On the respecc, i decided to do something totally wacky and go full out Resto. All 51 pts. I figured it was a good chance to see how good of a healer a druid could be.
As a test, I made a run with a mostly PUG Scholo group. Thanks Mandy for your rogue help on this run. PUG's are a test of many things, including patience, and this was no exception. Although we finished the run, and even came back for batman after finding some blood on one of the last bosses, I think it set a record for me on both time to finish Scholo (was it nearly 4 hrs??) and durability (went from 100% down to 4% on the run). I actually made about 10g on the run after repairs, so I cant really complain *grin*.
On to business : Before the respecc, my rejuv was good for about 280 a tick. After respec, with tree form, I was hitting 406 per tick. This dropped to about 387 per tick without tree form, for reference. Along with the change alowing rejuv's to stack from different druids, this is pretty huge. Currently equiped and configured, my tree form also gives about +50 healing to anyone else in my party. I wonder if this stacks and what a party of tree druids would be capable of (think +250 healing, stack of 5 rejuv's -- total around 2300 hp per tick!!!).
Tree form allow only the following spells at current lvl : Rejuv, Regrowth, Swiftmend, Battle rez, and Innervate. Thats right, no Healing Touch, poison curing, curse removing, buffing, etc. As most healing druids know, Regrowth is a horibly inefficient healing spell, but it now becomes your big hitter. To compensate for this, all spells you CAN cast are given a 20% mana cost reduction. This actually works better than I thought. With proper stacking of Rejuv (I kept it up constantly on those taking damage), the Regrowth could take care of spikes pretty well. The HOT portion on the end helped limit these spikes as well, with a Rejuv and the back end of a Regrowth ticking (total about 650 per tick), I dont think I ever had anyone showing damage - they were kept pretty much at full health. I have to admit, the Pally pretty much had to keep me alive, as I was too focused on everyone else to watch my own health (I miss group buttons).
Tree-form caused problems as well, as it had to be dropped to do any curing. This meant any poisons / curses etc had to either wait until the end of the fight, or I lost some efficiency / healing capability after I dropped to cure them. Once dropped, it was not worth 10% of my mana to get back into the form. Situationally, I can definately see the benifit of tree-form, but it is definetally not a 'for every situation' healing form. It is best used in conjunction with someone else, like a pally, who can soften up the weak edges.
Resto spec (51 resto) vs blended (30 feral / 21 resto): The one true advantage I saw in the new Resto spec was with respect to Rejuv. The aditional healing (more than +100 per TICK) from that is amazing to me. It made the job of healing a little less stressfull compared to spot healing everything. In a raid, the additional +50 healing to those in my party could be usefull as well of course. As to the other stated efficiencies from a full resto spec? I never saw them.
-- Yes I could use tranquility more often as it had no aggro, but the cooldown timer (5 mins) limited its usefullness.
-- Yes the Healing touch was more efficient (10% reduction in mana) and could heal a little better, but I lost more than 1000 mana by respeccing due to feral talents. The feeling I had was that this 1000 mana would more than make up for the efficiency lost.
-- Yes swiftmend is a nice talent, in theory. The timing has to be just right to use, however. I probably used it 4 times over the entire run. My feeling of Swiftmend and how to use it will improve with practice, I am sure.
-- Of course, I lose the solo / tanking / survivability abilities I had before, but this is no surprise.
In summation, while I like healing, and enjoy the new experience, this is not going to be a long term spec for me. After the expansion, I will spec back to mostly feral, with what I see as some critical resto talents (min 10 pts, would love to have 21 for natures switness, but that would cause me to miss some of the awsome new feral talents for a while, we will see). This way I can fill both roles again, as needed. Of course, that means I have to again start carrying around the feral gear I stashed in the bacnk after going full resto *ugh*. Bye bye pack space.
As a test, I made a run with a mostly PUG Scholo group. Thanks Mandy for your rogue help on this run. PUG's are a test of many things, including patience, and this was no exception. Although we finished the run, and even came back for batman after finding some blood on one of the last bosses, I think it set a record for me on both time to finish Scholo (was it nearly 4 hrs??) and durability (went from 100% down to 4% on the run). I actually made about 10g on the run after repairs, so I cant really complain *grin*.
On to business : Before the respecc, my rejuv was good for about 280 a tick. After respec, with tree form, I was hitting 406 per tick. This dropped to about 387 per tick without tree form, for reference. Along with the change alowing rejuv's to stack from different druids, this is pretty huge. Currently equiped and configured, my tree form also gives about +50 healing to anyone else in my party. I wonder if this stacks and what a party of tree druids would be capable of (think +250 healing, stack of 5 rejuv's -- total around 2300 hp per tick!!!).
Tree form allow only the following spells at current lvl : Rejuv, Regrowth, Swiftmend, Battle rez, and Innervate. Thats right, no Healing Touch, poison curing, curse removing, buffing, etc. As most healing druids know, Regrowth is a horibly inefficient healing spell, but it now becomes your big hitter. To compensate for this, all spells you CAN cast are given a 20% mana cost reduction. This actually works better than I thought. With proper stacking of Rejuv (I kept it up constantly on those taking damage), the Regrowth could take care of spikes pretty well. The HOT portion on the end helped limit these spikes as well, with a Rejuv and the back end of a Regrowth ticking (total about 650 per tick), I dont think I ever had anyone showing damage - they were kept pretty much at full health. I have to admit, the Pally pretty much had to keep me alive, as I was too focused on everyone else to watch my own health (I miss group buttons).
Tree-form caused problems as well, as it had to be dropped to do any curing. This meant any poisons / curses etc had to either wait until the end of the fight, or I lost some efficiency / healing capability after I dropped to cure them. Once dropped, it was not worth 10% of my mana to get back into the form. Situationally, I can definately see the benifit of tree-form, but it is definetally not a 'for every situation' healing form. It is best used in conjunction with someone else, like a pally, who can soften up the weak edges.
Resto spec (51 resto) vs blended (30 feral / 21 resto): The one true advantage I saw in the new Resto spec was with respect to Rejuv. The aditional healing (more than +100 per TICK) from that is amazing to me. It made the job of healing a little less stressfull compared to spot healing everything. In a raid, the additional +50 healing to those in my party could be usefull as well of course. As to the other stated efficiencies from a full resto spec? I never saw them.
-- Yes I could use tranquility more often as it had no aggro, but the cooldown timer (5 mins) limited its usefullness.
-- Yes the Healing touch was more efficient (10% reduction in mana) and could heal a little better, but I lost more than 1000 mana by respeccing due to feral talents. The feeling I had was that this 1000 mana would more than make up for the efficiency lost.
-- Yes swiftmend is a nice talent, in theory. The timing has to be just right to use, however. I probably used it 4 times over the entire run. My feeling of Swiftmend and how to use it will improve with practice, I am sure.
-- Of course, I lose the solo / tanking / survivability abilities I had before, but this is no surprise.
In summation, while I like healing, and enjoy the new experience, this is not going to be a long term spec for me. After the expansion, I will spec back to mostly feral, with what I see as some critical resto talents (min 10 pts, would love to have 21 for natures switness, but that would cause me to miss some of the awsome new feral talents for a while, we will see). This way I can fill both roles again, as needed. Of course, that means I have to again start carrying around the feral gear I stashed in the bacnk after going full resto *ugh*. Bye bye pack space.