Skyhoof

Is Shamanfriend the only mod that allows you to have an audible warning when your Water Shield or Earth Shield is gone? Enchancer seems to have various warnings but nothing to play a sound. Also, is there anyway to tell Shamanfriend to play only the sound and not display any text messages on the screen. It seems like you can have the text message, or text and sound, but not only sound. Thanks.

 

Hodor

This is a posting I made in my Guild Forum about the effects of the change of the new Watershield. Criticism is welcome.

IMO, the changed water shield (helped by a small buff of the Manaspring totem) has dramatically changed the importance and weight of the stats - one that will apparently be strengthened even more in 2.3.2
erstärkt wird.

The new water shield gives a semi-passive Bonus of at least 50 Mp5 if you recast it every Minute. The Manaregen can be even more - but only if all three charges are used up in one Minute - before the watershield fades by itself (if only 1 or 2 charges are used up, the Mana gain is the same as if no charges had been used). The Manaspring Totem was also buffed, now giving an equivalent of 62.5 Mp5 (instead of 37.5). Both together means a buff of at least 75 Mp5 in comparison zo before 2.3

As things currently stand, the water shield will be strengthened even more in 2.3.2. It will no longer have to be recasted every Minute, instead it will give a passive 50 Mp5 bonus as long as it is active. This means that every used up charge gives additional Mana-regen in comparison to 2.3.

As an example, if one charge is used up every 25 seconds you have the following Managains:
Before 2.3: ~110 Mana per charge -> 22 Mp5
With 2.3: 2 charges of about 200 Mana + 1 charge after one Minute is done -> 50 Mp5
With 2.3.2: 50 Mp5 passively + about 200 Mana every 25 seconds -> 90 Mp5

What does this mean? Very simple - you need a LOT less Mp5 on your gear than before. conservatively speaking, you need 75 Mp5 less dann before 2.3 in order to have the same effective Mana-regen. This allows us to concentrate less on Mp5 and more on the other stats.

This is even more apparent when you consider that Mp5 is the easiest stat that is pushable without equip. Drinking Manapots every CD gives you about 100 Mp5 (140 with the Alchemist's Stone), looking at various WWS reports a SP usually gives me about twice as much as the new water shield - another 100 Mp5. Additionally you have BoW (41 Mp5 untalented), Flask (25 Mp5), Mana oil (14 Mp5) and the buff food (8 Mp5). Altogether that is around 290 Mp5 only through consumables/SP. Factoring in the water shield (50 Mp5), Manaspring totem (62.5 Mp5), One Manaflood totem every 5 Minutes (at least 40 Mp5 if you have 10k Mana - extremely conservative) - a total of about 440 Mp5 (480 with Alchemist's stone) without factoring in any equipment. This means that our equipment (I had about 170 Mp5 before 2.3) is less than one third of our total effective Mp5.

Now the question is on what stats to concentrate now that we don't need as much Mp5. There are three stats which are possible: pure +healing, spellcrit, and spellhaste.

First lets compare sellcrit and spellhaste. Luckily we have to items which are easily comparable in order to look at the costs and benefits of using spellhaste rather than spellcrit.
Spellhaste: Item Lvl 138: [Dark Blessing] -> 30 Spellhaste = 1.9% faster casttime, or 1.9% more healing and 1.9% higher mana costs.
Spellcrit: Item Lvl 141: [Hammer of Atonement] -> 23 spellcrit = 1.04% chance for 50% more healing, or 0.52% more healing with the same mana costs.
As we see, Spellhaste is a lot more effective in comparison to spellcrit - especially when you consider that we usually are raid healers, which requires us to put as much heal as possible on different people - something which is better done through several smaller and faster heals than with a few possibly larger but slower heals. Additionally, the CH is semi-intelligent, always jumping to the target that is missing the most life - also benefiting faster heals rather than larger heals. Lastly, the only benefit (in addition to healing more for the same mana cost)of critting our heals is the 25% Armor buff - which usually only helps the MT/OT - who most of the time are not the focus of our healing.
In summary: Spellcrit is completely ignorable.

(Note: Please check the Math in the next part, as I am not entirely sure how the various talents factor into the effective healing and the manacosts. I assumed they were all multiplicative)

As a basis for comparison between +heal, spellhaste, and Mp5 I assume a total of 2k +heal - I am completely ignoring crits and I am also completely ignoring the stat cost on items.
Chainheal gains 125% of our +heal (divided up into all three jumps). Additionally you receive a bonus of 10% on all heals and another 20% on ally Chain Heals. I am ignoring the Tier 6 4-piece bonus.
Chainheal 5 with 2k +heal averagely heals for: 1547+2000*1.25*1.1*1.2=4847 life.
Chainheal 5 with 2.1k +heal averagely heals for: 1547+2100*1.25*1.1*1.2=5012 life.
In other words: 100+heal = 165 more healing. Note: it doesn't matter how much +heal you had before - 100+heal always adds another 165 more healing to CH 5.

100 spellhaste means that you cast 6.37% faster, or rather that you heal 6,37% more while also using 6.37% more Mana. Again using 2k +heal as a basis:
Chainheal 5 with 2k +heal and 6.37% faster casting results in you averagely healing 4847*1.0637=5156 in 2,5 seconds.
In other words: 100 spellhaste = 309 more healing. Note: Spellhaste is multiplicative - the more +heal you have, the more effective it is.

To have a realistic comparable value between Mp5 and +heal is a little harder. To make this easier, I am assuming that all the additional Mana you receive will be used up for healing. Again using 2k +heal as a basis, you receive the following HpM values (factoring in the 5% cheaper heals, again ignoring the Tier 6 Bonuses):
540*0.95=513 Mana per CH, or 4847/513=9.45 HpM.
Chainheal has a cast time of 2.5 seconds - taking 100 Mp5 as a random amount (it doesn't matter for the comparison) this results in you having regenerated 50 Mana in the time you cast the Chainheal.
This means you could heal for an additional 50*9.45 = 472.5 Life.
In other words: 100 Mp5 = 472.5 more healing. Note: Mp5 benefits from +heal - the more +healing you have, the more effective it is.

Comparing all the values you receive: 100 spellhaste = 187 +heal = 65.4 Mp6
Rounded you have: 3 +heal = 1.5 spellhaste = 1 Mp5 = 10 Int.
(This is only factoring in the Int-> spelldmg/healing Talent, no manapool, no manaregen, no crit)

I want to reiterate that this is only meant for raids with the respective Buffs and support possibilities. Additionally, you have to fit your equipment to the respective fight - the longer the fight is (and the less support you have with your manaregen), the more Mp5 gets. Obviously you will need to use a lot more Manapotions than before - however your healing output should be a lot higher than before.

Following the the values I got above, I ranked the equipment/enchants available in BT and ZA. I left out Tier 6, because the bonuses(and therefore the items) are a must have. Once you have all five pieces, you can switch out the gloves (there the difference is the largest, closely followed by the legs):

Gems: [Teardrop Crimson Spinel]>[Royal Shadowsong Amethyst]>[Luminous Pyrestone]
Enchants (only those which have non-obvious choices):
Schoulder:[Greater Inscription of Faith]>[Greater Inscription of the Oracle]
Chest:Enchant Chest - Restore Mana Prime
Wrist:[Formula: Enchant Bracer - Superior Healing]>[Formula: Enchant Bracer - Restore Mana Prime]
Weapon:[Formula: Enchant Weapon - Major Healing]>>[Formula: Enchant Weapon - Spellsurge]

Head: [Helm of Soothing Currents]>[Guise of the Tidal Lurker]>[Mojo-mender's Mask]
Schoulder:[Living Earth Shoulders]>[Hex Lord's Voodoo Pauldrons]>[Cataclysm Shoulderguards]
Chest: [Hauberk of the Empire's Champion]>[Golden Links of Restoration]>[Cataclysm Chestguard]
Wrist: [Living Earth Bindings]>[Howling Wind Bracers]>[Gleaming Earthen Bracers]
Gloves: [Botanist's Gloves of Growth]>>[Gloves of Unfailing Faith]>[Polished Waterscale Gloves]
Waist: [Belt of Primal Majesty]>[Man'kin'do's Belt]>[Girdle of Fallen Stars]>[Cord of Braided Troll Hair]
Legs:[Leggings of Eternity]>[Sun-touched Chain Leggings]>[Kilt of Immortal Nature]>[Achromic Trousers of the Naaru]
Shoes:[Two-toed Sandals]>[Treads of the Life Path]>[Stillwater Boots]
Schields:[Enamelled Disc of Mojo]>[Bastion of Light]>[Aegis of the Vindicator]
Weapon:[Crystal Spire of Karabor]>[Dark Blessing]>[Lightfathom Scepter]>[Shard of the Virtuous]
Rings: [Blessed Band of Karabor]>[Signet of the Quiet Forest]>[Band of the Eternal Restorer]>[Band of Eternity]
Necklace: [Brooch of Nature's Mercy]>[Nadina's Pendant of Purity]>[Lord Sanguinar's Claim]>[Emberspur Talisman]
Cloak: [Shroud of the Highborne]>[Cloak of Ancient Rituals]>[Shroud of the Final Stand]>[Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted]

[EDIT]Removed Glove enchant.

 

• Raut

You select Spellsurge to buff your shadow priest and secondly your group, not your own mp5. Shamans have the best regen options of any healing class in the game, raid buffed, but that does not mean we should select only selfish enchants. If you are grouped with a spriest, he will run OOM. If you and your group has Spellsurge he will (ideally) look at 100/(45/5)*4 = 44 extra mp5. More likely 100/(60/5)*4, but it's still good.

Oh and the gloves enchant is a no brainer.

Baby, you can hold my balls.

13:17 < Kalroth> gays on men tv? I love that channel

 

Hodor

If everyone in the group is using Spellsurge, then yes it is better. The best thing to do is to use Caster Weapon Swapper to have the benefit of +heal and Spellsurge (To my shame I have to admit I never got it to work).
Doh, I missed it while translating. I removed it.

 

galzohar

This assumption alone already contradicts alot of the assumptions made when claiming haste usefulness... While it is possible on some fights to have haste increase how much healing you can do but still be able to use all your mana (aka "phase" fights with some of the time needing high burst and the rest of the time not healing much, but overall still requiring you to use all your mana), on many other fights if mana is any kind of a concern, haste is almost useless. So assuming all the extra mana goes to healing way overvalues mp5 if you're not going oom in fights doing the max possible healing.

Basically you can calculate 2 things as a healer:
1. The max healing you can do until oom in a given fight (as we all know it's always possible to go oom if you heal to your max, and the reason in reality it doesn't happen on many fights is that there simply isn't always someone to heal).
2. The max burst healing you can do, as in "everyone just got hit for 8k damage how long will it take you to top them off?" etc. This is purely dependant on haste and +healing (ignoring crit as its random and you don't want people to die because you happened to not crit, just like you don't count dodge towards an MT's effective HP).

Both 1 and 2 will create their own stat weighting system when calculated properly, which will differ a lot from eachother. I think we can all agree completely ignoring 1 and going by 2 will lead you to oom, while completely ignoring 2 and going for 1 will lead you to have mana left at the end of (almost) every fight. The real challenge for healer theorycrafting is not figuring out the weighting system for either 1 or 2, but to decide, for a specific fight and gear/buff setup etc, how much can you neglect 1 for the favor of 2 without going oom.

Note that 1 takes into account that additional +healing *will* cause you to oom less as you use less mana for the same healing. The fact you're going oom doesnt' automatically mean you need more mp5, as certain amounts of +healing may (or may not) be better for you for the purpose of not running oom.

 

Thud00

But you dont take into account the extra mana usage. Instead of 513x2 mana per 5s you are now spending an extra 6.37% due to the haste. 1026*0.0637 = 65.4 mp5 which is equivalent to 187 +heal. A nice round number, means you overvalue haste by a factor of 2. So instead of 1 haste = 2 heal we get 1 haste = 1 heal.

Its actualy even more complex than this since you cant cast a spell every 2.5s more like 3s with the the various lags. Nor are you casting contstantly since you will cancel etc. Nor are you always casting rank 5 most of the time you are downranking.

The single biggest thing you can do to improve your chain healing is to wear 3 t2 and 4 t6. Seems odd to many that giving up 250 +heal by dropping to ten storms is worth it. But it works out both in theorycraft in and practice.

 

• Jeffonious

I have heard this said a couple of times but have never seen any math or WWS numbers to back it up (just looked through all relevant shaman threads). If I missed it could you please show me where it is or could you show us the math/wws yourself?

 

Thud00

Well I wear the belt, gloves, and wrist. Should realy go back and get the boots. So I drop 242 +heal and only have 2100 +heal in 3TS.

So without 3TS.

((833+950)/2 + 87 + 2342 * 5/7) * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.05 * 1.75 = 6431

(base + maiden trinket + heal * cast time) * purification * improved ch * t6 bonus * 2 jumps.

With 3TS

((833+950)/2 + 87 + 2100 * 5/7) * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.05 * 2.0725 = 7119

Clearly you get more heal wearing 3TS, 10.7% more.

Its more complex than this though. I wrote a custom mod to measure overhealing on a per jump basis. I found (iver several raids) that I would get 50% overheal on the primary and only 20% overheal on the jumps. Not suprising since other healers can get a heal in on the primary but not the instant jumps.

Taking this into account the 1.75 figure becomes 1*0.5 + 0.75*0.8 = 1.1
and the 2.0725 figure becomes 1*0.5 + 1.0725*0.8 = 1.358

This takes the effective healing to:

without 3 TS
((833+950)/2 + 87 + 2342 * 5/7) * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.05 * 1.1 = 4042

with 3 TS
((833+950)/2 + 87 + 2100 * 5/7) * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.05 * 1.358 = 4665

So the real effect of 3TS is around 15.4% more healing. You can work the number backwards to see that you need 2914 +heal to get the same effective heal without the 3TS bonus. So its worth about 800 +heal to me.

The only situation where gain form not wearing 3TS is when you have no jumps, but then its not a CH situation.

The reason is simple. +heal scales badly in comparison, adding 100 +heal to someone who has 1000 +heal is a 10% increase, add the same amount to someone with 2000 +heal its only a 5% increase. The 3TS bonus is % based so the more +heal you got, the better it becomes.

 

Mr.Snow

Just a question about the t2 3 set:

Are you sure the final jump gets the benefit of the 3 piece on the second jump? The wording makes it seem other wise.

if it does it would be:
1 + 1*.5*1.3 + 1*.25*(1.3*2) = 2.0752

if not:
1 + 1*.5*1.3 + 1*.25*1.3 = 1.975

I don't have t2 myself so i can't check this . However the difference between the 2 numbers is pretty small.

Also the cross over point as to when t2 gives more healing than regular gear is about 200 healing. However i calculated this by replacing t6 quality epics with t2 (-246 healing), so people with lower levels of gear will be losing less healing. This probably makes t2 give more healing in every situation.

 

doul

(3) Set: Increases the amount healed by Chain Heal to targets beyond the first by 30%.

I haven't made any tests on that one, but I can't see how that wording implies that only the first jump gets the bonus. And either way, isn't the second jump relative to the first jump? That should make it benefit from the bonus, even if a bit smaller than 30% maybe.

 

Thud00

The first jump is 65% (50% +15%). The second jump is 42.25% (65% of 65%).

 

Pokkai

The only thing I would add about mp5 vs spell haste is that mana is subjective, and there is such a thing as "enough" mp5. It is also the easiest stat to increase- we have mana spring, mana tide, water shield, mana oils, flasks, shadow priests, mana potions, and food. The only thing that can increase spell haste is heroism. Only 4 things can increase healing that I can think of- woa, oil, fish sticks and an elixer. I've almost completed my spell haste set, just waiting on dark blessing and a memento(which will take months at this rate. everyone wants a memento)

 

• Raut

True, Pokkai, but there is also no need for so much HPS that you need to get HW or CH down to 1.5 seconds. Thus +haste is relative to it's actual usefulness. One could argue that the better gear you, your healing buddies and your mana tit(spriest) have, you can cut down on the number of healers to bring more DPS, but I'm not sure I would risk it in the spam fights deep into BT.

Baby, you can hold my balls.

13:17 < Kalroth> gays on men tv? I love that channel

 

galzohar

More HPS is always better as it allows you to handle tougher emergencies and overall do more during burst damage periods or simply cover for a second of slack. This is provided by both haste and +healing, of course.

More efficiency is always better becuase you always have time in the fight to actually spend that mana. Granted if you have more healing than needed there will be nobody who needs that healing anyway and it'll feel wasted, but it still gives you extra safety when people do mess up and take more damage than nescessary. While this doesn't feel as useful of an ability to increase beyond the minimum requirement compared to HPS, it does help. Of course not only mp5 help this, but also +healing.

Eventually which is more important really depends on the fight and on your raid composition. Of coure you can never live with neither but finding how much efficiency loss is worth how much HPS gain is a very hard thing to do, as their value in a fight is very hard to measure.
What is easy to see is if you're significantly lacking in 1 of those areas - if people die when you still have mana while not intentionally/slackingly getting themselves killed, you need more HPS, not efficinecy. If people die because you went oom (and again didn't die to your or their slacking) you need more efficiency, not HPS.

Of course you should also keep in mind that there is a (small) efficiency gain from increasing HPS due to downranking.

 

• Raut

Err, that's a bit pedantic. My guild cleared MH/BT in a mix of T5 and T6. Does that mean we've reached our goal and our gear is optimal since we obviously have the needed regen and HPS? Strictly speaking yes, but that does not mean we can't improve. Haste improves your total reaction time(from button pressed to heal landing), it improves your potential HPS, but it does little for efficiency. Efficiency being able to maintain X HPS for Y time. Your entire raid can go fine without haste, but you need +heal and regen of some form.

Downranking is regen when your gear is so good that you have met your HPS demands and can use your excessive +heal to meet the HPS demand at lower ranks.

I guess this discussion is strictly academic these days. IMO I value the three "stats" as: +heal, mp5, haste in that order. Haste is an end-game stat which may have some nice effects to your healing pattern. +heal is a must to support such any healing pattern(lots of haste and mp5 could support it, but come on). A level Z of regen is needed, this is made up of buffs, procs, group setup and gear. If you have a demi-god shadow priest, you can swap all mp5 for haste/heal.

Baby, you can hold my balls.

13:17 < Kalroth> gays on men tv? I love that channel

 

LazyJoe

Hello everyone, as usual on these boards this topic is very informative, very good job.

I'd like to get some advice, I am myself enhancement and eventough I have a good knowledge of the resto side or healing in general (I also play a holy priest), I miss the expertise a full-time resto-specced player would have.
My guild is currently reaching the end of T5 content (Al'ar down this week, hoping Karathress will follow soon so we can work on the two big bad guys), and we need to recruit another resto shaman, and being the shaman officer I have to evaluate people applying to join us. As we aren't a very competitive pve guild (mostly made of mature player who put more emphasis in the fun than in the performance ), wa can't be too selective when recruiting, a kara-geared player would totally satisfy our needs.

However it seems like nowadays (at least on my server) every resto chaman is gearing with arena season 1 stuff, which lacks the raw healing power and lots of mp5 compared to the pve-equivalent. However since the improvement to mana spring totem and water shield, it is obvious that you would need less mp5 to be efficient.

So my question is, what would be nowadays the minimum needs in terms of unbuffed +healing and mp5 for a resto chaman to be efficient in T5 content ?

 

• Raut

I respecced resto early on in T5 because of my guild's need for more healers. I was sporting around 1200 heal and <100 mp5. Still able to compete with the best decked healers in the guild. I had one epic item IIRC. Skill > gear in these matters. Look for excessive LHW spam, silly totems for that group, lack of pots and flasks.

Baby, you can hold my balls.

13:17 < Kalroth> gays on men tv? I love that channel