Pookies Is Not a Bear published an article today entitled Let’s Talk about Raid Buffs, Baby in which he details his evaluation of several elixirs and the Flask of Restoration using the Mana Regeneration Calculator to determine the net improvement afforded by each. It’s not only a useful comparison of raid consumables but a great step-by-step example of how you can perform these sorts of comparisons yourself. Thanks, Pookies!

And for a look at the use of long-lasting Wizard Oils, be sure to take a look at reader Mynd’s blog post on Optimization in which he compares the benefits of [Superior Wizard Oil] to [Golden Fish Sticks] (which thankfully stack).

• Read Let’s Talk about Raid Buffs, Baby by Pookies
• Read Optimization by Mynd

Related Posts

• Mana Regen Calculator Featured
• 2.4 Mana Regen: Valuing +Healing
• A Passport to More Places to Visit

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!

1. 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))
2. 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.")

3. Resurrection

   Perhaps the one shortcoming that I happen to agree with. (See also: Out of Combat Resurrection) Rebirth is pretty amazing, though.

4. 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.

5. 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.

Related Posts

• Handling Threat
• Barkskin (Barkbark)
• Adding Trinkets to Your Macros

I’ve covered a couple of uses for the /focus command in the past in such articles as Hibernating via Focus Target and Healing via Focus Target. However, there is so much more that can be done with this highly versatile command, and I wanted to demonstrate just one more fun and interesting adaptation I discovered over the weekend: debuffing your focus’s target.

The basic idea behind this technique is to set up one or more macros that cast debuff spells on your current focus’s target. In my case, I created a macro that would ordinarily cast Insect Swarm on my focus’s target and Faerie Fire if I hold down CTRL. If a focus target cannot be found (as it cannot when I am soloing), the target defaults to my own target instead. My macro looks like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:ctrl, exists, target=focustarget, nodead] [modifier:ctrl] Faerie Fire;[exists, target=focustarget, nodead] [] Insect Swarm

When in a 5-man group, I set my focus to my group’s tank and am able to debuff his current target’s hit chance by 2% (decreasing damage taken and needing to be healed) while also decreasing its armor by 610. This means the mob dies quicker and does less damage on the way out. It’s also a great use of the time in between stacking up 3 x Lifebloom when it’s not necessary to get your stack rolling as quickly as possible. This technique is also a great compliment to mouseover-based healing since those who use mouseover aren’t generally as comfortable clicking to select targets, and it’s more convenient than having to set a separate assist key.

In addition to the macro described above, you will want to set up a focus target window so that you can monitor what your tank is actually targeting. (But be careful not to cast Insect Swarm on a target that’s crowd controlled or needs to be!) Most of the better unitframes addons such as Pitbull and Ag Unitframes include the ability to display these frames. For my UI, I set up a panel beneath the place where my Focus Target frame appears when I do have a focus set. That way I can tell at a glance whether I’ve remembered to focus my tank and if both of my debuffs are currently running on the target. You can see a preview of this setup at left, using Andrige’s lovely Heart of the Wild UI as a backdrop.

So far, I’ve employed this technique in both normal and Heroic Magister’s Terrace. I’ve been told that it seems to make fights easier (though admittedly it doesn’t get much easier than grouping with a Paladin tank on AOE pulls). If nothing else, I feel more proactive than simply pressing my heal buttons, and it’s nice to see my name actually show up on the damage meters, even if it’s only for the paltry amount from Insect Swarm. Just remember not to use Faerie Fire if your tank happens to be a Druid, as I know most like using the Feral version for extra threat.

Related Posts

• Leveraging Insect Swarm as a Healer
• Healing via Focus Target
• Hibernating via Focus Target

Edit: Apparently, Boubouille was mistaken. I can’t imagine that this was an April Fool’s Day joke as it isn’t funny, so I think we have to assume it was a case of unfortunate misinformation.

Boubouille of MMO Champion is reporting that the 4-piece set bonus that grants an additional 15% speed bonus while in Travel, Cat, and Bear Forms has been restored to the [Gladiator's Refuge] (Arena epics) and added to the [Kodohide Battlegear] set (reputation-purchasable set). If true, this is great news for Restoration-based PvP and probably points to a much greater decrease in 2v2/3v3 performance by Druids than Blizzard was anticipating or intending.

Perhaps less fortunately, the Balance Wyrmhide sets have had their set bonus reverted to the speed increase, as well. I say “less fortunately” because many Boomkin were excited for the recent change to a more offensively-based set bonus. Sorry, guys!

Related Posts

• PTR Report: 4-Piece Set Bonus Changes
• Vaneras: Druid PvP Viability Under Review
• Season 3 Change of MP5 to Spirit Reversed