1. #1

    Resto Druid in Challenge Modes.

    So I'm going for my favorite set of them all in the next couple of weeks and i wanted some advice before I did so. I've only previously tanked the two sets of CM gear i have so far on my monk and my paladin. I also am using the incentive of CM gear as a reason to heal on my druid again after dropping it since cataclysm. Furthermore, before I went BM to fill the role to tank the set of gear i have on her i was an avid mistweaver so i have a decent understanding of Healer 101.

    (Disclaimer, Before posting this thread i went through the last 10 pages of posted topics to avoid repeats, so I hope i'm not bothering anyone by asking for advice).

    However: I still have plenty of questions! Firstly, do we focus on a minimum haste cap to hit even with the "squish?" or do we focus more on intellect etc to gain more throughput?

    Is there a CM BiS gearlist laying around for resto druids? I know the emphasis is on gem sockets + engineer goggles ~ ToT weapon with legendary quest line extra socket but i was primarly interested in trinkets etc. Guess this wraps back around to stat priorities with the squish.

    Any particular instances that are especially challenging that i should look out for? Any tricks?

    Just trying to go in as prepared as I can be so i can do this as quickly and as painlessly as possible (And hopefully as fun as well).

    Thank you in advance for any advice. Its very much appreciated.
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  2. #2
    For your haste breakpoint, it would depend on the composition of your CM group. If you have a person who can supply the 5% spell haste buff, then you should aim for the 3043 breakpoint post-scale. However, if you don't have that buff, then you need to get to the 5320 breakpoint. These haste breakpoints will add 1 additional tick to your Rejuvenation. Additionally, these are the only haste break points you should aim for; adding additional ticks to non-rejuvenation spells is simply not worth it and haste outside of breakpoints are a resto druids WORST stat.

    Once you have your haste breakpoint, you need to determine what level of spirit you are comfortable with. If your group has amazing dps and will allow you to regen mana with amber after big pulls, then you can afford to have a little less spirit. If your group is tight on the timer though and has to do some chain pulling, you're going to need a little higher level of spirit. This is all subjective of course, depending on your healing style and group style, so really its up for you to decide what level of regen you need.

    Finally, you're going to need some throughput. For throughput, int > mastery > crit > haste (only once you have achieved your proper breakpoint). However, because of the way stat budgeting works for gems, where you get 2 points of secondary stats compared to 1 point of primary stat, you're going to want to focus on mastery for gemming instead of intellect since 2 points of mastery provides greater throughput than 1 point of intellect.

    What I found to be the greatest weakness of resto druid in CMs is tank healing. If your tank needs to do some big pulls, then there is going to be a lot of damage that the hots you put on him simply can't cover and its likely that your tank is going to get insta-gibbed. You have some spells in your arsenal, such as Nature's Swiftness, insta-regrowth spam from ToL and Ironbark, but don't forget about Wild Mushroom Bloom too, which can act as a mini - Lay on Hands provided your tank is the only one standing in your efflo circle. So the challenging CMs for you are going to be the ones with heavy tank damage: Scarlet Monastery and Stomstout Brewery.

  3. #3
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Tien View Post
    Finally, you're going to need some throughput. For throughput, int > mastery > crit > haste (only once you have achieved your proper breakpoint). However, because of the way stat budgeting works for gems, where you get 2 points of secondary stats compared to 1 point of primary stat, you're going to want to focus on mastery for gemming instead of intellect since 2 points of mastery provides greater throughput than 1 point of intellect.
    This is wrong. At those gear levels, 1 intelect provides more throughput than 2 mastery, so you should gem for intelect.

    Try to get the static-caster medallion from the krasarang faction vendor. As you're progressing on each of the challenge modes you'll figure out what the harder pulls are. Pop Incarnation and the trinket for those in order to keep your tank alive. You can use Ironbark on almost every pull, due to the low cooldown. Take heart of the wild and try to use it for more dps on bosses, as they don't do that much damage (usually) compared to thrash pulls.

  4. #4
    Deleted
    wtf, too much wrong things going on here.

    1) go for pure int, gem int, and prefer gear with int > all
    2) if there is a 2nd stat to go for, it's mastery
    3) you don't need spirit - you should not use dps-items all over the place, but with the ambers you don't need much at all
    4) you don't need engineering googles or ToT weapons or whatever when 'just' aiming for gold (which is stated in several threads here) - get 12+ sockets and you are totally fine. it's even doable with a boosted char in 483 gear and zero sockets btw
    5) don't aim for any haste caps, it's worthless. if you can reach a cap - nice, get it. but don't farm equip just to get a cap for CMs. there are very few situations where the group gets constant damage and you need to heal that (e.g. first boss SPM). a good haste cap could 'shine' here, however, you will always have a cooldown like tranquility, shroom or ToL ready for those. if done right, the tank is the one getting damage, and a haste cap won't 'rescue' him at all, you need regrowth anyway

    Resto-Druids are pretty strong for CMs in my opinion. Ironbark has a very low cooldown, Tree of Life is one of the best healing Cooldowns for messy situations (if not >the< best) and you provide stats, roar and flexibility with regrowth/reju. I'd even glyph roar so you don't need to be too stacked for it and go with 1/1/3/2/3/1. Be sure to dps with HotW on bosses like Armsmaster Harlan, where the incoming damage is kinda zero.

  5. #5
    Deleted
    it's even doable with a boosted char in 483 gear and zero sockets btw
    this, I am not the best of players but am working through them in 50/50 normal /heroic soo gear. I don't change any of my reforges or put anything special on. they are not terribly difficult.

    As someone above me says feel free to use all of your cooldowns at once, you already know the difficult pulls as you have tanked them.

    get the klaxxi amber mana thingy and use it at every opportunity

    pulls that I have trouble with - first pull MSP, first pull GOTSS, first boss pull SM still working through them though

    regrowth ftw

    take care

  6. #6
    Relax you are totally over thinking it. Cms are incredibly easy, especially on a healer. Just hit up LFR for 2-3 weeks if that and you are good to go. I think the haste breakpoint I used for cms was 2200 haste or so (probably want to look it up and not just trust my memory..) Int>Haste before you hit your breakpoint>Mastery>Crit>More Haste>Spirit.
    Hi Sephurik

  7. #7
    I went for mastery/haste gear, got the extra tick even though we didn't have the haste buff.

    Regrowth-spamming with Glyph of Regrowth and Incarnation on the big pulls. Some cooldown planning will make it all more smooth. Going below 4K spirit makes mana breaks so frequent that I think it's not worth it.

    HoTs dominate the healing meter, but when it matters, regrowth-spamming is what will get you through so ditching haste for even crit may also be viable.

    SoO Tier pieces and the craftables typically comes with haste, mastery and red sockets. There are ToT-weapons with red sockets and mastery/haste, with and without spirit. The extra legendary socket works.
    Last edited by Hildrande; 2014-07-20 at 11:14 PM.

  8. #8
    I hadnt healed on my resto druid since ToC days, and I scrambled some gear together, mostly LFR and 5 man heroics and joined a group as a healer. We didn't get server best times but they were really managable golds. I didnt even bother to reforge my gear. Just get those amber things and mana up every combat break!

  9. #9
    i used a different helm for a working meta gem, otherwise i kept all my same reforges/gems. I also got a darkmoon faire healing trinket for it for shits, however i didn't realize until later that i left that one in the bank and used the dps one for all 9. I.E. its easy.

  10. #10
    Titan Gumboy's Avatar
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    I kept my usual raid reforge/gems and didn't have any haste breakpoints, honestly it does not really matter about the haste breakpoint, you spend the vast majority of your time spamming regrowth :P
    You're a towel.

  11. #11
    I didn't bother doing anything to my gear. I even forgot about the legendary meta not working and used it - whoops. As others have said, make use of the Klaxxi ambers and don't worry about spirit at all. Take Incarnation for popping on hectic trash pulls, and make use of Heart of the Wild to DPS bosses. For glyphs, I highly recommend Regrowth and Glyph of Stampeding Roar. Keep your mushroom planted under the tank/melee and pop it early and often whenever health bars are dipping. Good luck!

    Kinetic is recruiting DPS for mythic raids! (10/10H, US-Alexstrasza Alliance.)

  12. #12
    CM's are really not that difficult to heal if people pay attention to mechanics and don't stand in fire. My gear was not optimal at all for CM's. I didn't gem/reforge/etc one bit... and I had no problems keeping the group alive. Even went with treant talents instead of tree of life too, and had the siegecrafter spirit trinket (which apparently people say is terrible, but it kept my mana bar up and I barely even had to use restorative ambers so we could just kept chain pulling nonstop). If you are smart with your heals and coordinate cooldowns with your tank on big pulls you will be just fine.

    Like Thexx suggested, I would absolutely get Glyph of Stampeding Roar. It is incredibly useful for CM's, ESPECIALLY just before your group pops invis potions.

    But other than that, don't go nuts trying to optimize every little stat/talent/glyph/whatever. Play with how you're comfortable. If you feel you want more spirit, get more spirit. If you want more mastery, get more mastery. Again, as long as your group is smart about mechanics and you and your tank prepare for big pulls accordingly, you'll be fine.

  13. #13
    Not going to lie, I didn't regem my gear at all, and I did them all around 570+ Ilvl and only switched out my helm and a neck piece with 2 gem sockets. I pugged them through oqueue and I didn't have any issues with them at all. Don't over think it, and watch the youtube videos on them. You'll be fine!

  14. #14
    Herald of the Titans Dristereau's Avatar
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    Can't say much about playing a Resto Druid personally, but I do know a very good one who I play with often and heals CMs.
    Heart of the Wild is fantastic for helping with timers, especially if you do it without Heroism. Best example is Yan-Zhee the Uncasked in Stormstout Brewery, you can add 40-50k DPS onto the groups damage, and this can be used usually two times per dungeon. It has also helped us on the MSP final boss as well as well as Scarlet Monastery when carrying my crappy Rogue But in general it is extremely useful to help the group. Stampeding Roar just before using Invis potions can help for tight spaces, such as skipping the trash up to the second boss in MSP.

    From my experience from others and healing from a Resto Shaman POV, listed below are extremely dangerous pulls;

    Siege of Niuzao Temple: 3rd Boss runs to middle and pulls all adds. Tank damage taken goes through the roof. Can be the most terrifying pull of all.
    Gate of the Setting Sun: RNG with bombs pulling all the trash up to the fist boss, stacking up and using CC/Healing CDs are vital.
    Stormstout Brewery: The 40 Monkeys all at once means some massive damage at the Tank just before the first boss.
    Scarlet Monastery: Trash pack after the neutral mobs after the first boss. Often requires interrupts and good healing.
    Shado-Pan Monastery: Sha boss does some crazy damage, you may have Mana issues on him gemming for throughput, and he does a ton of damage.
    Scholomance: The entire room between Rattlegore and Lillian Voss requires Tank CDs and some crazy healing. Can be very easily a wipe.
    Mogu-Shan Palace. All trash up to the first boss. Tank can get stunned by the Quillen and will just drop. Stuns, snares etc help to keep the Tank alive, but if they stay in Melee too long they will get murdered.

    Jade Temple and Scarlet Halls are not as bad. I love having a Druid Healer in groups I do, they feel extremely strong. Remember to have Invis Potions for all but Gate, Siege and Stormstout. Klaxxi Amber crystals are absolutely fantastic.

    Jade Temple, Scholomance and Shado-Pan are the easiest of them. Gate has a terrible first pull but after that its fairly smooth. Same with MSP, although the timer often feels tight. Scarlet Monastery can feel tight, and the trash in there and Halls hits like a truck. Stormstout can be problematic, but the last boss is usually where things go wrong, or the Monkeys. Siege can be smooth, but depending on the 3rd boss will depend on Gold or not (Recently did that with a Guildies Alt Tank who had difficulties due to not playing it much).

    Relax, have fun, enjoy them. For me, I love the challenge of these instances and pushing the get Golds. Whats your Group comp?
    Personal Experience anyways, in case you're curious; Tanked on Four Classes, DPS'd on Two (Working on Two) and Healed on One. Hope some of this is helpful
    Dristereau - Axxolentus - Infernus - Sequentia - Nulo - Desterrar

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  15. #15
    Blademaster Vidaria's Avatar
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    CMs on my resto druid (my main) were probably some of the most rewarding times I've had in WoW!

    My tips:

    - I went with socket heavy gear, the engineering helm, and the dragonling engineering trinket as the sockets don't scale down.
    - I had to micromanage my Haste to scale
    - Klaxxi Restorative Ambers were magic

    I did this with my guild in the early stages, so I have no doubt people can pug it now. You should be fine

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