So You Want To Throw HoTs in 3.3?

I haven’t played much WoW recently so I’ve not got round to doing anything about the Resto tree yet but a Resto Druid who I did a 5-man with today (hi Natora, if you’re reading) got me thinking about it so I figured I should put something up about being Resto in 3.3.

The main concern or change is with haste, due to the changes to Gift of the Earthmother.

• Pre-3.3: Reduces the base global cooldown of your Rejuvenation, Lifebloom and Wild Growth spells by 20%.
• Post-3.3: This talent now increases spell haste and reduces the base global cooldown by 2/4/6/8/10% instead of its previous effect. Now also reduces the base cooldown of your Lifebloom spell by 2/4/6/8/10%

I make that 10% off Lifebloom, a 10% haste increase and a 10% nerf to our base GCD, don’t you?

Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it. At all. If you know how to play your Druid well then you’re not going to have a problem. Some people have been dropping points in Resto to spec into Celestial Focus. This gave me a 0.04 second reduction in the cast time of Nourish. 0.04 seconds. At the moment we have about 5x that just in server lag. Maybe more. Plus, the amount of haste on the gear in Icecrown Citadel should keep everything covered.

My advice would be to spec for your role, as always. And to pick up the Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation.

I’ve tweaked my spec a little bit since the post I did on 3.2, I’ve removed Nature’s Grace because I’m doing more raid healing and not using Nourish as much. This leaves the only other non-periodic spell critting spells as Swiftmend (I only use it in emergencies) and Regrowth, which is cast once every 21 seconds. Do I need a 20% cast speed increase which isn’t certain every 21 seconds? Probably not.

I’m still sticking with my 5 points in Tranquil Spirit. I don’t know about you, but I like having mana. That little blue bar makes me think of blueberries. I like blueberries so I want as much of that as I can get. No blueberry in my bar makes me sad. Mana regen and useage isn’t really a problem but it’s less of a problem if you have 5 in Tranquil Spirit.

I then struggled to think where to put my last 4 points. Living Seed, I know, is very popular among Resto Druids but I thought back to my role within our raids and I’m only really casting a seedable spell on the tank once every 21 seconds (I very rarely Nourish the tanks) and it’s not guaranteed to crit. So, like the 20% cast speed increase…do I really need it? Probably not.

Do I want 3 points in Natural Perfection? Do I need 3% crit? What’s critting now? Nourish, not really using it and I already have a 25% increase in crits for Nourish and Regrowth from Nature’s Bounty, so do I need another 3%? Regrowth, meh, see previous sentence. Swiftmend, only when I’m desperate. Lifebloom’s bloom, no; whenever my Lifebloom blooms about 80% of it is overhealed.

Strangely, and I know all of this is potentially controversial amongst us Druids, the most useful for me is probably Revitalize. My two most used spells at the moment are Rejuv and Wild Growth. As a raid healer I have the Glyph of Wild Growth and now the Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation so having something that works with these is pretty handy. I know it’s not a massive amount but it’s free! And free…whatever you have on your bar, is never a bad thing. I suppose some could argue that having certain spells means free heals but I’ve got lots of other spells that do that.

I say this, but to be honest I’ve only got Revitalize for the pretty graphic when it goes off. Thanks, Marmite <3

Shadowpaws’ Spec in 3.3 – Unless I feel the need to change it, but I’ll tell you if I do!

Druid Resto Talents In 3.2

*Dusts the cobwebs off the blog and blows away the dust*

Ahem, crikey, this hasn’t been touched for a while, apologies for that. It’s that time again though, time for another WoW related blog post so without further ado, let’s take a look at…

Exciting, no? Well, actually…it is a little bit. For me at least because there are some fun choices to be made.

So, what’s expected for 3.2? The main things we’re going to see are:

• Lifebloom: The final heal that occurs when this spell blooms has been reduced by 20% on the base and on the spell power coefficient.
• Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 3 minutes. This means each use of Innervate will give half as much mana as before, but it will be available twice as often
• Empowered Touch: Now also increases the amount of bonus healing effects for Nourish by 10/20%.

Having a spell like Lifebloom, which critcally blooms for about 20k (for me) on a Paladin, nerfed by 20% does seem like a big nerf but recount will show that a lot of overhealing comes from Lifebloom and it’s that enormous bloom that’s causing it. You can’t look at it singularly though, this nerf has to be looked at alongside the extra goodness we’re getting from Empowered Touch.

We’re losing 20% from Lifebloom’s bloom but our Nourish is getting a yummy little buff. Although, saying that, we are waving goodbye to our Tier 7 set bonus. /weep You were a wonderful companion and I love you dearly. QQ.

Innervate, whilst one of the main changes, is a little on the unimportant side when you think about it. I don’t usually have mana problems while raiding so Innervate is often left untouched, being saved for another raid member just in case. Having it available twice as often would mean I could potentially help out a DPS or top up a healer, but I still can’t see it as being particularly important. In a way, I suppose it’s like a Range Rover’s off-road prowess, you don’t use it but if you need it, it’s there. Did I just compare Druid healing to a Range Rover? Moving on…

Raeina from Druidlove’s post got me thinking about my 3.2 talent build. I can’t see it being very different to what I’m currently running, which is good. However, we do have some choices.

Personally, and I know a lot of Druids aren’t with me on this, I love Nourish. I’ve been using it, and telling people to use it more, since Paws hit 80. When the Glyph of Nourish came out I was even more pleased. The buff to Empowered Touch makes it a definite talent choice in 3.2 and Raeina’s 3.2 build looks to be a good one.

However, both Raeina and I have similar current specs and I noticed an extra point was slipped into Subtlety. Completing my current build with the addition of Empowered Touch does mean losing two points in Living Seed. It’s no big loss and I tend to think of it as a luxury talent. But this spec, and there are talents such as Tranquil Spirit and Gift of the Earthmother which are dependent on how thirsty you are for mana and how much haste you have, leaves me with one point left over. The last to be picked. The kid in P.E. with the off-white shirt and pink-stained shorts from a mixed colour wash. It needs to be put somewhere, but where?

Living Seed? As a 10 man, mostly MT healer, I quite like Living Seed. It’s a free heal and even with a 33% chance on crits, it still could prove to be useful. It doesn’t do a massive amount of healing but it’s a heal your tank gets without you actually having to do anything…and that’s not a bad thing, right?

Revitalize? This would depend on your raid makeup, and let’s not forget, my spec and advice is based on my raid makeup, gear/gems/enchants and play style. What works for me might not work for you, but there’s no harm done in trying new things – unless you spend hours wiping because your new spec doesn’t work…which isn’t my fault, don’t hate me, please, I’m sorry! If you have enough replenishment in your raid then I wouldn’t bother with Revitalize. If it’s a little low you might want to look at dropping points from somewhere and speccing into it properly.

Natural Perfection? With the increase in crittable resto spells and the logical increased use of Nourish, having an extra 1% crit sounds quite appealing. You could also conjoin this respec with a re-gem as well, either to reduce your gemmed crit in favour of spell power or to boost your mp5. Whatever!

I’m torn between Natural Perfection and Living Seed but leaning everso slightly towards Natural Perfection and a small re-gem. I’m sure I’ll change my mind a few times though. For now, this is my spec for 3.2.