Riot Act Forum

Resto Shaman Changes in Cataclysm

2010-04-07T12:22:44Z

Hurray they are out! I will link to the blue post so I don’t have to quote the whole thing.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/24038611737/cataclysm-class-preview-shaman/

Restoration:

Spells -

The ‘new’ Healing Wave: They mention it’s the go-to spell which makes me wonder if it’s a multi-target spell. I can’t see us using a single target heal for everything. However, it was mentioned that they were going to make shaman better tank healers, so this could be our version of the efficient tank heal and the new ‘Greater Healing Wave’ will be our Holy Light spell. So far not interested in what it’s described as.

Healing Rain: This actually sounds pretty cool and something new that classes don’t have yet, though I’m thinking priests/paladins might get the same spell. The idea of having such a wide area to heal and how variable it can be (do I put the circle on only a few people or do I want to hit most of the raid?) is pretty cool. With a 10 second cd I’m thinking it doesn’t heal for a whole lot and is probably pretty fast, but most likely very expensive. Unlike WG I’m not seeing shaman using this spell on cd yet.

Unleash Weapon: Increases the next healing spell by 20% with a very short cd. I see a lot of potential with this in both tank healing and mixing it with the new Healing Rain spell. If/when there is a massive aoe attack, we can heal it up pretty quickly. For example, this combination could be used for healing infest - then again, we don’t have numbers or times yet so it’s hard to tell exactly.

Spiritwalker’s Grace: I am most excited about this despite the long cd because not being able to move has been one of the biggest complaints for both Resto and Ele. I can see this being especially good in pvp, because a lot of the time it’s “move and not be able to cast and die, or stand in the attack, heal, and still die”. Paladins are probably going to get something similar to this.

Abilities/Mechanics -

Mana: I have a very bad feeling that with the number of spells we are going to have to work with and the spamability of some of them shaman are going to need to be incredibly careful of mana especially in the beginning stages. Spirit has the potential to trump haste much like intellect did in early WoTLK

Totem of Wrath replacing Flametongue: This is a long awaited change, especially for Ele shaman. But for resto, it will improve 5 and 10 mans a lot and not force a lock to play demo.

New Talents/Changes -

Spirit Link !!!! - This was an exciting talent we almost had. I’m pumped to possibly get it back and experiment. Again this is pointing to shaman becoming better/efficient tank healers.

Mastery -

Deep Healing: So far sounds pretty good, though I get the feeling that other healing classes will have something similar to this. It also means we will be able to use the ‘mana efficient’ spells for longer rather than switching to the big hitter for someone at lower hp.

Overall looking forward to everything, but I’m curious what the changes will be to other classes for comparison!

Cataclysm Dispell Changes

2010-04-06T12:25:40Z

In Cataclysm each healing class will be getting three out of the five types of dispels, with one of these always being a defensive dispel magic. This design makes sure that finding a healer with the ability to remove magic isn’t restrictive in building teams for Arenas or rated Battlegrounds. It also allows the encounter designers to assume, when designing dungeon or raid fights, that every group can dispel magic.

In Cataclysm we are raising the mana costs, making it possible to waste mana by casting a dispel when there is nothing to dispel, and removing Cleansing Totem, Abolish Disease, and Abolish Poison from the game.

•Druids will be able to dispel defensive magic, curses, and poison.
•Paladins will be able to dispel defensive magic, diseases, and poison.
•Priests will be able to dispel defensive magic, offensive magic, and disease.
•Shaman will be able to dispel defensive magic, offensive magic, and curses.

•All shaman will lose dispel disease and dispel poison in exchange for Restoration gaining dispel magic.
•Restoration shaman, Restoration druids, and Holy paladins will need to talent into their defensive magic dispels.

So now we can remove sheep, but won’t be able to heal through DK diseases or rogue poison, hah.

Restoration: On a more serious note

2010-01-27T20:13:43Z

It is a bit frustrating to be the only healing class to not have an ability to save myself that doesn’t involve dying first. So I have two options that I think might be necessary for heroic modes of ICC:

(5/5) Nature’s Guardian (when brought below 30% hp, I gain 15% of my max hp)
This will cause me to lose Healing Way (I don’t use Healing Wave much) and Healing Focus (apparently there aren’t fights where you really have to worry about spell push back, it’s just a talent so I really don’t have to worry about it)

If I remember correctly, I had about 26k hp with shout last raid. So if I dip to 30% my max health will change to ... 30k it looks like. This means at 30% hp I would jump back to ROUGHLY 12k hp

My other option is to spec deeper into the Enhance tree and pick up (2/5) Toughness (4% increased Stam and 12% reduced stun) and have (2/5) Max hp increased by 6% when at 30%.

Unbuffed I have 1343 stam. 4% increase on that would be ~1397. 54 more stam, or 540 more hp unbuffed (this would probably translate to MAYBE 700 with buffs, I don’t feel like calculating so I’m just going to guess). So 26.7k hp in raid. I hit 30% at 8010, and go back up to about 10k.

The pros with the second spec are 2/3 Enhancing Totems for raid buffs ... which isn’t really needed because we have a lock with the sp buff.

I’m not really sure which would be better overall. Anyone have an opinion?

Wild Wild World of Restoration

2010-01-27T19:06:03Z

Well, since everyone else has made some sort of how-to, I suppose I will as well. So welcome all to the world of the restoration shaman. This is a pretty basic checklist for new players or anyone who wants to know what healy shammies are looking like these days.

First things first…
Before every raid, say a prayer and lay out offerings of virgins and delectable foods for the WoW Gods and hope they accept so that you won’t be targeted with random abilities, die, and have Faires yell at you on vent. This is critical to your success as a resto shaman.

Second, know your stats…
(Insert stacking int jokes)
As explained better on the very comprehensive EJ post (http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t24796-shaman_restoration/) healing equivalency points are used to quantify the value of each stat a shaman cares about. Here is what you basically need to know:

Haste (1.5) > SP (1) = MP5 (1) > Crit (0.8) > Int (0.6)

Haste
In competitive, progression raiding the most important stat for a shaman is haste. Even with Brain Heal, we are unable to keep up with good druid and priest healers. This is partially because movement fights cost us precious seconds to cast our best heal, and druids/priests have superior aoe healing abilities. We stack haste in order to keep up with them and get the most through put so we don’t sit uselessly in the raid. ICC has introduced a fair amount of random damage and constant aoe damage that has really made haste even better.
So this begs the question, how much haste is enough haste? So far, the answer I’ve come up with is you can, literally, never have enough. The BiS list for normal and heroic ICC gear with intelligent socketing will get you to just over the soft haste cap which is 38.7% haste (where the GCD = 1) which equates to a ~1.7 second chain heal cast. If you ignored a few socket bonuses and went straight haste in everything (and are a JC) you can push further past it; I’m not convinced this is necessary but every shaman has their opinion (in b4 more int jokes).

Spell Power
So shaman are pretty cool in that there isn’t really a spell power cap for us. Due to the nature of Brain Heal, the more sp the better for those getting the last hits of the cast. Shaman also naturally heal for less than other classes. A 1.5 sec cast from a priest in half my gear will heal for just as much as my 1.5 sec cast. I want to say a druid’s nourish is also more powerful of an individual heal. SP is also going to buff your meter padding ability, healing stream totem. Best stat to go for if you feel comfortable with your haste rating.

MP5/Crit
What, MP5 is equal to SP? Yes, apparently it is, but you don’t often get to see MP5 on resto shaman any more. It makes sense for it to be so useful because with more haste you need more regen to stay above water. So why, you might ask, are shaman BiS all haste/crit gear? The answer is simple – there is more crit on gear than mp5. Crit is another significant regen mechanic for shaman because of the amazing water shield fix (that made int stacking obsolete) a few patches ago. However, it’s not a constant regen so it takes more to equal the level of MP5. Brilliantly, most gear has an abundance of crit, while the mp5 pieces hover around 50. More than 60 crit is > 50 mp5 and a majority of the pieces have that, so they are rated higher overall. So when choosing upgrades, consider MP5 vs. Crit to see what sort of improvement you might really be getting.

Intellect
And yes, finally, intellect. A good percentage of our overall mana regen and provides sp and crit. This used to be the way to go and I still value int for longer, more intense fights. But it’s no longer viable in raid situations. :(

Third, figure out why you are useful…
Chances are it’s not because you’re the best aoe healer in the bunch. A good shaman can out heal a fair druid and priest, but once they improve, you’ll find yourself falling behind. Shaman are mostly good for a few things synergy wise:

Totems – Depending on the # of shaman in your raid and the composition, you could be bringing multiple buffs or none at all. In general you will be needed for Wrath of Air and Healing Stream Totem unless there is an elemental shaman in the raid.

Mana Tide – As heroic modes approach, this will become an even more important asset to the healing group. Make sure you monitor where the healers are at mana wise; if you see a druid or paladin low, chances are it’s time to tide. Sometimes a priest will Hymn at the same time for more mana back and that is pretty sweet.

Earth Shield – May not seem like it, but ES is a great buffer for tanks and a very useful spell to help out tank healers (paladins). It will be a good % of your overall healing if you use it right.

Ancestral Healing – Yes, I am putting this here. 10% physical damage reduction is quite nice every fight. Priests are putting it up, but shaman are quite good at spreading the buff around as well.

Cont.—->