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Allow me to quote the brilliant Jong:
"Healers are your sugarmommas. They’re your doctors. I’m not talking about some pussy dentists who sit in air-conditioned offices all day. They are Airborne Ranger Combat Medics who are all up in the frontline crossfire with you. They’re applying a 4-point tourniquet to your leg while giving CPR to the fading warlock next to you with bombs exploding all over the place. Give them the proper respect they deserve. AR EE ES PEE EE CEE TEE find out what it means to me.
"Don’t link the damage meter. No one cares. Link the healing meter after an intense fight and throw out empty fluffy compliments. Don’t just say, “nice heals”. FLUFF IT UP. Say “holy sweet jeebus! how is that even possible?!?” or “OMG them chain heals were CLUTCH”. As of 3.1 giving out compliments cost no gold. I just checked the realm patch notes and it’s still going to cost no gold in 3.2."
I mean, yeah, I know, he's only complimenting us to save his own ass because he wants sweet heals coming his way, but I don't care. <3.
That is all. =D
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Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Which talents should I take?
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So I've been playing around with my talent points a bit.
There are always talents that are no brainers: Living Spirit, Swiftmend, Gift of Nature, Nature's Swiftness, etc. But what about those few different 3 point talents in our resto (and balance) tree that require some picking and choosing? The ones that you *could* take, but oh - wait - then again, I could take this one over here! Or - what if I put 2 points in there, take one point from that over there, and then stack the other three here?
Hm.
Of all the talents in our trees, these are the ones that I find to be "opt in" or "extra" talents. Essentially, you put all your mandatory points where you need them, and then look at the points you've got left and think, "Hm, which should I take?" Keep in mind that I'm not even considering any Healing Touch talents here - this is strictly from the basis of a standard talent spec, focusing on improved hots.
Natural Perfection
Living Seed
Nature's Grace (balance tree)
Revitalize
Natural Perfection: is a nice little crit booster. We've got Nature's Bounty in the resto tree, and Nature's Majesty in the balance tree, both of which will boost Regrowth and Nourish, and Natural Perfection will increase this as well. If you accidentally pull aggro or an add comes after you, there's also a chance you'll take reduced damage, which goes nicely with Barkskin. This mechanic is also *really* handy in arenas and battlegrounds.
Should you take Natural Perfection? Yes, if you're planning on taking Living Seed or Nature's Grace (more on them later) - both of them rely on crit to proc, so pairing them up with NP is a great idea - AND if you use a lot of direct heals, like Regrowth and Nourish. If you're more of a hots-heavy healer, then this probably isn't worth the three points.
Living Seed: As was just mentioned, this talent relies on crit, which goes really well with Natural Perfection. The more crit you have, the more times Living Seed will proc. Now, how much does Living Seed actually heal for? Just for a benchmark here: in the past five raids, Living Seed has consistently accounted for 3% of my healing. That's a nice chunk of passive healing there! Let's look at it from a different angle: Let's say you hit your main tank with a Nourish crit for 10,000. This plants a 3k Living Seed on her. The next melee swing that hits her lands for 8,000. 3k of that is instantly healed up. Note that Living Seed is reactionary - it doesn't *mitigate* the damage You also know that it will rarely be a wasted overheal - it only "blooms" when the target takes damage, so it's a very efficient mechanic. Should you take Living Seed? I think it's a great choice if you use a lot of direct healing spells. I know that I use Nourish a lot on the tank AND the raid, so regardless of my role on any given fight, Living Seed is proccing quite a lot. It's a bit of an extra cushion, which is very helpful on intense fights.
Nature's Grace: I always poo-pooed Nature's Grace, because of it's 3 second limitation. "When it procs, it's only active for three seconds? Pfft. Lame! That's like, one spell!" Well, actually, it's like two spells. And get this: Nature's Grace is amazing. Take this situation:
1. You Rejuv everyone you can in anticipation of raid damage.
2. Massive raid damage comes in.
3. You WG the melee.
4. You start to spam Nourish on everyone you can, which is buffed from all of your hots.
5. Nature's Grace procs, giving you a one second Nourish (or close to it).
6. Your second Nourish crits again.
7. Your fourth Nourish crits.
8. Nature's Grace continues to be "chained" by crits, giving you a continuous stream of ridiculously quick heals.
Of course this chain isn't guaranteed to continue - there's going to be a time where you don't crit for a while, and the haste proc will drop off. But I've found that it procs quite often, and is really, really helpful (for reference, I've got 17.18% crit unbuffed).
So should you take Nature's Grace? Or, rather - when should you NOT take Nature's Grace? I don't think you should take it if you already have a lot of haste - I'm taking 400 or 450+ here. Also, keep in mind your raid composition. There are certain classes and specs that will give you increased haste. Do you have a Boomkin who consistantly raids with you? Improved Moonkin Aura will help your haste. How bout a ret paladin? They'll have the talent Swift Retribution. Also, shaman can put down a Wrath of Air totem - and then add Heroism or Bloodlust in there, and bam, you've got like instant cast Nourishes (I kid. No, you won't have insta-cast Nourishes. But yes, you will be casting really quickly). However, remember that even if you can get your Nourishes down to like, 0.7 second casts, you still have the 1 sec. global cooldown hard line to wait out.
But if you don't have a buttload of haste, and you don't have a moonkin or shaman who raids regularly with you, then yes, take Nature's Grace! As a reference point, I've got 363 haste, and we DO have a boomkin who raids with us, and shaman as well, and I still have Nature's Grace and love it. The only time my Nourish breaks under the 1 sec cast time mark is if heroism is up - and even that's fine, because I can rock out Regrowth and not have it clip the GCD (assuming I have enough mana to spam Regrowth).
My point is, I love Nature's Grace. I have saved *many* a raider with it. Try it out, see if you like it. I think you will.
Revitalize: This is an overall 'help the raid' type ability. It used to only work with Rejuv, but now it works with Rejuv AND Wild Growth. This is nice, because it spreads out it's proc rate over many people at once. Got a rogue spamming button number 4 to get off a a Mutilate? Revitalize procs, and they'll be able to hit that 0.8 seconds sooner than usual. Got a caster DPSer with a 20k mana pool desperately wanding until they regen more mana? Revitalize gives them an instant 200 mana.
So. Is it worth it? Should you take it? For an extremely in-depth analysis of Revitalize, check out Kae's post from Dreambound here. She put a lot of work into it, and it's a really amazing read. Basically, it turns out that yes, it is pretty useful if you use a lot of Rejuvs and WGs. It can proc off of each individual tick. It will even proc on people who have hots ticking on them but are at full health - there doesn't need to be actual healing done for it to go off. Kae mentions in her article that her husband (a DK) will even ask for a rejuv before a pull goes live, simply for the chance to get some runic power. Neat stuff!
After all is said and done, I've decided on Natural Perfection, Nature's Grace, and Living Seed. However, I think that Revitalize should be taken into consideration as well. If you have multiple resto druids in the raid, it would be nice for at least one of them to take Revitalize for it's resource regening ability. What talents do you all have?
.
So I've been playing around with my talent points a bit.
There are always talents that are no brainers: Living Spirit, Swiftmend, Gift of Nature, Nature's Swiftness, etc. But what about those few different 3 point talents in our resto (and balance) tree that require some picking and choosing? The ones that you *could* take, but oh - wait - then again, I could take this one over here! Or - what if I put 2 points in there, take one point from that over there, and then stack the other three here?
Hm.
Of all the talents in our trees, these are the ones that I find to be "opt in" or "extra" talents. Essentially, you put all your mandatory points where you need them, and then look at the points you've got left and think, "Hm, which should I take?" Keep in mind that I'm not even considering any Healing Touch talents here - this is strictly from the basis of a standard talent spec, focusing on improved hots.
Natural Perfection
Living Seed
Nature's Grace (balance tree)
Revitalize
Natural Perfection: is a nice little crit booster. We've got Nature's Bounty in the resto tree, and Nature's Majesty in the balance tree, both of which will boost Regrowth and Nourish, and Natural Perfection will increase this as well. If you accidentally pull aggro or an add comes after you, there's also a chance you'll take reduced damage, which goes nicely with Barkskin. This mechanic is also *really* handy in arenas and battlegrounds.
Should you take Natural Perfection? Yes, if you're planning on taking Living Seed or Nature's Grace (more on them later) - both of them rely on crit to proc, so pairing them up with NP is a great idea - AND if you use a lot of direct heals, like Regrowth and Nourish. If you're more of a hots-heavy healer, then this probably isn't worth the three points.
Living Seed: As was just mentioned, this talent relies on crit, which goes really well with Natural Perfection. The more crit you have, the more times Living Seed will proc. Now, how much does Living Seed actually heal for? Just for a benchmark here: in the past five raids, Living Seed has consistently accounted for 3% of my healing. That's a nice chunk of passive healing there! Let's look at it from a different angle: Let's say you hit your main tank with a Nourish crit for 10,000. This plants a 3k Living Seed on her. The next melee swing that hits her lands for 8,000. 3k of that is instantly healed up. Note that Living Seed is reactionary - it doesn't *mitigate* the damage You also know that it will rarely be a wasted overheal - it only "blooms" when the target takes damage, so it's a very efficient mechanic. Should you take Living Seed? I think it's a great choice if you use a lot of direct healing spells. I know that I use Nourish a lot on the tank AND the raid, so regardless of my role on any given fight, Living Seed is proccing quite a lot. It's a bit of an extra cushion, which is very helpful on intense fights.
Nature's Grace: I always poo-pooed Nature's Grace, because of it's 3 second limitation. "When it procs, it's only active for three seconds? Pfft. Lame! That's like, one spell!" Well, actually, it's like two spells. And get this: Nature's Grace is amazing. Take this situation:
1. You Rejuv everyone you can in anticipation of raid damage.
2. Massive raid damage comes in.
3. You WG the melee.
4. You start to spam Nourish on everyone you can, which is buffed from all of your hots.
5. Nature's Grace procs, giving you a one second Nourish (or close to it).
6. Your second Nourish crits again.
7. Your fourth Nourish crits.
8. Nature's Grace continues to be "chained" by crits, giving you a continuous stream of ridiculously quick heals.
Of course this chain isn't guaranteed to continue - there's going to be a time where you don't crit for a while, and the haste proc will drop off. But I've found that it procs quite often, and is really, really helpful (for reference, I've got 17.18% crit unbuffed).
So should you take Nature's Grace? Or, rather - when should you NOT take Nature's Grace? I don't think you should take it if you already have a lot of haste - I'm taking 400 or 450+ here. Also, keep in mind your raid composition. There are certain classes and specs that will give you increased haste. Do you have a Boomkin who consistantly raids with you? Improved Moonkin Aura will help your haste. How bout a ret paladin? They'll have the talent Swift Retribution. Also, shaman can put down a Wrath of Air totem - and then add Heroism or Bloodlust in there, and bam, you've got like instant cast Nourishes (I kid. No, you won't have insta-cast Nourishes. But yes, you will be casting really quickly). However, remember that even if you can get your Nourishes down to like, 0.7 second casts, you still have the 1 sec. global cooldown hard line to wait out.
But if you don't have a buttload of haste, and you don't have a moonkin or shaman who raids regularly with you, then yes, take Nature's Grace! As a reference point, I've got 363 haste, and we DO have a boomkin who raids with us, and shaman as well, and I still have Nature's Grace and love it. The only time my Nourish breaks under the 1 sec cast time mark is if heroism is up - and even that's fine, because I can rock out Regrowth and not have it clip the GCD (assuming I have enough mana to spam Regrowth).
My point is, I love Nature's Grace. I have saved *many* a raider with it. Try it out, see if you like it. I think you will.
Revitalize: This is an overall 'help the raid' type ability. It used to only work with Rejuv, but now it works with Rejuv AND Wild Growth. This is nice, because it spreads out it's proc rate over many people at once. Got a rogue spamming button number 4 to get off a a Mutilate? Revitalize procs, and they'll be able to hit that 0.8 seconds sooner than usual. Got a caster DPSer with a 20k mana pool desperately wanding until they regen more mana? Revitalize gives them an instant 200 mana.
So. Is it worth it? Should you take it? For an extremely in-depth analysis of Revitalize, check out Kae's post from Dreambound here. She put a lot of work into it, and it's a really amazing read. Basically, it turns out that yes, it is pretty useful if you use a lot of Rejuvs and WGs. It can proc off of each individual tick. It will even proc on people who have hots ticking on them but are at full health - there doesn't need to be actual healing done for it to go off. Kae mentions in her article that her husband (a DK) will even ask for a rejuv before a pull goes live, simply for the chance to get some runic power. Neat stuff!
After all is said and done, I've decided on Natural Perfection, Nature's Grace, and Living Seed. However, I think that Revitalize should be taken into consideration as well. If you have multiple resto druids in the raid, it would be nice for at least one of them to take Revitalize for it's resource regening ability. What talents do you all have?
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
A Question for Trees: Mitigation in Ulduar
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Occasionally, I'll be featuring some guest posts on my blog. Today, our resident rawr-tank, Aeman, brings up an interesting point about our role (or lack thereof) as damage mitigators.
Hi trees!
I was going to write a post for Averna about tanking in Ulduar. Specifically, I was going to write about adjustments I made to my tanking spec because of the heavy hitting bosses in the instance (compared to the pantywaists in Naxxramas). I was specced for threat to keep ahead of our extremely... zealous hunters in Naxx, but in Ulduar I've scrambled for every scrap of survivability I can find. When a trash mob can 2-shot you, you know you've got problems.
My Exhibit A, my golden child, was of course Steelbreaker. You stand him on a Rune of Power and try and eat one of his Fusion Punches, and you'll quickly discover a new meaning of the word "floor". Hodir's Frozen Blows, hitting the tank for 40k while the rest of the raid is sucking down 2000dps AOE damage? Ow.
As I was writing this, I realized that you trees probably don't care too much about what *I'm* doing to survive Ulduar's bosses. The important part is that I put my pants back on, get out of Aquatic Form, and hit my Mangle button, right? So I figured I'd try and offer you some tips to work *with* me/your tank so we ALL survive and get shiny epix. Back to Steelbreaker I went. The first Punch, I always throw up my Barkskin to reduce the incoming damage. But Punches come too frequently for me to mitigate every one, so I depend on my healers to throw me one of their awesome preventative/mitigating abilities.
...And I realized that druids don't have a single ability to help their tank prevent, mitigate, or avoid incoming damage. Not one. Tons of HOTs, a big heal, even a reactive heal in Living Seed... but no shield. And that's kind of a glaring omission in my mind. There are attacks in this game that WILL one-shot a tank who doesn't have a mitigation ability active, and resto druids just can't care about it. What's the point? You don't have any ability that could make a difference against that attack, no matter how awesome a healer you are.
So I got you guys this:
Yeah, I know you already have a talent with that name, but that's not the point. What do you think? Do you wish you had a preventative ability? Does not having one make your job harder? Do you think (or have you found) that it affects your perceived viability in high-end content?
.
Occasionally, I'll be featuring some guest posts on my blog. Today, our resident rawr-tank, Aeman, brings up an interesting point about our role (or lack thereof) as damage mitigators.Hi trees!
I was going to write a post for Averna about tanking in Ulduar. Specifically, I was going to write about adjustments I made to my tanking spec because of the heavy hitting bosses in the instance (compared to the pantywaists in Naxxramas). I was specced for threat to keep ahead of our extremely... zealous hunters in Naxx, but in Ulduar I've scrambled for every scrap of survivability I can find. When a trash mob can 2-shot you, you know you've got problems.
My Exhibit A, my golden child, was of course Steelbreaker. You stand him on a Rune of Power and try and eat one of his Fusion Punches, and you'll quickly discover a new meaning of the word "floor". Hodir's Frozen Blows, hitting the tank for 40k while the rest of the raid is sucking down 2000dps AOE damage? Ow.
As I was writing this, I realized that you trees probably don't care too much about what *I'm* doing to survive Ulduar's bosses. The important part is that I put my pants back on, get out of Aquatic Form, and hit my Mangle button, right? So I figured I'd try and offer you some tips to work *with* me/your tank so we ALL survive and get shiny epix. Back to Steelbreaker I went. The first Punch, I always throw up my Barkskin to reduce the incoming damage. But Punches come too frequently for me to mitigate every one, so I depend on my healers to throw me one of their awesome preventative/mitigating abilities.
...And I realized that druids don't have a single ability to help their tank prevent, mitigate, or avoid incoming damage. Not one. Tons of HOTs, a big heal, even a reactive heal in Living Seed... but no shield. And that's kind of a glaring omission in my mind. There are attacks in this game that WILL one-shot a tank who doesn't have a mitigation ability active, and resto druids just can't care about it. What's the point? You don't have any ability that could make a difference against that attack, no matter how awesome a healer you are.
So I got you guys this:
Yeah, I know you already have a talent with that name, but that's not the point. What do you think? Do you wish you had a preventative ability? Does not having one make your job harder? Do you think (or have you found) that it affects your perceived viability in high-end content?
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Druid Healing 101
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Hi there! Are you not a druid? (*cough*reroll*cough*) Or maybe you're a low level druid or have a druid alt! Do you read through my blog and wonder what GotEM is but are too lazy to look it up on wowhead? Do you lay in bed at night, wide awake, wondering how lolblooms work? Perhaps during the day you stop, puzzled, gaze off into the distance with a look of curiousty, and ponder: Why do trees need so much spirit?
If so: Welcome, treenubs! This is the blog post for you!
Too often, I browse the blogs of other classes and have no idea what's going on. People throw out acronyms like there's no tomorrow. "Use FoF followed by a quick QsE and you'll be good to go!" ....Uh, what huh? Granted, people of that class KNOW what they're talking about, and the blog is written for those particular people, so the blogger isn't really responsible for telling me what FoF stands for, what it's used for, when it's used, and why. If I want to know, I can look it up, right? (Right!) A real life example from the DK forum on Elitist Jerks:
"Currently the best rotation for 44/27 (I actually use 45/26) is a priority rotation and PS is not a part of it. Start with IT, then prioritize HB>FS>IT and blood strike when needed. You'll be pumping out HB every 5 seconds and FS every time it's up so RPM is not needed."
As someone who doesn't play a DK, I have no. idea. what this means. Not that the poster is obligated to explain to a nub like me - it's just that I don't understand it.
And so, I think it might be nice to have a little information about the basics of druid healing, a little FAQ, if you will, for those that are interested.
And without further ado!
What's in a tree's spell arsenal?
We have a variety of heals (seven, to be exact), most of them are heal-over-time heals (aka, hots!). I'll list them here.
Lifebloom (alias Lolbloom; LB), instant cast
The bread and butter of trees everywhere! You spam cast three on the tank, wait til they tick down and are close to expiring, and then cast one more to keep the stack at 3 and refresh it. It costs a LOT of mana to keep these "rolling" (rolling LBs = refreshing a 3 stack before it runs out). You get back some mana if you let it bloom, plus your bloom is bigger if you have more stacks (bloom can crit up to 22k).
LBs tick each second. With good gear (Best in slot Naxx), a three stack on someone will tick for about 1500+ per second.
Rejuvenation (alias Rejuv), instant cast
A basic heal over time. Lasts for ~18 seconds. Ticks for about 2k every 3 seconds. When you put it on someone, it won't start to tick until the third second.
Wild Growth (alias WG, not to be confused with Wintergrasp), instant cast, 6 sec. cool down
Our AoE heal. Target someone, hit WG, and WG will start ticking on people who are near that target who need it the most. A 'smart heal'. It lasts for 7 seconds, and ticks once per second. It'll start off at around 800 per tick, and wind down to around 550 per tick towards the end.
Regrowth, 2.0 sec cast to start, typically a 1.7-1.8 sec cast with average haste
This heal packs a direct punch at the beginning, and then puts a slow hot that continues for ~27 seconds. It ticks every three seconds for about 1.2k. The direct heal portion of Regrowth crits for around 7-8k with good gear.
Nourish, 1.5 sec cast to start, typically 1.2-1.3 sec cast with average haste
A quick direct heal, no hot involved. But, if you have hots on the target, it will heal for more. A nourish that's not buffed by hots crit for about 6k. A nourish that's buffed with a lot of hots will crit for about 10k.
Healing Touch (alias HT), 3 sec cast to start, can be brought down by haste and talents.
Our one big heal. Druids rarely, rarely use this. It can crit for up to 16k in good gear.
Tranquility, a channeled spell. More on this in the "oh sh*t" section!
Too many spells, bah!
Lemme break it down =D
We have 3 spells that are strictly hots. All of these are instant casts:
1. Lifebloom
2. Rejuv
3. Wild Growth
We have 2 spells that are strictly direct heals, with cast times:
1. Nourish
2. Healing Touch
And one spell that's a hybrid of both: Regrowth.
(Tranquility is kind of in a class of it's own, being a channeled spell).
See how that breaks down?
Ok, so which of these healing spells do you actually use?
LB on the tanks - a three stack will do just fine. Keep those three stacks rolling (although it DOES cost a lot of mana to roll them, so we have to keep an eye on our mana).
If our mana gets low, OR, we want to get a big heal on a tank, we can let the 3 stack bloom. This will 1. give us mana back, and 2. give a huge heal to the tank.
Rejuv on the tanks as well.
Regrowth on the tanks as well.
(See a pattern here?)
Essentially, we want as many of our hots as possible on the tanks. That way, when they take damage, we have LB ticking, rejuv ticking, regrowth ticking, etc. The goal is to inch them back up to full health as quickly as possible. This also provides a "buffer" to other healing classes who might have lots of healing spells with cast times. While they're casting, we're helping out by inching the tank's health up.
There's also the raid to worry about, however. If a lot of people take damage, I look for someone who's in the middle of a lot of damaged people and pop a WG on them. This way, I know that all those people will get healed (well, five of them, at least). I also will sometime put one LB, or one rejuv, one some dpsers for "insurance". Rarely will druids use healing touch, because the cast time is just too long.
Nourish is used on raid healing (when you want a speedy heal on random dpsers) and on tank healing (when you have a bunch of hots on the tanks, you know Nourish will help heal them AND be buffed by all those hots).
Ok, but, but, TL,DR! I want to know what heal you use the MOST!
Good question. Unfortunately, there's not a clear cut answer to that.
Some data: In the past two weeks of raiding Ulduar (four raids total), my top three heals have consistantly been 1. Lifebloom, 2. Wild Growth, 3. Nourish. But other healers rely on regrowth more. Some use LBs a lot less than I do. Hell, SOME druid healers put all their talent points into buffing healing touch, and use healing touch a ton (I would say a very, very small percentage of druid healers do this, and only then to fulfill a specific role, like to fill a paladin's shoes. So don't think that's the norm).
What happens when sh*t hits the fan?
We have two "oh shi-!" buttons that we use regularly, and one that we use less regularly.
1. Swiftmend. If you have a rejuv or regrowth on a person, you can swiftmend them and it'll instant-heal them for around 7-8k health (crits for about 13k). Because the cooldown is fairly short (15 seconds), this isn't JUST reserved for tanks. You can swiftmend dps or healers, too, and know that in 15 seconds, it'll be ready to go again.
2. Nature's Swiftness (alias NS). A 3 min. cooldown - I definitely reserve this for tanks if at all possible. The most common way to use Nature's Swiftness is to macro it with Healing Touch - it will make your HT (your biggest heal!) an *instant* heal. (common macro alias: NS + HT).
Both of these are learned about halfway down the healing tree. You have to spec into them.
3. Tranquility. We channel this spell for 8 seconds, and it heals everyone in your party for about 4.5k every 2 seconds. It's got a 10 minute cooldown that can be reduced to 4 minutes with talent points. Keep in mind that it's only a party heal, and it's only for the druid's own party. This is usually a last ditch effort to keep dps alive during huge AoE damage.
Another minor "oh shi-" button that we can use is Barkskin, but this only works on ourselves. We can't cast it on other people, unfortunately. Barkskin is forever touted as a PvP ability (which it is), but it can also be used in PvE. It's got a 1 minute cooldown.
What's tree form do, anyhow? Why do you wanna heal in tree?
Tree form does a few things.
1. It increases our armor!
2. All of the hots we do in tree form that are received by people get straight up increased by 6%. Plus, it increases the overall spell power of your healing ("bonus healing", if you will) by 15% of your spirit. (See why druids want spirit now? ^^)
3. Having the talent point for tree form reduces the cost of mana for ALL healing spells.
So tree form = more healing power + less mana spent. Woot!
What buffs do you bring to raids?
Look for the purple 'splatter' icon for Gift of the Wild. (I know, it's three paws. To me, it's a splatter.) It increases your armor and your stats. You can't lose!
For tanks, we give out Thorns, which is a brown icon of a thorny branch.
What are a few talents that you just can't live without? What's your 51 point talent?
Wild Growth is our 51er! A definite must-have!
And in terms of other talents...
Gift of the Earthmother (alias GotEM) is a talent that's right before the Wild Growth talent. It's a 5 point talent, and I Got 'EM all! (BAHAHA! See wut I did thurr? I am *awesome* /selfhighfive). Remember those three insta-hots I listed above? Well, GotEM reduces the global cooldown that we incur right after we cast them by 0.3 seconds. The GCD is typically 1.5 seconds, but with GotEM, it's 1.2. Sweet! Then you add some haste on top of THAT (because haste reduces cast times, AND global cooldowns), and you can get it down to a sleek one second.
Living Spirit increases our spirit, and in turn, our spell power.
Intensity is also a must-have, and helps with our mana regen. (Intensity and Living Spirit are in the middle of the resto tree).
Omen of Clarity is towards the beginning of resto tree. Heals costing zero mana FTW! It seems to proc fairly often with no internal cooldown, which is nice. I don't believe it procs off of hot ticks.
And finally, the 11 point talent in the Balance tree, Nature's Splendor. This extends some select hot durations. It's where the very typical 11/0/60 spec comes from. =)
So now, gentle reader, you can impress your friends by using GotEM and WG in a sentence together, by throwing the phrase "eleven-zero-sixty" around, or by discussing nature's swiftness macros - all with confidence!!!
Any other basic questions you're dying to have answered? Let me know!
And for an even more in depth guide, read this massive 5 parter from Ice at Druid Main: Part 1: Spells, Part 2: Glyphs, Part 3: Learning Curve, Part 4: Talents, and Part 5: Stats. She also recently updated all of these for 3.1, so make sure you check them out!
Soon to come: Paladin Healing 101, Shaman Healing 101, and Priest Healing 101!
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Hi there! Are you not a druid? (*cough*reroll*cough*) Or maybe you're a low level druid or have a druid alt! Do you read through my blog and wonder what GotEM is but are too lazy to look it up on wowhead? Do you lay in bed at night, wide awake, wondering how lolblooms work? Perhaps during the day you stop, puzzled, gaze off into the distance with a look of curiousty, and ponder: Why do trees need so much spirit?
If so: Welcome, treenubs! This is the blog post for you!
Too often, I browse the blogs of other classes and have no idea what's going on. People throw out acronyms like there's no tomorrow. "Use FoF followed by a quick QsE and you'll be good to go!" ....Uh, what huh? Granted, people of that class KNOW what they're talking about, and the blog is written for those particular people, so the blogger isn't really responsible for telling me what FoF stands for, what it's used for, when it's used, and why. If I want to know, I can look it up, right? (Right!) A real life example from the DK forum on Elitist Jerks:
"Currently the best rotation for 44/27 (I actually use 45/26) is a priority rotation and PS is not a part of it. Start with IT, then prioritize HB>FS>IT and blood strike when needed. You'll be pumping out HB every 5 seconds and FS every time it's up so RPM is not needed."As someone who doesn't play a DK, I have no. idea. what this means. Not that the poster is obligated to explain to a nub like me - it's just that I don't understand it.
And so, I think it might be nice to have a little information about the basics of druid healing, a little FAQ, if you will, for those that are interested.
And without further ado!
What's in a tree's spell arsenal?
We have a variety of heals (seven, to be exact), most of them are heal-over-time heals (aka, hots!). I'll list them here.
Lifebloom (alias Lolbloom; LB), instant cast
The bread and butter of trees everywhere! You spam cast three on the tank, wait til they tick down and are close to expiring, and then cast one more to keep the stack at 3 and refresh it. It costs a LOT of mana to keep these "rolling" (rolling LBs = refreshing a 3 stack before it runs out). You get back some mana if you let it bloom, plus your bloom is bigger if you have more stacks (bloom can crit up to 22k).
LBs tick each second. With good gear (Best in slot Naxx), a three stack on someone will tick for about 1500+ per second.
Rejuvenation (alias Rejuv), instant cast
A basic heal over time. Lasts for ~18 seconds. Ticks for about 2k every 3 seconds. When you put it on someone, it won't start to tick until the third second.
Wild Growth (alias WG, not to be confused with Wintergrasp), instant cast, 6 sec. cool down
Our AoE heal. Target someone, hit WG, and WG will start ticking on people who are near that target who need it the most. A 'smart heal'. It lasts for 7 seconds, and ticks once per second. It'll start off at around 800 per tick, and wind down to around 550 per tick towards the end.
Regrowth, 2.0 sec cast to start, typically a 1.7-1.8 sec cast with average haste
This heal packs a direct punch at the beginning, and then puts a slow hot that continues for ~27 seconds. It ticks every three seconds for about 1.2k. The direct heal portion of Regrowth crits for around 7-8k with good gear.
Nourish, 1.5 sec cast to start, typically 1.2-1.3 sec cast with average haste
A quick direct heal, no hot involved. But, if you have hots on the target, it will heal for more. A nourish that's not buffed by hots crit for about 6k. A nourish that's buffed with a lot of hots will crit for about 10k.
Healing Touch (alias HT), 3 sec cast to start, can be brought down by haste and talents.
Our one big heal. Druids rarely, rarely use this. It can crit for up to 16k in good gear.
Tranquility, a channeled spell. More on this in the "oh sh*t" section!
Too many spells, bah!
Lemme break it down =D
We have 3 spells that are strictly hots. All of these are instant casts:
1. Lifebloom
2. Rejuv
3. Wild Growth
We have 2 spells that are strictly direct heals, with cast times:
1. Nourish
2. Healing Touch
And one spell that's a hybrid of both: Regrowth.
(Tranquility is kind of in a class of it's own, being a channeled spell).
See how that breaks down?
Ok, so which of these healing spells do you actually use?
LB on the tanks - a three stack will do just fine. Keep those three stacks rolling (although it DOES cost a lot of mana to roll them, so we have to keep an eye on our mana).
If our mana gets low, OR, we want to get a big heal on a tank, we can let the 3 stack bloom. This will 1. give us mana back, and 2. give a huge heal to the tank.
Rejuv on the tanks as well.
Regrowth on the tanks as well.
(See a pattern here?)
Essentially, we want as many of our hots as possible on the tanks. That way, when they take damage, we have LB ticking, rejuv ticking, regrowth ticking, etc. The goal is to inch them back up to full health as quickly as possible. This also provides a "buffer" to other healing classes who might have lots of healing spells with cast times. While they're casting, we're helping out by inching the tank's health up.
There's also the raid to worry about, however. If a lot of people take damage, I look for someone who's in the middle of a lot of damaged people and pop a WG on them. This way, I know that all those people will get healed (well, five of them, at least). I also will sometime put one LB, or one rejuv, one some dpsers for "insurance". Rarely will druids use healing touch, because the cast time is just too long.
Nourish is used on raid healing (when you want a speedy heal on random dpsers) and on tank healing (when you have a bunch of hots on the tanks, you know Nourish will help heal them AND be buffed by all those hots).
Ok, but, but, TL,DR! I want to know what heal you use the MOST!
Good question. Unfortunately, there's not a clear cut answer to that.
Some data: In the past two weeks of raiding Ulduar (four raids total), my top three heals have consistantly been 1. Lifebloom, 2. Wild Growth, 3. Nourish. But other healers rely on regrowth more. Some use LBs a lot less than I do. Hell, SOME druid healers put all their talent points into buffing healing touch, and use healing touch a ton (I would say a very, very small percentage of druid healers do this, and only then to fulfill a specific role, like to fill a paladin's shoes. So don't think that's the norm).
What happens when sh*t hits the fan?
We have two "oh shi-!" buttons that we use regularly, and one that we use less regularly.
1. Swiftmend. If you have a rejuv or regrowth on a person, you can swiftmend them and it'll instant-heal them for around 7-8k health (crits for about 13k). Because the cooldown is fairly short (15 seconds), this isn't JUST reserved for tanks. You can swiftmend dps or healers, too, and know that in 15 seconds, it'll be ready to go again.
2. Nature's Swiftness (alias NS). A 3 min. cooldown - I definitely reserve this for tanks if at all possible. The most common way to use Nature's Swiftness is to macro it with Healing Touch - it will make your HT (your biggest heal!) an *instant* heal. (common macro alias: NS + HT).
Both of these are learned about halfway down the healing tree. You have to spec into them.
3. Tranquility. We channel this spell for 8 seconds, and it heals everyone in your party for about 4.5k every 2 seconds. It's got a 10 minute cooldown that can be reduced to 4 minutes with talent points. Keep in mind that it's only a party heal, and it's only for the druid's own party. This is usually a last ditch effort to keep dps alive during huge AoE damage.
Another minor "oh shi-" button that we can use is Barkskin, but this only works on ourselves. We can't cast it on other people, unfortunately. Barkskin is forever touted as a PvP ability (which it is), but it can also be used in PvE. It's got a 1 minute cooldown.
What's tree form do, anyhow? Why do you wanna heal in tree?
Tree form does a few things.
1. It increases our armor!
2. All of the hots we do in tree form that are received by people get straight up increased by 6%. Plus, it increases the overall spell power of your healing ("bonus healing", if you will) by 15% of your spirit. (See why druids want spirit now? ^^)
3. Having the talent point for tree form reduces the cost of mana for ALL healing spells.
So tree form = more healing power + less mana spent. Woot!
What buffs do you bring to raids?
Look for the purple 'splatter' icon for Gift of the Wild. (I know, it's three paws. To me, it's a splatter.) It increases your armor and your stats. You can't lose!
For tanks, we give out Thorns, which is a brown icon of a thorny branch.
What are a few talents that you just can't live without? What's your 51 point talent?
Wild Growth is our 51er! A definite must-have!
And in terms of other talents...
Gift of the Earthmother (alias GotEM) is a talent that's right before the Wild Growth talent. It's a 5 point talent, and I Got 'EM all! (BAHAHA! See wut I did thurr? I am *awesome* /selfhighfive). Remember those three insta-hots I listed above? Well, GotEM reduces the global cooldown that we incur right after we cast them by 0.3 seconds. The GCD is typically 1.5 seconds, but with GotEM, it's 1.2. Sweet! Then you add some haste on top of THAT (because haste reduces cast times, AND global cooldowns), and you can get it down to a sleek one second.
Living Spirit increases our spirit, and in turn, our spell power.
Intensity is also a must-have, and helps with our mana regen. (Intensity and Living Spirit are in the middle of the resto tree).
Omen of Clarity is towards the beginning of resto tree. Heals costing zero mana FTW! It seems to proc fairly often with no internal cooldown, which is nice. I don't believe it procs off of hot ticks.
And finally, the 11 point talent in the Balance tree, Nature's Splendor. This extends some select hot durations. It's where the very typical 11/0/60 spec comes from. =)
So now, gentle reader, you can impress your friends by using GotEM and WG in a sentence together, by throwing the phrase "eleven-zero-sixty" around, or by discussing nature's swiftness macros - all with confidence!!!
Any other basic questions you're dying to have answered? Let me know!
And for an even more in depth guide, read this massive 5 parter from Ice at Druid Main: Part 1: Spells, Part 2: Glyphs, Part 3: Learning Curve, Part 4: Talents, and Part 5: Stats. She also recently updated all of these for 3.1, so make sure you check them out!
Soon to come: Paladin Healing 101, Shaman Healing 101, and Priest Healing 101!
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Dear Non-Healers.
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Today in forum chat (yes, our guild website is cool enough to have a pop out chat feature =D), a hunter guildmate told me he was bored at work and wanted something new to troll (Vortexx, this one's for you! /high five). Sensing that a new blog post was necessary, I asked the burning question on everyone's mind - what should Averna blog about next?! Luthvian came up with the following. and Peli was kind enough to answer questions for an improptu interview (it was actually more like one question, and then some rambling. Whatever.). And without further ado:
DPS and Tanks want to know: what do resto druids want? Or rather, what do all healers want?
Well, a few things.
1. "Oh shit!" Tanks, please know when to use all your crazy "oh shit" cool downs. If the boss enrages and we need another 7 seconds to get him down, please pop survival instincts, barkskin, shield wall, divine intervention (lol jk.)to make sure that your survivability is at it's highest. We will be doing everything we can do keep you alive for as long as possible, and we expect that take advantage of all the available abilities in your arsenal that will assist in achieving this aspiration.
I admit, I changed some of those words around to make it an alliteration. What.
Moving on.
2. U r last. DPS, you should know that typically you're last on the "to-heal" list (I'm sowwy). The tank is the priority, followed by the healers, and then very closely followed by DPS - although usually healers can each fend for themselves. I kind of feel weird healing other healers. It's border line insulting. Kind of. It's just a strange feeling. Unless they have like 5% health and I bring them back with a critted swiftmend or something. That always feels good. Haha, I SAVED your ass! Get healin'!
Regardless, here's a very crude yet handy dandy flow chart.
Simple!
3. Use stuff. I'm pretty bad at this myself. I'll have a health stone chilling on one of my bars for like 4 fights in a row, and it's not like I wasn't taking damage. The warlock brings out more cookies, and I don't need one. What am I, a druid on a diet? Hell no. So yeah - I gotta work on that more. But DPS and tanks - use what you can to help the healers out, especially on long and mana intensive fights. Lifeblood, potions, healthstones, bandages, anything really does help.
4. Stuff you already know. Don't stand in the fire. Don't pull aggro off the tank and get one shotted. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get the adds that are gnawing at my bark OFF ME. Wasting multiple heals on myself just to stay alive when I shouldn't even be taking a SMIDGE of damage is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. If you're using Grid, you can SEE who has aggro. If you can't, then CONFIGURE it that way. If you're not using Grid, then you're WEIRD. Yeah that's right, WEIRD.
um, >.>
So aggro should be on the TANK. Not a HEALER. Get the adds OFF ME. /evil eye
But this is all stuff you already know, right? Right! So, moving on.
5. Pets. We're trying really hard to keep you all alive, really, everyone. That includes your wasps and kitties and imps and Bonemarrowgobblers. But honestly guys, it's unfortunate - typically pets are not high on my list of people/things to heal. Plz don't haet. Hunters, warlocks, and DKs: If your pet dies, I'm sorry. Seriously. I always feel bad when someone dies, but for some reason I feel doubly bad when a player's pet dies. It's not the best healing strategy a lot of times, but I pride myself on bringing back a player's pet from the brink of death. Cause you just *know* that that hunter was like "Awww SHI- oh wow, sweet. haha!" I get a weird satisfaction knowing that I did that ^^
Ok 1. I put a flowchart into a post in my blog, and 2. It's time for me to leave work and go home.
Both of these things make me happy!
/wave
.
Today in forum chat (yes, our guild website is cool enough to have a pop out chat feature =D), a hunter guildmate told me he was bored at work and wanted something new to troll (Vortexx, this one's for you! /high five). Sensing that a new blog post was necessary, I asked the burning question on everyone's mind - what should Averna blog about next?! Luthvian came up with the following. and Peli was kind enough to answer questions for an improptu interview (it was actually more like one question, and then some rambling. Whatever.). And without further ado:
DPS and Tanks want to know: what do resto druids want? Or rather, what do all healers want?
Well, a few things.
1. "Oh shit!" Tanks, please know when to use all your crazy "oh shit" cool downs. If the boss enrages and we need another 7 seconds to get him down, please pop survival instincts, barkskin, shield wall, divine intervention (lol jk.)to make sure that your survivability is at it's highest. We will be doing everything we can do keep you alive for as long as possible, and we expect that take advantage of all the available abilities in your arsenal that will assist in achieving this aspiration.
I admit, I changed some of those words around to make it an alliteration. What.
Moving on.
2. U r last. DPS, you should know that typically you're last on the "to-heal" list (I'm sowwy). The tank is the priority, followed by the healers, and then very closely followed by DPS - although usually healers can each fend for themselves. I kind of feel weird healing other healers. It's border line insulting. Kind of. It's just a strange feeling. Unless they have like 5% health and I bring them back with a critted swiftmend or something. That always feels good. Haha, I SAVED your ass! Get healin'!
Regardless, here's a very crude yet handy dandy flow chart.
Are you a tank?--> yes--> U can has
| hael.
|
no--> Are you a healer?--> yes--> U can has ur
| own hael.
|
no--> Are you DPS?--> yes--> U can has
| left-over hael.
|
no--> Who are you?--> gtfo
Simple!
3. Use stuff. I'm pretty bad at this myself. I'll have a health stone chilling on one of my bars for like 4 fights in a row, and it's not like I wasn't taking damage. The warlock brings out more cookies, and I don't need one. What am I, a druid on a diet? Hell no. So yeah - I gotta work on that more. But DPS and tanks - use what you can to help the healers out, especially on long and mana intensive fights. Lifeblood, potions, healthstones, bandages, anything really does help.
4. Stuff you already know. Don't stand in the fire. Don't pull aggro off the tank and get one shotted. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get the adds that are gnawing at my bark OFF ME. Wasting multiple heals on myself just to stay alive when I shouldn't even be taking a SMIDGE of damage is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. If you're using Grid, you can SEE who has aggro. If you can't, then CONFIGURE it that way. If you're not using Grid, then you're WEIRD. Yeah that's right, WEIRD.
um, >.>
So aggro should be on the TANK. Not a HEALER. Get the adds OFF ME. /evil eye
But this is all stuff you already know, right? Right! So, moving on.
5. Pets. We're trying really hard to keep you all alive, really, everyone. That includes your wasps and kitties and imps and Bonemarrowgobblers. But honestly guys, it's unfortunate - typically pets are not high on my list of people/things to heal. Plz don't haet. Hunters, warlocks, and DKs: If your pet dies, I'm sorry. Seriously. I always feel bad when someone dies, but for some reason I feel doubly bad when a player's pet dies. It's not the best healing strategy a lot of times, but I pride myself on bringing back a player's pet from the brink of death. Cause you just *know* that that hunter was like "Awww SHI- oh wow, sweet. haha!" I get a weird satisfaction knowing that I did that ^^
Ok 1. I put a flowchart into a post in my blog, and 2. It's time for me to leave work and go home.
Both of these things make me happy!
/wave
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Sunday, February 15, 2009
Raid healing
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DPS players always talk about rotations they use, macros to keep up those rotations, etc. When healing as a resto druid, there's a very loose rotation you can use, but in general, *everything* you do is based on what's happening to everyone around you. I feel that healing is the epitome of adaptation.
My loose (emphasis on loose) rotation is something like this (say, if I'm tank healing and throwing some raid heals around when I can):
Ok, did you catch that last part?
Our guild ran a Naxx25 last Wednesday. These are the heals I used:
Wild Growth was almost a THIRD of all my heals. Note that it was also used wisely; only 10% of it was overheal. So it's not like I was running around spamming it every 6 seconds to no avail. 90% of the time, it was needed.
My first thought was, am I doing this wrong? Literally, I heard that stern booming disembodied voice in my head, the voice of, I don't know, the healy wow gods, or perhaps Ghostcrawler, and it's all like: "If you're using wild growth every time it's up, you're doing it wrong." With the reverb and what not? You know what I'm talking about. And then I'm thinking, what if that voice is right??
Blizzard did not intend to have us use WG all the time. They tried to dissuade us from this by implementing the 6 second cool down. And it seems they also don't want us to use every time the cool down is up, either. Blue says:
But I'm finding a use for it...pretty much every time it's up. I mean hell, if people weren't taking so much freaking damage all over the place, maybe I wouldn't spam it. If it was less viable, or cost more mana, or *something*, I would definitely think about using it less.
Some numbers:
A 3 stack of lifeblooms cost 42% base mana.
A regrowth costs 29% base mana.
A wild growth costs 23% mana.
AND: If you've got good spell power and all your buffs, your WG is going to hit for close to 800 on that first tick, and then tick every second for a little less for seven seconds. The last tick is usually somewhere around 500 for each person. So it averages out to roughly 650 per tick. That's like putting 2 lifeblooms (because 2 LBs tick for about 650 a second) on 5 different people (yes, I'm ignoring the bloom, and the extra 3 seconds to LB from talents/glyphs. Just looking at the basic ticks). Which would take 10 GCDs to accomplish. And a ton of mana. Whereas WG takes ONE GCD, and like, no mana at all.
Of course this doesn't mean that you should, as a hard fast rule, put WG on everyone all the time every time it's up - there are situations where it's not the best heal.
And I'm not really advocating that it be nerfed, although I can see how it looks like I am. I mean, it already *was* nerfed with the implement of the 6 second cool down. I guess overall I'm just more surprised that my healing style is WG oriented, and I'm surprised at how good a heal it can be.
The rest of the chart seems pretty normal. Lifebloom, Regrowth, Rejuv, etc. I'm not a big Regrowth healer like some others, but since I've gotten the glyph, I'm working on it. For me, Regrowth is too slow, and I get antsy and impatient waiting for a 1.8 second cast >.<
So "am I doing it wrong"? Well...I don't really think so. I topped the healing charts for that raid overall, and for all bosses (and we have some really great healers in our guild, so I don't really *expect* to top the charts every time.. although one can hope =P). And more importantly, our raid didn't wipe once, on any boss, including Sapph and KT.
Interestingly, the other resto druid in the raid also had WG as his most-used heal.
Are other people finding themselves using WG more often than not, or are we both just an anomaly?
.
DPS players always talk about rotations they use, macros to keep up those rotations, etc. When healing as a resto druid, there's a very loose rotation you can use, but in general, *everything* you do is based on what's happening to everyone around you. I feel that healing is the epitome of adaptation.
My loose (emphasis on loose) rotation is something like this (say, if I'm tank healing and throwing some raid heals around when I can):
- Tank pulls.
- If the tank has low HP overall (which is rarely the case in our Naxx25 runs, but in 10s and 5s the tank might still be in the process of gearing up), I start with a Regrowth to bump him up right away and mitigate any initial damage.
- If the tank is fine on health, I might start with a Regrowth anyway, or I'll go with Rejuv, LB, LB, regrowth, LB (Rejuv first because it takes a bit to start to tick, so I want to get it on there right away).
- Refresh LBs as they tick down.
- Refresh Regrowth before its timer is up (for the glyph).
- Refresh Rejuv as necessary.
- If a DPS takes a spike in damage, I'll use rejuv+swiftmend.
- If the tank, or a necessary DPS takes a ton of damage, I'll use NS+HT. (Necessary = we're trying to beat an enrage timer, for example).
- And I use WG every single time it's up.
Ok, did you catch that last part?
Our guild ran a Naxx25 last Wednesday. These are the heals I used:
Wild Growth was almost a THIRD of all my heals. Note that it was also used wisely; only 10% of it was overheal. So it's not like I was running around spamming it every 6 seconds to no avail. 90% of the time, it was needed.
My first thought was, am I doing this wrong? Literally, I heard that stern booming disembodied voice in my head, the voice of, I don't know, the healy wow gods, or perhaps Ghostcrawler, and it's all like: "If you're using wild growth every time it's up, you're doing it wrong." With the reverb and what not? You know what I'm talking about. And then I'm thinking, what if that voice is right??
Blizzard did not intend to have us use WG all the time. They tried to dissuade us from this by implementing the 6 second cool down. And it seems they also don't want us to use every time the cool down is up, either. Blue says:
"At 6 seconds, you would still want to use CoH/WG in the right situations (though hopefully not *every* time they are up)"
But I'm finding a use for it...pretty much every time it's up. I mean hell, if people weren't taking so much freaking damage all over the place, maybe I wouldn't spam it. If it was less viable, or cost more mana, or *something*, I would definitely think about using it less.
Some numbers:
A 3 stack of lifeblooms cost 42% base mana.
A regrowth costs 29% base mana.
A wild growth costs 23% mana.
AND: If you've got good spell power and all your buffs, your WG is going to hit for close to 800 on that first tick, and then tick every second for a little less for seven seconds. The last tick is usually somewhere around 500 for each person. So it averages out to roughly 650 per tick. That's like putting 2 lifeblooms (because 2 LBs tick for about 650 a second) on 5 different people (yes, I'm ignoring the bloom, and the extra 3 seconds to LB from talents/glyphs. Just looking at the basic ticks). Which would take 10 GCDs to accomplish. And a ton of mana. Whereas WG takes ONE GCD, and like, no mana at all.
Of course this doesn't mean that you should, as a hard fast rule, put WG on everyone all the time every time it's up - there are situations where it's not the best heal.
And I'm not really advocating that it be nerfed, although I can see how it looks like I am. I mean, it already *was* nerfed with the implement of the 6 second cool down. I guess overall I'm just more surprised that my healing style is WG oriented, and I'm surprised at how good a heal it can be.
The rest of the chart seems pretty normal. Lifebloom, Regrowth, Rejuv, etc. I'm not a big Regrowth healer like some others, but since I've gotten the glyph, I'm working on it. For me, Regrowth is too slow, and I get antsy and impatient waiting for a 1.8 second cast >.<
So "am I doing it wrong"? Well...I don't really think so. I topped the healing charts for that raid overall, and for all bosses (and we have some really great healers in our guild, so I don't really *expect* to top the charts every time.. although one can hope =P). And more importantly, our raid didn't wipe once, on any boss, including Sapph and KT.
Interestingly, the other resto druid in the raid also had WG as his most-used heal.
Are other people finding themselves using WG more often than not, or are we both just an anomaly?
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Malygos: owned. BAM! Also, a kind of haphazard Malygos guide for resto druids.
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Our guild downed Malygos 25 on Monday! ^^ /pride
I really enjoy the Malygos fight, a lot. I usually hate quests, dailies, and bosses that have anything remotely to do with a vehicle, but I don't really mind Phase 3 at all. In fact... I kind of enjoy it. Weird, I know.
Some tips/tricks that I learned (in no particular order):
1. If you have two (or more) druids in your group, talk about which people/groups you're going to Rejuv before the vortex. It helps to coordinate so that you're not rejuving the same people, and neglecting others.
1a. Rejuv is your best friend. Use it. Prejuv anyone and everyone you can before the vortex. Don't waste a GCD on healing yourself until you're actually up in the air, (unless you're getting owned, and need one prior to that), because: you'll never be out of range of yourself - whereas other members in the raid will get thrown up into the air haphazardly, and some will be out of range. You should prejuv the people who might end up out of range once you're up in the air. Once you're in the vortex, I find that putting one LB on people who didn't get a rejuv is handy - it ticks quickly, (whereas you have to wait about 3 seconds for the first tick of a rejuv, which *could* potentially be enough time for them to die and go splat... (probably not, but who knows)) and it will bloom soon after they drop to the ground.
2. Eventually after a few wipes, you'll begin to visually see on grid who in your raid has less/more HPs than others based on how little health they have after the vortex. Usually (but not always) clothie dps and healers tend to take more damage in the vortex, due to their lower HP and more flimsy armor.
Edit: I take that back. They don't actually take more damage - the damage is similar across the board. It's simply that their health pool is lower to begin with. Try to throw a LB on these individuals along with the rejuv already placed, simply to ensure that they don't die. It's all about helping people survive.
3. WG used to not work in the vortex (it always gave an "invalid target" error message no matter who you were targetting). Now it works! Yay! Also, throwing out a quick WG as soon as people land after the 'tex is a good way to start topping people off. Everyone lands grouped up in the center, so you know it's going to hit 5 people who need it. (If you're confused about WG, see my handy dandy posts before this one. Lol. Facepalm. ...sigh.)
4. Phase two! Don't stand outside the anti-magic bubble. Don't die. (lolface.) Use your battle rezzes wisely! Rez someone in the middle of a NEW anti-magic bubble, AFTER a deep breath. If the dead are out of range, don't run out of a bubble to rez them. Most likely, you'll both die.
5. Group up between phase 2 and 3, before the platform breaks. Don't get overwhelmed by all the flapping wings. Once you land on your dragon, fly straight up a bit so you're eye level with Malygos. And for the love of god and all that is holy: 1. Put a lucky charm over one person's head, someone who you know will strafe correctly and stay out of the static fields. 2. Stay on top of that person! Looking at your mini map is immensely helpful. Zoom your camera out all the way. Make sure you're grouped up. If you're not, you won't get heals, and you'll die.
6. Healing on Phase 3 goes something like this: 3 3 3 3 3 4! 3 3 3 3 3 4! (yes, with the exclamation points.)
what?
Ok - except also remember that you have to strafe around Malygos in a circle while mashing 3 and 4, and remember to always stay with that one person with the lucky charm on his/her head).
Start by targeting yourself (yourself = YOUR DRAGON. Very important). Put all 5 stacks (button 3) on yourself. After you get to 5 stacks of Revivify on yourself, keep those 5 stacks up. It will heal you. Which is good! Feel free to put a few stacks on other people too (again, button 3) if they're at low health. Remember that you need to target their DRAGON, *not* them. If you have grid expanded enough, you will actually have 50 different boxes on there - 25 raiders, and 25 dragons. Target the dragons! Pressing 4 will use up all your combo points and AoE heal the group. However, it does not eat any of your stacks - you'll still have 5 stacks on yourself, if you're keeping them up with the revivifies (button 3). The more combo points you have when you press 4 to AoE heal, the better the AoE heal is.
7. The Deadly Boss Mobs warning of "Malygos fixes his gaze on you" is just that - a warning. Do NOT hit your fire shield just yet! Wait 2 seconds (literally, count to 2) and THEN hit your shield (which is button number 5). If you don't have enough energy to hit the shield, don't despair - keep focusing on revivifying (damn that word is far too hard to type) yourself, because you *can* heal yourself through his fire blast (or whatever that is).
So there you have it, Malygos 101. Good hunting!
.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
woohoo!!
.
So I was pulled into a Naxx 10 pug about a week ago. A guildmate of mine was organizing it, and they needed a healer. I wasn't planning on doing Naxx10 that week, so I didn't have to worry about a lock out. I said, sure, why the hell not.
So we all get together in Naxx, summon people who aren't there yet, I have the typical personal debate with myself whether or not to talk on vent (people tend to get... interesting when they realize a girl plays WoW), I check out the tank's health points, make sure I have all my food buffs on, reagents, pots, a flask, all that jazz.
After we get through most of the first wing, the spider wing I believe, I'm thinking to myself, why am I doing this?
And it wasn't even like the pug was a bad pug (we did wipe a couple times, but managed to pull everything together in the end). It was simply because 1. I don't need badges of heroism (unless I *really* wanna work on my mediocre tanking set), and 2. I don't need anything that drops off these guys. There's nothing here for me. Granted, I love healing people in PvE, it's why I play the game - and I think that was the inital draw when my guildie asked me to come along.
BUT.
THEN.
*THIS* baby drops:
Embrace of the Spider
I've been waiting for this to drop *forever*. And I completely had forgot that it drops in Naxx10.
AND I won it with a 55. bwuahahah
So at that point, with the combination of Embrace of the Spider AND The Egg of Mortal Essence, I had 2047 spell power in tree form. I remember back when WotLK came out, and my boyfriend's roommate (she's an AWESOME druid healer on another server, in a guild that pushes content) told me that she had 1800 spell power. At the time I had... like, 1420? And I totally died when she said she had 1800. I bemoaned the fact that I would never get there. It just wasn't possible! It couldn't happen! There was NO WAY.
-snrk- LOL
/implode
After giggling over my ridiculous stats, I realized that I had taken out the Spirit-World Glass to put in the new trinket, so I lost a lot of mp5. I think it went from 307 mp5 while casting down to 270-something. So I regemmed a couple things (taking out a couple +19 spell power gems, and replacing them with some hybrid gems that had both spell power and spirit) and now my mp5 is up to 291, and my spell power is 2002.
Disgustingly awesome. Needless to say, I am happy ^^
=D
So I was pulled into a Naxx 10 pug about a week ago. A guildmate of mine was organizing it, and they needed a healer. I wasn't planning on doing Naxx10 that week, so I didn't have to worry about a lock out. I said, sure, why the hell not.
So we all get together in Naxx, summon people who aren't there yet, I have the typical personal debate with myself whether or not to talk on vent (people tend to get... interesting when they realize a girl plays WoW), I check out the tank's health points, make sure I have all my food buffs on, reagents, pots, a flask, all that jazz.
After we get through most of the first wing, the spider wing I believe, I'm thinking to myself, why am I doing this?
And it wasn't even like the pug was a bad pug (we did wipe a couple times, but managed to pull everything together in the end). It was simply because 1. I don't need badges of heroism (unless I *really* wanna work on my mediocre tanking set), and 2. I don't need anything that drops off these guys. There's nothing here for me. Granted, I love healing people in PvE, it's why I play the game - and I think that was the inital draw when my guildie asked me to come along.
BUT.
THEN.
*THIS* baby drops:
Embrace of the Spider
I've been waiting for this to drop *forever*. And I completely had forgot that it drops in Naxx10.
AND I won it with a 55. bwuahahah
So at that point, with the combination of Embrace of the Spider AND The Egg of Mortal Essence, I had 2047 spell power in tree form. I remember back when WotLK came out, and my boyfriend's roommate (she's an AWESOME druid healer on another server, in a guild that pushes content) told me that she had 1800 spell power. At the time I had... like, 1420? And I totally died when she said she had 1800. I bemoaned the fact that I would never get there. It just wasn't possible! It couldn't happen! There was NO WAY.
-snrk- LOL
/implode
After giggling over my ridiculous stats, I realized that I had taken out the Spirit-World Glass to put in the new trinket, so I lost a lot of mp5. I think it went from 307 mp5 while casting down to 270-something. So I regemmed a couple things (taking out a couple +19 spell power gems, and replacing them with some hybrid gems that had both spell power and spirit) and now my mp5 is up to 291, and my spell power is 2002.
Disgustingly awesome. Needless to say, I am happy ^^
=D
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