This topic tends to clarify differences between 10-man and 25-man raid when playing a restoration druid.
It covers not only our gameplay and role assignation but also the overall healing requirements and specifications of both raid sizes mostly because we cannot focus on a detail without talking about the context.
It doesn't include specific boss analysis as you can find them there. This post is deeply linked to the Advanced Gameplay one. Be sure to check it out to have a comprehensive picture of the situation.
Before starting, it's important to notice that most of the encounters are far easier in 10-man than in 25. Damages are a lot less consequent and dps, healing and gear requirements a lot less unforgiving.
Keep in mind that this game is very situational and what is explained here might sometimes be wrong or inappropriate. It only aims to identify general but important trends. Be sure to keep your mind open and don't tunnelvision the plan.
Keep in mind that this game is very situational and what is explained here might sometimes be wrong or inappropriate. It only aims to identify general but important trends. Be sure to keep your mind open and don't tunnelvision the plan.
Obvious but important
Except in few situations, you are quite more important in 10 man than in 25. It's just logical. You account for 50%/33% (respectively if 2 or 3 healers) of the healing setup in 10 man and only for 20%/16% (respectively if 5 or 6 healers) in 25. You can apply it to the entire raid : 4% in 25 man and 10% in 10 man. It means that if you die in 10 man, it's a much bigger problem than in 25.
I don't say it's insignificant to die in 25 because you always have precise and important assignations or class related strengths (mostly regarding raid healing and tank assist) but it surely impacts less the raid.
On the same base, dps are a lot more precious in 10 man than in 25.
It's important to link these two concepts, because one always goes with the other.
In 10-man Restoration druid can easily cover the whole raid while assisting a lot on the tank. You can keep a good 5x1 rotation and include Lifebloom refresh, Nourish, Regrowth and Swiftmend without screwing raid coverage.
Damages on tank are really low in 10 man so if you play with 2 other healers you won't probably need to heal the tank a lot. However it's important to keep it alive and you always share responsibility.
Nonetheless if you focus on the tank, raid healing will be harder even in 10-man raid.
Your gameplay in 10 man must be adapted to your healing setup. First if you are 3 healers, tank healing will be easier and you will probably only have to keep hots up on tank and focus more on the raid. However when you are only 2 healers it really depends on the class you are with. Tank healing will need less focus with Paladin but more with priest or Shaman. Raid healing will obviously be the opposite. Balance (not the spec) is the way to go.
In 25-man Restoration druid will find harder to cover both the tank and the raid as you usually have 23 or 22 players to heal while assisting on the tanks.
However, except on few bosses you must always assist on tank (even more if there is only one holy paladin). So you must keep hots (at least Regrowth and Rejuvenation) on tank and assist with Nourish or Swiftmend while covering the raid with Rejuvenation, Wild Growth, Swiftmend and Nourish. We are not only raid healers, shaman and priest will help a lot to heal the raid. You have to look for stability instead of maximizing throughput. Find out a lot more about this point on the Advanced Gameplay topic.
We are really good at covering multiple targets and I'm not talking about raid healing. On most bosses, spikes damages are commonplace. In 10 man it's usually one target, so all healers are good at healing it. But in 25-man it's 3, 4 or more targets and druids are good to focus on them with Regrowth, Rejuvenation and obviously Wild Growth.
Differences in spells use
Besides the ideas mentioned above, you might experience small differences in the use of your spells.
In 25-man, there are often paladins assigned to heal the tank and its life usually go up and down really fast. If you have good paladins and a great assist from priests and shamans, your Swiftmend will most of the time overheal. Even if you are really experienced and with a good connection, server lag will mitigate a lot the best reactivity.
You must be ready to throw your Swiftmend on movements or when tank healer are not able to heal (stun, fear, disorient, out of range, targeted by a disabling ability, etc..), it must not be something like "oh! the tank life dropped, I use Swiftmend". Thus, in 25-man, I recommend to choose to spam cast Nourish even if the tank is full HP. Try to keep Swiftmend to save someone in the raid but it's up to you to know when to throw it on tanks.
I don't want to give you an exact threshold but an overall 30-35% overheal on your Swiftmend probably means you made perfect use of it. If you only throw it on tanks you will experience something like 70-90% overheal.
However in 10-man and especially on bosses that hit harder, you should keep your Swiftmend to top up tanks as they usually drop at 60-50% HP with no direct incoming heal. But, if you have the opportunity to save someone dangerously low, don't hesitate.
As I said above, many boss abilites in 10-man will only target one player. You will then be in a much better position to focus on it and cast more spells than if it was 3 or 4 targets. In 10-man you should cover a damaging ability with Regrowth followed by Rejuvenation whereas in 25-man you would probably do better throwing 3-4 Rejuvenation and patch heal with Nourish or Swiftmend.
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