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Resto Druids: 5 Things You Should Know (about Yourself)
Published on April 8, 2008 by Phaelia 
Lunar Guidance 
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I’m writing this post in response to a recent post by Pummra of Part Time Druid in which he details several of the strengths and weaknesses of our class for the benefit of other players. I didn’t agree 100% with all of his points and wanted to present my own point of view. Thank you, Pummra, for the inspiration!
- What We Lack in Buffs, We Help Compensate for with Debuffs
While Druids don’t have totems or blessings and Mark of the Wild is oft-disparaged, we have a few unique capabilities not possessed by other healers:
- With 11 points invested in Balance, we can reduce the hit chance of a mob by 2%, reducing damage needing to be healed for a pittance of mana. (See also: Debuffing Your Focus Target)
- We can reduce the armor of mobs through Faerie Fire, allowing melee and ranged DPS to do more damage against them. (See also: Rogues and Armor Penetration)
- We can increase the TPS of our tanks via Thorns (and sometimes Brambles), a threat increase that scales with the number of mobs while our own healing threat decreases. (See also: Don’t Poke Fun at Thorns (They Hurt))
- We Have Great Crowd Control…
…for a healer. We have the best assortment of crowd control tools available to any healer. Hibernate is essentially Shackle Undead for Beasts and Dragonkin. While these two mob types are arguably less common than Undead, we also have Cyclone, a spell which when leveraged properly, can take a mob out of contention for up to 10 seconds (more if the mob is a spellcaster and you time things well). While Cyclone does suffer from diminishing returns, it can be rotated among several mobs in fights like Priestess Delrissa in Magister’s Terrace or be used to give another group member a little breathing room when having to reapply forms of crowd control such as Polymorph. Entangling Roots is restricted to outdoors-only instances, but when available is another great tool at your disposal. (Just make sure your groupmates know not to stand beside a rooted mob.) Finally, Bear Form + Bash can buy your tank four seconds to regain the mob’s interest if you get into trouble, five if you’re PvP-specced and have Brutal Impact. (See also: Handling Threat)As a Druid, expect to occasionally have to argue for the ability to use crowd control in a group. Many players assume limitations that do not exist. (I actually had a guildmate suggest the Hibernate target be killed first on Hex Lord because "Hibernate is the worst form of crowd control.")
- Resurrection
Perhaps the one shortcoming that I happen to agree with. (See also: Out of Combat Resurrection) Rebirth is pretty amazing, though.
- We Eat Spike Damage for Breakfast! (RAWR! =^_^=)
While we excel at HoT-based healing — a form of healing which in most cases prevents spike damage from occurring — we also have an assortment of tools available for handling spikes of damage when they do occur. Swiftmend can be used to convert a Rejuvenation or Regrowth to a burst of healing and is available every 15 seconds. Once every three minutes, we can deliver a staggering burst of HP in the form of Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch. While less mana efficient than the Paladin’s Flash of Light, a Regrowth heals for around the same amount for only half a second more, while providing an additional 21-second HoT that can immediately be converted via a Swiftmend. Expecting a set of AoE damage to your group during a fight like Selin Fireheart? Throw Lifebloom on all five members for a burst of healing after the effect goes off. Should group healing get out of your control, you can always fall back on Tranquility, essentially a fight "reset" on a 10-minute cooldown.
- But Wait, There’s More!
Like the Shaman’s Poison Cleansing Totem, Druids have the ability to cast a "set it and forget it" spell called Abolish Poison that will make repeated attempts to dispel any poisons applied during a fight. We are also the only healers who have the ability to Remove Curse.
We Druids are creatures simultaneously of limitations and special exceptions. To play a Druid well, you must be willing to work harder and play more creatively than many other classes. You have to press more than the buttons that make people’s health bars refill. In return for your efforts, you have the potential to be viewed as one of the most skilled and versatile players in your guild, raid, or group of friends.
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@Kiryn: Have you considered the fact that Rejuvenation + Swiftmend is a 1.5 second cast while Regrowth is only 2? I know that you aren’t having trouble with mana, but a Regrowth will hit harder and provide more potential benefits (crit = Nature’s Grace and possibly Living...
Phaelia–
First of all, thanks for reading! Sometimes I feel lonely out there, as if people aren’t really paying attention. This post set off a few different people, though, and for that I’m glad!
I was probably a little harsh to some of our abilities in my post, and that really brought people out! The druid is my favorite class in the game, though, and one of the best things about them that I didn’t touch on is our versatility.
All that being said, you’ll never get me to agree that our forms of CC are all that useful, or that we deal with spike damage all that well. Certainly we have tools to do so, but my point was they don’t compare to a Pally or Priest.
Again, thanks for reading, and I enjoyed your defense of the class!
Pummra
Hibernate is great, except that when you do it, and it breaks, we lose out on one of our best healers.
Thank you very much for this great article… and the one about insect swarm…
This actually made me rethink my purpose in a group or raid.
I am playing my druid only since the beginning of the year. And most times I am in a group, people admit that they are quite surprised how well I (as a druid) am able to heal…
Anyway, from now on Faerie Fire and Cyclone will become part of my playing routine (as well as insect swarm). And thanks to you, I now have the arguments to counter people who try to degrade my abilities to “healer only” …
Thanks for this wonderful article
It reminds me of some things I tend to ignore I guess. Too bad I don’t have the points for Insect Swarm with my PvP Healing Spec (need Feral Charge^^)
Really really great points. And now with 2.4 we never run out of mana. I really like how this game progresses. Raid or tank healing is one thing with LB all the time and is quite simple. I find more of a challenge solo healing heroics with people who don’t watch aggro. I think I somehow miraculously made it to 70 without casting swiftmend or NS. Now, with MgT I have to throw in regrowths as well which I never used before. I suspect that Blizzard has some tricks up their sleeves with future instances and raid. One might get a challenge now and then, but I still think we are pretty OP.
I’m a feral spec’d druid with 14 points in resto (+3 for intensity’s mana regen). I have decent healing gear for lvl 65 (+600 healing, 20ish/5 mp) and I’ve leveled & healed with a priest and paladin up through low level outlands without a problem.
When I try to heal as feral, even lower level instances, I find myself having a lot of difficulty healing especially when the entire group is taking somewhat consistent splash damage (like the technicians w/landmines in blood furnace).
How much of a difference does going full-resto have? Where a priest can flash heal / PWS and a paladin can flash of light, do you recommend a druid use regrowths? Possibly downranked to have a ~1k direct heal? Time lifebloom’s bloom? Pervasive use of swiftmend?
Oh man, Phae, you’re killing me! I’ve recently fallen in love with my lvl 16 druid( after ages of claiming I’d never play a Nelf ) and I’m colevelling her with my wife’s druid w/ the intent of making a tanking/healer pair. I love the difficult hybrid spec/classes( have a tankadin main and a 70 healy shaman main ) and I’m really looking forward to druid healing. Now I want to power level my druid! I have to get sleep! My god why won’t you let me sleep!?!
I generally have problems with cyclone in PvE. It’s a not-so-bad spell interrupt, but it can make things confusing if you use it as some sort of emergency crowd control. If there’s a loose mob you may be casting it at the same time tank notices, charges and.. *immune* *immune*
Scatter shot, blind, etc, can buy time until cavalry arrives to get aggro back (growl, taunt..) and THEN break the CC effect, while with cyclone tank has to wait for CC to wear off and THEN get aggro back. I still use it on instances as a panic button, but if I get this aggro warning from my addon for more than a couple seconds I just cast barkskin and, in some cases, squish that last HoT out and switch to bear form. And if it’s someone else having aggro, I expect them to use their own tricks 
@Solum: talents not only improve efficiency, but give you more speed with stronger HoTs. Also swiftmend is THE talent, better than Nature’s Swiftness. It’s also the main reason not to downrank regrowth (so if you don’t have it it doesn’t really matter).
Against AoE you can spam lifebloom (it’s so cheap!) and, if needed, regrowth. Healing, but specially with so many HoTs, require to know well the encounters and try to adjust your heals to the gear of your party (if you’re used to top tanks and one day you have to heal one “just ok”, you may end up wiping with the first trash..). Don’t be afraid of “pre-casting” HoTs (rejuvenation ticks after 3 seconds; lifebloom after 1, but most of the healing takes place way afterwards so…)
@Pummra: Thanks for being so magnanimous in your response. I was worried I might offend, but this was a good opportunity to explore some of the facets of our class that aren’t necessarily *direct* forms of healing. Plus, I like linking to posts from newer blogs! =)
@Crythia: The same could be true of Mind Control or Shackle Undead. At least in a raid boss, if I’m using Hibernate it’s because it’s pretty necessary. And frequent refreshes (I usually refresh once every 10-15 seconds to be safe) will keep you pretty much in the clear!
@Jeremiah: I’m very happy that you found this (and the debuffing article) helpful! I find adding these additional techniques make healing a lot more fun. You should see how crazy I get in non-Heroic instances. I’m all PEW PEW!! RAWR!! Okay, not so much with the “RAWR” as that would imply I use a Feral form. /shudder
@Yashima: Yeah, I actually really miss having Feral Charge available. BEAR ROCKET!!! was the most fun thing about being PvP spec. I even used it to interrupt spellcasters in Karazhan when our Rogues were slacking. In fact, most of these additional “non-healing” techniques developed as a result of having PvPed during Season 2. PvP really makes you examine and leverage ALL your abilities, not just the set associated with healing.
@Zedwards: The unlimited mana post 2.4 may not be as unlimited as one might think. Instead of having a plethora of mana left over, we can shuttle some of that extra blue goo into swapping Regrowth for Lifeblooms, at least for non-tanks. If you ignore the mana cost (as you could if your mana were unlimited) Regrowth is far and away better since it does its healing immediately AND sets you up to Swiftmend later if it’s necessary. Pretty neat! Best of luck in your new Heroics. They’re a great way to push yourself to the limit of your ability, both as a healer and a Druid.
@Solum: The tools we get from being “full” Resto are pretty amazing. I could probably live without Nature’s Swiftness (or at least my tank could), but Swiftmend is pretty much a must have, and I probably use it every 20 seconds or so in raids (less frequently in groups). As a Feral, you’re going to have to rely on your Healing Touch more than your HoTs simply because you don’t have the Talents or +Healing to bump the HPS of your HoTs up enough for them to do the job alone. Unfortunately, Healing Touch is slow and clunky and terrible for responding to “splash” damage. I don’t downrank my Regrowth at all, but I know that some do. If someone is taking 1K of damage, a single application of Lifebloom should heal them to full. Just toss them out *before* the mine explodes, and it should heal them back up once it’s gone off. I imagine that healing as a Feral will require better reflexes and better anticipation of group damage because you can’t fall back on Swiftmend or Nature’s Swiftness.
@Scott: What are you doing reading this? Go forth and level, young Sapling! Thus goes my plan for blog domination by converting players of all other classes to the path of the Restoration Druid!
@Ermengol: A big part of successfully leveraging Cyclone is communicating with your groupmates. If using Cyclone to protect myself, I’ll announce in voice chat “OMG GET IT OFF GET IT OFF… as soon as Cyclone drops in 3 … 2 … 1…” If my husband’s Polymorph breaks and it’s chasing him around, I’ll Cyclone it to allow him to get some distance on it before he starts casting Poly. This, of course, is made 10x easier by the fact we play beside each other. Generally, my groupmates are familiar with the idea that I will use Cyclone at times, so they aren’t “DER … WHY IS MOB IN TORNADO?” You’re right that it is harder to use than many other forms of crowd control, but I still think it’s a valuable (and FUN!) tool for instancing. It’s even once saved a Lurker attempt. A Mage died, leaving a Hunter to fend for himself on one of the islands with two Naga. I rotated Cyclone on them while he kept the other icetrapped until the raid could help.
“While less mana efficient than the Paladin’s Flash of Light, a Regrowth heals for around the same amount for only half a second more”
if u take count of improved regrowth(5/5). I get around 60% of crit.
When tank get in trouble ( aka 10% hp) , i would say regrowth give more burst heal than flash of light.
Hi there,
Thank you for another enjoyable and cogent post. In reading it, a question came to my mind which I thought you might be able to help with:
Do you know if overhealing a Paladin will still return mana to them through Spiritual Attunement (e.g., a Paladin has a full health bar, a less-than-full mana bar, and is receiving ticks from a Druid’s HoT spells)?
I mostly just ask out of curiosity (for my reference in the field!). But I guess, in the context of this discussion, it also seems like it could be a nice synergy for a Paladin tank and a Druid healer, and could perhaps be considered another strength of Druid healing (albeit a situational one). I’ve healed for a Paladin tank a few times, and often found myself in a situation where I had his health maxed and had temporarily created an impenetrable wall o’ healing with Druid HoTs. Similarly, encounters often end w/ a full stack of HoTs still running as his health hits 100% again. Druids sort of have the unique ability to overheal in a respectable, mana efficient way
so maybe this is a little extra positive outcome from that.
But even if overhealing doesn’t count for Spiritual Attunement, it still seems like the Druid’s overall strength for creating a constant stream of healing also makes for a constant stream of Paladin mana, which might be advantageous compared to larger bursts, farther between.
(I should mention that my comments come from the perspective of someone who hasn’t done any raiding yet - I would imagine that the dynamics of a larger party w/ multiple healers would be different, and the overall volume of healing might just blend together, removing any of the distinctions I make above.)
Thanks again!
-Tone
@Shotopanx: I haven’t crunched the numbers, but I’d guess it’s highly possible the two are closer than I realized.
@Tone: Good question. I actually didn’t know the answer myself so I talked to Jon of the Bronze Kettle since he plays a Paladin. Apparently overheals (or wasted HoT ticks) do not proc Spiritual Attunement. Interestingly, just as Lifebloom blooms and Prayer of Mending count as healing done by the recipient (in this case, the Paladin), they also do not proc Spiritual Attunement. Thanks for the question!
I’m new to this Resto druid stuff having just received my brother’s 70 Resto druid that he was going to get rid of. I have been wanting to try healing (my main is a level 80 hunter) so I thought what the heck!
The druid is now 72, and I have run a few 5-mans, some of which have gone well and some of which ended up with the group asking me to leave after wiping so many times. So to start off I have to say I have a new found respect for healers and I tip my hat to all of you!
I started off using HealBot which I loved and found to be incredibly easy. My difficulty arose from when I was told I should be using Grid. I had a friend help me set it up and everything so it works fine but I find it insanely overwhelming and even in 5-mans difficult to read each box and remember which heal is in which corner and which color means what, etc. I’ve also been told I spam heals, but I find that I’m constantly unsure of if my HOTs are going to keep a tank up enough through fights.
Is all of this normal when learning how to heal properly or am I just a poor excuse for a healer and should stick to DPS? And I’m beginning to loathe Grid because I find it so overwhelming and not easy to read…will it just take time to get used to or is it just a preference thing?
I really really want to be a good druid healer and I have read all of your blogs and as well as the ones on ElitistJerks and find that some is helpful and some with all the numbers and calculations just make my head hurt.
Help!
@Oakwood: Grid can definitely be overwhelming to the new healer, but it’s truly an indispensable resource once grown accustomed to it. I recommend taking a look at my article on setting up Grid for a Resto Druid which should hopefully make things clearer and easier to understand.
In general, you should keep all of your HoTs stacked on your group’s tank. I generally start with Lifebloom + Rejuvenation + Lifebloom + Regrowth, though I’ll cast a Regrowth earlier if I get an Omen of Clarity proc. If I get an OOC proc and Regrowth still has a long duration remaining, I’ll throw a Wild Growth on the group instead. Use Regrowth as your direct heal while all your HoTs are running, Swiftmend your tank if he gets into trouble, and use Nature’s Swiftness + unglyphed Healing Touch in real emergencies.
Good luck!