Resto healing question

[Vindicatu]

Hi guys/girls,

been playing since early wrath and have played almost every class at least somewhat challenging.
Main a DK tank lvl 100 and got hunter/mage/lock/warrior(tank ) /rogue/priest/druid at 90-100 in between.
During MoP I healed a lot on my disc priest and usually ended up top with hps and absorbs.
Long story short, got some experience under my belt.

For WoD I decided to lvl my shammy up first. Now I've done some healing on him in MoP and never struggled. Enjoyed the healing and the way the shaman plays out.
WoD is hard though. I find myself going oom very easily trying to keep everyone up at decent healthlevels.
I was wondering if someone can point me out if somewhere I'm screwing up.

Cannot link armory cause at work and wowarmory is blocked, but you can find me : Vindicasha - blade's edge EU.

My gearlvl currently is ilvl 611 iirc so not to great yet.

I put earth shield on MT.
Use riptides on MT and whoever is taking dmg or likely to take dmg to keep tidal waves up.
Use unleashlife as much as i can to get the most out of my healing waves
Drop my totem almost on cd in fights.

On aoe dmg or multiple people low, drop healing rain and use chain heal, started from MT or anyone else who has riptide rolling on them for the extra healing buff.

When group is really low pop my spirit link totem , ascendance and spam chain heals. ( when it's all off cd, otherwise just chainheals with riptides interweaved )

Hell I'll even drop a capacitor totem to stun for few secs less dmg incoming and ofc the healing tide totem when needed.
yesterday I was pulling 16-18k hps and still had people dying in shadowmoon hc on 1st boss fight.
I go oom in less then a minute with 16% overheals only ( mostly from healing rain overhealing ).

Am I doing something wrong or are shammy healers just in a bad spot atm ?
It just feels like my healing wave hardly heals at all, need to spam 4-5 on a tank just to get him up.

[Deleted]

Shamans are currently not that great, to be honest. I also enjoy healing but the damage is too high for Healing Wave to keep up so I have to resort to Riptide > Surge > Surge (increased crit) to keep people alive, and it's hard on the mana.
I don't really have mana issues, per say, but it does drain it fast. Chain Heal is shitty imo, costs too much mana for the meager amount of healing it does.
If you are struggling with keeping the tank up remind him he has low cd dmg reduction abilities he can use (90% of the Tanks I get never use them <.<) and combo Riptide with Wave/Surge. Healing Stream Totem should be used on cd when more than 1 party member takes dmg.

I personally feel that Shamans are undertuned for 5man healing and rely too much on group setup in raids to be effective, with Priest Shields, Paladin Shields, Druid HoTs.

[Romaromama]

Hi guys/girls,

been playing since early wrath and have played almost every class at least somewhat challenging.
Main a DK tank lvl 100 and got hunter/mage/lock/warrior(tank ) /rogue/priest/druid at 90-100 in between.
During MoP I healed a lot on my disc priest and usually ended up top with hps and absorbs.
Long story short, got some experience under my belt.

For WoD I decided to lvl my shammy up first. Now I've done some healing on him in MoP and never struggled. Enjoyed the healing and the way the shaman plays out.
WoD is hard though. I find myself going oom very easily trying to keep everyone up at decent healthlevels.
I was wondering if someone can point me out if somewhere I'm screwing up.

Cannot link armory cause at work and wowarmory is blocked, but you can find me : Vindicasha - blade's edge EU.

My gearlvl currently is ilvl 611 iirc so not to great yet.

I put earth shield on MT.
Use riptides on MT and whoever is taking dmg or likely to take dmg to keep tidal waves up.
Use unleashlife as much as i can to get the most out of my healing waves
Drop my totem almost on cd in fights.

On aoe dmg or multiple people low, drop healing rain and use chain heal, started from MT or anyone else who has riptide rolling on them for the extra healing buff.

When group is really low pop my spirit link totem , ascendance and spam chain heals. ( when it's all off cd, otherwise just chainheals with riptides interweaved )

Hell I'll even drop a capacitor totem to stun for few secs less dmg incoming and ofc the healing tide totem when needed.
yesterday I was pulling 16-18k hps and still had people dying in shadowmoon hc on 1st boss fight.
I go oom in less then a minute with 16% overheals only ( mostly from healing rain overhealing ).

Am I doing something wrong or are shammy healers just in a bad spot atm ?
It just feels like my healing wave hardly heals at all, need to spam 4-5 on a tank just to get him up.

Healing has changed a lot. You sound like you're spamming chain heal a lot - it's probably my least cast spell in non raid environments.

When you're low gear I would suggest rip tide -> UL -> healing surge -> healing surge those crits are huge. Any class will have no problem healing heroics - anyone saying otherwise is L2P issue.

Sham has no problem doing CM either - and you're on the money on capaciator totem.

Anything you can do to mitigate damage your team is taking will help substantially.
You say - "hell I even stun w/ capacitator totem"

You should consider that almost like a rotational priority if possible when you consider how much dmg can be mitigated by stunning them.

Need a different mindset. Healings gotten a a lot more intelligent than the derping around spam chain healing we had before.

- - - Updated - - -

Shamans are currently not that great, to be honest. I also enjoy healing but the damage is too high for Healing Wave to keep up so I have to resort to Riptide > Surge > Surge (increased crit) to keep people alive, and it's hard on the mana.
I don't really have mana issues, per say, but it does drain it fast. Chain Heal is shitty imo, costs too much mana for the meager amount of healing it does.
If you are struggling with keeping the tank up remind him he has low cd dmg reduction abilities he can use (90% of the Tanks I get never use them <.<) and combo Riptide with Wave/Surge. Healing Stream Totem should be used on cd when more than 1 party member takes dmg.

I personally feel that Shamans are undertuned for 5man healing and rely too much on group setup in raids to be effective, with Priest Shields, Paladin Shields, Druid HoTs.

Shamans are great for 5m healing - a little CD reliant, but a lot of tools for 5manss. capacitator - off tank - hex - purge - bloodlust. We just got a 5% healing buff too. Stacking mastery is amazing.

If anything paladin healing is trash in 5m - every CM mode boss has a fight that requires movement - which paladins are the worst at.

[Deleted]

Healing has changed a lot. You sound like you're spamming chain heal a lot - it's probably my least cast spell in non raid environments.

When you're low gear I would suggest rip tide -> UL -> healing surge -> healing surge those crits are huge. Any class will have no problem healing heroics - anyone saying otherwise is L2P issue.

Sham has no problem doing CM either - and you're on the money on capaciator totem.

Anything you can do to mitigate damage your team is taking will help substantially.
You say - "hell I even stun w/ capacitator totem"

You should consider that almost like a rotational priority if possible when you consider how much dmg can be mitigated by stunning them.

Need a different mindset. Healings gotten a a lot more intelligent than the derping around spam chain healing we had before.

- - - Updated - - -



Shamans are great for 5m healing - a little CD reliant, but a lot of tools for 5manss. capacitator - off tank - hex - purge - bloodlust. We just got a 5% healing buff too. Stacking mastery is amazing.

If anything paladin healing is trash in 5m - every CM mode boss has a fight that requires movement - which paladins are the worst at.

True, but in terms of AoE healing, we used to be gods of AoE healing with Chain Heal and Healing Rain, but our main aoe heal (Chain Heal) is nearly useless. I only cast Chain Heal when I accidentally press the button or am too lazy to switch targets when not much healing is needed. Other than that it's never cast.

I've done dungeons on my Warrior with the other healing classes and other than Paladins I never saw any 1m+ CD being used.

[Vindicatu]

Healing has changed a lot. You sound like you're spamming chain heal a lot - it's probably my least cast spell in non raid environments.

When you're low gear I would suggest rip tide -> UL -> healing surge -> healing surge those crits are huge. Any class will have no problem healing heroics - anyone saying otherwise is L2P issue.

Sham has no problem doing CM either - and you're on the money on capaciator totem.

Anything you can do to mitigate damage your team is taking will help substantially.
You say - "hell I even stun w/ capacitator totem"

You should consider that almost like a rotational priority if possible when you consider how much dmg can be mitigated by stunning them.

Need a different mindset. Healings gotten a a lot more intelligent than the derping around spam chain healing we had before.

- - - Updated - - -



Shamans are great for 5m healing - a little CD reliant, but a lot of tools for 5manss. capacitator - off tank - hex - purge - bloodlust. We just got a 5% healing buff too. Stacking mastery is amazing.

If anything paladin healing is trash in 5m - every CM mode boss has a fight that requires movement - which paladins are the worst at.

Might have given of the wrong impression with capacitator. I use it almost on cd. Use my elementals as well for added dps, A fire totem and even a dot on boss/adds to burn them down faster.
The thing is, trash packs or situations where cc like hex or even offtank are possible pose hardly any threat.
It's the actual boss fights and I do save BL for those moments.

I will give healing surge a try over healing wave. Thanks for that tip. That might make my life easier keeping the MT nicely between 80-100%.

[Migrin]

Hey Man

I think one thing that is more important for resto shamans than other healers is that people don't need to be topped off all the time. Our mastery has a significant impact on how strong our heals are, so use this to your advantage and increase your mana efficience.

Furthermore there are some talents that can really make your life easier in 5 Man dungeons. Elemental blast gives you 1k of willpower! At your gear level, that means straight up doubled mana regen. (You can maintain a max off 66% uptime though, but still... Thats >166% mana regen.)

Unleashed Fury is another strong choice, especially in conjunction with Echo of the Elements. Unleashing on a Target with earthshield will easily push a critical Healing Wave or Surge to over 100k, allowing you to top of a tank much more conveniently. Echo of the Elements will allow you to use Unleash a lot more often. It also synergises well with High Tide. Ancestral Guidance is amazing in situations where your whole group is taking damage. You can easily Top of your group with single target heals while it is active.

I hope that helps. Othe than that, tell your dds to intterupt and follow boss mechanics. ;-)

Cheers
Migrin

[Deleted]

Might have given of the wrong impression with capacitator. I use it almost on cd. Use my elementals as well for added dps, A fire totem and even a dot on boss/adds to burn them down faster.
The thing is, trash packs or situations where cc like hex or even offtank are possible pose hardly any threat.
It's the actual boss fights and I do save BL for those moments.

I will give healing surge a try over healing wave. Thanks for that tip. That might make my life easier keeping the MT nicely between 80-100%.

Healing Surge does the same healing as Healing Wave, but using it after Riptide gives it a bonus crit chance, which will be really good in some situations.

[Vindicatu]

Hey Man

I think one thing that is more important for resto shamans than other healers is that people don't need to be topped off all the time. Our mastery has a significant impact on how strong our heals are, so use this to your advantage and increase your mana efficience.

Furthermore there are some talents that can really make your life easier in 5 Man dungeons. Elemental blast gives you 1k of willpower! At your gear level, that means straight up doubled mana regen. (You can maintain a max off 66% uptime though, but still... Thats >166% mana regen.)

Unleashed Fury is another strong choice, especially in conjunction with Echo of the Elements. Unleashing on a Target with earthshield will easily push a critical Healing Wave or Surge to over 100k, allowing you to top of a tank much more conveniently. Echo of the Elements will allow you to use Unleash a lot more often. It also synergises well with High Tide. Ancestral Guidance is amazing in situations where your whole group is taking damage. You can easily Top of your group with single target heals while it is active.

I hope that helps. Othe than that, tell your dds to intterupt and follow boss mechanics. ;-)

Cheers
Migrin

I'm already specced into echo of the elements, rushing streams, inleashed fury and hightide.
Might look into elemental blast, picked it before and liked it, just felt like another button to push in the middle of already heap of spells : earth shield1, riptide 2 , healing wave 3, healing surge 4, chain heal5, healing rain6, then 3 totems , unleashlife, 2 elementals and i'm prettu sure i forgot some .
Might be worth the increased mana regen though to give me some longevity in fights.
Any idea btw if 16-18k hps in my gear is what can be expected ?

[Sinyc]

It really depends on your group. If they are good and interrupt, cc, and or move out of bad stuff (or avoid it in the first place) your job is much easier.

In that case you can focus on tank heals in 5 mans and CM.

It gets harder when dps stand in fire, avoid mechanics and tunnel. Tanks can be guilty too by tanking in bad spots, etc.

In raids Shamans are doing good, I really wish Healing Rain would have gotten a small buff though.

I am almost always top 3 in our HM (out of 5 healers), and was tops in Mythic last night.

Echo, Ele Blast, and High Tide are fairly strong on a lot of fights in Highmaul right now. (Ele blast is almost a must if you are on raid heals to not be mana starved).

[Deleted]

My Talents are:

Nature's Guardian
Frozen Power
Totemic Persistence
Ancestral Swiftness
Rushing Streams
Primal Elementalist
Storm Elemental Totem

I rarely run out of mana (unless people are idiots and force me to spam Surge, which only happened once on last boss in UBRS) and seem to be doing fine, but compared to other Healers (from when I did 5man hcs on my Warrior) it seems like Shamans struggle a lot more than other healers.
I tried Unleashed Fury but I don't really feel like that helps much in situations that don't force me to go oom.
The Storm Elemental combined with HST and Healing Rain keeps the Tanks + Melee DPS up really well and gives me some breathing room.

[Romaromama]

True, but in terms of AoE healing, we used to be gods of AoE healing with Chain Heal and Healing Rain, but our main aoe heal (Chain Heal) is nearly useless. I only cast Chain Heal when I accidentally press the button or am too lazy to switch targets when not much healing is needed. Other than that it's never cast.

I've done dungeons on my Warrior with the other healing classes and other than Paladins I never saw any 1m+ CD being used.

There's the problem right there. You're still stuck in the mindset of trying to save CD's. - Why does it matter if a CD is being used - if it's up by the next boss fight? If anything there are more oh shit buttons - and mastery is ridiculous. We could use a little more love, but it's definitely separating mediocre players.

[spanky976]

Hi guys/girls,

been playing since early wrath and have played almost every class at least somewhat challenging.
Main a DK tank lvl 100 and got hunter/mage/lock/warrior(tank ) /rogue/priest/druid at 90-100 in between.
During MoP I healed a lot on my disc priest and usually ended up top with hps and absorbs.
Long story short, got some experience under my belt.

For WoD I decided to lvl my shammy up first. Now I've done some healing on him in MoP and never struggled. Enjoyed the healing and the way the shaman plays out.
WoD is hard though. I find myself going oom very easily trying to keep everyone up at decent healthlevels.
I was wondering if someone can point me out if somewhere I'm screwing up.

Cannot link armory cause at work and wowarmory is blocked, but you can find me : Vindicasha - blade's edge EU.

My gearlvl currently is ilvl 611 iirc so not to great yet.

I put earth shield on MT.
Use riptides on MT and whoever is taking dmg or likely to take dmg to keep tidal waves up.
Use unleashlife as much as i can to get the most out of my healing waves
Drop my totem almost on cd in fights.

On aoe dmg or multiple people low, drop healing rain and use chain heal, started from MT or anyone else who has riptide rolling on them for the extra healing buff.

When group is really low pop my spirit link totem , ascendance and spam chain heals. ( when it's all off cd, otherwise just chainheals with riptides interweaved )

Hell I'll even drop a capacitor totem to stun for few secs less dmg incoming and ofc the healing tide totem when needed.
yesterday I was pulling 16-18k hps and still had people dying in shadowmoon hc on 1st boss fight.
I go oom in less then a minute with 16% overheals only ( mostly from healing rain overhealing ).

Am I doing something wrong or are shammy healers just in a bad spot atm ?
It just feels like my healing wave hardly heals at all, need to spam 4-5 on a tank just to get him up.

Shamans aren't in the greatest place right now, but with our recent buff I'm out healing my raids other healers, and I only had trouble with 5 mans before that when my group was messing up. The thing that's so great about shaman is our plethora of "oh shit buttons" or CDs, if you prefer. You don't want to save your CDs, only one I would ever be hesitant to use is Bloodlust/Heroism, and that's only if I know i'll need it on another fight in less than 10 minutes. I was healing CMs and breezing through heroics before they buffed us so it's not just the class being underpowered.

Try not to use chain heal too much. I have felt that this xpack at least, it doesn't heal enough to make it worth using in 5 mans. You also don't need to keep everyone at 80-100% unless you know they're going to take damage that will kill them. If your tank is about to get hit hard and you need to heal him fast, hit him with riptide, and then use the crit healing surge to pop him up fast. Other than that, use the buff from riptide to get off some slightly faster Healing Waves. Your mastery works better as they get lower. Meaning that a 50% health target is going to get healed for more than a 100%. You sometimes want to let them drop a little more than you would with other healers.

For parts where the group is taking AOE damage (such as "Burst" on the second boss in skyreach, or Thunderous Cacophany on the first boss in UBRS) just cycle Healing Tide Totem, and Ascendance for those moments. Using Elemental Blast will help with your mana immensely. I often manage to have 40% mana or so while all of our other healers are oom, and even if I don't, I can recover from it more than the other healers.

Try to keep healing stream totem down as much as possible, the capacitor totem idea is a good one, though I usually don't do it as it doesn't work on bosses (only place I ever really have had trouble). Keep riptide on cooldown so long as your group members have some damage taken. Always good to have Tidal Waves up, and that little HoT can help keep people from dropping too low.

All-in-all I think we have been a bit weak this expansion, but we're still doing well. As I said I am outhealing or at least competing with my fellow healers in raids after the buff (and was barely behind them, less than 1k hps lower, before that). Just takes some getting used to the idea of not keeping people at 100% at all times. Mana conservation is a big key point in this xpack, and you have to learn to conserve mana without letting people die, and knowing when and when not to panic. You'll pick it up, just keep at it.

[Pur1tas]

So Shamans are having issues in 5 man environment and for me I have realized that, especially tanks telling me they are super scared as I will almost allways let them hang out at 60% hp in order to increase efficency.

If you are having mana problems I strongly suggest element blast and ALWAYS recalling your totems. considering you have a 50% uptime on healing stream totem this will safe a lot of mana of the full duration of a fight.

If you feel like you are healing to little step away from the AoE healing mindset in 5 mans. It is not worth it as the dmg a single player gets is relatively high compared to a raid setup (at least it feels like it). Healing wave, riptide and Healing surge are actually your greatest friends in 5 mans. If it keeps the group up try to keep tidal waves up while getting healing waves casted on people taking dmg. If the dmg increases top the group with 5-6 Healing surges.

Last but not least your mana reg will drasticly increase with an increase in GS. It does not even completely depend on your spirit but if you heal for more you gonna need less mana. 611 is really low and I remember me being OOM a lot at the beginnig of the expansion. It will get better fast with better gear.

Last but not least! If you ever go into a raid do not look at the HPS. Never do that as a healer. It says nothing as a druid for example will always have hots running on multiple targets just outhealing you straigth away as there is no point for you to cast a spell onto a 90% target. If you want to look at numbers check for the high dmg phases and check if you did your job during this period of time. We shine during 30% enrage on butcher, Tectus earthquakes and similar stuff. We are not competing on a low dmg phase and we don't need to. We will just fuck shit up when dmg hits the group. We can top everybody of so fast with cds or even just with riptide chainheal on low targets.

So in conclusion don't be to mad at your numbers or if people die. The healing game has shifted a lot towards better play by dps and tanks in order to reduce the amount of healing needed. You will feel weak at the start but as always we scale super good in my opinion and esepcially in a raid we are doing very good on stacked up fights and decent on the spread out ones.

[mittacc]

Does ascendance benefit from chain heal? 0.o Thought that was an AoE heal. . .

[Alltat]

My gearlvl currently is ilvl 611 iirc so not to great yet.

That's more than enough to heal any heroic dungeon. If your healing is insufficient, you or others in the group are doing things wrong.

I put earth shield on MT.

Make sure you refresh it before every pull, and refresh it during slow parts of fights. The 20% healing taken bonus is important, and you don't want Earth Shield expiring just as things get nasty.

Use riptides on MT and whoever is taking dmg or likely to take dmg to keep tidal waves up.

Pretty much use it on cooldown. It's a very efficient heal. Give the Echo of the Elements talent a try too. Those double Riptides are lovely.

Use unleashlife as much as i can to get the most out of my healing waves

I've found that it's not really worth using unless you're moving and have nothing else to cast, or if there's some predictable damage incoming. Unleash Life + Healing Wave is less mana efficient than only casting Healing Wave. If you have Tidal Waves stacks, it's also less HPS than just casting Healing Wave. It's a garbage spell this expansion, basically.

Drop my totem almost on cd in fights.

Make that totems. Don't be afraid to use Healing Tide Totem and Spirit Link Totem (and Ascendance) on trash packs. Preferably use them before things turn really ugly.

On aoe dmg or multiple people low, drop healing rain and use chain heal, started from MT or anyone else who has riptide rolling on them for the extra healing buff.

Healing Rain and Chain Heal are nice in raids, but not really worth it in five mans unless everyone is stacked. Expect most of your healing to be single target spells.

Hell I'll even drop a capacitor totem to stun for few secs less dmg incoming and ofc the healing tide totem when needed.

"Even" doesn't belong in that sentence. You should be using Capacitor Totem, Grounding Totem and Wind Shear whenever they'll do anything. They're part of your healing toolkit. You can also use Hex as an interrupt if necessary - it won't last with things hitting that target, but even a split second of polymorph is enough to interrupt most abilities.