Resto Shaman 6.2 Information & Discussion Thread

[Kelsierx]

Hello my fellow Restoration Shaman mains and off-healers!

I thought this would be a good time for some discussion pre patch 6.2 as a good portion of the information has been released on how our class is looking for upcoming patch 6.2 and Hellfire Citadel.

The purpose of this thread is to get comments and thoughts from our community regarding how we are looking for patch 6.2 and HFC.

For example: What are some concerns coming into the next patch? What are our strengths/weaknesses in contrast to our current status in T17? What encounters in HFC will we shine on, and what ones will we have difficulty with compared to other healers?

SPELL CHANGES:

- Chain Heal now heals for 25% more.
- Riptide no longer increases Chain Heal's effectiveness by 25% on the primary target.

T18 SET BONUS:

Restoration Shaman T18 2P Bonus - Increases Riptide's critical strike chance by 25%.

Restoration Shaman T18 4P Bonus - When you Chain Heal, you have a 65% chance to also apply Riptide to the primary target.

CLASS TRINKET:

Core of the Primal Elements - Equip: Casting Healing Surge, Chain Heal, or Healing Wave on a target with your Riptide on it has a 54.90% chance to spread that Riptide to another nearby ally.

***********

Personal thoughts:

I think we are shaping up quite nicely for patch 6.2. The ability to cast chain heal on targets without riptide to receive the 25% bonus is a nice change as we can now confidently heal the lowest health target member in a cluster. Our current set bonuses are solid, and I've loved being able to spam chain heal in pressure situations when the proc is up, but it looks like our playstyle will be changed slightly coming next patch. However, I don't see that as a bad thing because it looks quite interesting.

It appears there will be a heavy focus on riptide on the next patch. It should be possible to have many riptides rolling on the raid, while currently without being glyphed, wouldn't be possible to that extent. Chain heal will still be a big part of our healing, and should be even more important now with the possibility of applying a riptide to the initial chain heal target.

In regards to the class trinket, I know there has been some discussion in other threads, but I wanted to see what everyone's thoughts were regarding this trinket. From my understanding, it does not apply a new riptide to the target, just copy an existing riptide, and without the initial heal.

Questions:

1. Will the riptide being applied by the 4P set bonus include the initial heal of riptide? Can this riptide be copied over by the class trinket? I've heard talk about two different riptides, and that the class trinket is unable to copy over the set bonus riptides.

2. Will the class trinket be viable compared to other trinkets?

Thanks for reading everyone, please let me know your thoughts about how Restoration Shamans are shaping up for patch 6.2 and Hellfire Citadel.

[Deleted]

1. Yes, the 4P applies the initial healing from riptide, making the setbonus quite decent, and from what ive heard, that riptide can be copied over by the classtrinket.

2. No

Id say that (resto) shamans are looking quite good going into the next tier.

[Kelsierx]

1. Yes, the 4P applies the initial healing from riptide, making the setbonus quite decent, and from what ive heard, that riptide can be copied over by the classtrinket.

2. No

Id say that (resto) shamans are looking quite good going into the next tier.

That is encouraging about the 4P.

I'm liking how the set bonus is looking for T18, even though I lament giving up these set bonuses currently!

[Cheze]

I'll be curious to see how long people hold onto the two piece from BRF; ~25% more chainheal seems a lot more attractive to me than some spare riptides at roughly equivalent ilvl.

[Kelsierx]

I'll be curious to see how long people hold onto the two piece from BRF; ~25% more chainheal seems a lot more attractive to me than some spare riptides at roughly equivalent ilvl.

That is a good question, as I was wondering that myself.

I think once we get the gear we can play around with it a bit more, but the current set bonus is strong.

Just looking at it, I think it will be a worthy switch from the current to the T18, especially with the added item lvl, which will obviously include more intellect, spell power, and secondary stats etc

[Canibehealz]

Just looking at it, I think it will be a worthy switch from the current to the T18, especially with the added item lvl, which will obviously include more intellect, spell power, and secondary stats etc

We're likely to keep our tier for a large chunk of initial progression. Not exactly because T18 is weak, which it isn't, but simply because 4p17 (even after the change to 50% mana reduction in 6.2) is strong and other classes on the Protector token will see a better use of the 4p than RSham.

Information I've written up about 6.2/T18 for Resto can be found here because I haven't personally had time to construct a formal post here or on Summonstone with the information. BiS List at the top is subject to change as the PTR changes blahblahblah. I've been adding to it slowly but surely as I've got more information and testing done and there is a list of tier and trinket interactions included in the post. I'd copy/paste it all over here but the formatting would be messed up and I don't have the time to format it all.

[Kelsierx]

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

I will check out your link

[Canibehealz]

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

I will check out your link

No problem. Should be updated tonight into tomorrow with final* (*pending theres no more tuning passes) information regarding the tier, trinkets and gameplay along with BiS list.

[Koor]

While testing the class trinket, I noticed that:

1. It can add multiple riptides in a single chain heal cast on different players.
2. It can duplicate a riptide in one of the jumps even if the primary chain heal target doesn't have riptide at all.

I'm not sure if those are recent changes to the trinket behavior or were there from the beginning, it looks like each chain heal jump has a separate chance to spread a riptide.

I think this can be particularly strong for burst healing, especially before we have the T18 4-set.

[Deleted]

Indeed. The HoT effect of riptide is renowned for its burst, adding upwards of 4k every 2 seconds. Add in the fact that the trinket doesnt even have a 100% proc and it becomes an ultimate tool.

[Koor]

I should have been more clear, it's not so much for the hot per-se but rather additional high tide opportunities when having lots of riptides around. The difference between a chain heal hitting 4 targets and one hitting 6 targets is huge.

It's similar to the reason the riptide glyph was sometimes used even though it reduced the initial heal, just to have more high tide candidates. Except with the trinket we save the GCDs of having to actually cast riptides, and instead we can spam chain heal.

This can be particularly strong before we use T18 4-set, since the set bonus also gives an option to have free riptides so they kind of fill a similar role of enhancing high tide.

[Flashyy]

Let's talk 6.2 stat weights.

I'm thinking Mastery (to ~80%)>Haste>crit=multi>>>>versa

[Volitar]

Resto looks weird going into 6.2.. So we have pre wrath chainheal again which is nice but am I wrong to think it looks even more braindead than it currently is with t17 bonus? Chainheal spam -without- the need for pre loading up riptides to get ready for big damage phases..its just like all chain heal spam.

[Canibehealz]

Let's talk 6.2 stat weights.

I'm thinking Mastery (to ~80%)>Haste>crit=multi>>>>versa

There are a couple of generally excepted stat arrangements.

Mastery > Haste > MS=Crit > Vers
Haste > MS > Mastery >= Crit > Vers
MS > Haste > Mastery >= Crit > Vers

The reason why these weights are the way they are is because in an absorb centric healing meta and encounter design meta, stacking Mastery to brim is largely a waste of stats. MS overheals less than Crit does in exchange for a slight loss in Resurgence mana return, but the mana return isn't something we're based around having anyway and is very little over an encounter currently. It also grants us higher damage capability than Crit does because of LvBs auto-crit mechanism. While healers aren't designed to DPS, its nice that our spells are free and can provide a couple million damage in a progression setting (think Kromog pillar burn for extra damage) - and that damage can count so in low healing periods let Riptides do the work and weave in free damage spells. This saves mana for later and contributes to raid success.

But again, this all depends on your healing composition and encounter design. You may find in your healing environment that one build works better than another. Thats why my BiS charts that have been linked in this thread include the builds most ideal for each of those three stat arrangements.

[how2pingu]

What would you count as an absorb heavy raid? Would raiding with a disc and (often) a holy paladin warrant switching away from a mastery heavy build? Mastery has been working well for me in that composition, but I'm debating if I'd be better off with a MS > Haste > Mastery priority instead.

[Canibehealz]

What would you count as an absorb heavy raid? Would raiding with a disc and (often) a holy paladin warrant switching away from a mastery heavy build? Mastery has been working well for me in that composition, but I'm debating if I'd be better off with a MS > Haste > Mastery priority instead.

Encounter design is also a hugely relative factor as well. Progression will almost always favor Mastery just because of its inherent counter to screw ups. If shit hits the fan you're going to make the difference between a wipe and a kill by bringing the raid back from the brink of death.

Raiding with an incredibly skilled Disc and Paladin myself, I've found that haste and multi tend to work better for me. There is usually less to heal in my raids than in others so casting a couple chain heals on people at 70% fills their health bars just fine. I also typically still have ~70-75% mastery in a full multistrike build which is usually more than enough to make a considerable difference in encounters where Mastery may shine.

To your question, I'd consider a skilled Disc and Hpal to be heavier on absorbs, even more so when theres two hpals. As I said, encounter design is a huge factor. When theres waves of damage that a Disc can just eat entirely, theres little to no point to bringing a shaman healer.

[Licarius]

Question regarding the Resto Shaman class trinket.

Is it worth grabbing? I've read that a single chain heal can spread the riptide to all those healed by the chain heal. Proc/RNG dependant of course.

Is this the case? Is the loss of static stats worth it????

[Alltat]

Let's talk 6.2 stat weights.

I'm thinking Mastery (to ~80%)>Haste>crit=multi>>>>versa

Do you base that number on anything in particular, or is it just randomly chosen? Because most resto shamans should be over it already. People in full heroic BRF gear should be around 100% mastery fully raid buffed.

Raiding with an incredibly skilled Disc and Paladin myself, I've found that haste and multi tend to work better for me. There is usually less to heal in my raids than in others so casting a couple chain heals on people at 70% fills their health bars just fine. I also typically still have ~70-75% mastery in a full multistrike build which is usually more than enough to make a considerable difference in encounters where Mastery may shine.

In my experience, absorb-heavy healing teams will often favor mastery even more. Absorbs currently negate a very large amount of damage, but they do so at a fairly constant rate over a fight. And neither discipline priests nor holy paladins have any really good throughput cooldowns. So basically you'll have nothing to do for a while, then you reach some spike phase and everyone drops low and you're the only one who can really do anything about it. Stacking haste/crit/multistrike lets you look useful on healing meters in such raids, but mastery lets your raid actually kill the boss.

[Gardiff]

Question regarding the Resto Shaman class trinket.

Is it worth grabbing? I've read that a single chain heal can spread the riptide to all those healed by the chain heal. Proc/RNG dependant of course.

Is this the case? Is the loss of static stats worth it????

The trinket has undergone many iterations but often the changes have not been posted or made clear.

Since the patch is tomorrow this is what I have found out from the PTR which I assume is what we will hit live with.

The archimonde trinket does not allow 4 piece riptides to be spread. For casted riptides, all of our stated heals can spread them (so hw/hs/chain heal).

For riptides spawned from 4 piece, the archimonde trinket DOES allow the initial hit to spread (at the 55% proc rate or whatever it is) and it CAN spread to multiple people within one bounce (i.e. 3 riptides from one chain heal). However, the person that the riptide may be spread to DOES NOT have to be the primary target of the chain heal. Even just now I was spreading riptides to people not in group 15 yards away not getting hit by my chain heals. Often this situation where I was spreading riptides to far away targets only occurred whenever a riptide had already spawned on the person the chain heal bounce was hitting. Example below.

So lets say we have 3 people: A, B, C.

I am chain healing between A and B. We both get a fresh 18 second riptide from chain heal 1.

I continue to spam chain heal on target A. Target A suddenly gets a 4 pc proc and the chain heal that is hitting him is still bouncing to target B. Target B, however, DID NOT ever get a NEW pc proc on them. Instead, if I did spawn a new 4 piece proc on target A, it would either do nothing (since its a 55% chance) or it would bounce a fresh riptide to a random target C (without chain heal actually hitting target C).

HOWEVER, once a riptide is spawned from the 4 piece, HS/HW/CH will never be able to spread that specificly spawned riptide. There was a point in time in the PTR where this was true but it is no longer the case. Thus, 4 piece riptides cannot be copied over ONCE already spawned, but with the trinket, can be spread by the initial 4 pc spawn. That was the true major strength of the trinket anyway. It remains to be seen if it will be used, however. Demonic Phylactery (has not been nerfed) and Intuition's Gift (nerfed) are still incredibly strong int + throughput or mana trinkets. The first boss trinket is just a static stat trinket that just doesn't feel very good when you have trinkets that let you control the proc like intuition's gift. The leech trinket got nerfed to about half of what it was.

So this trinket may still have a use and probably will be toyed around more with but there are already active trinkets available in the tier.

[Canibehealz]

nor holy paladins have any really good throughput cooldowns. So basically you'll have nothing to do for a while, then you reach some spike phase and everyone drops low and you're the only one who can really do anything about it. Stacking haste/crit/multistrike lets you look useful on healing meters in such raids, but mastery lets your raid actually kill the boss.

Holy Paladins dont have a really good throughput cooldown? I lol'd.

So... I did say encounter design was a huge factor and Mythic Hellfire may be designed the complete opposite of BRF. And that Mastery is favored in most progression settings. In BRF there are really not many encounters that aren't "trivialized" by a good Disc priest and Holy paladin and thats including progression. Theres a reason a lot of encounters were underhealed using Disc/Hpal/Hpal/X, where X is literally any healer with a 3m cooldown.

Personally, I have multiple sets of gear. I change trinkets and accessories frequently. All 5 tier pieces for optimal gearing fight by fight. There are encounters that favor Mastery - and encounters that favor Haste. Multistrike is just a thing because of its lower overhealing compared to Crit. Having a 40% MS rate on Chain Heal on top of having 75% mastery is still beastly, even when shit hits the fan. /shrug