[Resto] Druid Guide - 5.0+

[Dendrek]

The percent. Since the value we need to focus on for Crit is the percent, I wanted to be consistent and refer to Mastery's percent as well.

[Skelly]

Just to be sure about mastery : we are speaking about the % stated into the TOOLTIP on your character sheet ? Or about the number directly on the sheet ?

The number on the sheet times 1.25 will give you the correct percentage.. The tooltip truncates the value to the nearest percent but, but the value isn't actually truncated.

[Deleted]

Thank you!!

[Departeg]

I do not have nourish in my healing rotation..its now fun

[tangedyn]

I've updated my spreadsheet to show IEP values for specific Heal spells, so you can use that to compare Mastery vs Critical Strikes based on your own stats and talents.

I see a lot of Mastery vs Crit debate, but not enough mention that it is highly dependent on your Talents. If you don't have Living Seed, then Mastery will always be equal or better than Critical Strikes - and this is with Average Efflorescence Targets set to only 1, with the exception of Rejuvenation (where the large number of additive multipliers highly reduce the effectiveness of Mastery). The Healing models show that Mastery still beats Critical Strike for all the Healing Models.

If you get (what seems to be the recommended spec now) 2/3 Living Seed + 2/3 or 3/3 Nature's Bounty, Mastery and Critical Strike becomes very close (with Average Efflorescence Targets set to 1). It's a slight win for Mastery for the Raid Healing models and a slight win for Critical Strikes for the MT Healing models. Average Efflorescence Targets at 1 is very low though, I think a realistic number is 2 or maybe slightly higher, in which case Mastery becomes the clear winner over Critical Strike.

Note that my model does favor Wild Growth over Rejuvenation and to maximize SHPS it tries to use Wild Growth on every cooldown while Rejuvenation usage is limited by mana. If you use more Rejuvenations and less Wild Growths, Critical Strike may close the gap. This is probably balanced by my model always using Healing Touch for OOC procs (it does more healing for the same 0 mana cost) instead of what seems to be the more popular Regrowth. As long as you have at least 1 point in Nature's Bounty, Mastery will be better than Crit for Regrowth.

[Dendrek]

Tangedyn, do you disagree with the recommendation to stack Mastery until your percent mastery around 1.25* your percent crit, raid buffed?

[Alzu]

Few Pointers:
Never, use cloth. 5% int is too much to waste. To beging raiding, make sure you have no cloth pieces.

Damn, I guess you aren't as perfect as I thought . Nah, just kidding. Thanks for the awesome guide <3.

[tangedyn]

Tangedyn, do you disagree with the recommendation to stack Mastery until your percent mastery around 1.25* your percent crit, raid buffed?

I can see the mathematical basis for this rule-of-thumb. It's mostly correct although it doesn't quite take into account additive effects which, although negligible in most cases, can severely affect Regrowth and Rejuvenation. Also it assumes 0 Efflorescence and 0 Living Seed, both of which have a huge effect on the Mastery/Crit balance. So I can't quite recommend that rule-of-thumb over a decently-accurate spreadsheet.

[Dendrek]

Keep the following in mind:

1. Unless that sheet says to get 15% Mastery, or some other small/easily reachable number, it's not likely to advise getting a number that is even reachable. More likely than not, it will recommend getting 23%+ Mastery, and you need almost BiS gear to do that.
2. The recommendation doesn't assume 0 Efflorescence. If it did, then Crit would be ranked much higher (since it is much stronger for Rejuv than Mastery is), to the point that it would likely be ok to leave Mastery somewhat low.
3. Living Seed, although a semi useful talent, really doesn't provide a lot of healing, so the impact it has on the value of Crit is marginal.

[tangedyn]

1. Unless that sheet says to get 15% Mastery, or some other small/easily reachable number, it's not likely to advise getting a number that is even reachable. More likely than not, it will recommend getting 23%+ Mastery, and you need almost BiS gear to do that.

Of course, which is why I think that recommendations to go Critical Strike now is a little premature. And the break-even point will always be a moving target because better gear gives you more Intellect... which again increases your Critical Strike Chance.

2. The recommendation doesn't assume 0 Efflorescence. If it did, then Crit would be ranked much higher (since it is much stronger for Rejuv than Mastery is), to the point that it would likely be ok to leave Mastery somewhat low.

In which case I can no longer see the mathematical basis for the rule of thumb. It would be more acceptable if you state your assumptions when deriving this rule of thumb, and try to confirm that the value matches breakpoints that are found using more accurate tools like spreadsheets.

3. Living Seed, although a semi useful talent, really doesn't provide a lot of healing, so the impact it has on the value of Crit is marginal.

It depends on the healing model used. The impact is pretty large for MT healing.... and it's not my place to judge if we should totally ignore MT healing models.

[Dendrek]

Can you demonstrate, in a worst-case scenario, in which the rule of thumb is not very close to accurate (using a spreadsheet or whatever tool you like)? I don't disagree that a spreadsheet would be useful when you get close to the rule of thumb. But the point of that rule is for people who are far away from the recommended values, that since they are far away stacking mastery is all they need to worry about. Maybe a note should be added to the rule of thumb "When you get close to even values of Mastery and Crit, use (x tool/spreadsheet) to help find the exact breakpoint that's best for you." But again, you seem to be convinced that it's possible that the recommendation will be completely off for some people, and from the research and math I've done I can't believe that's the case.

[Deleted]

hey guys, so i have leveled a restro druid for cata and loving it, raiding fl atm and got ma shoulders,head and wrists which is brilliant xD

but something that is bothering me is that im not sure wether or not to go 1h and off hand or to sue a staff now there is a nice staff from beth which do the job or that off hand int from i think shannox and all i would have to do then is to find a decent off hand... now say the staff didnt drop but...i grinded out some arena for a couple of weeks and just got the pvp staff and just did some reforging..

mana is not a problem for me and i never over heal in a boss fight ( in comparison to other druids) so what do u guys think ??

[KittyPrawn]

Don't know if it is important for you to add, but you can also get the 5% crit buff from Hunters using a wolf pet.

[cleotaurus]

hey guys, so i have leveled a restro druid for cata and loving it, raiding fl atm and got ma shoulders,head and wrists which is brilliant xD

but something that is bothering me is that im not sure wether or not to go 1h and off hand or to sue a staff now there is a nice staff from beth which do the job or that off hand int from i think shannox and all i would have to do then is to find a decent off hand... now say the staff didnt drop but...i grinded out some arena for a couple of weeks and just got the pvp staff and just did some reforging..

mana is not a problem for me and i never over heal in a boss fight ( in comparison to other druids) so what do u guys think ??

I am not sure exactly what your asking because what you typed is not very coherent....but generally I would just go with whatever has the higher ilvl. I think mainhand/offhand favors int slightly but the difference isn't worth using a lower level set of items - just go with whatever has the stats you desire the most with the highest ilvl.

[Deleted]

Just a quick question, what should I use, Chellys or this 1h/oh http://www.wowhead.com/compare?items...7:71022.0.4091

[Cerelli]

the MH/OH combo is better, Super.

[Deleted]

the MH/OH combo is better, Super.

Thanks a lot, thats what I had thought! Shame though, chelly's has been with me for ages and looks awesome

[Vanyali]

Concerning Eye of Blazing Power:

Everything I've been able to read and find says 45s ICD and checks of how often it proc'd for our disc priest (granted, i only checked it once as it seemed to confirm the 45s icd) seemed to support it, but you're saying it actually has a 10s ICD. Is there anywhere I can see this?

[Myrrar]

That was pre-patch. I haven't tested it or even really thought about it since, lol. It may be 45 on live, I'll look into it and update it.

[Vanyali]

Alright, that makes sense. I was looking over the logs again and for our disc it seems to stick pretty steady at 45s, so I was really, really, REALLY confused xD