[Resto] Druid Guide - 5.0+

[Kjeldorian]

First and foremost looking at your 8min 10N M Meg wipe you are within a few % of the other healers so don't beat yourself up with respect to your other healers.

As a healer, things you can do to improve include the following constructive list:
1. Living Steel Belt Buckle
2. Change glyph of Rejuvenation for anything else, in said 8 min attempt you cast 0 Nourishes which is an example of an unused glyph, strong recommendations include Glyph of Regrowth (100% crit means reliable!)
3. Do use your tier 2 talent more often as it was used twice in an 8 min fight (anywhere from 7-9 uses in such a long fight would have been more acceptable)
4. Do change your tier 4 talent to either Soul of the Forest (not necessarily easily to master) or Incarnation: Tree of Life (can be used as a mana CD spamming LB's over the raid and using Regrowth on Omen of Clarity procs or as an HPS CD spam whatever you normally spam)
5. Do use your tier 6 talent more often, you used it twice in said attempt (where you can probably fit one in almost every rampage) out of 5-6 possible times. Or if micro managing that talent is bothersome, Heart of the Wild is a respectable tier 6 talent to heal with.

Min / Max comments:
1. Skinning Profession for a profession that provides Int
2. Power Torrent weapon enchant should preferred given the ease of access to Sha crystals this far into the expansion
3. More aggressive usage of defensive CDs (Barkskin has a 45 second CD) which can be saved for every rampage and your symbiosis CD for those special moments.

Have fun!
Sephinia, US -Illidan

[Trubo]

Recently lost one of our healers for 10m so I'm trying to gear up to help out, however it seems I've hit a brick wall on Megaera. The druid we lost was consistently able to pull 75k~ HPS and I am not getting anywhere near that in comparable gear. I think I am gearing correctly, I'm hoping someone will be able to help me out with whatever I am doing wrong. This boss is making me pull my hair out because I feel like the weak link in my raid. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Not allowed to post links

Armory: morgelyn stormrage
WoL: Reign of Valor Stormrage-US, May 8th

Please and thank you.

Seph summed it up fairly well but note that they meant Jade Spirit, not Power Torrent.

As for some extra gear comments:

1. Get the Shado-Pan Assault Valor Trinket and throw away that god awful Spirit of Zuldazar; DMC is better if you have to scrounge up a replacement until the SPA trinket.
2. At your item level there is no reason to gem pure intellect. If you want throughput then gem Int+Mastery but if you're ooming I'd go with Purified for Red sockets, Spirit+mastery for Yellow (can't remember name) and either Spirit+Mastery, Purified or Sparkling for Blue. If the Bonus is Spirit, Int or Mastery it's probably worth getting the bonus, otherwise gem to your discretion.

As for your WoL:

1. By attempt 4 I see you started using Wild Mushroom: Bloom. Were they fully charged before each rampage? If not try to cast them at the next stack point immediately after a Rampage ends.
2. Your Lifebloom and Harmony uptimes were both fine overall so not much an issue there.
3. With how short the fight is you can cast Tranquility twice during the fight. First time within the first two rampages, second time in the last two.
4. Nature's Vigil is garbage on this fight, get Incarnation. ToL is a great way to bring the raid back to stable either between Rampages towards the end of the fight or even during Rampage.

[Friction]

Thank you Trubo and Kjeldorian very much, you've provided some awesome input. We raid tonight so I look forward to testing these changes, and remembering to use my cooldowns more often.

Kjeldorian: One question, what is your opinion of Glyph of Wild Growth? In another forum I was told to switch out that one for Regrowth because it rarely affects the full 6 targets.

I think I will regem for more spirit instead of throughput, Jade Spirit definitely, and I was waiting to use a belt buckle until I got an upgrade but obviously upgrades won't come if I can't pull my weight and help down bosses so I'll definitely do that as well. I try to stack mushrooms after each rampage ends but there seems to be so much going on I know I messed it up a few times.

As far as Spirit of Zuldazar goes, that recently upgraded a horrible 463 I still had and since I got that RF drop I decided to use valor on a ring instead. I have noticed that a 30k~ shield does kinda suck so I will prioritize the valor trinket next but there's nothing I'll be able to do about it for 2 weeks unfortunately.

[Kjeldorian]

Friction: The argument for using the glyph of wild growth has been the same in since Cata, it will save you mana. The logic is that without the glyph you will be casting this spell more often (it is not a cheap spell) and rather using it for when the raid does gets damaged you will get more Healing Per Cast Time (HPCT) and more healing per mana (HPM). Specifically Megeara, when there are predictable damage spikes that do requires large amounts of healing i.e. rampage the case for glyph of wild growth becomes stronger. (Even if you were to go with Soul of the Forest, an unglyphed Wild Growth is still a loss vs a glyphed Wild Growth)

On a side note, you have 11 potential targets at all times (10 + 1 hunter pet) and the 30 yd radius for Wild Growth is pretty generous that proper placement will get your 6 targets. (Example, positioning yourself mid raid when you're not stacked. Or for your strat for Megeara casting it on melee will get the 5 targets already (2 tanks, 2 mdps, 1 hunter pet) without picking any ranged 30 yd from melee. There may be fights where the glyph would be unfavorable based on your strategy but you will have to use your observations skills to determine that, fights where you are spread thin / raid is divided into quadrants where there's no overlap of healers.

Side note regarding pets: Yes they are worth healing, rather use your global as a healer to heal a pet then force a dps class (namely hunter) to use a global to heal their pet as their class does require pet procs to better their dps.

[Friction]

Glad to hear my suspicions were confirmed. Meg has a lot of predictable damage and 30yds is definitely big enough to hit all of our ranged at one time, especially during rampage where we are all stacked. I'll switch out the Rejuv glyph for Regrowth then instead of the Wild Growth glyph.

Another question, In Incarnation's Tree of Life form, does it +2 targets to Wild Growth on top of the glyph's +1 target for a total of 8?

[Keiyra]

Another question, In Incarnation's Tree of Life form, does it +2 targets to Wild Growth on top of the glyph's +1 target for a total of 8?

Yes, 8 targets while glyphed and Tree of Life form.

[Friction]

Thank you everyone for your help we got Megaera down tonight! Excellent advice from the people here, I really appreciate it!

[Deleted]

Is Vuhduh(spelling) really all that much better than standard UI raid frames?

[Keiyra]

Is Vuhduh(spelling) really all that much better than standard UI raid frames?

Vudhu is basically the default UI + mouseover macros, but with more information, more options and highly customizable. I'd highly recommend a UI addon for healing: either Grid+Clique, Healbot, or Vudho.

You can do it with just the default UI + mouseover macros, but that's saying you can ride a bike 40 miles to work; but most of us would rather get in the car and drive to work.

[Deleted]

Vudhu is basically the default UI + mouseover macros, but with more information, more options and highly customizable. I'd highly recommend a UI addon for healing: either Grid+Clique, Healbot, or Vudho.

You can do it with just the default UI + mouseover macros, but that's saying you can ride a bike 40 miles to work; but most of us would rather get in the car and drive to work.

ATM I use clique with the default UI, can see my own heals and buffs/debuffs I wanna see. I remember using grid in WOTLK and don't remember it offering anything that I don't get from default frames. Might give Vuhduh a try though. Thanks

[Alzu]

I personally use VuhDo only because I've configured it for my liking. It has quite a few annoying little things that I don't like. One example being it sometimes getting stuck on mouseover mode and not letting me cast my spells.

I also don't really like the layout of the options as they're quite confusing for me.

[Myrrar]

Is Vuhduh(spelling) really all that much better than standard UI raid frames?

Yes, just because they give so many more options. Besides the fact that it's all in one addon that's updated constantly it just has a ton of options that are really amazing that the others don't. In the past it was also the best out of the top 3(vuhdo, grid, healbot) for speed/comp to server latency but I don't know if that's still the case.

Honestly, I'd use it for clustering alone on every healing spec, but they have a lot of nice options that are extremely easy to change quickly. All the different indicators, smart cast on BR/buffs, all the panel options(couldn't live without hot bars as a resto druid at this point), stuff like that.

[Deleted]

Yes, just because they give so many more options. Besides the fact that it's all in one addon that's updated constantly it just has a ton of options that are really amazing that the others don't. In the past it was also the best out of the top 3(vuhdo, grid, healbot) for speed/comp to server latency but I don't know if that's still the case.

Honestly, I'd use it for clustering alone on every healing spec, but they have a lot of nice options that are extremely easy to change quickly. All the different indicators, smart cast on BR/buffs, all the panel options(couldn't live without hot bars as a resto druid at this point), stuff like that.

Hm you're making a pretty compelling argument! Think ill have to cave and see what all the fuss is about

[Kjalar]

4. Do change your tier 4 talent to either Soul of the Forest (not necessarily easily to master) or Incarnation: Tree of Life (can be used as a mana CD spamming LB's over the raid and using Regrowth on Omen of Clarity procs or as an HPS CD spam whatever you normally spam)

Is FoN really that bad, even after all the recent buffs? I mean, 3 months ago I'd agree with you totally, but right now FoN seems to be awesome. I really like the 'short CD / 3 charges' design as it lets you vary the spell's usage greatly depending on a situation. I only tried using it in LFR and depending on a fight it accounted for like 6-10% of my total healing, which is rather good, especially considering that it's basically a smart 'fire-and-forget' spell that requires no effort to use.

[Deleted]

Is FoN really that bad, even after all the recent buffs? I mean, 3 months ago I'd agree with you totally, but right now FoN seems to be awesome. I really like the 'short CD / 3 charges' design as it lets you vary the spell's usage greatly depending on a situation. I only tried using it in LFR and depending on a fight it accounted for like 6-10% of my total healing, which is rather good, especially considering that it's basically a smart 'fire-and-forget' spell that requires no effort to use.

I don't think it's that FoN is bad, just not as strong as Incarnation or SOTF. But I've not tried it out for a long time now, I'm in love with SOTF

[Kjeldorian]

The comment was made before 5.3 and given that there was little commentary about FoN during PTR (most people were on the fence about it at best).

[AvatarM]

I don't think it's that FoN is bad, just not as strong as Incarnation or SOTF. But I've not tried it out for a long time now, I'm in love with SOTF

FoN is really strong for some fights right now. Atm im using on 10 man

Jinrok- Tree of Life (1st Thunderstorm - Tranq + Spirit Walker, 2nd - ToF, pre reju - inst regrowths)
Horridon - Tree of Life (Tranq - 1st and 3rd doors, ToF 2nd and 4rd doors, Shrooms last blank reju on last phase)
Council - Tree of Life (Keep LB on tanks + Targets with frost debuff)
Tortos - SOTF (Pre reju, SM + WG after earthquakers)
Megaera - FoN (pop 3 on rampage)
Jikun - FoN (PoP them in down draft + talon rakes combo. Quills)
Durumu (normal) - FoN (pop them when tank takes the debuff)
Primordius - Tree of Life (pop it when heavy raid damage + Pathogen debuff)
Dark Animus (normal) - FoN (Smart heals are really good in the first phase)
Iron Qon - FoN (treants does almost no overheal in this fight, and are really good in last phase) ToL can be a good CD for 4rd phase transition if you are having problems.
Twins (normal) - whatever, but probably FoN is better for heroic
leishen (normal) - FoN good on spot heal on transitions, we do transitions with tanks alone in plataforms, so i let 1-2 treants healing them


In a 10 man heroic kill, HoTW DPS can be really good for some dps requirements on low dmg phases. I Let Treants healing the tank for me, just renewing the LB while i dps with HoTW.

[Deleted]

In wotlk i used healbot until vuhdo comes out. Since then i never switched to something else again. Just 'cause of a curiosity-aspect i tryed grid too but it was nothing for me. Vuhdo offers an windows-xp-styled multipli-language optionspanel with tooltips explaning a lot what isnt selfexplaning by his own. In these options you can make vuhdo style-wise like healbot or prat so that you cant see any difference at all.

But the realpower of vuhdo is the buff/debuff symbols. A lot of healers didnt know when exactly the tank cd gos off cooldown or how many and which cds are currently running on the tank. Over the debuffs-panel you can manually (yeah a lot of work...) setup everything you wanna see (the most debuffs are automatically installed but not the buffs). This pared with all the other cool stuff makes it best for all classes (not only healers). IMO

[AvatarM]

In wotlk i used healbot until vuhdo comes out. Since then i never switched to something else again. Just 'cause of a curiosity-aspect i tryed grid too but it was nothing for me. Vuhdo offers an windows-xp-styled multipli-language optionspanel with tooltips explaning a lot what isnt selfexplaning by his own. In these options you can make vuhdo style-wise like healbot or prat so that you cant see any difference at all.

But the realpower of vuhdo is the buff/debuff symbols. A lot of healers didnt know when exactly the tank cd gos off cooldown or how many and which cds are currently running on the tank. Over the debuffs-panel you can manually (yeah a lot of work...) setup everything you wanna see (the most debuffs are automatically installed but not the buffs). This pared with all the other cool stuff makes it best for all classes (not only healers). IMO

Grid can do everything that Vuhdo does with the current plugins. There is only one feature that Vuhdo have that doesn´t existe for Grid. Grid have plugins for bestcluster, you can set up clusters on Grid, but they are not linked to a spell CD. On Vuhdo, you can use cluster linked for exemple for swiftmend, so the cluster icon will just apear when SM is OFF CD.

For Tank CDs, grid can use a plugin that is called GridStatusTankCooldown or something like that, to apear them in icons, just use Icon Indicators. Wanna text, use text indicators, there are bar indicators too. Any doubt about anything that you wanna config on grid, just post it that i will answer. The only think that didnt exist in grid is cluster linked to a spell CD.

[Myrrar]

Besides the fact that Grid cannot do everything vuhdo can, the best part of vuhdo is it all being in one addon. There are never conflicts, never bugs, never one part not being updated for the patch.

Hot bars, auto BR/buff, the vast amount of indicators/places to have them, bouquets, way better direction arrows, auto triggers, auto double click stop casts(which I really hate but apparently a lot of people use), the vast amount of buff tracking options, and the types of panel options are all either something grid doesn't have at all, or does very poorly.

I've used grid extensively and have taken time to customize it even more than Vuhdo, and it doesn't even come close to the amount of unique options and customization vuhdo has. The author is extremely active, any option any other addon brings he/whoever else works on it almost instantly adds. If there is something all the other addons don't have and someone really wants it, post on his forums and it's added too.

There is literally nothing grid has that vuhdo doesn't or has implemented into something else while vuhdo has multiple other qualities that are better than grid and/or healbot. The only healers I have ever met(at least top tier) that use grid over vuhdo are those that are just stuck on grid since they have used it for expansions.