[RG1] Riarn, Restoriation Druid

[Riarn]

Who is your character?
Riarn - Restoration Druid. DPS offspec (flexible between feral/boom)
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/d ... arn/simple

Who are you?
My name is Helen, I'm 27 from the UK.

To which Raid Group are you Applying?
I originally applied to this guild as a social member at the end of MoP with the intention of raiding full time in WoD. I am currently a member of RG2 and am applying for RG1.

Experience
I started playing wow casually at the end of Vanilla joining my first real guild in TBC.
TBC – Kara/ZA/SSC/TK cleared. Most of BT and MH prepatch. Rest after the patch
WOTLK – Naxx 25/10m, Ulduar 25/10m, ToC 25/10m, ICC 25/10m. All the dragon ones 25/10m. Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10/25man) and Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10man) achievements. Most of Icc 25man on Hc
Cata – BD, TotFW, BoT 10man (break)
MoP – MV, HoF, TES (break) On returning SoO normal 10man with RG2, SoO hc post patch.

Raid role
Healer – to maximize effective healing during raids and perform specific tasks and focus’s as required by the encounter.
Prepare for raids with pots/flasks and food. Ensure gear is enchanted and gemmed. Read up on tactics. I use icy veins and restokin for healing druid references mostly.
I’ll check the logs to see if there are areas I can improve in and reduce any unnecessary dmg taken. Sh*t does happen sometimes, whether it be from RNG or just a random act of stupidity, but I always try to learn from mistakes.

Talent choices
Lvl 15 – Feline Swiftness: Best overall choice for most situations as a straight increase to movement speed. Other options may be viable in very specific encounters but generally the speed increase is most useful from this tier.

Lvl 30 – Ysera’s Gift: the passive healing from this talent is a solid and ensures I get some additional healing on myself or the raid as required. Cenarion Ward is a 2nd choice depending on the encounter if we need some additional CDs for specific raid members. Unlikely to choose Renewal as although its a strong self heal, it doesn’t have the same raid versatility as the other 2.

Lvl 45 – Typhoon: this tier has 3 different options for CC and can be completely interchangeable depending on the encounter. Faerie swam slows a targets movement speed by 50%, Mass entanglement is an AoE root and typhoon knocks back and dazes. I’m currently running with Typhoon as its likely to be more useful more often and gives me the power to knock a ganking horde off a cliff which is immensely satisfying.

Lvl 60 – Soul of the Forest. There are only 2 real options for consideration in this tier as Force of Nature is very weak at the moment. I’ve chosen Soul of the Forest as a preference as it provides a more consistent aid to healing throughout an encounter. Incarnation: Tree of Life has the potential for a lot of burst healing, which may be necessary on specific fights. I’ll switch between these depending on the situation.

Lvl 75 – Ursol’s Vortex: another tier with 3 options for CC. Its unlikely that this tier will play a vital role in raid encounters but is again, completely situational and can be changed as required. I currently have Ursol’s Vortex as it can be used from ranged.

Lvl 90 – Nature’s Vigil: for me this is a choice between Nature’s Vigil and Heart of the Wild as I feel that Dream of Cenarius doesn’t allow for optimal healing. I’m currently favoring Nature’s Vigil as I find the additional healing and passive bonus dmg more useful than Heart of the Wild. But again, this can change depending on the encounter.

Lvl 100 – Germination: this new tier will require some current raiding experience to really get to grasps with the options available. I’ve chosen Germination initially as I feel it provides a more consistent and manageable bonus to healing. Moment of Clarity initially looks promising but its random chance to trigger may prove unreliable in encounters. Rampant Growth appears to have a good synergy with SotF but seems to require of a lot of micro management to make it worthwhile.

Glyphs
Glyph of Rejuvenation – a strong raid healing glyph as will always have the 3 rejvs required to permanently reduce the cd of HT by 10%.

Healing Touch – a useful glyph as it allows for the more frequent use of nature’s swiftness. This can be useful for emergency heals/instant top ups or high movement situations.

Rebirth – I’m currently using this glyph in Hcs/CMs as its incredibly useful to combat res people will full health. Switching this out for Wild Growth for raiding.

Wild Growth – I find this glyph is only really useful in raids of more than 10people as otherwise you don’t get the benefit of the increased target vs the increased cd.

Sprouting Mushroom (minor glyph) – very useful for allowing placement of efflorescence

I am always open to suggestions and am flexible with swapping glyphs or talents as required in order to get the best from my spec.

Off-specs and Alternative characters
I don’t mind using my offspec as required and have done so in my past guilds for specific encounters or situations (the benefits of being a hybrid <3). I’m currently playing as boom purely out of connivance because of the gear I’ve picked up but I imagine I’ll be working on a feral set instead as soon as I’m finished with the last bits and pieces for resto. I’ll be honest, I haven’t swatted up on best stats and talents etc for my WoD offspecs as yet but I’ll be sure to look into it.
I currently don’t have an alt leveled to 100 but have a variety to choose from if required. Druid healing is always my preference though.

Communication
I have a microphone and don’t have a problem using it. I’m already an active forum member 

Combat Logs
I currently don’t have any logs available for the current content (being as its not released yet). But I have raided with RG2 at the end of MoP, although I’m unsure how relevant that will be with all the changes to gear and class. I always look to try and improve my performance where necessary.

Your UI
http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae32 ... 3527-1.jpg

Guild History
Loot Inc (Burning Blade) – I created this guild and ran it with my house mates when I started Uni. We raided most of TBC content on a very low pop server and had a great time doing it. We followed a guild migration to Stormreaver hoping for a better time on a higher server pop for the next expansion. This proved to be a ‘grass is always greener’ situation as a lot of our core members stopped playing during the start of WOTLK.

Anastasis (Stormreaver) – Joined this guild after leaving Loot Inc. Had a very successful start of WoTLK raiding up to Yogg in Ulduar before the guild imploded in a gnome inspired hate campaign.

Cartel (Stormreaver) – this was my main guild (25man raiding) during WOTLK in which I was an officer and in charge of the healers during raids. This was where I first met Pylori after ‘liberating’ him from a different guild during heroic ICC 10mans and have been healing with him (and listening to his singing) on and off ever since. Unfortunately our guild master quit wow at the end of WOTLK and the remaining officers didn’t have the additional time to commit to running the guild into Cata.

Delirium Tremens (Stormreaver/Defias Brotherhood) –10man guild, run by Py and his RL friends. We had a strong start to cata before an officer incident led to a raid break. This was probably my least favorite expansion and coupled with RL commitments led to me taking a break from wow rather than finding a new guild until MoP. Raiding started again with the release of MoP but I took the opportunity for another break from wow when the guild decided to transfer to horde side.

The Raven Council – Most of my old wow friends ended on up Defias Brotherhood which convinced me to level a new druid on this server when I returned at the end of MoP. Py told me this was the place to be so I originally joined as a social member while I got back into the swing of all things wow. I enjoy the atmosphere and attitude of the guild and the opportunity to raid at a high standard and with some great people.


Raid availability
Under normal circumstances I can make all of the raid days/times. Only foreseeable missed days would be due to holidays, apocalyptic events etc

References
Py originally told me about you and I know Lomil from my time on Stormreaver. I assume a few other people should know me by now

About you
Well i’m already in the guild so theres not much left to introduce. Uuum... I met Roufûs while playing wow when he joined my guild in TBC and we’ve been together ever since <3
I like cats?!...and rats

[Pylori]

Vouch Vouch

[Jimmble]

App forwarded to the longlegs.

[Bowick]

Hi Riarn!

You might have noticed there are a surprising number of Resto Druids coming forward looking for raid spots in RG1 (4 atm), and there are limited spots for em (max 2 preferably!) so competition will be tight, just so you know. But you'll certainly have a chance to prove yourself.

One question for you:
- Since it's not visible in your screenshot, can you tell me if you use any addon to alert you of important procs/cooldowns (like Weak Auras/Tell me When/Need to Know)?

Cheers!

[Riarn]

Hiya,

I assumed that might be the case with the number of droodles i've seen knocking around

In answer to your question, I dont use any specific additional addons for aura's and procs etc for playing my resto druid. I've been playing my main as resto since TBC so keeping aware of what cd's/auras etc comes fairly natrally.
Just standard indicators from the blizz UI and my raid frames. I'd rather keep my UI simple than get an addon to tell me something i already know

thanks

[Bowick]

Hmm.. a feeble excuse, in my humble opinion. >)

There are always possibilities to improve your play, and - knowledge is power. These addons give you the option of knowledge you Do not already have. Of course you don't need weak auras that.. you don't need. You make them do whatever you like, or as little as you like. But I don't believe that there isn't at least one or two icons or timers that could help improve your game. :3

Here's an example! T16 2 set bonus..
"Rejuvenation ticks have a 12% chance to grant Sage Mender, reducing the mana cost and cast time of your next Healing Touch by 20%, stacking up to 5 times."

Are you saying that you were always completely aware of how many Sage Mender stacks you had? And therefore were able to use it most efficiently? The difference between 4 and 5 stacks is of course huge - Being aware that you can run and cast an instant Giant heal is important. If you didn't know it was instant, then you wouldn't even try to hit the button while moving out of some poop, and instead use a less effective instant heal.. When potentially someone's life could have been saved. I made use of it a Lot when solo healing Dark Shamans top section, for example.

An outdated example for level 100 yes, but still a good example - because it's a set bonus. There will be new set bonuses with procs that should ideally be tracked, because they affect your gameplay and you won't have the excuse that you've used it for years and know how to use it blind.

And yes, you could just keep looking up at the tiny things in the very top right of your screen.. But really? That's a lot of time with your eyes away from the game field and the raid frames, that a healer can't afford in the moments when everything counts. IMO. :>

Thoughts?

[enna]

As a fellow healer I have to admit I have a similar play style with Bowick. I like seeing buffs that I find important as soon as possible and as obvious as possible (trinket procs, set bonus procs, etc.) and I have about 4-6 weak auras active at the moment. I also like to keep track of my Harmony to make sure it doesn't drop off, especially during periods of high movement when I tend to just put hots on people.

However, I don't think this is an indication of how well a person plays their class and I'm sure there are very valuable players who have a completely different style than mine. So in my opinion it's the fight themselves that will tell the truth.

[Bowick]

Aye, people play best in different ways. But I've seen so many "no auras" converts to know that even one or two specific, tailored auras will improve someone who thought they were already playing at their complete potential (which is always silly!)

[Bowick]

Other examples (mostly outdated, but just to show how useful they can be!):
- A weak aura could tell you how "charged" your wild mushroom was, with a little bar filling up, and flashing when it was capped. With this you'd know whether your bloom would be big or small, and when it's "ready" for full efficiency. Only other way to get this information would be to target your mushroom (good luck!) and read the tooltip on the buff....

- A weak aura to tell a healer when their 4 seconds of free heals buff is up from meta gem proc. Dunno about you, but I was able to squeeze 4 individual abilities into this window, because I knew about it the Exact second the thing procced (and I had a 1s GCD)..

- Reminding you Symbiosis wasn't up (since it would so easily fall off without you knowing, eg your target swapping a talent)

- Showing the short window of Soul of the Forest, so you know exactly how long you can hold onto that buff for, waiting for the best opportunity to use it without letting it fall off.

Haven't Resto Druided this expansion, so no really relevant examples sorry. xD Enna's one is good, though. And of course the buffs that come from WoD items, that will be new to you and not instinctive yet.

[Alikh]

In the end, if a healer is skilled at keeping everyone alive and isn't slacking compared to the other healers, it doesn't matter ofcourse if they use weakauras or not, but if someone is not healing enough it'll just lower their chances of being picked for the raids. It's then their own personal responsibility to find ways to improve, be it with weakauras or other addons, in order to be picked again. The same goes for addons like gtfo.

Ofcourse, often we need every little bit of dps/hps we can get on progression bosses, so in that case, even if someone is performing just as well as others with addons, it's no excuse to not perform better by getting addons and nudging us over the threshold with which we do kill the boss. Like e.g. dps saying they don't need to flask up because they are 'doing top dps anyway'.

[Bowick]

I generally expect everyone in RG1 to perform as well as they possibly can, while not having the mindset of "I'm already perfect, no point me trying new things".

Often the difference isn't enough for someone on the outside to point out "that person is bad". They might be a good healer, sure.. but they might actually have the potential to be a really amazing healer.
And if we can have amazing healers, of course I'll try to encourage things that I believe could help that. For example, Lleonar got my stack of Druid weak auras and made it work for him, with huge improvements to his play. :3

Often the difference between having auras and not having auras is not to overall HPS, but CAN mean the difference between a healer being able to save a life or not (which itself doesn't often increase HPS), through being completely and utterly aware of what spells and tools they have at their disposal each second. And less deaths = more success for the raid group, of course.


So all I'm wondering with Riarn, is whether or not you've properly tried using weak auras (/tell me when/whatever), and decided for yourself, "I play better without"? Would you disagree that my above examples would improve somebody's play? Or if it's just that it doesn't seem like something you Need? (ofc, it's not needed in order to do healing)
Disagreeing with anything I've said is fine, I'm aiming for some discussion (with Riarn, shoo!).

[Riarn]

Firstly, I just want to clear up that in no way do I believe I've reached the peak of my potential, or that I think theres no way i can improve my play. I think perhaps i couldve cleared this up by being a little more forthcoming in my initial post, so thats my bad

People do definately play in very different ways and theres no wrong or right way to it at the end of the day, a lot is down to preference and i personally dont believe that you cant improve or perform optimally without the use of an addon. Although I dont have additional addon's I think people may underestimate that the Blizz UI has improved considerably over the course of the game. To take your T16 2set bonus for example: (please bear in mind that i only played a relatively short time with this set bonus after returning at the end of MoP) But a full Sage Mender Stack puts a bright highlight around HT, so its quite easily viewable when its ready for an instant cast.

With regard to keeping up something like Harmony, I personnally find this fairly straightforward as its 20sec duration is refreshed by any direct heal, including swiftmend. you may disregard the bliz buffs, but you dont really need to be directly staring at the corner of your screen in order to 'see' the buffs to know which ones your missing.

with Sotf, i dnt necessarily see 15secs as a short duration. By this i mean I choose when to use swiftmend and therefore active Sotf, so i can plan my moves around this. Its incredibly situational of course and has a lot of options, for example: If a player is taking heavy dmg i can swiftmend knowing that i'll be following it up staight away with a quick HT.

Ofc i'm not saying that I wont used them in the future or write them off without trying them. There are always changes that take some getting use to. After all, as already mentioned, there are a lot of druids knocking about so really its in my interest to do as well as possible.