I wrote a while a go that your healers should be dpsing too and I would rather a bored healer dps then do stuff like pull for the tank, or *get distracted and not be quick enough to heal when the tank actually needs it.
* raises hand – Guilty your honor I was in cat form when the tank died.
I regularly try to slot some Dps in on my two priests when I am healing, but I’ve not gotten to try the smite dps/healing style of a disc priest in a 25 raid. I went Disc this week on my 2nd priest for our LK 10 kill and achievement , and the earlier weeks H LK attempt, and was too busy bubbling and penancing to have time to Smite to build up my stacks to get my pretty wings. (bad enough I forget I have barrier and Power Infusion)
So as for Dpsing as a Resto druid, I have been leveling mostly through dungeons, holiday quests, cloth hand ins, and the rare bg ( 30-40 bracket getting one shot by rogues. NOT FUN) and she has a few things she can do to help an encounter along damage wise, she will moonfire every now and then, cast inspect swarm but considering I am getting tanks screaming ” BIG PULL LOL” and running off in the distance. I don’t always have mana to spare.
There are two non healing spells I am trying to use as often as possible though.
Faerie fire
“Decreases the armor of the target by 4% for 5 min. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible. Stacks up to 3 times”
Thorns
thorns sprout from the friendly target causing * nature damage over 20 seconds.
I try to get the three stacks of Faerie fire up on the Boss Target because it all helps right? a 12% armour reduction is nothing to sneeze at especially if there are no Rogues or Warriors – or they aren’t putting up their own armor reductions – though things die so fast I don’t really need it.
The biggest offensive ability I am using – for which I do not get credit for which I think sucks, is Thorns. I am using Thorns on the tank when there is a need for Aoe. This has been awesome in keeping threat off me, and thorns does well for damage done when fighting groups of mobs. Things die quicker, I don’t get hit as often, I help the tank do better dps, I posted a recount for damage by ability of the tank in a Sunken Temple run, and thorns was # 2. I like not getting hit by dragons, and those trash packs can be interesting.
With content as is now – pre cata – there certainly is opportunity for more healers to throw out some damage as well, but like overzealous, mob pulling dps – it could teach us some bad habits. You heal because you heal. That’s your job, your main focus needs to be on that role or the reason why roles exists fail. The party fails.
I got too cocky, and was in cat form skull bashing, and shredding mobs in Mara. I got silenced and couldn’t heal the tank. My pre hots had worn off, he died because I was reaching outside the bounds of my role. It was all good though. One Battle rez later, and an apology, and I never did it again that instance.
I like feeling more useful than just as a health bar toper upperer ( the Faerie fire in a 25 man should not even be required with the other classes in the raid doing their thing) and I can certainly see the benefit of casting thorns on the tank. It’s only one more GCD, I have a power Aura set up for it so I know its ready to be cast. It does more damage. Better agro, and I probably don’t have to cast it at all. No one will notice. Parties only realise that I am being a little more useful than a healing machine when I point out ” wow look how much damage my thorns are helping you do”
It’s a tool that I think that even though I am healing and have to remember to keep using it – it makes sence to make use of something that is so beneficial for the good of the party.
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While I agree that some extra healer dps doesn’t hurt to speed things up sometime, I haven’t bought into the whole ‘healers go dps’ hysteria about Cataclysm and will believe it once i see it.
I will always add some dots in a raid if need be, but telling me to frequently dps now as well as juggling and timing heals, manage cooldowns, dispel etc. etc. just sounds like healers having to carry and compensate for others even more than they already do – no thanks. I don’t enjoy dpsing, if I did I would’ve rolled a dps class in wow. if blizzard wants me to smite more they better make that regen from archangel really crucial!
I can see that happening too from a mana perspective, but I really doubt healer dps will be needed in order to beat encounters in cataclysm (gawd I hope not!).
You know, on the world’s very first kill of Heroic Lich King, at least one of their healers spent over 75% of his time dps’ing and they only managed to pull the kill off right at the enrage.
In my experience, and amongst my peers, I’ve found a lot of people who played WoW in Vanilla remember the old days of what “Moar DoTs” really meant.
Back then, 6 years ago or whatever, Priests had only one DoT, and this was Shadow Word: Pain. Being the only DoT of a “DoT class”, it hit like a bloody truck and did more damage than the 3 warlock DoTs combined.
Healing Priests casting Shadow Word: Pain contributed noticeable damage. On top of that, wanding was considered a form of regen. And in some guilds/raid it was required. Alliance got a way better with this because of JoW, but wanting also allowed a Priest to contribute something to the raid while being OFSR — ie getting MASSIVE spirit based regen.
In fact, when the game launch, MP5 as a stat did not exist. The only way to regen was to spec Discipline or to simply not cast (for Priests, iirc Druids had a talent, but Paladins, Shamans and ‘Holy’ Priests didn’t).
Now yeah, the game has changed and evolved a lot over the past 6 years, but this is certainly not a new thing. If anything, it’s bringing a lot of healing classes back to how they were original designed.
Heck, I am only even talking about Priests here… I can go on about Druids and Paladins.
It’s awesome that you support your tank with thorns. I have yet to encounter a resto druid that got the memo.
Now I’d like to make a slight tangent, since I’m coming to this issue from the bear tanking side of it.
Bear druids should be able to self-cast thorns without breaking out of form.
The nerf to swipe is no big deal. I can tab target and lacerate. When dps focus skull everything is fine. If they focus something else they can tank it. I don’t have a problem with that.
I just don’t understand what purpose the new thorns is supposed to serve. It used to be a weak 30 minute buff (glyphed) that I put on myself and forgot about. Now the cooldown is so short I can put it on myself before every pull if I care enough to break form and lose the rage I’ve built up. Most of the time this isn’t practical. My raid doesn’t wait. Ever.
I know that wasn’t the point of your post, but I had to say it. It drives me a little nuts when I have a great AE buff in thorns that, for whatever reason, is easier for someone else to keep up. I have the ability. Why can’t I keep it on myself without breaking form?
I guess that’s rhetorical (unless you’ve got other bear druids reading that want to comment).
When Heroic bosses are dying in 20 seconds or less, I don’t feel any need to be adding dps.
Yes, I could dps, but I would rather the tank pulls 2 groups of trash mobs at once, and even takes on the boss at the same time and gives me a challenge. I’m also happy to see dps pulling aggro off the tank (mages ftw); then I can use some shields/taunts/Hands whatever of my own to save their squishy bodies.
Keeping busy saving lives is much more fun than doing pointless dps, every day of the week.
“30-40 bracket getting one shot by rogues. NOT FUN”
ZOMG, tell me about it.
SO BRUTAL.
I’ve actually found Smiting to be mandatory for me when doing Lich King (Heroic-25) nowadays. Of course, this is particularly because I am stubborn and don’t “nerf” myself to abuse Rapture, but I’ve adapted with Smite/Archangel/Evangelism.