Is Healing Surge the new main heal spell?

[Deleted]

/cast [target=targettarget] lightning bolt ftw?
With that macro and the talent you don't even have to bother with manaregen.
Use that in any downtime and you can spam whatever heal you like.. be it healing surge.
Lol healing wave, have'nt even keybind it yet. Maybe in the Cata 5man heroics..

[Dapuh]

i can spam HS 10 mins straight w/o using mana tide... in pvp gear.

kinda silly.

[Manic_Miner]

Well as someone said on a previous post "ICC is not the place to test our spells". I did an ICC 10 man normal last night to get some leftover achievements done on my (~270 average iLvl) resto shaman. 7/10 people of the group had gear around ~264 iLvl and only 3 actually needed items from normal.
In any case I ended up solo healing all the fights after Lady Deathwhisper (we didn't think of going 1 healer only before) except LK.
Most of them were a joke... I was trying different spell combinations and spamming like crazy on some of them just to see what happens - it really wasn't even a challenge ^^.
At about 360mp5 (unbuffed) while casting I rarely had to use even mana tide with the exception of Blood Council where one tank was tanking both Taldaram and Valanar - I used mana tide and got an innervate just to be safe.

Basically the dps output of even 251 geared people is so much that there just isn't enough time to go oom :-D

I think we have to wait for 85 or at least 82+ to actually find out what's happening. It does look more interesting though than it did before - more choices.

ps: On a funnier note we did Sindragosa's achievement (no more than 5 stacks of Mystical Buffet)with 1 tank, 1 healer and 8 dps: At the phase change BL and burn her down ignoring the person in the icecube - u can do it well before you reach 6 stacks. I will have a look at the logs but DPS was about 15k for an arcane mage around 10-11k for 5 more dpsers and 2 of them got about 5-6k. Good luck :-)

ps2: Just saw someones post about Valithria. This is what we did: Me and a holy priest went in the portals, I used almost 100% GHW + riptides ofc and at 22 stacks (was lagging) towards the end finished 1st at 22k on recount. Will try Healing Surge next time :>

[Garkanh]

i basicly use healing wave as main healing spell. costs no mana (well, i regenerate at same rate as i use it.

if a person drops low, i use healing surge. if he drops WERRY low, i use riptide - healing surge, and in worst case, a instant greater healing wave too. healing surge will eventualy make you go oom,. so if a guy just needs a small heal, use healing wave.



ofcourse, this is for pve, not PVP.

[Deleted]

ICC is the incorrect place to be "testing" your healing spells for Cataclysm.

ICC was based around haste-capped healers who could spam the hell out of any healing spell they want without thinking about mana.

Current healing is all molded around the Cataclysm raid encounter in which players take a less spiky, but steady amount of damage. Hence Healing Wave will be appropriate in some situations. Healing Surge will be appropriate in others, as will Greater Healing Wave.

My experience with healing dates back to Burning Crusade, before downranking was nerfed, which is the model they're attempting to bring back with these changes.

---------- Post added 2010-10-13 at 08:34 PM ----------


To beat a dead horse:

IT IS NO-SPAM NOW

That's the whole reason Blizzard changed the healing model for every single healing spec. Healing got retarded because of the rat race between haste and damage output, making Healers think they needed to constantly spam a heal.

Healers back in the Burning Crusade could use lower-rank spells which had lower mana cost and a different healing range. If you neglected to use lower rank heals, you would quickly OOM. It meant considering whether or not you really need a full-rank Healing Wave or Holy Light on a tank, or if you could get away with a slightly lower rank given their health.

This is clearly the model they are trying to return to, given their statements about a) how they want healer mana to matter and b) how they want to see more players in states of injury in a raid rather than a binary dead or alive.

Healing is going to get harder. But the challenge makes it more fun. To me at least.

Good post, take note of this.

The point is now, you should have a different heal in your arsenal to cover any sort of damage.
Quick spike damage? Riptide + a quick Healing Surge
Raid healing? Riptide + Chain heal + A Hasted Healing wave when needed
Tank healing? Riptide + Healing wave, with your other single target heals ready when needed.

---------- Post added 2010-10-18 at 11:37 AM ----------

i can spam HS 10 mins straight w/o using mana tide... in pvp gear.

kinda silly.

Thats the point of the spell. You can spam it, but it heals for the lowest out of all our heals. So if you feel your dropping low on mana switch to healing wave for a bit.

[Instant]

He said HS, but it's HW that heals for least out of all our heals

It can be confusing now with HS and HW, especially since at lvl 80 difference in cost is not that big.

So he should have written HW not HS

[Saracens]

He said HS, but it's HW that heals for least out of all our heals

It can be confusing now with HS and HW, especially since at lvl 80 difference in cost is not that big.

So he should have written HW not HS

I'm going to agree but nonetheless I think people are missing the beginning part of Molinator's post. He's more correct then I'd like him to be. lol

[Deleted]

He said HS, but it's HW that heals for least out of all our heals

It can be confusing now with HS and HW, especially since at lvl 80 difference in cost is not that big.

So he should have written HW not HS

Ah so he did ><
Well if he can spam HS for 10minutes straight I will be impressed :P

[MLX]

I'm curious what peoples opinions are about using flame shock in conjuction with the buff it now provides?

•Focused Insight (Tier 2; 3 points) After casting any Shock spell, your next heal’s mana cost is reduced by 25/50/75% of the cost of the Shock spell, and its healing effectiveness is increased by 10/20/30%.* < The talent itself.



"Focused Insight Don't think of this as strictly a DPS talent -- it's actually an incredibly powerful healing tool that happens to provide some damage. Helps handle burst damage if you are able to anticipate when the burst will come and have a GCD to spare beforehand. Use with Flame Shock for optimal mana efficiency. Note that the shock must actually hit for damage for the talent to proc, so try to shock a low-level add if possible. A strong talent, but it requires some work and luck to utilize it." Quoted from EJ forums

It seems useful in a variety of situations to me, particularly given healing waves reduced healing, and likewise with chain heal though I imagine thats dependent upon one's gear level.

My shammies gear is fairly low compared to a hardcore raiders for instance somewhere between 3050-3100 whgs I imagine they don't seem to have updated yet to 4.0

But with 1k haste & the 2pc t10 bonus it puts nearly every spell in the very close if not under 1 second cast range, meaning you can quickly boost even weaker heals to far more effectiveness.

Just looking for some feedback, thanks

[Deleted]

It's pretty situational but the better (best imo) of our optional talents. If you feel like you have the time to shock, it wont be a loss to do so.
In the new cata content I don't see it being used that much out side of heroics (when raiding becomes more difficult agian) but in ICC right now you should be able to test it out.

Btw there is now a 4.0.1 FAQ which will focus more on any theroy crafting, tactics, healing, etc.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ion-Shaman-FAQ

[JuicedawgYO]

A glyphed healing wave is actually very nice to have. I was on sindragosa 10hc (oooh big deal, but still) and that self heal when healing with healing wave is quite good. Using riptide on cd to keep good a good cast speed. By doing that i was able to spam healing wave all time to get HoT's and top people + using healing surge and chain heal situational. My mana was awesome and i was never even close to go low though constant spamming (not if unchained ofc, lol)... If you have enough spellpower to do big heals and haste to just do yo thang, healing wave is usefull. Im a fan, might just be me, but im a fan. xD

[molinator]

I'm going to agree but nonetheless I think people are missing the beginning part of Molinator's post. He's more correct then I'd like him to be. lol

What's that supposed to mean? D:

Why don't you love me?

[Shadowviper]

For me I've been using HW basically. keeping riptide up and using Chain Heal off of the riptide person. Greater Healing Wave when I know a hard hit is coming. Basically HW replaced my Lesser Healing Wave. I don't use Healing surge for crap. just there basically for me

[goneloco]

just adapt to the encounters and u will most likely find the more natural heal to use.
i believe thats what blizzard has been trying to create for cata.

[chrion]

Theres literally no reason to have healing wave on your bars till 85. Im PWNING heals and have plenty of mana to spare even after reforging all of my spirit into mastery and spamming chain/healing surge.

[Aberration]

Healing Wave heals for an insanely low amount.

I always have ES and Riptide up on the MT, with the glyph of Riptide of course, and depending on the damage output I usually use Healing Surge for the most part. If the damage output is low I just spam HW, because my mana actually goes up while I cast it. It's only healing for like 5k non-crit though, so little.

[Voshrahz]

Right now we can't really judge what our heals will be suited as in Cata. Being 80 isn't really the best way to test those things out.

Eventhough, just to express my opinion about the CURRENT situation, as 80, for healing, I believe that Healing Wave is a "don't-be-bored-and-spam-this-while-stand-still" button. It heals for low amounts? Yes it does, but it is also MANA FREE, you can literally spam it that your mana won't drop below 100% when you're about to cast your second Healing Wave, and I've seen my mana regenerate while doing so (PvE gear, with no spirit stacking, hasty, but with double Solace trinkets).

I did a Hicc 10 this week and never had mana issues, also I didn't see much use for Greater Healing Wave. When you compare Amount of Healing done + Casting Time + Mana Cost from GHW to Healing Surge, I sincerly saw more advantages on casting Healing Surge even on situations where the healing needed was big.

tl;dr version: Healing Wave is spammy, Healing Surge >>> Greater Healing Wave, in my opinion.

Dear blizz, allow shamans to cleanse poisons and diseases again!!! prease!

[thoatria]

I know this is repeating some of what others have said, but:

Healing Wave is our slow, cheap, small heal. Think of it as the default or "auto-attack" heal. Use it when damage is inconsistent and relatively low.

Healing Surge is our fast, expensive, middle heal. It's basically the heal you should use to save the lives of your dps, or anyone who will die within the next 1.5 seconds.

Greater Healing Wave is our slow, expensive, big heal. It's the spike-damage tank heal.

Riptide and Chain Heal are pretty similar to how they were before, only you can't depend as much on CH as some people did. Personally I think you should glyph it so that it becomes even better at its true job: healing a lot of people quickly.

To the people who are saying they don't need to think this way yet, and can simply spam Surge at will: maybe, but you won't be able to at 85, and isn't it better to start training yourself to heal in the new fashion now, rather than later?