Help! My resto needs RESCUED!!

[Lazuli 0]

Hi there everyone!

 

I am coming to you for some help.  I am very fortunate to have a great guild to raid with and a great group of people.  The situation is that I am pretty new to the nitty gritty of resto healing in regards to what is required of me in 25 man heroics.  My fellow healers can pick up any slack in regards to my inexperience, but as we progress through 25 man heroics, I am going to have to pick my game up towards Thok and onward.  Of course, I picked a class that has a lot of versatility in regards to play style and stat weights.   Just my luck!  Not one that has a standard and everyone uses it.  

Anyway, the variances in which breakpoint to hit, how much spirit, what talents...it's a class full of opinions and I am just really wanting to figure out what is best for me to make me a valuable part of this heals team.  

 

A couple of things:

-I use ElvUi and clique.

-I run with higher spirit because I dont manage mana as well as I could.  (any advice on learning to manage better would be VERY appreciated!) 

-I still move with a,w,s,d mostly(dont judge!  im coming for help.)

-I have an uber cool naga mouse that i am trying to learn to use and would like to learn how to incorporate moving into it as well

 

Now for the good stuff.

Armory:  

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/eldrethalas/Laz%C3%BBli/simple

 

I just won this last night, haven't done anything with it until I get some help from you guys!

http://www.wowhead.com/item=104427

 

World of Logs, Juggernaut: 

http://worldoflogs.com/reports/i50kwhfom0ck1dge/details/3/?s=6024&e=6403

 

Now, I think I posted the link to the right page to see WoL for Juggernaut.  Hopefully that's right.  And I intentionally picked this one because I did horrible on it.  

 

There is a druid in our group, Eyebris, (Armory:   http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/korialstrasz/Eyebris/simple ) kills me in heals.  I have talked to her, but she isn't as much help as I hoped. 

 

Hopefully this is all you need to help me out and give me some advice.  Also, any advice on what I can do to get some help from an add-on or something to let me know my spells are about to need refreshed would be very helpful, I think.

 

Thanks a  bunch!
 

Resto Druid in BAD need of rescue so she can continue to progress!

Edited June 5, 2014 by Lazuli

[Krazyito 521]

Warcraft logs is better IMO.   I tired to find a version of this log in WCL, but there was only old ones and not this specific one.

 

First, I always like to make sure you have your stats correct.  You're missing a breakpoint, you're 3k under where you're suppose to be.

 

I have stat weights pinned in this forum, use the ones labaed as "High-end haste" and then use the amount of spirit you feel comfortable with.

 

I did it for you here with 14.5k spirit (becasue that was near what you originally had and doesn't use stupid blue spirit gems: http://www.askmrrobot.com/wow/gear/3d3902f8-c179-43f9-ab3d-849214e30840

 

Now what you should do is equip the ring and use "update from armory" to get it with that ring equipped.  I would replace the haste ring from juggernaut. 

 

Now make sure you're at the 13,163 breakpoint on your character sheet in game and you're good to go.  You can change the amount of spirit until you feel more comfortable, there's no real "amount" to be at other than what you can sustain.

 

 

Now that stats are out of the way, I can look at your healing via logs.

 

Looking at Juggernaut you casted swiftmend 7 times out of a total possible 25 (18 missed).  If you had a Warcraft logs version of this I could see your Wild Growth casts.  WOL doesnt show me this as easy, So I'll have to count it out. (19 out of 37)

 

If I go back to a really bad and really old Juggernaut kill of mine, that took 6 min in a 25 man I can try to compare. 

Swiftmend: 18 out of 25 (7 missed)

Wild Growth: 24 out of 38
 

Wild Growth can falter off more than Swiftmend because most time you try to use Wild Growth after you Swiftmend for the haste bonus. But its really important to try to hit swiftmend as much as possible (also as long as you know wild growth will come off CD before SotF expires, so wild growth with less than 4s cd left)

 

Your efflorescence on Juggernaut seems fine, you only tranq'd once, you could have probably done it twice.

 

Your lifebloom uptime is horrible.  Its at 39%. you NEED to keep that up, it gives you free healing on the tanks, and provides with clearcasting for some free regrowths.  Speaking of uptimes, your harmony was at a 73% uptime.  That's also very bad.  You need to keep that up to 95%+.

 

Make weak auras to track harmony and lifebloom. Make sure that you have it up at all times.

 

Looking at other fights:

Protectors: 77% Lb, 80% Harmony

Sha: 79% LB, 55% harmony

Galakras: 79% LB, 84% harmony

 

All these fights you need to improve on with these buffs and get use to casting swiftmend MUCH more often.

 

 

Now I'm gonna use CompareBot to compare you and the other druid in your raid from that same juggernaut kill.

Here eyebris received 2 more innervates than you.  That is probably one reason you are lacking in mana.  Use intnervate on yourself at about 80-75% mana and then on CD after that.Make a macro that says /use [@player] innervate and that will use it on yourself.  No one else needs your innervate, its sucks for them.

 

 

Here, it says you casted innervate once, but according to the last picture, you didn't receive it, so you must have casted it on someone else.  Don't do this.  Here it also shows that eyebris tranq'd one more time than you did.

 

 

 

Things to look at here.  Eyebris tranq healed for WAY more than yours.  You need to find a better spot to put it or something and use both of them.  Rejuv is somewhat similar, Just keep rejuvs on the tanks, and then put it on anyone that takes damage.  Wildgrowth and swiftmend are significant in the healing as well.  This comes from using them often and together.  Lastly, use your sagemender procs.  Its free instant burst healing on anyone.

 

Thats the harmony difference. For 25% of the fight, you had no extra healing to any of your hots, thus severely impairing them.

 

Eyebris used NS only once, I would strongly recommend that you both use this much more often.  It can literally save tanks or DPS. (it boosts your next direct heal by 50% and makes it instant, come on..)

 

Hope this helped.

[Lazuli 0]

Wow.  Thank you so much!  A couple of questions first.  How do I lock in that build to Ask Mr Robot?  And replace the juggernaut ring with the new one?  Just clarifying.   Actually, I equipped the ring and updated armory if that helps.  I replaced the jugg ring.  If that's correct, if you could help with Ask Mr Robot, I'd appreciate it.  I'd also like to skip out on blue gems!  :)

 

I want to get the stats set first before moving onto more questions regarding the rest of everything.

 

Thanks!

[Krazyito 521]

Just use these weights in Mr. Robot.  Make sure you log out with the ring equipped to get it to show up when you update.

[Lazuli 0]

Ok.  Stats fixed.  I actually left a little more mastery and dropped some spirit, but have met the haste breakpoint.

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/eldrethalas/Laz%c3%bbli/simple

 

Now, about auras.  If I could have some help with this, I would really appreciate it.  Something to remind me that these things are about to wear off until i get used to just knowing would be awesome.  I'm not sure if this is something I can set up through ElvUI or an add-on, or what.  I want to set these up really bad.  For all...harmony, WG, and swiftmend.  And any others i need so i get alerted when it needs to be refreshed.

 

Having that help may just be what i need to get my healing where it needs to be.

 

At least a start!  Thanks again.

 

 

[Lazuli 0]

Okay, apparently last week, they uploaded to warcraft logs.  Here is the report from last week.  I dont really know how to read these, but is this performance even worse?

 

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/F7KJtHM8CXv29DjB#type=healing

[Errinkel 9]

About auras: if you look at Kaz's stickie thread: https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/5328-restoration-54-guide-i-wanna-tree-the-very-best/ he has in there some ready-made weak aura strings that could help you out. I plopped them into my Weak Auras the other day, and they gave me everything I needed.

[Krazyito 521]

I personally use a bunch of the ones that Affinitii has available: http://pastebin.com/aWCPFXYj

But really any basic icon from weak auras will work.

Also, those warcraftlogs, its not the same exact log. I found that earlier, but didn't use it since you didn't link that specific fight.

This one you didn't even tranq. 9 out of 26 swiftmends, 19 out of 39 wildgrowths, your effo helaing was really low, so you need to place it much better. It should be in your top 3 healing.

63% harmony uptime

36% lifebloom uptime.

These are the main areas you need to focus. Use your CD's ON CD. Don't worry about soul of the forest right now with this bad of CD usage. Just worry about using them all the time. Worry about keeping up your 2 buffs (lifebloom/harmony) then you can worry about using soul of the forest with your wildgrowths and picking targets to heal.

Ways to think of your uptimes:

• Lifebloom is 15s, if you refresh it with a direct heal every time, harmony stays up all the time.
• Swiftmend is 15s CD. If you use it on CD, then your harmony should never fall off.
• Else, make an aura that pops up when you have about 5 seconds left on harmony to remind you to refresh it.

[Lazuli 0]

Thanks both of you so much.  I did read the guide thoroughly and it's fantastic.  I'm not familiar with pastebin or what I would even do with anything there.  I found an addon, weak auras at the suggestion of a disc priest.  Is that ok, or should I figure out how to do the pastebin thing?

 

Or does it really matter as long as it alerts me!?  :D

 

Going to log some flexes and/or lfrs and practice managing CDs and harmony/eff.  Thanks so much for the advice though!  You may just have rescued me yet!

[Krazyito 521]

When you install weak auras, go to the paste bin links (use mine or Kaz, not both) and copy the entire string. Then in weak auras go to import and paste the string into the window. Should import the auras.

[Pinkis 12]

I do have a couple of questions myself. 

First of all - I've found that every resto dudu guide stresses that using lifebloom is essential. The thing is that I never use it, or use it if I missclick ^.^ I know that it gives free casts, and it's somewhat of a constant tank heal, but this is probably because of our group - I'm healing together with disci and resto shammy - that i rarely get to heal tanks (i only rejuv them). Our tank specs may also add into this - we have a DK and pally - both of them have decent self heals. Taking all that into account, i use direct heals only if someone is taking a huge amount of damage, and tanks are rarely the case.

 

However i really value mastery and the buff it gives. Currently I've got ~12k mastery, 6k haste cap (you know exact number better than I do ^.^ ) and ~3k crit. I've got a lot of crit because my resto items comes from no-longer-used boomkin gear ^.^ I cant tell exact uptime, but it's probably ~95%, i lose some of the time if i do not have to heal (people avoid stuff they should avoid, or other healers cover it - for example disci shields people). I tried using nourish just for cheap buff refresh if i didn't have anyone to heal for a while, but as we're progressing hc that's not really happening.

 

About addons used for tracking - currently I'm using TellMeWhen, as that was first thing I found, and I really liked it's configuration possibilities. I've found that quite a lot of people are using weak auras - how are they compared to tell me when?

 

And Lazuli, as I'm a huge mana spender myself (i stick to 14k spirit), and you asked for advice on it - what I've found working for me is one general rule - do not cast direct heals if it's not necessary to save someone's life. Our direct heals suck, they are expensive and we would need 20k+ spirit to keep everyone alive using direct heals. Instant casts are whole different case though. SW and 2 set piece bonus are what you would want to use instead of casting direct heal. Keep rejuvenating and don't bother casting, unless someone is going to die.

[Krazyito 521]

Back in cataclysm, keeping up lifebloom use to be much more important than it is now. It use to supply replenishment to the raid, have a chance to restore 6% mana on a tick and chance to proc clear casting.

Now it only gives clear casting, which if you're having trouble with mana is super important to utilize. You have no other way of saving mana. Use this proc on a regrowth or non buffed healing touch. It's free, it's extra healing. Never say no to free healing.

Another reason is important is because it is a tank stabilizer. It ticks very fast and can help compensate for normal melee damage. Letting it bloom at the right time also separates the good druids from the mediocre. Back in cata lifebloom was 10s as well as harmony being 10s. This forced you to refresh it with a heal because SM was 5s off but also provided you with a lot of mana.

Lastly, as mentioned on the previous paragraph, it helps you remember to refresh harmony. It's a constant time that reminds you to keep up your most important buff. (My harmony at the moment is 47% extra healing to my hots with raid buffs. Pretty much 1/3rd more healing per hot)

If anything everyone says keep lifebloom up out of habit since that's how the class has been played since the beginning (even when we could lifebloom multiple people) I can see that it's less important now, but free healing is still free healing.

As for addons, tell me when works well too. Just I find weak auras more customizable and easy to share with others auras you make or find.

Plus, being able to code an aura to any problem you can think of is pretty amazing.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Lifebloom is a big deal. The fact that you don't use it is why you need so much spirit and cost yourself that much in a more useful stat. Life bloom takes nothing to maintain. One GCD every 15 seconds. If you have to let it drop to bomb heals and keep people alive, so be it. But, you should make every effort to keep it up as much as you can.

 

I heal with a disc priest or with a holy paladin. Our tanks are amazing and require almost no babysitting whatsoever. I still keep it on them, because there's nothing bad about a free heal. It's free. Tank doesn't need it? great, save yourself a rejuv and throw it on someone with low health.

 

Our direct heals are weaker than other classes', sure. Don't take that to mean they're not worth casting outside of emergencies, ESPECIALLY with Sage Mender (our 2-piece). They shouldn't be your primary source of healing, but when you get an Omen of Clarity or build up Sage Mender stacks or proc Lucidity, you should absolutely throw some out. Using them correctly can get you more throughput without needing 20k spirit. I run with ~12.5k and no Samophlange or external sources of mana (our Disc doesn't Hymn EVER) but use our direct heals for sometimes 4% of my healing and sometimes more depending on the fight (Paragons I end up Regrowthing the tanks a lot cause they hit hard).

 

To back up Krazy's mention on your Efflorescence usage... in a 6:32, you had 146 ticks of Efflorescence for less than 900k total healing. In a 10-man, I should see less ticks for the duration than a 25-man when you're more squished together wherever you do the fight. Yet, in a 4:51 fight, I had 455 ticks. 377 in our 3:47 a couple weeks ago. 373 in a 4:52. It's free to place, so make sure you make the effort to move it if no one's in it.

[Lazuli 0]

Hey guys.  Me again.  I am getting my auras set up and have been fiddling around with weak auras all weekend.  I need an aura that alerts me when harmony has 5 seconds left.  I cant figure out how to make it. 

 

Any help would be appreciated.  I raid tonight and would like to have this all set up. 

 

Thanks again!

Edited June 8, 2014 by Lazuli

[Kazistrasz 216]

Trigger: Aura, Aura Name "Harmony", Time Remaining <= 5

[Lazuli 0]

Ok guys, I'm back!  I have new logs for you to review from last week after my stat correction and trying your suggestions.

 

I've tried looking over the logs and while I am sure I can figure it out, you guys are so used to looking at them, I figured I would just send them to you.  Here's Juggernaut from last week.  I think I did better on some of the other fights, but I know you like seeing Juggernaut.  Feel free to look at them all.

 

Let me know how I did.  I am still getting killed by the other druid in the raid, Eyebris, but I think I improved.  Please take a look and let me know.  I really want to improve so I can stay in this raid group. 

 

Thanks again!

 

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/GqHan1bpvK6fxcVR#fight=19

 

Seriously, though, I definitely did better on the other fights.  please look at all and give me some tips. 

Edited June 16, 2014 by Lazuli

[Krazyito 521]

I should make a template now for all these analysis I'm doing...  I'm gonna Make the template here and pin it to a sticky somewhere else in this forum.  That way I have an easy way to reference myself and others can see it.

 

Uptimes

• Harmony: 90% - Average (95%+ is good)
• Lifebloom: 47% - Poor

 

Spell Usage

• Swiftmend: 19 out of 24~.  Missed 5 - Much better than last time.  I expect missing 3-4 is average.  So you're doing better here.
• Wild Growth: 22.  Time to check if you used them with SotF

Your very first SotF you used it on WG (when damage probably was nothing to start.) Your next 4 SotF you did NOT use on WG.  You used 1 of them on Lifebloom, and the other 3 on Rejuv.

 

 

 

Your Next 4 you did not use at all on WG.  You used 3 of them on Rejuv, and let one fall off without casting anything with it.

 

Next 5 was, Rejuv, LB x2, LB x3, WG, LB x2

Next 3 was., Rejuv, WG, Rejuv

Last one: LB.

 

 

Ok, let me take a minute to say that this is wrong.  You need to be casting Wild Growth for each Soul of the Forest buff.  So that means, each time you cast SM you need to try to make sure Wild Growth is the next spell.  You also are wasting SotF by refreshing LB after you casted a hasted version.  Thus over writing the buff.

 

The reason we do this is becasue Soul of the Forest adds 7 extra ticks to Wild growth resulting in very quick burst healing.  You use this when there are 6+ people that are low on health, which adds a decent amount of healing.  By you wasting this buff on Rejuv, Lifebloom and any other spell you are wasting the potential healing it could do. 

 

Of course there are situations where the rule is broken.  If you pair it with Tranq you get a super fast and nice burst healing AoE Cool down.  You can situation ally use it on a Rejuv to give a tank a nice fast ticking HoT when they are taking prolonged damage. Same with Lifebloom (but once you refresh it again the buff is gone). 

 

Basically you're missing out on a lot of potetial healing since you only used SotF on one WG and wasted a lot

 

 

 

-------

Tranq casts: 2 - Good

Innervate casts 1 - On yourself - Good, but it could have been used once more for more mana.

 

 

Clearcasting usage:

14 procs (this includes ones that over wrote each other) 

3 used on regrowth.

 

 

-----------

 

Final thoughts:

You did much better on your SM casts and your tranq for IJ was used well.  But now you need to realize why you're casting SM and use WG right after it

 

Your SotF usage was not good at all, and you could benefit from using Healing touch with your Sage mender procs more often, and Regrowth with your clear casting procs mroe often.

 

You could also try to use Your mushroom in a better spot.  There was a period of time where you didn't have it up at all. In this picture, The green bar is when you placed a mushroom and purple is when you bloomed it.  The graph shows healing of Effo, where there was a large part of the fight where you didn't have it down at all.

 

Lastly, you didn't die, but its probably a good idea to make use of Barksin and Ironbark.  Less damage you take is more likely you'll stay alive and it gives you good reflexes for when something might kill you comes up.

[Pinkis 12]

I'd like to discuss one thing - Swiftmend usage. You calculate it like it's some dps cd -  4 swiftmends per minute is perfect. But as for my raid composition it would be quite inefficient to use it like that - we have a resto shammy and disci priest besides me, so it sometimes takes ~ 10 secs to get a moment to use it properly without getting overheal. I'd like to know on what such "usage requirement" is based? Maybe i'm missing something, but it seems odd to me.

[Krazyito 521]

When you are learning to improve the biggest problem I see is people are not pushing their buttons. If you don't use your spells you don't do any healing. I set the max as a goal for "theoretical max output" of course, I never expect that and I have constantly said that missing between 3-4 is acceptable.

But if you're missing 10 or more cast then you either need to be dropped as a healer because the healing isn't needed, or you're playing wrong.

[Lazuli 0]

Mkay, Krazy.  Again you've really helped me out by breaking this down. 

 

Admittedly, I did not one time pay attention to the SoTF and timing it.  I was following the advice of getting the using my CDs on CD down first, then working on SoTF.  So that's the next step.  You've explained it very well and I think I understand when to use it.  I'm pretty sure it's just going to take practice.  We tried Malk last night and I died so many times trying to worry about SoTF and CDs and ended up standing in stuff or not moving quickly enough.

 

Anyway, thanks again and I'm sure I'll be back!  Lots to work on with these last tips.