Tale Twenty Six: Healbot or Grid?

Here's a question:

What is the big difference between Healbot and Grid?

I've read Keeva's Grid vs Healbot guide and was like, 'm'kay'.

Tried Grid for about 30minutes, trying to set it up and gave up. I'm a huge addon noob.

I heal just fine with Healbot, and I love the simplicity of it. No, not the way it makes the game easier. It doesn't, not at all. I'm still the one making the decisions in a split second: should I Nourish or let the LB tick? It's my decisions that will -literally- save the tank/raid.

Apperantly there was some beef where Healbot used to pick the spell ranks for you. If that was still the case, then I wouldn't use it. But it isn't the case!

So why all the hate versus Healbot?

Just look at some of these comments I've seen around the web while watching Ulduar guides:

"lol healbot = fail healer"

"Learn to play without using easy-mode add-ons. You got your gear from being carried. You got your "skill" from an add-on that does the work for you. Get skill kthanksbai"

"Yes, because when I play a GAME!!!! I want it to be as easy as possible...not! I heal everything with no healbot because I want the added difficulty. Otherwise I might as well play some other easy game like Final Fantasy or something. And it may not translate into skill, it does however translate into quicker reflexes. Grats for taking free handouts."

Obviously, my reactions to some of these comments are =O

When I first signed up for Lords and told them that Littlebark would be a healer, they told me that the add on they use to heal is Healbot. M'kay, easy enough.

But now I pose the question to all you druids out there: What is the real difference? Am I missing out on something? Is all really customization? Or will Grid better me as a healer?

Tale Twenty-Two: Druid and their abilities

I don't pretend to be a "Great Druid" but I do like to think that I know my class fairly well. And as such, here's a little something I think might help new druids. When I hit 80 and realized I wanted to heal, I was confused. Lifebloom? Wild Growth? What is that?! Well, here, I'll explain it to you.

What does a Resto Druid bring to the raid?:

The resto druid is well known for bringing HoTs to the raid (Healing Over Time). What are these spells?

Lifebloom
Rejuvenation
Regrowth
Wild Growth (51er in the Resto tree. A MUST have)
Nourish
Healing Touch
Tranquility

Gear!

Gearwise, you want to focus on these stats: Spellpower > Spirit/Int > Haste/Crit/MP5 > Stam

The more the spell power, the more effective your HoTs are. Spirit got nerfed big time for us in 3.1 so we don't have to stack up on it as much.

One of the mistakes I made when I was gearing up Littlebark was forgetting an important stat: HASTE. The haste cap for resto druids, Gift of the Earthmother included, is 359.

Gems!

Some good gems for druids are :

Insightful Earthseige Diamond
Runed Scarlet Ruby
Luminous Monarch Topaz
Purified Twilight Opal

Glyphs!

Swiftmend
Nourish
Wild Growth

Those are great ones, depending on your build/gear.

Healing Rotation!

There isn't one, really. Usually, if I'm tank healing, I'll throw a stack of Lifeblooms on the tank, a rejuv a regrowth and then go from there, with Nourish making a huge portion of my healing arsenal. If I'm raid healing, I'll still do some of the above.

Healing Mods!

There are two major Healing Mods out there right now. Healbot and Grid. Personally, I use Healbot just because it's what I'm used to. Its not standard for all healers and by no means the better one of the two. Just the one I use as I find it easy to use and customize.

Food/Flask!

Depending on how your mana regen is, you can use two different kind of flasks.

If you need a boost in mana regen, I'd use Flask of Mojo. If you don't need the extra mana regen, I'd go for Flask of Frostwyrm. Foodwise, I use Firecracker Salmon.

I'm sure I missed something. If you'd like to point it out or add in your comments, by all means please do :)