My few cents as a druid who first set foot in a raid instance (Onyxia's Lair) one year ago this day...
Mods:
CT_RaidAssist is almost a must-have. You can get by with the built-in raid interface (or even without any at all), but CTRA offers a much tidier presentation. Being able to see everybody's health/mana/buff/debuff status is an extremely useful thing to have. I'd recommend getting having the groups sorted by class, so if someone calls out their name, you can find them easily, wheras people get shuffled among different groups. Bind a key to toggle it back and forth with group sorting so you can easily select groups for buffing GotW, or if you're assigned to watching certain groups.
Set it up to show MotW for all players so you know when people need to be rebuffed (eg. following a resurrect, or if it's been 30 mins since a guy was resurrected and everyone else's GotW is still fine but they need a new MotW). I personally have mine set to show MotW, Fort, AI, and PW:S, so I can monitor the raid's 3 main buffs, and keep track of the 'Oh crap, someone's in trouble' shields. I'd also recommend setting it up to show curses/poisons in the background colour for each player, so you can see the curable debuff status for the raid.
Decursive/CTRA built-in equivalent: Not a must-have, but a time-saver. I'm of somewhat mixed feelings on this one, since I've played both with and without it. It allows for laziness, as you can just hit one button and cleanse everyone, but keep in mind there are situations where you will want to make the decision as to who to cure, so I would not recommend getting too dependent on it. You can set them to use some crude logic/priorities (eg. decurse mana-using classes first, or decurse the MT first), but sometimes it's just better to do it yourself. I'd recommend learning to do the job without it at the least.
Jobs in the raid:
Healing... depends on your assignment. Typically I'm on a tank, keeping rejuv ticking away to smooth the damage, and maybe/maybe not using HT depending on priest coverage. If not on a tank, watch your party and the rest of the raid in general (or assigned groups if that's the way the raid is organized). Other healers tend to be better at spot healing though, due to their short-cast heals. Toss a rejuv to keep them up, save the regrowths for emergencies, as they are mana-expensive.
I typically do keep multiple ranks of heals around. The largest rank of HT (*STILL* haven't gotten Rank 11 to drop in AQ20 yet, grr) ends up unused a lot of the time except for emergencies. As you get more +healing gear (and +heal is definitely something to focus on IMHO), you end up with more mana-efficient heals once you can start shifting to using lower ranks. As I mentioned, I'm usually on a tank, whose rate of damage is typically fairly consistent, so I try to gauge which I need to cast... also depends on priest/other healer coverage of course. Sometimes it's the good ol' cast-the-big-heal-and-cancel-at-the-last-moment-if-they-don't-need-it method (no more autocancelling by mana conserve mods). If I'm the sole healer on a tank (doesn't happen often, but sometimes is required if other healers go down or end up being shifted to other targets), keep rejuv ticking, put regrowth HoT on there if needed (time it so that the direct heal part doesn't get wasted), and then chain cast the appropriate rank of HT to keep them near top... don't overheal as that'll waste both your HT as well as any HoT's that may be ticking. This'll run your mana down soon especially if you end up having to spam a few regrowths, but sometimes if you're the only one... *shrug*.
Innervates... I don't have this anymore *evilgrin*. I will agree that it is quite handy to have, especially when first learning an instance as well as when people are not as well geared. As you progress though, the need for it starts diminishing. Priests, especially those with a spirit-focused build, will benefit the most from it. And if I get to an instance early and a mage is conjuring water, yes I will innervate them :P .
Rebirth... who to resurrect will depend a lot on the situation. Back in the days when people wouldn't get pulled into combat right away, often the strategy was to resurrect another priest/paladin and have them resurrect as many other people as they could before they got pulled into combat... obviously that doesn't work anymore. Sometimes it'll be a tank. Sometimes it'll be your high DPS'ers. Hunters as mentioned early for Tranq shot. Sometimes it'll be a healer. Sometimes it'll be a big long res chain of druids if we all get unlucky and die :)
Going bear form... not a really common thing. Have had to do it on occasion to take over one of Garr's adds or Lava Reavers until a warrior could get over. There's the odd story out there of the druid who's tanked Onyxia/etc. due to the MT dying and them being next on the agro list from healing. Your armour in healing gear won't be nearly as high as in dedicated tanking gear (if you've collected such). Keep a high armour weapon (Warden Staff or Unyielding Maul) to swap into place. On occasion I've been a main tank or offtank if we're short a warrior, and I do carry around a set of gear for such situations (Go for high AC, +sta, and a good mix of +str/+agil since crit mauls are a great agro holder. +Defense as you are able to obtain, but don't sacrifice the other stats for it). One exception I can think of is the Battleguard Sartura fight in AQ40, where two of the adds are each handled by a hunter, warrior, and druid with feral charge. Distracting shot/intercept/charge/taunts/bash/etc. to try to keep it out of the way of the rest of the raid. I'll be in healing gear for the most part, but with more AC rings/trinkets/etc. thrown in.
Cat form? Well, if you're on trash mobs and the healing is excessive, you might as well contribute some DPS, as long as your raid lets you. I have to admit for the Nefarian fight I throw on a bit of hybrid gear (I drop to about 7000 mana buffed, +350ish to heal, get to about 1000AP in cat [no battleshout, boo], 20% crit... yes I'm feral specced these days. Granted that's a lot of good gear in there as well...) and I'm allowed to go claw on the Drakonids with the rogues at the start, then pop out to heal when required. I'm not contributing a huge amount of damage (1/2 at best of our top insanely geared combat rogue, but only because I can position myself behind the mob to continually use shred), but it means drakonids die faster, and we don't get swarmed as quickly, and I still have a good healing base. Plus when the druid calls and I get to scratch Nefarians' back...
Going cat + cower (if you have furor for the immediate energy) is sometimes useful if you gain agro, but a lot of the mobs in the raid instances hit hard enough to squish you in 2 shots, so you may not live to lose the extra agro. Still, useful in some situations, like the Razorgore encounter. Often though with a loose mob, you have a better chance of surviving by going bear until a tank can pull the mob off.
Mods:
CT_RaidAssist is almost a must-have. You can get by with the built-in raid interface (or even without any at all), but CTRA offers a much tidier presentation. Being able to see everybody's health/mana/buff/debuff status is an extremely useful thing to have. I'd recommend getting having the groups sorted by class, so if someone calls out their name, you can find them easily, wheras people get shuffled among different groups. Bind a key to toggle it back and forth with group sorting so you can easily select groups for buffing GotW, or if you're assigned to watching certain groups.
Set it up to show MotW for all players so you know when people need to be rebuffed (eg. following a resurrect, or if it's been 30 mins since a guy was resurrected and everyone else's GotW is still fine but they need a new MotW). I personally have mine set to show MotW, Fort, AI, and PW:S, so I can monitor the raid's 3 main buffs, and keep track of the 'Oh crap, someone's in trouble' shields. I'd also recommend setting it up to show curses/poisons in the background colour for each player, so you can see the curable debuff status for the raid.
Decursive/CTRA built-in equivalent: Not a must-have, but a time-saver. I'm of somewhat mixed feelings on this one, since I've played both with and without it. It allows for laziness, as you can just hit one button and cleanse everyone, but keep in mind there are situations where you will want to make the decision as to who to cure, so I would not recommend getting too dependent on it. You can set them to use some crude logic/priorities (eg. decurse mana-using classes first, or decurse the MT first), but sometimes it's just better to do it yourself. I'd recommend learning to do the job without it at the least.
Jobs in the raid:
Healing... depends on your assignment. Typically I'm on a tank, keeping rejuv ticking away to smooth the damage, and maybe/maybe not using HT depending on priest coverage. If not on a tank, watch your party and the rest of the raid in general (or assigned groups if that's the way the raid is organized). Other healers tend to be better at spot healing though, due to their short-cast heals. Toss a rejuv to keep them up, save the regrowths for emergencies, as they are mana-expensive.
I typically do keep multiple ranks of heals around. The largest rank of HT (*STILL* haven't gotten Rank 11 to drop in AQ20 yet, grr) ends up unused a lot of the time except for emergencies. As you get more +healing gear (and +heal is definitely something to focus on IMHO), you end up with more mana-efficient heals once you can start shifting to using lower ranks. As I mentioned, I'm usually on a tank, whose rate of damage is typically fairly consistent, so I try to gauge which I need to cast... also depends on priest/other healer coverage of course. Sometimes it's the good ol' cast-the-big-heal-and-cancel-at-the-last-moment-if-they-don't-need-it method (no more autocancelling by mana conserve mods). If I'm the sole healer on a tank (doesn't happen often, but sometimes is required if other healers go down or end up being shifted to other targets), keep rejuv ticking, put regrowth HoT on there if needed (time it so that the direct heal part doesn't get wasted), and then chain cast the appropriate rank of HT to keep them near top... don't overheal as that'll waste both your HT as well as any HoT's that may be ticking. This'll run your mana down soon especially if you end up having to spam a few regrowths, but sometimes if you're the only one... *shrug*.
Innervates... I don't have this anymore *evilgrin*. I will agree that it is quite handy to have, especially when first learning an instance as well as when people are not as well geared. As you progress though, the need for it starts diminishing. Priests, especially those with a spirit-focused build, will benefit the most from it. And if I get to an instance early and a mage is conjuring water, yes I will innervate them :P .
Rebirth... who to resurrect will depend a lot on the situation. Back in the days when people wouldn't get pulled into combat right away, often the strategy was to resurrect another priest/paladin and have them resurrect as many other people as they could before they got pulled into combat... obviously that doesn't work anymore. Sometimes it'll be a tank. Sometimes it'll be your high DPS'ers. Hunters as mentioned early for Tranq shot. Sometimes it'll be a healer. Sometimes it'll be a big long res chain of druids if we all get unlucky and die :)
Going bear form... not a really common thing. Have had to do it on occasion to take over one of Garr's adds or Lava Reavers until a warrior could get over. There's the odd story out there of the druid who's tanked Onyxia/etc. due to the MT dying and them being next on the agro list from healing. Your armour in healing gear won't be nearly as high as in dedicated tanking gear (if you've collected such). Keep a high armour weapon (Warden Staff or Unyielding Maul) to swap into place. On occasion I've been a main tank or offtank if we're short a warrior, and I do carry around a set of gear for such situations (Go for high AC, +sta, and a good mix of +str/+agil since crit mauls are a great agro holder. +Defense as you are able to obtain, but don't sacrifice the other stats for it). One exception I can think of is the Battleguard Sartura fight in AQ40, where two of the adds are each handled by a hunter, warrior, and druid with feral charge. Distracting shot/intercept/charge/taunts/bash/etc. to try to keep it out of the way of the rest of the raid. I'll be in healing gear for the most part, but with more AC rings/trinkets/etc. thrown in.
Cat form? Well, if you're on trash mobs and the healing is excessive, you might as well contribute some DPS, as long as your raid lets you. I have to admit for the Nefarian fight I throw on a bit of hybrid gear (I drop to about 7000 mana buffed, +350ish to heal, get to about 1000AP in cat [no battleshout, boo], 20% crit... yes I'm feral specced these days. Granted that's a lot of good gear in there as well...) and I'm allowed to go claw on the Drakonids with the rogues at the start, then pop out to heal when required. I'm not contributing a huge amount of damage (1/2 at best of our top insanely geared combat rogue, but only because I can position myself behind the mob to continually use shred), but it means drakonids die faster, and we don't get swarmed as quickly, and I still have a good healing base. Plus when the druid calls and I get to scratch Nefarians' back...
Going cat + cower (if you have furor for the immediate energy) is sometimes useful if you gain agro, but a lot of the mobs in the raid instances hit hard enough to squish you in 2 shots, so you may not live to lose the extra agro. Still, useful in some situations, like the Razorgore encounter. Often though with a loose mob, you have a better chance of surviving by going bear until a tank can pull the mob off.
Onyxia:
Kichebo - 85 NE Druid
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
Kichebo - 85 NE Druid
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.