http://restorationdruid.com/2011/01/24/haste-in-cataclysm/

for updated information!!

Haste:

In WotLK haste didn’t effect our heal over time spells (HoTs), unless you glyphed to have it work on your rejuvenation.  If you made this choice (which I didn’t) it would make your heals tick faster, but they would in turn be shorter as a consequence.  Now however, they don’t necessarily get shorter.  At certain haste points your HoT is ticking fast enough to actually get another tick added on.  This determines what haste we are aiming for.

The haste points at which we gain another tick on Rejuvenation are 12.5%, 37.5% and 62.5% haste (see reference).  With Regrowth it’s 16.66%, 50%, and 83.33%, and with Lifebloom it’s 5%, 15%, 25%, 35%, 45%, 55%, 65%, 75%, 85% and 95%.  Since we want as many ticks as possible we should be aiming for as many of these benchmarks as possible.

So What do I need?? So, if you were to set a goal for haste, 1016 haste with raid buffs gives you that 37.5% you need for the extra tick of Rejuvenation.  With Nourish being so slow, Healing Touch being viable, and Lifebloom adding ticks so quickly, if you can go above this haste point it’s not a bad thing, but defiantly try to hit it as a minimum.

Critical Strike

Prior to 4.0.1 a druid’s HoTs were unable to crit, with the exception of rejuvenation if you were using your tier nine 4-piece bonus.  That is no longer the case, now every tick of every HoT has the ability to crit.

My Thoughts on this: I feel like crit is a far better stat for a DPS than it is for us.  On a boss, every time you crit and deal extra damage, its simply that, extra damage.  As a healer, when you crit there is always a good chance that it goes to overheal.  Plus, I don’t like relying on a “chance” to crit.  That being said, of course crit isn’t bad for us, and sure it’s nice when things do crit.  I just think that it’s still not going to be a stat I focus on, rather it will be a stat that tags along on my gear that is no longer worthless.

click to enlarge	General The first screen you see when you open HealBot is the “General” tab. From here you can disable HealBot, choose to put it on your mini-map, ect. Nothing really exciting here that needs to be changed!
click to enlarge	Spells The second tab of HealBot is your spells tab. This is where you assign heals, cures, etc to different mouse click and key combinations. If you have an on-use trinket, you can use this to auto-cast it with certain spells. I have my Sliver of Pure Ice on auto-trinket to maximize the mana I get back from it. Also, you can assign a macro (instead of a spell) to a click so you could include your trinket or other non-spells into HealBot this way. Holy Nova (for example) is not cast on another player, but so that I could cast it more quickly I just assigned a key combination to a casting macro in HealBot on my priest.Also on this tab is “SmartCast when out of combat” which I choose to use for quick buffing and resurrecting while out of combat. You can enable it using the check box.
click to enlarge	Skins – Healing Next, we are going to look under the Skins tab, in the subsection “Healing”. This is where you choose who to have on your HealBot bars. You can see right now I have “Focus” selected because I set Valithria Dreamwalker as my focus target when healing that fight, and want her included on my bars. I usually have the boss set to focus, but it only includes friendly targets on HealBot so it’s not a problem to just keep this checked. I choose to ignore pets when raiding, but on my leveling characters running mostly 5-mans I have that checked.
click to enlarge	Skins – Healing – Raid Under the Healing subsection, is another subsection called “Raid”. This is where you can choose what raid groups to show. Sometimes we have D/C or on-call people sitting in group 8 and I can choose to not show them here.
click to enlarge	Skins – Icons The Icons section on the Spells tab lets you show what spells are currently rolling on your targets. I have mine set to show druid HoTs, but only the ones cast by me. I have found that I frankly don’t care what everyone else is doing, I keep HoTting the raid, and I don’t want it all junking up my bars. But it IS very helpful to see what HoTs I have rolling on what people, and since the icons fade as the spell gets close to fading, I know who needs a refresh. Also, HealBot does pickup rejuvenation cast by your t-10 bonus, so you can see that too!You can also choose to show raid marks from this screen. Since DBM and other raid mods often put raid-symbols on people for a healing-related reason, I find it is useful to show these marks on my HealBot.
click to enlarge	Skins – Bars This is where you setup what you want your bars to look like. Here is what mine look like: As you can see I choose to have long and narrow bars, and I choose to show the mana bars of my raid members. But you might like a totally different style, and this is where you change that
click to enlarge	Cure – Debuff Under the Cure tab in the “Debuff” subsection you can setup HealBot to show you people with debuffs. I have it set to check the raid for poisons and curses, as taht is what I can remove… and of course have a quick key setup for the appropriate curing spells. Make sure you actually check the box to “Monitor to remove debuffs” and “also in combat” or it won’t do you much good in a raid
click to enlarge	Cure – Custom You can also choose to monitor debuffs that aren’t curses, poisons, etc. One example of something I choose to monitor is “Mark of the Fallen Champion” so that I defiantly make sure I don’t forget who has it, and they get a lot of my healing focus. You can add any debuff you think will be helpful on this tab, and also select a color for your custom debuffs.
click to enlarge	Buffs I hate people who have to be told to buff. Or people who have to be told to rebuff the guy who died. You know, THAT druid? So I use the “Buffs” tab to check the raid for MotW. I also check for Thorns on the tanks using the “Name” option. HINT: when entering the names of people to check, separate them with commas and do NOT use spaces. If you use “SmartCast when out of combat” (on the Spells tab) then you can one-click buff people in need.

If you have any other questions, or if I missed something that you’ve been wondering how to do, leave a comment and I’ll try to update this post to include your question!

So… About a podcast…

A friend and I were kicking around the idea of doing a podcast.  We would basically discuss what’s new in the blue-posts but… that just doesn’t seem like enough.  If anyone has any brilliant ideas for what to talk about, leave a comment, your suggestions are appreciated!

OMG 10 Man!

I’ve been threatening to make a 10 man guild for a long time now… cuz well… I love running 10 man content, and it seems like it’s going to be totally viable in Cataclysm.  Plus, so many guilds are falling apart right now, maybe I can snag a few people?!? So… I’m doing it!  Interested?  Check it out!!

After getting everything in order I went raiding with my baby-alt druid and her guild downed LK25 for the first time, and later that night downed Heroic Sindragosa 10 man for the first time.  I was happy to be restored in time to be a part of that, congratulations Pandemic  Plus, you’ve been waiting a long time for a heroic Sindy video.  I know… my original ten man fall apart after getting drakes, the ten mans in my new guild were almost non-existent, and then I got hacked.  Who’d have though that the video would finally come in the form of my alt-druid?

So anyway… before I give you the video let’s get back to my tragic story.  I got an email today reading this:

Account Name: XXXXXXXX

Reason for Closure: Terms of Use Violation — Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy

This account was closed because one or more characters were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for “real-world” currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.

Even if this behavior is the result of a third party accessing the account instead of the registered user (for example, a friend, family member, or leveling service) then the account can still be held responsible for the penalty because of the impact it had on the game environment.

We’ve found the above behavior is many times directly related to groups responsible for compromising World of Warcraft accounts; we take these issues very seriously. To better understand our position against exploitative activity and the risks involved, please review this article:http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/antigold.html

The exploitative activity that took place on this account violates the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask you take a moment to review these terms at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html. Any recurring subscriptions on this account have been suspended to prevent further monetary charges.

For any disputes of this action, please visit the Exploitative Activity FAQ and Contact page here: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/exploitfaq

Regards,

Blizzard Entertainment
www.worldofwarcraft.com

Well… my-oh-my am I surprised.  I am aware that it is possible to hack an authenticator, but that is really really really uncommon.  Also, I armoried myself and my characters still have all their gear.  They haven’t been stripped like they were when I was hacked.  I didn’t do anything weird last night.  I didn’t send or receive any gold, and I only listed about 5 gems on the AH.  I have absolutely no idea what I could have done to trigger this…. *shrug* So, naturally I sent in a mail and got the standard “We received your mail and will get back to you” reply.  I guess we’ll see huh?  It’s like they want me to quite WoW

Heroic Sindragosa Instructional Video

Well the good news is that in the one day I did have my account back I got this video, so here it is

To summarize:

When you have unchained magic, get 20 yards away from everyone to explode, run back, and DON’T cast.

Be pro at LoS in the air phase or you’ll get one shot

In the second phase, fight the temptation to cast while you have unchained magic!!

And on a personal note, I hope this account thing gets resolved sooner rather than later.  It makes me a very sad tree.

Here it is again, a WoW lull.  I really think it’s a combination of things.  For one, summer is here!  Summer just changes things… some people move back home, some go on big vacations, others just like to get out and enjoy the weather.  People just miss more raids.

Then add on the fact that we can sort of see Cataclysm from where we’re standing.  Yeah, it’s a ways off but… we know its coming.  We know it’s only a matter of time before all this stuff is obsolete.  And a lot of people have hit raiding walls.  Your guild has downed all the content it will probably do.  Wiping week after week on the same stuff (when you’re probably training new raiders every week cuz… it’s summer) only to hope that with the next 5% buff you can down one more thing… well a lot of people just give up hope.  So either you’ve downed all you expect to down in ICC, all you’re capable of downing, or you’re just plain bored of running it by now.  Either way, your interest dwindles.

And maybe none of that applies to you, and you’re still raring to go… but as you see the friends and raiders around you dropping one by one… well… it sorta kills your drive doesn’t it?

At the end of Burning Crusade when they talked about having 10 man raids I was really excited.  I loved having and running a guild, but honestly I just don’t like that many people.  I thought it would be great that in WotLK I could finally have a 10 man guild!  Well, as you know that just didn’t work out, people wanted the better gear.  Now here we sit at the end of WotLK and Blizzard is making it look a lot like my hopes are finally coming true.  Ten man content that drops the same gear as 25 man content!  I know a lot of people aren’t a fan of that idea, but I am.  I’d love to be able to raid with a tight-knit group of 10!  Honestly, I’ve half considered starting a 10 man guild right now just to be “ready” for Cataclysm.

So what can I do to keep my interest until then?  Well I ticketed all my BoE gear over to my Alliance server (*fingers crossed they do it*) and hopefully it’ll arrive tonight.  I might piss around with leveling something new… maybe I can convince some friends to join me? Hey, maybe you wanna join me?  Leave a comment, we’ll talk!  I’m thinking a disc priest… that might be fun!  Although I’m sure the last thing I really need is another alt.  Hum… who knows.

Now I’m in the process of gearing up this new tree.  Actually it’s not going too badly considering I don’t have the endurance to really badge grind, and with all the raiding on my main I don’t get to raid much on the new tree.

Anyway, to the subject.  If you’re a new tree and you want to put out numbers, dear god don’t stack spell power.  Please, just don’t.  What you need to focus on is hate and regen.  Gem spirit, gem haste… spellpower is absolutely useless when you’re OOM.

Rule #1 of being a good tree: Always be casting!  From the 10 seconds before the pull till the boss dies, you should never stop casting in any fight.  Now, if you aren’t able to do that because of mana, then you need to fix your problem. SPIRIT my friends. Its great when you’re geared, but its godly when you’re not.

LoL Min Maxing:  I have an issue with this term being used for healers… more spell power does not = more healing.  Yes, for damage that may be true, but it’s not true for us.  Hell half of it is just going to over healing anyway.  Healers have to be more balanced than that.  Regen, haste, mana pool, spell power… all important.  I understand if you DPS on your main it’s hard to wrap your head around the idea of having balanced stats.  I know that in a lot of fights when things go your way, you can do fine will all SP.  But on the really hard fights or  when things mess up and you are recovering, that sort of thing… trust me on this one, you don’t wanna be THAT tree who is now useless. I’d Brez but I don’t have mana, can I borrow someone else’s innervate? If you’re that tree, I don’t like you.

LoL Gear score:  The same person playing the same character on the same fights in the same raid will do better with better gear.  As someone who started ICC with a 3500 GS and still out healed the others, I rather think GS is retarded.  They probably sucked.  But hey, you can’t tell they suck from GS, nor can you tell I don’t.  Please, don’t be a GS Nazi, I don’t like them either.  You can always kick people later muhahaha.  In my experience an under-geared alt of a good player will pwn an geared main of a bad player any day, be it in dps, healing or tanking.

/endrant

Happy Tree-ing

I’m going to start off with heroic Blood Queen Lana’thel, who from everything I read was suppose to be a healing check.  Basically everything about this fight is the same as it is in regular mode with one exception.  In heroic mode, Blood Queen Lana’thel gains a stack of Presence of the Darkfallen for each vampire present. Each stack of this buff increases the power of her Shroud of Sorrow for 5%.  So towards the end, you have quite a few vampires, and the damage is significantly more intense than it is in regular.

That being said, we did this with five healers, and I honestly never felt like the healing was stressful.  Obviously some of that can be attributed to the fact that the other four were all very good healers.  The other thing was that we saved all of our raid cooldowns until the end of the fight.  For example, we usually have our paladin D-sac during the first flight phase, and both of our priest hymn for the second flight phase.  For heroic we had to survive the “stupid check” of spreading out without help, so these cooldowns could be burned at the end, usually during a Pact of the Darkfallen.

As far as druid healing goes on this… honestly…. rejuv, rejuv, rejuv, rejuv, rejuv, wild growth…. repeat.  I think I throw out a regrowth or two on really low people during flight phase.  But for the most part, if the other healers in your group are competent, then you serve the raid best by spamming raid heals.

Heroic Festergut

I thought about this for a bit… is it a healing check or a DPS check… in the end I concluded it was just a stupid check.  The difference between this and the regular version is that Professor Putriced throws down Malleable Goo throughout the fight.  And of course, the goo has the same effect it does on the PP fight, it slows down your attack speed and casting speed.  So of course, if most of your DPS is getting hit with it, their DPS will go way down, and it does become a DPS race to the enrage timer… or if most of your healers get hit, their heals go out a lot slower, and then it becomes a struggle to keep people up.

If interested we did this with two tanks and five healers.

See, when this heroic first came out, it was a bit of a challenge to judge where the goo was headed.  And because of that, this fight was a bit more challenging.  But recently they changed it so that a puddle will show on the ground where the goo will ultimately land.  So now it just becomes a “move out of the circle of bad stuff” normal everyday mechanic.  By adding a graphic, they really nerfed the fight.

A few things to remember.  For the most part it’s just like the normal version of the fight.  It is more important now that you actually get all three of your inoculations.  Move out of the green puddles on the ground… the effect of malleable goo is larger than the circle on the ground so stay way clear of them.  Keep up range check so you don’t chain puke.  And that’s all!

A Poll

Heroic Gunship

As much as gunship is LOL lootship in regular, the same applies to the heroic version of this fight.  Ok, the rockets knock you back, and the ship and mage have more health… but it’s the same basic show up and get your free loot fight.  I made a video of our last heroic gunship showing how seriously we took this fight, I hope it makes you smile

Heroic Rotface

After the gunship (the obvious first heroic), the next on the list is probably Heroic Rotface.  I can tell you that we’ve one-shot this every time on 10 man… and something like 3-shot it our first week in 25 man.  So, yeah there is a slight idiot-factor like any fight, but it’s really not a lot different than regular Rotface.

So what is different? Well for one, Putricide casts Vial Gas on people throughout the fight.  If you don’t recall, vial gas is the spell that’s usually cast during Festergut that makes you vomit and chains to nearby players.  Well the same principals apply, as far as spreading out so that you don’t chain the vomiting. Use /range or proximity. He’ll only cast it on the ranged, as long as you have enough.  So where we use to have everyone stacking in melee on this fight, we now sent a few out to ranged deal with this.  But this vial gas is MUCH weaker than the stuff you get on Festergut.  It doesn’t hurt as much, it doesn’t last as long.  It will still kill you if you chain it in melee, but it’s not an issue for the ranged.

The other thing that’s different is that the mutated infection reduces healing by 75% instead of 50% on normal.  We dispelled them right away when people got them on heroic.  You just have to be careful to get out quickly, so you don’t accidentally form big-slimes in the middle of the raid.    How ever many healers you use on normal should be fine for heroic.  For us that’s two and five.