Healing in 5 man dungeons (not raids)

[Zendruid 0]

Hey! I am currently leveling a Feral Druid, and in dungeons so far I have been doing either kitty dps or bear tanking. This is so I can focus on just one gear-set and more easily earn money for my level 40 mount. I really enjoy the tanking, but my main plan at 60 is to respec to Restoration and try out healing.

 

I have read quite a few guides for Druid raid healing, and I have also watched quite a few videos on Youtube, so I kind of get what that's all about. What I don't often see is guides/videos showing how to heal five man dungeons. I'm guessing it's just a lower rank of HT and Rejuv to keep your tank alive, and maybe pop some rejuvs on the dps to keep their HP up too. What about Regrowth? Should that be used a lot? Also, druids are missing a shield and resurrection. Does that cause difficulties in dungeons? I have healed a bit on a Priest before, and throwing PW:S on a dps who pulls aggro is always a huge help.

 

Just thought it would be nice to get some expert tips on how to handle smaller groups! As I will have to run all the dungeons to farm my healing set before raiding.

[Pwnana 1]

I usually throw a Regrowth+Rejuv on the tank early on in the fight and then use the various ranks of HT for the rest of the fight. If you're lagging or some dps pulls aggro and takes some huge dmg then NS+Healing Touch is your "shield", unfortunately NS does have several minute cooldown - so throw a regrowth if it's not up. Honestly the higher ranks of HT have quite a long cast time so I find myself using Regrowth more than would probably be wise in regards to mana efficiency, otoh it also has a totally crazy crit chance if you're full resto which is exceptionally nice. Also having some HoTs on people is important if you have Swiftmend, altho I almost never use Swiftmend builds.

Only having a one off battle rez is a pain, but, well, try not to let people die and if they do just tell em to run back... It's no biggie 99% of the time - just a minor inconvenience. Alternatively try to group with paladins as often as possible. (Also not having a general rez is a major plus during progression raids: you don't have to spend half the raid rezzing people! win-win)

[taladril 43]

Read this thread: https://forum.elysium-project.org/topic/35827-a-terrible-resto-druid-in-need-of-help/

 

[Zendruid 0]

Thank you Pwnana and taladril! That thread was a big help. Really enjoying playing Feral so far, but will also be exciting to go resto in later levels. However I have been reading recently here that resto druids aren't as strong healers as I thought. I have also seen them as a really strong healing class in raid settings, but I keep seeing comments about how they are more there for their utility, and that priests and paladins are far superior when it comes to pure healing output. Is this really true? I would have thought that druids could be up there at the top of the meters. It's always a shame to reach higher levels and find out that your class isn't really wanted.

[Duality 4]

Hi Zen. Resto druids were recently subject to a "nerf", or rather a fix, where they scaled our downranked heals correctly according to penalties for downranking. To give you an example; my rank 2 Healing Touch used to heal for 700 with 1000 Bonus healing, while it now heals for 400-450. 

Regardless, when it comes to healing output resto druids are still very viable and with the propper encounter knowledge and skill you will be able to push the meters, especially on encounters with heavy raid dmg. Your rank 3 and 4 Healing Touch is also extremely mana efficient and you will be able to provide steady heals on tanks for longer durations. On multi-boss encounters you can help out on several tanks with your HoT spells, providing a steady amount of raw healing, and if the tanks health pool should suddenly spike, you are able to instantly top of that tank with Swiftmend or NS. 

On the other hand, on farm content where most of your healing comes from 'sniping' heals with fast casts you won't do so well compared to paladins and priests. Your best option here is to predict incomming dmg and pre-HoT and/or pre-cast heals on raidmembers likely to soak this damage. 

Keep in mind that healing meters doesn't really matter during progress raids. On several encounters you will be assigned a tank / a group to heal or another spesific assignment like curing poisons or decursing. If you are succesful in your assignment you will be of more worth to your guild than the healer who discards his assignments to snipe heals and look good on meters. The meters-game is basically a way to make farm content like MC and BWL more interesting.

[Zendruid 0]

Thanks, Duality!

 

Sounds like I should be fine sticking with Druid! I'm more interested in a fun class to play, and Druid certainly does seem like a fun class.

[Storfan 24]

23 hours ago, Zendruid said:

Thank you Pwnana and taladril! That thread was a big help. Really enjoying playing Feral so far, but will also be exciting to go resto in later levels. However I have been reading recently here that resto druids aren't as strong healers as I thought. I have also seen them as a really strong healing class in raid settings, but I keep seeing comments about how they are more there for their utility, and that priests and paladins are far superior when it comes to pure healing output. Is this really true? I would have thought that druids could be up there at the top of the meters. It's always a shame to reach higher levels and find out that your class isn't really wanted.

You will have ALOT better chances to raid as resto though. Ferals dont raid, its a meme spec.

[Mahtan 15]

2 hours ago, Storfan said:

You will have ALOT better chances to raid as resto though. Ferals dont raid, its a meme spec.

Do you want to trigger people with that bullshit? o.O

[Storfan 24]

2 minutes ago, Mahtan said:

Do you want to trigger people with that bullshit? o.O

Kind of yeah:)

But honestly though. While you may get to raid, you will have it harder finding a guild or pug that accept a feral. It may be easier if you raid as Feral tank though than a Cat. We actually got a feral cat raiding in our guild.

[Duality 4]

1 minute ago, Storfan said:

But honestly though. While you may get to raid, you will have it harder finding a guild or pug that accept a feral. It may be easier if you raid as Feral tank though than a Cat. We actually got a feral cat raiding in our guild.

Three lucky melees and a hunter will love you though!

[Zendruid 0]

10 hours ago, Storfan said:

Kind of yeah:)

But honestly though. While you may get to raid, you will have it harder finding a guild or pug that accept a feral. It may be easier if you raid as Feral tank though than a Cat. We actually got a feral cat raiding in our guild.

I am already in a raiding guild, so that's no problem. The guild seems pretty open-minded, and we have a Feral druid as an off-tank in raids. Anyhow, I am planning on going resto! Maybe later on I'll experiment with feral/balance in raids that are on farm at that time.

[taladril 43]

As far as ferals imo for early content dps if you want to but tank actually is something that is worth looking at. It provides all the benefits of a fury type tank while providing the druid utility and group buff. To me that's a win. At the very least raiding with a feral isn't gimping the raid, as compared to a really bad hybrid dps spec or something.