Resto Druids Revisited

[Sunamoon]

Druid Restoration Guide (Not at all to be a replacement of what you already are comfortable with, but please read and try it out. WHAT WORKS FOR ME MIGHT NOT WORK FOR YOU)

I am in progress to update this as more info comes available as I play and see how my gear and style plays out.

This guide is based on my own build and strategy followed from the number one resto druid in the European server Runetotem (Raaff).He has provided a MEga Druid Guide which I have revamped with my own specs as I improve as well as some of his so that you can get updated inromation as we both move forward. The guide will mostly evolve with the progress of myself and Raaff. So it will change from time to time!


P.S: If you have any corrections, inaccuracies etc. etc. please let me know. We can all benefit from it!

1 General thoughts

-This is written with a raiding mindset;
- Changes we experianced in the 3.1 Patch
a)Changes to Lifebloom, double the mana cost, base mana back at bloom, the bloom multiplies by the number of stacks (i.e. 2 stack lifebloom means bloom value x 2);
b)Mana regen while not casting is nerfed by approx. 40% but our mana regen while casting is buffed from 30% to 50% of mana regen while not casting (Intensity);
c)Improved regrowth is renamed to Nature’s Bounty and now also counts for Nourish. The crit value however is lowered from 50% to 25%;
d)A new glyph of Nourish is added: Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target;
e)Glyph of Wild Growth – Wild Growth now affects up to 6 targets;
Abolish Poison now ticks every 3 secs for 12 secs. (Previously ticked every 2 secs for 8 secs).

Talents

2.1 Restoration

These talents are must haves in my opinion. Remember play styles can make you decide whether not to take a talent or to take a talent. (By all means feel free to use what ever suits you)

Important Talents:

- Improved Mark of the Wild (2/2)
- Nature’s Focus (3/3)
- Subtlety (3/3)
- Intensity (3/3)
- Omen of Clarity (1/1)
- Nature’s Swiftness (1/1)
- Gift of Nature (5/5)
- Improved Rejuvenation (3/3)
- Empowered Touch (2/2)
- Improved Regrowth (5/5)
- Swiftmend (1/1)
- Living Spirit (3/3)
- Empowered Rejuvenation (5/5)
- Tree of Life (1/1)
- Improved Tree of Life (3/3)
- Wild Growth (1/1)

Which talents are not important to take

- Living Seed: This is mainly a Main Tank heal, opinions differ about it. I have raided with and without it and I can’t say I missed it. It will not heal much (on ± 4M hp healed about 0,1M hp healed through Living Seed)
- Replenish: I am sorry to say it just doesn’t work. It seems like a nice idea but the mana from i.e. pala’s is better. So no use for yourself. But it does regen runic power, energy and rage which would mean it has use for other members in your party/raid. I haven’t seen it procure much, so that’s why I have not chosen this talent. This talent will change a bit in patch 3.1, so it might become viable.

These might help but I go without most of the time:

- Natural Shapeshifter and Master Shapshifter: Five talent points for 4% extra healing is a tad expensive at level 70. But you must spend 5 points in this tier.
- Naturalist: This spell will lower your Healing Touch spellcast from 3 to 2,5 seconds. If you do not use the glyphed healing touch, don’t use this talent. Spent your points in the shapeshifters talents.
- Tranquil Spirit: If you are going to use Healing Touch (a must for the glyphed Healing Touch users) and Nourish a lot this talent is a good one since it will lower your mana cost of the spells by 10%.
- Natural Perfection: A few % extra crit for the people that need it.
- Gift of the Earthmother: It will lower your Global Cooldown with 20% for your instant healing spells. I have found it usefull in putting up rotations on 2-5 targets. More about Haste in this post.

2.2 Balance

Huh? Balance Talents? Yep, away with the typical 0/0/61 builds we were used to in The Burning Crusade. There are actually some nice talents for trees now!
– Genesis: It buffs your healing over time and damage over time spells with 5%.
– Moonglow: It will reduce the manacost of Moonfire, Starfire, Starfall, Wrath, Healing Touch, Regrowth, Nourish and Rejuvenation spells by 9%. Less mana, more heals.
– Nature’s Splendor: 8 second Lifebloom, 15 second Rejuvenation, 27 second Regrowth. Need I say more? This would mean more rolls on your raid/party and the time to cast other spells like Abolish Poison or Remove Curse.
– Nature’s Majesty: This is a talent you do not need when you are restoration specced. Yes it makes your chance to crit on Healing Touch and Nourish higher but its not needed. But I need to spend these two points to get Nature’s Splendor.
– Nature’s Grace: On a crit you can get 0.5 sec off your cast time (this will change in 3.1, it will grant you with 20% off your casttime) At level 70 I would not take this talent since you can take much better talents for these 3 points. But at level 80 it is worth thinking about, since you will probably have all the talents you want. You will have three spells you will cast more often Regrowth, Nourish and Healing Touch.

2.3 Crit build

A lot of people love the new glyphed Healing Touch. If you glyph your Healing Touch your cast time will go from 3 to 1.5 seconds but your healing will lower with 50%. With the talent Naturalist you can get another 0.5 seconds of the cast time to get a cast time of 1 second. Problem is now that the Global Cooldown is 1.5 seconds. Gear with Haste can help you with that to get the GCD to 1 second. Which would make this spell a paladin like flash-heal.
If you like this build you need Crit, and a lot of it. Healing Touch is an expensive spell to cast which means the higher it heals the better (Similar to crit based dps builds). So if you want to try this get all the crit you can get! Get at least the following talents:
– Naturalist (0,5 seconds of the cast time);
– Tranquil Spirit (10% lower mana cost);
– Empowered Touch (40% more healing on Healing Touch);
– Natural Perfection (4% extra crit on healing spells);
– Nature’s Majesty (4% extra crit on spells);
– Nature’s Grace (get a 0,5 seconds of your cast time on a crit).
– Tree of Life + Improved Tree of Life (+15% healing);

3 Spells
– Lifebloom: Still one of the most important and mana efficient spells a druid has.
– Rejuvenation: A very efficient raid heal.
– Regrowth: It was always there but neglected. Be sure to pick up the Glyph of Regrowth, it will be more important and more mana efficient. It heals a lot better!
– Wild Growth: This spell will heal 5 targets. The target you casted it on and 4 more targets which need it the most (smart healing) within 15 yards (Do I hear melee?). As an instant spell it is a very nice party/raid heal. Can only be cast once every 6 seconds (added patch 3.0.8).
– Swiftmend: Still the most powerful instant heal around. The glyph of Swiftmend is a must have (see also section 4 Glyphs);
– Nourish: Obtained at level 80, it will be a Paladin type flash heal. It will most certainly outperform a glyphed Healing Touch, but not as good as a (glyphed) Regrowth. It has a buff of 20% when you have your HoT’s on the target which makes it more comparable on Healing Touch.
– Healing Touch: The biggest emergency heal around. You can easily heal for 5-6K (crit: 7-8) at level 70. This is you panic heal on the main tank with the use of Nature’s Swiftness (see also macro’s). You can also glyph this spell to make it more of a flash heal.

4 Glyphs

With the introduction of Inscription you can enhance your spells with Glyphs, Enchanting for spells! There are minor glyphs and major glyphs. Minor Glyphs are mainly “fun” Glyphs. Major Glyphs are the ones that really make a difference! At level 70 you have 3 Major Glyph slots, level 80 will unlock one slot extra. If you are a Inscriptionist you will get another extra Major Glyph slot. I will not speak about every Glyph here but I will speak about three that I think are of importance for restoration Druids.

4.1 Major Glyphs
– Glyph of Swiftmend – Your Swiftmend ability no longer consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect from the target. This one would mean you don’t have to waste a recently casted Regrowth or Rejuvenation which means more healing over time and mana efficient, must have! period.
– Glyph of Regrowth – Increases the healing of your Regrowth spell by 20% if your Regrowth effect is still active on the target. This one will buff Regrowth with 20% and will make Regrowth one of the most important spells for a Druid. It is the same effect Nourish has, must have period.
– Glyph of Lifebloom - It increases your Lifebloom with one second. In theory you could have a 9 second Lifebloom with the appropriate talent (Nature’s Splendor) and this glyph. Very good tank heal! If you lack mana, go for the next glyph.
– Glyph of Innervate – With enough spirit on yourself you will not be needing this glyph, but if you cast it on someone else your regeneration of mana will be a 100% for 20 seconds.
– Glyph of Rejuvenation – While your rejuvenation targets are below 50% health, you will heal them for an additional 50% health. Very good for party/raid healing.

Other Glyphs that depend on your preference:

– Glyph of Healing Touch – Your cast time is reduced by 50%, mana cost 25% and healing by 50%. It converts your Healing Touch into a flash type heal like Nourish. In my experience a glyphed Healing Touch has higher heals then Nourish but is also costs more mana. Which one should you use? Do you want a fast panic button (which you already have with Nourish) or do you want to be able to cast 7-10K heals with a non glyphed Healing Touch when nessecary? It is all about preference.
– Glyph of Rebirth – Increases the amount of health on a character brought back to life via Rebirth by 100%. Nice but not really needed.

4.2 Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Aquatic Form (Req. lvl. 16) – Increases your swim speed by 50% while in Aquatic Form.
Glyph of Challenging Roar (Req. lvl. 28) – Reduces the cooldown of your Challenging Roar ability by 30 sec.
Glyph of Dash (Req. lvl. 16) – Reduces the cooldown of your Dash ability by 20%.
Glyph of the Wild (Req. lvl. 15) – Mana cost of your Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild spells reduced by 50%.
Glyph of Thorns (Req. lvl. 15) – Increases the duration of your Thorns ability by 50 min when cast on yourself.
Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth (Req. lvl. 20) – Your Rebirth spell no longer requires a reagent.

5 Stats
The most important stat will still be spellpower, the more you have the better. Secondly you want to be sure you regen enough mana to last you through the fight. Spirit will be your primary stat for mana regen. Remember that Spirit will boost your healing in Tree Form with 15% ! The third stat is Intellect, it will make your mana pool bigger and it will bring you extra mana regen but not as much as spirit does.The fourthstat is stamina, you should have a good health pool, don’t be too squishy! To conclude:
1. Spellpower;
2. Spirit/Mp5;
3. Intellect;
4. Stamina.
Other stats that are interesting to Trees are haste (reducing gcd or spellcast duration) or spell crit. The gear in Northrend that you will find has a lot of haste and spell crit. Haste is nice to be able to e.g. roll more Lifeblooms on your group. With the right talents and enough haste it could happen that you roll 5-6 stacks! Spell crit is not really important since we only have 3 spells that can crit. Healing over Time spells do not crit except four their initial heal (regrowth) or end heal (lifebloom). Since Regrowth’s critical spell chance is already buffed by 50% by the Improved Regrowth talent you will not really need spell crit on your gear. The lifebloom spell is not really used for its endheal (bloom) but rather rolled for its 3 stack powerful heal per second. The two spells that remain are Healing Touch and Nourish. Healing Touch is a mana inefficient spell (even when glyphed) and is an emergency spell, as is Nourish. A druid healer is good at HoT’s so use ‘m a lot!

*Haste Information at the bottom of this post*

If you go full restoration forget about strength and agility. These stats are not important.

6 Mana regeneration

What does spirit/intellect/mana regen do?
- Spirit increases your mana regeneration and your health regen, plus gives your +15% of your spirit to healing in Tree of Life form;
- Intellect increases your mana pool (15 manapoints per 1 intellect), mana regeneration and spell critical hit;
- Mana regeneration is the mana you regenerate in 5 seconds while not casting or while casting.

Now how do these stats relate? Since patch 2.4 mana regeneration depends on spirit, intellect and raw mana per 5 seconds on gear/enchants. Best way to show how mana regen works is the formula theorycrafters have derived:

The mana regeneration formula

Base Mana Regen Int, Spi, Level = S * Base_Regen(Level) * √I * 5 + 0.001

S = Spirit
I = Intellect
The Number for the base regen is (80)In patch 3.1 the Base_Regen is 0,003345.

NB: This formula calculates the mana regen out of combat.

If I use this formula on Suna with 882 spirit and 917 intellect the mana regen would be:

(882 * 0,003345 * sqrt(917) * 5) + 0,001 = 446,704525

The formula does not take into account any raw mana per 5 seconds you might have on gear or through enchants, I have to add 41 mana per 5 seconds to come to Suna’s unbuffed mana regen: 483 mana per 5 seconds. A player only has an influence on is Spirit and Intellect and raw mana per 5 seconds. What happens with your mana regeneration when Spirit and Intellect change?

Suna gets more spirit!
Lets assume I got a new piece of gear with + 10 spirit and the same amount of intellect, my mana regen would increase by:

(892 * 0,003345 * sqrt(917) * 5) + 0,001 = 451,769191 - 446,704525 = 5,064666

I did some more numbers and with an increase of spirit and no increase of intellect my mana regen would increase by approximately 1 spirit = 0,64 mana regen.

Suna gets more intellect!
Now I got a new piece of gear with +10 intellect and the same amount of spirit, my mana regen would increase by:

(882 * 0,003345 * sqrt(927) * 5) + 0,001 = 449,133599 - 446,704525 = 2,429074

With an increase of intellect and no increase of spirit my mana regen would increase by approximately 1 intellect = 0,42 mana regen.

Suna is lucky and gets more spirit and intellect!
Now I got a new piece of gear with +10 spirit and + 10 intellect, my mana regen would increase by:

(892 * 0,003345 * sqrt(927) * 5) + 0,001 - 454,225806 - 446,704525 = 7,521281

With an increase of both stats my mana regen would increase by approximately 1 intellect and spirit = 1,52 mana regen. The formula is dependent on both intellect and spirit, so don’t use these numbers as a rule. If your intellect and spirit is different then mine it could give you different numbers! I can post the spreadsheet I used if people want it.

It should be clear to you now that Spirit and Intellect both benefit your mana regeneration. Luckily most gear with a decent amount of Spirit on it has Intellect too. But the formula does not take into account the choices you make between spellpower and mana regeneration. You have to make some choices!

Mana regeneration while casting


As said before, 1 mana per 5 seconds on gear or enchants remains 1 mana per 5 seconds while casting. But how does the mana regeneration from Spirit and Intellect behave? It is important to know that the talent Intensity has an influence on your mana regen while casting from these stats, as the talent states: allows 30% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting. In patch 3.1 this changes to 50% to counter the lower Base_Regen(level) to keep mana while casting at the same level as before patch 3.1. Lets get on with some formula’s:

Casting Mana RegenInt, Spi, Level = (S * Base_Regen(Level) * √I * 5 + 0.001) * Intensity + MP5

If I use this formula on Suna :

Casting Mana RegenInt, Spi, Level = (882* 0,003345 * √917 * 5 + 0.001) * 0,3 + 41 = 483

So effectively your regen is calculated on the basis of the talent Intensity which everybody (have you?) has maxed out on 30%. If you would have no mana per 5 seconds (raw) and no intensity you would have no mana regen while casting.


New gear for patch 3.1.

7.2 Listing of Idols

There aren’t many Idols that are viable for PvE. The pvp-ones all buff the end bloom of Lifebloom, which I do not see a tree in PvE actively using. There are three Idols I think are viable:
Rejuvenation
- Idol of Pure Thoughts: Increases the periodic healing of rejuvenation by 33 (can be bought with 30 Venture Coins in Grizzly Hills). Although the BC idol Harold’s Rejuvenating Broach might be better: Increases the spellpower of Rejuvenation by 86. (Have to test this).
- Idol of Awakening: Reduces the mana cost of Rejuvenation by 106 (random drop in Naxxramas 25 man). It makes rejuvenation a very good raidheal, cheap and efficient when cast on time (pre-cast!) to make sure it won’t be overwritten by another heal.

Lifebloom
- Idol of Lush Mosh: Increases the periodic healing of Lifebloom by 106 (can be bought with 15 Emblems of Heroism). This is one you want, it buffs Lifebloom greatly (at approx 1700 +spellpower it means a ± 950 tick with a 3 stack Lifebloom).

8 Enchants
Fun part for enchants are scrolls. Since the launch of WotLK you can buy your enchants from AH in the form of scrolls. I added the mats, so you can grind them yourself if you want.

Head Enchant from Wyrmrest Accord with revered status: Arcanum of Blissful Mending + 30 spellpower and +8 mana per 5 seconds for 37g 50s.

Shoulder Enchant from Sons of Hodir:

- Greater Enchant of the Crag +24 spellpower and +6 mana per 5 seconds for 100g with exalted status.

- Lesser Enchant of the Crag +18 spellpower an d + 4 mana per 5 seconds for 75g with honored status.

Glove Enchant from enchanters: Scroll of Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower, +28 spellpower.

Wrist Enchant from enchanters: Scroll of Enchant Bracers – Greater Spellpower, +23 spellpower.

Belt Enchant, there are no belt enchants but you can put a socket in your belt and put in every gem you want (except meta gems, but the color you put in counts for activating a meta-gem): Eternal Belt Buckle puts one socket on your belt. Can be bought from AH or contact a Blacksmith.

Pants Enchant from tailors:
- Shining Spellthread +35 spellpower and +12 spirit.
- Brilliant Spellthread + 50 spellpower and +20 spirit.
or if you rather have stamina like the old BC enchants:
- Azure Spellthread + 35 spellpower and +20 stamina.
- Sapphire Spellthread +50 spellpower and +30 stamina.

There are no spellpower enchants for chest and boots. You can choose from the following:
Chest Enchant from enchanters:
- Scroll of Enchant Chest – Greater Mana Regeneration, + 8 mana per 5 seconds.
- Scroll of Enchant Chest – Super Stats, + 8 to all stats.

Boot Enchant from enchanters:
- Scroll of Enchant Boots – Greater Spirit, +18 spirit.
- Scroll of Enchant Boots – Greater Vitality + 6 mana and health per 5 seconds.
- Scroll of Enchant Boots – Greater Fortitude + 22 stamina.

9 Gems
What choice should you make? I think that you should put Runed Scarlet Ruby in your red sockets spellpowerrrrrr! Purified Twilight Opal in your blue sockets for the spellpower and always needing spirit (or get Royal Twilight Opal). Luminous Monarch Topaz lacking intellect in your yellow sockets. The other gems are nice, but only if you think you lack a certain stat (remember: Spellpower, Spirit, Intellect, Stamina, Haste, Crit). Please see also this post for more information.

Meta gems

Meta gems are made by alchemists and are far less expensive then in the TBC. The two meta gems are Earthsiege Diamond and Skyflare Diamond. A meta gems requires a combination of normal gems to work. The combination gems (purple, green and orange) count for the color the meta needs. The gems for restoration druids are:

Bracing Earthsiege Diamond – 24 spellpower and 2% reduced threat, requires 2 blue gems and 1 red gem.
Ember Skyflare Diamond – 24 spellpower and 2% intellect, requires 3 red gems.

Forlorn Skyflare Diamond – 24 spellpower and 10% reduced silence period, requires 2 yellow gems and 1 blue gem.
Trenchant Earthshatter Diamond - 24 spellpower and 10% reduced stun period, requires 1 red, 1 yellow and 1 blue gem.

The last two gems can also be bought for 15 Stone Keepers Shard in Wintergrasp but with 5 spellpower less.

I do not have any threat problems, so I suggest you take Ember Skyflare Diamond.

10 Consumables
Food

Served for 10 or 25 players:
Fish Feast – 46 spellpower and 40 stamina;
Great Feast – 35 spellpower and 30 stamina.

Served for one player:
Tender Shoveltusk Steak – 46 spellpower and 40 stamina;
Firecracker Salmon – 46 spellpower and 40 stamina;
Cuttlesteak – 40 spirit and 40 stamina;
Mighty Rhino Dogs – 16 mana per 5 seconds and 40 stamina;
Spicy Fried Herring – 16 mana per 5 seconds and 40 stamina.

As a druid we all know what we need most: spellpower and spirit. Most druids will use Fish Feast or Tender Shoveltusk Steak. But at some point (and surely with the current raid content) you will have enough spellpower (± 1700 should be enough) to get your task in a raid done. Then other food that buffs your mana regeneration could be a nice choice. If you take the Cuttlesteak you do not only get spirit but also spellpower (15% of spirit, 6), you could also go for raw mana per 5 secons and take some Mighty Rhino Dogs or Spicy Fried Herring. As your chef I would recommend the food that buffs you with 46 spellpower and 40 stamina untill you feel you lack mana regen (which should not happen!).

Drinks

Flasks
Flask of the Frost Wyrm – 125 spellpower;
Flask of Pure Mojo – 38 mana per 5 seconds.

Elixirs
Spellpower Elixir – 58 spellpower (battle elixir);
Elixir of Spirit – 50 spirit (guardian elixir, ± 41 mp5s and 6 spellpower);
Elixir of Draenic Wisdom – 30 spirit and 30 intellect (guardian elixir, comparable to Elixir of Spirit with ± 39 mp5s, 450 manapoints and 4 spellpower);
Elixir of Mighty Thoughts – 45 intellect (guardian elixir);
Elixir of Mighty Mageblood – 24 mana per 5 seconds (guardian elixir).

If you are raiding I would go for the Flask of the Frost Wyrm or Spellpower Elixir with Elixir of Spirit/Elixir of Draenic Wisdom. But mostly players choose the flask because it persist throught death and will cost you less gold if you have to run in frequently. Plus, the flask is 125 spellpower that is a lot and beats the extra regen from the Elixir of Spirit. (If you like to do the math and prove me wrong, drop me an email!).

Potions
Runic Mana Potion – 4200 to 4400 mana;
Runic Healing Potion – 2700 to 4500 health;
Crazy Alchemist’s Potion – 3100 to 3500 health and 4200 to 4400 mana, only available for alchemists.

You can only use 1 potion per combat.

If you are an alchemist, your flasks last for 4 hours, elixirs for 120 minutes and your flask, elixir and potions have an extra effect through Mixology.


Haste Information:

Haste increases the speed you cast your spells (lowers the casttime) with and lowers your global cooldown (gcd). The global cooldown cannot be lowered under 1 second. However the lowering of your casttime is not limited. There is no such thing and a haste cap, you can have infinite haste untill your spell is instant, which is unreachable. Your haste stat can influenced by gear (including gems and enchants), talents or aura’s (buffs, elixirs, totems etc). The only talent that can lower your gcd or spellcast time through haste is Gift of the Earthmother. Another talent that lowers you casttime is Naturalist, but it only affects Healing Touch and not through haste.

Formula of haste

Haste_needed = Casttime/ (1+Casttime_wanted/100)

- haste_needed is the x% of cast speed increase
- casttime is the casttime of the spell
- 1% increased spell cast = 32,79 haste rating
- global cooldown is 1,5 seconds, which can be lowered to a minimum of 1 second.

Global Cooldown

The Global Cooldown (or gcd) is the time you have to wait in between spellcasts before you can cast another spell. Lowering the gcd would give you the ability to cast more spells and thus more healing. If you use the formula above to calculate how much haste you need to lower the gcd to 1,0 second, you will need 50% increased speed or 1640 haste. Which is unreachable (maybe it is reachable, but at a huge cost). With all possible raid buffs such as Moonkin Aura (3% haste) and Wrath of Air Totem (5% haste) you would need 1275 haste, which seems also unreachable. Is haste a stat a druid should look at? Yes, but only when you feel you have other stats like Spellpower, Spirit, Intellect and MP5 sorted.

You can get the gcd of your instant healing spells down to 1 second. How? Through Gift of the Earthmother and lots of haste, but not as high as the numbers noted before. To get a global cooldown of 1 second on Lifebloom, Rejuvenation and Wild Growth you need a speed increase of your spell (in this case gcd) of 15,38% or 505 haste, remember that the 20% from Gift of the Earthmother is applied after** any haste you have on gear. This number looks more reachable doesn’t it?

The question one could ask is: In what kind of setting do you actually want a gcd of 1 second? Mostly in a raid setting, a lower gcd means more spells that can be cast and results in more healing output. In a raid there are buffs like the Moonkin Aura (3% haste) and the Wrath of Air Totem (5% haste). How much haste does a druid need with or without these buffs?

Gift of the Earthmother – 15,38% or 505 haste (655)
Gift of the Earthmother/Moonkin Aura – 12% or 295 haste (541)
Gift of the Earthmother/Wrath of Air – 9,9% or 325 haste (469)
Gift of the Earthmother/Both – 6,9% or 225 haste (365)

This will give you a gcd of 1 second on Lifebloom, Rejuvenation and Wild Growth.

As you can see there is a kind of “soft” cap for haste in raids. Depending whether you talented Gift of the Earthmother and the available raidbuffs you need between 225 and 505 haste to reach a gcd of 1 second. In most raids you will find both buffs there, so thats why you will find the number of 225 haste around on other blogs and guides as a soft cap. Because above that number (assuming both buffs and a full talented Gift of the Earthmother) haste will still increase you spellcasting on non-instant spells.

Haste and casttime

Haste increases the speed of your spellcast. A nice stack of haste gives your druid more spells to cast in the same amount of time. Which means more healing output. If you look at the formula you will see that the longer the casttime the easier it is to lower your casttime. This is because haste is based on a percentage and not on a absolute value. As you can imagine 5% of a 3 second Healing Touch cast is higher the 5% of the 1,5 second Nourish cast. This also means you need more haste to get the same absolute amount of your spellcast (0,1 sec of healing touch 3 sec cast means 114 haste, on the 1,5 nourish cast it means 234 haste). Though a lower casttime is nice, if you stack too much haste you will lose some of the other stats that I think are better: Spellpower, Spirit, Intellect and MP5. Blizzard has said that it feels that haste and spell critical strike are inferior stats….


4.50 Hours later I am done for now More to come as I evolve. Input is welcome

Stats and information is a copilation of Sunamoon's states and experiance as well as Raaff's information.