[Archived] Restoration Druid 5.4

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Restoration Druid guide.

[Surehoof 0]

Hi there... first comment on the site.

I just wanted to point out for your stat priorities listing that Dark Intent is being changed into a raid buff that increases spell power by 10%, and will no longer buff haste %. Therefore, it should probably be removed from your haste soft cap table. To my knowledge there will be no way (between 5.0.4 to the conclusion of the level 85 endgame) to reduce the second haste soft cap below 2005.

Which makes me sad because it means I'm going to have to reforge on Tuesday. R.I.P. Cataclysm-era Dark Intent

[Damien 1,514]

Hi there... first comment on the site.

I just wanted to point out for your stat priorities listing that Dark Intent is being changed into a raid buff that increases spell power by 10%, and will no longer buff haste %. Therefore, it should probably be removed from your haste soft cap table. To my knowledge there will be no way (between 5.0.4 to the conclusion of the level 85 endgame) to reduce the second haste soft cap below 2005.

Which makes me sad because it means I'm going to have to reforge on Tuesday. R.I.P. Cataclysm-era Dark Intent

Thank you for reporting this. It is my mistake, as I'm the one in charge of doing these stat sections :P I'm very much aware that Dark Intent is going away, I just forgot to update the Resto Druid stat section accordingly... We are going to release the Enhancement Shaman guide update soon, so the Dark Intent fix will be deployed at the same time.

[Zombie 0]

First let me say that this is the first time visiting your site. I have played WOW almost since launch and for some reason I never ran across ya. But, I am glad I did. Excellent site. Easy to follow, detailed explinations, wonderful breakdowns of everything. Thank you for the effort and the posts about the addons. I have tried a UI's over the years and so far I am liking the ELV.

Now on to healing....

I have to say that I had my NS and HT macroed since I can remember. But, for some weird reason I have this overwhelming desire to try Cenarion Ward. I guess in different situations each would have its benefits, but I am going to give it a shot and see what happens. I like new things, but not one for change when it comes to healing in dungeons and raids.

I hate that Soul of the Forest is based on using SM. After reading what you wrote and thinking about it, it seems to me that it would be a tremendous loss in healing or using it when you really wouldnt need it just to be able to use SM. I hope they rework that later on. I'm sorry I am not being more specific with numbers and calcs, but my days of working the math and squeezing out .0000005 more % of a heal are over for me =)

[JJames 0]

I would recommend Decursive for useful add-ons. I use it for all of my characters, both non-healers and healers. It is a very simple add-on that notifies you of any debuffs that you can cleanse or dispel with the click of just one button.

[Guest Bas]

Zombie same here on the ns+ht combo. I only used that for big heals. But cw+a glyped rg is also veru good. But 2behonst some gights ns and ht is still better.

All depends on the other healer and tank classes. With the current fast hp dropping druid tanks cw and glyphed regrowth is almost a must. But wit a paladin tank a ns and ht still minght be better.

[Vlad 411]

Zombie, bas: regarding Nature's Swiftness and Healing Touch, I have reworded things in the talents page to better emphasize the strength of Nature's Swiftness. I've also added a macro for Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch. The updates should go up in the morning :)

Regarding Decursive, it's something we've long considered as an option, but we eventually decided against it. The reason is that anything Decursive can do, you can do just as well ('d argue better) with raid frames and mouseover macros.

Thank you for all the input, guys. It's immensely appreciated.

[Krazyito 521]

I agree wholeheartedly against decursive.

[Inwee 9]

Weak Auras - good addon to replace Power Auras. I use it for feral druid, balance druid and Resto druid ^^

Link to tutotial: http://www.voximmort...Tutoring-Thread

Beru's Resto Weak Aura exports: http://fallingleaves...k-aura-exports/

[PitjePuke 0]

1.1.4. Decurse/Remove Poison

• #showtooltip Nature's Cure
• /cast [target=mouseover,help,nodead][target=target] Nature's Cure

Using this macro will cast Nature's Cure on your mouseover target, if they are a friendly player and they are not dead. Otherwise, it will cast Remove Corruption on your current target.

i think there is something not right ;)

[Vlad 411]

i think there is something not right

Thank you for your post. The typo has been fixed :)

[Guest Luxey]

Okay for some reason the NS/HT macro isn't working for me, I've tried like five different versions of it - every single time it will cast it ONLY when NS is available, and will not simply cast HT if NS is unavailable - I'm using Vuh'do and not really sure what I'm doing wrong. So any help is really appreciated!!!!

[Guest Scolder]

From a long-time NS+HT guy... I had to train myself to not always link NS to HT. I have NS bound to shift-mousewheel-up, HT bound to shift-mousewheel-down (vuhdo/mouseover/target/targetoftarget). Makes it really easy to roll both off, or if I want, just fire off the NS alone (with cyclone/hibernate, mostly.)

The nice thing here is that even if NS isn't up, the fast up/down roll will still fire off HT, and you have a sec to decide whether to let it finish or not.

[Krazyito 521]

From a long-time NS+HT guy... I had to train myself to not always link NS to HT. I have NS bound to shift-mousewheel-up, HT bound to shift-mousewheel-down (vuhdo/mouseover/target/targetoftarget). Makes it really easy to roll both off, or if I want, just fire off the NS alone (with cyclone/hibernate, mostly.)

The nice thing here is that even if NS isn't up, the fast up/down roll will still fire off HT, and you have a sec to decide whether to let it finish or not.

I ahve that same keybind but for my paladin. (shift everything: mouse-up: Avenging wrath, mouse down: divine favor, mouse-click: GotAK)

For my druid I have NS set to 'F' and then fire off with a mouse click pretty quickly with the heal I want.

[Guest Restotree]

I have a question regarding the haste breakpoints, I can hit the 3043 haste breakpoint with no issue and was looking at my gear, I realised I can just about get to the next 6652 breakpoint if I gem for haste and reforge a bit. The question is, is it worth it? I have half spirit and half int gems in place at the moment and am wondering if I should replace them with haste to hit the next big breakpoint or will I be gimping myself to much to get there.

[Krazyito 521]

I dont personally think it is worth it. Right now with this entry gear you are going to want all the spirit and int you can get. Sacrificing that much, for a stat that essentially makes you waste more mana, is not that helpful

[Guest K.T.]

Are you sure about those numbers? I have 3079 haste rating from gear now which gives 7,24% haste. Add 5% to that and it's 12,24% haste with raid buff. So how does 3043 rating + 5% raid buff give 12,51% haste? Is it me not understanding something or is there something wrong with those calculations? As I feel rather comfortable with mana regeneration now I prefer mastery reforge and it's one less reforge for me if I assume soft haste cap with raid buff is 12,51% instead of whatever-number-I-get from 3043 haste rating.

[Krazyito 521]

These are the correct breakpoints. I don't know how the percentages work, but this is what everywhere I see agrees on.

(source: http://www.totemspot.com/images/hastebreakpointcards/)

Edited February 11, 2013 by Krazyito

[Guest Hawtpooter]

First, I'd like to say that this guide has been very helpful to me. I took a break from WoW and haven't played since WotLK and your guide helped me to get accustomed to all of the changes since then. The only complaint i have is that on your spell rotation page you mention how lifebloom can only be used on a single target and pointed out that a glyph can put full stacks onto another target if casted. Later on in the guide you start to explain how to use Incarnation:Tree of LIfe and say to spam your lifebloom on as many targets as possible. Does incarnation make spamming that possible or is it a mistake in the guide?

[Krazyito 521]

Incarnation indeed allows you to place unlimited Lifeblooms on the raid. In addition to that it enhances Wild Growth by healing 2 additional targets and making regrowth and entangling roots an instant cast.

Incarnation: Tree of Life

Edited November 30, 2012 by krazyito65

[Guest Skittles]

Excellent work Icy Veins team.

Question: Do you have any plans to include the new Dominance Offensive gear in your BiS rankings?

[Vlad 411]

Excellent work Icy Veins team.

Question: Do you have any plans to include the new Dominance Offensive gear in your BiS rankings?

Thank you! Damien is best suited to answer this, I'll let him know :)

[Guest Xaethera]

Add-on Response for General Ones To Use

---

2.1.1 - More of a preference than a general option. Still nice to include.

2.1.2 - BigWigs is not a good alternative. It is often behind DBM in development. So it then lacks at most times, proper messages/warnings in encounters.

2.1.3 - see 2.1.6

2.1.4 - MSB does the same things as Parrot for the most part. It is far more memory efficient as well over Parrot. So really the prefered here should be MSB.

2.1.5 - I haven't used WeakAuras to comment. Though to track CD's I use CoolLine (linear CD tracker).

2.1.6 - I have parsed combat logs to test some ideas (nice thing of knowing how to code). The math used to compute HPS values as per my test were off when using Recount to track it. And more accurate when using Skada. So it is in this coders opinion a better option to use Skada a least for healing. I do not DPS so never tested that. Skada has a nice threat meter itself. Which can exclude using Omen. Additionally if you use TidyPlates, you can see threat and etc there as well.

2.1.7 - You mentioned Grid though Vuhdo has become a huge favorite with many healers. So it should also be mentioned. To be honest, I find Vuhdo much better than Grid. Though, should list both and let others decide.

[Vlad 411]

Add-on Response for General Ones To Use

---

2.1.1 - More of a preference than a general option. Still nice to include.

2.1.2 - BigWigs is not a good alternative. It is often behind DBM in development. So it then lacks at most times, proper messages/warnings in encounters.

2.1.3 - see 2.1.6

2.1.4 - MSB does the same things as Parrot for the most part. It is far more memory efficient as well over Parrot. So really the prefered here should be MSB.

2.1.5 - I haven't used WeakAuras to comment. Though to track CD's I use CoolLine (linear CD tracker).

2.1.6 - I have parsed combat logs to test some ideas (nice thing of knowing how to code). The math used to compute HPS values as per my test were off when using Recount to track it. And more accurate when using Skada. So it is in this coders opinion a better option to use Skada a least for healing. I do not DPS so never tested that. Skada has a nice threat meter itself. Which can exclude using Omen. Additionally if you use TidyPlates, you can see threat and etc there as well.

2.1.7 - You mentioned Grid though Vuhdo has become a huge favorite with many healers. So it should also be mentioned. To be honest, I find Vuhdo much better than Grid. Though, should list both and let others decide.

2.1.1 - General preference indeed, but we're very fond of it and so are most people who switch to it, so we see no reason to remove the mentions :)

2.1.2 - I can't say I agree with you here. DBM has actually proven to be inaccurate a great many times in my raiding "career", and quite a lot even in tier 14. I know many players who have switched to Big Wigs and found it quite satisfactory. I think it's best to provide options.

2.1.3 & 2.1.6 - Does Skada have a death overview thingy, where you can see what people died to and what they took damage from before they died? If so, I'd be happy to suggest it.

2.1.4 - I think it's valid to suggest both :)

2.1.5 - I don't know about CoolLine, but WeakAuras is a pretty popular choice, and I believe it's the top choice at the moment.

2.1.7 - Point taken, I'll add Vuhdo :)

Thank you!

[Guest SucellusAP]

I'm surprised that you say Glyph of Regrowth is a strong option. I think there are a good few reasons not to use it:

• It's value diminishes as your gear improves. With +60% innate crit, raid buffs and unavoidable crit on gear, you're probably looking at 75% crit at least on Regrowth before this glyph. As gear improves, that will increase and the value of the glyph will get lower and lower. 15% crit from buffs and gear, the overall healing output would be about the same. Assuming no bonus haste ticks (so, 3) it is about a fifth of the main heal. (0.75*2*X)+ 0.25X + (0.15*0.2*2*X) + (0.85*0.2*X) = 1.5X + 0.25X + 0.06X + 0.17X = 1.98X. With the glyph it's simply 2X. So as soon as you cross that line your healing output is decreased. I don't think this is the best reason not to take this glyph as regrowth is a good emergency heal rather than your bread and butter, but still.

• You can Swiftmend people with RG on them, this is very useful, especially when popping Incarnation: Tree of Life as it seems a waste to use a GCD for rejuve simply to use SM when you could be using those GCDs to stack Lifebloom and spam RG with omen of clarity procs.

• If someone is dying and they don't already have Rejuve on them, I can't swiftmend them. I'd rather be able to RG and follow it up immediately with SM than have to use RG, then Rejuve, then SM as the Rejuve healing is a lot slower in application.

• Regrowth auto refreshes on targets below 50% health. Increases their chance of survival slightly if heals are not forthcoming and I think more importantly, increases the chance you can swiftmend them immediately when the opportunity comes. Also increases throughput. Particularly in massive AoE phases when the raid will drop low on health when using Incarnation, this is pretty awesome.

• I wouldn't want to sacrifice Lifebloom or the Healing Touch Glyph for this. So basically it'd be taking the place of the Rebirth glyph or the rejuve glyph which I'd also prefer not to do.

Only other thing I wanted to mention was that the wording on glyph of Wild Growth might be a bit misleading for someone glancing at it quickly. It does indeed increase throughput at the cost of increased CD. Overall however, the throughput on WG is decreased as assuming it it used on CD (obviously situational) it heals 0.6 people per second with the glyph and 0.625 people per second without it. That said, I do like this glyph sometimes if the dmg is occasional but hits everyone and it also conserves mana.

I will also echo what Guest_Xaethera_* said about Skada. I much prefer it to recount and it also functions as a threat meter as well, which allowed me to combine threat and meters into one addon.

Thanks for a good guide as always!