Thinking of changing my healer's macro...

[Kulzor]

I wanted to get some feedback on this idea in case others have tried it (or on the other hand, never thought of it...).

Right now my resto druid uses this macro on fights (I prep two Lifeblooms on the tank before the mobs get to her):
/castsequence reset=13 [target=Cyllan,nodead] Rejuvenation,Lifebloom,,,Lifebloom,,,Lifebloom,,,L ifebloom,,,Lifebloom
(The ,,, are intended to try to avoid spamming it since I spam that key so often for the dpsers, not 100% sure it works for that though.)

I'm debating changing his spec (free respec today) to get the Living Seed talent, and the +50% crit on Regrowth, and then have the macro do this:
/castsequence reset=13 [target=Cyllan,nodead] Rejuvenation,Lifebloom,Regrowth,Lifebloom,Lifebloo m,Regrowth,Lifebloom,Lifebloom

In a nutshell, my healer is mana-wasteful. I've been casting LB every time the global cooldown is up rather than waiting five or six seconds (let me know if you know of a smarter way to do that while still mashing one button). This at least will guarantee the tank is topped off, plus add another HoT into the lineup from Regrowth, plus fairly often get the benefit of the Living Seed heal.

I'm a little worried that adding Regrowth will be EXTREMELY mana wasteful though.

Any thoughts on using regrowth like that, or a way to not auto-cast LB every time the global cooldown is up?

[jurence]

In the sequence tell it to cast fireball, which obviously it cannot as it is a druid but for that one press it will not cast anything. Makes sense to me- less healing and conserves mana

[Bigfish]

Best Solution I can think to come up with is /castsequence reset=6 life bloom,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Life bloom,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Life Bloom,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and just experiment with the commas to get the timing right.

Edit: Alternatively, you could do /castrandom Life Bloom,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, to get it to go off once for about every 50 key strokes (or however many commas I put there). It really depends on how much you spam the button.

You could also do /castrandom Life Bloom, Rejuvenation, Regrowth,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Memn]

I would suggest putting your healing sequence on a different key than your dps sequence. Its the only real way to control it at a different pace. Alternatively, look for a spell with a cooldown that you can put into the rotation that will throttle the sequence. I use prayer of mending on my priest to ensure my renews are staggered:

/castsequence Prayer of Mending, Renew, Prayer of Mending

Prayer of Mending has a 10 sec cooldown, Renew last for 15 second, so tank goes without a renew for about 5 seconds. This is from memory, but I think those numbers are correct. I don't know if Druid healers have a similar spell or not.

[elsegundo]

I would suggest putting your healing sequence on a different key than your dps sequence. Its the only real way to control it at a different pace. Alternatively, look for a spell with a cooldown that you can put into the rotation that will throttle the sequence. I use prayer of mending on my priest to ensure my renews are staggered:

/castsequence Prayer of Mending, Renew, Prayer of Mending

Prayer of Mending has a 10 sec cooldown, Renew last for 15 second, so tank goes without a renew for about 5 seconds. This is from memory, but I think those numbers are correct. I don't know if Druid healers have a similar spell or not.This works decently for the druid's rejuvination spell. but for lifebloom, its a tad different. since lifebloom stacks three times and casuse a burst heal (hence, the bloom) at the end of the countdown, the mechanics of using lifebloom is a bit different. also remember that each recast of lifebloom will reset the spell, thereby giving it an additional 6 seconds of HOT healing before the bloom. you can postpone the bloom indefinitely by simply recasting lifebloom every 5 seconds. (i do believe the spell duration is 6 seconds). this is quite possibly the most mana-efficient healing spell the druid has and should be used often.

in battles, prior to tanks getting aggro, i would cast a rejuv/lifebloom first. let the tank aggro, and let it work. lifebloom shortly once i see health slowly ticking (now the heals WILL count on my aggro meter) and regrowth. then healing touch/lifebloom. the rest of the spells cost a lot of mana, and healing touch/lifebloom gives me the most bang for my mana.

if everyone's dying, then barkskin+tranquility does wonders.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Just trying to get things clear in my mind. Lets say you spam the key each second:

1 PoM Casts with 10 sec cooldown
2 Renew casts with 15 duration
3 PoM Cast fails
4 PoM Cast fails
5 Renew casts and 15 duration starts again (waste of mana?)
6 PoM Fails
7 PoM Fails
8 Renew casts and 15 duration starts yet again (waste of more mana?)


What am I missing here? You try and press the key 5 seconds apart?

[Ualaa]

Every comma in a castsequence, except a comma right after an actual spell, is a keyclick where nothing happens.

A few examples...

/castsequence Fireball, Fireball, Fireball
These comma's are not delay's because they follow right after an actual spell.

/castsequence Fireball,,Fireball,,Fireball
The second comma after each fireball is a keypress where nothing happens.

/castsequence ,,,Fireball
These three comma's are keypresses where nothing happens.

/castsequence Fireball,,,
The first is not a delay, because it follows a spell the last two are.

/castsequence [target=party1target] Moonfire,,,,
/castsequence [target=party1] ,,,Lifebloom
This is a spell, followed by three pauses, and three pauses followed by a spell.
Because they never try to cast a spell at the same time, they will not conflict.

Hope that helps some.

[Memn]

Just trying to get things clear in my mind. Lets say you spam the key each second:

1 PoM Casts with 10 sec cooldown
2 Renew casts with 15 duration
3 PoM Cast fails
4 PoM Cast fails
5 Renew casts and 15 duration starts again (waste of mana?)
6 PoM Fails
7 PoM Fails
8 Renew casts and 15 duration starts yet again (waste of more mana?)


What am I missing here? You try and press the key 5 seconds apart?

Sam,

The macro I gave was PoM, Renew, Pom.
Pom will only cast when its cooldown is up, and it won't let the sequence progress until it casts, so if you spammed it, it would result in PoM, Renew, PoM, Pom (restarted), Renew, PoM, PoM (restarted), Renew, PoM etc.. This results in 5 seconds with no renew. With today's patch they updated a talent to shorten the cooldown on PoM to 7 seconds. given that, this macro will work with almost perfect timing.

/castsequence Prayer of Mending, Renew, Prayer of Mending

I would steer clear of trying to time the spell with commas, as different fights will have different healing requirements, and even different spam tempos. This is just my heal spam button that I used to provide a base level of healing. I also use flash heal and greater heal via specific buttons for that purpose.

Given how Lifebloom is used, and that sometimes you want to prevent a bloom, and other times you dont, I wouldn't put it in a dps spam button.

[valkry]

Assign your healer to different keybinds that are in reach of your dps spam keybind. This way you have total control over your healing. Have like F1 for lb, F2 for rejuv and F3 for regrowth.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Ok thats a lot clearer now.

[Kulzor]

I added Regrowth into my macro after the Rejuv and two Lifeblooms are cast. Works like a charm. After the respec to have the +50% crit on Regrowth, and the Living Seed, it adds some nice extra healing to ensure the tank stays topped off on health.

No mana problems either, even on bossfights (without using a mana pot or Innervate either). Granted, my tank uses the (now nerfed) Judgement of Wisdom, and I use the Mana Spring Totem as well to help out.

It was a good addition.

[Seldum]

How do you guys controle the Healing of other units than the tank. I could build macros with healing of the "focus" target, but that woulden't be flexible if my dps needs healing all of a sudden.

I play 5 druids and I have been thinking of this for quite some time now. Im thinking of going 1 tank, 1 healer, 3 dps and the other?

All my duids can heal themselfs, but when I gain lvl I need to specialize them a bit. What would be nice is to have the healer being able to heal the toons seperatly without me having to bind 5+ macros for each healing spell.

Im considering using healbot on the healer, but then I would have to move the mouse to another screen in the middle of the combat, which I belive is not very good.
Im here assuming the tank would be my main.

Any suggestions?

[Starbuck_Jones]

If you have a tank and a main healer, then 99% of the time you shouldnt have to worry about heals on the non tank. I have a simple stopcast cast heal macro for the tank and if things go kabloowy then I have the panic button that stops everything and everyone heals/hides and I have a few seconds to reagro to the tank. Else I pop an AOE Heal either Circle of Healing or Prayer.

[Ken]

What about just making 1 or 2 heal buttons and press them whenever you are supposed to heal? Spamming heals (even if there is a pause) is just wrong because it does not only waste mana, it also generates unnecessary threat.

With my priest I only put healing-over-time on my tank when he's getting a lot of damage. Normally he just gets a greater heal when necessary.
I have 1 heal button for (*):
- normal heal when pressed normally
- fast heal when shift is pressed
and another button that (**):
- does healing-over-time when pressed normally
- that does AoE healing (instant) when shift is pressed
- does AoE healing with cast time when alt is pressed

2 buttons and all you need :)

Normally I only use the first button and in heavier fights I use the second one too. In specific situations I might use the alt/shift modifiers to get specific heals.


(*) Something like:
/cast [nomod] Greater Heal
/cast [mod:shift] Quick Heal

(**)
/cast [nomod] Healing Over Time
/cast [mod:shift] Instant AoE Heal
/cast [mod:alt] Slow AoE Heal

[Seldum]

Nice inputs there.

I guess a "Holy sh**" button is nice to have :)

Im not that familiar with high end heroic instances and how much is needed by the healer, but with my priest I can more or less heal the tank with a setup similar to your two button setup. No sweat!

Again, thanks for the input.

[DLoweinc]

for healing all of my guys, i created separate macros on my main healer for each of them and put them in order that they showed up on my main tanks screen (my main screen). i keybound them to F11 (main tank), f10, party2 on my main tanks screen, f9 for party 3 and so on.

this allows me to most of the time just spam a lesser or greater heal depending on how large the health deficit is on my tank, and i can hit the other buttons if anyone else needs a heal.

i have a key setup for the dps (that can heal) to heal themselves.

now that i have a druid i will just make a key for tranquility and bind the same key to chain heal on my shaman while my priest casts her group heal, that should be enough for any oh crap moments... that worked well for me.

i initially tried to have the heal spell keybound to the same one as my dps, but found that i really didn't need to get healed that much so it was a waste of mana

I am not sure how everyone else has their keybinds setup, but for me, keys 1-6 are for my paladin tank, and keys 7 thru = are for my dps. since all those keys were already in use, my healer uses the F7 thru F11 keys.

for singular buffs (such as heroism, which i want to control for boss fights) i keybound those to the numbers on the number pad.

each person is going to want different ways to do things...

[davedontmind]

Spamming heals (even if there is a pause) is just wrong because it does not only waste mana, it also generates unnecessary threat.That is not quite right - you only generate threat for healing done, not overhealing, so spamming heals when the tank is on full health has no effect on threat.

It is is waste of mana, though, which is a very good reason for not doing it.

[Ken]

Spamming heals (even if there is a pause) is just wrong because it does not only waste mana, it also generates unnecessary threat.That is not quite right - you only generate threat for healing done, not overhealing, so spamming heals when the tank is on full health has no effect on threat.

It is is waste of mana, though, which is a very good reason for not doing it.

I stand corrected :)