Hey Everyone, as a resto druid that participates in heroic raiding I just want to put my two cents in and create a motion to keep Nourish in the game but also to slightly alter how it interacts with some spells.
First and foremost, it's true that Nourish is not the most popular heal, as it rarely gets used, especially with the mana and cast time reduction for Healing Touch that the T-16 2-set bonus grants. That being said, I believe that Nourish is still a viable spell and should be implemented in WoD.
1) Nourish is the most effective way up maintaining 100% Harmony uptime, especially during times of low throughput healing.
a) Mushroom: Bloom does not work for two reasons:
- 10 second CD that is needed for certain situations
- bonus healing from accumulated Rejuv overheals takes time and mana to achieve, and using this to retain Harmony uptime during low throughput situations is not ideal.
b) Swiftmend does not work:
- perhaps things will be different with the introduction of the level 100 talents, but even still we need Rejuv overheals for our mushrooms so as of now I am doubtful. Regardless, the cost-benefit analysis is still lackluster compared to Nourish.
- as of now, using a 15 second CD just to maintain Harmony is not viable, especially if we are specced into SotF.
c)Healing Touch does not work as well due to a lower mana efficiency.
2) The relationship Nourish shares with other abilities could be altered to make it more attractive.
a) Nature's Swiftness
- the cord needs to be cut here. Every other resto druid I know macros either Regrowth or Healing Touch to NG, and wasting a NG with a Nourish is silly and sad.
b) Rejuv, Wild Growth, Regrowth, and Libebloom
- currently, if a target has any resto druid HoT on them, Nourish heals for 20% more than it otherwise would
- I propose that this be altered to 30% for each HoT on the target, or 50% overall. This may seem crazy and OP, but I assure you it isn't so.
-Exhibit A: at 579 ilvl, my spell book clocks my completely unbuffed Nourish at 58k. Slap on any kind or number of HoTs and that would boost to 69.6k, which I admit is pretty unattractive compared to a 175k heal from Healing Touch (I am omitting Regrowth due to the dissimilarity with Nourish in cast time, mana cost, and function). That being said, if someone were to have all kinds 4 resto druid HoTs on them or manage to recruit 4 druids and have them all cast Rejuv on them, for 30% extra healing per HoT 58k would become 127.6k, which is still obviously below Healing Touch, so it wouldn't be over powered. Even still, having all 4 druid HoTs on someone, then casting Nourish is not an easy feat, nor do I recommend anyone intentionally try to achieve this.
3) Healing addons make button bloat trivial and almost non-existent
a) I don't even have Nourish on my bars, it's only integrated into my Vuhdo addon
4) Possible cast time reduction?
a) I understand that haste will be changing in WoD, but just as an idea it could be possible to reduce the cast time of Nourish in relation to Regrowth and Healing Touch. As if now, at 31.28% haste (13,294) Regrowth clocks in at 1.1 seconds and Healing Touch and Nourish are equal at 1.9 seconds. A reduction to 1.5 seconds or even 1.7 seconds for Nourish would make the spell more attractive and more viable.
I will take this time to admit that I love the resto druid spells the most out of any class, and along with Lifebloom, Nourish is my favorite spell. I strongly feel that it has a lot of potential to be used and doesn't need to be taken out for WoD. Though I am partial to this lol
I apologize for the repost, but I understand that not everyone checks the Blizzard forums, so I wanted to make it available here as well.