Resto: looking for advice

[dPwnShop]

Do any of you veteran resto shamans have any advice on using cloudburst effectively? I ran my first raid last night as a resto shaman and I couldn't help feel like cloudburst totem was underwhelming.

I had gotten so used to having 2 riptides and always having tidal waves available that switching to the standard raid build felt clunky. Using cloudburst totem on cooldown would usually have it expiring when everyone was topped or me using it after raid dmg but the heal was not even noticeable. I tried holding it until right before raid dmg and I would either expire it early enough to heal people for minimal effect or try to "fill" it up and everyone would end up topped off by the time I got there.

If the only problem for me would be the underwhelming performance from cloudburst I'd be fine but I just can't get over how clunky it feels and how hard it is to keep up tidal waves. I'm thinking about going back to EotE build until I get a better feeling for how to handle cloudburst and tidal waves. It was so much easier for me when playing my mage because I had videos I could watch about the correct openings and then I could turn around and practice those openings on target dummies but there is no practice grounds for healing in a raid setting.

I have read both wowhead and icy-veins resto guides but neither of them speak to the issues I'm running into. I'm also interested in finding any youtubers who focus on healing raids or maybe even giving commentary on current bosses. I don't have logs of the fights but my character link is below.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...%C3%A9y/simple

[orderschvank]

Well, just use it in conjunction with other healing CDs like ascendance or ancestral guidance, and use it when you know big dmg is coming and you should start to see it shine. Just dropping it on CD because its on CD doesn't make much sense.

[Buschleague]

I think the choice comes down to personal preference at this point (until there is more data logged). Looking at logs, you see solid results from both the EotE build and the deluge/cloudburst build. Personally, I chose to go with the cloudburst build for normal last night and was happy with it. Cloudburst was doing anywhere from 8%-12% of my healing on any given fight and I was simply using it on CD (not micro managing it). There were definitely times when it popped with the raid at full health, but there were also times that it did a significant amount of raid wide healing. I'm not sure how that compares to the healing you gain from EotE with more riptides and tidal wave buffed single target heals. I agree that it can feel clunky in that every once in a while you need to cast a non tidal wave buffed healing wave/surge but overall I enjoy the play style.

I think for the time being I'm going to stick with cloudburst for raid and EotE for dungeons/mythics.

[Tolian]

I've been sticking with EotE for now, because IMO getting the most out of cloudburst requires greater familiarity with damage patterns than I have at this point. When I am able to predict mechanics well enough to know 10-15s in advance that they're going to come out and can start feeding a totem at that point, then I might switch. For now, EotE seems better for reactive healing, which is where I'm at with all this new content.

[Azelas]

Cloudburst will probably be better the more difficult encounters become, with people being constantly damaged, so that almost none of the healing goes to overhealing.

I could see Cloudburst being really good in fights like Xavius or the Spider or Ursoc where damage spikes are pretty noticeable beforehand, you can just drop a cloudburst before that and let it go.

[Ham on Rye]

I chain Cloudburst to the end of my Wellspring, and that gives it a good initial charge combined with that it gains in the next 10 seconds. Also, look at boss ability timers. Get used to knowing a boss will do something that hurts in 15 seconds, and drop cloudburst about 10-12 seconds before that.

[dPwnShop]

When dropping cloudburst do you then start over healing? If I know Ursoc charge is in 10 seconds, do I drop a healing rain on a group that is not taking damage followed by cloudburst and over heal the tanks to prepare for the charge? I think I'm going to go back to my other build until I get more familiar with the fights but is what I just described how you go about charging a cloudburst if no damage is being taken?

[ItsTiddles]

I had gotten so used to having 2 riptides and always having tidal waves available that switching to the standard raid build felt clunky. Using cloudburst totem on cooldown would usually have it expiring when everyone was topped or me using it after raid dmg but the heal was not even noticeable. I tried holding it until right before raid dmg and I would either expire it early enough to heal people for minimal effect or try to "fill" it up and everyone would end up topped off by the time I got there.

If you're using a raid tool like bigwigs or DBM, you should be able to see when damage is incoming. On the first boss for example. On heroic, there is decent raid damage when rot goes on dps. Shortly afterwards (not always lined up this way) the tank rot happens and there's raid wide damage. That would be a good period to fill it up and pop it. If you don't have a weak aura to track it, I'd recommend one. That way you can see how much you have if you feel the need to pop it early.

If the only problem for me would be the underwhelming performance from cloudburst I'd be fine but I just can't get over how clunky it feels and how hard it is to keep up tidal waves. I'm thinking about going back to EotE build until I get a better feeling for how to handle cloudburst and tidal waves.

I'm honestly surprised you're having trouble keeping up tidal waves, since you're running deluge/high tide. I agree with @orderschvank with combing it with other CDs (not HTT, though) makes it a lot more effective, especially on progression. You might fair better switching from Deluge to Ancestral Guidance for another smaller CD to use with CBT.

[dPwnShop]

I specced that way for better chain heals but it seems like the times I need to use chain heals are spread out enough that it isn't a consistent source of tidal waves. This might be a case of doing the raid on normal (only 2 bosses)and not seeing as much damage as I would in a tougher difficulty.

Odds are good that I just need more practice. I had gotten so used to running mythic 5 mans with crashing waves/echo, going with a RT, HS/HWx2, RT that switching to a completely different spec just threw me off. I'm not going back to crashing waves but I think I'll pick echoes back up to have more of a RT, HS/HW, RT for spot healing between big raid damage.