Chain Heal tips

[Entizer]

Hello,

I'm currently progressing through normal content (6/6 MSV and 2/6 in HoF) in 10 man. I am trying to wrap my head around the best practice or best rotation for using Chain heal. I had usually been Enhance previous to this expansion.

I know it is preferred to use CH on a person with Riptide for the increased healing and I know that CH gives you Tidal Waves as well. However, it seems that when I Chain heal, I feel like it is not keeping up with the damage going out in a lot of cases. Should I CH then use up the Tidal Waves then repeat? At some point should I waste the Tidal Waves buff I got from CH by using Riptide at some point, since eventually no one will have RT on them?

It just feels to me that when I CH, it is too slow and then after the heal does go off the raid is maybe not better off than if I did a few RT and GW/GHW combos. Any opinions or recommendations will be very helpful.

[oberetta]

I think your issue is that you have the misconception that Chain Heal should be a bread & butter rotational spell like it was in Wrath. Instead try using RT on CD, keeping 2 if not 3 RT's rolling at all times, especially on the tanks. This should give you very high uptime of the TW proc. Then worry about either HW for lower heal needs or GHW/HS for bigger needs. There is a ton more to write but I would say it is better for you to read Table's excellent resto guide in the stickies above.

CH has its place, but especially in 10man, it must be used wisely. You are probably using it is a single target heal far mroe often than you think, and that is very inneffective.

[constantduty]

I've noticed a lot of Resto Shaman in LFR relying heavily on CH. The spell is usually their #1 heal in Recount and they're usually at the bottom of the healing meters...I know LFR is not the greatest litmus test, but there are some rough conclusions you can draw. And not relying too heavily on CH could be one of them.

Healing Rain seems to be my go to AOE heal if people are grouped up. Outside of that rolling riptides and HW/GHW/HS will serves me well.

I found using an add-on like Vuhdo was the biggest aid in figuring out when to use CH and who to cast it on. You can set it up to indicate optimum CH targets. - i.e. always making sure the spell hits at least 3-4 targets at a certain health threshold.

[Entizer]

Thanks for the replies guys. However, I think I did not get my question across properly.

I currently use Vuhdo and I know not to use CH on single target healing. When I am AoE healing, Elegon as an example, I have down Healing Rain and usually roll Riptides in between my Healing Wave or Greater Healing Wave. However, in the sticky and guides I have read from EJ and Totemspot, up and down it is praised as a great spell to use while stacked.

My question is: When it is optimal to use, which I can assess, should I just spam it on a RT target? Should I CH and use the Tidal Wave buff up before CH'ing again? How should I weave in RTs, if at all during this time?

I'm more interested in the rotation people do when it is optimal, and not when and when not to Chain Heal.

Thanks!

[Tziva]

In real raids, I use it when there are 4+ people clustered together. On high AoE damage, I'll drop a healing rain first and then supplement with chain heal, like during the flames on Feng or shields on Zorlok. I don't use it super often in 10man to be honest, although in LFR I will admit use it pretty heavily.

[ninjakat]

The fact that you asked the same question twice leads me to believe you are not reading into the answers already given to you. That chain heal should not be your go to spell, and that its usage depends on the situation.

To answer the question in your format:
RT should be rolling on 2-3 people (if not more depending on glyph choice) at a time. With this in mind you shouldn't have an issue bouncing CH off an RT target. Spamming any spell off a single target, is never best practice, particularly while raid healing. CH spam is a clear sign of a bad/ under educated shaman, don't be that guy.

[Jynus]

RT should be rolling on 2-3 people (if not more depending on glyph choice) at a time.

No it should not. This isn't cata anymore. Riptide is a mana sink and it's not optimal to use on CD. It's still a good spell, but it's priority has dropped significantly. In 25man I find I use it moreso to set up chain than anything else. And for sure I don't use it on CD, no need to when an unhasted HW, or HST will do the job just as well.

[oberetta]

I raid 10's so cannot comment on your "RT is only a setup for boosted CH" priority, but that just feels inuitively wrong. In any case, the OP was asking about 10's (where many fights are 2 heals).

OP - as I said initially, in 10man both normal and heroics, CH is really a non-essential spell. There are specific occassions such as stacking in Verve bubbles or when the entire group is stacked in Feng that it can work, but you wont find a ton of uses. In 10m, you will find that RT+HW/GHW/HS is your bread and butter, along with HR/HST/cooldowns for raid healing. Particularly when 2-healing, it feels like 9 times out of 10 there is a better use of a GCD than Chain Heal.

[Volitar]

No it should not. This isn't cata anymore. Riptide is a mana sink and it's not optimal to use on CD. It's still a good spell, but it's priority has dropped significantly. In 25man I find I use it moreso to set up chain than anything else. And for sure I don't use it on CD, no need to when an unhasted HW, or HST will do the job just as well.

I find myself using riptide heavily in a 10man. Throw it on a target around 70% is hp and let it heal them up while usine the Tidal Wave stacks to throw GHW's on the tank.

[Tziva]

Riptide isn't cheap but it isn't that expensive. For comparison, it is 9.6k mana while HW is about 6k and GHW is 16k.

Sure, you shouldn't blanket the whole raid, but keeping it rolling on 2-3 people is not a terrible idea or unreasonably expensive.

[Zues]

I raid in a 10M guild that's vaguely progressive, 3/6 H MGV and 6/6 HoF, and I rarely use chain heal. If it's roughly 3 targets you want to heal, I'd suggest dropping HST with riptides rolling on each person + healing wave to top off. If it's 5+ clustered people, HST and use empowered healing rain. Maybe in 25 mans it's useful, but I honestly haven't found much use for CH this expansion yet.

[takolin]

CH has its use in a 10 man and I use it on most fights. Assuming you can hit 4 targets (use the glyph when needed) it sits between HW and HS/GHW. So it's less healing but more efficient than HS/GHW but more healing at the cost of some mana when compared to HW. The fact that the jumps go to lower people, makes it so that is works great with our mastery.

[Deleted]

Question, my guild is currently progressing on 25 Garalon, we no not have ranged stacked together, all seem to go seperate ways. I feel like Healing Rain is therefore pushed very low. You think just spamming Chain Heal on everyone (knowing it always hits four people) and focus on Healing Rain on when I know it'll hit 8+ people will suffice. I feel like my hps is being pushed aside. >.> Atm I'm already putting HR down all time and CH everyone, but feel like (not counting cooldowns as I use them all time) I can do more hps.

[Zues]

Well...HR is like terrible on garalon due to constant movement. Unless you're stacking melee and their dps is so low they can stand inside HR for the full duration, it's a waste of mana.

Honestly, RT (glyphed) and HW with clutch healing surges are what got us through in 10M. If you're doing 25, let the mistweaves and resto druids bandaid the raid, you take care of lower health people.

[Deleted]

Well....I tried experimenting tonight and best way is Healing Rain on melee/ranged switching and spam healing Wave on everyone keeping Tidal Waves up.
I hit 100+hps at times with cooldowns so, I found my best way.

[Jynus]

In our 10man we just marked a dps, and told rest of dps to stand near him. Even tho they on the move, they are usually attacking the same leg, so toss a HR right after new leg becomes active and you'll get a full duration of full healing. When blue circle lands, stand in it if you can. We never had a prob with HR healing people. 25man should be even easier.

The issue is not HR, but in your raiders not knowing how to play properly.