The Shattering (of Treant Form) 4.03a Restoration Guide
Under construction after 4.03a The Shattering.
Under construction after 4.03a The Shattering.
Note: All 4.03a changes are bolded, italicized, and underlined. Yes, I literally have nothing to do today (no work, school or WoW ) so this will get an overhaul. However, because I haven't had time to dabble with these changes, this guide will probably go through a lot of trial and error throughout the next week. Happy healing :). Because Bara thought my guide was boring (hello? it s a guide?) here's a screenshot.
1.) Intro: So you wanna be a tree (too bad)
2.) Abilties and Talents
3.) Stats
4.) Specs and Glyphs
5.) Gearing
6.) Enchanting and Gemming
7.) How to Heal and Assorted Tips
Introduction
Hello :) I assume if you are looking at this it's because you are interested in healing as a druid. That or you're really really bored. :D
Despite losing tree form, druid healing has not changed much as of patch 4.01, however, this is expected to change drastically for Cataclysm. For now, this guide will focus on ICC raiding.
Heals over time (HoTs) are still the main focus of our healing. As we head into Cataclysm, you will notice that there is a significant focus on Lifebloom. Some talents are focused on Lifebloom. Our T11 set bonus is also currently centered around Lifebloom. This does indicate perhaps a move towards more tank healing for us. But for now, I recommend Resto Druids focusing on raids, because the power of our HoTs after 4.01, as well as moves like Efflorescence and the smart healing of Wild Growth, make us powerful raid healers.
As of 4.03a, it is becoming more apparent that Blizzard's new raiding style is something they are super serial about. I was baffled about their claims of healers being more cautious and aware of mana consumption and healing wisely, when they made druids endless buckets of mana. But these changes, specifically aimed at our mana, prove to me that they weren't kidding around. Although a nerf was expected, it still sucks, and will force us all to reevaluate how we heal.
Abilities and Talents
Abilities
Rejuvenation: Although the tooltip says it's a low HoT, once you spec and glyph this properly, it will be one of your main heals.
Regrowth: This has been "nerfed," but it is still extremely effective. The time on the HoT placed by the casted heal has been shortened, making it less of a raid spam type heal. (I've seen druid's do it. I did it. heh). However, it is still an incredibly effective heal. The actual cast time has been shorten, and with about 1k haste, it is a 1.1 second cast. Honestly, it will replace nourish in terms of the pre-patch play style.
Lifebloom: Lifebloom's big change is that it only is allowed on one player at a time. The other change is that it no longer costs a boat load of mana, with the promise to return it once it blooms. I recommend keeping it up on a tank, not only for the extra HoT (extra heals on tanks is always good) but also because of Revitalized (discussed in Talents)
Nourish: It's cheap. It's slow. It heals barely anything. The only reason you will use Nourish is if you are tank healing. For the types of heals ICC requires, Nourish is almost completely useless, in my humble opinion.
Healing Touch: Expensive, slow, but strong. It's a tank heal. And a Nature's Swiftness panic button :)
Wild Growth: Wild Growth is now a smart heal (I don't know if it was changed pre Patch 4.01, but I've noticed it more recently), so it's far more useful. It's range hasn't been changed, but this smart heal mechanic (heal people who need it not just the closest nearby) makes it feel like it extends farther.
Rebirth: 30 minute cd, up from 10 mins. This sucks.
Tranquility: This is now a huge Raid aoe heal. It is channeled, so make sure you have time to use it. It's a great emergency raid-wide aoe heal, but beware of it's threat (it does generate more threat then usual) and it has a pretty steep cooldown (8 minutes). This is clearly a situational and emergency heal.
Talents
Restoration Tree (under construction)
Heart of the Wild: When maxed out, it increases your total intellect by 6%. A definite plus since intellect is important to us as a stat. It's an increase in not only mana pool, but also spell power and spell crit.
Master Shapeshifter: Now increases the time of Tree of Life form for 5/10 seconds. You should be taking this any ways, but it's a nice bonus.
Revitalize: This is by far my favorite new talent. When maxed out, it has a 20% chance when your Rejuvenation or Lifebloom heals (whether its a cast or a tick) to gain 3% of your total mana back. This has a 12 second cd, but 2% of your total mana (not Spirit or base mana) is a lot. And it procs often. With as many heals as your Rejuvenations can do, there is plenty of opportunity for it to proc.
But that's not all. Revitalize also gives the raid wide Replenishment (10 players) whenever you cast or renew Lifebloom. This is why it is imperative that you try to use Lifebloom in some way, shape or form; it now has mana regen raid utility.
Because of the changes to Revitalize, a considerable nerf, it forces us as druids to once again watch our mana consumption. I'm not telling you to go stack spirit again, but this allows for little carelessness in terms of Rejuvenation spamming. But as a healer of this guild, you shouldn't be doing that any ways :)
Living Seed -> Efflorescence: Living Seed hasn't changed, but Efflorescence is amazing. A third AoE heal for druids, reliant on using Swiftmend. This is great for tank healing, allowing some extra splash heals on melee. Plus it's really pretty. :)
Empowered Touch: This still increases the healing done of your Nourish and Healing Touch, they both now refresh your Lifebloom. Useful for tank healing.
Malfurion's Gift: Thanks to the removal of Fury of Stormage as a requirement for this talent, we can now happily take this. Because you should be using Lifebloom at all times on the tank, this is now a good talent for helping mana longevity. Because we are "gaining" 2 talent points in 4.03a, I recommend dropping them here.
This talent gives you a 2/4% chance to proc Omen of Clarity with every heal of a Lifebloom.
Swift Rejuvenation: This now is only 1 talent point, and decreases your GCD for Rejuvenation by .5 seconds.
Gift of the Earthmother: This increases the healing done by your Lifebloom's bloom, but it also allows for your Rejuvenation to heal 15% of it's total healing on cast.
Tree of Life: Now a 3 min cd. It lasts for 30 seconds. It increases your healing and your armor, but the most important thing it does is that it enhances some of our spells. Regrowth is an instant cast (and a mana eater so be careful). Lifebloom can be cast on as many players as possible. Wild Growth hits two extra players. Wrath's (if your bored and dpsing) cast time is cut in half. It's definitely useful for healing intensive parts in a fight. Definitely don't pass it up.
Balance Tree
Nature's Majesty: Maxed out, this is 4% extra crit to your spells. With the changes to HoTs, crit is now a viable stat to get. I only really recommend taking this talent if you are going to be focusing on HoTs for heals, and not Nourish/Healing Touch.
Nature's Grace: For every Moonfire, Insect Swarm and Regrowth you cast, you gain 5/10/15% haste for 15 seconds. It has a one minute cd, but the CD is refreshed when you hit Eclipse. You aren't going to get an Eclipse proc in Restoration, and a 1 minute cd is pretty steep. I still don't think this is worth taking at the moment. I predict this will be a talent for Lvl 85, if people are looking to score tier 2 of the balance tree.
Feral Tree
Furor: Increases your total mana by 5/10/15%. This is nice if you are having mana issues, as it increases your mana pool, and Revitalize is based on your mana pool.
Stats(In order of importance)
Intellect: This is now your "Spellpower" stat. It also increases your mana pool and spell crit. It's amazing. Embrace it.
Haste: Haste now makes our Rejuvenation tick faster. This means that if we get enough haste, we'll get an extra Rejuvenation tick. The recommended haste cap at the moment is 1016. This, along with raid buffs, should put you at enough haste (37.5%) to have an extra Rejuvenation tick.
Spell Crit: HoT's can now crit, without theT9 4 set bonus. So crit suddenly has some value for us. I don't recommend going out of your way to gain crit. You honestly get a lot of spell crit from intellect. But it's definitely not a stat to be overlooked.
Spirit: Spirit is our sole mana regen stat now. It's not useless by any means, but it's not what it used to be. The fact that Revitalize is based on our mana pool and not our spirit means we don't need to rely on Spirit as much as we use to for mana regen. I personally have reforged most of my spirit in favor for some haste. It's 40% of your spirit, so I still have a good amount, but reaching that haste cap is currently my priority. However, this is a choice based on gear. If you are having mana issues, don't drop the spirit.
Mastery: When you heal someone who has a HoT on them, it increases the potency of your heal. This is pretty nice, but I don't recommend reforging for it. There are stats that are more important to worry about. This has been "fixed" so that you MUST use a different spell to get the extra healing potency. For example: you cannot use Rejuvenation, then use it again to get extra potency.
Specs and Glyphs
Depending on what style of healing you prefer, as well as your gear, there are many different choices as far as specs and glyphs go.
Although there are obvious talents that should be taken, the end result of your spec should be based on personal choice and testing. Here are some basic specs that serve different purposes.
Everything Spec: This spec is for the healer who uses all of the druid's healing spells. It has the widest utility, and makes use of Healing Touch and Nourish for tank healing. There are two points left with a couple of options. If your mana is not an issue, I recommend dropping the talents into Nature's Majesty in the Balance tree. However, if you need the mana boost, Furor is your choice. The only change here is Malfurion's Gift, since you hve 2 points to spare and this is now accessible without Fury of Stormrage.
Rejuvenation Spec: This spec was made with a specific focus on Rejuvenation as a heal. This spec is not good for tank healing or for the healer who likes using Nourish a lot. This is the spec I use because I found I used Healing Touch and Nourish rarely, if at all. For the same amount of mana, and in less time, I can refresh Lifebloom with a simple Lifebloom. This completely erased Nourish's usefulness to me. There are three points that you can do what you want with, (like if you need Nature's Cure). I personally have them in Furor. Again, the only changeshere is the addition of Malfurion's Gift, since you have 2 points to spare and this is now accessible without Fury of Stormrage.
Help! I needs moar mana! If you are having a mana problem, placing points in Furor is the way to go. This not only gives you more mana, but also increases Revitalize. You can drop the points in Nature's Majesty if you need to.
Glyphs
Prime: Recommended: Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Swiftmend.
For your consideration: Regrowth. I do use Regrowth a lot, but I'm not entirely sure if it is worth dropping the other glyphs for. I know I said recommended, but in my mind, those recommended Prime glyphs are a must. I don't rely on a Regrowth HoT to heal someone up from 25% or lower, but I haven't tested this. However, the other glyphs offer extra heals and crit chance, and Swiftmend is invaluable.
Major: Recommended: Wild Growth, Rebirth, Innervate
For your consideration: Healing Touch. I do not use Healing Touch, but the decrease of your Swiftmend cd is appealing. However, when you consider what to replace, it's about personal play style. Wild Growth is more effective now, so you won't find that extra heal on a pet with full health any more. And how many times have you Rebirth'd someone and they died right out. Well it's happened to me a lot. And with the cd of Rebirth increased, Rebirth shouldn't be wasted. Innervate is a personal choice, so if you want Healing Touch, drop this. Lately, I find that I let others have my Innervate, so it's nice getting the extra mana back.
Minor: Recommended: Unburdened Rebirth. You should have this. There is no excuse not too. Mark of the Wild is also the only other useful one.
The third is up to you. There really isn't anything important left. Glyph of Dash is nice if you're like me and use Cat form in a pinch for extra speed.
I'm nostalgic so I'll probably be picking up the Glyph of Treant. It's a minor glyph that remakes your tree form into the old, Treant form.
Gearing
Because of Leather Mastery (hello 5% intellect increase) it is imperative that you strive for all leather now. Before many of our BIS pieces were cloth, but this has changed drastically.
When comparing two same iLevel pieces, one cloth, one leather, there will never be a stat on the cloth piece that will be worth losing the 5% intellect. So go for leather pieces. Blizzard wants you too. :D
As far as choosing gear for restoration, it is pretty straightforward. There aren't any leather drops with hit on them in ICC. If it's leather but it has Agility, it's not for you. :)
T10 Set Bonuses: For 10 man raids, the 4 set bonus is not something I recommend striving for. The 2 set is fine, but when looking at a 251 T10 set piece and a 264 regular piece, if the stat choices are better, I'd go for the 264. The 4 set bonus is really just not worth losing the extra stats.
Enchanting and Gemming.
Gems
Meta: Insightful Earthsiege Diamond orEmber Skyflare Diamond: Because they changed spellpower to intellect, the Ember Skylfare Diamond is more of a viable choice. 2% increase in mana pool effects our Revitalize. Insightful Earthsiege returns 600 mana, with a reported 2% chance proc rate. I find it proc's a lot. However, Ember Skyflare has easier to meet gem requirements.
There has been reports that Ember does not work as far as the 2% goes. For now, stick with Insightful Earthsiege
Blue: (Going for slot bonus or Meta) Purified Dreadstone/ (If not)Brilliant Cardinal Ruby/ Reckless Ametrine
Red: Brillant Cardinal Ruby or Reckless Ametrine
Yellow: Reckless Ametrine/ Quick King's Amber
Gemming for the slot bonus: I currently don't think gemming for slot bonuses is viable anymore. Most of our slot bonuses is 5/9 spellpower or so. I would personally not want to give up an extra 10 intellect for something so trivial as 9 spellpower.
Enchants
Helm: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (Spellpower/Crit from Kirin Tor), Arcanum of Blissful Mending (Spellpower/Spirit from Wyrmrest)
Cloak: Greater Speed (Haste), or Lightweave(Spellpower)/Darkweave(mana back) Embroidary (Tailoring).
Chest: Powerful Stats
Boots: Tuskarr's Vitality: This is a boost in survivability. Extra running speed and stam never hurt anyone. And the other enchants available aren't really that great.
Everything else is the spellpower enchant.
How to heal and Assorted Tips
For tank/single target healing:
Keep Lifebloom stacked on the tank (or a tank). Not only is this an effective HoT, it is also a huge source of our mana return. It also gives Replenishment to the raid. Isn't that nice of us :D
Use Healing Touch and Nourish when necessary. If you are tank healing, remember to use Nourish or Healing Touch to refresh Lifebloom.
Rejuvenation should be used as a non-emergency heal. Use this to get people up if they aren't topped off. However, remember that, Rejuvenation is not a bubble. A druid who spams Rejuvenation on every single player all the time is causing a lot of unneccesary overhealing and mana use. Rejuvenation does not act like a bubble. Yes, it helps minimize damage like a bubble, but it's not an absorption and like a bubble, you need to be smart about using it. Rejuvenation doesn't have the long duration either, so you will constantly be spamming it with this thought process. And remember, with Gift of the Earthmother, Rejuvenation gives out a small heal upon instant cast. So utilize this.
Regrowth is your spot heal. If you notice someone took a decent amount of damage and you need to heal them fast, cast a Regrowth. Regrowth is a strong heal, has a high crit chance (more then Nourish), and is fast. Be warned that it is fairly expensive, so don't always use it when the damage can easily be taken care of by a Rejuvenation (also expensive, but can proc Revitalize).
For AoE healing
Use Swiftmend intelligently. Not only does Swiftmend heal a nice chunk, Efflorescence is a great heal for multiple players. However, it's not that great if you're standing by yourself in a corner. I particularly like using it on the tank, when melee are around, or if a bunch of casters are nearby and one (a clothy) needs a serious heal. The cd is fast (15 seconds) and some talents reduce it even further.
Wild Growth is a great aoe heal. Because of its smart heal mechanic you no longer have to be overly aware of where you drop it. The most effective way to use Wild Growth is to drop it after damage hits because Wild Growth loses potency with every tick. This is why it is important to know when damage is about to hit (see below: Watch boss cds.)
If you get stuck in a tight situation, Tranquility is there for you. It is now raid wide and incredibly powerful. It does have a long cd, so remember not to rely on it.
Other Tips
Watch boss cds. Use Deus Vox Ecounters, BigWigs or DBM, or other boss alert type addons. You can then time spells like Wild Growth and Swiftmend/Efflorescence and prepare for heavy AoE damage.
Invest in a healing addon. I know some people might give other's crap about using a healing addon, but honestly, your heals and reaction times will be better. I recommend VuhDo, Healbot, or Grid/Grid Click Set.
If you have any concerns, comments, or questions, please feel free to ask me, in game or out. I also appreciate any feedback. This is my first guide. Thanks :D
Covington
1.) Intro: So you wanna be a tree (too bad)
2.) Abilties and Talents
3.) Stats
4.) Specs and Glyphs
5.) Gearing
6.) Enchanting and Gemming
7.) How to Heal and Assorted Tips
Introduction
Hello :) I assume if you are looking at this it's because you are interested in healing as a druid. That or you're really really bored. :D
Despite losing tree form, druid healing has not changed much as of patch 4.01, however, this is expected to change drastically for Cataclysm. For now, this guide will focus on ICC raiding.
Heals over time (HoTs) are still the main focus of our healing. As we head into Cataclysm, you will notice that there is a significant focus on Lifebloom. Some talents are focused on Lifebloom. Our T11 set bonus is also currently centered around Lifebloom. This does indicate perhaps a move towards more tank healing for us. But for now, I recommend Resto Druids focusing on raids, because the power of our HoTs after 4.01, as well as moves like Efflorescence and the smart healing of Wild Growth, make us powerful raid healers.
As of 4.03a, it is becoming more apparent that Blizzard's new raiding style is something they are super serial about. I was baffled about their claims of healers being more cautious and aware of mana consumption and healing wisely, when they made druids endless buckets of mana. But these changes, specifically aimed at our mana, prove to me that they weren't kidding around. Although a nerf was expected, it still sucks, and will force us all to reevaluate how we heal.
Abilities and Talents
Abilities
Rejuvenation: Although the tooltip says it's a low HoT, once you spec and glyph this properly, it will be one of your main heals.
Regrowth: This has been "nerfed," but it is still extremely effective. The time on the HoT placed by the casted heal has been shortened, making it less of a raid spam type heal. (I've seen druid's do it. I did it. heh). However, it is still an incredibly effective heal. The actual cast time has been shorten, and with about 1k haste, it is a 1.1 second cast. Honestly, it will replace nourish in terms of the pre-patch play style.
Lifebloom: Lifebloom's big change is that it only is allowed on one player at a time. The other change is that it no longer costs a boat load of mana, with the promise to return it once it blooms. I recommend keeping it up on a tank, not only for the extra HoT (extra heals on tanks is always good) but also because of Revitalized (discussed in Talents)
Nourish: It's cheap. It's slow. It heals barely anything. The only reason you will use Nourish is if you are tank healing. For the types of heals ICC requires, Nourish is almost completely useless, in my humble opinion.
Healing Touch: Expensive, slow, but strong. It's a tank heal. And a Nature's Swiftness panic button :)
Wild Growth: Wild Growth is now a smart heal (I don't know if it was changed pre Patch 4.01, but I've noticed it more recently), so it's far more useful. It's range hasn't been changed, but this smart heal mechanic (heal people who need it not just the closest nearby) makes it feel like it extends farther.
Rebirth: 30 minute cd, up from 10 mins. This sucks.
Tranquility: This is now a huge Raid aoe heal. It is channeled, so make sure you have time to use it. It's a great emergency raid-wide aoe heal, but beware of it's threat (it does generate more threat then usual) and it has a pretty steep cooldown (8 minutes). This is clearly a situational and emergency heal.
Talents
Restoration Tree (under construction)
Heart of the Wild: When maxed out, it increases your total intellect by 6%. A definite plus since intellect is important to us as a stat. It's an increase in not only mana pool, but also spell power and spell crit.
Master Shapeshifter: Now increases the time of Tree of Life form for 5/10 seconds. You should be taking this any ways, but it's a nice bonus.
Revitalize: This is by far my favorite new talent. When maxed out, it has a 20% chance when your Rejuvenation or Lifebloom heals (whether its a cast or a tick) to gain 3% of your total mana back. This has a 12 second cd, but 2% of your total mana (not Spirit or base mana) is a lot. And it procs often. With as many heals as your Rejuvenations can do, there is plenty of opportunity for it to proc.
But that's not all. Revitalize also gives the raid wide Replenishment (10 players) whenever you cast or renew Lifebloom. This is why it is imperative that you try to use Lifebloom in some way, shape or form; it now has mana regen raid utility.
Because of the changes to Revitalize, a considerable nerf, it forces us as druids to once again watch our mana consumption. I'm not telling you to go stack spirit again, but this allows for little carelessness in terms of Rejuvenation spamming. But as a healer of this guild, you shouldn't be doing that any ways :)
Living Seed -> Efflorescence: Living Seed hasn't changed, but Efflorescence is amazing. A third AoE heal for druids, reliant on using Swiftmend. This is great for tank healing, allowing some extra splash heals on melee. Plus it's really pretty. :)
Empowered Touch: This still increases the healing done of your Nourish and Healing Touch, they both now refresh your Lifebloom. Useful for tank healing.
Malfurion's Gift: Thanks to the removal of Fury of Stormage as a requirement for this talent, we can now happily take this. Because you should be using Lifebloom at all times on the tank, this is now a good talent for helping mana longevity. Because we are "gaining" 2 talent points in 4.03a, I recommend dropping them here.
This talent gives you a 2/4% chance to proc Omen of Clarity with every heal of a Lifebloom.
Swift Rejuvenation: This now is only 1 talent point, and decreases your GCD for Rejuvenation by .5 seconds.
Gift of the Earthmother: This increases the healing done by your Lifebloom's bloom, but it also allows for your Rejuvenation to heal 15% of it's total healing on cast.
Tree of Life: Now a 3 min cd. It lasts for 30 seconds. It increases your healing and your armor, but the most important thing it does is that it enhances some of our spells. Regrowth is an instant cast (and a mana eater so be careful). Lifebloom can be cast on as many players as possible. Wild Growth hits two extra players. Wrath's (if your bored and dpsing) cast time is cut in half. It's definitely useful for healing intensive parts in a fight. Definitely don't pass it up.
Balance Tree
Nature's Majesty: Maxed out, this is 4% extra crit to your spells. With the changes to HoTs, crit is now a viable stat to get. I only really recommend taking this talent if you are going to be focusing on HoTs for heals, and not Nourish/Healing Touch.
Nature's Grace: For every Moonfire, Insect Swarm and Regrowth you cast, you gain 5/10/15% haste for 15 seconds. It has a one minute cd, but the CD is refreshed when you hit Eclipse. You aren't going to get an Eclipse proc in Restoration, and a 1 minute cd is pretty steep. I still don't think this is worth taking at the moment. I predict this will be a talent for Lvl 85, if people are looking to score tier 2 of the balance tree.
Feral Tree
Furor: Increases your total mana by 5/10/15%. This is nice if you are having mana issues, as it increases your mana pool, and Revitalize is based on your mana pool.
Stats(In order of importance)
Intellect: This is now your "Spellpower" stat. It also increases your mana pool and spell crit. It's amazing. Embrace it.
Haste: Haste now makes our Rejuvenation tick faster. This means that if we get enough haste, we'll get an extra Rejuvenation tick. The recommended haste cap at the moment is 1016. This, along with raid buffs, should put you at enough haste (37.5%) to have an extra Rejuvenation tick.
Spell Crit: HoT's can now crit, without theT9 4 set bonus. So crit suddenly has some value for us. I don't recommend going out of your way to gain crit. You honestly get a lot of spell crit from intellect. But it's definitely not a stat to be overlooked.
Spirit: Spirit is our sole mana regen stat now. It's not useless by any means, but it's not what it used to be. The fact that Revitalize is based on our mana pool and not our spirit means we don't need to rely on Spirit as much as we use to for mana regen. I personally have reforged most of my spirit in favor for some haste. It's 40% of your spirit, so I still have a good amount, but reaching that haste cap is currently my priority. However, this is a choice based on gear. If you are having mana issues, don't drop the spirit.
Mastery: When you heal someone who has a HoT on them, it increases the potency of your heal. This is pretty nice, but I don't recommend reforging for it. There are stats that are more important to worry about. This has been "fixed" so that you MUST use a different spell to get the extra healing potency. For example: you cannot use Rejuvenation, then use it again to get extra potency.
Specs and Glyphs
Depending on what style of healing you prefer, as well as your gear, there are many different choices as far as specs and glyphs go.
Although there are obvious talents that should be taken, the end result of your spec should be based on personal choice and testing. Here are some basic specs that serve different purposes.
Everything Spec: This spec is for the healer who uses all of the druid's healing spells. It has the widest utility, and makes use of Healing Touch and Nourish for tank healing. There are two points left with a couple of options. If your mana is not an issue, I recommend dropping the talents into Nature's Majesty in the Balance tree. However, if you need the mana boost, Furor is your choice. The only change here is Malfurion's Gift, since you hve 2 points to spare and this is now accessible without Fury of Stormrage.
Rejuvenation Spec: This spec was made with a specific focus on Rejuvenation as a heal. This spec is not good for tank healing or for the healer who likes using Nourish a lot. This is the spec I use because I found I used Healing Touch and Nourish rarely, if at all. For the same amount of mana, and in less time, I can refresh Lifebloom with a simple Lifebloom. This completely erased Nourish's usefulness to me. There are three points that you can do what you want with, (like if you need Nature's Cure). I personally have them in Furor. Again, the only changeshere is the addition of Malfurion's Gift, since you have 2 points to spare and this is now accessible without Fury of Stormrage.
Help! I needs moar mana! If you are having a mana problem, placing points in Furor is the way to go. This not only gives you more mana, but also increases Revitalize. You can drop the points in Nature's Majesty if you need to.
Glyphs
Prime: Recommended: Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Swiftmend.
For your consideration: Regrowth. I do use Regrowth a lot, but I'm not entirely sure if it is worth dropping the other glyphs for. I know I said recommended, but in my mind, those recommended Prime glyphs are a must. I don't rely on a Regrowth HoT to heal someone up from 25% or lower, but I haven't tested this. However, the other glyphs offer extra heals and crit chance, and Swiftmend is invaluable.
Major: Recommended: Wild Growth, Rebirth, Innervate
For your consideration: Healing Touch. I do not use Healing Touch, but the decrease of your Swiftmend cd is appealing. However, when you consider what to replace, it's about personal play style. Wild Growth is more effective now, so you won't find that extra heal on a pet with full health any more. And how many times have you Rebirth'd someone and they died right out. Well it's happened to me a lot. And with the cd of Rebirth increased, Rebirth shouldn't be wasted. Innervate is a personal choice, so if you want Healing Touch, drop this. Lately, I find that I let others have my Innervate, so it's nice getting the extra mana back.
Minor: Recommended: Unburdened Rebirth. You should have this. There is no excuse not too. Mark of the Wild is also the only other useful one.
The third is up to you. There really isn't anything important left. Glyph of Dash is nice if you're like me and use Cat form in a pinch for extra speed.
I'm nostalgic so I'll probably be picking up the Glyph of Treant. It's a minor glyph that remakes your tree form into the old, Treant form.
Gearing
Because of Leather Mastery (hello 5% intellect increase) it is imperative that you strive for all leather now. Before many of our BIS pieces were cloth, but this has changed drastically.
When comparing two same iLevel pieces, one cloth, one leather, there will never be a stat on the cloth piece that will be worth losing the 5% intellect. So go for leather pieces. Blizzard wants you too. :D
As far as choosing gear for restoration, it is pretty straightforward. There aren't any leather drops with hit on them in ICC. If it's leather but it has Agility, it's not for you. :)
T10 Set Bonuses: For 10 man raids, the 4 set bonus is not something I recommend striving for. The 2 set is fine, but when looking at a 251 T10 set piece and a 264 regular piece, if the stat choices are better, I'd go for the 264. The 4 set bonus is really just not worth losing the extra stats.
Enchanting and Gemming.
Gems
Meta: Insightful Earthsiege Diamond or
There has been reports that Ember does not work as far as the 2% goes. For now, stick with Insightful Earthsiege
Blue: (Going for slot bonus or Meta) Purified Dreadstone/ (If not)Brilliant Cardinal Ruby/ Reckless Ametrine
Red: Brillant Cardinal Ruby or Reckless Ametrine
Yellow: Reckless Ametrine/ Quick King's Amber
Gemming for the slot bonus: I currently don't think gemming for slot bonuses is viable anymore. Most of our slot bonuses is 5/9 spellpower or so. I would personally not want to give up an extra 10 intellect for something so trivial as 9 spellpower.
Enchants
Helm: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (Spellpower/Crit from Kirin Tor), Arcanum of Blissful Mending (Spellpower/Spirit from Wyrmrest)
Cloak: Greater Speed (Haste), or Lightweave(Spellpower)/Darkweave(mana back) Embroidary (Tailoring).
Chest: Powerful Stats
Boots: Tuskarr's Vitality: This is a boost in survivability. Extra running speed and stam never hurt anyone. And the other enchants available aren't really that great.
Everything else is the spellpower enchant.
How to heal and Assorted Tips
For tank/single target healing:
Keep Lifebloom stacked on the tank (or a tank). Not only is this an effective HoT, it is also a huge source of our mana return. It also gives Replenishment to the raid. Isn't that nice of us :D
Use Healing Touch and Nourish when necessary. If you are tank healing, remember to use Nourish or Healing Touch to refresh Lifebloom.
Rejuvenation should be used as a non-emergency heal. Use this to get people up if they aren't topped off. However, remember that, Rejuvenation is not a bubble. A druid who spams Rejuvenation on every single player all the time is causing a lot of unneccesary overhealing and mana use. Rejuvenation does not act like a bubble. Yes, it helps minimize damage like a bubble, but it's not an absorption and like a bubble, you need to be smart about using it. Rejuvenation doesn't have the long duration either, so you will constantly be spamming it with this thought process. And remember, with Gift of the Earthmother, Rejuvenation gives out a small heal upon instant cast. So utilize this.
Regrowth is your spot heal. If you notice someone took a decent amount of damage and you need to heal them fast, cast a Regrowth. Regrowth is a strong heal, has a high crit chance (more then Nourish), and is fast. Be warned that it is fairly expensive, so don't always use it when the damage can easily be taken care of by a Rejuvenation (also expensive, but can proc Revitalize).
For AoE healing
Use Swiftmend intelligently. Not only does Swiftmend heal a nice chunk, Efflorescence is a great heal for multiple players. However, it's not that great if you're standing by yourself in a corner. I particularly like using it on the tank, when melee are around, or if a bunch of casters are nearby and one (a clothy) needs a serious heal. The cd is fast (15 seconds) and some talents reduce it even further.
Wild Growth is a great aoe heal. Because of its smart heal mechanic you no longer have to be overly aware of where you drop it. The most effective way to use Wild Growth is to drop it after damage hits because Wild Growth loses potency with every tick. This is why it is important to know when damage is about to hit (see below: Watch boss cds.)
If you get stuck in a tight situation, Tranquility is there for you. It is now raid wide and incredibly powerful. It does have a long cd, so remember not to rely on it.
Other Tips
Watch boss cds. Use Deus Vox Ecounters, BigWigs or DBM, or other boss alert type addons. You can then time spells like Wild Growth and Swiftmend/Efflorescence and prepare for heavy AoE damage.
Invest in a healing addon. I know some people might give other's crap about using a healing addon, but honestly, your heals and reaction times will be better. I recommend VuhDo, Healbot, or Grid/Grid Click Set.
If you have any concerns, comments, or questions, please feel free to ask me, in game or out. I also appreciate any feedback. This is my first guide. Thanks :D
Covington
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