Resto spec fun! To Swift Rejuv or not to Swift Rejuv

A bit of a quick post, I decided to try out a slightly different spec picking up Swift Rejuvenation again. I had already dropped points in Nature's Bounty to get some points into Furor to max out mana pool. Regrowth is simply feeling too expensive mana-wise and lacking the healing punch to use it too frequently, so losing the increased chance to crit doesn't seem like a loss. I do still use Regrowth on OoC procs when warranted (especially when in Tree of Life and they're instant) and also for the haste buff with Nature's Grace, but it's not one of my go-to spells otherwise.

I've decided, then, to try out a spec which completely drops Nature's Bounty and instead picks Swift Rejuvenation up again. This talent is potentially a debatable one - mainly as the high mana cost of Rejuv can make it difficult for this talent to feel worthwhile when people can't use Rejuv as frequently. This specific issue will ease up as you pick up more gear, though, and your mana pool and regen increases.

There are a few nice reasons for picking up SR though. For one, in the starting tier our Haste will simply not reach high enough levels to bring our GCD down to one second, so having a talent that essentially brings our Rejuvs to a one second GCD is very valuable.

Having the faster GCD on Rejuv will also help us get to our other spells more quickly, whether it be another Rejuv or a spell like Nourish. I think this talent gets skipped some as people think only of the Rejuv spam of Wrath, which isn't feasible in Cataclysm, and so forego it. We don't need to be spamming only Rejuvs for this talent to be valuable.

One of the big things I've noticed that this talent will be helpful on is our Swiftmends. As Rejuv's duration is shorter now, we can't preemptively HoT targets to prepare them for later Swiftmends. Quite frequently you will have to Rejuv your target immediately in order to Swiftmend, as they won't have had the HoT on them before needing the SM. The shorter Rejuv GCD will make getting that SM off quicker, even if only slightly. Every second (and even half second) is crucial, and that half second can save someone in a raid or heroic.

All that being said, here is the spec I'm trying out! 8/2/31

So we shall see how this goes! I think that little change will be a good difference. I'm hoping to eventually be able to get some points into Genesis, whether from Moonglow or Furor, but I don't see that being feasible anytime in the near future with mana conservation still being important.

I've updated the Resto Guide as well to include the notes on that spec, for those still checking on the guide!