Help me understand Resto Druids better. 5 man heroic/10 man normal raid healing

[Master Guns]

I recently leveled my druid as an alt the day of the Shattering patch, honestly just because I thought Bat Form looked awesome. ^_^ After I got him to 85, I ditched my original plan of Feral DPS to go healing. I've healed ever since Vanilla on my Paladin, but stopped at the end of BC and made my Warrior my main.
Resto druid healing, as far as I can tell, is quite a bit different than healing on a Paladin during BC. It's very fun, and it seems much more involved. (Although, back then, the only heals Paladins had were Flash of Light, Holy Light, and Holy Shock)
I want to understand the spec and class more than I currently do, I'm new to Druids in general as well as Resto obviously, and I am actually considering making my Druid my main. It's really just that fun to me right now.
I understand the the basic concept of Druid healing - HoT's. Rejuv and Lifebloom 3 stacks on the tank, let it fall off during high damage for 40k heal and rejuv/swiftmend the dps if high burst incoming damage is happening, or if a DPS pulls aggro.
In high AoE situations, I generally Rejuv all the DPS, and Wild Growth, while keeping Rejuv/Lifebloom stacks on the tank. Is this correct?
Also, when is the best time to use Innervate on myself? I have successfully healed all heroics without having to use it on myself, but sometimes DPS do really stupid things.

My armory link is here:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ralan/advanced

Any suggestions on gear/specs would be greatly appreciated. Keep in mind that this is an alt - 5 man heroic healing and 10 man raid healing is what I'm aiming for at the moment.
Edit - seems as if I logged out in boomkin set and spec. I just relogged.

[Cerelli]

use your innervate as soon as you would get the full benefit from it. i usually use mine at 70-75%. you will start needing it when you get into raids.

dont forget to use nourish/HT/RG when your hots aren't enough to handle the damage incoming. I HT the tank on Omen procs, and usually regrowth the DPS on Omen procs. but it also depends on how fast i need the heal to get there and the possibility of overhealing. I like to RG the raid because i can follow the regrowth with a swiftmend immediately if needed.

check out the resto druid sticky at the top of the forum. look at the linked haste breakpoints and balance your stats around those. in a raid you can usually assume the 5% haste but in 5 mans you have less chance of getting it. Either try to get the last WG breakpoint or drop down to the 12 LB ticks and grab mastery after that.

as far as your gear goes:
only gem for intellect socket bonuses. 20 int+ are worth chasing after, otherwise gem straight intellect.

your spec is fine for 5 mans right now, but when you start raiding you might consider going with a moonglow build until you feel comfortable that you aren't going to be going out of mana. the rest of your spec is pretty standard.

Also pick up the glyph of wild growth. the added target is going to be huge in raids. the HT glyph is pretty lackluster, especially if you dont even have nature's swiftness in your build like a lot of people have been doing lately.

[Master Guns]

Why wouldn't you gem for spirit socket bonuses? I'm not correcting you, I'm genuinely asking.

[Lailea]

In a 10 man normal, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to sustain rejuv on the group without running out of mana quickly.

Always keep 3 stacks of lifebloom on the tank. I normally only rejuv the tank when I am going to swiftmend next. Anytime you have an OOC proc, you should use regrowth or healing touch depending on the circumstances.

I glyph Innervate, so in a raid environment, I will always innervate another healer that is low on mana so that we both generate some. I have power auras setup so that I get a warning when I go less than 80%, so if I am just innervating myself, I do so just after that (probably 60-70%). I have read that you should try to use your innervate when you get an intellect proc from power torrent, but I've had a hard time trying to pay attention to that in the midst of battle.

Just some ideas, hope it helps.

[Cerelli]

you get just as much mana regen from intellect as you would from spirit. add to that, you get more spellpower, larger mana pool, and spell crit with added intellect. if you are needing regen then chasing after a 20+spi bonus wouldn't be bad but usually you shouldn't be hurting for mana enough to get to that situation.

[Nakayaa]

Healing as a druid is fairly simple, or atleast I think so.
You just put 3 LB on your tank
If youre dps'es is taking dmg, figure out if WG will heal them up, or if you gotta either use Reju or maybe a Nourish on them.
When youre getting Omen procs, use HT or Nourish.
But people should have gotten used to the fact that they gotta move from stuff, and such things by now. So hopefully youre not having big problems with people dying because they didnt manage to move away from fire.

Tho, the thing I'm not completely sure of, is youre Glyph of Healing Touch and Glyph of Innervate. How often do you Innervate another person? Do you maybe have a Moonkin/Resto Druid in youre raid, that youre swapping Innervate with? Im guessing its a okish glyph, if youre not having mana problems, and feel that you can give away youre Innvervates. I personally like the Wild Growth glyph better.

[superdooper]

I simply keep 3 LB, RG, WG, Swiftmend, and Regrowth on MT. If raid dips, I will give them a RG. If my mana's low, then I lay off the Regrowth.

Always make sure you use WG & Swiftmend every GCD, because these spells are extremely mana efficient.

[Master Guns]

I did 10.2 HPS on Argaloth 10 man this week. Is that bad, good, or decent for my gear level?

[superdooper]

I did 10.2 HPS on Argaloth 10 man this week. Is that bad, good, or decent for my gear level?

depends if you are dispelling or not.....

[Deleted]

use your innervate as soon as you would get the full benefit from it. i usually use mine at 70-75%.

Since it gives 20% mana, use it at 80% .. and well, while it's running, you will be casting, so id say 82-83% is optimal

---------- Post added 2011-02-22 at 09:46 PM ----------

I did 10.2 HPS on Argaloth 10 man this week. Is that bad, good, or decent for my gear level?

In 4.3k resi gear I did 16k HPS last week + 28 dispells. But I was the only healer tho -.-

[Deleted]

Master Guns, I believe all your questions will be answered if you check out the resto druid sticky on the front page of the druid forums here at mmo, it's a comprehensive guide that Myrarr has put a lot of work into

[Master Guns]

depends if you are dispelling or not.....

I was dispelling everything that the other healer wasn't. It was about half and half.

[Brother]

Seems pretty good with this gear
From your discription, I'd say your not doing anything wrong.

[Master Guns]

Since it gives 20% mana, use it at 80% .. and well, while it's running, you will be casting, so id say 82-83% is optimal

---------- Post added 2011-02-22 at 09:46 PM ----------



In 4.3k resi gear I did 16k HPS last week + 28 dispells. But I was the only healer tho -.-

Not really here to flex peens so I don't really care that much if you did 30k hps naked. /shrug

[Cerelli]

Since it gives 20% mana, use it at 80% .. and well, while it's running, you will be casting, so id say 82-83% is optimal

---------- Post added 2011-02-22 at 09:46 PM ----------



In 4.3k resi gear I did 16k HPS last week + 28 dispells. But I was the only healer tho -.-

and you are getting all of your passive mana regen on top of the 20% from innervate. several times i've run into a situation innervating at 80% exactly were i end up wasting some of it. I'd rather wait another 20-30 seconds to be sure that i get the full benefit.

[Cluasen]

(Everything i wrote her, you could basicly go read in the sticky.. Thats where i learned most of it!! SO GO READ IT FOR GODS SAKE!!! The whole thing yes!)

Around 10k HPS seems about right in your current gear..
I dont know if anyone has said it already but a few pointer to your armory:
Gems: Regem all but your chest and head for pure intellect.. you will get more mana and more regen from it.. You dont need the haste gems since you are still like 200 away from the magic 2005.. And for now i would consider getting your mana pool and regen stable before sacrificing those for the haste breakpoints..
Talents: Respec more points into balance.. Moonglow will give you more mana back in raid boss fights then furor.. So my advice is drop furor and BotG and even natures swiftness.. (i know i dont use it at all anymore)
Last get Heartsong on your weapon instead of hurricane.. You will need the regen once you hit raids and longer boss fights!

Innervate point i would go just after 80% and if you cant, innervate swap with another druid for even better mana return since you decided to take the glyph!

[Meejum]

Why wouldn't you gem for spirit socket bonuses? I'm not correcting you, I'm genuinely asking.

In terms of regen...Revitalize, Replenishment and Innervate are all made stronger by more mana, which is increased by more Int. Spirit only benefits your normal combat regen. Int, because of the Spell Power and crit benefits in addition to the regen benefits, vastly outweighs Spirit.

Echo the sentiments to consider re-speccing. BoTG is more of a 25man or PVP talent. Nature's swiftness and Swift Rejuv are questionable. If you find yourself using NS, then by all means keep it, but I have never used it at all in cata outside of PVP. Swift Rejuv can be useful in raids, espcecially 25man, but I dont find it as useful in 10man especially since incoming damage is so often predictable. If you actually need the benefit of swift rejuv in a 5man then people are doing things very wrong in your dungeon run. You can also drop a point in Gift of the Earthmother without loosing much effectiveness. You want to trim away a bit from your resto tree to be able to take Moonglow in the balance tree, which is very helpful for mana conservation.

[Simralin]

I didn't read through all the posts to see what people have mentioned on ways to heal as a Druid and I know there is a sticky for you to read also. But I just wanted to give my opinion on how I heal. In our raids I seem to be tank healing and raid healing so what I do to start the fight off is....I LB the tank two times then put rejuv on him (so rejuv benefits from mastery because of LB) then I do the third LB so that LB benefits from the rejuvs mastery. So basically what you have there is two hots that have benefited from each other's mastery. Then from there if a lot damage isn't incoming I'll just spam nourish on the tank. If OoC procs and tank isn't tanking a lot of damage and I know the boss isn't going to do a special ability to hurt the tank I'll just do regrowth on the tank just because of the hot, I know some people won't agree with that but oh well haha. Now if the tank is taking damage of course I'll use HT for my OoC procs on the tank. Now if the boss does a special ability on the raid (raid wide damage) and they are around 60% health I'll do WG AND then I'll put rejuv on those people that have my WG so that the rejuv benefits from mastery (rejuv that is being benefited from mastery is by far the best I think). I'll continue to use WG till the raid is stable. That is pretty much what I do in a fight, of course certain factors will change how anyone plays so it's really situational (like what healers are healing with you, what boss fight you are on and the raid comp). As far as innervate goes I always use it around 73-75% so I get the full use out of it. Sorry my post is so long heh. Btw I love resto druid healing!

P.S. as anyone noticed that the effect from Nature's Bounty now happens when you have TWO or MORE rejuvs on people instead of three? I hadn't found that it was hotfixed but I noticed it today in BRC. I hope they keep it this way because I love that change heh.

[Master Guns]

Ok, I have another question. I've reforged and regemmed a little, and I just hit the 2005 haste "breakpoint" (2036 haste to be exact). So, I should stick with my current gemming so that I don't go under 2005 haste, right? Or am I not understanding this breakpoint thing properly.
Also, about spec,
I played around on the talent calc and I came up with something a little less Resto tree heavy, putting more points into balance for Genesis, but only manage to get 2/3. Is this spec fine?
http://wowtal.com/#k=Dq61TbZtV.aei.druid.

[Cerelli]

take the points in furor and put them into moonglow. MG privides substantially more mana "regen" than furor does. you have already bit the bullet and speced that deep into balance, no reason to skip MG in favor over furor at that point.

you can drop a little more haste. 30 to be exact. some will say 31 but i like to be on the safe side even though the rounding bug has been fixed, so i hear.