Current resto situation

[Mangusei]

How do you feel being resto in raids? Atleast for me it feels like we are least needed healer. If we need to drop a healer for dps it's usually resto shaman that either goes ele/enha or is just being swapped. Although it's not a problem to be on top of the meters with current gear and haste craze, it still feels like we are not respected fully enough. Palies are must for tank healing, resto druids are must for the 13k HPS, disc priest "Omgzor shields, need to have those". And that leaves us to raid healing when we are easly swapped by holy priests. I mean most of the raid leaders can imagine raid without us but try to do run without atleast 1 palie, 1-2 druids and priest in either holy or disc spec. 1 ele and 1 enha shaman and raid is fine, no need for us resto if there are other healers.

Oh and I ain't talkin about skill here but the class usefulness which is very very low.

I am not calling for buffs as for me we are most balanced healer in game by far (holy paladin is also in good shape after mana regen nerf). But HPS nerf to druids and group healing nerf for holy priests would be something nice to see in Cata.

[sparks]

yes exactly what is wrong with this game.

YOUR POST

YES NERF PALLY MANA, NERF THEM DOTS, F priest who fought with no mana regen after the big dumb ass bliz screwed them.
nerf everyone but me....honest bliz I am not asking for a buff.
NERF THEM AND NERF THEM NOW

I am resto shaman, we have problems but nothing big. There are times I wish I had a 1 second flash spam but not often.

yep nerf them all which will in turn make me better on the meters.

[Deleted]

Not really sure why i'm replying here, it being clearly a troll.
But a few things we bring? Totems, Mana tide, Heroism + Ancestral Healing.
Restoration Shamans are one of the few healers which can switch very easily from raid to tank healing, or tank to raid healing. They bring very fast and powerful heals, also last time I checked they were not doing to badly on the HPS.
Also the 13k druid HPS? Where did you get this number from? Twins hardmode?

[drug]

To be honest, I suffered a bit pre 3.2. Tank healing slots were occupied by pala/disc and holy priests did a lot better when healing a group.

After 3.2, if you have problems justifying a healing spot in your raid, you a) suck at healing or b) have very ignorant raid leaders.

I somewhat agree though, if someone were to say, that shamans are very versatile healers but aren't masters at tank healing nor group healing. This isn't bad. In BC priests were in that place while we were kings of group healing, now we've switched roles. And we certainly have more than enough tools to do a very decent job at any job we're given. Not only that, but if we dual spec elemental, we can switch to top notch DPS in a heartbeat. Of course we could whine about the fact, that we're often the first one's to switch to DPS if needed, I think it's great.

[Deleted]

Like it or not, resto shamans right now are in a bad place. For any specific event another healer can do the job slightly better. Resto shamans are fine healers, but are slightly off the pace.

The fact that Mek of Ensidia has rerolled elemental is probably proof enough

Mana tide totem is pretty much all they bring to a raid, and whilst useful it isn't amazing.

We all know that resto shamans need to stack a shed load of haste to compete and yet bliz puts mainly crit on our gear.

This is not a troll post, its but a sad fact of the current situation.

I was surprised there wasn't a buff in 3.3, but only time will tell how the icecrown gear/fights will treat us.

[drug]

The fact that Mek of Ensidia has rerolled elemental is probably proof enough

I really like Vixsin's response to Mek's view on the current state of resto shamans: http://lifeingroup5.com/?p=58

The problem really is: I'm not mek. I guess neither are you. So yes, maybe in a high-end cutting edge, absolutely min/max oriented environment, resto shamans suffer. For all the rest of us raiders, gear level, "skill", situational awareness and experience greatly outweigh the class question. The only problem we can have, is raid leaders, reading mek's blog and deciding, that resto shaman's just can't do the job.

The fun about shaman healing is our versatility. I pick up all sorts of healing assignments, tank healing, group healing, healing of specific debuffs and it is great. Would blizzard buff us in the area of tank healing, we would most probably become mindless HW spammers and a boring copy of paladins. Would blizzard buff chainheal, we would fall back to the BC days, which is "one chain heal button to rule them all".

[Deleted]

The problem is i don't agree with that argument

What they are saying that in the top end guilds when reaction timing is pin sharp there is a gap.

Ok, moving down to our level and reality that all healers are a bit slower at reacting. To me the slightly slower shaman heals become even more of an issue, since the game doesn't slow down based on the groups skill.

Yeah we are talking min / max here, but as i said we are fine healers just a bit behind the others.

We all know DK's are the best tank for General V hardmode, but that doesn't stop plenty of guilds clearing it with pala's without much additional problem. The same applies for shamans, we are behind but its not light years.

[zaneosak]

I really like Vixsin's response to Mek's view on the current state of resto shamans: http://lifeingroup5.com/?p=58

The problem really is: I'm not mek. I guess neither are you. So yes, maybe in a high-end cutting edge, absolutely min/max oriented environment, resto shamans suffer. For all the rest of us raiders, gear level, "skill", situational awareness and experience greatly outweigh the class question. The only problem we can have, is raid leaders, reading mek's blog and deciding, that resto shaman's just can't do the job.

The fun about shaman healing is our versatility. I pick up all sorts of healing assignments, tank healing, group healing, healing of specific debuffs and it is great. Would blizzard buff us in the area of tank healing, we would most probably become mindless HW spammers and a boring copy of paladins. Would blizzard buff chainheal, we would fall back to the BC days, which is "one chain heal button to rule them all".

Couldn't agree more with this post. When these high end guilds crunch the numbers and see resto shamans are not as good as resto druids or holy priests for raid healing they think we are bad. I respect Mek as a raid leader and a good resto shammy and agree with his analysis of the state of the resto shaman for the most part but instead of crying and changing to elemental one could "make resto work". We have great versatility and I don't think thats something to overlook. We suffer from low spellpower with the haste stacking which is something you just have to deal with.

I think we also shine in many fights (25 man twins , either difficulty). Any time we can get that chain heal bounce to at least bounce to 3 times we are never gonna go oom and the HPS are just insane, Freya 3 trees , Twins , Hodir hard mode, Even faction champions I think we excel at. I have 1 healed faction champs ToGC 10 man a few times due to the other healer being dumb and dying instantly... Riptide+HW HW on people with faction champ aggro works wonders. Also we can 1 heal Vezax hard mode with just earth shield (until surge) if the tank isnt bad, I like being different!

In response to someone saying we need to see how the gear in Icecrown is, it seems most of it is SP/Haste/MP5, which is nice of them to stay away from the SP CRIT MP5 gear, although I would much rather see SP Haste Crit since Mp5 isnt really necessary anymore. The itemizing has gotten better, finally some haste rings besides Ring of the Darkmender.

[desesi]

I dont know what's wrong with you people. Maybe you just suck at healing. I'm in one of the top raiding guilds on my server and I'm always topping the charts on every fight (healing, hps). The holy pallies and resto druids come close to me but there is no question about the utility of a resto shaman in any raid. You probably need to research it a little on the "rotation of spells" glyphs and best stats. I, sometimes, raid with other resto shamans and I do twice as much heals.

I could add also that the resto shamans are currently in their best situation since mana is no longer a critical issue.

[Deleted]

I should explain where i am coming from.

I was answering the original question which was 'what is the current state of resto shamans'

Are we viable for all fights in the current content, ofc we are. Are we competitive in the current content, and again yes we are.

However are we on par with the other healers, the simple answer is no. Mainly because we don't have a niche. We aren't as good as pala for single target or druids/priest for raid healing. We need a niche to make us feel wanted.

In a hard fight, almost every raid leader is going to automatically assign a pala to the tanks and durids/priests to the raid and then decide what to do with us. In a way its cool because we can be viable at either role, but also frustrating.

Healing isn't about topping the meters, its about landing a heal at the right time and on the right person. That is all about individual skill and how fast (cast speed / travel time) your heals are.

[torny]

never seen a druid / holy priest doing more healing than me :/ Maybe on twins hard mode 25 .. or faction champs when im purging and curing diseases coz the other healers want high HPS

[Deleted]

The problem is healing meters mean very little. The initial heal of our CH is huge whilst the final bounce takes too long and is weak. Which makes us look very good on meters but not so strong in reality.

Personally i would like to see the intial amount healed by our CH halved or maybe more and for each bounce to heal for an equal amount rather than being reduced. This in my opinion would make us much more efficient raid healers.

[FamilyGoat]

never seen a druid / holy priest doing more healing than me :/ Maybe on twins hard mode 25 .. or faction champs when im purging and curing diseases coz the other healers want high HPS

You are suppose to close your eyes and not look at twins parses. We get rocked hard on that fight (simply put, we cap our healing on that fight). I really hate when people say they arn't looking for class x cuz guild y doesn't use one. Test the player out first, then if he (or his class) doesn't live up to your standards, drop him. But don't say crap like "Mek switched to Ele, ergo ele=good resto=bad...LF any healer to fill up raid roster, NOT SHAMAN." (by the way, ele needs a lil love too atm, fingers crossed for cata)

[Deleted]

You are suppose to close your eyes and not look at twins parses. We get rocked hard on that fight (simply put, we cap our healing on that fight). I really hate when people say they arn't looking for class x cuz guild y doesn't use one. Test the player out first, then if he (or his class) doesn't live up to your standards, drop him. But don't say crap like "Mek switched to Ele, ergo ele=good resto=bad...LF any healer to fill up raid roster, NOT SHAMAN." (by the way, ele needs a lil love too atm, fingers crossed for cata)

Couldn't agree more, pick the player and not the class.

Enh (my main spec) is slightly behind the other hybrids on a straight fight, but that doesn't stop me being in pretty much every raid and doing well. I don't top the meters but i don't let the side down.

[Denaka]

I personally hav never been turned down i a raid becaus of being shaman. We have on of the most OP heals I mean come on. Chain Heal. You Can't go wrong. The only thing we lack is buff like other classes not counting our totems.

[Deleted]

Yes CH is very powerful but you need to look at raid mechnics to understand where it weakness is.

Generally raid wide burst dmg happens on a timer, which allows priests and druids to HoT people up. A very good druid can make sure his lifeblooms bloom as the burst happens.

In our situation we can pre cast our CH so it lands as the burst happens. The problem is that each chain has a travel time, so if your druid/priest is on the ball their HoTs / instants would already have healed the guys that your 3rd or 4th heal would have landed on.

We probably have the most easy mode raid healing, in that we can just spam CH and leave it to find the best targets, assuming they are in range. The lower the skill/gear level of the other healers the better the shaman will look.

What we need to consider is its your CH against their HoTs/Instants.

If you have ever tried to kill a druid in the arena you will know how powerful their instants are

CH is great but its not as overpowered as you might at first think.

[karrad]

i cannot remember the last time i was ever asked to sit for another healer or dps.

[Deleted]

Na the differences aren't big enough for that to occur or shouldn't be if your raid leader has their head screwed on.

If that occured, lets face it the typical raid would have no space for enh shamans, ret pala's, locks, ele shamans, etc that right now aren't right at the top of the damage meter.

[keron]

I dont know what's wrong with you people. Maybe you just suck at healing. I'm in one of the top raiding guilds on my server and I'm always topping the charts on every fight (healing, hps). The holy pallies and resto druids come close to me but there is no question about the utility of a resto shaman in any raid. You probably need to research it a little on the "rotation of spells" glyphs and best stats. I, sometimes, raid with other resto shamans and I do twice as much heals.

I could add also that the resto shamans are currently in their best situation since mana is no longer a critical issue.

As am I and I don't even have optimal gear.

I have a ton of crit and, gasp, not a lot of haste. Nevertheless, my 10 person guild has downed ToGC 10 and I snagged a heartmender to prove it The min/max and theorycrafting is helpful to know, as is BiS gear, etc.
However, I'm the MT healer for our guild and in 25's, I'm always on top of the charts and more importantly (much more), I don't let the Tank(s) go down. So, meh. I can live with the situation!

[Totemmonkey]

What a lot of people are forgetting is that resto shamans bring a "Unique" buff that only 1 other class can provide, wich is 10% reduced physical damage taken. Only priests and shamans can provide this buff. Chainheal spamming the current tank on gormok alone should justify a raid spot in totgc since YARLY the huge amounts of bursts + the damage over time is mitigated by this.
10-11k LHW crits on shielded targets isn't out of the way either - I don't always top the meters, i get stomped by paladins with 40k mana HL spamming 2 tanks, I get stomped by resto druids wearing 4pcs tier 9 and keeping rejuv on the entire raid, but I make sure that my heals land on the right spot and that the group recieves full benefit from every buff that I can provide.

If meters = raid spot
Find a better raid

OYA! buff priests by the way, they seem to be in a worse situation than us atm =/