[Shaman] Resto healing questions....

I really like healing on my level 68 resto Shaman. A lot of that has to do that the toons are so OP due to heirlooms that I am often not only healing but also top DPS after the tank on many runs.

However, this is achieved with a large dose of casting shocks and Chain Lightning and Fire Novas inbetween my infrequent heals due to the incredible nature of Earth Shield on an OP tank.

Last night, I got to actually DPS a 5-man with another Shaman doing the healing and noticed that he did not cast an offensive spell even once during the run. He showed up on Recount with 0 damage inflicted and I was perplexed by this.

I then thought that perhaps he was training himself to heal like he needed to at max level and that got me wondering how many GCD max level Resto Shaman's were using for DPS spells so I decided to come ask the most knowledgable WoW community I know about it!

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At 85, a Flame Shock spell costs 17% of base mana or 3,983 mana. The talent Focused Insight delivers back 75% of the Shock spell cost AND increases the effectiveness of the next heal by + 30%. The mana refund from Focused Insights should return 2,987 mana making the Flame Shock spell cost a total of 996 mana at level 85.

Is the + 30% increased heal worth the cost of a GCD and 1k mana? I often try to use the Focused Insight buff effect on a Chain Heal if multiple people are damaged (and in range of each other) but often use it on a Healing Wave if only the tank is down.
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Telluric Currents delivers 40% of the damage done by Lightning Bolt back as mana return. Lightning Bolt at level 85 costs 8% of base mana or 1,874 mana. A Resto cast Lightning Bolt would need to do at least 5k damage in order to deliver back 2k mana to make the casting of a Lightning Bolt "worth" the use of a GCD in order to do so.

How much damage are level 85 Resto cast Lightning Bolts doing?
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Are Resto Shaman often GCD capped with just healing in Heroic 5-man or 10-man Raid situations where they cannot devote the GCD to the DPS spells?

Just a few questions for anyone who has played a Resto Shaman at max level.

Cheers,

I am kinda in the same boat as you with the Resto Shaman leveling. I am at 63 right now but I am not doing any dps simply because I assumed there wasn't any point in messing with it since I wouldn't think it would be much of an option later on so why create a bad habit.

I don't do the "math" side of healing at all, but I can give you my impressions.

In five mans, I'll dps when I'm bored, which usually happens when you're pretty much geared capped (outside of raiding that is - for my shaman I mean.) But mostly, I try to see how many interrupts I can get off in an attempt to beat the dps... which, frankly, is easily doable. So no, you're not gcd locked.

I took neither Focused Insight nor Telluric Currents in my spec as I'm not a fan of the "damage to heal better" method - which is also why my disc priest is not smite specced.

If you're concerned about mana regen without these talents... don't be. I raid occasionally on my shaman and have cleared BoT once in a pug. Healing Cho'gall was probably one of the harder things I've healed this expansion, and still ended the fight with 50% mana.

If you're interested in buffing your next heal, there's no need to damage to do so, as you can also get somewhat the same effect with Unleash Elements. (Unleash Elements with Earthliving Weapon: Heals the target and buffs the Shaman's next direct heal by 20%.) Although that being said 30% is not 20%, so I can see where you might want one over the other... but spending three points just to get Focused Insight seems like a waste of talents.

Anyway, I'm sure someone else can give you a better explanation as to what is better, but I thought I'd give you my impressions.

Could you throw up a link to your Resto talent tree. I think I feel much like you do in that I don't like the idea of doing damage to heal. I found a tree that I kinda liked but it did have alot of the damage to heal points and I really find them quite useless.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/q ... /secondary

It's also worth mentioning that I haven't respecced since before they introduced that new Spirit Link totem.

Maybe I've had bad luck with PuGs, but when I was running heroics on my Resto Shaman (and the one alt raid which only got a few bosses down) there was far too much fire-standing and general fuckwittery going on for me to spare the GCDs to DPS with. Interrupting is off the GCD, though, so I try to interrupt as much as possible (because it's an LFG group; if I don't do it, nobody else will, even when they're dying to that thing the Halls of Origination mobs channel).

Like Nika, I've cleared normal content on my shaman and I play like I'm GCD capped but I'm really not.

You can do a lot with Windshear, Grounding Totems, Earthbind Totems, Cleanse along with your healing toolbox. I'd rather have Ancestral Resolve than Telluric Currents as I'm never mana starved. If I am, I should have done a better job with my Mana Tide Totem.

The Shock talent is a waste on normal modes. I can't speak to heroics but I imagine you could have been doing something more useful with that GCD instead of trying to put out some damage. There's always something to heal at end game levels so you're better off chain casting a mana neutral Healing Wave with the hopes that it procs Ancestral Awakening, a glyphed Healing Wave heal to yourself, and taking 10% less damage while casting.

Well, spit. I was sort of hoping that doing the Shock/LB thing at max level was a solid part of a Resto Shaman's toolkit. But, it sounds like it is like Priest or Paladin "lol-DPS;" okay if you do it but unneeded to succeed.

So, I will probably respec here soon to take those talents out and learn to "heal" again instead of trying to top the DPS charts while I heal.

Which, in the overall scheme of things is probably good because I used to miss a lot of Wind Sheer opportunities because I was in the middle of a LB cast.

Cheers,

So I haven't played resto since level 80, even though it is my offspec. The only 85 resto shaman I know is always complaining about going OOM, and I'm not sure if it's because he's terrible at triage/mana management, or if that's how it should be (though from what I'm seeing, I'm guessing not).

Could I snag a few pointers re this spec? I almost think I'd like to try it out again.

- Keep Riptide on cooldown for haste buff (say it with me now, Riptide then 2 heals, Riptide then 2 heals, ad infinitum)
- Keep Riptide rolling on the tanks at all times (helps you keep up the 10% melee reduction buff)
- Earthshield the tank and have a UI that actually keeps tracks of charges
- Try (Glyphed) Healing Stream Totem over Mana Spring, this does wonders in stabilizing your dpsers in 5 mans. Who doesn't love a 5 minute HoT?
- Abuse Healing Wave, it's mana neutral, heals you for a bit and can proc loads of stuff
- Stay away from Healing Rains and Chain Heal in 5 mans, generally not worth it since it's tough to get people to actually stack. If you do have people that stack, then it's a different story.
- Drop Mana Tide Totem often and early
- Make sure to use Unleashing Elements. Significant buff to heals. Add it up with a Nature's Swiftness and Greater Healing Wave and it's a super powered heal.
- Grounding Totems and Windshear will save you crap tons of mana if used correctly (as well as saving you from actually healing)
- Gift/Blessing of the Earthwarden (able to cast while moving) IS pretty awesome when you can hit it, then hit instant Ghost Wolf and then run around healing your tank while in Ghost Wolf Form. It works well if you get aggro/need to kite.
- Healing Surge is getting a bit of a nerf come tomorrow so while you shouldn't be afraid to use it, I'd just recommend using a Riptide hastened Greater Healing Wave.
- Hex -- It's there for you to use it. CC if you need to or if the tank is being a douche.
- Gearing Priority (varies from person to person) -- Int>Spirit>Haste>Mastery=Crit I'm sure you could have a number of different iterations of this but I typically do 10s and find that Haste seems to help me more psychologically than Mastery or Crit.

I just do heroic runs with my guildies, but I also have forsaken the damage talents. Telluric Currents, from what I read, depends enough on chance to hit that it is only a slight mana gain. As for Focused Insights, your heals will hit big enough without it, and the mana return isn't going to be noticeable.

EJ seems to agree, but indicates that TC may be worth it if you adjust your playstyle.
http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t121202-res ... ation_Tree

i love MTadin....
my rogue will be my next 85 (mostly do to him being 17 levels ahead of my shammy)
but my shammy will be the one that gets played more at max level

and here i find a thread about her OS!

Telluric Currents is good for heroics and for raids when you're on a boss that has adds (except for non-green phase Maloriak), since those enemies have a lower hit requirement. It's also pretty good for Halfus P2, since even if you miss a lightning bolt or two the damage buff gives you more than enough mana back.

Cogglamp wrote:- Keep Riptide on cooldown for haste buff (say it with me now, Riptide then 2 heals, Riptide then 2 heals, ad infinitum)
- Keep Riptide rolling on the tanks at all times (helps you keep up the 10% melee reduction buff)
- Earthshield the tank and have a UI that actually keeps tracks of charges
- Try (Glyphed) Healing Stream Totem over Mana Spring, this does wonders in stabilizing your dpsers in 5 mans. Who doesn't love a 5 minute HoT?
- Abuse Healing Wave, it's mana neutral, heals you for a bit and can proc loads of stuff
- Stay away from Healing Rains and Chain Heal in 5 mans, generally not worth it since it's tough to get people to actually stack. If you do have people that stack, then it's a different story.
- Drop Mana Tide Totem often and early
- Make sure to use Unleashing Elements. Significant buff to heals. Add it up with a Nature's Swiftness and Greater Healing Wave and it's a super powered heal.
- Grounding Totems and Windshear will save you crap tons of mana if used correctly (as well as saving you from actually healing)
- Gift/Blessing of the Earthwarden (able to cast while moving) IS pretty awesome when you can hit it, then hit instant Ghost Wolf and then run around healing your tank while in Ghost Wolf Form. It works well if you get aggro/need to kite.
- Healing Surge is getting a bit of a nerf come tomorrow so while you shouldn't be afraid to use it, I'd just recommend using a Riptide hastened Greater Healing Wave.
- Hex -- It's there for you to use it. CC if you need to or if the tank is being a douche.
- Gearing Priority (varies from person to person) -- Int>Spirit>Haste>Mastery=Crit I'm sure you could have a number of different iterations of this but I typically do 10s and find that Haste seems to help me more psychologically than Mastery or Crit.

Hm, ok. My primary healer is a druid, so I'm trying to set up my bars to mirror.

NS goes in the same slot. I put Healing Rains in the same as Swiftmend, since it's an AoE heal.

GHW is the same as HT, correct? Huge mana cost for huge heal, same cast time as HW (which would be the same as Nourish). And HS is more like a Regrowth - quick cast time, decent heal, but expensive for what it does. So I'd use HW mostly for keeping a tank topped off, GHW after a huge drop in health, and HS for "I need to do SOMETHING" situation.

I've some ideas on what I want to do tonight, but we'll see (starting the Firelands dailies on the paladin; healing normal heroics on the shaman to see how it goes; just doing trolls).

Thanks

Healing Rains is more akin to Efflorescence (I don't think I ever spell that right and I don't care). It's a circle AoE heal that you have to "drop" on the ground. But yes, that's our AoE heal along with Chain Heal.

I typically only use healing surge when I don't have a haste buff (which is admittedly quite rare). If you need two GHWs, you can always Riptide for an instant and then rip off two more GHWs. If that's the case though, someone is standing in something they shouldn't be. Other than that, you have have the basics of shaman healing down.

It's fun and you don't have as many HoTs but you make up for it by being number one in interrupts. (Oh Hai 6 second cooldown ranged off the GCD interrupt!!!) Cleanse Spirit is nice too as it proc's a small heal (if talented -- although the heal portion is now on a cooldown thanks to shaman healers destroying Arena single handedly).

I don't heal on druid, so I can't speak to the NT comparison, but GHW hasted with RT/TW is my go-to spell for tank healing. So my general use is GHW on tanks, HW on DPS and HS if you need a quick heal, but TW isn't up for a hasted GHW. The result is that I rarely use HS because I abuse RT on CD.
Edit: Don't forget that Chain Heal interacts as well with RT and TW. Also changed TF (Tidal Focus) to TW (Tidal Waves).

Cogglamp wrote:Cleanse Spirit is nice too as it proc's a small heal (if talented -- although the heal portion is now on a cooldown thanks to shaman healers destroying Arena single handedly).

Grand, I think I might abuse a guild tank tonight.

If talented CS's heal is now on cooldown, is it worth spending those 2 talents in that slot for 5 mans, or would it be better to spend those points elsewhere?

I think it's worth it for the mana reduction. You're trading 2 pts for a small heal (with a small cooldown) and 40% mana reduction (Improved Cleanse Spirit) or 2% crit (Acuity). I always like saving my mana but in a way, the crit helps with mana management as well via Ancestral Awakening and an easier time of keeping up the 10% melee reduction buff.

And I just realized that I didn't answer your question . . .

Edit: For 5s, it doesn't really matter. There aren't many "ZOMG, cleanse me and heal me at the same time" debuffs. I tend to run with Improved CS because I don't care for crit.