Regrowth Spec. Insane?

Post by Kaitain

When the PvP set bonus got changed to 0.2 sec faster Regrowth I at first thought how hideous it was and how big a nerf etc etc. After playing it in PvP for a few weeks I still don't like it, but I can live with it. It's a small knock to an undeniably powerful PvP spec.

However, last week I got called upon by my guild to park my usual raiding character (a warlock) and bring my resto to Black Temple, because we were short on healers.

The first revelation that i had was that Season 3 gear is actually quite acceptable for Black Temple. I'm sure if all 7 healers had PvP gear it wouldn't work, but the 6 of them in pure PvE gear plus me was absolutely fine, and I didn't underperform in the slightest. The int, mp5, and +healing on Season 3 are all at or above tier5 level, so the only drawback was sucky spirit. We compensated by giving me Shadow Priest group which eliminated any regen problems.

The second revelation was that 0.2 sec faster Regrowth is a wonderful bonus for PvE, specifically when healing up groups quickly. Coupled with Scarab of the Infinite Cycle procs, the casting time of Regrowth went down to 1.5 seconds. I'll admit it wasn't always possible to take advantage of these procs rolling as a Lifebloom stack is a pretty strict taskmaster, but when it happened it felt like snorting rocket fuel (in a good way :-P).

So it got me thinking, how fast could i get regrowths without relying on infrequent procs or very long Cooldowns?

Post by Kaitain

My first idea was spell haste. I quickly discovered that there really aren't many leather spell haste healing items, probably because before the 2.4 change to haste re: GCDs, they were borderline pointless. But there are 4 i found i could get my hands on:

Shoulderpads of Renewed Life crafted from a BoE BT pattern
Belt of Primal Majesty from Gurtogg Bloodboil in BT
Dark Blessing from Zul'jin in ZA
Botanist's Gloves of Growth from Teron Gorefiend in BT (as this last one is gloves you'd have to choose between this or the soulders to still get the PvP 4-set bonus)

Lets say (hypothetically) I had 3 of these items (I already have the mace and the shoulders). I'd have ~100 spell haste. I think (not 100% sure) this is about 0.1 secs off a 2 sec cast

So all my Regrowth casts, with no procs at all, would be 1.7 seconds. Very nice indeed, but i want more....

... so i came up with a (possibly) stupid spec to feed this desire:

>>> Regrowth Spec <<<

The key feature's of the spec was to get Nature's Grace to be fueled by a steady stream of crits from Improved Regrowth. With Improved Regrowth about 60-65% of your Regrowths will crit and when they do, your Regrowth casting time will go from 1.7 seconds to a staggeringly low 1.2 seconds.

What I wanted to ask is: is this a totally stupid spec? completely un-viable? retarded idea? The spec would be for fast group healing and support HoTting.

I have to admit I am tempted to try it just because spamming 1.2 second Regrowths on grp members would be genuinely funny to behold....

Post by 113931

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Post by Kaitain

I'd assume having Idol of the Crescent Goddess for it, taking the cost down to 550 mana. And you ofc wouldn't spam it on the same target ever. 1 per player. I pictured it in conjunction with another grp healer as a way to bring raid members who have taken unavoidable dmg up to full health very very fast.

But yeah, i guess it's unfeasable mana-wise. Shame though, seems like it would be so fun. :-(

PS - GCD goes down to 1 sec now.

Post by 135070

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Post by Robyn

Actually once you take into account the crit rate from Imp Regrowth, the heal-per-mana of Regrowth becomes pretty decent, it certainly starts to compare well to Flash Heal and Lesser Healing Wave. Which makes it a decent fast-cast heal - at last.

But as with priests trying to spam Flash, it's still too expensive in the long run to rely on completely ;p

Post by Celdhyrean

GCD is reduced by haste and (i haven't tested extensively though) Nature's Grace seems to decrease it too. (i haven't had any "spell not ready" while wrath spamming since the patch).

Post by Kaitain

I only mentioned the GCD because you're guaranteed to be ahead of it: Assuming -.2 seconds from the set bonus, and -.5 seconds from Nature's Grace, you're at a 1.3 second cast before counting any spell haste, and the GCD is 1.5 seconds. Whether you cut it by .1 seconds or .4 seconds with haste, you'll still have a faster cast than the GCD (not that it really matters).

I'm not 100% sure, and you're making me doubt it now, but i think that since 2.4 if you have enough haste to shrink a cast below 1.5 secs the GCD shrinks to fit so there is no GCD waiting for you after the cast. When i use Scorch on my mage (1.5 sec cast) after popping Icy Veins the cast time goes down to ~1.25 secs and there is no GCD remaining after that. You can chain spam it with no delay at all. I also noticed on my lock that Life Tapping when Heroism is up is much faster. So i'm fairly sure the 1.2 sec Regrowths would have no GCD penalty.

From 2.4 Patch notes:

Spell Haste: Spell haste now reduces the global cooldown on spells, down to a minimum of 1 second. This change does not apply to melee and ranged abilities.

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Post by Kaitain

As soon as i get 100g together for a respecc and back i'll let you know if it works :-)
I'll try to post something on youtube.

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Post by curlymon

its stupid...
just spam healing touch or lifebloom like all the other droods
How incredibly dense... the only reason to knock something is if you can actually back it up with reasoning or facts.

I'd be very interested in how this works with the patches reduction in regrowth cost.

Regrowth Spec. Insane?

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