The recent avalanche of information regarding Wrath of the Lich King got me to thinking. What are some of the changes I HOPED I would have seen? This is in part inspired by a post by Leafy at Leafshine: Lust For Flower. I quickly came up with a few things.

Start Experienced Players at Higher Level

What I mean by this is just what they’re doing with the new Death Knight class. Everyone starts at 55. Now, I’m not saying that we should be able to start all of our alts at 55, but it sure would be nice if we could get a little leg up. Maybe 30? 40 perhaps, and get to start out with a mount? Honestly, is there any reason an experienced player, who has seen the low level content at least once, can’t skip it? I don’t have anything to learn in Westfall any longer. I also don’t need my hand held through the development of new characters. I can learn what I need to know about a different class just as well from 30 or 40 on.

Of course you’d have to figure out what unlocks the ability to create alts at 30 or 40. Having one 70? 2 70s? I’d lean towards the former, but could live with the latter. Heck, maybe they could put in some quest to allow you to do so. Make it a fairly difficult group quest where completing it unlocks ONE character slot where you can “jump ahead.” Maybe something in the Caverns of Time? Like you end up pulling someone from in the past into the future?

I don’t really care if it’s cool or not, though. I just want to start my alts at 40!

Make My Armor Visible!

This is a druid centric wish. Like many druids, I don’t get to participate in the “fashion show” aspect of WoW as much as other classes. In 25 man raids, everyone looks all cool with their T5 level, fancy gear, and I look like…well, a tree. A boring, brown tree with boring, brown leaves. Can’t I look at least a LITTLE epic? How about make us get taller based on our gear level? Then people would KNOW what was up when a towering tree shambled around Shatt!!

Of course, I’d also be happy if they changed our forms to be more like shadowform. I mean, you can still see the priest’s armor, he just looks even more cool. Maybe have us take on a different hue or aura when shapeshifted. I’m just tired of looking like every other tree out there!

Insta-Mail For All

I don’t know about you, but I HATE having to wait an hour all the time. Sometimes I only HAVE one hour to play. So you can forget it if I’m waiting for a mat delivery sometimes. So why exactly is it that intra-account mail is instant, but mail to anyone else takes exactly one hour? Are they going for some kind of weird suspension of disbelief? Do they need to read everyone’s mail Big Brother like? I don’t get it!

Player Housing

Ok, ok. I know this is more a pipe dream than anything else, but I swear I remember Blizzard mentioning it while WoW was in development. My first big time MMORPG was Asheron’s Call, and one thing I loved was the housing. Just think of the money sink potential, Blizz! You could get a huge hold on the economy based on how it was done! Heck, I’ll take an apartment above Ironforge if that’s all I can get! (And yes, Asheron’s Call even had apartments!)  I’d just love my own little pad to decorate with, like, leaves and stuff!

Real REZ for DRUIDS, PLZ!

Yeah, yeah yeah. I think about 2.5 billion people have begged for this to no avail. Why are druids the red-headed stepchildren of the healing world? Yeah, I know, Battle Rez rocks. Does that mean we can’t have a real rez to go with it? Bizz, you realize this sometimes makes it difficult for us to get invites to 5 mans, right? If they don’t have another class to rez for us? Would you make tank class that wouldn’t taunt? No? Then why a healing class that CAN’T REZ??

Yeah, I’ve heard the argument. They want the healers to be different. That doesn’t mean you should hamstring us in a vital area. Oh well, at this point it probably isn’t happening. So where did I leave my Goblin Jumper Cables?

This is one of those posts that I’m sure in about half an hour I’ll come up with 8 more things I should have mentioned. This will do for now, though. So what’s one feature YOU would love to see?

One of the challenges of raiding in WoW is group combination and assignments. Assigning the players to task at which they excel or can use their abilities to their fullest is obviously what we all strive for. Where in a five man instance numbers are easy, one tank, one healer, 3 DPS, things get a little dicier as more people are added to the mix. Then you have to look closely at a number of different areas, including gear, experience and spec.

Most of the time, you end up with roughly 3 or 4 of your healers assigned to specific people, like the MT, the OT, and perhaps the Melee DPS, then the rest get assigned to the “raid.”  As a raid healer your job is to basically try to chip in anywhere damage is being taken.  Some people will assign raid healers to specific groups, others not.  In the raids I have been in, the raid healing role was kind of a “if it bleeds, toss a heal”, free for all mentality.

So to the question at hand: do Resto Druids make good raid healers? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons.

Pros:

• Nobody, and I mean nobody, has as many useful insta-cast healing spells as Resto Druids. We can lay two or three good hots on people before many a priest or pally finishes one spell windup. Our Insta-Cast HOTs can also tick for quite a bit, especially if we have time to put a couple LBs on, or a LB and Rejuv. In a lot of raid encounters, buying a second or two for the other healers to do their job can save the day for a DPS taking damage.
• Acting as a raid healer takes advantage of another strength of the Resto Druid – mobile healing. In a lot of raid fights, being able to get the heck out of the way without sacrificing any real heal time can be a HUGE benefit. I have a tendency to run around while raiding for no good reason, really…just to keep my eye on all parts of the fight. Many druids have great situational awareness, as their healing power is less dependent on staying still while casting.
• We also have the freedom to find people to Battle Rez if necessary. We are the only ones that can prolong a fight by bringing other people back up, and frequently this can be the difference. The Resto Druid assigned to the tank can’t take the couple of seconds out of his/her spell rotation to rez somebody.  A raid healing Tree can quite easily.

Cons:

• In some ways, acting as a Raid Healer hamstrings some of the Resto Druid’s biggest strengths, namely focused HOTs on 2 or 3 tanks. Our nice buff to healing from the Tree of Life aura is largely lost in this capacity as well, depending on what group we are stuck in. If there is only one Resto Druid in the raid, you are doing the tanks a disservice, IMO, if you assign that tree to raid healing.
• Resto Druids really have to rely on the other raid healers for most of the heavy lifting. If there is a LOT of Raid damage, there isn’t much we can do to help. Obviously that kind of situation is tailor made for a CoH priest or a Resto Shammy. Our HOTs do a great job topping people off and buying some time, but we don’t have a real good way to heal for a lot quickly, especially if the damage is extremely spread out.
• If you care at all about the healing meters, which you shouldn’t, you’ll hate raid healing as a Tree. Your numbers will really look pathetic. More often then not, your wonderful HOTs will get overwritten by the other raid healers. Honestly, though, there’s only two things I care about when healing in a raid: how many people died, and whether we were successful.

Conclusion

So what do I think? Well, I’ll be honest. When I first started raiding, I would get the tiniest bit offended at being assigned to raid healing. To me, that was the RL saying, “I don’t trust you, so I’ll just put you on the raid.” Like everyone who raids, I had worked hard on my gear, stats and abilities. You go into raiding after accomplishing a lot in this game, and raid healing felt like the back seat.  Part of the issue with me personally is that I raid in an alliance, so the RL didn’t know me all that well.

Now I realize that raid healing isn’t necessarily the back seat. The fact is, a lot of healing assignments are dependent on the group composition. If there are two Tree healers, the best spot to stick tree #2 is on the raid. You don’t need two Trees to run HOTs on the tanks, at least not in the encounters I have dealt with thus far.

Being largely assigned as the raid healer has also removed my tunnel vision for the most part. I feel a little more invested in encounters, as I have more freedom as a raid healer. I even spend some time DPSing here and there. In the end, if you have more than one Tree in your raid, then yes, Trees make fine raid healers. If there is only one, though, you’re gimping your group by not taking fully advantage of the Power of Tree by assigning the Resto Druid to the tanks.

Still, I’m just glad I’m raiding!  Thanks for reading!

I spend a lot of time looking at gear. I’m sure most of you do, too. Post 70 it’s really the only way to “progress” your character any further. (At least until Wrath!) One thing I’ve found in my time as a Resto Druid is that though there are plenty of resources for gear, none really FOCUS on what’s good for a Resto Druid. So I’ll do my best to occasionally break down some gear choices for you. Since I’ve been spending my time in SSC (now at 4/6), I thought this was a good place to look next. On to the gear.

Tier 5 Drops

Ohhh, exciting. SSC and Tempest Keep house the various tokens for the Tier 5 armor sets. In SSC you can get your token for the helm, gloves and leggings. Let’s take a look at the healing T5 set pieces.

[Nordrassil Gloves]

The token for these guys drops off of Leotheras the Blind. If you’re wearing [Handguards of Malorne], these are a nice, though minor, upgrade. You get a boost of 4 to stamina, 2 to intellect, 15 to healing and 2 to MP5. Sounds fair enough. The thing is this. I’m not even wearing the Tier 4 gloves, though I have them. I’m wearing [Mitts of the Treemender], and I expect to continue doing so for the forseeable future. The Mitts give me the flexibility of gem slots that neither the T4 nor T5 gloves do. After gemming, they actually have more +heal than either as well. I am losing both spirit and MP5 by hanging onto them, but, frankly, there are other things I’d rather spend my DKP or SK spot on.

[Nordrassil Life-Kilt]

Another good upgrade over the T4 equivalent, the [Legguards of Malorne]. The good things about these legs over the T4 is that they not only have higher overall stats, they also have a gem slot for flexibility. Find the spirit lacking? Gem for it. Need more raw heal? Gem for it. Now, when all is said and done, you’re certainly better off if you already have the [Pants of Splendid Recovery] or [Grovewalker's Leggings] (like yours truly – yes, I got over the fact that the 2.4 legs are really not legs at all, but a skirt.) If you don’t have either of those, however, these are a solid choice in legs.

[Nordrassil Headguard]

Let’s get one thing straight about the head piece. The token drops off the big gal naga herself, Lady Vashj. I don’t know when I’ll see these personally, but it doesn’t hurt to dream! This is a VERY BIG upgrade over the T4 headpiece, the [Crown of Malorne]. A healthy boost to stamina and spirit, a nudge to intellect, and a sizable jump in +Heal. The only real drop is in MP5, which can be made up for if you gem to make the socket bonus. Personally, I pay VERY little attention to MP5 nowadays. Since the changes to mana regen in 2.4, I find I RARELY run out of mana, even though I don’t have any huge number personally. (Around 175 while casting, I believe.) I’d use my SK slot or DKP for this in an instant. Not only because it’s a great upgrade over T4, but also because, IMO, helms are one of the most difficult areas to upgrade. Heck, I wore the [Hallowed Crown] for roughly, well, ever. When you see a slam dunk like this, you take it. All you have to do is take down Lady Vashj, how hard could it be?

Other Armor

• [Soul-Strider Boots] (Cloth) – This is one great pair of boots. The boot slot is also one of the more difficult slots to fill, IMO. Good stats including high spirit, high raw +heal, and a couple of gem slots. Don’t let the fact that they’re cloth turn you off. You go down as fast as any clothie anyhow!
• [Wraps of Purification] (Cloth) – These are nice bracers, but if you’re sporting the anything like the [Windhawk Bracers], I’d stick with those.
• [Gnarled Chestpiece of the Ancients] - Basically, whenever I come across a piece of armor for the chest, belt or bracers slot, I wonder if it’s worthing picking up and breaking up my Windhawk set. If I’m going to waste my spot or points on a piece, I want it to be significantly better than the Windhawk. I don’t think this is such a piece…greater raw +heal, a big boost to stamina…but nary a gem slot.
• [Grove-Bands of Remulos] – See above. These are a good, but not great upgrade over the Windhawk. I like the nice spirit bump, and there is a decent +heal bump as well, even taking into account the lack of a gem slot.
• [Orca-Hide Boots] – These are very close to the aforementioned cloth boots, though I might give the [Soul-Strider Boots] the nod over these due to the spirit. Still a solid choice for the foot slot.
• [Runetotem's Mantle] – I’m going to compare these shoulders to the [Gnarled Ironwood Pauldrons], and I think they come out a little ahead of those badge shoulders. You do lose a bit of +heal based on gemming, and some flexibility, but you gain in the important stat categories. Of course, you have to take down Lady Vashj if you want to get your hands on these.

Other Stuff

• [Pendant of the Lost Ages] – Not much of a healing number, I know. But that bonus affect to combat silence could be golden in some situations.
• [Idol of the Crescent Goddess] – Meh. I do use Regrowth, and more now than before, but this will not replace my Lifebloom trinket.
• [Lightfathom Scepter] - Wow. This is one of the pieces I’m most excited to see drop. The problem is it drops of Lady Vashj. I wonder what will happen first: me saving up 150 badges for the [Gavel of Naaru Blessings] or being in a group that takes down that blasted Naga, and can beat out the other healers should it drop. Hmmm.
• [Wildfury Greatstaff] – Because some day you may be in the raid where the ferals all have it. And at that time, why not pick it up just for show?
• [Coral Band of the Revived] – Darn you Lady Vashj! You have all the best stuff! Anyhow, what a ring! Huge spirit number AND huge +heal number. They may as well call it the Coral Band of the Restoration Druid. (Yes yes, I know holy priests will like it too!)

Phew! You know when you have what you THINK is a great idea, and it will be easy to pull off, but then it snowballs on you? Well, that’s what just happened to me with this post! Now I can only pray that someone, somewhere out there will get SOME use out of it! Thanks for reading!

Another gear post? Seriously?

Yes. If there’s one thing people like to research on the net and on blogs, it’s gear. I know I used it extensively when I first switched to a resto spec to get geared out. I’ve touched on it before, but I thought it was high time for something in-depth with concrete ANSWERS.

What I will give you is this: for each slot, I will give you my recommendation for what to get based on two factors. Overall usefulness, and ease of acquisition. I intend this to be a cheat sheet for you lazy types who just want to get a decent healing item in each slot, pronto. For more detailed guides, check out the great lists on 4haelz and A Tale of Two Druids. Here goes!

Weapon

[The Essence Focuser]

I bought this mace for a whopping 27 gold when I first turned to the resto spec. It’s got a great +heal number, and they seem to drop like mad as they can be had for a song on the AH. This served me quite well until I moved up to the [Shard of the Virtuous] from Kara.

Off Hand

[Unearthed Orb]

A nice off hand with both some +heal and even some MP5. The best thing is it comes as a quest reward. I sure hope you didn’t do it already and pick something else! It comes from Escaping the Tomb.

Idol

[Idol of the Emerald Queen]

This is a no brainer. I’m still using this idol, and unless I get my act together and do the Epic Flight Form stuff, I’ll be using it for the forseeable future. Go to Shadow Lab. Farm the first boss till it drops. Trust me.

Head

[Moonglade Cowl]

Honestly, the head slot is tough, IMO. I’m recommending this piece for three reasons. First, it drops from Botanica, where I will send you for other drops, so you can kill two or more birds with one stone in this instance. The second reason is that you can also work on your Sha’tar rep in here, and therefore if you can’t get this to drop, at Honored with Sha’tar you can pick up [Kodohide Helm]. The third reason is that you might want to pick up two pieces of Moonglade early, as the 2 piece bonus is pretty nice to your tanks.

Shoulders

[Mantle of Autumn]

This is one of the other pieces I was talking about. We’re multi tasking by going for stuff out of Botanica. There are better shoulders out there, but this is a good place to start.

Chest

[Windhawk Hauberk]

Here’s where we go in a bit of a different direction. I HIGHLY recommend you pick up leatherworking, if you haven’t already. In my opinion, the Windhawk set is FANTASTIC for a resto druid, and all it takes is 375 skill and some mat farming. (The total mats for the whole set, Chest, Belt and Bracers, is 18 Heavy Knothide Leather, 48 Wind Scales, 36 Primal Air, 6 Primal Might and 3 Primal Nether. Steep, but worth it!) Also keep in mind that the +heal and +spell damage stacks for +heal, so this chest gives a base of +74 heal before gemming.

Getting the set also covers three slots, so it’s a multi tasker as well. You end up with a chest that’s better than Tier 4, without having to take down Magtheridon. I’m still wearing this in SSC, and may keep it even beyond that. If you absolutely cannot take up LW, go grab the [Lifewarden's Breastplate] from Destroy Naberius. It’s from a quest chain, but not an altogether difficult one.

Bracers

[Windhawk Bracers]

We’ve gone over this, right? Awesome bracers, some of the best you can get, period. The non-LW alternative are the [Goldenvine Wraps] which come from Lost in Action.

Hands

[Prismatic Mittens of Mending]

Look at that! Another Botanica drop! Sure, they’re cloth and not leather, but that doesn’t matter so much, trust me. Even all decked out in leather, a tree goes down about as fast as any clothy under duress. These are nice gaunts, and we get that whole multi tasking thing going. Was Botanica invented for Resto Druids??

Belt

[Windhawk Belt]

Have I sold you on Leatherworking yet? Because there are many other nice patterns besides the Windhawk set, like the [Hood of Primal Life] and [Gloves of the Living Touch]. Come on, take LW already! If you insist against, pick up [The Sleeper's Cord] from the Arcatraz.

Legs

[Moonglade Pants] from the Black Morass will work here. It’s also a good slot to use for that set bonus I mentioned earlier. If you’re not into running this one instance for pants, there is a nice quest reward from Special Delivery to Shattrath City in the [Pants of the Naaru]. I must warn you, they make you look like you’re not wearing any pants, especially if you’re a Night Elf.

Boots

[Curate's Boots]

Boots are another kind of tough slot. There are some green quest rewards, and various drops from instances. I’m listing these due to both their quality and the fact that they are a quest reward from the Fel Embers quest.

Cloak

[Mantle of Vivication]

Hey! More opportunities to Multi Task! Another Shattered Halls Quest, Turning the Tide, will net you this nice cloak.

Rings

There are about a million rings that would suit. Plus, you’ll get a nice one as soon as you start Kara. But if you must have a couple right away, grab a [Brilliant Pearl Band] from a jewelcrafter and maybe the [Celestial Jewel Ring] from Hitting the Motherlode quest.

Neck

[A'dal's Recovery Necklace]

That works. Again, there’s about a million choices. There’s a good chance you have something from an earlier quest anyhow.

Trinkets

There are many, many routes to take with trinkets. I had the hardest time personally with this, as I didn’t even have a second healing trinket until I was able to pick up the [Lower City Prayerbook] when I hit revered with Lower City. Up until that point, I only carried around the [Oshu'gun Relic] from the Gava’xi quest in Nagrand. Go ahead and pick that up and perhaps, in all of our Botanica runs, the [Bangle of Endless Blessings] dropped.

So, there you have it!  I must say, this seemed as if it would be easy when I started, but it turned into quite a production!  I hope this helps you not only gear up your freshly 70 healer, but do it quickly and efficiently.  I’m sure I’ve missed a few good items along the way, but I wasn’t going for an exhaustive list, just a good starting point.  Thanks for reading!

Feral is a fantastic spec, perhaps one of the BEST specs for leveling. As a cat you can farm with almost zero downtime, and you also have the capability to fill multiple roles in groups, as a solid tank or DPS, or even as a healer in a pinch. Once you get to 70, though, you may find it more difficult to continue along the feral path. Let’s face it, there are a LOT of different DPS classes out there, so your best bet as feral is to concentrate on tanking. Tanking is a lot of work, though, and is not for everyone.

You may find yourself, therefore, considering a switch to a resto spec. There is ALWAYS a spot for a good healer. Tree druids are a boon to any raiding group, and are often extremely sought after. So what are some of the positives about switching to a resto spec?

• It is MUCH easier to find a spot in groups or raids as a healer than as DPS
• You’ll find yourself competing against less group/raid members for drops
• You may find your guild VERY helpful in getting you geared up and up to speed
• Healing is a VERY different style of gameplay, and you may find it quite rewarding
• Often you will be the determining factor in whether your group lives or dies

Now for the drawbacks:

• You lose a good deal of versatility switching from the feral spec
• Your soloability will go WAY down, unless you’re into respeccing often
• You may find yourself spending more time staring at your UI than what’s going on around you
• There aren’t really “HPS” contests as there are with “DPS”
• Prepare to be blamed for wipes. A lot.
• Prepare to be blamed for deaths. A lot.
• Prepare to be actually responsible for wipes. Depending on your skill level, potentially a lot!

That should help you make your decision. Playing a healer is a very different strategy from what you may be used to. You also have a great deal of responsibility. If the tank goes down, chances are you’re in real trouble, and your job is to make sure the tank DOESN’T go down. The rewards, though, are plentiful. Because so much depends on you, the SUCCESS of the group rests a great deal on your leafy shoulders as well! If you’re reading this, I imaging you’ve already decided. So then, what should you do to get going?

Respec

Obvious, I know. You have to decide, first of all, if you want to be a pure HOT-based tree healer, or if you want to go with an oldschool Dreamstate spec, which focuses more on improving your healing touch as much as possible. For me, it’s all about the tree. While the Dreamstate spec has it’s charms, I believe a pure Tree spec is the best way to go.  So how should you spend your points?

Well, for starters I would recommend just throwing all 61 points into restoration. Go ahead and play around in there, and take anything that interests you. You can get close to filling the whole tree, just make sure you get tree form! Other than that, go nuts. (I would recommend against taking Imp Tranq or Omen of Clarity…neither have much use IMO.)

Once you start playing as a resto druid in earnest, you’ll soon find which talents in the Resto tree you can do without. I seldom use Healing Touch, for instance, so I bled the points out of talents that affected that to throw a few in the balance tree, to help with soloing. In time, you’ll know what you need to keep and what you can do without. I won’t advocate any cookie cutter spec, do what you like.

Gear

Now you have to look at your gear. If you’ve planned on taking this route for awhile, you may have picked up some off-spec healing gear over time. I had a few pieces stashed away when I made the switch, but nothing good. When I took the plunge, I stood at a paltry 400 or so +heal. A quick trip to the AH to fill my set with “of the physician” “of the heirophant” and “of healing” gear quickly got me into the 7-800 range. Nothing special, but doable to start dungeon crawling.

IF and this is a big if, you can get in a Kara run as the third healer, you could quickly balloon your gear level to the 1000+ range. I highly recommend AGAINST this, as one of the things you need to do is learn to HEAL! You aren’t going to learn much being the third “fill” healer in a Kara group. I would start by taking a look at WoWHead or other sites to analyze where some of the good healing drops are. There are also some very nice resources in the blogging world from 4Haelz (Pre Heroic Gear, Heroic Gear, and Kara Gear) and A Tale of Two Druids (Check the sidebar on the left for her lists) both have EXCELLENT lists of available gear.

I started out basically going for the instances that dropped Moonglade pieces, but you can go any route you choose. You could also pick up Leatherworking if you don’t already have it for the Windhawk Set, a VERY nice set of leather healing gear that will take you through Kara and beyond. (I am basically fully Kara geared, and STILL wear this set in SSC.)

Set some +healing goals for yourself. I started out by shooting for +1000, then +1200, then +1500 etc. You may be asking when you can start healing heroics, but I believe this has less to do with gear than with skill. Certainly you’d want at LEAST +1000 before you begin main healing heroic instances, but more important is your healing awareness and skill. That brings me to my next point.

Learn to Heal

First, I’ll touch on the technique of tree healing. I won’t spend a lot of time on this, as there are others who would do a better job. The key for a Tree healer is one spell: Lifebloom. It’s basically an instant cast heal over time that is more backloaded than frontloaded. It ticks for a lower amount of healing EVERY SECOND (this is important!) and then at the end of it’s cycle “blooms” for a larger amount. You can stack it up to three times to increase the amount healed.

The other important thing to note about Lifebloom is that you can refresh it ONCE before the timer runs out and it continues on as a full stack. What this means is that you will start many fights by stacking 3 Lifeblooms on the tank (often with a rejuvenation, our other main HOT) and then refresh it just before it blooms to keep it going. It is VERY mana efficient, and even at low +heal levels can tick for 300 or more EVERY SECOND. It is your lifeblood as a Tree healer. Learn to love it, and learn to time the refresh properly.

Now then, as I’ve said before, healing is a very different animal than running as DPS. You’ll spend a lot of time staring at the health bar of the MT, and staying aware of the health bars of other group/raid members. In a way it’s like Whacka Mole, when someone takes a hit you whack em with a heal. It can be VERY intense, though, especially if things start to get hairy. CC being broken, DPS pulling aggro, the tank losing his connection – a host of things can go wrong, and it’s often your responsibility to get things back on track.

This is why I recommend starting out on pre Kara instances in regular mode. Start to work on your healing chops, as a good deal of your job is reactionary in nature. You also need to learn to anticipate heals when possible. See a mob breaking for a DPS? Start up a Regrowth or drop a Lifebloom. Is the tank taking on 3 mobs or more? Make sure and keep your lifebloom stack up, along with rejuvenation and tossing a regrowth when necessary.

In the end, your job as a healer has a lot to do with experience. You learn on what pulls the tank will need extra healing. You learn when to use your bigger heals. You learn when you can just rely on your HOTs. You learn when you need to use Swiftmend (“consumes” one HOT into one big heal) or Nature’s Swiftness (makes your next heal instant cast) for quick, big heals.  All of this comes with running instances again and again.

Also, I would say that in a way it is more beneficial to run with equally geared/leveled groups. It doesn’t help you so much to run regulars with a T5 geared tank, as he isn’t going to get in much trouble no matter what you do. It can also help you to run a lot of PUGs, because they can be VERY unpredictable, and that’s where you earn your stripes as a healer: dealing with adversity and unpredictability.

Conclusion

If it’s time to switch resto, you need to concentrate on three things. Pick your spec, work on your gear, and, most importantly IMO, get experience healing. When you get down to it, I’d much prefer a healer with sub-optimal gear but a LOT of skill over a fully Kara geared healer without a lot of small group experience. While gear is most definitely important, the largest element that contributes to your success as a healer is skill. There’s really only one way to get that, and that’s through healing. So get on out there and start rolling Lifeblooms!

**EDIT: I did an update to this post recently that more accurately reflects what you should know about Druids. Read it here if you like!**

I’m often surprised at what people DON’T know about the healing Druid. Having played one for so long, as my main, I sometimes assume that everyone understands our strengths, weaknesses and abilities. Time and again I’m reminded that that plain isn’t true. Just because everyone has driven in a car, that doesn’t mean they’d now how to drive one. With that in mind, here are five things you should know about your leafy resident healing Druid.

1) Our CC and Buffing Abilities are Limited

We aren’t your typical healing/utility class. When you get down to it, Druid Healers are basically a One Trick Pony. We only have 2 buffs that can be cast on other players that are useful at all, and for the most part we only really use one. Mark of the Wild. It’s a buff that makes sense with the Druid class, as it doesn’t have any one strength as a buff, it just sort of helps everything. Still, our ability to buff ALL of your resistances, stats and armor is nothing to sneeze at.  **Doh!  Forgot one, thanks Another Tree! -Pummra**  We do also have the Tree of Life aura, which increases healing received by group members by 25% of our spirit.  This means Druids LOVE to stack spirit and we often find a place in the same group as the main tank in a raid situation.!

As far as CC goes, yes, we do have some CC. It’s just nearly useless. Entangling Roots can only be used outside. Cyclone can be cast anywhere, but it’s duration is pitiful and useless. We can also put beasts to sleep, but how often are we asked to? Not very. Don’t rely on us for CC, even if we are in a situation where it’s useful, as there’s a good chance we’re out of practice with it. Expect to hear, “Ok, let me find it and put it on my bar.”

2) Utility Spells We DO Have

On a positive note, don’t forget that we can cure poisons and remove curses. I often hear “Druids can DeCurse?” Yes, we can. We have to pop out of tree form to do so, but we can.

3) We Won’t Rez You

It’s not that we don’t like you. We’re not messing with you because of that smart remark about our sister last week. We just can’t do it. I’m still shocked when I hear that people don’t know this, or forget. If a druid is your only healing type around, expect to run back after wipes. Our rez is on a 20 minute cooldown, so we generally save it for “need” situations. Trust me, you’ll be glad you have us when you pull aggro on the boss fight and go down in 2.3 seconds, only to have us bring you right back up. If you’re nice to us, that is.

4) Spike Damage is the Bane of Our Existence

You know how I mentioned that time you pulled aggro on the boss fight? Yeah, don’t do it. While we have the best HOTs in the game (and I’ll get to those in a second) we have the hardest time of any healer with spike damage. Our big heal is slower than any other heal, and we have to pop out of tree form to use it. Our only avenue for a big, instant heal is Nature’s Swiftness, which has a significant cooldown, and Swiftmend if specced for it. Nature’s Swiftness is only good for once fast heal, and Swiftmend just doesn’t compare to a flash heal or the like.

Basically, don’t pull aggro, because chances are we can’t keep you up, especially if we’re in a heroic, and you’re wearing cloth. We won’t even feel bad about it, as there’s really nothing we can do about it. Omen is your friend!

5) HOT, HOT, HOT

We do, however, have the best selection of HOTs in the game. Any tank worth his salt loves a good Resto Druid, and his stack of 3 Lifeblooms and a Rejuvenation. You know those times when it seems like the tank isn’t taking any damage? Look around for your druid and thank him. Our great HOT selection is what makes us so revered in the raiding environment. They way some of those bosses hit, you need a constant stream of healing, and a well-geared Resto Druid can bring just that.

As I see it, we have two strengths in the raiding environment. One, we make excellent raid healers. While a Shaman can heal multiple targets with one spell, a Druid can throw out five or six HOTs in the blink of an eye. A single Lifebloom is often enough to top off any spray damage the raid might take. Our second strength is rolling HOTs on boss fights. Though you might want to assign us to raid healing, make sure you take advantage of our true strength on boss fights. A triple stack of Lifebloom ticking for 600+ every second, along with a Rejuv ticking for 600+ as well is a glorious thing. Don’t forget to use it.

There you have it. Some of these things seem trivial to bring up, but you’d be surprised at what people don’t know. Some other Blog Azeroth bloggers have similar posts if you’d like to read them. Anna of Toomanyannas.com wrote about Shaman, and Aos over on Flux wrote about Tanks. Enjoy!

There is quite a bit of shiny new gear in Magisters’ Terrace, and initially I wanted to do a more “all class inclusive” list, but there are just too many things to look at! So we’ll take a quick gander at some of the drops that might appeal to the healing-inclined Druids out there. I’ll split it up between the regular mode drops and the heroic mode drops.

Normal Mode

[item]34793[/item] is actually a quite nice healing belt drop. Sure, it’s cloth, but armor doesn’t matter all that much to a resto druid anyhow. Let’s face it, in most cases, if we get aggro we go down as easily as any cloth wearer in the wrong situation. Now, it isn’t nearly as nice as our [item]Windhawk Belt[/item], but not everyone out there has taken up Leatherworking. Like most drops from MagT in normal mode, this is a real nice piece for a healer who’s still trying to gear up for Kara.

[item]34707[/item]. These dropped for me the very first time I hit up the instance, on patch day. I do still have them banked, and have kicked around the idea of using them in place of my [item]28663[/item]. Again, I’m looking at an epic item in comparison to a blue, but overall the blue boots compare pretty well. Sure, you’re losing the intellect entirely and losing some stamina and spirit, but you’re also gaining two gem slots to play with. I could offset some of the stat losses with gems. Or, I could just go all out for +heal, and carry them around for those nasty fights where I need all the +heal I can get. Overall, these are VERY nice boots for blue!

[item]34796[/item] is the last normal mode drop I’ll look at. Again, I’m finding that it doesn’t compare all that unfavorably to an epic from Kara, [item]28600[/item]. You’re losing 19 stamina, 17 intellect, 5 spirit, 9 MP5 and 4 heal, but you gain 3 slots for flexibility. With a little bit of cheap gemming, [item]Teardrop Living Ruby[/item], [item]Luminous Noble Topaz[/item] and [item]Solid Star of Elune[/item], we’re not losing ALL that much off the epic, probably getting it sooner, and actually gain 23 +heal. For me, Druids are ALL ABOUT +heal. I rarely have mana problems! It’s not going to replace my [item]Windhawk Hauberk[/item], but if you’re not yet into Kara, this is a GREAT chest to try to pick up.

Heroic Mode

Now, I know you didn’t come here to talk about blues. Let’s look at that shiny purple gear from the tough version!

First, [item]34471[/item]. This is one of the first drops I heard tell of, and one of the most interesting. As a tree druid, one of my greatest challenges is overcoming spike damage. If the tank or multiple party members suffer a few huge blows in a row, I might be in trouble. The Tree Druid is designed to ease those hits, not erase them immediately like some of our healing brethren. With this item, I could finally have an additional instant heal to throw out in times of duress. Tantalizing! The added MP5 is a bonus, and it’s just too bad they didn’t stick some +heal on it just for kicks. Still, this is an awesome trinket for just about any healer, and I hope to get one soon.

[item]34608[/item] is an excellent healing staff, and when gemmed easily surpasses [item]28604[/item] that drops in Karazhan. The new staff gives 3 additional stamina and 3 sockets, but loses 2 intellect and 14 spirit. That can EASILY be made up with even green gems if you so choose. I personally have no interest in this staff, as I’m nearly fully Kara geared and sporting the [item]Shard of the Virtuous[/item] and [item]28728[/item]. If I were still trudging around with a blue like [item]31304[/item], I’d take a hard look at this staff. If for no other reason, I love the flexibility of slots. You could make this the ultimate +spirit Innervate staff with 3 [item]Sparkling Empyrean Sapphire[/item]s and a +spirit enchant. Uber mana regen.

[item]34602[/item]. This is the first pair of bracers I’ve seen in awhile that make me consider switching out my [item]29523[/item]. I lose a bit in stamina, but gain some intellect and spirit. And, as I’ve said before, I’m all about +heal and these are an upgrade, though mild, in that department. I would probably hold off on them until I could replace the other pieces of my Windhawk set, as once I break it up the set bonus of +8 MP5 is history. Still, these are very nice bracers and won’t cost you a single badge. You just have to get through heroic MagT to get them!

[item]34625[/item] is one of the most intriguing pieces in the instance for any healer. From what I’ve read on Wowhead, there aren’t very many rings with sockets. Throw a [item]Teardrop Crimson Spinel[/item] in these bad boys and you’re looking at +70 heal. It gets even better if your an enchanter and can bump that by another 20 +heal for a whopping 90 +heal out of a ring slot. Wow. I could finally retire my pumpkin ring from the Halloween event.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. Those are the highlights, and I hope I’ve given you some goals to shoot for as far as drops in the new instance. If you’re a freshly minted 70 druid or healer type, you could do a lot worse than the stuff that drops in regular mode. If you’re fully Kara geared like myself, you still might find some nice upgrades in Heroic. Overall, I believe Blizzard did a great job itemizing this particular instance.  They just get better and better at itemization, and it makes me anxious to see what they will do in Wrath.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention [item]35516[/item] and the [item]Phoenix Hatchling[/item]. Anybody would want those!

It’s been a long time coming. I’ve heard about these big, bad 25 man raids in BC for some time. I’ve hoped to get there some day, and it’s difficult with the playtime I have available. Well, my druid is nearly as well equipped as he can be, short of a drop or two in Kara and the new badge loot in 2.4. It was finally time for me to start participating in SSC raids and beyond.

Saturday night was actually my second trip to the instance. 2 weeks ago I went along and got to experience Lurker for the first time. That nasty old spout must have gotten me 4 times, but we did take him down. Now fast forward to last night.

This time I was there from the beginning. We started by clearing our way to Hydross. As far as trash goes, there are large groups of hard hitting mobs, but they really don’t see all that difficult. As long as people are staying on CC an the healers are doing their jobs, it’s fairly straightforward. Also, as a healer, it’s nothing more than whack a mole, yet again. I swear my grid layout is going to burned onto my retinas at some point. I’ll find myself walking around in real life wondering who the tanks are.

Anyhow, we get to Hydross and the explanation ensues. Hydross is an interesting fight, what with the two different aspects and the tank dragging. Still, for a healer it’s more of the same. The only question is whether I’m responsible for a tank, the raid or whatnot.

I’m going to step back from SSC in particular here to talk about healing. You’ve heard me mention before how playing a healer is kind of like whack a mole, and this is especially true for a druid healer. I have no useful CC, and I have no real utility to add to a raid. I’m there for one thing only: healing. Does it get boring? Sure, in a manner of speaking. There are times you kind of get on autopilot and lose sight of the fight in general.

However, there are also many whiteknuckle moments where you wonder if you’re going to land that big heal in time. Those times when you wonder if you should burn Nature’s Swiftness. Those times when you have to stay on healing while locating a downed raid member to battle rez. Healing IS fun, and it can be very exciting. The only issue is that, when you get down to it, it’s the same thing over and over again. I suppose you could argue it’s the same for every class, though, just in different ways.

So anyways, back to that unstable guy. We wipe the first two tries. In one instance, a couple of healers went down to the adds that spawn occasionally. In the second wipe, one of the DPSers got overzealous, and the tank couldn’t get Hydross back quick enough.

The third try, though, was pretty cake. We didn’t even come close to the 10 minute soft time limit, either. He dropped the [item]Idol of the Crescent Goddess[/item] and I grabbed it. I didn’t necessarily want it, but nobody else did and I was at the bottom of the SK list anyhow.

We moved onto Lurker, and it took us a few tries again. I believe it took us four to take him down. We still have quite a few people that are new to these fights, myself included, and we had quite a few deaths due to that nasty old spout. (Thankfully, yours truly learned his lesson last time and was in the water in PLENTY of time and didn’t get spouted once!) We did take him down eventually, and that was it for the raid. We had a 3 hour time limit and reached it just after taking down Lurker.

So, there’s the summary. What do I think?

Honestly, I’m a bit underwhelmed. It’s fun learning new boss fights, and I do like the way the two I have seen are set up. Afterwards I took the time to look through the loot tables a bit. For those first two boss fights, there is literally nothing I want. The real problem, then, is that I can really only raid once a week. That means there is a good chance that those will be the same two bosses I see most of the time.

Hmmpph.

Am I better off farming badges in Kara?

Maybe, with the new uber loot on it’s way once the vendor opens up, farming badges in heroics and Kara is a better short term proposition for me than raiding in SSC.

Long-term, however, I do realize that the only way for me to REALLY progress is to stick with the raiding. It’s just that the thought of devoting my one raid night a week to something that doesn’t have a lot of payoff early is a little problematic. There is a pair of bracers that drop, whose name escapes me, but they don’t seem like much of an upgrade at all over my [item]Windhawk Bracers[/item], especially if you factor in the set bonus I’m getting for 8 MP5.

So what should I do with my one raid night? I’ve been organizing Kara myself, and the 23 badges or whatever in 5 hours or so is pretty nice (This is still a “new” Kara group, so I expect if we can stick with it we can trim that time to clear significantly). There are drops there for my Druid still as well, like the T4 helm.

Then again, don’t I want to some day see Hyjal and Black Temple, and actually be able to contribute? With Wrath not all that far away, do I really care? I suppose, at this point, I still enjoy Kara more, as I like the smaller group setting where I feel more “important.” I should also add that I’ve still only done Kara about 6 times now. Decisions, decisions…

I’ve been back to focusing on my alts in recent weeks. I’m still running Karazhan with my resto Druid, but frankly there isn’t much left there for me other than badges. I have started getting involved in SSC runs as well, but I’m not sure if I’d just rather run Kara every week. That’s another topic, though.

I have a nice stable of alts at a decent level I could work on. I have a 42 Rogue, 40 Warrior, 43 Priest and a 41 Shaman. I also have a handful of alts in the 20 range. Recently I’ve been concentrating on the priest, as I wanted to see what all the fuss was about regarding shadowform. (Again, another topic, but I do indeed see what all the fuss was about. Only the hunter was close to the power of a shadow priest at 40!)

So now I realize it’s time to get serious. I want to focus on at least one of those characters, or possibly a different one altogether, and get them to 70 by the release of WotLK. Looking at what I have, I can really only eliminate the rogue. I like the damage output, but I don’t like the constant misses inherent in dual wield until I can get some +hit. I can conceivably eliminate the Shaman, who is enhance, for the same reason.

That leaves me with the Warrior, Shadow Priest, or something else entirely. So what is it I want?

• A class that has some flexibility. I want to be able to fill more than one role if possible.
• A class that’s fairly easy to level.
• A class I will enjoy playing the whole way

Quickly, I realized something. What I really want, that would fulfill all of my needs, is another Feral Druid. I leveled Pummra as a Feral all the way, and played him as a Feral spec for a good 3 or 4 months before switching over to Resto. I love playing the Resto Druid now, but I do miss the flexibility of the Feral spec. After all, what other class can act as either a tank or DPS equally well with the EXACT SAME SPEC? Not a one. Sure, you need two sets of gear, but it’s a heck of a lot easier than respeccing any time you want to switch roles.

Yeah, yeah. I hear you right now. “Why don’t you just respec your Druid when you feel the need?” Because it’s so darn expensive. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that epic mount, but I certainly will not if I have to spend 50g once a week or more. If it were 10g to respec, it would be a different story. Especially since I still have all my old tanking and DPS gear, some of it good!

So what about the benefits of me leveling another druid? There are many!

• I already know how to play a druid, and play one well
• Druids are great levelers once they get cat form
• I know what gear to shoot for, I know what tradeskills play well with druids
• I already have a lot of experience not only with druid, but with the feral spec
• There are a lot of things I just love about the class, perhaps its flexibility most of all
• I could level a new tradeskill to max (Alchemy?)
• How much better could my blog be if I could become a top Resto AND Feral Druid?

So what are your thoughts? Is it a waste of time for me to level another? Do any of you play multiple versions of the same class?

Druids already have a tough time as healers for a lot of reasons. We have difficulty dealing with spike damage, and this can make some of the more difficult 5-man and raid encounters more difficult. We don’t have an Out of Combat Rez, so if your five man wipes, chances are everyone has to hoof it back. (What I wouldn’t do for an OOC rez…but that’s another topic!) What CC we have is very limited and conditions specific. We don’t have a lot of “utility” or buffs to offer. Most of the time we can’t see our fancy gear. Basically, the Resto Druid is a one-trick pony.

But that one trick, boy. Wowza. Our HOTs are the bee’s knees. We can keep multiple targets in full health by the strength of our Lifebloom and Rejuvination spells alone. Because of this strength, the Tree Druid has come to be quite useful in raiding situations. Sure, we can’t really deal with spike damage, but we can alleviate spike damage and kind of smooth it out for the other healers in the raid. Once maligned, the Tree Druid is now a sought after addition to most raiding groups.

Now it seems Blizzard has seen fit to reduce the effectiveness of our primary, Numero Uno healing spell — Lifebloom. For patch 2.4, currently on the PTR, Lifebloom has taken a hit with the nerf bat. From the numbers I have read, Lifebloom took approximately an 8% hit in effectiveness. I won’t get into math here, there is plenty out there for you to see. In the simplest terms, our most useful, most effective spell is now not as effective.

Why? Was it unbalancing raid encounters? No. It’s not like having a Tree Druid is an “I Win” button for ZA or SSC or anything else. Was it unbalancing 5 man encounters? Most certainly not. We can be quite effective 5 man healers, but in the end groups usually prefer a Priest or Holy Pally. The reason for the nerf, it is assumed, is PvP and, more specifically, 2v2 arenas. Resto Druid teams have been so effective in 2v2, that a great deal of whining about our class has surfaced. For those whiners, I encourage you to roll a druid and see just how “OP” we are.

I’m asking you Blizzard, please don’t nerf us. We have enough limitations as it is, don’t take away our one sharp stick. You can read other thoughts on this change on the following pages/blogs: Moonfire, Resto4Life, Lifebloomer, Leafshine and HealerLFG.

I approve this message. -Pummra