If the post title seems familiar, it’s because I already wrote this post once during the WotLK beta, using the then-applicable values for +Healing, coefficients, talents, and Glyphs. A lot has changed since then (for the worse, unfortunately) so we’re due for a second look at the various direct heals in Wrath, their relative efficiency, and relative effectiveness. Today we’re going to look at the following spells:

• Regrowth without the [Glyph of Regrowth] used as a raid heal and cast on a target without Regrowth
• Regrowth with the [Glyph of Regrowth] used as a tank heal and cast on a target with Regrowth already
• Nourish used as a raid heal and cast on a target without Rejuvenation, Regrowth, or Lifebloom
• Nourish used as a tank heal and cast on a target with Rejuvenation, Regrowth, or Lifebloom
• Nourish used as a tank heal and cast on a target with Rejuvenation, Regrowth, AND Lifebloom with the 4-piece T7 set bonus
• Healing Touch
• Healing Touch with the [Glyph of Healing Touch]

Since our goal is to compare the maximized version of each of these spells, we’re going to assume the following talents have been taken:

• Regrowth: Improved Regrowth, Empowered Rejuvenation, Moonglow 
• Nourish: Tranquil Spirit, Moonglow 
• Healing Touch: Naturalist, Empowered Touch, Tranquil Spirit, Moonglow 

All spells will be assumed to have been cast in Tree of Life form, and all benefit from Gift of Nature and Master Shapeshifter.

Continue reading ‘Direct Healing in Wrath’…

Related Posts

• Method: Coefficient Testing
• 2.4 Mana Regen: Valuing +Healing
• Nordrassil Raiment and Regrowth

Kehnomar of Nordrassil (EU) wrote in with this great question:

Come WotLK, would Leatherworking or Tailoring be the better profession for healing, in your opinion? I’m currently a tailor because the Primal Mooncloth set was pretty nice for healing before getting some good raiding gear, but I’m considering changing to Leatherworking if it will be more useful in the expansion.

He actually sent me this question at the beginning of November. At the time, I wasn’t sure how to respond because I was under the belief that all of the items for Leatherworking/Tailoring hadn’t been released. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Blizzard has opted to change their policy on armor crafting so that these skills no longer produce skill-defining Bind-on-Pickup epic items like the Primal Mooncloth and Frozen Shadoweave sets of the Burning Crusade. Practically all of the armor that can be crafted with these skills is now Bind on Equip and can be bought and sold. What does this mean and, if there aren’t self-crafted sets any longer, what benefits do each tradeskill now provide to the healing Druid?

Continue reading ‘Mailbag: Leatherworking vs. Tailoring in WotLK’…

Related Posts

• Mailbag: WotLK Item List
• Pre-Raid Gear: Head, Shoulder, Chest, Hands, Legs, Feet
• Mailbag: Zul’Aman Healing Chests

In a recent Tree-mail, Treehuggur of Suramar (US) asks:

Has anyone compiled a list of green and blue level 80 gear for Resto Druids to start raiding 10s and 25s?

Paininabox of Runetotem (US) has released a spreadsheet that includes many items from Wrath, though it doesn’t include source or stat-based filtering. As such, here are some healing-oriented gear lists with descriptors. And I shall henceforth be known as "Phaelia I-Filter-WoWHead-So-You-Don’t-Have-To" or simply "Phaelia IFWSYDHT":

Items with Spell Power

• Quested: Blues | Purples 
• Reputation: Blues | Purples 
• Crafted: Blues | Purples
• 5-Man Instances (non-Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• 5-Man Instances (Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• PvE Tokens: Emblem of Heroism | Emblem of Valor
• Raids:
• Naxxramas: 10 | 25
• The Obsidian Sanctum 10 | 25
• The Eye of Eternity (size indeterminate)

Leather Armor with Spell Power

• Quested: Blues
• Reputation: Blues | Purples
• Crafted: Blues | Purples
• 5-Man Instances (non-Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• 5-Man Instances (Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• PvE Tokens: Emblem of Heroism | Emblem of Valor
• Raids:
• Naxxramas: 10 | 25
• The Obsidian Sanctum: 10 | 25

Spell Power and Spirit

• Quested: Blues
• Reputation: Blues
• Crafted: Purples | Blues
• 5-Man Instances (non-Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• 5-Man Instances (Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• PvE Tokens: Emblem of Heroism | Emblem of Valor
• Raids:
• Naxxramas: 10 | 25 
• The Obsidian Sanctum: 10 | 25
• The Eye of Eternity (size indeterminate)

Spell Power and Spell Haste

• Quested:  Greens | Blues | Purples
• Reputation: Blues | Purples
• Crafted: Blues | Purples
• 5-Man Instances (non-Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Pinnacle
• 5-Man Instances (Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• PvE Tokens: Emblem of Heroism | Emblem of Valor
• Raids:
• Naxxramas: 10 | 25
• The Obsidian Sanctum: 25

PvP: Spell Power and Resilience

• Battlegrounds: Blues | Purples
• Arenas: Leather Armor | Weapons
• Crafted: Leather Armor

While there is considerable overlap between the most desirable stats for a Restoration Druid and a Balance Druid, I invite you to read Graylo’s guest post: Balance vs. Restoration Gear.

Related Posts

• Pre-Raid Gear: Head, Shoulder, Chest, Hands, Legs, Feet
• Pre-Raid Gear: Back, Waist, Wrist, Neck, and Fingers
• Mailbag: Leatherworking vs. Tailoring in WotLK

To steal a page from Kalon's excellent FAQs for Bear and Cat, I've written a Tree FAQ. This FAQ should hopefully bring Restoration Druids up to date with all the changes to healing in Wrath without requiring them to read dozens of posts with multiple iterations of talents and abilities that may or may not be obsolete. I know there are things that I have left out or forgotten, though, so I'd really appreciate if readers could contribute their own questions — and answers, too, if you have them — in the comments. I'll sort through them all, do my best to provide answers, and add them (assuming they're appropriate, of course).

Contents

• History of Changes
• Mechanics Changes
• Spells, Talents, and Abilities
• Tradeskills
• Player vs. Player
• Miscellaneous

History of Changes

• 11/15/2008: Added “What is the best way to raise my faction with D.E.H.T.A. (Druids for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)?” under Miscellaneous.
• 11/15/2008: Added “Which of the two starter zones has the better healing-oriented quest rewards?” under Miscellaneous. Question from Flawlless.
• 11/15/2008: Added note about Cat Form + Drink + Prowl under PvP. Credit to Willowbear.

General Mechanics Changes

• WAAAAAAAHHHH!! What happened to my beautiful 2000 +Healing?!
  Blizzard combined +Healing and +Spell Damage and Healing into one stat called Spell Power. +Spell Damage and Healing converted over at a 1:1 ratio, but your +Healing was multiplied by 0.532 or roughly cut in half. The coefficients of healing spells were increased accordingly so that there should be no net loss in throughput.
  Spell Power, +Healing, and Coefficients
• If spell power affects both damage spells and healing spells, how do DPSers know to pass on my gear?
  While I can't make others pass on "your" gear, there are certain stats that are more appropriate for you, the most clear-cut of which is Spirit. Avoid anything with hit rating since there are no rolls "to hit" with healing spells. Spell crit, while still somewhat beneficial, is really just gravy for a Resto. Haste is nice, especially for builds that use a lot of direct healing, less so for builds that focus primarily on HoTs.
  Balance vs. Restoration Gear
• Were any other stats merged?
  Yes, spell hit and melee hit are now simply "hit rating." Spell and melee crit have also been merged, as well as haste.
• Am I crazy, or did the cost of my Lifebloom go up when I leveled to 71?
  Blizzard changed the mechanics of all spells so that their mana cost is measured as a percentage of base mana. This change was made to prevent downranking, a process whereby the caster used a lower level spell, often a direct heal like Healing Touch, in an effort to conserve mana.
• Why did they want to eliminate downranking?
  Essentially, developers were struggling to balance content while having to take into account the effects of downranking since the resulting mana expense was too difficult too variable.
  Wrath Recap: Downranking No Longer Possible
• What happened to my Tree aura?
  In an effort to standardize the buffs and debuffs provided by the various classes, Blizzard changed Tree of Life aura to provide a flat 6% bonus to healing done. This aura is now applied raid-wide, which means you no longer have to be assigned to the “tank group.”
• Does that mean my aura stacks?
  No. One tree is sufficient to provide the maximum +Healing aura benefit. Paladins with Improved Devotion Aura (a 3-point talent requiring an 18 point investment in the Protection tree) can also provide a 6% healing bonus, and the two do not stack with one another. This change was made with the intention to decrease the emphasis on bringing specific classes to a raid.
  Blue: Changes to Buffs and Debuffs
• So with the changes to mana regeneration, how many mana potions should I expect to carry around? 20? 40? 60?
  Blizzard introduced a Potion Sickness debuff that's applied on an encounter basis that prevents consumption of more than one health or mana potion per boss attempt. Therefore, you should plan a number of mana potions equal to the number of boss attempts you think your raid will make.
  Beta Patch Changes (Build 8681)

Spells, Talents and Abilities

• Is that my Lifebloom or did someone just use a [Heavy Mageweave Bandage]?
  Sadly, that's your Lifebloom. Lifebloom had its mana cost increased and its effective healing decreased. For more about this change, see Commentary on the Great Lifebloom Nerf (of Build 8962). Essentially, the HPS of Lifebloom took a considerable hit, but, by increasing its duration to 10 seconds via Nature's Splendor and the [Glyph of Lifebloom], its HPM is mostly unchanged.
  Koraa: We hope to tone down Lifebloom in WotLK
• What happened to my roots? I feel so much faster!
  Blizzard removed the movement penalty of Tree of Life. This should make many encounters requiring movement much easier for Restoration Druids.
• I just decursed someone in Tree of Life without being shifted out! Whoa.
  They also lifted the restriction on spells that can be cast, allowing the use of Healing Touch and Remove Curse without having to shift to caster form. Heals over time, however, are the only spells that receive a mana cost reduction. This includes Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Wild Growth, and Tranquility. It excludes Healing Touch, Nourish, Rebirth, Innervate, Abolish Poison, and Remove Curse.
• Do Druids finally get an out of combat resurrection spell or can I look forward to being rejected for 5-mans again?
  We do! Blizzard finally understood that not being able to resurrect our groupmates was an unnecessary handicap that really had no effect on game balance.
  Ghostcrawler Defends Druids’ Out of Combat Rez
• HAHAHAHA!!! WE CAN HAZ REZ!! Is there any point at all to those other healers now?
  Not at all. They should all respec for DPS and leave all the +Healing gear for us. Oh … wait.
• Hey, where’s that new Flourish skill I’ve heard so much about? I can't wait to cast it and yell, “TADA!”
  Flourish was the original name for our 51-point AoE HoT talent. It has since been renamed to Wild Growth and been nerfed considerably from its original inception.
• What?! That’s so lame!
  It is lame, but it was admittedly pretty overpowered in its original form. It was nerfed into the ground at the time it was renamed but has since been buffed back up to a more respectable amount.
  Wild Growth … Grows a Pair
• What other awesome Restoration talents can I look forward to?
  Well, in summary there’s Gift of the Earthmother, a 5-point talent that shaves a total of 0.3 seconds off the global cooldown when you cast Rejuvenation, Lifebloom or Wild Growth. This amount assumes 0 spell haste; the returns actually diminish based on how much spell haste you have. Replenish is a 3-point talent that has a 15% chance to restore a marginal amount of mana, rage, runic power, or energy for each tick of Rejuvenation. Finally, Living Seed applies a buff to the recipient of one of your critical heals. This “seed” will pop the next time the target takes damage for 30% of effective healing from the original heal that planted it. This means that if your critical heal only does 100 points of effective healing, the seed will have a healing value of 30 HP. In general, I consider the talents at the bottom of the Restoration tree to be underwhelming and overpriced.
• With all these new changes, should I plan on sinking 61 points into Restoration?
  The Balance tree also got a significant revamp, making many of the introductory talents an attractive option for healing Druids. New talents such as Genesis and Nature’s Splendor are both good options, and Balance staples Nature’s Grace and Moonglow have seen increased accessibility by being moved down a few tiers.
  Balance Tree … Uprooted and Transplanted
• Indoor roots? Really? What are we, houseplants?
  It’s true! Entangling Roots can now be cast indoors, finally giving Balance Druids the viable form of crowd control they’ve been asking for. Just remember that it’s only useful on melee mobs rooted outside of melee range or spellcasting mobs out of line of sight. And if that means we're houseplants, I totally call gardenia.
  Indoor Roots and Mark(ed) Improvements

Tradeskills

• What’s this Inscription thing all about?
  Inscription is a new production tradeskill used to create Glyphs, which are essentially items that can be used to temporarily modify (as long as you have them “equipped”) various skills and abilities. They come in two flavos: Major, which provide significant improvements to core abilities, and Minor which provide lesser improvements or aesthetic changes to abilities.
   Inscription for Druids
• So I TOTALLY dropped my very lucrative Jewelcrafting tradeskill to pick up Leatherworking for Drums ‘cause my guild leader said I had to. I am such a team player.
  Actually, Blizzard introduced a new debuff called Tinnitus that is caused every time someone in your group uses a set of drums. This prevents you from using another set of drums until the cooldown of the person who caused the debuff has expired. This change was made to prevent drum rotations because so many guilds (like yours) were requiring guild members to pick up. On the bright side, you can still make [Heavy Leather Ball]s with your new skill!

Player vs. Player

• Should I still expect to cast 5 second Wraths when being attacked by a Rogue or Cat?
  Taking damage while casting a spell will now delay your casting by a maximum of 1.0 seconds, generally in 0.5 second increments for each of the first two hits. This makes it much easier to deal with fast-hitting Rogues and Cats.
  Spell Pushback Changes
• Will tried-and-true tactics of “pillar kiting” be effective in Wrath?
  While these techniques can still be employed in three TBC Arenas (Blade’s Edge, Ruins of Lordaeron, and Nagrand Arena), two newly introduced Arenas (Dalaran Sewers and Orgrimmar Arena) will introduce obstacles and fluctuating terrain that will make the use of line of sight more complex and potentially dangerous.
  Teh Pee Vee Pees! from Blizzcon Summary
• So if I can’t pillar kite, what are my options?
  Improved Tree of Life is a 3-point talent at the bottom of the Restoration tree that affords an additional 100% armor from gear when you’re in Tree of Life. Unfortunately, Tree of Life loses access to Cyclone and Entangling Roots, two spells that can greatly reduce the need for additional armor. It also leaves you susceptible to a Warlock’s Banish. Honestly, until we see how the addition of Death Knights and their anti-HoT mechanics play out, we probably won’t have a good idea of the best way to play a Restoration Druid in Arenas.
  Death Knight Degeneration to Convert HoTs to DoTs
• Why does my Shadowmeld have a 3-minute cooldown?
  Shadowmeld was fundamentally changed so that it can be used in combat and essentially functions as a temporary aggro wipe. If you happen to be alone and enter combat with one or more mobs, using Shadowmeld causes the mobs to lose their interest in you, leashing back to their original spawn point or path. Unfortunately, this puts a real damper on the tactic of sitting to drink and using Shadowmeld. However, the same thing can be accomplished using Cat Form, sitting to drink (now available in forms), and using Prowl (credit to Willowbear).
  Night Elf is to Ninja as Tauren is to Giant, Stompy Cheeseburger
• What’s all this crap on my PvP gear? Spuh...Spee...Spirit?
  The PvP sets in Wrath have been itemized with Spirit/Intellect-based mana regeneration in mind. Gone are the gobs and gobs of MP5 you found on Restoration and Balance PvP sets in Wrath. Your Innervate will thank you. As long as you hide behind a pillar to protect it from being dispelled, of course. Unlike the Arena gear in TBC post 2.4, the presence of Spirit on PvP gear in Wrath has the side effect of it a viable choice for PvE. This is even more true if your guild typically falls behind on the PvE curve.
  Wrath Build 8820: PvP Itemization

Miscellaneous

• Eek! I have to do damage to level, don't I? Is that what these non-tree buttons are for?
  While you might be fortunate enough to have one or more sla— friends to help you level up to 80 in Wrath, why not empower yourself with a few points in Balance? There are several talents that provide synergy for both healing and DPSing, including Nature's Majesty, Moonglow, Nature's Grace, Nature's Splendor, and Lunar Guidance.
  Moonfire Spamming Your Way to 80 in Wrath
• I'm not 70, yet, and I won't have time to get Honored with Lower City to be able to run Heroic Sethekk Halls! Does this mean I'm out in the cold for Swift Flight Form?
  Not anymore. As of Patch 3.0, Druids will be able to train Swift Flight Form at level 71— of course, you still have to have trained Artisan Riding for 5,000 gold before you can! For those looking forward to the quest, it will still be available.
• I heard that Druids are getting "polar bear form" in the expansion!
  While not specifically a Resto question, Trees like to look cute, too. The original idea was to provide Minor Glyphs to change the appearance of Druid forms. However, there was much public outcry to the effect that Druids shouldn't have to sacrifice a potentially useful Glyph slot to get the character customization that everyone else gets, so they're looking into alternate solutions. Blizzard has indicated that they plan to have this customization available with the first major content patch following Wrath's release.
• Which of the two starter zones has the better healing-oriented quest rewards?
  While Howling Fjord is definitely the prettier of the two zones, Borean Tundra trounces it with regard to healing-oriented rewards. Here’s a breakdown:
  • Borean Tundra has 8 Blue, 55 Green quest rewards with spell power. Of those, 1 Blue and 12 Green items also have Spirit. 8 of the total rewards are leather, and 2 of those leather rewards have Spirit.
  • Howling Fjord has 35 Green quest rewards with spell power. Of those, 10 Green items also have Spirit. 6 of the total rewards are leather, and only 1 of those leather rewards have Spirit.
• What is the best way to raise my faction with D.E.H.T.A. (Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals)?
  Unfortunately, D.E.H.T.A. isn’t actually a faction so much as a quest hub in Borean Tundra. The quests they give are essentially disruptions to Hemet Nesingwary’s efforts to exploit the fauna of Northrend. Caution should be taken not to aggro the wildlife when traveling through Borean Tundra because killing animals such as the Wooly Mammoth will result in a debuff that makes D.E.H.T.A. members temporarily aggressive towards you. Time to map that Soothe Animal ability!

  As a side note, completing the D.E.H.T.A. quests is worth around 4,000 reputation with the TBC faction, Cenarion Expedition, making the acquisition of the "Guardian of Cenarius" title (available at Exalted with both Cenarion Circle and Cenarion Expedition) that much easier.

Related Posts

• Spell Power, +Healing, and Coefficients
• Guest Post: Balance vs. Restoration Gear
• Guest Post: Moonkin Mana Regeneration

A new version of the Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad was released at end-of-year, 2007. With the impending release of Wrath of the Lich King and the new abilities it introduces, I thought now would be a good time to rewrite my previous article to update it for the new software bundle and improvements I’ve found in the planning process for key bindings.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Nostromo SpeedPad, it’s a computer peripheral that rests under your left hand and mimics the key commands of the keyboard. The keys themselves are laid out as follows:

• 14 keys in 3 rows (the last of which only has 4 keys)
• A rectangular thumb button
• A circular thumb button
• A clickable scroll wheel
• An analog directional pad

The 14 base keys are where you map your primary abilities. The four fingers of your left hand rest on the middle row of keys (6-9), and there’s a home row marker on key 8 so that you can quickly find your hand position without having to look at the pad. The Nostromo SpeedPad works by mimicking key presses from your keyboard. So your first step is to configure your gamepad so that each of its keys corresponds to a key on your keyboard.

What You Will Need:

• Bartender4 (via Curse.com)
• Belkin Nostromo N52 TE (via Amazon.com)
• Paper and pencil

Quick Links

• Configuring the Nostromo N52te
• Laying out Action Bars with Bartender4
• Key Binding with Bartender4
• Pagination with Bartender4
• Planning Your Macros
• Sample Role-Based Layouts
• Key Binding Character and Camera Movement
• Key Binding Shapeshifts
• Macro Help: Mouseover Healing
• Macro Help: Heal Self
• Macro Help: Form-Specific Abilities

Configuring the Nostromo N52te

Install the drivers and software that came with the Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad. If prompted to restart your computer, be sure to do so. Now we’ll want to map the keys on your Nostromo to keys on your keyboard. I have my keys mapped in the following way:

You can, of course, map your keys however you want, but avoid using keys that are bound to common interface functions you’ve grown accustomed to using (such as C for the Character screen). I’ve bound my thumb key to ALT since that’s the “alternate” key I like to use in my macros (since it has the fewest number of characters) and my red thumb button to "jump" for interrupting spells or just hopping around to annoy people. Note that in my configuration, I use F1-F4 for shapeshifting, but I’ve never used the keys to target group members as is the default configuration.

Laying out Action Bars with Bartender4

By default, Bartender starts with several bars enabled and displayed in the center of your screen. We’ll want to start by hiding all but two of these. To do this:

1. Open the Bartender4 configuration by typing /bt.
2. Click on Bar 3 in the lefthand pane.
3. Uncheck the Enabled checkbox to hide this bar.
4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for bars 4-10 if necessary.

Because each action bar within Bartender4 is limited to only 12 keys, we’ll have to use two bars to simulate the key layout of our Nostromo.* We’ll set up the first bar as 5 columns by 2 rows and place a second bar below it that’s 1 column by 3 rows so that it looks like this:

* Note: There are multiple configurations that can work, but this layout is one that will give you the most flexibility when it comes to activating automatic paging based on shapeshifts.

To configure bars 1 and 2 to resemble the layout shown above:

1. Open the Bartender4 configuration by typing /bt.
2. Uncheck the Lock checkbox at the top of the dialog box.
3. Click on Bar 1 in the lefthand pane.
4. Set the Buttons slider to 10.
5. Set the Rows slider to 2.
6. Click and drag Bar 1 into position, leaving enough room to position a second bar beneath it.
7. Click on Bar 2 in the lefthand pane.
8. Set the Buttons slider to 5.
9. Set the Rows slider to 1.
10. Click and drag Bar 2 into position beneath Bar 1.
11. Check the Lock checkbox at the top of the dialog box.
12. Optional: Check the Button Grid option for Bar 1 and Bar 2 so that you can easily see which buttons are unfilled.
13. Close the Bartender4 configuration by clicking on the Close button.

Key Binding with Bartender4

Now that our action bars resemble the key layout above, we can bind the keys of our Nostromo to their corresponding action bar buttons within Bartender4. To do so:

1. Type in /kb. This will put you into Key Binding Mode.
2. Mouseover each key on your action bars and press the key on your Nostromo you want to associate with it. For the sake of symmetry, I like to bind the fifth button on Bar 2 to a key on the side of my mouse. I generally map this key to emergency ability such as Barkskin.
3. Exit Key Binding Mode by clicking the OK button.

Pagination with Bartender4

Druids have many abilities that are form-specific, making stance-specific pagination (automatic bar swapping when you shapeshift) especially helpful. I recommend paginating your action bars as follows:

1. Open the Bartender4 configuration by typing /bt.
2. Click on Bar 1 in the lefhand pane.
3. Click on the State Configuration tab in the righthand pane.
4. Ensure the Enabled checkbox is checked.
5. Under Bear Form, set the paging dropdown to Page 3.
6. Under Cat Form and Cat Form Prowl, set the paging dropdown to Page 5.
7. Under Tree of Life and Moonkin Form, set the paging dropdown to Don’t Page.
8. Click on Bar 2 in the lefthand pane.
9. Click on the State Configuration tab in the righthand pane.
10. Ensure the Enabled checkbox is checked.
11. Under Bear Form, set the paging dropdown to Page 4.
12. Under Cat Form and Cat Form Prowl, set the paging dropdown to Page 6.
13. Under Tree of Life and Moonkin Form, set the paging dropdown to Don’t Page.
14. Close the Bartender4 configuration by clicking on the Close button.

Planning Your Macros

Since your default action bars will be those available to you when in caster form, you’ll want to map all those abilities you want to have easily accessible to buttons 1-14. Note that how you lay them out will probably depend upon the spec you play primarily. A Restoration Druid will probably reserve her home row of keys (6-10) for healing spells while a Moonkin will probably use those keys for her Balance spells. Because we’re limited to only 14 keys for the spells and abilities that are available from caster form, we’ll want to create macros that “pair” abilities based on the use of an alternate key such as Shift, Ctrl, or Alt (whichever key you’ve bound to the thumb key under Configuring the Nostromo SpeedPad). To do this in an intuitive way, I like to categorize my spells and abilities based on what function they perform and what they require:

Healing	Spell DPS
Direct Heal: Nourish, Healing Touch, Regrowth Heals over Time: Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Regrowth Area of Effect: Flourish, Tranquility Decursing: Remove Curse, Abolish Poison Emergency: Swiftmend, Nature’s Swiftness Shapeshifting: Tree of Life	Direct Damage: Wrath, Starfire Damage over Time: Insect Swarm, Moonfire Area of Effect: Hurricane, Typhoon, Starfall Crowd Control: Entangling Roots, Nature’s Grasp, Cyclone, Hibernate Debuffing: Faerie Fire, Insect Swarm Additional Utility: Force of Nature Shapeshifting: Moonkin Form
Melee DPS (Cat Form)	Tanking (Bear Form)
DD, CP Builder: Claw, Mangle, Shred* DD, Opener: Ravage* DD, Finisher: Ferocious Bite, Maim (stuns) DoT, Opener: Pounce (stuns)* DoT, Finisher: Rip Buff: Tiger’s Fury Buff, Finisher: Savage Roar Debuffing: Mangle, Feral Faerie Fire Utility: Prowl, Dash, Cower, Feral Charge Shapeshifting: Cat Form	Direct Damage: Maul, Mangle Damage over Time: Lacerate Area of Effect: Swipe Emergency: Frenzied Regeneration, Bash Debuffing: Mangle, Demoralizing Roar, Feral Faerie Fire Taunts: Growl, Challenging Roar Shapeshifting: Dire Bear Form
* Must be behind the target
Miscellaneous
Buffing: Mark of the Wild, Gift of the Wild, Thorns Protection: Barkskin, Shadowmeld Resurrection: Rebirth, Revive Additional Utility: Innervate, Teleport: Moonglade, Soothe Animal Shapeshifting: Travel Form, Cheetah Form

I will often create a macro that combines two skills within the same category, with the less frequently used (or sometimes the one that feels more powerful) version set up as the alternate ability of the more commonly used one. Such a macro looks like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:alt] Ability2; Ability1

The above macro will activate Ability1 by default and Ability2 when pressed and the alt key is held down. The #showtooltip line will automatically display the appropriate tooltip for the ability that will be activated (and icon if you chose the icon when creating the macro). Example pairings that I like to use include:

Default Action	+Alt Action
Innervate Self	Innervate Target
Entangling Roots	Nature’s Grasp
Abolish Poison	Remove Curse
Wild Growth	Tranquility
Rejuvenation	Swiftmend
Nourish	Healing Touch
Mark of the Wild	Gift of the Wild
Wrath	Starfire
Moonfire	Starfall
Hurricane	Typhoon
Insect Swarm	Faerie Fire

Obviously, many of the above pairings are spec-dependent since a Restoration Druid won’t have access to Starfall, Typhoon, or Insect Swarm (in which case, she might instead pair Moonfire with Faerie Fire), and a Balance Druid won’t have access to Wild Growth, Swiftmend, or Nature’s Swiftness. Ferals tend to have fewer abilities available to them within a given form, so it isn’t as important to pair them up like this. However, by doing so, a Feral frees herself to keybind abilities that will shift her out of form when necessary. It can be helpful while soloing to have heals readily accessible, especially when you have “heal self by default” enabled. (Note, however, that a Bear might not want to risk accidentally popping out while tanking.) These are just to give you some ideas of how you might choose to set up paired abilities.

Sample Role-Based Layouts

Caster Form

Caster (Basic) Caster (Alternate)

Row Column Base Ability + ALT   1 1 Innervate Self Innervate Target   1 2 Entangling Roots Nature’s Grasp   1 3 Cyclone Hibernate   1 4 Remove Curse Abolish Poison   1 5 Shapeshift: Tree of Life /cancelform   2 1 Lifebloom Activate Trinket   2 2 Rejuvenation Swiftmend   2 3 Regrowth Nourish *   2 4 Wild Growth Tranquility   2 5 Healing Touch NS + Healing Touch   3 1 Moonfire Faerie Fire   3 2 Wrath Starfire   3 3 Hurricane     3 4 Mark of the Wild Gift of the Wild   3 5 Barkskin Shadowmeld

Cat Form

This layout assumes level 75+ for Savage Roar and Maim (but was created on my level 62 Feral Druid, hence the icons):

Cat (Basic) Cat (Alternate)

Row Column Base Ability + ALT   1 1 Prowl     1 2 Tiger’s Fury     1 3 Cower Nature’s Grasp   1 4 Feral Charge – Cat Dash   1 5 Shapeshift: Dire Bear Form /cancelform   2 1 Ravage   2 2 Rake     2 3 Mangle – Cat     2 4 Shred     2 5 Rip     3 1 Feral Faerie Fire     3 2 Savage Roar     3 3 Maim (nostealth)*, Pounce (stealth)   3 4 Regrowth Self Rejuvenation Self   3 5 Barkskin Survival Instincts

Bear Form

I tried to match abilities between Cat Form and Dire Bear Form to make the learning curve between the two a little less steep. For example, the Bear Form stun, Bash, is mapped to the same key as Pounce/Maim for Cat Form, and Barkskin/Survival Instinct remains the same. This layout assumes level 51+ for Berserk (but was created on my level 62 Feral Druid, hence the icons):

Bear (Basic) Bear (Alternate)

Row Column Base Ability + ALT   1 1 Growl Challenging Roar   1 2 Enrage     1 3 Frenzied Regeneration Nature’s Grasp   1 4 Feral Charge – Bear     1 5 Shapeshift: Cat Form /cancelform   2 1 Maul     2 2 Swipe     2 3 Mangle – Bear     2 4 Berserk     2 5 —     3 1 Feral Faerie Fire     3 2 Demoralizing Roar     3 3 Bash     3 4 Regrowth Self Rejuvenation Self   3 5 Barkskin Survival Instincts

And to help you plan your own custom layout(s), I’ve created a printable template in Acrobat Reader.

Key Binding Character and Camera Movement

Movement — including strafing — is important in many PvE encounters and especially in PvP content. To facilitate this, I keybind my Nostromo like this:

• Analog Down: down arrow key, back up
• Analog Right: F2, strafe right
• Analog Left: F3, strafe left
• Analog Up: up arrow key, move forward
• Round Thumb button: spacebar, jump

Then I use the in-game key bindings (Escape> Key Bindings > Movement Keys) menu to bind F2 and F3 to strafing.

Note: you may find the analog directional pad to have a non-intuitive orientation (where the up/forward key feels like it should instead be right/strafe right). If this is the case, feel free to shift your directional bindings clockwise one position.

To maneuver the camera, I hold down the right mouse button, and to turn without strafing, I hold down the right and left mouse buttons and move the mouse left or right.

Key Binding Shapeshifts

Even pairing up abilities as described above, you may find yourself short on space when it comes to being able to map your different forms. Over time, I’ve settled on using the scroll wheel for shapeshifting. I use "scroll down" for Dire Bear Form and "scroll up" for Cat Form. I then reserve key 5 for my spec-specific form — either Tree of Life or Moonkin Form. This macro won’t shift you out of the specified form unless you hold down ALT:

#showtooltip Tree of Life
/cast [nomod,nostance:5] Tree of Life
/cancelform [mod:alt]

Because my bars are set up to switch to another page when I’m in a Feral form, I use key 5 to switch between the two forms. In other words, if I shapeshift into Dire Bear Form, key 5 is set up to let me switch into Cat Form and will shift me back into Bear if I’m in Cat Form. The Bear to Cat version of this macro looks like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,stance:1] Cat Form;
/cancelform [mod:alt]

And the Cat to Bear version of this macro looks like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,stance:3] Dire Bear Form;
/cancelform [mod:alt]

Macro Help: Mouseover Healing

Mouseover techniques are worth mentioning here because of their potential when paired with a gamepad like the Nostromo SpeedPad. By setting all of your heals (and decurses) up as mouseover macros, you can heal raidmates and groupmates by simply sliding your mouse over their unitframe and pressing the corresponding key on your gamepad, all without ever having to click to target. This is a particularly great technique when paired with the Grid addon and is often used in lieu of a mouse-based healing addon like Clique. I personally prefer this technique to Clique-based healing as the number of our heals increase. This also gives you increased visual feedback on what heal you’ve selected rather than requiring you to memorize which of the 5+ buttons on your mouse perform which function. A simple mouseover healing macro looks like this:

/cast [target=mouseover] Rejuvenation

And when we pair it with an alternate ability, it will look like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:alt, target=mouseover] Swiftmend; [target=mouseover] Rejuvenation

If we want to get really fancy (and we do), we can build a macro like this:

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

The above macro will do the following:

1. If ALT is not pressed and the target under your mouse is one you can help, it will cast Rejuvenation on her.
2. If ALT is not pressed and the target under your mouse is one you cannot help but your current target is one you can, it will cast Rejuvenation on your current target.
3. If ALT is not pressed and both the target under your mouse and your current target are ones you cannot help, it will cast Rejuvenation on you. (This is particularly helpful for healing on the run via insta-cast HoTs in PvP!)
4. If ALT is pressed and the target under your mouse is one you can help, it will cast Swiftmend on her.
5. If ALT is pressed and the target under your mouse is one you cannot help but your current target is one you can, it will cast Swiftmend on your current target.
6. If ALT is pressed and both the target under your mouse and your current target are ones you cannot help, it will cast Swiftmend on you.

It’s a long macro, so it helps to cut-and-paste into notepad, make modifications for applicable spells, then paste it into the macro creation window. You can do something similar for other paired heals like Wild Growth and Tranquility or for Remove Curse and Abolish Poison.

Note: While you could opt to use the interface option for “Heal Self by Default”, this option won’t attempt to heal you should you have someone harmful targeted. The above parameters are necessary to achieve the PvP-friendly behavior described above.

Macro Help: Heal Self

A Feral or Balance Druid might find these macros useful, whether for soloing or PvPing. They’ll shift you out and cast the heal spell on yourself:

#showtooltip
/cast [target=player] Rejuvenation

Macro Help: Form-Specific Abilities

Because Druids have so many form-specific abilities, it’s easy to run out of character-specific macro slots. Save on macro space by building one macro that performs an action based on your current form then map that macro to the same position in either form! For example:

#showtooltip
/cast [stance:3] Feral Charge – Cat
/cast [stance:1] Feral Charge – Bear

You might be wondering why you would want to make such a simple macro when you could just as easily drag the two different abilities to your paginated action bar, but you can add alternate abilities onto this macro like so:

#showtooltip
/cast [stance:3,mod:alt] Dash; [stance:3] Feral Charge – Cat
/cast [stance:1] Feral Charge – Bear

I like to call the above macro my "Go!" macro. For your reference, the Druid forms/stances are:

1. Bear / Dire Bear
2. Aquatic Form
3. Cat
4. Cheetah
5. Tree of Life/Moonkin

Related Posts

• Hibernating via Focus Target
• Macros for Reagent-Driven Spells
• Heal Self by Default