Question to the resto druids of paragon

[Dnome]

This is a question to both resto druids in Paragon and that read their forums, but mainly to Xaar, cause you are my idol.

What are your reasons behind your talent choices? I have only been able to think you are practicing for cata...

Why do you choose Naturalist and Empowered Touch when we really shouldn't be casting either of the spells they help currently on live servers.

Wouldn't you think the build below to be more viable.

http://wowtal.com/#k=RqSr1tL.a6d.druid.

Thank you for your comments in advance.
Dnome

[Dnome]

Any druids care to comment?

I do not think it is that hard of a question...



Thanks
Dnome

[Shadowxm]

well i may not be xaar but i believe i can answer your question for you.

To start you must first understand that blizzard no longer wants specific class healing roles, by this i mean a paladin is no longer just a tank healer and a druid just a raid healer (or at least to be most efficient).

With the build xaar is running with both naturalist and empowered touch xaar is actually going for a tank healing spec.

The way the spec works is by utilizing the newer high health pools to the hots advantage by putting 3 stacks of lifebloom on the tank and then by using nourish because of empowered touch it now refreshes them meaning no down time and naturalist so that the cast is a little bit easier to handle.

You can also see that he has specced out of our new replenishment slightly, once again this is because the talent for regrowth reducing swiftmends cooldown is much more tank heal friendly.

I have also tried this method to tank heal in 10 man and it has worked incredibly well just as good as a paladin or any other class can manage however i am yet to try in a 25 man raid environment seeing as i am needed as a raid healer.

Hope this answers you question and just to clarify yes this is working in live atm not just cata beta.

[arx]

Hey,

Not a hard question, but haven't gotten to browsing the forums in the past few days :)

You shouldn't look too much into my talent choices (or gear, or anything for that matter) right now. It's simply something that gets the job done until Cataclysm.

There is some idea behind it though - you really aren't running out of mana normally in ICC now, so there's not much point in investing points in mana talents. That leaves something that more or less resembles what I've specced into.

With the 4.0.1(?) changes you shouldn't outright dismiss Nourish and Healing Touch. Or well, go ahead and remove Nourish from your bars, you won't be missing it. But HT is actually a very good tank healing tool now. I actually end up pressing that button quite often with the changes and the low amount of healers we generally run with.

[ruibullseye]

hello, since u guys are playing the Cataclysm are trying out the 85 mechanics and playing style in raids and all of that.

I would like to know one thing, how is druid resto compared with Shaman, priest and pala at 85 raids?

Top healers? underopower? needed?

Im asking this because i've seen ppl saying that for e.g priests are somehow weak at 85.
And shamans also. So i would like to ask u guys since u play the cataclysm at 85 content

[arx]

Right now druids and paladins are very strong healers on the beta, while priests and shamans are noticeably worse. This is based on my perspective from our raids, but I expect most people share this view.

Can't comment a lot on paladins, but druid mana regeneration is at least going to get nerfed sooner or later. Mechanics that work on maximum mana kind of screw up the regeneration model to strongly favor intellect as a stat. It's quite ridiculous - besides giving mana, spellpower, and crit, int also happens to give more mana regen per stat point than spirit. I think they did announce their intent to nerf Revitalize some, but that isn't in the game yet. Things are going to be quite broken in the next tier of gear if things are left as they are for druids.

But yeah, at the moment we are very strong and versatile healers. Buffs aside, there's really no reason to run with anything but a mix of druids and paladins right now.

[ruibullseye]

Right now druids and paladins are very strong healers on the beta, while priests and shamans are noticeably worse. This is based on my perspective from our raids, but I expect most people share this view.

Can't comment a lot on paladins, but druid mana regeneration is at least going to get nerfed sooner or later. Mechanics that work on maximum mana kind of screw up the regeneration model to strongly favor intellect as a stat. It's quite ridiculous - besides giving mana, spellpower, and crit, int also happens to give more mana regen per stat point than spirit. I think they did announce their intent to nerf Revitalize some, but that isn't in the game yet. Things are going to be quite broken in the next tier of gear if things are left as they are for druids.

But yeah, at the moment we are very strong and versatile healers. Buffs aside, there's really no reason to run with anything but a mix of druids and paladins right now.

so... and if they nerf revitalize as u say and the mana regeneration ? will druids be broken ? and somehow inviable for raid 25 hc and stuff like that?

[arx]

so... and if they nerf revitalize as u say and the mana regeneration ? will druids be broken ? and somehow inviable for raid 25 hc and stuff like that?

No... after they nerf Revitalize druids won't have such overpowered regen scaling anymore. The beta balance is still somewhat over the place - you shouldn't draw too many conclusions from the situation right now. Especially the healer status still needs some work, and the balance of power can shift many, many times before we'll have a chance to do heroic raids on live.

[ruibullseye]

but the healing power will remain the same right?

And we can counter the mana regen nerf + revitalize with stacking spirit or something like that dont we?

im sorry for so many questions, but dont know which one to choose, druid or shaman.
thats why im asking so many questions to help me decide. Hope with all ur answers im able to do that.

[arx]

They can nerf/buff anything at this stage, it simply doesn't make much sense in choosing your class based on current beta balance. It's a beta, you can go from the best class to the worst one overnight.

If you have to pick your class before Cata launch, I'd recommend you look into the play style of both a druid and a shaman, and see which one you like the best.