New to healing shaman

[Wooshbar]

I am new to healing as a shaman and have a question since I leveled elemental. I got to 74 and healed an instance.
There was jsut so many healing buttons as a resto shaman to use!
What should i do?
I mean is there any tips you guys could give me? I don't understand how with all these spells you can keep a group alive. also going from healing the tank to the guy who pulled to dealing with the aoe it is tough. Any tips resto shamans?

[Sollolol]

Well myself being enhancement mainspec and mainly only healing heroics somewhat here are a few tips from me:

Firstly I'm guessing you will be healing heroics atm (raid advice wil be incomming most likely from those more experienced )

You should mostly be using 4 spells and these are: Chain Heal (CH), Lesser Healing Wave (LHW), Healing Wave (HW) and Riptide (RT)

Chain Heal is very efficient if used well as it bounces to 2 targets (if at range), this is great to use for AoE damage spikes and also if you have 2 or 3 melee dps (even 1 as it will heal the tank as well)

You should try to use RT in conjuntion with LSW. LSW can be used to top up the odd group member who gets damage as it is a short cast and still heals quite well. On a good geared tank in heroics (as they arent hard at the moment) RT and LSW will be able to keep him up and these might be the only buttons you use.

HW in raids is mostly used with Natures Swiftness talent (making it instant cast) as it overheals a lot, but in heroics, with a new/not as geared tank you might be seeing yourself useing it a lot more, if he takes a lot of damage

Here are just a few tips from me, further posters can go and correct me if I have said something incorrect

[Obscuro]

Well myself being enhancement mainspec and mainly only healing heroics somewhat here are a few tips from me:

Firstly I'm guessing you will be healing heroics atm (raid advice wil be incomming most likely from those more experienced )

You should mostly be using 4 spells and these are: Chain Heal (CH), Lesser Healing Wave (LHW), Healing Wave (HW) and Riptide (RT)

Chain Heal is very efficient if used well as it bounces to 2 targets (if at range), this is great to use for AoE damage spikes and also if you have 2 or 3 melee dps (even 1 as it will heal the tank as well)

You should try to use RT in conjuntion with LSW. LSW can be used to top up the odd group member who gets damage as it is a short cast and still heals quite well. On a good geared tank in heroics (as they arent hard at the moment) RT and LSW will be able to keep him up and these might be the only buttons you use.

HW in raids is mostly used with Natures Swiftness talent (making it instant cast) as it overheals a lot, but in heroics, with a new/not as geared tank you might be seeing yourself useing it a lot more, if he takes a lot of damage

Here are just a few tips from me, further posters can go and correct me if I have said something incorrect

LSW being LHW

[brokenmirror]

HW in raids is mostly used with Natures Swiftness talent (making it instant cast) as it overheals a lot, but in heroics, with a new/not as geared tank you might be seeing yourself useing it a lot more, if he takes a lot of damage

The more crit you have, the better HW becomes... Especially when you're helping heal the MT when there's no raid damage going out, or the actual MT healer.

[Sollolol]

The more crit you have, the better HW becomes... Especially when you're helping heal the MT when there's no raid damage going out, or the actual MT healer.

Am I wrong on the assumption that LHW spam would still be better, due to the fact that HW produces so much overhealing, so for HPM and other such factors the LHW spam would be better?

[Neichus]

Like Sollolol I'm main-spec Enhance so I can't exactly call myself an expert, but this is what I've found personally:

Riptide and Lesser Healing Wave form the backbone of your healing experience, with Tidal Waves tying the two together. It's not true that you should always observe a strict 1:2 ratio between the two, but in general you should try to make sure that when you cast LHW/HW it's under the effect of Tidal Waves. Chain Heal can take the place of Riptide in the "rotation" if Riptide's on cooldown or if you can hit a few people with your Chain Heal. Healing Wave can be used in place of LHW if there is sufficient need, but in general it is less efficient.

I don't know if this is generally accepted wisdom but I've found the 25% bonus healing you get on a Chain Heal off a Riptided target is less useful for AoE healing so much as making Chain Heal worth casting on a single target. That is, in order to keep up Tidal Waves when only a single target (probably the tank) is taking a lot of sustained damage the 25% makes Chain Heal heal enough to be a reasonable substitute for HW, while allowing two further hasted heals. Again, I don't know if this is common procedure but it's how I approach it.

Keep Earth Shield up on the tank, as it does a rather impressive amount of healing, but that's fairly obvious. Also make sure Water Shield doesn't fall off and get in the habit of refreshing it when you have a spare GCD; it's a major source of regen and you'll run OOM fast if you neglect it.

Glyphs, you're probably good starting off looking at Lesser Healing Wave and Earth Shield. Chain Heal is commonly recommended, but my personal experience is that it's not worthwhile pre-raid (and even then, I've found it of debatable use in 10-mans). If you're struggling with initial mana issues Water Mastery is worth 30 mp5. Avoid the Earthliving glyph, it's horrible.

[Wooshbar]

Honestly I aam talking about healing in 74 and 80 dungeons before heroics where I am learning to heal. but thanks for what was already said

[brokenmirror]

Am I wrong on the assumption that LHW spam would still be better, due to the fact that HW produces so much overhealing, so for HPM and other such factors the LHW spam would be better?

It doesn't matter when you're not going oom. It's like saying to a holy pally that he shouldn't spam holy light on a target because he is overhealing by a large amount. AA also heals for a large amount if there's an OT.

I've had fights in ulduar where AA is my top 3 heal.

[Sollolol]

Yeah dont mistake my bad typo of LSW for anything, its LHW

Yeah a few good points added:

Remember to keep up Earth Shield (ES) on your tank, it helps your healing so much, as in if you are inexperienced (which I guess you are slightly) it gives you some leeway in your healing

The second point on Water Shield is also important. If you are specced resto, and you ofc have (if you dont, take it) the talent which has a Water Shield orb proc when you crit with certain heals, its very easy for water shield to fall off and thus lessen your mana regen. So whenever you have a moment, check your buffs to see if it has fallen off or if its about to fall off, and refresh it

[Sollolol]

It doesn't matter when you're not going oom. It's like saying to a holy pally that he shouldn't spam holy light on a target because he is overhealing by a large amount. AA also heals for a large amount if there's an OT.

I've had fights in ulduar where AA is my top 3 heal.

Oh ok, well yeah true, if mana isnt an issue do that (and listen to these ppl who actually heal full time, us dps dont know all the secrets ;D)

[Dundebuns]

My main spec is Resto and my guild is currently clearing hard modes in Ulduar 25. Now, I haven't played for a couple of weeks (Work trip in Japan :O) so my information and opinions may be a bit rusty.

You have 4 main tools; Chain heal, Riptide, Lesser Healing Wave and Healing.

Let me start by saying that Healing Wave in general is rather pointless. It is not very efficient and has a long casting time that you cannot reduce. The main thing I use it for is in conjunction with natures swiftness. Sometimes I may cast it on a tank of the raid is topped up, but with other healing classes having better tank heals it is a challenge to not get a 15k crit of over healing.

Chain heal is pretty much a no brainer. When your group is taking damage, use this. It is a semi intelligent AoE heal in that it will prioritise its jumps to the group member with the lowest health in range. (think it works on percentages and not absolute numbers) This spell comes in to its own when melee may be taking AoE damage, so that you can cast it almost exclusively on the tank while it bounces off of the melee. Chain heal also procs Tidal waves which can be good for some emergency healing of the tank starts taking spikes of damage.

It is useful to remember that there is a range on how far Chain heal will bounce, and you need to decide if it would be better to heal DPS with this or with LHW.

Riptide is a good spell in that it procs tidal waves, increasing the cast speed of your next 2 Healing Waves or Lesser Healing waves. Always cast this on someone before starting to cast the aforementioned spells.

LHW is a good spot healing spell that has a great amount of efficiency. I tend to use it to heal casters and ranged that aren't near anyone else who has taken damage. I also tend to use it to top off tanks if I see other healers struggling.

Generally though you need to practice and experiment to find out what tools you find easier to heal. I know some Shaman use HW a lot more than I do, but it's all down to finding the balance you are happy with.

Hope it helps!

EDIT: Meh forgot the other things! Always keep water shield up, as your healing crits will consume charges to restore mana (well, if you have the improved water shield talent, which you should have). Earthshield should be up on the tank as often as possible, as it's the best 'HoT' in the game (heals over time, but only procs a heal on damage) and AA will prove a lovely boost of burst healing if you roll out a lot of crits. Also, try to predict when spikes of damage may start affecting your group and preempt it with tidal force; the extra critage will prove useful in keeping everyone topped up.

[Vashta]

Let me start by saying that Healing Wave in general is rather pointless. It is not very efficient and has a long casting time that you cannot reduce.

Ignore this statement, it has no basis in fact.

[brokenmirror]

He's clearing hardmodes so he obviously knows what he's talking about.. Even though almost everyone and their mum is also.

[Dundebuns]

Ignore this statement, it has no basis in fact.

Please note that part of my post that says:

My main spec is Resto and my guild is currently clearing hard modes in Ulduar 25. Now, I haven't played for a couple of weeks (Work trip in Japan :O) so my information and opinions may be a bit rusty

I made the important part bold so you don't have to strain yourself.

[Zakknafein]

Welcome to Healing!

1st advice is: get GRID! This add-on is kinda mandatory for further healing, especially in raid. So get used to using it while still levelling.

You won’t have to customize anything, unless you fill comfortable with it. Some useful info from that link, but you can neglect to read it: http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/01/22...-a-grid-story/

Some people will tell you it’s not mandatory. Well, it’s not, but it makes life much much easier.

Concerning healing in instances, I’d say there are 3 types of healing situation:
1. Tank taking damage
2. Random group member taking one shot or a sequence of shots
3. AoE

Usually, at least in 5 men, you have time to heal through these situations.
1: Use Earth Shield (and glyph it), then some RT and LHW.
2: use some LHW, one is usually enough
3 is debatable: RT/LHW works fine. Or you can use some CH. Usually, cast CH on yourself or on your tank. If you have some melee in your group, they’ll take the CH jumps. If you have range/caster, be sure to all stand close enough so the jumps heal them all.

However, when a boss is AoE, he usually spares the tank the time to do it. So you just have to know the fights to switch healing approach.

Oh, and don’t forget to drop in time Cleansing, Mana or Healing stream (depending if there’s a pally or not). For Anub Arak, Cleansing is useful, but you can keep dropping the appropriate totem: once people are poisoned, drop Cleansing, as soon as they’re cleaned, re-drop Healing/Mana Stream.

This, of course, assumes your tank has aggro and holds it and your dps keep away from static damage area, such as black circles in DTK or Blizzard, or stuff like that.

It’s getting much harder when one of the melee off-tanks a mob, or some noob stands still in a place he shouldn’t. I suggest you try a little to keep them alive, but priority number 1 is keep the tank and yourself alive, so let those noobs die!

This were my 2 cents