Ulduar raid healing for druids

In my last post, I lamented the downturn my guild was facing as our progress slowed more and more in the face of 'guild death'. There has been no progress since my last post. We didn't even attempt Ignis this week because we don't have a reliable ranged dps to burst down brittle golems.

I've seen some guides to healing in Ulduar, and I think the reason such guides have come up is that raid damage is much higher in Ulduar than in Naxxramas or other pre 3.1 content. The raid damage is either constant and random across many members (Razorscale's devouring flame), or in big predictable bursts against the whole raid (Deconstructor's tympanic tantrum). While I have only been up to Auraiya I have come up with some druid-specific strategies for healing that I think healing druids new to Ulduar will find useful. While I'm not an endgame hardcore min-maxed uber raider, I pride myself in keeping my raid alive to the best of my abilities.

Recommended Glyphs
Wild Growth: 6 targets healed is better than 5. 'Nuff Said
Swiftmend: Some nice burst healing without sacrificing your HoT
Nourish: Not so important if you have T7 4 piece, but a nice boost as nourish is your main direct heal in Ulduar.
*Glyph of Innvervate in place of Nourish if you are having mana issues, but I can't say as I hardly go OOM. I usally end up innverating our shaman or paladin now that we can :) As far as gear goes, if you are in all healer-oriented epics (No +hit, wannabe Moonkins!) you should be fine.

Also get the Idol of Awakening ASAP. It is worth the 25 valor emblems if you were not lucky enough to get it in a Naxx 25 run. The idol reduces your rejuvenation mana costs significantly, and rejuvenation will be a primary source of raid heals. This idol is way more useful than the lifebloom idol.

A guildie once asked me about itemization, gems and enchants for Resto druids. This is my preference: Spell Power>Spirit>Intellect>Haste>Crit. Try to keep a balance. Once your spirit gets up to about 900-1000, stop going for it and focus on spellpower. I usally make sure I get all my gem socket bonuses, so get Spi/Spell Power purple gems if you need to fill a blue socket, and Spell Power/Int gems if you need to fill a Yellow Socket.

Haste and Crit comes on all your gear anyways - crit is devalued for druids as most of our healing spells cant crit, and Regrowth and Nourish are propped up by talents already (+25% to crit). Haste is still a so-so benefit because so few of our spells have casting times, and we have nature's grace to speed up our casting after a crit anyways. True, haste reduces the GCD so more HOTs can be cast in a shorter amount of time, but to me that benefit feels negligble compared to the amount of haste required. So in any case, let those stats come as they are on your gear, but don't go out of your way to get them. Anyhoo, back to Ulduar.

A general Ulduar raid healing strategy:

Rejuvenation: Cast this as often as possible, on someone that does not have it. Its nice to have on the tanks, but its more important to focus on raid members. By keeping up rejuvenation on as many targets as possible:
-Any player can be thrown a quick Swiftmend if need be.
-In times of lots of movement, if you are out of range they are still getting some healing from you.
-If they end up needing a nourish or two (they are thrown into Ignis's pot, or grabbed by Kologarn), they stand to get to %20 benefit straight away.
-If you have 4pc T8, which adds an instant heal equal to one tick on each cast, it gets even more effective.

In a 10-man, you can usually have rejuv ticking on most of the raid if you stay in range of all of them. It lasts 18 seconds (talented), which is just about the time it takes to cast one on each member (including yourself). Then, start all over again. If you find yourself standing still doing nothing, you probably ought to be casting a rejuvenation on someone, unless there is a definite lull.

Your other HOT of choice is Wild Growth. I usually cast it on the tank or a melee. They are usually the most clumped up and stand to get greatest benefit. Of course, there are many times when casters clump together and the cast will hit many at once. Don't spam it for the sake of spamming it though. If there is a Kologarn Oblivion or other big hit to the raid you want to have the spell ready and not on cooldown, to cast right away.

Lifebloom is a tricky spell now. I never 'roll' it anymore, its a huge mana sucker. I will cast this as a supplementary HOT on someone after I rejuv'd them. Popular targets are light bomb/gravity bomb holders, tanks, and that guy you know is slow to move out of void zones.

Nourish is for clear, targeted, heavy damage. Ignis Pot, Fusion Punch (helping the tank healer), aggro on dps, and that guy you know is slow to move out of void zones.

If I'm feeling saucy, I'll cast Regrowth on a tank just for a little more padding for them. the 24 second HOT, to me, is more valuable than casting a lifebloom that costs much much more to get 24 seconds of coverage.

The key to heal this way is to 'trust' your HOTs to do their job. Most of the raid damage comes in intervals, and if someone's bar drops to 50% or less, you usually have a period of time to bring that back up. So don't panic - a single rejuv can heal 10,000 HP or more running its full course. By keeping rejuvs running on the raid, as soon as someone takes damage, they start ticking back up, slowly but surely.

To bring it all together, let's use iron council (10-man) as an example.
After Steelbreaker is brought over to his tanking position, I place mayself between him and and the tank who is keeping Mr. Rune and Mr. Storm occupied. This way I have all the raid members in range. (Take care to stay 30yds from Mr. Storm or his aoe pulse will do massive damage to you).

I am casting rejuv's in sequence onto all raid members including myself. When fusion punch comes up, I take a moment to cast a nourish or two on the tank to help the tank healer smooth out the massive damage he takes. Then I go back to rejuv's on the raid. If I notice someone is a bit low, I will follow the rejuv with a wild growth if they are in a clump, or with a lifebloom, if they are by themselves. When Steel goes down, I focus on keeping tanks up and healthy in the transition, then I go back to refreshing rejuv's on the raid. I save my wild growth and swiftmend for death runes and errant lightning balls, which can do a lot of damage quickly to random players. In the final phase against Mr. Storm, WG and Swiftmend are used a lot in the lightning bolt storms. Then the boss dies and we all /cheer. The End.

As I described it, casting constantly, you may think I would be OOM rather quickly. While I do go through a full bar of mana, with an innervate and a mana pot handy I have never gone completely OOM in any encounter, and in most cases neither aid is necessary. If you spammed Rejuvenations nonstop from start to finish, you would probably OOM before you should. It is crucial to follow the pace of the encounter and anticipate when your healing is needed. It's fine to stop casting and enjoy watching everyone's health bars tick up while you stand there getting mana back, but if you don't start back up before some large incoming damage, you may find yourself too far behind for your non-instant heals to do their job.

Just a little explanation of what has worked for me in Ulduar up to now. I hope in the near future I can progress further into Ulduar and get a little more insight about the second half of the dungeon. A lot of this advice probably doesnt apply to General Vejax, where all mana regen is disabled, or in some other encounters, but I would love any feedback or ideas about druid healing in Ulduar for any boss.