Resto druid advice

[Nuadria 20]

Hello! I am newer to the icy veins forums, and to raid healing. I've already healed flex 1-2, and SoO 10n part 1. I feel as if I am falling behind in healing, and I have been trying to meet the haste caps as a healer, but I do not want to lose too much mastery in the process. Does anyone have any advice for reforges/gems? One thing I have trouble keeping track of, is my Lifebloom stacks, and Wild Growth. Although I primarily use Soul of the Forest in combination with Wild Growth to heal, as well as Rejuvenation+Genesis. I have also started using Nature's Vigil, and it has increased my average hps by about 20-30k, but I still question if Nature's Vigil is better to use than Heart of the Wild. During times of large raid damage, I'll use Soul of the Forest in combination with Tranquility as my healing CD, but I am unsure if that is increasing or decreasing my hps.  I usually use Glyph of Regrowth for the 100% increased critical effect for regrowth, but I want to know if using that is lowering or increasing my healing, since the glyph removes the HoT component. My other two primary glyphs are Glyph of Efflorescence, and Glyph of Wild Growth.

 

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/ysera/Nuadria/simple

 

http://www.askmrrobot.com/wow/gear/usa/ysera/nuadria

[Krazyito 521]

In general, I think NV is a better throughput CD than HotW. HotW can give you good bust healing in short fights.  The Regrowth glyph is usually good to have, especially if you know the HoT will overheal more often than not.  You should unglyph it for Malkorok though, becasue you can regrowth someone below 50% HP and it will constantly refresh on that target.  Tranq with SotF is usually always good.  It makes it faster and have more tick.

 

As for everything else, you can say that you're doing everything that you say you're doing, but without logs its difficult to actually evaluate what you're doing wrong.

 

Here is a thread on how to upload your own logs. (Use warcraftlogs) https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/4681-how-to-upload-your-own-logs/

 

As for your gear, it seems you're not gemming correctly.  I have a guide here that helps you decide how to set up Mr. Robot for your gear as well as telling you how to analyze your logs.  (I'll do it for you if you link them here.)

[Nuadria 20]

Thank you for your input! I'm already registered on warcraft logs, and hope to upload logs tonight. Mr robot originally miscalculated all of my reforges/gems wrong, because of my Prismatic Prison of Pride. I then reforged it to give me enough spirit that i'd need, because my combat regen used to be around 14.8k, so I had to reduce it to increase my haste, since it used to sit around 6%. I'll update my original post with a warcraft log later tonight, after I do either a flex 1/and or 10n. Which type of log would be preferred?

[Krazyito 521]

I've have heard this multiple times, but in fact, Mr. Robot has always done it right.  For myself, there have been very few times where it "looked" wrong (once or twice on boomkin, a couple times on warloc), but i did a /reload or restarted my game and it recalculated it the way Mr. Robot told me.

 

 

Trust me, Mr. Robot has their math down right, the game just messes up when updating dynamically from gear changes / etc.

 

As for logs, just give me as much as you can get.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Let's not start another "AMR is wrong" discussion, because there are other people (myself included) that have gotten inaccurate results before. It's not an issue of disobeying the way it's programmed, and it isn't always user error. Ask Mr. Robot has used, since the beginning of SoO, and incorrect formula for amplification trinkets based off of the LFR versions instead of the normal versions. This will lead to it being a point or two off, not completely ignoring things. Sometimes this is because of a trinket bug in-game, but I've also just had it flat out wrong on AMR's part. Your issue is user error. That said, I've never seen a reforge calculator that doesn't suck at handling spirit thresholds, so I highly recommend learning to reforge by hand. It doesn't take incredible math skills to do, and I usually do better reforging my own stuff than using calculators, not that healing even requires precision in gear set up to begin with.

 

As far as everything you ask...

 

Don't worry about keeping a lot of mastery right now. It doesn't scale very well, and at lower gear levels the haste generally works out better. It's not until you start reaching higher gears that haste diminishes to be below mastery. It's illogical, but that's how Blizz managed to balance the stats. Until you hit the 13,156 breakpoint, stick with haste. Just make sure you remember to keep enough spirit (should need about 12k regardless of content you're clearing). There's a breakpoint at 6652, and there's another one a little over 10k (I forget the number off the top of my head, but it's extra ticks for stuff when using SotF).

 

Glyph of Regrowth is definitely the correct choice. Glyph of Innervate (which you have equipped currently) is absolutely worthless. You should never be using your Innervate on anyone else. If one of your other healers goes OoM, pick up the slack on your end and tel them to learn to heal more efficiently.  Nature's Vigil versus Heart of the Wild: Heart of the Wild is better outside of cooldown (6% int bonus versus nothing passive about NV). It's also stronger while the cooldown is active (25% healing buff is more than 12% with some copying of heals). On top of all this, HotW lasts longer (45 seconds versus 30 seconds), long enough to last through the hard phases of fights.  However, NV is usable more often (every 90 seconds instead of once per fight).

 

If you need more CD coverage in general, take NV. If you only need one extra CD, especially to cover one heavy phase, take HotW.  If you don't really need a CD anywhere, take HotW. If you're doing progression and your group's DPS needs a little extra push to burn through something, take HotW (seriously, you can do some very respectable damage with it).

 

As for everything else you say you're doing, Krazy said it as it is: we can't tell what you're actually doing until we get some logs. If you want to get us the best logs for us to look at, make sure you upload to Warcraft Logs instead of World of Logs. As far as fight selection goes, Fallen Protectors, Norushen, and Iron Juggernaut are all really good choices and fights you're already clearing. Logs are important. Everyone thinks they're doing it correct. Almost every "help my DPS thread" claims they're doing the exact rotation they're supposed to be doing, but logs and logic prove them wrong (if they were doing it right, they wouldn't be coming to us asking why their DPS sucks).

 

Read through my guide for now. As WoD gets closer, I'm going to go in and play with my druid a bit and update it for WoD's launch.

[Krazyito 521]

Kaz already know, but again: I have never had Mr. Robot be wrong for me. I HAVE seen the in-game paperdoll stats not say the same things as Mr. Robot, but a reload / restart have always fixed it. From my experience, Blizzard cant dynamically update their own gear correctly.  And you already know how great Blizzard programming is.

 

I can tell you with certainty, if you give me your toon and tell me how you want gems / stats etc. I can get it the way you want it and it will be right when you do it.

 

Note on Glyph of Innervate: if you and another resto druid and both of you have the same amount of spirit, its actually more total mana to use it on each other.

 

Example: lets say at 12k spirit.

 

Innervate @ 12k spirit is 60k mana over 10 seconds (6k every second)

 

With Glyph of Innervate you and the target will gain 60% of your innervate. 6000*.6 = 3600 every second over 10 seconds (36k mana total)

 

36k * 2 = 72,000 mana.  which is a 12,000 mana difference for both druids.

 

while this is usually not recommended, if you so happen to have a druid in your raid that you play with often enough to set something like this up, it can be worth in the long run.

 

If you don't have a constant druid to heal with, don't bother.  Its not worth it.

 

 

The next question is what glyph is worth losing for that mana gain? Realistically you only have one 'free' glyph spot as Wild Growth and Efflorescence are required. If you don't need the output from Regrowth crits, then you could consider dropping that if you can come across another druid doing the same thing.

[Kazistrasz 216]

A note on Glyph of Regrowth: It's not necessarily a healing gain. It's a consistency thing, and a usefulness thing. Tanks generally need to be kept at full HP these days. It's just the crap way Blizzard designed MoP, and it's what they're promising us to get rid of in WoD. Regrowth is our "crap I need to heal them quickly" button, and when you're in that situation the last thing you want is RNG to roll you that 20% of the time you wouldn't crit. The HoT it leaves behind is generally garbage - the only fight that HoT is ever useful is if you can use SotF to Regrowth someone below 50% on Malkorok so that it will permanently refresh at that speed until Blood Rage.  The Living Seed proc from critting is really nice, and extremely beneficial to tank healing.

 

Being able to set up that kind of situation for 12k mana is a lot of work for such a tiny gain it wouldn't even be worth it. It's less mana than even an Arcane Torrent. Things 12k mana can't do for you:

 

Cast Healing Touch

Cast Regrowth

Cast Wild Growth

Cast Tranquility

Cast Wild Mushroom: Bloom

[Krazyito 521]

A simple [@Krazyito] / [@otherDruidName] / [target=thatDruidThere] macro will work wonders. Its really not that hard.  The hard part is having a 2nd druid that you regularly run with to do it with.

 

Of course 12k mana isnt that much, but its an extra buffer that can go along way when progressing if you have the option.  plus, the more spirit you have the more extra you get out of it.  Its a gain nonetheless and every bit means something.

 

You also can't just say "its a lot of work" when its literally a single slash command away. I already have /[@player] Innervate for mine so I don't have to bother targeting myself. Changing it to say another players name is hardly sweat breaking.

[Krazyito 521]

Shit man same thing about HotW vs NV.  

 

I'm telling you, for healing output NV is much better.  You're not accounting for the extra healing it procs on top of the increased healing done.  Its not "nothing"  because its only active when you use it.  You use it when it makes sense and you get a great amount of healing from it.

 

Its like saying some shit like Soul link Vs SacPac.  "Soul link is always active" vs "Use a big CD when you need it".

 

If they gave you the choice between Dark Soul and a 6% passive gain as destruction.  You sure as hell will pick DS becasue it makes your main damage bigger when your shit procs. 

 

Use NV when theres a lot of damage happening and its going to outperform HotW and feel more fluid of a CD. HotW is very surely a 'Situational' CD because it can give you a long period of huge healing (which there's nothing really that lasts that long anyway) while NV has a smart healing component for the downtime of small healing after you use it for the big part.

 

HotW I will only pick for the damage output and nothing else. It averages out over the fight, but NV is amazing when used smartly.

[Kazistrasz 216]

If I have to go and change a macro that I'll have to change any time I'm not healing with that person, that to me is more effort than it's worth. I'm lazy. Besides, even in progression, 12k mana isn't generally that much. If you're running that dry, I'd rather recommend looking at evaluating your mana usage more than coordinating a synchronized swimming of Innervates. Compared to the consistency in emergency situations of Glyph of Regrowth, it's not worth taking. That's my recommendation.

 

I'm not discounting the extra heals. I even mentioned them in my post. The only "nothing" I said was to it having no passive ability. Cooldowns are nice, but passives plus cooldowns are pretty sweet. A lot of our healing is smart healing to begin with from Efflo and WG. We no longer see long, drawn out, damage intensive phases on fights because of how fast our guild kills everything. Raid groups that don't farm the bosses in one night clears and are still progressing generally have significantly longer healing intensive phases for the end of Norushen, the end of Sha, the firefest of killing Galakras, the Siege Phase in Iron Juggernaut, during BL on Shamans, and the ending burn on Nazgrim.  Those are all fights where I'd rather have 45 seconds of 25% healing buff on top of 6% int buff than 30 seconds of NV.

 

Comparing to warlock abilities in a non-healing manner isn't a good analogue.

[Krazyito 521]

I still feel NV has much better use throughout the fight than just one big burst at the end of a fight with HotW.

[Kazistrasz 216]

You can use it throughout the fight. I just never found or felt that I needed something throughout any fight that wasn't part of my toolkit already on those fights. There are some fights I used NV for. I'm not saying it should be the choice for every single fight. I'm just saying the only times I ever picked NV were when I actually felt I needed another CD running throughout the fight on top of the toolkit I already have. There's also more merit to passive bonuses as healers than as DPS.

 

You and I have totally different experiences and ideas when it comes to healing. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that I have different opinions and recommendations.

[Krazyito 521]

Guess it wont matter in WoD cause they are getting rid of that passive.  Don't even know if HotW will be useful for anything outside of damage.

 

edit: they got rid of the incerease for NV and only kept and increase on the proc healing.  I didn't even notice

 

so same shit i guess

[Kazistrasz 216]

Guess it wont matter in WoD cause they are getting rid of that passive.  Don't even know if HotW will be useful for anything.

 

Fixed that for you. If they actually put healing in the state they've said they want to put it in, we'll probably never get much of a chance where we can not worry about healing to help blast damage.

[Nuadria 20]

Thank you for your advice, everyone! I just got Pennyroyal Leggings, which caused my combat regen to hit about 14k, with a spirit flask. I used to use Heart of the Wild for every fight, but I use Nature's Vigil in fights like Immerseus and the fallen protectors. Otherwise I'll use  Heart of the Wild for every other fight. I updated my armory for the new legs I got last night, and my haste is looking closer to the breakpoint.

 

http://www.askmrrobot.com/wow/gear/usa/ysera/nuadria

[Krazyito 521]

Don't use a spirit flask.  Not worth the loss of intellect.

 

and if you're gonna link your Ask Mr. Robot profile, its best if you hit 'save' and link us the custom link it gives you.

[Nuadria 20]

I wasn't sure if the spirit or int flask was better, but even without the flask, my combat regen sits around 13k.

 

Is this the custom link you referred to? http://www.askmrrobot.com/wow/gear/f1c483b8-49d1-4197-a346-6e8005ca78e1

[Krazyito 521]

Yea, but you should be using custom weights and not the default stuff Mr. Robot gives.

 

Here is what I would do. http://www.askmrrobot.com/wow/gear/b2220cc3-b83f-486c-9481-57e5ca20e2e7

[Nuadria 20]

Alright, thank you all for your help.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Nuadria