I just did a +14 Spire of Ascension this morning and was told this is a push week.
Literally had full HoTS going with the lifebloom leggo and people were still dying left and right
Felt there was nothing I could but hope they had Defensives or a way to keep themselves up because I could only regrow one person at a time. Was praying for my convoke or tranq to come off CD.
I know I’m only 205ilvl but if this is what higher keys are like then I don’t know.
If you’re being proactive and have hots out before damage happens, healing on a druid almost feels like cheating sometimes.
But if you’re waiting for damage to happen before getting hots out, or your group is constantly getting hit by things they shouldn’t, then you’re going to have a really hard time catching up.
It’s hard to say without more details. Several of the adds in SoA have lethal spells at 14 fortified. If no one was kicking the wyrm and crusher casts, there is zero chance to heal the damage as a resto druid. I didn’t really start doing 14s until I was like 210-212 ilvl too. I’m a “meh” player, but a 14 SoA should be golden this week.
If I were to run a 14, I would try to prehot predictive damage, abuse SotF Wild Growths, help out the tank with roots+typhoon as he kites, and be ready to dispell the wyrm DoT ASAGDP. Not much you can do about crusher casts.
I think this is accurate. I’m not sure how true it is for other healers, but it’s hard for druids to catch up when the whole group is making mistakes that lead to damage.
I think not interrupting is the hardest thing a healer has to deal with, lol.
This might be part of your problem. That’s gonna be really tough. I realize that ilvl at end of dungeon caps out at 210 on a +15, but it’s gonna be a super tough go. I’d be leery of tackling +14’s until I was over ilvl 210. You can achieve it, but your group has to be super on point.
That said, I’ve done a lot of Spires though, and there’s really only one place group-wide damage is an issue, and that’s on those last three adds before the final boss. Everywhere else is avoidable, or can be mitigated with use of stuns/defensives.
So if that’s where you got bogged down… superfeelsbadman. If it’s not, your group needs to play a bit better and help mitigate the damage going out by using their abilities more effectively.
Oh, and yell at those buggers to get in your damn healing mushroom. That’s two hots that can trigger your LB procs from the legendary when they need burst catch up!
This last party was funny. I can’t tell you how many time i tell the person who cannot hear me that they need to get in the daggum healing circle.
I think you’re a little low ilvl and the lifebloom legendary often feels underwhelming for the work required.
If you had full hots all the time on everyone, that probably means your group was taking LOTS of damage, more than they should. And in those situations with the LB leggo you really feel the pain. If you’re encountering groups like that, try the mother tree leggo with Flourish and doing slightly lower Keys until your ilvl improves.
Not to say your ilvl and leggo couldn’t complete a 14, but it’s just making it harder for yourself especially with dps who may be standing in the fire, got carried, don’t interrupt.
I think people underestimated this week big time. Fortified has always been difficult on SoA towards the end, because of those last three mobs especially. They are very lethal, and the fight lasts pretty long, so there’s plenty to dodge and heal.
It is true that this is a push week because volcanic is a pretty easy affix to deal with on certain Dungeons with certain comps…but Fortified is still tricky 
good luck! it’ll just take practice, I’d run it a couple more times until you’re comfortable. Also make sure you manage your cooldowns properly - you’re going to need them especially if you don’t have a priest (since you’ll be healing quite a bit due to bursting!)
gl 
+14 is gonna be hard to do unless it’s a coordinated group if you’re only 205 ilvl. Also you might want to try other legendaries. I didn’t like the lifebloom leggo at all. It essentially covers the same bases as the verdant except verdant does the job better. With the lifeblooom leggo you need to keep it up on you and the tank . With verdant you can extend sotf rejuvs and cenarion wards which basically does more healing than the lifebllom would sitting on the tank and it also cuts down on your gcds.
The only way to catchup when your behind is Convoke or Tranq. But yea if those are on CD then theirs nothing else you can do If everyone is hottest up but to watch them slowly die.
This can happen when tanks mistime prideful and your dealing with a a pack of mobs and pride, when everyone is already missing health.
Some of the trash in that dungeon is brutal. especially the mobs before the last boss. In my groups we hero them and use pride for the last boss.
Last was tyrannical week and the mobs were lethal when aoe hit. This week, the mobs are stronger. So more wipes will be coming.
Aside from what others have said, this is also the issue with the gearing system that valor will hopefully resolve.
I’m playing an alt right now. I got it to 200ilvl in about two days. But then there’s just a wall you hit where you can’t get gear. 203’s are barely an upgrade and most groups are looking for 215ish people to farm their weekly +14’s (which drop 207’s). Even as a KSM alt that can do 5k overall dps I can’t get invites to much beyond a +12 unless they’ve played with me before.
I’ve done about 50 keys on my alt, and I think that got me to about 203ilvl. Just ridiculous for the effort required.
So on a 2nd character i’m now forced to pvp. Farmed 1400 yesterday, now gotta farm all the conq gear and upgrade it to 207, then maybe 213 if I still need ilvl.
We should not have to pvp to do the keys we want. But now we have to, especially on alts if we want to actually play them in the first few weeks. The only other option is to just wait for a month of vaults to get some gear.
So aside from everyone elses advice, try and increase your ilvl. It’s a pretty big buff between 200 and 220. Unless you want to wait for valor (and then grind that) then the only way may be pvp’ing for a week. Do it on a tyrranical week.
WG/Flourish is also an option.
I’ve been casually healing and starting to focus as a resto Druid but like others have said I think ilvl is probably the biggest factor.
I also encourage druids and ranged to play less from max range and more within the mushroom circle as this is just free healing.
That said here are my observations from seeing other druids healing when I’m playing tank or dps:
Photosynthesis and dark titans - I find the dungeons much harder when druids are running this. I’m sure players can make this work but I find it’s a lot of extra globals to maintain and more importantly it’s missing your best catchup cooldown - Flourish (or tree if you run that).
Legendary - I haven’t tried any real resto legendaries but I do run circle of life and death. This passively makes your hots heal faster and in a 5 man setting isn’t really a problem as it’s not difficult to maintain hots on targets. In addition even with circle it’s possible to maintain rejuvenate and wild growth on every target into a flourish which matches the dmg profile of a 20 stack pride (or last 30%) nicely. This gives an extra cooldown and plays to a druids strength of more emphasis on hots.
I am intrigued to try some other legendaries, namely mother tree and verdant infusion so I’m curious to hear fellow druids feelings on them.
Side note for spires - on fortified week I strongly encourage setting up pride for the 3rd angel which I typically save as the left one (spear angel). In addition it took me forever to realize that each spear shoots 4 orbs in a static direction meaning the safe spot never changes unless another spear makes you move.