Resto Druid Guide
- applesand1
- Posts: 40
- Joined: 04 Jun 2015 19:35
- Location: USA, CO
Resto Druid Guide
Hey! Welcome to my guide!
This guide is based upon my personal knowledge, and I'm hoping that it'll change and be updated as I learn more about this class.
If you have any input, please let me know and we can discuss it! I'll also totally change this based upon feedback. <3
THIS GUIDE IS OUT OF DATE check out Ithril11's guide in the Druid section. Dreamstate should pull ahead of Swiftmend spec now that Swiftmend has been nerfed.
Spec
Raiding Resto Spec: 14/0/37
Dreamstate: 28/0/23
Notes on Spec
Dreamstate druid is a spec that sacrifices some of the +healing talents in favor of +mana regen talents. It might be good, I haven't tested it yet, but it loses Swiftmend which is our most powerful heal. I'm thinking it'll end up being worse than a traditional resto spec, but if anyone would like to test it I'd be open to your data.
Subtlety vs Natural Shapeshifter: I put a point in Natural Shapeshifter over Subtlety because none of our resto spells generate very much threat, and at least with Natural Shapeshifter you'll save a tiny bit of mana if you need to shapeshift out of a root or immobilize effect. The only spell that really generates any threat is Innervate, which is probably a bug. And Innervate is a balance spell anyway, so unnafected by Subtlety.
Improved Tranquility: I left this one blank because you shouldn't be using tranquility in a raid. It only affects your party, and it costs way too much mana. In a dungeon it's fine, and you can put points into here if you find yourself using it a lot. But in a raid you'd be better off casting your regular spells.
If you'd like to put points somewhere else, I recommend removing points from Tranquil Spirit. It's probably our least beneficial talent, per point.
Here's a picture of some meters for a Ragnaros fight - If I knew a better way to post them, I would, but I don't know how
Stat Priority
When you first start gearing, you'll want this priority:
Spirit > Haste > Spell Power > MP5 > Intellect > Stamina > Crit Rating
When you have "enough" spirit, you'll want this priority:
Haste > Spell Power > Spirit > Intellect > MP5 > Stamina > Crit Rating
There isn't any haste on gear, but I put it on the list in case there was any I missed. Haste is super important because it lowers our GCD, and lets us cast more rejuvenations or decurses in a shorter period of time.
Spell power is the bread and butter of any caster class, and resto druids are no exception. It buffs the heals on all of our spells. However it's unimportant for decursing, so make sure you have enough spirit to handle that before you go full out on spell power.
2 spirit = 1mp5 for Druids, however spirit is affected by Blessing of Kings and therefore is better for us.
Spirit is more important in a raid because of how long the fights are. Most fights are 5-10 minutes in MC, with Ragnaros being 20+ minutes! This is because of the buffed HP of the bosses. In this situation, Intellect became a lot less useful because you're going to be spending a lot of time oom, up to half the fight. So you'll want a lot of spirit so you can still contribute during that period. Depending on how upcoming fights look, you might want to value intellect more should the fight duration decrease.
Critical Strike Rating is absolute garbage for us, as Resto. It only affects Swiftmend and Healing Touch, but if you're looking to increase throughput it's much much much better to gear for spellpower, because not only does it buff all of our spells (excluding decurse of course), it also is reliable while crit rating is inconsistent.
For Molten Core (at least for Ragnaros) you'll want at least 100 fire resist. You should have two sets that you switch in and out of, depending on how much fire damage the fight has.
Spell Priority
Resto druids don't have a rotation. No healer does. But here's how you can tell which spell to cast.
1. Decurse above all healing, unless you know for sure that the curse isn't all that important.
2. Keep HoTs rolling on the tank if they're taking damage. Rejuvenation and Regrowth.
3. Cast Rejuvenation on any raid members who are damaged and above 60%.
4. Cast Regrowth on any raid members who are damaged and above 40% or so.
5. If a raid member is below 40%, use Regrowth, or if the HoT is already up, cast Healing Touch on them.
6. If a raid member is below about 25%, you'll want to use Nature's Swiftness and then Healing Touch on them right away.
Swiftmend is our most powerful spell, because it scales with Rejuvenation (which is also very powerful!) and more importantly, it's unaffected by the healing debuff. It'll heal for the same amount that it does in Orgrimmar as it does in Molten Core. So cast it on cooldown, on anyone that you know it won't overheal on. It's even more mana efficient than Healing Touch if you cast Rejuvenation solely for the purposes of swiftmending them before it even ticks once, although it's most efficient to cast swiftmend when Rejuvenation has 1 tick left.
Pre Raid BiS
Moonlight / Abbalah has the recipe for Hide of the Wild, so if you can afford it I definitely recommend getting it!
If this database is giving you problems, check out this nifty guide that Mazzaru posted later down Here
Head: --------------------- Eye of Flame if available, or Crimson Felt Hat if not. If you need stamina or regen, use Helm of the New Moon.
Neck: --------------------- Animated Chain Necklace
Shoulders: -------------- Ironfeather Shoulders if you can afford it, Sunderseer Mantle if not.
Back: --------------------- Hide of the Wild if you can afford it, Cloak of the Cosmos if you can't.
Chest: -------------------- Ironfeather Breastplate if you can afford it, if not then Robes of the Exalted.
Bracers: ----------------- Funeral Cuffs, or if you need more stamina do Sublime Wristguards.
Gloves: ------------------ Hands of Power, or Shivery Handwraps if you need stamina or mana regen.
Belt: ---------------------- Sash of Mercy if you can afford it, otherwise Dustfeather Sash. If you need more mana regen, use Whipvine Cord.
Pants: ------------------- Flarecore Leggings if you can afford them, if not then Spiritshroud Leggings.
Boots: ------------------- Dragonrider Boots if you need fire resist, otherwise Waterspout Boots.
Ring 1: ------------------ Maiden's Circle
Ring 2: ------------------ Maiden's Circle
Trinket 1: --------------- Power of the High Chief***
Trinket 2: --------------- Briarwood Reed
2 Handed Weapon: - Redemption. If you need stamina, use Staff of Metanoia.
1 Handed Weapon: - Black Crystal Dagger
Off hand: --------------- Cloud Stone, or if you need stamina then Thaurissan's Royal Scepter.
Idol: ---------------------- Idol of Rejuvenation
------------------------------However, this doesn't drop yet since the D2 quests aren't available. So idol choice is irrelevant, sadly.
*** Note this item is currently bugged, but you can still acquire it. What you do is get as far as you can in the quest chain, and then open a ticket and a GM will give you the book you need to continue. ***
Addon List
These are up to your preferences, but here's the ones I use.
DBM: This one is a necessity for raiding. It shows timers on boss abilities, and also lets you know when you need to perform an action like moving out of the fire, or interrupting a certain ability.
Recount: Very useful for measuring damage or healing. I use it to figure out which DPS to cast Rebirth on, if we need more damage in order to end a fight before the healers give out.
Atlasloot: I use this one for planning out which upgrades to find in dungeons. It's very useful in addition to Pawn.
Chatmod: This changes the color of people's names in your chat to their class color, which I find useful in raids when someone mentions someone else's name, but not their class.
VuhDo: Here's the healing addon that I use. You'll need one if you're going to be healing, and everyone has their own preference. I've set this up to show everyone's health bar, and also which HoTs I have ticking on them. Here's an example of what VuhDo can do. I made that example in 10 minutes, so it's not the best, but hopefully you'll get the idea!
So, VuhDo was causing me to crash. Which is sad, because it's my favourite addon! So currently I'm using Grid / Clique, and oh boy lemme tell you. I miss VuhDo a lot
Pawn: This is an addon that lets you define stat weights and compare gear. It's basically an ingame gear spreadsheet, but it's very easy to use. If you use it, I highly recommend trying to set your own stat weights depending on the current status of your gear. It's designed to be updated often depending on how you feel about your current gear set. Here is my current scale values, but keep in mind you're supposed to update them depending on your spec!
Gearscore: This is an addon that lets you see at a glace what level another's gear is at. But keep in mind that it is NOT a good idea to try and maximize gear score, because especially in vanilla you'll find that often a lower iLevel item is much much better for your class. I only included it because it'll be more useful in TBC and WotLK.
I found all these addons at this list, which is from the Warmane forums. So if any of the links are broken, blame them! xD
The exception is Pawn, which I couldn't find anywhere online. So I uploaded the one I'm currently using to Mega, that's why it's in a different format than the others.
This guide is based upon my personal knowledge, and I'm hoping that it'll change and be updated as I learn more about this class.
If you have any input, please let me know and we can discuss it! I'll also totally change this based upon feedback. <3
THIS GUIDE IS OUT OF DATE check out Ithril11's guide in the Druid section. Dreamstate should pull ahead of Swiftmend spec now that Swiftmend has been nerfed.
Spec
Raiding Resto Spec: 14/0/37
Dreamstate: 28/0/23
Notes on Spec
Dreamstate druid is a spec that sacrifices some of the +healing talents in favor of +mana regen talents. It might be good, I haven't tested it yet, but it loses Swiftmend which is our most powerful heal. I'm thinking it'll end up being worse than a traditional resto spec, but if anyone would like to test it I'd be open to your data.
Subtlety vs Natural Shapeshifter: I put a point in Natural Shapeshifter over Subtlety because none of our resto spells generate very much threat, and at least with Natural Shapeshifter you'll save a tiny bit of mana if you need to shapeshift out of a root or immobilize effect. The only spell that really generates any threat is Innervate, which is probably a bug. And Innervate is a balance spell anyway, so unnafected by Subtlety.
Improved Tranquility: I left this one blank because you shouldn't be using tranquility in a raid. It only affects your party, and it costs way too much mana. In a dungeon it's fine, and you can put points into here if you find yourself using it a lot. But in a raid you'd be better off casting your regular spells.
If you'd like to put points somewhere else, I recommend removing points from Tranquil Spirit. It's probably our least beneficial talent, per point.
Here's a picture of some meters for a Ragnaros fight - If I knew a better way to post them, I would, but I don't know how
Stat Priority
When you first start gearing, you'll want this priority:
Spirit > Haste > Spell Power > MP5 > Intellect > Stamina > Crit Rating
When you have "enough" spirit, you'll want this priority:
Haste > Spell Power > Spirit > Intellect > MP5 > Stamina > Crit Rating
There isn't any haste on gear, but I put it on the list in case there was any I missed. Haste is super important because it lowers our GCD, and lets us cast more rejuvenations or decurses in a shorter period of time.
Spell power is the bread and butter of any caster class, and resto druids are no exception. It buffs the heals on all of our spells. However it's unimportant for decursing, so make sure you have enough spirit to handle that before you go full out on spell power.
2 spirit = 1mp5 for Druids, however spirit is affected by Blessing of Kings and therefore is better for us.
Spirit is more important in a raid because of how long the fights are. Most fights are 5-10 minutes in MC, with Ragnaros being 20+ minutes! This is because of the buffed HP of the bosses. In this situation, Intellect became a lot less useful because you're going to be spending a lot of time oom, up to half the fight. So you'll want a lot of spirit so you can still contribute during that period. Depending on how upcoming fights look, you might want to value intellect more should the fight duration decrease.
Critical Strike Rating is absolute garbage for us, as Resto. It only affects Swiftmend and Healing Touch, but if you're looking to increase throughput it's much much much better to gear for spellpower, because not only does it buff all of our spells (excluding decurse of course), it also is reliable while crit rating is inconsistent.
For Molten Core (at least for Ragnaros) you'll want at least 100 fire resist. You should have two sets that you switch in and out of, depending on how much fire damage the fight has.
Spell Priority
Resto druids don't have a rotation. No healer does. But here's how you can tell which spell to cast.
1. Decurse above all healing, unless you know for sure that the curse isn't all that important.
2. Keep HoTs rolling on the tank if they're taking damage. Rejuvenation and Regrowth.
3. Cast Rejuvenation on any raid members who are damaged and above 60%.
4. Cast Regrowth on any raid members who are damaged and above 40% or so.
5. If a raid member is below 40%, use Regrowth, or if the HoT is already up, cast Healing Touch on them.
6. If a raid member is below about 25%, you'll want to use Nature's Swiftness and then Healing Touch on them right away.
Swiftmend is our most powerful spell, because it scales with Rejuvenation (which is also very powerful!) and more importantly, it's unaffected by the healing debuff. It'll heal for the same amount that it does in Orgrimmar as it does in Molten Core. So cast it on cooldown, on anyone that you know it won't overheal on. It's even more mana efficient than Healing Touch if you cast Rejuvenation solely for the purposes of swiftmending them before it even ticks once, although it's most efficient to cast swiftmend when Rejuvenation has 1 tick left.
Pre Raid BiS
Moonlight / Abbalah has the recipe for Hide of the Wild, so if you can afford it I definitely recommend getting it!
If this database is giving you problems, check out this nifty guide that Mazzaru posted later down Here
Head: --------------------- Eye of Flame if available, or Crimson Felt Hat if not. If you need stamina or regen, use Helm of the New Moon.
Neck: --------------------- Animated Chain Necklace
Shoulders: -------------- Ironfeather Shoulders if you can afford it, Sunderseer Mantle if not.
Back: --------------------- Hide of the Wild if you can afford it, Cloak of the Cosmos if you can't.
Chest: -------------------- Ironfeather Breastplate if you can afford it, if not then Robes of the Exalted.
Bracers: ----------------- Funeral Cuffs, or if you need more stamina do Sublime Wristguards.
Gloves: ------------------ Hands of Power, or Shivery Handwraps if you need stamina or mana regen.
Belt: ---------------------- Sash of Mercy if you can afford it, otherwise Dustfeather Sash. If you need more mana regen, use Whipvine Cord.
Pants: ------------------- Flarecore Leggings if you can afford them, if not then Spiritshroud Leggings.
Boots: ------------------- Dragonrider Boots if you need fire resist, otherwise Waterspout Boots.
Ring 1: ------------------ Maiden's Circle
Ring 2: ------------------ Maiden's Circle
Trinket 1: --------------- Power of the High Chief***
Trinket 2: --------------- Briarwood Reed
2 Handed Weapon: - Redemption. If you need stamina, use Staff of Metanoia.
1 Handed Weapon: - Black Crystal Dagger
Off hand: --------------- Cloud Stone, or if you need stamina then Thaurissan's Royal Scepter.
Idol: ---------------------- Idol of Rejuvenation
------------------------------However, this doesn't drop yet since the D2 quests aren't available. So idol choice is irrelevant, sadly.
*** Note this item is currently bugged, but you can still acquire it. What you do is get as far as you can in the quest chain, and then open a ticket and a GM will give you the book you need to continue. ***
Addon List
These are up to your preferences, but here's the ones I use.
DBM: This one is a necessity for raiding. It shows timers on boss abilities, and also lets you know when you need to perform an action like moving out of the fire, or interrupting a certain ability.
Recount: Very useful for measuring damage or healing. I use it to figure out which DPS to cast Rebirth on, if we need more damage in order to end a fight before the healers give out.
Atlasloot: I use this one for planning out which upgrades to find in dungeons. It's very useful in addition to Pawn.
Chatmod: This changes the color of people's names in your chat to their class color, which I find useful in raids when someone mentions someone else's name, but not their class.
VuhDo: Here's the healing addon that I use. You'll need one if you're going to be healing, and everyone has their own preference. I've set this up to show everyone's health bar, and also which HoTs I have ticking on them. Here's an example of what VuhDo can do. I made that example in 10 minutes, so it's not the best, but hopefully you'll get the idea!
So, VuhDo was causing me to crash. Which is sad, because it's my favourite addon! So currently I'm using Grid / Clique, and oh boy lemme tell you. I miss VuhDo a lot
Pawn: This is an addon that lets you define stat weights and compare gear. It's basically an ingame gear spreadsheet, but it's very easy to use. If you use it, I highly recommend trying to set your own stat weights depending on the current status of your gear. It's designed to be updated often depending on how you feel about your current gear set. Here is my current scale values, but keep in mind you're supposed to update them depending on your spec!
Gearscore: This is an addon that lets you see at a glace what level another's gear is at. But keep in mind that it is NOT a good idea to try and maximize gear score, because especially in vanilla you'll find that often a lower iLevel item is much much better for your class. I only included it because it'll be more useful in TBC and WotLK.
I found all these addons at this list, which is from the Warmane forums. So if any of the links are broken, blame them! xD
The exception is Pawn, which I couldn't find anywhere online. So I uploaded the one I'm currently using to Mega, that's why it's in a different format than the others.
Last edited by Tinothiel on 14 Aug 2015 00:03, edited 31 times in total.
Growth
Re: Resto Druid Guide
nice guide, im holding off on doing a resto sham one as im still trying out different sets, like druids there are a few different ways we can take resto sham healing stacking mp5 stacking sp/int stacking crit.... currently building a crit set as i feel it will be most beifiial as it will help with mana regen (due to watershield and how it works with crit) as well as keeping the buff up on the tanks for 10% reduced melee dmg...
who knows its all new cuz its never been done be4 thats the joy of it
who knows its all new cuz its never been done be4 thats the joy of it
- applesand1
- Posts: 40
- Joined: 04 Jun 2015 19:35
- Location: USA, CO
Re: Resto Druid Guide
Cleo, I saw the guide you made and I was inspired to make this one! Keep at it. <3
Growth
Re: Resto Druid Guide
I like the guide, and the format!
However... While your gear choices are very standard and for sure good, this server is a unique beast because of the healing debuff in Molten Core. We at Maple Syrup just ran our guild run and got some attempts on Rag today before he bugged and I can safely say mana is absolutely a nightmare in ALL encounters. I went dreamstate, and have about 185 mp5 in combat raid buff and still ran OOM after some really intense phases! I expect in my set of full BiS (pre-raid) gear I will have anywhere from 230-250+ mp5 and I don't know if even that's enough! Be ready, not even innvervate can save ya!
However... While your gear choices are very standard and for sure good, this server is a unique beast because of the healing debuff in Molten Core. We at Maple Syrup just ran our guild run and got some attempts on Rag today before he bugged and I can safely say mana is absolutely a nightmare in ALL encounters. I went dreamstate, and have about 185 mp5 in combat raid buff and still ran OOM after some really intense phases! I expect in my set of full BiS (pre-raid) gear I will have anywhere from 230-250+ mp5 and I don't know if even that's enough! Be ready, not even innvervate can save ya!
- applesand1
- Posts: 40
- Joined: 04 Jun 2015 19:35
- Location: USA, CO
Re: Resto Druid Guide
ithril, that's sorta why I'm valuing spellpower so much. Since you're going to be out of mana no matter what you do, you might as well have your heals healing a lot more. The idea is that innervate will be your main source of mana (and mana potions). It's definitely a more personal choice! Do you think you and I could compare healing data? I'm really interested in how well dreamstate works. What's your name in game? I'm Growth, you should hit me up
Growth
Re: Resto Druid Guide
My in-game name is Disconnect! I'll be on around peak (12-2pmish pst) later today hopefully and we can discuss some things then. I don't really have logs, just some recount screenies of an UBRS run today that I was healing. I didn't think of documenting MC data because I was exhausted from doing the grind to sixty (I hit sixty the DAY of the raid).
- applesand1
- Posts: 40
- Joined: 04 Jun 2015 19:35
- Location: USA, CO
Re: Resto Druid Guide
Here's some meters from a Ragnaros fight:
I'm sorry I don't know a better way to share them than just a picture
I'm sorry I don't know a better way to share them than just a picture
Growth
Re: Resto Druid Guide
Okidoke, I'll be sure to take a look at my numbers on Monday!applesand1 wrote:Ragnaros took 11 minutes when we did it just now.
Re: Resto Druid Guide
Don't forget to only be alliance so you can shadowmeld and never run out of mana :^)
- applesand1
- Posts: 40
- Joined: 04 Jun 2015 19:35
- Location: USA, CO
Re: Resto Druid Guide
But that's cheating! :Oazreal313 wrote:Don't forget to only be alliance so you can shadowmeld and never run out of mana :^)
Growth
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