[Restoration] Tier 17 Tips and Tricks

[Kazistrasz 216]

This thread is for Restoration druid tips, tricks, and discussions in how to best handle the various boss fights throughout Tier 17 including Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry. Feel free to contribute or discuss anything encounter-specific you find from exceptional talent choices to ways to take advantage of class mechanics. 
 
Highmaul
-->Kargath Bladefist
-->The Butcher
-->Tectus
-->Brackenspore
-->Ko'ragh
-->Twin Ogron
-->Imperator Mar'gok
 
Blackrock Foundry
-->Gruul the Subjugated
-->Oregorger
-->Blast Furnace
-->Hans'gar and Franzok
-->Flamebender Ka'graz
-->Kromog
-->Beastlord Darmac
-->Operator Thogar
-->Iron Maidens
-->Blackhand
 
 
General Healing
 
Any talent you pick (except Force of Nature and Moment of Clarity) is a viable option for the raid. The trick is to figuring out which boss what talents work better on. Have multiple spots of raid damage where you need some extra raid healing? Nature's Vigil and Tree of Life are excellent choices. Not a lot of damage outside of specific specific phases that are very long apart? Dream of Cenarius and SotF/ToL work wonders as well.
 
Early in the expansion, damage matters. Your wraths are basically free. Don't use rejuvs when you don't need to and waste mana. Spam wrath, even if you don't have DoC as a filler.
 
Highmaul
 
Kargath Bladefist
Tips by Archieie

 

 
The Butcher
 Tips by Archieie
 
Tectus
 Tips by Archieie
 
Brackenspore
 Tips by Archieie
 
Ko'ragh
 Tips by Archieie
 
Twin Ogron
 Tips by Archieie
 
Imperator Mar'gok
 Tips by Archieie
 
Blackrock Foundry
 
Gruul the Subjugated
 
 
Oregorger
 
 
Blast Furnace
 
 
Hans'gar and Franzok
 
 
Flamebender Ka'graz
 
 
Kromog
 
 
Beastlord Darmac
 
 
Operator Thogar
 
 
Iron Maidens
 
 
Blackhand

[Archieie 0]

DoC = Dream of Cenarius, NV = Nature's Vigil, HotW = Hearth of the Wild, SotF = Soul of the Forest, Tree = Incarnation(SotF and Incarnation are both viable for all encounters. The basic idea is Incarnation is an extra raid cd that saves you a bit of mana and SotF is better on demand spike healing for a bit more mana),  FoN = Force of Nature (heals for far less than the tooltip suggests).

General tip. No matter what talent you go with, whenever you're not healing, spam wrath. Every little bit of dps helps during such early stages of expansions.

 

Kargath > DoC for both normal and hc, spam wrath all fight long while keeping hots on tank and wild growth.

SotF would probably be best choice so you can snipe heal the Iron Bombs damage better, otherwise healing requirement is not that high. Tranq if enough people get the Iron Bombs debuff. Going up is not needed if you have a dk tank. I'm not sure if other tanks can go without healer tho. Displacer Beast for easier kiting.

 

Butcher(H) > HotW if you're reaching enrage, the other healers can probably manage without you for the first 30-40s, set up a hymn or some other raid cd around the first group switch so you can keep dps-ing. Put yourself in one of the melee groups for that extra bit of cat dps during HotW. If you have the dps, DoC vs NV is personal choice imho. DoC's obviously better for your mana, but NV will help you get that extra % in your ranking .

 

Brackenspore(H) > SotF for that extra burst for every shroom, HotW/DoC for that extra dps. There are many windows where you don't have to heal a lot so use it to help the dps. It's a hard boss if you mess up the moss(kek). Tranq if your raid messes up the spore shooters or the green mushroom dies while you still have Infesting Spores.

 

Tectus(H) > Hardest boss from the first 5. Stack all ranged for as long as you can. Have pre-set raid cooldowns for each Tectonic Upheaval. Again both DoC and NV are useful and the choice comes down to how much your raid can avoid the avoidable damage and how your mana is. If your raid takes constant ticks of Crystalline Barrage or your tanks melt like crazy you won't have enough wrath time to make it work. If you go NV, use it for every Upheaval you can.

 

Twin Ogron(H) > Pure execution fight. No visible enrage, all you need is for half of your healers & dps, and both tanks to just not go over 2 stacks on fire, spread for the first Pulverize, and not stand in the third Pulverize (and obv stack for Enfeebling). Incarnation + NV seem to be the go to talents there. NV every Quake(they seem to happen every 90-ish sec) and tree when needed.

 

Ko'ragh(H) > DoC does not work here! NV seems to be the go to talent. Tranq(or other big raid cds) for the 30s window with arcane debuff with frost orb and fire debuff. Seems fairly easy fight, just execute properly.

 

Imperator Mar'gok(H) > Brilliant fight. Most fun fight to heal since Chimaeron. DoC is king here, at least for the scrubs like me. DoC, NV and HotW all seem viable. DoC would be best in case you go oom with 0 traps triggered and raid stacked most of the time while focusing abbarations. HotW would be best if you die to enrage or lack the dps to clear the adds in p3 in time. NV seems best for when you're losing people to lack of raw healing output and you're ok on mana(Note DoC does more healing than NV, but it requires a lot of time which you could, if you had the mana, spend casting rejuvs and wild growths).

Incarnation beats SotF here, as mana will be huge issue. It's a long fight with lots of aoe dmg. Exploding traps in phases 2, 3 and 4 will usually lead to wipe. Set up all possible raid cds to be used almost on cooldown based on your dps. For example 3min cd the add in p1, 3min cd the nova in p1, 3min cd the first add in p2, 3min cd the first nova in p2, 2min cd the second add and nova in p2, 2min cd the third add and nova in p2 and you'll have your first 3-4 3min cds back in time for transition.

 

A side note the shadow priest cooldown is extremely good. Think of it as tranq-lite.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Archieie

[Shedim 13]

Good stuff. I personally prefer HotW over DoC for Imperator Heroic. On pull there will be nothing to heal which means you can beat those silly dps on the meters. By the time you reach intermission 2 it will be off cooldown again, giving you some extra dps where it is really needed. If you time it well, you will still have a few seconds left on HotW for when you finish off the exploding adds, giving you 35% increased healing on your tranq or whatever cooldown you blow for that. 

Edited December 8, 2014 by Shedim

[Archieie 0]

Edited some stuff, updated some stuff. DoC seems so underwhelming now that I have mana to spare. I haven't tried HotW, but I see your point. It's a scary concept for me tho, as my guild has a lot of people randomly aoe-ing the exploding adds in transitions all the time, so going cat form is not an option for me.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Archieie

[Krazyito 516]

In the future, if you add more information just make a new post with it so I can link to the relevant stuff. Thanks!

 

Once I start getting into Mythic and I have a better understanding of the fights / mechanics I'll update with my own things.

[Acalanto 0]

I will list below all my roles in these current tier fights as Resto Druid and what I am thinking about it, concerns and problems.

 

My current healer team is:

 Pally

 Druid

 Priest

 Pally (if needed 4 heals)

 

I will set aside of the boss name how many healers we used, e.g: (3h) or (4h),  

 

Kargarth Bladefist - Heroic - (4h): usually worrying about every single piece of player, but found myself not very useful some times. I was doing stands everytime. I had NV and ToL as talents for this encounter, and I try to keep NV off cooldown so I can use it in an emergency, probably not the best choice. Usually using ToL at second time in those stands and tranquility at the end of the fight, after get up and jump down from those stands to keep raid alive during burst phase. 

 

Logs: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/YvDTnbfQcKy8R79V#fight=9

 

Butcher - Normal - (3h): usually being at range group, getting oom before enrage time, had to pot to regain mana. Used NV and ToL as well, but not as many times as I needed or think I needed. I need to setup a weakauras or something to know faster when my cooldowns are up, but even so.. I could rank myself at 464 in this fight. I am the Druid, named Mihrun at these logs. I really need to use swiftmend more often, I am not leaving it at cooldown, but I really think that it is more useful when I am using SotF together with my wild growth. I tried to use SotF + DoC and be inserted at meele group at this Heroic version, but it wasnt OK, I spent too much time renewing rejuvenation, lifebloom, wildgrowth and saving people from certain deaths which didnt gave me enough time to spent casting wrath. Maybe after some kills it will be better to heal with DoC + SotF, but right now, it wasnt very good for me. 

 

Logs: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/hrWytG7bPDB3kCzA#fight=9

 

Tectus - Normal - (3h): Used NV and ToL as well. Didnt found too much troubles at this fight, but I need to analyse my rotation and use better my own cooldowns to affect better my HPS. Assign a big raid healing cooldowns during upheaval was SUPER important and helped was to kill this stone guy. 

 

Logs: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/hrWytG7bPDB3kCzA

 

Brackenspore - Normal - (3h): I was in charge of heal the raid, we had one pally in charge of tanks and a priest which should handle mushrooms by himself. It was a OK fight, but I was also assigned to top blue mushrooms if they are up. Using ToL and spamming regrowth on it was a good choice to top them fast. Mana is never a problem during this encounter, everytime when blue mushrooms are toped, you can recharge your mana. So, I was always using strong heals on this particular fight and I hadnt any kind of mana issues, but I felt bad about my "performance" on it. 

 

Logs: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/axQFtvJb1MD6AkYN#fight=4

 

Twin Ogron - Normal - (3H): we got this kill at second attempt, so I was a lot MESSY. I had to move too much and we hadnt assigned any healers a particular job. Everyone was in charge of healing all the raid. I used my "default" build, ToL and NV. We had a couple problems of people dying because of silly moves and raid wide damage. 

 

Logs: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/axQFtvJb1MD6AkYN

 

We already killed Ko'ragth, but I wasn't there. So I can say anything about that try, we tried Imperator Mar'gok a couple times, but we didnt got him down yet. 

 

Any tips about these encounters? I am frustrated with this OP two beacons talents of Pallys :P All of our first kills are recorded and posted here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbC2xWQ0pBPyi19Jn-tD7Aw

 

Regards,

 

Aca/Mihrun

[Smejusak 0]

Hello guys,

So do you have some tips for talents for the BRF ? 

I tried on normal a few combinations.

 

I was trying something like this for first three bosses.

 

Gruul :

Soul of the forest + NV I think this was the best for me. Tried Incarnation with NV too but it looks like a lot of bosses in BRF do a lot of AoE damge.  So I think Soul of the forest buff to WG is better.

 

Oregorger:

Soul of the forest +NV too.  As there is a lot of movement and again a lot of aoe damage. 

 

Blast Furnace : 

I tried a lot of different combinations.  We divided our 30 ppl group to two small groups of 15 ppl.   I was healing my group with 1 disc and 1 holy priest.  I must say I had nothing t do as disc was spamming shields like crazy.  So I tried a lot of different combinations as we were wiping on this boss a lot.  And it was a really long fight so mana management is priority I think.

 

I tried Incarnation + DoC as I had a lot of free time bcs of this Disc priest.  So I was doing some dmg to the adds.  

Tried Soul of the forest + DoC as again that BLAST is doing a lot of AoE dmg.  I think this was the best setup for me.

Tried Force of Nature +DoC but  forgot that FoN will be buffed in 6.1 so it was not so good. 

Tried Incarnation with NV which was quite nice but for me Soul of the Forest + DoC was the best choice.

 

I do not know if it is only me but it looks like those first 3 bosses are doing mainly AoE dmg.  

 

Today we are trying to do the rest of the bosses on normal so I will see my next talent setups.

[Chanest 0]

All HC:

 

Gruul:

Watch the timer for inferno slice, so you prehot the group and time your WG it hits right 0,X sec after the impact to minimize overhealing

Obivously but try to make a healCD rotation with other healers so you use tranq more often 

I tryed to genesis people up after the slice sometimes if they are to low.

I dont think that dream of cenarius is a good here, the dmg on the group from the slice starts at like 10th sec and in the overheadsmashphase i struggle to cast more then 1-3 wraths because of movement.

Soul of the forest + NV if you have mana   or   incarnation + prehot the slice if not I would say

 

Oregorger:

Iron Bark on CD, communicate with the tanks about it. They could call it at the end of the first phase.

I saved tranq for the end of the rollphases  to get the group up, maybe you can heal a acid torrent and some randomedmg in the first phase and have it up to the end of the roll, didn't tryed...

Stampeding roar save the day for your guildies who just dont care which way he moves or at the beginn/end of his rollphase.

 

Beastlord:

Dream of Cenarius if other healers are good, I dmged for the whole first phase and really started to heal at Ironcrusher. Try to make a list of healing CDs for his AEdmg.

Stampeding for dragonbreath and pull.

 

Hans:

* Tankhealing and Iron Bark, I used tree (incarnation) in the movementphases. Realy boring fight in my opinion, just tankhealing. Try fox+tranq to bring the group up in movementphases.

Dont know if rampant growth is a thing in this fight to heal the tanks, I think other classes can do it better atm.