Resto Druid Looking for Tips/Advice to Improve

PVP Arenas
1

Hello Everyone,

Apologies for the length of this post, it is kind of long.
TLDR: 1500 Rdruid Looking for advice/tips on improving positioning and awareness (+thoughts on habit of tunnel visioning health bars effecting position/awareness), CD trading effectively to deal with burst and how to deal with UA + Mindgames.

I struggled in arena before, but now I am struggling even more with this meta and I really do want to get better and push rating. I am tired of feeling like I am not improving and feeling like I am letting my team down. I have thought about maybe switching to a rsham or priest, but in the end I would much rather try to figure out the druid, even though it appears to be harder to master, as it is the class I love the most and have played the longest.

I am currently sitting in the 1500’s in both 2v2 and 3v3 and struggling to push any further.
2v2 = MM Hunter partner
3v3 = MM Hunter & Arms Warrior partners

The main issues I am finding:

#1 - Positioning and Awareness
I am struggling knowing where to run and keeping ahead of my team. I am finding that I am constantly running after them instead of keeping ahead and as a consequence I am getting in bad spots where the enemy team is easily able to cc me. Despite my mobility, I cant seem to get away a lot of the time either.

Also, which I think is a major contributor to the above, during games I am focusing so much on my raid frames/watching health bars that it is hurting me with the lack of awareness and positioning. I don’t catch that the mage or priest, or whatever is coming over to cc until I have very little time to react and to be in a good position in regards to my team. I am relying heavily on Gladiatorlosa to tell me what is going on (and I know its looked down on but yeah).

I always tell myself I am going to focus less on watching raid/party frames but then I get in the game and that goes out the window. I am not sure how to break this habit as it has been the way I have played for a very long time.

#2 - Trading CDs.
I seem to need to use the majority of my cooldowns right away and then I struggle with the next wave of burst or when I am coming out of cc. This is especially the issue against hybrids who are doing crazy healing while the healer is sitting in cc because we cant secure a kill quickly enough. I have been taking tree which is helping immensely with mitigating burst but it leaves me high and dry for the 3 minutes while its down. I have tried playing with SOTF but I don’t feel like its doing much for me, but maybe I just don’t understand how to make the most out of the 200% buff to rejuv or regrowth.

#3 - How do you deal with UA + Mind Games combo?
Anytime we get matched against a Aff Lock/ SPriest we always seem to lose because I get a UA+ Mind games on me. I dispel and get chunked and silenced or I leave it up and my partners die in that window even if they save CD’s (mostly the warrior in this case since my hunter just feigns off the dots and or turtles).

I understand that Rdruid requires a lot of proactiveness with the way it heals and reading damage/cc before it happens versus being reactive and I think the positioning and awareness is hurting me the most because I am finding myself being super reactive because of it.

Any tips/recommendations/advice?

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play a diff healer, rdruid blows atm

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It’s actually really strong rn

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the level 11 hunter would know best about that, show me the stats on that one.

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Go Boomkin, there’s double Boomkin/Rogue at 2400. Rdruid is useless in arena compared to other healers.

I play Rdruid and Rsham, Rdruid is playable if you’re running spellcleaves that contain Spriest or Ele.

Playing with a Hunter is rough, MM is probably the hardest spec right now and you need to play it perfectly to succeed right now. They need big direct heals to live.

I’m way better at Rdruid than Rsham but I’m 1750 in 3s on my Druid. My Rsham playing with the same DPS, I’m 2k. I’ve been 2500 but I’m playing with a Hunter who is IRL friend who started arena this season and a WW IRL friend who over extends every game.

Rdruid brings way more needed utility but it’s impossible to keep WW/Hunter alive because they’re probably the two squishiest classes besides maybe Rogue.

I’d honestly recommend going Boomkin or playing Disc because they can fit into multiple easy comps. If you need to play Rdruid then spend a lot of time on YouTube/Twitch/Skillcapped.com and stop asking for tips here but 99% of these forums don’t know anything about PvP.

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Just heal a lot so you don’t die problem solved

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Hello I’ll try to give you some ACTUAL feedback for what’s working for me. Disclaimer: I am trash so take it with grain of salt.

For the UA/mind games your partners HAVE to tunnel priest and CC the lock often. More CC = less uptime. If they get the mind games off you can’t deal any damage or heal. Only eat the silence if you are full hp and behind a pillar. Your teammates cannot do anything with it on them treat it like a stun.

You have to communicate with your team if you cannot accommodate their position. I play with a Shadowpriest and warrior and often have to say things like “I can’t push for cyclone” or “COME BACK TO ME NOW!!” “YOU’RE LINING ME YOU ARE LINING ME”

It sounds like you understand what you need to do and what’s causing the failures. You just need to grind out with your team and communication will eventually come. Don’t play when any of the 3 of you are tilted. Look back on your games and ask questions like “where did we lose pressure” “what ended up killing you?”

Those are my thoughts

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Thanks for the input.

I want to play druid as its always what I have mained and the character I want to push on. It sucks that its kind of crap right now for heals, but I am going to definitely keep trying to get better with it. If I absolutely have to swap to go any higher maybe I will for the sake of the people I play with, but for now id like to stay druid and maybe I can consider Boomy for 2’s.

I am also having trouble finding streamers who stream when I can watch and dont need subs to watch recorded videos, so I will keep browsing youtube and skill capped like you said.

Both my partners also like to main the characters they are playing and I dont blame them for not wanting to change classes when I dont want to either, so we will just have to keep trying to improve as best we can.

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Ever since the dampening change we have several rdruids above 2400. I’m not changing. My only battle is which leggo to use.

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Thank you great feedback,
Wanted to respond sooner, but it seems you are not allowed to post twice in a row.

I try to call out positioning in these situations as much I can, I just hate being in those positions to begin with and too frequently. Sometimes there is confusion (and or panic at least on my end haha) and we run different ways so we just gotta work on getting clearer communication down more and keep playing to work things out.

I will discuss with my partners about trying focusing the priest/ccing lock and see how it goes. We normally don’t because of how much damage priests can seem to mitigate while the others are in cc.

Regarding your second comment - I have been running the Swiftmend legendary as the mana gains from extending the time and not having it consume a hot is great.
Are there actually other viable legendaries for pvp?

I haven’t really looked much into this other than the 10% less cc one, which was what I saw that some restos in the top 100 were using before the swiftmend legendary became available this week.

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Rdruid works much better in spell cleaves.

In terms of CDs: For the most part, there’s no way to really know which and how many CDs to use in a given situation. Many times, your team will die no matter what you use. Your best bet is to use offensive CC when your team has momentum. Save bash > clone for these moments. Incap roar is also wonderfully useful at stopping enemy momentum, if your team is getting trucked. Sitting back and healing them is unviable relative to the healing power of other healers.

Positioning: On larger maps, balance affinity can give you longer spell range for getting easier clones, but you lose Frenzied Regen + Incap Roar. Use pillars to avoid Poly, Hex, Repent. Our haste is low right now, so it’s easier to get caught out of form.

Legendaries: You can make Oath work, especially in 2s. It gives you more move speed and better health regen, depending on your affinity.

Finally: Just wait for buffs or reroll another healer. It’s just not worth the frustration at the moment.

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Guide https://youtu.be/eyEuBHK7ebk
Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/mmarkers

Mmarkers is a good source for anything resto druid but be aware that you need competent, semi tanky partners to succeed with the offensive playstyle he advertises.

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I didn’t actually think about balance affinity for those longer ranges. I will try to play around with that some and I will look into Oath.

I always seem to have a hard time getting my cyclones off having because of kicks (juke if I can) or stuns as they seem to save them for when we use offensive CD. Then I end up getting stuck in cc. So we normally try to avoid me ccing unless my partners can set up something first.
Using my Racial Stomp stun or Incap roar to do it though usually works as long as they don’t have a trinket so I will try not sitting back as much since as you pointed out not as viable relative to the other healers.

Thanks for the feedback. Learn more everyday :slight_smile:

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The short range on clone outside of Balance Affinity means you need to look for a bash > clone on healer around a pillar. When you see their healer hugging a pillar, you can have an easier time LoSing counter CC when you’re cloning. For example, their healer is just poking out, you can position behind the pillar after bash. In 2s, you can set this up easier with Feral Affinity. Get out of combat > stealth > rake stun > cyclone. That way, they don’t see a big cat running at them from across the map.

Edit: And it goes without saying that you should be pouncing to set up this CC.

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Reroll. no point playing resto druid now. Skill cap is high and it is week even in hands of skillful players.
Priest or paladin is the way to go now.

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take away from whatever I write what u want

position 40 yards away from ur team and make ur team play around this positioning

play with a hybrid, playing rdruid or mw without a hybrid rn is almost equivalent to intentionally losing

rdru is fine in 2s vs most things

guardian affinity every single game unless ur 2sing with a hybrid or a wizard (lock/mage)

swiftmend legendary every single game

every single gcd on healing

vs aff sp it is important ur not being dotted as well that way u can press skin dispel and ur frenzied regen conduit will save u

also trade your team mates cooldowns vs scary stuff, ironbark is useless unless ur using it for thruput and it is not enough vs most classes cds rn

and don’t let it get to u, rdruid is rough rn and nearly every single high rated 3s rdruid qs with a hybrid to heal for them

gl feller

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Hit me up ingame and i’ll teach you everything you wanna know about Rdruid/boomy. Vertain-Ravenholdt.