Chaska rustles her leaves ferociously at Yesmina

lol funny responses :) sorry ive not replied yet!

I think you'll be terrific at healing! Give me a day or two to respond.. I would respond tonight but I am a bit wiped out from work :)

flattered that you asked me! <3
 
ok I'm here and rested up - at least until I husk and freeze these 80 ears of corn *gasp*

LONG POST WARNING

Basics:

I love being a Resto Druid. Healing as a druid is much different than any other class. Restos are primarily proactive, as opposed to the reactive we see with priests etc. In my opinion, this can make the class a bit more challenging at times (which I like) and requires a "thinking healer".

While priests have HoTs, they are secondary heals. In the same vein, healing touch (and even Nourish) are secondary when playing resto. Although I do use Nourish quite frequently, it isn't the most likely to show up in my top 3 heals.

Basic Necessities:

20k HP (raid buffed)
400-500+ mp5 (more is better, but not TOO much more)

Yesmina has a lot of mp5 (always has). With the new buff they did to mp5 items, she really is over the top (I very rarely use innervate and never use potions). When I first started running raids, I would always run out of mana. It frustrated me to no end and I started focusing on mp5. It is now very rare that she even drinks between fights (which is good and I'll explain why a bit further down). But she has a bit more atm than I'd like, especially with the changes in 3.0 (?). Some of her spells now regen mana, she has points in the boomkin tree for regen etc. That being said, make sure you have 400-500. Having a decent amount of Mp5 also means you don't have to worry about your mana pool as much. ETA: I just checked her and with patch changes and new gear she is now sitting at 693/415 unbuffed. That seems about right for her.. I will update and let you know!)

What to look for in Gear (and in what order):

Spellpower
Spirit/Int
Haste/Crit/MP5
Stam

I have a tendency of going for SPI over INT. INT is terrific, no doubt. The kicker comes if you are running with a poor tank or a group you don't know. Since INT increases your crit and restos have very high threat (and little to no mitigation) this can spell trouble! Now if youre running with John as your tank, you should be OK. I am going to be switching out some of Yesmina's mp5 items for INT, but slowly. Her crit is only around 18% (crazy low compared to a boomkin huh) but I'm only looking for a little higher. I do like Living Seed (crit = seed = heal on hit) and big heals, but they are worthless if she is dead. I adore SPI, it is very important for restos. Most items you'll get from ULD etc will have a good balance.

haste versus crit: I think Yesmina has an equal number of items. I usually pass crit items to dps when in a raid, out of courtesy. They are both nice stats, but not anything that is high on my "gotta have it" list, they simply come with the gear (haste is really only useful on nourish, but even then it is a minor difference).

Build/Glyphs

You can check out Yesmina's build on the armoy, I think. The build she has is for RAID healing (although she has good enough gear and I have played her for long enough that it works in 5 mans just fine). The glyphs she uses are Swiftmend (awesome), Wild Growth (generally my top heal) and Nourish. Rejuv is good for 5 mans, not so much 10/25. At one point I had the HT glyph, but since I keep HoTs on my targets constantly, nourish really takes its place and HT is rarely used (nourish is only truly effective with HoTs on the target).

Healing

Like I said earlier, druid healing is proactive. A good druid will see any change in HP, or even a chance of it, and throw a HoT. I almost always throw a regrowth as the tank is counting off to go into a pull (if you throw it at the right time you will not get aggro.. it really is about timing and can be tricky so don't blame me if you die). If you let someone get below 20%, you will be in a tough spot - and playing "catch up" is NOT what you want to be doing.

Healing up between pulls is always good (why I like not having to drink!). We are the best mobile healers in game, take advantage of it.

Tanks should have HoTs rolling always, even at full hp. If you have a rejuv on him/her, it will pick up any extra damage that might be ticking and you can always throw a swiftmend if they get a damage spike. I throw: regrowth, rejuv, lifebloom in that order. I may toss a swiftmend in there too. If they are taking a lot of damage, I make sure my HoTs are on and spam Nourish (replenishing HoTs as needed).

Since the patch, you will want your lifeblooms to actually bloom. It used to be common practice to roll 3 of them, but that's just not efficient anymore. The spell costs twice as much now and it's just way too mana intensive. Single lifeblooms are where it's at (although if I am really full on mana in a raid I might roll 3) and will give you back 1/2 the mana cost at bloom. If the everyone is taking damage, I like to "seed" raid with them and it works brilliantly.

Don't expect to be top healer in your raid (unless assuming the role of main healer). Thats not what we are there for, imo. We can do the big (direct) heals in emergencies, or if the other healers simply aren't up to par. But ideally, we are there to keep the HP ticking, keep people topped off, and generally be the other healer's helpers. We smooth things over and give people time to think. It is more important than it sounds and is often neglected.

Our 10 man has just 2 healers so if main healing raids is what you want to do, it is perfectly acceptable (and fun). I have seen plenty of restos at the top in 25 mans, I simply don't believe that is the most efficient way of doing things (unless you have no other choice but to put them in this role). I really like being a main healer, it is very challenging (less challenging once you find out your mods are disrupting your gameplay, which has been happening to me over the past few weeks and making me a bad healer :( ) and requires a lot of thinking. But I also really like being the one who makes other healers jobs easier, and I know how important this is.

Long post, I know. But I have a lot to say about it! I've been playing Yesmina for about 5 years (I think), and I simply adore her. I have never gone into a different tree (although I have a few TPs in boomkin that help healing), even while leveling. I considered the dual spec, but my other spec was going to be a different way to heal haha.

I don't claim to be an expert, but if you have any other questions feel free to ask! :)

PS: I don't use mods except utility mods like DBM, itemrack and fishing buddy. A lot of people use healing mods, I have no problem with that. I just think it is best to be prepared in case they break, and I also like the challenge (blizz UI is set up pretty decently for me anyways).
 
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Back in pre-1.4 WoW most resto druids were considered mediocre healers (and I was resto.) I found that the way to be a great druid healer was just as Renee said -- be a healer helper, make it a breeze for the other healers to keep people up.
 
Yay! thanks Renée! So far I have one pice of healer gear....the Heroism badge trinket. Hope the corn's going well for you!
 
Great education thread. Important for other healers to read. I've been healing on Berstromme for not quite as long as Renee has with Yesmina, she has me by a year and a half or more I'd guess...but, understanding the strengths other healing classes bring is important in raids. For tanks it is important for them to understand how they'll be healed in 5 man as well as raids. Blending healing strengths and covering weaknesses is key to successful raid healing. Great post on Druid healing above. Maybe when I get back I'll try to write something up on Pally healing.
 
/threadjack

thanks mike :) I probably have not been raiding as long as you have.. it took me a while to really learn how to play, to be honest... and I still have major weaknesses (esp moving LOL).

Mike is an awesome healing partner! A much better player than I am, but he allows me room to grow and even make mistakes :) I really appreciate that and his style of raid leading (one of the main reasons I run with his group and not others - and I'm rather partial to the Mike/Danny lead combo hehe). He has also allowed me to figure things out on my druid that I might not have been able to in another group.

looking forward to your return!
 
I have been healer in all sorts of tricky 5 mans and high end raids on Pally, Priest and Druid. My favorite healer to play by far is the druid. I guess it just fits my style. I am never really top healer by the numbers, but if that's what you are after, then pick an explosive healing class.

A druid healer is great at smoothing the edges of incoming damage. I compare it to filling a bucket which has holes in it. A certain amount of water continuously drains from the bucket, but every once in a while, something bumps the bucket, spilling a bunch over the edge. A druid healer's primary role is to account for the holes in the bucket. Burst healers can anticipate and account for the bumps and additional spillage due to some mob taking a drink out of the bucket when no one is looking.

Strangely enough, I find my druid much easier to heal with than my priest in the Black Knight fight in H-ToC for example. Phase three is the constant damage all the time phase, where everyone is getting hit. My priest is frantic, but my druid just HoT's every one up and watches the show. On the flip side, I sometimes have problems with the initial fight in there where the tank has three mobs beating on him at once. If the tank starts losing ground, its hard to make up as a druid. Depends a lot on which bosses are in the fight of course.

Just another fun aspect of the game for me *grin*.
 
So, is living seed all that great if you're not in pvp because, I mean most of Druid heals are hot not crits?????
 
There is a crit component to many of your heals. I am having a brain lapse on the names of the spells so bear with me..... A spell which has an initial heal but adds a Hot crits quite often (>50%) with the right talents. Also nourish crits, and this is the direct healing 'filler' when all HoT's are up and running. Having run the Recap many times, however, Living seed really only accounts for about 1-3% of your healing in raids, and an argument could be made that this amount would at least partially be covered by your HoT's if it were not in place.

Sum = Fun to see an additional heal every now and then but a very optional talent.
 
New Tree

I just changed my dual spec to heals. It's easier to keep gear between DPS/Heals. It's almost the same gear. :D
 
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Wow,
Great thread! Thank You Yesmina for all of that great info on resto druids. I love my resto druid but I'm always afraid I'm not up to par. After reading the stuff on here I'm going to go in and make some adjustments. Thank You so much!
 
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