Druid Tank healing

[Kromek]

how is it done?
I must admit i got no idea what our Tree friends in the back are doing if they are not given the job to HoT the whole raid but instead are given the task of tank healing.
What spells are there to counter bigger damage spikes? It clearly cant be the HoTs ticking away doing all that, right?
Someone please enlighten me

[Llego]

how is it done?
I must admit i got no idea what our Tree friends in the back are doing if they are not given the job to HoT the whole raid but instead are given the task of tank healing.
What spells are there to counter bigger damage spikes? It clearly cant be the HoTs ticking away doing all that, right?
Someone please enlighten me

Normally what I'll do if I'm stuck tank healing is get a rejuvenation and a regrowth up ASAP, followed by slowly stacking lifebloom. If there is a period of big spike damage I'll first use swiftmend and then nourish, and usually let my lifebloom fall off. With my gear I've seen upwards of 23k blooms of a 3 stack of lifebloom, so it is a very powerful spell, you just shouldn't "roll" it as we used to in BC. Get 3 stacks and let it fall off so you get that mana back. Usually while doing this you can watch a few other people and if you miss a bit of spike damage use a Natures Swiftness/Healing Touch combo to hopefully get your tank topped back off.

[povoden]

^^ This.

Also, depending on a few minor tweaks to glyphs and talents, nourish can pack a pretty big punch along with the steady incoming HoT ticks. I'm mostly setup for raid healing and my nourish tops 10-11k with just around a second cast time. Although Nourish spamming is not the most efficient way to use your mana, sure can make up for those, oh snap the tank just took 30k damage and swiftmend is on CD moments.

[Pavidus]

With Glyph of Nourish, and being spec'd for all the niffty Nourish talents, Druid can definitely tank heal, probably just as good as a Paladin can. Though, our mana pool doesn't allow for this to be feasible for a good portion of the longer fights. Usually.

I've only been spec'd/glyphed for tank healing a few times, however, this is how I do it. Regrowth, Rejuvenation on the pull. Slow roll your Lifeblooms to a 3-stack, and let it fall off. (Continuing to roll after a 3-stack is up is going to drain your mana, fast.)

If I don't need to be concerned with anything but the tank, then I can afford to simply cast Nourish about ever 2 seconds. So I'll click Nourish, and it will cast in about 1.1 second, and then I'll wait about 1 more second before casting again. During spikes of damage, this is easily spammable for 14-15k Crits (And it crits a LOT if you're stacking your stats appropriately.), and the cast time is easy to get down to less than 1 second (With Nature's Grace.). That kind of healing power requires you to have 3 HoTs on the tank, so you're getting that 14-15k crit, along with all your HoTs ticking. Mathematically, you can be healing for roughly 14-18.5k HPS. There's a lot of variables involved because those numbers depend on 3 seperate HoTs, 1 of which varies on it's stack (Which you're slow rolling and allowing to fall off.), and also varies on your crit chance. Crit for druids means Nature's Grace and Living Seed. Living Seed also helps your tank bounce back from spike damage much more quickly. T9 4pc also means your Rejuvenations are critting, which would also make your heals variable.

And then you also have Swiftmend every 15 seconds, which should always be saved for a spike in damage. All in all, Druid can be tank healers, and they can do it quite well, but you have be far more aware of what you're doing than if you were merely raid healing. Nourish, if spammed too much, will eat your mana pool very quickly if you're not careful. It's especially important to make sure you Innervate as soon as you'll gain the full benefit from it, when you're tank healing.

Don't be afraid to step on my shoes if you have better advice to give by the way. I very rarely tank heal, and even more rarely change my glyph/spec for it.