UPDATE: This post is no longer relevant to the current state of the Wild Mushroom spell. We hope to update this guide soon. Thanks.
There’s been a lot of discussion and concern about the state of Resto Druid Wild Mushrooms, both before and after the release of Patch 5.2. Prior to Patch 5.2, Resto Druid Wild Mushrooms provided little healing for a lot of effort. Now the Patch has dropped and we’re able to see what these Resto Wild Mushrooms can really do, it’s time to go over them a little more intensely, covering the pros and cons of this unique spell and how and when to use it efficiently. Find out more after the break!
First, what is Wild Mushroom and Wild Mushroom: Bloom.
Wild Mushroom is a Druid spell that when cast by Resto Druids, allows the Druid to place up to 3 small mushrooms on the ground within 40 yards. These mushrooms will exist for up to 5 minutes or until they are bloomed by the spell Wild Mushroom: Bloom. While they exist, any Rejuvenation ticks that overheal(overheal is when a target is healed but already has full health) a target within 40 yds of the Mushroom, 25% of the tick will be ‘stored’ in the Mushroom up to 33% of the casting Druid’s maximum health. With a possible 3 mushrooms, up to 99% of the casting Druid’s maximum health can be stored.
At any stage after placing our Wild Mushrooms, we can use our spell Wild Mushroom: Bloom to bloom or ‘explode’ our Mushrooms with an instant burst of healing. The amount healed depends on all previous actions, including how many mushrooms, how many Rejuvenation ticks have been ‘stored’ and your own maximum health pool.
A complicated spell to say the least and difficult to interpret it’s best uses, so let’s go over it with a fine tooth comb and nut out what this spell truly is.
It’s best not to think of Wild Mushrooms for Resto Druids as a go to spell that should always be up and come before other spells. It was never meant to be implemented as such. Some say the spell is clunky and difficult to use, but that’s to offset it’s strong heal and little mana cost. If it was an easy one button spell it would be overpowered. And although it may not be used as much as your Wild Growth spell for example, ignoring it or removing it from your bars completely is only blocking you from making the most of your healing capabilities.
Looking at World of Logs it appears that even in Patch 5.2, Resto Druids may not even be using this spell once in an encounter. What is it about Wild Mushrooms that nobody likes and why aren’t more people using it? Ok, so let’s outline the negatives:
It requires 3 global cooldowns (global cooldown is the time delay between each spell cast) and each cast requires you to ‘place’ the mushroom using a location target on the ground. This means if you’re frantically moving about it becomes difficult to place them accurately. It also requires you to use another global cooldown to Bloom your placed Mushrooms. Arguments against Mushrooms often surround wasting global cooldowns on them when they could be used elsewhere.
It has also been said that their range is quite limited with healing only extending out 8 yds and it takes time for Rejuvenation overheals to charge the Mushrooms up to full. There is also the argument that ‘we have to use Rejuvenation just to get benefit from this?!’ – people need to change this mindset to ‘at least now my Rejuvenation overheals are contributing to something’.
Basically, that’s about it for the negatives. Now let’s get into the positives of using Resto Druid Wild Mushrooms.
First of all, probably the number 1 thing to recognize is that the majority of this spell is completely free. Placing Mushrooms doesn’t cost any mana and has no cool down. Blooming Mushrooms costs a little mana and there is a 10 second cool down upon blooming. However, remember that Rejuvenation builds up the stored heal and Rejuvenation also costs mana, but since Patch 5.2, Rejuvenation cost was reduced by 9%. There aren’t many heals available with such low resource cost.
No matter how many targets surround our placed Mushrooms, Blooming them will unleash the full amount that has been stored. So it doesn’t matter if you have 25 people surrounding them or 1, if your mushrooms have built a heal as big as 99% of your health pool, that amount will be unleashed. Having said that, we probably don’t want all 25 people to receive it as that’s only 3.96% of your health pool.
The Mushrooms will stay where you placed them for up to 5 minutes at which point they will expire. This allows you to place them and almost forget about them until you need them. You will almost always come across a heavy damage phase during a period of 5 minutes so they will definitely be used before they expire. 5 minutes is a very generous time and you could probably use them more often than that. If they’re going to expire, go ahead and Bloom them anyway and recast.
Resto Druid Wild Mushroom’s are the pinnacle in proactive healing in that you have to think about encounters, even before going into them, where to place your Mushrooms and when you’re going to Bloom them. Proactive healing is after all what the Resto Druid is all about. If you’re looking for a one-click-heal button, you’d better look elsewhere. Plan your healing according to the encounter, not just for this spell, but all major cool down spells such as Tree of Life or Tranquility.
Here are some helpful tips to get the most out of your Resto Druid Wild Mushrooms:
Cast and place your mushrooms before entering combat, while party/raid members are buffing up and restoring mana and health. Place them not where your group is currently, but where you believe they will be taking damage the most during heavy damage phases. You can place them near enemy targets as they will not cause aggro or threat generation.
Wild Mushroom Ready!
If you anticipate a large amount of damage incoming and you want to prepare your mushrooms for that damage, cast Rejuvenation on targets a little more often than you usually would to store up the heals in your mushrooms. If you don’t anticipate damage to soon, cast Rejuvenation at a normal pace and your mushrooms will build up naturally over time. Once damage has occurred and members have lost health, ensure members are within range and use Wild Mushroom: Bloom to unleash the heal.
Don’t go out of your way to replace your Mushrooms straight away, wait for a lull or quiet spot in damage where you’re not furiously using other spells. This is to save on global cooldowns. If it happens that you only use this once because you don’t have time to waste on globals, then so be it. But if you get a chance, use this spell when you can. Continue to place them where you believe damage is going to occur, for example when everyone stacks in the middle of the room for a specific boss ability.
There’s also no reason that you can’t weave placing your Mushrooms between your other spells. Not all 3 have to be down to receive the benefit of Rejuvenations overheals. In fact, you don’t even have to put all 3 down at all. Why not just place one down and you can Bloom just that one when it reaches it’s full amount? Although, do take note, if you do this, only the Mushrooms that you have down will receive the buff. Basically, they start at 0 when they’re placed. Even if you have 1 that is full, and you place another, the second one will start at 0 take time to build up. So it’s worth being wary that even though your action bar lights up, that means at least 1 Mushroom is full, the others may not be.
Should we be using them in both 25 man and 10 man? Well, some people might say ‘but in 10 man raids there aren’t as many people to heal’ – which is true, but as we said earlier, the heal will be greater because it’s split amongst less. In 25 man if you share among many people this heal will actually look less effective than it does in 10 man. But that’s a general rule of raid healing anyway, as there is usually 5-6 healers compared to 2-3.
Raid stacking happens often during fights, where spells like the Priest’s Holy Word: Sanctuary and the Shaman’s Healing Rain is most efficient. These are the times you’ll want to Bloom your Mushrooms, so have them built up and ready.
If you’re not within range of a mushroom, it won’t bloom. 40 yards is the distance in which you can bloom a mushroom. If you’ve placed 3 down and you’re in range of 1, 1 will bloom and the others will remain. This can be handy if you want to just bloom 1 and save the other 2, but it’s difficult to get the distance correct and remember there is a 10 second cooldown on Blooming even if you just Bloom one.
Spell power increases the amount stored and healed. We found that while wearing no gear, the 33% for each mushroom to prove accurate(well, 32.80%). While wearing full spell power Resto gear, we found that the heal was in excess of our health pool by an additional 78%, an additional 26% increase per mushroom. It’s also worth noting that the Resto Druid Mastery: Harmony will have an impact on your mushrooms as when you cast a direct heal (like Healing Touch) your periodic heals(Rejuvenation) increase by 10%, meaning more stored by the mushroom.
All in all we think that this spell is so unique and different, it will just take some time to get our heads around it properly. We feel this spell has taken a step in the right direction to improve our healing. Our Rejuvenation is cheaper and the overhealing from it is going towards something constructive. If you’re overhealing with Rejuvenation (which happens often) and you don’t have mushrooms down, you’re missing out on the chance for a strong heal.
Well, what do you think about this spell? Do you still feel it’s too clunky? Perhaps you’re not a fan of the click-and-place kind of spells? Why not give your Resto Druid Wild Mushrooms a go in a party or raid setting and let us know how you go in the comments below! Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time.