I am extremely pleased to announce that the following post is a guest post from the extremely knowledgeable, respected (and adorable) Matticus from World of Matticus and his entry is a thoughtful post about Rebirth – with perspectives from the druid, the raid leader and the target of the Rebirth (also known as a “battle res”).
Rebirth is one of those spells that when used properly will give your raid a second chance at an encounter when things are about to destabilize. It allows you to instantly resurrect someone during combat.
From the Druid perspective
When the player accepts the res, they’ll be brought directly to the position you were in when you casted it. They will not be brought back to life at your current position. With that in mind, make sure that you move to a safe place that doesn’t have fires, mobs or anything that could potentially kill the guy you’re trying to bring back to life.
Innervate - If possible, feed that player an Innervate if they need the mana. Typically, Feral Druids are the ones that do this the most. Balance and Resto Druids may have theirs on cooldown depending on the fight and their own personal mana needs.
Timing – A Druid called upon to resurrect someone needs to know when the proper time is. A Resto Druid in particular may have a limited window, because they’re in a heavy movement phase or there is a ton of incoming damage. Not only is it a threat to the Rebirth target, but the Druid could compromise themselves or the the raid.
It’s perfectly okay to delay a Rebirth if you’re busy healing up the raid after they’ve taken a ton of damage. Use your discretion. You are allowed to say “No” or “In a few seconds”. I know as a raid leader, I’d rather wait 5 extra seconds then risk seeing another dead player. When we ask you to drop a Rebirth now, it actually means drop a Rebirth when you can do it safely without killing yourself or the target.
From the raid leader perspective
Depending on your raid make up, you might have 2 druids to 8 druids in a variety of specs.
How do you decide which druid to use?
I’ll give you an easy priority list:
- Balance druids
- Feral DPS druids
- Resto druids
- Feral tanking druids
Those are the druids that you want to prioritize using first. Balance druids are at range and can pick up just about anyone. There is minimal risk to them or the raid.
Feral DPS druids have to be a bit wary if called upon to battle res. Depending on the boss, being in melee range might be a bit risky. Generally, I witness feral druids taking a few steps back before shifting out and dropping a Rebirth.
Resto druids can be a bit trickier as I mentioned above. I’ve experienced a few raid wipes because a Resto druid stopped healing for a few seconds to bring someone back up. Unfortunately, those seconds costed us more players. The rest of the healers need to be aware of what assignments other healers are doing. If that druid was healing a tank, then another healer will need to cover them for a few seconds.
Tanking druids are the most riskiest. It’s possible for a druid who is actually tanking a mob to pick someone up, but they’ll need survival cooldowns when they’re temporarily shifted out. A better trick is to have another tank to taunt the main boss off for a few seconds, while they pull off a Rebirth.
Who do you battle res?
As the raid leader, who gets brought up is your call. Make the right call, and that player can be the difference between a 2% wipe and a kill. Make the wrong one, and you’ll be no better off. Deciding which player to battle res depends on a whole multitude of factors:
- How far along in the encounter you are
- Which encounter it is
- Who the dead players are
- What you can and cannot get away with
The question you need to ask yourself is what the encounter needs versus what that dead player provides.
If it’s a high DPS encounter (Festergut, Putricide, Blood Queen) and you have a healer and a DPS dead on the ground, then you’ll want to grab the DPS. Now, in order to do this though, you need to be intimately aware of what your raid can get away with. If you normally bring 6 healers but you know that you can do it with 5, then you can leave the healer on the floor (as much as it pains me to say it).
But then again, which stage of the fight is it? Does the boss still have 80% health left? Might be better off grabbing a healer instead for extra stability. 20% left? Perhaps grab a DPS and go all in faster as you might be pushing some type of enrage timer.
In the end, it is a judgment call based on your raid, your experience, and the encounter.
When do you use battle res? – If I lose 3 players at roughly the same time, I’ll call the wipe. It’s just not worth blowing the Rebirth for it. But, that also depends on how many druids you have. Otherwise, I’ll try to pick dead players up as quick as possible.
From the Rebirth target perspective
Count it down – Always give a 2-3 second countdown before you hit the accept res button. Give healers a warning when you accept it so we can hit you with our instant heals and buffs.
Know where you’re going – It helps if you know where you’re going to end up. If you know a Resto Druid is picking you up, then you’ll have a bit of breather time. If you know you’re being picked up by a feral druid, then be prepared to hustle and run away until you’re back at full health and ready to go.
Rebirth is a powerful spell. Use it wisely!
Tags: advise, blogging, druid, healing, innervate, matticus, raiding, rebirth, strategies, WoW
Nice post Matt, one tiny thing I’d say is don’t feel like the priority list is set in stone. In general, yup that is how most encounters will go down… but depending on the encounter, and who dies then that list needs to flex.
For example, my guild normally has both of our restoration druids in the Twilight Phase of the Halion encounter in Phase three. That means after Phase one, your resto’s basically cannot battle rez… that means the resto’s get moved to the top of the priority in phase one, and are at the bottom through two and three. Now, if the player that is dead is another healer… you may want to pass up that resto druid if they have swapped to help cover that person’s role.
If you plan out before each encounter a general order, it does make life much easier
I love the way you’re assuming that raid leaders are going to name a druid to do the rezzing….
It’s my biggest pet hate – RL says ‘rez so-and-so’, two people do it – waste of a rez. Or, two people wait to see if the other person is going to do it, end up giving in at the same time – waste of a rez.
Call out the damn rezzer people!
Amen to this, Csara!
I have seen this so, so many times.
yup, and along with that, dont refer to yourself as “me” on vent ESPECIALLY in pugged environments.
*searches raid for me or me-….*
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(hehe, forgot to fill in name and email and got a 404 myself /facepalm)
I like the topic! I’m lucky enough to be a resto druid and raid leader haha so both are my call and I battle rezzed coming out of Frostmourne and we made it to our first Arthas Kill. Gotta love the epic brezzes!
Great post, I really enjoyed reading it. That healer or dps choice is one of the most intense moments in any raid leaders life.
The first time my guild killed the LK, I was tanking Arthas and our other tank was eating spirits. Unfortunately, he ate a few too many and bit the dirt. The next time Arthas held up Frostmourn, I busted out Cat Form and dashed across the platform. As I reached the other side I laid down what felt like a thirty second Rebirth. With Arthas three steps away I was back in Bear Form, the other tank was topped off, and we went on to claim our King Slayer titles. Good times!
Say when you’re accepting. Please. And allow for lag, so please say it and wait a second before you click Accept. I don’t have my NS+HT macro on a button so I need to actually get my mouse to it to heal you. I need to know when you’re going to pop back up.
(This goes for Reincarnation too and it’s probably my biggest peeve right now.)
I couldn’t agree more, Jen!
I still wish people could ping the map, so I can find them to res them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been distracted, while looking for corpses and then I end up stepping in something I shouldn’t have or whatever.
Maybe that’s a reflection of my OCD and single focus – but I think we could compromise and help each other.
It’s also worth mentioning that, if there is a choice of Rebirth targets, druids should usually take precedence, provided they too have a Rebirth off CD, as they can bring another player back.
Obviously, tactical situations may offer some counter to this advice, but two Brezzes are generally greater than one.