Comments on: Initial Thoughts on the 4.3 Resto Changes

By: Earthenware

Earthenware — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:43:16 +0000

“I’ve felt for a long time that Blizzard’s pre-release testing isn’t very good. There always seem to be imbalances or poorly-planned changes and the cycle seems to be:
Release -> Feedback -> Denial (Blizzard have a problem with this) or “we are looking at it” -> quietly fix it.
On the basis of my experience to date, I’m not too bothered at the moment as I expect a “4.3.x” with some revisions in the next few weeks.
Take heart!” – December 2, 2011 at 2:12 am

Well, I certainly spoke too soon! I’ve gone from being top healer in the guild to bottom and am now benched from raids. Patch 4.3.2 is released today and there’s no change for Resto Druids, so it seems that Blizzard don’t think there is a problem. Maybe I’ll change spec to Boomkin, I don’t know. I’m pretty fed up though.

By: snuzzle

snuzzle — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:20:56 +0000

I’m sorry, but if you don’t see why there’s a problem when one healer is busting her butt and OOMing herself to be middle; while the others are cozily coasting with no mana worries and topping charts, then I think you’re letting your baises cloud you. This isn’t a resto druid whining about not being on top anymore. This is a healer giving it her all only to be “meh” at best, no matter how hard she tries. All the oomph she’s putting into her healing isn’t translating through her tools. That’s not right no matter what class you are. A player putting in so much effort (and mana) should always outperform one who is putting in less effort (and mana), given equal skill and gear.

By: Devilspotato

Devilspotato — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:37:57 +0000

Hello Beru,

I actually just found your blog today. I raid on the maelstrom server and have enjoyed being a resto druid for just over a year now. I started healing summer 2010, and almost quit my druid (and the game) during the cataclysm. But I stuck it out, and again became a good healer. Currently, I can either top the charts with over 22k+ heals (avg ilvl 374) or sit around 8-10k. It’s sort of hit or miss. If there’s a shammy or pally in the group, my skada numbers go down. I am struggling with mana, but maybe i just haven’t learned a new cadence yet. In fact, I know I haven’t. Sometimes I do too many rejuvs, sometimes too little.

However, I am, in a word, like you, frustrated. I went from being a really effective healer to being…well, flip a coin effective. I’m out of mana sooner, not doing as much healing. I’m still learning the fights, so I’m not as effective as I could be. I don’t need to be #1 all the time, but I’m competitive with my healing….raid comes first, of course, but as I think about it, the only thing we druids bring to the table that was uniquely ours, was massive healing potential. We don’t have any “skill” except the use of our spells to generate volumes of healing. We have no tank cooldowns, we aren’t the only brezzer’s anymore (tho probably still the better ones), we don’t bring a unique buff (there’s more pally’s than you can shake a stick at), and now we simply cannot keep up.

I’m not ready to give up. I put a lot of time and effort and treecalc’s time trying to optimize my druid. But I don’t know if it’s all in vain, when any of my spells is simply going to get swamped by any of the other classes that can direct heal the aoe damage. It’s definitely my ego operating here, but I simply don’t want to be a 10k healer. I like when my druid hits 20k+ heals for the fight. It’s all I have as a tree.

I don’t know what the future will hold, but I guess that’s why I’m leveling a priest. I want to do the best that I can for the raid (and we need priests), but I don’t want to give up on my druid either. We will see what Blizz does, I guess.

By: snuzzle

snuzzle — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:04:40 +0000

Quite simply, I think it’s high time druids got a “burst” aoe heal. Make it work something like a multi-target Regrowth: a decent heal with a cast time and a small hot component at the end.

It’s really just needed.

By: Vera

Vera — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:06:36 +0000

Hello Beru,
I follow your blog frequently and although I never posted anything, I felt the need to do it today.
When the changes were anounced I was afraid.I came to your blog and saw you with tones of confidence saying, “we can do this!”, and I believed so as well. After experiencing Dragon Soul I can fully subscrive all you said above, and even feel more frustrated than I ever did. I also have other healer characters (Priest, Shaman and Hpala), and all I can say is, it’s not a matter of skill, it’s really a matter of ‘nerf’, ‘class problems’ or whatever they may want to call it. Roughly saying, all resto druids were good at was raid healing. Ofc we could also perform other parts, but we could never consider ourselves tank healers, nor help the raid with mitigation. Today I see all the other classes shine at our former role, some outperforming us, and Druids left behind with low numbers and low utility.
I could as well handle the nerf, but I just cant take the ‘major glyphs are utilities or boosts with a downside’, when I see other classes with major glyphs with no downside and strugle to find utility on the remaining options we have, beside WG glyph.
I love my druid and I wont abandon it, even though I feel like it. But like in real life, it just felt good to know Im not the only one feeling terrible.

By: Luna

Luna — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:07:29 +0000

I am really sorry but I have to agree upon that.
Morchok 2
Warlord 2
Yorsahj 3
Hagara 2
Ulraxion 1
Blackhorn 5
Spine of D 1

and I cannot see whrere you are at the bottom of the meters all the time. To me this looks fine. I think druids are a little spoiled from there firelands over the top experience (I play one too so no flames here please ) Maybe you should just give it some time. And btw yay for resto shaman who had to raid under worse conditions and for whom such an evening would have been incredible in FL. I see your point, but it really is not as bad as you feel about it at the moment.

By: lonomonkey

lonomonkey — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:56:56 +0000

If it’s any help I’m with you! I play a DK, tank, and had to see my class nerfed to the ground and get gimped multiple times as Blizzard made us guinea pigs for the new kind of tanking they want. 4.0 through 4.2 has been pure hell and 4.3 did give us some buffs than I think are still insufficient. I hope they realize their mistake with druids and fix you guys fast. Nothing sucks more than investing yourself in you favorite class only to see it nerfed.

By: Beruthiel

Beruthiel — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:50:38 +0000

I think you missed one of the big points. All druids have ever had to offer is big healing. As it stands right now, everyone else has the potential to do just as much healing (and honestly, more healing with more efficiency) as we do, and brings more to the raid than we do. So if we aren't as competitive with the only thing that we bring to the raid, and in many cases are far worse at it than others, exactly what is it that we have to offer? What is it that makes us unique? Why bring a druid over a paladin, priest or shaman? My shiny disposition? This is what has druids (including myself) frustrated.

By: PB

PB — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 22:14:30 +0000

My point isn’t that you shouldn’t push yourself tbe competitive. It’s just that there is a cap that blizz puts on each class as far as HPS/meters goes. Pre-4.3 Shamans had a lowesr cap than druids. Was there any point in you pushing yourself to be “competitive” against shaman (as measured by HPS) pre-4.3? You were going to win. every. single. time. (specific fight mechanics excepted). Where’s the competition in that? Looks like some of the same thing is happening with druids now. Your cap has been lowered below priests/pallies. They might “win” the HPS competition now whereas they didn’t previously. That’s not because they’re playing any better than they used to, it’s just that their cap got changed.

The competition is to perform at your peak. If you do that and your numbers are lower than others then the number’s aren’t the right measure. If you want other measuremens, try comparing to your previous personal best (or the personal best of other people of the same class in the same fight). Don’t try to compare the outcome of different classes with different caps that are determined by a force you can’t control.

By: Lara

Lara — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:10:27 +0000

Hey Beru-

Sorry you’re suffering from this.

In a ten man normal co-healing with a holydin and sometimes a resto-shaman (we prefer to two-heal,) I did find that my numbers were NOT what I expected them to be. But I also didn’t have my powerauras up to date, so I probably did quite poorly on mastery uptime. I also forgot to unglyph WG, which is pretty much completely useless for me as a ten man raider, so maybe that will help too.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s really feeling a noticeable difference. I’m trying to figure out how to compensate, all I’m seeing is ‘push rejuv harder’. So… I guess I’ll work on my mastery uptime and optimal CD useage. I’m also working on trying to make Efflor as effective as possible; it was my top heal on Ultraxion, which was absolutely mind-boggling to me.