Druids were a needed healer in large raids, not so much with this change. It wasn’t “push the raid heal” button like someone said – try doing bg’s now. Healing targets change faster than you can push a button. In six seconds – a lot of things change. We aren’t priests and enjoy complimenting other healers with our HOTS – The cooldown just sucks.

We have a lot of time invested in these trees and strategies that work for every situation. As far as pvp goes – trees are not as effective as they were. This cooldown is by far – the worst thing that happened to resto druids in a long time.

If Bliz was going to do this, why did they put it at 51 in our talent tree. When we got it – it was a very useful spell for pvp and large raids. It still works in a small group when you are healing a tank and want to throw out a quick group heal. It doesn’t have enough power to keep everyone alive in a nasty situation to begin with – so what is with the cooldown anyway?

I think it has made resto druids a not so needed class for those big raids. Six seconds is far too long to heal people coming in and out of your healing area.

I sooo agree with what this person said in a post:

“It is a tricky situation blizzard has gotten themselves in with the whole smartheal problematic.

In my guild there are druids who use WG very situational but we do have absolute spammers as well, and it doesn’t work too bad. And CoH is just off at this state. But will a 6 sec. cooldown fix all that?

Druids who used WG with care will loose a great situational tool.
Priests will be hit hard as CoH was strong because it could be spammed when needed.”

In a battleground, when we are all running everywhere, that circle of people you heal changes drastically. Where I would receive major compliments on my raid heals, they are no more. My healing went from top or one of the top healers in the groups to the lowest there. After looking at the stats each time, shammies, priests and paladins heals were two to 4 times higher than mine.

I tried different strategies and will continue to do so – but this is a resto druids nightmare. If you pvp – you will not enjoy this change. Six seconds is far too long. WG has gone from the best pvp hot to the worst.

Not only this, I find myself dying 2 times more than usual. In battlegrounds, DK’s are out in droves with their new capablities– – enjoying their new feast on resto druids (and everyone else for that matter). With mages overpowering 2 hit kills, and whatever rogues are doing- (where you don’t even see them and they kill you) – I am totally amazed we were cut down and chopped up. Our HOTS have gone to the dogs.

I have one level 80 that I worked at for over a year – now I am deeply discouraged by this change in our overall raid healing abilities.

@Hokuto: I’m sad that they’re adding the CD to Wild Growth as I found it fun to try to get it to land on 10 different people during splash damage. I agree that all smart heals are no fun, but Wild Growth is actually a fun spell to cast in my opinion.

With regard to a Dreamstate spec, it’s something I have considered, having been previously underwhelmed by Living Seed, GotEM, and Replenish. However, I’m not entirely convinced the regeneration is worth the loss of all of those abilities, including the still 5- and 10-man viable Wild Growth. You really need to decide if you need the regeneration (something easily countered with gear) and if you (and your party) can live without Wild Growth. My inclination would be to dip down just far enough to pick up Lunar Guidance as soon as I’m no longer running 5-mans with any regularity.

@Tarqon: I’m really sad to hear that.

@Brierley: Actually, I’ve run into a number of summoned mobs in Wrath that appear to work that way (hitting someone else’s mob gives a message that says “mob is tapped” or something similar).

@Enth: I enjoy healing with Wild Growth. ^^ Of course, I enjoy using all of my other spells, too. Well, except for Nourish which currently stinks. I’m really glad you enjoy the blog, even if we don’t both love Wild Growth.

@Ghostboci: I have to take issue with any design paradigm where one healer class is “sat” with any regularity for another healing class. If it happens that AoE healing is the dominion of Shamans and Priests and single-target healing is the dominion of Druids and Paladins, why would you ever need 2 Druids or 2 Paladins? Single target healing is, by it’s very nature, a role that can be fulfilled by fewer people.

@Endivias: I would obviously support the de-nerfing of Lifebloom. In Arenas’ current state where healers are essentially a wasted team slot, it certainly wouldn’t make a dent in PvP balance!

@Beathooven: That would require me to actually enjoy playing a hunter which is surprisingly one class I’ve never been able to get into (trust me, I’ve tried about 5 times).

@MeanderingMind: I hope you’re right and that we’ll ALL find a balanced number of raid slots by healing class!

Your raid will be fair better off using all three (or four, Holy Light Glyph!) healing classes together for massive raid damage than trying to throw the entire burden on a couple of Shaman. Two Shaman are not so amazing that they wouldn’t appreciate the help in preventing immediate death and topping things off.

MeanderingMinds last blog post..Best Purchase Ever

It’s not that I’m a Blizzard lover. And of course I realize they get paid to do their job, and their job is to make sure the game is balanced. Does this mean it’s easy? No. Does the fact that they get paid for their work mean the game is going to be perfect? Clearly (since it’s not) no. My comment about Blizz doing a great job was towards all of WoW and WotLK, not just the specific 51pt talent of WG for resto druids.

Wouldn’t it be more logical to say that you find it hard for me to make any comments about WG since I don’t have it opposed to because I PvP? Seems more critical in your argument, but that’s no big deal. I know I didn’t say it in my last post, but I do have access to a level 79 resto druid that I enjoy to jump on from time to time to two box heal some regular runs for my DK. In this case I do have WG, but again, that’s not a big deal.

I see your point on the situationalness (new word?) of WG in fights like Loatheb. I haven’t been fortunate enough to get into Naxx yet (just hit 80 on my DK last night), so I’m sad to say I don’t know the fight apart from watching a video on Google. What alternatives would you suggest after the 6sec CD on WG is implemented? I’m anxious to hear how resto druids are going to alter their healing rotation in these situational encounters.

I also agree with your comment about how the 6sec CD to CoH and WG is more of a kick in the teeth for WG than it is for CoH. I wonder if Blizz is going to do something to tone CoH down a tad, buff up WG a little, or compensate in other spells to make up for the smack. Then again priests and druids are different. With that comes different levels of effectiveness with different abilities.

Finally, and not to be rude, please refer to the following web site.
http://www.essortment.com/all/semicolon_rcnr.htm
I know we’re on the internet where nobody cares about grammar and spelling, but to see a semicolon used in that fashion made my eyes bleed.

Wow another Blizzard lover; you speak as though they are doing this great “project” for free. Get real. They are paid to get this done, they “HAVE TO” keep working on the balance because it earns their living. So, I am not sure who naive here.

To say they are dumb to blanket considered COH and WG are the same spell DOES NOT equate to that they are incapable to make other wise decision. Do you typically put everything together. Have no wise man made dumb decision before. duh.

Given that you do not PVE; I find it hard for you to make any comments in related to WG since it is PVE oriented spell.

The nerf to WG is not going to affect only WG-spammer. It is going to affec those, like myself, who relied on it on situation basis such as fight for Loatheb with only 3 seconds in healing every 17 seconds.

Can Loatheb be done with spamming WG on group in the 3 seconds, yes. I am not saying you can’t.

But does the mechanic of Circle of Healing and WG same that they should be considered together as given the same 6 seconds CD? To me, thats a NO.

:: On Topic ::
Tapping Change – This will also be a very welcome change for warlocks. As I was farming Primal Fires a while back, I’d DoT up three or so mobs only to have a rogue follow me around and try to hit them once so he’d get credit while I maintained aggro.

WG Change – I’m not deep enough into resto to get this ability. I imagine even at 80 I’d skip over it (I PvP, not PvE). *Prepare for an ignorant statement* I would imagine that as long as you’re not a WG reliant spammer that this shouldn’t be much of an issue.

@Cyrin
Regarding the armor changes, don’t lose sight that they’re adding 66% bonus armor to bear tanks.

Primal Tenacity Buff – Lowering the cost on shapeshifting by 50% seems pretty generous. Maybe even over the top. You already receive 8% of your mana back when you crit, which is quite often. Unless you shapeshift every four seconds, I don’t feel that this is a necessary addition to the feral tree. I’d say it’s an arena buff above all else, though, so I guess it’s suitable for that.

Sapphiron is still lesser a problem – since I typically stack HOTs instead of WG.

WG is NOT COH …. is that hard to understand? Blizzard developers are just dumb. One is HOTs one is one-button-I-win.

And you know what? I got just the thing.

I assume everyone will remember a previous nerf that was at least as serious as this one. Yes, the Lifebloom coefficient nerf. Since the nerf to WG will weaken our roles as area healers, we need Lifebloom un-nerfed so we can confidently return to our previous roles of multiple-target healers.

Hence my request: un-nerf the healing coefficient on Lifebloom and bring it at least closer to its previous glory. Otherwise, we run the risk of being particularly good at nothing at all. And that, as we know too well, is synonymous with death.