Friday, May 15, 2009

Healing Rotations

As I apply to a new guild, I'm asked to provide WWS/World of Log records to show my performance on past fights. Pulling up this information and seeing how the other druid in my raid seemed to do laps around me in healing, I began to wonder if there was something off about the way I was healing.



Healing Rotations
While, when I normally think of 'rotations', DPS rotations for my paladin alt come to mind (CS>DS>Judge>Exo>etc.), but the more I think about it, the more healers can kind of have their own rotation, just like DPS.

Reviewing the healing meters from older Ulduar fights revealed that I'm most likely not healing to the best of my abilities.

Currently, I usually keep a full set of HoTs (LBx3, Rejuv, Regrowth) on the tank(s) and toss out LB/WG on the raid. In PuGs and the like, this was always more than enough and would usually keep me high up on the meters. However, in my actual guild runs, I would be third; second below the other resto druid (1st) and priest (2nd). After a bit of lurking around the EJ forums, I came across this post:

For heavy, consistent raid damage combined with huge spikes of tank damage, I keep a 3stack of LB's on the tank, 15ish people rejuv'd, and use the extra 2 GCD's on either WG or tank healing as needed. If tank healing isn't required, then the highest hps is a 5rejuv, 1WG rotation keeping 15 targets rejuv'd, and 6 targets WG'd constantly.
I began to think about this tactic and realize that it was probably rather effective. As it stands now, my Rejuv ticks for around 1.8-2.2k (depending upon my buffs/flasks), and since it doesn't overheal (?) it would help lower my amount of overheal. Not to mention, when coupled with the Glyph of Swiftmend, it's great for a quick insta-heal for the raid while still allowing that HoT to continue ticking.

I tried this rotation in a 10-man Malygos this evening, but I found myself going out of mana rather quickly. Part of this could be due to the lack of Replenishment buff, and until I get into a full 25-man raid I won't really be sure how well this works. Until then, I'll probably keep browsing the forums and looking at other possible rotations.

If you have a rotation that works for you, please feel free to drop a comment; I'd love to hear some input for other rotations!




4 comments:

  1. If your having trouble with mana while rolling rejuv on a 10m raid, you should give the mana restore meta a look see. Also, depending on how you heal, focusing on Spirit/MP5 gear over gear with crit may help also. Different heal styles require different gear setups.

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  2. Replenishment is really important in any raid; if there's no replenisher, the mana users really suffer.

    As for spell use, rejuv, LB, and WG share my top 3 healing percentages. Individual details on my preferred spell use are on my blog, though, http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/03/resto-pve-healing.html#healingspelluse

    Hope it helps :)

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  3. This all depends a lot on whether or not you're being given a specific heal assignment. Now, I know a lot of veteran raid healers often heal their assignment as well as the raid. This is very common place if the damage to a tank is predictable, or at least non-lethal if the healer has a few seconds to deal with it.

    For me, I do not use Lifebloom in a fight where mana may become intensive. I am primarily a tank healer with AOE being peripheral. In a fight where the tank is taking heavy damage, I will roll full HoTs (yes, this includes a full stack of LB) and WG the raid as needed (with rejuvs if there is particularly heavy raid damage).

    This changes drastically with each fight. My healing doesn't look the same on Ignis as it may on Freya (especially hardmode Freya). Ultimately, I try to use my mana as best I can, and this means using WG every time it's off of cooldown, rejuv for heavy AOE damage on the raid and rejuv/regrowth+nourish for tanks. All tanks. Unless it's just one, and then they get 3LB. This is typical for me, but I don't really have mana problems.

    This may be because I am always flasked for MP5 and use MP5 food. :P

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  4. Hey how'd this end up turning out for you?

    I dont play a druid (yet - my druid's still lvl 70 and feral but it's my next planned 80 and will be resto). I do however GM a moderately advanced raid guild and play a protection warrior so healing efficiency's obviously a huge concern of mine.

    I know alot about priest and paladin healing from having played a priest alot in vanilla and BC and paladin from healing alot in wrath but druids are still a bit of a mystery to me.

    Found your blog on accident and rather enjoy reading it thus far btw. Keep up the good posting.

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