Communication.

One of the most important things a druid (or any character) can do in a group setting is communicate. This is really important when you are in a large group and you are sharing the healing load. Discussing the role you will play and what you should be doing with your fellow classmates and the other healers can be the difference between success and failure.

This is even more important if your not using a voice system or you just do not talk very often when playing. For me I like to avoid the voice chat tools because my wife laughs at me when I do… She already has enough things to laugh at me about so I hope to maintain a bit of my vanity by staying away from the headsets and chatting.

When a group gets going I like to make sure everyone is aware of the looting rules (the same goes for when new people come in during a run). It is better to never have an argument then to have to settle one.

In raids I like to chat with the other druids and make sure we are on the same page and people understand their rolls (including myself). My first trip to AQ20 included a 10 minute conversation with a druid who had been there before and we laid out our strategy for helping the priests and doing damage. It was quite beneficial to the entire group.

Druids also have something every priest loves, innervate. Be sure to discuss with the priest in your group when you are going to use it. If you use it too soon it is wasted. If you use it too late people will die. I usually aim for when a priest gets down to 20% of their mana or so and then only if we are in a fight that is going to require them to continue healing.

I also like to talk to the priests about how the healing process will go. If I am helping heal a group I will usually toss out heal over time spells early on the tanks or anyone getting hit. It helps to keep them topped off and reduces the mana the priests have to use (not to mention it frees them up for later in the fight). You can even use bandages to do some good spot healing. If I am the main healer I usually use the heal over times to reduce my own mana usage and to give me that extra time to get off that three second heal spell (since I am not a restoration druid I do not have an instant heal).

Watching people’s health bars early and often helps you to track how much they get hit and how fast their HPs go down. Being ready early with your spells can save a player or the party.

Mods.

UI Mods can help you communicate with your party. At the least you should be using the CT raid tool as it allows you to better manage raid parties. There are several other modifications that help you track health, curses, etc. and even alert you when someone is running low right on the screen. Curse Gaming (http://wow.curse-gaming.com/en/files/addons/) has a great number of mods out there to improve your game experience.

As with any game, communicating with the people you are playing with will often mean the difference between having fun and getting yelled at. If you communicate early, ask questions, and formulate a plan people will be less likely to attack you then if you wait until everyone is dead then say “Sorry… I wasn’t sure what to do there.”