Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Restoration Raiding Consumables

Yes, it’s another of those posts. Inspired by Bear’s consumables post for Feral tanks, I want to take an in-depth look at all consumables available to a Restoration Druid. There’s a variety of these things to choose from, so let’s get cracking, shall we?

Elixirs and Flasks
For at least every boss fight, and perhaps some of the trash, you’re going to want either both a Battle Elixir and Guardian Elixir or a two-hour Flask. Generally, Flasking is cheaper, especially on new content, while Elixir combinations are more powerful, but fade when you die. It’s often a good idea that, if you expect to die a lot with little or no progress, Flask. Let’s take a quick look at all your options available to you.

Elixirs
Battle Elixirs
Elixir of Healing Power – This is hands-down the best Battle Elixir you can chug. It’s a straight-up +50 healing to you, and everyone loves the higher healing. However, when WotLK rolls around, it seems like…
Adept’s Elixir - …this sort of elixir may be a better all-around choice. Phaelia revealed that critting with heals will give a great bonus to a Tree’s spells. Though I am sure WotLK will bring all new alchemy recipes, including probably a better version of this. Still something to consider bringing along if you run out of mats for Healing Power; it does have a bonus of +24 healing.

Guardian Elixirs
Draenic Wisdom – Thanks to the changes in mana regen from patch 2.4, this has become the premiere raiding Battle Elixir. Increasing both your Intellect and Spirit by 30 helps your mana regen, increases your mana pool, and adds about 7 +healing to your tree aura. A triple threat!
Elixir of Major Mageblood – This elixir is a straight 16 mp5. If you’re going to be out of tree form for a while, this is arguably a better Elixir for the job than Draenic.
Elixir of Major Fortitude – Sometimes, you just need a boost to your health. Many upper level encounters have large AoE burst damage you just cannot mitigate, such as Naj’entus in BT, who deals an unavoidable 8k+ of pain when you burst his bubble. If you don’t have enough stam, consider bringing this along for 250 extra health and 10 hp5.

Flasks
Flask of Distilled Wisdom – There is some debate over this Flask. After 2.4, an increase in Intellect is an increase in the mp5 benefit of Spirit. This also has the added benefit of giving you a larger mana pool, which is almost as good as mp5. And for fights like Kaz’rogal, where your mana is drained and a lack of mana to drain results in someone exploding for over 10k damage, starting with a bigger mana pool can never hurt.
Flask of Mighty Restoration – This is a straight-up, no math required addition of 25 mp5 to your mana pool. This is a huge amount of straight mp5, so if you’re down on this vital stat this isn’t a bad flask to pick up.
Shattrath Flask of Mighty Restoration – This flask is exactly the same as the above mentioned buff, but it can be purchased using a Mark of the Illidari from those snooty guys in your Scryer or Aldor bank. However, you must be exalted with either the Scryer or the Aldor, the Sha’tar, and the Cenarion Expedition.
Flask of Chromatic Wonder - This flask was recommended by ryfo in my comments. He lists many great reasons to use this flask: it's cheap, it stacks with Blessing of Kings, it gives resistances, and is an all-around well-balanced flask. Consider this alternative, especially if you're going to be hitting Mother Shahraz or other resistance-sensitive fights.

Food
Food buffs are delicious, but perhaps only if you’re into seafood. Though you’re generally not supposed to exercise on a full stomach, being well-fed should ensure you’re never running out of steam.

Golden Fishsticks – This is the best food buff for both healing Priests and Druids. +44 to your healing and 20 spirit. The spirit adds to your mp5, as well as gives your aura another +5 to healing. Beneficial and well-rounded, this is almost always the food of choice.
Blackened Sporefish – This is a more situational bit of fish, as the straight 8 mp5 is not as beneficial as the spirit to a Tree druid, but that extra 20 stam can be a boon if you’re lacking health.
Spicy Crawdad/Fisherman's Feast - Providing a +30 stam buff and a +20 spirit buff, this is also a great option for when you need more stam than regen, and +20 just isn't enough. These were also suggested in the comments by kaaylia.
Feltail Delight – Though there are many food buffs that supply the same +20 stam/spirit combination (Mok’Nathal Shortribs, Talbuk Steak to name a few), I like this one because I can get it at the same time I fish for the other food buffs. It’s great for farm content/trash, and is generally much less expensive than the other two.

Weapon Oils
Brilliant Mana Oil – This is the best oil for the job. Well-rounded, with 12 mp5 and +25 to healing, the only problem with it is the cost. It’s an old-world recipe (Zandalar Rep), and rather rare, so expect its price to be gouged in the AH when you can find it, and the mats to be a bit more difficult to come by.
Superior Mana Oil – Acceptable and a nice mp5 boost, this is the most commonly used mana oil. 14 mp5 is nothing to scoff at, and every enchanter worth their salt will have the recipe.
Superior Wizard Oil - thanks to my amazing readers, this oil has been pointed out to have an unstated +42 buff to healing. Which is great if your mp5 has been soaring up but your base healing has been lagging behind. Thanks guys!

Scrolls
Though these don’t stack with player buffs, it’s nice to have something to spot-buff yourself with in-between chain pulls should you be unfortunate enough to die or after a Rebirth. This is particularly helpful with streams of pulls like in Mount Hyjal, where all pulls are timed and there are no/very few breaks for rebuffs. Included in this are Scroll of Spirit V, Scroll of Intellect V, and Scroll of Stamina V. Not necessary by any means, but, should you pick some up, they’re worth hanging onto.

Potions
Super Mana Potion – This is the mainstay of all mana-users. It’s a straight return to your mana, and therefore keeps you going when you’d otherwise be basically useless.
Auchenai Mana Potion - Just as good as a Super, this potion is purchaseable with two Spirit Shards. A nice, money-saving alternative.
Mana Potion Injector – This is a primo item. It saves bag space (something druids are always in desperate need of). There are a few mats needed besides just 20 Super Mana Pots, but I believe the space saved is well worth it. You need the room for all those epic loots.
Super Healing Potion – It’s always a good idea to carry a couple of these around. Sometimes, your mana pool is just fine, but you desperately need a boost to your health.
Auchenai Healin Potion - Just as good as a super, and purchaseable with two Spirit Shards.
Healing Potion Injector – Since you shouldn’t use so many Health Pots, this isn’t really necessary, but once again nice for the bag space.
Super Rejuvenation Potion – These suckers are great when you need health and mana! Just suck it down, enjoy the lovely grape flavor, and get back to healing without having to heal yourself. As much, anyway. Their mats are a little more extensive than a Health or Mana pot, however, so if you have the choice it might be better to go with…
Mad Alchemist Potion – Only for alchemists, these are like Super Rejuvs only with way less expensive mats and an interesting side-effect: a random elixir buff. The random buff won’t replace your current buffs, so feel free to use the whenever.
Fel Mana Potion – Though this potion supplies a debuff to your healing, its Mp5 value is arguably greater than a slight momentary drop in heal value. Obviously, this depends on the fight and your own gear, so it’s a judgment call. Phaelia did an article on the advantages of the Fel Mana Potion, but it may be out of date with the changes to mana regen in 2.4.

Remember, when available, to use raid-specific potions such as Cenarion Healing Salve and Cenarion Mana Salve for SSC (purchaseable with Coilfang Armaments right outside the instance, if you are Exalted with CE), and Bottled Nethergon Vapor and Bottled Nethergon Energy for TK.

Other
**Be aware: all of the following share a cooldown with your Healthstones**
Fel Blossoms – These mini-shields are handy for times when your healing isn’t going to do anything; such as the first phase of Reliquary of Souls, where all healing is effectively reduced to zero, including that of pots and stones. They can help keep you alive for just a bit longer. They are also only available to Herbalists.
Charged Crystal Focus – If you’re out of healthstones and there’s been no time to lay down a new soulwell, these work nicely in a pinch. You should find one or two every day you do your dailies in Blade’s Edge, and they only take a few Apexis Shards to charge up.
Demonic Rune – These are good for “oh no my mana pot is down but I really need some mana NOW” situations. They hurt you, and the return is small, but with how inexpensive Lifebloom is, it’s basically worth it to squeeze out another few if you’re in danger of going OOM. They're easily farmed from satyrs in Felwood.
Luminous Bluetail – A very small amount of mana, it may not be worth the healthstone cooldown. However, this one doesn’t hurt you like the Darkrune does. They're fishable on the Isle of Quel'danas, so you can snag some while you're doing your dailies, if you don't have to worry about being stabbed in the back.

Now that I'm done critting your face with my wall of text, I hope that's helped you decide what you need for raiding!

EDIT: i r dum when it comes to Mana Injectors. They are splittable. Thanks, Jon!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice helpful list. I don't know how long it took to figure out the whole flask/elixir thing. Actually, I use Superior Mana Oil because my Mp5 is quite fine. Despite it not specifically saying healing, it gives a 42 +healing bonus.

Bell said...

@Zane - thanks for the tip; I'd always wondered about that. Though it's "Wizard" not "Mana." Which I'm sure was just an oversight :)

Anonymous said...

OW MY FACE! Thank you for this! It has made me re-evaluate my raid consumables. I always forget elixirs!

Anonymous said...

Yes, I use the Wizard oil more often myself, as it DOES affect healing.

PTD

Anonymous said...

Hi Bell,

Nice list! I'd like to comment on Elixir of Major Mageblood and Elixir of Draenic Wisdom for resto druids. I am a resto druid and elixir master, by the way, so I make a lot of these things for myself and others.

Draenic Wisdom is the premiere elixir for priests, but we're better off with Mageblood. Why? It has to do with innervate.

In any fight where the druid uses innervate on herself, Draenic Wisdom is much better. In T5/T6, innervate will entirely refill your mana bar, so it is much better to start with a larger one.

However, our guild runs with two druids, and our innervates are always used on arcane mages and the shadowpriest except for one fight in Hyjal (Kazrogal) and one fight in ZA (Malacrass). Maybe there will be others, as we're only 5/9 in BT. I find that both druids are better off with Mageblood when we have to use only pots to recover mana. I also prefer Superior Mana Oil to Wizard oil or even Brilliant (which is great, but you just don't need to go to the trouble).

I also tend to eat +stam/spirit food as opposed to healing/spirit.

--Sydera

Bell said...

@Sydera - I respectfully disagree. Though if all you're going for is mp5, Mageblood would be the best, I prefer the triple-threat increase of the Draenic, that is:

An increase to the mana pool's overall size;
An increase to mp5 (both casting and Innervate regen)
An increase to the +healing provided by the ToL aura (or personal +healing, in the case of Dreamstate druids)

In my particular raid experience as well, I use innervates on myself and priests, and generally only during long fights or after someone has been battle rezzed.

Everything should be attuned to what you need at that point in time. Food choice, oil choice, and elixirs are all interchangeable dependant upon what you need/can get away with/can afford/your raid demands.

Anonymous said...

As I recently changed to Resto, this is a much welcomed list. Thanks a bushel =)

Anonymous said...

By the way... the new "Toasted Smorc" treat from the Midsummer Fire Festival STACKS WITH EVERYTHING!

They are so good!

/treegasm

Unknown said...

Seriously tell your arcane mages (who'll have a larger mana pool to start with as lots of int > lots of dmg for them) and especially your mana batteries to sort out their own mana. Chain potting mana potions, or more mana efficient spell rotations.

I always run with either draenic wisdow/healing power or distilled wisdom. It benefits you more in the end, and they're cheaper to make as well.

As for the mats for brilliant mana oil - if you happen to have a lvl 70 alt capable of some dps, go farm the fire elemental type boss in Blackrock Depths. You can safely run past most of the trash, take out the 2 final guards in the corridor leading up the huge anvil and kill him easy. He'll always drop lvl 50+ blue fire res gear - DE it and there's your shard. Run out, reset, repeat. 10-15 minutes work and you've got 2 shards. Purple Lotus grows everywhere so should be pretty cheap or easy to get by.

Brent said...

Don't forget the Apexis mana pots. As good as the Super Mana Pots but 50 apexis shards each. Do your dailies and you easily geat a heap of them to offset the cost of normal mana pots.

Ryfo said...

Great list, I would like to mention one flask that I find missing from many lists.

I am a resto druid, currently raiding SSC content. I 100% agree with the healing power + draenic wisdom combo for the times I use an elixir.

However, I think there is a better flask for resto druids than the flask of mighty restoration. I use the Flask of Chromatic Wonder. It is +18 to all stats and +35 to all resists.

The pro's to using this flask are this. 1.) I gain a greater amount of mana regen outside of the 5sec rule. which allows for greater regen during those few moments I may not be casting. 2.) it stacks with kings, which is a huge bonus in itself. having 18 more int and spirit tacked on that 10% buff is very nice. 3.) It buffs both my stamina and mana pools. 4.) It buffs my ToL spirit based + heal bonus. 5.) the resists stack with GoTW and any resist auras, which is nice in the elemental heavy fights encountered in raiding.

Cons: I currently have 10 less mp5 while casting than I do when I use the Flask of Mighty Resto. However, I also use the Bangle of Endless Blessings, and I can say the mana regen from that trinket out gains any lost mana from 10mp5 less.

I encourage other druids to try this flask out for both resto healing and feral tanking, I think the stats and benefits really benefit our class.

-Trius, 70 Druid, Kirin Tor (US)

Anonymous said...

Overall, this list is spot on. I'm personally a fan of the Healing Power/Draenic Wisdom/Wizard Oil/Golden Fishstick(/Toasted Smorc!) combo 90% of the time.

There are two things I would add to your list. Instead of using Feltail Delights when I need stamina, I typically use Spicy Crawdad or Fisherman's Feast. Same stats as Feltail, only you get 30 stamina instead of 20. This is great for fights with heavy AoE damage and really, when is more health EVER a bad thing? :) They're easy enough to get if you do your fishing daily. I always choose the barrel of fish reward (as should all druid healers!) and I typically get enough to maintain a stack for myself and some extras for any bad, bad tanks who don't have enough. >D Just a suggestion!

- Kaaylia, Shadow Council (US)

Bell said...

@kaaylia - yes, those give stamina, you're totally correct :) However, when I was pointing the feltail's out, it was more of a "if you need a boost but nothing dire." I'll definitely add those to the list, though, along with ryfo's excellent suggestion.

Anonymous said...

Demonic Runes are BoP, so you'd have to farm them yourself.

Dark Runes do the same thing and are non-binding, so you may find them on the AH, stockpile them in the Guild Bank, or farm them from Scholo with a slightly more [ahem]appropriate[/ahem] toon than a Resto Druid.

Note that, situationally, Dark Runes and Demonic Runes are useful for more than just an emergency mana boost. Combined with Blessing of Sacrifice, for instance, they can allow someone to "wake up" a Paladin that's been incapacitated (e.g. if your Tankadin decides he wants to tank Moroes and all of his adds, he needs a way to be instantly knocked out of Gouge).