Tree Mail: Finding Mana in Northrend

It’s time for tree mail! Woot woot! Tree Mail is the section of the blog here that I devote to answering reader questions.  Today’s question has to do with keeping up mana and comes from Naomi, a druid who is new to healing and who has just hit level 70.

Yesterday once I hit Northrend I started healing an instance here or there, ya know Nexus and UK.  Man….

The combination of me not really knowing the best, most mana efficient way to keep my group up combined with the tanks, being in level 70 greens was tough.  Being that I don’t have nourish yet, what’s your advice for me to be sucessful in 5 mans?  I found myself needing to drink after every single pull, and the boss fights (specifically the lady that splits into 3 adds in Nexus) to be really really challenging for me.  I’ll tell you what I was doing, that may help:

I was rolling lifebloom on the tank, along with rejuv and keeping regrowth up (he was taking alot of damage lol) and then occasionally even had to use HT, even when NS was down >.>   AND…of course the group was taking lots of damgage, so for them I’d use Wild Growth and lifeblooms and rejuvs here and there.

Naomi, thanks so much for the question!  Since I don’t have access to your armory to look at everything you’ve got going on, I’m going to give out some general advice here and hopefully a combination of some suggestions I make will help you out.

1)  Spells

Ok, first let’s take a look at the spells you say you were using to heal the instances.  First, you say you were rolling Lifeblooms on the tank.  This used to be standard practice for Restos in every situation, and still provides a nice way to keep a steady stream of healing on your tank.  However, patch 3.1 made this a much more expensive spell to cast in terms of mana usage, while increasing the heal the spell does when blooming.  In addition, allowing the spell to bloom also gives mana back!  This doesn’t mean that you should let it bloom every time before stacking it up again, nor does it mean that you should stick with rolling it.  What it does mean is that, as you level up, practice watching this spell as it gets closer to the bloom and make a decision about what you want to have happen next.  If the tank is low enough on health that a biggish heal would not be wasted, let the spell bloom.  You’ll get a nice topper on the tank and be refunded some of the mana you spent to build up the Lifebloom stack in the first place.  If the tank is topped up as the Lifebloom winds down, it might be a better choice to cast again, rolling the HoT.

You were right to keep Rejuv and Regrowth on the tank as buffers, although it is always preferrable to wait for the tank’s health to drop a bit to refresh the Regrowth on the tank if you can, so that the large front loaded direct heal portion of the spell does not go to waste.

I would probably wait for the tank to go down to about 75% health, cast Regrowth, then add a Rejuvenate.  If he is taking steady damage that those two HoTs are not covering, I’d add Lifebloom, stacking as needed.  Decide whether or not to let it bloom.  The bloom is great for handling timely damage, but you have to watch this carefully and decide.  Handle spike damage with Swiftmend whenever it is up.  You can also refresh Regrowth to cover a spike if that spell is nearing completion.  NS +HT is another option. 

Your choices for raid heals are good ones.  Rejuv is probably our most mana efficient spell at the moment.  Wild Growth is also nice, but if you are struggling with mana, think twice about keeping it up constantly, as it can be a big ol’ mana hog to do that.  Don’t cast Wild Growth to top off 2 people if mana is a concern.  Use it judiciously.

2) Glyphs

I don’t know what Glyphs you are currently using, but you might want to consider looking to Glyphs to help you with Mana Conservation.  Glyph of Swiftmend might make all kinds of sense for you, as it will deliver a Swiftmend for spike heals without consuming any HoTs and forcing you to recast them.

Lifebloom might be another good option, as it extends the HoT of this spell, making it more mana efficient to use because it ticks longer.

Glyph of Regrowth will make that spell more powerful if you are able to refresh it before it expires, again making it more mana efficient.

3) Talents

There are many talents built into the Restoration and Balance trees that you might consider using, as they are primarily designed to conserve mana, or have that effect.

Tranquil Spirit is a talent you might consider if you use Healing Touch with frequency, as it lowers the mana cost for this spell, as well as for tranquility.

Living Spirit is a great buff to your spirit, which is the primary stat for Druid mana regeneration.

Omen of Clarity is a talent all restos should take as, when it procs, the next spell cast is a mana freebie.  woot!  =)

You should not only take Tree of Life, but make sure that you are always healing in tree form.  If you are having trouble maintaining mana for healing, don’t be popping out of tree to help DPS, etc. etc.

Moonglow in the balance tree reduces the mana for casting Healing Touch, Rejuv and Regrowth for you (plus Nourish once you get that spell).

Nature’s Splendor in the balance tree extends Rejuv, Regrowth, and Lifebloom, making them more mana efficient.

4) Enchants and Buffs

Many times people do not bother to enchant their gear unless it is gear that they have farmed, that they intend to keep for a long stretch of time, that will not soon be replaced.  There is a good deal of logic to this, especially when discussing the high end enchants.  Mats are extremely expensive, so it makes little sense to pour money into gear that you will be shedding in a level or two. 

However, if you are struggling to maintain mana, consider putting not the best enchants on your current gear, but some of the mid or lower range enchants.  The mats are much, much cheaper, and the enchants will still provide benefit to you.

Mana enchants, for example, are available for chest and bracers.  Spirit can be added to bracers, boots, or weapons.  Add Intellect to weapons, bracers.  Consider adding spell power to other slots, as stronger heals require fewer heals overall.

You can also consider purchasing buff food and potions/elixirs to help.  Again, don’t go for the high end goodies unless your purse runneth over.  But going for some of the Burning Crusade level buff foods and potions can help tremendously.  Look for buff consumables that are affordable to you and buff spirit for higher mana regen or Int for a larger mana pool.

Also, make sure that you are familiar with the buffs each class can give you, so that you can be sure that all of the members of your current group have cast the most beneficial buffs on you for each instance.

5) Addons

It might seem a little silly to suggest that an addon could help you with mana conservation, but hear me out.  Adding a HoT timer such as Hot Candy might, indeed, help.  Here’s why.  These HoT timers provide a very accurate picture of where your HoTs are in terms of the time that they have left.  If you practice renewing them at the last moment, you will save mana.  You will cast less frequency if you are casting only as needed, right?

6) Speak up

You said in your email that your whole group was taking lots of damage.  Sometimes that’s just the way of it.  Lots of AOE damage = very busy healer.  However, sometimes the reason people are taking lots of damage is that they are not playing well.  The tank is not tanking well and is dropping aggro.  The DPS are aggro monkeys and are stealing aggro because they’re stupid.  Someone is standing in fire.  People aren’t doing what they need to do to remove curses or debuffs.  The point is, if you see lots of people taking damage, if you take the time to learn the fight and know what the mechanics are, you can and should point out if they are doing something that is making your job much harder than it needs to be.  I recently did a series of posts where I interviewed lots of tanks about what they do and asked them for some advice for healers.  A healthy number of them said that the best advice they could give was to speak up if something was going wrong and the healer had some constructive advice to throw into the mix.

You will find that as you level up and gear up (and gain practice) that mana issues become less and less of a concern for you in 5 man content.  In the meantime, however, I hope that these suggestions provide you with some compass in terms of where to go to fix your current concerns!

If you are interested in having a question answered in Tree Mail, please contact me using the contact form here on the blog. Please indicate if you would (or would not!) like to have your email featured on the blog. I’ll be happy to respond either way.

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