Resto druids now AWESOME for boxing

[badashh]

I ran 5 heroics yesterday with my 70 druid and the new 51 point talent Wild Growth is Amazing. You can target anyone in the party and it instantly puts a HOT on everyone in the party. I rarely had to change from my MT target to anyone else.

This is a huge change for resto druids where pre 3.02, I would have to change targets all the time to throw hots on them. The reduction of micro management makes me think that resto druids maybe getting close to COH priests as being one of the best MB healers.

I'm not sure what the range is on chain heal or circle of healing, but Wild growth may be better because was putting the HOT on my ranged dps, me and the tank in one cast.

[Multibocks]

Wow I should have paid more attention when I spec'd my druid healer, lol. Gonna take care of this tonight!

[Aradar]

I looked at it and thought well 23% of base mana is pretty steep and 15 yard radius of initial target is kind of weak but CoH is 21% with the same radius and heals for far less.

[Multibocks]

23% base mana does not consider what you add through equipment. So say completely naked you have 3000 mana at 60 it will cost 690 mana. Now add in equipment and say you have 7000 mana, well 690 isnt so much anymore.

[badashh]

The whole mana cost of everything maybe an issue with druids, with the nerf to lifebloom and Tree form no longer reducing mana cost, I actually had to use an inntervate in 5 man, which never happened pre 3.02. But I hardly ever went oom before, now there is a chance.

From a gameplay perspecitve if everyone is your party is taking so much damage you are going oom casting wild growth something else is probably going wrong.

[Vyndree]

A note about wild growth vs coh (and keeping in mind I have both a coh priest and a leveling resto druid):

CoH is spammable. You should NOT spam wild growth. Wild growth, IME, is not "smart". It will just refresh the HoT on people who already have it (I run with 4 hunters, so sometimes I want hots on everyone, including pets... it won't HoT the pets. It'll just keep refreshing the HoT on whomever 5 have the lowest health). Sure, it attempts to be smart, but all it does is "find people with lowest health, put HoT on them... don't care if they already have a HoT".

CoH does the same sort of targeting, but it's an actual instant-cast HEAL, not a HoT. Therefore you can spam it when you're getting AoE'd and your health goes UP. No waiting for the HoT to take effect. No waiting to spam the button.

IMO, CoH > Wild Growth, but Druids also have some other great things in their arsenal. I'd say both classes are pretty equivalent for healers, with priests having a step up on the AoE healing and druids hots being better for spamming on a tank. Wild Growth is a great talent -- don't get me wrong. But it's still not as good as Circle of Healing.

[Multibocks]

Wow when did CoH become instant cast? Was about to say druids are the kings of moving battles where you can't stand still very long, but then I saw CoH is instant... crazy. No recast either, wow.

[Vyndree]

Wow when did CoH become instant cast? Was about to say druids are the kings of moving battles where you can't stand still very long, but then I saw CoH is instant... crazy. No recast either, wow.

Always been. ;) I think you're confusing PRAYER of healing, which is a base ability for priests and works great before you're high enough level for CoH.

[Multibocks]

I can't believe it has no recast timer, seems way OP to me. However druids can lay down some serious HOTs to mitigate damage you know is incoming(tanks or the leader of your pvp group), so you can avoid an untimely death due to stun. Both have their advantages.

[Aradar]

23% base mana does not consider what you add through equipment. So say completely naked you have 3000 mana at 60 it will cost 690 mana. Now add in equipment and say you have 7000 mana, well 690 isnt so much anymore.

I understand that but I was just thinking it was high compared to other spells I have seen in general but after comparing it to CoH I guess it's not.

[badashh]

The main point I wanted to make with the post is Druid healers went from about a 1 out of 10 for MB healer to about a 7 with one spell. For me, micro-management is the killer for any class I have to MB. Priests might be 8-9, but Druids have vastly improved.

[Vyndree]

The main point I wanted to make with the post is Druid healers went from about a 1 out of 10 for MB healer to about a 7 with one spell. For me, micro-management is the killer for any class I have to MB. Priests might be 8-9, but Druids have vastly improved.

I did fine with my 66 resto druid pre-patch.

The key is to use hot castsequences for your "main spamming button":
i.e.
/castsequence [help,nodead][target=targettarget,help,nodead] reset=6 Lifebloom, Lifebloom, Regrowth, Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Swiftmend


Yes, it's mana intensive... but it's a druid. I never run out of mana.

Pre-lifebloom I used swiftmend as a "throttle" to make sure I wasn't spamming hots too quickly. I also ran around alot if healing was not needed, since I'd never get through the "regrowth" cast if I was on the move.
i.e.
/castsequence [help,nodead][target=targettarget,help,nodead] reset=6 Regrowth, Rejuvenation, Swiftmend

Pre-swiftmend, I used a "click to cast" style of healing, with a button next to each partymember (and pet's) faceplate with a "rejuv", "regrowth", "healing touch" button that would cast on that respective partymember. The micromanagement at this stage was actually quite fun.

[Boylston]

Circle of Healing and Prayer of Mending are the top two best skills for healing multiple tanks (e.g. the Hunter pets in a 4xHunter+Priest setup) or an AoE based group. I think Wild Growth has some potential for occasional party heals, but it's not a good sustained healing spell like CoH is.

I like druid healers (have one myself!), but their added AoE healing ability in this patch is still somewhat mediocre. CoH and PoM are still kings when it comes to AoE healing. Not even the uber chain heal can top it in multi-boxer type situations.



All that said, I think Wild Growth was a nice addition. I'm just not sure it's enough to propel Resto druids to "AWESOME" for multiboxing scenarios.

[Vyndree]

Yepyep. Suvega and I talked it over last night actually.

I have a priest at 70 already (named and appearance'd like my hunters) that I plan on putting with the hunters once they reach 70. The druid will most likely either go boomkin (with my ele shammies) or resto with my warlocks (mmm... wild growth + lifetap). It just felt better to put the druid in a group with controlled aoe damage (lifetap) since it can't spam aoe heals like a priest can. The warlocks are a bit more adept at keeping aoe damage at bay via fear/deathcoil and various life-draining abilities (siphon life, life drain).