Posts Tagged ‘druid

16
Nov
10

Post of Absolutely No Value- I’m Back In the Game!

By Pyo 1 Comment
Categories: druid and Healing
Tags: , , , ,

Seriously.

I was gonna do a whole Huntard post… but I actually raided tonight.  For the first time in almost nine months, since school began.  And you know what?

I missed it.

WOOHOO! I'm back in the game, baby!

I gotta tell you- I’m just glad that, despite all of my T9- and less than- gear and trinkets, I can still hold my own as a tree.  My guild, The Grim Covenant, cleared up through Valithria Dreamwalker.  We got one of out Retadins his Shadowmourne.  I even managed to score myself some upgrades.  But I’m back, baby.  For real.  I get to do it again tomorrow, too!

Seriously, that’s my whole post.  Me being squeetastic at raiding with my uber-awesome guild again.

I’ll be back later this week with a real post.  Tomorrow, I graduate from my final class, and I go on a nice, long break.  Maybe my post will be about Huntards.  Or maybe it will be about Cataclysm.  We’ll see.  Until then, stay angry, healers!

~Pyo

04
Feb
10

Levelling A Druid!

By Pyo 4 Comments
Categories: Healing
Tags: , ,

Happy Thursday, folks!

I’m taking a page from Ambrosine’s book here.  As the ‘fount of druidic knowledge’ in my group of local WoW playing friends, I often get bombarded with questions about playing a Druid:

- What gems should I be using? 

- Show should I enchant my gear?

- Should I use a Staff of a MH/OH combination?

- What stats should I be stacking?

- How do you heal, Aanthe/ Koko?

Most of these questions are pretty easy to answer.  But recently, one of my close friends was contemplating an alt, and asked me:

‘Pyo, how did you level Aanthe/ Koko?’

And I looked at him and said, ‘That’s a good damn question.’  This post is for that person, and everyone else contemplating walking the Druidic Path, whatever you choose to be- Bear!Tank, Panzerkin, or Tree!Druid.

Levelling a Druid: A Guide

So, you want to level a Druid?  Good for you!  There’s a few things you need to know about levelling a Druid:

1.  If you have an 80 with the Emblems to spare, get the Heirloom Gear.  Color me spoiled, but the Heirloom Items are the BEST THING you can give an alt.  It makes levelling so much easier with the 20% XP boost, and its 2 pieces of gear that don’t need repaired and won’t need to be replaced until you’re 80.  Get the shoulders and chestpiece for sure, the weapon is nice, as well.  The trinkets are ok, but you can do without them.

2.  Your Forms are going to SUCK ASS when you first get them.  I am not kidding.  You’re going to hit level 10, do your Bear Form quest, go ‘Oooooo!  *poof*  RAWR!’ and promptly get your ass kicked by a mob because you have 2 Bear Form abilities.  Hit level 20, and its the same thing with Cat Form.  Levelling a Druid in the early stages is not easy.  You will die a lot if you use your Forms before you hit level 25-26, because they just aren’t that good at this point in time.  You would have better luck just staying in Caster Form and Wrathing things to death and tossing the occasional Rejuv on yourself to stay alive.  Zones that ‘meh’ for most people will be TERRIBLE for you- I’m looking at you, Hillsbrad Foothills and Redridge Mountains.  Mob respawn rate and pack pulling will be responsible for your death at least a dozen times.  This discourages a lot of people early on.  If you’re thinking of levelling a Druid, you need the mental fortitude to push on through the aggravation of getting your butt kicked all over the zone.

3.  Despite all of this, if you’re going to level a Druid, level as Feral.  Low level leather gear is itemized more for Feral than it is for anything else- and while levelling Balance may seem like a good idea at the time, levelling Feral will make it a hell of a lot easier.  With the introduction of Heirloom Items, going the Balance route is a little more viable, but those pieces that aren’t Heirloom are still not going to be itemized well.  And only a real glutton for punishment levels as Resto.  Get your ‘of the Wolf’ greens and go go Kitty Form (once it gets some worthwhile abilities.)

4.  Upgrade your gear every couple of levels or so.  The difference is noticeable.  Obviously, this is limited by the amount of money you have and what’s on the AH/ what randomly drops for you.  But there’s no reason you shouldn’t be trying to upgrade once every 2- 3 levels or so.

5.  Level two gathering professions.  Yep.  Now, I know what you’re thinking- ‘But what about all of those neat Leatherworking patterns for useful stuff I can actually use?’  Honestly, its better just to get 2 gathering professions.  Do it for the money.  Set yourself up early for success- the more money you have when you hit 80, the less you’ll have to farm.  My suggestions?  Herbalism and Skinning, as you can do these in your Animal/ Travel Forms.  Alternately, if you’re really good at spotting mines, go Herbalism and Mining, since both of those gathering professions are associated with at least 2 crafting professions (Mining is 3!)  Also, consider downloading Auctioneer, and remember to do an AH scan at least once a day the first week you have it, then twice a week after that.  It’ll allow you to follow market demands for specific items and lets you maximize your profits.  When you hit 80, you can choose to dump a gathering profession for a crafting professi0n and powerlevel it.

6.  Don’t be afraid of the LFG tool.  Instances, especially with the Heirloom Items, are a quick way to get your levels and better gear.  Also, don’t be afraid to click the Tank and Healer options- even as Feral you should be fine in the lower level instances.  I wouldn’t recommend this in Outlands and Northrend, however.

7.  Don’t be afraid of taking advice from others.  Especially other people who play druids- for the most part, we do know what we’re talking about.  Alternatively, doing some research- like looking at levelling guides that are more in depth than this one, blogs such as Big Bear Butt, and Armorying your Druid friends- will prove to be quite useful.

8. Don’t worry about Dual- Speccing until you’re at least level 60.  Yes, I know the option is available at 40.  If you’re doing the ’2 gathering professions’ thing I recommended, you will probably have the 1000g to fork over.  SAVE IT.  You’ll thank me when you’re higher level and can afford to buy Epic Flight Form and Cold Weather Flight as soon as you get to Northrend (YaY Heirloom Flight Book!)

9.  Level First Aid.  Bandages can be made- and applied- in your Forms.  Honestly, there is no reason that any character you choose to level should not have First Aid.  Level it, and make sure you maintain it as you go.  When you go to buy the First Aid books, buy them all (if you have the money for it) and stick them in your bank.  Whenever the bandage you’re currently working on goes green, go back to a major city and get the next bandage.  Don’t forget about the First Aid quest guy in Hammerfall/ Theramore Isle!

10.  Have fun!  Don’t worry about endgame content until you’re level 80 and rocking your way through Heroics for Emblems of Triumph and Tier 9 armor pieces!  After you’ve done that, then you can decide if endgame raiding as one of the most OP classes in WoW to date is what you want. 

LOL Druids

Well, that’s all for now, folks!  This isn’t an all- inclusive guide to levelling, but I hope these points helped someone.  Have a great weekend, and stay angry, healers!

~Pyo

25
Jan
10

Top Mistakes Healers Make

By Pyo 7 Comments
Categories: angry healers, druid and Healing
Tags: , , , ,

It’s Monday! 

O_o

Yeah, I know.  But this Monday is special- this is the Monday I put my ‘Pyo Starts Posting Twice A Week’ plan in effect!  (I have been working on this for a while.)  Because I believe in quality posting- and posting only one day a week bores me.  I bore easily.  So, I will be posting Mondays and Thursdays.  YaY for us!

But I digress.  Let us have a post!  Today, I have chosen- from My List of Topics- to discuss-

*cues dramatic music*

Top Mistakes Healers Make.

Say it ain't so!

That’s right, Angry Healers, I said it- this post is about the mistakes WE make!  Well, not all of us, I suppose.  But I’ll be covering the mistakes we make when we get better- and know it.  Not the beginner mistakes.  Let’s begin, shall we?

Top Mistakes Healers Make

1.  Just because you are the healer, doesn’t mean that they won’t drop you from the group.  This is, quite possibly, this biggest problem I have seen with level 80 healers while I play on my Shadow Priest of Doom- especially all of you rolling in full epics.  Just because you’re fully epicced out in your shiny ICC/ ToC gear, doesn’t mean your place in a party is guranteed.  Yes, that means that if you’re acting like a total asshat, you can expect to be rapidly replaced, because nobody likes dealing with the ‘leetsauce’ attitude.  If you colossally fuck up, prepare to be kicked.  If you have no clue what you’re doing, prepare to be bounced.  This leads me into my next points:

2.  If you sign up as a Healer for instances, be specced properly for it.  This mainly applies to Heroics and higher level instances.  No, Mr. Enhancement Shaman trying to heal Heroic Halls of Lightning, you are NOT A HEALER.  Be prepared to be bitched at and/ or Voted to Kicked.  I, seriously, don’t know why you bothered- yeah, Healers tend to queue up quickly- but we sign up for the job we are specced and geared for.  We can do it- you can’t.  Congratulations- you just made yourself look like an ass.

3.  Know how your class heals.  By the time you hit Heroics, you should have half a clue how to heal with your chosen class- I’m not saying be a pro!healer.  I’m saying have some damn sense.  Know what spells do what, which spells can proc special abilities, understand which spells are better than others.  I habitually smack Druids that use Healing Touch- unless they combine it with Nature’s Swiftness- because we have SO MANY OTHER MORE USEFUL SPELLS.  You want a direct heal?  Use Nourish!  I cringe everytime I see a tree Tank healing with Healing Touch.  Yes, Heroics are not SRS BZNS, but that’s no excuse for not understanding the basics of your class.

4.  Don’t try healing in gear for another spec.  This is slightly (only very slightly) forgivable, especially if you’re trying to gear up for Healing, and your gear could remotely be used for healing (i.e. some Boomkin leather is ok for Treeing it up, as well.)  However, if your previous spec has absolutely no stats in common with your Healing spec, DON’T HEAL.  That means No, Feral Druid, you CAN’T heal Heroic Halls of Reflection in your Feral leathers.  You WILL fail and piss off your party, who are trusting you to not only know what you’re doing by this point in time, but to do it well. 

5.  Don’t refuse to heal a certain class because you don’t like them.  OMG.  I don’t care if you don’t like Rogues, if that Rogue is doing their job and not pulling threat, HEAL HIM/ HER.  Not healing a person of a certain class persuasion just because you don’t like their class is fucking stupid, and it makes you look like a total jackhole.  That being said,  if said Rogue keeps pulling threat and pulling mobs, you have my permission to let them die, watch them QQ about not getting heals, then bitch at them for pulling threat.

6.  Don’t rez the lazy fuckers who are just chilling out after a wipe.  If it’s a wipe, everyone runs back.  Not ‘everyone- but- the- lazy- party- member- runs- back- waits- for- the- healer- to- mana- up- then- expects- a rez.’  Let that fucker sit there until he hauls his ass back.  On the contrary, if only one or two people die on a pull, REZ THEM.  Don’t be a jerk.

7.  Don’t constantly post healing  meters after every fight.  This applies primarily to raids.  Yes, Tree!Druid, we know your heals are awesome.  That does not mean you need to post the healing meter in the healers channel (or in /say… that’s just tacky.)  Incidentally, any and all DPS who might be reading this, its the same for you- we don’t care how leet your DPS is, posting the meters repeatedly to show how badass you are is stupid.

See, I like to think I hate all stupid people equally- just because you’re a healer, doesn’t mean your immune to being bashed.  Bad healers are just as bad as bad tanks and bad DPS.  Don’t be bad!

Thats it for now, lovelies!  Have a decent Monday (Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life), and stay angry, healers!

~Pyo

04
Nov
09

Druids: Patch 3.3 and You

By Pyo 3 Comments
Categories: angry healers, druid and Healing
Tags: , ,

Hey, look!  A post that isn’t a non-meme and me being stunned repeatedly by the Sunreavers!

Hey, shut up, I finally started getting it right!  -grumble-

Anyways, yesterday was raid night.  As we were preparing to roflstomp our way through normal ToC25, I see this blaze across our healer channel.

So, did you see that Haste will affect Rejuv ticks in 3.3?

I can’t say for certain what happened next- I think I fainted from healer happy.  As soon as I shook off the shock, I started drilling my informant for questions- how will haste affect it?  What about the ‘bug fix’ (let’s not beat around the bush here, Blizzard, you’re not fooling anyone by calling it a ‘bug fix’- its a nerf, OWN UP TO IT!) Blizz is planning on implementing on Rejuv?  What about the Gift of the Earthmother nerf?

The only answer I got for certain is that haste will only affect Rejuv with a glyph.  Of course, no one could tell me what the glyph was (though ‘Glyph of Super Fast Rejuv’ made me chuckle.)  Its ok, dear other trees in The Grim Covenant- thats why I’m here!

So, we raided- got some loot, got some Emblems (and 3 upgrades, woot!), got the shiny Heirloom 2H Axe for my Warrior/Paladin/Death Knight to share, and promptly went to do some research. 

Rejuvination: deals 1352 health over 12 seconds (down from 1690 over 15 seconds)- ok.  OK.  So, yeah, its a nerf.  They’re removing one tick and dropping the amount healed by 338.  Way to mess with my raid healing Rejuv spam tactic.  Once again, this is a ‘bug fix’ that Blizzard isn’t even sure if they’re going to implement (or keep, if they do.)  However, lets go out on a limb here and say not only do they implement it, they keep it.  Time to find another heal spell?   EDIT:  Blue post verified!  They are NOT nerfing Rejuv!  -does a happy dance-

Glyph of Rapid Rejuvination: causes haste to affect the time between ticks of Rejuvination- Haste.  Affects.  Rejuv ticks.  -waits for the chorus of happy!druid squees-  YES!  Ladies and Gentlemen of the Restoration Druid Persuasion, OUR PRAYERS HAVE FINALLY BEEN ANSWERED!  A glyph that increases the speed of the ticks of Rejuv based on haste rating?  The thought makes me shiver- can you imagine the amount of healing we’ll be doing then?  More healing faster, which will mean an increased in reapplication, but more damage being healed faster.  Which means more health recovery, which means less chance of people dying, which means success! If you weren’t stacking haste for the elusive 1 second GCD/ 1 second Nourish cast, now you have a reason!  -happy tree dance-

Gift of the Earthmother: Increases haste rating by 10% and decreases the GCD of Rejuv/ Wild Growth/ Nourish by 10% (5/5)- ok, admittedly… GotEM was broken.  It was pretty much stomping haste into the ground for those three spells (I think I got them right- damn work for blocking WoW sites).  But, I can’t help thinking that maybe this is taking it a little too far.  Only time will tell, I suppose.

Rebirth: cooldown reduced to 10 minutes- 10 minute battlerez?  I can live with that.

And, last but not least… images of Druid Tier 10 Armor!

Can I have a 'Hide Belt' option?

What the shit is up with that helmet?!

I haven’t seen anything on released stats for it yet, so I’m waiting on that to determine just how much I’ll despise that helmet (which is soooo getting hidden).  I kinda like my corseted Tier 9… and really?  That belt is AWFUL.  WTB my waistline back, PST.  And while I’m not too hot on the T9 shoulders, at least they don’t look like they’ll eat the next person I walk past- though that will likely grow on me.  -has a flashback of the Little Shop of Horrors-

Anyways, I’ve bothered you enough for one day.  There will be more as I catch updated info on patch 3.3, so stay tuned and stay angry, healers!

~Pyo

23
Sep
09

Onyxia Returns!

By Pyo Leave a Comment
Categories: druid and Healing
Tags: , , ,

With no lore- based plotline to explain her sudden return, nor bad ass ‘stick her head on a pole, that’ll teach the enemies of the Horde’ bonus.  /sadpanda  Regardless, one of my favorite old world bosses revamped and ready to take down your raid once again.  After all, she usually has to leave her lair to feed.

ONOEZ DEEP BREATH

ONOEZ DEEP BREATH

Anyways, Ony has the same abilities and stat as her previous incarnation, but, in case you old timer’s have forgotten (or you’re new to raiding and have never seen her fight), we’ll discuss her tactics:

Onyxia has 3 effective phases:  Phase 1 is a ground phase, phase 2 is her Air and ‘OMG Deep Breath’ phase, and phase 3 is her ground ‘I’m gonna fear your raid’ phase, all of which are health based- 60 and 30% respectively.  In phase 1, you’ll have one tank to worry about healing, plus the raid.  She is a dragon, so she does have a frontal Cleave and a rear Tail Swipe, so avoid those areas.  She also summons Onyxian Whelps (MANY WHELPS LEFT SIDE- yes, I did have to do that) that will attack your raid.  Your raid should split up on either side of her and dps- AoE the Whelps when they spawn, but other than that, its pretty much a tank ‘n spank.

In phase 2, Ony will run towards the entrance of her room and take off into the air.  From the two whelp pits, dozens of Onyxian Whelps will spawn, as well as 1 Onyxian Warden each (for a total of two.)  Everyone jump to the middle of the room.  The Wardens need to be tanked and burned, and the whelps need to be AoE’d.  It is VERY important that everyone in the raid pays attention to where Ony is located in the air- when she Deep Breathes, everyone needs to split off and go to the wall- the attack will fill up about 1/3rd of the middle of the room.  Deep Breath = instagib, incidentally, so if someone gets caught in it, they will not survive.  Ranged will need to then promptly target Ony and start attacking to get her to phase 3.

In phase 3, she’s back on the ground.  This time, she causes lava to burst up out of the floor (Heigan TOTALLY stole this move from her) and fears your raid.  At this point in time, it becomes a healer battle- keep the tank up and hope the DPS doesn’t get caught in the lava, and Ony is as good as dead.

Ony drops some decent loot and 3 Emblems of Triumph, plus a sack of gems, a 22 slot bag, and her head (which has a quest associated with it).  I won’t ruin the surprise for you- but I will say that the quest ending is anti-climactic and disappointing.  But I got a nice ring, so hey, bonus, I suppose.

Anywho, that’s it for now.  Happy hunting!

FOR THE HORDE!

~Pyo

19
Aug
09

Druid Healing: From Nub!Branch to Pro!Tree

By Pyo 6 Comments
Categories: angry healers, druid and Healing
Tags: , ,

Argh!

Sorry for not updating in so long, loyal viewers, but with BlizzCon just around the corner, my husband and I have been working our tails off on costuming and such (if you’re going to be there, I’ll be dressed as Lady Onyxia!  Feel free to grab me and say HI!) and I have been sorely negelecting this most beloved of healer blogs.  And for that, I apologize.  Rest assured, however, that I have been coming up with post topics and have managed to achieve some time to take care of business!

As I’m sure you know, I am a member of the WoW Ladies Livejournal community, and, as of late, I have seen a lot- and I do mean A LOT- of  ‘OMG I’m a new tree HALP’ posts.  And while I’m sure everyone has seen my previous post on the subject, I decided that a little more indepth take on how a tree!druid heals is probably what’s needed.  Now, please keep in mine, I’m not theorycrafter- I flat out suck at math, and I refuse to redo the work the people over at Elitist Jerks have put so much time into.  But you didn’t come here for theorycrafting- you came here for angry healers explaining whats up with our classes.  And that’s just what I’m gonna do.

DISCLAIMER:  All of the following information is based on my experiences as a tree!druid.  Please note that this is not the LAW of Tree!healing, nor should it be treated as such (though I would be extremely flattered if you are assisted at all by this.  I am verry passionate about druid healing.)

We’ll start simple- how do druids heal?  Now, I’m sure you’re wondering, ‘Well, isn’t that what this is about?’  Yes, it is.  But if you think that druids heal like priests, paladins, and shaman, you are incorrect.  Think about it- watch that priest the next time you run with one.  When does he/ she heal?  Typically, its after the damage has been dealt.  We like to call this reactive healing- healing the target after the damage has been taken.  Now, if you were to watch me heal a fight, you will notice that, while I do throw HoTs on targets reactively, the majority of my healing is done when I know there is damage incoming- preemptive healing.  This is the key to being a pro!tree- not waiting for the damage to happen, but planning for it and taking precautions.  This is a totally different mindset than that of a priest/ pally/ shaman healer- we can’t heal like they do, so we can’t think like they do.  HoTs are designed to heal when damage is taken, not after.  If you can wrap your brain around this, then you are ready to tree!heal.

Next up for discussion are druid healing spells and their uses.  Druids have 2 kinds of healing spells: Heal over Time spells, or HoTs, and Direct Heals.  It is important to understand these concepts, as it is core to how a druid heals.  Druids have an abundance of HoTs, and limited Direct Heals, which gives us some fairly enormous flexibility when it comes to healing assignments.  I am a firm believer of the idea that druids are for raid healz.  I’m not saying we can’t tank heal, because we can.  We do, however, excel at raid healing, and I will almost always put any and all trees in a raid with me as a raid healer.  We’ve come a long way from the ‘MT healzor ZOMG bind all of your keys to Lifebloom and faceroll’ days of The Burning Crusade.

Now, how about some spells? 

Heal over Time spells:  A druid’s primary HoTs are Rejuvenation, Wild Growth, Regrowth (direct heal with a HoT), and Lifebloom.  I’ve listed them here in the order that I use them (I am spazzy with Rejuv, I swear.)  HoTs are, for lack of a better phrase, the heart and soul of a tree!druid- love your HoTs, for they are your strength as a healer.  All but Regrowth are instant cast.  It makes tree!druids very mobile (now that they fixed Tree of Life form’s speed nerf), and they do quite a bit of healing.  Rejuvenation and Wild Growth are the majority of my heals in a raid situation, and I rely heavily on them.

Direct Heal spells: Swiftmend, Nourish, Regrowth, Lifebloom (when it blooms), Healing Touch.  All of these spells can proc Living Seed, if you’re specced into it.  These do not get used as often, as that is not my particular style of healing, but I do abuse Nourish occasionally- its nice in a pinch, especially with the glyph.  SWIFTMEND OMG.  Love your Swiftmend- its an amazing way to heal up quick spike damage (get the Glyph for it- will explain later.)  I have saved many a pixellated ass with Swiftmend.  It is one of my most used (and useful) spells, next to Rejuv and WG.  Be wary of Lifebloom, Blizzard keeps nerfing its healing bonus and increasing its mana cost- making it practically useless, in my opinion, but I will occasionally throw a stack if needed.  Regrowth and Healing Touch rarely, if ever, get used.  I’ll use Regrowth on the tank during the Vezax fight, but thats about it.  I try not to rely too much on these spells.

 Now, druid stats.  What a tree!druid should be looking for in gear is this (in order of importance):

Spellpower:  This is pretty easy to understand.  The more spellpower you have, the better your heals are.  Koko is currently rocking 2200+ spellpower in treeform- some might say thats a bit low, but I seem to manage just fine.  I tend to top my guilds healing meters (including beating out those 2.5k spellpower holy paladins), so I must be doing something right.  But spellpower should be your TOP stat concern. 

Haste:  Why?  Well, a couple of reasons. 

1.  Getting to that elusive 1 second Global Cool Down (GCD), and

2.  Reducing your Nourish cast time close to 1 second.  You may not use it often, but its nice in a pinch.

Shorter GCDs = more HoTs you can throw = more healing done = less people dead at the end of the fight.  Always a good thing. At the moment, I am currently unsure of the exact soft haste cap for either the 1 second GCD or the 1 second Nourish cast, though I am pretty sure the GCD soft haste cap is near 420.  Don’t quote me on that. 

Crit:  Now, Crit is kinda controversial.  Sure, its nice to have some Crit stacked (Living Seed is ok), but HoTs don’t crit, unless you happen to be the lucky tree wearing 4 pieces of Tier 9, which allows your HoTs to crit (sexy set bonus is sexy!)  So, really, I wouldn’t worry about trying to stack this.  If a piece of gear drops and it has crit on it, by all means, take it if you can.  But leave the crit clothie pieces to the clothie casters (don’t make your clothies cry.)

Intellect:  For the standard reason all spellcasters stack Int- MOAR MANAZ.  (Mana mana DO DO DO DO DO…)

Stamina:  Again, same standard reason- moar health = you stay alive to heal people longer.  Again, not worth stacking, but don’t pass on a piece of gear that happens to have quite a bit of Stam on it, you’ll be thankful one day.

Spirit: Okay,  OKAY.  I KNOW.  Blizzard nerfed Spirit (I growled and yowled and cried about it, too) but, really?  Your mana regen probably isn’t nerfed too badly.  I’ll have to Innervate on those long, drawn out fights (piss off, Hodir and Ignis), but I don’t really notice that much of a drop in my regen.  Also, you gain +healing in Treeform equal to a certain percentage- 15? 20?- of your total Spirit.  So its still worth having, in my opinion.

Now, one of the more fun things to discuss (and a change I’m damn glad they made), Glyphs!  There are 3 Major Glyphs that are widely accepted as the raiding tree!druid’s healing glyphs:

Glyph of Swiftmend (Major):  does not cosume Rejuv or Regrowth.  I can’t emphasize how hawt this glyph is.  It just is. 

Glyph of Nourish (Major):  Increases the healing done by Nourish by 5% per HoT on the target.  This results in OMG nice Nourish numbers (for the record, a stack of 3 Lifebloom only counts as 1 HoT.)

Glyph of Wild Growth (Major):  Increases the number of people healed by Wild Growth to 6.  One more person in the circle!

The Minor Glyphs are pretty much pick and choose, but these are the ones I use:

Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth:  Removes the need for a reagent for Rebirth (battle rez).  I won’t say it saves money (it does, a bit).  Its true value lies in not having to say, ‘Oh shit, I’m out of seeds, sry healer, no brez 4 u,’ and having people not call you a nub!branch (by the way, you can blame tokudama from lj for that phrase.)

Glyph of the Wild:  Reduces the cost of Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild.  Now if only they’d remove the reagent for this, too…

Well, I suppose this is really all I have for now.  I’m sure this will be updated and changed as time goes on, but I hope this helps those of you struggling for tree!healing help.

FOR THE… everyone?

~Pyo

25
Jun
09

Post Series: Add Ons- A Healer’s Best Friend

By Pyo 4 Comments
Categories: Healing
Tags: , , ,

A post series in which Pyo reveals that she really is a noobhealer because she uses mods to heal (its trufax, yo.  Just ask all those pro healers- mods are for losers.)

My response to that?

To all the people who think healing with mods = terribad healer.

Image compliments of a cracked out magenoob named Vargos. (You still owe me a bike, bitch.)

Anyways… moving along, folks, nothing to see here…

Mods!  Add Ons!  Whatever you like to call ‘em, there are a few that, as a healer, you should have (or should at least consider investing in.)  Pyo’s Top Add-On Picks for Healing are Grid + Clique.

grid

Grid is your friend.

This is Grid.  See how pretty Grid is?   The beauty of Grid is that you can show anything and everything you need to see right there in that frame by utilizing a series of corner ‘lights’, central icons, and overall shading.  This mod can be used by itself as a point- and- click style mod, or it can be used in conjunction with Clique.  Customization options include assigning corner ‘lights’ to specific heals (both yours and the heals of others), HoT timers, incoming heal alerts, and aggro/ tank targets;  designating the central area of the block to show curse/ poison/ disease/ magic statuses; and showing class colors and player names/ health deficits numerically as well as visually.  I know several non- healers who use Grid for other reasons- mages/ boomkin use it for decursing.  Pallies use it to Cleanse.  Non- resto shaman use it to dispel magic.  Some have it up just to maintain an eye on raid status.  You can prioritize your heals- if you see a heal incoming on a player, you can skip over to the next guys.  You can set it up so that the borders around each individual block light up different colors for different effects!  Its an all around useful tool, but especially good for healers- cuz whack- a- mole is fun.

HoT Timers = YUM

HoT Timers = YUM

Grid also comes with tons of modules- GridStatusDruidHots is almost a must for the Trees in your raid, due to its sheer usefulness.  You can set it up to track your HoT timers, Lifebloom stacks, and various HoTs.  You can track the other guy’s HoT timers and Lifebloom stacks.  Its helpful in deciding which target to bounce Wild Growth off of (in case it isn’t you.)  If I see the other Tree in my raid throw down a Wild Growth the same time I do and hit 6 different targets, I’ll roll Rejuvs on the guys who didn’t get hit.

I don’t just use this to help me heal- it also helps me manage my mana and the mana of my other healers.   It saves lives and mana.  Win- win, IMO.

Next up is Clique, the mod I use in conjuntion with Grid.  Cue the pic…

Yes, even hunters use Clique.

Yes, even hunters use Clique.

Clique is super fast to set up and super easy to learn.  It attaches its mod button to your Spellbook tab, below all your other tabs.  Click, and the configuration window opens.  To set up, just mouse ofer the spell you want out of your Spellbook, and hit the button you want to assign to that button.  Simple!  Just remember which buttons you asssign to which heal… you don’t want to accidentally blow your 20 minute CD Battle Rez on someone.

Yes, I really did that.

Go ahead and laugh, its ok.

That’s it for today.  Stay tuned, folks, more Angry Healers coming your way soon!

(Gogo cheeseball closers!)

FOR THE HORDE!

~Pyo

17
Jun
09

Post Series: Tree!healing in Ulduar, part 3- Hodir

By Pyo Leave a Comment
Categories: Healing
Tags: , , ,

HI!  -waves her leaves-

Time for part 3 of my post series dealing with tree!healing in Ulduar.  Here is the point where I stop splitting the bosses off by areas and into individual posts- based on my guild’s current progression through the instance and my own experience.  We’ve cleared through both the Siege area and the Antechamber, and are now moving onto the first Tier bosses of the instance- the Gods Hodir, Thorim, and Freya, and the master builder of Ulduar, Mimiron.  First up- Hodir.

Hodir, Lord of Ice

Hodir, Lord of Ice

Hodir’s fight is all about repetition and survivability.  It is a very healing intensive fight, and  I recommend at least 6-7 healers for it- 1-2 on the MT (or MT/Frozen Blows tank, depending on your set up) and the rest should be raid healers. 

Arranged in neat little iceblocks before the boss are a number of NPCs- these will need to be broken out, because they provide valuable buffs that you will need to help defeat the Lord of Ice:

Mage:  Troll Female.  Casts Fireball that stacks a fire damage debuff on Hodir.  Also builds Cozy Fires that will negate Hodir’s movement imparing cold effect.

Shaman:  Female Tauren.  Runs around and puts and INSANE crit buff on a random raid member that will spread to other raid members in the vicinity.

Druid:  The Boomkin.  Drops moonbeams on the ground that increase Haste Rating by a significant amount.

Priest:  Undead Female.  Occasionally casts Mass Dispel.  If she does anything else, I haven’t seen it.

The NPCs should be broken out in their listed order.

Hodir possesses the following abilities:

Frozen Blows:  Frozen Blows does a large amount of raid damage and a larger amount of tank-smacking damage.  Having your tank wear Frost Resist gear is somewhat helpful with mitigating some of the Frost damage the tank will be taking.  Raid healers need to pay attention during this phase, as Frost damage is increased.  MT healers need to be extra careful because the tank is affected by the increase in Frost damage, and Hodir beats mercilessly on them.

Flash Freeze:  Hodir will Flash Freeze the ground, catching anyone not standing ontop of a snowdrift (they fall from the ceiling, look for the bug rune circles) in a block of ice- this usually means the NPCs, who will need to be broken back out.

Icicle:  Icicles will drop on random raid members.  Easily avoidable- if you see snowflakes on your head, run.  If you don’t run, your healers will rage because you took unnecessary damage during a very intense fight.

Frost Nova:  Its not actually called this, but its what it is.  People with movement imparing escape mechanics should use them (yes, trees, that means shifting out of treeform), everyone else needs to be Mass Dispelled.

He also has Keristrasza’s movement effect from the Nexus.  Melee pretty much sucks here, as she usually drops the fire at range.  The ranged types  should either keep moving or find a nice, cozy mage fire to stand by.  Activating siege mode here is ok, just watch out for the snowflakes.

The healing strat- my god, if there was ever an instance where you should spam Wild Growth, this is it.  Equip your Idol of Rubber Duckies, spam Rejuv (especially useful with the Tier 8 set bonus), and spam it between Wild Growth hits.  Keep moving- you can stand by a fire, but standing still is painting a target for an Icicle on your head.  The other healers might need to stand still for some smaller periods of time, you don’t.  Your strength is your ability to heal on the run- exploit that here.  If there’s more than one of you, have one of you Stack and Bloom (my new term for stacking Lifebloom) and roll Rejuv on the tanks, especially during Frozen Blows.  Keep that Swiftmend handy, as well as Nourish.  Avoid the snowflakes and the Flash Freeze, and Hodir should be a fairly easy kill.

Stay tuned for the next encounter in Ulduar- Freya, Goddess of Nature!

FOR THE HORDE!

~Pyo

05
Jun
09

Tree!Druids by Pyoska

By Pyo 2 Comments
Categories: druid, Healing and World of Warcraft
Tags:

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.

~~~~~~

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

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The Angry Healers is a World of Warcraft blog dedicated to the underappreciated and often overlooked role of The Healer (c) from the perspective of a (mostly) angry Tree!Druid. Here will be discussed talents, gear, spells, specs, and other healing related topics, as well as snarks, rants and general grumpiness about my chosen role in WoWlife, and patchnotes, changes, nerfs/ buffs, and expansion myths and legends (and maybe even facts!)

Header art by Triggerman @ dA.

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