I had this post up over on my livejournal (friends only, you were warned) and decided it would be a really great introduction over here. You see, in my guild we have very few healers… we don’t have priests waiting in the wings or anything like that. In fact, we’re lucky if we have priests online, let alone ready to raid. So those of us who raid regularly (your truly included) have to be pretty knowledgable in the Way of the Healers- which means understanding how other classes heal. This conversation spilled over into a discussion with my fellow Angry Healers and prompted me to make this post both on my guild’s healer forums and in my own journal (I even set that post to public! You should be proud!)
So, I present said post to you. Please keep in mind that this is, by no means, a detailed telling of how tree!druids do they’re thing- but it should help you other healers get an understanding of how we do things.
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This is about to turn into a ‘how does Koko do it’ and ‘Druid healing strengths’ post, I think. So why don’t I just go ahead and do that?
Koko healing options #1: Raid healing.
- Raid healing involves this for me- swap Idols from increased SP of Nourish to reduced mana for Rejuv. See light damage on single target, throw Rejuv. See light damage on multiple targets, throw Rejuvs. See moderate damage on one person, throw Rejuv and Swiftmend. See moderate- heavy damage on multiple targets, cast Wild Growth and throw Rejuvs on everyone, then cast Swiftmend on desperate targets. See heavy damage on one person, throw Rejuv and Swiftmend. Really- that’s it. With a high haste rating, my GCDs are down to about 1 second (a little over, as I do not think I’m haste capped yet.) And with MP5 flasks and some MP5 items, I rock a 540+ MP5 while casting- mana is rarely an issue for me if I’m raid healing. That means I can spare my Innervate in case things get a little hot and heavy.
Koko helaing options #2: Tank healing.
- Tank healing involves- equipping the Nourish Idol, stacking Lifebloom on the tank, throwing Rejuv and Nourishing or Swiftmending spikes of damage, tossing the occasional Regrowth and Wild Growth (rarely WG) for the extra heal- since I have the Nourish glyph, which adds an additional 5% heal to nourish per HoT on the target (Lifebloom, no matter how many stacks, counts as 1 HoT) and the increased SP to Nourish Idol, this is enough to keep most tanks alive. There are fights where I am not the optimal tank healer- Steelbreaker comes to mind, because he just does so much damn damage with Fusion Punch that my HoTs don’t have time to catch up if Swiftmend is on CD- Nourish has a cast time of about 1.5 seconds, which is plenty of time for him to kill Inimical or Thecla. If that Swiftmend is on CD (15 seconds), the tank is probably toast.
Now, a tree druid’s strength lies in 3 places:
1. Mobility- druids are the ‘run around’ healers- I do it habitually, unless the fight requires me to stay put, like Kologarn.
2. Ability to avoid lockouts- can lock us out of our spells unless our spells have a cast time- most of our heals don’t. I rarely- if ever- get locked out of my tree.
3. Mana regen- WE HAVE INNERVATE, BITCHES. Innervate makes all other healing classes cry because, on the rare occasion I actually run out of mana, I pretty much have a whole second mana bar.
What druids look for in gear:
1. Spellpower. No matter what else the gear has, we’re going for max spellpower.
2. Haste. The goal is a GCD of 1 second for the purpose of throwing HoTs.
3. Intellect. more manas + faster mana regen = more heals.
4. Spirit. Nerfed for MP5 purposes, tree!droods get 15% of their Spirit as +heal in Treeform.
5. Crit. We’re not as crit heavy as any other healer, but that doesn’t mean we don’t like seeing our Lifeblooms bloom for 15k+.
DISCLAIMER: this is not the end- all, be- all of druid healing. This is simply what I have found to be the most helpful to me, and I hope this helps everyone else have a better understanding of why you love your trees!
Cheers!
~Pyo
