New to resto pvp

[Zagorn]

Hello, i've played elemental in pvp for a while now. I want to try out resto now, the problem is that im a bit unsure about the specc i should use and what to gem for my gear. I would also ask if you could help me with trinkets

I will appreciate if you help me

[Broccolii]

Resto shamans in pvp have no real cookie cutter gemming, or spec, or gear build. Everything is based on your comp, how good your allies are at peeling and how good you are at staying alive.

Shamans do rely on resilience and stamina more than the other healers, so the resilience pvp trinket is a must. Also, for almost all comps you are going to use the SP Battlemaster's trinket or Corroded Skeleton Key as shamans lack the "oh sh1t" button and this serves as a weak one.

For gemming and spec, it's personally preference. There are 2 'main' spec themes though.

A spec devoted to LHW and one to HW.

For LHW you would pick up all the talents devoted to LHW and free up talents that help out HW. You gear towards crit more-so than mana/5.
For HW you would pick up all the talents devoted to HW and free up talents that help out LHW. You gear towards mana/5 more than crit.

The HW spec is probably the most popular among better shamans, but success is still seen in LHW. I've found LHW specs to work better with more aggressive players and it is the spec I personally prefer, getting your mana regen from crits from LHW proccing water shield.

LHW - Base Spec - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#hZMhMhoZVceucosxkbIRt -- You can put the points from Tidal Focus into Tidal Mastery due to preference and you still have 8 talent points to spend.

HW - Base Spec - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#hZMhMhoZxcfuIcsxkbIRt -- You still have 6 points to spend

Based on playstyle you can grab reduction on grounding totem/Nature's Guardian/Extra Int/Extra Crit

As for the spec itself, there really isn't a cookie cutter for what you need to have, and there is yet another 'preference' thing in Nature's Guardian. Some shamans don't spec into it at all, some go as deep as 4 points into it.

Shamans -should- gem for at least 6% hit and ~135 or less Spell Pen. This again is based on your playstyle and comp and if you are comfortable having things missed or resisted in combat (This also is more important if you play with no real dispel -ie RLS)

I personally love that there is no 1 -best- spec, regardless of what people tell you. Shamans do well with both specs in the same comps just based on what they are comfortable doing and I love that. Try them both out, see what flows better. Goodluck!

[Deleted]

Good post Broccolii. Just a couple of points that are slightly wrong. You only need 5% hit, this is easily achieved with 2 hit wrathful items (neck and cloak). Also right now there is no point speccing towards lhw. It is very rare to see any R.shaman stacking crit in a high end arena team.
Big problem with LHW spec is agianst MS players you either have to crit or you die.
But what you said about talents is very correct. There is no cookie cutter build you should spec into the talents that you think look helpful (also compare some of the higher shamans to see how they are gearing/speccing for their comps to have an idea of where to go).

A handy thread on arena junkies: http://www.arenajunkies.com/showthread.php?t=136077 Simple FAQ on all things pvp with shamans.

[Broccolii]

In regards to hit cap, you are incorrect.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Spell_hit

In PvP the base chance to hit is 4%. There are racial abilities that can give you an extra 2% to miss, for a semi-hard cap of 6%, but there are some specs such as Rets that have additional chance to be missed due to talents like Divine Purpse.

It is a common misconception because Melee Hit Cap is 5%, and Alliance can sometimes just gear to 5% because of the Draenei Presence

Here is a very successful shaman. Diaperfeast . His team may not be up to snuff atm since I believe he is leveling one up - but with a highest rating achieved being 3000+ well you know.

Either way, atm is really isn't a one way or another. Even in HW spec, you will be using LHW a lot, way more than you are using HW and crit is a good stat too. You will see a lot of high end shamans split their gear half mana/5 and half crit, especially if they have a solace/PLD.

Also, HW is prevalent in -high end- shaman arena 2400+, but for most players that is not a reality and the fact is LHW is much more noob friendly. Quick heals where interrupts aren't a huge set back so positioning is slightly less important as well as having 1 goto heal in almost any situation.

But <3

EDIT : You can get away with less hit - those are the numbers for spells not to be missed, i.e. Wind Sheer or Hex etc. Also, resists are based completely on Spell Pentration

[Aleksej89]

I would just like to add that on my Elemental shaman, i have 10.03% Chance to Hit from GEAR only, 3% Chance to Hit from Talents and 1% Hit Chance from Draenei aura - and i STILL have misses in PvP.

It is usually against Belf/Undead/Tauren, especially Paladins.
I think that, no matter what Blizzard says, the extra miss given by Racials/Talents can NOT be capped, since i have 14% chance to hit on my Shaman and i still get MISS from my spells (rarely).

[Broccolii]

I would imagine you are actually getting resists, since I know I personally do not get misses when I am capped on the specific opponent I am facing. If you have or could provide a SS I would be pretty interested since it would go against everything I have read and experienced, but if it is a possibility I would like to see it.

[molinator]

Resto shamans in pvp have no real cookie cutter gemming, or spec, or gear build. Everything is based on your comp, how good your allies are at peeling and how good you are at staying alive.

Shamans do rely on resilience and stamina more than the other healers, so the resilience pvp trinket is a must. Also, for almost all comps you are going to use the SP Battlemaster's trinket or Corroded Skeleton Key as shamans lack the "oh sh1t" button and this serves as a weak one.

For gemming and spec, it's personally preference. There are 2 'main' spec themes though.

A spec devoted to LHW and one to HW.

For LHW you would pick up all the talents devoted to LHW and free up talents that help out HW. You gear towards crit more-so than mana/5.
For HW you would pick up all the talents devoted to HW and free up talents that help out LHW. You gear towards mana/5 more than crit.

The HW spec is probably the most popular among better shamans, but success is still seen in LHW. I've found LHW specs to work better with more aggressive players and it is the spec I personally prefer, getting your mana regen from crits from LHW proccing water shield.

LHW - Base Spec - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#hZMhMhoZVceucosxkbIRt -- You can put the points from Tidal Focus into Tidal Mastery due to preference and you still have 8 talent points to spend.

HW - Base Spec - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#hZMhMhoZxcfuIcsxkbIRt -- You still have 6 points to spend

Based on playstyle you can grab reduction on grounding totem/Nature's Guardian/Extra Int/Extra Crit

As for the spec itself, there really isn't a cookie cutter for what you need to have, and there is yet another 'preference' thing in Nature's Guardian. Some shamans don't spec into it at all, some go as deep as 4 points into it.

Shamans -should- gem for at least 6% hit and ~135 or less Spell Pen. This again is based on your playstyle and comp and if you are comfortable having things missed or resisted in combat (This also is more important if you play with no real dispel -ie RLS)

I personally love that there is no 1 -best- spec, regardless of what people tell you. Shamans do well with both specs in the same comps just based on what they are comfortable doing and I love that. Try them both out, see what flows better. Goodluck!

Good post.

I find the HW spec (0/13/58) more reliable because of the incredible throughput of healing you can do with HW. The 25% bonus makes healing through MS much more practical. Though if you're running a 5s, and you have the PvP totem (that increases amount healed by LHW) then I can see why you might want to go for the LHW spec. The only thing that irks me about the LHW spec is that all your regen is dependent on healing crits. If you need to be purge spamming or dropping totems, shocks, and extra damage, you'll go dry on mana much quicker. And seeing as we have nothing (mana tide is a joke) to fall back on but drinking, OOM'ing is far more serious for us than any other healer.

I'm also a huge fan of Nature's Guardian, and use it 4/5 in my spec. The reason being is that the "cooldown" is effectively 20 seconds, as it is counted from the second you gain the buff (which lasts 10 seconds) so it's 50% better than what most people might think it is. If you use the Corroded Skeleton Key, Nature's Guardian is the way to go imo. If you throw up that shield plus stoneclaw on top of the extra stam and you're being focused, you can force a lot of CDs on an attempt to finish you off. It's dangerous to do this if it's a short match, but when you get a long one (say double healer warr or DK in 3s) then you'll almost inevitably have to be rationing health and mana anyway.

I also think the LHW spec you have should be modified to (0/16/55), picking up Thundering Strikes from Enhancement, and opting out of filling out Tidal Focus in exchange for Tidal Mastery 4/5. If you're relying on crit you want to have as much of it maxed out as you can.

[Broccolii]

Agreed.

That's why the specs are incomplete with extra points left to spend in flavor. But I 100% agree with you.

[molinator]

Agreed.

That's why the specs are incomplete with extra points left to spend in flavor. But I 100% agree with you.

Yeah it's nice to see a variety of specs. I think we might see even more come Cataclysm.

[Deleted]

I would imagine you are actually getting resists, since I know I personally do not get misses when I am capped on the specific opponent I am facing. If you have or could provide a SS I would be pretty interested since it would go against everything I have read and experienced, but if it is a possibility I would like to see it.

Busy right now to find the maths, but basically you cannot hit cap talents/be racial in pvp. (least it was like that last time I checked)

[Martsus]

Toughness build can be nice too for 2's if you go with a full mp5 build/HW spec and you play with a sturdy partner(DK or something like that). Bonus comes with the big HP-increase, which is great when you're low-geared still. Also the snare reduction is awesome for kiting.