Back to my Shaman

[Waterisbest]

Hi guys, I have been playing my Shaman since late TBC and during the entire WotLK. I didn't continue on playing in Cata but returning to the game for MoP. I did play a days on late Cata and saw some changes for Shamans, resto/enha, and it didn't feel that much different from WotLK, but I only did normal dungeons while leveling and then stopped playing the game again.

With the latest patch and the changes to Shamans overall, I do find, Resto and Enha, VERY different to what it was in WotLK and the short time I played Cata.

One of the thing as resto is that, I find the number of spells and cds overwhelming to manage for now (not one but TWO healing totems!), and there will be more to manage in MoP. I want to know if these changes are good for resto, where we stand in terms of healing output compared to other classes, if all of the healing spells and cds are worth using, how bad is overhealing going to end up in MoP and where we stand interms of overhealing.

As fore enha, I guess I'll get used to the spells because I have been wanting some of those for Enha for a long time (Spirit walk being a base cd? Hell yea!).

I would like know some addons and stuff on managing all of these cds and spells, because right now, I have tons spells on my spell bar and it's making my UI extremely messy to look at.

[Table]

One of the thing as resto is that, I find the number of spells and cds overwhelming to manage for now (not one but TWO healing totems!), and there will be more to manage in MoP. I want to know if these changes are good for resto, where we stand in terms of healing output compared to other classes, if all of the healing spells and cds are worth using, how bad is overhealing going to end up in MoP and where we stand interms of overhealing.

Resto is in a very good place right now (much better than the beginning of Cata). All healers are relatively equal, with Shaman being a little on the low end in 10 mans and a little on the high end in 25 mans (LFR). The CDs are very much worth using, Healing Stream Totem can account for 10% of your total healing if used on CD and Healing Tide can account for another 10% of your total healing (or more) if used correctly. Mana Tide should be used on CD after you hit ~80% mana and Spirit Link is a raid CD that is very powerful when the raid is stacked. Unleash Elements has been improved so that the buff now stacks with Healing Rain. It should be used first whenever you are going to cast a HR.

I would like know some addons and stuff on managing all of these cds and spells, because right now, I have tons spells on my spell bar and it's making my UI extremely messy to look at.

ForteXorcist and Power Auras are both great addons to track your totems. ForteXorcist is much easier to set up so I would suggest going with that.

[Waterisbest]

Thanx for the info.

Will try out the addons and see how it goes.

[Navitas]

ForteXorcist and Power Auras are both great addons to track your totems. ForteXorcist is much easier to set up so I would suggest going with that.

Have you used 'Tell me when' at all? That's what I've been using for tracking buffs, debuffs, CDs, totems, etc. Would ForteXorcist or Power Auras be better?

[Dorac]

ForteXorcist is a great addon for tracking everything. I have also used Totem Timers since.. as far as I can remember. Its great for tracking your totems/shields and weapon imbues as well as other abilities and CDs if you'd like it too. Power Auras as well as long as you take the time to set it up.

[akro]

Just in general I love our changes, can't wait to get ascendance. I will agree with you at first the whole totem thing was overwhelming but you'll get the hang of it.

R.I.P. Shockandawe. Other then that I just use elvui which has totemtimers and every thing built into it.

[Table]

Have you used 'Tell me when' at all? That's what I've been using for tracking buffs, debuffs, CDs, totems, etc. Would ForteXorcist or Power Auras be better?

TellMeWhen sees to be very similar to Power Auras, but less customizable. I prefer Power Auras, but I wouldn't say thier is a need to change unless you think you would use some of the different features. I use Power Auras to track when my CDs are up, including HST so I can pop it on CD, when I should pop MTT, and also to track debuffs on myself during specific boss fights.

Forte is different then both of those. It is a bar which shows all your spells that are on CD moving across it, so you can easily look and see what spells you have on CD. If you click an ability that is on cooldown, it will make it ping and grow on your screen so you can tell where it is without having to look for it.

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...teXorcist.html

[Waterisbest]

WoW, thanks for the replies guys. Will check out a few of these and see which one suites my play style. I bought a new graphic card and a new Samsung wide screen, so I want the best possible experience. Also need an addon which will allow the combat stats to flow on the side or something for my middle screen to be clear and easy to see.

Damn it's been so long, I feel like a noob right now. But i guess it's a good thing

[Table]

WoW, thanks for the replies guys. Will check out a few of these and see which one suites my play style. I bought a new graphic card and a new Samsung wide screen, so I want the best possible experience. Also need an addon which will allow the combat stats to flow on the side or something for my middle screen to be clear and easy to see.

Damn it's been so long, I feel like a noob right now. But i guess it's a good thing

Mik's Scrolling Battle Text is what I use. It takes all the numbers and condenses them so you don't have numbers everywhere. For example, if you have 5 ticks of Healing Rain for 1000 healing each, it will say 5000 Healing Rain (5 ticks). This makes it very useful for AoE situations if you do not want your screen to be blocked out by numbers. It also has icons for whatever damage/healing spell is used so it is easy to tell what is doing what.

Scrolling Combat Text is another option. It works much like the standard Blizzard floating combat text but is much more customizable.

[Waterisbest]

Thanks again for the help.

[oblivionx]

Vuhdo is very good for healing, especially with it's clustering display for Chain heal (shows an approximation of how many are in range for Chain heal to jump to).

[Deleted]

Vuhdo is pretty awesome to use for healing. It's a bit tough to configure as there are a lot of options, but when you've set it all up, it's a lot more useful than Grid

[Walktheline]

The addons i'm using for my shaman:

- X-Perl (only for player, target and focus frame - looks a bit better than the standard frames)
- Satrinas Buffframes (just got a recent update, making it usable again for 5.0.4. - also very very viable to track single buffs, for instance pots, cooldowns, ...)
- Quartz (best casting bar addon - imo)
- ShockAndAwe (mainly to track LS and Mahlstrom proccs)
- Grid (i prefer grid over the standard raidframes)
- tidy plates or docs ui name plates (its possible to go either way, both are great addons, but i prefer tidy plates)

Hope i could help you.

Walk

[Waterisbest]

Oh yes, every post have been helpful. I do remember using some of these before, but it's been so long I forgot the names and their usage.

[Waterisbest]

How big is the skill cap for resto shamans now? During TBC and WotLK, you can easily make out the great from good, good from average and average from bad. I have been in 4 guilds during this time and pretty much came out on top every time (I have done pretty much every raid/boss during TBC and WotLK). There were less resto shamans around, so finding a great one was a bit difficult. Shamans overall also didn't have the same appeal as other healers as well.

After coming back and trying to get into one of my three ex-guilds, I have every gm/officer telling me that almost every healer in their guilds wants to go resto shaman for mop and they are having a major dilemma (they would take me in heartbeat if I roll one of the other healers). It's quite a big contrast from the past, where resto shamans were normally the last pick anyone would really think about.

The thing is, I have been playing shaman for such a long time I can't even imagine making another class my main and I really want to continue playing my shaman as main after the recent quality changes. I have played my shaman through some very difficult times, so it's not like I'm just rolling fotm. My question is, why this sudden influx on interest for resto shamans? How big is the skill cap from before and right now? What happened to other healers and what is their state in mop? Monks were said to be quite amazing during beta. I have been reading about priest and people say they are in a bad state right now.

Some explanation about the current state of healing (in beta) will be very helpful.

[paror]

How big is the skill cap for resto shamans now? During TBC and WotLK, you can easily make out the great from good, good from average and average from bad. I have been in 4 guilds during this time and pretty much came out on top every time (I have done pretty much every raid/boss during TBC and WotLK). There were less resto shamans around, so finding a great one was a bit difficult. Shamans overall also didn't have the same appeal as other healers as well.

After coming back and trying to get into one of my three ex-guilds, I have every gm/officer telling me that almost every healer in their guilds wants to go resto shaman for mop and they are having a major dilemma (they would take me in heartbeat if I roll one of the other healers). It's quite a big contrast from the past, where resto shamans were normally the last pick anyone would really think about.

The thing is, I have been playing shaman for such a long time I can't even imagine making another class my main and I really want to continue playing my shaman as main after the recent quality changes. I have played my shaman through some very difficult times, so it's not like I'm just rolling fotm. My question is, why this sudden influx on interest for resto shamans? How big is the skill cap from before and right now? What happened to other healers and what is their state in mop? Monks were said to be quite amazing during beta. I have been reading about priest and people say they are in a bad state right now.

Some explanation about the current state of healing (in beta) will be very helpful.

The biggest thing really is: we went from 0 raid cd's to having the most raid cd's. As in having some awesome options, want to be more like a druid healer? glyph riptide. More of aoe healer glyph chain heal. Etc. Then there is stormlash a sort of mini-bloodlust(it gives damage not haste) for some free raid damage. There were some problems with mana regen but I am not sure how it is now, but I think they have fixed that.

(on a side note , double tremor/grounding/stun totems and double purge is not to be taken lightly in pvp)

[Sidone]

A quick question in between; do enhancement shamans get low on mana now? I tried some on my alt in that scenario, but i ran out of mana after a while. I didn't really spent time with glyphs or talents tho.

---------- Post added 2012-09-20 at 03:32 PM ----------

Noone ? I do not want to shamelessly bump but i am a bit concerned. It's a alt on her offspec and i just ran out of mana so i went resto mainspecc to be usefull.

[domwindle]

There's no doubt that they have improved resto by giving us more CDs. Ascendence, Healing Tide and Elemental Mastery will be good options for improved throughput for when healing gets tough. We have always lacked a CD for increased throughput and now we have plenty of options. SLT also provides a lot of utility. Having the option to run with no CD on riptide will provide us a significant improvement to our mobility and also allows us to have a higher uptime on Tidal Waves.

We also now have a decent personal CD (something we have been lacking for a while also). It's a shame that we didn't get a tank CD but overall I think the new changes add a lot more depth to Shaman Healing.

[Waterisbest]

Resto shaman seems a bit strong in 5/10 utility wise and healing wise in 25 man. My disc priest feels so easy to play after healing on my shaman. There is a HUGE difference in terms of spells. I am running out of keybinds on resto shaman, I have no idea where to place my spells anymore. Used shift, ctrl and all F keys lol, all buttons on mouse. I think I need to get a new mouse with more buttons. I see why resto shamans are getting such attention but I also learned that resto shaman will have a much much bigger skill cap then before, it's not for the weak really. With so many spells it will be difficult to decide which one to use and when. Timing the spells to make them 100% efficient etc.

The only problem I have is, everyone will now roll resto shaman because "OMG THEY ARE SO COOL AND STRONG". It will give birth to many many poor resto shamans and once a great class and prestigious specc will now be ruined.