Alright guys so the new expansion is being released soon, and I figured I'd post some information for y'all resto shamans out there.
Please keep in mind that everything posted in this topic is my personal opinion.
Part 1
Totems gone?!?
Yep, you read that right. Most totems have actually been replaced with buffs!
You might remember the Totemic Wrath buff that increased all spell power for party and raid members by 10%, and it was only accessable as elemental. In Mists of Pandaria, you get this as a buff without needing to put down any totem, regardless of your spec. This has the same effect as Arcane Brilliance and Dark Intend.
New / Rewamped totems
Capacitor Totem
An air totem that stuns enemies within 8 yards for 5 seconds and triggers after 5 seconds. (3 seconds with the glyph)
This totem doesn't seem to be that good ,PvE wise (unless some encounters wants you to CC your target) This is obviously pretty decent in PvP, and I say decent because of the god damn 45 second cooldown.
A DPS increasing totem, and the best thing about this is that EVERYONE in the raid gets this buff. It basically enhances you with lightning power and for almost every ability you use you'll deal an additional 30% of SP / 20% of AP Nature damage. Note that this only procs from non-periodic damage with the exceptions for Mind Flay, Malefic Grasp, and Drain Soul. This should be used at all times during encounters.
This totem is pretty much the same as the old one pre 5.0. However, it now only lasts for 15 seconds and heals for significally more than the old one. 30 seconds cooldown and should be used on cooldown.
I would say that Nature's Guardian has the lower edge compared to the other two in a raid enviroment, because it doesn't really give any thing to reduce incoming damage.
So, Stone Bulwark Totem VS Astral Shift
Stone Bulwark Totem gives you a shield that absorbs damage for 10 seconds, and and additional shield after the first one expires. This means you'll be having a shield on you for the whole duration of the totem, which is 30 seconds(unless broken/dispelled). This sounds pretty good don't it? Well, in the current patch it scales terrible with AP and with a cooldown of 1 minute I have to say that Astral Shift has the upper hand.
Call of the Elements doesn't reset Mana Tide, Spirit link nor Healing Tide. This talent would be awesome if it did.
Totemic Projection might be good in some cases.. like uhh....ehm.... when you misplace your Spirit Link?
So the winner from my view is.. Totemic Restoration! I'd vote this one for president, really.
1. Take this talent.
2. Put down one of your totems.
3. Once the totem is about to expire, use Totemic Recall.
4. ??????
5. Profit!
Elemental Mastery will grant you 30% haste for 20 seconds and Ancestral Swiftness works as Nature Swiftness. (with a 5% passive haste). This all sounds good, but let's take a look into Echo of the Elements.
Echo of the Elements - When one of your spells causes direct damage or healing, you have a chance to gain Echo of the Elements, duplicating that spell's effect. This has a 6% procc chance as Restoration with an ICD of 0.1 seconds. Yeah, it's good, take it.
Healing Tide heals 5 of the most injured party / raid members for 4932 plus 48.4% of SP. It may crit and it's triggered by haste caps BUT, it is not affected by our Mastery.
Ancestral Guidance copies your healing or damage and 40% is distributed as healing to up to 3 targets.
Conductivity - Healing done on targets standinging within your Healing Rain will share all the healing done to them. Also, damaging a target that stands in your Healing Rain will heal other players for 50% of the damage done.
Well, Conductivity is decent but since Telluric Currents has been nerfed and you won't be end game geared anymore (no more mindless Healing Rain spam ) this seems to be the worse choice of them all. And the best one would be Healing Tide Totem, since you don't have to spend additional mana while it's down compared to when you pop Ancestral Guidance.
Elemental Blast - 12 second cooldown and the buff lasts for 8 seconds which is fairly decent and the stats and scaling are just amazing (4,036 plus 181.1% of your SP) also it has no mana cost! However, even if it’s boosting your healing temporarily from the stats, I doubt that this is going to be better than Unleashed Fury, since you can’t even get a spirit proc!
Unleashed Fury is like the bigger brother. This is how you're going to get those sick GHW crits.
Primal Elementalist – Well, you get an increased 10% healing and a 20% damage reduction while they’re active, but they don’t last very long and they’ve got a long cooldown (yeah, even with the glyph)
Part 3 Glyphs
Glyphs seems to be less important compared to 4.0.X.
Glyph of Chaining
For me. this is a nono when it comes to 25 man raiding. I mean, the jump distance is nice but the 4 second cooldown is just not worth it. This is just made for groups with 10 or less people.
Glyph of Healing Stream Totem
10% damage reduction to Fire, Frost and Nature damage and only for 6 seconds after activating the totem.
This one is a bit weaker compared to the current one that gives 195 in all resistances which is 24.92% reduction to that element.
Glyph of Healing Wave
Same glyph as the 4.0 one. It’s decent seeing you’re going to be back on using Healing Wave a lot in early raid tiers.
Glyph of Riptide
Ahhh here it is. Is this when we transform into a druid-shamanic-ancient something?
Anyway, you’re going to feel like a druid when using this one and I’d say that this is probably stronger than if you use Riptide unglyphed, even in 10 mans. Combine this with some nice haste rating and you're set.
Glyph of Telluric Currents
The Mana returned is just plain bad. 2% of your total mana when it strikes and enemy? It returns 6k mana per LB on a 300k Mana pool. I know that the old TC wasn’t supposed to work like something that you relied on to get mana back, but instead a filler spell when you’re not healing but come on..
Glyph of Water Shield
It is worth taking actually, since 15% of the passive mana regen isn’t a big loss, and you’re going to get hit a lot, that’s just how it is.
(I excluded a few glyphs)
Reforging / Gemming
This seems to be like T11 and T12 all over again. Get 7% Haste to allow yourself that extra tick, reforge / gem to high Spirit and high Mastery.
1% haste is 425 haste rating which means that 7% is 2975(2550 for Goblin) haste rating(correct me if I'm wrong here), and that is what I would aim for. Why? Well, I guess that most of you Shamans have been on the Beta already, and Mana Regeneration seems to be a bit of an issue, not only for Shamans but for everyone.
Hey Neteyes, I appreciate the work you've done in putting this together I'm not sure I agree with all your recommendations though.
Rather than get into it here, I'll just link my overview, because I would probably write way more words in response to you than I have already written on my blog