Reports are coming in from players of the current build on the Public Test Realm that the technique of using one or more on-use +Healing trinkets at the start of a Lifebloom stack and then keeping that stack “rolling” past the duration of the on-use effect has been nerfed. Players are saying that the first application of Lifebloom after the effect expires is resetting the +Healing value of their Lifebloom. While this may in fact represent a correction to the creative but unintended use of game mechanics, it is also a “nerf” to a healing technique widely employed by many Druids.

For those who were holding out hope that this change was accidental, it has since been confirmed as intentional by Community Manager Salthem (EU):

Lifebloom: When this ability is refreshed it will take on the strength of the incoming Lifebloom effect, rather than maintain the existing strength.

Edit #1: There seems to be a common misconception that this change will adversely affect all HoTs which can be refreshed before being allowed to expire (ex. Renew, Rejuvenation, and Regrowth). This is not the case, however, as Lifebloom is the only HoT which “stacks up” and thus was the only HoT that was affected by +Healing trinkets in this way. So while this is a reduction of Druid healing output, it affects only a portion of our healing (albeit, what is often the largest portion).

Edit #2: There have some been some excellent (if heated) comments regarding this change made here, of which I am very appreciative. Sheshonk of Duskwood (US) has also posted what seems to be an insightful post on why he is strongly opposed to this change, mechanic correction or not. I think that it’s worth a read, even if you disagree.

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Today I have three community-related items I'm pleased to share with everyone. And thank you to those who have taken a moment to share them with me so that I can pass them on to everyone else.

Druid UI and Wallpapers

Ronco of Ravencrest (EU) recently posted some Druid-themed UI elements based partially upon the Night Elf and Tauren flight forms. While the design and size of the elements he's created is less subtle than what I tend to pick out, he's also created some very nice Night Elf and Tauren Druid wallpapers featuring some of our class spells and forms. Here are a couple of samples:

Thank you to Magnetronkip of Frostwhisper (EU) for directing me to this find!

Hafu Knows Kiting

And wants you to know, too. Hafu of Tichondrius (US) recently released a video wherein she explains some of the basic techniques behind Druid escapism in Arenas. While some of the principles demonstrated are more easily explained than performed (at least for me), Hafu does a good job of narrating many of the conventions successfully employed by 2k+ rated Restoration Druids in Arenas. A must see for any new Arena participant. You can submit commentary on this film here.

Resto Druid Kiting by Hafu

Gray Matter

Graylo of Eitrigg (US) shares his Gray Matter, a personal WoW diary with tales of a raiding Boomkin whose guild is currently deep in Serpentshrine Caverns. Many of his posts center around his recent raiding progress with some devoted to sharing his impressions on talent specs, patches, and recommended improvements to the spec.

Have something you would like to share? Please feel free to use the contact form!

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I’m probably behind the times on this one, but I recently discovered a quick and easy change that I can make to the interface options that has has greatly improved my soloing ability — and one that will likely be a big help when I start PvPing again. This is the Auto Self Cast toggle on the Basic interface options tab. This causes any helpful spell you cast to be cast on you by default should no other target be selected (be it a standard target, a mouseover, a focus target, etc.).

This option, first pointed out to me by frequent reader and commentor, Someone of Some Server (Some Region), eliminates the need for me to use an additional targetting parameter in all of my healing and decursing macros. However, if for any reason that’s more your cup of tea, how to accomplish this using macro commands is demonstrated below.

/cast [target=mouseover,help][target=target,help][target=player] Lifebloom

You could also dress up a macro like this one with a Swiftmend to intuitively “pop” your Rejuvenation when you press down the CTRL key:

#showtooltip /cast [modifier:ctrl,target=mouseover,exists,help][modifier:ctrl,target=target,help][modifier:ctrl,target=player] Swiftmend; [target=mouseover,exists,help][target=target,help][target=player] Rejuvenation

In PvE, this (the interface option or the macro modification) allows me to throw a heal on myself without losing my current DPS target. By DPSing using Moonfire, Insect Swarm, and Thorns and using macros like these for Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, and Swiftmend, I never have to worry about spell pushback, which means I don’t have to worry with casting Entangling Roots unless my target is a particularly heavy hitter. In PvP, this will allow me to easily heal myself while running away from the Skillherald hurtling toward my delicate elven features.

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…Keeps the Armor Repairman Living in the Style to which He’s Become Accustomed

I started doing Daily Quests just last week. My interest was piqued after doing a couple of the Cooking Dailies and seeing my total gold jump up for so little effort. I now /kick /kick /kick myself for not having started doing them sooner as I’ve made a little over 700 gold in just a week or two. I’m sure the novelty will wear off sooner or later, but for now I’ve been working on a technique to do Blade’s Edge Mountains Daily Quests while I dry my hair in the morning since I sometimes don’t have time to do them before raids.

I’d like to give a shout-out to the Daily Quest guides that Big Bear Butt wrote. If you’re looking to get started on your path to piles and piles of gold (or just need to save for your epic flight form), these guides are an excellent resource:

• Shatari Skyguard
• Reaching Neutral with Ogri’la
• Ogri’la and Sha’tari

One note that I will make about the BEM “Simon Says” quest is that I find it’s easiest to send myself a tell with the color sequence, rather than numbering each position or using a pen and paper. So for instance, “/tell Phaelia r b b g y y y”. Thanks very much to Valenna for this handy tip! Also, while BBB mentions that it can be difficult to wrangle Aether Rays without accidentally mauling them to death, I confess that I do not find this to be an issue with 50 points in Restoration. I have been using Insect Swarm, Moonfire, and Thorns to reduce their life while using Lifebloom and Rejuvenation to keep mine at a healthy level. This works very well for me, and I rarely have mana or health issues (I also recommend wearing your PvP set if you have one for the additional mitigation and hit points).

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I was flattered to receive this e-mail from Gillir of Stormrage’s Dreaming (who recently completed a very nice update of his site’s aesthetics – be sure to check it out!):

Thought I’d run this question by you and see if you can help. I healed my first heroic the other day and did it as tree, but it was tough. Is it viable to tree-heal in heroics? Or is caster form preferable? Thanks for your help.

This is a pretty common dilemma faced by healing Druids when we first begin running Heroics. On the one hand, our Restoration tree (pun intended) encourages a more passive HoT-based style of healing. This style works great in raids where you can provide a nice buffer against spike damage on one or more targets while still retaining your ability to throw Lifeblooms to raidmates who take only occassional damage. But in Heroics, you will often find yourself hard-pressed to keep up with the high damage output of many of the trash mobs leading up to bosses (in my experience, most of the bosses are only marginally more difficult than their non-Heroic counterparts). For many of these mobs, the +Healing total you’re likely to have when first starting makes it near impossible to keep up through Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, and Swiftmend alone. Access to Healing Touch is a near essential.

Even with the higher +Healing totals you’ll have after your guild has completed Karazhan, there are still some mobs and pulls on which you may not feel comfortable being unable to burst heal. Two examples of these types of pulls are the Bog Giants of Heroic Underbog (hitting for 7.5k on cloth) and the 2-pull of non-CCable Coilfang Defenders in Heroic Slavepens. Of course, with the recent change to shifting so that actions taken which cannot be performed in your current form will cause you to deshift, using Tree of Life should seem substantially less cumbersome than it did before. There’s no harm in starting out a fight in treeform as long as you are able to anticipate needing to use a Healing Touch. And as long as you can unshift should you need to move somewhere quickly.

This isn’t to say that Tree of Life doesn’t have its uses (using it on Blackheart the Inciter in Shadow Labyrinth will keep you from doing anything but walking around, hitting groupmates with your leafy branches); it’s a great mana conservation tool when you don’t need to move around, decurse, or use Healing Touch. But you shouldn’t even feel slightly bad about not being able to leverage it well in Heroic instances, especially when you’re first starting.

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