Cataclysm Changes - Restoration

[Shaazaam]

As a shaman raider my biggest question is the mastery of spirit to mp5 conversion. I stack a decent amount of mp5 as it is (352mp5 casting with only water shield buff) and since all mp5 gets turned into twice the amount of spirit I should stay the same...unless to get that full 50% conversion you need more mastery rating it won't be as much.

I understand there will be plenty of other ways to get mana back, Telluric Currents namely, with Focused Insight another way to save mana every now and then, but at this point I'm on worried about what my gear turns in to come next patch. From what I can gather I will maintain the same amount of haste, probably lose crit, not sure about spell power. Mana pool is also up by a good 5k.

[Instant]

Not exactly sure what your question is.

Overall MP5 went up for me, and i have only few items with MP5. Spirit to MP5 conversion is not a thing of mastery, it's a meditation skill. It'a a passive skill that we get upon choosing Resto as our spec. It makes 50% of your overall regen to also work during the battle. Mastery is a different thing. Our mastery makes us heal more if our target is low on HP.

Also Focused Insight is not a way to save mana, beacuse it lowers mana cost based on shock cost, not the healing spell. So if Healing Surge costs 6k, and shock costs 2k (numbers aren't valid) you'll still have to pay 4.5k mana for HS.

You should have same haste and crit. Around the same spellpower (heavily dependant on your weapon) way more mana and HP and around same in combat regen, because there is no MP5 anymore :]

[Shaazaam]

It'a a passive skill that we get upon choosing Resto as our spec.

That. Went a long and round about way to get that exact answer.

[frester]

also don't expect telluric currents to be a mana regen tool

[Radux]

Actually, Frester, I almost guarantee that it will be a solid mana regeneration tool. It's pretty easy to calculate. Here's how:

First, base mana is needed. I found these values in this thread. Base mana for an 85 shaman is 23430. Lightning Bolt costs 6% base mana or 1405.8 (round up: 1406) mana. Telluric Currents regenerates 40% of Lightning Bolt's damage into mana. To see the damage required to 'break even', we just divide Lightning Bolt's base mana cost by 40%.

So using that process, we can see that a Lightning Bolt will have to do at least 3514.5 (round up: 3515) damage to make it free. Any higher damage will regenerate mana, regardless of how little it may seem. Considering Pandamonium* (as Elemental, I know) was hitting dummies for 7k non-crits (still taking Shamanism into account), I don't think Restoration will have any problem gaining 1k mana or so per Lightning Bolt.

[Shaazaam]

While I like the theory and your numbers are solid Radux, because it should be like that, also keep in mind that resto shammys will not have any hit so you have to weigh "yeah it will provide more mana than the lightning bolt cost, is it actually worth spamming?" That's what I was thinking anyway.

[Dundebuns]

Telluric currents requires a hefty amount of talent points put into it to make it worth while. 2 points for Telluric currents, 5 points in Elemental t1 (Concussion or Acuity, and Convection to make any returns higher) and then Elemental precision is another 3 points, so overall 10 talent points to activate and acquire hit for one mechanic. tbh, we're going to have to have some really lowsy time with mana before this really becomes attractive, especially when I can get stronger earth and water shields, stronger earthliving weapon, and insta ghostwolf instead.

[Zireael]

Telluric Currents doesn't need 10 points to be worth it. 2 points, that is it. If i use WotLK hit model, you will not miss too much against 80-82 mobs (where 82 are heroic dungeon bosses). Step is only steep from 82 to 83. So in my opinion, TC will be useful right at the beggining of expansion. Solo/dungeon/HC+specific raid bosses. The farther we get in raiding, more hit rating we will need to hit, but our int/sp will go up as well, compensate for it and keep it worth for specific encounters

[Instant]

Oh god not this again..

We lack hit as resto, nothing new here. So we'll 'only' hit 83% of time. Yes that's almost nothing, and totally not worth taking, isn't it?

Everyone who says TC needs hit, or talents in elemental, is whining for a sake of whining, has no clue about how usefull this talent actually is, and honestly should just stop posting.

TC is great mana recovery tool, even more in a raid enviroment with all buffs.

To show it with numbers:

base mana cost ~1406
1406 / 0,4 = 3515 - amount od damage required to make it even
3515 / 0,83 = 4234 - amount of damage to make it even with a hit penalty.

I have similiar numbers now, on live with lvl 85 char (including crits, etc etc).

[Radux]

Well said, Instant.

People are definitely over examining this talent. Using math from above, it's quite clear that it won't be hard to break even, at the very least, in a raid encounter. What some people are overlooking is that your meditation is still going to be working/active while your regenerating mana via Lightning Bolt. Assume you just break even with doing damage: you'll still end up ahead due to passive regeneration.

[Azyoulike]

Telluric currents requires a hefty amount of talent points put into it to make it worth while. 2 points for Telluric currents, 5 points in Elemental t1 (Concussion or Acuity, and Convection to make any returns higher) and then Elemental precision is another 3 points, so overall 10 talent points to activate and acquire hit for one mechanic.

Acuity 3/3 is worth the points on its own merits, and we'll probably only need 2/3 EP to be hitcapped given how much spirit we'll be stacking anyway - so 5 TPs to get full benefit of Telluric Currents seems more realistic.

That still leaves us unable to pick up Ancestral Swiftness, which is a shame - but I can live with it.

---------- Post added 2010-09-26 at 01:15 PM ----------

Assume you just break even with doing damage: you'll still end up ahead due to passive regeneration.

That's a bad analysis though because you could just not cast at all. By spending time casting LB or not casting at all you will fall a little further behind on the healing so it increases the need to cast bigger more expensive heals.

Don't get me wrong, I think TC will be a mana gain, I just think we need to be careful with the calculations. To do this rigorously we'd have to examine how much mana is gained while still maintaining a certain average HPS. TCs returns will probably vary considerably based on the required HPS.

[Radux]

That's a bad analysis though because you could just not cast at all. By spending time casting LB or not casting at all you will fall a little further behind on the healing so it increases the need to cast bigger more expensive heals.

Don't get me wrong, I think TC will be a mana gain, I just think we need to be careful with the calculations. To do this rigorously we'd have to examine how much mana is gained while still maintaining a certain average HPS. TCs returns will probably vary considerably based on the required HPS.

Oh I agree with you. I'm not trying to promote dpsing over healing. If you're trying to do competitive dps as restoration, you're doing it wrong. I'm just trying to say that if there is a lull in damage taken, we can toss out a few Lightning Bolts. There were times to do this in WotLK (Paragon's video of their world first, disc priest was tossing out some smites).

While making calculations about this to begin with, I was using the assumption that people understood that healing people was their prime objective. If no one was taking damage, feel free to do some damage (oh gain mana, too!).

[Azyoulike]

While making calculations about this to begin with, I was using the assumption that people understood that healing people was their prime objective. If no one was taking damage, feel free to do some damage (oh gain mana, too!).

I'm mostly curious as to how it will compare to say live holydin mechanics of meleeing/judging for mana. It's clearly going to be weaker than the new disc-priest smite build where dpsing is both a regen mechanic, a heal and a heal buff.

[Kelesti]

There were times to do this in WotLK (Paragon's video of their world first, disc priest was tossing out some smites).

To be fair, he was Holy. The Discipline Priest was the one doing all the Infest Countering. But same idea.

[Radux]

My bad. It's been since H LK went down that I saw the video. Thanks for the correction, but my point does still have its merit.

[Kelesti]

I'll forgive you, but only because you are offering free hugs.

[Meijin]

Hello

Please, enlighten me - what allows us to compete with other healing classes is haste, we stack those kings ambers to make our heals fast, to make our life easier on movement fights because most our heals have cast time, we lack instant heals (ok, we have riptide...) instant AoE heals, we don't have any hots (earthliving is random) Getting rid of such amounts of haste its a massive nerf to resto shamans.

So how our gameplay will look after newest patch? Will going pure haste will be a way to go? Will CH remain most viable skill in 25-mans?

[CyCloneNL]

I'm having a hard time to think of a spec to go after the patch hits.
Currently im thinking something like this: http://wowtal.com/#k=m1AAzN8B7.a5o.shaman.grzO9.
Elemental Precision seems nice too for Telluric Currents, but you basicly have to waste points to get it. Also, the Major Glyphs seem kinda sucky. Usually i Chain Heal the tanks, so i want the 10% healing on the first target too

[Deleted]

But how are you going to spec at 80 CyCloneNL ?
I am having a tough time choosing between Acuity and Improved Shields as I am unsure what the mana issues will be after weds.

[Nifra]

Awesome blog post from Vixsyn here: lifeingroup5 (dot) com
(Patch 4.0.1 preperation)


/ugh, hate how I can't post links or images yet.