Well, actually that honor likely goes to the 10-hour match between Jbangalanga, Weaslelawd, Spiked and Deunan, but this story from Ermengol of Shadowsong (EU) was too fun not to share:

I was the other day in a 2v2 Arena Druids against Druids when, because of some terrible healing of mine, my mate died. I was all alone saying “we’re done,” “sorry,” etc., when I realized their DPS was so low they couldn’t surpass my heals. They tried everything (one time they waited for full mana and spammed Moonfire, another one the Resto went cat, etc.), but they just couldn’t. I even went Tree of Life a few times to save mana (/dance included). Hilarious!

How did “we” win? Balance went AFK, Resto got disconnected… and the rest is history. Probably longest arena ever.

Was it worth it? Yeah! Not because of the rating (that’s for sure), but the picture!

Congratulations, Ermengol!

Related Posts

• Arena Class Breakdown Statistics
• Peesontrees’ Resto Arena Guide
• Arena 2 Class Set

Many players often feel pressured to spec one way or another. While the people doing the pressuring may sometimes make valid observations, more often it seems that they are doing so because they have read that one build or another is considered “optimal.” A friendly visitor (name withheld by request) finds herself in this situation right now. She writes in:

I keep feeling pressure (whether intended or not) to respec full Resto. Would you Armory me and look at my talents? I’m thinking I lose more than I gain by going full Tree… I have two of the 21 point Balance talents and Swiftmend.

Can I be just as good a PVE healer at 26/0/35 or is Tree Form necessary?

You can absolutely be a great PvE healer with this build! After all, a good healer doesn’t rely upon her talent spec or her gear. You can get some great efficiency increases from some of the talents further down in the Restoration tree, but the basic concepts remain the same. The spec you’ve chosen is very similar to one of my favorite specs, and it’s the one that I used when I first started doing Heroic instances. At that point in my progression, my +Healing value was too low for Lifebloom and Rejuvenation to deliver the HPS necessary for Heroic trash that hits like a Hurtful Strike. By instead focusing talents on improving Healing Touch, you’ll be able to deliver faster, less expensive, and more powerful versions of our high HPS heal, Healing Touch, a spell which isn’t even accessible to the Tree of Life. Of course, at 1200 +Healing, you have the flexibility to go either way.

The Moonglow (9% mana reduction on Healing Touch, Rejuvenation, and Regrowth)/Lunar Guidance (+25% Intellect to +Healing) build actually simulates a weaker form of Tree of Life, with the following differences:

• It’s available all the time and can be used in situations where you need to remain mobile.
• You retain access to Abolish Poison, Remove Curse, and Healing Touch (in addition to being able to buff).
• Encourages you to stack Intellect rather than Spirit. When you’re just starting out, a little bit of Spirit will go less far than the same amount of Intellect. Spirit becomes more viable the higher its stacked.

Prior to the 2.3 change to spell damage, this sort of build would be one of the few ways to retain soloability and still do well as a healer. Of course, both a pure Restoration build and a build like this one will be getting stronger after 2.3, so don’t be shy about speccing more deeply Restoration if you decide that’s what you want! Overall I think you’ve done an excellent job selecting your talents. I would, however, encourage you to consider moving 5 more points into Tranquil Spirit for the 10% mana reduction on Healing Touch as you likely employ it a great deal. If you can learn to live without it and often team with great tanks, you might be able to rescue your points from Nature’s Focus (interrupt prevention) for just such a purpose.

The bottom line is, stick to your guns. If you feel comfortable healing in the spec you’ve chosen and don’t often find yourself wishing “oh, but if only I had XYZ” then no amount of coaxing by your guildmates should convince you to the contrary. From what I can see, you’ve got everything that’s really important to help you heal well, including Swiftmend and Nature’s Swiftness. And we can all Lifebloom stack, specced for it or not.

P.S. For those wondering why I eventually changed my spec from one based on Moonglow/Lunar Guidance, I had to for PvP. Unfortunately, there is less flexibility in such an environment.

Related Posts

• Talent Spec: Leveling Restoration/Balance
• Shake My (Talent) Tree
• Mailbag: Tree of Life Usage in Heroics

Visitors sometimes e-mail me with specific questions related to Druids. Last night I was lucky enough to get two e-mails with some great questions that I thought I might share. Please feel free to comment with any additional information you think might be helpful!

Bigtoy of Cho’gal asks:

Does the Tier 5 two piece (+6 seconds to Regrowth) fundamentally change the efficiency of Regrowth or not? 27 seconds of ticking is a lot, but is it enough?

Adding two additional ticks to Regrowth will increase the base amount healed by its HoT portion by 2/7 (7 ticks to start off, and we’re adding 2 more). That’s a 29% improvement to the heal over time portion. To calculate the change to efficiency (measured in HPM), we divide the improvement to the amount healed divided by the unchanged mana cost. Since the mana cost is unchanged, it’s simply 29%*. Depending on how often you use Regrowth (and assuming you use it more than for just Swiftmend which is, by the way, unaffected by this set bonus), this might be considered a pretty nice bonus. On the other hand, Regrowth is an expensive spell — albeit less so in Tree of Life. While this is by no means a terrible bonus, it’s important to keep in perspective how often you’re casting Regrowth and whether you’re getting its full value (additional HPS padding on a tank along with a long-running Swiftmend catalyst, for instance).

* Note: As Vacamuerta points out in the comments, the total efficiency change for Regrowth will actually be lower than 29% since the above calculation does not take into consideration the direct heal (which is unaffected by the set bonus). Determining the efficiency change by factoring in both portions of the spell, she finds that the efficiency change is only 14.5%. Thank you for pointing this out and finding the value for us, Vaca! (dead cow?)

Someshta of Frostmane asks a question that’s probably on several people’s minds:

I was also curious whether or not you thought I should spend my honor on the Veteran’s Kodohide Boots, Belt, and Bracers, even though the Vindicator’s stuff is coming out soon. I can’t actually use them until 70, but if I decide to get them then I want to stop at 69 to Honor farm.

Blizzard has stated in the past that they will always give a 2-week notice before beginning a new season. If you find that you’re going to cap out on honor (you can carry no more than 75k each season), I’d buy the boots (my favorite choice). Otherwise, go ahead and save your points. Even if Season 3 isn’t released at the same time as Patch 2.3, it can’t be too far behind since the sets are already viewable on the PTR!

Thanks to both of you for the questions! And on another note, Dan O’Halloran, one of the authors of the Shifting Perspectives column over at WoWInsider and the author of the One Druid, Many Worlds blog was gracious enough to mention Resto4Life in his most recent blog article, “Druid Blogs You Should Be Reading”. The site was fortunate enough to be featured alongside several other of my favorites, including … well, they’re actually all among my favorites so be sure to check them out! And thank you, Dan! The added exposure for my new URL is greatly appreciated!

Related Posts

• Nordrassil Raiment and Regrowth
• Arena 2 Class Set
• Armor Values on PvP Gear