Part 1: Description of Healing tools at 85 – Getting to know your spells
(Updated 11/28/11 for level 85 healing in 4.3)
Before I describe how to heal, I need to introduce you to the spells and how they will work.
Single-target Direct Heals:
There is a “trinity” of 3 direct heals for all classes. Our “fast” heal is regrowth. Our “efficient” heal is Nourish. Our “Big” heal is Healing touch. When trying to heal a single target, we have to choose what is the most important spell to use at any time. When you first hit 85, or for tank healing in 5-mans, you will likely use all 3 of these single-target spells. However, once you are raiding, the frequency at which you use these spells usually decreases. So, here is what the 3 spells look like:
- Healing Touch (2.5 sec cast time after Naturalist, mana expensive). Heals for a large amount, but has a high mana cost, and a semi-long cast time. You can use this to refresh Lifebloom on your target (with talents). Use this when you need a big heal on a tank or raid/party member. Omen of Clarity procs will make this spell cost no mana to cast. You want to macro your Nature’s Swiftness to this spell, since it’s our largest direct heal.
- Nourish (2.5 sec cast time after naturalist, mana efficient). Cast time is the same as Healing Touch. However, it costs less mana and heals for less than HT, which is our “efficient” heal when you first hit 85 and have mana problems. Empowered Touch allows nourish to refresh lifebloom on that target, so you can use this to refresh Lifebloom on your tank and help keep up your Harmony mastery during raids.
- Regrowth Heals for a medium amount and is now our “flash” heal instead of nourish. The HOT duration was reduced to 6 seconds to allow the direct heal to hit harder. Use when you can afford the mana and need a fast heal (but don’t spam or you will run out of mana when you first hit 85). You can also use this when you are in tree form and get Omen of Clarity procs for mana-free instant regrowths. Can also be used in specific boss encounters that require fast direct heals.
Single-target HOTs:
The “bread and butter” of druid healing is not about direct heals, however. The primary tools of resto druids are our Heal over Time (HOT) spells.
- Lifebloom (instant) is your tank HOT. You can only have this on one person at a time (unless you are in tree form). If you move it to a new target, it doesn’t force the bloom, it just ends on the first target. You will need to keep a 3-stack of lifebloom up on your tank, even if you are raid healing. It is recommended that you refresh with a direct heal when you need to refresh your mastery buff and then use LB to refresh LB when you don’t need to refresh your mastery buff (or if it’s about to fall off). When in tree form, you can sprinkle this around raid members to try and get more Omen of Clarity procs.
- Rejuvenation (instant) is a primary healing spell for you as a raid heal. Rejuv has a chance to give you the mana return from revitalize, and gets a small instant heal from gift of the earth mother. Rejuv works best on tanks and on lightly wounded targets, ie. people who are likely to be taking damage over time to benefit from the most HOT ticks, and you should use this as your primary heal for sprinkling around on raid members instead of using single-target direct heals when there is a lot of AOE splash damage happening.
Multi-target AOE heals:
Your Area of Effect healing choices are somewhat limited, which is why Rejuv ends up being used as a filler between your multi-target HOTs. Swiftmend counts in this category, since you will have to be mindful of making sure you are making the most use out of Efflorescence.
- Swiftmend (instant, 15 sec cooldown) puts a medium-size direct heal on a target effected by a rejuv/regrowth HOT, and then efflorescence will sprout an 8 yard circle around that target (when talented). Up to 3 people standing in that circle gets healed for up to 7 seconds. Moving out of the circle stops healing. Since swiftmend activates the Harmony mastery, in addition to the incredible amount of healing done by the spell, you really should use this spell every time it comes off cooldown. While you should use this every cooldown, make sure you are trying to maximize the amount of healing it does with the large direct heal and AOE HOT.
- Wild Growth (instant, 8 to 10 sec cooldown) is still a “smart” heal that hits multiple targets to heal over time. Use this often as an AOE heal, both when you are assigned to raid healing and when you are assigned to tank healing, since using it will help out your raid a lot in times of AOE damage.
- Tranquility (channeled over 7 sec, 3 min cooldown after talents) – Heals 5 low-health party & raid members (ie. no longer limited to people in your group). It has a big direct heal that hits about every 2 seconds, and also applies a HOT that stacks up to 3 times that lasts for the duration. Use this as your emergency AOE heal, and try plan in advance which phases to use it (in most raid encounters, it’s possible to plan ways to use it twice in heavy AOE phases).