.
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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Showing posts with label resto druid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resto druid. Show all posts
Monday, June 8, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Druid Healing 101
.
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!
.
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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Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Resto druid raiding reqs for Ulduar: T8.5
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A couple weeks ago I posted the T7.5 raiding reqs that I put together for the resto druids in my guild. That post has a lot of good information about what the function of requirements are, and why they work. It also lays out the basic information about gems and enchants, consumables, talents, glyphs, etc. I would highly recommend checking it out here.
With Ulduar coming in the next month or so, my guild has been preparing to update these requirements for the next tier. I recently put the resto druid reqs together and thought I would share them with you guys. These stats are based on the assumption that you will have a decent amount of 25 man heroic gear from Naxx, Malygos, or Sarth. Having Ulduar 10 gear is NOT required to meet these reqs.
I've just copy-pasted them straight from my guild website. Enjoy! =)
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Resto Druid Reqs
Woohoo, Ulduar!
Changes from T7.5 are in green.
Stats:
Bonus Healing: 1900 in tree form
Health: 15000
Mana: 16000
Mp5 while casting: 290
If you have the [Majestic Dragon Figurine], you can essentially add +180 spirit to your stats, which is basically +32 mp5. So you can figure that in while figuring out whether you meet the 285 mp5 cut off. Also, 180 spirit gives you about +30 extra spell power (give or take a point) in ToL form because of your ToL spirit aura, so you can factor that in as well.
Essentially, if you have the trinket, you can still meet reqs by having 258 mp5 and 1870 SP (in tol). If you're just barely meeting reqs this way, it means that you MUST wear that trinket for raids.
Similarly, if you have the [Illustration of the Dragon Soul], you can subtract 200 spell power from reqs yet still meet them.
Glyphs:
[Glyph of Swiftmend] is the only glyph that is required.
[Glyph of Lifebloom] is not really recommended anymore***. If you're planning on using the Regrowth Glyph or the Nourish Glyph, you should look at having the 5/5 Nature's Bounty (previously called Improved Regrowth - they changed the name for 3.1) talent. Pre-3.1, the talent gave you an extra 50% to crit on Regrowth. Post 3.1, it gives you a 25% chance to crit on Regrowth, and a 25% chance to crit on Nourish.
[Glyph of Innervate] is also good if you're having mana issues.
Two new glyphs come 3.1, [Glyph of Wild Growth] and [Glyph of Nourish], can also be considered. Depending on your healing style, both of these can be very powerful glyphs.
***We'll probably be letting Lifeblooms bloom more often than not due to the change in lifebloom, so having a longer duration on LB isn't really advantageous. After you get your healing rotation down in 3.1, maybe you'll find that you can roll LBs even with the double mana cost, and that the glyph helps you - at that point you can assess your glyphs.
Please see the T7.5 Naxx25 reqs for information on consumables, enchants, talents, gems, etc. Those requirements are still in effect.
Thanks guys! Let me know if you have any questions/concerns.
.
A couple weeks ago I posted the T7.5 raiding reqs that I put together for the resto druids in my guild. That post has a lot of good information about what the function of requirements are, and why they work. It also lays out the basic information about gems and enchants, consumables, talents, glyphs, etc. I would highly recommend checking it out here.
With Ulduar coming in the next month or so, my guild has been preparing to update these requirements for the next tier. I recently put the resto druid reqs together and thought I would share them with you guys. These stats are based on the assumption that you will have a decent amount of 25 man heroic gear from Naxx, Malygos, or Sarth. Having Ulduar 10 gear is NOT required to meet these reqs.
I've just copy-pasted them straight from my guild website. Enjoy! =)
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Resto Druid Reqs
Woohoo, Ulduar!
Changes from T7.5 are in green.
Stats:
Bonus Healing: 1900 in tree form
Health: 15000
Mana: 16000
Mp5 while casting: 290
If you have the [Majestic Dragon Figurine], you can essentially add +180 spirit to your stats, which is basically +32 mp5. So you can figure that in while figuring out whether you meet the 285 mp5 cut off. Also, 180 spirit gives you about +30 extra spell power (give or take a point) in ToL form because of your ToL spirit aura, so you can factor that in as well.
Essentially, if you have the trinket, you can still meet reqs by having 258 mp5 and 1870 SP (in tol). If you're just barely meeting reqs this way, it means that you MUST wear that trinket for raids.
Similarly, if you have the [Illustration of the Dragon Soul], you can subtract 200 spell power from reqs yet still meet them.
Glyphs:
[Glyph of Swiftmend] is the only glyph that is required.
[Glyph of Lifebloom] is not really recommended anymore***. If you're planning on using the Regrowth Glyph or the Nourish Glyph, you should look at having the 5/5 Nature's Bounty (previously called Improved Regrowth - they changed the name for 3.1) talent. Pre-3.1, the talent gave you an extra 50% to crit on Regrowth. Post 3.1, it gives you a 25% chance to crit on Regrowth, and a 25% chance to crit on Nourish.
[Glyph of Innervate] is also good if you're having mana issues.
Two new glyphs come 3.1, [Glyph of Wild Growth] and [Glyph of Nourish], can also be considered. Depending on your healing style, both of these can be very powerful glyphs.
***We'll probably be letting Lifeblooms bloom more often than not due to the change in lifebloom, so having a longer duration on LB isn't really advantageous. After you get your healing rotation down in 3.1, maybe you'll find that you can roll LBs even with the double mana cost, and that the glyph helps you - at that point you can assess your glyphs.
Please see the T7.5 Naxx25 reqs for information on consumables, enchants, talents, gems, etc. Those requirements are still in effect.
Thanks guys! Let me know if you have any questions/concerns.
.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Resto druid Ulduar relic?
.
First off: as of right now, there still is no Resto druid relic on the PTR. Didn't mean to get your hopes up.... I know, I'm a very mean tree. Sorry =( See, I've been on the look out for any kind of new druid relics that might be out there, dropping from bosses in Ulduar, but so far, no luck. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like there is a total of four that have been reported: Libram of the Sacred Shield, Idol of the Corrupter, Idol of the Crying Wind, and Steamcaller's Totem. But none yet for us trees.
Depending on how you choose to heal after The Great Lifebloom Nerf of 2009, the current relic we've been using, Idol of Lush Moss, might not be all that viable anymore.
So what should we use after 3.1? Last I heard, the Idol of the Raven Goddess doesn't work with our ToL aura anymore, so that's out the window. The Idol of Awakening, which drops from Gothik in Naxx25 might work well, especially with the Great Mana Regen Nerf of 2009 - we may need all the mana we can get our little barky hands on. There's also the Idol of Pure Thoughts to consider, which you can buy from the Grizzly Hills vendors using Venture Coins.
Although, hey, if we're going to let Lifebloom run out and bloom everywhere and on everything (kinda sounds kinky, don't it), perhaps we should start looking at the Deadly Gladiator's Idol of Tenacity, which is (obviously) the PvP relic for healing pvp druids.
Or perhaps most people will just keep their Idol of Lush Moss... regardless of whether you let LB bloom or not, it's always going to tick first.
What do you guys think?
.
First off: as of right now, there still is no Resto druid relic on the PTR. Didn't mean to get your hopes up.... I know, I'm a very mean tree. Sorry =( See, I've been on the look out for any kind of new druid relics that might be out there, dropping from bosses in Ulduar, but so far, no luck. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like there is a total of four that have been reported: Libram of the Sacred Shield, Idol of the Corrupter, Idol of the Crying Wind, and Steamcaller's Totem. But none yet for us trees.
Depending on how you choose to heal after The Great Lifebloom Nerf of 2009, the current relic we've been using, Idol of Lush Moss, might not be all that viable anymore.
So what should we use after 3.1? Last I heard, the Idol of the Raven Goddess doesn't work with our ToL aura anymore, so that's out the window. The Idol of Awakening, which drops from Gothik in Naxx25 might work well, especially with the Great Mana Regen Nerf of 2009 - we may need all the mana we can get our little barky hands on. There's also the Idol of Pure Thoughts to consider, which you can buy from the Grizzly Hills vendors using Venture Coins.
Although, hey, if we're going to let Lifebloom run out and bloom everywhere and on everything (kinda sounds kinky, don't it), perhaps we should start looking at the Deadly Gladiator's Idol of Tenacity, which is (obviously) the PvP relic for healing pvp druids.
Or perhaps most people will just keep their Idol of Lush Moss... regardless of whether you let LB bloom or not, it's always going to tick first.
What do you guys think?
.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Resto druid raiding reqs!
.
Edit: Now with more tooltip!!
Our guild has always put together raiding requirements for various tiers of raiding. Raiding reqs are the minimum levels of stats, spellpower, hit cap, enchants, etc. that a guild member has to meet in order to be able to raid. Reqs help do a few things:
1. They give those new-to-end-game members a goal to shoot for. When you've just hit 80 and you're in mostly greens, it's a nice way to figure out what stats you need to improve on overall.
2. Reqs make sure that we can theoretically beat an instance. Ideally, if everyone meets the reqs that are put forth, we'll be able to get through the content.
3. They allow our Class Leaders to be extra picky and make sure that no veteran players are slacking off slightly and missing an enchant here or there, or using an old gem they haven't replaced. Typically this doesn't happen, because most of our veteran players are all min/maxers =)
For the most part (with a couple exceptions here and there), if you don't meet reqs, you don't raid, period. But if there's a situation of "either one person who's undergeared raids with us, OR, 24 people don't get to raid at all" kind of thing, then yeah, we'd probably let someone undergeared join us. This actually happened to me when the guild was in Black Temple - we were short on healers, and our raid leader whispers me and says "wanna heal BT?" I swear I almost fell out of my chair, I was so happy (I'd never raided anything but 10 man Kara with the guild.... hell, when I got to BT, I think Pete had to tell me to expand Grid out to show all 25 people >.<). Then of course afterwards, I beat myself up for being last in healing on WWS (errr DUH Averna, of course you're last, you're in KARA gear and blues/greens, they're all in like tier 87million or something). But overall it was such a thrill being able to raid with them like that.
Anyway, I digress. In coming up with reqs, it's kind of difficult to find that exact number of 'If you're over this, we will win, if you're under, we fail' though. Is 1600 spellpower enough? 1650? or should it be 1597? 1592? Or what if someone is a really good player and can get away with 1500? So a lot people have wondered, what are the baseline numbers that I *need* to have to get into a 25 man run? That being said, I put up my T7.5 raiding reqs for resto druids a while ago, and I thought you all might be interested in seeing them. These requirements are made *without* the assumption that you will be doing Naxx 10 man. Essentially, you should be able to meet these reqs with crafted gear, rep rewards, and drops from heroic 5 mans. Note that this is for all current 25 man content (T7.5): Naxxramas, OS, and Malygos.
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Resto Druid Requirements
Keep in mind that this is the first time I've put a list of requirements together, so please feel free to PM me or talk to me in game about any questions you might have.
Note that all of these stats are IN TREE FORM.
Stats:
Bonus Healing: 1600 (which comes out to be 1477 spell power, if you're looking at your wowarmory and therefore don't have the tree buff on)
Health: 13000
Mana: 15000
Mp5 while casting: 260
Haste and crit are nice B stat bonuses to have, but there are no strict requirements on these.
For a benchmark: Over 310 haste and over 13% crit is quite good. Keep in mind that haste rating also affects your global cooldown, so haste *is* in fact applicable to instacasts like Lifebloom and Rejuv. If you're looking at different gear with haste and crit, haste is better to have than crit chance.
EDIT: If you have the [Majestic Dragon Figurine], you can essentially add +180 spirit to your stats, which is basically +32 mp5. So you can figure that in while figuring out whether you meet the 260 mp5 cut off. Also, 180 spirit gives you about +30 extra spell power (give or take a point) in ToL form because of your ToL spirit aura, so you can factor that in as well.
Essentially, if you have the trinket, you can still meet reqs by having 228 mp5 and 1570 SP (in tol). If you're just barely meeting reqs this way, it means that you MUST wear that trinket for raids.
Talents:
11 points in the Balance Tree to get to Nature's Splendor are required (5 in Genesis, 3 in Moonglow, 2 in Nature's Majesty, leading to 1 in Nature's Splendor)
Improved Mark of the Wild (2/2)
Nature's Swiftness
Swiftmend
Improved Rejuvenation
Empowered Rejuvenation
Living Spirit
Glyphs:
[Glyph of Swiftmend] is the only glyph that is required.
[Glyph of Lifebloom] and [Glyph of Regrowth] are recommended. If you're planning on using the Regrowth Glyph, you should look at having the 5/5 Improved Regrowth talent. I originally was requiring this but I'd rather not tell you guys how you should spec. [Glyph of Innervate] is also nice if you're having mana issues.
Consumables:
Food: Bring at least one stack of 20:
[Tender Shoveltusk Steak] or [Firecracker Salmon]
[Mighty Rhino Dogs] or [Spicy Fried Herring]
[Cuttlesteak] is also a good choice.
Spell power food is preferable, but Mp5 food or spirit food can be used if you find yourself consistently running short on mana.
Elixirs/Flasks/Potions:
[Flask of the Frost Wyrm] (preferable)
[Flask of Pure Mojo] (if you need the mana regen)
[Runic Mana Potion] (at least 15)
[Runic Healing Potion] (at least 5)
[Spellpower Elixir]
[Elixir of Mighty Mageblood]
[Elixir of Mighty Thoughts]
[Elixir of Spirit]
If you're using elixirs instead of flasks, you must have both battle and guardian elixirs.
Enchants:
All gear that can be enchanted, must be. Enchants should be +spell power, +spirit, and +intellect, with a focus on +spell power. Enchants that require Abyss Crystals will NOT be required (although after the patch, enchants in general should require less mats and/or less expensive mats, so keep that in mind as well), however, all enchants need to be WotlK quality. Obviously there are more enchants than you'll ever use here, but wowwiki has a complete list of enchants by slots HERE.
EDIT: An [Eternal Belt Buckle] WILL be required. Gem it with something appropriate (spell power, spirit, etc). Gems you put in this socket DO count towards your meta-gem requirement. These buckles can be found on the AH, plus a few people in guild can make them.
Gems:
Gems! Go for socket bonuses when appropriate (which is quite often). Here is a good list of what each color gem offers resto droods. Note that I list the blue, higher quality versions of these gems along with the "perfect" counterpart of the same gem, which is typically a LOT cheaper, and only a couple points short of the blue quality gem. Blue quality gems are strongly encouraged but not required. If you are NOT using the blue quality gems, you must use the "perfect" quality instead - anything under the quality of those is not acceptable.
Red: [Runed Scarlet Ruby] or [Perfect Runed Bloodstone]
Yellow: [Brilliant Autumn's Glow] or [Perfect Brilliant Sun Crystal]
Blue: [Sparkling Sky Sapphire] or [Perfect Sparkling Chalcedony]
Orange: [Luminous Monarch Topaz] or [Perfect Luminous Huge Citrine]
Green: You have a lot of options with green and purple gems. With these you can pick and choose what stats need a boost and gem accordingly. Some options:
[Timeless Forest Emerald] or [Perfect Timeless Dark Jade]
[Dazzling Forest Emerald] or [Perfect Dazzling Dark Jade]
[Seer's Forest Emerald] (very nice gem) or [Perfect Seer's Dark Jade]
Purple: [Royal Twilight Opal] or [Perfect Royal Shadow Crystal]
[Glowing Twilight Opal] or [Perfect Glowing Shadow Crystal]
[Purified Twilight Opal] or [Perfect Purified Shadow Crystal]
.
Edit: Now with more tooltip!!
Our guild has always put together raiding requirements for various tiers of raiding. Raiding reqs are the minimum levels of stats, spellpower, hit cap, enchants, etc. that a guild member has to meet in order to be able to raid. Reqs help do a few things:
1. They give those new-to-end-game members a goal to shoot for. When you've just hit 80 and you're in mostly greens, it's a nice way to figure out what stats you need to improve on overall.
2. Reqs make sure that we can theoretically beat an instance. Ideally, if everyone meets the reqs that are put forth, we'll be able to get through the content.
3. They allow our Class Leaders to be extra picky and make sure that no veteran players are slacking off slightly and missing an enchant here or there, or using an old gem they haven't replaced. Typically this doesn't happen, because most of our veteran players are all min/maxers =)
For the most part (with a couple exceptions here and there), if you don't meet reqs, you don't raid, period. But if there's a situation of "either one person who's undergeared raids with us, OR, 24 people don't get to raid at all" kind of thing, then yeah, we'd probably let someone undergeared join us. This actually happened to me when the guild was in Black Temple - we were short on healers, and our raid leader whispers me and says "wanna heal BT?" I swear I almost fell out of my chair, I was so happy (I'd never raided anything but 10 man Kara with the guild.... hell, when I got to BT, I think Pete had to tell me to expand Grid out to show all 25 people >.<). Then of course afterwards, I beat myself up for being last in healing on WWS (errr DUH Averna, of course you're last, you're in KARA gear and blues/greens, they're all in like tier 87million or something). But overall it was such a thrill being able to raid with them like that.
Anyway, I digress. In coming up with reqs, it's kind of difficult to find that exact number of 'If you're over this, we will win, if you're under, we fail' though. Is 1600 spellpower enough? 1650? or should it be 1597? 1592? Or what if someone is a really good player and can get away with 1500? So a lot people have wondered, what are the baseline numbers that I *need* to have to get into a 25 man run? That being said, I put up my T7.5 raiding reqs for resto druids a while ago, and I thought you all might be interested in seeing them. These requirements are made *without* the assumption that you will be doing Naxx 10 man. Essentially, you should be able to meet these reqs with crafted gear, rep rewards, and drops from heroic 5 mans. Note that this is for all current 25 man content (T7.5): Naxxramas, OS, and Malygos.
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Resto Druid Requirements
Keep in mind that this is the first time I've put a list of requirements together, so please feel free to PM me or talk to me in game about any questions you might have.
Note that all of these stats are IN TREE FORM.
Stats:
Bonus Healing: 1600 (which comes out to be 1477 spell power, if you're looking at your wowarmory and therefore don't have the tree buff on)
Health: 13000
Mana: 15000
Mp5 while casting: 260
Haste and crit are nice B stat bonuses to have, but there are no strict requirements on these.
For a benchmark: Over 310 haste and over 13% crit is quite good. Keep in mind that haste rating also affects your global cooldown, so haste *is* in fact applicable to instacasts like Lifebloom and Rejuv. If you're looking at different gear with haste and crit, haste is better to have than crit chance.
EDIT: If you have the [Majestic Dragon Figurine], you can essentially add +180 spirit to your stats, which is basically +32 mp5. So you can figure that in while figuring out whether you meet the 260 mp5 cut off. Also, 180 spirit gives you about +30 extra spell power (give or take a point) in ToL form because of your ToL spirit aura, so you can factor that in as well.
Essentially, if you have the trinket, you can still meet reqs by having 228 mp5 and 1570 SP (in tol). If you're just barely meeting reqs this way, it means that you MUST wear that trinket for raids.
Talents:
11 points in the Balance Tree to get to Nature's Splendor are required (5 in Genesis, 3 in Moonglow, 2 in Nature's Majesty, leading to 1 in Nature's Splendor)
Improved Mark of the Wild (2/2)
Nature's Swiftness
Swiftmend
Improved Rejuvenation
Empowered Rejuvenation
Living Spirit
Glyphs:
[Glyph of Swiftmend] is the only glyph that is required.
[Glyph of Lifebloom] and [Glyph of Regrowth] are recommended. If you're planning on using the Regrowth Glyph, you should look at having the 5/5 Improved Regrowth talent. I originally was requiring this but I'd rather not tell you guys how you should spec. [Glyph of Innervate] is also nice if you're having mana issues.
Consumables:
Food: Bring at least one stack of 20:
[Tender Shoveltusk Steak] or [Firecracker Salmon]
[Mighty Rhino Dogs] or [Spicy Fried Herring]
[Cuttlesteak] is also a good choice.
Spell power food is preferable, but Mp5 food or spirit food can be used if you find yourself consistently running short on mana.
Elixirs/Flasks/Potions:
[Flask of the Frost Wyrm] (preferable)
[Flask of Pure Mojo] (if you need the mana regen)
[Runic Mana Potion] (at least 15)
[Runic Healing Potion] (at least 5)
[Spellpower Elixir]
[Elixir of Mighty Mageblood]
[Elixir of Mighty Thoughts]
[Elixir of Spirit]
If you're using elixirs instead of flasks, you must have both battle and guardian elixirs.
Enchants:
All gear that can be enchanted, must be. Enchants should be +spell power, +spirit, and +intellect, with a focus on +spell power. Enchants that require Abyss Crystals will NOT be required (although after the patch, enchants in general should require less mats and/or less expensive mats, so keep that in mind as well), however, all enchants need to be WotlK quality. Obviously there are more enchants than you'll ever use here, but wowwiki has a complete list of enchants by slots HERE.
EDIT: An [Eternal Belt Buckle] WILL be required. Gem it with something appropriate (spell power, spirit, etc). Gems you put in this socket DO count towards your meta-gem requirement. These buckles can be found on the AH, plus a few people in guild can make them.
Gems:
Gems! Go for socket bonuses when appropriate (which is quite often). Here is a good list of what each color gem offers resto droods. Note that I list the blue, higher quality versions of these gems along with the "perfect" counterpart of the same gem, which is typically a LOT cheaper, and only a couple points short of the blue quality gem. Blue quality gems are strongly encouraged but not required. If you are NOT using the blue quality gems, you must use the "perfect" quality instead - anything under the quality of those is not acceptable.
Red: [Runed Scarlet Ruby] or [Perfect Runed Bloodstone]
Yellow: [Brilliant Autumn's Glow] or [Perfect Brilliant Sun Crystal]
Blue: [Sparkling Sky Sapphire] or [Perfect Sparkling Chalcedony]
Orange: [Luminous Monarch Topaz] or [Perfect Luminous Huge Citrine]
Green: You have a lot of options with green and purple gems. With these you can pick and choose what stats need a boost and gem accordingly. Some options:
[Timeless Forest Emerald] or [Perfect Timeless Dark Jade]
[Dazzling Forest Emerald] or [Perfect Dazzling Dark Jade]
[Seer's Forest Emerald] (very nice gem) or [Perfect Seer's Dark Jade]
Purple: [Royal Twilight Opal] or [Perfect Royal Shadow Crystal]
[Glowing Twilight Opal] or [Perfect Glowing Shadow Crystal]
[Purified Twilight Opal] or [Perfect Purified Shadow Crystal]
.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Resto4Life, you will be missed.
.
I just learned today that Phaelia of Resto4Life is shutting down her blog soon.
This is a big deal.
Resto4Life has always been THE resto blog on the internet. It's the place that had all the answers, all the math, and wasn't like Elitist Jerks in the sense that, well, Phae isn't an elitist jerk.... at all. Phae ALWAYS responded to each individual comment, and took care to never belittle anyone for a silly question. I never found any trolling or douche-bag behavior on her site. The website was like a sanctuary. Seriously.
It's obvious that she put a lot of love and time and effort into that website, and it's going to be sorely missed. But it's also obvious that this decision was *really* difficult for her to make, and I think it's good that she was able to step back, evaluate life, and actually face that difficult decision.
We'll miss you!!!!
(PS - congrats on the baby!! =D)
.
I just learned today that Phaelia of Resto4Life is shutting down her blog soon.
This is a big deal.
Resto4Life has always been THE resto blog on the internet. It's the place that had all the answers, all the math, and wasn't like Elitist Jerks in the sense that, well, Phae isn't an elitist jerk.... at all. Phae ALWAYS responded to each individual comment, and took care to never belittle anyone for a silly question. I never found any trolling or douche-bag behavior on her site. The website was like a sanctuary. Seriously.
It's obvious that she put a lot of love and time and effort into that website, and it's going to be sorely missed. But it's also obvious that this decision was *really* difficult for her to make, and I think it's good that she was able to step back, evaluate life, and actually face that difficult decision.
We'll miss you!!!!
(PS - congrats on the baby!! =D)
.
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