Shaman healing.

[TaylorGang]

Hello Mmo-champion. I recently decided to get my self a healing spec since I acquired a completely roic healing set running roics with my guild. Anyway, this is the first time I've ever healed with my shaman, and I'm kinda at a loss as to how to do it. I seem to keep people up fine, I just go OOM really really fast. So am I using the wrong spells? or am I not using something enough or do shamans really just suck that bad?


My current "rotation" is to use GHW whenever a large chunk of health is gone. HW to just top people off. Chain heal if theres slight AoE damage. Healing rain+ chain heal if theres a lot of AoE. Manatide if I get low on mana. And riptide on CD.

Thanks in advance =D.

[Whoopsa]

Seems about right. It could be your Spirit is too low or something. Try to read the sticky to get some general gearing tips, but I'll provide a couple of my own.

1) You need at least 2k Spirit for heroics, and around 2200 for raids, unless you're being fed innervates or just not healing much. Use the Water Shield Glyph if you're short on spirit.

2) Never ever let Water Shield fall off.

3) Intellect is king. Trinkets with passive INT are automatically better than any other trinket (except Spirit heavy ones if you don't have enough spirit) even if the other is 30 ilvl higher.

4) If you are ever not casting something, start casting a HW on the tank, because it costs virtually no mana, and if it crits, it's pretty much free.

[TaylorGang]

hmm ok, I'll check my glyphs and stuffs =D

thanks -=D

[evan_s]

Try to minimize the use of GHW, HS, CH and HR as much as possible. If you can keep people up using Healing stream totem, riptide and healing wave it's a lot easier on the mana. Also keep in mind that you don't need to keep people topped off. Even 50% is fine in most heroics unless you know some specific big ability is coming.

[Renagade Raven]

I haven't had that much experience with a shaman healer, but if a large chunk of health is gone (say, on the tank) and there isn't really anyone else taking damage / only taking a little aoe damage, you can probably do fine with just some standard HWs on the target who has a lot of health missing instead of the GHW.

As I said, I only have a little experience, but it has worked for me so far!
(Also, you didn't mention Earth Shield. I will assume you have it on but just incase - use that too ^_^)

[Shamfisted]

Don't keep people at 100% health anymore. It's about keeping people alive not in perfect condition. If a dps stands in fire and dies it is there fault not yours!

[Durandro]

Mastery increases healing done the lower health the target is, correct? So you should be fine using Healing Wave most of the time. In panic situations I use a quick Healing Surge and Riptide, then go back to Healing Wave.

[zakayron]

Read the Sticky

[TaylorGang]

Don't keep people at 100% health anymore. It's about keeping people alive not in perfect condition. If a dps stands in fire and dies it is there fault not yours!

I do have a big problem with keeping people 100 percent up...Just a habit I need to break I suppose. lol >_>

!
(Also, you didn't mention Earth Shield. I will assume you have it on but just incase - use that too ^_^)

Yeah, I do use it, didn't mean to forgot it! =D.

[Quinwazwaz]

Also, what talents did you spec into? specific talents can have a big impact on mana regeneration. If you are having regen problems, try gemming with purified demonseye, that way you get 20 int AND 20 spirit. If you are a JC, use all your JC gem allowances for the 67 int gem, that way you can have similar int to before but still throw in some more spirit gems since you get more int from the jc gem. Like previously said, go for the water shield glyph, it helps a lot with mana. Some items can even get spirit reforged onto them. If you are comfortable with the amount you heal for but not your regen, try reforging mastery to spirit if possible

[dubbz]

shaman healing scales with gear more than ANY other class right now. even in full heroic gear, heroics still felt a bit harder than they should on my mana...now I'm in full 359 (minus a ring, shoulders, and wrists) and with the boost this gear gives to haste and intellect, boss fights usually take up half my mana (no mana tide).

Also, in a 5 man heroic, there are VERY few instances where Healing Rain should be used unless you can cast it without it ruining your mana. Honestly, riptide+ES+HW spam on tank is good enough, and riptide+HW, or Riptide+chain heals in an aoe situation. Also, instead of GHW, use HS. faster heal will get the target back into the light heals range

Also, make SURE you have Telluric Currents Lightning Bolt Spam will get you back a HUGE amount of mana in a short amount of time.

[Jukon]

You should also use unleash elements whenever possible (especially on GHW), as it really helps with mana effieciency. With 4.0.6, chain heal "might" be worth using, but unless you have at least two melee dps, you will usually be wasting it, so I recommend throwing down Healing Stream Totem when your party is taking mild aoe damage.

[Deleted]

I got other hints too...

Try time Chain heal (if you need to do it) so that it uses up the riptide just before it wears off the tank, and he should be having the earthshield, giving you more power through it.

If none is taking damage exept tank, you can fill them up with HW spam instead of hasten their HP up, possibly if their like 60% hp or so.

If your tank takes alot of damage, and you aint keeping up with HW spam on him, do an unleash weapon and THEN Greater healing wave. If you're uncertain he will make it, you have to do a Surge first maybe, but i see the little delay for his heal worth it, because he will get an overpowered heal, with his health being low, filling up just fine (I'm talking about 50k Crits if you're lucky )

Let your HoTs do the work for you! While they do, you reg mana. If the incoming damage isn't strong, you could just have Gift of Naaru, ES and Riptide working on the tank, while you relax/heal dpsers.

Speak with the group, so that, if not against mechanics-wise, they group up and watch your healing rain. You could let the Healing Rain tick them up, if the dps on raid isn't consistant.

Use Mana-tide in times where you don't spam, unless it's critical, if there are bosses that take's break in damaging, like Magmaw, just pop it by then. (guess this would suit raids more, but in addition to that, pop your mana tide early in the fight, estimated by you that you will land on 90% mana or so, so that you can have the CD perhaps twice in the fight).

/ Good luck (y)

[SonsofDisaster]

Just in case you aren't already, use Healing Stream totem instead of Mana Spring Totem. It's usually enough to top off group members who take "unavoidable, non-burst" bits of damage.

[middling]

Ive been healing with my shaman for 5+ years and it did get a bit harder at first in Cataclysm but I will say it gets easier.

There are a lot of good points in this post, so I won't rehash them. I will say however, that the biggest hurdle I had was trying to keep everyone topped off.

You will see a huge jump in your healing ability depending on the knowledge of the players. In other words, there is more avoidable damage now than ever before.
People just need time to adjust to that. For example, almost every boss has some type of "fire on the ground" ability and once you learn this, it makes the healing SOOO much easier. My gear level is 348 and today I was healing in Baradin Hold. I ended the fight with 90% mana. Not because I am that good but because people knew that the boss throws fire out at 66% and 33%, with this knowledge, everyone just stayed out of the fire.

I haven't been in your groups but take a look around and see if you are spending a LOT of time healing 4 people but NOT healing yourself. If you are, then they are most likely just not paying close enough attention. Don't beat yourself up about this. Just go with it. If you lose 1 DPS on trash, don't worry too much about it. People have come to expect deaths more this time around.

Also, I know it was mentioned but Telluric Currents is an AWESOME mana generator for heroics. It's not as useful in raids because of the lack of +hit, you only get the mana back if the spell lands, but in heroics, you will almost always hit with lightning bolt, making some fights way easier. The Corla fight in Blackrock for example. If everyone does their job on the beams, the tank actually requires very little healing so you can pew pew away.

Good luck, it gets better with experience and knowledgeable players.