Each form for a druid has a different bar and since the game only has so many action bar slots it can give out it ends up so we can't have a stealth bar. Luckily we only have two stealth-only skills so you can just macro them instead of needing a stealth bar.
Mastery for the spell druids is our last place stat.
Yeah I've been going Spirit > Haste > Int/Crit > Mastery right now, but it will probably push crit up and haste down as my GCD hits cap and of course spirit won't always be so high.
So, I'm playing a druid for the first time since launch and I can't for the life of me figure this out. I'm at level 23 or so and I finally have ravage. It took that for me to notice that unlike my rogue, when I go into 'stealth' (prowl) I don't get a new hotbar for my 'in stealth' abilities. Is this normal? I always thought that stealth classes got a fresh hotbar for when they were in stealth? It's pretty annoying if not.
If you don't want to get into addons business just for two abilities there is a very simple macro solution.
#showtooltip
/cast [stealth] Pounce; Shred
If you aren't familiar with macros, this will simply cast Pounce while you are prowling, and as soon as you break stealth it will use Shred until you start prowling again. All you have to do if figure out which button you would like to have this dual-purpose, and make a macro like that (and one for Ravage also).
Short version: your spells either provide points towards lunar or solo and the more you are toward one side the harder the other side hits. Best plan seems to be go all the way to one side then work your way back (ie: starfire till you hit eclipse then wrath till you hit the other. rinse, repeat). Not sure if the dots push you one way or the other, might want to check with someone who has played balance for that
So, having retunred from my exile I am now leveling a Feral Druid (Worgen ofc).
When I last played high lvl content it was TBC, Ferals were amazing all round tanks, resto owned PVP healing and Balance was average (feral dps was too low in most peoples eyes). So whats changed?
Is Feral a viable off-tank / dps spec for 10 or 25 man raiding? (more likely 10) I used to play a Rogue so the idea of being a main tank / healer terrifies me (responsibilitylol) and Balance isn't for me...
Feral is a viable DPS spec. I'm not knowledgeable about Druid tanking. Nowadays there is a different talent spec for Feral Tank and Feral DPS. I have heard that there are some limitations for bear tanking.
Feral and Resto are still good in PvP. Balance doesn't seem to be, but I'm just learning it now.
Feral is a viable DPS spec. I'm not knowledgeable about Druid tanking. Nowadays there is a different talent spec for Feral Tank and Feral DPS. I have heard that there are some limitations for bear tanking.
Feral and Resto are still good in PvP. Balance doesn't seem to be, but I'm just learning it now.
Resto is actually pretty aweful in PVP at the moment. Our hots just get eaten straight through and stopping to cast means dead druid.
Thanks for the help. I'm really quite enjoying the druid. Never played one because 1) I hate night elves and 2) Taurens made me feel like I was playing through syrup. I do however, feel very dirty playing alliance (worgen). If only Trolls didn't have dildo toes...
If only the class had one, two, or even three other roles...
I don't even understand what you want now. You have a powerful midheal at the cost of time. It's Nourish with a HoT on the target.
Nourish is pointless if you have to cast an expensive HoT on the target. Lifebloom is our only cheap HoT, but it has a one-person limit.
It's not just Nourish, but our whole class mastery that revolves around HoTs. But, mana-management is the name of game. While a Rejuv and Healing Touch together are a lot of healing because Healing Touch can get +20% extra, I to spend a lot of mana to achieve that. It defeats the purpose of even having Nourish if I have to spend gobs of mana to get where other classes are.
Right, and that's all stuff that I already posted and agreed with.
I was thinking while healing yesterday for solutions they could do that wouldn't involve making a new spell and I thought of these two possibilities:
-Lifebloom can be cast on infinite people but can only be stacked on one person. When you start stacking it on someone it removes all stacks from all other Lifeblooms with stacks, leaving them with 1 for the remaining time. Tree form acts as it does now. If needed they could lower the base healing of it by 75% and change the stack scaling to go from x*stack to x*2^(stack-1) so 1 stack's 1x power, 2 stacks is 2x power, and 3 stacks is 4x power (meaning 3 stacks is equal to today's 3 stacks in power)
-When you cast Lifebloom on someone else while a stack's already up, the existing stack blooms. You could then cast Lifebloom on someone who's not the tank without losing the bloom on them. Spamming it on the raid for blooms wouldn't be too mana efficient I don't think, so it wouldn't be increasing the AoE healing capability of the class too much.
So, having retunred from my exile I am now leveling a Feral Druid (Worgen ofc).
When I last played high lvl content it was TBC, Ferals were amazing all round tanks, resto owned PVP healing and Balance was average (feral dps was too low in most peoples eyes). So whats changed?
Is Feral a viable off-tank / dps spec for 10 or 25 man raiding? (more likely 10) I used to play a Rogue so the idea of being a main tank / healer terrifies me (responsibilitylol) and Balance isn't for me...
Well feral was a top notch dps spec all throughout wrath, but also the hardest, so it wasn't super popular (ie, if you suck, even with gear, you still did bad dps). From what I've seen as I'm still leveling, feral dps is still pretty great, and also a little more forgiving now that savage roar only affects white hits and as such, isn't as SUPER important as before. It's still very much a "watch the timers" dps spec though. There are add ons to help you track it however that are pretty nice.
Feral Tank and Feral DPS are quite different now, spec wise. Best to just use your dual specs for the two if you plan on feral dps and tanking. So far as tanking, well, it's pretty bare bones. Probably the easiest tank to learn on since it's basically a warrior without the toolbox. I don't personally enjoy it anymore, as I have 2 other tanks (prot warrior and DK) and though I was a guild main tank all throughout BC as a druid, it just is too simplistic to appeal to me anymore. /shrug. Anyway, so far as encounters they're still very viable.
-Mangle lasts a whole minute, so you aren't penalized if you lack an Arms warrior or bear tank.
-There's also more sources of bleed debuffs anyways.
-Talents to make Rake and Savage Roar last longer.
-We get a lot more mileage out of white damage now thanks to fury swipes and Savage Roar.
-Haste increases energy regen, giving players more breathing room.
Plus there's the talent formerly known as Om Nom Nom that makes FB refresh Rip once the target is in execute range. There's also the tiny bonus of Shred costing 5% less energy than it used to.
The changes definitely make the spec more playable, although they're counteracted somewhat (not fully) by the fact that crit rates are in the shitter compared to WotLK, so CP generation is a lot lower now (I'm guessing you're getting 2 CPs instead of 1 about 1/4 of the time now, as opposed to 2/3 to 3/4 of the time like in 3.3).
Suddenly Blizzard is worried about stale references when one of the goblin NPCs spouts a Jersey Shore reference. Or...fuck, it'd take me too long to list how many memes and pop culture references they shove in the game. It was a bullshit answer of staggering proportions.
I need to go to Blizzcon next year and go all red shirt on their asses.
Suddenly Blizzard is worried about stale references when one of the goblin NPCs spouts a Jersey Shore reference. Or...fuck, it'd take me too long to list how many memes and pop culture references they shove in the game. It was a bullshit answer of staggering proportions.
I need to go to Blizzcon next year and go all red shirt on their asses.
A bullshit answer to them changing a placeholder talent name from beta? I think you might have something if it had made it to release.
Suddenly Blizzard is worried about stale references when one of the goblin NPCs spouts a Jersey Shore reference. Or...fuck, it'd take me too long to list how many memes and pop culture references they shove in the game. It was a bullshit answer of staggering proportions.
I need to go to Blizzcon next year and go all red shirt on their asses.
Don't forget the zoolander reference in the goblin starting zone.
pop culture references in the starting area for a race that is the complete opposite of serious isn't really the same thing as naming a talent after an internet meme.
wait since when has druid stealth not brought up a new bar? I use bartender now and it does it but before I used any bar frames I could swear it still worked.
Hmm... maybe I've just been using bar frames a lot longer than I can remember then. Or I just forgot the days of stealth abilities all being on the same bar as nonstealth ones
contains this advice that I thought seemed pretty sound.
"LB the tank, Rejuv the tank. Fill in with nourish to reproc LB if he is high health. Let the LB fall off and bloom for big heal if he is running low.
rejuving the DPS is USUALLY a waste of mana IMO, however for bursthealing that is mana efficient rejuv with swiftment works nice on dps or the tank. WG the DPS and fill in with nourish. Regroth is good burst but use wisely as it will oom you if you spam it.
Don't heal stupid DPS that perpetually takes avoidable damage.
During Boss fights space out your CDs. Tranquillity is the first CD I pop. When my mana gets to 75% I innervate on boss fights. When my mana is 50% after innervate I pop tree form and life bloom the entire party and spam WG - filling in with nourish. After that, I pray the boss/trash will die before I am oom.
Barkskin every time its off CD. "
Does this seem like pretty good healing advice?
I'm still trying to get used to the healing changes.
Yeah good call, might as well drop HT when OoC is up, and popping Tranquility first just seems wasteful and wierd.
Just from my observations some changes seem to be LB is much more important now, the keeping LB up with Nourish and HT mechanic being part of that. Rejuv is not as important, and Regrowth is terrible.
Spec of choice seems to be Balance up to Moonglow, 2pts in Furor, and no NS.
Yeah good call, might as well drop HT when OoC is up.
Just from my observations some changes seem to be LB is much more important now, the keeping LB up with Nourish and HT mechanic being part of that. Rejuv is not as important, and Regrowth is terrible.
Spec of choice seems to be Balance up to Moonglow, 2pts in Furor, and no NS.
That said, Regrowth can be nice to throw out on an OoC proc and swiftmend it over the melee. Situational, but that can provide a nice blanket on the cheap if you've got a few melee.
I haven't looked into since the big overhaul, but is SMing a Regrowth worthwhile? I know up until 4.0, the heal from SM was based on the full duration healing of whichever HoT it was "consuming." I was under the impression that the DoT portion of Regrowth was pretty light now and is significantly less than Rejuv. Or is SM's healing no longer tied to the HoT it's working on?
Swiftmend's no longer tied to the HoT it's "eating" so Rejuv or Regrowth both do equal healing.
If your Lifebloom needs refreshing and your tank is near full health and/or the LB's healing is outpacing the incoming damage, just refresh it with Lifebloom instead of using more mana by doing it with Nourish.
In addition, try to keep up LB on the tank between pulls: this means Replenishment's still active so there's less downtime plus less ramp up on the next fight.
And with how much reaction time you get now, Nature's Swiftness is definitely worthless, the points are better placed elsewhere.
A lot of being a healer is knowing when damage is coming and how to prepare for it.
-If the boss is taking a lot of damage, rejuv is very useful to keep dps from dipping too low. Same cast time as Regrowth, but more efficient. Cast it when the tank is tanking a beating but dps needs to stay up.
-Swiftmend is dirt cheap. If you rejuv or regrowth someone, you should plan on swiftmending.
-Barkskin if you are taking or about to take damage. Doing it on cooldown is fucking stupid.
-Try not to JUST wild growth. You can squeeze in two Nourishes before it falls off, which is roughly 8000-9000 healing depending on your mastery. That's a nice bit of spot healing. If you lack time to Nourish, then two Rejuvs can be done in roughly half the time.
The biggest issue I'm finding (besides mana management) Is the scenerio where you are going to want to let lifebloom bloom for a big heal, but you also need a filler to keep him up till that happens. Regrowth just doesn't cut it, and HT or Nourish will reset teh bloom timer.
Another nice mechanic to abuse is tree form, lifebloom blanket then enjoy your instant cast, free regrowths. I find that the best to use in a heavy, sustained aoe phase.
Gnutson on
Erai - Operative <--Imperial Double Agent--> Sniper - Eari
SW:Tor - Tao - Kryatt Dragon Server
I really think our mushrooms should be connected to aoe healing. Seems like the right place for it, and goddamn do mushrooms suck right now.
Also, I want to thank Blizzard for not removing Barkskin's magic nature. Really awesome knowing my defense skill is easily tossed away. Even better is the fact that this went against our preview. Fuck you, Blizzard.
Posts
Much thanks, this is what I ended up doing. :^:
Seems to be well below crit/haste right now.
Yeah I've been going Spirit > Haste > Int/Crit > Mastery right now, but it will probably push crit up and haste down as my GCD hits cap and of course spirit won't always be so high.
If you don't want to get into addons business just for two abilities there is a very simple macro solution.
#showtooltip
/cast [stealth] Pounce; Shred
If you aren't familiar with macros, this will simply cast Pounce while you are prowling, and as soon as you break stealth it will use Shred until you start prowling again. All you have to do if figure out which button you would like to have this dual-purpose, and make a macro like that (and one for Ravage also).
This is not quite right. Check Raz's explanation in the OP. If someone is seriously going Balance I suggest this addon: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/eclipsebarplus.aspx
It lets you move the Eclipse UI element and resize/modify it. I have it down by my cast bar so it's easier to keep track of.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
After that, you want a ton of spirit until you feel less restrained in challenging content. Then it's haste time.
Reforge mastery via this priority list: spirit, haste and crit.
When I last played high lvl content it was TBC, Ferals were amazing all round tanks, resto owned PVP healing and Balance was average (feral dps was too low in most peoples eyes). So whats changed?
Is Feral a viable off-tank / dps spec for 10 or 25 man raiding? (more likely 10) I used to play a Rogue so the idea of being a main tank / healer terrifies me (responsibilitylol) and Balance isn't for me...
Feral and Resto are still good in PvP. Balance doesn't seem to be, but I'm just learning it now.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
Resto is actually pretty aweful in PVP at the moment. Our hots just get eaten straight through and stopping to cast means dead druid.
With Druid, you get a new bar when you change form, not when prowling. The Macro system is the best if you're comfortable with that.
Thanks for the help. I'm really quite enjoying the druid. Never played one because 1) I hate night elves and 2) Taurens made me feel like I was playing through syrup. I do however, feel very dirty playing alliance (worgen). If only Trolls didn't have dildo toes...
-Lifebloom can be cast on infinite people but can only be stacked on one person. When you start stacking it on someone it removes all stacks from all other Lifeblooms with stacks, leaving them with 1 for the remaining time. Tree form acts as it does now. If needed they could lower the base healing of it by 75% and change the stack scaling to go from x*stack to x*2^(stack-1) so 1 stack's 1x power, 2 stacks is 2x power, and 3 stacks is 4x power (meaning 3 stacks is equal to today's 3 stacks in power)
-When you cast Lifebloom on someone else while a stack's already up, the existing stack blooms. You could then cast Lifebloom on someone who's not the tank without losing the bloom on them. Spamming it on the raid for blooms wouldn't be too mana efficient I don't think, so it wouldn't be increasing the AoE healing capability of the class too much.
Well feral was a top notch dps spec all throughout wrath, but also the hardest, so it wasn't super popular (ie, if you suck, even with gear, you still did bad dps). From what I've seen as I'm still leveling, feral dps is still pretty great, and also a little more forgiving now that savage roar only affects white hits and as such, isn't as SUPER important as before. It's still very much a "watch the timers" dps spec though. There are add ons to help you track it however that are pretty nice.
Feral Tank and Feral DPS are quite different now, spec wise. Best to just use your dual specs for the two if you plan on feral dps and tanking. So far as tanking, well, it's pretty bare bones. Probably the easiest tank to learn on since it's basically a warrior without the toolbox. I don't personally enjoy it anymore, as I have 2 other tanks (prot warrior and DK) and though I was a guild main tank all throughout BC as a druid, it just is too simplistic to appeal to me anymore. /shrug. Anyway, so far as encounters they're still very viable.
-Mangle lasts a whole minute, so you aren't penalized if you lack an Arms warrior or bear tank.
-There's also more sources of bleed debuffs anyways.
-Talents to make Rake and Savage Roar last longer.
-We get a lot more mileage out of white damage now thanks to fury swipes and Savage Roar.
-Haste increases energy regen, giving players more breathing room.
The changes definitely make the spec more playable, although they're counteracted somewhat (not fully) by the fact that crit rates are in the shitter compared to WotLK, so CP generation is a lot lower now (I'm guessing you're getting 2 CPs instead of 1 about 1/4 of the time now, as opposed to 2/3 to 3/4 of the time like in 3.3).
Suddenly Blizzard is worried about stale references when one of the goblin NPCs spouts a Jersey Shore reference. Or...fuck, it'd take me too long to list how many memes and pop culture references they shove in the game. It was a bullshit answer of staggering proportions.
I need to go to Blizzcon next year and go all red shirt on their asses.
A bullshit answer to them changing a placeholder talent name from beta? I think you might have something if it had made it to release.
Don't forget the zoolander reference in the goblin starting zone.
ALso is troll bat form still not in game?
contains this advice that I thought seemed pretty sound.
"LB the tank, Rejuv the tank. Fill in with nourish to reproc LB if he is high health. Let the LB fall off and bloom for big heal if he is running low.
rejuving the DPS is USUALLY a waste of mana IMO, however for bursthealing that is mana efficient rejuv with swiftment works nice on dps or the tank. WG the DPS and fill in with nourish. Regroth is good burst but use wisely as it will oom you if you spam it.
Don't heal stupid DPS that perpetually takes avoidable damage.
During Boss fights space out your CDs. Tranquillity is the first CD I pop. When my mana gets to 75% I innervate on boss fights. When my mana is 50% after innervate I pop tree form and life bloom the entire party and spam WG - filling in with nourish. After that, I pray the boss/trash will die before I am oom.
Barkskin every time its off CD. "
Does this seem like pretty good healing advice?
I'm still trying to get used to the healing changes.
Also, "Tranquility is the first CD I pop." Uh...
Just from my observations some changes seem to be LB is much more important now, the keeping LB up with Nourish and HT mechanic being part of that. Rejuv is not as important, and Regrowth is terrible.
Spec of choice seems to be Balance up to Moonglow, 2pts in Furor, and no NS.
That said, Regrowth can be nice to throw out on an OoC proc and swiftmend it over the melee. Situational, but that can provide a nice blanket on the cheap if you've got a few melee.
If your Lifebloom needs refreshing and your tank is near full health and/or the LB's healing is outpacing the incoming damage, just refresh it with Lifebloom instead of using more mana by doing it with Nourish.
In addition, try to keep up LB on the tank between pulls: this means Replenishment's still active so there's less downtime plus less ramp up on the next fight.
And with how much reaction time you get now, Nature's Swiftness is definitely worthless, the points are better placed elsewhere.
-If the boss is taking a lot of damage, rejuv is very useful to keep dps from dipping too low. Same cast time as Regrowth, but more efficient. Cast it when the tank is tanking a beating but dps needs to stay up.
-Swiftmend is dirt cheap. If you rejuv or regrowth someone, you should plan on swiftmending.
-Barkskin if you are taking or about to take damage. Doing it on cooldown is fucking stupid.
-Try not to JUST wild growth. You can squeeze in two Nourishes before it falls off, which is roughly 8000-9000 healing depending on your mastery. That's a nice bit of spot healing. If you lack time to Nourish, then two Rejuvs can be done in roughly half the time.
Another nice mechanic to abuse is tree form, lifebloom blanket then enjoy your instant cast, free regrowths. I find that the best to use in a heavy, sustained aoe phase.
SW:Tor - Tao - Kryatt Dragon Server
It would seem like that would be the smart thing to do with Efflorescense and all.
Yeah Efflorescense is pretty crazy-good.
Also, I want to thank Blizzard for not removing Barkskin's magic nature. Really awesome knowing my defense skill is easily tossed away. Even better is the fact that this went against our preview. Fuck you, Blizzard.