Resto Noob

[Dantron 2]

Hi, in the last few weeks I have started druid healing. It has been very fun so far and thanks to this site I have figured out many things. I still have some questions though. Mainly, how is the best way to get three stacks of lifebloom on a target? Should I just apply it three times to tank at beginning of fight? or should I apply once and let the refresher spells top it off? Also, I used to go oom constantly but I think I have finally started to make proper use of clearcasting and innervate, any other tips for mana conservation would be great . Sorry for wall of text my enter button seems to be broken and I am unable to create new paragraphs. here is a link to my armory for those interested http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/hyjal/Danscow/advanced

[Nemo 27]

Hi Dantron :)

A couple of pointers:

Your lifebloom uptime can make or break your healing. Not only is it very powerfull and efficient it also procs clear casting which you really need for mana conservation. I aply it a three stacks at the pull and try to keep it up with hardcasts throughout the fight. However if it's about to drop off and you don't have time for a hardcast just refresh it with a click of the spell. Just keep it running :)

About mana; first of all your lifebloom uptime will help a bunch! Also make sure to pop innervate as soon as you pass 80 % mana and on cooldown after that. Maybe make a weakaura to remind you.

Other than that be sure to use you clearcasting procs effectively.

I'm at nearly the same ilvl as you, but I have a little more spirit and a lot more mastery. Make sure to get those gems and enchancts that you're missing! Also I'd advise you to get rid of glyph of rejuvenation - if you've got three rejuvs running you rarely have time to cast nurish.

Instead get the regrowth glyph! It's awsome and great for hpm and hps efficiancy.

I'd also get rid of the healing touch glyph (regrowth is just that much better) and get the wild growth glyph instead. It's good for both thourough-put and for saving you some mana.

Best of luck :)

[Dantron 2]

Thanks for the reply. Those are great tips. I have always been a dps player so I want to make sure I have everything set up properly and make sure I understand what I am doing before I get into an actual raid and heal for the first time (I have only done LFR so far).

[Nemo 27]

I that case I hope you will find healing to your liking :)

Resto druid is a great class that really rewards practise and intelligent play.

You constantly have to think forward in order to get the best out of your toolbox and when you get used to doing so the results are incomparable.

You also need to establish a bond of trust with your fellow healers, since your burst (raid) healing is limited by cooldowns. However once you and they learn not to panic you'll realize just how powerfull a healer you can be.

I find resto druids to be the most elegant healers by far and I hope you'll get to the same conclusion :)

[time9870 0]

ok first there some major issues with your stats. it need to be Intel -haste to cap one ( 12.518% or 5320.5 points) then sprit ( tell you are ok with your regen. I find that 14 to 15 k regen is good for most fights) then mastery( 21 to 25%) then crit then haste again ( cap 2 or 21.43 or 9103.025). next your gear is good but again your gems are wrong. see above for what you should gem in to. the reason you run out of mana is because your tick heals are not what they need to be. if you hit your first haste cap it will give you 2 more tick on your tick heals. right now you have to keep casting the same spell 2x the amount that I have to so you run out of mana. read up on the resto mastery buff it amassing

[Dantron 2]

Thanks for the help everyone, no raid yet but soon I hope. I have a question about your haste comment. Unless I am not reading the icyveins guide correctly it looks like all I need is 3043 as long as I have the raid buff. Am I wrong? is the cap 5320 before the buff? And I will look at the best way to boost my mastery

[time9870 0]

I read the icy veins guide too and have read other sites it unclear as what the proper hast amount. the chance of not having the haste buff can be big depending on your raid makeup. i would rather play it safe then sorry. I assume that I don't have the buff but I think the person that wrote it assumed that you would have the buff.

[Dantron 2]

You're right, I shouldn't assume ill get the buff since I am going to be pugging into groups and will have no control over makeup. Its too bad I need so much more haste to hit that cap without the buff.

[Nemo 27]

I'm afraid I have to disagree.

The 5% haste buff is provided by so many classes these days that you should never have to worry about it, even in 10-man PUGs.

You'll be sacrificing way to much mastery (which is an awsome stat!) by going for 5320 unbuffed.

Remember; the less mastery you have, the more time and mane you have to spend for the same results.

And since druids use so few hardcasts - baring regrowth which is damn fast already - any haste in excess of the cap is practically wasted.

Don't bother with the second haste cap either, it's simply not worth it.

[time9870 0]

i do agree that the second haste cap is a joke. but getting to the first cap is need because why ya for the most part you will have a make up with a haste buff it cant be counted on. over all mastery is good but even with getting the haste cap you will still have 22 to 25% mastery. and that is more then enuft when your raiding tot. over all your major issie will be how much sprit you want and most of it is based on your play style. And since druids use so few hardcasts - baring regrowth which is damn fast already - any haste in excess of the cap is practically wasted" is not true either nemo because your haste effect how many tick your tick tick for. if you get to the cap I think it 6 ish with the extra 5% it a nother one or 2 tick I think or some thing close to that

[Krazyito 521]

I've always thought the totemspot breakpoint cards were a good reference.

http://www.totemspot.com/vb/entry.php?b=41

[Nemo 27]

That hotlink never works when you post it, Krazyito :)

Anyhow, I don't have any hard math on this - and I think it's problematic to used math to argue the details of healing anyway - but I'd never ever want to be over the first haste cap, at the expense of either spirit or mastery.

While I agree, as do all resto druids I've met, that the first haste cap is all but mandatory going over it is simply inefficient.

Extra ticks are all well and good, but since you can't stack rejuvs you reach a point where your hps is simply too low. Naturally you can compensate by hard casting in the extra globals you save from not having to reapply your hots so often, but that would be a huge mana drain compared to simply increasing you mastery or even crit.

Don't get me wrong, I like haste for healing, but especially for druids I thinks it's important to stack some throughput and mastery and crit is simply better for that.

Also, you have to be in a very strange PUG not to get the buff... It's provided by Spriests, ele shamans, moonkins and all hunters. All those classes are popular so not having one would be crazy unlucky.

It's all preference though - restoration druids are so balanced stat-wise that you can pretty much go with what you want. I've even seen people - and arguments! - for going crit heavy after the first haste cap. Whatever works man :)

[Sam 1]

Hi all, I think its important to point out that more haste always increases hps and I dont think haste (over the soft cap) is less useful for resto druid than from all other healers, for example in my holy paladin there´s no real haste cap because there are not many HoTs to benefit from it, but haste is still valuable because it increases hps (yeah true it also drains more mana so need to balance it out).

In the case of druids, even when not reaching a new haste cap, haste is still going to increase hps from your hots, it will make them tick faster reducing the total hot duration (so in a way it's equivalent from what haste does for the paladin, increases hps but not hpm).

So it may be a matter of playstile but I personally go for haste(soft cap), spi, mastery, then haste (over the cap) and lastly crit, the reazon for that is that I like to use glyph of regrowth so it's always a crit and this is why I feel that crit is the stat that actually goes to waste for me

Another reazon is that it takes more crit rating to get 1% crit than it does for haste so this means lets say you want extra 5% of one of those stats, I havent done any math it's just a matter of feeling but if you can use less haste to get the 5% than the crit you would need, then it means that the amount of haste you "saved" can be put in spirit to compensate a bit for the mana efficiency that crit gives (again I'm not sure if it really compensates for it but I feel my stats are better used this way). It's important to say that this is just to ilustrate why I like haste over crit because in the actual gearing strategy spirit comes before ´the other two so I wouldnt actually be able to put more points into spirit so I would just have maybe 5% crit or say 6% haste (just throwing some number, haven't actually checked how much haste % it would be)

Edited May 5, 2013 by Sam

[Krazyito 521]

That hotlink never works when you post it, Krazyito

I fixed it. bleh.