Mazra wrote:
I think you underestimate the spike damage in 5-man heroics, Brisin. Stuff hits hard, even at this point in the expansion. I've had tanks drop 100k in two GCD. I've had tanks drop through my Healing Touch spam because Lifebloom and Rejuvenation fell off.
Our ONLY healing nuke is our slow and somewhat mana efficient heal. We're supposed to have two: One slow and one fast, with the trade-off being mana efficiency. Currently, Regrowth lacks a lot of power. I think my record crit was 20k. It hits for maybe 13k.
If the tank is taking enough damage to warrant Regrowth spam then 13k hits won't prevent a wipe. And my level 78 Holy Priest's Flash Heal hits for 10k. At barely 1.1k spell power. My Druid has 6.6k spell power, +20% healing through mastery and +25% healing through spec choice, and the fast nuke does less than 50% more healing compared to a sub-80 Priest in WOTLK gear? How does that make sense? I know Regrowth has a HoT effect, but it doesn't stack, which means Regrowth spam causes Regrowth to become even more mana inefficient.
I'm not saying the spec is broken, I'm just saying Regrowth is underpowered in situations where spamming becomes a necessity. The issue being that if Regrowth gets buffed, OOC means we'll become FotM PvP healers again. If we're not already.
Blizzard should learn from Trion and separate abilities into PvP and PvE functions. For instance, buff Regrowth healing by 50% and then reduce it by 50% in Battlegrounds/Arenas. Voila, you can now balance classes for PvP and PvE without destroying stuff in the process.
Only place I heal right now, is 5 mans, so Im kinda used to spike heals moments there.
I do agree with everything you are saying. Those are the inherit problems with druid healers in Cata, so far. What I dont agree is where they show up. That may be the case of gear, maybe.
For 5 mans, I think we more than have emergency CDs. RG + SW + NS/HT. If that dont bring the tank up, you still have Tree Form with Insta RG. You will OOM, but it will work.
That's why I say we, as a class, dont have problems healing 5 means. We have more than enough CDs for the damage that is done, both for the party and for the tank. If we cant keep them up, the problem is somewhere else. Or they are lacking gear, or not using their CDs, or standing in sh*t, or...it can be a huge list of things. But we should be alright for 5 man content.
Those problems you are pointing out are the reason you almost dont see druid healers in heroic 25s. You may see 1, MAYBE 2 in the same run, depending of the fight. But if you have more than that, you raid will lack so many CDs, so many shields, that it's just not good at all.
IMHO, we lack a shield. It could be applied with RG, instead of the HoT. It would be a elegant way to fix RG and fix the lack of druids on 25s heroics.
And Eff could work like the shammy and priest ones, that you have to place in the ground. But that's just because I like more to be able to place it where I want rather than where people running around are standing at.
About the pve x pvp, well, lets say this is a problem since tBC. And Blizzard did nothing to get that right. And I dont think they will ever do. Just because they are that stuborn.
Edited, Jul 11th 2011 12:03pm by Brisin 
