Up until this patch release I was slowly working on a detailed, insightful guide on druid healing, similar in info to Xerise's old guides, but more up-to-date. Given the recent instance has been no more than a huge let-down for myself, and my guildies, I might find myself walking out the door soon. This is a rough draft of what I had worked on so far, and in no way complete.
Your input/comments/suggestions are welcome. I may or may not update this guide depending on how content fixing goes. I'll leave this here, as I know I haven't been available in-game as I used to be, and haven't been accessible to potential/aspiring druids similar to ones who have visited in the past. Enjoy.
The focus of this guide will be to provide supplemental knowledge to your currently existing druid foundation. This is
not a beginner’s guide. This guide will not hold your hands through current and future end game content. After all is said is done, it is up to you, the individual druid, to adjust and utilize your skills according to the given situation. That is, after all, what makes the difference between a healer, and great healer.
I will first be covering our general healing arsenal, druid utility skills, and then dive into the specifics of each healing combo, modeled after what I have tried, and have found works.
Healing Spells:
Blossoming Life – Low regen, long duration. Instead of wasting an MEF during healing downtime (and consequently…healing next to nothing), stack your party/raid with this.
Recover – Medium Burst, moderate regen. Your bread/butter single-target burst heal. Once you have casted this and applied the regen, however, default to Restore Life. As a D/S, never cast recover on yourself, as it overrides your Life Guide regen.
Restore Life – High burst single-target heal. Cast this when you need some heavy burst healing done. If need be, can be used in combination with MEF for some serious quick burst healing.
Mother Earth’s Fountain – The favorite heal of all noob druids alike. Spam this off cooldown and link heal scrut to your party members as they lie dead due to your improper use of this skill. Otherwise, save this if 1 or more of your party members are near death, and they need a heal at a moment’s notice. Or, intelligently use this after a mob AOE to keep your party members topped off. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great heal, but Do. Not. Use. Everytime. Its. Up. Don’t be a noob.
Curing Seed – 20% bonus healing to the applied target. Lasts 30 seconds, cooldown 30 seconds. Also restores 1 NP. Use this on your tank for higher received healing.
Unity with Mother Earth – A druid’s 5minute cooldown. During the duration, healing is increased by 10%, and every spell you cast (heals included) have a guaranteed crit chance. (Sadly, regens don’t crit). You will not be able to move while this is in effect. Couple this with a Curing Seed for high on-demand burst heals.
Utility Spells:
Weakening/Withering Seeds – These 2 spells are often overlooked, so I’ll put them here first. These reduce your targets magical/physical defenses (respectively) by a % for 20 seconds. Who needs a patk buff when you can just lower the boss’s defenses? Apply these ASAP and keep them applied until the boss is dead.
Note: Withering does not stack with S/R’s Sapping Arrow or Warrior’s pdef debuff (forget the name). Weakening (magic) stacks with everything.
Rock Protection – 99% incoming damage reduction when maxed. For those things Holy Aura won’t save priests from, Rock Protection will save you
Save this for big oncoming hits, or chain it with Mother Earth’s Protection/immune food for some good survival.
Mother Earth’s Protection – 40% incoming damage reduction. Can be applied to others. Use this to possibly save someone from a big hit, or use on yourself to reduce long-term mob agro damage. Never stack this on top of Rock Prot, always chain them.
Purify – Cleanses curses. These tend to be debuffs that reduce certain attributes, cleanse them off to keep your party members running at full capacity.
Antidote – Cleanses Poisons. Ever since Kawak's Tomb, poisons tend to be pretty life-threatening to your raid members. Use this to cleanse them off. Druid primary/secondary combos are the only ones that can.
Spirit Guidance – The druid charm. Use this on applicable mobs and watch them fight each other. Great for getting a room to group up and attack a friendly outside of your raid party. Can also be used to lessen incoming mob pressure.
Note: Be mindful of when you use this, as a charmed mob running back to its pathing point can bring a few friends (not the good kind) to pay you a visit.
Body Vitalization – The applied target gets a physical attack speed % increase for the duration. Does not stack with fervent/frenzy/stim pot, so be very mindful of when/if you use this.
Binding Silence – Yes, druids get a silence/interrupt. 2 if you’re a druid/scout or druid/mage. Be a pro, help interrupt, use this.
Note: If the boss is somehow immune to damage, it will be immune to this interrupt as well, due to the damage portion. In this case, only the mage general “Silence” will be of any use.
Worthwhile Item Set-Skills (ISS):
In order of highest to lowest priority:
Forest Worship – Restore 3 Nature’s Power instantly. 1min cooldown.
Forest Bath – Restores 2 Nature’s power instantly. 1min cooldown. Use this if you cannot get Forest Worship, as they share the same cooldown usage.
Nature’s Force Field – Cast this on a friendly target (preferably yourself, or another healer) for a delayed heal/damage burst. If cast on a healer, the heals will be higher. If cast on a dps caster, the damage will be higher. Your job is to heal. Use this when you know an oncoming stun/silence/dmg is imminent, or when you know you’ll need a heal, but you’re busy cleansing/strat’ing, etc.
Lunar Halo – Increases received healing to anyone and everything around you by 5% for 30 seconds.
Soul Soothe – Fear cleanse. Can be used even if you cannot cast other spells (i.e. during a fear).
Druid/Scout Healing:
In my opinion, hands-down the best PvE healer in the game. AOE raid healing/regens, ability to remove any cleansable debuff in the game, an extra interrupt, heal on the move, self-heal regen. Played competently, can solo heal end game raid instances.
Key Points: Regens, regens, regens. Apply them, keep them up. Keep them going
before oncoming damage is dealt. Try and keep your Healing Arrows going as much as possible, along with Camellia flower every 5-7 seconds. Blossoming life when incoming pressure is low, Recover/Restore Life, MEF when pressure is high. The key to this combo is coupling your regens with your burst healing. Be proactive in your regens, while reactive in your burst.
Pro tip: Never cast Recover on yourself as a D/S. Restore Life instead. Reason for this is Recover’s regen portion overwrites your Life Guide. Unless your Recover’s regen > your life guide regen, don’t do it.
Pro Tip: Every re-application of Camellia Flower (with the 60 elite especially) has a chance of restoring 1 nature’s power per effected target. As a D/S, you should be using Camellia constantly. Thus, you should never run out of (or worry about) NP as a D/S.
Pro Tip: Tank taking too much damage? Mother Earth’s Protection on cooldown?
Wrist Attack. Make your life, and your tank’s, much easier with the press of a button.
Recommended Minimum Wisdom Benchmark: 12,000 – 13,000
All regens with the exception of your Life Guide benefit from wisdom , even past 20k+. Whether to sacrifice survivability for higher regens has been a debate for druids for chapters. My recommendation: Stat only as much as you need. I run with ~14k unbuffed, buff to ~20k and do more than fine. Remember, a dead healer is as good as no healer.
Druid/Warrior Healing:
The easiest druid combo to heal as. It really is, especially if you have the VN Rage cape. Don’t let rage mechanics deter you, its easily manageable as a healer with proper rotation/positioning/timing. This combo is very party healing-oriented, not to mention the much sought-after patk+pdmg buff. Your physical dps will love you.
Key Points: Recover tank > Mother Earth’s Fountain > Healing Wind > Restore Life > Mother Earth’s Fountain > Healing Wind. Rinse, repeat. Tried and true D/Wr rotation. VN Rage Cape before the fight begins, cast Enrage anytime you have 80 or less rage, Rage Pot up when you’re out. White attack in-between casts. Its really that simple.
Pro Tip: Save
Nourish for later into the fight, when there is more damage pressure. No need to use it at the start when everyone has their defensive cooldowns up and everythings under control. Nourish even procs while you’re dead, so save it until later, when it will be of more use.
Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to pop Defensive Formation if you have incoming aggro/damage. +50% more pdef is nothing to scoff at. Pop Nourish on yourself near the end of the duration if you’re still under pressure for some added long-term survivability.
Pro Tip: Positioning as a D/Wr makes up for the simplicity of its rotation. Healing Wind has a relatively smaller radius compared to MEF, so position yourself near your tank/dps, but also close enough to your ranged dps to hit them with it as well. You may have to bounce back and forth between ranged and melee to compensate. But again, simple rotation, so even some moderate difficulty is welcome.
Recommended Minimum Wisdom Benchmark: 8,000 - 9,000
Dump most of your stats into survivability. The only 2 regens you have really are Blossoming Life and the regen from Recover. Not really worthwhile to stack wisdom for those 2 regens alone, as most of your healing come from burst anyways. Most burst heals are capped well under 10k, you’ll easily buff past that with 9k unbuffed.
Druid/Warden Healing:
D/Wd began rising in popularity after the briar shield bonus pdef buff, and even more so with the lvl 60 briar shield heal elite. A much tankier druid that really shines more in PvP, it is also a very viable PvE combo. IMO, not as flexible as the D/S, but still an asset to any party.
Key Points: Unless your main tank is a warden, cast a briar shield on them, they’ll get reflect damage plus an additional bonus to received healing (I estimate this at upwards of +50%), along with a bonus heal that procs every 8 or so seconds. Cast recover only for the 20 second regen duration, otherwise default to Restore Life and Healing Ripple as needed. With briar heal to back you up, along with your arsenal of heal increasing utilities, D/Wd easily has the highest burst heal potential of all the druid combos, not to mention the added survivability to top it all off. The lvl 70 elite gives you access to a potential Soul Source-type spell, which consumes your Nature’s Power and heals for an amount relative to how much NP was consumed.
Pro Tip: Briar the most damage prone party members for extra healing. Briar heal is essentially an extra MEF you don’t need to waste and procs pretty consistently as long as the buffed target is taking damage.
Pro Tip: Briar those pesky champs that have their patk/heal received decrease buff active. Briar Shield will essentially nullify the heal received decrease portion, letting the champ buff up without having to strain the healers for extra heals.
Pro Tip: Alternate Between Restore Life and Healing Ripple casts to keep your NP at a constant rate. NP management has become a forgotten art since the release of Chapter 4, but the bonus outweighs the troubles.
Recommended Minimum Wisdom Benchmark: 9,000 – 10,000
Like the Druid/Warrior, the Druid/Warden centers its arsenal of healing spells more around burst than regen. The 20 second regen from Recover is not worth stacking all wisdom, as it has lower heals spread across a longer period of time. Blossoming life is certainly not worth dedicating your statting on, and with access to a number of heal increasing buffs, heal amount should be of no problem to you as a D/Wd. Stack survival, abuse the pdef bonus granted to you via briar shield.
Druid/Mage Healing:
Now, I’m not one to go around and pretend I’m an expert at combos I don’t play, because I’m not. But I have ran with a D/M extensively in the past, and am in possession of one near level cap. The Druid/Mage utilizes shield absorbs and regens to keep the party alive. Summer’s Banquet is a nifty buff, granted 5% HP bonus and some parry to your buffed member (preferably the tank). The druid/mage also has access to the mage generals, including Lightning and Silence, 2 very handy CC’s in the right situation.
That’s about all I have for this combo, will not go into too much detail since it would be wrong for me to assume more than I know. If any
qualified,
end game druid/mages want to add their input, I will quote and give proper credit here.
Estimated Minimum Wisdom Benchmark: 12,000-13,000
Druid/Rogue Healing:
Go Druid/nothing. Its essentially the same thing.
Staff v. Wand/Shield:
Equivalent to asking yourself, higher heals, or more survivability? It really depends on how you stat the rest of your gear. If you’re low on wisdom/hpbi, but your survivability is high, using a staff would be more beneficial to you. If you’re decked out on wisdom, but having trouble surviving, get a wand/shield.
Personally, I use both, and switch between them as I find suitable. Having 14k wisdom and 99k pdef unbuffed (staff) I find it easy to switch between them without hindering my heals too much. As I type this, I use a T9 heal wand from KBNHM, and a t7 Ancient Rampart shield, or default to my T10 Jenny Giant’s Heart. Either works, but I personally prefer the higher heals that staves give.
Foods/Consumables:
There are a variety of foods/consumables we can utilize as healers. However, only 3 are actually mandatory at end game, the rest are supplemental, although can determine whether or not your party survives or wipes. Use them accordingly.
Survival -
Grassland Mix (HP) or any line of
Cakes (Pdef).
Power -
Sandwiches (Mdmg) or
Heal Power Increase food from mem vendors.
Mandatory Pot -
Hero Potion. 20% increase to all attributes. Any and all classes/roles should have this on at all times at end game. No excuses.
Stackable Consumables:
The following stack with every heal-relevant buff as far as I know. Use these to supplement your healing.
Moti Blended Sausage – Additional Crit (negligible at lvl cap) and a 10% increase to your critical heals. Meaning if your burst heals crit, they’ll heal for 10% more with this on.
Garlic Bread (with Herbs) – Gives a bonus 5% healing to all your heals for 60 seconds (regular) and 120 seconds for the “With Herbs” version.
Arcane Potion - % Cast speed increase for the duration of 20 seconds. Stacks with everything as far as I’m aware of. Can be purchases for mems at Black Codex vendors at Weeping Coast, HoS, etc.
Cast Speed/Crit Pots:
Most of these tend to be short, burst oriented. As a healer, we’re constantly casting, healing, etc. If we need faster casts/more crits, I recommend popping Unity with Mother Earth and an Arcane Pot. Otherwise, run with
Potion: Clear Thought for a more long-term cast speed buff.
Healing Addons:
There are a couple of decent addons out there. The more popular one among most healers I know is GridCliqueIt (GCI). I personally use Heal Bot 2 for heals, since its similar to what I use in WoW. Theres also a different HealBot out there, but I never liked the look.
Whether to use addons or not is simply a matter of preference. Some swear against them, others swear by them. My advice: try them out. Despite what some might think, healing addons do
NOT do the healing for you. They simply give you an extra window on your screen full of health bars of your party members, from which you can click on, and depending on which keybind you set/use, itll cast according to that.
For example, my own health bar is at 20% health. I want to cast Restore Life. Restore Life is set to Shift+Left Click on my addon. I simply mouse over my health bar, hit Shift+Left Click, and I’m casting Restore Life on myself – or anyone else I choose, without having to change my own target. Which is where the real beauty of it lies. I can keep regens up on my guildies at the same time as I’m watching the boss and contributing to interrupts/cc’s. Simplify, and do more.
I personally find it much simpler to heal via addons, but to each their own. No one is any better or any less of a healer by using, or not using a healing addon. Those who assume otherwise, or believe they’re experts in what they themselves have not tried out, well…there will always be idiots in this world.
Additional Info:
-My gear as of the end of Chapter 5 for D/S/Wd can be found
here.
-My channel has video example of druid healing at end game, among other stuff.
-This is Puffin's channel. I watched his videos and learned what he did back in the old days. Still useful to reference, in my opinion. (now you see what my awsum secondary aggs take after)
-Xerise's Druid Guides, last updated Ch3. Old stuff, but still very, very helpful. I definitely recommend druids to go back and read them. Some of that stuff is still relevant and useful.
Strategic Healing ||
Early Druidhood ||
Druid Subclasses
-
Healing formula calculation. I take no credit. Also my thoughts on Mdmg food vs HPBI.
Good luck guys. Any comments/concerns/inputs feel free to leave here, or PM me on these forums.
Quoted from "Ravesden;603892"
Not trying to fill in Xerise's shoes. Those old guides are Druid bibles. I may be in Heretic but...
