10-02-2005, 07:06 AM
This is a nice intro!
Brief notes for druids: most often we will be pigeonholed for healing in the end-game raids. Yes, it's boring. You'll be mostly playing 'health bar whack-a-mole' - something starts going yellow, hit it with a regrowth until it's green again. Or you'll be spamming Decursive to get rid of curses on the raid. Gearing for this is int and +healing, and enough stamina so you won't fall over easily.
There are some exceptions. If we're short on warriors, you might find yourself being asked to play a bear tank. You should be prepared with a 'bear set of gear' which has high armor and good strength. (with good damage comes good aggro) You should also understand the basics of tanking with a bear.
Bear-tanking: this is actually pretty easy. Whack them with your auto-attack and maul. If you have feral charge (a great 11-point feral talent) then use that to close with the enemy quickly and immobilize/counterspell them. Save growl for when you've lost aggro and you need to get it back, or you think you're going to lose aggro very soon. The 10-second timer is irksome but not horrible. Save challenging roar for the real emergencies. 10 minutes is too long for anything less.
However, practice makes perfect!
Back to healing: druids don't have great mana pools or regen compared to priests. You should work on your healing gear so you'll be okay, not weak on mana. Good sets include the Wildheart set and many +healing/int/sta leather items from Dire Maul. The Soothsayer Headdress from Celebras in Maraudon is also a very good leather headpiece.
Conserve mana by not spamming regrowth if you've already hit someone with regrowth in the last few seconds. Regrowth's heal-over-time lasts about 20 seconds, rejuvenation lasts 10 seconds. In between, use lesser ranks of Healing Touch.
You can draw aggro by healing. Wait to heal until you're sure the tanks have aggro. Don't start immediately healing with a 'heal over time' (HoT) spell. In the worst case, this means that as soon as the tank's taken even a few points of damage and your heal runs, the mobs that were initially aggro'd will beelien for you instead. If you wait a little while, the tanks will have pulled and tanked their separate mobs and you won't have any problems.
Druids don't have a 'fade' ability to reduce aggro temporarily like priests. We can shift to cat and cower, but it's probably easier and more survivable, if you have aggro from something, to shift to bear-form instead and wait for a tank to regain aggro. You can use frenzied regeneration and enrage to get back some life this way too.
Brief notes for druids: most often we will be pigeonholed for healing in the end-game raids. Yes, it's boring. You'll be mostly playing 'health bar whack-a-mole' - something starts going yellow, hit it with a regrowth until it's green again. Or you'll be spamming Decursive to get rid of curses on the raid. Gearing for this is int and +healing, and enough stamina so you won't fall over easily.
There are some exceptions. If we're short on warriors, you might find yourself being asked to play a bear tank. You should be prepared with a 'bear set of gear' which has high armor and good strength. (with good damage comes good aggro) You should also understand the basics of tanking with a bear.
Bear-tanking: this is actually pretty easy. Whack them with your auto-attack and maul. If you have feral charge (a great 11-point feral talent) then use that to close with the enemy quickly and immobilize/counterspell them. Save growl for when you've lost aggro and you need to get it back, or you think you're going to lose aggro very soon. The 10-second timer is irksome but not horrible. Save challenging roar for the real emergencies. 10 minutes is too long for anything less.
However, practice makes perfect!
Back to healing: druids don't have great mana pools or regen compared to priests. You should work on your healing gear so you'll be okay, not weak on mana. Good sets include the Wildheart set and many +healing/int/sta leather items from Dire Maul. The Soothsayer Headdress from Celebras in Maraudon is also a very good leather headpiece.
Conserve mana by not spamming regrowth if you've already hit someone with regrowth in the last few seconds. Regrowth's heal-over-time lasts about 20 seconds, rejuvenation lasts 10 seconds. In between, use lesser ranks of Healing Touch.
You can draw aggro by healing. Wait to heal until you're sure the tanks have aggro. Don't start immediately healing with a 'heal over time' (HoT) spell. In the worst case, this means that as soon as the tank's taken even a few points of damage and your heal runs, the mobs that were initially aggro'd will beelien for you instead. If you wait a little while, the tanks will have pulled and tanked their separate mobs and you won't have any problems.
Druids don't have a 'fade' ability to reduce aggro temporarily like priests. We can shift to cat and cower, but it's probably easier and more survivable, if you have aggro from something, to shift to bear-form instead and wait for a tank to regain aggro. You can use frenzied regeneration and enrage to get back some life this way too.