u/Wholawl

I've seen posts about rdruids struggling in current prenerfed heroics and the responses i read from druid mains didn't bode well besides a "it is what it is" response.

I've been using an altered build which has made heroics a lot smoother, especially when paired with undergeared prot pallies. But first, some context.

Some druids will tell u to spam HT but that alone isn't enough, on the other hand a full tree build is ironically inefficent.

Tree build has max HPS when all hots are out but in order to stabilize a donkey tank in blue gear u have to outheal 5-6k hits roughly every 2 secs, so you need your hots to do a combined 2-3k hps and that's for a single mob. It isn't realistic in p1 and even then you're forced to spam regrowth since it is rarely 1 mob alone.

Then u factor the gcd time of prehotting but prehotting also has threat issues if tank is mid pull.

I've experimented with several build for heroics specifically and settled on one which gave the most optimal result between the two playstyles. It has made heroics significantly more manageable but requires a different healing priority than the typical tree build.

The build i am referring to is a regrowth/healing touch crit build with swiftmend, here's the calculator so u see my point: https://www.wowhead.com/tbc/talent-calc/druid/51402231200313--50500320231502501

As you can see i go down balance to pick up lunar guidance, moonglow and nature's grace. I don't invest more into reaching dreamstate coz mana isnt much of an issue.

Then into resto with all the healing touch talents and improved regrowth + swiftmend.

This build has the highest burst healing out of any druid build possible.

The opener changes a bit depending on the urgency. If u have the time to prehot then do so and end it with a regrowth before tank pulls to proc nature's grace, then immediately start casting HT as the tank pulls.

With grace up HT has a 2.5s cast time and heals for an absurd amount, highest coefficient healing spell in the game alongside more +healing makes it top anything when it goes off.

If tank isnt dropping too fast after that opener i hardcast a normal HT follow up but if u feel like the tank is paper and dropping instantly then do this: regrowth -> swiftmend is a huge on demand heal for the gcd usage, if regrowth crit (which it often does with this build) then cast an accelerated HT which should stabilize any tank issue. U still have NS HT for emergencies too.

By abusing nature's grace and regrowth's crit build u can alternate between quick regrowths spam or HT depending on the situation.

For referrence swiftmend heals almost the same amount for rejuv and regrowth's hot, so if u find urself needing to heal when no hots are up regrowth-> swiftmend is an amazing amount of burst healing in a short gcd that doent require NS.

Furthermore, if u want to spam regrowths for quick casts (becomes 1.5s if u use it with grace), make sure u downrank by 1 so u dont override the max rank regrowth's hot , that way the max rank regrowths hot can tick instead of being refreshed constantly and u can swiftmend the max hot for more burst healing.

It saddens to see so many "druid mains" not experiment more given the versatility of the class. Everyone is content with sticking to the meta based raid specs or farm builds which arent always optimized for changed content.

So far no other druid build comes even remotely close to this one for heroics. Hope this helps all druids out there struggling.