Resto Shamans struggle in s13

[kcatta]

Before I start my so-called rant here I am mostly satisfied with the toolkit my shaman has at its current state in terms of spells, class features, etc. My main reason for this post today is basically give or take how in-viable I am as a resto sham for this season.



Survivablity

Now I have no complaints of the throughput I can do as Resto its the fact of the matter that I can be basically globaled by almost any competent dps in the right circumstances (position, cooldowns, etc) whilst a Resto Druid or a Discipline Priest can be COMPLETELY out of position (i.e: standing in the middle of the bloody arena) and be completely fine and make it out with mere scratches even without a peel from a teammate.


The lack of ANY defensive cooldowns other then battlemaster if you choose to take and possibly a warlock healthstone we have nothing. Yes, we do have Astral shift, but is completely overhauled by the Natures Guardian passive (fall below a certain % you gain x amount of health and an extra % of healthpool for x amount of seconds) which is amazing and very helpful as it takes us just out execute range for a slight amount of time and the extra life % is very useful with our mastery Deep Healing. But that is it, Every other healing class has a effective tank cooldown such as Pain Suppression, BoP, Ironbark, Monk Bubble, which is a huge buff that Resto Shams have been absent from since time began. Not to mention the lack of any passive class specific damage reduction cooldowns such as Barkskin, various palidan defensives (including Bubble), fortifying brew, also I can even throw in symbosis in there for Detterence, Bone-shield, unending resolve, and so on..


Raid/Healing Cooldowns

To make a point against myself Resto Shamans do have amazing raid/healing cooldowns, such as Healing Tide Totem, Spirit Link Totem, and Ascendance. But also to counter that, 2 of our 3 healing cooldowns are easily nuked down within seconds if targets unless a valueble major glyph spot is sacrificed to give them some more health and not destroyed within one GCD.



So whats all this boil down to?

We have very weak defensive's and rely way to much on peels which puts the team in a defensive play style and the fact of the matter is Resto Shamans cannot be self-reliant at all while your team pressures in for a kill on the enemy team and leaves you very vulnerable in contrast to a Disc Priest, Resto Druid, Monk, and Holy Palidan. I am much more susceptible to go down ages before any other healing class given the skill level of that player of course and EASILY pressured into blowing healing cooldowns.


Think of it in terms of comps when sitting in waiting room waiting for a match to start, It gives you a very advantagious feeling when you go up against a comp with a Resto Sham rather then say a Disc Priest. Even myself, playing a resto sham get reassurance when I see we are playing a team with an enemy Resto Sham because I know it will just make the kill that much easier for my teammates.


Hell, verse many comps all 3 of my cooldowns are required to survive an opener such as TSG, and RMP that just come in with every cooldown that have in hopes to burst me down real quick and still at that point its a toss up if I survive or not.



Long story short, Resto Shamans are bassically in-viable and less superior to Resto Druid/ Disc Priest this season for ANY and all comps in My eyes, and remember I play at a 1900 rating and im fairly sure I am easily capable of playing at a 2-2.1k rating but I am limited due to my class this season. And if it means anything the enemy comps I que up against are majority a mix of Disc and Resto Druid healers with a stray Shaman every now and then, if that doesnt scream some complete overpowered classes just by that ratio I dont know what does.


PS: This is my first hardcore pvp season I have played competitively for rating and what not but I am very knowledgeful and skilled at multiple classes playing for the amount of years I have been.



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So there you have it, Quite a rant but I do want to get some feedback possibly some banter on the topic as well as some constructive criticism possibly.

[kcatta]

tremor totem

Yes, we have a 36 second tremor totem cooldown. I mean yes its amazing on Shadow Priest, Lock teams and whatnot but I am talking about the class as a whole in higher rated arenas. This post is meant to be more of a survivability thing amoungst the healing community. Seeing as how Disc Priest can survive up to 7 dps pounding on him/her in a BG without even popping PSupp and a Shaman gets steamrolled when 1 or 2 competent dps hop on him. Blizzard states: Healers are meant to be able heal through 1 dps class pounding on them and once you increase that number it becomes more and more difficult for the healer to suffice, sometimes as a shaman you have a very difficult time with one DK on you.


Edit: Also Tremor Totem is actually being planned on being removed from talents in place of a new talent come 5.4 so in b4 another nerf. Tremor Totem is the only thing we currently have going for ourselves.

[kcatta]

Oh of course. I completely agree with you that they're amazing for what we do, its just once we get switched on its just easy sauce to take down a shaman as opposed to a rdruid. All high end comps are calling for a priest nowadays though. and if had an equal geared disc to my shaman I am sure I could breeze right over 2k hump. I sound rather like a WAH my class is broken kinda thing in the OP but like I said I love how it is, I feel like all we need is shamanastic rage to be implemented to resto, theres no reason it shouldnt.

[Ozone]

Resto shamans have been unrivaled godmode for years, I'd rather wait a bit too see how it works out. You still have amazing cds with tremor, grounding, healing tide, spirit link and ascendance. They're supposed to require peels with the utility they have or it's just going to be droolmode again like it was for ages now.

This exactly. I feel some of your pain as I play a Holy Paladin and you are correct that Disc, Monks are far superior right now but it seems every healing class (outside disc and monks) has some specific weekness and needs to be played into it even if its not what you want to do. For instance, as a pally most of my big heals are hard cast so saving trinkets and bubble till its absolutely needed for heavy damage is extremely important so I can actually get a cast off. Resto shaman are the best pillar hummping healers in the game. Its not ideal but like the above poster stated, the utility they have if the defensives were high they would be rediculous. If you can effectly pillar hump its going to be a win or at least a very very very frustrating match for the opponents. I hate seeing resto shaman in comps cause i know its going to be "chase the ghost wolf around the pillar" games.

Of course I'm also speaking in the unbalanced 2's bracket but I figured I'd give my feeling on the subject anyway.

[kcatta]

Great feedback ozone, I agree that the toolkit from a resto shaman is just amazing and can do wonderous things with it, I feel that the fact I have low defensive's and the out of control burst currently going on is making me lose games, Popping every single cooldown I have verse a good tsg can still kill me through link insta killed (which can be averted by speccing totemic health or w,e, htt, and ascendance. Burst is broken. I feel that could be the ending note to my problem actually. blatant in front of my eyes.

[Hand Banana]

Rshams counter caster teams. Rshams struggle with meleecleaves without proper (see rogue/mage/lock) peels.

5.3 is 95% melee cleaves and hunter/melee teams (in the duelist bracket at least). Rshams suddenly seem bad.

Thats my take on it.

[Arcsecant]

Resto sham do well when caster teams do well. They are one of the ideal healers for wizard teams AND the ideal healer to play against wizards. How many casters are you fighting lately? Not many.

We are also a terrible compliment to hunters and since hunters are so popular disc becomes popular.

[kcatta]

Rshams counter caster teams. Rshams struggle with meleecleaves without proper (see rogue/mage/lock) peels.

5.3 is 95% melee cleaves and hunter/melee teams (in the duelist bracket at least). Rshams suddenly seem bad.

Thats my take on it.

Perfect. /10chars

[MuskiER]

I'm not sure why you think druids can't die, if their trinket is down they can die 100-0 in one stun, tree of life or not.

Bet it was a mage, only class I seen nowday that can easily drop someone in one stun is mage..... (with paladin being a very very distanced second).

But yeah Op, I felt this issues a long time ago when I started playing my mw monk in late 5.2. It just made me to hang up my shaman for a while, really glad I did it then.

[kcatta]

I am not gunna nessasarily hang up my shaman, cause hes my favorite charecter, and I'lll play through the nerfs. but in the mean time i do have a disc priest backup i have semi geared. :|

[Ultima]

They are nowhere near as bad as claimed. Any excuse to claim weakness to excuse your weakness.

[Stormspellz]

Resto sham do well when caster teams do well. They are one of the ideal healers for wizard teams AND the ideal healer to play against wizards. How many casters are you fighting lately? Not many.

We are also a terrible compliment to hunters and since hunters are so popular disc becomes popular.

this by a lot and very weak to melee cleave zerg down

[apepi]

Rshams counter caster teams. Rshams struggle with meleecleaves without proper (see rogue/mage/lock) peels.

5.3 is 95% melee cleaves and hunter/melee teams (in the duelist bracket at least). Rshams suddenly seem bad.

Thats my take on it.

Yeah, though it is still sad that I have not seen MW go up, even though they counter melee hard(besides getting cced>.<).

[kcatta]

They are nowhere near as bad as claimed. Any excuse to claim weakness to excuse your weakness.

you sir are on drugs. Melee just rip shamans apart, and the only way to counter that is have your entire team play defensively to keep enemy team from just sitting on the shaman.

[broskizirl]

melee rips any healer apart without peels thats the name of the game in 3s. You can tremor grounding or capacitor stun. If anything I think shaman is one of the stronger healing classes in arena minus druid(cyclone). If your playing vrs disc just purge your ass off have you ever seen a disc try and actually heal? Shaman just has a higher skill cap and isnt face roll. The problem I see with most healers these days in pvp is they just heal just focus less on healing and more on pressure with purges stuns hex

[WarTV]

resto shamans seem to be in a good spot. others healers need to be toned down to their level aka druids and priests

[kcatta]

melee rips any healer apart without peels thats the name of the game in 3s. You can tremor grounding or capacitor stun. If anything I think shaman is one of the stronger healing classes in arena minus druid(cyclone). If your playing vrs disc just purge your ass off have you ever seen a disc try and actually heal? Shaman just has a higher skill cap and isnt face roll. The problem I see with most healers these days in pvp is they just heal just focus less on healing and more on pressure with purges stuns hex

Shamans survivalbility verses a priest is HUGELY noticable. priest can live for hours past the shaman would. I agree on the Shaman higher skill cap comment but I dont believe all 5 healers are even within range of being considered "balanced"

resto shamans seem to be in a good spot. others healers need to be toned down to their level aka druids and priests

I agree

[Hand Banana]

resto shamans seem to be in a good spot. others healers need to be toned down to their level aka druids and priests

And both are getting buffs in 5.4. Might as well shelf any other healer as disc or resto will be the best healer for any 3s comp with the current ptr notes.

[PPN]

Hey, i always enjoyed my rshaman and lately i switched to play a little more my dps chars. As a shaman i feel i have a lot good abilities. The only weaknesses for me seem to be sometimes:

- My cc:
--> Hex its cool, but frog can move while ccd
-->my capacitator totem is not so easy to place. I mean when i see an other shamy is putting it down i often manage to avoid it.
-->Also the roots are nice to grab some1 at some place and keep the team seperated
--> Wind Shear is very strong once you could build up pressure. Imo its not so easy to use it properly because you be always good positioned to actually give yourself a + from interrupting and not los your teammate or expose yourself to much

Ofc its the same for all classes, all have something thats strong and something thats weak about their abilities. Just wanted to put my thoughts here.
Lately i found out, when im in 2s, as long they are on my partner its easy, as soon they switch for me...ok game will end soon (especially dk/warr/rogue/hunter/feral also pala canb nasty with HoF spam).

One class i dont see mentioned often, well maybe its just me, its boomkin double dps combos. I mean honestly, maybe i suck, but i know from the start of the fight that as soon i get rooted or sucked back in the solar beam game is just over if you dont have a m8 who has very strong defensives (like iceblock...).

Im levling now a MW monk to see how that is. Still ill stick to my shaman

[kcatta]

And both are getting buffs in 5.4. Might as well shelf any other healer as disc or resto will be the best healer for any 3s comp with the current ptr notes.

I mean shamans are amazing healers for 3's and we are at a very good state in terms of throughput, but we are just soggy bread and cant do much defensively.

Hey, i always enjoyed my rshaman and lately i switched to play a little more my dps chars. As a shaman i feel i have a lot good abilities. The only weaknesses for me seem to be sometimes:

- My cc:
--> Hex its cool, but frog can move while ccd
-->my capacitator totem is not so easy to place. I mean when i see an other shamy is putting it down i often manage to avoid it.
-->Also the roots are nice to grab some1 at some place and keep the team seperated
--> Wind Shear is very strong once you could build up pressure. Imo its not so easy to use it properly because you be always good positioned to actually give yourself a + from interrupting and not los your teammate or expose yourself to much

Ofc its the same for all classes, all have something thats strong and something thats weak about their abilities. Just wanted to put my thoughts here.
Lately i found out, when im in 2s, as long they are on my partner its easy, as soon they switch for me...ok game will end soon (especially dk/warr/rogue/hunter/feral also pala canb nasty with HoF spam).

One class i dont see mentioned often, well maybe its just me, its boomkin double dps combos. I mean honestly, maybe i suck, but i know from the start of the fight that as soon i get rooted or sucked back in the solar beam game is just over if you dont have a m8 who has very strong defensives (like iceblock...).

Im levling now a MW monk to see how that is. Still ill stick to my shaman

I agree that hex should be a less controllable cc, to my knowledge its the only cc that you basically have full control of where you end up. which kinda sucks. Cap Totem is great when you can drop it when the fight is focused in a confined area. And the problem this season is burst is way to out of control. I actually confirmed hands down 95% of any teams are a Melee Mongoloid Cleave and <insert hunter here> with a disc priest. And all these teams do is pop all cooldowns and go in and LOL all over something, this is how its working on my battlegroup. You'll rarely see any casters past 1900mmr on my battlegroup (shadowburn)