should I use glyph of riptide?

[mdnsiper7]

is it better to use it or not? For raiding basically

[Glurp]

Very vague question that will never have a definite answer.

Advantages of riptide glyph:
- Tidal Waves uptime (if no T14 4set)
- Ability to HoT blanket raid if no druid present

Disadvanates of riptide glyph:
- Casting too many riptides will OOM you
- Lose the instant heal (comparable to a healing wave) which scales well with mastery.
- Lose 1 glyph slot (shamans have 4-5 very useful glyphs)

There are probably more but these are the main factors that make me not use the glyph in most situations. The only fight in T14 where glyph riptide is Heroic Stone Guards because it's generally not very healing rain friendly and the increased spirit from tiles means there isn't any mana problems.

[Drdraenei]

I don't use it, on a personal level I do not see the benefit (eHPS or HPS) over an alternative glyph and on the down side it is a huge drain on your mana.

[Deleted]

I don't use it and wouldn't recommend it. It drains my mana far too fast for what it does.

[Dietrik]

I glyphed it day 1, but then settled to basically only rolling it on the two tanks and one other person to keep mana going. Hmmmm running on 3 people...

I stopping regularly healing on my shaman, but if I do raid with it I will unglyph.

[MrWilson]

I used it and nearly every fight I got oom because I used to spam riptide on the raid... After in changed the glyphes, everything was fine and my (e)HPS became much higher (due to no lack of mana and using more reasonable heals.

Just my 2c

[Delanath]

I don't heal as my main, but what I've found is about the same. Glyphing riptide is a good way to run yourself out of mana. I look at the number of casts that are shortened by tidal waves to be somewhat of a limiter on mana usage, so having tidal waves up continually drains me even faster. But I'm sure you could find a good situational use for it at some point like Glurp mentioned.

[Deleted]

Riptide glyph is a clear winner on fights with constant raid-wide damage, like twin emperors hc. When overhealing is nearly non-existent, Riptide spam comes ahead of CH spam both hps-wise and hpm-wise.

Some napkin math, calculated at 489 average iLvl:
CH: 30255 hps, 5.155 hpm
RT(glyphed): 40072 hps, 5.76 hpm
HW(+Tidal Waves): 22512 hps, 6.1 hpm
GHW(+TW): 40990 hps, 4.54 hpm

On a typical fight however, riptide tends to overheal lots, so I would not recommend glyphing it.

[Navitas]

I tried it but didn't like it. Was early on in the xpac and I had major mana issues (might be different now but there's no other glyph I want to drop for it). Plus I raid 10 man with a resto druid so she's got the HoTs covered and I didn't feel there was any use for it. If you've played a resto shaman before you should be used to 2 TWs to work with and, as other say above, you lose the initial which can be very helpful. It will all depend on your raid comp, size of raid, play style, etc. Some love it, some hate it. So there is no hard and fast, yes/no answer for this (other than a few fights listed above).

[Cirque]

I used it and nearly every fight I got oom because I used to spam riptide on the raid... After in changed the glyphes, everything was fine and my (e)HPS became much higher (due to no lack of mana and using more reasonable heals.

Just my 2c

Just cause you don't know how to heal efficiently doesn't mean the glyph isn't good. Not @you specifically, but in general.

I consider it pretty much mandatory, if you know how to heal properly. Keeping riptide rolling on two tanks, or on the voodoo dolls, or a legion of other possibilities, like being the unfortunate shaman healer on elegon when 2man healing. Blanketing the raid with riptide is rarely a good idea, it will oom you.

[reef]

- Tidal Waves uptime (if no T14 4set)

The resto t14 4 piece was changed and no longer gives an additional charge of tidal waves.

[Mavalynn]

Just cause you don't know how to heal efficiently doesn't mean the glyph isn't good. Not @you specifically, but in general.

I consider it pretty much mandatory, if you know how to heal properly. Keeping riptide rolling on two tanks, or on the voodoo dolls, or a legion of other possibilities, like being the unfortunate shaman healer on elegon when 2man healing. Blanketing the raid with riptide is rarely a good idea, it will oom you.

That is misleading. I wouldn't say it's "pretty much mandatory, if you know how to heal properly". I know how to heal properly, as do a host of other rshamans and we don't use the glyph for every fight. It's decreases the hps of an already expensive heal. I can keep it rolling on two tanks and another person, fine while having it unglyphed. I also don't have a problem with my tidal waves uptime either.

If you're efficient with it, you don't spam it. If you're not going to use it on 4 or more people (spam it), then why use the glyph? The glyph's purpose is to fill the gap that rshamans had with spread healing and high movement fights. It wasn't meant for ALL fights.

To the OP, just as others have said, it's a quick way to run oom. But even if you manage your usage of it, you're gimping your healing. I notice a definite decrease in my hps(e) when I choose to glyph it for high movement fights.

[Ammethyst]

I think it is pretty much a individual preference. Some fights it is good for.

[Razecog]

I think it is pretty much a individual preference. Some fights it is good for.

Pretty much this.

[Deleted]

Riptide glyph is a clear winner on fights with constant raid-wide damage, like twin emperors hc. When overhealing is nearly non-existent, Riptide spam comes ahead of CH spam both hps-wise and hpm-wise.

Some napkin math, calculated at 489 average iLvl:
CH: 30255 hps, 5.155 hpm
RT(glyphed): 40072 hps, 5.76 hpm
HW(+Tidal Waves): 22512 hps, 6.1 hpm
GHW(+TW): 40990 hps, 4.54 hpm

On a typical fight however, riptide tends to overheal lots, so I would not recommend glyphing it.

How did you calculate this? Using coefficients?

[Deleted]

How did you calculate this? Using coefficients?

Just by dividing the heal amount by cast time for hps, and heal amount by mana cost for hpm. I ignored crit and mastery effects. Numbers are specific to my gear, but they'll be in the same ballpark for most.

[Lostprophet]

I dont use this Glyph on most Encounters coz it wouldnt make sense there.

Only on Lei Shi hc, i use this for "get aways" when grace is on Cooldown.
On Lord Taya for the last 20% unless ure engineer:>
Gajaral for keeping the Buff up in the "totemzone"(only 25m)
& Elegon in transition phase aka p2 were everybody gets lot of dmg but are wide spread.

I cant think of more Situations where this glyph would make sense.

[Tziva]

Most of the guides still recommend it, but the general consensus from individual players is that it's too expensive right now to use to its full potential, and it is not worth using if you're not taking advantage of the lack of cooldown. Personally I used it for a couple weeks but it was too mana inefficient to use on very many people at once... and if I'm only rolling it on two or three people, I might as well just do it unglyphed and get the up-front healing too.

It may be stronger later in the expansion where we have a lot more innate spirit on our gear from higher item level and stat budget. Or I might use it more in a 25 where you have other healers to lean on a bit and you're probably using chain heal more to bounce it. But right now, in a ten man, I'm picking something else in most situations.

[Ammethyst]

It is pretty good on some fights but it really all depends on the raid comp.

[Deleted]

Yeah I agree its very situational.

Its not really there to cover a raid in HoTs like a druid, it heals for like 50% of their rejuvination, leave that to the experts.

Its good for say blade lord p2 when you are running in tornadoes or on a fight where you want to use chain heal off a number of different groups (for the 25% buff) with keeping 2 riptides on the tanks such as garalon but I would generally not glyph it.

Sepha