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  1. #1

    Restoration Shaman Guide

    Welcome to the Cataclysm Restoration Shaman Guide (Updated for 4.3).

    The previous guide got to be pretty big. This new one has a nifty table of contents that allow you to click and go directly to the portion of the guide you want to go, rather than scrolling through endless amounts of paragraphs. The information in this guide is nearly the same as the information from the old guide (Click me!). However, the old guide will no longer be updated.

    Please Note: This is A PvE Guide. All things can and will more than likely be changed in the future. Not everything stated in this guide is set in stone and the end all be all way to play. It is what it is: A Guide to help you.

    Big <3 @ Pearroc for doing the original Restoration Shaman Guide (most information here is pulled directly from that).

    Finally, big thanks to all those who contributed to help improve the information in this thread. I certainly wouldn't be able to do this alone.


    Table of Contents
    1. Talents
    2. Glyphs
    3. Spells
    4. Stats
    5. Gemming
    6. Enchants
    7. Gearing


    Finally, a List of Commonly used Abbreviations throughout the Guide:
    HW: Healing Wave
    HS: Healing Surge
    GHW: Greater Healing Wave
    ES: Earth Shield
    WS: Water Shield
    ELW: Earth Living Weapon
    CH: Chain heal
    HR: Healing Rain
    UE: Unleash Elements
    MTT: Mana Tide Totem
    HST: Healing Stream Totem
    TC: Telluric Currents
    SLT: Spirit Link Totem
    HPS: Heals per Second
    HPM: Heals per Mana
    HoT: Heal over time
    SWG: Spiritwalker's Grace
    Oom: Out of mana
    Last edited by Radux; 2012-02-03 at 08:19 PM.

  2. #2
    1.Talents:

    Talents in Cataclysm have changed pretty significantly. They now require you to choose a specialization (choose a tree) and then put at least 31 points into that tree before being allowed to put points into either of the other 2 trees. I'm going to break the talents down in 3 categories: Mandatory, Recommended and Optional.


    Restoration Tree

    Ancestral Resolve
    - This is an optional talent. Generally speaking you will be casting most of the time. Thus you will take 10% less damage. Since mana matters and heals matter more, this is a good talent. In hard modes, this talent becomes more mandatory.

    Tidal Focus
    - This is a mandatory talent. This isn't WotLK anymore. We can't spam our biggest most expensive heals without repercussion anymore.

    Spark of Life
    - This is a mandatory talent. 6% increased healing + more survivability (via additional healing done to ourselves) in one talent.

    Resurgence
    - This is a mandatory talent. It is our mana regeneration talent. Do not ever skip this.

    Totemic Focus
    - This is a recommended talent. This talent is taken to increase the duration of Mana Tide Totem and Spirit Link Totem. Judge for yourself if you or your raid needs you to take this talent. It will be more often than not than you'll take this talent, though.

    Focused Insight
    - This is an optional talent. If timed right you can produce a powerful heal, which could save a player from dying. If you have spare GCD it can be worth getting. It was changed a while back so that it will still grant you the buff even if you missed the shock on your target. If you do decide to use this talent, use flame shock.
    - Note: This spell DOES NOT save you mana. It will increase the heal and reduce the cost by a percentage. But because you had to spend mana on the shock in the first place you will end up spending more mana using this spell.

    Nature’s Guardian
    - This is an optional talent. Most consider skipping it. It's a PvP talent, but if you find you pull aggro to much in a 5m environment by healing then feel free to take it (or get a new tank). It can also be useful for certain fight mechanics that put you incredibly low on health so that you can save yourself and other healers some mana.

    Ancestral Healing
    - This is a mandatory talent. Even if you have a Priest in your raid, it is still worth taking this talent as they overwrite each other. Additionally, this talent now houses a secondary effect called Ancestral Vigor: Heals you cast on players increase their maximum health by 10% of the amount healed (maximum 10% of their total health). This is basically a 'health bubble' that operates similar to Last Stand or the Battlemaster trinkets (i.e. when the health falls off, it doesn't kill you).

    Nature’s Swiftness
    - This is a mandatory talent. It is one of two cooldowns we have. Use if you need to give someone a huge burst of healing right now.

    Nature’s Blessing
    - This is a mandatory talent. If you ever have to throw a heal onto the tank, this will improve the healing.

    Soothing Rains
    - This is a mandatory talent. In a raid someone will have the Mana Spring buff taken care of (usually through Blessing of Might), so you'll use HST. HR and HST both provide excellent AoE healing. This talent is great.

    Improved Cleanse Spirit
    - This is a mandatory talent. Not much to say here. The only time it should be skipped is if you never dispel (which you should).

    Cleansing Waters
    - This is an optional talent. The only reason to take this anymore is for the cost reduction. The 6 second cooldown for a minor heal is nothing to write home about. There are better talents out there than this. It will come down to personal preference, though. I say to skip, honestly. The heal just isn't that worth it anymore.

    Ancestral Awakening
    - This is a mandatory talent. Increases your scope of healing when tank healing or spot healing. Should never be skipped.

    Mana Tide Totem
    - This is a mandatory talent. This is our big mana regeneration tool. It provides 200% of the Shaman's static Spirit. Trinket proc's can no longer affect the % modifier of the totem. It's an awesome tool. Make sure you discuss/call out when to use yours with any other Restoration Shaman in your raid/group. Mana Tide's effectiveness was cut in half for 4.2 because it was way too powerful. It's still a great mana returning tool for you and your raid's healers, but a Shaman can no longer be brought solely for the purpose of being a mana bot.

    Telluric Currents
    - This is a recommended talent. If you find time to throw some bolts then feel free to pick it up. It can give large amounts of mana back throughout an entire fight. There are some encounters where TC can give back massive amounts of mana. The use of this talent will heavily come down to player preference and healing style. Please note that you do not need the Spirit to Hit conversion talent in the Elemental tree for this talent to be incredibly useful. This is a very good talent, but not 100% required to succeed -- thus optional-ish. But it's a damn good optional talent.

    Spirit Link Totem
    - This is a mandatory talent. SLT is our new cool down brought in for 4.1. It does 2 separate things. First, it reduces damage to those affected by 10%. Second, it redistributes your health so that you all end up with the same amount. Well, Radux, what does that mean? I'll tell you: Let's say a tank has 150k health and everyone else in your 5 man has 100k. You add all that health together (in this case it would be 550k). Let's say the tank get's hit for 100k and then you activate your totem. The totem would pulse and 2 things will happen -- The tank gets brought up to ~81% health (~121k) and everyone else gets brought down to ~81% health (~81k). This can be very powerful as a tank cool down. As for a raid cool down, it is still to be seen as for its overall usefulness outside the 10% damage reduction.

    Tidal Waves
    - This is a mandatory talent. Also one of the most important talents in the tree. With it being a huge boost to healing it should never be skipped.

    Blessing of the Eternals
    - This is a recommended talent. It will give you more of a throughput boost to healing then the other optional talents. Unless you purely heal the tank, it should be taken.

    Riptide
    - This is a mandatory talent. A instant single target heal, very useful when on the move , increasing the amount healed by Chain Heal by 25% (consuming the HoT) and activating Tidal Waves. 4.3 buffed the potency of the HoT by 50%. It is recommended to use on cooldown on different targets.


    Enhancement Tree

    Elemental Weapons
    - This is a mandatory talent. The talent grants a passive bonus to our ELW weapon ability while also increasing the benefit of UE by 50%.

    Improved Shields
    - This is a mandatory talent. A flat 15% increase to our mana gained from WS and 15% increased healing to ES.

    Ancestral Swiftness
    - This is a mandatory talent. The increase to run speed alone makes it worth taking. But now you can ghost wolf indoors. Making this is a fantastic "run out of fire" ability.

    Totemic Reach
    - This is an optional talent. It adds a minor amount of range to your totems. This can be nice for high movement fights where you might not have enough time to re-drop totems. It could also potentially help make the range of SLT larger.


    Elemental Tree

    Acuity
    - This is a mandatory talent. 3% crit is nothing to laugh at. We'll never see that stats like we did in WotLK. Especially in early gearing, this is a great place to put your points.


    Recommended Talent Specs:
    Standard Healing Spec - Points here can be interchanged based on dispel needs.

    TC Healing Spec - Again, you can interchange points based on dispel needs.
    Last edited by Radux; 2011-11-30 at 07:58 PM.

  3. #3
    2. Glyphs

    Prime:
    Earthliving Weapon
    Riptide
    Earth Shield
    Water Shield*

    *Use this if you can't pick up the Improved Shields talent or have major mana issues -- replace Earth Shield. The 1st 3 are the best options.

    Major:
    Chain Heal
    Healing Stream Totem
    Healing Wave
    Stoneclaw Totem
    Hex

    Any of these will work just fine. CH, HST and SCT are highly recommended. SCT gives you a ~16k dmg absorb. Hex can be used if you have to CC in dungeons or whatnot and then you can use HW if your heart so desires. Again: user's choice. The 1st 3 mentioned are the best choices for raiding, though.

    Minor:
    Really the only one I recommend (the others you can do what you please -- even this one isn't required if you don't want it) is Renewed Life.
    Last edited by Radux; 2011-04-28 at 01:56 AM.

  4. #4
    3. Spells:

    Restoration Spells
    Healing Wave
    - Healing Wave is our mid/low throughput heal with a low mana cost and slow cast time. You can spam this all day and not go out of mana. It can even be used as a mana gaining spell if it crits because of Improved Water Shield. It is highly recommended you use this under the effects of Tidal Waves.

    Healing Surge
    - Healing Surge is our medium throughput heal with a high mana cost and fast cast time. This is essentially an 'oh shit' spell. Use it if someone needs healing now. Using this under the effects of Tidal Waves can almost guarantee a crit, which can result in a large amount of healing done, especially in conjunction with Ancestral Awakening. It recently took a nerf, so it is truly only for situations where someone will die if you don't cast this heal right now.

    Greater Healing Wave
    - Greater Healing Wave is our high throughput heal with a high mana cost and a slow cast time. This spell should be used when you know big damage is about to happen. If it crits and has the UE buff, it can heal upwards of 60k. It is recommended to use this under the effects of Tidal Waves. Pre-load this heal if you know big damage is about to land.

    Chain Heal
    - Chain heal is our 'spammable' (no cooldown) AoE heal. It heals up to 4 targets and is a smart heal (meaning it picks targets based on their health deficiency). Unfortunately Chain Heal is no longer Resto's bread and butter spell. It does not heal nearly as much as it used to. That said, don't be so quick to judge. While Healing Rain does heal for more, Chain Heal still has its uses. That's the beauty of the new healing paradigm: pick the spell for the situation.

    Healing Rain
    - Healing Rain is our new placed (like Blizzard or Rain of Fire) AoE Heal gained at level 83. Don't let the mana cost fool you. This spell is awesome. AWESOME. It scales with our crit, haste and mastery. It can also proc ELW. That said, because of the mana cost you won't be able to use this on cooldown*. If unavoidable raid damage is about to land, pre-cast HR on your raid and go from there.

    *TC Heavy Healing Specs use Lightning Bolt filler as a mana gain so they can keep HR down at all times.

    Riptide
    - Riptide hasn't changed much since the last expansion. It should be used on cooldown (to keep up the Tidal Waves buff) on different targets as to not renew the HoT. Spread this around the raid for some 'ok' raid healing over time. I'd really recommend keeping this rolling on the tanks. Each tick can crit and activate Ancestral Healing, thus reduce damage done to the tank. The HoT can also be improved if used in conjunction with UE.

    Unleash Elements
    - Unleash Elements is our new spell that we gain at level 81. It provides a small heal (about the same amount as the Riptide instant heal portion) and buffs your next heal by a significant amount. It can be used to buff a big heal (GHW) for huge results or perhaps to do some large healing on the raid (CH on a Riptide target).

    Earth Shield
    - Earth Shield is our spec defining ability we gain when we specialize in the Restoration tree. It has the same mechanics as before. However, because of lower tank avoidance, charges tend to fall off faster than before. That said, the mana cost is significant. I'd recommend only refreshing it with 1 charge or so left.

    Water Shield
    - Water Shield is our prime mana regeneration ability. It gives passive mana every 5 seconds as well as mana back every time we take damage (nerfed recently to half the value it used to be) and/or when we gain a proc from Resurgence. Keep this up at all times and (I personally do this) refresh it any time you get a spare global.

    Other Potentially Used Spells
    Spiritwalker’s Grace
    - This is a 2 minute cooldown gained at level 85. It allows us to cast when moving. Use this when you need to run to a target to get in range, or when you are having to move due to fight mechanics. It has a long cooldown so remember to use it wisely.

    Wind Shear
    - Wind Shear is our interrupt. It has a 15 second cooldown (up from 6) as of 4.3. As of 4.1 you no longer need to worry about missing! It will hit 100% of the time.

    Lightning Bolt
    - Lightning Bolt will basically only be used by those who spec into Telluric Currents. In this case it will be used to help damage as well as regenerate mana for the Shaman.

    Ghost Wolf
    - Ghost Wolf isn't widely used. However it can definitely be used for a 'get out of fire, quick!' ability as well as the (probably more common use) 'get back after a wipe' ability.


    Basic Tips for New Shaman
    The healing model has changed since the last expansion. It is more 'triage' style now. This means that a healer can't make up for a stupid dps who stands in fire. If people stand in fire too long or are just bad, then they die. Mana matters. Spells are too expensive for us, as Shaman Healers, to make up for every little mistake. AoE heals, in particular, have taken a big hit. This means that things like damage reduction talents and self healing abilities from any class are very viable and greatly appreciated.

    However, starting off healing can be difficult for some who aren't that experienced at the game as others. Here are some basic tips to help get you off the ground:
    • Keep Earth Shield on the Tank at all times.
    • Keep Water Shield and ELW active on yourself at all times.
    • We can dispel magic and curses. Do so when they come up.
    • Discuss when to use Bloodlust/Heroism with your group. Try to have a DPS do it if possible, as it does cost quite a bit of mana.
    • Use your totems wisely. If a buff is already present in your group, try to use a different totem for maximum benefit for dps/healing as well as staying in range.
    • Use your healing spells wisely. Don't use a large heal when a small heal will do. Don't use an AoE heal if it won't hit anyone. This list can go on for many things.
    • Try to utilize your Tidal Waves buff as much as you can by actively using Riptide and/or Chain Heal. It is a huge boost in healing done.
    • Feel free to ask questions here! This guide is here to help you and make sure you succeed.
    Last edited by Radux; 2011-11-30 at 08:00 PM.

  5. #5
    4. Stats:

    There will be mixed opinions on this. I will show what I, with the help of many other raiders (<3 you know who you are), have found to be a good balance.
    • For a freshly dinged 85 I'd recommend the following: Int > Spirit > Crit > Haste=Mastery
    • For someone with full heroic gear or better, I'd recommend the following: Int > Spirit (until you have 'enough') > ELW Softcap > Mastery > Crit > More Haste > More Spirit or Int > Spirit (until you have 'enough') > Haste until 2nd Riptide softcap > Mastery > Crit > More Spirit.
      The choices I recommend will vary depending your play style. Some prefer to play with Mastery, as others prefer to have more Haste. Choice is yours.
    Now let me explain why --

    Intellect:
    Intellect gives us spell power, a larger mana pool and a small amount of spell crit. It is on every piece of gear you will wear (aside from maybe trinkets). Intellect is our best throughput stat. If you aren't healing for enough, considering getting more, as it is (point for point) our best stat. Intellect can also be considered a longevity stat. The more Intellect (coupled with Spirit) we have, the more mana we gain back from Replenishment and various other effects.

    Spirit:
    Mana is a struggle in Cataclysm compared to the previous expansion. Aside from Water Shield (along with Resurgence), Spirit is our main source of mana regeneration. You'll want as much as you can afford on gear when you first ding 85. With more and more gear, you can lax a small bit. I recommend you get around 2k Spirit (or until you feel comfortable with your mana). This can go up or down based on personal taste.

    Crit:
    Critical strike rating is now a pretty good stat for Restoration Shaman. It adds additional healing (200% heal) + a smart heal (AA on a 'low' health target for 30% of the Crit heal) + a physical damage reduction buff (Ancestral Healing for tanks). It even provides mana via Resurgence. So what's stopping us from stacking Crit for everything? The problem with Crit as a throughput stat is that it's unreliable. Mastery and Haste are better choices for getting more HPS. Once you're in full heroic gear, Crit will basically become more of a regen stat than a throughput stat, though it still will provide solid throughput.

    Haste:
    Haste was our best friend last expansion. More haste = more healing = great success! Not the case anymore. If you are already struggling with mana, getting more haste is counter productive. That being said haste is still a very powerful stat for us. If you are comfortable with your mana and your healing play style, it is highly recommended to get about 916 haste rating so your ELW, Riptide (glyphed) and HR all gain an extra tick (Goblins do require less haste rating to reach this first softcap). Some people prefer higher amounts of Haste opposed to Mastery. These setups have you go for the 2nd Riptide tick. Please Note: All the numbers below are the rating required in addition to having the 5% spell haste buff present.

    - Haste Softcaps - (numbers in parenthesis' are ratings for goblins)

    Riptide (no glyph):
    • 1st tick - 610 (476)
    • 2nd tick - 3051 (2892)
    • 3rd tick - 5418 (5307)
    Riptide (glyphed):
    • 1st tick - 262 (130)
    • 2nd tick - 2005 (1857)
    • 3rd tick - 3748 (3582)
    • 4th tick - 5418 (5307)
    Healing Rain:
    • 1st tick - 610 (476)
    • 2nd tick - 3051 (2892)
    • 3rd tick - 5418 (5307)
    Earthliving Weapon:
    • 1st tick - 916 (780)
    • 2nd tick - 3966 (3798)
    • 3rd tick - 7016 (6817)
    Mastery:
    Mastery is the new stat in Cataclysm that allows us to heal for more on targets with lower amounts of health. This means when healing a target with 100% health, we don't heal for any more than anyone else. However, if a target is at 1% health, we can heal for quite a bit more. It is a large misconception that Mastery is our worst stat. This is simply not necessarily the case. Any fight where people take raid damage, your Mastery can help you heal for more for absolutely nothing. It actually doesn't take the target to be very low on health for Mastery to provide more throughput than Crit (something like ~50%). On the other hand, it is not recommended to stack Mastery at the expense of other stats, or if you are under geared.
    Last edited by Radux; 2012-02-01 at 08:09 PM.

  6. #6
    5. Gemming:

    Useful gems you should be using:

    Meta
    Burning Shadowspirit Diamond (recommended)
    Ember Shadowspirit Diamond
    Revitalizing Shadowspirit Diamond
    Insightful Earthsiege Diamond - This gem can still be used temporarily, until you can get one of the cata metas.

    Red
    Brilliant Inferno Ruby

    Blue
    Sparkling Ocean Sapphire

    Yellow
    Smooth Amberjewel
    Quick Amberjewel
    Fractured Amberjewel

    Orange
    Potent Ember Topaz
    Reckless Ember Topaz
    Artful Ember Topaz

    Purple
    Purified Demonseye

    Green
    Zen Dream Emerald

    The gems I recommend:
    Red - Brilliant Inferno Ruby
    Blue - Purified Demonseye
    Yellow - Artful Ember Topaz


    One final note: Please gauge for yourself whether or not the socket bonus is worth it. +10 Mastery may or may not be worth it to you. However, you will always want to match it if it's something like 20 Intellect (or something equally awesome). It is also worth pointing out that stacking one secondary stat (like haste or crit) is ill advised. Intellect is so much more beneficial to add than anything else. So definitely use hybrid gems (like the Purified Demonseye) over the pure ones.
    Last edited by Radux; 2011-12-12 at 03:22 PM.

  7. #7
    6. Enchants:

    The following is a compilation of any and all enchants that are available for your character to use for Cataclysm:

    Helm:
    Arcanum of Hyjal - Revered with the Guardians of Hyjal

    Shoulders:
    Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone - Exalted with Therazane
    Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone - Honored with Therazane
    Felfire Inscription - Inscription Only

    Cloak
    Greater Intellect
    Intellect
    Greater Critical Strike
    Critical Strike
    Lightweave Embroidery - Tailoring Only

    Chest
    Exceptional Spirit
    Peerless Stats
    Mighty Stats

    Bracer
    Mighty Intellect
    Greater Critical Strike
    Critical Strike
    Greater Speed
    Speed
    Exceptional Spirit
    Draconic Embossment - Intellect - Leatherworking Only

    Gloves
    Greater Mastery
    Mastery
    Haste
    Synapse Springs - Engineering only (tooltip clarification: Intellect Buff) Note: This stacks with other regular enchants.

    Legs
    Powerful Ghostly Spellthread
    Ghostly Spellthread
    Powerful Enchanted Spellthread
    Enchanted Spellthread

    Boots
    Haste
    Mastery
    Lavawalker - Note that run speed enchants (via Ancestral Swiftness) do not stack

    Rings
    Intellect - Enchanting Only

    Weapon
    Power Torrent
    Heartsong
    Hurricane

    Shield
    Superior Intellect
    Last edited by Radux; 2011-04-28 at 02:00 AM.

  8. #8
    7. Gearing:

    Alright I'm changing this up a little bit from how it was setup in the past. (I still love you Instant for putting together the original) Since people understand how to heal a little better than the start of the expansion and had a little bit of time to gear up: I'm going to compile a few gear sets based on a few things: Pre-raid, Normal Raid and Heroic Raid (You can do LFR stuff based on the Normal profiles). I'm going to do a profile for each of those in a Crit heavy build, a Mastery heavy build and a Haste heavy build. I'll try to do my best with Haste softcaps.

    Note: I'm only going to be using the basic healing setup (Linked above in the Talent portion of the Guide) and not the TC heavy spec. I use Tauren as the race, since their racials won't affect anything. No professions were chosen, either. Disclaimer: These gear choices are one person's opinion (with the help of others, of course). If you want to go for a more balanced stat ratio that's fine. You can do what you please. These are here as a means to help others.

    It should also be pointed out that there are profession specific Items and Enchants that are superior than what I put in the profiles. Use your best judgment.

    So without further wasting your time -- Under Construction


    Critical Builds:
    Pre-Raid
    Normal
    Heroic

    Mastery Builds:
    Pre-Raid
    Normal
    Heroic

    Haste Builds:
    Pre-Raid
    Normal
    Heroic

    A final note: The Pre-Raid setups assume you have a little money to burn. So I'm sorry about that. You are more than welcome to replace those craftables with stuff from heroics. Again these are just my opinion of a 'BiS' setup for each gear level. If you want to mix and match that's cool. As stated before, there are no wasted stats in this expansion. Stacking one stat at the expense of others is ill advised.

    If you think there's something I missed in this or you have any questions regarding the choices, please feel free to let me know.
    Last edited by Radux; 2012-01-17 at 07:15 PM.

  9. #9
    Deleted
    Loving the update on this guide, thanks for it!

  10. #10
    i like this guide a lot but i dont like the huge amount of mastery u have for the normal raid link expecily for 25 man content. i think the teir chest is better than that 1. just because the teir chest dosent have any spirit on it doosent mean its crap it has a ton of crit and haste that i love i got nearly 100 spirit from reforging the haste on it. ive found almost no usefullness for our mastery going with that i only have 3 peices 4 when i down cho gall and get the shoulders and the 4 peice

    ---------- Post added 2011-02-20 at 12:12 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by thunderdragon2 View Post
    i like this guide a lot but i dont like the huge amount of mastery u have for the normal raid link expecily for 25 man content. i think the teir chest is better than that 1. just because the teir chest dosent have any spirit on it doosent mean its crap it has a ton of crit and haste that i love i got nearly 100 spirit from reforging the haste on it. ive found almost no usefullness for our mastery going with that i only have 3 peices 4 when i down cho gall and get the shoulders and the 4 peice

    Edit: ops just noticed i clicked on the mastery build anyway wouldnt getting the teir chest and off set shoulders form asendannt council be better than os chest and teir shoulders for the crit build?
    Last edited by thunderdragon2; 2011-02-20 at 12:15 AM.

  11. #11
    When I created the profiles I had two priorities in mind:

    Crit = Int > Spirit > Crit > Haste (caps) > Mastery
    Mastery = Int > Spirit > Mastery > Haste (caps) > Crit

    There could be other ways to go about it, I suppose, but I personally just prefer having items with Spirit. I did this mainly for the idea of maximum benefit for MTT without gimping throughput. Like I put in the disclaimer, it was just my opinion. Use your best judgment to alter each one to your liking. It's here as a guide. It's never going to be the end-all-be-all way to gear.
    Last edited by Radux; 2011-02-20 at 12:51 AM.

  12. #12
    Good guide. I agree with alot of your points, and so many shamans would benefit just from reading this. Im so suprised i find myself seeing alot of shamans so often tend to do things like cast chain heal even on full targets, not put up healing stream instant or quick again after mana tide is off, not refreshing their water shield, placing totems badly, using HS way to much going oom fast, using riptide way to little, using same totem buffs that the raid already provides, in many cases only use mana tide once on encounters (often when they were oom) when it can easily been put up 3 times if you cast it at the right times, go oom so much faster then they should etc, list could be made very long. So many small things that a good shamans is always aware off even half asleep that some tend to miss time after time.

    Althought im not as much as an haste fan as the most of the shamans and you are, and i will explain why below. And yes i have haste gear althought not equipped, have stacked heavy haste in earlier expansions and put out ridicilious amounts of hps at many times but i dont feel it is good as people tend to think it is anymore. BUT if you raid only 25man and mainly raid heals, forget anything i write because most is based of 10man healing.

    Althought it depends so much on what level you are on as a player and what your role is. Haste is for example, pretty worthless if you dont have the softcap (which you mentioned, but it should be written in bold text) you would be better of having 0 haste and having crit/mastery instead if your not at the cap. Also it is mainly awesome in 25man raids (beause earthiving and healing rain are so much more giving in terms of total hps in 25man raids - my ideas is mainly based from 10man healing), and for those that almost only do raid healing. And those who think you can't put up good HPS without haste, i could easily put up 11k+ hps on the raid bosses before the buffs we are getting now in 10mans just being tank healer and helping out some on raid with riptides and some healing rain if raid was positioned good or the encounter required it with having 0 haste (yes, not a single haste on any gear, this also with spirit on all my gear for less output) and trough my 350-355 ilevel gear. Sure i would do better hps if i was assigned for raid healing mainly and stacked haste and spammed chain heals, casted alot of healing rains etc but i just never felt the point of this playstyle in cataclysm when both druids and priests would be better raid healers anyway. As mentioned maybe not the highest HPS - i always have mana for emergency raid healing and its almost impossible to do more HPS in alot of 10man encounters (because priests are better at aoe healing, and paladins are great, simply making it not needed to heal for any more while still having the encounters go down easily and smooth.

    This is how i feel the stats prios are at the moment;

    New shaman healer: Stack as much crit, spirit as you possible can. Have it on all your gear and you will heal heroic 5mans so easily you can sleep trough them and be very viable tank healers. Works also very well in raids as tank healers with assist raid heal with a few healing rains and or chain heals if really needed. You will find your mana pool is very rarely having problems unless you play wrong.


    Assigned raid healer role in normal content: Haste until atleast cap and crit is your friends.

    Assigned raid healer in heroic content: Spirit heavy, haste until atleast cap, and now mastery heavy since most likely your raid will be alot lower then in the normal raids. This is also a choice : Mastery is more efficient in terms of output then crit if the raid you are healing are often below 50%, but having some crit is also good ofcourse for more mana regen and the obvious crits it gives. Find out what works best.


    Pure tank healer in normal raids (not likely since the paladins will most likely take this spot, but we can be really good tank healers correct geared, glyphed together with a good play style. A resto shaman with over 350+ igear in the normal 10man raids should have absolutly no problem keeping a tank up that any other class can keep up by themselves. Stack spirit and crit crit crit and some mastery if you feel your tank often can drop below 60%. Haste is useless.

    Pure tank healer in heroic raids: Spirit, and around 50/50 on the mastery/crit, possible a little more crit. Forget haste.

    Assigned tank healer, but also assigned to help heal the raid (both normal and heroic raids): Spirit heavy (to have enough mana trough long fights to cast alot of healing rains when its beneficial, maybe some chain heals and always have enough mana for the tank), alot of crit (same as last but also to always keep anc buff up, and change the crit to mastery slowly when you feel your mana is sufficent trough the fight because the tanks will often be on the >60% making mastery great, also the raid will be the same in many cases making your heaing rains heal for a good amount.

    The last ive been playing trough cataclysm and mainly wotlk, and i like it the most and also think its really good for especially the 10man raids. Im not in a real hardcore guild but we have had an easy time progressing trough all normal raids with this and NEVER had heailng issues at all, and downed halfus hc easily on our 5th or 6th attempt on him and would most likely have killed maloriak hc aswell our first night of trys on him if our maintank didnt fail and wipe us at 30%.

    Althought im considering checking out haste again now when we get our buff - althought im really afraid it will not be good at all as my current healing role role with guild trying to progress in 10man heroics, but going to give it a shot.
    Last edited by Radikaal; 2011-02-20 at 02:12 AM.

  13. #13
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    Appreciate the time you have put in to update the guide, Radux. I am sure it will come in handy for many a shaman.

    - Riptide hasn't changed much since the last expansion. It should be used on cooldown (to keep up the Tidal Waves buff) on different targets as to not renew the HoT. Spread this around the raid for some 'ok' raid healing over time. The HoT can also be improved if used in conjunction with UE.
    Could add that you should prioritize keeping Riptide ticking on the tank(s) at all times - as each critical tick procs Ancestral Healing as well as help keeping them alive.

    That the HoT portion of it gets stronger with UE may be a bit misleading? Last time I checked you had to first use UE, cast a spell like Healing Wave, and just before the HW cast ended you had to queue up Riptide for it's HoT portion to get any effect. Did they fix that?

    Also worth mentioning that it boost your Chain Heal by 25% if you cast chain heal on a Riptided target.
    ('Let the Riptide tick its ~full duration on the Tanks, consume the riptides cast on DPS' is a good mindset.)

    Convection*
    (...)
    Elemental Precision*
    (...)
    True, though - I would not go for these in a raid environment unless you are brought purely as a healing rain / mana battery. Even without the hit talents, Telluric currents will give you more mana than you spend on the lightning bolts. Sure, it misses some but those misses should/do not really matter. I myself am pretty happy about Telluric Currents, even though I see some misses every now and then.

    And on fights like Magmaw, be that normal or heroic, you can easily go from 20-30% Mana to 100% in a head phase without having to rely on +hit talents.

    Useful gems you should be using:
    I see you indirectly mentioned it in several places, though it's worth writing a small headline in the gem section as an extra reminder that you should never gem for one pure secondary stat like +40 Haste, +40 Crit or +40 spirit. "Try to always gem for Intellect or Intellect + Secondary Stat" or something as a heads up. Seen too many healers stacking pure spirit and other secondary stats because they think that's what's best for them.



    ____

    Not meant as nitpicking or trying to tell what's right and what's wrong. Just sharing the thoughts that popped into my head as I read your beautifully written guide! Keep up the good work! o/
    Last edited by Revelations; 2011-02-20 at 06:26 AM.

  14. #14
    Thanks for useful feedback. I appreciate it.

    First off -- yeah I'll add some more in about Riptide. It's actually a little difficult to put into words how good the spell is (now) and that it really should be kept on cooldown. It's that important. I'll fix that later today.

    Regarding TC -- I also agree with you here. I've always been an advocate of the talent. However you do not necessarily need the hit talents to use it efficiently. Instant and I did some math (in beta I think) back when people didn't see the potential in the talent. Our conclusion was that you didn't need to do a lot of damage just to come out even. Not taking scaling factors into account (like spell coefficients or how much haste/crit one person may have), you only need to do like 4k dmg or something (I'll look for the specific post and quote it here in a while) to overcome the loss of hit in terms of breaking even.

    Regarding gemming -- noted. I'll fix that later. I need coffee and breakfast before I do real work.

    Again thanks for the feedback. Without feedback and the potential to fix things, it can be misleading and give incorrect information. I don't want to do that. I'd really really hate the idea of making someone play poorly because of leaving something small out in a guide or just forgetting to mention it all together.

  15. #15
    True, though - I would not go for these in a raid environment unless you are brought purely as a healing rain / mana battery. Even without the hit talents, Telluric currents will give you more mana than you spend on the lightning bolts. Sure, it misses some but those misses should/do not really matter. I myself am pretty happy about Telluric Currents, even though I see some misses every now and then.

    And on fights like Magmaw, be that normal or heroic, you can easily go from 20-30% Mana to 100% in a head phase without having to rely on +hit talents.
    The hit talent can be useful in some 10m heroics where you only have time to cast 1-3 LB rather than spam away like on Magmaw. Halfus is the only fight I've actually used it for so far though and that was partially because I was helping with interrupts. We had two tanks taunting halfus from max range and I was backup interrupting if he start casting while running back and forth. We try to time it so that doesn't happen, but sometimes he will wtf 10 stacks a tank in no time and we can't wait for a cast to taunt.

    Anyway, it's pretty situational so I generally agree with you.

  16. #16
    First: lovely guide. Beyond that:

    1. I'd probably add a "(not recommended)" disclaimer to the yellow and blue gems. Or possibly even remove them from the list altogether, as there's rarely any reason for any class to ever have more than one "pure" color on their gear. It's a pretty central aspect of gem choices. A note about always using red gems in prismatic sockets may also be useful, as it tends to confuse new players and only takes up one sentence in the guide.

    2. I would like to see some more thoughts on enchants. Peerless Stats seems clearly superior to Exceptional Spirit, for example. Lavawalker seems to only deserve a mention as a "don't use this because it doesn't stack with talents" type thing. Mostly I'm curious about thoughts on Heartsong versus Power Torrent.
    Diplomacy is just war by other means.

  17. #17
    - I did point out in the gem section that you shouldn't use stats like Pure Haste or Pure Spirit and that you should always use hybrid gems that include Intellect.

    - Some enchants are clearly better than others, I agree. However, people should be able to make an informed decision after having a better idea of what stats are important to them (thus we have a stat section). Also, regarding Lavawalker, not every Restoration Shaman runs with AS, so the movement speed is useful. I did note that it does not stack with AS. I would hope people could understand that it means choose one or the other.

    Power Torrent vs. Heartsong is a tricky one, imo. Technically PT does contribute to both throughput and regeneration while Heartsong only contributes towards regeneration. One reason (even if I have all the money to spend) I'll always stick with Heartsong is due to the fact that it counts in our 'static' spirit that buffs up MTT.

  18. #18
    @alltat You also have to remember while one chant may seem like the best option to you the others are there as they are quite useful in regards to other play styles (exceptional spirit is much better than peerless stats if you spirit stack for MTT battery for example). A lot of the confusion comes because this is one of the first times Blizz has really left a lot of room for gearing/chanting for your play style and thus it's worth mentioning all the options and letting the user pick the best for themselves.

    In summary 'thoughts' tend to lead to opinion instead of math.

  19. #19
    Nice guide overall, read through it. Well rounded to accomodate different playstyles, specs, choices and raid sizes.

    One note I will for anyone considering engineering: the +int on-use for gloves stacks with other enchants. It is classed as a secondary enchant, or tinker. I recently rolled engineering to keep our raid in repair bots and found engineering awesome. There is also a belt tinker which absorb 18k damage.

    Maybe worth a little section on the comparison of professions and how they benefit resto shamans, Radux?

    My professions: Engi/JC. Love both for raiding.

  20. #20
    Yeah I'll note the tinker being able to stack with other normal enchants + the belt enchants for engineering.

    As far as a comparison, I'll note something or another. Thanks for bringing it up.

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