Prior to Patch 2.4, Druids were best served by switching to a high Spirit weapon during Innervate, the idea being to boost Spirit-based mana regeneration as much as possible during that 20 second period (the [Bangle of Endless Blessings] was recommended for the same reason). Now that Intellect and Spirit both affect mana regeneration, however, Innervate frequently returns more mana than we have. In this case, use of the Bangle becomes overkill, and a high-Intellect weapon is preferable since it temporarily increases the size of our mana pool. Of course, which group you fall into depends on your current balance of stats, and you can use the Mana Regeneration Calculator to easily determine which option you should pursue: Bangle + High Spirit Weapon or No Bangle + High Intellect Weapon. For the sake of completeness, let’s look at both options.

Spirit-Based Swap

Under this strategy, you’re trying to temporarily boost your Spirit during Innervate so that your regeneration rate increases, bringing the amount of mana returned closer to your total mana pool. If you’re just starting out in your healing kit, you’ll probably end up in this group. The [Bangle of Endless Blessings] is among the best mana regeneration trinkets available to you due to it’s use granting an additional 140 Spirit for 20 seconds. Here are a few of the high Spirit weapons available at your likely level of progression:

• [Staff of the Ashtongue Deathsworn]: quest reward from Akama’s Promise in Shadowmoon Valley
• [Ameer's Judgement]: Quest reward from Nexus-King Salhadaar in Netherstorm
• [Ironstaff of Regeneration]: drops from Exarch Maladaar of Auchenai Crypts
• [Serpentcrest Life-Staff]: drops from Mekgineer Steamrigger of Steamvault.
• [Staff of Divine Infusion]: world drop, easily purchasable for around 50g on the Auction House
• [Nightstaff of the Everliving]: drops from Nightbane in Karazhan
• [Rod of the Blazing Light]: drops from Vexallus in Heroic Magister’s Terrace; 3 gem slots
• [Ethereum Life-Staff]: drops from High Astromancer Solarian in Tempest Keep; more than likely overkill at this level of gear
• [Dathrohand's Ceremonial Hammer]: Drops from Captain Skarloc in Heroic Old Hillsbrad. While the spirit on this item is lower than on the staves listed above, it frees your offhand for a [Draenei Crystal Rod of Spirit], a level 70 green item that has 32 additional Spirit.

Whether you choose a 1-hander or 2-hander, have it enchanted with [Mighty Spirit] and fill any available gem slots with [Sparkling Star of Elune]. Assuming you have the [Bangle of Endless Blessings], equip it before any fight where you think you might be pressed for mana. Including a weapon swap, your Innervate macro should look something like this:

/use Bangle of Endless Blessings
/cast [target=player] Innervate
/equip [High Spirit Weapon]
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

Note: A more convenient option for Spirit-based weapon swaps is the use of the now out-of-date Evocation2 addon. It will swap to your highest Spirit-based weapon or mainhand/offhand combination while you’re under the effects of Innervate then swap back once the effect expires.

To give yourself the option to share your Innervate with another player without using the Bangle or swapping your weapon, you can add a required modifier. Your macro would then look something like this:

/use [nomodifier] Bangle of Endless Blessings
/cast [modifier:ctrl] Innervate; [target=player] Innervate
/equip [nomodifier] <High Spirit Weapon>
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

Assuming you don’t use an addon like Evocation2, you’ll also want to map your regular weapon or weapon and offhand to a separate key so that you can swap back once Innervate elapses. To determine how much additional mana you’ll gain from the above swap, check the Mana Return from Innervate field on the Mana Regen Calculator at your current values then again at the value of Spirit you’ll have once you’ve made the swap (be sure to include the effects of Living Spirit, if applicable).

Intellect-Based Swap

Under this strategy, you’re trying to temporarily boost the size of your mana pool to eke out as much mana as possible from your Innervate (note, however, that Intellect will also boost your rate of regeneration). It works differently than the Spirit-based swap since it isn’t necessary to have the Intellect weapon equipped during the effects of Innervate but between the time where your mana begins to approach full until you’ve spent all the additional mana gained. You can opt to tie a weapon swap to your Innervate macro or — to maximize efficiency — you can micro-manage the weapon swap yourself by performing the swap near the point where Innervate is about to completely fill your mana bar and keeping an eye on when it will be "safe" to switch back. The addon CasterWeaponSwapper can assist with this as it has a setting for "high mana" swapping.

There are a ton of high Intellect weapons available post-Karazhan (where you’re more likely to be needing an Intellect-based swap) so I won’t list them here. Instead, I’ve created a set of filters through WoWHead to generate a list of weapons to consider:

• High Intellect weapons

Whether you choose a 1-hander or 2-hander, have it enchanted with [Major Intellect] and fill any available gem slots with [Brilliant Dawnstone] or [Brilliant Lionseye]. If you opt to swap your weapon on the use of Innervate, your macro might look something like this:

/cast [target=player] Innervate
/equip <High Intellect Weapon>

To determine how much additional mana you should expect to get from performing an Intellect-based weapon swap, find the amount you expect your Intellect to increase by when you change weapons and multiply it by 15. So, for instance, if I were to swap from the [Ethereum Life-Staff] with 44 Intellect to a full-gemmed and enchanted [Staff of Dark Mending], I could expect an additional 57 Intellect or 855 Mana.

Related Posts

• Getting More out of Innervate
• 2.4 Mana Regen: The Mana Regen Calculator
• Revaluing Spirit

Jiryn of Gorefiend (US) posted to the Wrath of the Lich King forums, requesting once again that Druids be considered for the addition of an out of combat resurrection spell:

In Wrath of the Lich King please give Druids something they’ve needed for quite a while. A Non-cooldown res, much like a Priest, Shaman or Paladin resurrection. This would be a second rez of theirs to use at the end of fights or after wipes when they have been Soulstoned. We’ve waited long enough; give us the FULL healing potential we were supposed to [have]!

  The post was blue-tagged with this (disheartening) response from Bornakk:

Then after this it would probably be Mortal Strike that’s needed, right? We understand there are many spells and abilities that other classes have that would make things easier for players, but we also need to be careful in morphing all classes into one big green blob that all have the same skills. Right now having an awesome ability like Battle Resurrection sets Druids apart from the regular ressing classes.

And before anybody asks, we are working on the new talents and spells for each class but we don’t have any details to provide on them at this time.

Because clearly, Mortal Strike is an ability commonly associated with the healing role. That’s just silly. Shamans have wipe recovery in the form of Reincarnate, Paladins have wipe recovery in the form of Divine Intervention (well, assuming they’re grouped with someone that can also rez). Both of these abilities are in addition to having access to a standard resurrection spell. Bornakk goes on to follow up on his original comment with the following:

I was just pointing out that instead of the normal out-of-combat res that other classes have, Druids have a much more unique and special ability. I understand that having more out-of-combat res abilities on more classes would make wipe recovery easier, but we want to be careful in not having abilities given out to every class and make them less unique.

If you are in a 5-person dungeon and the Druid is the only healer, while you don’t have wipe recovery (cables and Soulstones aside), you can organize your group and approach each of the pulls with this in mind and be more cautious to avoid the wipes. It make take a wipe or two to straighten things out, but adapting to the situation can make things run a lot smoother.

So essentially, Druids (and the people who decide to group with them) just have to be better at the game than other healers and their groupmates. I’m glad someone is telling me this now! Rather than go off on a another gigormous rant on this subject, I’d like to share one of my favorite responses:

Where are people getting off on the idea that an OOC rez is unique and giving one to druids would remove the ability’s/class’s uniqueness? Re: the ability–three classes have it. Unique = three identical abilities across three classes but no more? Re: the class–we are unique in that we are the only class that can main heal yet cannot rez the party after a messy pull/boss fight. That is, we are uniquely disadvantaged.

…

I would like to remind Blizzard that not everyone gets to run in guild groups where mistakes never happen and everyone is a machine. Things crop up in real groups. Kids get chased off their computers by mom. Connections are subject to hiccups, lag spikes, and bottoming out entirely. Sometimes you just have to put out that grease fire on the stove. We get punished for not only being in groups with horribad players, but for little unpredictable occurrences that any other healer can make up for once the damage is done. At one point, a long time ago that is now a hazy druid memory, I could understand this; few instances had stealth-spotting mobs, and druids were rarely main healers. This is not the case anymore. Please, let the game change with the times. We are not asking for an ability that makes any other healer unique; we are asking for an ability that every other healer has.

— Alice of Kirin Tor

Related Posts

• Bornakk: Druids Not to be "Big Green Blobs"
• Rebirth Bugged (or Nerfed)
• Vaneras: Standard Rez Unlikely

From the Patch Notes for 2.4.2, a “Bug Fix” will be applied to the Restoration PvP talent, Natural Perfection:

Druid Talent (Restoration) - Natural Perfection will no longer proc by normal melee attacks.

What this may mean is that the 3-point talent will no longer proc from those melee attacks that would have otherwise been critical hits if not for the Druid’s Resilience rating. Interestingly, no such change is being made to the similar Priest talents, Blessed Resilience or Focused Will. Obviously, what’s good for one should be good for the other, and if they really are nerfing this ability (and it is a nerf, regardless of being classified as a bug fix), the same should apply to both classes.

Related Posts

• Patch 2.4.2: Natural Perfection "Fixed"
• Natural Imperfection vs. Blessed Resilience
• Natural Perfection Revamped

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

• Debuffing Your Focus Target
• Leveraging Insect Swarm as a Healer
• Healing via Focus Target

I don’t respec very often, mostly because I’m cheap. In fact, since they applied the patch that caused the price of talent respecs to fall 5 gold a month to a minimum of 15g, I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than 15g to change my build. I’ve put up with some really … not very good talents in the past because I didn’t want to shell out another 20g to fix myself (a practice which I can’t in good conscience advocate — be a responsible respeccer!). Llanion of Mooonfire recently wrote a post entitled, "Fourteen Points about my New Talent Build" which helped inspire me to cast Teleport: Moonglade and select the build that I’ll want to have in 2.4 (which, by all accounts, is coming "soon"). At the risk of being a Copy-Conifer, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you about some of the highlights from my new build:

Restoration

• Improved Mark of the Wild 5/5: A waste of 5 points in my opinion, but I have no need for Furor right now. WTB Subtlety at Tier 1 of the Restoration tree!
• Improved Regrowth 5/5: This talent is pretty much the reason for my whole respec. Since I have the strong suspicion that the reduced-cost Regrowth will be a new bread-and-butter spell in my healing retinue, I needed its additional 50% crit chance.
• Empowered Rejuvenation 3/3: This talent being changed to affect the final bloom of Lifebloom helps to offset — but not completely compensate for — the nerf to Lifebloom’s bloom coefficient in 2.4.
• Because Regrowth is becoming so much more viable, I dropped all the talents related to Healing Touch and picked up all those related to HoTs instead. This freed up a number of points I could sink into the Balance tree for killing things that attack me while fishing.
• Living Spirit 3/3: My Spirit is pretty abysmal, but I would hate to think of how much worse it would be without this talent!
• Tree of Life: ZA gear is UGLY. Tree Form helps compensate for that. Oh, and the mana reduction is nice, too.
• Improved Tranquility: I included this 2-point talent in my previous build. I think I used Tranquility once in that time period. Depending on how much time I spend in the new 5-man instance, I may consider picking this up again, though.

Balance

• Brambles 3/3: I needed more points in Balance to get down to Vengeance. As I consider Brambles to be a raiding talent, this was an obvious choice. I hate having it, though, as it makes me feel extra guilty when I don’t maintain the 10-minute buff on tanks (more about the value of Thorns). Paladins got their base blessings bumped up to 30 minutes, why is Thorns still only 10?
• Insect Swarm: Probably my favorite damage spell. It’s so cheap and when combined with Lifebloom’s super-low mana cost, I feel very eco-friendly and "green."

Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions? Keep in mind that any changes will have to wait a month for the price of a respec to drop back to 15g.

Related Posts

• Shake My (Talent) Tree
• Forum Watch: Talent Survey
• Mailbag: Choosing a “Healing” Spec