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  1. #1

    Lightbulb KBearRJ Analysis of BFA Beta Resto Shaman

    Intro & Why im doing this (TLDR at the bottom):

    I have been playing healers since Vanilla. I raided as a holy priest in MC, BWL, and AQ 20 with some of my most fond memories being (and i cant prove it BUT) introducing a downranking spam on chromaggus. With that, I have always been scared of Shaman. I hated totems and as I have gained experience over the years and years of playing and pruning (cutting edge Mythic Guldan) i've become more comfortable with those extra buttons and they have seem to find a warm place in my heart.

    With that I want to truly understand everything that is lost and what we look like going into BFA. Please note that comparison is of the latest beta build and similar haste. Numbers mean nothing now so i wont compare them but they mean everything later so i may make another swing. I also decided not to include the percent increases we are losing as that is numbers tuning but i did keep in crit losses as those make sense regardless of final numbers.

    What Shaman Truly Lost:

    [1] Gust of Wind
    This is big. While we will cover what we gained later in the post this is our quick movement for get out of the way quick and to help kite in PVP. There are also some edge cases where this was also more useful in PVP like getting up on certain ledges and surviving when that annoying priest ran you off the ledge in Arathai Basin.
    I think we can kite fine in PVP between Ghost wolf, capacitor, and earthbind. This is more PVE concerned and just around movement (get out of a scary zone fast or back into one)
    [2] Gift of the Queen double cast
    Yes i'm aware we can get gift of the queen as a talent. What we actually lost effectively was the double cast 3 seconds later. The cooldown is also a
    bit more odd. Increased to 35 seconds depending on effective healing. BUT THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS IT COSTS MANA!
    Legion : 1.75 sec cast and 0 mana
    BFA: 1.3 second cast and 3% base mana
    [3] Echo of the elements no longer allows for 10% consuming tidal waves to give a charge of riptide
    100% nerf
    [4]Flash Flood now does not give two stacks of tidal waves and instead when consuming a stack your next heal is 20% faster cast.
    THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO REDUCE CAST TIMES FOR OTHER HEALS as it stands now and is somewhat cumbersome as you have to riptide twice or obtain two stacks youll see why in the math.
    This is a double edged sword, its a 100% nerf to usage of healing wave efficiency but a semi buff to every other healing spell (due to missing minor talent in artifact weapon)
    Legion HW w/ Tidal (-45%): 1.2 sec cast from 2.19 on my character
    BFA HW with Tidal (-30%): 1.5 sec cast from 2.2 on my character
    BFA HW with Stack Tidal + flash floow: 1.2 second cast from 2.2 on my character.
    As a result i need to use have minimum 2 charges of tidal up to have my previous cast time for healing wave. BIG implications in PVP and PVE efficency for that matter
    Healing Surge goes from 1.3 cast time to 1.1. Chain Heal 2.2 to 1.8. Healing Rain 1.8 to 1.4. From this info you can deduce the rest.
    [5] Queens Ascendant - This is HUGE and a sore spot for what i started to enjoy at end of the expac. Who doesnt like to spam chain heals and increase efficiency.?
    Legion CH: 2.2
    Legion CH QA: 1.75 (and with enough crit it theoretically never went above this Cast time)
    BFA: 2.2
    BFA with Flash Flood : 1.8
    Its important to note i cannot keep this by spamming. I have to cast minimum two spells for a 1.8 cast time chain heal and after using that another two globals in order to get that again.
    [6] Flood Waters : -16% crit on Chain Heal
    [7] Bottomless Depths (Mana on healing below 60%) is pruned. This will have implication all around given we will not have a mana management option.
    [8] Refreshing Currents: lost 50% increase to mana gained from crit chain heals
    [9] Droplets : -8% Crit on Healing Rain.
    [10] Ancestral Guidance which is a large nerf to cloudburst feasibility
    [11] Wave Crash - Healing stream totem healing tick going from 1.3 in Legion to 1.8 in BFA.
    [12] Queens Decree - HOT on healing Steam Totem
    [13] Caress of the Tide mother - 10% DR on healing stream totem
    [14] Healing Tide Totem AND healing Stream Totem
    [15] Servant of the Queen - When using Ahnk you take 80% reduced damage for 6 seconds
    [17] Tide Walker - Spirit Walkers grace going from 23 seconds in Legion to 15 seconds in BFA
    [18] Tidal Pools : Lost that little healing totem chance on Riptide
    [19] Sense of Urgency: Healing 25% increased during Bloodlust
    Included because BL is not a heal
    [20] Cumulative Upkeep : each heal of healing tide increases healing by 10%
    Personally i think healing tide is the shittiest CD in BFA with respect to effective healing. Please feel free to argue as i want to be proved wrong.
    [21] Voodoo Totem - Just being wholistic PVP implications as instant cast hex can be useful and carrys the totem motif.
    [22] Windfury Totem - PVP
    [23] Defender of the Weak talent line - HUGE loss to low HP % haste buff.




    What We Gained (some repetition sorry!):

    [1] Potential for two cloudburst totems
    Here i will introduce the KBearRJTheory. Talents that give you two of a cooldown that you will use each time it is up or pretty close to that is effectively just one cast over the entire duration of a fight/engagement and as such should be valued as trashtier.
    EarthShield in PVE
    Mixed feelings on this. I actually think this will be the go to for Mythic plus and deluge will be needed for Raiding.
    Resto is the only shaman to keep EarthGrab
    Unfortunately this competes with Ghost wolf and that will be taken 100% of the unless theres a mythic plus with no 1 shot mechanics and just large packs where alot of stuns are needed or kiting for healing reduction week.
    [2] Flash Flood : We talked about buffing other healing spell cast times.
    [3] Azerite Traits and from what i have seen on the Gladiator realm i am NOT looking forward to these. They are boring. Bland. Not engaging in any way shape or form.
    Most are base # increases.
    Only cool ones are if we can stack them. One is Healing Stream / Healing Tide throw out a small chain heal and the other could make healing chain potentially stack to 7 bounces but that doesnt really increase engagement just increases efficency.
    [4] Termor Totem baseline - Mixed feelings. Overall good.
    [5] Healing while in ghost wolf talent - Good for PVP with EarthShield, that healing talents and the speeds increase/DR for kiting in BGs/Arena
    [6] Earth Elemental - Good for Trash in Mythic plus+. Useless elsewhere.

    What we do well
    I feel that we will be good healers when we have a chance to utilize our mastery and when the raid is mostly stacked (or what portion of the raid is stacked is taking damage). We have good raid utility cooldowns and potential for cloudburst to be strong (doesnt benefit from Healing Tide) but personally i think our thruput is undertuned (healing tide is the worst raid healing cooldown by a mile).

    What we lack
    Speed. I feel that we will need to be a pre-heal and cancel class or we will suffer from being sniped by every other healing class. What does that mean? Keep healing rain down and cast chain heals when single target healing isnt needed.. If the chain wont land with majority effective healing cancel it and start casting again.

    How to improve it?
    Earth shield baseline. Gust of wind back baseline (maybe too OP). Increase healing on Healing Tide Totem. Increase Haste Value - if crit/haste was the go to i think it would fit nicely (and mastery where Ilvl makes sense). Keep CloudBurst and Healing Tide Separate. Wellspring OR Downpour Baseline. Remove Ancestral Protection Totem and Spirit Link Totem. Replace Spirit Link with some unique non as required raid cooldown. Something really cool like a wall of water that if everyone stands behind they get 50% DR or something. Ide imagine raising a water wall (like Yasuo Windwall) and that would dampen (haha literally) incoming damage or reduce it by X or once it hits it also heals for XYZ.

    Final Thoughts
    I think Resto shaman will have a high skill cap and suffer from slow cast times and being sniped. If in the most experienced raiding hands I think this spec can shine but that is sort of against the generic movement where everything is being simplified. Needs some tuning and I think that talents should make play more engaging or change in some way where as now it stands like you need XYZ talents to complete your spec. If its necessary for the class to be competitive make it baseline because taking high tide so chain heal heals for enough as it should is really lame. We will again have a raid spot due to incredibly strong raid cooldowns but that is a really bad design and on the edge of not being needed. I am going to play Resto in BFA because i have enjoyed it but the numbers need to come up and if they are low enough i will play Priest (2 strongest raid CDs on a single class? Hello?)/Monk.

    TLDR; Can be good with correct tuning. Brought to Raids for CDs and thats a bad design. Lost a lot and could suffer from heal sniping/mana issues.

  2. #2
    Wow, when did they nerf EotE to not have the 10% of resetting riptide? I missed completely that change, it was the best part of the talent.

  3. #3
    I don't agree that bringing a spec to raids for their CDs is bad design. Rather, not bringing another spec for a lack of a powerful spell is the bigger issue. Instead of pruning e.g. SLT or BoP from Shamans/Paladins, it makes a lot more sense to give utility to the rest of the healers and work from there. I feel like they're one step closer here, now that HPriests can spec into an extra CD and have SOH baseline.

    HTT is definitely undertuned and it's a pain to use w/o CU, but now that Tranq can't be cast while moving (like Hymn) and Sac was removed, it's become slightly better.

  4. #4
    When I see everything we lose and then see what we get instead I am between crying in a corner and enraging.

    Why the hell is Blizzard removing all of the awesome stuff? It's so nonsensical what they do with classes in BfA...
    MAGA - Make Alliance Great Again

  5. #5
    Grunt Mmmmmmbaconszzzzzzzzzzz's Avatar
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    Thank you for the thread and your respective thoughts.

    That said, as a PvP'r, aside from the weekly poopie LFR lol, I am kinda' sad to see Gust gone completely. However, from what I've seen/read, the movement speed & self-heals in GW, "might" be enough?... Obviously, we'll have to wait and see.

    -Cheers all

  6. #6
    Queens Ascendant - This is HUGE and a sore spot for what i started to enjoy at end of the expac. Who doesnt like to spam chain heals and increase efficiency.?
    Legion CH: 2.2
    Legion CH QA: 1.75 (and with enough crit it theoretically never went above this Cast time)
    BFA: 2.2
    BFA with Flash Flood : 1.8
    Its important to note i cannot keep this by spamming. I have to cast minimum two spells for a 1.8 cast time chain heal and after using that another two globals in order to get that again.
    Queen Ascendant was one of my favorite perks for any of the healers I played so I'm with you on feeling bad about it's loss.
    I'm not sure what you mean though by needing two Globals to get the Flash Flood effect after using Chain Heal though.

    Once you get Flash Flood rolling wouldn't you just do CH into HW/HS into CH, etc. with the choice of HW or HS based on mana efficiency vs throughput? Each CH in that cycle would have the Flash Flood effect. There would be a single global (1.5 sec cast) between each CH.

    It's not the same as QA in Legion but it isn't bad. Am I missing something?
    Last edited by mkultra55; 2018-07-14 at 12:02 AM.

  7. #7
    Pit Lord
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    Obviously it cant be preferable in every situation but how strong is Earth Shield compared to the other talents in that row

  8. #8
    Why is healing tide ticking for so little? Surely thats an oversight on their part... im to that point where im ready to just main a healer and stuff im seeing on healing side of things makes me think even more sham is a CLASS to just stay away from.
    "I'm Tru @ w/e I do" ~ TM

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by tru View Post
    Why is healing tide ticking for so little? Surely thats an oversight on their part... im to that point where im ready to just main a healer and stuff im seeing on healing side of things makes me think even more sham is a CLASS to just stay away from.
    It's seems that way, I really wanted to main a shaman this expansion but now I really don't know.
    pane, nutella e demon hunter

  10. #10
    i am on beta ilvl 340 (25 more that you can get on hero 5 dongeon) we have deacent CD, our mobility are ok, heal power medium +, depending of the situation BUT this is slow and borring. overheal is terrible, we are good if they are massive damage and stacked together, but a stacked raid is a myth. i dont cry because paly and disc are worst but you are no match against a mook or drood. priest will be a monster with itemisation and his +10% stamina is mandatory

    as you say we need speed, OR we need the earthlinving HOT back, yes this is the old hot back from cataclysm! with this you can be competitive against drood and holly priest mastery (which do the same thing)

  11. #11
    Deleted
    I think it's Spirit Link Totem (and to a lesser extent our mastery) that's holding resto shamans back. As long as we'll have a high representation in raids, because we get brought for that one cooldown, Blizzard will see no need to make major changes to the spec or to even only buff the numbers slightly. And tbh I have the suspicion, that many raiding shamans actually enjoy playing the underdog healer, that isn't expected to compete with the druids and priests numberwise, but still gets a raid spot for dropping a totem. Because well, it's a pretty comfortable situation. That's why there always is very little complaint from the resto corner, even if the numbers are awful.

    99% of other shamans will hate me, but I think SLT needs to be redesigned, that it's no longer mandatory, so that the spec can finally be balanced properly. I think the Pvp version of Spiritlink (which was also the beta Wotlk version), where only 3 people get linked together, would be interesting as a baseline Spiritlink and still keep the spell's and class fantasy. Maybe link like 5 people together in a raid and add some minor dmg reduction. It also would make it more interactive to use and could serve more as a tank Cd, which resto lacks anyway. Then buff HTT to be resto's main raid cooldown.

    I also agree with the other posts, Earthshield or Echo should be baseline, a CH that isn't crippeled if you don't talent into it would be nice and the Earthliving HoT, although passive, was very fun, too (for that happy sound alone). But I'm afraid none of this will happen, as long as resto has their raid spot for SLT booked (because why make the spec more fluid, if it gets brought anyway?).

    Edit: loving the Yasuo waterwall idea too
    Last edited by mmoc64b77fc900; 2018-07-23 at 12:33 AM.

  12. #12
    @Lunahh SLT is useful but does not make or break the class (like it may have in the past). With Commanding Shout, Devo/Sac Aura, Barrier, and Darkness, raids have many other ways to handle raid-wide stacked defensives. Method 2-healed Mythic Star Augur and ignored the void add, and they probably would have failed without SLT, but these are really extreme cases, and the fight was so poorly tuned that most guilds also had to bring one tank as well.

    And that being said, SLT is hands down the most unique spell in the game. I would stop playing Resto if it was nerfed/removed not because I'd worry about a raid spot, but because it makes the class feel very impactful for me. I really like your idea to implement the PvP version of Spirit Link though. It could easily be a talent that replaces Deluge, for example, and you could let it keep the extra CH/HR boost.

    Moving forward I totally agree that HTT needs to be buffed, or slightly reworked. Baking in Cumulative Upkeep would have been a nice way to add a small mechanic that you can min/max by dropping it a few ticks before the bigger damage comes.

  13. #13
    Okay. So I have had some time to mess around on the BFA pre patch and I am going to give an unpopular opinion. I like it! We are still missing some old buttons but in PVE raiding if you take downpour and wellspring it works pretty well in Antorus. I have also been running some mythic plus dungeons and while the healing is okay the control you have over the fights is rather impressive. PVE ide give it at this point a solid 7.8+/10.

    PVP is interesting. The Riptide talent is broken AF. If you are interested in Arena it hasnt changed much but from my experience so far in RBGs i get trained non stop. Spirit link talent has been a godsend and almost makes me unkillable (sadly nerfed in the recent build iirc).

    Im pleased with the class as it stands now. Could it use some improvements sure (HEALING TIDE HELLO?) , but this guy has locked in Resto Shaman.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Sanouske2 View Post
    Okay. So I have had some time to mess around on the BFA pre patch and I am going to give an unpopular opinion. I like it! We are still missing some old buttons but in PVE raiding if you take downpour and wellspring it works pretty well in Antorus. I have also been running some mythic plus dungeons and while the healing is okay the control you have over the fights is rather impressive. PVE ide give it at this point a solid 7.8+/10.

    PVP is interesting. The Riptide talent is broken AF. If you are interested in Arena it hasnt changed much but from my experience so far in RBGs i get trained non stop. Spirit link talent has been a godsend and almost makes me unkillable (sadly nerfed in the recent build iirc).

    Im pleased with the class as it stands now. Could it use some improvements sure (HEALING TIDE HELLO?) , but this guy has locked in Resto Shaman.
    Wellspring actually worth running in raids now? I'm curious really, I know it's prepatch and not really a good comparison now but it was pretty much a dead talent all Legion.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Gomelus View Post
    Wellspring actually worth running in raids now? I'm curious really, I know it's prepatch and not really a good comparison now but it was pretty much a dead talent all Legion.
    I know it sounds odd but it felt really nice from both a mana and healing perspective. When majority of the raid was taking damage that was my go to button and my healing was almost evenly distributed between healing rain, wellspring, riptide, and healing wave a bit higher if i had undulation.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Lunahh View Post
    I think it's Spirit Link Totem (and to a lesser extent our mastery) that's holding resto shamans back.
    I think so too. But an easier fix would be moving SLT to a talent that replaces HTT, similar to Luminous Barrier vs PW:B. HTT could then be brought up to par and SLT returned to 20% mitigation.

    Perhaps replacing Ancestral Vigor? Then that row is all situational totems :V

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Sanouske2 View Post
    I know it sounds odd but it felt really nice from both a mana and healing perspective. When majority of the raid was taking damage that was my go to button and my healing was almost evenly distributed between healing rain, wellspring, riptide, and healing wave a bit higher if i had undulation.
    Yeah, I read about it on Ancestral Guidance and now it's actually competing with High Tide for raid talent, while Ascendance is relegated to M+. The sad part is they are looking good now because the rest was nerfed (losing the artifact traits). Same with Unleash Life in the first tier.

    Quote Originally Posted by ttylol View Post
    I think so too. But an easier fix would be moving SLT to a talent that replaces HTT, similar to Luminous Barrier vs PW:B. HTT could then be brought up to par and SLT returned to 20% mitigation.

    Perhaps replacing Ancestral Vigor? Then that row is all situational totems :V
    So we would lose our only healing cd by talenting SLT? That looks weak af, we would be forced to pick Ascendance just for the sake of having a raid cd.

  18. #18
    Ehhh SLT replaces HTT sounds like a very bad idea.

  19. #19
    Resto is such a snooze spec to play... Riptide on CD, spam Healing Surge, throw in some of your other spells. The "Waves" class mechanic is super boring. I think only Paladin is worse when it comes to (healing) gameplay.
    MAGA - Make Alliance Great Again

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Nyel View Post
    Resto is such a snooze spec to play... Riptide on CD, spam Healing Surge, throw in some of your other spells. The "Waves" class mechanic is super boring. I think only Paladin is worse when it comes to (healing) gameplay.
    Ide argue nothing is more boring that spamming rejuvenation for a 15 minute fight.

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