]

My context: usually raid 10 man and we aren't the top of the cream (just 6/16 hm).

My answers:

> 1. How do you feel about being low on the meters overall...?

On fights with constant aoe damage and where ppl are spread out all over I do really well. Some examples: stone guard (aoe dog out), garalon, proctors elite, tsulong.
On fights with heavy movements phases I do pretty good too: i.e. last phase of bladelord. Specially if I link with a shammy for tranq on the move.

On fights when I need burst I suck: i.e. heroic elegon.
On fights where everyone is stacked up: our shammy rapes heals;
On fights with predictable incoming damage every minute: our disc priest rapes;

> 2. From experience, do raiders and guilds take restoration druids seriously? 10 man and 25 man? In my opinion dungeons pretty much eliminate that worry because of LFG, you're "stuck" with the druid to heal and no one really cares who heals, as long as they blow through the dungeon with all of their limbs and no frustration. I would love any feedback/comments to prove me wrong on that...I like stories.

Do ur job well and this shouldn't matter, specially if ur not in a top raiding guild.

> 3. Does anyone have any other experiences they would like to share?

You won't know if u really like it untill u try. You will see that druids healing is a very different healing style, hopefully u'll like it and have fun playing it.

[asharia]

1. don't buy into all the whining on forums. people get mad when they can't just blanket rejuv and do 100k hps

[Dabrix32]

people get mad when they can't just blanket rejuv and do 100k hps

What? You mean this isnt Wrath anymore??!!

[NightZero88]

1. don't buy into all the whining on forums. people get mad when they can't just blanket rejuv and do 100k hps

People on the forums get mad because druids are lousy healers right now compared to the other classes. Also, they're working very hard to make us use a crappy mechanic by healing wrong. In case you're not aware, mushrooms are a clunky and crappy mechanic but they don't want to scrap it so they want us to heal wrong, by overhealing to charge it up for an underwhelming ability. Druids are decent but other healers are far better. We have every right to be mad.

[land]

1. don't buy into all the whining on forums. people get mad when they can't just blanket rejuv and do 100k hps

Here we go again... Meh, if most ppl complain surely they are all wrong, right? :P

Seriously, I honestly still feel like in cata - will do great on some fights, others not so much (which is fine imo).

[Thalur]

1. How do you feel about being low on the meters overall...?

I'm not. Most fights I'm topping, or at least very close to our holy priest. Generally, especially on the level you will play (with new lvl 90 healer and no equip) Skil >>> Class, so don't worry about it, except for high-end progression druids are great and capable of beating everyone (except well-skilled OP Disc until 5.2).
Also remember that 5.2 will change the game again, with a buff to druids and nerfs to Disc.

2. From experience, do raiders and guilds take restoration druids seriously? 10 man and 25 man? In my opinion dungeons pretty much eliminate that worry because of LFG, you're "stuck" with the druid to heal and no one really cares who heals, as long as they blow through the dungeon with all of their limbs and no frustration. I would love any feedback/comments to prove me wrong on that...I like stories.

I'm not in a high-end raiding guild, but everyone I play with knows that all classes are good enough to do all content, and that the player is much more important than the class.

3. Does anyone have any other experiences they would like to share?

Compare yourself to other druids, if you think other classes beat you because of the class. WoL rankings are a great tool for that, and you will also see that resto druids are not as far behind as you might think.

[Deleted]

Good morning/evening/afternoon everyone!
1. How do you feel about being low on the meters overall...?

2. From experience, do raiders and guilds take restoration druids seriously? 10 man and 25 man? In my opinion dungeons pretty much eliminate that worry because of LFG, you're "stuck" with the druid to heal and no one really cares who heals, as long as they blow through the dungeon with all of their limbs and no frustration. I would love any feedback/comments to prove me wrong on that...I like stories.

3. Does anyone have any other experiences they would like to share?

Thank you very much for reading this post, I have been in and out of the MMO Champion forums and decided to finally be productive in the community and make a forum name, haha! Any constructive criticism is appreciated as well!

1. If you're a good healer, you will do well. I've heard and read countless people moaning about druids, but last night in a full Terrace Clear (including protectors elite) and then first 3 heroics in MSV, I topped meters. On some fights by quite a high margin. Obviously you can't tell on fights like sha of fear/gara'jal, but hey. Also got a ranking on protectors. And no this isn't a blowing my own trumpet post, it's pointing out that I don't buy into the whole "druids suck" rubbish. I also wouldn't consider any other healers in my guild rubbish either.

2. I did an LFR 2 days ago...2nd half of HoF. Of course, I outgeared all of the other healers, probably by a fair amount, and so pumped out much higher HPS than any of them. Still...some idiot rogue kept calling me bad for picking such a shitty class. The same rogue that was 14/15th on DPS meters. I wouldn't worry about LFR at all.
As for a raiding guild, well my guild seems to like my healing. We also bring a lot of utility to raids such as BR (although locks and DKS kinda stole our thunder on that one), can do most of our healing while moving, and depending on talents, can do a healing CD every minute (tranq, NV, ToL). Again, my first point sticks: if you're a good healer, you're a good healer regardless of class.

3. Not really big on stories...I will say though that by the far the biggest boost to my healing skills have been aquiring a razer naga and vespula. This is not a sales pitch, just some advice on the advantages of good gaming gear.

[NightZero88]

1. If you're a good healer, you will do well. I've heard and read countless people moaning about druids, but last night in a full Terrace Clear (including protectors elite) and then first 3 heroics in MSV, I topped meters. On some fights by quite a high margin. Obviously you can't tell on fights like sha of fear/gara'jal, but hey. Also got a ranking on protectors. And no this isn't a blowing my own trumpet post, it's pointing out that I don't buy into the whole "druids suck" rubbish. I also wouldn't consider any other healers in my guild rubbish either.

2. I did an LFR 2 days ago...2nd half of HoF. Of course, I outgeared all of the other healers, probably by a fair amount, and so pumped out much higher HPS than any of them. Still...some idiot rogue kept calling me bad for picking such a shitty class. The same rogue that was 14/15th on DPS meters. I wouldn't worry about LFR at all.
As for a raiding guild, well my guild seems to like my healing. We also bring a lot of utility to raids such as BR (although locks and DKS kinda stole our thunder on that one), can do most of our healing while moving, and depending on talents, can do a healing CD every minute (tranq, NV, ToL). Again, my first point sticks: if you're a good healer, you're a good healer regardless of class.

3. Not really big on stories...I will say though that by the far the biggest boost to my healing skills have been aquiring a razer naga and vespula. This is not a sales pitch, just some advice on the advantages of good gaming gear.

If you're beating all your other healers in those particular fights, you're likely playing with healers who aren't as good as you. If one of them was a disc priest or a pally they should be beating you assuming equal gear. There's just no other way around it. Those classes are better. If you're winning, you are a better player.

Your points are accurate though. We bring good utility, strong CDs and are a good healing class (though the others are better). If you are good player you will do fine. And if nobody dies except the boss, you've done your job. I raid lead and I don't ever look at healing meters aside from confirming myself and my 2 other healers are all around the same level and we are (2*resto druid, shammy).

[Irzerg]

To people that thinks RDruid is not "Far behind" please have some facts up before saying so (from a competative point of view). If not, please don't say asif like you cleared 16/16H faceroll and ranked in every WOL 1st page.

[Deleted]

I'm in a 11/16HC guild. I'm usually not below the other healers in HPS except for the disc priest and well, he's a disc priest. Even though druids might not be dominating the healing currently, we are still viable, and in 5.2 we are getting buffed which no other healer is. Disc priest is even getting nerfed (and rightfully so).

[Deleted]

To me (9/16 hc) as a 10 man progression resto druid the whining is largely limited to the 25 druids. I have been topping meters on 90% of fights since MoP launched. (holy pala and shaman are my co-healers) this includes all the fights where i use HoTW to dps for 45 seconds.
As people have already said in this thread unless u are raiding with a top in the world guild player skill will outrank class and to a large extent gear.
The delta between best resto druid and average resto druid is far far greater than the delta between best resto druid and best disc priest.
Play the class and spec u want. If you are any good at all most raiding guilds will be glad to have you.
Caveat. Most players are not as good as they think they are.
NB. i am the exception. I am not as good as my guild thinks i am .

[Deleted]

I am not about to copy resto guides which you can find on this web already - but my 5 cents to the resto druid state.

Resto druid is doing great in what is this class supposed to do - sustained healing - which is not allays reflected in recount/skada (a measure of 'skill' for most of peeps) If you will have a chance to top meters depends MOSTLY on comp of healers you are running with and a fight. We all do know absorbs rule when timed properly and druids can only eat the leftovers. No matter how skilled you are, you cant do great hps when there is no damage to heal.

So my advise - get boom OS. If you find yourself doing significantly less healing than other healer (which is probably because you are 3healing 2man fight or you have simply an absorber doing it correctly) than switch to boomkin.

[Deleted]

To all those resto druids out there:

1. How do you feel about being low on the meters overall...?

2. From experience, do raiders and guilds take restoration druids seriously? 10 man and 25 man? In my opinion dungeons pretty much eliminate that worry because of LFG, you're "stuck" with the druid to heal and no one really cares who heals, as long as they blow through the dungeon with all of their limbs and no frustration. I would love any feedback/comments to prove me wrong on that...I like stories.

3. Does anyone have any other experiences they would like to share?

Thank you very much for reading this post, I have been in and out of the MMO Champion forums and decided to finally be productive in the community and make a forum name, haha! Any constructive criticism is appreciated as well!

I have played Rdruid over 2years, got 16/16hc atm on 25man. Before mop we did have a advance on our hps thats true, but our weakness was that we dident have any raid cd. Now on this content every single healer is too powerfull, its just 2 much overall hps that makes us weak!

Our top hps skill has alweys been rejunation, now in this content i have almost forgotten that i have the spell. We have only few reason to use it first is when someone gets debuff that we know will take dmg for some time. Second reason is to spam few on the raid and tanks for your Swiftmend + WG(sotf) combo to be rdy when needed!

We have a new class in wow and that's Monk, and the Monk is the new and a lot better Rdruid. It rly dosent matter if a Dpriest,Rshaman or paladin will top the hps coz one is a "suport" healer with absorb healing, next one is a raid/tank direct healer and the last one is a pure tank healer!
Monks are simply going our job in the raid now with a lot more hps then we can do.

Im happy about the nerfs that monk will get in 5.2, but i still belive they will rape us in hps! Im not sure yet if i will stay as a Rdruid for next patch...

And last but not least the thing like compare healers in wowlogs is a big lol for everyone that does it! Healers hps is great if your team mates fails a lot on the bosses + if the other healers have few fingers in the hole you will rank... And if you dont have disc priest in your raid and you dont rank on any boss your gear sucks or you sucks! I got rank1 when we dident have a disc on the raid and beg the other healers to chill on garalon

[Deleted]

To people that thinks RDruid is not "Far behind" please have some facts up before saying so (from a competative point of view). If not, please don't say asif like you cleared 16/16H faceroll and ranked in every WOL 1st page.

Not sure what you're implying. I presented facts, those facts being my experiences in raids. Please, tell me what other "facts" you would wish to look at?
Also not sure how anyone has said anything along the lines of facerolling 16/16 HC and ranked in every WoL 1st page. I'm 4/12 HC and ranked in top 100 on one fight and top 200 on another.
My facts still hold true - I don't personally find resto healing weak atm. The only time it can be frustrating for me is when playing with a snipey pally who refuses to allow anyone elses heals to go through.

[Deleted]

Not sure what you're implying. I presented facts, those facts being my experiences in raids. Please, tell me what other "facts" you would wish to look at?
Also not sure how anyone has said anything along the lines of facerolling 16/16 HC and ranked in every WoL 1st page. I'm 4/12 HC and ranked in top 100 on one fight and top 200 on another.
My facts still hold true - I don't personally find resto healing weak atm. The only time it can be frustrating for me is when playing with a snipey pally who refuses to allow anyone elses heals to go through.

Your experience isnt exactly facts. Numbers & logs are more factual and from what ive seen do show different to your OPINION! There are far more people claiming druids are weak then people like yourself using their experience.
Problem is that most guilds (at least ones ive been in and know of) run a paldin and a disc. If you play with a disc your healing gets wasted as the shields null your hots. Play with a paladin and his shield nulls some hots but he will snipe ur heals quickly too.
If your doing sooo good against a Disc/Paladin then I dont think they are really playing their class correctly.

My guild is at 10/11 Hc's (10 Man) and my Disc/Paladin partners both agree druids need work. The fact is your experience maybe that your doing ok... But play with a decent disc or paladin and im sorry you will get shafted. You maybe the best druid in the world but there is nothing you can do at the moment if your paired with a skilled disc. A skilled Paladin is less of a ball ache but they will still turn you over. Now that is my experience so far.... Ive played with lesser skilled healers and managed to beat them easily...... doesnt mean druids are ok.

Fact is at the moment the druid is more or a support healer. You take up the slack from the other healers and you get to heal when the disc/pala are occupied by some mechanic.

This is my opinion of course at the moment tho... things change and one class is strong one moment and weak the next. Ive played my druid for a long time and wont change just becuase we are weak or strong.
Im not whining too much, we had our time to shine like the poster a few posts above said. But at this current time we are behind. Blizzard seem to recognise this and I hope are working on it. Each patch brings something new and we maybe the weakest at the moment but im sure things will turn around and maybe discs will be weakest in future patches. We can all be op

[Deleted]

Your experience isnt exactly facts. Numbers & logs are more factual and from what ive seen do show different to your OPINION! There are far more people claiming druids are weak then people like yourself using their experience.
Problem is that most guilds (at least ones ive been in and know of) run a paldin and a disc. If you play with a disc your healing gets wasted as the shields null your hots. Play with a paladin and his shield nulls some hots but he will snipe ur heals quickly too.
If your doing sooo good against a Disc/Paladin then I dont think they are really playing their class correctly.

My guild is at 10/11 Hc's (10 Man) and my Disc/Paladin partners both agree druids need work. The fact is your experience maybe that your doing ok... But play with a decent disc or paladin and im sorry you will get shafted. You maybe the best druid in the world but there is nothing you can do at the moment if your paired with a skilled disc. A skilled Paladin is less of a ball ache but they will still turn you over. Now that is my experience so far.... Ive played with lesser skilled healers and managed to beat them easily...... doesnt mean druids are ok.

Fact is at the moment the druid is more or a support healer. You take up the slack from the other healers and you get to heal when the disc/pala are occupied by some mechanic.

This is my opinion of course at the moment tho... things change and one class is strong one moment and weak the next. Ive played my druid for a long time and wont change just becuase we are weak or strong.
Im not whining too much, we had our time to shine like the poster a few posts above said. But at this current time we are behind. Blizzard seem to recognise this and I hope are working on it. Each patch brings something new and we maybe the weakest at the moment but im sure things will turn around and maybe discs will be weakest in future patches. We can all be op

My experience is exactly that: facts. How it compares to other guilds is 100% irrelevant. Those other guilds will have their own version of their facts. So no, it is not my opinion, I was describing the FACTS of my raiding experience.
Yes, I sometimes do heal with a holy pally, and yes he wins on most fights. Pally's in my experience are actually worse to heal with than disc priests. I end cancelling most of my hard-cast regrowths due to sniping.
However, most of my healing is done alongside a shammy, a holy priest or both. And in most of those situations I don't feel weak in the slightest. Therefore, that is my experience, therefore my version of the facts.

[Deleted]

However, most of my healing is done alongside a shammy, a holy priest or both. And in most of those situations I don't feel weak in the slightest. Therefore, that is my experience, therefore my version of the facts.

Your experience isnt exactly a fact its an opinion. In my experience druids are the weakest. Does that mean its fact? Wait but my fact is not the same as yours.... whos telling the truth? if that was the case we would have people all over claiming random shit as facts. Im sorry but if your stating something as a fact then show the evidence for it. If its an opinion, then its exactly that! an opinion.

But to the point, Your playing with a Holy Priest which is an inferior spec to disc. That is not on opinion. Thats is fact. Fact based on Logs and actual data not just an opinion. Shaman again is not as strong as eigher a disc or a Holy paladin (according to the majority of wol logs) so like I already stated in my last post. Your healing with weaker specs/healers doesnt exactly mean resto druids are strong. Check Logs, you will see Resto druids are not doing any where near as good as the other healers and this is what im referring too. I know balancing is hard, I dont expect it to ever be perfect. There will be times when class A is stronger then class B.

The majority of logs, actual data and 99% of other resto druid opinions are saying the opposite to yourself. Druids are weaker then the other healers. Now dont get me wrong, this doesnt mean they are not viable by any means. But you stating your opinion like it is a fact for everyone else when it is quite the opposite using actual facts. Actual facts being published data, a majority or some sort of evidence.

End of the day for all we know you could be playing with a shaman and a holy priest who dont have a clue how to heal and this in turn make you feel super. I mean this in no disrespect btw. But I fail to see how what you are stating as facts go against everything I have read, seen and experienced myself.

[Thalur]

End of the day for all we know you could be playing with a shaman and a holy priest who dont have a clue how to heal and this in turn make you feel super. I mean this in no disrespect btw. But I fail to see how what you are stating as facts go against everything I have read, seen and experienced myself.

Actually you failed to take in the statistics here, but I must say your two opinions are not as far off as you both might think. Looking at raidbots data for MoP heroic 10 man, resto druids are pretty much in the middle of the 6 (!) heal specs. Most fights 3rd or 4th, some better, some worse.

If you think resto druid is bad in 10m heroic, then you mustn't even consider playing a monk or shaman, who are usually behind druids. Yes, disc and pally are better, but not so much that you NEED those two classes to succeed. Of the other 4, druids are perfectly fine and not at all worse in any way.

TLDR; resto druid is fine in 10 mans, only disc is OP but not for long.

[Honeymilk]

My context: usually raid 10 man and we aren't the top of the cream (just 6/16 hm).

My answers:

> 1. How do you feel about being low on the meters overall...?

On fights with constant aoe damage and where ppl are spread out all over I do really well. Some examples: stone guard (aoe dog out), garalon, proctors elite, tsulong.
On fights with heavy movements phases I do pretty good too: i.e. last phase of bladelord. Specially if I link with a shammy for tranq on the move.

On fights when I need burst I suck: i.e. heroic elegon.
On fights where everyone is stacked up: our shammy rapes heals;
On fights with predictable incoming damage every minute: our disc priest rapes;

> 2. From experience, do raiders and guilds take restoration druids seriously? 10 man and 25 man? In my opinion dungeons pretty much eliminate that worry because of LFG, you're "stuck" with the druid to heal and no one really cares who heals, as long as they blow through the dungeon with all of their limbs and no frustration. I would love any feedback/comments to prove me wrong on that...I like stories.

Do ur job well and this shouldn't matter, specially if ur not in a top raiding guild.

> 3. Does anyone have any other experiences they would like to share?

You won't know if u really like it untill u try. You will see that druids healing is a very different healing style, hopefully u'll like it and have fun playing it.

This is a perfect answer.

Resto druids can be very hot dependant so for heavy progress they will not be as good as disc priests for example due to the absorbs are more wanted than the healing. But that doesnt (in my eyes) change anything. Resto druids are great but depending on the situation. They are also great fun. What I personally also like about resto druids is that we are not really just raid healers. We can in fact also be great tank healers. Maybe not as ghood as paladins but that is not the point. We can really be great tank healers. Take will of the emperor heroic for example. I healed this fight with a holy priest, we also had a holy paladin but due to my nature's swiftness, hots and glyph of regrowth I actually had an easier time being the tank healer than what the holy paladin had. Yes I was the dedicated tank healer as a resto druid. And it was very fun.

A resto druid healing style can change so much depending on the fight and that in my personal opinion makes resto druids so much more fun than any other healing class.