I get that Renewing Spring works well with Falcon swarms, since (a) they're swarmy (e.g. if you're playing them, you're probably playing 6 of them), (b) they're Flying = rarely hindered, and (c) they're Fast, so they can usually travel up to 2 zones when fleeing trouble, then heal for 3 dice in the same action; then next round they fly up to 2 zones to return to battle and attack for 1 action. Combine with Charge +X bonuses from a Totem and this gets quite deadly... (and of course just move out + in to attack with Charge +X bonuses on rounds when the Falcon doesn't need to heal) which was the theme of a GenCon winner's book.
Does the Spring work well with any other swarmy creatures? Foxes are Fast but not (inherently) Elusive, so they are generally limited to 1 zone if they want to flee battle and drink from the Spring. Goblins can be Elusive through Slaknir, but they aren't (inherently) Fast, so they're still limited to 1 zone if they want to flee battle and go for a drink.
Cervere, or almost any living buddy with Mongoose/Cheetah enchantments, could flee up to 2 zones to heal for 3 dice. Combine with a Regen enchantment and it could heal for ~5 on rounds that it drinks. But you generally don't want your powerful buddy giving up its attack on a round it needs to heal, so a Mage Wand with Minor Heal, or even just a Wand of Healing (or Staff of Beasts or Emerald Elk Stave) is probably preferable to the Spring. A buddy with a powerful attack would probably benefit more from Vampirism than Renewing Spring (against living creatures at least).
Does Meredia's Blessing replace Renewing Spring in most cases? Assuming you aren't up against a more swarmy opposing mage, it lets 1 creature heal for 2, and 1 object remove a condition marker. Sure, it's 1 creature per round, so it doesn't undo a zone attack spell as quickly... but losing your attacks from every creature in a swarm for a round isn't exactly optimal either. Better to have Meredia and a couple of Mending Waves / Group Mends in your book for the times when they're needed, than to dedicate several actions to a Renewing Spring (imho).
Back to favourites... I already mentioned Idol of Pestilence (and it's big brother Altar of Skulls). I didn't mention that the Idol isn't just for Necromancers/Warlocks. I used to use it in my aggro Forcemaster builds (to speed up the match), but it also combos very nicely with any Bloodthirsty creatures - Sharks, Dire Wolves, Blood Demons, Zombies, anything with Demonic Bloodthirst... Try it in a Johktari build! Her Wounded Prey ability loves Idol, and your Dire Wolves will go bananas! You just have to make sure your own creatures aren't going to die from the Idol in the process, and there are oodles of ways you can do this (aside from / in addition to Renewing Spring).
