I’ve received several e-mails asking me about the best way to level in Wrath of the Lich King. Some Trees despair at the idea of abandoning their Healing roots for the kind that entangle while others seem to want to roll up their bark and don the feathered suit of a DOOMkin to pew pew all the way to Arthas! With as much variation as there is among readers and their playstyles, it’s safe to say that there is no clear ONE AND ONLY spec that you should use for leveling. So instead of linking you a talent build, I’m going to help you make the decisions that will determine which talents you should choose then show a couple of different specs that include them to – what I feel – is best effect! Let’s begin:

Question #1: How much do you want to heal?

This is a simple question that’s related to how much healing ability you are willing to sacrifice for the sake of improving your damage output. This assumes that the dual spec system won’t be immediately available after the release of Wrath and that you’re a cheapskate like me who is unwilling to respec to run instances. I’ve created a sliding scale of possible choices:

Question #2: How do you like to kill things?

Are you an “in your face” type of player that doesn’t mind getting her foliage mussed or are you more of a delicate flower who prefers the safety of killing things that can’t fight back?

Since the “lolwut” response to Question 2 isn’t actually a valid one (I love symmetry), there are six possible combinations that we can create. Here are six builds I would recommend to you, based on those preferences:

Build #1: The Pokey Peep, a.k.a. the Panzerkin

This type of build is heavy (HAHA) on the damage because it’s based on Moonkin, initially eschewing many of the trappings of Restoration in favor of many fun and powerful abilities at the bottom of the Balance tree. You’ll start at level 70 with a 55/0/6 build. This build focuses on many of the abilities that allow you to take a beating while you machine gun Wrath the mobs to death. Key abilities include:

• Brambles: Let the mobs munch on your thorny exterior while you gleefully blast them with Wrath, Moonfire, and Insect Swarm. You’ll pick this up instead of Nature’s Reach since root-and-nuke isn’t your goal.
• Insect Swarm: Insect Swarm is a cheap DoT that essentially costs the Global Cooldown to cast. It’s also uninterruptible. I opted to skip over Improved Insect Swarm because there are better options further down the tree.
• Moonglow, Lunar Guidance, and Dreamstate: These are pretty much staples for any caster dipping into the Balance tree, and you’d have feathers for brains if you skipped them.
• Moonkin Form / Improved Moonkin Form: Pretty obvious benefits. This gives you a lot of armor to stand in the face of your enemies. Not to mention an awesome dance.
• Owlkin Frenzy: What could be better than actually deriving a benefit from things hitting you in Moonkin Form? You’d opt to skip this 3-point talent if you were using root-and-nuke techniques.
• Typhoon and Force of Nature: It’s hard to pass up two 1-point talents as fun as these.
• Earth and Moon: Sounds like the name of a ballad-writing 80s band, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. This ability provides a big boost to your damage output.
• Wrath of Cenarius: Another expensive talent at 5 points. Provides a bonus to spell damage for Starfire and Wrath.
• Starfall: This spell is pretty mana efficient, even for single-target DPS.

As you continue to level up to 79 (because you ARE going to switch back to deep Restoration the moment you hit 80, RIGHT?), you’ll continue investing points in the Restoration tree, picking up such abilities as Omen of Clarity, Intensity, Natural Shapeshifter, Master Shapeshifter, and Furor. A level 79 version of this build ends up being 55/0/15 .

Build #2: The Marshmallow Peep

Unlike her Pokey brethren, the Marshmallow Peep cringes at the idea of having her feathers ruffled and prefers to keep her opponents at a distance. As a result, she will skip over talents like Brambles and Owlkin Frenzy, picking up Nature’s Reach instead. This build starts out at 70 as 52/0/9 ; as you may notice, our lower investment in tanking frees up more points for us in Restoration. We’ll start with three points in Furor, three in Nature’s Focus, Natural Shapeshifter and continue investing until we have all the Balance-oriented Restoration goodies, including Intensity, Omen of Clarity, and Master Shapeshifter. We end up with a free point at 79 to place in a Balance talent of choice. I’d probably opt for a point of Improved Insect Swarm. This build ends up being 53/0/17 .

Build #3: Hybrid Close-Combat

If you’re planning to level up with a mixture of solo-questing and instancing with guildmates (but are too cheap to pay for respec costs), a hybrid build might be just what you’re looking for. I’ve started this build with Moonkin Form, one point away from nabbing Swiftmend, but there’s nothing to say you couldn’t do it the other way around if you want. This build begins at level 70 as 31/0/30 . Because we don’t have the points needed to bolster Regrowth, we’ll instead focus on Healing Touch, picking up Naturalist and Empowered Touch. Key abilities from the Balance tree include:

• Brambles: This is a staple in any “tanking” build.
• Insect Swarm: Once again, Insect Swarm is a really cheap form of damage that only costs 1 point to acquire.
• Moonglow and Lunar Guidance, and Dreamstate: We won’t initially have the points we need to pick up Dreamstate, but it’s a priority for talent point expenditures between 70 and 80.
• Moonkin Form: This is the reason we start with 31 points. We’ll pick up 3/3 Improved Moonkin Form as we level, though the points aren’t available at the start.

As you level up to 79, you’ll want to pick up Dreamstate, Owlkin Frenzy, and 2 points in Improved Moonkin Form (though you could opt to substitute points in Wrath of Cenarius for IMF). This build ends up being 39/0/31 at level 79.

Build #4: The Confused Cannon

This is the root-and-nuke variation Build 3, Hybrid Close-Combat. It also begins as 31/0/30, though again you can choose to start with Swiftmend and pick up Moonkin Form at 71 if you prefer. We’ll drop Brambles in favor of Nature’s Reach + Nature’s Splendor. As you level up with this build, you’ll similarly pick up Dreamstate and Improved Moonkin Form, though with no need for Owlkin Frenzy, you’ll make the choice to pick up Wrath of Cenarius. This build ends up being 39/0/31 at level 79.

Build #5: The Thorn Bush

This build is perhaps the least efficient in terms of suitability to tank since it doesn’t pick up Moonkin Form at any point and even the armored Tree of Life can’t cast Balance spells. Nonetheless, its strong HoTs may make this a feasible option for the player who wants to stay as true as possible to her Restoration “roots” but still pack a bit of firepower. In terms of Balance abilities, I’ve selected Starlight Wrath, Moonglow, Nature’s Majesty, Nature’s Grace, Nature’s Splendor, and Brambles. The 17/0/44 build at 70 is comprised of most of the “core” Restoration abilities up to and including Tree of Life but eschews Naturalist, Tranquil Spirit, and Empowered Touch, instead emphasizing Regrowth. Improved Tranquility is also omitted, though you may wish to consider it if you plan to do a lot of instancing.

Leveling up with this build, you have three options:

• Spend your points in Balance to boost your firepower with 5/5 Vengeance and Insect Swarm. Spend the remaining three points on additional spell power from Lunar Guidance. An example of this build is 26/0/47 .
• Spend your points in Balance to boost your healing with 5/5 Genesis and Insect Swarm. Spend the remaining three points on additional spell power from Lunar Guidance. An example of this build is 26/0/47 .
• Spend your points in Restoration to acquire Wild Growth. Definitely pick up Improved Tree of Life for its aura improvement and Spirit –> healing power conversion. Other talents that I recommend you consider include: Improved Tranquility and Empowered Touch. Spend any remaining points in Genesis once you have Wild Growth. An example of this build is 19/0/51 .

Build #6: The Conscientious Objector

You are a delicate flower. You cringe at the idea that something should actually hit you. It might be carrying a Tree-eating parasite, after all. In any case, this build is quite similar to the Thorn Bush. You might even opt to include a point or three in Brambles as a damage shield for your adoring tanks. Should you not, your starting build would look something like 16/0/45 . You can choose to follow any one of the three approaches outlined under Build #5: The Thorn Bush above to help you decide where to spend your remaining points as you level to 79.

Final Notes

Keep in mind that these are suggested builds that you should feel free to adapt to your own preferences and playstyle. These are also recommendations from a Restoration Druid. Should you choose to pursue one of the more deeply Balance-specced builds, I can’t recommend Graylo’s articles over at Gray Matter highly enough. Read up over there, too, so you don’t look like a n00bkin.

So which (potentially modified) playstyle will you be trying out? (And don’t say “Feral” or I shall beat you about the shoulders with my branches.)

Related Posts

• Leveraging Insect Swarm as a Healer
• Balance Tree … Uprooted and Transplanted
• Shake My (Talent) Tree

Visitors have been sharing their healing experiences since the release of Patch 3.0.2. Here are just a few:

Andurial of Alleria (US) writes in:

I thought I would give you a bit of preliminary data on 3.0 raiding (with more to come after tomorrow’s BT raid). Although my guild had intended to raid yesterday, Alleria was in the toilet so that didn’t happen.  However, we did throw together a ZA tonight to check out how our numbers were doing.  I have to say, it was mightily impressive.  The place was in the bag with 24 minutes left on the bear timer though of course there is no longer any bear to be had. [My spec is] an 8/0/53 build including Wild Growth. We were running with myself and a Discipline Priest (as apparently Disc is now where it’s at for priests who can let go of their CoH teddy bear that they cling to). As it turned out he and I were neck and neck on healing through most of the instance.

Instantly, I could tell a difference in HPS with it jumping up to about 1300 instantly and going as high as 1900!. Running with a Shadow Priest and Ret Paladin, there were no mana issues at all (which was incredibly comforting) that were not solved with an Innervate during a particularly daring set of pulls going up to the Lynx boss (including pulling the entire Lynx room and boss at the same time).  Amazingly we never wiped, only lost one player to the Lynx’s cleave and Wild Growth actually came out shining.  Now, here’s the thing.  It is a fundamental change in play style.  Lifebloom which used to do between 60-70% of my healing was now down to a roughly equal 35% with Wild Growth with Wild Growth passing on some fights like the Lynx or Dragonhawk. I also was using HT a bit (with the Glyph) for some quick throughput heals while HoTs were ticking.  All in all, I’m not hyperventilating like I thought I would be, but it’s going to take some getting used to.  I’ll let you know how it goes in a 25-man real raid environment after tomorrow and Friday.

Image credit to Eggo

Metrogon commented on An Early Thanksgiving:

I ran my first raid since the patch tonight on Mount Hyjal.  Usually the druid healers (including myself) way dominate the other classes on overall (trash) healing meters.  Tonight, however, I and the other Druid were at the bottom.  At first analysis it seems that the other healing classes got a larger boost than druids from the patch.  I used to feel useful in that instance especially, but after tonight I feel like they could replace me with a Paladin of less skill and still turn out better.   Am I doomed to respec to Moonkin to become comparably useful again in a raid?  Or am I just suffering from "learn2play_again" issues and will eventually catch up to the other classes as my skills with the new spells increase?

Keeva responded to Metrogon’s concerns on An Early Thanksgiving:

I wouldn’t worry about it too much at the moment, Metrogon… post 3.0 mobs have less health, they’re hitting for less, and there’s so much mana regen flying around that our healers were just spamming constantly (not best practice, but they were like kids in a candy store and I couldn’t very well tell them to heal less). To quote one of the priests though:

“I don’t normally spam like I did last night. With the changes to CoH, the changes to PoM, the free flash heals (awesome LOL), and whenever I dispelled someone it heals them, I was just going nuts to see what my best HPS would be.”

So basically he was going nuts, spamming everything he possibly could – I think he got something like 4000hps at one point. We can’t possibly compete with that, especially on trash. I felt wholly superfluous on Hyjal trash to the point where I stood and tweaked my mods for most of it rather than wasting my time trying to squeeze any heals in. I wasn’t missed.

Understandably, it all made me feel a bit slighted. A few days ago, I was a superstar healer in my guild; last night.. I could barely get any heals in, and even rolling Lifebloom seemed to contributing very little.

I tried not to let it get to me too much though. I think that once we get into the expansion and mana becomes a little more of an issue, when other healers won’t be able to go nuts and spam constantly, things will be a little more balanced. When we go back to having actual assignments rather than “snipe heal anyone with a health deficit yay” and/or spam group heals constantly to “win” on the meters, we will be back up towards the top of the list for effective healing.

I’d like to hear YOUR stories of raiding and/or instancing. Is Wild Growth as hawt as I’ve heard? Is anyone toying with Nature’s Splendor instead? (Sadly, I have none of my own experiences to share, yet, as I only just got my UI configured this morning!)

Related Posts

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• Nourish to Benefit from Moonglow and Wild Growth HoT (and Blues)
• Speculation: Revitalize and Wild Growth

*Sniff*

I love you, too, Blizzard.

XOXO,
Phae

 

Related Posts

• Wild Growth … Grows a Pair *
• Speculation: Revitalize and Wild Growth
• Rebirth Bugged (or Nerfed)

Because I know that some readers rely on Resto4Life for their Druid news (silly people), here’s a distilled summary of the Druid-related information from BlizzCon. Most of this information comes from the Class Panels at BlizzCon and has been gathered from WoWInsider’s extensive coverage.

Dual-Specs

While not immediately available with the release of Wrath, Blizzard hopes to patch them into the game with Patch 3.1. They may feel like they have a brief reprieve because the need for two specs is generally greater at level 80 when many players engage in both competitive PvP and endgame PvE content. Unfortunately, healers would really benefit from this option, as well, since it would be nice to be able to grind solo and switch back to healing for instances.

You’ll be able to switch to your alternate spec “whenever you want,” including in raids. Your Glyphs and hotkeys will switch automatically when you do. This is wonderful news because it means you won’t have to continue buying the same Glyphs to switch them for PvP or off-spec raiding. Of course, this is bad news for Inscriptionists. Sorry, guys!

Sharing In-Combat Rez

Q: Really happy we’ll be able to do 10-man raids all the way up. But in 10-mans losing one class can hurt. What about giving another class an in-combat rez?
A: … which class specifically?
Crowd: (various classes)

Since Paladins and Shamans already have specialty forms of wipe recovery/prevention (Reincarnation and Divine Intervention), it make the most sense to me that Priests be the ones to receive an in-combat rez. Of course, Priests and Shamans are still so desirable that it would perhaps make more sense to give them to Paladins. Naturally, I prefer that we keep our Rebirth. We wouldn’t want all healers to become Big Green Blobs after all.

And to the crowd member who yelled out “Rogues” in response to who should get in combat rez … /sigh

Spirit Not Just for Mana Regeneration

For a lot of classes, Spirit isn’t mana regen anymore, it’s something people stack for the spell damage bonuses.

I don’t know if I agree with this statement. I’ll probably continue stacking Spirit for its mana regeneration benefits, just as I did in TBC. I personally view the fact that it also grants +Healing as a nice bonus! The Spirit –> Spell Power bonus does mean that staying in Tree of Life will be very important, though, which is likely intended to negatively impact Restoration PvP since Tree of Life loses the ability to Cyclone and cast Entangling Roots.

Hybrids vs. Pure Classes

Hybrid DPS has been increased as a result of the changes made to the debuffs/buffs system, and hybrids are benefitting from gear streamlining and the dual spec system. To help counter this overall increase in desirability, pure DPS classes are intended to do the “best” damage, but “player skill should enter into it as well.”

Improvements to Forms

Blizzard has been talking about Feral form improvements for a while, but it’s a “question of time.” We’ve heard before that this is an improvement that’s intended very early on after the release (and subsequent bug fixes) of Wrath. According to the “Notes from the BlizzCon 2008 Art Panel” by WoWInsider author Daniel Whitcomb:

When a questioner asked if it was possible for Feral Forms to have visible armor, the Artists seemed very enthusiastic about the idea, all but saying it’s coming. Later, when another young man asked if Druid trees could change leaf color, Chris Robinson said he’d been talking with a designer who was very much a fan of allowing more Druid form variety. So without outright saying that it is coming, it seems like the designers have revealed that it is high on the priority list.

Earlier on in the article, Daniel also wrote “The artists all but said that giving visible armor to Druid forms is in the works!” but I couldn’t find anything in the summary that lead me to believe this is the case. I personally think visible armor could have the potential to look really goofy and am more enthusiastic about other types of form customization.

Teh Pee Vee Pees!

• The Orgrimmar Arena will include moving pillars that change line of sight and DoT fire hazards, making “pillar humping” more interactive and potentially more dangerous.
• The Dalaran Arena will include a pillar of water that temporarily obscures line of sight but also performs a knockback. There are also a couple of stacks of crates that block line of sight, but they aren’t as effective as the pillars players are probably accustomed to in TBC Arenas.
• Travel Form and Ghost Wolf will work in the Dalaran Arena, but mounts will not.
• Moonkin damage output in PvP is satisfactory, but they’re taking a look at its survivability (the armor nerf certainly didn’t help).

Q: Druid PvP (boos). Resto is powerful and I want it nerfed, but I don’t want to hurt Balance or Feral. How can you fix that without killing the other two.
A: Tom: Wrath is a very different beast than the live servers. Lifebloom lost a lot of power, so you can’t rely on it. There are changes, along with the new talents, that from the beta test we’ve seen, Druids aren’t the dominant force they can be in smaller brackets today.

Did anyone ever rely on Lifebloom? Really? I couldn’t. I was generally too busy running the hell away from the 1-3 people trying to kill me!

Q: Wintergrasp. I’m a healing Druid (boos). Before you were able to group in BGs, it was hard to heal, will there be any mechanic in Wintergrasp.
A: Tom: We’ve avoided groups so far, mostly because of the AFK problem. Our grouping system won’t go above 40 players at this point either, so for the moment, it’s group on your own.

The forced grouping was great for healers in places like AB and AV. Having to request a group invitation is a huge inconvenience and it incentivizes the player to only assist those players with whom she is grouped, making healing more complicated (and therefore, less fun).

Q: Are Feral Druids going to be different from Rogues?
A: Chilton: Feral druids have been a B-spec in arenas and PvP. I don’t know if it’s a raw damage output problem. [Might be] something with loosing mana. We don’t have a clear idea of how it’s going to play out. Unfortunately we haven’t seen a lot of feral druids in the beta arenas.

For those of you unfamiliar with the mana plight of Ferals, the lack of Intellect on PvP gear is causing a great deal of concern about needing to shift forms often and not having the mana to do so. According to Ghostcrawler, “We don’t want you to worry about Intellect … It’s definitely stuff that we’re looking at.”

Miscellaneous (I.e., stuff that didn’t warrant its own subheading)

• Players will no longer be dismounted when they enter water. Rather, their mounts will swim across. It’s not clear whether Druids will be able to remain in Travel Form when entering a body of water.
• There are still no plans to allow Taunt/Growl to work in PvP. Darn! If they did, a Druid could Rocket Bear into a healer from the opposing team, interrupting their spell cast and forcing them to target her, further throwing off their rhythm.
• Wrath goals for Balance were to give them a viable form of crowd control (indoor Root) and to eliminate the OOMkin.
• The retinue of healing spells available to Druids has been expanded to include the Flash Heal-esque direct heal, Nourish, and an AoE heal, Wild Growth.
• All tanks should see an overall increase in threat generation. The intention is that the successful completion of encounters should be more about healing and moving around. So seriously. Stop standing in the fire.
• Blizzard wanted to deemphasize the use of consumables through things like the Potion Sickness and Tinnitus debuffs. This has the obvious effect of increasing players’ reliance on the new Replenishment effect provided by Shadow Priests, Survival Hunters, and Retribution Paladins.
• Blizzard doesn’t want any class to have a buff that’s so powerful that the raid is canceled if it isn’t available. See also: Chain Heal, Circle of Healing (though I suppose those aren’t technically “buffs”).
• Blizzard is considering adding customization to player animations. Perosnally, I’d love to use the /cheer emote for casting Revive.
• Omen of Clarity procs will not be made undispellable. (The ability itself is now passive and cannot be dispelled.)
• Players can complete Tiered set bonuses by mixing equivalent 10-man and 25-man armor.
• Drops of caster and melee weapons should be about equal.
• There was a re-emphasis on the idea that Druids should be just as viable as Warriors as an MT, despite their lack of tools like Shield Wall.
• Ghostcrawler is a dude.

Additional Reading

• Lumey’s wonderful, multi-part writeup on his attendance of BlizzCon (/jealous): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
• WoWInsider’s extensive BlizzCon coverage
• Joystiq’s coverage of the BlizzCon dance contest (because Druids LOVE to /dance)

Related Posts

• Blizzcon Class Panel
• Ghostcrawler Defends Druids’ Out of Combat Rez
• Bornakk: Druids Not to be "Big Green Blobs"

Over the last few weeks, Mr. Phae and I have been in the process of moving into a rental house, spending the entirety of our nights discovering just how much stuff we’ve accumulated (and no longer need/want). It’s definitely been an lesson in consumerism! We only finished moving into our new place yesterday afternoon, and I’m happy to say there’s not a box to be found anywhere … well, except that one over there in the corner, but I’m going to get to that one … some day soon. And not Blizzard “soon” (hopefully)!

The size of our new rental is more than twice that of our old apartment, but my favorite thing about it is definitely the kitchen. Here I am cooking in it last night:

Would anyone like to take a guess at what I’m fixing?

Anyway, I thought I’d give you all a heads up on why things have been so … very … quiet … around here lately. I figured a month before the expansion was a pretty good time to move. Not that its impending release in any way affected our timetable, but it was pretty convenient! Hopefully, I’ll be back to posting again regularly now that my free time isn’t filled with filling (and unfilling) boxes!

* Title shamelessly stolen from Karthis from Of Teeth and Claws.

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