Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Is Swiftmend Still Number One?

Today as I was finally finishing updating my Major Glyphs for Restoration Druids guide to include all the new glyphs from 3.1, I reread a few of their descriptions (checking for errors). I came finally to Glyph of Swiftmend, and this is what I had to say:
If you have Swiftmend, you should have this glyph. No arguments; it’s just that good. I’m not kidding. It gives you a heal that works just like Swiftmend, without the need to reapply a HoT. It saves you mana and increases your healing done. There is no reason not to get this glyph.

However...is that still the case?

With 3.1 we saw the mana regen nerf to innervate that almost necessitates it being glyphed to squeeze just a little more effectiveness out of it. Two new glyphs entered the scene: Nourish and Wild Growth. Though one is more a tank healer glyph and the other a raid healer glyph, both are extremely valuable. As well, Swiftmend has more and more become a situational spell, especially with its cooldown and the high amounts of haste in the game making Nourish an extremely quick cast. However, not having to refresh a HoT on the target you cast Swiftmend on may also be extremely valuable in this brave, new, less-mana-rific world.

I have not yet changed the glyphs on Bellwether, largely due to not needing to (as I do not have a guild, I have not entered Ulduar and have not needed to max out my efficiency), and also largely due to this debate over what glyphs are appropriate anymore. While Swiftmend used to be king, I think it's actually been rendered level by the many other options available to us. Rather than being "number one," it's simply "another good choice."

Which, to me, is not a bad thing. Variety keeps things from being dull, and allows for a greater range of playstyle. Hopefully it will not paralyze people with choices, and simply allow for more exploration of their own playstyle (i.e. how often do I need/use Swiftmend).

Though I haven't set up my glyphs yet, I am curious - what is your set up? Why did you choose those glyphs?

17 comments:

Kayeri said...

My glyphs are Swiftmend, Rebirth, and Innervate. I was set to change out to an LB glyph when the news came out about the mana regen nerf, followed by the LB nerf... So I never actually made the change.

My choices are unconventional, though. Swiftmend, I LOVE and I refuse to give it up now. I will actually hit it before Nourish, because its a insta-cast. When its in cooldown, then I use Nourish. I suppose I could change that one out to make myself use Nourish more... but I love it.

I also really like the extra health, now full health, that Rebirth grants for those oh-crap moments, like if a tank goes down on a hateful strike from Patchwerk. You can have them back in the fight hopefully before he hits a dpser.

Innervate was rarely needed and was the one I was going to change out until the 3.1 news came out. I'll hang on to it for now out of paranoia. Our guild did start in Ulduar on Saturday and downed two bosses.

So far, though, I have to say my fears have so far been proven un-needed. Since I am in a smaller guild, I've rarely been called upon to roll LBs on multiple tanks, and I've found I can maintain a 3-stack on one just fine. That is a great relief!

I think the glyph choices are good ones for blazing into new content, though. After we really get going, then it'll be time to re-assess and possibly update.

Darraxus said...

I rock swiftmend, lifebloom, and regrowth. The funny thing is that I cant even remember the last time I used swiftmend. I think I am going to switch to Nourish and Wid Growth when I get the chance. Those and rejuvenation are probably my most used spells. Swiftmend and lifebloom prolly going bye bye.

Orbitz said...

For my Majors I picked:

Swiftmend, Nourish and Wildgrowth. I'll start in reverse order just to keep you reading... ;)

Wildgrowth (This took the place of my Innervate Glyph), 1 extra target getting heals. To me this is a valuable edition - since in my guild we usually are at odds being 1 more melee dps then ranged. Having this around on the Melee every time its up; helps us and assists our Shaman(s) healing as well on fights where burst damage is acquired. I still need to test this out more, but Mana Regen for me hasn't been that big of an issue.

Nourish, so the 6% trumps the 7.5 set bonus... no biggie there. But it has now trumped regrowth on healing, simply because of its quicker cast time (also depending on the haste you have). Mine personally is 1.3sec. In 10-mans I can clutch heal effectively but still be mana conscious. To me - from all I've read, researched and now tested - this was worth the wait and swapping for my Regrowth Glyph.

And lastly Swiftmend. I still needed to have it. I've always been a rejuv + regrowth user and now I have become a rejuv + nourish user. Having Glyphed Swiftmend and now a great big heal just go hand in hand. My HoT's will roll, the crits will fly and my mana saved to throw up some more without swiftmend eating one.

I've swiftmended more since this patch, I say its more necessity then just something nice to have anymore.

And that's all folks. :)

(P.S. I like your newer header!)

Averna said...

I am definitely keeping the Swiftmend glyph - I'm of the school of thought that yes, it is still king. =)

I gave up lifebloom in favor of wild growth (the glyphs, not the spells). I want LB to bloom more quickly now. I still have the 11 point talent in the balance tree to extend it by two seconds, but the one second from the glyph just isn't worth it anymore. I took the wild growth glyph because there are so many encounters in Ulduar that have lots of AoE damage, and WG works really well.

I still have the Regrowth glyph sitting there, but I'm really considering switching to the Nourish glyph. I use Nourish a LOT now, and think that buffing it with the glyph will be wise.

Awlbiste said...

Swiftmend, Nourish, Innervate. I replaced Regrowth with Nourish because I just wasn't using Regrowth while Regrowth was still ticking very much.

I only really run heroics so I do use Swiftmend often enough to make the glyph super viable.

I like Innervate because I can use it on other people to keep runs going quickly with less stopping for drinking, actually.

My methods are not the best but for what I do I think I do just fine and this set up serves me really well.

Ulbanata said...

I'll probably be going with the Nourish, Wild Growth, Swiftmend setup. I'll be losing Regrowth and Lifebloom.

Siwftmend is still the king for me, I hate having to reapply hots after using it up.

Nourish will just trump everything for tank healing with the set bonuses and will still come in handy for raid healing. It'll take over for Regrowth pretty well for my usual rotations.

Wild Growth will just be too nice in the raid healing environment. I'm just waiting for the prices to come down now, or get lucky with one of those glyph books -.-

I'm wondering though if the Rejuv glyph will become a favorite when people start getting 4 T8 for raid healing. The 4 T8 will greatly change up raid healing, at least for me, and that glyph could potentially replace the Wild Growth Glyph.

Keeva said...

I don't think I'll ever drop Swiftmend. It might be situational, but it's a real PITA to have to reapply my HoTs after a SM - it messes with my rotation. It's also a mana saver, and while I'm not hurting for mana a lot of the time, I do like to be as efficient as possible. Mostly though it's just great to be able to SM without losing my HoTs and having to reapply them. In Ulduar you are often GCD locked, and losing your Rejuv from a target (=losing a ~2k tick or two before you come back to refresh it) means wasting a GCD that you could have used for something else.

Might not seem like a biggie, but some fights are really spammy and that extra GCD can make a difference.

I use Swiftmend, Nourish, and WG for most fights. My style is "HoTs on the tank then heal the raid", so this setup works really nicely for me. The WG glyph is so hot, I love it, and the Nourish glyph makes my Nourishes not-suck when I have to break my 4pc T7 on some fights (any fight that doesn't have me on full-on tank healing, but still requires big throughput - I put my high spellpower pieces on rather than using my 4pc).

Raiding is insane at the moment, we've raided every day since the patch, 6hrs+ per night and 10-12hrs on weekends.

I really want to kill Yogg Saron so that we can relax a bit and I can actually blog about stuff. I'm reading everyone else's "first impression" posts and whining to myself that I don't have any time to post my own :(





@Ulbanata: the Rejuv glyph is still very situational and almost useless in PvE EXCEPT for situations where people WILL be dropping under 50% a lot, so that you get good mileage.

In most cases, someone might drop under 50% but then be hammered with heals to get them back up (especially tanks). You might get a tick or so out of it, so say a tick for 3000 instead of 2000. Not bad - but if it's happening very rarely, it's probably not worth taking over some of the other glyphs (if it's tank healing for example, you'd be better of with the Regrowth glyph for 20% bigger ticks of Regrowth - you'll get far more benefit from it AND it will be consistent).

However... some fights like Mimiron P2 have the entire raid dropping rapidly and staying dangerously low while the healers try to get them all up ASAP. I intend to reglyph rejuv (over nourish) specifically for this fight. It will be even better if it does in fact stack with the T8 4pc bonus.

So in some cases it will be FANTASTIC.. but in most cases very bad, and you're better off taking one of the others.

Anonymous said...

I am currently using Nourish, Swiftmend, and Innervate.

That being said, I've purchased a WG glyph, and I'm seriously thinking about swapping that out with my innervate glyph. So far I don't think my mana has been such an issue that I need to maintain the innervate glyph.

~Beru

krizzlybear said...

Swiftmend - Has synergy with Regrowth, as it keeps the Regrowth HoT up, allowing my re-application to heal for more. And it's still very good.
Regrowth - I'm specced to maximize the effectiveness of Regrowth/Nourish/Rejuvenation, so this glyph helps me a lot.
Nourish - with RG and RJ up, nourish is a beast of a spot heal.

Lissanna said...

I picked up Swiftmend & nourish glyphs. I still have regrowth but I will probably be trading it out for Wild Growth when the price on it drops...

Anonymous said...

I'm using Swiftmend, Lifebloom, and Wild Growth. Because of the recent mana nerfs along with regularly running Ulduar with my guild, I'm starved for mana a good portion of the time.

The glyphs for Swiftmend and Lifebloom really help with conserving mana, and though with the glyph of Wild Growth it only hits 1 more target, when Wild Growth makes up about 40% of my raid heals, it's pretty clear that it's an amazing glyph to boost my healing.

I can't really speak much for the glyph of Nourish however, I almost never use Nourish and tend to rely on Regrowth when I need a direct heal - I've seen that Nourish, while having a faster cast time, doesn't heal for as much as Regrowth (even with the t7 bonus).

Unknown said...

Swiftmend
Nourish
Lifebloom

LB.
With double cost lifeblooms those extra seconds coupled with the Nature's Splendor and Genesis talents help to give a much nicer return until your ready to let them bloom for the mana refund.

Swiftmend
Yes this is still the daddy of glyphs, keeping the HoT element while still allowing for that extra bump in healing is a great mana saver which in 3.1 is excellent, using this with Rejuv that also has a chance to proc revitalize will give that extra kicker.

Nourish
Extra % heals per HoT coupled with the T7 4 piece set bonus and the crit we now receive on Nourish as part of our talents means this low cost fast spell can crit for high numbers, 14k so far is my best Nourish crit. Fine for a tank, but can be wasted as overheal on many other players. To that end i'm considering swapping it out for the Wild Growth glyph but tbh in a raid environment how often are 6 people grouped tightly together, the WG is very situational so i'm still considering the switch.

Glyph of Innervate i find a waste of a slot, I very rarely have mana issues i'm still in a position to give away my innervate in most Ulduar boss fights to another caster.

I have also had thoughts about changing back to the Regrowth Glyph but again like a poster above i rarely refresh it before it expires and it often needs refreshing when the extra healing would be overheal.

All together the Nourish / Regrowth glyphs are more for tank healing where you gain the benefit, it's all dependant on what your assigned to as your usual healing role.

Sylly said...

I seem to be odd man out here. I'm rocking Lifebloom, Nourish, Wild Growth. I use Lifebloom more often than Swiftmend by far, and like to keep it rolling mostly. Too twitchy watching the tank's health and deciding about the bloom in most cases. So I like having that extra time on the spell. It's a big mana saver for me. I use Swiftmend, but not enough to really miss that glyph.

Sarai said...

I am using Swiftmend, Innervate and Rebirth. Ressing people with full health has been yummy so far, and I don't know what I'd do without SM. I'm thinking now of switching Innervate for Wild Growth, since mana is almost a non-issue with me.

Aertimus said...

I have two healing specs. With my tank healing spec I've glyphed Swiftmend, Lifebloom, and Nourish. The bulk of my healing is still coming from LB. I'm with Keeva, I like to HoT the tank than raid heal before I go back and re HoT. LB gives me more wiggle room.

With my raid healing/mana conserving spec I've glyphed Swiftmend, Innervate, and Wild Growth.

So I guess the answer is yes, I think Swiftmend is still number one and I think it is the only Glyph that is mandatory for all possible scenarios: raid healing, tank healing, mana tight, or spiky damage.

Kymber said...

I have recently dropped my Regrowth and Lifebloom glyphs in favor of Nourish and Wild Growth. I was considering dropping Swiftmend for Innervate, but then I realized that I really wasn't having much of an issue with mana management, even if I do roll LB on 3 tanks at a time like I'm not supposed to be doing anymore. Honestly I think I like Wild Growth the best now. After watching my meters before glyphing for Wild Growth, I realized it was on top by a fairly decent margin, therefore it only makes sense to have it reach one more person. I still don't know if Nourish or Swiftmend come in a close second for me.

alice lory and eaglet said...

If you have fellow trees in your raid then it is polite to run the glyph of swiftmend. There is nothing more annoying than being sure you had a rejuv on x tank only to discover that some other druid gobbled it up before you got to it with your swiftmend.

I blanketly said to our druids that glyph of swiftmend was compulsory and all others optional. At the same time I encourage heavy use of it, if we don't make use of it why glyph for it?