Post by putran on Mar 9, 2015 0:17:34 GMT
SPELLS
Rejuvenation: The classic workhorse Druid heal. A component of our healing in every situation. In the more mana-limited world of 6.0, learning to use this judiciously is key.
Lifebloom: Always have it running on somebody. Now only requires one stack, which makes maintaining it on the tank easier, and means allowing it to bloom is always fine.
Wild Growth: Larger and more expensive than in the past. Use when many targets need healing, but avoid extraneous casts. Similar mana efficiency to Rejuvenation.
Swiftmend: The first go-to option when anyone needs something faster than a HoT. Its use changes significantly with Soul of the Forest, Rampant Growth, or both (see below).
Healing Touch: The most efficient direct heal, and should be used whenever time is not an issue. A very nice heal on the tank due to the Perk, Enhanced Lifebloom, second only to Clearcast Regrowth.
Regrowth: Our fast, expensive heal. Will often be used due to Clearcast procs ( Omen of Clarity). Otherwise, only use when Swiftmend and Healing Touch aren't enough, as it will exhaust mana quickly.
Wild Mushroom: Now has a mana cost, but still cheap enough to be an efficient cast even if people aren't in it for the full 30 seconds. Great whenever the raid is stationary. Not unreasonable to use as an added HoT on a lone tank. Note that it can no longer be bloomed.
Genesis: Currently has limited use due to being expensive and adding no healing of its own. Keep it in mind as an occasional option when people are low and you're worried they'll be in danger if you wait for Rejuvs to tick on their own.
Resto has one important passive to keep in mind: Mastery: Harmony. The heals which refresh it are Healing Touch, Swiftmend, and Regrowth. It often stays up naturally due to Swiftmends and Clearcast Regrowths, but remember to throw an HT on someone if it's about to expire.
COOLDOWNS
Nature's Swiftness: Despite the 1 minute cooldown, a key part of the healing arsenal. Don't hesitate to use it whenever HoTs and Swiftmend aren't enough to get someone to safe HP. You generally want to make macro that casts this and Healing Touch at the same time, such as:
#showtooltip Nature's Swiftness
/use Nature's Swiftness
/use [@mouseover, help][] Healing Touch
Ironbark: Another spell with a nice mix of a short cooldown and a very noticeable effect. Use this liberally as well, anytime a tank or other specific target is threatened.
Tranquility: Pours a huge amount of healing into the raid. Using this when a substantial part of the raid is low on HP will save the whole healing team quite a lot of time and mana.
Incarnation (talent): The throughput increase while this is up is significant, but what really makes it shine is the cheap Rejuvenations. You can spam quite heavily while this is up without causing mana problems.
Nature's Vigil (talent): Makes your single target heals (including HoTs) splash to other targets. Effective when many targets need healing and you have many Rejuvenations going. Strong when combined with Incarnation.
Force of Nature (talent): Summons a pet that heals for 15 seconds. This is on the charge system, so it's okay to let 1 or 2 charges pool up at any time. Spend charges for some free healing whenever there's healing that needs to be done.
Heart of the Wild (talent): A mediocre ability for healing due to its long cooldown, but can have use if one specific part of an encounter requires unusually high healing. Can also be used if helping DPS would be especially valuable at one particular part of an encounter.
UTILITY
Rebirth: Now instant cast, so can virtually always be used with no delay. Make sure to advise people if they'll be in danger as they appear at your current location. In addition, a new visual indicator allows them to see where they will appear before they accept.
Stampeding Roar: Giving the raid a movement boost is a unique Druid ability that is very useful in a wide variety of raid situations. Always keep an eye out for when people can benefit from it, including by clearing multiple people from snares or roots.
CC spells: We have quite a wide variety at our disposal. Cyclone locks down a target but makes them immune to damage. Entangling Roots can root a target for a long time, but breaks easily on damage. Talents allow for a stun ( Mighty Bash), AoE disorient ( Disorienting Roar), AoE root ( Mass Entanglement), ranged snare ( Faerie Swarm), AoE knockback ( Typhoon), and the somewhat unique Ursol's Vortex.
Barkskin: always useful for keeping yourself alive. It is not on the GCD and can be pressed at any time. It should be second nature to use it when you're in any danger from incoming damage.
Dash: limited in that it only lasts while you are in Cat Form and cannot heal, but has its uses in dangerous situations.
Soothe: Especially in smaller groups with no Rogues or Hunters, you might be the only one who can do this.
TALENTS
There are a variety of options at every talent level. This is a basic general-purpose build: wod.wowhead.com/talent#zdz29M
Level 15 (movement): Displacer Beast is hard not to grow attached to once you start using it, and is worth finding a free keybind for. Feline Swiftness is acceptable passive option.
Level 30 (minor healing): Ysera's Gift and Cenarion Ward are capable of similar amounts of healing, but Ysera's Gift doesn't require any GCD's or mana from you.
Level 45 (CC): This is entirely up to what version of crowd control is best suited to a particular situation. Typhoon is the most unique and commonly used.
Level 60 (healing): Soul of the Forest and Incarnation are both very strong. Use Soul of the Forest when constant heal output is desired, and Incarnation: Tree of Life when a cooldown and/or mana efficiency will be helpful. Force of Nature is currently weak.
Level 75 (CC): Once again, 3 crowd control choices. Ursol's Vortex is the only one which can be used at range and is a great help to anybody who is kiting. The stun or disorient can be used to interrupt casting against PvE targets.
Level 90 (healing/hybrid): Nature's Vigil has good general-purpose healing use. For purposes of doing some hybrid DPS, Heart of the Wild is usually most useful. Dream of Cenarius is a decent filler option when you don't need any throughput boost, and save some mana, but generally only is attractive on very long fights with a lot of downtime.
Level 100 (healing): Germination is always a useful option. Rampant Growth makes for a more complex playstyle that can be effective, but generally needs to be paired with Soul of the Forest. Moment of Clarity is somewhat more limited since it only works with Regrowth and demands that you cast it immediately to get value.
No talents stand out in obvious ways based on group size; all of the healing talents are viable with 5 or 20 people. For Proving Grounds I use the build shown above, and for Challenge Modes I swap to Heart of the Wild.
Soul of the Forest: With this talent, you change how you use Swiftmend to make sure to use the SotF buff effectively. The best spell to use it on is generally Wild Growth. In any situations involving AoE healing, try to save both Swiftmend and Wild Growth for when both are available and use them together. It can be used as a steady efficiency option by using it only to buff Wild Growth and cutting down on other heals in between, sometimes by using Dream of Cenarius.
Rampant Growth + Soul of the Forest: Now you have the freedom to Swiftmend before any spell, but Swiftmending away fresh Rejuvenations is very wasteful. Leveraging this combo requires always keeping an eye out for situations where Swiftmend would be effective, and then following up with a good spell to consume the buff ( Wild Growth if available). Remember to Swiftmend the HoT from your Clearcast Regrowths.
Rejuvenation: The classic workhorse Druid heal. A component of our healing in every situation. In the more mana-limited world of 6.0, learning to use this judiciously is key.
Lifebloom: Always have it running on somebody. Now only requires one stack, which makes maintaining it on the tank easier, and means allowing it to bloom is always fine.
Wild Growth: Larger and more expensive than in the past. Use when many targets need healing, but avoid extraneous casts. Similar mana efficiency to Rejuvenation.
Swiftmend: The first go-to option when anyone needs something faster than a HoT. Its use changes significantly with Soul of the Forest, Rampant Growth, or both (see below).
Healing Touch: The most efficient direct heal, and should be used whenever time is not an issue. A very nice heal on the tank due to the Perk, Enhanced Lifebloom, second only to Clearcast Regrowth.
Regrowth: Our fast, expensive heal. Will often be used due to Clearcast procs ( Omen of Clarity). Otherwise, only use when Swiftmend and Healing Touch aren't enough, as it will exhaust mana quickly.
Wild Mushroom: Now has a mana cost, but still cheap enough to be an efficient cast even if people aren't in it for the full 30 seconds. Great whenever the raid is stationary. Not unreasonable to use as an added HoT on a lone tank. Note that it can no longer be bloomed.
Genesis: Currently has limited use due to being expensive and adding no healing of its own. Keep it in mind as an occasional option when people are low and you're worried they'll be in danger if you wait for Rejuvs to tick on their own.
Resto has one important passive to keep in mind: Mastery: Harmony. The heals which refresh it are Healing Touch, Swiftmend, and Regrowth. It often stays up naturally due to Swiftmends and Clearcast Regrowths, but remember to throw an HT on someone if it's about to expire.
COOLDOWNS
Nature's Swiftness: Despite the 1 minute cooldown, a key part of the healing arsenal. Don't hesitate to use it whenever HoTs and Swiftmend aren't enough to get someone to safe HP. You generally want to make macro that casts this and Healing Touch at the same time, such as:
#showtooltip Nature's Swiftness
/use Nature's Swiftness
/use [@mouseover, help][] Healing Touch
Ironbark: Another spell with a nice mix of a short cooldown and a very noticeable effect. Use this liberally as well, anytime a tank or other specific target is threatened.
Tranquility: Pours a huge amount of healing into the raid. Using this when a substantial part of the raid is low on HP will save the whole healing team quite a lot of time and mana.
Incarnation (talent): The throughput increase while this is up is significant, but what really makes it shine is the cheap Rejuvenations. You can spam quite heavily while this is up without causing mana problems.
Nature's Vigil (talent): Makes your single target heals (including HoTs) splash to other targets. Effective when many targets need healing and you have many Rejuvenations going. Strong when combined with Incarnation.
Force of Nature (talent): Summons a pet that heals for 15 seconds. This is on the charge system, so it's okay to let 1 or 2 charges pool up at any time. Spend charges for some free healing whenever there's healing that needs to be done.
Heart of the Wild (talent): A mediocre ability for healing due to its long cooldown, but can have use if one specific part of an encounter requires unusually high healing. Can also be used if helping DPS would be especially valuable at one particular part of an encounter.
UTILITY
Rebirth: Now instant cast, so can virtually always be used with no delay. Make sure to advise people if they'll be in danger as they appear at your current location. In addition, a new visual indicator allows them to see where they will appear before they accept.
Stampeding Roar: Giving the raid a movement boost is a unique Druid ability that is very useful in a wide variety of raid situations. Always keep an eye out for when people can benefit from it, including by clearing multiple people from snares or roots.
CC spells: We have quite a wide variety at our disposal. Cyclone locks down a target but makes them immune to damage. Entangling Roots can root a target for a long time, but breaks easily on damage. Talents allow for a stun ( Mighty Bash), AoE disorient ( Disorienting Roar), AoE root ( Mass Entanglement), ranged snare ( Faerie Swarm), AoE knockback ( Typhoon), and the somewhat unique Ursol's Vortex.
Barkskin: always useful for keeping yourself alive. It is not on the GCD and can be pressed at any time. It should be second nature to use it when you're in any danger from incoming damage.
Dash: limited in that it only lasts while you are in Cat Form and cannot heal, but has its uses in dangerous situations.
Soothe: Especially in smaller groups with no Rogues or Hunters, you might be the only one who can do this.
TALENTS
There are a variety of options at every talent level. This is a basic general-purpose build: wod.wowhead.com/talent#zdz29M
Level 15 (movement): Displacer Beast is hard not to grow attached to once you start using it, and is worth finding a free keybind for. Feline Swiftness is acceptable passive option.
Level 30 (minor healing): Ysera's Gift and Cenarion Ward are capable of similar amounts of healing, but Ysera's Gift doesn't require any GCD's or mana from you.
Level 45 (CC): This is entirely up to what version of crowd control is best suited to a particular situation. Typhoon is the most unique and commonly used.
Level 60 (healing): Soul of the Forest and Incarnation are both very strong. Use Soul of the Forest when constant heal output is desired, and Incarnation: Tree of Life when a cooldown and/or mana efficiency will be helpful. Force of Nature is currently weak.
Level 75 (CC): Once again, 3 crowd control choices. Ursol's Vortex is the only one which can be used at range and is a great help to anybody who is kiting. The stun or disorient can be used to interrupt casting against PvE targets.
Level 90 (healing/hybrid): Nature's Vigil has good general-purpose healing use. For purposes of doing some hybrid DPS, Heart of the Wild is usually most useful. Dream of Cenarius is a decent filler option when you don't need any throughput boost, and save some mana, but generally only is attractive on very long fights with a lot of downtime.
Level 100 (healing): Germination is always a useful option. Rampant Growth makes for a more complex playstyle that can be effective, but generally needs to be paired with Soul of the Forest. Moment of Clarity is somewhat more limited since it only works with Regrowth and demands that you cast it immediately to get value.
No talents stand out in obvious ways based on group size; all of the healing talents are viable with 5 or 20 people. For Proving Grounds I use the build shown above, and for Challenge Modes I swap to Heart of the Wild.
Soul of the Forest: With this talent, you change how you use Swiftmend to make sure to use the SotF buff effectively. The best spell to use it on is generally Wild Growth. In any situations involving AoE healing, try to save both Swiftmend and Wild Growth for when both are available and use them together. It can be used as a steady efficiency option by using it only to buff Wild Growth and cutting down on other heals in between, sometimes by using Dream of Cenarius.
Rampant Growth + Soul of the Forest: Now you have the freedom to Swiftmend before any spell, but Swiftmending away fresh Rejuvenations is very wasteful. Leveraging this combo requires always keeping an eye out for situations where Swiftmend would be effective, and then following up with a good spell to consume the buff ( Wild Growth if available). Remember to Swiftmend the HoT from your Clearcast Regrowths.