State of the Resto Druid

[Draenin]

Thanks for admitting you're shit and have no real opinion or experience on the matter.

[Keftenk]

Keep on believing what you want to believe.
I have far greater experience on the matter than you do.

[Draenin]

Are we whipping out our epeens now? Boy oh boy this is going to help prove your point that druids are as strong as other healers in healing.

[Keftenk]

Im new to druids in vanilla so Id like to ask all you endgame druids - how does the druid class scale in 1.12 compared to other healing classes?

Whats the biggest forte and weakness?

The competent Druid healers that are topping the meters are likely drinking consumables on CD. This includes Major Mana Potion, Battle Mana Potion, Dark Runes and/or Demonic Runes, Night Dragon's Breath, etc.. Why are they guzzling so many per raid?

To keep up Regrowth of course. With the ability to crit ~80% of the time on Regrowth our cast time is almost permanently kept at the same rate as a Paladin, Shaman, and/or Priest. Technically we can even go faster with T2, but that doesn't matter much because of the GCD. So to say we can't compete is quite the understatement. It should be noted that Regrowth doesn't scale the best compared to Healing Touch and even the other classes spells.

You can also utilize your own Innervate on yourself which is something most Druids in vanilla didn't do. Realistically only Priests and Shadow Priests greatly benefit from the use of Innervate. This is reflective to how fast your fights actually are. The quicker the fight the lack of need Innervate becomes for other classes.

I won't ignore the utility which Innervate does bring to benefit your raid. For instance, my role in my guild has been switched and I now Innervate our Shadow Priest which on Nefarian has increased his DPS by an average of ~40 DPS (He receives 60-75% of my Innervates every raid). This will greatly cut down on your ability to keep Regrowth up if it goes to others, but if healing isn't deemed as a critical necessity. It shouldn't be a problem.

Is Healing Touch not used? Its definitely used, but the primary bulk of our healing comes from Regrowth. This is very much unlike how it was back 10 years ago. I'm skeptical on how this will change come in AQ and Naxx on Nostalrius. In vanilla, Druids started to really climb compared to Paladin, Shaman, and Priest because Healing Touch was good with these higher tiered encounters, but we know a great deal more about the game than we did back then. Not to forget about the scaling of the actual spell with the new gear. Which is tremendous.

As for the future raid content (AQ and Naxx) I think it will come down to how fast your guild is killing trash and bosses. The longer the fight the better Healing Touch will become, but the shorter the fight probably means two things: 1. Your DPS is far greater than what was 10 years ago by default 2. Your DPS are taking greater risks to maintain a higher sustainable amount of DPS.

If either are true you'll probably be casting Regrowth to keep up. Of course there will be fights that you just won't use Regrowth on (beyond its use of its HoT), for instance, Patchwerk.

The great thing with Healing Touch later in the game is that it becomes incredibly mana efficient with its scaling to +healing, but you'll always be stuck with a longer cast time than your healing counterparts (which may still be fine on Nostalrius come AQ/Naxx). It's probably on par with as efficient as a Paladin that keeps criting off their heals.

Before you ask, mana really isn't much of an issue anymore if you know about proper itemization and are actually seeking out mana efficient buffs. Even in BWL gear it isn't unreasonable to see yourself with 11,000+ Mana fully raid buffed.

Hopefully that sheds some light. It's a strong healing class compared to the others (even now; might take some extra work as detailed above) and should continue to get even stronger with the future content, hopefully. We'll have to see how guilds react to the upcoming content. So what's our greatest weakness? Our wallet and having other Druids in the raid which overwrite your HoTs (in terms of personal HPS).

[Zula]

If you acually put some effort into it, then Resto Druids are as viable as a healing Priest or Resto Shaman (i don't play alliance so iduno about Paladins)

In the top 50 on average hps theres
7 Paladins (~345,0 HPS)
12 Druids (~336,2 HPS)
24 Priests (~334,5 HPS)
7 Shamans (~327,1 HPS)

[Hammersplat]

"quite even"
lmao dude, you're delusional if you think a Druid would be able to out-heal a Priest/Paladin with the same gear/skill. Druids have their strength in utility not in healing, which is why I play a druid not a Paladin or Priest. I think we'll do well when AQ is released at the start, but we'll fall behind again once everyone gets AQ gear.

I play a druid and i outheal most priests paladins and i have less gear and less skill. You should try a different spec if you feel like you can't match other classes healing.

[Finalflash]

1. go http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#0tLxhM0oZZxtcofqm
2. spam all consumables possible
3. use innervate on yourself and bribe other druids for more innervates
4. pally/priest healers on suicide watch

[LaCosaNos]

Thanks alot Keftenk and everyone! Really informative and insightful.

I definately feel more encouraged to go raid, even with all the struggle there is (all classes have their own battle in vanilla :p)


Ty!

[Hammersplat]

yeah, keftenks information needs to be stickied somewhere. There is so little information around about this spec which is the most effective druid healing spec atm.

[Undertanker]

Moonglow regrowth crit spec is nice, however because I do use potions on CD and conjure Lei of Lillies eating when needed, on these shorter fights I love my swiftmed HoT setup.

I shine of fights with a lot of raid damage and counter it right when it happens allowing priest / pally to focus tank while I do a Hero Charm Trinket on myself, Innervate myself, and spam hots. After that damage is over, potion + rune / lei of lillies and get my mana pool up for the next time.

In AQ moonglow regrowth will stand out more for longevity.