New 3.1 glyphs for druids

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So the 3.1 patch notes were recently released (you can find them in full at mmo-champion here) and it looks like we've got some new glyphs to look at! =O

Glyph of Barkskin -- Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee attacks by 1 to 0% while Barkskin is active.

Lol, PvP.

Moving on!

Glyph of Wild Growth: Wild Growth now affects up to 6 targets.

Is this any good?

There are a couple problems with this that I see right off the bat. First, WG isn't a 100% given - it doesn't always hit up to 5 people, so there's no guarantee that it will hit all 6 people, either. If everyone is lumped together in a group, and 6 people have taken damage, you know it's going to work. But I personally would rather have my glyphs not be "situational." The Glyph of Rejuvenation, for instance, is very situational - it will only work if the tank is below half health. So that means that if the tank never gets below half health, you have a glyph that's just *sitting* there. Useless. Glyph of Swiftmend, however - you KNOW that every single time you hit a swiftmend on someone, it's going to keep that Rejuv or Regrowth ticking. There's no chance involved, no situation where it won't work. It's one of the reasons why it's such a great glyph.

But let's take those examples where you DO hit all 6 people, and let's say that your Wild Growth ticks to it's full potential. You're basically buffing your WG by 20%, by healing an extra person who otherwise wouldn't get any heals from that GCD you just used. That ain't bad. But again, it's situational.

Let's actually crunch these numbers. We'll compare the Glyph of Regrowth with the new Glyph of Wild Growth. We'll assume that all these spells are hitting players for 100% effective healing. We'll also assume that the average WG tick is 650 for 7 seconds on each person.

So, 650*7 = an extra 4,550 healing on that 6th person.

For a Regrowth, let's assume that it initially hits for 5,000, and ticks for 1,000 every 3 seconds for 21 seconds. So with the glyph, it would hit for 6,000 (the +20% of 5,000) and then tick for 1,200 (the +20% of 1,000 per tick) every 3 seconds for 21 seconds. That's an increase of a 1,000 for the healing hit, and a 1,400 total tick. So... 2,400 over roughly 21 seconds.

Let's also assume that you put up a new WG 3 times in a row, every 7 seconds, and it hits 6 people who need it each time. It would be an increase of 4,550 healing * 3 = 13,650 over roughly 21 seconds.

2,400 extra healing done (regrowth glyph over 21 seconds) vs. 13,650 extra healing done (WG glyph over 21 seconds)

You would need to toss out 5.6 glyphed Regrowths in 21 seconds to surpass the bonus healing of 3 glyphed Wild Growths in 21 seconds.

And keep in mind that those 5.6 glyphed Regrowths only work when you *already* have a Regrowth on those targets.

(Which would use 93.4% more base mana.)

(And 11.2 seconds of that 21 seconds would be spent casting.)

(Which actually means that you would need more than 5.6 regrowths in 21 seconds, because with all that casting time, the last few Regrowths don't have time to tick all the way.)

(Am I making any sense?)

Ok, I'll chill with the bolding. =P

However, WG isn't 100% reliable, whereas with Regrowth, as long as you get it on the target in time, you can just let it tick and not worry about it again for another 18+ seconds.

Let's say that WG hits a sixth target only two times out of that 3. Maybe people are too spread out, or whatever. That's still an extra 9,100 healing done, as opposed to 2,400. So let's say you have 3 people with a glyphed Regrowth on them. That's still only 7,200. And I never use Regrowth that much, ever.

(I'm not going to get into what is more likely to be an overheal, because both of these can be ineffective healing at one point or another).

After doing that math, it seems, well... kind of awesome, especially for someone who doesn't use Regrowth very much at all, and uses WG almost always.

Long story short: I'll consider this glyph, simply because I use WG a LOT, and after looking into the numbers more, it seems to do more effective healing on face value that the Regrowth Glyph, but it's not 100% guaranteed, and I would have to consider which of my current glyphs to give up (although after typing all of the above, I'm thinking it'd be the Regrowth one...).

Glyph of Nourish -- Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target.

(Important: all of this could change come 3.1, and I'm just assuming here that Glyph of Nourish will stack with the 4 piece bonus. All of these are assumptions... and like Keeva at Tree Bark Jacket says, take them with a grain of salt!)

This, in additon to the four piece t7/7.5 bonus: Your Nourish heals an additional 5% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target.... might be worth it.

The way I'm reading this, "additional 6%" means on top of the 5% 4 piece bonus. So that's 11% MORE HEAL (this is assuming that the set bonus and the glyph stack, and it's assuming that the percentages are additive. Perhaps the 6% would apply to the already set-bonus-buffed heals - in which case, these numbers would be even higher!)

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, if you have a Rejuv, LB, WG, and Regrowth ticking on a tank, you could hit them with a Nourish that's 44% more heal than a regular Nourish. So if your Nourish typically hits for say, 5,500, it would land for 7,920 (with 4 HoTs on the target). Wow. That's a lot of healing for a near one second cast time. And that's without a crit.

I think this makes Nourish pretty viable, especially on tanks, who have a lot of HoTs on them at one point, and who are taking a lot of damage. I mean, it's just silly. Or think about melee - you throw a WG on them and then spam Nourish - they'd be topped off in seconds (obviously it would only be one HoT, but an 11% increase still is pretty good).

If you don't have the 4 piece bonus (edit: OR, if they don't stack like I'm assuming they do - which, the more I read, the more it seems that this may be the case) is this glyph good enough to use? I personally don't think so. I think that the combination of the glyph and the tier bonus could be good enough to rock out, but one on their own just isn't good enough to shut out a LB glyph, or swiftmend, or even Regrowth (especially if you're a Regrowth type of healer). I suppose if you find yourself using Nourish as one of your top heals (which personally, I don't think is the best way to heal as a druid, ahem) then buffing it with the glyph, regardless of the piece bonus, could be considered.

The question is, for both of these new glyphs, what current glyph would I replace? The Swiftmend one I would definitely keep. I have the Glyph of Regrowth, and, like I said before, I really don't use Regrowth very often, even though I told myself I'd use it more after getting the glyph. I just can't seem to get into that style of healing. So even though the WG glyph is situational, it still actually looks better than my Regrowth glyph, which I rarely put into use. I also have the Lifebloom glyph, which I could potentially get rid of. I always thought that the LB glyph was a must have, because you'd be casting LB less overall (meaning more mana saved), but I have the 2 piece tier 7.5 bonus, and the more I think about it, the more it seems to not be a necessity. The amount of mana saved would be negligible with a 10 second stack rather than an 9 second one, and I typically refresh my LB stacks early anyway. The LB glyph is good to have in, say, a Patchwerk fight, when your rotation is key and you want as many GCDs as possible in between refreshing stacks. But other than that, I don't think it's a complete 100% must-have.

Also, did I do my math right? This is like the first time ever I'm channeling Phaelia here. /nervous


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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):

• 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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More on Wild Growth

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I just had a discussion with a guildie (a wonderful fellow resto druid) about this, who helped me really understand the mechanics here. I thought I might clear this up for everyone (although I'm pretty sure I was the only one confused in the first place. Bah).

Let's first look at the tooltip:

Wild Growth

1. Heals up to 5 party OR raid members. So, pretty much anyone. We're all one big happy family.
2. 40 yard range. Just like a normal spell.
3. Within 15 yards of THE TARGET.

Wild Growth affects people who are 15 yards around the person whom you cast it on, not 15 yards from you. So it's not as though the spell has a range of 15 yards - you can use it up to 40 yards away. The range in which it will "spread" to five people total is 15 yards from your target.

Scenario 1: You have a group of people all around you, and one person 35 yards away from you. You put WG on that one person. It ticks on them and only them, even if that person is at full health, because there's no one else within 15 yards of them to have it tick on.

Scenario 2: You have a group of 5 people 35 yards from you, no one else is around. You put a WG on one of them. It ticks on all of them regardless of their health at that moment, because there are only 5 in the group.

Scenario 3: You have a group of 10 people all bunched up, 35 yards away. 4 are at 50% health, 6 are at full health. You put a WG on someone - it will hit the 4 people with 50% health, and randomly select one of the people with full health as the fifth.

Scenario 4: You have a full raid, 25 people, all closely grouped around you. Everyone has full health. You put a WG on someone. It will randomly select 5 people from the 25 (and not necessarily select your target) to WG.

Scenario 5: You have 2 tanks and 5 melee bunched up, 35 yards away. Both tanks have full health, but are about to take some damage. The melee all have 80% health. You put a WG on one of the tanks to pre-HoT him in anticipation of incoming damage. The tank will NOT receive the WG, and instead it will go to the 5 melee with 80% health.


Get it?
I know I do.


(finally)


To be honest, I wish it was a party heal. I understand that a smart heal, in most cases, is preferable. Consider this: Everyone is grouped up (think Thaddius). One person in each party takes 50% damage. WG on one of them and BAM all 5 are being healed. It makes sense, it's awesome. It's also moron-proof, and I hate that. It would honestly be more fun if one person in each group took 50% damage and you have to think "oh crap, I can't use WG, how do I go about healing everyone as efficiently as possible?" Instead of just hitting "4", you would have to *think*. Hey, back when I thought WG was a party heal, it was fun to judge how many people in a particular party had taken damage, and was it enough damage and/or enough people taking that damage for me to warrant a WG (Yes, you can laugh at me. Yes, I've been healing like this for the past like, 6 raids. BUT. HEY. I've been at or close to the top of most healing charts, so it's not - ok, ok fine. Keep laughing. I know. I deserve it).

The other problem is that you can never pre-hot a particular group. Prehotting (especially with Wild Growth) is awesome on, say, Maexxna (right before the web wrap), and Gluth (right before decimate). I mean, ok - you *can* prehot a group, but it's only going to hit that group if the group already has a lot of damage. If you want to prehot a group that is at full health, it will only work if they are in the exact position to guarantee that. Which rarely happens.

This makes WG (as my guildmate put it)a very REACTIONARY HoT. Every single other HoT druids have can be used preemptively, but WG cannot. Just something to keep in mind, and QQ about during Maexxna. ^^

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Wild Growth = Smart Heal. Duh.

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So, um. Wild Growth is a smart heal, not a party heal. It picks 5 people in the raid, who are in the greatest need of health, who are no more than 15 yards away from you. It heals them.



......







/facepalm.


I consider myself to be decently informed, pretty good resto druid class leader. I play almost every day, I read up on elitist jerks, a bunch of resto blogs, blue posts galore, and never once, ever, did I come across anything that said "wild growth" and "smart heal" in the same sentence. I also scoured the patch notes when WG came out. I don't know how I missed it, or why. I have no idea. I mean, when I google it now, I see various things about it....

I thought for SURE it was a party heal. I didn't think to look it up either, because I had no reason to. I just "knew" I was right. It would have been like someone walking down the street and being like, "WAIT. Is the sky blue? huh. I don't know. I should look it up." /encyclopedia. Why would they do that? They can just look at the sky, it's blue, everyone knows that, it's not something you have to look up.

But obviously that analogy doesn't fly because the sky IS blue, and in this case, WG is NOT a party heal. But you see what I'm saying.

I'm gonna go crawl back under my rock now.

EDIT: note that it was resto4life.com that set me straight on this. I <3 you, resto4life!

Ok, NOW I'm gonna go crawl back under my rock.

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