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Resto Drood Guide
Why the guide?
Ok, well, I'm very bored so I thought I'd write a resto drood guide from my perspective.
YOUR perspective?
Now some might say, why your perspective? Why not just tell us what's best! Everyone acts like druids are overpowered, simple, and obvious, to the point that any idiot can play the class. That's actually untrue, a GOOD resto druid is actually a rare thing. On top of that, each resto druid has his/her own preference to everything, and as with any class there are different ways to play the class.
What IS my perspective:
PERSONALLY I prefer the path of sustained raid healing. I don't play to make sure everyone remains topped off, though it is a nice goal just not the primary objective in my perspective. Rather I heal to make sure as many as I can get sustained constant healing until a class more suited to top off, aholy priest for example, can get to them. Doing this allows for a smoother cooperation between raid healers, as opposed to a chaotic one that relies on sporadic burst heals and the higher chance to wasted over healing.
I hope that makes sense to everyone reading this.
Talent Spec
For those who complain about tl;dr, I bring you the thing your prolly wanting most, the talent spec!
My personal spec(changed as of 3.3): Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
If you have any questions feel free to PM me, or post asking. Though, it would take took long to go into description of every talent chosen so I won't do that here.
Gear
I won't say what EXACTLY to choose, as that gets too tedious with the whole balancing of stats and the fact it all depends what u have available to you, but I will say my priority in stats.
Stats:
Spell Power>Haste>Spirit>Int>Crit
Why do I say this order?
SP is a given, we need it to heal good plain and simple.
Haste makes us heal fast! You'll want enough haste to get you to 1sec GCD(Global CoolDown) on rejuv/wild growth/etc, which is about 1193 haste with GOTE(gift of the earthmother) and no raid buffs. Though, you gain haste through boomkins/shamans/etc raid buffs too. I personally prefer to aim for the haste cap WITHOUT raid buffs, but since GOTE has been reworked the haste required for that is unbelievably high. So with 3.3, your goal should be aiming for haste cap while maintaining as high SP as you can.
Spirit is mana regen, and sp when in tree form. It's nice to have, trust me. Although, not as important as haste or sp.
Intelligence is mana. Larger mana pool leads to a longer period of time until you reach the point of OOM(out of mana). It also gives some crit chance, which at the moment is on the lower end of our druid healing concerns. Lastly, it gives some minor mp5. We're druids though, so who cares about mp5 we shouldn't be running out of mana anyway.
Crit is crit. We only have four spells we'll use that can crit, and their ability to crit really isn't that important beyond what talents can cover. There's swiftmend, lifebloom, nourish, and regrowth. Swiftmend's ability to crit isn't THAT important as it will still heal about 9k hp without critting, though a crit will make it about an 18k heal, nice but not necessary. Lifebloom, I'll be honest 99% of the time by the time it gets to the bloom(the only part that can crit) the person is most likely going to be at full hp anyway. So, the ability to crit is wonderful if you love to overheal, if you don't like overhealing, which you shouldn't, then crit isn't that important for lifebloom. That leaves nourish and regrowth, which we get over 25% chance to crit from talents alone. So, why need crit for these when talents alone suffice?
The age old question:
MH/OH or Staff?!?!?!? Personally I say MH/OH hands down. In general, you'll get more SP from a MH/OH than you will a staff. You might lose some spirit, which might lead to less mana regen, but I don't usually have a problem with mana regen, and when I do there are other options available, such as mana potions and innervate.
Set bonuses:
T9-4piece is a good beginner set, it is easily acquirable with triumph badges and it supplies a nice base amount of stats to work your character off of.
T10-4piece is what you should be aiming for in 3.3, though unlike our previous sets it is not a set you will be wearing 24/7. Since the 4 piece bonus is only optimal for fights that have an aura, like blood queen, it should only be used in those fights. Outside of those fights I suggest making a haste set.
Gems:
How you gem will be entirely based off of two factors. What the socket bonus is, and what meta gem requirements you need. If you have a piece with a +7 or +9 sp bonus and it requires only one non-red slot, I would gem for the bonus. If it's +5, that becomes your choice. I personally don't go out of my way for +5 gains. At most you lose only a small amount of SP from +7 and +9, and gain other valuable stats. If the socket bonus isn't a SP bonus, ignore the socket bonus and slot full red.
Regular slots:Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby - Item - World of WarcraftMeta choices:
Blue: Purified Dreadstone - Item - World of Warcraft
Yellow: Reckless Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft (if you need haste), Luminous Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft (if you don't need haste, which will very rarely be the case)
Ember Skyflare Diamond - Item - World of Warcraft
Insightful Earthsiege Diamond - Item - World of Warcraft
I prefer ember skyflare, as I have no issues with mana. If you find yourself having mana issues in raids, then you might want to switch to insightful earthsiege.
Idol:
Idol of Awakening - Item - World of Warcraft
Idol of Flaring Growth - Item - World of Warcraft
Idol of the Black Willow - Item - World of Warcraft
Flaring growth is the easiest to acquire, as you'll be wanting to aim all your frost badges toward T10 set.
Consumable:
Flask: Flask of the Frost Wyrm - Item - World of Warcraft
Enchants: (best possible enchants)
Head: Arcanum of Blissful Mending - Item - World of Warcraft
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Crag - Item - World of Warcraft
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed - Spell - World of Warcraft
Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats - Spell - World of Warcraft
Wrists: Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower - Spell - World of Warcraft
Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower - Spell - World of Warcraft
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread - Item - World of Warcraft
Boots: Enchant Boots - Greater Spirit - Spell - World of Warcraft or Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality - Spell - World of Warcraft (I suggest Tuskarr's)
1h: Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower - Spell - World of Warcraft
2h: Enchant Staff - Greater Spellpower - Spell - World of Warcraft
Professions:
If your the kind to choose professions for best possible outcome in a raid then you'll probably want tailoring. It's cloak enchant is the best SP bonus available from professions at the moment. Secondary profession I don't really know, they all give around the same SP bonus. Personally I love alchemy because I save money on flasks due to mixology buff.
Glyphs
Major:
Swiftmend
Wild growth
(3rd is personal preference)
Minor:
Unburdened rebirth
The wild
(Doesn't matter for 3rd)
How to healNow, how to use those precious heals you've specced for and geared to use effectively.
Rejuvination, it's our bread and butter. This should be your main heal, cast this on everyone taking damage. Depending on the fight it's not worth it to put it on tanks, but thats just something experience will teach u, until you learn that put it on everyone. Just remember tanks will have their own designated healers, so remember to rejuvinate the DPS/healers before the tank in times of heavy raid damage.
Wild growth, second most important spell. You'll want to be casting this on every cooldown so that it's always up. If you have enough awareness try to keep it on larger groups of people so that you get the most efficiency out of it.
Swifmend, I generally save this skill for need by need basis. I'll use it on anyone at or below 25% hp. Some people use this skill every cooldown, but the problem I find with that is if you do that, then when someone actually does NEED an urgent swiftmend they'll be out of luck.
Lifebloom, honestly I dont use this much, the healing it does is less than rejuvination so I feel it's a waste of a global cooldown. As said earlier when talkign about crit, its only worth while heal, the actual bloom, takes 9 seconds, which by the time 9 seconds has passed most people will be topped off anyway, so it really does just end up being a waste. Your better off with rejuvination, or nourish.
Nourish is a very nice quck heal. I'll use this on anyone at, or below, 25% hp, ASSUMING swiftmend is on cd. It'll do about 5-6k heal with a base 25% chance to crit, in which case it'll do about 8-10k. Since it has no cd, its got the same gcd as rejuv(1 sec when haste capped), so it's very fast to spam on multiple people if the need arises.
Regrowth is a slow heal, but has a long hot duration. The only time I really use this is for fights where tanks are the primary ones being damaged, fights with VERY little raid damage, like general vezax, or fights where one specific person is being targetted for a short period of time, like ignis' slag pot or kologarn's stone grip. Otherwise, I don't see much point to it besides the occasional HOTing of a tank.
Nature's swiftness is another very nice skill. It has a 3 min cooldown, but allows for one instant cast spell Personally, I use it with regrowth for the chance for regrowth to crit to allow a livign seed proc. Most pair it with healing touch though. Another personal preference, again up to u to decide. Either way, don't waste it on any short cast spells, like nourish.
Cure curse/poison, use them when u can. They help keep the raid alive more than heals sometimes so use them!
Interface
Here's a list of all addon's I use, that I can rememer to list, and a brief description of what they do.
My addons:
- Elkano's buff bars, it shows all my buffs with some customization(I can choose which buffs show and don't show, etc)
- Shadowed Unit Frames, basicly an HP bar for me/my target/focus/focus' target.
- Grid. A VERY useful raid bar addon that lets me see everyone in the raid's hp bar. It's very customizable.
- GridStatusHots. Basicly what this does is allows me to see hots(rejuv, wild growth, etc) on grid. Addon is also a bit tweaked so it shows only MY hots, and no other druids hots.
- GridStatusLifebloom. Allows me to see lifeblooms on grid and color code it so lets say 1 stack=red, 2=yellow, 3=green, etc
- GridIndicatorCornerText. Allows for text in the 4 corners(instead of just a box).
- GridManaBars. A useful addon to see everyones mana bar, so if someone needs an innervate you know when to give it.
- DruidAnnounces. Tells the raid when I use rebirth, whispers people when I innervate them so they know they've been innervated, etc
- ClassTimer. I have mine set up to only show my timers on my target. So, when I click a person I see in the center of my screen the duration of my hots on that person. Grid shows this too, but I prefer to see it somewhere else too, so I can look other places besides grid to keep my awareness up.
- BigBrother. Shows who's buffed with what, who's using flasks, etc
- Bartender4, skill bar addon.
- Azcastbar. Name says it all, It's a cast bar. I have it set to show the cast bar right above my grid.
- Addoncontrolpanel, not visible. Allows me to enable/disable addons without logging out.
- Recount. Shows healing meters, damage meters, etc. I usually have it set on damage so I can see who the top dps are, so if multiple die I can brez the top dps, rather than a lower dps.
- Parrot. Floating combat text addon, I love it.
- Deus Vox Encounter, my personal favorite raiding addon! Doesn't need much explanation, just GET IT.
- Omen. Nice addon that shows threat. Not much use to a healer in most cases, but it's nice to watch threat every now and then so you know who the main tank is, and if someones about to pull agro.
- Fortexorcist. A very nice cooldown counter. Displays your cooldowns by icon on a bar, as the cooldown gets closer to 0 the icon will slide across the bar. When the cooldown reaches zero the icon will "explode" letting you know the cooldown is over.
That about covers the guide of everything I can think of. If there's anything that needs to be added later, I'll add it and make a post notifying an update. If there are any questions, they can be pm'd to me or posted in the topic. If I get the same question enough, I'll end up making a FAQ section.
Quick Update
Guide has been completely updated for the most recent patch, 3.3.
Reply With Quote
Although we do talk him into it 
Originally Posted by CurLy
my UI is what works for me, everything i need to know is located around the center of my screen so im able to keep an eye on whats actually going on in the encounter while keeping an eye on the raids hp
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