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Cenarion Ward

Cenarion Ward

9.2% of base mana	40 yd range

Instant	30 sec cooldown

Requires Druid
Requires level 30

Protects a friendly target for 30 sec. Any damage taken will consume the ward and heal the target for (879.9% of Spell power) over 6 sec.

Buff

Cenarion Ward

Taking damage will grant 100 healing every 2 sec for 6 sec.
30 seconds remaining

Spell Details

Duration

30 seconds

School

Nature

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

Normal

Cost

9.2% of base mana

Range

40 yards (Long)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

30 seconds

GCD

1.5 seconds

Effect

Apply Aura: Dummy
Value: 100
Server-side script

Guides

Balance Druid Guide

Feral Druid Guide

Overview of
Tanking and
All Tank Specs

Restoration Druid
PVE Guide [5.4.0]

Warlords of Draenor
Druid Changes

[L90 / MoP]
Guardian Druid Tanking
Guide (Update Pending)

Comments

Comment by selvin

You would think ward would mean it would shield, but this doesn't actually prevent damage, it's more of a reactive HOT spell.

Comment by Lucidic

This ability is basically a stronger Living Seed on demand. While this spell provides the most healing over time of the three talents in its tier it has the requirement of the target taking damage after the ward is applied and the healing is over time instead of instant.

If you want to maximize stable healing on any target that is taking damage regularly (good for resto druids healing tanks or for soloing) pick this.

If you want a self only "oh crap" button pick the 30% self heal on 2 minute cooldown.

If you want a more flexible but less powerful "oh crap" button that lets you heal yourself or any other target OR instant cast a clutch root or cyclone pick nature's swiftness.

Comment by SolidSnack

Since it uses a lot of mana, does that mean it's impractical for feral/guardian druids to use it? :/ I'm mainly asking for the sake of tanks since DPS specs aren't supposed to heal (much).

Comment by xanous

A guardian druid with dragon-soul level gear gets about 10k healing per tick from this talent.

Comment by Yuke

This spell seems to be able to be cast while silenced. At least, I've been casting it while silenced in several BGs. And I seem to have been able to cast it once or twice while stunned, but I have terrible lag so it might of just seemed like that. The game seems very buggy atm, so this Silenced-casting might just be a bug.

Regardless, I like this talent. it's a nice reactive HoT that can be cast on you or anyone, adding another heal to our toolbox. If it truly can be cast while silenced (maybe even CC'd) I think that makes it unique and very powerful. It's on a small enough cooldown to be useable multiple times in a long fight, and can be enough of a boost to stave off death for a few moments.

However, It's a little underwhelming as a self-heal when compared to both of the other talents, and it lacks the flexibility of Nature's Swiftness for both Offense and Defense. I think it's a really fun talent to play with, but I think ultimately the 30% heal will be the go-to for Bears, and the Instant Big Heal/CC for Booms/Trees, with Cats having a bit more leeway to pick any three.

Comment by Virtualseeds

I differ a little on its applibility in raids as i think it fits in nicely with my healing style. I place it on the tank so it starts healing as soon as he takes damage while i am getting rejuvenation on him and setting him up for swiftmend.

I also use it on squishy players that seem to take damage poorly. Nice while waiting for wild growth to reset. Its a nice spell and druids can always use another Hot.

Comment by snub999

Nature's Swiftness heals for more, not to mention in pvp, this is can be dispelled.

Comment by Derangera

CAN be cast while silenced, however. Good in PvE in those fights when you get silenced.

Comment by tarthur1

When considering this spell, I would like to offer some points of advice (from a resto point of view, though many of the points will still stand in other specs). All numbers are based on having 25k spell power and 425k health, pulled completely out of my stag form's hind-end.

First, this spell can be cast most often when compared to Nature's Swiftness and Renewal as it has a 30sec cooldown.

As far as healing potential, we have the following:
Nature's Swiftness: Glyphed Regrowth will heal 104k *2crit (the 1.5 comes from the 50% boost to the heal from NS) while Healing Touch will heal for 102k . Since HT can crit and Regrowth can't supercrit, HT is better since it will sometimes heal for 204k. Without crits from HT taken into account, NS offers 204k healing over 2min.
Renewal: heals 127k (health*.3) every 2min.
Cenarion Ward: heals 115k each cast over 6sec (1.04SP+12349)*3ticks, or 460k over 2min.

Now, one thing I like about this spell is that it is less likely to overheal if the target is continuing to take damage. If the target has 625k/700k health and is taking 10k damage each second, at the end of 6sec, they will have around 680k health while an NS HT will leave them with 640k and 27k healing is lost to overhealing. You could just wait a couple sec before casting it, BUT THAT ISN'T THE POINT.

Finally, this is the only talent in that tier that costs mana. It's only 2.06% more mana than Rejuvenation, but a mana cost is still a mana cost and this spell will end up costing you 60% of your BASE mana over 2min while NS HT will save you 57.8% of your base mana (compared to casting HT without NS during that time) and Renewal will save you 39.1% of you base mana and some change given that one HT and a Nourish would heal you for about the same amount (of course the instant effect of Renewal and NS only adds to their value).

So, CW gives the most healing but uses mana and heals over time, NS offers more utility as it can affect more spells than just HT, and finally, Renewal is a simple, one button self heal, but heals for the least and has the longest cooldown (however, given its similarity to Cold Snap for mages, I feel like it may be usable while stunned, etc, though I've yet to test that theory; if this is true, it adds a special something to what would likely be considered the worst talent in the tier).

Comment by Tareth

The initial spell you cast, Cenarion Ward, which has a 30 second duration, has a spell ID of 102351.

If you are like me and also want to track the 6 second healing portion of the spell, it is Cenarion Ward with spell ID 102352.

Comment by Stugs

"Useable in all shapeshift forms." par flight form.

Comment by Teryx

On my level 60 ilvl62ish druid with 9.3K hp as Guardian bear and 6.7K hp as resto this heals for 3.2K per tick.
On my level 70 ilvl110ish druid with 14.4K hp as Guardian bear and 10.2K hp as resto it heals for 6K per tick.
On my level 80 ilvl185ish druid with 25K hp as Guardian bear and 19.3K hp as resto it heals for 10K per tick.

This talent is completely imba while leveling. Reactive heal capable of healing more than your tank's HP pool every 30 seconds? Ridiculous.

At level 90 though, it heals for 44.4K per tick, which is alot less relative to HP compared to lower levels.

PS these are tooltip figures. I would guess the healing scales with +heal and procs affecting spellpower.

Comment by Teryx

Ysera's gift offers similar throughput and is a smart heal.

But sometimes healing here and now where you want it is more valuable than a slow steady heal over time. If you have the rotation precision to use this one correctly, go for it. Only Nature's Swiftnessed Healing Touch and Soul of the Forest used on Rejuvenation or Lifebloom gives a stronger single target heal per global cooldown than this.

Comment by bubadubadoo

Seeing as it hasn't been mentioned, the healing doesn't proc off of fall damage.

Comment by Santastrauss7000

WOD (6.0) formula for Cenarion Ward
Nature spell power * 880%

Comment by Casn

In WoD, this is best pick for Resto Druid in this tier. While Ysera's Gift offers free and smart healing, it barely helps with anything.
In WoD people are not in risk of dying when at 80-90% and not taking damage, single Rejuvenation will help them, and is more reliable than waiting 20 seconds or more for Ysera's Gift do to same job.

On the other hand Cenarion Ward has low CD, low mana cost (cheaper than Healing Touch), and greatest healing, even stronger than 'boosted' other spells (Nature Swiftness/Soul of the Forest, unless we're talking about combining both effects at once). On my 625 Resto Druid with mastery active, it heals for 50k while base Healing Touch only gives ~20k, so 30k with Swiftness. And it's only 30 sec CD

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