[RESTO]
These are my opinions on how to go about the reality of progress, not what is mathematically better when everything is dead. I have fabricated this guide from my own choices that have lead to many 99th percentile ranks during progress (not that healer ranks mean anything). I am not saying this is the hard and fast rule, only sharing information others may find useful.
As Mythic progress approaches us i've decided to share exactly how i'll be going about it.
My armoury: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...aness/advanced
My stream (streaming progress): www.twitch.tv/loganess
Thus far, my knowledge of the fights in heroics has spurred the following choices. I will be playing:
Talents: SoTF + DoC + Germination/Rampant Growth
If 6.1 hits us before progress is over, DoC will be buffed 15% which is even more of reason to not spec anything else. I will also spec Moment of Clarity once it is buffed to 7 seconds as this build is heavily based on leaving rejuv to rest. Rampant Growth VS Germination will depend on the fight. Rampant Growth is basically: Do I want to, and have the mana to Wild Growth every 10seconds instead of 15. Yes = RG, No = Germination. Germination is still useful as you will inevitably have to rejuv now and then.
Glyphs: Wild Growth, Healing Touch / Rebirth, Stampeding Roar
Wild Growth glyph is mandatory with SoTF (and anything for that matter). Avoid rejuv glyph as we will be barely using the spell. Only other useful ones are the other 2.
2 set (Legs + Gloves / Shoulders)
For progress seeing as both our 2set and especially 4set aren't amazingly great we most likely won't see any tier go to us before progress is over. I was lucky enough to coin legs + shoulders however and 2 set plays nice into this build.
Haste > Mastery > Versatility > Crit > Multistrike
Wild Growth will be your main source of healing sitting at between 30 and 40% of your healing breakdown and this spell benefits almost equally from both haste and mastery. Wild Mushroom is the same. DoC however doesn't benefit from Mastery and the faster wrath casts will love your high haste. Tranq is a different matter and will generally do its job regardless of what stats you are using. I put Versatility before crit and multistrike regardless of its under budgeted rating as it is still a flat (not RNG) healing increase aswell as increases your damage (benefitting wraths) and reducing your damage taken. I don't care if damage reduction doesn't show how great you are on the meters, this is progress, thus you are working for your guild not yourself. Crit slightly outweighs multistrike as despite what blizzard have said, DoC still isn't multistriking. (Coming in 6.1)
Gear
Gearwise in progress you just have to take whatever you can get and a BiS list is largely irrelevant, it is up to you to decide whether a lower item level spirit neck is worse than a suboptimal non-spirit neck for example.
Trinket wise I will stick with my Everburning Candle and then aim for Ironspike Chew Toy or Mark of Rapid Replication
Why DoC build?
You have to think of it this way: 1 cast of wrath is almost the same amount of healing (mathematically, 25-30K) as a full rejuv (haste build makes their numbers even closer) EXCEPT it is:
Free
Does damage
Smart Heals
Heals the full amount instantly (less overheal)
With my 2 set I can pump out 3 extended duration regrowths with Nature's Swiftness giving me a regrowth hot to swiftmend off for my SoTF. This saves me the mana in using the rejuv just for something to swiftmend. I can almost sustain SOTF + Wild Growth on cooldown now with my gear for fights like blast furnace and kromog where there is always something to heal.
The playstyle is simply a priority system:
SoTF Wild Growth
Wild Mushroom
Free regrowths with proc/nature's swiftness
Lifebloom
Rejuv ONLY if its going to contribute to saving someone's life (tanks, fixates, large dot etc) / OR you are moving and have no other option
Wrath
An ideal spell breakdown is
Wild Growth - 35%
Tranquility - 15%
Dream of Cenarius - 10%
Wild Mushroom - 10%
Rejuvenation - 10%
Swiftmend - 5%
Ysera's Gift - 5%
Regrowth - 5%
Lifebloom - 5%
The build is huge emphasis on Wild Growth and then wrath, mushroom, lifebloom, clearcast regrowths and nature's swiftness. I call these fillers.
However, its essential you learn the damage pattern of the fight.
For example, an ability has just gone out putting the whole raid at 80% health however you have LEARNT that there is no raid damage coming after that for maybe 10 seconds. There is NO NEED to SOTF wild growth just because people have lost health, instead you can just keeping wrathing and let your fillers bring people up. That is the greatest mistake a healer can make.
I'd like to emphasis that although I am very much backing this build I am not going to be stubborn in any way if I believe other talents would be better used on the fight. I am introducing you to a different and effective way to heal that has diversity over the normal resto druid playstyle.
My best advice to anyone during progress is stop playing the meter competition game and you will see a great increase to your mana regenaration, healing synergy and therefore success.
Here's our Imperator Kill vid from my PoV where I am using DoC. Obviously it's not perfectly played but you can get the idea.
http://www.twitch.tv/loganess/c/5884737
Mythic bosses and how I played them
Gruul
SotF + DoC + Germ
- Make sure to be frontloading the SoTF buff before slices so you can wild growth immediately when it hits
- Tranq in a destructive rampage phase but be aware of the petrified debuff interrupting you
- Try and wrath as much as you can, there's no need to snipe if no other damage is going out. (This is a DPS race)
- There is barely any need to rejuv during inferno slice phases as it will go to overheal, break even on mana expenditure vs regen in these phase to be ready for destructive rampage phase
- Mana isn't so tight on this fight so you can freely rejuv spam during destructive rampage phases. You will be forced to because of movement anyway
- Used a mana potion as didn't see the need to channel for more.
Oregorger
Tree + HotW + Germ
- You can pump out upwards of 80K in the first phase using HoTW early on, and then tree form when its duration hits 30 seconds. Spend mana freely during this period, and tell your other healers they can slack off a little bit.
- The fight is 6-7 minutes, so although you can theoretically get 3 tranqs off you should only use 2. I used mine at the end of the first phase, and then at the start of the last first phase (when the boss is 10-20%) to stabilise after the damage from rolling.
- During rolls you should try to regen, I was only really wild growthing on cooldown except for in emergencies.
- You should get a HoTW off towards the very end although you may be dry. (If you are start wrathing for damage)
- Used a channelled mana potion during the rolls when there was little damage and I was in a safe spot. (Tactic dependant)
Blast Furnace
Hans'gar and Franzok
Tree + HotW + Germ
- I originally went with SoTF + Nature's Vigil on this as it was working very well for each aftershock however our tactic saw us cockblocked by the normal stampers phase every time with lack of healing.
- SoTF works better for overall healing if your tactic doesn't require extensive amounts of healing in heavy mechanic phases.
- There is barely any time to wrath here as you are always moving.
- Mana isn't an issue so you can freely rejuv.
- Depending on your tactic, there was a point where raid damage was high and I had to bring us through with Tree + HoTW
- I was assigned to tranq after the end of the first searing plates phase when we were moving into position for stampers
- Used a normal mana pot as there isn't many mana issues.
Flamebender Ka'graz
SoTF + HoTW + Germ
- My guild killed this in 4 pulls and so I didn't get to do a lot of experimentation.
- I ended up going with those talents as the fight was still messy and I needed HoTW just to get us through wolf phases.
- It can be messy when you are still learning and people will be getting meleed, taking debuffs from the lines, taking lava slash, and molten torrent during the wolves. Scrap your normal healing playstyle and make sure people stay alive, regardless of mana expenditure.
- Ignore trying to spec for firestorms unless your raid comp is lacking cooldowns. (There is generally more than enough to cover it and you shouldn't ever be trying to scumbag for a bigger tranq)
- Used a normal mana potion however there are times when you can channel if you really need it.
Kromog
SotF + ? + Germ
- I was actually DPS'ing for half of the tries on this fight (cause starfall) so don't have the extensive knowledge for the latter parts of the fight.
- Our other resto druid went SoTF + DoC + Germ however didn't find time to wrath that often nor a useful place for HoTW or NV to justify switching
- This fight is/was buggy as hell on the first week of mythic and was doing abilities almost randomly. This means you couldn't really predict when damage would be going out (IE stonebreaths) to plan tree or anything else for that matter.
- The last thing you can do is blame the bug and instead spec for what counters it. (Emphasis on the reality of progress once again)
- SoTF was the best short-length reaction healing for the breaths.
- Tree is a 30 second burst while stone breath is 4 rendering it useless for most of its duration.
- Remember that the healing before and during stonebreath is what matters, in topping the raid off. The health deficits afterwards should be topped off slowly and efficiently. (Stop padding meters in progress for god sake)
- Use a channelled mana potion as there is plenty of time to do so in this fight.
Beastlord Darmac
SoTF + DoC + Germ
- There is almost constant damage going out and if you play the rejuv game you'll be oom within 3 minutes.
- You really need to be reserved on your rejuv uses. (If the raid is 50% you can still wrath). If people take excessive bleed debuffs this will come under the large dot catergory where you may want to rejuv.
- You will be better off spending mana on Wild Growth almost on cooldown. (Don't be stupid about this)
- Heavily refer to everything I described above. You will need to play this fight like my imperator vod.
- Tranq where assigned, and if not you will literally need to free for all it depending on how your raid takes damage.
- Used a channelled mana potion when I found a space to, again this is free for all but is better off done early on if you are 50% mana or less.
Operator Thogar
Tree + NV + Germ
- There is too much movement for DoC and there are 15-30second bursty points in the fight and then nothing, thus Tree shines.
- It will depend on your guilds tactic as to how best this spec will be for you. If you are doing what I believe is the common tactic then cooldowns will line up perfectly. Here's how they went:
- Tree + NV + Berserking + On use trinket +Tranq for when first add spawn and do raid wide damage
- You will then pass through fire, with Tree + NV up, spend mana freely.
- At around the 3minute mark you pass through fire once with NV + On use, and then pass through fire again immediately after, top off the raid with tranq which should be just coming off CD.
- At about the 4:30minute mark you will have to pass through 1 set of fire while you have a man at arms alive, Tree + NV + Berserking + On use, to get through this.
- Use NV as soon as its ready at around the 6minute mark
- At around the 7:30minute mark you will have to pass through 2 sets of fire, get Tree + NV + Berserking + On use up as soon as possible.
- Once you have passed through both sets of fire, get tranq running to top off the raid as there will be a man at arms + burning debuffs.
- At this point the boss should be dying / dead. If not you will be hitting berserk.
- Mana is barely an issue on this fight so freely spend during the intense parts and with your cooldowns up. I still did quite a few wrath casts on this fight just for DPS, and to regen during low damage phases, do not bother trying to snipe.
- Used a normal mana potion as I didn't see the need to channel as mana isn't an issue. There was probably a time where I could have channelled but couldn't be bothered to work it out.
Iron Maidens
Blackhand