Druid Healing: how do you feel about it?

[Usako]

i've been playing wow for about 4 years now, and about 3 years with my druid. she is my main, and she is a healer. i've worked really hard on her, spent alot of time and money on her. i don't mean to QQ, but i feel at some what of a lost with my druid. i have tried all sorts of things, different specs, different rotations, etc. i believe i am geared for heroics as best as i can be, everything is atleast ilevel 333 expect for my relic, which are hard to come by. i know i could get one from inscription but i love to have spirit, and don't want to give up the spirit i already have on my relic. i feel that druid healing got the biggest blow of all. my main rotation is this: 3 stack of lifebloom, nourish, rejuv and swiftmend for my efflorescence. i will occasionally use wildgrowth on the group, tranquility in emergency's and my oh crap button, nature swiftness and healing touch. i don't know if its the groups, but during heroics, i horrible fail at healing them. i always ask the fight to be explained if i'm not for sure. almost every dps dies when the boss is at about 20-30%, because i no longer have the mana to spare to them to heal them. most don't seem like they stand in the fire anymore cause it seems that they have finally grasped the concept "oh yeah, fire is bad!". and then most likely the tank will finally die as well because i am completely out of mana. i use innervate around about 70-80% mana so i will hopefully have it towards the end of the fight. i have tried priest healing, on the PTR and it seems like i could never run out of mana, and seems much easier to keep someone up than with druid healing. i have read guides, done what they said, done their spec, and glyphs. maybe i just suck with my druid now? maybe i just never had skill? i just don't know! i am at a lost, and i actually teared up the other night, i changed her spec from restro and then logged off of her and never been back on her since. *i know, its just a game! but please understand, wow is mostly my life, i have a couple of illness that keep from doing alot of things, and most of my time has to be spent sitting or laying down.*

my question is this mostly. did they really nerf druid healing that bad? should i just try another healer for now, such as a priest, shaman or paladin? am i playing my druid completely wrong, need to change my rotation and stick with her?

please no flames, constructive criticism only and helpful comments!

[capnscoob]

They just beat the rotation and re did most of the spells to a point it's probably the hardest learning curve from wotlk to cata... Hell i made my Druid boomkin since I didn't want to learn another spec that I had already mastered in previous expansions and can't even stand to play it now

[Nourish]

In 4.06 I'll enjoy 90% of it. With the empowered touch change refreshing lifebloom will be less of a hassle, rejuvenation's mana cost decreased, and the wild growth healing increased, it'll make me NOT want to punch a baby. The only thing that would make it ideal would be a decreased cooldown on wild growth, so we can be more competitive in our raid healing niche.

[crayven]

I won't leave my druid - i like the class too much.
But yeah atm our healing is sub-par with others. And no i don't need to L2P or "you need more gear noob". Priests atm are the OP healers with holy palas close behind.

Hopefully in 4.0.6 things will change. But that again they are dismantling my feral pvp spec so....another patch of druid frustration.
*sigh*

[Caenymh]

To be completely honest, if you're going 100% OOM at 20-30% of a boss's health, then something isn't right. Resto druid healing is different than it used to be, especially in terms of the mana cost of our spells. If you try to heal like you did in Wrath, you're going to go OOM very quickly and the party will die. The name of the game is triage now. Don't fret people sitting below max health (unless they take huge spikes of damage) and try not to free cast Rejuvenation if you can help it.

Suggestions that I can make are:
-use your Tree of Life on CD to help with healing the group and also as a means of mana conservation. Blooming Lifeblooms can bump the group back up fairly quickly, and free, instant cast Regrowths also help.
-use your Omen of Clarity procs for your expensive spells, like Regrowth and Healing Touch. Sometimes, the bump and the HoT from Regrowth are more beneficial than a Rejuv, and when it's free, that's even better.
-use Nourish in place of Rejuvenation for group healing when you can.
-ask your group to use CC whenever possible, if they aren't. Trust me, this helps immensely.
-on that note, make 100% certain that people aren't standing in fire, pulling aggro, etc.
-carry mana potions with you and use them when you need them.
-drink between pulls.

You'll also want to look over your gear. Using cloth pieces instead of leather is costing you 5% Intellect so you're going to want to replace your chest and legs ASAP. Intellect trinkets will serve you better in the long run than spirit or mastery trinkets, so you should try to get those replaced when you can. In the mean time, you can reforge the mastery off of the Blood of Isiset to haste or spirit. Don't be afraid to pick up spiritless leather upgrades, if they're available to you. Gems wise, you want an Ember Shadowspirit for your meta, two Reckless Ember Topazes to activate it, and then the rest Brilliant Inferno Rubies. Intellect increases our longevity and our regen better than spirit does.

[pretiwhitboy]

When ur 333 healing touch is ur friend. I had a hard time at first but then I read the resto sticky guide and took alot of tips from it. From what I noticed the lfg gives u a group around ur ilevel. It gets better. I intervate soon into a fight. Pop tol when needed and spam lb on everyone. The ooc procs are crazy. If trash pulls spam ht and drink ever pull. Make sure every item has spirit. Reforge if needed.

[Dazzy]

Don't give up yet, despite what most think, it is a huge l2play issue, which isn't meant to be negative, that's just the way it is.

I healed every heroic in under 333 gear, and now have most of the heroic achievements and have healed 7/12 in cata raids on my druid as the sole raid healer, with a disc priest assisting if there are any dps mistakes.

It won't just get easier with gear though, knowledge of a fight is a HUGE plus, be it normal, heroic or raid. There are times you don't need to get everyone full health instantly, allowing you to nourish spam dps while the tank is fully hot'd with almost no mana loss. Gear will help the "oh crap" moments a little, but knowing when damage is coming, to who, how much and when to just keep them high enough so they'll live through it is more essential imo.

The rejuv mana change is already live, tooltip just hasn't been adjusted, so that should help at the moment.

Cata is more about avoiding damage than healing through it. If you are going oom at 20-30% of boss health and dps aren't being dumb, it's more likely they are undergeared and not killing fast enough.

As for tips, it's pretty group/boss specific, follow most of the guides and you should get it, other than that, WG/SM on cd. Try to get a high number of people in efflor. If you're low on mana, and a dps is in danger of dying, let them, it's much more efficient to glyphed rebirth than to try to get them full.


TL;DR - Know the fights, know when to heal who and how much to keep them alive while you're at lower gear levels. Everyone doesn't have to be full health all the time.

[Myrrar]

Rejuv is incredibly cheap, so yes, you do want to RJ a lot.

You've switched to boomy so I can't see your spec, but if you are using the same gear one of the big problems is cloth gear. You are cutting out 5% int, which is a lot. Read the sticky, a lot of your gems/meta are wrong. Even with that gear you shouldn't be having any major problems with healing besides just bad players. I know you think stacking spi will make mana easier but it really doesn't. Add innervate, replen, and revit that are all affected by int, not spi, the more int you have the more your spells will be doing. Bigger mana pool, more healing output, added crit/sp, and all the buffs to regen procs/mechanics makes int better than spi for pretty much everything. Now, you may want to use spi on all your gear as 1/2 secondary stats, but not gems.

Don't be afraid of WG. Compared to anything else it gives the most healing if more than 1 person is taking dmg. That will also proc your mastery. Nourish without a hot under it is pretty worthless. With a hot under it it procs mastery and the nourish buff. Don't be afraid of tree, it's only 3 minutes and OP.

Read the sticky. Look at the spec for having a lot of mana problems and a 'rotation' for heroics. It will probably help you a lot. Don't give up. All you need is a few things tweaked and you will probably love your druid again =]

[Kaibel]

Still stuck on the awesome cast times of our "go to" heals.

With all the mechanics flooding boss fights now I am amazed and gob smacked as how blizzard thought it was a good idea to make healers have to stand there for 2 seconds on one stupid heal that doesn't even do that much.

2 Thumbs way up for blizzards brain capacity on that one.

[Termy]

Still stuck on the awesome cast times of our "go to" heals.

With all the mechanics flooding boss fights now I am amazed and gob smacked as how blizzard thought it was a good idea to make healers have to stand there for 2 seconds on one stupid heal that doesn't even do that much.

2 Thumbs way up for blizzards brain capacity on that one.

Well it works just fine for me (and apparently also a lot of other people/classes), maybe you're not using your other heals efficiently?

[frostybeef]

Still stuck on the awesome cast times of our "go to" heals.

With all the mechanics flooding boss fights now I am amazed and gob smacked as how blizzard thought it was a good idea to make healers have to stand there for 2 seconds on one stupid heal that doesn't even do that much.

2 Thumbs way up for blizzards brain capacity on that one.

I have little to no problems standing and casting a heal with a cast time in 90% of the normal mode raid content. There are times like atramedes air phase and Al'akir P1 when you need to move a lot but you can still squeeze a spell in there.

As everyone before said, resto changed a lot and it takes a while to relearn how to heal. The first 2-3 weeks of doing heroics for me where hell because I was trying to figure it all out. Just stick with it and things will get better.

For those of you saying that resto druids are underpowered compared to the other healing classes, it doesn't matter. Skill is still the defining factor in how well you will do and the only time you will run into extreme differences between the healing classes is on the bleeding edge content where any discrepancy is multiplied 100 fold. Until you are pushing late heroic raids it doesn't matter, we aren't broken.

[Bigbamboozal]

Hmm, well, I WAS a little more bothered by it then I am now.
To be honest, I feel our stats have swapped with hpalli's, they love to stack spirit, and we need as much int as we can get. Since innervate is mana pool % related, haveing a bigger manapool = more mana back per innervate.
Secondly, the more int you have, the more throughput your hots gain. stronger hots that heal for more need to be cast less often.
Haste, it's your friend, since I made this progile just to answer you dear druid, i can't link yest, however, if you open up the google machine and search 'resto druid haste breakpoints' something very useful for any heals with hots is to be found. Yes, as you increase haste, you get to certain 'mini-caps', where haste gives the hots an extra tick, extra ticks = more heals per hopt cast.
Some ppl have various specs that may or may not include Furor, i chose to talent it out fully, as that's a big boost to int and thus, my mana pool (see above about inerrvate being mana pool % based, and the more throughput = more heals per hot)
Certainly DO talent so you may take advanctage of omen of clarity procs, since they proc off of lifeblooms (and we all know lifebloom should be up at all times due to it's loverley heals, it's mana back function and now, also b/c you love omen of clarity procs)
What to do with the omen of clarity procs? Well, if the tank or a dps is takeing a LOT of damage, go for your biggest single target heal, and yes btw it also refreshes lifebloom on a traget, just as nourish does.
Nourish is cheap, it's a filler spell, and heals for more if other hots are on the target.
It's not the fastest cast you have, but it really, really has it's place and you shouldn't overlook it.

Now, all that said, yes, it feels like there is a hole in resto.
If we are viewed by the raid community as raid healers, (relax saplings, I know you can heal tanks too),
then how the hell are you supposed to raid heal efficiently without useing rejuvs, with wildgrowth on a cd, regrowth costs more then rejuvs, and lifeblooms are one target only unless in TOL?

I can't say my next question is off topic, as it relates, what's the state of keeping lifeblooms up on 2 targets by refreshing it with nourish and healing touch? Is this still ingame or has it been nerfed? I haven't tried it, but i (fingers crossed it's not nerfed), plan too if I can.

[frostybeef]

You can still roll extra LBs after ToL but in the next patch it's going away.

Rejuvenate is not efficient? It's absurdly efficient and lets us use more efficient heals ontop of it? Rejuvenate is great now that it's mana got fixed. Wild growth, rejuvenate and sm/efflor are certainly sufficient to raid heal.

[Zeppelin535]

Now, all that said, yes, it feels like there is a hole in resto.
If we are viewed by the raid community as raid healers, (relax saplings, I know you can heal tanks too),
then how the hell are you supposed to raid heal efficiently without useing rejuvs, with wildgrowth on a cd, regrowth costs more then rejuvs, and lifeblooms are one target only unless in TOL?

The simple answer to that question is you don't. The rejuv mana cost reduction has been live for a few days now, and with decent gear you can afford to cast it quite alot. Prior to the mana reduction yes there were major issues with what your options were in terms of raid healing when WG and Swiftmend were on CD but now that the Rejuv "buff" is live you really shouldn't have any problems raid healing unless you are incredibly undergeared. Come 4.0.6 I think Resto Druids with adequate skill will be on par with other classes when it comes to raid healing, and will still be viable tank healers. However, do note that the most major raid healing buff that was slated to come with 4.0.6 is live, the rejuv mana cost reduction, and the other buffs (except for the WG buff, which is quite major also and quite anticipated) are just icing on the cake.

[Usako]

thank you for all of your suggestions and comments! my WoW unfortunately expires this morning, but as soon as i have it back i will try all the suggestions and give it another go with my druid healer wish me luck! and i'll let you know how it goes. ^^

[Gorehoff]

I'm pretty happy with druid healing honestly. I still love it.

My advice is get your int and haste up and let hots do their stuff if you can(meaning don't hot and then top them off, people can sit below max for a longer time now). Your int is pretty low so your spirit, replenishment, and innervate aren't doing as much for you as they could. Also with more haste healing touch and nourish don't seem such a burden. Oh and using Omen of Clarity for regrowth and healing touch is excellent. Paying attention to that proc can really work wonders unlike in Wrath when it didn't even matter.

[Deleted]

I also sucked at healing when i did my first heroics.
So i began stacking Haste and Int. Most other players asked me why i have that much mana (around 100k buffed). I made the experience that personally i lived better with int than with spirit. Int does not only give you more mana, it makes your spells stronger and so you can heal targets with less mana effort. also haste rating makes your hots tick more often, you should aim at at least 10% for the beginning.

i personally don't have any problems in 95% of the fights. there's only one enemy (2nd boss in grim batol) who still gives me a hard time, because massive aoe damage that has to be healed rather quickly is hard time for druids (will chance with 4.0.6 and WG buff).
But there are many boss fights in which the group can make it much easier for you. for example the last boss in vortex pinnacle. That one gives a debuff that entangles you to the ground, as a healer you have to dispell it. you can avoid that debuff by jumping forward. If your party avoids that debuff the fight is easy as hell. if not you're going to be oom at 30% because dispelling 5 people all 20 seconds drains your mana like hell.
another example would be the first boss of shadowfang castle. the one that brings your hp down to 1%. If you're always healing everyone back to 100% you're going to be oom, it's enough to heal non tank members back to around 50% - the hp are going to be drained again anyway

[Rivellana]

There's a high chance it's your gear. When I started heroics with similar gear to you I was having to stick to pretty much the same heals you're using and still going OOM pretty fast. When you start getting better gear, your mana pool gets bigger and you have more mana regen, it becomes much easier to heal heroics the way you'll end up healing raids in the future. Much, much more rejuvenation and wild growth.

I realize you have 333 gear and maybe a lot of people wouldn't want to worry about gemming/enchanting that, but if you want to get the most out of it until you replace it all with 346, try gemming int/spirit/haste, enchanting where you can even with enchants that aren't totally top end, and reforge. I reforged anything into spirit that could be.

Some heroics are just harder than others.

Right now, yes, resto druids are not as good as other healers, but Blizzard are trying to fix us and balance us out. It's depressing to see not one, but TWO top end guilds killing Sinestra with not a single resto druid in either group. But think of it this way, if things are this out of whack, and you go off and play another healing class, that class is going to eventually get big nerfs if it's that far ahead of the others (pallies I'm looking at you), and druids will get only buffs.

[BoomChickn]

The only thing that would make it ideal would be a decreased cooldown on wild growth, so we can be more competitive in our raid healing niche.

Done, its down to 8 seconds too, along with the 30% buff.

I like druid healing very much, you use just about every spell, and you have two very nice cooldowns which can bring a group back from a near wipe. It will take a while to learn, but it is a pretty fun spec overall.

[Rivellana]

The simple answer to that question is you don't. The rejuv mana cost reduction has been live for a few days now, and with decent gear you can afford to cast it quite alot. Prior to the mana reduction yes there were major issues with what your options were in terms of raid healing when WG and Swiftmend were on CD but now that the Rejuv "buff" is live you really shouldn't have any problems raid healing unless you are incredibly undergeared. Come 4.0.6 I think Resto Druids with adequate skill will be on par with other classes when it comes to raid healing, and will still be viable tank healers. However, do note that the most major raid healing buff that was slated to come with 4.0.6 is live, the rejuv mana cost reduction, and the other buffs (except for the WG buff, which is quite major also and quite anticipated) are just icing on the cake.

I have to agree with him, the rejuv mana cost reduction has helped HUGELY. You don't raid heal without rejuv...you adjust your mana pool and regen so you can. I raid with a holy pally and holy priest and on 99% of anything (that's bosses AND trash) I've come on on top of them, sometimes significantly. I did alter my spec to make rejuv stronger, and rejuv is my highest healing spell sometimes signficantly above my other spells (call it rejuv spam if you want)...but I'm also not afraid to use my mana, and on top of my mana cooldowns.