It was rather difficult to decide which spec to play with first, full resto or partial balance/resto. I went ahead and played with WG. It's definitely a neat spell, but for everyone commenting about the WWS parses in Sunwell etc, that's a pointless comparison as Sunwell (along with every other raid instance) has been nerfed to hell so if you were in the instance previously, raids since 3.0.2 are just a free-for-all instead of organized specific assignments.

If WG does end up getting a cooldown, it just makes switching over to a balance/resto spec that much easier so I can play with the new talents there and ignore WG completely.

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Q u o t e:
Actually, the big, bold, bright lights just went off inside my head, and I'm not huffing paint, so I think i've had an idea...

If the consumed HoT from Riptide was added into Chain heal (and the jumps as well) it would be much better.

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Very, very neat idea - or even perhaps on consumption sets off it's own independant CH? Activating it would heal the tank and send a banana beam off into melee? Might have gotten a bit excited there, but yeah, I see options.

Oh wells. Can only hope.

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Q u o t e:
Ok, assuming that's the case, what IS intended to be our "new lifebloom"?

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Nothing!

Look: Blizz doesn't want healers spamming one button all day long.

Even Paladins.

Paladins have to weave in Holy Shock and/or Holy Light to heal damage spikes. Shamans have a number of talents that improve their non-chain heal spells, as an incentive to use them. Priests have got five billion healing spells, and need to use a fair number of them in varying situations.

Blizz wants Druids to join the rest of the healers in having to use multiple spells for different jobs. That's not a bad thing. You'll get used to it.

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Q u o t e:


Could be just the Druid in me, but it sounds like a set-it and semi-forget-it tank healing spell with an Oshi- factor. Once tanks are getting slapped for all they're worth again, perhaps it'll come into play?

If it does play out how it looks to me, they'll need to look at the mana cost perhaps.

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It doesn't really heal for enough to be worth the mana on tanks... The reason Druid HoTs are so good is becuase you have a talent tree built around buffing them. Riptide gets benefit from purification (10%) and nothing else.

It has its rare uses, but I don't think you will ever see Riptide be more than 2-5% part of "healing done" for any raiding shaman (unless they are REALLY bad at staying out of fire)

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Q u o t e:


Nothing!

Look: Blizz doesn't want healers spamming one button all day long.

Even Paladins.

Paladins have to weave in Holy Shock and/or Holy Light to heal damage spikes. Shamans have a number of talents that improve their non-chain heal spells, as an incentive to use them. Priests have got five billion healing spells, and need to use a fair number of them in varying situations.

Blizz wants Druids to join the rest of the healers in having to use multiple spells for different jobs. That's not a bad thing. You'll get used to it.

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Not true. Shaman are Chain Heal spammers... and pretty much forever will be.

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Q u o t e:
It was rather difficult to decide which spec to play with first, full resto or partial balance/resto. I went ahead and played with WG. It's definitely a neat spell, but for everyone commenting about the WWS parses in Sunwell etc, that's a pointless comparison as Sunwell (along with every other raid instance) has been nerfed to hell so if you were in the instance previously, raids since 3.0.2 are just a free-for-all instead of organized specific assignments.

If WG does end up getting a cooldown, it just makes switching over to a balance/resto spec that much easier so I can play with the new talents there and ignore WG completely.

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Aha yes - I just thought they'd be something more people would look to seeing as we don't have level 80 content yet and prior 3.0 we had no wild growth so parses from there are obsolete.

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Q u o t e:


Very, very neat idea - or even perhaps on consumption sets off it's own independant CH? Activating it would heal the tank and send a banana beam off into melee? Might have gotten a bit excited there, but yeah, I see options.

Oh wells. Can only hope.

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Yeah, the could do something with it. The problem is still that, unless it's a tank, Chain Heal on a rip-tided target will be pure overheal.

With the way most fights are spread out, Chain Heal is only effective if you start with a melee target (the bounce usually isn't big enough to get melee).

If they added the 25% affect to the chain heal cast after riptide, instead of on when riptide is consumed, it would get used a little bit more...

Whats really sad is when shaman in BC used to go get three pieces of t2 for the chain heal bonus... apparently it was worth the stat downgrade.

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Q u o t e:
It's definitely a neat spell, but for everyone commenting about the WWS parses in Sunwell etc, that's a pointless comparison as Sunwell (along with every other raid instance) has been nerfed to hell so if you were in the instance previously, raids since 3.0.2 are just a free-for-all instead of organized specific assignments.

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Naxx is probably easier than Sunwell is right now, so unfortunately the comparison is apt, if this is the type of stuff we have to look forward to. =/

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Aha yes - I just thought they'd be something more people would look to seeing as we don't have level 80 content yet and prior 3.0 we had no wild growth so parses from there are obsolete.

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No I totally understand. :) Just pointing out that GC referenced COH & WG spam in level 80 Naxx and if we're able to spam it now, it's because the instances were nerfed (which they had to be since we can't chain pot anymore amongst other things) not necessarily because WG is the new go to spell for druids.

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Q u o t e:


Nothing!

Look: Blizz doesn't want healers spamming one button all day long.

Even Paladins.

Paladins have to weave in Holy Shock and/or Holy Light to heal damage spikes. Shamans have a number of talents that improve their non-chain heal spells, as an incentive to use them. Priests have got five billion healing spells, and need to use a fair number of them in varying situations.

Blizz wants Druids to join the rest of the healers in having to use multiple spells for different jobs. That's not a bad thing. You'll get used to it.

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Druids really don't spam one button, you have been drinking the pvp koolaide.

Rolling lifebloom in raids and trying to squeeze out the most effective healing while not letting your stacks fall off was one of the more interesting things I've done in raiding. It is nothing like the AoE spam you are seeing now.

Druids have (in PVE!!!) been a challenging class to play correctly in TBC to keep up with the shamans and priests.

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Q u o t e:


Naxx is probably easier than Sunwell is right now, so unfortunately the comparison is apt, if this is the type of stuff we have to look forward to. =/

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Yes, but the difference is that Naxx is balanced around being easier. Sunwell was balanced around being very difficult with specific requirements (class comp, chain potting, drum & blust rotations, etc) and was then given a flat nerf so that more people could see the content and so that it was doable without chain potting and drum/blust rotations that were made impossible with 3.0.2.

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Why make it our 51 point talent if we're not supposed to use it in the most effective way possible... IE When we feel it necessary?

Is Blizzard seriously considering putting limitations on how we use our top teir talent?

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Lol have you seen Beacon? That is a purely situational healing tool. I love the spell too. The point is that just because it is a 51 point talent does not mean that is it the new spell you use in all situations. They are situational talents.

The fact remains now, like it has always been, that druids still use other heals in their arsenal. WG does not constitute 90% of my heals. It is a tool I use just like any other spell I have. Having WG nerfed on the heel of the lifebloom nerf is a VERY bitter pill to swallow.

I really hope that the dev realize what they are doing. This Sunwell stacking bs can never be allowed to happen again. I've seen good druids and pallies sitting on the sidelines simply because they can't match the healing output of shamans spamming CH rank 4.

They said that if shamans are pushing other healers out of raids then they will nerf them too. I, for one, am very skeptical about this since they did nothing to them for the entirety of tbc and only took action 1 month before the expansion comes out.

My main concern is why would WG get the cd? Spamming it on one person simply makes no sense unless that one person is the only one taking damage AND all your other hots are up on them.

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Q u o t e:

Furthermore, we have started to see discussions about using CoH and WG even for single target healing. I'm not sure yet whether that is actually effective in the long run, but the fact that those ideas aren't immediately shot down suggests that the instant component of WG and CoH is so powerful that they may get used even when there aren't Naj'entus-style AE blasts.

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I'm not sure about CoH for tank healing, but WG is certainly another HoT that a druid could put on a tank to buffer incoming damage - especially if he had a free GCD. The smart resto druids quickly found that you could set your /focus on the boss and quickly target him and cast WG centered on him: this made it such that the radius of WG would essentially be extended, since the boss radius is rather large and you can cover both the tank and the melee.

GC, I know you alluded to considering the proportionate CDs of CoH and WG, thereby hinting that WG may have a lower CD due to its tick component. Have you given any thought to this yet? Personally, I think the CD should be lower than CoH because of that "has to tick" consideration alongside the fact that the CoH glyph will make WG's requirement to tick even more important (otherwise, it has a higher chance of being overwritten by an incoming glyphed CoH), but another option is making GotEM affect WG's overall cooldown. 5 points would bring the CD to 4.8s, which is more manageable...though still not quite enough to ensure that WG will tick over the powerful glyphed CoH. I was originally thinking that if CoH is a 6 second CD, a 4 sec CD for WG would make it on par, considering that ever important tick requirement...and it'd still result in druids having to use other casts in between WG casts (if they even did hit it every single CD): 3 or more instants, depending on haste, or 2 or more casts.

Check out the "What of GotEM" thread too, it's an interesting question that arises from this whole WG discussion.

I feel a CD on wild growth would be a very bad idea at this point. I don't spam WG when I'm raiding. I use it as a small buffer during aoe dmg to give the other healers room to breathe. It's definetely not my only spell. I still keep the tanks hotted and put rejuvs and such on the squishier people. If anything, 1sec HT and regrowth have become my new fav spells.

WG has been a blessing in heroics as well. It also gets used as buffer in those to give me time to get in the bigger heals, but again it's not something I spam because IMO it just doesn't heal enough to be anyway to top someone off raid or heroic. Basically I still need ALL my spells, and I WG in the right situation has opened the door to me being able to use them more often

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Q u o t e:
Furthermore, we have started to see discussions about using CoH and WG even for single target healing. I'm not sure yet whether that is actually effective in the long run, but the fact that those ideas aren't immediately shot down suggests that the instant component of WG and CoH is so powerful that they may get used even when there aren't Naj'entus-style AE blasts.

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You must be looking at priests ad druids that prefer mindlessly spamming one button...Stacking HoTs as a druid and timing GHeals and FHeals as a priest is WAY more efficient in everyway (HPS, HPM) than CoH/WG for single target healing... Only moment I could possibly see someone healing a tank with CoH would be to reach the melee around him.

TO THE GROUND!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!

Just kidding =P

In all honesty I really want to see all of the healing classes in all of the raids, it makes thing more interesting and fun. I do think that blizzard (ghostcrawler <3)is doing a good job keeping an eye on everyone's positions and hopefully they will continue to do so.