Naturalist - Long Casts and Assignments

[Spectuskular]

Hello Arx and ßampo,

My name is Spectuskular. I have been raiding for several years and healing since February. Admittedly, that isn't a very long time to heal and I feel each raid night I improve. My guild is currently working on Heroic Ragnaros, but my questions aren't as pertinent to a particular fight so much as to working with a general spec in mind.

The two of you clearly have different styles, which I consider important when you have multiple resto druids in a raid group. I'm not entirely certain as to whether the Resto Druid 4.2 FAQ was written with 10-player in mind or not. Arx makes the statement that one should never take points away from Naturalist (unless there is clear purpose to). I fully recognize and understand the importance of Naturalist for a 10-player raid, but I question its value for a 25-player raid.

Unfortunately there are limited Paragon logs up so the sample size I had to work with is pretty small. ßampo specs into Naturalist yet uses Nourish and Healing Touch a negligible amount throughout the fights (excluding Baleroc for obvious reasons, but even there the spells are used relatively sparingly given the circumstances). Why put two talent points into something you rarely use?

I can't raise as much of a point regarding Arx's use of the spells because logs only show him/her healing on Beth'tilac, Staghelm, and Shannox. Limited raid healing required for Staghelm offers extra opportunity to use longer casted spells and tank healing (in the case of Arx) on Shannox also explains good usage on that fight. The Staghelm fight is anomalous in how it needs to be healed. Solely the amount of Nourish spells used (as opposed to Healing Touch) suggests that the casted spells on that fight aren't "necessary."

Still yet, both of you manage excellent uptime on Harmony. (As an aside, do you have the math handy for at what point Harmony uptime causes mastery to surpass crit? Obviously there are many contributing variables but perhaps there is some rough estimate that you use to go by.)

After that extensive prelude, I come to my main questions. Why is it worth Arx spec'ing into Naturalist for 25-man healing? I'm convinced that ßampo's two talent points would be better spent elsewhere due to how rarely he uses those spells. :p Does assignment freedom afford Arx more time to use spells with longer cast times or do you manage to work HT and Nourish in even stricter "raid heal" assignments? In these instances, Arx does not, and the latter two of those spells involved Nature's Swiftness. Again, it's a small set of data, but that would lead me to believe that in instances where Arx does use Healing Touch/Nourish with frequency that a lot of assignment leniency is involved. Most resto druids in a 25-man environment will not play such a role; most will be 90% focused on raid healing and 10% prepared to cast an emergency heal on tanks.

If my assumptions are correct and Naturalist offers little value to the typical raid healing druid (for output), then is it worth speccing into to use the more efficient Nourish to manage Harmony uptime? Between using Swiftmend and Regrowth (on OOC procs and sometimes in other instances), the value still seems questionable from this more particular utility standpoint. The final remaining advantage I recognize is the CD reduction of Nature's Swiftness.

I am a little confused as to why in a broad guide Naturalist is listed as an important talent. It seems it should be listed specifically as important for 10-man, unimportant for 25-man (varied by role). I am still trying to improve as a player so I am intrigued as to whether I need to put more effort into working Healing Touch or Nourish into my more commonly casted spells of if I am better off placing talents elsewhere as I am currently doing. It doesn't seem ideal when I can get two Rejuv's out in the time of one Healing Touch.

Tusk

[arx]

I'll answer in more length once I'm back from Berlin, but in short:

- I suspect Ussos is still settling in on druid healing, give him a few weeks before you start dissecting his play in full :)
- Naturalist isn't an end-all be-all talent, but you're left with a choice between Naturalist, BotG, Perseverance, and Living Seed. Out of those I'd consider Naturalist to be the overall winner.

[Spectuskular]

I anticipate hearing what you have to say in greater detail.

In the mean time, through my guild's progression on Ragnaros, I have ironically found myself specced into Naturalist. It's an extraordinary fight though that calls for extremely unique coordination. WIth the amount of players I am healing without assistance in phase 1, I definitely realize the value of Naturalist and will not be ignorant to how much it can help me, in regards to both mana conservation and Harmony uptime. I still fail to fully recognize it offering more than Nature's Bounty on more typical fights - or at least fights not so atypical as Ragnaros.