[Cataclysm] Redesigned restoration tree

[tricknick76]

Okay, so I went about creating a new tree for the changes of restoration shamans.

Basically, this tree slightly parallels Druids with a bit more simplicity: to put it bluntly, the Left Column talents are purely directed at single target healing, the Right Column talents are directed at an AoE healing style, and the middle column talents are pvp talents or talents designed for both.

This way, if you were seeing what talents to pick as a resto shaman, you would first choose "Do I want to be a tank healer, or an AoE healer?" because the shaman can spec specifically into either to become very effective. (Note: not enough talent points are given to be effective at both - its the ultimate choice a shaman must make. Almost divides the restoration tree into 2 trees).

As well as at war-tools, I'll explain pretty much anything here.

THE TREE: http://www.war-tools.com/t68158.html


OVERVIEW:
So, here's a restoration shaman. He's given 2 options: spec and glyph as a raid or a tank healer. He's a great healer at either, depending on where he puts his talents. For simplicity's sake, all of the Tank-healing talents are on the left column, and the raid-healer's talents are on the right column.

How does a shaman specialize compared to other healers?
The shaman is special in that it can have 2 very distinct roles, and is incredibly mana efficient. It's effectiveness isn't as powerful as other healers, but it can outlast much damage, and the passive raid heals are important. When needed, it can keep up very effectively with fast tank damage. As a raid healing shaman, Healing Rain, Chain Heal/LHW, and Healing Stream Totem group up to be INCREDIBLY effective healing.


How does raid healing work:
Healing Stream totem is the passive raid healing at work. It generates up to 30 charges of "Restoration" on each of its targets per tick. Healing Rain can be used at the start of a raid-damage-heavy fight, or can wait for more effectiveness later on. Healing Rain used right away and with a 100% uptime gives the raid the totem, the rain and about 90 health per second from the restoration talent per person. That is equal to 3 fairly weak individual forms of healing, overall strong when combined. And, because they occur more or less passively, the shaman can buckle down and get to work with his 2 filler spells: Chain Heal or Blitz Healing.

Blitz Healing? Say Whaaaaa?
Blitz Healing is a talent at the start of the restoration tree usable by a tank or a raid healer. What it does is makes Lesser Healing Wave an incredibly strong heal, usable once every 6 seconds fully talented per target. This shadows a discipline priests' bubble: the shaman uses it on different raid members, as they gain a "weakened soul" type effect. You can almost feel like a Holy Paladin who was forced to raid heal - using Holy Light on different targets as fast as you can cast them. Note that blitz healing was designed so that LHW can't be spammed on a target: this would make it overpowered (just like PW:S spam on the tanks).

So why would I use Chain Heal?
Chain Heal is used for several reasons. First, it can be used right before the Rain's Re-cast to provide mana efficiency through tidal wavse. Secondly, it can be used on targets who were already blitz-healed who need even more healing. Finally, if Chain Heal hits all 4 targets and fully heals them with no healing, it is overall more effective then Blitz Healing. Blitz Healing is better when only one person needed the healing. (Think Beasts: if one person has the toxin, they need heals right away. However, if 6 people are being hit by Bile, chain is more effective).



This is cool and all, but I'd rather be an effective tank healer. How can i Possibly rival Holy Paladins, and, more or less, priests?
Down the tank-healing line you will become a single target Monster. Your "rotation" would be to keep Riptide up, keep Earth Shield up, use LHW every cooldown, and use Healing Wave or GHW as a "filler". Assuming the tank is on an enrage phase where you had saved all your mana for and you have to spam heals most effectively, this is the priority system. With Earth Shield castable on all tanks, you can play Ping Pong with your mouse: Earth on tank 1, then 2, then 3; LHW on tank 1, then 2, then 3; HW on tank 1, then 2, then 3; Riptide anyone who's taking more damage then the rest. With Improved Earth Shield, you shouldn't worry about having to recast it too often, and with your awesome mana effectiveness, hitting a Greater Healing Wave isn't always a problem. With intellect stacking, you could almost "assume" the role of a Holy Paladin, you know, with more than 1 button.




"I've noticed talent rivalries. Was this on purpose?"
If you're referring to Ancestral Healing vs Protective Healing, and Purification vs Tranquility, then yes, that was done on purpose. These talents are what clearly distinguish one column's tank healing from the other's raid healing.



"You're tree is dumb, but I don't know why I'm saying this because I can't think of a good way to critique you're tree."
I am glad to be so honored as to waste a troll's time and cause him to post on my very own thread, thereby bumping it!!



If you have any other questions, feel free to ask; if you think its a good idea or a bad idea, let me know why so I can edit it. I've tried to add some humor.



TREE'S GEAR:
with this tree, crit or haste are both effective. With crit, your mana regeneration is powerful through talents like Nature's blessing and Improved blitz healing. with haste, your GCD can effectively reach .7 seconds.

[Wesz]

I don't think complicated healing is a good idea, as we'll be downranking heals because mana will be a problem in cata.
I like how things are now, but i like your tree because your old riptide icon (:

[Kissmyhammer]

Im likeing some of the idea's that you are throwing out.

This tree is quite utilized and i feel that you can change it around in a lot of ways to suit your raid role and play style.
I felt that some of the abilities are quite a bit over powered compared to what we have now, and nistead makes us quite powerfull.

You are around quite a lot of things and have thought of most. I could hope that blizzard makes something that gets as diffrent and changing as this.

One thing, I dont see any spirit link build into the talent tree, so thats one thing that has been talk about, that could be nice to see in the tree if you are gonna make further work on it.

[Autodidact]

we'll be downranking heals because mana will be a problem in cata.

wut?
Spells have 1 rank in cata.

[Revitalize]

I don't think complicated healing is a good idea, as we'll be downranking heals because mana will be a problem in cata.

There will be no downranking in cataclysm.

[tricknick76]

I don't think complicated healing is a good idea, as we'll be downranking heals because mana will be a problem in cata.
I like how things are now, but i like your tree because your old riptide icon (:

I like the old icon as well
Also, the healing doesn't seem complicated at all IMO. for aoe, it's just a matter of keeping Rain up (like wild growth) and then using fillers when people need heals, letting mana regenerate when people don't.

Single target, it's more complicated then holy paladins i'll give you that, but come on, they have 1 ability. Here, it's just "shield up? hot up? does the tank need damage? is LHW on 'weakened soul' state? hit healing wave"

Im likeing some of the idea's that you are throwing out.

This tree is quite utilized and i feel that you can change it around in a lot of ways to suit your raid role and play style.
I felt that some of the abilities are quite a bit over powered compared to what we have now, and nistead makes us quite powerfull.

You are around quite a lot of things and have thought of most. I could hope that blizzard makes something that gets as diffrent and changing as this.

One thing, I dont see any spirit link build into the talent tree, so thats one thing that has been talk about, that could be nice to see in the tree if you are gonna make further work on it.

I'm going for variety and i'm glad you like it like that
For the OPness, the only overpowered abilities i can see are Blitz Healer and possibly Tidal Mastery. Blitz Healer isn't as overpowered once you think about it; its just a really fast, cheap GHW on a cooldown-per-target, almost like a super-PW:S. If it needs nerf, we can make the "weakened soul" part a bit longer, maybe 12 seconds. As for tidal mastery, that's only overpowered if you have a CRAP LOAD OF HASTE (talking 1800 to 2000 haste at level 80) and you're sacrificing a lot of other stats for that. Besides, like they said, raid damage won't be as high and heals won't be as reactive - it's all about the regen. So, it's Wotlk overpowered, not Cataclysm overpowered.




Thanks for the feedback
I'll throw in a little poll: which "style" sounds more appealing, a tank-healer, a raid-healer or kind of a mix of both with whatever talent points you have?