3.1 PTR Notes: New Druid Glyphs

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I haven’t found time quite yet to log onto the PTR, but I have been anxiously following all the updates and changes on MMOchampion.com. If you’ve had your head in the sand somehow, go check out the new stuff here.

This morning’s post will be a short one, but I wanted to bring to all of your attention the awesomeness of the new Druid glyphs, particularly for resto.

Here’s what we’ve got:

Druid (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
Glyph of Rebirth — Players resurrected by Rebirth are returned to life with 100% health. (Old: Increases the amount of health on a character brought back to life via Rebirth by 100%.)
Glyph of Starfall — Reduces the cooldown of Starfall by 90 sec. (Old: Increases the duration of Starfall by 2 sec.)
Glyph of Berserk *new* — Increases the duration of Berserk by 5 sec.
Glyph of Wild Growth *new* — Wild Growth now affects up to 6 targets.
Glyph of Nourish *new* — Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target.
Glyph of Savage Roar *new* — Your Savage Roar ability grants an additional 6% bonus damage done.
Glyph of Typhoon *new* — Reduces the cooldown of your Typhoon spell by 3 sec.
Glyph of Barkskin *new* — Reduces the chance you’ll be critically hit by melee attacks by 1 to 0% while Barkskin is active.

Too Many Choices?

Up until now, there have been accepted “right” and “wrong” ways to glyph the restoration druid. With the current glyphs, most top-of-the-line restos use one of two combinations.

1. Swiftmend, Regrowth, Lifebloom
2. Swiftmend, Regrowth, Innervate

I am personally using Combo #2, though I would have replaced it by now if I hadn’t wanted to keep Innervate at least until my character copied to the PTR. Hopefully once there I can exploit the dual spec system with two Resto specs and test many of the Resto glyphs in raid situations.

However, based purely on guesswork, I give you the hot combos of the future:

1. Swiftmend, Wild Growth, Innervate.
This one says “raid healer” to me. However, people’s individual use of Swiftmend varies. It’s a combo type spell and it gets used directly in proportion, I’d think, to people’s ability to identify their own Rejuvenations on their UI. I am a very heavy user now, mostly because of the glyph.

2. Swiftmend, Regrowth, Lifebloom.
This combo is for the classic tank healer, usually assigned to Main Tanks.

3. Swiftmend, Regrowth, Innervate.
For the tank healer who sometimes runs short on mana.

4. Swiftmend, Nourish, Lifebloom.
Also for the tank healer, but for those who like either combos or shorter heals. This lets the druid use all her spells and depending on spec, could be a fairly mana-efficient combo.

5. Swiftmend, Nourish, Innervate.
For the efficiency expert. This druid will have mana left when everyone else is doing the twist and wishing they had their old OOFSR mana return values.

6. Swiftmend, Wild Growth, Lifebloom.
This combo is for the generalist who never knows what she’ll be doing in a given fight. However, she’s mana-confident.

7. Wild Growth, Lifebloom, Regrowth.
The WWS-obsessed. This druid has looked at what spells get used the most and has glyphed entirely based on the percentages. Substitute Nourish for Regrowth based on personal preference.

8. Wild Growth, Lifebloom, Innervate.
This combination is for the raid-healing druid who doesn’t use Swiftmend. She gets a scolding from me, but well, she’s probably in the majority. Swiftmend is currently our hardest-to-use spell, though its one of our most rewarding.

9. Regrowth, Lifebloom, Innervate
For the tank healer who does not use Swiftmend. Regrowth could substitute for Nourish based on preference. However, I can’t imagine this druid. Swiftmend is easiest to use on tanks and is our best save. Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch is nice, but it’s infrequent.

For me personally, #6 looks likely. As much as I love tank healing, the balance of healers in the guild has shifted and I’m usually needed on the raid. I am also going to try #5 and #1 if mana starts running low. I may also try out #7, but boy, would I miss Swiftmend.

Wow, we have a lot of choices. The only thing you won’t be doing is glyphing for both Regrowth and Nourish–the conditions of the glyphs contradict each other. The Nourish glyph wants you to use all your hots, including Regrowth, and finish with Nourish, while the Regrowth one encourages you to rely heavily on…guess what…Regrowth.

What are the rest of you going to glyph for in 3.1?

18 thoughts on “3.1 PTR Notes: New Druid Glyphs”

  1. My combination is Swiftmend, Innervate, Rebirth.

    It’s an unconventional combination, I realize, and I was all set to change out Innervate for Lifebloom when the first of the 3.1 news hit. So I decided to retain it until I see how it goes in Ulduar.

    Rebirth is an invaluable tool for that “oh crap!” situation where you need that person back on their feet *now*. The time saved on healing them up to full is worth it in my book. I am in a smaller guild that does 10-man content, so each person is a bigger chunk of the raid’s efforts. The fast Rebirth cast, followed by an innervate if needed, and I’m still well within my HoTs rotation.

    With the changes coming, though, Nourish definitely looks more promising and Wild Growth does have a steady place in my rotation to help with minor splash damage with the melee group.

    Reply
  2. this is going to be a tough choice for me: nourish, wildgrowth, regrowth, swiftmend, lifebloom

    I want them all 🙁 I dont use swiftmend nearly as much as i should, perhaps i will drop that and lifebloom.

    Reply
  3. My current combination is Swiftmend, Regrowth, Rebirth.

    Like Kayeri, my guild is small and working 10s and that Rebirth “guarantee” of a player not being accidentally 1shotted by splash dmg upon accepting the BR is priceless. Also having specd into Nature’s Splendor, I have found the Lifebloom glyph is undoubtedly nice but not essential to my HoT rotations. (8s vs 9s: without thinking, if there was room for 4 glyphs, Lifebloom would definitely be there)

    Since I have always resorted to Swiftmend in those times of higher spike damage, that glyph will never be traded out. <3 Swiftmend!! In 3.1 my anticipated glyph set will see Regrowth changed out for Nourish. I have been making a conscious effort to use Regrowth more to get the most out of my glyph choices, but that has been a personal hurdle with my internal timing. Not to mention I trust my HoTs to do their job and prefer the faster Nourish overall to keep my DK tank at the 80% point. Since DK dmg mitigation can be inconsistent due to their abilities, Nourish is the best ‘quick fix’ for those times of slight spike dmg. I really look forward to the changes coming to see if this new glyph is everything I am anticipating it to be.

    Will Lifebloom be counted as a HoT along with Regrowth and Rejuv to be potentially 3 HoTs on the target to activate the glyph? (certainly hope so)

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  4. Just my quick two cents, I suspect that if I am often assigned to tank healing, my preferred style by far, (Swiftmend, Nourish, Lifebloom) is the way to go for me. Otherwise, if I am largely on raid-healing duty, I suspect I’ll go with (Swiftmend, Wild Growth, Lifebloom). Either way, Swiftmend and Lifebloom are crucial for my healing style. I haven’t taken a hard look at the numbers to justify it, but I presently still prefer Nourish over Regrowth, and it will only be reinforced by recently completing my 4-pc T7 bonus.

    Ithatos last blog post..Adventures in Healing: Naxx-25 down!

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  5. Right now I use Swiftmend-Regrowth-Lifebloom. With the changes to Nourish I’ll definitely be swapping out my Regrowth glyph for the Nourish one, but I really can’t decide whether to swap out the third glyph (currently chosen because there are two remaining glyphs and I never run out of mana) for Innervate or Wild Growth.

    I think the Nourish+Wild Growth glyphs will work pretty well, since Nourish gets a bonus from Wild Growth as well, letting me Wild Growth – Nourish one more person than normal.

    But then, if I find I have mana problems in Ulduar, I’ll probably be using the Innervate glyph instead. I’ll just have to wait and see. So for me, either:

    Swiftmend – Nourish – Wild Growth
    Swiftmend – Nourish – Innervate

    Reply
  6. Interesting suggestions! I’m not convinced I want to forego innervate. The mana regen changes notwithstanding, I’m hoping to see harder content where a solid recharge has more utility than general efficiency.

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  7. Unfortunately for HT fans, there’s going to be no reason to glyph for it in progression content. The mana regen nerf will hit at least hard enough that the most inefficient–if fastest–raid heal spell out there will no longer be viable.

    High-thoughput, low efficiency heals for PvE are going the way of the dodo. In addition, glyphed HT mimics Nourish, just less efficiently. Nourish is getting a throughput and crit buff, so the writing’s on the wall for glyphed HT.

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  8. i’m reading this on the forums:

    * Glyph of Rejuvenation — Heals a friendly target for 50% of Rejuvenation. (Old: While your Rejuvenation targets are below 50% health, you will heal them for an
    additional 50% health.)

    a hoax or does it exist?
    If it is real it’ll be a hot one for sure

    Reply
  9. I personally find that I spend more time raid healing than tank healing as a Tree. As a result I think I will be looking at a combination of the following:

    [1] Wild Growth, Nourish, Innervate
    [2] Wild Growth, Nourish, Swiftmend.

    I think a lot will depend on whether t7 x4 peace Nourish will stack with the glyph and how much the mana regen changes will effect tree’s.

    We might find that taking Innervate is not needed if we manage our cool downs, and that leaves room from for either Swiftmend, Lifebloom or Rebirth.

    Reply
  10. I’m wondering about the efficacy of the LB glyph as well.

    When the patch goes live though, I may either go with:

    1. Wild Growth, Nourish, Swiftmend
    or
    2. Wild Growth, Nourish, Life Bloom (depending on how useful it will be then)

    I’m currently Regrowth, Life Bloom, Rebirth, but if I plan on dropping, the Regrowth glyph altogether, I was thinking about speccing completely out of Living Seed or Natural Perfection and putting the points into Revitalize.

    But I don’t know! Crit seems like it will be much more important for us if we’re going to be using our direct heals more.

    Reply
  11. I’ve been using Swiftmend, Regrowth and Rebirth for a while now. I started out with Rejuvenation but it didn’t feel that good so I switched to Rebirth after reading an article commenting it’s good points, which are even better now.
    I’ve never really liked to have to clip the regrowth to get use out of the glyph so as soon as I can get glyph of nourish to a reasonable price I’ll switch. When I’m not having Glyph of Regrowth anymore the needs for Glyph of Swiftmend isn’t all that big anymore so I might very well change it to Wild Growth, at least when we get 25 man raids running frequently. Or I might swap out Glyph of Rebirth instead. I’ll have to think about that one.

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  12. I’ve been using Healing Touch and Rejuvenation. HT so far is my favorite. I consider it to be my most important glyph. At 80 I want to try out Nourish as well. As noted, you may eventually want to replace the HT glyph (once you are uber geared and progressing through higher lvl raiding) but until then I have found it to be immensely useful. If you are newly 80 or still leveling, I highly recommend it.

    Reply
  13. – Of course Swiftmend, although I don’t use it that often. But an instant heal while the HoTs keep ticking is just great, saves you time because you don’t need to reHoT him/her.
    – Nourish, especially when the tank gets hits bad. With all the HoTs on him, this glyph makes your nourish get him up to full health much faster.
    – Wild Growth for now. I love to spam WG when ever I can and it’s usually always on. And in raids it’s one person extra who gets a few thousand hp back per WG.

    Rejuvenation? If the tank gets below 50% Rejuvenation isn’t the first spell I’ll be giving him.
    Regrowth? I usually only use it at the beginning of the fight, I’m more into Nourish.
    Lifebloom? 1 sec second… why? 8 secs are long enough time to keep refreshing it.
    Rebirth? This was my only doubt, getting a tank back up with 40k health… or a healer with full mana… a big dps with full health and mana. Seems very useful, maybe gonna switch is with WG someday.

    Reply

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