2.4 ... Death to Resto Druids in PvE? Follow

I'm sure most Resto Druids are aware of the change proposed for 2.4 which will lower the healing coefficient of Lifebloom ticks. The proposed change was initially understood to be an attempt at a PvP nerf (which doesn't make sense) but now is subject to debate because it's extremely obvious that the change will strictly impact PvE Healing Druids. What's everyone's thought on this change? The mathematical truth behind it is approx. 7%-9% less healing through Lifebloom ticks, which while it doesn't seem like a whole bunch, in enduring Raid boss fights, it amounts to a whole lot of HPS healed...

I personally am a little peeved, and just about ready to level a Holy Paladin. As it is, we Resto Druids don't have a lot of mechanisms to help us with being viable Raid healers other than MT rolling HoT healers, which at best is 1 Druid to 2-3 Tanks...which equals to about 1 Resto Druid per 25-man Raid. We have none of the efficient tools that other Healing Classes in the game have (except for Tranquility, which is Channeled and on a 10 min cooldown...yay!).

- Priests have Fade, Two AoE Instant Cast Heals w/ no cooldown, and Prayer of Mending.
- Shamans have Earth Shield & Chain Heal, along with restorative totems.
- Paladins have LoH, Holy Shock, ridiculously fast FoL heal...not to mention Divine Favor.
- ToL Druids have 3 HoTs, two instant cast (3 min cooldown to make 3 instant with NS), and one Channeled AoE on 10 min cooldown.

Sure, we can cast on the move and rely on our HoT's to tick heals while we adjust to situations. At a 20% movement reduction, though. And sure, we get 25% of our healing buffed by our Spirit to a 40yd radius...but we have to be in ToL to get it, and it only affects our party and not the entire raid.

Don't get me wrong. I love being a Resto Druid right now. As it is, I wouldn't want to be any other healing class (well...maybe a Paladin Healer...). I just think it's a little absurd that Druids, of all healing classes, got such a hard hit to their only real viable healing ability in Raids. Rolling Lifeblooms is what it's all about for us. 7%-9% reduction on our main healing tool, while it sounds small, is such a big loss.

Especially since I'm just getting to Kara and on the verge of moving into 25-man content soon only to get a nerf to my primary healing tool before I get there. Makes me wonder if Druids will continue being as viable in Raids after 2.4 (not that we suffered in that category already) and whether or not I'll get to see that content without having to roll another class. Aww well, at least I still have my Warrior!

Edit: added ToL to the list because I'm strictly referring to ToL Resto Druids and not Dreamstate Hybrids

Edited, Feb 25th 2008 3:18pm by Ryneguy

id wager a guess that the spr buff is significant enough to warrant having an HT-spam spec druid in the raid to keep up 2-3 level downranked HT's as a form of constant burst healing. youd have a tree druid in the MT group keeping up lifeblooms and then the HT-spammer would use HT to patch up larger damage on the DPS and OT's.

thats my theory anyway. any kind of fight that has some sort of stop/start mechanism to it will result in a net increase in longevity thanks to this change. sure, lifebloom is a big part of druid healing, but we healed **** before we had lifebloom, we can find ways to heal stuff without it.

True, I'm not factoring the Spirit buff into my anger about the Lifebloom situation. Fact is, honestly, as a ToL healer...I don't have a problem with Mana. Even in dire situations between pots and Innervate I can withstand some absurdly long fights (Heroic Blackheart comes to mind). Regrowth just isn't a strong enough spike heal to compensate, IMO.

Sure, HT/Dreamstate Druids may have a more viable spot now that the Spirit buff will be in effect. But ToL, IMHO, could have a considerable nerf to contend with. It doesn't seem right to assume a Hybrid healing build should be a better spec than the actual "Healing" tree of the class. I guess that's where my frustration is.

think of it as adding more variability to druidic healing now. instead of focusing on keeping 3-4 people stacked with max lifeblooms, other heals are now being encouraged. you can chuck a lifebloom on a tank, regrowth him, stack a second or third bloom as needed, rejuv, then wait a few seconds outside the 5s rule to regen mana based on the situation.

contrast that to now where you essentially want a druid to stack lifebloom on as many people as possible and keep it stacked. that seems like a very one dimensional method of healing, and i think blizz actually wants to see the other heals used outside of the odd NS+HT or rejuv/swiftmend combo.

Edited, Feb 26th 2008 11:37am by Quor

The Hot from regrowth is pretty abismal. It's really only used for a slight spike heal and an extra swiftmend target if running more than one resto druid.

I think skribs had the best idea thus far though. Simply regearing to concentrate more on +heal and less on spirit/mp5.