Preliminary patch notes for Patch 2.2 have been released, with no mention of the promised Voice Chat and Guild Bank features so one can assume that the patch either isn’t completed or that these two features will be coming prior to the release of 2.2. Like most major patches, extensive revisions are being made to most classes. Here are the changes included which effect the Druid class:

• Cat Form (Night Elf) melee attack range was too short compared to Tauren Cat Form and other attack ranges. It has been increased.
• Cyclone: It is no longer possible to Cyclone two targets at the same time in the outdoor world.
• Cyclone: Paladin Auras, Trueshot Aura, and Aspect of the Pack will now be automatically reactivated when Cyclone wears off of a victim who had one of the abilities active.
• Enrage: If this buff is clicked off early, the armor penalty it causes will now be removed as well.
• Enrage and Furor should no longer initiate combat, though it will prevent rage decay for the duration.
• Entangling Roots: It is no longer possible to have Entangling Roots on two targets at the same time in the outdoor world.
• Entangling Roots: It is no longer possible to have more than one rank of this spell active on a player.
• Force of Nature: Using this spell in a neutral town will no longer cause its victim to be attacked by town guards. It also will no longer cause nearby party members to lose stealth.
• Hibernate and Entangling Roots duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds.
• Hurricane: This spell is now affected by area damage caps. Its bonus damage coefficients have also been increased.
• Hurricane: A tooltip error in rank 3 has been corrected.
• Lacerate: The damage from this ability will now stack properly when two different characters are applying Lacerate to a target.
• Mangle: The duration remaining graphic will now display properly for Mangle after it has been refreshed on a target. It will also no longer sometimes apply the Mangle debuff to nearby targets when the Mangle victim is killed by Mangle.
• Nature’s Grasp: This ability can now trigger while the Druid is sitting.
• Tree of Life: The party aura from this shapeshift now extends the full 40-yard radius as stated in the tooltip.

Additional changes which will affect Druids listed separately from Druid-specific changes are:

• Mass Dispel will no longer remove Catform Stealth.
• Shiny Red Apple: Druids in animal forms can no longer eat this food item.
• Spyglass of the Hidden Fleet: This item is now useable by shapeshifted Druids.
• Anzu can no longer be kited far from his spawn point and will properly leash.
• Merciless Gladiator’s Legguards: This item now appears as a kilt. (Yes!)
• Blessing of Freedom cooldown increased to 25 seconds. (Listed because it serves as a counter for and gives subsequent, temporary immunity to Entangling Roots.)
• Formula: Enchant Cloak – Subtlety: This enchanting recipe is now available from the Thrallmar Quartermaster and Honor Hold Quartermaster. The reagents required have been adjusted to match the level 70 content.
• Formula: Enchant Cloak – Dodge: This enchanting recipe is now available from the Lower City Quartermaster. The reagents required have been adjusted to match the level 70 content.
• Formula: Enchant Cloak – Stealth: This enchanting recipe is now available from the Cenarion Expedition Quartermaster. The reagents required have been adjusted to match the level 70 content.

It’s odd that the range on Night Elf cats is being increased but not that of Taurens when it’s all cats who complain of their range being bugged. Does anyone know what the previous maximum duration of Entangling Roots was in PvP?

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• Patch 2.4 Official Class Changes
• Known Issues with Patch 2.1.3
• Nourish to Benefit from Moonglow and Wild Growth HoT (and Blues)

The release of patch 2.1.3 included several minor bugs related to the druid class:

• The Healing Aura from Tree of Life is not being applied party members at full range.
• Druid talent Mangle’s duration icon isn’t being refreshed properly on reapplication.
• The Druid talent Force of Nature causes stealthed party members to lose their stealth.
• Druids are able to learn Dire Bear Form before learning Bear Form.

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• PTR Patch 2.2
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Garrthos of Gul’dan recently posted a guide to Arena competition as a Restoration-specced Druid. Unlike more comprehensive guides which touch on a little of everything, Garrthos’ giude details strategies for dealing with individual classes and specs, including the dreaded Warrior/Paladin 2v2 combo, resulting in a guide full of recommendations that should be easy to apply.

Here’s a snippet of his summary on fighting Rogues:

Rogue is all about timing against a druid. The only thing a rogue is thinking when he fights a resto druid is “shift out of bear, shift out of bear”. So remember that. the only time you should be out of bear form is if you’re ready to get a massive amount of dps laid into you, or you have the rogue effectively CC’d. When I’m in the arena with my warrior partner, I start out stealthed, so, I’ll usually see the rogue before he does me (because he has to stunlock my warrior off his healer).

Chariet of Sisters of Elune has created a guide to Restoration Arena play with more general suggestions (i.e., not tailored for specific classes) to help best leverage forms, even when specced for healing. Here’s a sample of what she’s written:

They will not know what to expect from you until you shift into your Tauren/Night Elf form, and they can glance at your armor. (Sometimes armor gives away the spec. Feral gear looks scary, resto gear looks pretty, etc). If you have a scary-looking feral mask, wear it! Make them think you’re feral so they will underestimate your lovely heals. (Example: I have a mask from a recent raid that is a dark hood and it makes my eyes glow red. Looks very feral!)

An additional reference for PvPing as a Druid against specific classesis available through WoWWiki.com: How to kill a… (Druid).

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• Peesontrees’ Resto Arena Guide
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• Phae’s 4 Rules of Arena Play

One of the most frequently asked questions on the official Druid Forums seems to be, “How much +Healing do I need to successfully heal in Karazhan/Heroics?” While different players may choose to focus on one stat or another (pursuing longevity through MP5 or a larger mana pool through Intellect), due to the balanced nature of most of the items that can be acquired before entering Karazhan and Heroics, +Healing is a good indicator of the overall quality of a healer’s equipment. But how much healing is enough? For Karazhan, somewhere around 900 is recommended. But what does this number mean and how does it apply to the myriad of healing spells available to the Druid?

+Healing increases the HPM (healing per mana) of a given spell; this is sometimes referred to as “scaling” since it allows the same heal spell to become more and more effective as its caster’s gear improves. However, +Healing affects different spells and spell ranks differently, the degree to which is determined by two factors: the casting time of the spell (or, in the case of Heals over Time, the number of ticks) and the level of the spell’s rank relative to caster level.

Casting Time

There are several types of heals (direct, heal over time, channeled, area of effect), and casting time affects the scaling of each type differently:

• Direct Heals (Healing Touch)

  To determine the scaling of a spell with a direct heal component, divide its cast time by 3.5:

  S_direct = cast time / 3.5

  For example, 3.5 second Healing Touch is afforded 100% of +Healing. Note that talents which reduce the casting time of a given spell (such as Naturalist for Healing Touch) do not reduce scaling.

• Heals over Time (Rejuvenation)

  The scaling of HoTs is directly related to the spell’s duration:

  S_hot = duration / 15

  Rejuvenation, lasting a total of 12 seconds, receives 80% scaling divided over each of its 4 ticks.

• Mixed Method Heals (Regrowth)

  Some spells such as Regrowth have both a direct heal component as well as a portion that heals over time. The scaling for these spells are divided between the two portions and are determined as follows:

  

  

• Area of Effect Heals (Tranquility)

  Because Area of Effect heals hit multiple targets, the benefit of +Healing is divided by 3. Otherwise, it uses the same formula as a direct heal:

  S_aoe = (cast time / 3.5) / 3

  Since Tranquility lasts eight seconds, the scaling for this spell is 76% divided among its four ticks or 19% per tick.

Spell Level vs. Caster Level

Spell Level is defined as the level before which the next rank can be trained. For example, since Rank 8 of Healing Touch is first trained at level 44, the effective spell level for Rank 7 is 43. To discourage downranking (using a lower level spell with a large amount of +Healing to increase its HPM), Blizzard reduces the +Healing awarded to spells whose effective spell level are significantly below that of the caster:

S_downrank = (spell level + 6) / player level

Thus, a level 70 player casting Rank 7 of Healing Touch would have her +Healing bonus reduced to 70% ((43 + 6) / 70). These diminished returns have eliminated the technique of using the faster-casting Rank 4 of Healing Touch that was popular before the release of the Burning Crusade since Rank 4 only receives 44% of +Healing. Note that the ranking modifier cannot result in a bonus to +Healing; the maximum is 100% regardless of how the calculation works for later ranks.

Here are two figures which illustrate the HPM statistic (healing / mana cost) for ranks 4 and 10-13 of Healing Touch as +Healing increases from 500 to 1500. Notice that as +Healing increases the HPM efficiency of Healing Touch Rank 4 increases more quickly than that of ranks 10-13, even after the mitigating penalty is applied. The penalty keeps this spell from being especially viable, however, as an average untalented HT 4 is only 847 with +1000 Healing so don’t let the figure mislead you into reconsidering downranking to such a degree.

Figure 1. HPM of Untalented Healing Touch Ranks

Figure 2. HPM of Talented* Healing Touch Ranks

* Healing Touch talents under consideration include Empowered Touch, Naturalist, Tranquil Spirit, and Gift of Nature.

Bonuses and penalties to a spell’s +Healing benefit are cumulative. A spell that is downranked to receive only 70% of +Healing and that has a 2.0 second cast time (57%) that is cast with +1000 Healing would receive 399 points of healing (1000 * .57 * .7 = 399).

Individual Spell Scaling

Because spells scale according to their cast time, duration, type and rank used, the relative efficiency of Druid heals (measured in HPM) fluctuates as the amount of +Healing changes. Below are two figures which describe the relative scaling of the various heals available to Druids, including talented versions if applicable. Lifebloom has been separated from all other heals to prevent its high HPM values from skewing the graphs:

Figure 3. HPM of Heals other than Lifebloom

Figure 4. HPM of Lifebloom

Clearly Lifebloom outclasses all other heals, even without considering the 20% mana reduction afforded by Tree of Life. Also notable is that, as +Healing increases — representing an improvement in gear — the HPM efficiency of an untalented Rejuvenation eclipses that of untalented Regrowth (although a fully talented Rejuvenation far outperforms a talented Regrowth). Also notable is that, while it would seem that Healing Touch is an underperformer in the HPM stat, it does make a superior showing in the HPS stat, as any Heroic healing Druid can attest.

The two figures below demonstrate the healing power (measured by HPS) of Druid heals. Figure 5 compares the HPS of Healing Touch against the initial direct heal component of Regrowth and the final burst heal of Lifebloom were it allowed to expire. Figure 6 compares the HPS of all heals over their full duration (for example, for Regrowth, total time is 2 seconds of casting time plus 21 seconds of healing over time).

Figure 5. HPS of Direct Heals and Direct Heal Components

Figure 6. HPS of Heals over Time

As predicted, Healing Touch is a better choice under a high damage scenario where mana is less likely to be a factor (such as trash mob fights in Heroics between which the caster is free to drink). The other HoTs such as Rejuvenation and Lifebloom are efficient enough to be used to provide some padding against emergencies, however.

While none of the data collected and presented here invalidates the use of a particular spell or style of healing, it does demonstrate the relative strength — and subsequent prioritization — of certain spells over others under specific conditions. In general, Lifebloom is an excellent choice for low, sustained damage levels. Should DPS increase beyond that which can be handled by a triple stack of Lifebloom alone, Rejuvenation can be applied. At further escalating levels of damage, a Tree should fall back upon a combination Swiftmend and Regrowth. A non-Tree druid would instead fall back upon Swiftmend (if available) and the highly powerful, less efficient Healing Touch. So, too, might a Tree druid, should Regrowth prove insufficient to the task.

The bonuses of Tree of Life are not included in any of the above calculations, due to the fact that — in its current form — it is too impractical to be used most of the time. In general, this would push the HPM efficiency of all HoTs up slightly, but you would lose the ability to handle burst damage (not to mention the ability to decurse and remove poison). The subjective viability of Tree of Life is something that will be addressed in another post.

Assumptions: The following talents were factored into the “talented” statistics for each heal:

• Healing Touch: Empowered Touch (20% scaling bonus to +Healing), Naturalist (-0.5 seconds cast time), Tranquil Spirit (-10% mana), Gift of Nature (10% bonus to the end total)
• Regrowth: Empowered Rejuvenation (14% scaling bonus to +Healing of the HoT portion), Gift of Nature (10% bonus to the end total), Improved Regrowth (50% additional crit rating)
• Rejuvenation: Gift of Nature and Improved Rejuvenation (resulting in a cumulative bonus of 26.5% to the end total (1.1 * 1.15)), Empowered Rejuvenation (16% scaling bonus to +Healing)
• Lifebloom: Empowered Rejuvenation (+10% single stack, 31% for a stack of 3), Gift of Nature (10% bonus to the end total)

References: Many of the formulas and values included in this article were taken directly or derived from the following articles on WoWWiki.com:

• Formulas: Plus Damage and Plus Healing
• Healing Comparison

Download the Spreadsheet
used to calculate these values.

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Good news from the European Forums today; according to Community Manager Vaneras, the development staff is aware of the poor performance of Druids in Arena and are “looking into” possible improvements:

The Druid class is somewhat under-represented in the Arenas, which there of course are various reasons for. The developers are looking into the Druids overall performance in the Arenas, so I would say that it is too soon to give up on your Druid just yet.

I personally enjoy PvPing on my Druid, but I play mostly in the battlegrounds.

Vaneras made a similar post in the European Rogue forums today, responding in much greater detail to a post which laid out several of the perceived issues with Rogue Arena viability.

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