I gotta say, this is incredibly fun to play around in M+! In raids it’s kinda meh since it pops as a part of my normal rotation and gives me a little bit of a boost, but in M+ I can track it and pop it for heavy damage phases or for a bit of mana savings on areas between Urh relics. I also have a group who likes to stand in bad sometimes, so having a predictable tree so I can throw some insta regrowths out to bring them back up is really nice.
Seriously, loving this set bonus! Now if only there was something I could do about that tree model…
I’ve been more impressed with it in raid than in keys, tbh. In keys I’m using SM more as a buffer to get bars up and holding it for specific moments where I want the tree form I don’t want to say feels bad but it’s fairly medium. Usually I just throw regrowths on my team while it’s up and go back to owl form. It’s definitely made some hard pulls easier but that’s been more of a luck thing. Raid on the other hand I can plan my SM usage a lot easier. At the beginning of the season I was unsure if I would even equip the 4pc over gear with better secondaries, and while I am using the 4pc instead of the latter, it’s still just ok I think. I do like it though.
That’s fair, we probably have different playstyle, preferences, and group comps that drive our gameplay too
My guild likes to get hit a lot so I have to look after them In raid I’m using SM on CD because the empowered WG from SotF is such massive healing that I can’t pass it up. In M+ I also use WG a lot to keep my group topped up. I usually SM+WG, then back to owl where I can LB/RG as needed. I play the Dark Titan + Photo build though so it works for me.
I can see if you’re not already using SM a lot though how the bonus might not be as compelling. I dunno, I just love it though, it’s so much fun to pop into tree. By comparison, the Balance one is super lackluster… it’s a dps bonus, but it just doesn’t feel exciting. I don’t think every set bonus needs to be, but I’m sure glad the resto one feels good to me!
I play photo as well, never could get used to flourish. Sounds like you are using soul properly in raids, you lose value using soul for wg in m+ though. I generally use it to regrowth and just keep wg on cd ignoring soul for that purpose. If you’re running groups that have poor mechanics like you’re sounding like, I could see why you like it in m+. I feel I lose a lot of value with it because I spend a lot of my time in keys in owl or cat form.
I use sm almost on cd in m+ as well, that’s why i was saying it felt kinda bad to hold it for high damage pulls anticipating the tol buff. I’d still agree it’s a fun bonus. I haven’t played balance since 9.0 so I can’t comment on it. Feral and guardian was also fun pre nerf but now they are kinda eh too.
I do sometimes as well, but since photo procs off extra hots and I’m gonna heal the raid anyway, one boosted WG GCD compared to 4-5 rejuv GCDs on my raid feels better to me. I’m in no way telling you you’re wrong or saying my way is better, it just intuitively feels good to me, so I do it haha.
Definitely finding more opportunities to avoid the bad and give me more room to add dps is for sure something my group is working on though, as we start to progress into the +20 range and chasing the KSH achieve. So that may well shift for me as I get more GCDs opened up for damage.
Oh true, I don’t really hold it… at least not often. I have noticed it tends to line up fairly well though, which I appreciate. Sometimes I do hold it for longer than normal, but mostly it’s just a matter of waiting maybe 8-10 more seconds.
For example, I’ve been running streets a lot to chase after that tanking trinket. That 45-second (ish) window lines up very nicely for the AoE/Soak line up I’ve noticed. It’s not every boss but some
Yeah there’s definitely going to be times that it’s the right call, but 90% of the time especially in high keys the only one that’s really in danger is the tank so the empowered healing your group is getting isn’t doing a lot. It’s certainly not that big a deal and I’m not sure if at any key level it’s going to make or break anything, it’s just a practice I’ve always tried to keep. And I feel you on streets, I think about half the keys I’ve ran this week were that place mostly just so I can learn it better. I can say the tree has felt pretty good in that key in particular.
Well, both of us are admitting to using photo when the popular opinion is to use flourish so I doubt we’ll judge lol. I used flourish when I ran verdant infusion, I think the only time I’ve ever ran germ was for pvp in bfa.
I was looking at your io page trying to see your build and I don’t know if it’s a bug with io, but it says your best gambit run you healed with cat-eye cameo and feral conduits / trinkets and your best NW you were running with frenzy and feral conduits / trinkets and I don’t know if I should laugh or cry because of how many times I’ve dps’d with my guardian gear etc.
I definitely won’t judge… germ used to be my favourite! I ran it early on with the rejuv legendary but I found I just couldn’t keep the mana up or handle burst. For raids I switched to flourish because it’s a pretty powerful healing CD when we kind of lack those, and for M+ I switched to photo because I felt it handled burst a bit more when we kinda lack burst healing.
If you’re feeling germ power to you! That’s why I like druids so much… you have a lot of options and they can all be good. Maybe not top 1% meta but if that’s not what you’re after, who cares?
Agree 100% on this. This is why I’m really loving the overall state of druid this expansion. Lots of choices between viable legendary, convenants and talents. Many combinations are close to one another in performance and can be tailored to preference.
Exact opposite of my H Priest. There is one best convenant, and spec, and legendary combination. Zero choices without noticable degradations in performance.
That’s weird. My gear swaps automatically when I change specs and I’m using separate soul binds for each spec so there’s no way it could even accidentally use a feral conduit.
Likely a bug.
And yeah… I generally don’t use germ on anyone but the tank or a pre hot on incoming party damage. Just having that extra mastery stack 100% of the time is worth it for me.
I like photo with dark Titan, But using VI Lego is more my speed.
And flourish is a raid cd, imo. Doesn’t match my m+ requirements for me at all. That’s 100% personal opinion, as I know some find it effective. Not for me though.
As long as you’re using different soulbinds, this works properly. But if both Guardian and Feral are using the same Soulbind, (Niya for example), then the conduits don’t switch
It’s just what the top druids in m+ are using. Like I said, I used it when I was using VI, I would hot people up, put CW on the tank and when the ward would pop I would swiftmend and flourish and it would boost all of the hots including the CW hot on the tank. I’ve since switched to circle and have been going back and forth with night fae and necro (I personally think VI is better with NF than circle but my VI is only like 210 ilvl). I definitely agree with Tubbly on the state of resto druid, the talents are a playstyle decision and if you can get value out of x talent or y legendary, etc, the performance difference isn’t too far behind.
I don’t play enough to really test out the others. I’m sure I could benefit more from another Leggo/build. But this works for me. I hate losing a hot to SM. That’s why I like it. The extend is just a bonus.
The 2 pc healing I found to be rather lackluster. It’s basically just another mastery stack. So, for that reason, I love it, but for the healing it gives… Meh.
It’s basically like the cultivation talent with out the HP requirement. So better.
I agree, but the reason I asked is because it seems to take priority over all other HoTs for SM. Actually that’s not true… rejuv and regrowth for sure, I’m not sure about WG. So if SM eats that one, it’s the one that gets extended. This doesn’t seem as good for me and, by contrast, losing it also doesn’t seem impactful.
Don’t get me wrong, that 2pc bonus usually amounts to about 5% of my healing so it’s not nothing, but it’s also not great. I was wondering if you noticed an impact using VI when you got 2pc is all. I’ve thought about using VI (and it’s recommended BiS for M+ even), but I don’t really understand how it jives with that set bonus.
In raid I’m using SM on CD because the empowered WG from SotF is such massive healing that I can’t pass it up. In M+ I also use WG a lot to keep my group topped up. I usually SM+WG, then back to owl where I can LB/RG as needed. I play the Dark Titan + Photo build though so it works for me.