[top] Introduction
This thread will serve as a combined resource for Restoration Shamans in the Mists of Pandaria expansion. Any contribution towards keeping this thread as accurate as possible by means of intelligent conversation between members is encouraged and will be greatly appreciated.
Before posting please read the
forums rules and for any questions or input that doesn't help maintain and raise this guide's quality please use the
Simple Questions/Answers thread in the stickies instead. Alternatively for any inquiry and specifically for any typos or errors you may find in this guide you can pm me here at Elitist Jerks or send me an email at
Therya.
[top] Abbreviations
For any abbreviations in this thread please refer to the following table.
| Short | Meaning |
|---|
| HW | Healing Wave |
| GHW | Greater Healing Wave |
| HS | Healing Surge |
| RT | Riptide |
| HR | Healing Rain |
| CH | Chain Heal |
| EL, ELW | Earth Living, Earth Living Weapon |
| ES | Earth Shield |
| UE | Unleash Elements, for us almost always Unleash Life |
| UF | Unleashed Fury |
| HST | Healing Stream Totem |
| HTT | Healing Tide Totem |
| SLT | Spirit Link Totem |
| MTT | Mana Tide Totem |
| SBT | Stone Bulwark Totem |
| NS | Nature's Swiftness |
| SWG | Spiritwalker's Grace |
| GW | Ghost Wolf |
| NG | Nature's Guardian |
| AS | Ancestral Swiftness |
| AA | Ancestral Awakening |
| AV | Ancestral Vigor |
| TC | Telluric Currents |
| CotE | Call of the Elements |
| EotE | Echo of the Elements |
| PE | Primal Elementalist |
| EB | Elemental Blast |
| EM | Elemental Mastery |
| AG | Ancestral Guidance |
| MV | Mogu'shan Vaults |
| HoF | Heart of Fear |
| ToES | Terrace of Endless Spring |
[top] Spells and Abilities
In this segment, you'll find short descriptions of the main spells and abilities used by Resto shamans. Many old talents have become specialization spells, or turned into passives, or even baked into spells while some have gone the way of the dodo.
Totems no longer provide long term buffs, they are now almost purely situational, while raid buffs have become constant passives.
[top] Spell Coefficients
| Spell | Mana Cost | | Coefficient |
|---|
| Healing Surge | 20580 | | 113.5%SP |
| Healing Wave | 5940 | | 75.6%SP |
| Greater Healing Wave | 16140 | | 137.7%SP |
| Chain Heal (initial heal) | 13500 | | 57.3%SP |
| Earth Shield (per charge) | 11400 | | 18.5%SP |
| Riptide (direct heal) | 9600 | | 33.9%SP |
| Riptide (HoT per tick) | - | | 16%SP . |
| Earthliving Weapon (HoT per tick) | - | | 8.3%SP |
| Healing Stream Totem (per tick) | 14100 | | 44.5% SP |
| Healing Tide Totem (per tick) | 4800 | | 48.4% SP |
| Healing Rain (per tick) | 25860 | | 19.7% SP |
| Unleashed Life | 4920 | | 28.6% SP |
[top] Spell Descriptions
[top] Single Target Spells
Healing Wave : This is our slow burn spell and should be cast if being conservative with mana is called for. Its HPS is weak, but its HPM is one of the strongest ones ( save for our HST, HTT and Healing rain when it covers more than 4 targets) since it returns a whopping 148% of its mana cost through resurgence if it crits. The
Glyph of Healing Wave described in the glyph section will increase wave's potency, and take some pressure off healing yourself by duplicating 20% of the healing done and layering it on yourself. This can be especially useful in heroic 5 mans, and in some raid settings. As your mana regen increases, you'll gradually use Healing Wave less and less, swapping in surge and greater healing wave, as the situation warrants.
Greater Healing Wave: Healing wave's bigger cousin, It packs quite a punch, especially if your target is low enough to get a good benefit off our mastery. While its huge cast time is initially quite daunting, the way it benefits from tidal waves, makes this spell quite versatile. This comes at a cost since it is three times as expensive as wave, and can drain your mana quickly if you cast it too much. Its HPS is inferior to Healing Surge, but its HPM is superior even when factoring in tidal waves\resurgence effects on Healing Surge.
Healing Surge : This is our expensive quick heal. Use this when tidal waves are up, and you need to push heavy direct healing. With tidal waves up, this spell gains an additional 30% chance to crit, giving us a higher mean chance to save mana through resurgence and get boosted throughput. With tidal waves buffing both Greater Healing Wave and Healing Surge, Surge is stronger and more costly and with tidal waves buffing neither, surge retains HPS superiority. The mana cost of this spell, and the speed in which you can throw it around, means you can drain yourself quickly. By far our best tool if mana is not an issue.
Riptide: Riptide is an important spell in our toolset, not only for its passive effects, but also because it is our only instant spell and our only player targetable HoT. This spell synergizes with chain heal, procs tidal waves, and gives you a slow massage healing effect that is very useful in constant damage situations. Since it is quite a slow ticking, long duration hot, getting maximum healing and minimum overhealing can be quite tricky. Unglyphed, this spell comes with a 6 second cooldown, which should be cast whenever up to maximize tidal waves and address low intensity damage. When glyphed, this spell becomes a powerful tool for raid spread healing and increased mobility since it loses its cooldown.The trade off is losing 90% of the initial heal effect plus possibly losing mana efficiency due to overwriting tidal waves, and overhealing. Proper use of this spell is an important aspect in shaman healing.
[top] AoE Spells
Chain Heal: Chain heal is a smart AoE heal that jumps to any character up to four times, as long as they are 12 yards or less apart and at less than 100% health. Chain Heal can serve as a filler spell for AoE damage after casting healing rain. It prioritizes targets by absolute health values, not percentages, making mastery a good stat for optimization of this spell. As of 5.01 note that targeting a player with the Riptide hot active, will effectively buff all resulting jumps of chain heal by 25%. While getting all four jumps is advisable, the fourth jump's heal value is so diminished that its fairly negligible HPS. It is a good general rule to only cast this spell if you stand a fair chance at getting the third jump out of it, since its weaker than direct heals if it jumps less. Along with riptide it will proc tidal waves on cast. The
Glyph of Chaining will increase the jump distance by 100% for 4sec CD trade-off and will be discussed further in the glyph section.
Healing Rain: This is our strongest AoE healing spell, and the strongest HPS spell we have, not counting talent dependant spells and cooldowns. It is a ground targetable AoE hot effect with a 10 second cooldown that heals everyone standing in it, but has a quite high cost, and takes skill and a fairly dense clump of players to be effective. As such, it is by far easier to get the max effect of this spell in a 25 man raid, but it is definitively useful in a 10 man raid, kept either on the melee\tank pile, or on any predetermined stack points to heal through AoE damage. The spell has an effective target cap of 6 people, meaning that it will tick for max potential if 6 or less players are standing in the rain. Add players, and the ticks potency will adjust accordingly. The shaman 75 talent Conductivity is discussed in the talent portion.
Unleash Elements: For Resto, you'll be using the
Earthliving Weapon enchant. When cast
Unleash Life on a target, you'll directly heal them for a small amount and gain a buff that increases the healing done by your next spell by 30%. Usually the wasted global cooldown is not worth the trouble later in patches but it serves as a very good mana conservation method at the beginning of the expansion when mana is an issue. It has a niche while moving or when anticipating massive single target damage. Unleash will buff both Healing Rain and Chain Heal by 30% even as stated otherwise in the tooltip.
The 90 talent, Unleashed Fury, buffs unleash life with an additional 50% effect. However contrary to the original unleash, the 50% buff will attach to the target not the shaman, so the only way to benefit, is to hit that target with a direct spell. An Unleashed Fury buffed Riptide on the tank can be a good way to get full benefit from this talent.
Water Shield : Shamans got a quality of life upgrade in regards of the new Water shield which now has a 60min duration and no longer sports charges. Its mechanics however remain the same, meaning that every direct melee or spell attack will activate it granting you an on hit mana bonus on top of the passive mana bonus the shield constantly provides. It is imperative that you maintain a 100% uptime for water shield. The
Glyph of Water Shield will trade off 15% of its passive regen for 50% increase on the on hit component. Check Glyph section and Mechanics for more information on its utility.
Earth Shield: Earth shield is a core mechanic of shaman tank healing. It is a direct buff that can be placed on one target at a time, and comes with 9 charges. Every time that target is hit by a direct damaging effect, earth shield will expend a charge and heal the target for a small amount, helping to alleviate the pressure on tanks. An additional and important effect, having earth shield on the target will buff the shaman's direct heals on that target by 20%. It is strongly recommended to keep uptime of this buff on the tank as close to 100% as possible.
Purify Spirit:This spell removes all curse and magic effects from the target but has a new cooldown of 8 seconds. Worth noting, this cooldown will not trigger unless an effect is actually dispelled. Additionally, the talent which reduced the cost of our dispell has gone pining for the fjords with the talent revamp. With the glyph of cleansing waters, you also heal your target for 4% of your maximum health.
Ancestral Awakening: Ancestral awakening is an instant heal that will proc from our passive Ancestral Awakening ability. Each time you crit with Healing Wave, Healing Surge, Greater Healing Wave, Ripitide, or Unleash Life, you instantly heal the raid member with the lowest percentage of health within 40 yards for 30% of the amount healed, calculated after the crit and mastery, including any overhealing.
Ancestral Vigor: Often underestimated, this proc comes from any healing spell you cast, direct, HoT or AoE. Heals you cast increase allies total health by 10% of the amount healed, up to a max of 10% of their health, effectively giving them a temporary hit point buffer. It has a 15 second duration that can be refreshed by almost all our healing spells.
Tidal Waves: Tidal waves is a proc effect triggered by casting Chain Heal and Riptide. While you have tidal waves up, Healing Surge gains 30% increased crit chance, increasing its mana efficiency through resurgence and its total healing potency. Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave's cast times are reduced by 30%. This means that good management of tidal waves results in both increased hps, and increased mana efficiency. Being able to cast your slower mana efficient heal faster, for example, is a good way to stay mana efficient while still retaining fairly decent throughput.
Earthliving: The earthliving effect is a passive granted to us by the resto specific weapon enchant. It gives each heal a chance to trigger a hot with a 12 second duration, that will heal for a moderate amount. Single target heals on targets below 35% of maximum health will always trigger earthliving.
The chance of the earthliving effect proccing depends on the spell used. For all direct heals, including riptide, the chance for it to proc is 20%. However, for chain heal the chance to proc is 10% per jump and 50% per jump if the target is below 35% max health, and for healing rain, 6% per tick, and 30% per tick if below 35% max health.
Note : The MoP expansion greatly buffed Earthlivings proc chances. For more detailed information check the table below.
| Spell | Cata | Proc Rate | Mop | Proc Rate |
|---|
| | Above 35% | Below 35% | Above 35% | Below 35% |
| Riptide, HW,GHW,HS,UL | 20% | 100% | 20% | 100% |
| Chain heal | 5% | 21.25% | 10% | 50% |
| Helaing Rain | Low Chance | Low chance | 6% | 30% |
Ascendance: On a 3 minute cooldown and a low duration of 15 seconds, our new level 87 ability works with every healing spell we have in our arsenal, making it a solid throughput ability. When triggered, it duplicates the healing done by the shaman, and spreads it evenly amongst raid members. The duplicated healing is spread outwards from the shaman, making the shaman's positioning fairly important, but testing has shown that its radius is quite big regardless. This ability synergizes well with our other cooldown dependent talents and abilities, but can result in a lot of overhealing. Ascendance will also buff any heals that were pre casted before hand such as Healing Rain and Riptide.
Ancestral guidance, while on a 2 minute cooldown, will benefit from Ascendance as will Conductivity. If using either of these talents in lieu of Healing Tide Totem, you should line up ancestral guidance and ascendance every second time guidance is up, and try to maximize healing rain uptime while Ascending. This will maximize healing vs mana spent.
Spirtwalkers Grace: A band aid to our main healing weakness, mobility, this cooldown allows us keep casting while moving. It is off the gcd, so it can be cast while casting other spells. It is on a 2 minute cooldown, with a base duration of 15 seconds, that can be glyphed to increase to 20 seconds.
Healing Stream Totem: Whether or not this is a cooldown in the traditional sense can be debated. I like to consider it a heavy hitting jumping smart hot. When dropped, it will automatically heal the lowest health raid member, and jump from target to target accordingly. Its cooldown is 30 seconds, and it lasts for 15 seconds. This spell is quite mana intensive to keep on cooldown, though you can trust it to not overheal. Plop this down in raid damage phases or parts of the fight where the tank is taking minor repeated damage. Its HPM is significantly higher than all our spells except Healing Rain (when above 5 targets) and Healing Tide Totem.
HST is affected by all temporary intellect or spellpower increases but only as long as the effect lasts. After their expiration it will not be affected anymore.
Spirit Link Totem: Back from Cata, Spirit Link Totem now has a 6 second duration instead of 8.4sec ( counting the old Totemic Focus Talent), is still on a 3 minute cooldown, has a 10 yards radius, and is functionally the same. It ties together everyone standing in its health pools, and evens them out every tick while also giving you a 10% damage taken reduction. This ensures minimal overhealing, can save tanks from spikes, and is great as a compliment to many of our talents and cooldowns, including Ascendance and Ancestral guidance.
Mana Tide Totem: Mana tide totem gives all raid members within 40 yards 200% spirit for 16 seconds. This is an integral part of shaman mana regen, and a hefty nice bonus for any other healer who is lucky enough to have one on the healing team. With MoP, and the advent of spirit mana regen detailed under stats in this thread, this is now the only remaining scaling mana regen ability in the game. Functionally, it will not duplicate any on use or on proc temporary spirit gains. The only exception to this rule are trinkets that function on the same premise as the Heart of Unliving trinket from dragon soul, where you gain a stacking spirit buff. Other trinkets functioning on the same premise include Jar of Ancient remedies from tier 11, and Darkmoon Card: Tsunami.
[top] Passive Abilities
Meditation: Meditation is a passive ability all healers get. It allows 50% of the mana regen from spirit to function while in combat.
Purification: Purification increases healing effectiveness by 25%, and the healing done by water totems by 50%. This is mostly in place as a mechanic to ensure elemental and enhancement shamans healing spells and totems are much weaker than restoration shaman versions.
It also gives us Ancestral Vigor, detailed elsewhere in this section.
Spiritual Insight: This passive, given to us upon choosing restoration specialization, increases our mana pool by 400% and increases our chance to hit with lightning bolt, lava burst, hex,flame shock and Elemental Blast by 15%. In reality, this is here to give us a separate mana pool from other shaman specializations, to help blizzard balance healing spell costs and limit the healing those specializations can do. The hit bonus is there to allow us to have 100% hit chance vs raid targets so that we can weave in some dps if we're in a low intensity healing phase without stacking hit, and so that we can reap the miniscule benefit from Glyph of Telluric Currents.
Resurgence: Resurgence used to be a talent in our restoration talent tree, but has now been reworked into one of our main mana conservation mechanics for mists of pandaria. The way this functions is, you gain a spell dependent amount of mana back, if that spell crits on its initial hit. The only active cast spells and abilities that do not proc resurgence is healing rain and healing totems. Further discussion of the usefulness of this ability will be put under the crit section of stats.
Talent trees in Mists of Pandaria expansion have undergone radical changes. They now consist of 6 tiers, unlocking every 15 levels, each including 3 talents from which you can only pick one. These talents provide valuable choices for each spec,while in most cases the same talent will serve as much as a healing booster or a damage booster. What is important to note is that there are no longer builds that will serve as a clear choice. Your build will depend on the style of the fight and on the raid composition. That said, there are still some talents that are more useful than others.
Legend:
- Recommended - This talent will be very useful to nearly all Restoration Shamans, but there are some edge cases in which it might be skipped.
- Situational - This talent will be useful in some situations depending the style of the fight.
- Skip - There are very few circumstances in which this talent is worth taking in a raid centric build. However never underestimate its potential in a specific raid boss fight.
| Tier | Talent | Recommendation | Comments |
|---|
| | | | |
| 15 | Nature's Guardian | Skip | Compared to the other choices in this tier this talent pales in comparison. Although it comes with an actual health increase, its threat level reduction does not make it worth spending points on. |
| 15 | Stone Bulwark Totem | Recommended | An upgraded version of the old Stoneclaw totem that provides with a strong shield upon use while for the rest of the duration will add periodically a weaker shield. This talent will scale with spellpower making it more valuable as gear levels rise. Use mostly for fights with sustainable damage over time. |
| 15 | Astral Shift | Recommended | A mana free personal damage reducing cooldown Valuable for every situation. Use mostly when you expect incoming burst damage. |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| 30 | Frozen Power | Situational | A single target crowd control choice that might give some utility in a raid or a dungeon environment. |
| 30 | Earthgrab Totem | Situational | An AOE crowd control choice that might give some utility in a raid or dungeon environment. |
| 30 | Windwalk Totem | Situational | Probably the most valuable talent for this tier grants your raid a jail free card when it comes to moving impairing effects should they occur. Note that effects will wear off whenever anyone in the raid steps out of range. |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| 45 | Call of the Elements | Situational | Totems that will be reset include : Stone Bulwark Totem, Earthbind/Earthgrab Totem, Tremor Totem, Healing Stream Totem, Grounding Totem, and Windwalk Totem. While valuable mostly for pvp this talent could see some use in heavy utility fights. |
| 45 | Totemic Restoration | Situational | Mainly a pvp oriented talent, it could present with some usage in a raid environment where totems get destroyed or recalled using Totemic Recall. |
| 45 | Totemic Projection | Situational | Mainly a dps oriented talent, however there could be some usage as a tank cooldown when you are not stacking with the melee paired with Spirit Link Totem. |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| 60 | Elemental Mastery | Situational | A powerful cooldown ideal for fights characterized by heavy burst healing needs. |
| 60 | Ancestral Swiftness | Recommended | Highly recommended for 2 reasons. This talent gives us back an instant GHV or HR when needed with only 1min cd, while it passively increases our spell haste by 5%. |
| 60 | Echo of the Elements | Situational | Even though in pure throughput this talent proves slightly more powerful that the other two its a poor choice to spend a talent point on while its relying heavily in RNG, its own ICD and its tendency to overheal when not needed. Echo of the Element’s proc chance is 6%. |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| 75 | Healing Tide Totem | Recommended | The shaman version of druids Tranquility, a very potent healing raid cooldown to deal with heavy incoming raid wide damage. |
| 75 | Ancestral Guidance | Situational | This talent could be useful in very niche situations. Note that it does not longer combine with Ascendance and will no longer procc off Restorative Mists making it even less valuable compared to HTT. |
| 75 | Conductivity | Skip | This talent might be useful to a shaman who is mostly responsible for tank healing while keeping healing rain on the melee, and burst spot healing when the raid is stacked. However it is only a 20% healing boost to effective direct healing and as such won't be competitive vs healing tide totem. Note, its usefulness is impaired unless the tank is taking sustained heavy damage, switching to a rotation of chain heal, might provide the same throughput. |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| 90 | Unleashed Fury | Recommended | Unleashed fury will add to your next direct heal a 50% bonus upon your 30% bonus your unleash life brings. Note that unleash life is applied on the shaman whereas unleash fury on the target and that if used together and not separately the buffs are multiplicative. If used on cooldown and its healing doesn't result to overhealing this talent brings a slightly higher thoughput compared to Primal Elementalist in regards to direct heals. |
| 90 | Primal Elementalist | Recommended | Very useful talent for the potential it brings in using both its active and channeled abilities. Combine both depending on the fight and the elemental you have up for maximum throughput and/or utility. Best used when the majority of your spells is comprised by AoE heals. |
| 90 | Elemental Blast | Skip | Elemental Blast is unappealing choice for Resto since even casting it on CD its still a net loss on both healing throughput and efficiency. Its random buff nature and its long casting time contribute heavily in that. |
| | | | |
Glyphs in Mists of Pandaria have a completely different philosophy from other expansions and have undergone three major changes.
1. Prime glyphs have been removed. This was done in an effort to simplify things and incorporate the benefits of prime glyphs into abilities. Most of their bonuses have been added to the spells instead.
2. Whereas the old glyphs would give a certain class and spec a straight off bonus on your throughput, now most of the Major glyph's throughput comes with a price. It is important to note that not all Major glyphs guarantee to add a bonus to your spec.
3. Minor glyphs are intended to have cosmetic effects hence they don't provide any viable usage for raiding. Choose based on what flavor might fit your personal wishes.
Legend:
- Recommended - This glyph will be very useful to nearly all Restoration Shamans, but there are some edge cases in which it might be skipped. Note : There are not supposed to be any glyphs that are required lest you cripple your effectiveness should you choose to take them. However recommended glyphs in most cases are proving more valuable than their situational counterparts.
- Situational - This glyph will be useful in some situations, but there are generally better places to spend points.
- Skip - There are very few circumstances in which this glyph is worth taking in a raid centric build.
| Major Glyph | Recommendation | Comment |
|---|
| Glyph of Chaining | Situational | Somewhat useful in 5 man dungeons. Consider it for raids where your party is widely spread and there is no stacking point for melee. Mostly useful for 10man raids, close to useless for 25man raids. |
| Glyph of Healing Stream Totem | Recommended | Straight on throughput bonus based on smart damage reduction on the raid member that needs it the most. |
| Glyph of Healing Wave | Recommended | Very valuable early on, but diminishes on heroic encounters, where you will be casting fewer and fewer Healing Waves. |
| Glyph of Purge | Skip | Unless there is a boss fight that requires dispelling multiple magic effects from the boss do not opt for this. |
| Glyph of Riptide | Recommended | The tradeoff for this glyph is losing 90% of its initial heal. Its benefits include 100%uptime for Tidal Waves buff. Having no cooldown Riptide becomes an amazing tool for spread out situations enhances your mobility and guarantees that your Chain Heal spell will always be buffed.. |
| Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace | Situational | Considering one of the main weaknesses of shaman healing is mobility, spiritwalkers grace is a major band aid to this weakness. Any fight that has considerable movement, makes this glyph an attractive choice, especially fights that require heavy healing while moving (lei shi). |
| Glyph of Telluric Currents | Situational | Boasting at a 3955mp5(chaincasting at 3500haste rating), this glyph can be potentially useful for fights with long pauses. Note however that GC himself referred to this glyph as just a way for resto shamans not to be punished for helping out with DPS rather than it being a staple mana regen. |
| Glyph of Water Shield | Situational | Any fight where this reliably triggers ( calculated at 2.63 times per 1min to be superior than its unlglyphed version ) this glyph will land you with a huge mp5gain. In this tier there are only two occasions that this glyph is needed. (For a detailed table with recommendations refer to the Mana Sources - Water Shield section. ) |
| Glyph of Cleansing Waters | Skip | For boss fights where your raid needs a lot of dispelling while incoming damage is high. Note that what was lost in the transition was the mana cost reduction which made Cleansing Waters such a valuable talent to take before MoP.With the added cooldown of 8sec on our dispels this glyph provides little to justify a major slot. |
| Glyph of Hex | Skip | Could be useful while gearing up in 5man dungeons, completely useless in raids. |
| Glyph of Totemic Recall | Recommended | Could be proven useful for neutralizing mana cost of Healing Stream Totem. Conditions include, whether you can afford to spend one GCD everytime you drop HST and impeccable timing so you won't miss out of HST healing throughput recalling it the very last second which is unrealistic. Given the fact that GCD rules apply to it you will also need to be sure you weren't casting any spell before using your recall.Remember you will recall all of your totems so use sparingly when you are utilizing Primal Elementalist talent. |
I am not going to provide with a stat ratings table as their values are completely arbitrary and you will be fooling yourselves if you are gearing up following any strict stat rating table provided anywhere. If you want to follow a simple formula and you feel you must then the following makes for a good reference:
Intellect [= Spellpower] > Spirit >Haste (Until 871 for the start of the tier, jump to 3764 for when the gear allows you too )> Mastery rating (~50%) > Crit
Further analysis is provided below , do read on.
Intellect is our primary stat. It increases spellpower at a 1:1 ratio.It converts weakly into crit and it is subsequent to the following calculation for lvl 90 : 2533.66Int = 1%crit
You should always strive to get as much as possible through gear, gems and enchants with very few exceptions. Gear is your primary source for intellect. Note that wearing all mail armor grants you with a 5% bonus Intellect so wearing anything but is not a viable option.
As of 5.0.1 intellect it is no longer part of the regen formula and will not boost the value of spirit.
Normalizing mana across the board at 300k at lvl 90 means that intellect doesn't provide with any active or passive boost on your mana regen thus making spirit more valuable.
Intellect will interact with our resurgence mildly due to its conversion to crit. Shamans therefore will also stand to gain a bit of mana back from our primary stat. Check Crit section for further information about Resurgence.
Spirit (aside from Water Shield procs and Resurgence ) is our main source of mana regeneration. With the fixed mana pools of MoP, stacking intellect has no effect on our mana regeneration, so spirit is what you will look towards increasing the amount of mana you are getting back. One of the interesting features of MoP will be to figure out what levels of spirit is right for you and your raid composition. Take note that depending on the strength of your dps, length of fights, and your own skill as a healer and specific raid encounter mechanics, you will need more or less of this stat. It is worth noting that every point of spirit is a point lost in a throughput stat buffing your spells, be it crit, mastery or haste. It is also possible to trade intellect for spirit, through gemming ,some enchants and through potions, flasks and buff food.
Spirit converts to MP5 as follows:
100 Spirit = 56.4384MP5 with 50% Meditation.
There is a known bug affecting the behavior of HTT and HST regarding haste. It appears that HTT and HST will gain or lose a tick near their haste breakpoints due to latency issues and might randomly award another tick at arbitrary haste levels. The second part has led the resto community to believe that the haste breakpoints are wrong which is not the case. For all intent and purposes the Haste section and its theorycrafting will reflect the intended behavior of both of these abilities.
Personal observations (special thanks to Mimu for his valuable help) have proved the following. For more detailed information and the observed results refer to the discussion at #69. In short :
1. HST and HTT breakpoints are correct however if you have above 50 world latency chances are that you are going to lose a tick if you are very close to your haste breakpoint more often than not.
2. HTT breakpoints in practice will, to some extent, follow Healing Rains breakpoints. Note that both totems will not follow spell haste breakpoint calculation methods due to their fixed duration so there is no need for time adjustment in the formula (special thanks to Binkestein for his help on that). This means that even though HTT appears to almost coincide with HR breakpoints, by no means their formulas are the same.
[b]As a final note. With the latency issues all of HTT and HST breakpoints are fluid and very unreliable. Just because you hit a haste breakpoint you are not guaranteed an extra tick. It is not therefore recommended to aim for these soft haste caps. For more information on how to reforge do read on. For in-depth explanation refer to #71.
How to reforge Haste
Since HST and HTT extra ticks are for the most part dependent on your latency their first breakpoint of 3764(3306 for goblins) is greatly devalued. Aim for as low as 871 (441 for goblins) as you can. For this exact reason Ancestral Swiftness talent is also greatly devalued. Given the fact that Echo of the Elements doesn't synergize well with most spells Elemental Mastery talent becomes the strongest contender. As gear ilevels increase haste will become exponentially harder to control. Depending on your percentage of RT usage ,when 5676 (5199 for goblins) becomes easy to attain, you might want to reforge to it although it is not recommended since that one extra tick of the HoT portion will not make up for the loss of the throughput the other secondary stats would bring. At 7613 (7116 for goblins) HR gets an extra tick. In a situation where you're stuck at a high level of haste, it can be beneficial to go for that haste breakpoint, however, the throughput gained would generally not make up for the lost secondaries in other stats, specifically crit and mastery. Refer to Secondary Stats Priority and Reforging section of this guide for further information on Mastery vs Crit. As a rule of thumb, consider reforging to haste only when you are very close to the haste breakpoint and you cannot reforge out of it.
Haste is one of our secondary stats. To get 1% haste you need 425 haste rating. Haste provides with a lot of throughput that is attached to a sizable mana cost. It directly decreases our reaction time since it effectively lowers all our direct spells casting time , reduces global cooldowns and has the additional benefit of adding extra ticks at certain breakpoints to the hot portions of Riptide, Healing Rain,Healing Tide Totem and all Earthliving procs. These breakpoints are affected by the tier 60 Talent
Ancestral Swiftness (+5%haste), being a goblin (+1%haste) and having the passive raid buff, for example
Elemental Oath (+5%haste) brought by an Elemental Shaman, Balance druid or Shadow priest. Below are the first few breakpoints for each combination.
| Spell | # | Ticks | Percent | Unbuffed | AS (+5%) | Raid(+10%) | | Goblin Unbuff | Goblin AS | Goblin Raid |
|---|
| Riptide | +1 | 7 | 8.32% | 3538 | 1345 | 0 | | 3082 | 911 | 0 |
| Healing Rain | +1 | 6 | 9.98% | 4242 | 2017 | 0 | | 3780 | 1576 | 0 |
| Earthliving Weapon | +1 | 5 | 12.51% | 5316 | 3039 | 871 | | 4843 | 2588 | 441 |
| Healing Tide Totem | +1 | 7 | 20.01% | 8506 | 6077 | 3764 | | 8001 | 5596 | 3306 |
| Healing Stream Totem | +2 | 8 | 20.01% | 8506 | 6077 | 3764 | | 8001 | 5596 | 3306 |
| Riptide | +2 | 8 | 24.97% | 10614 | 8085 | 5676 | | 10089 | 7584 | 5199 |
| Healing Rain | +2 | 7 | 30% | 12749 | 10118 | 7613 | | 12202 | 9597 | 7116 |
| Healing Stream Totem | +3 | 9 | 33.29% | 14148 | 11451 | 8882 | | 13587 | 10917 | 8373 |
| Earthliving Weapon | +2 | 6 | 37.52% | 15947 | 13163 | 10513 | | 15368 | 12612 | 9988 |
| Healing Tide Totem | +2 | 8 | 40.01% | 17003 | 14170 | 11471 | | 16414 | 13609 | 10937 |
| Riptide | +3 | 9 | 41.68% | 17713 | 14846 | 12115 | | 17117 | 14278 | 11574 |
| Healing Stream Totem | +4 | 11 | 46.68% | 19840 | 16872 | 14044 | | 19223 | 16284 | 13484 |
| Healing Rain | +3 | 8 | 49.98% | 21243 | 18207 | 15316 | | 20611 | 17606 | 14744 |
| Earthliving Weapon | +3 | 7 | 62.47% | 26550 | 23262 | 20130 | | 25866 | 22611 | 19510 |
You can follow the following formula to find out what your new cast time will be : New Cast Time = [Base Cast Time / ((( 1 + (Haste Rating / 425 x 100 )) x 1.05)]
The values on the table above are derived from
Binkenstein's,
Healer Haste Breakpoint Cards.
Depending on how many passive haste buffs you have accumulated on you, for the beginning of this tier it seems that a haste cap of
871(
441 for goblins) that gathers an additional tick for Riptide,Healing Rain and Earthliving weapon is the apparent best value for money choice. There are some stipulations surrounding this. First we need to consider that it is a very low number meaning we might not be able to reforge out of it enough to reach the haste cap. In this case we see unfortunately Ancestral Swiftness being devalued, since you will barely need that extra 5% haste. Therefore it would be possibly best to aim for the
2017 (
1576 for goblins) soft cap and opt for Elemental Mastery if there is a burst need of healing needed or Echo of the Elements for passive bonus healing instead. Refer to the talent section for further analysis of that tier. However 25man shamans might miss the extra Earthliving tick by doing so. When the gear upgrades allow us to have enough mastery and crit (refer to the Secondary Stats Priority and Reforging section ) we can look up to the
3764 (
3306 for goblins ) second haste cap that will boost both our throughput by rising HST and HTT count by one tick.
Judging from the haste table in order to make the jump from the first additional tick to the second (HST gains a 3rd), on all of the abilities above, the haste rating price is rather steep (more than 2000 rating). Considering the fact that Spirit, Crit and Mastery will better compliment our throughput and efficiency while starting out, it is apparent that any more haste would be worth very little.The value of haste is greatest when mana is not an issue and for the beginning of MoP we will need more regen, especially now that our mana is equalized across the board at 300k. It is important to note that Earthliving uptime has greatly increased in this expansion (for further details check the spells section above) making the extra tick even more valuable.
Crit affects most heals you have in one or more ways, and comes with a substantial mana back component via Resurgence. It will proc Ancestral Awakening making its throughput 30% stronger. At lvl 90 we need 600 Crit rating for 1% crit and it will heal for 200% of the original spell.
For shamans Crit is considered a hybrid stat since it combines throughput with a mana back factor. Its realistic problem is that it is unreliable and due to its RNG nature completely out of your control. While with 20% Crit you can guarantee that 1 out of 5 spells will Crit you can never know which one and how much percentage of that healing will end up on your overhealing meters.
That said, regarding its throughput using average numbers Crit will be better than any other stat for targets above 46.7% regarding single target heals and for targets above 66.7% for AoE heals. (method at
R41#4 with updated math for lvl 90)
Regarding its mana back component , its regeneration point by point is weaker than that of pure spirit given that 100 spirit gives us 55.68mp5. 100 Spirit is superior to 100 Crit rating for most of our spells although GHW and HW seem to come very close. All results on the following table are calculated using 0% haste.
Crit has gotten more value in MoP, due to the fact that the amount of mana back we gain from resurgence was buffed. I would recommend not to overlook this stat as its gains are far superior to what we were used to.
| Spells | 100 Crit Rating MP5 |
|---|
| Riptide | 29.5 |
| GHW + Tidal Waves | 42.1 |
| HW + Tidal Waves | 42.1 |
| HS + Tidal Waves | 29.5 |
| Chain Heal | 9.82 |
| Healing Rain | 0 |
| Unleash Elements | 29.5 |
| Earth Shield | 0 |
| Healing Stream Totem | 0 |
| Healing Tide Totem | 0 |
100 more crit rating would increase our crit percentage by 0.0016666, and therefore the average mana back from HW would increase by 0.0016666*8849 = 14.75mana per cast. If we were to continuously spam HW, with its reduced cast time of 1.75 seconds, this would amount to 14.75/1.75 * 5 = 42.1mp5. Given that 100 Spirit would have given us 56.43mp5, we find that Crit Rating will land us with slightly worse mana regen than Spirit would. Take a look how the rest of our spells compare at the table above.
Mastery is a throughput stat that grows stronger the lower the health of your healing targets is. It affects almost all heals but for more information on that refer to the Procs table. If your target is at 1 HP you will get the full benefit out of your mastery, and at 30% you will get 70% out of your mastery. Healing someone at 90% health will get you only 10% out of your mastery.
At lvl90 it works as following 600 Mastery = 1 point of Mastery = 3% of the effect of mastery (for detailed information refer to
#10 , with my thanks to Bink )
% Healing Increase = (-1 x Max Deep Healing % x HP of target) + (Max Deep Healing %)
Our base Mastery percentage with 0 Mastery rating in our gear for MoP is 39%. The reason behind this is that every lvl90 Resto Shaman has a base mastery of 24% and for MoP we get another 15% ( 3000mastery rating through our passive Grace of Air raid buff) added to that, bringing us to a total of 39% of Mastery.
| Health Breakpoint | Comment |
| 66.7% | Crit with modifier 1 (multi target 5.04) |
| 52.9% | Haste |
| 46.7% | Crit with modifier 1.6 (single target 5.04) |
How does this translate regarding spells?
When target is < 100% hp: Mastery is better than haste for HR, Riptide, UE
When target is < 66.7% hp: Mastery is better than crit for HR and CH
When target is < 46.7% hp: Mastery is better than crit for single target heals
Special note for when you have equipped the meta gems
Revitalizing Primal Diamond and
Burning Primal Diamond that give you 3% increased crit effect. Crits will heal for 268% , up from 260% for spells that are AA eligible and for 206% up from 200% for spells that are not. The breakpoints therefore will change like so as illustrated below :
| Health Breakpoint | Comment (with 3% increased crit effect) |
| 64.7% | Crit with modifier 1.06 (multi target 5.04) |
| 52.9% | Haste |
| 44.0% | Crit with modifier 1.68 (single target 5.04) |
Note that these are purely based on throughput. The mana returns from crit and additional mana cost for haste is not included.
[top] Secondary Stats Priority and Reforging
Every stat has its strengths and weaknesses. In terms of raw throughput haste is superior to both mastery and crit on average. Mastery is the strongest stat by far when everyone is low, which is arguably the most useful stat for progression. Haste burns your mana faster, crit returns mana, mastery is neutral. However there is always a delicate balance between them and as always at certain breakpoints one stat will be more preferable than the other.
Given the incredible amount of Mastery that we start with and the low first soft haste cap we encounter, navigation through different secondary stats will be easier. As always preference and different game styles will play a big role in what you choose however depending on your progression , the fight and your role in the raid, stat priority might change.
The table below illustrates how 100points of every stat will compare to each other regarding their relative increase in healing throughput. For the calculations mastery is set at 50%.
| Value % | Stat Rating | Increased Healing Percentage |
|---|
| 80% HP | 100 Mastery | 0.091% |
| 50% HP | 100 Mastery | 0.2% |
| 20% HP | 100 Mastery | 0.286% |
| 13.35% Haste | 100 Haste | 0.207% |
| 20% Crit | 100 Crit | 0.202%(Direct Heals) |
| 20% Crit | 100 Crit | 0.139%(AoE Heals) |
- Be mindful of the amount of spirit you need to sustain you through the fights. There is no point in buffing up your healing throughput if you are to run out of mana. Most progression fights will assume a soft enrage based on healers mana and efficiency so get as much as you need without overdoing it. When you end up with more than 10%mana on any fight then you have too much spirit.
- Along with getting at comfortable levels with your spirit note that you will need to reach a minimum amount of haste before you start reforging to either mastery or crit. 871 ( 416 for goblins) [ 3764 (3327 for goblins) when the gear allows you to) is enough for you to get to the first breakpoint for every HoT. Do not neglect this. (Note also that for 13.35% haste 0.207% increased healing would only be realistic if the entirety of our healing came from 100% direct heals. )
- As soon as you are safe with your spirit and haste levels its time to look at your mastery. At lvl 90 we start with 39% fixed mastery so its easier than ever to bump that number at 45%-50%. Aim for those levels before you start reforging what is left to crit (although you will soon discover that you will reach them by default through gear upgrades and you will reach a point where you can't possibly reforge down from there).
- After you have balanced your mastery feel free to invest in crit. The reason for this is that mastery loses its value after this point, and any further stat points would be arguably better spent in crit, due to resurgence and AA. Remember that crit is a strong opponent now in MoP, the fact that I have listed it last is not because it's devalued but because there are specific soft caps for haste and mastery.
While the above guidelines are generally designed for a balanced throughput and mana efficiency remember that you will be the one deciding on how to proceed. You should run some raids, check your performance using your logs and then revisit your spell composition. Be mindful of the health levels of your raid and act accordingly. If your raid is below ~40% for most of the fight you should invest points in mastery. If you find that your raid is topped very quickly after incoming damage, your mastery is better spent in crit. If you struggle with people dying before your heals land, maybe you need more haste even at the expense of not abiding with haste breakpoints. As a rule of thumb, never stop evaluating yourself , combat log is your best friend in game.
[top] Professions
Below you can find a table with all the updated professions and their bonuses for MoP. Note that some of the professions will give you noticeably a better bonus than others.
| Type | Benefit | Comments (5.0.4 Patch) |
|---|
| Engineering | Since patch 4.0.1, tinkers now stack with normal enchants. Synapse Springs tinker to gloves provides +1920Int for 10 seconds with a 60 second CD. This averages to a +320Int bonus if used on CD. | Acceptable |
| Leatherworking | +500Int to bracers in place of +180Int, giving a +320Int bonus. | Acceptable |
| Jewelcrafting | 2 Brilliant Serpent's Eye +320Int, in place of Brilliant Primordial Ruby +160Int provides with a +320Int bonus or 2 Sparkling Serpent's Eye +480Spirit in place of 2 Sparkling River's Heart +320Spirit will provide with a +320Spirit Bonus. | Acceptable |
| Blacksmithing | Extra sockets into wrists and gloves provides either 2 additional Brilliant Primordial Rubyfor +320Int bonus or 2 Sparkling River's Heart for a +640Spirit bonus. | Recommended |
| Alchemy | Mixology, combined with Flask of the Warm Sun provides a +320Int or +480Spirit bonus. bonus. | Acceptable |
| Enchanting | +160Int to each ring provides a +320Int bonus. | Acceptable |
| Inscription | +520Int/100crit haste shoulder enchant is a +320Int bonus over the regular enchant. | Acceptable |
| Tailoring | Lightweave Embroidery gives 2000 Int for 15 seconds on a 64 second ICD. This averages to 468Int, which replaces the normal +180Int enchant, providing only a +288Int bonus. / Darkglow Embroidery gives + 3000 Spirit for 15sec on a 50sec ICD. This averages to +900Spirit making it an incredible choice for mana regen (Many thanks to Vixsin for discovering it and Beruthiel for identifying it ). | Recommended |
| Herbalism | Lifeblood is now a cooldown providing a small heal and 2880 haste for 20 seconds on a 2 minute CD. This averages to an +480haste bonus. | Not recommended for raiding |
| Skinning | + 480Crit | Not recommended for raiding |
| Mining | + 480Stamina | Not recommended for raiding |
Below is a table for MoP enchants appropriate for Resto Shamans. It is by no means a BiS list, refer to the Stats - Secondary Stats Priority and Reforging for detailed information about how to best enchant your gear.
[top] Colored Gems
Gems in Mists of Pandaria got a facelift of great proportions regarding secondary stats. Every secondary stat now carries double the value in numbers of a primary. This will make the act of gemming a little more complex as you try to balance your stats. As a rule of thumb always use the same rules that you would for reforging. Refer to the Secondary Stats Priority and Reforging section for more information. As a final note be mindful of the socket bonuses, they will now play a significant role in how you choose to gem. Generally the rule of 2 for 1 can apply here. Always gem for Intellect unless there is a double gain for any other stat. For example if you can gain 320 Spirit over 160 Intellect consider doing so.
Meta gems have also received a quality of life upgrade. You no longer need to meet any requirements to activate them.That makes choosing between colored gems somewhat easier since now you only need to focus on the stats you really need rather than the color that would otherwise activate your meta.
| Meta | Bonus | Comment | Throughput Estimate* | Regen Estimate* |
|---|
| Revitalizing Primal Diamond | +432 Spirit ,3% Crit Effect | Valuable choice early on in the expansion when our spirit needs are higher | | |
| Ember Primal Diamond | +216 Int ,2% Maximum Mana | Not as valuable for a shaman healer since the minor mana pool upgrade is less beneficial than crit. | | |
| Burning Primal Diamond | +216 Int ,3% Crit Effect | Best choice for later in the expansion or when spirit levels from obtaining high end raiding gear allows you to opt for better healing throughput | | |
Added in 5.2 : A special mention on the new legendary meta gem added in the legendary line.
Courageous Primal Diamond will be the meta to choose out of the 4 choices for healing. As of now we do not know if this is going to replace our meta gem in our head gear or its ICD.
ToDo : Calculate rough estimates for Throughput and Regen.
[top] Consumables
While the table below lists all high end consumables that are available for healers for MoP, the more we progress into the tier using Intellect flasks, food and pots is advisable. This falls into the category of preferring 2 to 1 on stats. Any kind of consumable at this point gives us the same amounts of Intellect and Spirit. It is advisable to choose Intellect consumables and opt for gemming into spirit when you can instead, using the gemming guidelines above.
On the table below you will find all relevant trinkets for the resto spec. Note that normal dungeon ilvl trinkets will not be included for obvious reasons. All major trinkets that are present will be represented by their highest version on the far left column. The Static/Average INT column will display the passive Int value each trinket has, or its average on use or on proc value which is derived by the following formula : AverageINT= [Proc *Duration]ICD
Added in 5.1 : Like the rest of our gear,trinkets can be upgraded with valor points (heroic dungeon quality items can be upgraded with justice points). These changes are added in the table below in
purple ( in
blue for heroic dungeon items) and only the highest item level version of each trinket is featured. The difference of scaling in trinkets is negligible with trinkets scaling almost linearly. For example :
[Spirits of the Sun] scaled for 7.77%,
[Qin-xi's Polarizing Seal] for 7.72% and
[Relic of Chi Ji] for 7.78%. For this reason all conclusions remain the same if we compare fully upgraded items.
Added in 5.2 : Or more accurately
removed from 5.1. The upgrade NPC will not be available for upgrades in this patch. If you have trinkets that are already upgraded follow the list below. For 5.2 there is a new mechanic added in the form of
Thunderforged Items. This means there will be 5 variations of the same item ( all loot is included except tier pieces). The ilvl difference from a normal or heroic piece to its Thunderforged equivalent is +6 ( LFR items will not have access to this ingame upgrade system). The table below will reflect these upgrades in the same way as it reflected the VP upgrades. For the sake of comparisons I will always compare the highest version of each trinket which will be the fully upgraded one.
RealPPM in 5.2 : All trinkets added in 5.2 (with the exception of the VP trinket Soothing Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault) will have their proc rate controlled by the new RealPPM system. For more info on RPPM you can read up in
this announcement. Any direct heal or existing HoT will have a chance to trigger the proc. The formula for figuring out the proc chance is the following :
Proc chance = PPM x ( 1+ H) x T/60
(Where PPM is the buff’s build in constant, H is our current haste rating and T is the time since the last attack that gave a chance to proc or duration of the buff). An excellent analysis
by Hamlet explains how RealPPM works in depth for those that are interested in more information.
What is most important to notice is how our haste rating affects the proc frequency of the new 5.2 trinkets. The more haste we have the more frequently the trinkets special on equip will proc or will be available for use. For the table below I will use 20.01% haste which is equivalent to 3764 soft haste breakpoint. For more tables concerning how haste affects the procs and further analysis on the new trinkets you can read up on my
5.2 Healing Trinket Compendium. Also I am attaching a spreadsheet that can be found
in an XLS form at #110. Changing Haste and Spellpower values will automatically change times and healing for procs.
| Trinket | iLvL | Boosts MTT | MP5 | Static/Average Spirit | Static/Average Int | Comment |
|---|
| [Stolen Relic of Zuldazar] | 502/522/528/535/541 | Yes | 688/828/876/935/?(810/975/1032/1102/?)* | | - | Added in 5.2. This trinket has an on use CD of 20sec that prohibits you from unleashing it at 1 stack (One stack per approximately 16sec at 20.01% haste) . The least amount of stacks that can be released is from 2 and beyond for a 21086 /31629 / 42172 / 52715 / 63258 shield. Its RPPM is set on 3.The average amount of time needed for accumulating 6 charges is 100sec at 20.01% haste. |
| [Inscribed Bag of Hydra-Spawn] | 502/522/528/535/541 | Yes | 688/828/876/935/?(810/975/1032/1102/?)* | | - | Added in 5.2. Its difference from the trinket above is that the shield proc is random and it occurs roughly every 44sec at 20.01% haste. In direct comparison to its contender we can see that its theoretical ICD is shorter ( for a shield of 31629K the difference is 6seconds making the Inscribed Bag of Hydra-Spawn roughly 11.50% faster on its application) however its random proc nature makes it less attractive. Its RPPM is set on 1.13 with 17sec prohibitive CD. |
| [Lightning-Imbued Chalice] | 502/522/528/535/541 | No | - | | | Added in 5.2.This trinkets proc is again based on accumulating a stacking buff of 6charges which this time will be instantly released onto a target healing them for a certain amount (for more info check #110). Its theoretical release time is around 50seconds at 20.01% haste. Again this is another trinket with an non controllable proc which is however quite strong and will get stronger as your item level rises. Its RPPM is set on 6, no ICD. |
| [Horridon's Last Gasp] | 502/522/528/535/541 | No | 688/828/?/935/? | - | 1218/1467/1552/1657/? | Added in 5.2.Horridon’s Last Gasp is a direct upgrade of the VP purchasable trinket. It’s worth to be noted that while at comparable ilvls of 522 with the same intellect Horridon’s Last Gasp has a theoretical ICD of around 50seconds at 20.01% haste while the Soothing Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault has an 180sec CD. Its RPPM is set on 1. |
| [Soothing Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault] | 522 | No | 828 | - | 1467 | Added in 5.2. Can be obtained by the new faction Shado-Pan Assault upon reaching Friendly. Its intellect beats marginally the fully upgraded [Spirits of the Sun] HC version but not [Qin-xi's Polarizing Seal] normal one. It's an amazing upgrade for fully upgraded [Relic of Chi Ji]. |
| [Spirits of the Sun] | 483/496/509/517 | No | 658/743/838/903 | 1166/1316/1485/1600 | 1021/1152/1300/1401 | The highest ilvl trinket any healer can get in this patch. In its heroic version it provides with the best passive healing throughput and the best mana regen. It works on 15% proc chance with 105sec ICD. |
| [Heartwarmer Medallion] | 496 | No | 542 | 960 | 1152 | Added in 5.1. Can be obtained from the new fanction Operation: Shieldwall for Alliance and Dominance Offensive for Horde. It is a direct upgrade from [Jade Courtesan Figurine] with similar stats and procs.While its overall stats are almost identical with the LFR version of [Qin-xi's Polarizing Seal], its passive intellect will make it a better choice for throughput. |
| [Qin-xi's Polarizing Seal] | 476/489/502/510 | Yes | 540/609/687/741 (636/717/809/873)* | 956/1079/1218/1313 | 1274/1438/1624/1749 | Even though this trinket seems to have the highest average intellect, its random proc nature is unfavorable to healers making it a rather unfortunate choice regarding healing throughput. It rivals Spirits of the Sun mana regen falling just a few points behind if we factor in MTT gains since it's the only trinket that synergizes with the former giving an additional average of 95.90/108.24/122.18/131.72mp5 accordingly. It works on 15% proc chance with 45sec ICD. |
| [Jade Courtesan Figurine] | 489/497 | No | 398/547 | 705/969 | 1079/1163 | This trinket drops from trash mobs in MV raid. Its stats are exactly the same as [Scroll of Revered Ancestors].Both of these trinkets offer less MP5 than HC dungeon trinkets and similar Int. Not worth holding into if you have [Empty Fruit Barrel]. |
| [Scroll of Revered Ancestors] | 489/497 | No | 398/547 | 705/969 | 1079/1163 | The only trinket that can be acquired with valor points. It provides marginally better throughput than its contenders described below while it possesses the worst regen out of epic quality trinkets in game. Definitely not worth spending Valor Points on. |
| [Relic of Chi Ji] | 476/484 | No | 759/818 | 1345/1450 | 1157/1247 | The all new Darkmoon Card craftable trinket is proving to be one of the strongest contenders in this patch. Don't let its low ilvl fool you, its healing throughput is quite sufficient while it boasts the best regen in the game,surpassed only by the heroic versions of the highest ilvl trinkets. It works on 15% proc chance with 45sec ICD. |
| [Thousand-Year Pickled Egg] | 470 | No | - | - | 904 | This trinket drops from Coren Direbrew only during the Brewfest festival.It procs 5082 haste on 15% chance. (Need confirmation on its ICD). It feels more like a dps trinket rather than a healing one. Its intellect levels are almost on par with the 463 Heroic Dungeons trinkets and its on proc haste makes it very questionable candidate for any healing class. |
| [Empty Fruit Barrel] | 463/471 | Yes | 478/515 (563/607)* | 847/913 | 1129/1216 | The only 463 trinket that works with Mana Tide Totem effectively adding 84.97/91.59mp5 if used on CD. With its chance to proc a hefty amount of intellect on a proc rate of 15% with a 30 sec ICD it makes for the best candidate for a Resto Shaman out of all it's contenders on the same ilvl. |
| [Price of Progress] | 463/471 | No | 565/609 | -/- | 847/913 | This trinkets mana regen will follow the formula MP5 = [5082/ICD]*5. As discussed in #14 its ICD has been adjusted up to 45sec. It's still a very strong trinket for its ilvl however not as strong as to hold on to when you get a chance to replace it with [Relic of Chi Ji] or LFR version and above of [Qin-xi's Polarizing Seal] and [Spirits of the Sun]. |
| [Vial of Ichorous Blood] | 463/471 | No | 399/440 | 707/762 | 847/913 | Good starter trinket, you will outgrow it very soon however since it has the worst throughput and the worst regen in game. |
| [Zen Alchemist Stone] | 450 | No | - | - | 1140 | The lowest item level trinket in this list ,it is only included due to its unique nature. It only offers spirit by reforging 300 of its mastery away but its on equip ability increases it's mp5. It will be the first trinket you will outgrow. |
*
Adjusted value of MP5 for use of MTT on CD.
Note : Only
[Qin-xi's Polarizing Seal] and
[Empty Fruit Barrel] will synergize with MTT in 5.1 ,the rest of the trinkets will not as proven in the discussion
#96 (with my thanks to ZloyMH ).
[top] Set Bonuses
| Tier | Bonus | Comments |
|---|
| T14 Restoration 2P Bonus | Reduces the mana cost of your Greater Healing Wave spell by 10% | With Healing Surge dominating Greater Healing Wave HPS and HPM at low level crit percentages (for more info refer to #15, this bonus seems rather underwhelming in low ilvls. However in the middle or end of the tier it will prove useful with a rotation of TW-GHW-GHW or TW-GHW-GHW-GHW. |
| T14 Restoration 4P Bonus | Your Tidal Waves ability grants an additional 5% cast time reduction to Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave, and an additional 5% critical chance to Healing Surge. | This set bonus is very straightforward.GHW and HW and HS HPS rise by some percentage and HS remains the winner by far. GHW and HW HPM remain the same while HS HPM rises however does not gain enough momentum as to overthrow GHW HPM. |
| Shaman T15 Restoration 2P Bonus | Your Healing Stream Totem now heals an additional target for 50% 25% of its normal amount. | This is a straight up bonus on our HST throughput and a very strong one given the fact that HST provides with the least overhealing of all our spells due to its smart healing. Keep in mind that with this pc bonus there is no excuse not to drop HST on CD. |
| Shaman T15 Restoration 4P Bonus | Your Ancestral Awakening now has a 50% chance to trigger on non-critical heals. | This bonus is great in paper but it does devalue slightly our crit and it raises a question of how much of its healing will lead to overheal rather than boost our throughput. Either way it's another passive buff to pur healing like our 2pc bonus above. |
[top] Lost Synergy / Procs Table
Not all spells and abilities are synergizing with each other. In the table below you will find what affects what in regards of spells and which abilities stack with each other.
| Spells/Can proc/be affected by | Ancestral Vigor | Earthliving HoT | Ascendance | Fire/Earth Elemental | Unleash Life | Unleash Fury | Earth Shielded | Mastery | Haste | Critical | Resurgence | Ancestral Awakening | Echo of the Elements |
|---|
| Healing Wave | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— |
| Healing Surge | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— |
| Greater Healing Wave | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— |
| Chain Heal | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | - | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | - | â—4 |
| Unleash Life | â— | â— | â— | â— | - | - | â— | â— | - | â— | â— | â— | â—6 |
| Healing Rain | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | - | - | â— | â—1 | â— | - | - | - |
| Riptide Initial Heal | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | - | â—2 | â— | â—1 | â— | â— | â— | â— |
| Riptide HoT | â— | â— | â— | â— | â— | - | - | â— | â—1 | â— | - | â— | â— |
| Earthliving HoT* | - | - | ? | â— | - | - | - | â— | â—1 | ? | - | - | â—5 |
| Earth Shield Heal | - | - | - | ? | - | - | - | â— | - | â— | - | - | - |
| Healing Tide Totem | - | - | - | â— | - | - | - | â—3 | â— | â— | - | - | - |
| Healing Stream Totem | - | - | - | â— | - | - | - | â—3 | â— | â— | - | - | - |
Notes :
1. Only at certain breakpoints. Refer to Haste section for further analysis.
2. Check occurs on Riptide cast.
3. Healing Stream totems and HTT's ticks dynamically adjust with the shamans mastery instead of snapshotting it.
4. When CHeal procs from Echo, the whole spell is duplicated. The CHeal Echo is a smart heal as it targets the lowest HP.( Echo of the Element’s proc chance is 6% )
5. EotElements will proc EL however, if EL HoT is already present on the target EotE will only refresh it. It does not stack with the existing one.
6. Using EL followed by GHW, Echo procs on the GHW do not benefit from the EL enhanced buff.
* The proc has no internal cool down and can potentially proc off every such heal, but Healing Rain and Chain Heal have a greatly reduced proc chance.
ToDo : Verify and determine question-marks.
[top] Mana Sources
As every other healer ,the shaman gets mana back primarily from Spirit. However we are unique in having various other methods of either passive or active regeneration which include getting mana back when our spells crit through Resurgence , our Water shield, our raid cooldown Mana Tide Totem and through the glyph of Telluric Currents.
[top] Resurgence
For a deeper comprehension of the behavior of our spells, we will use the table below as a reference whenever we need to compare our mana intake and mana output.
The table below includes mp5 costs of our various spells under zero Haste Rating. GHW ,HW and HS are always cast with Tidal Waves buff and the numbers shown in parenthesis are the averaged sum of the actual mana cost after subtracting resurgence effects on 20% crit.
Resurgence is in fact a mana conservation method rather than a mana mp5 increase but for this thread purposes we will refer to it as mana regen so we can easily compare it with everything else.
| Spells | Cast time(0 Haste Rating) | MANA COST (20% crit) | MP5 MANA COST (Minus Resurgence) | RESURGENCE mana gains | RESURGENCE mana gains on 20%crit |
|---|
| Riptide | 1.5 | 9600 (8538) | 32000 (28460) | 5309 (55%) | 1062 |
| Riptide HoT | - | - | - | - | - |
| GHW + Tidal Waves | 1.75 | 16140 (14370) | 46114 (41057) | 8849 (54.82%) | 1770 |
| HW + Tidal Waves | 1.75 | 5940 (4170) | 16971 (11914) | 8849 (54.82%) | 1770 |
| HS + Tidal Waves | 1.5 | 20580 (17925) | 68600 (59750) | 5309 (25.79%) | 2655 |
| Chain Heal | 2.5 | 13500 (11143) | 27000 (22286) | 2946 (21%) | 2357 ( 4Hits) |
| Healing Rain Tick | 2 | 25860 | 64650 | - | - |
| Unleash Elements | 1.5 | 4920 (3858) | 16400 (12860) | 5309 (107.90%) | 1062 |
| Earthliving Tick | - | - | - | - | - |
| Healing Stream Totem | 1.5 | 14100 | 47000 | - | - |
| Healing Tide Totem | 1.5 | 4800 | 16000 | - | - |
How would haste affect the numbers above?
In general, we need to multiply by [1+HastePercentage] to find the actual costs given your haste percentage.At a haste rate of say 20%, these numbers need to be increased by 20%. As a conclusion haste will of course increase our healing throughput but will also decrease our time to run out of mana.
It is important to note that resurgence scales well with every other stat save spirit, and will likely be considerable source of mana back as we gain more intellect, crit and haste.
[top] Water Shield
Water Shield gives you a passive 2138 Mp5, but every time a hit will trigger it you will also gain 2928 mana. If triggered every time on ICD, it would give you an average of 4880 mp5. This is unrealistically high, however. Water shield comes with a glyph that reduces its passive mana regen by 15% reducing it to 1817 mp5. On the same note it will increase its on hit regen by 50% making it 4392 per hit amounting to 7320 mp5.
In any fight where water shield reliably triggers more than 2.63 times every 1 minute, this glyph will give you a significant boost in mana regen.
After extensive testing (findings can be found in the discussion at
#85), it is proven that the Glyph of Water Shield is almost obsolete, as in most of the fights it will act as a disadvantage draining you of the mana the non glyphed version would have landed you with. Even for the few cases where the glyphed version seems superior, the other options for glyphs that we can choose from (Glyph of Totemic recall being the most prominent ) surpass its MP5 gain with ease.
For those that are still wondering which bosses can benefit from the glyph below you will find a detailed table with recommendations regarding the application of Water Shield glyph. Take these with a grain of salt and always check your own Water Shield relative mana gains from your combat log or alternatively from uploading your own parses in WoL.
Legend :
- (-) : Not recommended setup.
- (â—) : Recommended setup.
- (-/â—) : Both will provide marginally the same mana.
| Raid | Encounter | Unglyphed WS | Glyphed WS |
|---|
| MV | The Stone Guard | - | â— |
| MV | Feng the Accursed | -/ â— | -/â— |
| MV | Gara'jal the Spiritbinder | â— | - |
| MV | The Spirit Kings | -/ â— | -/â— |
| MV | Elegon | -/ â— | -/â— |
| MV | Will of the Emperor | â— | - |
| | | | |
| HoF | Imperial Vizier Zor'lok | â— | - |
| HoF | Blade Lord Ta'yak | â— | - |
| HoF | Garalon | â— | - |
| HoF | Wind Lord Mel'jarak | â— | - |
| HoF | Amber-Shaper Un'sok | - | â— |
| HoF | Grand Empress Shek'zeer | - | â— |
| | | | |
| ToES | Protectors of the Endless | -/â— | -/â— |
| ToES | Tsulong | â— | - |
| ToES | Lei Shi | â— | - |
| ToES | Sha of Fear | â— | - |
Added for 5.2 : The benefits of Glyph of Water shield for the Throne of Thunder raid instance are presented below. It is worth noting that in the encounter Jin'okh, whether using the glyph or not makes no difference while there are only 2 bosses in the whole tier where Glyph of Water Shield is beneficial at all and those are Council of Elders and Durumu the Forgotten. Using the glyph however is not advisable since the benefit is around 20k mana maximum each for the whole duration of both of the encounters.
| Raid | Encounter | Unglyphed WS | Glyphed WS |
|---|
| ToT | Jin'rokh the Breaker | -/â— | -/â— |
| ToT | Horridon | â— | - |
| ToT | Council of Elders | - | â— |
| ToT | Tortos | â— | - |
| ToT | Megaera | â— | - |
| ToT | Ji-Kun | â— | - |
| ToT | Durumu the Forgotten | - | â— |
| ToT | Primordius | â— | - |
| ToT | Dark Animus | â— | - |
| ToT | Iron Qon | â— | - |
| ToT | Twin Consorts | â— | - |
| ToT | Lei Shen | â— | - |
| ToT | Ra Den | ? | ? |
[top] Mana Tide Totem
Mana Tide totem will increase our spirit and everyone else's spirit within 40yards by 200% of our spirit at the point of use. This will result to an average increase of 17.78% of our spirit. For every 100 Spirit we get an extra 56.43 mp5. For example if we have 10000 spirit we will land with an extra 1778spirit on average and an extra ~1003mp5.
Note that for every 100 spirit while mana tide totem is active our mana regen from spirit rises which slightly devalues crits mp5 benefit via resurgence.
[top] Telluric Currents
This glyph as of MoP requires special consideration since now it will return 2% of our maximum mana (2% *300k =6000mana) without being affected by any of our primary or secondary stats. With LB cost at 4260mana, we receive back 1740mana per cast. Assuming a haste rating of 3500, if we chain cast LB we will end up with a 3955mp5 regen.
This is another unrealistic number and unlike water shield it's not attainable in any way.
[top] Other sources
Our other mana sources include: 50% of our spirit in combat through Meditation, flask, food buff, pots and enchants.
[top] Known Shaman Bugs and Oddities
- As of beta build #16016 HST is not affected by haste or crit. GC in the official balance thread has noted that both HST and HTT will be affected by Haste,Crit and Mastery. Following this statement this guide reflects these changes even though they don't appear in this build.
- As of Version 5.05/ Build 16135, there is a known bug involving haste breakpoints concerning HTT and HST. It seems that HTT and HST will gain random ticks at random haste breakpoints and generally will not follow normal haste breakpoint calculations. For the detailed discussion about this matter you may refer to #46 up until #57.
[top] Fixed Shaman Issues
Placeholder for Future fixed shaman issues.
Patch 5.1- Heroism now increases spell haste, rather than spell casting speed.
- Ancestral Swiftness now has a 1.5 min cooldown, up from 1 min.
- Shaman T14 Restoration 4P Bonus changed to :Your Tidal Waves ability grants an additional 5% cast time reduction to Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave, and an additional 5% critical chance to Healing Surge.
Patch 5.2- Elemental Mastery now has a 90sec cooldown, down from 2 min.
- The talent Totemic Restoration now has an additional effect. Any totems that have been destroyed or replaced behave as if the totem had been active for at least 1 second.
- Stone Bulwark Totem now absorbs 25% more damage.
- When summoned, the Stone Bulwark Totem has health equal to 10% of the casting Shaman's health.
- The talent Nature's Guardian now preserves the player's health percentage when its maximum health boosting effect expires.
- Primal Elementalist now makes your elementals 80% more powerful than regular elementals, up from 50%.
- Conductivity no longer requires that the target be within the area of effect of Healing Rain.
- Healing Rain now costs 15% less mana.
- 14 Sept 2012 - Capacitor Totem should benefit from the shaman's +hit bonuses, as expected.
- 2 Oct 2012 - The [Price of Progress] Item - Proc Mana Energize has been adjusted to occur less frequently. It was adjusted up to 45sec ICD from 15sec.
- 5 Oct 2012 - Players with Elemtental or Restoration specializations no longer suffer pushback when casting Elemental Blast.
- 16 Jan 2013 - Ancestral Guidance will no longer proc off Restorative Mists meaning it does not benefit from Ascendance anymore.
- 13 March 2013 - The following trinkets got an increased proc rate by 5%: [Wushoolay's Final Choice], [Breath of the Hydra], [Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen], [Cha-Ye's Essence of Brilliance], [Horridon's Last Gasp], [Inscribed Bag of Hydra-Spawn], [Stolen Relic of Zuldazar], [Lightning-Imbued Chalice].
- 27 March 2013 - Chain Heal, Healing Rain, and Earthliving Weapon now all heal for 20% more.
- 27 March 2013 - [Lightning-Imbued Chalice] now has a greatly increased chance to generate Infinite Power.
Like previous guides this collection of information is not all written by me. Contributors include previous threads here in Elitist Jerks as well as external sources. Like Aanzeijar I will try to keep a reference after every bit of contributed wisdom. These references will follow the rule of :
Thread Shortcut # post-number.
Shortcuts will include the following :
As a final note, remember any good guide is a work in progress, you might find mistakes or slightly outdated information between patches, I might have been blatantly wrong or my math doesn't add up or simply I forgot to edit myself. In any of these cases if it is a theorycrafting error feel free to reply to the thread, if it is not please pm me to remind me.
I hope that this guide can serve as a focal point for restoration shaman theorycrafting and discussion. Any new conclusions and information will be added, and raise the bar for resto shamans in our community.
[top] Credits and Special Thanks
| Name | Reason |
|---|
| Jessamy | For trusting me with this thread and dedicating time providing me with pointers and proof reading this guide. |
| Aanzeijar | For providing an amazing template to base the new thread on and for setting a great example of a good author. |
| Binkenstein | For the work on the HOT haste calculations spreadsheet and for providing valuable and accurate information through his own forum at TotemSpot. |
| Adinne | For letting me borrow some of her great ideas from her Healycrafting for MoP thread. |
| The Simcraft Team | For their continuing hard work in creating such an excellent tool. |
| Muriac | My partner in crime. For his continuous support, his contribution towards improving the information in this thread through intelligent discussion and dedicating countless hours in beta testing with me. |