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
