Resto druid looking for some help

[Thalum]

Hey all,

I've never really had anyone take a decent look over my talent spec/gear/glyphs, so i was wondering if someone might be able to cast a learned eye over it all? As far as the glyphs go, I have Glyph of Innervate to help out through mana-intensive fights (starting faction champs and Lord Jaraxxus, and it's been a life-saver), but I'm willing to listen to a justified reason why I should swap them out.

Most of my gear is badge gear, with a smattering of drops. Not sure if I'll be able to upgrade my wrists, off-hand, and trinket any time soon.

Thing I'm most worried about is my haste, which seems a bit low. Ideally would like to get to a 1sec HT cast, but it's looking unlikely. Any suggestions on how to sort this would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Indaris The World of Warcraft Armory

[Bellwether]

Hey there! I'm going to try to help you out.

Okay, first things first, you're missing the most important raid glyph of a Resto Druid: Wild Growth. One extra person healed per WG cast is HUGE. If you absolutely have to have your Glyph of Innervate, replace Nourish. However, Innervate is a really lack-luster glyph; you might be better off just replacing it. If you innervate early (like at 60%) your innervate should be back up before the end of the fight.

Your gem choices are a little odd. I'm not sure why you have a +10 stats gem. It's not a good choice, even if you needed it to fulfill your meta (which you don't). As well, if you're having mana problems, it would be better to switch your meta to Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (21 int/chance to restore mana on spell cast). You have the gems in to fulfill the requirements even if you replace that +10 stats (which you should).

There's an entire post on gemming your Druid here.

With the haste, it depends on your guild/raid set up. With full raid buffs your haste is actually hitting the 1 second mark (pre 3.3). However, if you're doing 10 mans or non-stacked 25's, it's very easy to get more haste; spec down into Celestial Focus. Taking a point out of Subtlety won't hurt you in the least, and other non-essential talent points can easily be worked out.

This spec and glyph combination may work best for you.

It's a little difficult to tell much more without knowing: 10 or 25 man ToC? Guild or PUG run?

[Insahnity]

Methinks you need to look at more than gear.

Healing Touch is not even on my bar. Roll HoT's on the tank (3-4->Lifebloom, regrowth, rejuvinate, Wild Growth), and cast Nourish with all those HoT's ticking. If you still have problems, thats' what swiftmend is for. I'd swap out Innervate glyph for Wild Growth if you raid heal a bit, or rejuvination if you are a full time tank healer. if you are still having problems after removing Healing Touch from your bar, we can work from there.

If you have haste issues, pick up nature's grace. Take 1 point from subtlety and 2 points from empowered touch to accomplish this. 20% haste is amazing and it procs quite often if you cast things like regrowth and nourish on the tank(s).

As for Gear:

Flat out, there is no better meta than 21 int/mana on spell cast. With the sheer number of casts a druid makes, its' insane not to use it.

Always gear for Spell power were possible. For example, your belt should have been a Runed Cardinal Ruby. The nightmare tear is a good idea, for meta requirements, but it should have gone to shoulders or pants (pants is my pick, int isn't as valuable as compared to say a resto shaman or holydin).

Swap Pickled Egg for Tears of the Vanquished from regular ToC. It's another amazing source of mana on cast. Yes, you do lose the 98 spell power, but in this particular case, it is well worth it. Between the meta gem and this trinket, mana should be much more manageable.

Finally, consider spirit instead of MP5. I know Spirit isn't the best stat for mana, but it gets boosted by 30% by talents, and it contributes to spell power.

HToC 5 man has a good spellcaster dagger as well as a mace. After that, work on upgrades in Ony fights, there's a nice Offhand there. I hope you are also running VoA.

[Insahnity]

S/he bring up some items I disagree with, but let me explain why.

Okay, first things first, you're missing the most important raid glyph of a Resto Druid: Wild Growth. One extra person healed per WG cast is HUGE. If you absolutely have to have your Glyph of Innervate, replace Nourish.

If you are raid healing, then yes, you need WG. I mentioned this on my suggestions
If you are MT healing, then under no circumstances should you drop nourish. it's simply the most powerful single target spell you have.

However, Innervate is a really lack-luster glyph; you might be better off just replacing it. If you innervate early (like at 60%) your innervate should be back up before the end of the fight.

Yes, Innervate isn't as powerful as other glyphs, s/he's right. A t the end of the day, your mana woes are due to issues other than innervate.

Your gem choices are a little odd. I'm not sure why you have a +10 stats gem. It's not a good choice, even if you needed it to fulfill your meta (which you don't). As well, if you're having mana problems, it would be better to switch your meta to Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (21 int/chance to restore mana on spell cast). You have the gems in to fulfill the requirements even if you replace that +10 stats (which you should).

There's an entire post on gemming your Druid here.

S/he agrees with meta gem change, but you could go either way on the nightmare tear. It's an insanely powerful gem, that's why you are allowed only one.
(10 Int + 10 Spi + 10 Stam) * (Improved Mark of the Wild+Blessing of Kings) is much better than the 10 int/5 mp5.

With the haste, it depends on your guild/raid set up. With full raid buffs your haste is actually hitting the 1 second mark (pre 3.3). However, if you're doing 10 mans or non-stacked 25's, it's very easy to get more haste; spec down into Celestial Focus. Taking a point out of Subtlety won't hurt you in the least, and other non-essential talent points can easily be worked out.

This spec and glyph combination may work best for you.

To reach celestial focus, you need to put at least 4 more points from resto tree into balance, and THEN start robbing more points for celestial focus. This is just not worth it, you lose too much. In the suggested change, you lose the 8% mana savings from Tranquil Spirit, you already have mana issues. Even if you do this, the spec also has you putting 3 points in Nature's Grace, which should be enough, really.

As for raid buffs, the real question is if you have a resto/ele shaman to drop a wrath of air totem (5% spell haste).

[Thalum]

Ok, so I'm slightly confused! I'm currently healing all 5-man content, with the occasional foray into 10-man stuff with the guild. My haste is just around 430 or so, giving me a nourish cast time (not HT, my bad!) of 1.3 secs or so. Spellpower wise, I'm at 2100 unbuffed (when all my trinkets are procced and raid-buffed, I get to about 2600sp or so).

So it would seem like I have to mess about with my gems, I think that's the take home message here? I don't really think that grabbing WG glyph is worth it if I'm honest, although I could be persuaded to drop out my glyph of innervate if I sort out my mana-regen issues (which aren't really that bad if I'm honest!).

[Quinafoi]

Ditch a point in Subtlety. If you are having threat issues as a healer, it probably isn't your fault at this level of progression. Only get 2 points in order to unlock tier 3 of restoration.

The break down on Innervate is it is a total of 43.7 MP5 at level 80 if used on Cooldown starting from when you first drop 7866 mana below max mana. You ready for the effect of the glyph. 8.74 MP5. And that is the absolute maximum benefit of it. You'd be better off using a few MP5 gems for a larger effect, which of course a druid should always use spirit gems, but you get the point, this glyph has a trivial effect overal.

Druid base mana at level 80 is 3496. 45% of that is 1573.2 (rounds down). 1573 / 180 seconds = 8.73888888 MP5.

If you are having mana issues, instead of using Glyph of Innervate I would say to drop some talent points in Tranquil Spirit and pick up Revitalize. Also on Faction Champions, you aren't likely to be casting a lot of Nourish except when absolutely necessary. Remember you gain 20% reduced cost on HoTs but not your direct heals from Tree of Life. On fights like that since you would generally keep HoTs rolling on a lot of targets, yourself included, Revitalize would be useful. It is less useful in a pure main tank healing spec however which is what you appear to be using.