Hello!
I am seeking advice and help, please. I’ve almost always played a priest at expansion start, so this is the first time I’ve retired her to try druid instead.
I’ve done a few M+'s on my druid healer, and I feel like I’m always struggling. I am seeking tips or advice I can use to better how I am playing. I think I last played druid healer in Legion or BFA. Last expansion, I barely played anything at all. So, jumping in on week 1 is something I’ve not done in quite a long time.
Last night, I ran Nokhud on a, I think, +12. Our group was druid tank, 2 evoker dps, a demon hunter, and myself. The elemental boss gave me absolute fits. I think we wiped 5 or 6 times? I don’t recall. It just felt like I was playing catch-up constantly. I run with a druid tank, and he heals like a beast, so I think that helped us pull through my terrible struggles. I just feel like i need to fix something.
Tragically, I have no logs. I’ve modified my build to match the one on WoWhead, except I use a Boomie build for dps instead of catweaving (gonna do that later, when I improve at healing).
Thank you in advance for you time. I appreciate it!
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Oops, I’m sorry, I posted on my priest. This is my druid.
Druid healing is very simple. The hard part is nothing to do with druid and that is knowing mechanics of every dungeon. If surprise aoe damage comes out and you’re a priest it’s very easy to instantly heal the party back up. Not so for druid. So essentially your goal should be to have hots on the group and a swiftmend wildgrowth ready for when you know aoe is gonna hit and that will be the part you want to nail down. If you need even more hps after that then that is where convoke/flourish/tranq come into play. You’ll get better the more you play because of how preemptive you have to heal as a druid instead of just reacting to damage.
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This boss is super easy to heal through if people are soakink orbs. lifebloom yourself + tank, keep rejuvs on everyone. Rotate flourish, tranq, and convoke for each phase
You don’t necessarily need to do any damage during bosses, especially if you’re struggling with the healing part already.
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This is the build I use for M+. Works well
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Thank you both for the pointers. I’ll probably hunt down a few WAs to use to help me be ready for mechanics. I used to play a disc priest, and I had an awesome WA that was a scrolling bar with events on it. I’ll have to see if that’s still around!
Thank you very much! I’ll give that a try next time we do a dungeon.
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I’m currently using a wa for AS and convoke cds fairly central in my screen, as well as a weak aura that stays on my cursor that shows the cds for my wg and cw while also showing if i need to put efflo or lifebloom up. Super helpful.
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Well you did a +12 on a spec you haven’t played in forever 
. Why is everyone in such a rush. Start low and work your way up is probably the best way to learn, no?
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That’s the problem though. Everyone is in such a rush. If you’re doing +5s and 8s in a couple of weeks, no one is going to take you serious. If you’re not doing 10s by now, you’re behind - by a lot.
I mean the OP can continue to have a hard time and struggle in +12s playing a new spec. I have no stock in it 
But it is the best advice, regardless of what others are doing, to take it slow as you are learning a spec you haven’t played in years and do lower tier mythics and work your way up. Let’s not act like there won’t be thousands still doing mythic 0-10’s weeks and months later.
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If you are planning to do higher keys you definitely need to swap your talents around sooner than later.
Even if you aren’t planning to kitty weave the points in the bear talents increase your survivability by a big amount.
2x Thick hide - 6% dmg reduction
1x Matter Fur - Shield on top of your Barskin
2x Well-Honed instincts - Casts Frenzied Regen whenever you fall below 40% hp (90 sec CD)
You pick up incap roar instead of typhoon which is an aoe disorient that will be needed,
Couple of things that might help you,
If you cast Nature’s Swiftness before Convoke it buffs all Regrowths within convoke window by 10%.
Make sure players are standing in your Efflorescence when your Lifebloom “blooms” to take advantage of the Verdancy Talent. I usually try and use the Blooms as instant heals for melee that step in things.
Make sure you always have Lifebloom on yourself + another target. Taking a talent called Rampart Regrowth will increase HOT duration and apply Regrowth to any targets that also have Lifebloom on them. You can Lifebloom yourself + another dps and spam regrowth on another dps to keep all 3 of you guys alive in emergency situations.
Don’t take big tree in M+, its a noob trap if you get use to the big tree in M+ you’ll never learn how to ramp properly as you have a oh crap button that you can rely on.
Don’t be afraid to use Flourish, with a 1.5min cooldown you should be using it as soon as you feel like you’re going to fall behind or know huge damage is coming. Starting ramping 10-15 seconds prior and you want to cast an empowered wild growth right before the big damage hits and follow up with Flourish straight away.
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Thank you for typing that out! I do appreciate your very detailed explanations.
My old WAs I downloaded were causing me endless problems, so I nuked them all. Just haven’t had time to look again, but I’m seeing their value with Blizzard’s UI. I’ll hunt those down, thank you.
Healing is my favourite role and my druid has been my favourite character for all of these 18 years, and you’re right. Druids do struggle in 5 mans when it comes to burst damage, especially aoe. They rely too much on cooldowns.
As dungeons have changed over the years I stopped enjoying healing on my druid as burst aoe seems to be the only way the developers add danger or challenge to dungeons. Of course the huge pulls and speedrunning groups do, just makes it even more stressful.
Hey Sylindria,
I wouldn’t stress too much about it. Many of the DF dungeons feel really over tuned, Ruby comes to mind. On the fight you’re talking about, everyone needs to do mech. Make sure you grab as many balls as you can, you’ll need them for the storm or whatever it’s call. It’ll boost your healing. Save a CD for that phase. As damage is about to hit, cast a Swiftmend > Wild Growth > Convoke > Flourish. You’ll heal through a lot of dmg with that. Macro Flourish to your Natures Vigil and you’ll also do a lot of dmg yourself.
Also make sure you are doing good ramps as buffing your WG w/ Soul of the forest.
I find that boss easier then some of the trash on the hills leading to 2nd to last boss.
If you want to watch a really good Resto Druid, check out JdotB on Twitch. That guy is just crazy good. I prefer his build over the wowhead one as well.
Bottom line is just keep playing. Pugs can be rough, I tell ppl mech or don’t do such and such, and they still just tunnel. LOL
Also, 5% overall healing buff tomorrow.
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Ah thank you very much! I think I used to watch him on a disc priest iirc, but had completely forgotten about him. I’ll hunt that down today.