[Resto] Druid Guide - 5.0+

[Deleted]

What bout your addons for resto dudu? Right now I'm using Vuhdo, thinking to change it, so I'm looking for something more user friendly.

[Myrrar]

Healbot will be more user friendly than vuhdo, but with way less options. Grid is probably less user friendly, and with less options.

Vuhdo has by far the best and most options for rdruids and pretty user friendly imo. Is there something you need help setting up?

[Xyvi]

Healbot will be more user friendly than vuhdo, but with way less options. Grid is probably less user friendly, and with less options.

Vuhdo has by far the best and most options for rdruids and pretty user friendly imo. Is there something you need help setting up?

I was an avid Healbot user for many years, despite the reputation it had garnered for itself. It's pretty useful right out of the box and would be an ideal solution if you're not used to meticulously tweaking your UI. . . however, I'll disagree with the above poster that Grid has less options than Healbot, or VuhDo. It's highly customizable and while it may not be "right out of the box" alongside Healbot, or VuhDo, I've been able to get it to do everything I had on Healbot, plus more. Did it take a little bit of time? Yes. But the moment I got a Razer Naga for Christmas, I got rid of Healbot and started healing with Grid + Mouseover Macro and was very happy I did so. Am I going to take sides on the ever constant Grid versus Healbot debate? No. I've used both, both have great potential - but they also have their pro's and con's.

If you're wanting to do something a little bit more advanced, try out Grid + Clique, or Mouseover Macros (I prefer the Macros, though.) If you're casual, or simply not wanting to waste a lot of time fixing it up to make it work for you? Use Healbot.


Also, was curious to talk with any other Resto druids that are in guilds currently working on Heroic Elegon, or Heroic Gara'jal. What are the healing playstyles that you use to combat burst damage? Did you feels yourselves lacking, or underpowered in these two fights?

[Myrrar]

Grid does have less options for resto druids.


This topic has been beaten to death and you can find numerous posts about it across the internet. Vuhdo has every single option grid has plus a few extra which makes it better for anyone who would use those options. Clustering, arrows, hot bars, and the hundreds of buff, debuff, and panel options. I use vuhdo on every single class I play because you can make it track so many things.

There is absolutely nothing grid or healbot has that vuhdo doesn't and vuhdo has more. It can be customized to look exactly like the other 2 or completely different. The addon author is really amazing too. They have their own forums and if you want an option, make a topic, and others agree it's useful, they start working on it.

It also has quicker comp to server time than both other main options and quicker response/update time.

[Deleted]

One thing that bothers me about Grid (I use it) is that I can't find any options anymore to display Wild Growth on my raidframes. You used to be able to do that, I'm pretty sure. :s I'm using several plugins, do you need any specific one that maybe I missed? Or are you just unable to track WG nowadays?

[Xyvi]

-Elveren: Download GridIndicatorCornerIcons and GridIndicatorSideIcons. Wild Growth isn't tracked by default, so go into Status > Add New Buff (And add: Wild Growth) > Save It. Then it becomes an Aura that Grid tracks. The two add-ons allow icons to be displayed around the box which has your name in the center. You'll have to add Tranquility in the same manner, but all of the other HoTs are tracked by default.

[Deleted]

Ah thank you! I got those already so just gotta add WG then.

[Deleted]

I was an avid Healbot user for many years, despite the reputation it had garnered for itself. It's pretty useful right out of the box and would be an ideal solution if you're not used to meticulously tweaking your UI. . . however, I'll disagree with the above poster that Grid has less options than Healbot, or VuhDo. It's highly customizable and while it may not be "right out of the box" alongside Healbot, or VuhDo, I've been able to get it to do everything I had on Healbot, plus more. Did it take a little bit of time? Yes. But the moment I got a Razer Naga for Christmas, I got rid of Healbot and started healing with Grid + Mouseover Macro and was very happy I did so. Am I going to take sides on the ever constant Grid versus Healbot debate? No. I've used both, both have great potential - but they also have their pro's and con's.

If you're wanting to do something a little bit more advanced, try out Grid + Clique, or Mouseover Macros (I prefer the Macros, though.) If you're casual, or simply not wanting to waste a lot of time fixing it up to make it work for you? Use Healbot.


Also, was curious to talk with any other Resto druids that are in guilds currently working on Heroic Elegon, or Heroic Gara'jal. What are the healing playstyles that you use to combat burst damage? Did you feels yourselves lacking, or underpowered in these two fights?

Heroic Gara'jal burst damage for me was countered by using the glyph of regrowth. This consumes mana (which doesn't matter a huge deal as you get it back) but allows for very fast relatively strong heals. Also make sure you keep rejuv up on the current tank and both other voodoo dolls. Assuming one of them is you, pop barkskin every time. Keep your nature's swiftness ready if one of the voodoo dolls looks like he is about to snuff it.
Heroic Elegon...just started him last night, I'll let you know when I'm done :P

On the subject of healing frames, I've used healbot ever since I made my first healer 4 years ago, as It seemed really easy to get used to. Aside from the configuration (which I'm more than happy to spend hours on if need be...the rest of my UI took an age to do), what noticable difference in actual playstyle it there? All of my play is done through muscle memory, and I would rather not play any differently now, just would be nice to have more customization.

edit: One more thing I made sure was in place for Gara'Jal was having mushrooms down on the boss. The bloom is off the GCD so is another, albeit small, heal to chuck in when the voodoo dolls are getting hit hard. Just out of interest, are you 2 or 3 healing this?

[Deleted]

Small question but how much better is 1 int compared to 2 mastery ?
Is it worth going Mastery gems for throughput or is intellect always the better option ?
Im talking about prismatics and yellow sockets with spirit or haste bonus which both are useless for my current way of play.

[Tums]

There all useful.

[Dendrek]

Small question but how much better is 1 int compared to 2 mastery ?
Is it worth going Mastery gems for throughput or is intellect always the better option ?
Im talking about prismatics and yellow sockets with spirit or haste bonus which both are useless for my current way of play.

1 Int = 2 Mastery +/- 3%. Basically, whether gemming solid int, solid mastery, or a hybrid, you'll see no difference in healing. Because of that, you can always safely gem hybrids in yellow sockets.

On a related note:

1 Int ~ 2 Spirit. Essentially, the two gems are close in value (depending on your healing rotation and mana needs). There's a compelling argument for either gemming priority (whether to prefer spirit or int in gems), so gemming hybrids in blue sockets is perfectly acceptable.

[Asrialol]

Is there a macro that makes my heals hit stuff in this priority

- Mouseover if I have one
- My target if I have no mouseover
- Myself if no target or mouseover

Tried everything I've found on the interwebs but cant seem to find any that works.

[Min]

I was wondering, is it worthwhile to reforge to the 5320 haste break point if its mainly in exchange for mastery? I'm in a heroic progression raid group, but we rarely have the haste buff so just wanted to clarify. If it's not worthwhile is there another break point I should aim for instead?

[Deleted]

Is there a macro that makes my heals hit stuff in this priority

- Mouseover if I have one
- My target if I have no mouseover
- Myself if no target or mouseover

Tried everything I've found on the interwebs but cant seem to find any that works.

This should work:

/cast [@mouseover, exists] <Spell>; [@target, exists] <Same Spell>; [@player] <Same Spell>

[Dendrek]

Need to append that a little:

/cast [@mouseover, exists, help, nodead] <spell>; [@target, exists, help, nodead] <spell>; [@player] <spell>

And if you like, you can add modifiers that force one over another. For example, if you want it to cast on player when <shift> is held down or to cast on target when <alt> is held down:

/cast [@player, mod: shift] <spell>; [@target, exists, help, nodead, mod: alt] <spell>; [@mouseover, exists, help, nodead] <spell>; [@target, exists, help, nodead] <spell>; [@player] <spell>

[kooz]

I've seen a few high progression resto druids with ilvl around 500 gemming pure spirit in blues, mastery+spirit in yellow, int+mastery in red...
Is this required for all hard modes or just certain encounters?

[Synbaby]

Has anyone tested healing on the ptr? Has blizzard implemented the overall healing increase they said they were going to do? On live I still see druids as being one of the lowest healers on logs. I am hoping it's going to get better next patch.

[Juvenate]

I've played with a few things on the PTR.

Initially Force of Nature was not benefiting from the recent Naturalist buff. This seems to have been fixed with the latest PTR build. Wild Mushroom: Bloom will be fairly OP for 10-mans while finally being acceptable for 25's. Once Druids lose their 4pc bonus in favor of T15 gear I don't see many choosing Soul of the Forest even with the recent buff. It would revert back to its clunkiness. I see most Druids choosing Incarnation or the newly buffed Force of Nature instead (which from early math has shown to be quite competitive with Incarn).

Personally as a Druid who uses SotF w/4pc and HotW, I'll probably be moving to FoN and HotW. My major beef with Incarnation is that there seems to always be a part of the 30 sec duration that gets wasted. FoN is free smart healing and will always find a target and is available much more frequently. HotW and FoN have some symmetry since the Treant's healing scales from Spellpower. I wouldn't recommend NV+FoN. Testing I've done indicates that the Treants do not benefit from NV if FoN is cast during the duration.

[HamletEJ]

In total, you need 92.86% haste to get 14 ticks. You need 107.25% haste to get 15 ticks.
With the raid buff (5%) and SoF (70%), it takes:
= 1.9286/(1.05*1.7)-1 = 0.0804 = 8.04% haste to get 14 ticks. That's 3419 haste needed for 14 ticks. (It turns out I was mistaken earlier when claiming we get 14 ticks without extra haste. I misinterpreted the numbers I got. I think I mistakenly looked at the haste chart wrong without confirming the actual amount of haste 8.04% equals.)
= 2.0725/(1.05*1.7)-1 = 0.1611 = 16.11% haste to get 15 ticks. That's 6846 haste needed for 15 ticks.

I'm glad you called me out on that. I really hate giving bad information.

Also, in case you're wondering how I got those values, I'll give a basic breakdown of the first one so you can confirm my results if you like:
Start with the fact that it takes 92.86% haste to get 14 ticks. (I can confirm this value too, if you like, but since it's in the haste chart, I won't bother in this post.) Converted to a decimal, that's 0.9286. It's important to know that haste effects are multiplicative. So it would be untrue to say that 5% and 70% = 75% (that would be additive). Instead, it's 1.05*1.70 = 1.785 = 78.5%. Knowing that, we want to figure out how much haste you'd need from gear to reach 92.86%. The haste from gear is also multiplicative with the other effects and so all three combined would look like: 1.05*1.70*(1+x/100), where x = the percent haste from gear (in percent form).

In effect, we want:
1.05*1.70*(1+x/100) - 1 = 0.9286

Solve for x (if you're pretty good with algebra, this should be easy) and you'll get 8.04%.

Since 425 haste rating = 1% haste, it takes 425*8.04 = 3417 (edit: this is a rounding issue, above I said it was 3419 which is because I used the larger/more accurate decimal to find that value; 3419 is the correct value — and I just checked it again to be sure) haste rating to get 14 ticks with SoF.

P.S. I typed all that up while in an instance, so forgive me for mistakes if any exist.

---------- Post added 2013-01-06 at 09:11 AM ----------

I think I might have misread what you were saying. One thing that's confusing me is your argument about Lifebloom. SoF only affects one spell (the first one cast after Swiftmend is used). Lifebloom is too weak a spell to use it on (although perhaps that would increase the number of OOC procs -- that might be interesting, just be wary that when Lifebloom is refreshed, all buffs affecting the old version are overwritten). You also seem to be mentioning different breakpoints than what I pointed out. If there's something I've overlooked, I'd be happy to correct my math.

The actual breakpoint for WG14 with a 70% SotF would be 3421. You're conceptually right but there's some rounding in-game that's not obvious--the tick interval is rounded to the nearest millisecond before the number of ticks is computed.

At any rate, SotF is currently 75% on PTR. That will give the 14th tick at 2109 and the 15th at 5437.

[HamletEJ]

FoN is not that strong if it only gets 5-6 casts off. I know it's smart, but as a healer it's hard to overstate the value of a very powerful timer. At any rate, I don't see at all how FoN is competitive with Tree based on "math"--it does much less healing on paper, the only argument for it is an intangible one based on smartness.

I find most people who are underwhelmed by Tree are somewhat ignoring the mana effect of 30s of mostly-free healing as a perfectly fine use for it when you don't need the power healing.