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DruidStickyPlaySpace  

Dont delete stuff. just make notes near them referring to things. Example to follow.

Blatant lies about stuff or misinformation //LOL YUR SO DUMZ the answer is blah blah blah

Spell errors can be fixed when it is closer to going live until then I not focusing on it, we can do grammar then as well

If you have structural comments use the discussion part of the wiki space. remember the forum posts can have better tab control and line spacing but less links.

Contents [hide]

Intro

Hi there and welcome to the 401 Druid Sticky

Normally a sticky like this is for everyone and I would welcome you into the world of druid. Then proceed to tell you just about everything you need to know. But since this is that magical in between time of xpacs I think we will assume you are level 80 and raiding in ICC.

Brief class history and descriptions.

Well the history of Wrath was a good one for us. Boomkin was competative to a lrage degree all xpac.

Generic druid of any spec stuff.

Might have to broken up a bit more, not sure yet as am lazy and not checking 'facts' yet
Forms, healing, damage, tanking, things we can all do
Might have new spells and tricks, they go here. Old stuff that was class specific and now isnt also goes here

Generic leveling info for the 4.0.1 people who aren't yet 80.

Be feral
?
Profit

II. Balance

a. New stuff

b. Raid build

c. Stat values

d. Rotation

e. Some PvP stuff

III. Feral

RAWR

a. New stuff

SR goes to nerf city, use the name Nom Nom Nom as the new name sucks, Thrash n Pulv fer bears

b. Raid build

Combo build, cost of changing glyphs, specialized specs - how useful and what are they?

c. Stat values

Haste is sexier than most everything at 80, Red will be Agi Yellow Agi/Haste and Blue Agi/Hit or Haste/Hit
OMG REFORGING ITS SO AWESOME
Forge to exp and hit cap, do we change meta gems? unlikely but blue as hit means maybe really unlikely as we will be pushing the crit cap. Since we can get blue bonuses we will and reforge hit off of gear if needed to a berrer stat in this order Exp->Haste->Crit, with exp being done only to the cap.
GEM BEFORE YOU REFORGE GEAR, NEVER FORGET THIS
When you think you are done make sure you aint crit capped, if so turn crit into haste until problem goes away.

d. Rotation

GL trying to raid as DPS, we done got nerfed :(
Lacerate is front loaded, Pulv is semi useful, Berserk procs are sexy, OoC is for Maul, Swipe has a CD :(, Mangle is still Mangle

e. Some PvP stuff

Unlikely to have much dataz

IV. Resto

a. New stuff

LOL tree of life more like TREE OF COOLDOWN //OMG nao durid r liek no bark all bite, LOL

Major Cataclysm Changes

Tree of life is a soft-enrage effect like a Warlock's Metamorphosis. It powers up your spells and has a 3 minute cooldown. So you are stuck in cow form now; deal with it. Oh and btw, MOOOOOOOO!!! :p
Mana is an issue now. Expect to OOM if you blindly HoT everyone the the whole fight on tougher content. Pre-HoTing is less effective now as well, so don't do it so much.
HoTs now benefit from haste and critical. Haste makes faster ticks, and adds more ticks once you get enough. I shouldn't have to tell you what critical does.
Lifebloom is limited to one target at a time, doesn't return mana when it blooms, and can have it's duration refreshed by Nourish with the proper talent placement. It's best used on the tank.
Regrowth is all changed. The HoT only lasts 6 seconds, and it has a short cast time. It's now an expensive flash heal.
Nourish has a longer cast time and is now the 'medium' heal.
Rebirth has a 30 minute cooldown shared amongst all the druids in the raid, so you'll want to use it wisely.
Remove Corruption now removes curse and poison, plus bad magic if talented.
More I missed...

b. Raid build

Well rounded level 80 PvE build - 0/0/36

Reasonable places to take points from:

1 point from Nature’s Cure (current fights don’t really require magic dispelling).
1 point out of Swift Rejuvenation. (depends on haste, latency, etc.).
2 points out of Revitalize.
3 points from Nature’s Bounty.

Other nice places for those points:

Nature’s Majesty (Balance), if you need more throughput.
Furor (Feral), if you need more mana.
Fury of Stormrage + Malfurion's Gift, because you already DPS during heriocs and OOC procs are sexy.
Other talents can be useful, it depends on what you do and your play style.

For those who’d like more information on the talents read below.

A – Must have
B – Good talent
C – Situational
D – Minor use

Tier 1

Blessing of the Grove: B - 4% additional healing to Rejuvenation makes this a reasonable use of talent points, but there are other attractive talents in this tier.
Natural Shapeshifter: C - It reduces the mana cost of going into Tree of Life by a small amount. Main usefulness is that it leads to Master Shapeshifter which increases all healing by 4%. Not worth the points unless you take MS.
Naturalist: A - You’ll use both Healing Touch and Nourish a lot. These are 2 points well spent.
Heart of the Wild: A – 6% extra intellect means more mana and more spellpower. Get it.

Tier 2

Perseverance: D – May end up being useful for some aura fights or PvP. No real benefit in most PvE encounters. As it leads to nothing interesting you can skip it.
Master Shapeshifter: B – 4% extra healing is nice, but the two point in NS make this a tougher sell.
Improved Rejuvenation: A – 15% more healing to Rejuvenation? Yes, please.

Tier 3

Living Seed: A to B If you take the points in Nature’s Bounty, this will have great synergy, and becomes a must have. If not it’s still a good choice of talents and leads to Efflorescence, which is itself a great talent.
Revitalize: B to C – The first point here is worth a lot, as it grants Replenishment. The 2nd and 3rd points will increase your mana regen, but don’t give as much in return. If you are going to be around others with replenishment you can probably skip this altogether. If not, you may find yourself with 3 points here. It’s going to be situational.
Nature’s Swiftness: B to C – If you end up using Swiftmend on cooldown to take advantage of Efflorescence this will likely be your only emergency button, and you should take it. If you save Swiftmend for emergencies then you may be able to skip this talent without losing much.
Fury of Stormrage: D – Offers nothing to increase your healing or mana. If you find yourself bored and wanting to DPS, or if your party or raid needs more DPS, then this can be worth the points. However it’s going to be situational at best. It does lead to Malfurion’s Gift which is a reasonable mana regen talent, and can be worth the points if you are in need of more mana. Likely more useful in PvP.

Tier 4

Nature’s Bounty: B to D – A point of great contention in the Druid healing community at this time. Regrowth is almost useless without points here. However some feel the ‘flash healing’ should be left to the other classes, and we can spend points elsewhere. It may be something you use more in 5-man groups and drop in raids. Stay tuned for developments here.
Empowered Touch: A – It increases healing done by your main spot healing spells, and allows you to keep Lifebloom rolling without wasting mana refreshing it. Given that your t11 set bonuses work off of Lifebloom as well, this talent is almost a given.
Malfurion’s Gift: B – Reasonable mana regen talent, though it is unfortunate you have to put 2 points in Fury of Stormrage to get it. However if you spent those two prior points, spend two more here.

Tier 5

Efflorescence: B – Can be incredible amounts on healing if you can get it to bloom under a stack on players (and they don’t reflexively run out of it). If you spend the points here you’ll more likely be using Swiftmend on cooldown as the healing per mana is great if you hit a large stack. Still the points here can be less useful in 5-man groups, or in fights where the party or raid has to spread out.
Wild Growth: A – It’s your group healing HoT. It’s an awesome spell and you need it to get Tree of Life, which itself is awesome. Get it or watch your friends die in a fire.
Nature’s Cure: B – Situational. If you have magic effects to dispel its great, if not then it’s going to be useless. Still it is probably better to be prepared. Pick it up unless you desperately need the points elsewhere.
Nature’s Ward: C – If you are one of those healers who forget to heal themselves frequently, then this can be worth the points. If you are PvPing it can be valuable. If neither of those apply to you, you’ll probably skip this.

Tier 6

Gift of the Earthmother: B to C – Increases the healing of Lifebloom and adds an instant tick to Rejuvenation. It’s a good place to put extra points, and a good place to take points from to put elsewhere. Both spells will see a good amount of use, but there are other talents that can be more pressing.
Swift Rejuvenation: B to C – We will be doing less rejuvenation spam in Cataclysm, so these points will be less useful. The first point will be more important, since haste will lower the GCD to some degree, meaning you get less benefit from it. Points here will be more useful before you replace your t9 or t10 gear.

Tier 7

Tree of Life: A – Just do it, you know you want to.

Other Trees

Feral Tier 1, Furor: B to C – Good use of talent points if you need more mana. If you are comfortable with your mana you can skip it.
Balance Tier 1, Nature’s Majesty: B – 4% more critical is a good use of talent points, but can be skipped if you are pressed for points elsewhere.
Balance Tier 1, Nature’s Grace: C – Taking these points means you will want to cast a moonfire on the target to get the 15% haste buff up. This will feel similar to judging on a pally healer. It can add a nice temporary buff to throughput, assuming you have the time to cast a non-healing spell before stuff hits fan. It also has a 1 minute cooldown, limiting the usefulness. Still you’ll want to take these points if you are wanting something in the second tier.
Balance Tier 2, Genesis: B – 6% buff to swiftmend and HoTs makes this a very attractive talent. But if you happen to be in the neighborhood it’ll probably be worth stopping by.
Balance Tier 2, Moonglow: B – 9% lower mana cost to just about everything is very attractive, but like genesis it will be hard to justify the points to get here. However it is debatable whether or not it’s worth the points to get here.

c. Stat values

Int > Spi > Haste > Crit

Mastery will depend on how much healing you do when the target has a HoT on it. It will be higher for tank healing roles (likely somewhere between Spirit and Haste), lower when raid healing (perhaps even below critical). These are still rather loose values at the moment, since people expect blizzard to continue tweaking the numbers. Expect these to change.

c-2. Glyphs

Prime glyphs

Glyph of Lifebloom – Increases the Critical chance of Lifebloom by 10%
Glyph of Regrowth – Refreshes the duration of the Regrowth HoT on targets with less than 25% health.
Glyph of Rejuvenation - Increases the healing done by Rejuvenation by 10%
Glyph of Swiftmend – Your swiftmend spell no longer consumes the HoT when cast.

Lifebloom and Rejuvenation are the most attractive, since they both give a good increase to healing output, and are spells you are likely to get a good amount of use out of. The Swiftmend glyph will keep the HoT on the target, helping you keep the benefit from mastery and keeping Nourish powered up. Regrowth can be helpful at low health, but there are so many other nice Prime glyphs it’s a tough sell for a spot. Still it has benefits similar to Swiftmend, and may prove more useful in certain situations.

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Healing Touch- Reduces the remaining cooldown on Nature’s Swiftness by 5 seconds each time Healing Touch is cast.
Glyph of Innervate - When Innervate is cast on a friendly target the caster will receive 50% of the Spell’s effect.
Glyph of Rebirth - Players resurrected with Rebirth come back with 100% health.
Glyph of Wild Growth - Your Wild Growth spell hits a 6th target.

Wild Growth is the only glyph in this category that can result in healing increase under normal conditions. Innervate has potential in increasing the raids available mana pool, and will be especially nice if you have another druid to trade with. Rebirth makes a strong case for it’s use, when you consider the benefits of coming back at full health into a dangerous situation, but Rebirth is now on a 30 minute cooldown, so the benefit will be rarely seen. The Healing Touch glyph appears can be useful depending on your play style. If you make a lot of use out of Healing Touch and your Nature’s Swiftness is often on cooldown, but it looks to be the weakest of the bunch.

Minor Glyphs

Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth - Your Rebirth spell no longer requires a reagent.
Glyph of Mark of the Wild - Your mark of the wild has it’s mana cost reduced by 50%

Both of the above glyphs offer minor situational or convenience benefits to a resto druid, but there are no ‘must have’ glyphs in the bunch. Choose what you like.

d. Rotation

Heal shit until boss dead, get loot? //says the bear...

Basic Healing Strategy at 80

Put 3 stacks of Lifebloom on the tank, keep it rolling with Nourish.
Put Rejuvenation on anyone taking damage, but who isn't critical. Don't spam it blindly, watch your mana, over-healing is bad again.
Nourish and Healing Touch are the direct heals. Healing Touch is more for tanks, try not to Nourish people without a HoT.
If you put talent points in Nature's Bounty, Regrowth is a reasonable emergency heal, it's also a good lead in for a Nourish if Rejuvenation isn't present.
Use group heals when several targets need healing. Wild Growth has a wider radius, Swiftmend + Efflorescence can be very mana efficient, and Tranquility is an emergency button.
Swiftmend and Nature's Swiftness + Nourish/Healing Touch are good single target emergency buttons.

Some Bonus Tips

1) Don't blindly spam stuff. The era is free mana is over, but the constraints aren't going to be terrible at level 80, so you'll have some time to adapt.
2) Swiftmend + Efflorescence is extremely efficient anytime you have a stack of characters. You'll likely use it on cooldown in those situations. However right now the animation looks a lot like green goo, so communicate or perhaps macro a reassuring message when casting it.
3) If you talented Malfurion's Gift, you can spam Lifebloom soon after going into Tree of Life form, and then have many OOC procs.
4) When talented with +60% critical Regrowth is still going to heal for less than you expect (i.e. not critical) about 20% of the time, be aware of this when casting it on someone with low health.

Detail on Healing Spells

Rejuvenation: Your basic HoT spell. It heals every 3 seconds for a small amount, with a duration of 12 seconds. The glyph of Rejuvenation increases healing done by 10%. Talent points in Improved Rejuvenation or Blessing of the Grove will also increase healing done. Gift of the Earthmother adds an tick the instant the spell is cast, and Swift Rejuvenation reduces the GCD by up to 0.5 seconds.

Regrowth: A weaker healing spell with a short cast time. It also adds a HoT that ticks every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. When glyphed the duration of Regrowth will be automatically refreshed on targets under 25% health. Talent points in Nature’s Bounty will increase the critical healing rate by up to an additional 60%.

Lifebloom: Another HoT that heals the target every second for 10 seconds and stacks up to 3 times. When the HoT expires or is dispelled it will heal the target for an amount based on the number of stacks present. Lifebloom can only be present on one target at a time unless you are in Tree of Life form. The glyph of Lifebloom increases the critical rate by 10%. Gift of the Earthmother will increase the healing done when the HoT expires, and Malfurion’s Gift will increase the chance of OOC procing from the HoT ticks.

Wild Growth: Group HoT spell. A smart heal obtained through talent points, it chooses the 5 most heavily injured targets within range and applies a HoT to them. The HoT ticks every second for 7 seconds and has a 10 second cooldown. The amount healed is higher at first and drops off as the spell reaches its full duration. The glyph of Wild Growth will cause the spell to heal an additional target.

Swiftmend: An instant cast spell, it consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth on the target and heals them for a moderate amount. If you have talent points in Efflorescence it will spawn a ‘carpet of healing flora’ under the target that will apply an additional HoT to all friendly targets that stand in it.

Healing Touch: A Druid’s big healing spell, with a long cast time. Can have its cast time reduced from talent points in Naturalist, and will reduce the cooldown on Nature’s Swiftness by 5 seconds each time it is cast when glyphed.

Nourish: The medium sized heal. It costs less mana then Healing Touch, but is less powerful. The spell is boosted by 20% when cast on a target with a HoT already on it. With talent points in Empowered Touch it renews the duration of Lifebloom when cast on the same target, and points in Naturalist will reduce the cast time.

Tranquility: Channeled spell, 8 minute cooldown. It has an initial heal, plus a HoT that will continue to stack and grow more powerful as the spell is channeled. The spell is now a ‘smart heal’ much like wild growth, and will choose the 5 lowest health party/raid members in range to heal.

Remove Corruption: Removes a poison and curse effect from a friendly target if any are present. Talent points in Nature’s Cure will cause the spell to also remove a magic effect.

Nature’s Swiftness: A spell obtained through talent points. It has a cooldown of 3 minutes and causes your next nature spell to be instant cast. Best macro’d to Healing Touch for an emergency heal, or Rebirth for a quick battle rez.

Revive: Your resurrection spell. Revives a dead target with 35% of their maximum health and mana. It can only be cast out of combat, and has a 10 second cast time.

Rebirth: A resurrection spell that can be cast in-combat. Revives the dead target with 20% of their health and mana, the Glyph of Rebirth will return the target with 100% of their health, and the Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth removes the reagent requirements. The spell has a 30 minute cooldown that is shared amongst all the druids in the party or raid.

Tree of Life: Shapeshifts you into Tree of Life form, increasing your armor and healing done for 30 seconds. It has a 3 minute cooldown, and also enhances a number of healing spells.
Lifebloom: Can be cast on multiple targets.
Wild Growth: Applies the HoT to 2 additional targets.
Regrowth: Becomes an instant cast spell.
Entangling Roots: Is now instant cast, and damage is increased by 200%.
Wrath: Cast time is decreased by 50% and Damage done is increased by 30%.

e. Some PvP stuff

jump a lot

V. Summary

Sexy druids doing awesome stuff, blah blah blah what to look forward to as we level and a retrospective of Wrath

VI. Appendix

Alla Posters who contributed

Horsemouth, someproteinguy(assuming he does stuff, ;)), 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 and 2.

Web Sources

Elitistjerks.com, wowthinktank.blogspot.com, graymatterwow.blogspot.com //use names and links for graylo and kalon, mention astralyin and RAWR, maybe tossk but hvent checked him out lately

Shout outs

Say, Herro then accuse people of being hippies and or collaborators with The Man

VII. Extra Page

Circles

OLD STICK IS HERE: http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html?wclass=6&mid=1240527144293546884&page=1

This page last modified 2010-10-08 16:28:21.