Restoration Guide to MoP

[dokki]

No time for detailed feedback for what I didnt like, but I just didnt find it clearly arranged and less informative than Icy Vein's guide. I also went on totemspot, Bink, and the external source you use for the restoration guide is even worse than this one - judging by the things I've pointed out briefly.

What I expect from a guide is something which teaches you about the mechanics, spell synergy and what spell is the most suited for a specific situation. I dont need 100 lines of "56465 of stat X is 1% X stat" .. it may be useful for people on ElitistJerk, but not for the normal joe, looking to get into a spec. We've had addons for reforging, enchanting and gemming since this features got introduced.. no need to brainstorm yourself how to get to that and that cap..

Don't mean to be an @ss but theres a list in this guide of all spells in our toolkit and when they're useful. IIRC the guide tells you to use UE and healing rain if theres multiple targets, is that not what you're looking for? Im sure most mechanics of spells you can learn by reading the tooltip....

I'm not saying IV isn't a good guide, I usually go there first to get a general idea of a spec im learning. But like someone said above, glyph of riptide as mandatory?
The only fight i've glyphed it on is Blade Lord. Theres only a small window of downtime on riptide if you do cast 2 healing surges. Not to mention you can use chain heal. Hell, sometimes I even use unleashed fury + unglyphed riptide for a 70-80k crit in a matter of a GCD.

[Jynus]

Not to mention our strongest mana return glyph by FAR, totemic recall, wasn't even mentioned. Thats a monster oversite and leads me to consider further advice as suspect.

[Hamerfal]

Maybe you review the meaning of 'guide'.

At the end of the day this is supposed to point people new to the class/spec in the right direction and provide a few bits of key information for the raiders who don't want to spend their time theorycrafting. Also, at the end of the day, there is no 'best' set up for glyphs, talents, stats, gem choices. It depends on you, your playstyle, your healer team set up, 10/25 man etc. It almost sounds as if you're complaining about having to test out options for yourself, which by the way will make you a better player in the long run.

So if you're going to nitpick the smallest of details because you want someone to hold your hand and to create you a rule book, then don't bother posting and go make your own guide. It's insulting to the creater and contributers to the thread who have helped make something out of their free time in the interest of helping others.

[Zues]

No time for detailed feedback for what I didnt like, but I just didnt find it clearly arranged and less informative than Icy Vein's guide. I also went on totemspot, Bink, and the external source you use for the restoration guide is even worse than this one - judging by the things I've pointed out briefly.

What I expect from a guide is something which teaches you about the mechanics, spell synergy and what spell is the most suited for a specific situation. I dont need 100 lines of "56465 of stat X is 1% X stat" .. it may be useful for people on ElitistJerk, but not for the normal joe, looking to get into a spec. We've had addons for reforging, enchanting and gemming since this features got introduced.. no need to brainstorm yourself how to get to that and that cap..

Dunno about you, but resto shaman healing is kinda straightforward.

ONE THING AT MEDIUM HEALTH WITH NO DAMAGE GOING TO IT? HEALING WAVE
TANK AT LOW HEALTH WITH INCOMING DAMAGE? HEALING SURGE
5+ STACKED KIDS TAKING CONSTANT DAMAGE? HEALING RAIN THAT SUCKA

I heard this was really, really hard to figure out.

Use guides for numbers and optimization, but don't be so damn braindead you can't figure out what to use in what situation.

[Hamerfal]

Dunno about you, but resto shaman healing is kinda straightforward.

ONE THING AT MEDIUM HEALTH WITH NO DAMAGE GOING TO IT? HEALING WAVE
TANK AT LOW HEALTH WITH INCOMING DAMAGE? HEALING SURGE
5+ STACKED KIDS TAKING CONSTANT DAMAGE? HEALING RAIN THAT SUCKA

I heard this was really, really hard to figure out.

Use guides for numbers and optimization, but don't be so damn braindead you can't figure out what to use in what situation.

As much as I agree with your final statement, since it's kinda the same as what I put, your post is pretty bold. Arguably any class is 'kinda straightforward', and sure if you want to be a mediocre shaman you're doing it fine. You can't knock people for wanting to improve ^^

[tidus93]

I've been reading the icyveins guide (http://www.icy-veins.com/restoration...rity-reforging) and they say that the haste soft cap is supposed to be 873 and not 871 as this guide says.
Which one is right?

[binkenstein]

I've been reading the icyveins guide (http://www.icy-veins.com/restoration...rity-reforging) and they say that the haste soft cap is supposed to be 873 and not 871 as this guide says.
Which one is right?

It's 871 if you have Ancestral Swiftness & the 5% raid haste buff

[Aviators]

Here is a tip, if you do not spec in Primal Elementalist, you can still benefit from the 10% extra healing for 1 min.

Before pull
Just spec into primal elementalst, put down Earth/Fire, activate buff.
Respec into whatever you want
Elemental buff remains
Pull boss

[psir]

Ascendance:

The best way to maximize Ascendance is how?
My thoughts:

Use before Ascendance: UE + Healing Rain
Then pop Ascendance and spam chain heal? Or Greater heal if the healing is very intensive?

[Amex]

Ascendance:

The best way to maximize Ascendance is how?
My thoughts:

Use before Ascendance: UE + Healing Rain
Then pop Ascendance and spam chain heal? Or Greater heal if the healing is very intensive?

Pretty much, also making sure RT is rolling on 3 targets. I tend to pop a RT just before I use Ascendance to maximize the number of GHW/HS while it's up.

As for spell choice I tend to bomb GHW's as I have 2T14, but anything works really. The main thing is to use it when you know you can stand and free cast rather than using it as panic button, it needs pre-planning to be most effective.

[marukale]

As the specific fight section is a bit sparse I figured I would add some tips that might help starting resto shaman. This is purely from the point of 10 man normal.

Elegon

If you are having a hard time with mana then pick up glyph of totemic recall, and telluric currents, also pick up call of the elements. Then during the charges phase use healing stream to do the healing and throw lightning out, healing stream should do enough healing to combat the damage of a full round of charges exploding, just remember to recall it at the right time and you should be at full mana after both charge phases. If you are having a hard time working out which glyph to drop remember that glyph of healing stream is pointless on that fight.

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok

Learn where your totems will drop in respect to the direction you are facing, try and get assigned to the shell that is middle distance (ie not the one on the boss or the one furthest from the boss), depending on where the shells appear you can use spirit link to cover all three if you place it correctly, similarly healing rain can frequently cover all three but that's a lot easier to tell as you get the graphic.

If you get mind controlled check your have water shield and earthliving up afterwards, sometimes he is sneaky and switches your buffs round when you aren't paying attention, if you track them via an addon see if there is an option for it to check for the specific buffs rather than checking for any shield or imbue

Blade Lord Ta'yak

During tornado ally part I drop healing tide at the start pop into ghost wolf and run, if you have lock candy then you can use it without loosing ghost wolf if you are low on health otherwise pop a riptide and back into ghost wolf. Tornado Ally Part II, drop healing rain and jump into the side stream before the phase starts to make sure you are at the far end in time, cast healing rain to overlap with the stairs as much as possible to minimize the distance people have to run to get into it

Garalon

Glyph of healing stream is great on this fight, a lot of nature damage going out, I have found dropping it as the pheromones switch works out nicely, correct placement can be tricky if the raid is getting spread out.

[tibbee]

Here is what I rate as our BiS setup, based on a stat priority of Spirit > Int > Crit > Mastery > Haste. Neither of our set bonuses are particularly attractive, and the only reason for taking 2 piece is the tier helm and shoulders are BiS itemized as standalone items.

Helm - Tier 14 Heroic (509) - Heroic Sha of Fear
Neck - Korven's Amber Sealed Beetle (509) - Heroic Amber Shaper
Shoulders - Tier 14 Heroic (509) - Heroic Lei Shi
Cloak - Drape of Gathering Clouds (509) - Heroic Blade Lord
Chest - Vestments of Steaming Ichor (509) - Heroic Garalon
Bracers - Bracers of Tempestuous Fury (509) - Heroic Blade Lord
Gloves - Kaz'ik's Stormseizer Gauntlets (509) - Heroic Blade Lord
Belt - Chain of Shadow (502) - Heroic Feng (Note - the extra socket means this belt is 300+ more SPI than the 509 Tsulong belt)
Legs - Leggings of Imprisoned Will (502) - Heroic Gara'jal
Boots - Lightning Prisoner's Boots (516) - Heroic Elite Protectors
Ring 1 - Circuit of the Frail Soul (502) - Heroic Gara'jal
Ring 2 - Watersoul Signet (516) - Heroic Elite Protectors (Note - the VP Operation: Shieldwall ring actually has the highest SPI of any ring and is nearly as good)
Trinket 1 - Spirits of the Sun (509) - Heroic Tsulong
Trinket 2 - Qin-xi's Polarizing Seal (502) - Heroic Will
Weapon - Kri'tak Imperial Scepter of the Storm (509) - Heroic Grand Empress Shez'zeer
Shield - Eye of Ancient Spirit (502) - Heroic Gara'jal

Race (Horde) - Troll (the interaction/CD line up of Berserking and Healing Tide makes it outweigh the double food buff slightly)
Race (Alliance) - Pandaren

Profession 1 - Tailoring
Profession 2 - Blacksmithing

[Xarganthos]

i have a little question regarding trinkets.

i currently have the LFR version of the Tsulong trinket, the trinket from Mogu Endboss normal and an upgraded DMC

which trinkets should i use? pardon my english

[Bloodfire]

Our shaman asks:
Is it worth going for T14 4pc?
Or better stack items with useful stats?

[Jinya]

This is a really great guide, thank you

[Hamerfal]

i have a little question regarding trinkets.

i currently have the LFR version of the Tsulong trinket, the trinket from Mogu Endboss normal and an upgraded DMC

which trinkets should i use? pardon my english

LFR Spirits of the Sun and Upgraded DMC. They're both better regen than normal WoTE trinket (unless using mana tide on cd, even then it's close) and the random int proc on it makes it unreliable.

Our shaman asks:
Is it worth going for T14 4pc?
Or better stack items with useful stats?

It is, but don't sweat getting the 2/4 set if it means losing stats from off pieces. For example I wouldn't get LFR or normal 4 set if i had HC pieces in the slots already. Just look at the stat upgrades for each and make the decision.

[Xarganthos]

LFR Spirits of the Sun and Upgraded DMC. They're both better regen than normal WoTE trinket (unless using mana tide on cd, even then it's close) and the random int proc on it makes it unreliable.

ok.. its just that i've read that the trinket from mogushan would even be better than the darkmooncard.. dont know where i read that tough :x thanks^^

[Hamerfal]

ok.. its just that i've read that the trinket from mogushan would even be better than the darkmooncard.. dont know where i read that tough :x thanks^^

HC WoTE is debateably better than upgraded DMC, but I wouldn't personally take the normal version over an upgraded DMC.

[tibbee]

Our shaman asks:
Is it worth going for T14 4pc?
Or better stack items with useful stats?

In my opinion, no it isn't worth going for T14 4 piece unless you are nearly exclusively tank healing/spending the majority of your time casting single target heals. In my opinion, HW/HS/GHW are too small of a portion of our overall casting time and output for the set bonus to have a major impact. 5% haste on HW and GHW will be barely noticeable, because Tidal Waves already reduces our cast time down to the 1.5 second range with raid buffs and almost no haste. 5% crit on HS is nice, but how often do you cast more than 20 HS in a fight? On average, you only get an extra crit for every 20 HS casts with this set bonus, meaning less than one extra per typical fight. Overall, the set bonus is very underwhelming.

In addition, here are some things to consider.
-There are ilevel 509 Spirit/Crit (i.e best possible itemization) offset gloves and chests that drop off relatively easy heroic bosses. You would have to not use one of these to go to 4 piece
-Our tier legs have no Spirit on them, making them absolutely terrible. This almost forces you to use the ilevel 502 Heroic Gara'jal legs as your offset piece, which then means not using both the gloves and chest.
Based on that and how little gain you get from the 4 piece bonus, I don't think it's worth bothering with, and you should definitely not take items to get to 4 piece over any other Prot user. We have the worst 4 piece bonus of all healing specs, and arguably the worst of any spec, so Resto Shaman should be last priority for tier.

2 piece is also underwhelming (HS > GHW even with the set bonus most of the time), but the fact that the tier shoulders and helm are best in slot makes it worth eventually gearing to.

---------- Post added 2012-12-10 at 03:50 PM ----------

I think that you are under-rating Qin-Xi's polarizing Seal significantly. Sure, the base regen of the trinket is lower than that of Spirits of the Sun or the DMC trinket. However, as a resto shaman, you have to factor in the fact that the static Spirit on this trinket makes it the only epic level trinket that boosts Mana Tide. With the heroic version, the interaction with Mana Tide alone adds around 98 mp5 to the trinket. When you factor in the regen value to all 6 healers in the raid, you're looking at around 600 extra mp5. Even if Spirits/DMC are slightly more personal regen, Qin-Xi pulls ahead of them significantly, especially in a 25 man raid with the MTT boost factored in.

I realize that INT procs are not ideal, but you have to also consider that it has a higher average INT value than any of the other trinkets, and that the INT proc is at a high enough uptime (~45%) that it is relatively reliable.

I think Qin-Xi needs to be one of the two trinkets, with the debate being Spirits of the Sun vs DMC for the 2nd slot.

[Hamerfal]

In my opinion, no it isn't worth going for T14 4 piece unless you are nearly exclusively tank healing/spending the majority of your time casting single target heals.

Why wouldn't you go for 4 set considering the itemisation on the items (besides shoulders) are better than any off piece. As i said in my last post there's no need to sweat it, but regarding an optimum, the pieces themselves are the best you can get.

I think that you are under-rating Qin-Xi's polarizing Seal significantly. Sure, the base regen of the trinket is lower than that of Spirits of the Sun or the DMC trinket. However, as a resto shaman, you have to factor in the fact that the static Spirit on this trinket makes it the only epic level trinket that boosts Mana Tide. With the heroic version, the interaction with Mana Tide alone adds around 98 mp5 to the trinket. When you factor in the regen value to all 6 healers in the raid, you're looking at around 600 extra mp5. Even if Spirits/DMC are slightly more personal regen, Qin-Xi pulls ahead of them significantly, especially in a 25 man raid with the MTT boost factored in.

I realize that INT procs are not ideal, but you have to also consider that it has a higher average INT value than any of the other trinkets, and that the INT proc is at a high enough uptime (~45%) that it is relatively reliable.

I think Qin-Xi needs to be one of the two trinkets, with the debate being Spirits of the Sun vs DMC for the 2nd slot.

Even with mana tide factored in, it's only 50 or so mp5 more than DMC. For any other healer, DMC actually provides more personal regen than Seal, so it's only Resto Shamans who have to make the decision about whether they want to buff the other healers. I personally would much rather take the more reliable static int for most encounters. Seal can be decent if it procs when CDs are up, but I'd rather do decent healing throughout rather than relying on procs lining up with CDs.

Like I said, it's personal preference, but that's my opinion.