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 4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana)

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PostSubject: 4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana)   4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana) Icon_minitimeFri Dec 09, 2011 5:11 pm

Version: 4.3, level 85 cataclysm release (11/28/2011)

This guide is also available on my blog at www.restokin.com

How to heal as an 85 restoration druid in Cataclysm.

Introduction to druid healing, written at a beginner/intermediate level (so, druids looking for advanced help should look at the additional resource links provided).

4.3 Updates: The only real change to resto druids is the change to Wild Growth. Wild Growth will now heal for less than it did before. In addition, the Glyph of Wild Growth now adds 2 seconds to the cooldown of Wild Growth when it adds a 6th person to possibly be hit by the spell. The glyph of Wild Growth is still a benefit for 25-man raids in general, and is only useful for 10-man raids when you stack up. It shouldn't be something you glyph for if you primarily run 5-mans (but there aren't any better glyphs for smaller group content in its place). See glyph section for more info.


Table of contents:
1. healing part 1: Description of Healing spells
2. Healing part 2: Mastery & tree form
2a. Healing part 2 continued: Other spells
3. Healing part 3: Tank and raid healing advice
4. Resto: Talents
5. Resto: Glyphs
6. Resto: Stats and Gearing
7. Consumables, Gems, and Enchants
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PostSubject: Re: 4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana)   4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana) Icon_minitimeFri Dec 09, 2011 5:12 pm

Part 1: Description of Healing tools at 85 – Getting to know your spells.
(Updated 6/21/11 for level 85 healing in 4.2)

Before I describe how to heal, I need to introduce you to the changes in spells and how they will work.

Single-target Direct Heals: any of these spells will activate the new 4.2 mastery, along with Swiftmend.

• Healing Touch (2.5 sec cast time after Naturalist, mana expensive). Heals for a large amount, but has a high mana cost, and a semi-long cast time. You can use this to refresh Lifebloom on your target (with talents). Use this when you need a big heal on a tank or raid/party member. Omen of Clarity procs will make this spell cost no mana to cast. You want to macro your Nature's Swiftness to this spell, since it's our largest direct heal.

• Nourish (2.5 sec cast time after naturalist, mana efficient). Cast time is the same as Healing Touch. However, it costs less mana and heals for less than HT, which is our “efficient” heal when you first hit 85 and have mana problems. Empowered Touch allows nourish to refresh lifebloom on that target, so you can use this to refresh Lifebloom on your tank and help keep up your Harmony mastery during raids.

• Regrowth (1.5 sec, mana inefficient) Heals for a medium amount and is our “flash” heal. The HOT duration lasts for 6 seconds. Use when you can afford the mana and need a fast heal (but don’t spam or you will run out of mana when you first hit 85). You can also use this when you are in tree form and get Omen of Clarity procs for mana-free instant regrowths. Can also be used in specific boss encounters that require fast direct heals.

Single-target HOTs: The "bread and butter" of druid healing is not about direct heals, however. The primary tools of resto druids are our Heal over Time (HOT) spells.

• Lifebloom (instant) is your tank HOT. You can only have this on one person at a time (unless you are in tree form). If you move it to a new target, it doesn’t force the bloom, it just ends on the first target. You will need to keep a 3-stack of lifebloom up on your tank, even if you are raid healing. It is recommended that you refresh with a direct heal when you need to refresh your mastery buff and then use LB to refresh LB when you don’t need to refresh your mastery buff (or if it's about to fall off). When in tree form, you can sprinkle this around raid members to try and get more Omen of Clarity procs.
• Rejuvenation (instant) is a primary healing spell for you as a raid heal. Rejuv has a chance to give you the mana return from revitalize, and gets a small instant heal from gift of the earth mother. Rejuv works best on tanks and on lightly wounded targets, ie. people who are likely to be taking damage over time to benefit from the most HOT ticks, and you should use this as your primary heal for sprinkling around on raid members instead of using single-target direct heals when there is a lot of AOE splash damage happening.

Multi-target AOE heals: Your Area of Effect healing choices are somewhat limited, which is why Rejuv ends up being used as a filler between your multi-target HOTs. Swiftmend counts in this category, since you will have to be mindful of making sure you are making the most use out of Efflorescence.

• Swiftmend (instant, 15 sec cooldown) puts a medium-size direct heal on a target effected by a rejuv/regrowth HOT, and then efflorescence will sprout an 8 yard circle around that target (when talented). Up to 3 people standing in that circle gets healed for up to 7 seconds. Moving out of the circle stops healing. Since swiftmend activates the Harmony mastery, in addition to the incredible amount of healing done by the spell, you really should use this spell every time it comes off cooldown. While you should use this every cooldown, make sure you are trying to maximize the amount of healing it does with the large direct heal and AOE HOT.

• Wild Growth (instant, 8 to 10 sec cooldown) is still a “smart” heal that hits multiple targets to heal over time. Use this often as an AOE heal, both when you are assigned to raid healing and when you are assigned to tank healing, since using it will help out your raid a lot in times of AOE damage. The base cooldown is 8 seconds healing 5 people. The glyph changes this to 6 people but increases the cooldown to 8 seconds.

• Tranquility (channeled over 7 sec, 3 min cooldown after talents) – Heals 5 low-health party & raid members (ie. no longer limited to people in your group). It has a big direct heal that hits about every 2 seconds, and also applies a HOT that stacks up to 3 times that lasts for the duration. Use this as your emergency AOE heal, and try plan in advance which phases to use it (in most raid encounters, it's possible to plan ways to use it twice in heavy AOE phases).
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PostSubject: Re: 4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana)   4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana) Icon_minitimeFri Dec 09, 2011 5:12 pm

Part 2: Mastery, tree form, and other spells (updated 6/11/2011 for 85 in 4.2)

Mastery: Mastery is a bonus you get for choosing restoration as your talent spec focus. Mastery is also a stat on high-level (85) gear. Our current mastery is called harmony.

Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.

Harmony actually has two effects:
• First, it buffs all of our direct heals by 10% plus mastery on your gear. Direct heals are considered to be: nourish, regrowth, healing touch, and swiftmend.
• Second, you get a buff on YOU for 10 seconds that buffs your HOTs by 10% plus mastery from gear. You get this buff every time you cast a direct heal (including swiftmend!).

Here's how this will work in practice:
• Use Swiftmend to refresh your mastery every time Swiftmend comes off cooldown (keeping in mind that you should choose someone who will benefit from swiftmend/Efflorescence when you use it).
• You will want to use a direct heal to refresh Lifebloom on your tank to activate the mastery between Swiftmend casts (the buff is 10 seconds, and swiftmend has a 15 sec cooldown).
• Between swiftmend casting and using direct heals to keep lifebloom rolling, the mastery actually encourages you to have a good healing style that is still incredibly HOT-focused and semi-mobile. This mastery has the potential of buffing every cast you make if you manage it correctly (ie. near 100% up-time on your healing).

Tree Form

Tree of Life (instant – shapeshift form) is a 3 minute cooldown, with a 25 second duration (up to 31 seconds with talents). Pop this at times when you need to heal for more (as it gives you a 6% increase to healing to all your spells). When you go into tree form, a couple of your spells get benefits for the duration of the effect. The ones most relevant to healing at 85 are:

• Regrowth becomes instant cast, which means you can cast it on the move. Use this as an emergency direct heal when you are in tree form (especially when OOC procs).
• Lifebloom can be put on more than one target. This allows you to briefly use it to stack with other HOTs on raid members for increased healing output. Or, you can stack it up on a 2nd tank when times are tough. I tend to sprinkle around some lifeblooms to try and increase my OOC proc rate during tree phase (and then the ones on DPS or a second tank are allowed to bloom). When OOC procs, I use my instant regrowths.
• Wild Growth will hit up to 2 more targets (most useful in a 25-man setting)
• It also gives a bonus to wrath & roots for PvP/soloing (for example, use tree form for doing damage in Chimaeron’s 3rd phase when healing doesn’t work anymore)
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PostSubject: Re: 4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana)   4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana) Icon_minitimeFri Dec 09, 2011 5:12 pm

part 2a: Other Resto abilities:

Remove corruption: allows you to remove 1 magic (if talented), curse, and poison effect. All of our dispels are in this one button.

Mark of the Wild: Now raid-wide and gift of the wild was removed. Does not cost a reagent. Same buff as paladin Kings (so only one of the two can be on someone at a time).

Innervate: When you cast innervate on yourself, you regen 20% of your mana. When you cast it on someone else, they regenerate 5% of their mana. So, it is usually preferable to cast it on yourself.

Thorns: Lasts for 20 seconds and has a 45 second cooldown. You can put it on your tank to make your tank do more damage. (not required)

Nature’s Swiftness: You can macro this to Healing Touch for another instant burst tool when you choose this talent.

Rebirth: In-combat resurrection. Cooldown is 10 minutes, but the raid group can only res 1 person per fight in 10-mans, or up to 3 reses per fight in 25-mans. Warlock & DK’s in-combat res abilities count towards this total. You should use the rebirth glyph so that the person will res at full health (making your res not ever get wasted when you use it). I also use the Rebirther addon for tracking who used their reses in 25-man raids.
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PostSubject: Re: 4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana)   4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana) Icon_minitimeFri Dec 09, 2011 5:12 pm

3. Tank and raid healing advice (6/27/11)

General healing advice:
• You will use swiftmend for Efflorescence procs as an AOE heal, and you want to use Swiftmend every time it comes off cooldown. In addition, lifebloom should be on one tank target at all times (even when assigned to raid healing).

• You prime your Harmony mastery with a direct heal once every ~10 seconds (note that direct heals don’t need the mastery buff up to benefit, they get the bonus all the time). Since Swifmend is a 15 second cooldown and activates your mastery, you really only need to cast direct heals inbetween swiftmend casts (for raid healers, this will mostly come in the form of using nourish to refresh Lifebloom on the tank).

Tank healing at 85:
• Put a 3 stack of lifebloom on the tank you are assigned to, and don’t let it fall off. Nourish, Healing Touch, and regrowth will refresh LB’s duration if you have empowered touch (and refreshing LB with a direct heal will give you the Harmony mastery buff). With more than 1 druid, assign each druid to put LB on a different tank if you have multiple tanks in an encounter.

• Put rejuv on all the tanks & refresh as needed. Use a mix of direct heals as you find best suits the encounter and your group’s needs: HT when big damage, Nourish when little damage, Regrowth as an emergency spot-heal. You can still swiftmend the tank, because if he’s standing still, he’ll still benefit from the large burst heal and your efflorescence proc (and if melee are close, it will hit them, too). You can also use swiftmend, Wild Growth, and rejuvs to help out your raid with AOE healing even as a tank healer.

• Healing Touch is your highest “heals per second” spell, and is slightly more mana efficient than regrowth, so this is an important tool for when the tank is taking heavy damage. Use Nourish when you need a mana efficient heal (to conserve your mana resources and reduce over-healing) during times where your tank isn’t taking that much damage. Try to use Nourish on tanks that already have a HOT on them. Regrowth is an emergency heal that should never be spammed (except in fights where the mechanics favor use of "flash heals" for all classes).


HOT tanks while healing the raid
• Roll 3x lifebloom on a single tank. You can use direct heals (regrowth, nourish, or HT) to refresh LB on your tank and to activate the Harmony mastery (nourish is preferred if it's likely to result in over-healing). You can refresh LB with LB if your harmony doesn't need to be refreshed.

• Use your AOE heals (wild growth & Swiftmend/Efflorescence) every time they come off cooldown. Keep in mind that Efflorescence only heals up to 3 targets at a time, so it can be used effectively on small groups of people or even just one without losing too much effectiveness.

• Put Rejuvenation on your tanks and use rejuvenation on light to medium-wounded targets in your raid group. You can also use rejuv proactively to try to get several rejuvs sprinkled around the raid group on people likely to be taking damage in the near future (and to set up who you may want to swiftmend). Also, since the value of HOTs are determined by the buffs when they are cast, if your mastery falls off, it won’t affect remaining ticks on HOTs you have already cast.

• Use direct heals to supplement HOTs as needed (especially on targets below 50% HP). You won't use much in the way of direct heals for this role, since your frequent swiftmend casts should provide most of the direct healing you need, but there are fight-specific mechanics (ie. baleroc in Firelands) that require or favor direct heals.

• Tranquility is also nice to use now because it will heal people outside your group, and at a 3 minute cooldown (after talents), you should get ~2 uses per boss fight during heavy AOE times.

• This healing style will evolve a lot in various encounters, so you have to be able to adapt to the situation (fast reflexes).
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PostSubject: Re: 4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana)   4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana) Icon_minitimeFri Dec 09, 2011 5:12 pm

Part 4. Talents version 4.2 (updated 11/28/2011)

There are a handful of "required" talents, and then some talents that are more optional because they don't do much. In general, there are two talent sets for PvE purposes that I'd recommend. The Genesis spec is better for people raiding in 4.3 doing AOE healing. The Starter spec is for people who are first hitting level 85, and need a build focused more on mana regeneration and tank healing.

"Genesis spec": 10/25-man raid healing build for people who don't have mana problems:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0hfbZZMfuhd0ruouo

This first spec is targeted at end-game players raiding normal/hard-mode versions of the Dragonsoul raid encounters, with the option for people to take points out of perserverence to put other places based on your healing style. I prefer genesis because there seems to be a lot of bursty damage in Dragonsoul and personal survivability is particularly important.

"Starter Spec": My tank healing spec for less-geared players who need more regen and direct healing will look like this:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0hbhZMZMfzudMruouo

This second one is targeted at more dungeon-level or Looking for Raid players, who need more versatility and tank healing in their spec than the raid healing spec, and may need more mana regen in addition to tank healing tools since they have lower ilevel gear. The combo of 1 pt in living seed and 2 pts in nature's bounty go together, so that regrowth crits can proc small living seeds less likely to over-heal than 3-pt living seeds, and they get a cast time reduction on nourish for when they have up a couple rejuvs and want to save mana.

You can also make some spec in-between the Genesis & Mana Regen spec by mixing & matching the talents that differ between the two specs.
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PostSubject: Re: 4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana)   4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana) Icon_minitimeFri Dec 09, 2011 5:12 pm

5. Resto Glyphs (updated 11/28/2011)

Resto Prime Glyphs (use swiftmend, rejuv, & lifebloom):
• Swiftmend -when you use swiftmend, it won’t consume the HOT.
• Rejuvenation – increases rejuv’s healing done
• Lifebloom – increases LB’s HOT crit chance

Resto Major Glyphs (get rebirth, healing touch, and then whatever you want for the 3rd):
Mostly, rebirth is the only good major glyph we have. The rest of them don't really do anything useful. The 4.3 nerf to the wild growth glyph makes it a horrible glyph for 5-mans, a bad glyph for 10-mans, and an okay glyph for 25-mans. For 5-mans, pick up rebirth, healing touch, and Thorns (just to have something fill that slot). For 10-mans, go with with rebirth, healing touch, & innervate. For 25-mans, you can go with the 10-man setup or pick up wild growth in place of innervate.

• Wild Growth – WG will hit 1 more person, but increases the cooldown to 10 seconds (this nerf is applied in 4.3 that makes your 8 second cooldown be increased to 10 seconds by the glyph).
• Rebirth – Your target will res at full health & mana. This becomes really useful compared to other options so your target doesn’t die as soon as they pop up.
• Healing touch – Casting HT reduces the cooldown on Nature’s Swiftness. Skip if you didn’t learn nature’s swiftness.
• Innervate – This one gets devalued in 4.2 since it sucks to cast Innervate on other people now. This leaves us without a good option for a third major glyph.
• Thorns - reduces your cooldown on Thorns

Minor glyphs (get MOTW, & unburdened rebirth, and then pick whatever you want for the third):
• Mark of the wild (minor) – reduces the mana cost of mark of the wild.
• Unburdened rebirth (Minor) –Rebirth doesn’t cost a reagent (it sucks when you run out of seeds).
• Glyph of the treant (minor) – changes the appearance of your tree form back into the dead broccoli old form, instead of the larger and newer “ancient of war” form. I’d actually glyph tree form for PvP to make the model smaller & less obvious.
• Aquatic form (minor) -Increases swim speed by 50%
• Dash – (minor) reduces dash cooldown
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PostSubject: Re: 4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana)   4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana) Icon_minitimeFri Dec 09, 2011 5:13 pm

6. Stats & Gear (updated 6/27/2011)

Stat descriptions & details:
• Stamina – Base stat (primary stats can’t be reforged) – increases your health. This will be on all your gear, but it’s not super important.

• Int – Base stat (primary stats can’t be reforged) – Now gives spell power, increases the size of your mana pool, and gives crit chance. This is your primary stat on gear, and you will want to choose gems with int on them now. In addition, you get mana regen from int through your talents.

• Spirit – (secondary stat can be reforged) – Increases your mana regen. When you choose the resto talent tree, you gain more passive regen from spirit while “in combat”. Int actually provides about as much regen in-combat as spirit for resto druids (however, when you can have both int & spirit, that’s even better).

• Haste- (can be reforged) – Makes your cast time spells (ie. regrowth, HT, nourish) cast faster. Also makes the time between the ticks of your HOTs faster (You will gain additional HOT ticks with enough haste), and lowers the global cooldown (up to the 1 second). You want to gear to important HOT breakpoints, such as 916 (rejuv tick) or the 2005 (WG and Efflo tick) breakpoints. For people in T12 or T13, you want to make sure you are above the 2005 breakpoint. For more HOT breakpoint info: http://theincbear.com/resto-haste-breakpoints/

• Mastery – (Can be reforged) - See section 2 for detailed information on what mastery does. This is the stat you should focus on between HOT break-points, since it will buff the majority of healing you do.

• Crit- (can be reforged) – Your direct heals and HOT ticks can all score critical strikes now. This is still our weakest stat at the moment.

• Spell power (can’t be reforged) – At 85, this stat is mostly only available on weapons, and maybe a few outdated enchants.

Basic Resto stat priority:
The stat priority for resto druids is somewhat complicated. The goal for resto druids is to get to a Haste breakpoint (which breakpoint you gear for is determined by what one you can reach the easiest), with mastery being better than haste between breakpoints, and crit being worse than both haste & mastery. You want as much spirit as needed to not run out of mana.

• The relative values of mastery and haste are flexible. For more info on stats, see: http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t110354-resto_cataclysm_4_2_a/

Reforging – You can turn up to 40% of a secondary stat into 40% another secondary stat. You can only reforge a stat into something that is not already on the item. If spirit is not on the item and you need more regen, then reforge the least desirable stat into spirit. In general, you want to reforge crit into a different stat, since crit is our worst stat. You want to use reforging to help you reach the 2005 haste breakpoint and then reforge to mastery after that point.
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PostSubject: Re: 4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana)   4.3 Restoration Guide (By Lissana) Icon_minitimeFri Dec 09, 2011 5:13 pm

7. gems, enchants, consumables for level 85 (Updated 11/28/2011)

NOTE: Anything from your professions that add item enchants, enhancements, or gems are things you should use instead of whatever is listed below. It would take too much time to get into professions, so just use your best judgement (ie. things with INT are always a good choice).

The blog version is better for this section, since it has clicky-links: http://www.restokin.com/resto-druid-healing-guide/7-gems-enchants-and-consumables/

Gems :
• For red gem slots, Brilliant inferno Ruby gives you increased intellect
• For yellow gem slots, artful ember topaz is int/mastery or Reckless ember topaz is int/haste if you need help from gems to reach your 2005 haste breakpoint.
• For blue gem slots, Purified Demonseye gives int/spirit
• Meta-gem (for head pieces): Ember shadowspirit diamond (54 int and 2% mana). Requires at least 2 yellow gems (ie. 2 ember topaz gems will fill the requirement)

Flasks & Consumables :

Flask of the draconic mind (intellect)

Between talents & replenishment, you do get some mana regen from int (and innervate scales off your mana pool), so Int ends up having more bang for its buck compared to spirit for resto druids. So, flask int (and use intellect food).

Potions:
• Mythical Mana potion
• Potion of Concentration
• Mighty rejuvenation potion
While the potion of concentration puts you to sleep for 10 sec, sometimes that will be worth it (ie. magmaw when the head is pinned). You can communicate for party members, and time it when the healing needs and fight mechanics allow you to be “asleep” for 10 sec. If you can’t use that one in a fight, the mythical mana potion will restore about half the mana of a potion of concentration, but with no side-effects. If you need to restore both health & mana, then a good choice is the mighty rejuv potion.

Gear Enchants:
• Legs: Powerful Ghostly Spellthread (95 int, 55 spi)
• Shoulders: Greater inscription of charged lodestone (Therazane rep)
• Head: Arcanum of Hyjal (Hyjal rep)
• Cloak: Greater intellect
• Gloves: Greater Mastery
• Chest: Peerless Stats (all stats x 20)
• Bracer: greater speed (haste)
• Boots: Run Speed/mastery (lava walker)
• Weapon: Power Torrent (random proc for 500 int for 12 sec).
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