Tips for a new R druid

PVP Arenas
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so bc of the healer shortage i’ve decided to play some healer specs this season and R druid is gonna be my main.

I just started messing with it like the last 3 weeks of s2 and was very easily able to get up to 1600 but that’s all the further i pushed bc i was still in half blues with random pieces of conq and not stacking mastery bc i just didn’t have the time.

anyway there’s a few things i didn’t really know how to go about.

when do you use mass entangle and over ursoc? and other than just to keep people off me what uses can i use it for? i heard ppl mention vortexing step kidneys. is this something you have to learn to do by watching timing of kidney or how is this done?

I also ran the exact same talents everytime in every bracket. Id like to start running a maim build in 2s and overall know what talents to switch against certain specs in SS / 3s.

Anyone able to give me and other new R druids some tips that you wish you knew starting out ?

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  1. Press Cyclone
  2. ???
  3. Profit
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Take the time to understand how rdruid mastery works to be most efficient

Understanding pacing. This is crucial as you will need to get drinks and when you should go for them and when not to

Don’t get fancy out the gate learning. Don’t go for yolo clones or rakes. Sit back and heal.

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Druid is an extremely high skill ceiling class. When people give you advice, they’re oftentimes going to tell you things that they’ve seen skill-capped druids do but you don’t realistically need to do to be successful.

Focusing on positioning, hot management, and mana management and not worrying about anything else will get you very far as a new druid. I’d say only after those three things are really well managed should you move on to worrying about things like ursoling step kidneys and clone spamming.

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Press :evergreen_tree: :evergreen_tree: :evergreen_tree:

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Thanks! I’m not OP but I took your advice and have had a bit more success. I’ve noticed that I think I know when to use cyclone / bash but I’m letting people die trying to get near an enemy healer so I’m going to just focus on healing for now.

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If you’re not going in for those bashes and clones you’re not going to win. Meanwhile that hpal your facing is going to hoj/repent you on CD

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Trying to bash and clone as a beginner is the biggest bait ever, dont do it. Let the clones and bashes come to you organically if you see it but definitely dont force it or use your mobility and force it. By just being an output monster, you can get pretty high. You wont be Dno but you will beat 90+% of healers and other druids just by being better at ranging and healing really good. Do some high M+ in your pvp spec to learn to be really good at healing and just focus on healing until youre like 2.5+. You absolutely must use targeting macros for your party in arena. This is non debatable. Target player, party 1, party2. You must take the time to get the muscle memory with these. same with dispel player, party 1, party 2.
Id recommend you put clone on arena 123 if you havent already but thats not really healer specific.

Every time you lose, your teammates will say its because you dont clone, just ignore them and focus on if your healing was good first.

Check your log see if youre getting out cenward and adaptive twice a minute or a little less. Should be getting 3 swiftmends in a min or better while in combat. Are you letting life bloom fall off or switching it when its unnecessary? Stuff like this gos a really long way imo.

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root123 clone123 macros!

Also a tip for playing hunters/warlocks/pet classes, have a special keybind to root/clone their pets,

#showtooltip Entangling Roots
/cast [@arenapet1] Entangling Roots

I have 3 different pet macros but you can just drag 123 onto your keybinds in a given game for pets.

Look to roll your DRs on cyclone, cloning things like ray/guardian/bop when your team will not net pressure is super good! Or in situation like your cc chain is ending on the healer and you wont kill that go, just clone the dps swap healer, and when your cc are off cds just roll the DRs again.

Powershifting, i.e bear cat/travel bear cat/travel will allow you to line and get away from pretty much any class in the game.

Lastly all general healer fundaments apply, arena123/party123 keybinds, disciplined positioning and forethought, and throw adaptive swarm out on CD/ proper rotation of defensive CDs.

When you go for clones on healers always try to position yourself so that you line kicks while being in line of clone target, this is again just super disciplined positioning.

prebearing stuns is hugeeee too, get really good at doing that, not only does it reduce damage if they go you, mages cant poly you/ pallys cant rep you/ shammys cant hex you etc etc etc

PS during a cyclone you can still build combo points off the cloned target if you use swipe

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see i got to like 1600 ish and I would have people saying to me in the lobby that i need to press clone more. I was focusing on staying back and pve healing. I would typically come in and open with a rip on the non target dps then charge bash the healer and clone then hop away and start healing and then i would only clone if someone got close to me and had a big cd or defensive up. Like i would clone the guy in the cocoon so my dps would switch targets, etc. I think my main problem was my gear was like half mastery mixed with haste/crit and still half blue so when i got swapped to i got punished hard. I’m anxious to see where I can get ceiling wise with a full set of optimized gear this season. i’ll be happy with 2.1

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Learn what the pandemic window is for lifebloom and get a weakaura to track it easily

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ya rdruids really favor mastery right now, generally the stat priority is mastery > 30% haste is what you’re aiming for > vers

Vers and mastery still synergize nicely though I’ve found

there is a hugeeeeee difference between like 15% mastery and 20% mastery when to comes to throughput

In terms of positioning and cyclones and when to go for them…

very general rule of thumb, make sure your team is fully hotted before you go for a clone, BEFORE you go in ask yourself, who has stops? what stops do they have? Do they have ranged stops or melee stops? Does the enemy team have burst damage within the next 15-20ish seconds? If they do have stops are you able to position in such a way in which they cannot use those stops? After some reps you’ll get really good at answering those questions really fast during a game.

Basically it depends on the above questions whether you go for a clone or not.

So the #1 priority for any arena team is that everyone stays alive, this is everyone’s responsibility, but the healer has a little extra to do when it comes to this, so basically if the team is under threat of dying or the enemy team is bursting you should be healing not cloning (unless you’re cloning to stop damage).

A good example of cloning to stop damage, they’re bursting your team is light on cds, bursting dps has no trinket, ideally probably stun/clone but you can get the raw clone too.

Setup clones with stuns, generally in the opener i’d only worry about cloning one target, either the healer or off DPS to give your team a clean opener.

Master the art of restealth rake/maim stuns to setup cyclones, this is pretty difficult esp with trees nowadays (well rake stuns at least), but keep in mind how many combo points you have for maim stuns.

also another fun resto druid tip, dont forget to soothe off spell reflects/enrage effects, dont clone yourself!

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So i didn’t know the thing about soothe spell reflect that’s cool. I didn’t realize enrage effects existed main reason being bc i never was aware to tranq shot any off on my hunter just dispel magic. Who has enrage?

also i do have the weakaura to track my lifebloom stacks and i try to refresh under 4 seconds left to keep 3 stack.

also i am not talented into maim bc i just copied the top shuffle guys spec and he didn’t have it. I was under the impression maim was more of a 2s playstyle but i would like to play it if i could get to it without sacrificing much

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This depends on what comp you’re healing .

Doing this while healing a wizard cleave is often a throw.

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uhhhhhh I only q’d around 200 shuffle games, but did manage to hit 2400, Just going on pure feeling, I felt like I got decent use out of it, but there were for sure times where it seemed like a wasted talent slot.

what does that guy run instead?

Another niche thing with soothe, you can use it on a rogue in a clone to keep them in combat and not let them get stealth when your clone drops, at least im pretty sure that works

kitty or gtfo :slight_smile:

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because of this you should try to avoid swapping lifebloom off of targets that are never far from taking damage. for the same reason, try not to let it expire

because of this, try really hard to avoid wasting clearcast procs. completing the rg cast on anyone, especially yourself in a safe alcove, will put the rg hot on both lifeblooms. this is the #1 mana savings you want to adopt, a lot of situations lifebloom+rg hot+one of swarm/1 treant that was about to hit 3 cd charges will be enough to outheal the damage a player is taking

don’t just chug your frenzy, it’s your strongest personal defensive. when you’re under fire see if you can just walk away from damage by shifting slows or leaving line of sight, and if you can’t then try to take the time to(from low to high urgency) get up a few normal hots in addition to free rg>bloom yourself if it’s required for the triple mastery>og yourself in a pinch, then frenzy. frenzy should bring you from under 50 back to near 90 if you’re planning its uses well

very well said
if you want to get fancier with cc, the best time to do anything is while you already have someone cloned.

oh and don’t try to clone rets if you don’t know they’re stationary/stuck in one spot. you will lose every time if you try to 25yd max range clone a ret with freedom active and hoj available

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As the opposing 1700 healer, just spam cyclone and you’ll auto win. It’s ridiculous. People will say “jUsT LiNe tHe CloNe”. That’s all fine and dandy but all a Rdruid has to do is go invis, pounce, and put you into a clone for the next 10 seconds. It’s not always lineable. Class is ridiculous right now.

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new rdruids are going to have a better time staying max range and just pve healing lol

pushing to cyclone when ur a bad druid is usually throwing when u can just out pve heal the other team with stupid hps

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Make sure you have a /cancelform bind, goes without saying. Probably the most important bind druid has.

If something can port/blind Ursoc gets more value. If your team can force a position then Ursoc also gains value. (e.g. you’re on a team of wizards vs a warrior, you eliminate a potential leap or intervene escape).
Roots are incredible valuable. I watch a lot of druids neglect abusing DR’s on evokers, or simply using it to lock a DPS that has walked out of line of their healer.
You just need to play and get a feel. If you’re new I would just default to roots, just don’t grief your DK partners and refrain from hitting the button unless you think it is a meaningful press.

Unfortunately unless you’re playing with something like a hunter or something that would get incredible value with the extra stun in 2s you’re pretty much trolling as going balance for the extra range and healing is just too valuable. It is quite fun to move constantly 30% faster with the movespeed talent via cancelforming, but even people that built up that muscle memory and rhythm from last expansion typically opt to not use their points on the feral side.

Those were your direct concerns, as general tips:
Lifebloom currently is your most important heal due to the triple mastery talent. You’re wasting a tremendous amount of healing, globals, and mana if you don’t maintain it on something that you’re healing.

Don’t force CC. Goes for any healer. You’re just going to get punished. Instead you should focus on CC’ing to peel or deny defensives. See a lock that popped Unending Resolve AND got Pain Suppression’d? Clone it. Same deal if you see a target get Overgrowth Ironbarked, especially if they are low health. Ray of Hope, GS, Cocoon, Bop, etc, are all things to look out for.

You’re going to have clueless DPS get mad at you but it’s almost always the correct play.

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As a beginner just bash/ clone to get a dps off you for some breathing room.