Druid healing guide?

[Arcdelad]

we defintitely have a healer shortage when I log on, and two people IMMEDIATELY msg me asking me if i can heal their instance...

so...I would like to rise to the challenge. I have a crapload of healing gear I carry around giving me about 7.2k mana, and some good +healing stats (including a nice rejuvi idol taht gives 88 more healign per tic)..

BUT...what I dont have is the experience and skill to heal yet...I suck...I admit it. However, I want to not suck, so if anyone has some druid healing tps I would greatly appreicate them.

My general healign strategy now is to instantly cast rejuvination (1200 health over 12 seconds) on the tank, ot, and any pets taking immedaite damage...after I throw out my rejuvi I supplement them with lifeblooms (instant cast, stacks three times, does like 88 a tic healing for 6 seconds then grants an immediate +600 health)...typically those two are enough, and both of those can be cast while moving around if i need to...if i see health levels falling I cast a regeneration (instant health plus HOT), and if i see someone in despaerate straights i cast a normal heal, which usually hits for about 3500-4200...

I do run out of mana a lot...but thats probably a symptom of me being feral specced. Any tips would be great...thanks in advance

[Kothnok]

I almost never use the Full Heal, even when I'm the main healer.

I typically ignore pets unless they are tanking for the group.  If they are getting hurt too much when not specifically tanking, let them die.  Your group has priority over something that can be resummoned afterwards (unless there's a VERY good reason to keep them alive).

I don't have Lifebloom, so I can't help you there.  My strategy for healing is usually to throw on the Insta-heal while I then cast Regeneration.  I've had to force myself not to cast those too early unless the person has very few hps to start with and will go down quicker than a Regen cast.  Koth has only 6k mana and while he goes out of mana fairly regularly, I've learned to time things so that he runs out just as the mob dies.  That just takes experience.

Sometimes multiple people are getting hurt at one time and a better tactic would be to use AE heal... but I can only say that be very careful when doing so as if there are extra mobs that aren't being tanked, you WILL drag aggro unless you have the 100% less threat talent for it.  That would be bad.   Also the 10min cooldown means you have to be judicious on when you use it... don't rely on it as it's just for emergencies.

Given this, I rarely use mana potions (I've always been too poor/lazy to make them much) and I use Innervate a lot on myself as main healer.  Never be afraid to use bandaids now and then while your mana regens back to allow another heal.

I'm probably not a great healer, but I do alright.  If any of this helps you improve in your own style, great!

[Lovica]

I went deep down into the resto tree until recently respeccing to pretty much half balance/half resto.

I'm not saying I'm the most amazing healer out there, cos I'm not   I'm quite scared to go into these Outland instances as a solo-healer most of the time since I just feel overwhelmed with no backup help.

On trash mobs, it's pretty much cake since the fight doesn't last too long.  Just a few HoTs and I usually stack lifebloom.  I haven't gotten the stacking down perfectly since people said it has nice effects, so I'm still playing around to get that down firm.

On boss fights that's when I start stressing out.  I usually keep HoTs on everyone or at least try and use swiftmend (I'm pretty sure you don't have that talent though) everytime it's cooldown ends.  Lifebloom again helps out a bit here since mine "blooms" for about 925ish on average.  I try not to use regrowth often and conserve it for the really dire situations since it drains my mana pool and I have a macro specifically for Nature's Swiftness + Highest Ranking Healing Touch for the "oh crap" situations.

I'm pretty sure this was everything you knew already and not helpful but if it did help in any miniscule way then I'm glad lol :x

[Shadowwolf]

When I heal on Shadow (having been every spec a Druid can be) I prefer doing it as Balance. Ive filled the resto tree, and frankly I just dont like it. Soloing is rough and I just dont like the talent bonuses all that much. Treeform is sweet indeed with the +healing aura and all, but its limitation is using HOT spells only, so if thats the case, just load up the +healing gear and fill the Balance Tree. Balance has some bonus talents for mana cost reduction on healing spells and if maxed out can give you a 9% decrease in mana for all your heals, problem is its a bit far down the tree. Same can be said for the mana regen talents Balance has way down there. Being Shadow hasnt begun the trip to 70 all that forcefully and my gear is still mostly pre-BC my +healing in healing gear is about 500, yes it could be better, but I think thats pretty good for being something other than specd for heals.

Basically I use only HOT spells when healing. Ive been the primary healer in Resto and in Balance spec for groups pre-BC, some with the new talent trees, most with the old and have come up successful. You basically have to anticipate your heals is all. Take a peek at whats taking place combat wise, see whos going to be in trouble and try to plan heals and casts about 5-10sec ahead of when they are needed. Mainly because of 2 reasons, non-resto spec your healing touch will take a short eternity to cast (3.5 sec max rank last I checked) which could mean life/death for someone. Second, HOT spells depending on the one you use split the recovery over a set time period generally not exceeding 12 sec. Keeping yourself ahead of things by 5-10 is a good buffer to cast what you should. As a druid, you're going to overheal a lot, its the nature of the beast (no pun intended) an is even more common if you are one of a few healers in group.

The biggest key to remember if you arent Resto / Balance is mana management. You'll eat it up quick with constant casting as a druid. More over using Healing Touch which is just a mana muncher for non-resto. I do a pretty good job as a healer with only ~5k mana as most of my gear is for more +heals, not so much +int. Your best bet is also with a group that has good aggro and CC management. Any healer will get overwhelmed having to heal everyone all the time, itll eat up mana and just result in deaths. Having a tank that knows how to keep hate and other classes that know not to go off and be a wannabe tank when its not necessary will help make the job easier.

[dharq]

Something else to keep in mind is that Tranquility is actually a viable "oh-crap" spell now. Heals ~1k a tick to all party members in range now, but on a 10 min cd now iirc. Thing is, that 1k a tick can really save a party on a bad pull for only about 1/2 your mana. A lot more mana efficient than individual heals if things go south imo.

Like Shadow said, I've found preventing dmg through stacking heals to be the key when I have to play healer. I've got ~7k mana in my healing gear, but being mostly feral, I burn through it really quickly. The cool thing is that regrowth + rejuv + 3x lifebloom will actually give you about 5-10 seconds of nearly full health on a good tank. Costs around 2k mana for it all, but it's much more effective than spamming healing touch (and you actually get a tick or 2 of mana regen).

What's utterly amazing to me is when you have 3+ druids all casting regrowth+rejuv on a single MT... It's like 15-20 seconds of pally bubble on any tank in the game. Couple it with a pally tank, and it's just outrageously amazing (since pallies recover mana as a % of every heal cast on them now). Couple it with a druid who can use that time to bank up rage for a frenzied regen, and it's almost as good. Best part is, those 3 or more druids don't have to do anything more than spot healing during that time, so they get to regen some of the mana it takes to cast it. And it lasts longer than a PW:S without the nasty side effect of cancelling out some of a rage-tank's rage generation. Add lifebloom in, and numerically, it's just unbelievable to me they allow that mechanic to stay in the game.

It also scares me--I'm betting they are planning some of the end-game raid encounters that are dependent on that much healing power...

[Lynette]

Considering respeccing my druid to play as a healer (want to get a feel for this before the next expansion) and wanted to know how our druids are healing with the current build.

[fiere redfern]

For me, when healing five-mans or raids I find it best to start off with a lifebloom stack instead of a regrowth - the few seconds it takes to cast regrowth on a boss means the tank is being hit for whatever amount without any hots on him to mitigate the effect of the damage, and I end up feeling like I'm scrambling to keep the tank alive rather than able to keep up with the damage he/she's taking. While on the subject of lifebloom, I try and keep up a rolling stack of three at the very least on the tank to ease the burden on myself and any other healers who are in the raid.

I tend to not use HT at all, except for when Nature's Swiftness is up and I need a big heal immediately on the tank or whomever. The cast time is just too long to make it a viable heal otherwise. Plus, you lose the treeform bonus by shifting out. Swiftmend helps out a lot as well if NS is on cd - toss a quick rejuv, swiftmend, and then a regrowth as needed and you should be fine.

Tranquility is still a great "oh crap" spell when the raid seems to be taking damage faster than you can click lifebloom to heal 'em, it's also highly recommended that dps druids (boomkin or feral, doesn't matter) use it if they see that the general raid health is low to give a hand to the healers. Tanks, on the other hand, shouldn't, since it means shifting out of bear-form and being crit during the channel = insta-dirtnap.

I am by no means an expert on the subject of healing, as my healy gear is all off-spec cast-offs that none of the real healers needed at the time  , but I think I do alright atm with 1409+ healing and whatever my other stats are (can't log in atm). I have to talk to somebody with a clue about gemming, as well.

Edit: I found what looks at first blush to be a fairly comprehensive guide on healing as a tree - I'll take a look at it more when I get home: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=110537225&sid=1

Hope that helps!

[Lynette]

Thanks, Fi. 

Quick question ... Do Lifeblooms stack from multiple druids if more than 1 druid is healing during a raid?

[Riddlerr]

A good guide, I used with mine was using this http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t17783-druid_raiding_tree/

[Shadowwolf]

Yes, LB stacks from multiple druids.