Resto Shamans, tell me a little about yourselves! :)

[Dendrek]

Hi guys. Though I'm not a Shaman, I am a healer. As one, I think it would be a good idea for me to get a better understanding of the play styles and capabilities of those I heal alongside. I'm interested in knowing a little more about what it is to be a Resto Shaman. If you wouldn't mind, can you please answer some questions I have?

1. How would you rate yourselves as: a) raid healers, b) MT-healers, c) OT-healers, d) multi-target healers? How do you feel you compare in these roles to other classes?

2. What kind of healing rotations do you use?

3. When appropriately geared, how fast are your heals? How much do they heal for? What talent/gear/glyph procs do they benefit from?

4. When 2 or 3-healing 10 man raids, which healing classes do you think supplement you well?

5. If you could customize a weapon with whatever stats you chose, how would you prioritize those stats (SP > Haste > Crit > Int, vs SP > mp5 > Crit > Int, etc)?

Thanks. I look forward to the replies.

[Madhoof]

1) Raid/Backup Healer
I'm THE raidhealer. Since I'm guild leader and orga amongst the healers I tend to give myself no specific task but raid- or x-Heal

1st of all, that is what my class is meant to be. 2nd it gives me the freedom to have a look at
a) the tanks as well (I don'T trust other healers, not even my guildmates )
b) specialists that tend to die in AE or similar boss skills
c) how my guys are performing

while I'm still fulfilling my job (I'd say 110% )

2) Healers don't use rotations! How should they ??

It depends primarily on the encounter and secondarily on the setup. Actually I use all my healing spells but HW (ok maybe 1-3 "oh shit" instant HWs, but I wouldn't count them in). So depending on the encounter, I use about 50% CH, 25% RT and 25% LHW or 20% CH, 40% RT and 40% LHW (approximately)

3) Raidbuffed:
CH 2,0 sec
LHW: 0,89 secs (with TW up)

4) Pala/Disc + Rnd

5) Int, SP, Haste, mp5 (crit) in no particular order

[Dendrek]

Ty for the replay, Madhoof.

As far as healing "rotation" is concerned: I didn't mean it in the same way as one might talk about a dps rotation. I should probably have written the question as, "How do you decide what spells to cast and when?"

[Madhoof]

Ty for the replay, Madhoof.

As far as healing "rotation" is concerned: I didn't mean it in the same way as one might talk about a dps rotation. I should probably have written the question as, "How do you decide what spells to cast and when?"

kk, then I will give some details about the numbers I posted upwards. As I'm dedicated to raidhealing there are just 2 possible encounters for me: CH-able and non-CH-able fights. I'd say, the main difference between those two, lies in positioning of the raidgroup and the way damage is dealt to the raid.

close positions + dmg on many targets -> CH
close positions + dmg on few targets -> CH / RT + LHW (actually you may want to choose a RT + LHW instead, in this case it really just depends on the other circumstances)
widely spread positions + dmg on many targets -> RT + LHW / CH (actually you may want to choose a CH instead, in this case it really just depends on the other circumstances)
widely spread positions + dmg on few targets -> RT + LHW

[Tethys]

1. How would you rate yourselves as: a) raid healers, b) MT-healers, c) OT-healers, d) multi-target healers? How do you feel you compare in these roles to other classes?

We are probably second to third best raid healing class overall. Priests pump out more ehps and druids are more mobile. Shamans definately hold their own though. Tank healing I would say we are much much worse than disc priests and holy paladins obviously, but better than holy priests and about the same as druids.

2. What kind of healing rotations do you use?

Keep tidal waves up, keep ES up on our tank, watch grid and play whack a mole with the most effective spell for the situation. CH is too slow if its not going to bounce, likewise trying to toss 6 lhws into a melee group when you could have tossed two chain heals is inneficient. The only use I've had for HW in Ulduar is on the tank during Phase 1 Mimiron.

3. When appropriately geared, how fast are your heals? How much do they heal for? What talent/gear/glyph procs do they benefit from?

LHW with tidal waves is under a second and it hit for an average of 5245 on the WWS from last night. Riptide is an instant heal, it averaged 3k for me. Ch is about a 2 second cast during raids for me. I'm not mentioning talents since our build is fairly obvious. About the most variation I've seen is if you pick up healing way or not (I suggest not even though I have it). The one defiante glyph you should have is ES. I also use CH and LHW.

Casting speed is going to vary a lot. Resto Shamans gear differently, some prefer haste over crit and others try to balance it out or just go for crit. Shamans entering Ulduar could have anywhere from 300 to 700 haste....

4. When 2 or 3-healing 10 man raids, which healing classes do you think supplement you well?

A disc priest and a druid seem to work well. The druid can roll hots on everything, the priest prevents a lot of tank damage and I end up mainly healing the raid with lhw/riptide.
2 healing I prefer a paladin or a pro druid.

5. If you could customize a weapon with whatever stats you chose, how would you prioritize those stats (SP > Haste > Crit > Int, vs SP > mp5 > Crit > Int, etc)?

For a "custom" weapon I wouldnt put mp5 on it since I have yet to have any efficiency problems in Ulduar. For me it would me Spell Power>INT>Crit>Haste

[Tasttey]

1. How would you rate yourselves as: a) raid healers, b) MT-healers, c) OT-healers, d) multi-target healers? How do you feel you compare in these roles to other classes?

Honestly I'm a jack of all trades shaman. Need the raid kept up, no biggy. Gotta make sure the tank doesn't die, right there with ya.

a) Raid healing- good shamans are up there with the best of them, yeah there are fights that suck for us (Thorim's arena is my bane) competitive with druids/priests on most encounters

b) Tank Healing- lacking in the "oh shit" buttons that Dic/Holy Priests for those crazy damage abilities (damn you Plasma Blast) but quite competent if geared for it (Shammy gearing for tank healing is very Pally-like) slightly behind Disc Priests and Holy Paladins, even with druids and discounting GS cooldowns better than Holy Priests

c) OT Healing- pretty much anyone can do this job typically

d) Multi-Target healing- we definitely rock when targets are close ranged, Chain Heal is sweet for close knit combat, spread everyone out and we're Riptide and Lesser Healing Wave spammers.

2. What kind of healing rotations do you use?

Madhoof covered it pretty well, although if people are spread out and taking some serious damage (napalm from Mimiron) I like the Riptide/LHW/HW combo

3. When appropriately geared, how fast are your heals? How much do they heal for? What talent/gear/glyph procs do they benefit from?

Depending on how they geared or which set they're wearing (shaman that fulfill multiple rolls will have different sets of gear, kinda like tanks) cast times can vary a bit.

Typically though you'll see in a well geared shaman:

LHW's in 0.8-1.3 sec casts (depending on Tidal Waves) that land for 5-6k (if glyphed Earth Shielded targets will be at the higher end)
HW's in 1.4-2.2 sec casts (again Tidal Waves) that land for 11-12k
CH's in around 2 sec with initial hits about 6.8-7.5k (Riptide adds bonus healing to the target) and then down by half for each bounce
Riptides instant with a HoT (typically over written) 3-3.3k lands with tics of 850-1k
Earth Shield- 2.3-2.5k (always on the tank, well should be atleast)

4. When 2 or 3-healing 10 man raids, which healing classes do you think supplement you well?

3 healing- resto druid and either a holy pally or disc priest

2 healing- Holy Priest or Resto Druid

5. If you could customize a weapon with whatever stats you chose, how would you prioritize those stats (SP > Haste > Crit > Int, vs SP > mp5 > Crit > Int, etc)?

For my gearing ideals I find putting mp5 on a weapon a worthless stat, if I need more mp5 I can easily make it up in another piece of gear, that being said.

SP>Crit>Haste>Int (haste would be higher but 4pc T8 gives us 0.2 sec off chain heal, which is really the only spell we're concerned with haste for)

Thanks. I look forward to the replies.
[/quote]

[Nørf]

I agree 95% with all Tasttey wrote there for i will not be making a double post but just pointing out my agreement ^^

The only thing i "disagree" with is that i always handle my stats based on crit and haste therefor i dont put spellpower higher but see it as a stat that comes along with the rest.
Im not very focused on intellect and dont plan on being.
If going for more regen or mana (more efficient healing) i will choose mp/5 though i will never gem for it if i can avoid it.

[Varithorn1]

1. Raid utility healers. I'm assigned to the raid, but I usually cover other healers' assignements simply because how fast I can pump out LHW. I.e: Riptide on the tank and chain healing him to also cover the melee.

2. CH or Riptide to LHW. I generally try to avoid spamming CH, but due to mana effieciency on predictable Aoe encounters casting 2 or 3 in a row may be neccesary.

3. I keep my haste pretty high, and pending a few swap outs for the t7.5 4pc bonus, I can get around 500-550. So about 17% haste, and quick enough LHW with tidal waves to beat everyone else to a hurting target.

4. In 10 mans, I work well with a resto druid moreso than everyone else. With 3 heals I prefer Resto Druid/Paladin combo.

5. Weapon? Spellpower>haste>int>crit, Simply because of itemization preferance.


**Sorry for badd spellingzz**

[BlacKcuD]

1. raid cross healer at a top 100 world progression guild. (although shamans are kickass at tank healing and most of the top guilds use their shamans for tank healing only)

2. for (1) hasted chain heals, earthshield, healing stream totem and riptide. lhw and hw only very situational and exclusively while hasted through tidal waves

3. because of (1) glyphs: ch, es, hs

4. priest and paladin

5. SP = Haste = Crit = Int, if you heal cross with ch and t8 set go for haste, if you run oom go for int, if your raid dies get more sp, for smaller groups grab additional crit

[Instant]

Tasttey said all i wanted to say

But i'll add that with t8 4 pieces bonus, im going all out crit on gear i pick up, and minimal haste amount (~300 - 350) and yes its for raid healing