Resto Druid pvp, sp vs haste

[nikboe7]

I am relatively new to pvp (first season actively participating in) and I had some questions on which stats are more important as you climb in rating. I'm on a 2v2 team with an Aff lock. Here are my questions:
1. Haste vs SP, which is preferred?
2. How much haste is a good target. Is it better to gem for it or spec for it?
3. How much resilience is recommended as a healer?
4. Is it really necessary to stack hit/spell pen? I understand the good it does, but is it worth the loss in pure SP or haste?

Any advice is appreciated. I'm new to pvp and I'm here to learn.

Thanks in advance.

Link to wowarmory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...thor&cn=Azaria

[Ormula]

1. SP > Haste. But 3300 spell power with zero haste is going to get you or your warlock gibbed.
2. That depends on your talents. I see you have 0 into GOTE, and 2/3 into CF, so I would aim for ~500 haste. Anything below that, I'm sure you notice, really gibs your ability to bring someone up. Regrowth is what, like a 1.8 second cast with that much haste? It hurts. I see you're playing a very offensive spec, but I would personally take 3 points out of Lunar Guidance (which gives ~120 spell power) and instead get the 6% haste (12% on lifebloom) from Gift. You'll see a way higher throughput. (And since we're talking about your spec, 3/3 in Brambles is kind of useless. Yeah, 220 damage thorns is nice, but you're losing out on 2 yards for Cyclone and 1% haste from 3/3 CF)
3. You're playing 2s, right? About 900. Anything more than that isn't needed to survive, and are pretty wasted, as long as you're good at predicting switches (even with just one hot on yourself)
4. Yes. Yes. Yes. With zero spell pen and zero hit, you'll miss 5% of your cyclones, 5% of your moonfires, 5% of your entangling roots, 5% of your IS's. With a druid with paws, that number skyrockets to 15% (5% miss, 10% resist). One in every seven cyclones not hitting is pretty game changing. 75 Spell pen and 5% hit is all you really need. Some classes, I believe, have the extra %miss for spells, but your Relentless ring, the hit neck, and a few gems / enchants will get you 5% pretty easily. For spell pen, I use a 43 JC gem and the 35 cloak (I prefer the haste OH and haste dagger).

Something you might want to consider, even though I see you're almost full wrathful already, is that going 2/2 Boomkin and Resto isn't worth it. You gain some resil (which you're already passed the point you need to be without it), but you lose mana regen and a 13 second swiftmend, which is huge. Some ways I would recommend you lose resilience would be to grab a few PVE pieces that are SP/ Spirit/Haste (I would recommend the Circle of Ossus from badges at least. It's way better than the wrathful belt).

[nikboe7]

Wow, thanks for the information. It was really helpful.

What are your thoughts on Nature's Grace? I don't crit all that much and having only 1 point in it seems kinda silly. However, the benefits from the proc are pretty noticeable (1 sec cyclone and a rejuv ticks hitting once per second are pretty nice). What do you think, 1 point in brambles, and 1 point in NG? 2 pts in NG and 0 in brambles?

I'm still up in the air on the res number. To be honest, I was pretty surprised at your recommendation of ~900. The reason I was stacking so much was because as soon as the other teams saw I was a healer, they would really focus on burning me and all that res really took the edge off and allowed me to heal more casually and focus a little more on cc/dps. Another reason I stacked so much res was to lower the mana drains.

I agree I could afford to drop some res and I'm looking at ways to do so. I don't have a ton of access to other solid 264 pve gear but I'll take a look at the frost gear and see what else there is. Thanks for the belt recommendation. EDIT: I actually just picked that belt up for pve. Nice to know it could be a good cross-over for pvp.

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

[Ormula]

I've always had the same mindset as you as far as NG goes, but I still get 3 points into it due to the fact that when I got behind on healing and there are no silences off cooldown, it's still effective to spam ~.8 second rejuvs (given that they crit pretty much all the time) to get him back up. It's saved my hide when I've gone too offensive too early quite a number of times.

The resilience number is of course a lot up to personal preference and how you and your partner play. I play, for example, extremely slippery, so I can stack spell power and haste while I spam shapeshift and cyclones and let my hots take the work. I feel that since you play with a warlock, you shouldn't really have a problem taking a lot of damage. Make sure he keeps UA up at all times to avoid roots and fears getting dispelled safely on both opponents. If it's a melee, get in the habit of casting entangling roots (I know I was guilty of letting nature's grasp do all the work, but you can pretty much avoid getting hit by any melee ever if you cast roots, get away, cast roots, and keep doing that until they're on DRs, at which point you switch to cyclones. If there's anytime you're feeling a ton of pressure, ask the lock to fear him. And of course, as a druid you can LoS any caster with ease. That's what I don't believe high resilience is necessary. However, I don't play with your warlock, I don't know if he's crazy and runs wherever he pleases and you can't just sit behind a pillar most the game.

The problem with resilience against mana drains, is that... it's not super effective. Mana drain dodging is maybe number two priority behind healing in arenas. Like, even if you stack to the resilience cap, mana drains are still going to hurt. A lot. So it's not like you'll be able to tank them with high enough resilience, you know?