Just a question for fellow Disc priests.

Are you finding it impossible to keep up Druid tanks, since our Shields don't work on them?

I had a feral druid DPSing in a heroic run today, and I found out about the bug that causes our shields to have no effect on them. I found it posted in the Bug forum, and that they are looking into it, so I'm not here to report it again or cry about it.

What I want to know, is it as gamebreaking as it sounds?

I'm forced to assume that I'll have to avoid running anything with a druid tank, or spec Holy.

Are you able to overcome it? Have you found that it works on some of them and not others? (not sure if it is a particular talent causing it or what at this point)

Basically, have you found it to be impossible to overcome? Do you use pain suppression more maybe?

I also had something VERY odd happen on a druid tank. I hit him with Gaurdian Spirit. I verified it was on him before I started healing other targets, but within 3 seconds the druids health dropped to 0 and he was dead. He never spiked back up to 50%. Now there is a small chance that I am just smoking something. Maybe I casted the spell on someone else, but has anyone else ever noticed this?

Yeah, I should have linked the threads. Sorry.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=13275620406&sid=1
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=13129063327&sid=1
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12890873147&sid=1

Those are the first ones I see.

And this one has the blue post stating they'll investigate.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=13393395581&sid=1

Please don't let this become a QQ thread. I honestly just want some feedback on how bad it is. Given the problems you had with your bear tank, it doesn't sound good.

good to hear for our priest healing pals =)

(and i'm sorry i have to do it... first. teehee)

I appreciate the response GC, but we can't count on an incoming fix. (with all due respect)

I can picture pages of QQ incoming now. *sigh*

It is very good to know that the issue is recognized and being worked on. That's all I ever expect personally.

But back to the topic at hand.

Have any Disc priests healed a druid through difficult content? heroics? 10 mans? 25 mans?

I suspect that I'll have to defer main tank healer to someone else if we have a bear tank. But if someone else can attest to doing it, I'd be willing to give it a shot. Any tips are appreciated though.

Thank you GC for responding to this bug report. It is very helpful to know that bugs like this have been noted and are being worked on.

The rapture bug from absorption effects appears to be fixed on 3.08 PTR. As one of the people who continually bumped the bug reports and contributed to the threads on this forum about that bug I can say that a response like this reduces uncertainty and concern.

I was able to keep a druid tank up while he OT'd Patchwerk in 25 man Naxx. I didn't worry so much about bubbling him, but instead spammed greater heal and hit him with penance when it was cooled down. There were times that he got to about 50%, but GH would crit for around 15k raid buffed and penance crits for about 5k each burst. I know not everything crits, but I have about 35% crit raid buffed and found it not terribly difficult to keep him alive.

My regular tank is a bear tank (RL friend) and I've healed him through H, Nexus, H UK, H Spider Ones and Thaddius in Naxx with no problems.

Ty for posting this. I have a hec of a time keeping my son's druid, as well as those in PuGs , alive at times. I had no idea about this bug.

This explains a lot. TY!

And TY, GC for fixing rapture in the PTR, EJs let me know this was fixed.

Could this be a contributor to the issue that druids are the least preferred tanks by healers?

Easy enough to see the logical chain reaction that could ensue really... if you cast a shield or buff during combat, you get threat. If the tank then takes damage anyway you then have to spam heal, which also causes threat. In the meantime druid AoE tanking has a few issues of its own due to swipe's target requirement and cone effect rather than 360 degree effect, so the one mob that decides to saunter behind the druid peels off and pwns the priest healer.

Ok, so possibly not game-breakingly bad. That's good to hear.

To Resirix...

Do you normally use Greater Heal on the OT on Patchwerk, or was it specifically because of this problem? I'm trying to move towards using flash heal, and avoiding greater heal altogether. Using it with borrowed time wasn't bad, but if your shield are useless on the tank then you'll be doing it non-hasted I imagine. Or did you just shield someone else (like yourself)?

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Q u o t e:
I'm trying to move towards using flash heal, and avoiding greater heal altogether.

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The flash/greater heal is a topic of great debate, but unless/until DA will actually stack from 2 FH crits, GH is more mana effiicient and can proc a single DA that can mitigate a min of 4K. That said, I go for the GH, esp on PATCH.

Unless your guild runs all druid tanks, knowing the bug, I'd heal one of the other classes on PATCH.

Flash heal is probably not the way to go with OT healing on Patchwerk. And you still get haste effects on a heal after a pw: shield, even if its on a druid and does no good. Might hit the main tank with it or something. To be honest as a discipline healer I still don't tend to rely on my shield while healing a single target- I usually shield a tank if someone else in my heroic or 5 man needs a heal to give me some time to do that. But yeah discipline still does fine with ferals, but yay for bugs like this for what was supposed to be a revolutionary priest spec to look forward too. /glare

Greater heal is not something I usually rely on or even use, but for the patchwek fight it's GH and penance when I have a druid tank. We normally have 3 plate tanks for that fight but circumstance didn't allow for it that run. Normally on plate tanks its PW:S, penance and flash x3 and then penance/flash again till PW:S is back up, then rinse and repeat. However b/c patchwek hits slow and hard and the druid tank was going to take a lot more damage, I used GH and penance. I did PW:S the druid as I was unaware of the bug, but didn't have any real problems keeping him alive.