Mephology

I had several questions regarding Restoration Shamans gear in Arenas and talent specs.

First off some background and what I am expecting. The shaman that I have is fairly new to 70. I previously had leveled a Draenei hunter to 70, but found the playstyle not that interesting. I then decided to go back and become a healbot. I recently got asked to be on a 5s team and so have begun the process of gearing up for pvp healing. Personally, I like to be a healbot and that is what I would like my gear and spec considerations to be able to give me the best opportunity to do this.

When choosing a spec, it did not seem like there was much outside of restoration tree that would aid my ability to heal, mostly in a pve environment, but also now in a pvp environment. With that in mind I went 0/0/61. Are there any talents that I should pick up to help my survivability and help maintain my healing power in the other talent trees. It did not seem like it, but since I am fairly new to the class I was wondering if I could get some input on the issue. Damage/farming is not an issue at least personally as I have a well geared 70 hunter to meet all my farming needs.

I have started the slow process of getting the pvp blues and epics to help fill some serious stamina holes in my gear. The blue pvp set seems really nice to provide a bridge towards arena gear. My current healbot gear can be found in my profile (6200 hp needs fixing ASAP I know). I am also in the process of getting some badges for the rewards there that really seemed to be geared towards pvp healing (high stamina mixed with good healing stats). I was wondering what is your preferred stat on gear in a pvp healing environment. How would you rate:

Stamina
MP5
Healing
Intellect
Resilience
Spell Crit

My personal feelings tend to rank them as listed, but that is basically my impression of shamies in a pve environment with just adding stamina at the top and resilience near the bottom.

Finally, in looking at the level 70 pvp epic items (cape, boots, belt, bracers, neck), I noticed that there was not really any pure healing items available from pvp. Everything has spell crit and spell damage, no pure healing and mp5 items. How do people feel about these items from a healing standpoint? Are their better alternatives?

For instance:

Marshal's Mail Sabatons vs. Auchenai Boots

A very similar option exits for the belt:
Marshal's Mail Girdle vs. Tarren Mill Defender's Cinch

Both of the blues being socketed with 12 sta gems or something similar. Another example is the Seal of the Exorcist which wastes alot of points into things that I will not use much I assume healing.

 

• Karakas

I think going down Elemental for 3/3 Elemental Warding is nice, as well as picking up any Ancestral Knowledge points that you can spare.

I also think you're undervaluing resilience. Shamans tend to get focus fired a lot, so I'd reconsider and go:

Sta
Resilience
Int
+heal
MP/5
Spell Crit

 

Jixani

Well, gear depends probably pretty much on your team setup. I for instance can almost always except to be kept under some pressure at first, but on the other hand, we play with three healers (paladin, druid, shaman, double warrior), so I'm not only on healing duty, but keep an opposite pala or druid from healing, and for this purpose a 16/0/45 build with imp. shock cd. is rather nice: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=GgczxZZvz0tVcsted As the fight turns into a mana war I almost always change my gear to PvE-mp5-gear when I get low on mana (what can happen really really quickly with heroism + lhw spam).

And well, it's sad there aren't any BG-epics for restos (why? ), I wen't for the BG-Items till I reached 10k HP unbuffed and the rest is normal PvE-Gear. I uterly lack now in terms of +heal (some 800) and manareg(next to 0), but I can't help myself.

 

Tutanka

You will generally be one of the first targets picked for Focus Fire so you really need to build your toon around that.

I prioritize Stam, Resilience, +healing, Int, MP5, crit basically in that order.

In terms of "gear to get", the most important item is your PvP trinket, followed by probably the gloves which increase the range on your shocks. Talisman of the breaker is currently the best PvP neck by far and is easy to get, however it will be changed after the patch and in some cases it wont be as good as the PvP honor neck. There are a couple nice items available with heroic tokens, the healing Shield, Ring and Neck are all very solid. You will also want to plan out your arena/honor purchases based on getting the double 2-piece bonus (+35 resilience)

As for enchants and gems, go +12 stam where ever possible. Get the 18 stam 5% stun resist meta gem, and get +9 stam and run speed to boots (you will be kiting a lot).

As for Spec, I would recommend going 15 or 16 in elemental so you can get the casting time reduction on shocks, and the 10% reduction from fire/frost/nature damage. I would put everything else in resto.

 

◊ Lord BEEF

Int is really good for a shaman in arenas since they're so short, and while I'd definitely put stam/resilience above it in most cases, it's better than mp5 in most any given arena match. If I were to min/max for arenas I'd probably put 30 int on my weapon rather than healing or spellsurge.

Check out my friend's bitchin' Lord of the Rings Art

 

Tutanka

Nice Spec, I think I'm going to go the same when I respec again, the only thing I will do differently is that I will max out ancestral healing, at the expense of healing way, it's just so seldom that I cast 3 healing waves on any one target.

 

missiletoad

I don't pvp now as much as I used to, but when playing the role of team healer I found it advantageous to wear dmg/heal gear instead of pure healing gear. As a shaman and a healer you'll get singled out in nearly every fight, and I found having the ability to provide some wider team support and also be able to fend for myself when needed as desirable over a purely defensive gear selection.

Stacking Int as Beef mentioned is very beneficial. The class isn't supremely mana efficient, and much of the time you'll find that there's no time to wait around for mana to regen.

 

Vazu

One of the Elemental Shaman or possibly two will end up healing. That's just all there is to it. Even with a team that DPS heavy, someone is going to get assisted on the Shaman team too. It really comes down to how well this team played after they instantly gibbed the first person with NS/CL. I've seen setups like this before with AP/PoM/Pyro teams. They kill one player super fast and then struggle to get anyone else down. The same might be true for this team. Casting time is casting time. On a 1v1 basis, I'll take the MS Warrior vs. elemental Shaman 1v1 with a Paladin healing the Warrior > an elemental Shaman trying to heal another Shaman.

 

Mephology

Thanks for the replies. Definately good food for thought. The arena team that we are thinking of fielding is:

MS Warrior
Disc Priest
Affliction Lock
Destro Lock/Fire Mage
Resto Shamie

The two locks and the mage will be switching out based on whoever is on and interested.

We are not really looking to be a 2000+ team, just competitive and have a good time. Good idea about changing out to the mp5 gear if you happen to need the regen late fight. With this info in mind I will probably pick up the epic boot/belt/bracers, they seem to be a pretty nice upgrade all around in light of the conversation.

Yeah, I do think that I was underrating int for pvp healing as well. Now I need to find another healing weapon so I can put int on it instead of spellsurge.

Vazu, not really sure where the elemental shaman came into the conversation, let alone more, but I am going to be the primary healer and so speaking restoration.

Edit: What are peoples feelings about Totem of the Third Wind for healing as well. Right now I use Totem of the Plains for PVP healing since my main heal is LHW.

 

tunah

Pretty sure that was intended for the 5v5 all-elemental shaman team thread.

 

Leath

Agree mostly with what's been said here. My stat priorities are:

Sta
Resilience
+heal
+crit
+dmg
int
mp5

I learnt early on that either you die first or you die last. Getting some spell damage (the bg rewards I guess - tho I don't have much patience for honour grinding) is an insurance policy just to make sure you can finish someone off if you end up 1v1 and by some miracle have any mana left.

+crit is worth it doubly because ancestral healing can be kinda nice.

Basically I see resto shamans in arenas as a tank first healer second. With a competent second healer you can take an enormous amount of damage and continue to deflect many of the other teams abilities - tremor/grounding/poison totems are key.

We found with our new look team(as of last night), that the teams that beat us are the ones that co-ordinate taking out tremor totems before the fear-paintrain.

 

subscience

I use a 18/0/43 spec for Arenas. Reverberation, Elemental Focus, and Eye of the Storm are talents that I utilize constantly. Having read up on how crit-to-proc talents and Resilience work together, the EotS talent is just awesome. Of course, Nature's Guardian is a must as well.

As people have stated above, survivability is extremely important as a Restoration Shaman in Arenas considering that I'm usually focus target 1 or 2 (the other being an SL 'Lock).

1. Socket everything with Solid Stars of Elune. Everything!
2. I'd take the Gladiator Pieces over the Auchenei Boots and Tarren Defender's Cinch any day.
3. Personally, I'm aiming for 2 pieces of the Elemental and Restoration Gladiator sets. The Elemental glove on-equip bonus is bananas and way too valuable to trade for the Restoration glove's +3% LHW crit. You get two 35 Resilience set bonuses rather than a crap 4 piece set bonus.


Neck- I use Talisman of the Breaker. Absolutely necessary for any Arena healer until 2.1.
Cloak- I use the Light-Touched Stole of Altruism (Heroic Maladaar). Highest Stamina +healing cloak I found.
Rings- Violet Ring of the Grand Restorer (lots of stats, particularly Stam and Int) and Ashyen's Gift (28 Stamina on a ring). Band of Halos is also a good choice too.
Trinket- Timelapse Shard (25 Stamina, 35 Resilience) is my pick. I use a Scarab of Infinite Cycle in the other slot.

 

Cel

I thought the intention was just to have the blue set stack with the arena set... is this the case that multiple arena set bonuses stack? Man, if so, sucks to be a rogue. :[

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell

Alpha is recruiting... go go.

 

subscience

I believe they currently don't, but will correctly stack come the next patch. I believe this also applies to both Arena and PvP gear as well.

 

Mephology

Damn, that is a good thought. In light of that I need to rethink what gear I am getting where. Thanks for the info.


Sorry, I am not sure what is change in 2.1 that would make you not want this neck. Can you please enlighten me?

 

Starbucks

He is the type of person that prefers Lady Luck to Lady Reliable


The Talisman is still the definitive PvP healing necklace

 

subscience

Current: 15% Resist to Silence and Interrupt mechanics.
1st Change: 10% Resist to Silence and Interrupt mechanics.
2nd Change (currently on PTR): -20% duration on Silence and Interrupt Mechanics. Does not stack with other similar effects.

The only reason I say it's good until 2.1 is because it does not stack with Imp. Concentration Aura. Since Imp. Conc. Aura is a -30% duration on Silence / Interrupts, you're better off going with a different necklace if you have a Paladin teammate.

Or I guess you could use different auras, but Imp. Conc. Aura is just way too useful IMO.

 

Leath

Ouch didn't realise they changed the effect of Imp Conc. Aura. Kinda relieved that I don't have to run BF anymore tho.

On another note... does anyone reckon the new Arena healing mace is worth it over PvE equivalent alternatives? It seems like a lot of AP for a very small resi buff over the maiden mace.

 

Tutanka

I think the stat distribution is a lot better for arena PvP. I think it's +50 more healing, More Stam, +15 resiliance, at the expence of some Mana per 5.

So yeah it's a lot better, however, I would think it's better to get at least 4 pieces of amour first (2 elem, 2 resto).

My purchase order would probably be...

Elemental Gloves
Elemental Shoulders
Healing Chest
Healing Helm


Then I would consider picking up the mace.

 

Nitz

The Runed Dagger of Solace is, in my opinion, the best weapon out (until 2.1) for PvP healing. You should give it a shot.

 

subscience

The Shockwave Truncheon from Heroic Murmur got a little lovin' in 2.1.0 and it looks to be a pretty decent PvP healing mace:



Shockwave Truncheon used to share nearly identical stats to the Gavel on the right. You can see the changes they've made to the current PTR one.

 

Leath

Not strictly about gear, but I tried this spec out last night in 3v3. I can honestly say I noticed no difference from my old 61 resto spec. I run with a maces rogue and a manaburn shadow priest and while the shocks made harassing paladins more fun and kept mana draining locks off me more, it made little difference to the outcome of the fights. Against burst teams we have problems due to gear (all only started pvping seriously once KZ was more or less clear), unless they target me first, which was the case anyway.

I suppose every little helps and what I've lost in the resto tree doesn't effect my pve viability much. I'll try it out properly in 5v5 first (Warrior, pally, me and then any combination of mage, shadow priest, rogue or enh shaman). If we field a melee team I'll have more opportunity to go offensive so that may be where it shines.

But I have to say that I rarely even notice EoTS proc. Its the interrupts that get me not the push back. What I am missing is the 5% healing crit when fighting MS warriors... that seems to make a big big difference, particularly with ancestral healing.

I'm considering the idea that mana efficiency may actually be more useful and may put points in ancestral knowledge, tidal focus and nature's guidance to get the shock's resists down. That and stack more int may be the way forward. But all that's a bit irrelevant when you're getting drained to nothing anyway.

Gear advice is good though, been playing around and with gear builds based on the elemental gloves and legs and I think that'll end up with a very solid arena outfit.

 

subscience

I picked up a pair of Heart-Flame Leggings and realized after I had socketed it with 3x Nightseye for healing that these would make a superb pair of PvP leggings with 3x Solid Stars of Elune, especially when you consider that the Gladiator's Leggings have no sockets.

So now I'm thinking of:
Gladiator's Mail Gloves (for shock range bonus - a must in my book)
Gladiator's Mail Spaulders
Gladiator's Ringmail Helm
Gladiator's Ringmail Chest
Heart-Flame Leggings

You give up some resilence and MP regen (I believe) for more stamina, but I always believe that stamina is strictly better than resilience.

 

Tutanka

The more damage and healing you take the better resiliance becomes in relation to stamina.

You abviously want both, but there a lots of scenarios where it's better to add more resiliance then to add more stamina.

I typically take a lot of damage in arenas, and I rarely get gibbed. When I die its normally because I have MS, and my healers simply cant keep up with the DPS, through MS and/or wound Poision. In this scenario more Resiliance > more stamina.

 

Pane

Having just specced resto (for pve actually) AND having only this week joined a pvp team, I'm utterly new to all this, so bear with me, but wouldn't it be very beneficial to drop 15 points in enhancement for 5% shield block, 5% dodge? In the few games I've done so far I get focus-fired non-stop; I feel like a pvp-tank.