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It puts the bump on the thread.
Added in more bear stuff.
Lunch is over so no more for now.
Hopefully, will finish the bear section tomorrow. Then the whole feral druid part will be done after I add Friar's numbers linkage and some other generic feral stuff at the end.
-Horsemouth
Lunch is over so no more for now.
Hopefully, will finish the bear section tomorrow. Then the whole feral druid part will be done after I add Friar's numbers linkage and some other generic feral stuff at the end.
-Horsemouth
Quote:
You also now get a nifty new spell called Typhoon . It is on a 20 second cooldown and when cast it throws a wave in a frontal cone in front of you doing damage to everything it hits, knocking back and dazing every target for 3 seconds. If you get into a situation where you may have gotten one too many mobs this is a good "Oh sh*t!" Button allowing you time to shift into cheetah form and run like hell. When running dungeons though be careful in using it as it has been know to really **** off tanks when you move there mobs.
Funny... I don't remember writing the bolded part, Horse?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?!?!?!?!
Edit: I just hardcore failed at markup coding :(
Edited, May 5th 2009 6:28pm by ArexLovesPie
Quote:
Funny... I don't remember writing the bolded part, Horse?
Ummm. You were drunk and forgot?
Either that or underpants gnomes did it.
No lie.
Hellbanned
idiggory wrote:
Drinking at home. But I could probably stand to get laid.
Being a fairly new boomkin myself this thread shall prove to be a great asset in my leveling endeavors 
. Got my little boomkin to 65 last night only 3 levels till the joys of flight form, and then 2 till epic flight form .
Edited, May 6th 2009 12:35am by Gutler
. Got my little boomkin to 65 last night only 3 levels till the joys of flight form, and then 2 till epic flight form . Edited, May 6th 2009 12:35am by Gutler
Bear section is 90% complete.
Moonkin and tree will start getting fleshed out in the next few days.
All ready referred one person to the new sticky, sweeeet.
Moonkin and tree will start getting fleshed out in the next few days.
All ready referred one person to the new sticky, sweeeet.
Hellbanned
idiggory wrote:
Drinking at home. But I could probably stand to get laid.
Now i have a quick question i didnt see answered in the sticky, since im trying to have epic flight form for my druid right when she hits 70 and druids get flight form at 68 do you have to pay the 1k other classes have to when they hit 70 or is it just hit 70 pay 5k and do the quest?
Normal flight form at 68 comes with normal flying training for free; epic flight form quest will not even become available to you until you buy epic flight training.
Norellicus wrote:
epic flight form quest will not even become available to you until you buy epic flight training.
Good thing she has epic flyer money just burning a hole in her pocket
go go argent tournament dailies on 3 80's.I only have one bit to add on the cat part, a mild warning in reguards to spec that might be mentioned. While "You should be Shredding" is true, especially if you have a manglebot, sometimes you don't get a choice about attacking from the front, and then the energy cost reduction on Mangle makes a huge difference in your DPS. Several notable examples come to mind:
Thaddius, tank and you are the same polarity
Auriaya, damage split between all in front (with a good group you can probably go in back, but better safe than sorry)
Kologarn, backie-whoobie-what?
These are more absolutes but situationally lots of things can come up with positioning.
Thaddius, tank and you are the same polarity
Auriaya, damage split between all in front (with a good group you can probably go in back, but better safe than sorry)
Kologarn, backie-whoobie-what?
These are more absolutes but situationally lots of things can come up with positioning.
Quote:
These are more absolutes but situationally lots of things can come up with positioning.
I'll add something about not always being able to Shred but it is meant to be more of a generic guide. I don't want to get into specific boss fights. Then I will have to do it for all of them and I'll never finish the damn thing.
Hellbanned
idiggory wrote:
Drinking at home. But I could probably stand to get laid.
So why isn't this stickied yet?
Arex again. Figured it was a good time to work on this while im at work :D This little bit here is to finish up the level as a druid. Luckily once you reach 60 it becomes pretty easy and you'll have the knack of what to do. After this bit though is a big space for moving onto the next part. This is gonna be slow going as work is picking up more and more it seems.
Now that you've reached about as far into the balance tree that is necessary for damage and leveling these next talents until 80 you can do in any order.
I suggest this build.
I suggest going into the resto tree first as you'll be able to pick up Improved Mark of the Wild along with some more mana regen from talents like Dreamstate and Omen of Clarity. Also with 5/5 Furor you're going to get a 10% increase in your intellect based mana pool.
I didn't mention much on glyphs but for leveling Moonfire and Insect swarm both increase the output damage of both and it's good for it you need to kite a mob when things get a little crazy.
Gearing Your Moonkin
Congratulations. You're 80 now, so what should we do? I think, we should kill things, but you need the gear! By this time as you've gone through northrend you've hopefully done a few instances a large amount of quests and you're rocking some quest blues and greens. I think we should replace those.
Now I won't lie here putting together a huge list of stuff is very time consuming so what I'll do here is provide you with a list from wowhead that already has a filter place upon it so you can look through to find the best items for you. Don't call me lazy, it's just more work than I'm willing to put forth :(
A little addendum, for the idols I don't know how to separate the feral/resto ones from the balance ones so you're going to have to sift through some things a little. You'll notice I didn't link trinkets either because its actually pretty hard to filter for only caster trinkets, spell power filters don't apply since there are crit strike with X proc trinkets available.
Weapons
Daggers
Fist Weapons ~ There is only one, so... Yeah :D
Maces
Staves
Offhands
Idols
Cloaks
Amulets
Rings
Leathor Armor
Cloth Armor
Now, as for the Leather VS Cloth arguement. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO WEAR CLOTH. The stigma is finally beginning to wane that all boomkins should be wearing all leather. This is completely wrong, you go with what is going to work best for you. Above all, if you plan on raiding you need to understand that there is a balance you need to figure out with whomever deals your loot out that sometimes cloth items are better than the leather equivalent. Talk it over with your gm/officers/whomever when it comes to cloth and leather. You don't want any loot fights starting.
Can you help me make sense of the stats for this chicken?
Who needs stats when you've got lasers amirite? Ok so we need stats too, but what do you need you ask? Well DruidSock knows and will tell you.
In general it's a wide known fact that boomkins are addicted to haste. Our main damage spell Starfire has a 2.5 second cast and w/o any haste that spell is ridiculously long. So how do we go about making it smaller. Well lets sit down and chat. I'm going to go a little more in depth now when I talk about the stats. Basic stats are still pretty straight forward and I'll go over them again to refresh your mind. The others however are going to be run over much more in depth.
Intellect - Adds to your mana pool, gives you crit, and with talents gives you spell power.
Spirit - Gives you mana regen and is also gives you spell power. This stat became more important as of late with a change to the talent Improved Moonkin Form.
Stamina - You'll take this as it comes, obviously for raiding you'll need some form of health for the different damages you will take.
When it comes to base stats like these it really isn't too much of an issue on is X item better because it has Y amount of intellect or spirit over item Z. These stats come as they are on gear and shouldn't be the determining factor when choosing between two pieces. Ultimately more is better but when you begin raiding you'll notice the varying differences between two pieces of gear and other stats such as Crit Strike/Haste/Hit will become more important.
Hit Rating - This is above all your ultimate goal. You will forego every thing until you reach what is known as the hit cap. Now the hit cap for any spell cast is 17% hit. Now that may seem like a pretty large number but you need to remember. With the talent Balance of Power you recieve 4% hit. That 4% is enough to make you hit capped for every single 5 man and 5 man heroic bosses. Basically any mob level 82 or less you'll be hit capped with Balance of Power. The actual 17% hit cap becomes a lot more important when you begin fighting level 83 raid bosses.
Lets keep breaking this down. 17% is your cap. 17% - 4% from balance of power = 13% hit rating you'll need to get so far. Now if you take points into Improved Faerie Fire, which I suggest since FF is a 5 minute debuff on any mob thats another 3% hit for you, and everyone else in your party/raid. So 13% - 3% is 10% hit rating needed. The magic number for 10% if you are horde is going to be 264 hit rating, if you are alliance and get the draenai buff Heroic Presence you'll need 9% hit which is 236 hit rating. So to make this easier to look at. (I'm assuming 2/2 Balance of Power and 3/3 Imp FF)
264 Hit Rating - If you are Horde, or you are Alliance w/o Heroic Presence.
236 Hit Rating - If you are Alliance with Heroic Presence.
The biggest reason for meeting the hit cap is because by now you should realize that your spells can crit upwords of about 10k right now. Imagine missing one of those spells on a boss fight. Major dps loss there, you don't want this. As you begin to raid you may not be fully hit capped and you'll see that as you miss on some casts your dps will decrease.
Crit Strike - This used to be the best thing for a boomkin pre 3.0. It wasn't unheard of to see moonkins with something around 40-50% crit in BC. This has actually changed and critical strike has turned into something like a hit cap. You really only need a certain amount to make it worth your while before you start stacking on different stats. The basic rule you can abide by is this. 20-25% crit strike is a good number to shoot for while in moonkin form. This gives you roughly something around 32-37% crit strike when fully raid buffed in a 25 man (Mind you, it may vary). This is enough to make you not worry about your procing eclipse. One thing to mention though, with the advent of 3.0 came the reworking of the talent Moonkin Form. Instead of having to hit things with melee damage to return mana, all spell critical strikes done while in moonkin form now return back 2% of your mana pool.
So crit strike is a so/so stat for you, its nothing to scoff at because its pretty important to your dps but it isn't something you should go crazy over. Also, do not gem for critical strike. The itemization for it is pretty good, the ratio of crit strike to crit percent is absolutely terrible and isn't worth your time.
Haste - Haste, and to quote Mazra "Mangle Haste is an everlasting ******." Haste is going to become your new best friend. Haste itemization is amazing, the conversion is absolutely awesome and it can really change up how much you dps.
You will gem for haste, you will enchant for haste, you will pawn off your parents for haste, you will begin to develop such an addiction to haste you'll probably die of haste. It's that good really. Most raiding moonkins are sitting between 500-600 haste rating and can do some pretty crazy dps because of it.
I'll continue to work on this later.
Edited, May 23rd 2009 12:34pm by DruidSock
Now that you've reached about as far into the balance tree that is necessary for damage and leveling these next talents until 80 you can do in any order.
I suggest this build.
I suggest going into the resto tree first as you'll be able to pick up Improved Mark of the Wild along with some more mana regen from talents like Dreamstate and Omen of Clarity. Also with 5/5 Furor you're going to get a 10% increase in your intellect based mana pool.
I didn't mention much on glyphs but for leveling Moonfire and Insect swarm both increase the output damage of both and it's good for it you need to kite a mob when things get a little crazy.
Gearing Your Moonkin
Congratulations. You're 80 now, so what should we do? I think, we should kill things, but you need the gear! By this time as you've gone through northrend you've hopefully done a few instances a large amount of quests and you're rocking some quest blues and greens. I think we should replace those.
Now I won't lie here putting together a huge list of stuff is very time consuming so what I'll do here is provide you with a list from wowhead that already has a filter place upon it so you can look through to find the best items for you. Don't call me lazy, it's just more work than I'm willing to put forth :(
A little addendum, for the idols I don't know how to separate the feral/resto ones from the balance ones so you're going to have to sift through some things a little. You'll notice I didn't link trinkets either because its actually pretty hard to filter for only caster trinkets, spell power filters don't apply since there are crit strike with X proc trinkets available.
Weapons
Daggers
Fist Weapons ~ There is only one, so... Yeah :D
Maces
Staves
Offhands
Idols
Cloaks
Amulets
Rings
Leathor Armor
Cloth Armor
Now, as for the Leather VS Cloth arguement. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO WEAR CLOTH. The stigma is finally beginning to wane that all boomkins should be wearing all leather. This is completely wrong, you go with what is going to work best for you. Above all, if you plan on raiding you need to understand that there is a balance you need to figure out with whomever deals your loot out that sometimes cloth items are better than the leather equivalent. Talk it over with your gm/officers/whomever when it comes to cloth and leather. You don't want any loot fights starting.
Can you help me make sense of the stats for this chicken?
Who needs stats when you've got lasers amirite? Ok so we need stats too, but what do you need you ask? Well DruidSock knows and will tell you.
In general it's a wide known fact that boomkins are addicted to haste. Our main damage spell Starfire has a 2.5 second cast and w/o any haste that spell is ridiculously long. So how do we go about making it smaller. Well lets sit down and chat. I'm going to go a little more in depth now when I talk about the stats. Basic stats are still pretty straight forward and I'll go over them again to refresh your mind. The others however are going to be run over much more in depth.
Intellect - Adds to your mana pool, gives you crit, and with talents gives you spell power.
Spirit - Gives you mana regen and is also gives you spell power. This stat became more important as of late with a change to the talent Improved Moonkin Form.
Stamina - You'll take this as it comes, obviously for raiding you'll need some form of health for the different damages you will take.
When it comes to base stats like these it really isn't too much of an issue on is X item better because it has Y amount of intellect or spirit over item Z. These stats come as they are on gear and shouldn't be the determining factor when choosing between two pieces. Ultimately more is better but when you begin raiding you'll notice the varying differences between two pieces of gear and other stats such as Crit Strike/Haste/Hit will become more important.
Hit Rating - This is above all your ultimate goal. You will forego every thing until you reach what is known as the hit cap. Now the hit cap for any spell cast is 17% hit. Now that may seem like a pretty large number but you need to remember. With the talent Balance of Power you recieve 4% hit. That 4% is enough to make you hit capped for every single 5 man and 5 man heroic bosses. Basically any mob level 82 or less you'll be hit capped with Balance of Power. The actual 17% hit cap becomes a lot more important when you begin fighting level 83 raid bosses.
Lets keep breaking this down. 17% is your cap. 17% - 4% from balance of power = 13% hit rating you'll need to get so far. Now if you take points into Improved Faerie Fire, which I suggest since FF is a 5 minute debuff on any mob thats another 3% hit for you, and everyone else in your party/raid. So 13% - 3% is 10% hit rating needed. The magic number for 10% if you are horde is going to be 264 hit rating, if you are alliance and get the draenai buff Heroic Presence you'll need 9% hit which is 236 hit rating. So to make this easier to look at. (I'm assuming 2/2 Balance of Power and 3/3 Imp FF)
264 Hit Rating - If you are Horde, or you are Alliance w/o Heroic Presence.
236 Hit Rating - If you are Alliance with Heroic Presence.
The biggest reason for meeting the hit cap is because by now you should realize that your spells can crit upwords of about 10k right now. Imagine missing one of those spells on a boss fight. Major dps loss there, you don't want this. As you begin to raid you may not be fully hit capped and you'll see that as you miss on some casts your dps will decrease.
Crit Strike - This used to be the best thing for a boomkin pre 3.0. It wasn't unheard of to see moonkins with something around 40-50% crit in BC. This has actually changed and critical strike has turned into something like a hit cap. You really only need a certain amount to make it worth your while before you start stacking on different stats. The basic rule you can abide by is this. 20-25% crit strike is a good number to shoot for while in moonkin form. This gives you roughly something around 32-37% crit strike when fully raid buffed in a 25 man (Mind you, it may vary). This is enough to make you not worry about your procing eclipse. One thing to mention though, with the advent of 3.0 came the reworking of the talent Moonkin Form. Instead of having to hit things with melee damage to return mana, all spell critical strikes done while in moonkin form now return back 2% of your mana pool.
So crit strike is a so/so stat for you, its nothing to scoff at because its pretty important to your dps but it isn't something you should go crazy over. Also, do not gem for critical strike. The itemization for it is pretty good, the ratio of crit strike to crit percent is absolutely terrible and isn't worth your time.
Haste - Haste, and to quote Mazra "
You will gem for haste, you will enchant for haste, you will pawn off your parents for haste, you will begin to develop such an addiction to haste you'll probably die of haste. It's that good really. Most raiding moonkins are sitting between 500-600 haste rating and can do some pretty crazy dps because of it.
I'll continue to work on this later.
Edited, May 23rd 2009 12:34pm by DruidSock
I'm gonna make a sticky request for this. I had given a heads up when it was just being started and I thought it would take a week...
I think it is roughly 80% done. Close enough to be a sticky. Plus then we wont have to look for it when we add the last chunks of stuff.
I think it is roughly 80% done. Close enough to be a sticky. Plus then we wont have to look for it when we add the last chunks of stuff.
Hellbanned
idiggory wrote:
Drinking at home. But I could probably stand to get laid.
I hadn't heard back from Galenmoon about where I might plop this information down for review, so I'll stick it here. :)
I've covered glyphs and talent builds for the most part so far, haven't gotten to the other stuff yet. I tried to put in more of the community consensus on the healing rather then my own opinion, but I can't promise an 'IHMO' didn't sneak in from time to time ;-)
It's missing a good PvP healing build. I don't PvP heal much, so didn't feel I could approach that subject with enough credibility. Other then that I thought it was relatively complete. Let me know if anyone sees any changes they like made.
P.S. It looks like some of my links broke on the copy-paste, I'll get on that when I have a chance!
----
Stuffz:
Core talents
Linky
There’s a lot of room for customization in the Resto Druid Tree depending on if you are raid healing, tank healing, 5-man healing, PvP healing, etc. The link is a basic build covering the core talents, with 16 points left for customization.
Raid Heals
Most trees end up finding a job raid healing. We have a good assortment of tools for this, we can cast on the run, and can put up some amazing numbers on meters when given the chance. In general a simple rotation is Rejuvenation x 5 then Wild Growth, and repeat; with Swiftmend used for the emergency top off. Most 25s will run with 2 druids, who can effectively cover the entire raid with HoTs. In general deviating from a RJ x 5 + WG rotation will cause your HPS to drop, but may be necessary to save a raid member. This is an important consideration in 25-mans; if you react too often to damage spikes your HoTs will fall off, and other raid members may enter the danger zone, compounding your problems. In 10-mans you will have extra time in a rotation to weave in other spells, and may be OT healing as well, so it is less of an issue. In general though, other healers have spells more suited to handling damage spikes; but, of course, your raid configuration may vary. Think of a druid’s job as giving the other healers extra time to react to changing circumstances, by cushioning the damage with your HoTs. This can go for the tanks as well, druids will often be asked to stack HoTs on the tank in addition to handling the general raid healing.
As for a raid healing build here’s a nice starting point:
Linky
Glyph wise, Wild Growth is the closest thing to a ‘must have’ glyph, and even then it’s not useful in all situations, especially any case where the raid needs to spread out to avoid chain-damage. Rejuvination and Swiftmend two more good choices if you are a pure raid healer. Innverate is nice if you need mana, and Nourish can be helpful if you get called on to OT heal from time to time.
Some places for the remaining talents:
Naturalist = For use with a Glyphed Healing Touch build as it has good synergy with the glyph. Will give you a very fast heal for dealing with spike damage. However most will argue it is not worth the points at level 80.
Improved Tranquility = Tranquility is awesome in 5-mans, useful in 10-mans, and almost worthless in 25-mans. If you find yourself healing a lot of 5s and 10s it can be worth the 2 points, if not then it’s best to skip it.
Empowered Touch = Good use of talent points if you find yourself using Nourish to some degree, as OT heals, in 10 mans, etc. Not a ‘must have’ but certainly high on the list.
Living Seed = If you are in the market for Empowered Touch, grab this too. Good return on investment, will often account for 3-6% of your heals in 10-mans.
Improved Barkskin = Not a traditional healing talent, but it is still found in many end-game builds due to its damage mitigation. However, if you aren’t doing hard modes you probably won’t be taking this.
Gift of the Earthmother = This will usually be fully talented (5/5) initially, at least until you are over the haste soft cap on your HoTs. At that point it can be scaled back to 4/5 or 3/5 as you build up haste on your gear.
Nature’s Grace = Depending on how often you use Nourish this can be either a nice HPS boost, or nearly worthless. One of the more used raid-healing talents, especially if you are interested in getting Celestial Focus.
Celestial Focus = If you are short of the haste soft-cap this can be worth points to acquire. But it is quite deep into the Balance Tree, and will likely be dropped once you get some Ulduar gear with haste on it.
Revitalize = The above mentioned raid healing build puts 3 points here. This is mainly because as a pure raid healer 95% + of your healing will likely be due to RJ and WG. The mana restoration numbers due to Revitalize can’t compare to Replenishment, but Revitalize also restores energy, runic power, and rage. This makes it a very attractive talent if you are keeping RJ rolling on every raid member.
Tranquil Spirit = Again another talent which is very useful if you find yourself using Nourish a lot. More useful for 10 mans and heriocs. If Nourish is a large percentage of your heals, and you are running out of mana, maxing out the talent points here can help a bit.
Tank Heals
Yes, druids can MT/OT heal, and do it well. Our theoretical output is only slightly below Holy Paladins and Discipline Priests, however in practice few Druids become tank healers. Why you might ask? Because our Maximum HPS rotation involves keeping 3 different HoTs rolling on the tank, which can lead to dips in our healing output, and all kinds of related problems. This is especially true with druids who are still learning the ropes. Also, we lose our trademark mobility as we have to sit still and cast Nourish. Finally were just awesome raid healers, plain and simple. Holy Pallies and Disc. Priests can do the MT healing job with far less attention put into timers, and have better emergency heals for when things go wrong.
A typical rotation will involve keeping RJ + RG HoT + LB rolling on the tank while casting Nourish. There are many different ways to use LB. A 3-stack roll has the highest HPS, but is very mana-intensive to keep up for any length of time. Because of this many healers will slow-stack it, or let it fall off to avoid going OOM.
A pure tank healer will be interested in taking talents that increase the healing power of Nourish. Critical is a reasonable stat for MT healing, and should be taken in place of haste especially once you are soft-capped with Nature’s Grace. A good sample build with 5 points to spare is here:
Linky
A far as glyphs are concerned Nourish is the ‘must have’ for MT healing. Regrowth and Rejuvination can increase your healing output, and Swiftmend is a solid choice. If you are having mana problems consider swapping in Innverate and Lifebloom as well.
Major Glyph overview (credit - http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t37038-restoration_glyphs/ used some links and updated outdated information)
[Glyph of Lifebloom]- 'Increases the duration of Lifebloom by 1 second.' Used mostly in a tank-healing build to help with the mana burden, not very useful otherwise.
[Glyph of Swiftmend]- 'Your Swiftmend ability no longer consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect from the target.' A great glyph for raid healing or tank healing. If you are casting every GCD you’ll see a solid boost in your HPS with this glyph, if you aren’t you’ll be saving yourself valuable mana.
[Glyph of Rebirth]- ‘Players resurrected by Rebirth are returned to life with 100% health.' Not a glyph that finds its way into most end-game builds. However a macro’d Glyphed-Rebirth with Nature’s Swiftness is a very powerful tool for saving your group if the tank dies, but one that will likely not be used much.
[Glyph of Regrowth]- 'Increases the healing of your Regrowth spell by 20% if your Regrowth effect is still active on the target.' Once Nourish got buffed in 3.1 the use of Regrowth, and its glyph, have faded from most end-game builds. This is because Regrowth can’t match the single target HPS that Nourish can put out. However the glyph is still a solid boost to a reasonable healing spell. If you find yourself using Regrowth frequently, it may be worth the slot. Also prior to getting Nourish at level 80, this will give you a better ‘big heal,’ especially if you’ve also chosen the Glyph of Healing Touch.
[Glyph of Healing Touch]- 'Decreases the cast time of Healing Touch by 1.5 sec., the mana cost by 25%, and the amount healed by 50%.' This glyph sees the most use while leveling, as it turns Healing Touch into something akin to the Paladin’s Flash of Light. However once you get Nourish at level 80 most people will drop this glyph. There are builds around that utilize it, mostly because a Glyphed and Talented Healing Touch is the fastest heal available to you. However most will argue you have to give up too much from your build to make it worthwhile, except in special circumstances.
[Glyph of Rejuvenation]- 'While your Rejuvenation targets are below 50% health, you will heal them for an additional 50% health.' One of the more common glyphs for both tank and raid healing; it automatically gives a good boost to a frequently used druid healing spell right when you need it most.
[Glyph of Innervate]- ‘Innervate now grants the caster 45% of <his/her> base mana pool over 10 sec in addition to the normal effects of Innervate.’ Short on mana? This glyph is one of the best ways to increase your mana pool if you are going OOM before the end of fights.
[Glyph of Nourish] 'Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target.' If you ever have to do any direct healing, such as MT or OT, this glyph is great, and needed to reach your maximum single target HPS. It’s not as useful if you are strictly raid-heals.
[Glyph of Wild Growth]- 'Your Wild Growth now affects 1 additional target.’ This is a good choice for any raid healer. WG will likely be used every time it comes off of cool down, and healing more people = good! However it is useless in fights where the raid has to spread out, so take it with caution.
Edited, Sep 2nd 2009 9:22am by someproteinguy
I've covered glyphs and talent builds for the most part so far, haven't gotten to the other stuff yet. I tried to put in more of the community consensus on the healing rather then my own opinion, but I can't promise an 'IHMO' didn't sneak in from time to time ;-)
It's missing a good PvP healing build. I don't PvP heal much, so didn't feel I could approach that subject with enough credibility. Other then that I thought it was relatively complete. Let me know if anyone sees any changes they like made.
P.S. It looks like some of my links broke on the copy-paste, I'll get on that when I have a chance!
----
Stuffz:
Core talents
Linky
There’s a lot of room for customization in the Resto Druid Tree depending on if you are raid healing, tank healing, 5-man healing, PvP healing, etc. The link is a basic build covering the core talents, with 16 points left for customization.
Raid Heals
Most trees end up finding a job raid healing. We have a good assortment of tools for this, we can cast on the run, and can put up some amazing numbers on meters when given the chance. In general a simple rotation is Rejuvenation x 5 then Wild Growth, and repeat; with Swiftmend used for the emergency top off. Most 25s will run with 2 druids, who can effectively cover the entire raid with HoTs. In general deviating from a RJ x 5 + WG rotation will cause your HPS to drop, but may be necessary to save a raid member. This is an important consideration in 25-mans; if you react too often to damage spikes your HoTs will fall off, and other raid members may enter the danger zone, compounding your problems. In 10-mans you will have extra time in a rotation to weave in other spells, and may be OT healing as well, so it is less of an issue. In general though, other healers have spells more suited to handling damage spikes; but, of course, your raid configuration may vary. Think of a druid’s job as giving the other healers extra time to react to changing circumstances, by cushioning the damage with your HoTs. This can go for the tanks as well, druids will often be asked to stack HoTs on the tank in addition to handling the general raid healing.
As for a raid healing build here’s a nice starting point:
Linky
Glyph wise, Wild Growth is the closest thing to a ‘must have’ glyph, and even then it’s not useful in all situations, especially any case where the raid needs to spread out to avoid chain-damage. Rejuvination and Swiftmend two more good choices if you are a pure raid healer. Innverate is nice if you need mana, and Nourish can be helpful if you get called on to OT heal from time to time.
Some places for the remaining talents:
Naturalist = For use with a Glyphed Healing Touch build as it has good synergy with the glyph. Will give you a very fast heal for dealing with spike damage. However most will argue it is not worth the points at level 80.
Improved Tranquility = Tranquility is awesome in 5-mans, useful in 10-mans, and almost worthless in 25-mans. If you find yourself healing a lot of 5s and 10s it can be worth the 2 points, if not then it’s best to skip it.
Empowered Touch = Good use of talent points if you find yourself using Nourish to some degree, as OT heals, in 10 mans, etc. Not a ‘must have’ but certainly high on the list.
Living Seed = If you are in the market for Empowered Touch, grab this too. Good return on investment, will often account for 3-6% of your heals in 10-mans.
Improved Barkskin = Not a traditional healing talent, but it is still found in many end-game builds due to its damage mitigation. However, if you aren’t doing hard modes you probably won’t be taking this.
Gift of the Earthmother = This will usually be fully talented (5/5) initially, at least until you are over the haste soft cap on your HoTs. At that point it can be scaled back to 4/5 or 3/5 as you build up haste on your gear.
Nature’s Grace = Depending on how often you use Nourish this can be either a nice HPS boost, or nearly worthless. One of the more used raid-healing talents, especially if you are interested in getting Celestial Focus.
Celestial Focus = If you are short of the haste soft-cap this can be worth points to acquire. But it is quite deep into the Balance Tree, and will likely be dropped once you get some Ulduar gear with haste on it.
Revitalize = The above mentioned raid healing build puts 3 points here. This is mainly because as a pure raid healer 95% + of your healing will likely be due to RJ and WG. The mana restoration numbers due to Revitalize can’t compare to Replenishment, but Revitalize also restores energy, runic power, and rage. This makes it a very attractive talent if you are keeping RJ rolling on every raid member.
Tranquil Spirit = Again another talent which is very useful if you find yourself using Nourish a lot. More useful for 10 mans and heriocs. If Nourish is a large percentage of your heals, and you are running out of mana, maxing out the talent points here can help a bit.
Tank Heals
Yes, druids can MT/OT heal, and do it well. Our theoretical output is only slightly below Holy Paladins and Discipline Priests, however in practice few Druids become tank healers. Why you might ask? Because our Maximum HPS rotation involves keeping 3 different HoTs rolling on the tank, which can lead to dips in our healing output, and all kinds of related problems. This is especially true with druids who are still learning the ropes. Also, we lose our trademark mobility as we have to sit still and cast Nourish. Finally were just awesome raid healers, plain and simple. Holy Pallies and Disc. Priests can do the MT healing job with far less attention put into timers, and have better emergency heals for when things go wrong.
A typical rotation will involve keeping RJ + RG HoT + LB rolling on the tank while casting Nourish. There are many different ways to use LB. A 3-stack roll has the highest HPS, but is very mana-intensive to keep up for any length of time. Because of this many healers will slow-stack it, or let it fall off to avoid going OOM.
A pure tank healer will be interested in taking talents that increase the healing power of Nourish. Critical is a reasonable stat for MT healing, and should be taken in place of haste especially once you are soft-capped with Nature’s Grace. A good sample build with 5 points to spare is here:
Linky
A far as glyphs are concerned Nourish is the ‘must have’ for MT healing. Regrowth and Rejuvination can increase your healing output, and Swiftmend is a solid choice. If you are having mana problems consider swapping in Innverate and Lifebloom as well.
Major Glyph overview (credit - http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t37038-restoration_glyphs/ used some links and updated outdated information)
[Glyph of Lifebloom]- 'Increases the duration of Lifebloom by 1 second.' Used mostly in a tank-healing build to help with the mana burden, not very useful otherwise.
[Glyph of Swiftmend]- 'Your Swiftmend ability no longer consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect from the target.' A great glyph for raid healing or tank healing. If you are casting every GCD you’ll see a solid boost in your HPS with this glyph, if you aren’t you’ll be saving yourself valuable mana.
[Glyph of Rebirth]- ‘Players resurrected by Rebirth are returned to life with 100% health.' Not a glyph that finds its way into most end-game builds. However a macro’d Glyphed-Rebirth with Nature’s Swiftness is a very powerful tool for saving your group if the tank dies, but one that will likely not be used much.
[Glyph of Regrowth]- 'Increases the healing of your Regrowth spell by 20% if your Regrowth effect is still active on the target.' Once Nourish got buffed in 3.1 the use of Regrowth, and its glyph, have faded from most end-game builds. This is because Regrowth can’t match the single target HPS that Nourish can put out. However the glyph is still a solid boost to a reasonable healing spell. If you find yourself using Regrowth frequently, it may be worth the slot. Also prior to getting Nourish at level 80, this will give you a better ‘big heal,’ especially if you’ve also chosen the Glyph of Healing Touch.
[Glyph of Healing Touch]- 'Decreases the cast time of Healing Touch by 1.5 sec., the mana cost by 25%, and the amount healed by 50%.' This glyph sees the most use while leveling, as it turns Healing Touch into something akin to the Paladin’s Flash of Light. However once you get Nourish at level 80 most people will drop this glyph. There are builds around that utilize it, mostly because a Glyphed and Talented Healing Touch is the fastest heal available to you. However most will argue you have to give up too much from your build to make it worthwhile, except in special circumstances.
[Glyph of Rejuvenation]- 'While your Rejuvenation targets are below 50% health, you will heal them for an additional 50% health.' One of the more common glyphs for both tank and raid healing; it automatically gives a good boost to a frequently used druid healing spell right when you need it most.
[Glyph of Innervate]- ‘Innervate now grants the caster 45% of <his/her> base mana pool over 10 sec in addition to the normal effects of Innervate.’ Short on mana? This glyph is one of the best ways to increase your mana pool if you are going OOM before the end of fights.
[Glyph of Nourish] 'Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target.' If you ever have to do any direct healing, such as MT or OT, this glyph is great, and needed to reach your maximum single target HPS. It’s not as useful if you are strictly raid-heals.
[Glyph of Wild Growth]- 'Your Wild Growth now affects 1 additional target.’ This is a good choice for any raid healer. WG will likely be used every time it comes off of cool down, and healing more people = good! However it is useless in fights where the raid has to spread out, so take it with caution.
Edited, Sep 2nd 2009 9:22am by someproteinguy
That monster in the mirror, he just might be you. -Grover
Sweetness.
I'll try add it tomorrow at work.
Thanks, the resto section has been a bit lacking, this should help.
I'll try add it tomorrow at work.
Thanks, the resto section has been a bit lacking, this should help.
Hellbanned
idiggory wrote:
Drinking at home. But I could probably stand to get laid.
Added a bunch of the stuff someproteinguy put above.
Still have to clean up the talents section and finally do the last bits of it.
Thanks,
DruidSock
Still have to clean up the talents section and finally do the last bits of it.
Thanks,
DruidSock
Let me know when you're done and I can wikify it as well for you.
Some additional stuffz. I added on to the first paragraph here. Comments and critical review is welcome! :)
• Mana Management 102
Mana regeneration is very important. No mana equals dead people. That is not the desired outcome for a healer. So trees need some measure of incoming mana while they heal. This comes from a few sources, Replenishment effects, Intensity and Mp5. You will have Intensity in your spec so that is some regen right there. The gear you wear will also either have Spirit to boost Intensity or Mp5 on it. Replenishment is just about guaranteed in a 25 man raid but 10 mans and 5 mans it is not a sure thing.
As far as which stat will give you the most mana, Mp5 is generally considered better then Intellect, which is slightly better than Spirit, inside of the 5-second rule. Outside of 5 seconds the mana regen from Spirit is much more attractive. However in most PvE healing situations you’ll be casting nearly every GCD and will spend little time outside of 5-seconds; unless you out-gear the content.
But Druidsock, isn't Spirit an awesome druid stat?
The short answer: yes and no.
The long answer: before the changes to Innervate, spirit was a great mana-regen stat. But once the spell was changed to work off your mana pool instead of your mana regeneration rate outside of 5-seconds, intellect suddenly became a more attractive option.
These days (patch 3.2ish) the amount of mana-regen you get from spirit isn’t equal to what you’d see if you stacked Mp5 and/or Intellect. The big benefit of Spirit comes once you get these 2 talents in the Restoration Tree: Living Spirit and Improved Tree of Life. These talents give Spirit a throughput component. It isn’t that large, but it adds up. For every 100 spirit you have you’ll get about 17-18 spellpower in addition to the mana-regen. Because Spirit increases both your mana regen and the power of your heals; it is a better stat for resto druids then for most other classes. Many resto druids at end-game will weigh intellect and spirit about equally; gearing slightly more spirit if they want to increase their healing power, or slightly more intellect if they want more mana-regen.
Innervate is the Druid’s click-on-demand mana regeneration talent. The spell is on a 3 minute cooldown, and a typical tree can expect to get about half of their total mana restored if they cast it on themselves. The thing that makes this spell different from other classes mana-regen spells is that the druid can also choose to cast Innervate on other party or raid members. If Innervate is Glyphed the spell will a small amount of mana to you if you cast it on another person, and will increase the amount it restores to you if you cast it on yourself.
So who should get my Innervate, me or my friend?
In most circumstances you should use your own innervate. Other classes have their own tools available to help with their mana. They should use those tools and not rely on yours. Think of it this way, that mana-hungry mage might want to use your innervate to increase his DPS, but that DPS will drop way down if he dies after you go OOM. Other druid classes can sometimes be more generous with their Innervate. Kitties can give it away much more freely, boomkins technically can give it away, but may rely on the mana-regen. Bears don’t really need innervate themselves, but will be lucky if they can cast it on another person without a raid boss turning them into something with the consistency of applesauce.
As a healer you have a critical role in keeping the group alive. If you are comfortable with your mana-pool, or find your group desperately racing an enrage timer, feel free to toss someone else your Innervate; but in most circumstances it’s safer for everyone if you keep it for yourself.
• Mana Management 102
Mana regeneration is very important. No mana equals dead people. That is not the desired outcome for a healer. So trees need some measure of incoming mana while they heal. This comes from a few sources, Replenishment effects, Intensity and Mp5. You will have Intensity in your spec so that is some regen right there. The gear you wear will also either have Spirit to boost Intensity or Mp5 on it. Replenishment is just about guaranteed in a 25 man raid but 10 mans and 5 mans it is not a sure thing.
As far as which stat will give you the most mana, Mp5 is generally considered better then Intellect, which is slightly better than Spirit, inside of the 5-second rule. Outside of 5 seconds the mana regen from Spirit is much more attractive. However in most PvE healing situations you’ll be casting nearly every GCD and will spend little time outside of 5-seconds; unless you out-gear the content.
But Druidsock, isn't Spirit an awesome druid stat?
The short answer: yes and no.
The long answer: before the changes to Innervate, spirit was a great mana-regen stat. But once the spell was changed to work off your mana pool instead of your mana regeneration rate outside of 5-seconds, intellect suddenly became a more attractive option.
These days (patch 3.2ish) the amount of mana-regen you get from spirit isn’t equal to what you’d see if you stacked Mp5 and/or Intellect. The big benefit of Spirit comes once you get these 2 talents in the Restoration Tree: Living Spirit and Improved Tree of Life. These talents give Spirit a throughput component. It isn’t that large, but it adds up. For every 100 spirit you have you’ll get about 17-18 spellpower in addition to the mana-regen. Because Spirit increases both your mana regen and the power of your heals; it is a better stat for resto druids then for most other classes. Many resto druids at end-game will weigh intellect and spirit about equally; gearing slightly more spirit if they want to increase their healing power, or slightly more intellect if they want more mana-regen.
Innervate is the Druid’s click-on-demand mana regeneration talent. The spell is on a 3 minute cooldown, and a typical tree can expect to get about half of their total mana restored if they cast it on themselves. The thing that makes this spell different from other classes mana-regen spells is that the druid can also choose to cast Innervate on other party or raid members. If Innervate is Glyphed the spell will a small amount of mana to you if you cast it on another person, and will increase the amount it restores to you if you cast it on yourself.
So who should get my Innervate, me or my friend?
In most circumstances you should use your own innervate. Other classes have their own tools available to help with their mana. They should use those tools and not rely on yours. Think of it this way, that mana-hungry mage might want to use your innervate to increase his DPS, but that DPS will drop way down if he dies after you go OOM. Other druid classes can sometimes be more generous with their Innervate. Kitties can give it away much more freely, boomkins technically can give it away, but may rely on the mana-regen. Bears don’t really need innervate themselves, but will be lucky if they can cast it on another person without a raid boss turning them into something with the consistency of applesauce.
As a healer you have a critical role in keeping the group alive. If you are comfortable with your mana-pool, or find your group desperately racing an enrage timer, feel free to toss someone else your Innervate; but in most circumstances it’s safer for everyone if you keep it for yourself.
That monster in the mirror, he just might be you. -Grover
And here's some end game stuff:
• Gearing at end game
Gearing at end-game is complicated. How to gear yourself best is going to come down to what mix of spells you find yourself casting and your role in the group. Norfair of Elitist Jerks summed it up quite nicely:
“People often come here and ask what is best in slot for resto druids. For druids this isn't always very clear since every player has different preferences.â€
With that disclaimer, here are two BiS lists from the same thread:
Pre-Ulduar
Pre-ToC
As mentioned these lists may or may not be what is actually best for you. In general the lists tend to weigh mana-regeneration slightly above throughput, and assume you are getting a large percentage of your overall healing from your HoTs (usually somewhere from 70-90%). They do, however, list several items based on which stat you may be looking to find. What will be best for your tree depends on your mix of talents, and which spells you cast. Using a Sim or spreadsheet program is highly recommended to get the most out of your healing.
But I don’t have time to figure out a complicated spreadsheet Druidsock! Can you at least point me in the right direction?
Yes most certainly!
As mentioned earlier druid healing is about balancing efficiency and throughput. In other words: you need enough mana to last the fight, and do enough healing to keep everyone alive during that time. Most of the caster leather out there, and much of the cloth as well, will be reasonably well itemized for resto druids; though it’s usually best to pass on items with hit rating. Once you’ve healed some you should be able to get a feel for where you are lacking:
If you find yourself needing more mana: Mp5 > Intellect > Spirit, for solely increasing your mana pool.
If you are finding your healing isn’t strong enough to keep people alive you should ask yourself: which spells am I using most?
If you are mainly using spells that can critical (typical for tank healing):
Spellpower > Crit > Haste & Spirit
If most of your healing is coming from HoT spells (typical for raid healing):
Spellpower > Haste > Spirit & Critical
This should be mostly true for raid healing, until you reach the soft-cap on haste. After the soft-cap Spirit will likely be comparatively better for increasing your throughput then either haste or critical. As for haste and critical you can either:
1) continuing to stack haste, and begin moving some of the talent points from Gift of the Earthmother to other places, or
2) stack critical to boost the healing on your critable spells
Both are reasonable decisions at that point, and what you choose to do will likely come down to playstyle, and luck with gear drops.
Gemming is pretty straight forward. In most cases you’ll gem for spell power, unless you need the socket bonus or to want to meet the requirements for a meta gem. In that case Spell power/Intellect is preferred for yellow sockets and Spell power/Spirit for blue sockets. The Ember Skyflare Diamond (+25 spellpower, +2% intellect) is considered a good meta for most PvE situations. The Insightful Earthsiege Diamond is also a great choice, and offers the largest amount of mana regen (+21 intellect + chance to restore mana on spell cast).
Edited, Sep 9th 2009 2:52pm by someproteinguy
• Gearing at end game
Gearing at end-game is complicated. How to gear yourself best is going to come down to what mix of spells you find yourself casting and your role in the group. Norfair of Elitist Jerks summed it up quite nicely:
“People often come here and ask what is best in slot for resto druids. For druids this isn't always very clear since every player has different preferences.â€
With that disclaimer, here are two BiS lists from the same thread:
Pre-Ulduar
Pre-ToC
As mentioned these lists may or may not be what is actually best for you. In general the lists tend to weigh mana-regeneration slightly above throughput, and assume you are getting a large percentage of your overall healing from your HoTs (usually somewhere from 70-90%). They do, however, list several items based on which stat you may be looking to find. What will be best for your tree depends on your mix of talents, and which spells you cast. Using a Sim or spreadsheet program is highly recommended to get the most out of your healing.
But I don’t have time to figure out a complicated spreadsheet Druidsock! Can you at least point me in the right direction?
Yes most certainly!
As mentioned earlier druid healing is about balancing efficiency and throughput. In other words: you need enough mana to last the fight, and do enough healing to keep everyone alive during that time. Most of the caster leather out there, and much of the cloth as well, will be reasonably well itemized for resto druids; though it’s usually best to pass on items with hit rating. Once you’ve healed some you should be able to get a feel for where you are lacking:
If you find yourself needing more mana: Mp5 > Intellect > Spirit, for solely increasing your mana pool.
If you are finding your healing isn’t strong enough to keep people alive you should ask yourself: which spells am I using most?
If you are mainly using spells that can critical (typical for tank healing):
Spellpower > Crit > Haste & Spirit
If most of your healing is coming from HoT spells (typical for raid healing):
Spellpower > Haste > Spirit & Critical
This should be mostly true for raid healing, until you reach the soft-cap on haste. After the soft-cap Spirit will likely be comparatively better for increasing your throughput then either haste or critical. As for haste and critical you can either:
1) continuing to stack haste, and begin moving some of the talent points from Gift of the Earthmother to other places, or
2) stack critical to boost the healing on your critable spells
Both are reasonable decisions at that point, and what you choose to do will likely come down to playstyle, and luck with gear drops.
Gemming is pretty straight forward. In most cases you’ll gem for spell power, unless you need the socket bonus or to want to meet the requirements for a meta gem. In that case Spell power/Intellect is preferred for yellow sockets and Spell power/Spirit for blue sockets. The Ember Skyflare Diamond (+25 spellpower, +2% intellect) is considered a good meta for most PvE situations. The Insightful Earthsiege Diamond is also a great choice, and offers the largest amount of mana regen (+21 intellect + chance to restore mana on spell cast).
Edited, Sep 9th 2009 2:52pm by someproteinguy
That monster in the mirror, he just might be you. -Grover
Tree section is mostly done thanks to someproteinguy.
Still have to get fill out the Moonkin section but Horsemouth is done sticky editing for the day.
Still have to get fill out the Moonkin section but Horsemouth is done sticky editing for the day.
1 post
Thread Needs updated a tad. Travel form is now lvl 16 not ... w/e it says in feral lol been reading for the past hour. Also in feral part mounts are now lvl 20. Several new glyphs poped with 3.3 i enjoy the new one for rejuvenation. I use it with my tree druid. Having a perfect balence of hots is very helpful and this one helps significantly. =P ill prolly read this guide some more and ill add anything else that may need updated to the thread.
Kiimonziiel -- Quel'Thalas
Kiimonziiel -- Quel'Thalas
I'm hopeful to get a chance to propose some edits to the tree section over/after the holidays.
The changes to GotEM, new glyphs, and new set bonuses probably need to be addressed.
However these changes are more recent, and the full impact hasn't been felt yet. Tools and spreadsheets are still being updated, and we've only seen a sliver of ICC. A lot of the top-end druids are still adjusting their play styles and experimenting. As a consensus starts to emerge (if one does) it will be easier to edit the sticky without providing poor advice.
Among the questions still out there in my mind:
Is the rapid RJ glyph going to be more situational, or universally useful? while leveling? in 5s, 10s, 25s?
Are we going to see increased Regrowth usage, or are the set bonuses and talents going to be enough to keep us locked into RJ?
Are the majority of encounters in ICC going to be more like ToC or Ulduar/Naxx? Favoring direct heals, HoTs, both?
Are a large percentage of druids going to be using CF until the haste cap or not?
These questions and more give me pause when considering an update.
The changes to GotEM, new glyphs, and new set bonuses probably need to be addressed.
However these changes are more recent, and the full impact hasn't been felt yet. Tools and spreadsheets are still being updated, and we've only seen a sliver of ICC. A lot of the top-end druids are still adjusting their play styles and experimenting. As a consensus starts to emerge (if one does) it will be easier to edit the sticky without providing poor advice.
Among the questions still out there in my mind:
Is the rapid RJ glyph going to be more situational, or universally useful? while leveling? in 5s, 10s, 25s?
Are we going to see increased Regrowth usage, or are the set bonuses and talents going to be enough to keep us locked into RJ?
Are the majority of encounters in ICC going to be more like ToC or Ulduar/Naxx? Favoring direct heals, HoTs, both?
Are a large percentage of druids going to be using CF until the haste cap or not?
These questions and more give me pause when considering an update.
That monster in the mirror, he just might be you. -Grover
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