Arena Beginnings: The Healer

Lately, I have become disenchanted with the art of healing on my druid. Raid healing becomes sort of mundane to me. The habits I have gotten into make druid healing too repetitive. Maybe if I didn't run around constantly while healing, moving out of crap would present more of a challenge. Maybe if I waited longer to try to heal the raid, I would be fighting to keep them alive, instead of hotting them up for damage I know they will take. Druid healers are awesome to bring into any raid, especially movement fights. I use to enjoy healing in raids on my druid. But now I am taking a break. So I appointed my shaman to head raider, so I still get to enjoy healing in raids. Ya shamans have way less spells, but I would argue that for me shaman healing is much more challenging... anyway...

...My druid isn't completely useless. My friend proposed that we put together an arena team. He said I should bring any toon I wanted. So I went into some bg's with both my shaman and druid and healed away. My mage would have been fun to pvp with, but since he is taking that role, I was determined to be our healer. We recruited a rogue, and we all queued up together for some practice. I use to pvp on my druid all the time, when I was bored with pve content, and I leveled my shaman in bgs  while healing. After our practice runs I was pretty sure I preferred druid healing in pvp. Being able to run around constantly is actually a huge advantage, and is a challenge because when a rogue sees a tree, you know he will try and stun lock you. So I decided to make my druid our primary healer for 3's. I can't wait to see how we do, the more I pvp the more determined I am to be able to live through any class pounding on me. BTW if you are a dk, I'm sorry but your army of the dead is not going to help you kill me, when we are in the middle of nowhere by ourselves. I have counted at least 3 dk's trying to army me in AB when no one else was around. 

I am looking forward to the new challenge with druid healing. Of course my priorities change versus raid healing, so it will take some adjusting. Best way to prepare is to do BGs get some resilience gear, and use leftover triumphs for extra resilience gear. Our first week I had no resilience gear and I was still pve specd, and no barskin glyph. We won three matches out of ten, which is kinda sad, but even with my first two pvp pieces I can now live through a rogue sap with barkskin. So I am excited to see how we do this next week. 

I love the fact that I can change the game, by joining something new like an arena team, and I have to relearn and respec in order to do well. I take back the things I said about WOTLK being boring, or maybe to easy to grab content for PuGs. I am excited about the fact that I am progressing on one toon with ICC, and now on this one I can see how I stand in pvp, something completely different. Wish me luck.

Circle of Healers: Part Two

Ok, so Miss Medicina has posted some new questions as a follow up to the original Circle of Healers Survey.

The New Questions:

1. Reread your original answers to the questions. With the benefit of hindsight, score your own work in terms of its cringeworthiness.
Ok, so I was primarily a druid healer when I first answered this survey. Now I can safely say that I can competently raid anything as a shaman healer. I have done ICC as both, but moreso on my shaman.

2. Has your class's healing improved in the area you identified as its weakest?
I still feel as though druid's are weaker in the area of tank healing. Now that I heal with my shaman, I think my biggest weakness is mobility. On my druid I can run around almost the entire fight unless I need to cast a regrowth or nourish on the tank. 

3. Have you changed your "least favoured class to heal with"?
I originally said that I disliked healing with paladins. In a two healer fight if I am on my druid pallys are completely fine, and probably somewhat desired. On my shaman, I might struggle since we have no HoTs b/w us, and we both have the big crit heals. In a 25 man I prefer to run with a huge variety of healers. I love them all.

4. Did you read the entries from others in the webring, especially your class?
I paid close attention to other druids and shamans.

5. If Yes to #4, did you learn anything that made you a better healer?
It helped me to read what shamans said, since I was new to shaman healing. Looking back I realize I can identify my shaman play style with some of those posts. I love the tank healing! I can do it yes I can. Healing melee is awesome for shamans too, I can chain heal a few times in b/w healing the tanks. As a druid, I didn't really learn much, but was definitely interesting to see how we all have our favorite spells, and how no one uses healing touch lol.

6. What tools/resources or information do you think you would need to improve as a healer and how could that help the community at large?
There isn't a whole lot of information for shaman healers blog wise. I try to read up on elitistjerks. I would love to put out some info on shaman healing, and now that I have healed in 10 and 25 man ICC, maybe I am a bit more qualified. It is always best to compare yourself to other healers of the same class, which I was able to do last week in 25 man. When I heal in PuGs I get to run with other resto shammys so all of this helps me improve and get a good idea of what I am doing right and wrong.

7. What did you identify as your worst habit as a healer? Have you improved in this area?
I identified myself as an impatient healer. Which I still am! On my druid I know exactly when people are going to take damage, so I HoT them in advance. This doesn't lead to mana problems, or extra high overheals, because these people do take damage. But it frustrates me when I look at recount and see the other healers so low. I need to learn, still, to be patient, so that the other healers can do their job. This is more a problem in ten mans than 25s. As a shaman, I don't have this issue, because I HAVE to wait to heal. I think this is why I enjoy shaman healing so much, I get to see bars change drastically when I throw a heal. One little lesser healing wave is so much more healing in one quick shot than a rejuv. So I like to see the bars change, not over time, but right now! I am impatient remember!

8. What did you list as your favorite healing spell and your least used healing spell for your class? Are these answers still true? If they have changed, what caused the change (i.e. patch fix, different healing environment, etc)?
My favorite spell on my druid was rejuv combined with swiftmend. This is the most powerful spell I can use to save someone quickly, or get a huge heal to the tank. I would say wild growth will almost tie with this. It is awesome for raid healing, and anyone notice the pretty two set t10 bonus? On my shaman my favorite spell is riptide. I love being able to splash that water on someone, and make my healing wave a much quicker heal. Chain heal is awesome and everything but, I love the riptide.

Questionnaires Are Fun!! Tanking Time

Ok answering these questionnaires is just fun! Since I have healers, tanks, and dps I wanna do them all! Ok so I refuse to answer the one for dps, I love dpsing but eh doesn't seem as useful. Tanks and healers really need to understand each other, since they work closely together in raids. Since I have two tanks I am just gonna answer for both.


What is the name, class, and spec of your primary tank? Frostblood, Death Knight, Blood & Frost/ and Kailanii, Druid, Feral

What is your primary tanking environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
Mostly five and ten mans, tanking is the job I do least in raids, but I have put time and effort into learning my classes and how to be a tank when a tank is needed, and DK tanking is just fun!

What is your favorite tanking spell for your class and why?
For my DK, it is Death Grip, I love add tanking and I love being able to stop those spellcasters!! For my druid it would have to be swipe, I mean seriously who said Bears can't add tank?

What tanking spell do you use least for your class and why?
Honestly, for my DK I use everything we have, rune strike is easy to use in my blood spec but when I am frost I forget to use it, IDK why, so maybe rune strike is my least favorite as a frost, which oops it is supposed to generate my threat, bad DK! For my druid, I don't have a least favorite ability just wish I had more awesome CDs like my DK does.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your tanking class and why?
DK biggest strength, is AoE threat, I love add tanking! I actually think I am meant to be an OT, main tanking gets sort of boring for me. I also love the many CDs my DK has especially in blood spec! The biggest strength on my druid is that I am a big punching bag, seriously we are so fat I don't think the damage can penetrate to us! I don't see how we dodge so much though since we are so heavy and slow lol.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your tanking class and why?
DK biggest weakness has to be being healed. I swear people have a much easier time healing me when I am on my druid, and when I am blood over frost specd. DK have a tendency of taking huge damage even when def capped. Biggest weakness for my druid is not being able to see. It sounds stupid but my butt is so huge, I mean I can hold aoe aggro, I can easily hold boss aggro, but I can't see around my huge butt!

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best tanking assignment for you?
As a death knight my best assignment would have to be adds, I would say a lot of times we can compete with pallys for threat on adds. I have stolen many a threat without taunting with that crazy D&D combined with howling blast. My druid should be the main tank, on the boss since bears have huge health and dodge.

What tanking class do you enjoy tanking with most and why? 
This really really depends on the person not necessarily the class. I have tanked with every type of tank in raids, and I honestly love being with a pally the most. But seriously anyone who has any sense is fine with me.

What tanking class do you enjoy tanking with least and why?
I would say a DK, I know it is sad I love DK tanking, and I created my DK so that I didn't have to pay respeccing bills on my druid, I mean I heal, dps, and tanking just doesn't fit into dual speccing unfortunately. I still tank sometimes on my druid, but my DK was made to be a tank, and the class has some weaknesses still.

What is your worst habit as a tank?
I would say on both my tanks getting too much involved on threat and not paying enough attention to my own health. It usually isn't a problem cuz on my DK I heal myself with my rotation, but I should probably be quicker on blowing CDs and using them more often so my healers don't have to work as hard.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while tanking? 
Impatient DPS, when I say I am doing a LoS pull in a five man, and they start dpsing before the mobs are around the corner I want to let them die. Same as in raids, I usually tank adds and many times dps will hit them before you have even looked at them! Seriously get some patience, I should just let you die.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other tanks?
I think DK are balanced ok, for tanking with other classes and not really with their own class. They are a little weak to have two DK tanks in a raid, it can be done, but not ideal IMO. Druids are awesome tanks to have by anyone's side, I mean they are fierce and can take a crap ton of damage cmon.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a tank?
Omen for threat! Honestly I don't really use recount for anything but to make sure the dps are doing their jobs. I also use tanktotals to see how much my talents are mitigating damage, I love it!

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?
That death knights suck. I mean yeah a lot of them do, but there are a lot of really good death knight tanks. As far as druids go, that we have poor AoE threat. Are you kidding me? 360 degree swipe equals crazy AoE threat, and I can def. hold my own on trash mobs against other tanks.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new tanks of your class to learn?
As a DK people have to learn not to suck. Learning which spells generate the most threat, and using your CDs. I am thinking Blizz gave us so many so we could use them regularly. As a druid, for some reason people have problems understanding AoE threat, you don't have to sit there and attack each target immediately just swipe, swipe, and demoralizing roar!

Effective Health or Avoidance and why?
I really try to balance these for both my toons. My DK probably has more avoidance than effective health, but I feel this is necessary for DK because healers can be overwhelmed with DK's and the big damage they take. Druids have a huge health pool, but also love the dodge.

What tanking class do you feel you understand least?
Probably a warrior. I have no idea what they do except for charge things. O and I love their vigilance but what else do they do?

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in tanking?
Just omen, to help me keep an eye on my threat. Maybe I should look into more add-ons for tanking, hmm..

Kologarn: A Kitty's Worst Nightmare

Although many people are above and beyond Kologarn, I still visit him sometimes and as a mage I love him, but when I am on my druid proudly pulling over 5k dps and usually 6k on the other bosses, I want to complain and cry and whine for a long time, until someone says just go resto so you don't have to complain. I had troubles a long time with Kologarn as a kitty, because if you get behind him to shred you fall a long way down and then die. So you are pretty useless dead, and dead dps is worse than the horrible shredless dps that I had become accustomed to.

Then one day, I was running 25 man Ulduar with two other kittys and I thought maybe they know a secret that I don't. Well one of the kittys was right next to me in dps which was number 5 or 6 on the dps meter, which is just not okay because we were on top before this fight! The other kitty was second in dps which she had been beneath me in most of the other fights. Yay there is a way to dps that stupid giant man with all of his arms. Apparently the way to dps Kologarn as a kitty is to stand in the middle get your savage roar going and swipe, swipe, swipe. Yeah, so okay you are dpsing all three arms, but whatever you aren't doing crappy dps by focusing on the right arm and doing 3k dps. Note: By doing this method you really should have the right arm targeted keep your mangle debuff, rake debuff active, and rip when full on points. This way you aren't forgetting your primary job of dpsing the right arm, but keeping the bleed effects on it will be sufficient. The swipe you are using while waiting for the bleed effects to be re-applied will be more dps to the right arm as well as overall, than you would have if you were sitting there spamming mangle which is high energy and not efficient dps. At least after fighting this boss tons of times, this is what I have found works for me.

I have now done the swipe-lazy method on this boss in 10 man and 25 man, and there were no issues with getting the right arm down, so feel free to swipe away. The raid isn't harmed and it can save you your sanity, at least it did me, I don't enjoy feeling like I suck. If you already knew this then great, but I see lots of new feral dpsers running around out there, so don't let Kologarn get you down.

Tree Stats

We have a few guildies leveling druids, and wishing to become healers, and therefore asking me how I do it. I always say healing is easy, and in raiding I usually do very well on the meters (although healing meters are only so useful for gauging a healers abilities). Although I find healing easy, and by easy maybe I mean I get into the habit of it and become so quick, I begin to get bored, I think it is important to know how to begin as a new druid healer.

I want to write a full resto druid guide, but for now, I will start with basics for those who have leveled to 80 and now want to become a tree. Your tree spec should be similar to my druids. Tree stats IMO go as follows: Spell Power>Spirit>Haste> >Intellect> Mp5> Crit

• SPELL POWER- Spell power affects how big your heals are including your HoTs. This is the main focus on most casters whether you are dps or a healer. This should be what you gem for mostly, in your gear to increase your heals.

• SPIRIT- Focus on getting your spirit high enough to sustain you through a boss fight, and you should never have to worry about running out of mana. Spirit gives us a small buff to spell power in tree form as well so, get plenty of spirit and spell power before you start raiding.

• HASTE- Although most of our spells are instant casts, haste is an important stat for druid healers. Haste reduces the global cooldown on our spells which means, when we want to cast  Rejuvenation on many members of the raid we can do so much faster because our spells will be ready to cast quicker. As far as our casting spells such as Regrowth and Nourish these spells cast time will be reduced. Being quick is one of the most important parts of being a healer.

• INTELLECT- I would put this stat above Mp5 because it can also add to your crit rating. Although crit isn't great for druid group healers, it is a useful enough stat to find important. Also having a larger mana pool is always nice, can't rely on unlimited amounts of spirit to keep filling your pool back up.
• I almost forgot about this stat lol, because I don't really look for how much int is on my gear, thanks for the reminder Finwe.

• Mp5- This stat recently was buffed for all classes, so druids now benefit more from it. But again, it is inferior to spirit because spirit gives us spell power. Mp5 increases mana regen while casting, but druids spend much more time in the five second rule than many other classes. The five second rule is important to understand for healers, so quickly review it here.

• CRIT- is not that important of a stat for druids. It doesn't affect our HoTs, but it does regrowth and nourish. Since many of our spells aren't affected and we are meant to be healers who top people off, and mitigate damage taken by keeping HoTs on the raid, we don't need giant crit heals. 
• Side note to crit, many druids are now relying on nourish for tank healing. If you find yourself tank healing a lot then crit becomes much more important. It depends on how often you raid or tank heal. If you use nourish a lot and it is one of your primary spells then crit is great for you.

This should be able to get you started on druid healing. Understanding why these stats are important should help you to realize what your focus should be on during a raid.

Miss Medicina's Request

My friend, Miss Medicina, wrote a post on her blog calling out to healers of different classes to answer a healing questionnaire. It seems as though she can read my mind about my little druid, because I was planning on posting some comments on druid healing stats. I will put that off for now and answer this questionnaire.

• What is the name class and spec of your primary healer? Kailanii, Druid, Resto of course. Note: I have a resto shaman in which I am determined to learn inside and out, in order to educate those who are unfamiliar with the style of shaman healing.

• What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans) I have healed extensively in all of these situations, but mostly focused on 10 and 25 man raids.

• What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why? This is so hard! Although I complain about being forced to heal, I love all the druid's spells, if I had to pick only one I would choose Rejuvenation combined with Swiftmend, is that cheating? that's two spells. Anyway this spell is so powerful, it could save anyone near death if used quickly enough.

• What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why? I feel as though druids are awesome back up healers. Don't get me wrong, a druid can tank heal if needed, but being able to keep the group topped off with health, and backing up the tanks with HoTs makes every healers job easier.

• What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why? Druids obviously don't have huge crit healz in most situations, we can in no way match pally single target healing, but it doesn't bother me, I love my HoTs.

• In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?Druid healers are best at group healing. They can keep their HoTs on the tanks, while topping people off and keeping group members alive. We can be a force when group healing, by keeping HoTs on people we know will take damage, and with our wild growth available. Druids can be very quick to react if needed in raiding situations.

• What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why? Although I have been annoyed with priests lately, I would have to say holy priests. These healers are very versatile in most situations, and I would say I don't like raiding without one. Only thing is, in smaller raids they want to raid heal assuming druids should tank heal, druids as well as priests are better used in a raid healing situation.

• What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why? Paladins. I just don't like having more than one. They have weak group heals and as far as I can tell, are not as versatile as the other three classes.

• What is your worst habit as a healer? When I heal in raid situations I forget that there are other healers. Sometimes in ten mans it results in me being over 40% of the healing done. I am starting to believe that the other healers don't suck, just that I can't help but keep people at full health. I need to be more patient with my fellow healers.

• What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing? What pisses me off while I am healing, is people who stand in the fire, stand under the falling icicles, stand in front or behind the dragon, etc. Seriously I have a dps MAGE nonetheless and I don't die because I move. This causes unnecessary damage, and believe it or not, healers don't want you to die.

• Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing? Yes, druids are great for any raid, with any class combination. Only thing I don't like is having three druids in a ten man, I mean we are awesome but I like variety.

• What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer? I use recount to evaluate my overheals and try to reduce these as much as possible, with HoTs being overheals it is pretty hard. I also use it to see my HPS but this can change so much depending on the fight, so the best way for me to compare myself is to see my percentage of healing done in any one fight. As long as people are alive and I didn't feel really stressed out during the fight because I am doing almost half the healing in a raid, then I am happy.

• What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class? As far as I know, people really don't know much about healing druids. They know we have the most powerful HoTs of any class, but does anyone really know what that means? or where to assign us? Druids are powerful group healers, OT healers, and can manage on a MT. We are more versatile than people think, and we are similar to a holy priest in that way. 

• What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn? I think it is hard to understand how a druid heals. On my shaman I wait until someone takes damage then I heal them. As a druid, you have to learn when to apply a HoT in anticipation of damage. You have to keep your HoTs up according to how much damage a player will take. This requires knowing raid fights and how they work in much more detail than other healers.

• If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)? Usually recount shows me as a druid as first or second on healing, but unfortunately I don't run with a lot of other druid healers. From memory when I have, they usually do well on the heal meter as well unless they are newer or have poor gear. Overhealing is much higher for druids now, because HoTs can now overheal, so you can imagine.

• Haste or Crit and why? Haste by far. Haste speeds up our global cool down on our HoTs and reduces the casting time on our few direct heals. Crit does not affect our HoTs so it is a stat I never even consider trying to obtain.

• What healing class do you feel you understand least? I suppose I would say paladins. I have a shaman, and a low level priest. Priests have many similarities in their roles as a druid in raids, but I am unfamiliar with paladins spells. All I know is they never run out of mana and they have big crits.

• What add-ones, if any, do you use in healing? I have been healing since Kara and I never used any add-ons for healing. I now use de-cursive in order to remove de-buffs. I have also recently started using Grid, which I really like so far. I think it is important for healers to have this one, or another that shows heals incoming to the raid. This way people don't waste other healers' mana because they can see what HoTs are on them, or what heals are being cast in them.

• Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? Spell power and spirit are the best stats for a druid healer. I don't ever worry about getting crit, if it is there, fine. I try to get haste capped, and I will grab Mp5 if it happens to be on the gear.

So since I am new to the blog community, I don't have many friends that heal and write blogs as well so I can't really send this to anyone else. But thanks Jess for the great attempt to have healers better understand each other!

Druid Healz

So... I am considering re-speccing feral/feral. I am currently resto/feral dps. I really hate raid healing, I mean I don't mind doing it every once in awhile, but really overall I don't like it. I would like to keep my healing spec because I like being able to heal in 5 mans and I don't mind healing sometimes on occasion in ten mans. Healing in a 25 man raids sucks, it is either really hard or mind numbingly easy and absolutely boring. In Ulduar healing is pretty taxing, a lot of damage goes around. Regardless I am not a big fan of healing and just because I am good at it, which is the raid's excuse for forcing me to do it, doesn't mean I want to do it. Why do I sign up for raids to have fun, when I am forced to do something I don't enjoy. Of course if I refuse I feel very guilty so that is the dilemma. I may just respec in order to never heal in a raid again. I have tried to insist that feral is my main spec, but maybe the RL doesn't believe me? By the way is dps totally useless? Notice in 25 man I am usually around 5-6k dps depending on the boss, cmon stop forcing me into this. I'm not sure where to go from here...