Skyhoof

The Wiki for Resto Shaman is now live and available at the
Theorycrafting Think Tank: Shaman: Restoration

Thanks to all who helped with editing and refining the article, especially Daidalos, Malan and Binkenstein.

The Theorycrafting Think Tank is designed to be the definitive source of information. Post there only if you have a correction or update.

If you have a question, or want to discuss an idea, you can still post in this thread.

I have removed most of the information in the first post of “How to Heal Like a Pro,” since it duplicates what is in the Wiki.
Latest Wiki Updates (8/22/2008):

• Added chart listing average stats for shaman at pre-Kara through Sunwell
• Added chart to totem section showing how much dodge tanks gain from Grace of Air
• Added new macro for removing poisons and diseases (Thanks TranquilRage)
• Clarified that threat received from Earth Shield healing is divided evenly among all mobs present.
• Updated tables with revised values for healing spells from Daidalos' spreadsheet
• Added link to haste mechanics thread
• Added links to chardev.org for Best in Slot and Haste sets. Updated haste set.
• Added [] to Best in Slot list (if no DPS caster needs)
• Added [] to section on Spell Hit for Interrupts (Thanks Espera!)
• Patch 2.4.3 removed the ability to swap relics in combat on every spell cast via macros due to the following change:
  Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
• Updates Useful Links & Addons to include GridStatusChainRule. Removed outdated addons.
• Updates spell haste section with haste needed to reduce Chain Heal cast times
• Updates formula for downranking penalty to (Level Learned + 11)/70
• Updates proc rate to 3.85% on [] and notes it has a 15-second hidden cooldown
• Adds [] to best in slot
• Includes nerf to Tier 2 in Patch 2.4.2
• Added both haste and mp5 trinkets from M'uru
• Fixed some minor typos and made other corrections
  
• Chain Heal: Effect on Fire and Earth Elementals
• Consumables: Superior Wizard Oil and Flask of Distilled Wisdom
• Trinkets: List of combinations to super charge your Earth Shield and Healing Stream totem
• Patch 2.4.2 change to Tier 2 set bonsuses
• Relic swapping

==================================================================================

Before making a new post, read the Wiki in the Theorycrafting Think Tank. Many questions are answered there.

When replying to a post, please just don’t give you opinion. Support your argument with facts, figures and WWS links.

RIGHT:
I’ve been specing X-X-X and have seen a significant increase in DPS by the hunters and feral druid in my group. Is it worth giving up [random talent] to boost DPS?

Wrong:
What do you think of my spec? Can I get some feedback?

RIGHT
I think [random trinket] could be really good trinket for shaman. I looked at my WWS from last night’s raid and it appears to proc off each jump of chain heal, which would mean it procs 6% of the time, not 2%. Here's a link to the report. Anyone else notice this?

Wrong:
Can you guys comment on my gear?
Should I regem my shoulders with spinels?

Helpful Links

Binkenstein's ShamStats
Allows comparison of gear based on talents, buffs, etc.

Healing Calcs by Daidalos

RestoShammySpells by Boko
Calculates Avg. Healed, HPS, HPM, MP5 spent for each heal. In addition the real HPS depending on current MP5/Manapool/Time of fight calculated for each spell.


Wrath of the Lich King
Discussion of new talents can be found here: http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t27030-r...on/#post780593

Resto Shaman changes in Patch 2.4.3

• Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress. The change will probably impact those using the mod CasterWeaponSwapper to optimize their Spell Surge enchant. In addition, it will end the ability to relic swap on every spell cast. The following type of macro will now cancel the heal in progress.
  
  /cast Chain Heal
  /equip []
  

Resto Shaman changes in Patch 2.4.2
(PVE only)

• Ten Storms Set: The Chain Heal bonus from this set has been reduced to 5%, down from 30%. Tier 2 gear is now worthless for healing in BC.
• [] buffed with an extra +7 Stamina and +18 healing, making it equivalent to the leather version []
• [] nerfed to +22 Stamina and +21 Intellect (previously +34 Stamina and +29 Intellect). Healing and haste values unchanged.

Resto Shaman changes in Patch 2.4
(PVE only)

• Global cooldown on dropping totems reduced from 1.5 s to 1 s.
• Spell haste on healing gear will be more useful. Spell haste now reduces the global cooldown on spells, down to a minimum of 1 second. This change does not apply to melee and ranged abilities.
• Totem UI allows individual totems to be destroyed, and is accessible through the API for macros/mods.
  
• Earth Shield: Mana cost reduced roughly in half (450 mana instead of 900 mana), and charges reduced from 10 to 6. Each charge will cost 16.7% less mana to cast but you will have to cast the shield 40% more often.
  
• Tremor Totem now pulses every 3 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
  
• Archon’s Gavel will be an alternative for shaman who don't have [].
  
• You will no longer have to remember to retrain Earth Shield if you respect. Characters will now retain talented spell ranks so when they retalent they do not have to relearn the spells from trainers.
  
• Fixing []. Unlike all the other relics, this one was being applied after talents and set bonuses. It will not be correctly applied before talents and set bonuses. So, instead of saving 19 mana per Chain Heal (17 mana with Tier 6) you will now save 20 mana.
  

 

Skyhoof

Here's what you can find at the Theorycrafting Think Tank: Shaman: Restoration

1. Latest Changes & Updates
2. Major Abilities
   • 1.1Chain Heal
   • 1.2Healing Wave
   • 1.3Lesser Healing Wave
   • 1.4Earth Shield
   • 1.5Water Shield
   • 1.6Totems
3. Talent Builds
4. The Well Dressed Resto Shaman
   • 3.1Stat weights to evaluate gear
   • 3.2Set bonuses
     • 3.2.1Using three pieces of Tier 2?
   • 3.3Best in Slot
   • 3.4Relics
   • 3.5Gems
   • 3.6Meta Gems
     • 3.6.1[]
     • 3.6.2[]
     • 3.6.3[]
   • 3.7Trinkets
   • 3.8Enchanting Your Gear
     • 3.7.1Weapon Enchants
     • 3.7.2Enchanting the Rest of Your Gear
   • 3.8Spell Haste
   • 3.9Spell Hit for Interrupts
   • 3.10Consumables
5. Macros
6. Notes for Raid Leaders
7. Theorycraft
   • 6.1Downranking
   • 6.2How to Calculate +Healing to Spells
8. Useful Links and Addons

 

Skyhoof

FAQ
1. Which gear is better? X or Y?
2. Should I choose Aldor or Scryer?
3. Who should I Earth Shield?
4. How much +healing and mp5 do I need for a heroic or Kara?
5. Can I make a macro to drop four totems at once?
6. Can I make a macro to remove poison and disease with one button?
7. Do Healing Stream and Mana Stream stack? What about…
8. How do I heal in the arena and battlegrounds?
9. Is the necklace I get from being exalted with the Shatter Sun any good for Aldor/Scryer?

1. Which gear is better? X or Y?

For a simple comparison, go to Loot Rank. Enter the stat weights for your level that I give in this post. The only items that it won't rank correctly are trinkets and I have a whole section in this post about healing trinkets.

2. Should I choose Aldor or Scryer?
For the purpose of healing, it makes absolutely no difference. What does matter is that you become exalted with that faction so you have access to the best shoulder enchant.

3. Who should I Earth Shield?

During raids, I have cast my Earth Shield on every single class. Normally, I put it on a tank or off-tank who will take constant damage. However, sometimes the tank is getting so many heals that it’s more effective to use it on another player. And remember it will give casters an additional 30% chance to ignore spell interruption. I often Earth Shield mages and warlocks when they AOE trash. I sometimes use it on a hunter who will be kiting mobs out of range of healers. And sometimes I put it on myself or another healer when we pull aggro on trash.

Casters: Moonkin, Elemental Shaman and Shadow Priests have no talents to prevent spell pushback, which can sharply reduce their DPS in some fights. They will benefit the most from Earth Shield to boost DPS. Destruction warlocks have 70% resistance with talents. Elemental shaman with four pieces of Season 3 arena gear (Vengeful Gladiator) get 50% resistance on lightning bolts.

Mages have talents to reduce spell pushback in both the fire and arcane trees.

• Arcane mages have a first-tier talent to gives 100% resistance to spell pushback on Arcane Missiles.
• Fire mages have a third-tier talent that gives 70% resistance to spell pushback on all fire spells.
• There are no talents to reduce spell pushback on frost spells.
• With two pieces of Tier 4, any mage will have 100% spell pushback resistance on Frostbolt and Fireball spells.

Tanks: All paladins have a passive ability called Spiritual Attunement that restores mana equal to 10% of the healing they receive. Since Patch 2.1.0, they have received mana back from the healing done by Earth Shield (and Prayer of Mending). Each point of mana restored generates 0.5 threat.

4. How much +healing and mp5 should I have?

It depends on the make-up of your group. How many healers do you have? How fast do you usually kill a boss? Here are some (unbuffed) ranges:

Pre-Kara
Health 5000-6000
Mana: 7000-8000
Mp5 while casting: 115-145
Healing: 1200-1500

Tier 4
Health: 7000-7800
Mana: 8500-9600
Mp5 while casting: 125-150
Healing: 1750-2000

Tier 5
Health: 7500-8200
Mana: 9000-10,000
Mp5: 150-200
Healing: 1900-2100

Tier 6
Health: 8500-8700
Mana: 9500-10,500
Mp5: 150-300
Healing: 2000-2300
Haste: 0-200


5. Can I make a macro to drop four totems at once?
No. You can click one button four times and it will go through a cast sequence and drop four different totems.

6. Can I make a macro to remove poison and disease with one button?
No. However, there will be a talent in the resto tree in Wrath of the Lich King that will allow you to cleanse poisons, diseases and curses with one spell. For the moment, you can bind poison to one key and use a modify to make that same key when used with shift, control, alt remove disease. You can also use /castrandom if you can live with the limitations (see Macro section).

7. Do Healing Stream and Mana Stream stack? What about…
Healing: Yes
Mana: No
Mana Spring stacks with the Paladin’s Blessing of Wisdom
Tranquil Air stacks with the Paladin’s Blessing of Salvation (total of 44% threat reduction)
Healing Focus' spell interruption protection of 70% stacks with the Paladin's Aura of Concentration (35%) to provide 100% spell pushback protection (105% technically). This is one of the few mechanics in the game that is additive rather than multiplicative.

8. How do I heal in the arena and battlegrounds?
There's a good discussion here: [shaman] Resto questions

9. Is the necklace I get from being exalted with the Shatter Sun any good for Aldor/Scryer?

[]

Aldor proc: Light’s Salvation +220 healing & +74 spell damage for 10 sec (or 36.67 healing).

Scryer Proc: Arcane Surge heals your target for 618-682.

There is 45-second cooldown. The proc is not affected by +healing gear or talents. The proc can crit and the crit rate may be affected by gear and talents (unconfirmed). Nature’s Guardian can trigger the proc. Earthshield can trigger the proc if you cast it on yourself.

For either an Aldor or a Scryer, [], [], [] or [] are all better choices. 33 spell haste > random proc. Only use the Shattered Sun Pendant if its stats (excluding the proc) are better than the other neck you are considering. For example, Pendant > [].

 

Skyhoof

Raiding

Sunwell

Trash
Frost resistance totem: Sunblade Arch Mage casts frost nova
Purge: Renew on Sunblade Dawn Priest
Earth Shock: Holy nova of Sunblade Dawn Priest. You cannot interrupt the mindflay of the Sunblade Dusk Priest.

Brutallus Grounding totem doesn't work on burn in Brutallus ver. 4 on the PTR

Black Temple

Illidan: Phase 1: After each shadowfiend debuff expires or the parasites die, water shield will proc. Use earth shield during phase 2 for anti-pushback.

Phase 2: If healing one of the flame tanks, one of the few fights in which you willl cast Healing Wave. Otherwise, use Chain Heal. Give tanks Grace of Air and Fire Resistance.

Phase 4: Drop Earthbind near Illidan to slow the Shadow Demons.

Illidari Council: Have a shaman chain heal the tank on Gathios (paladin). The heals should jump to melee DPS who will take damage from his Consecration (2,250 damage every 3 seconds for 21 seconds).

Earth Shock : Lady Malande's heals and her Divine Wrath. Don't interrupt the Empowered Smite. It does far less damage than Divine Wrath.

Reliquary of Souls (RoS): Phase 2: Essence of Desire doubles your healing but eventually reduces your mana pool to zero. Earth Shield casters to reduce spell pushback. At the end of Phase 2, cast healing totem and earth shield on yourself, while you still have the aura Essence of Desire so you have them for Phase 3. If you run out of mana before the phase ends, [] will allow a shaman to cast HW rank 1 for zero mana.

Gurtogg Bloodboil
Amplify Magic: Use on everyone. His DoT is physical.

Teron Gorefiend: Haste friendly. Fight becomes very healing intensive the last 45-60 seconds.

Supremus: Each time he shifts his gaze, it procs Water Shield.

Naj’entus: Haste friendly
Note: Dampen magic does NOT reduce damage done when the Tidal Shield bursts. Use Amplify Magic on everyone.

Trash (Karabor Sewers): Several mobs will require you to drop poison cleansing totem
Trash (Sanctuary of Shadow): Several mobs will require you to drop poison cleansing totem, including Stalkers and Primalists. Purge the Lightning Shield from Ashtongue Stormcallers.

Mount Hyjal

Archimonde: The boss has an aura or pulse that will cause a charge of Water Shield to be consumed at the start of the fight. This can result in the shaman temporarily getting aggro

Kaz'rogal: Shadow resist gear will help you resist the Mark of Kaz'rogal. It's a short fight that favors gear with +Int rather than mp5.

Azgalor: Shadow resist gear will help you resist his AoE silence.

Tempest Keep
Kael’Thas: Second add (Sanguinar) fears in both Phase 1 and Phase 3. You can interrupt Kael’s fireballs with Earth Shock.

Solarian: Earth Shock: Will not interrupt Arcane missiles. She will sometimes target totems for Arcane missiles so it can be worth dropping all four.

Void Reaver: Stand directly under the boss and spam chain heals on yourself and melee so you don't have to run from orbs.

Trash: Astromancer: The molten armor can be purged
Bloodwarder Squire: Earthshock will interrupt heals
Tempest Falconer: His fire shield can not be purged
Crystalcore Sentinel: His Overcharge (16,000+) can not be interrupted with Earthshock

Serpentshrine Cavern (SSC)

Lady Vashj Grounding totem absorbs Shock Burst. Absolutely crucial for this fight. Shock Burst stuns the main tank, causes him to lose aggro and does 8325-9675 damage. Used in Phases 1 and 3.

Nature Resist: Static Charges do 2,775 to 3,225 nature damage in Phase 1 and 3. Forked Lightening does 2,300-2,600 nature damage in Phase 2. The poison clouds of the Spore Bats in phase 3 are also nature damage.

Earthbind: Slows Coilfang Striders

Tremor: Breaks the fears of the Coilfang Striders

Leotheras Fire Resitance Totem for whoever tanks him in the Demon phase. Save Bloodlust/Heroism for when he hits 15%. If you drop a searing totem during the Whirlwind, a tank can stand next to it since it will probably aggro Leo after the whirlwind is over. Recall your totems prior to the Demon phase to avoid any issues with the Searing Totem aggroing the boss.

Karathress
Earth Shock to interrupt heals Fathom-Guard Caribdis (Priest)
Grounding Totem will absorb the Frost Shocks from Fathom-Guard Tidalvess (Shaman)
One of the few fights where you should not use Amplify Magic.

Morogrim
Grace of Air: Give to tank
Amplify Magic: Put on the main tank. Up to 95% of Morogrim's damage is physical.

Hydross
Nature Resist/Frost Resist: You may need to keep one or both of these down for the tanks, depending on available pally buffs and hunter buffs. Searing Totem: Can cause wipes during the transition. Every transition is a complete aggro wipe.
Dampen Magic: Use on tanks

Trash
Purge: Greyheart Tidecaller of Poison Shield
Purge: Greyheart Nether-Mage of Frost Destruction, Fire Destruction and Arcane Destruction (if mages don't spell steal it first)
Tremor: Vashj'ir Honor Guard

Zul'Aman (ZA)

Zul'Jin: In Phase 3 (Eagle form), pop your trinkets and then drop Healing Stream. During this phase, using any ability that costs mana (such as healing) causes you to take 1250 damage. However, you do not take damage from dropping totems. Your Earth Elemental is immune to the damage from the tornadoes. Also have any jewel crafters use [].

Hex Lord Malacrass: Shadow resist gear helps. Earth Shield either yourself for 100% protection against spell push back or Earth Shield a DPS caster.
Amplify Magic on the whole group. Dampen magic will not reduce damage from Spirit Bolts.

Halazzi (Lynx): Grounding totem does not absorb anything.

Trash
Amani'shi Flame Caster: Purge their haste buff if a mage doesn't spell steal

Magtheridon
Earth Shock interrupts both the shadow volley and the dark mending (heal) of Hellfire Channelers
Stoneclaw: Will work on Burning Abyssals

Gruul
High King Maulgar: Grounding totem will absorb Kiggler’s (shaman’s) lightening bolt (3,000). Does not absorb Krosh’s (mage’s) Greater Fireballs. Earth Shock interrupts the heals of Blindeye (Priest). Use Tremor once Maulgar gets below 50% health -- he fears.

Gruul
Amplify Magic: Use on entire raid, including the tanks.
Grace of Air: Give to tank

Trash
Tremor: Breaks Psychic Scream (fear) of Gronn-Priest
Earth Shock: Interrupts Heal of Gronn-Priest. They always cast this after they fear.
Purge: Removes renew on Gronn-Priest

Karazhan

Prince: Give the tank Grace of Air since the Prince hits hard and can do burst damage.

Nightbane
Tremor: Will break Bellowing Roar (fear). You can stand at max healing range to avoid it.
Stoneclaw: Works on the skeletons
Earth Elemental: Works on the skeletons
Earthbind: Works on skeletons

Illhoof
Fire Elemental: Use to AOE the imps.
Earth Shield: Put on the warlock or mage who is AOEing the imps to reduce spell pushback.

Netherspite
Healing Stream: Drop at the end of the portal phase while you still have the +healing buff from the green beam.

Searing Totem: Aggro resets at the end of the banish phase. If a Searing totem was down during the banish phase, Netherspite will attack it and give your tank time to get control of the boss. A Searing Totem can also be dropped before the banish phase and used to tank Netherspite during the banish phase (assuming your raid does no DPS to Netherspite while banished).

Aran
Grounding: Absorbs Aran’s Frostbolts (3500-3400), Fireball (3910-5290) and Arcane Missiles (6300-7700 total) from Aran. Also absorbs water bolts from the Elementals (1000-2000)
Earthshock: Interrupts Aran’s Frostbolts, Fireballs and Arcane Missiles. You can't interrupt his Pyroblast.

Maiden
Grounding: Absorbs Holy Fire
Searing: She will target your searing totem instead of a player. Totem is destroyed. She does not target other totems (such as mana spring, etc.)
PVP trinket: Will not work to break Repentence

Wizard of Oz
Fire Elemental: Extremely effective on Strawman, who gets disoriented after taking fire damage
Searing totem: Will disorient Strawman
Magma: Does not work on Strawman beyond the first pulse
Frost Resist: Dorothee casts Water Bolt (2025-2475)
Tremor: Breaks Dorothee fear
Earth Shock: Will not work on Dorothee’s Water Bolt

Big Bad Wolf
Tremor: Breaks fear (Terrifying Howl)

Romulo and Julianne
Earth Shock: Interrupts her heal (Eternal Affection)
Earth Shock: Inerrupts her stun (powerful attraction). Best one to not interrupt
Earth Shock: Interrupts her holy damage (blinding passion ~6000)
Purge: Removes her Devoation (increased damage)

Remove Poison: Removes his Poisoned Thrust (which stacks)
Purge: Removes his Daring (increased damage)

Moroes
Poison Cleansing: Removes the Blind he casts on a target in melee range. If you are an enhancement shaman and no one else in the raid can remove poison, you MUST have this totem down since he could blind you. Resto and Elemental shamans can stand further away to avoid being blinded. Be quick to remove the poison from the tank because if the off-tank is gouged, he will run rampant on your healers.

Purge: Will remove any buffs cast by the paladins on Moroes

Earthbind: Slows the adds

Earth Shock: Interrupts the Mana Burn of Baronesss Dorothea Millstipe (shadow priest).

Trash

Spectral Stallion (before Attuneman)
Purge: Removes the buff the horse gets from the debuff Absorb Vitality

Spectral Charger (before Attunman)
Tremor: Removes Howl of Terror (fear)
Also note he charges the farthest player so don’t back up too far

Concubine (before Maiden)
Tremor: Breaks her Temptation (seduce)
Please note that the auras of the Wanton Hostess are not purgeable

Skeletal Usher (before opera)
Grounding: Will Absorb Ice Tomb but the ushers will still de-aggro off the tank targeted

Spectral Performer (before opera)
Grounding: Absorbs Bad Poetry
Tremor: Removes Bad Poetry
Fire Protection: Reduces damage from Curtain Call (2775-3225)

Trapped Soul (before Curator)
Frost Resist: Can resist Cone of Cold attack

 

Pokkai

meta gem- you left out 26 healing and half cast. I use half cast because I cannot stand yellow gems, I'd do all 22 healing gems if I could.

My chain heal rank 2 gives me more single target efficiency than my healing wave rank 7. It does 2400-2500 healing at 267 mana cost, my HW rank 7 does 2300-2400 healing at 323 mana cost without the chance to bounce. I never cast healing wave anymore unless it's with NS, I speced out of improved/healing way and went 8/5/48. If I need speed I use lhw, HW gets beat out by 2.0 holy light. If I want efficiency I use chain heal.

shamans overvalue mp5 in my opinion. I saw a post of a shaman wanting a +healing flask when they had 182 mp5. In comparison I have 116 mp5 yet 200 more+ healing and 206 more spell haste despite us both wearing 4 piece t6 and the like.

tranquil air+salvatiion = 43% threat reduction

 

◊ Quigon

You should probably mention the reduced cast times of the first few ranks of HW, as this is one of the reasons you spam rank one and not a higher version. Spamming HW1 with high crit is pretty amazing.

Your table for HW is showing the talented version, which is fine.
But you might as well add ranks 2 and 1.
Rank 2 is 2 seconds normally, 1.5 talented.
Rank 1 is 1.5 seconds normally, 1.0 talented...

Might be worth mentioning the global cooldown (some of your abilities will be 1.5, some might be 1.0), and perhaps its relationship to lag - I remember this was huge when I played a shaman, and was throughout all of Naxx.

 

Skyhoof

Thank you for the feedback.

I will add []

I will try to add Rank 1 and Rank 2 to the table. Daidalos did not include those ranks in his spreadsheet so I'll have to add them.

However, I do not see how [] is a good choice. The gem has no permanent benefit such as +12 Intellect and some mp5 or +26 healing with threat reduction. Also, the proc of next spell cast in half the time loses some of its benefit when the main spell you are casting (Chain Heal) is 2.5 seconds to start. Even though the cast of the spell will be faster you will still have to wait 1.5 seconds of the global cooldown to cast your next heal. Plus the uncertainty of when you will get the proc makes using it effectively difficult. I always thought this gems was more useful for a class like mages for their 6.0 second Pyroblasts. Can you explain why you like this gem in more detail?

This is incorect. They reduce threat by a total of 44%
1-(1-.20)(1-.30)=0.44

 

vorda

Been a while since I played my shaman, but I was under the impression that all classes but rogues and cat druids have a 1.5 sec GC, exceptions being shield block like skills (0) and HoW (.5). Now I think about it, I might have missed some abilities.

 

doul

Small edit that it's actually a 10%-50% chance to get healed, not an automated free heal, could be in place here I think.


Personally I also think that the [] from Black Morass is way too low on the trinket list. I use it together with the [] and have a hard time finding a replacement. [] or [] for certain fights would be nice, but most of my time I'd stick to the Scarab.

 

Gorillapaws

I was wondering if you are planning on adding a section on healing PvP, particularly Arena. I realize the site is raid-oriented, but the Elitist Jerks is the only place I trust to find accurate info on gameplay mechanics and strategy. It seems that the Arena gear is designed around criting the LHW from some of the set bonuses. Your hard work is greatly appreciated, Skyhoof.

 

Skyhoof

There's a good discussion of how to play a resto shaman in PVP and the arena here:
[shaman] Resto questions

 

ineedmoney

As a shaman most of the time im assigned to raidhealing which basicly means chain heal/lesser healing wave rotation, i usualy end the night with less than 10 healing waves casted, almost all of them after nature swiftness, thats why i simply dont see the point to take improved healing wave and healing way. On MT healing paladins and priests simply outheal us (we do have one shaman on MT tho for ancestral fortitude buff). I can tsay im happy about Blizzard making us almost one button class, but thats the reality - chainheal is the best raidhealing skill in wow atm (there are not much, but still there are some fights where its not that efficient). We have the improved chainheal as talent and t6 bonuses are simply awesome, thats why as soon i droped t5 4piece bonus i droped the healing wave talents. I admit healing way looks nice on first sight - more healing is always nice, but if you think about it to be viable you have to be on MT healing and the maintank is always spamed from the paladins, hoted, earthshielded, power word shielded so this 18% more healing from healing wave ONLY are rather useless. As for the elemental warding - its an awesome talent which is not viable but compared to what you drop to spec it gives it huge advantage. Improved reincarnation is the most underrated resto talent imo, i admit you should not die, but still there some fights where this is unavoidable (Teron, Azgalor) or if you are very unlucky to take all the AOEs on the council or you aint healed on time on barrage on Illidan and ankh up w/o this talent is near to useless (you ankh with 2k mana = 4-5 heals, at least one of them on you). Anyway thats my opinion for the spec. About trinkets i think that eye of gruul is one of the best trinkets for a healer atm - passive healing and even if it procs only once per minute its worth more than the fathom-brooch, which has 1 minute hidden cooldown, imo only memento beats it (anyway im not much into theorycrafting). As for the macro section, i simply love it. I just havent interested myself that much about macros before (i had only some for downraking my spells). I have some question about them tho. First the relic swaping macro is very very nice but i loose the selfcast option when using it (im using Bongos2) so i have to add other lines with modifier for targets. Can that be avoided so i can keep using modifiers for downranking? For the mount macro i have added a line to equip my riding trinket, but i cant find a way to unequip it and equip my previous trinket (no matter of the set i am atm - resto, elemental or enhancment) after dismounting. I know outfitter equips your last trinket you had before when u make a riding set, so i hope it can be done with macro too.

 

Shinwei

I would also like some further insight and discussion about []. I have been using [] ever since I got my Tier 4 helm from Prince all those many months ago, and I have found it to be extremely underwhelming. I have read a few posts here on Elitist Jerks where healers swear by [] being hands down the best possible meta gem for healers, and I would like to know their reasoning. As it stands, as soon as Archimonde finally drops another protector token for my Tier 6 helm, I am most definitely going to socket it with the half-cast gem just to test out the theory. It would be nice to get some input from players who already have extensive experience with this gem though.

 

• Binkenstein

MSD gives, on average, roughly 16 spell haste.
IED gives roughly 8 mp5.

The key difference is that when IED procs, the only way the proc is wasted is if you are at full mana. MSD is wasted if you're not chain casting heals (which is why it ends up being semi-useless for healers, the same as the []).

Healing, in my opinion, is about dependability, rather than lucky streaks/procs that DPS prefer.

Also, hai2u Skyhoof :p

 

Raglu

Yeah, the text is slightly misleading.

Nature’s Guardian: This is a great talent with a tool tip that’s difficult to understand. When your health is below 30%, or you are hit by some sort of damage that brings you beneath 30% health, you have a 10%-50% chance when attacked to regain 10% of your total health instantly. It’s a must-have talent for resto PVP and soloing, and highly desirable for shamans who raid.

 

Shinwei

Thank you for your reply. Another question I have, then, is how spell haste is rated at an incredibly GODLY level for HEP in your Shamstats spreadsheet. It rates [] higher than my [], and [] higher than pretty much every trinket in the game.

If healing is, in your opinion, about dependability, how did you then arrive at these calculations?

 

Duscha

some advices:

many shaman believe in 0/0/61 is superior to 0/5/56 - 500 base MANA are nothing
4 t6 is like 100+heal
stack as much +heal in gems as possibel
haste >>>> mp5 if sp available

endgame raid-gear: chardev.org - World of Warcraft Character Planer .beta

 

• Binkenstein

Dependable haste >>>> chance based haste.

Also, there is a difference of 1 int, 12 heal, -30 haste and 11 mp5 when comparing Lightfathom to Dark Blessing. Having an extra 1.9% healing does seem like a big upgrade, doesn't it?
Scarab gets a higher rating because it averages to 32 haste (320*6)/60. Even though it "rates" highly, I would still recommend against it. Healing is more of an art than a science, and I will always choose passive or on-use items over proc based buff items like this because they are unreliable. I would take lower rated trinkets over the Scarab because I have more control over when those extra functions are used.

Also note that I'm currently re-doing the overall calculations at the moment
Dear god, please, learn to type.
Secondly, putting all of your points into resto is a waste, but you probably didn't read the posts explaining that.
Thirdly, assuming a shadow priest is available drastically gimps you if you don't have one.
Fourthly, how can you have 61 points in resto, but only have one in healing grace??

 

Skyhoof

Agree that the explanation for Nature's Guardian was inaccurate. I wanted to avoid using the wording in the tooltip because I think it's hard to understand. Here is the revised version.

Nature’s Guardian: This is a great talent with a tool tip that’s difficult to understand. Basically, it will automatically heal you about every 5 to 10 seconds if you are below 30% health. Plus, the heal reduces your threat. And it scales well, restoring 10% of your total health. It’s a must-have talent for resto PVP and highly desirable for shamans who raid.

Will add the 0-0-61 build.


First, if you take a look at the calculatoins on the HEP tab you'll see how Binkenstein arrived at the values. The math is solid. You could disagree with some of the premises on which the calculations are based. For example, the math assumes you are chain casting heals. However, in many portions of a fight, you pause between heals. Plus the calculations are based on a constant amount of haste. The trinket provides burst haste at unpredictable times. While burst haste may usually benefit DPS, it can occur at moments when no one needs a heal (or doesn't need it any faster at least). That is why I see the trinket has having limited value while haste itself may have great value (if you stack enough of it and have a shadow priest). I haven't done any number crunching but haste seems to be an all or nothing stat. I've gotten a few pieces and have not seen them make much of a difference in my healing. However, if I could get enough haste to reduce my cast times by 20%, I think that would be quite powerful.

The problem would then be calculating the "sweet spot" for haste. It has diminishing returns. The faster your cast time gets, the less it is reduced by additional haste. However, creating such a model is difficult due to the stop and start nature of healing vs. DPS.

 

doul

I'd say that description is as misleading as the tooltip (can't say I had any problems understanding the talent though, but i can see how it can be a bit confusing). You're not mentioning that it is a proc on taking damage, which was the thing I found wrong in the first version.



And regarding the [], it's very dependant on what fight you're up for and what role you have in that fight. For trash it's quite unbeatable in my eyes, since that's more or less about spamming Chain Heal nonstop and there are bosses that are close to that scenario as well. The non proc stat on the scarab (70 healing) is also quite nice for a trinket slot, and even if you can't rely on a proc I can't see many situations where a haste proc would be bad.
I fully agree that controllable haste (or regen/+heal/whatever, for that matter) is much better than random procs though, even if I have a tendency to forget to use trinkets too often.


Also, regarding Healing Grace, I have to say that I've skipped it in my later talent builds since I don't do that many 5man instances anymore and in raids I don't really have threat issues from heals at the moment. Might come a day when that changes I guess, since it can be handy on certain encounters with add spawning etc. Only time I overaggro is when I throw a heal a few seconds too early on a trash wave in Hyjal, and that's usually just my own fault from being too eager on my buttons.

 

Kyuki

I really must butt in here with the Meta gem talk.

I really think it's bad saying "Dependable haste >>>> chance based haste.". I respect your work Binkenstein, but as a healer, it's absolutly the opposite imho. It's the very nature of the meta that does it good - not how you work out how much spellhaste it gets effectivly.

What the MSD can do is save lives in a very bursty way during bad moments, and I can assure you that neither the Bracing or the Insightful meta gems can do that, and that alone makes it worth putting up on that list Skyhoofs origional post.

Skyhoof - your very mentioning of Binkensteins Shamstats is good and all, but as you say yourself none of the values can be set in stone in any way because healing is so flexible. This is why it's bad to laber stats and why you have to get a feel (yes a feel, it very much can differ from which guild you play in for example) for what you need and not need.
So basically: It can be missleading.
For example: If you dont struggle with mana why keep the the insightful meta? If you can live without it, why not go with something that can be a lifesaver?
Why gimp your whole gearsetup to be able to attain the +healing meta? Its horrible req makes it less desirable right there.

Healing is so diffrent from DPS when you want to put numbers into play, and math fails at times, simply because of how the nature of the playstyle is. Anyways, what you say about haste: "The faster your cast time gets, the less it is reduced by additional haste" is not true. All spell haste is based on your base spellcasting time (Or did I missunderstood what you were refering to?). So spellhaste is good until you start to butt in with the GCD during spam heal moments.

Dont get me wrong here, you can easily see and show how effective a certain heal is (which you've done with great tables Skyhoof), and thus make sure to use it in a good way.
When healing however we need to account for alot, and thus use diffrent ranks depending on how the raid/tanks take dmg. So weather a spell has better DPM or not when it gets into action gets almost irrelevant, atleast when comparing the same spell like CHrankX vs CHrankY, and HWrankX vs HWrankY, because in the end it is about keeping the raid topped off and using what heal that can heal for most by using the least mana without overhealing - and this differ. Alot.

All in all, I'm not putting down on your work here Skyhoof - I just dont agree on some things written after the main post, and disagree with not putting the MSD in it, and the reasons for that is what I've just presented.

Good job nonetheless

 

• Iku

I prefer the MSD over the other meta gems. While it is unreliable and unpredictable, it's procs seem to come at the perfect moments.
I can't even imagine how often I thought "Wow, that proc timing was awesome". It may be subjective, but I feel the MSD has helped me quite much.
You can also spam Water Shield while running, e.g. from Doomfires to trigger procs (probably changed, haven't been resto for a few weeks).

If the 26 +heal meta didn't have such strict requirements, I would probably choose that one.


Also, in my opinion Healing Grace and the Subtlety cloak enchant are overrated. While there aren't many alternatives for the enchant, I prefer Focused Mind for bosses like Archimonde and Azgalor. There are few bosses that silence, but it's nice to have.

 

Kasi

In the old trinket thread I remember that Gurgthock spoke very highly of the Scarab of the Infinite Cycle. While that was a long time ago, I don't think that the reason for it has changed. Very solid healing stats plus very nice burst healing at times. Now longevity trinkets are nice, but if you have the mana you don't need more. Spell haste can sometimes be very handy when you just need to pump out as much heals as you can.

 

• Binkenstein

I thought it was good too, until I found out that the proc has a 45 second cooldown (usually being 1ppm).
Ah, but if MSD does not proc in one of those life or death situations, what use is it? Having Insightful means you can focus less on mp5 for enchants gems, rather than the other way around.
And how many times have you thought "if only my meta/trinket had proc'd"?

Lets try this another way. Lets take two shaman, both resto. One has 0% crit chance, the other has 25%. Both output 2000 hps. (and this is ignoring the armour buff too)
Shaman A heals for 5k each cast. (I was getting 5.2k in T5 back when I was healing)
Shaman B heals for 4k base, 6k crit.

If you need more than 1600 solid hps, Shaman B isn't going to cut it. This is why I do not use Scarab/MSD.

As I said earlier, I'm reviewing the EP values on my spreadsheets, following the changes I've made on the elemental side, which should allow me to de-value haste in response to the increased mana use, because currently it is not taking that into account.

 

Shinwei

I like the way this discussion is going about spell haste and healing bursts. I feel that it's worth talking more about.

First off, I think we can all agree that during many encounters in the game there are times where a great deal of raid healing is needed, and you will be spamming chain heal at various levels of desperation. There are other times during some encounters where not a lot of raid healing is needed and you have a chance to pause and consider who to heal.

We are also agreed that during those times that we pause, spell haste and proccing MSD and trinkets is absolutely useless to us - therefore more mana regen is better. However, it must also be said that if you have enough mana regeneration and are confident that you are not going to run out of mana during an encounter, the usefulness of being able to regenerate more mana is not very high. If you have enough mana and mana regen to survive the next burst healing phase and subsequent phases to last the encounter, more mana regen is useless.

Now, for periods in which burst raid healing is needed (Gurtogg Bloodboil, Reliquary of Souls phase 3, and Illidan Phase 2 come to mind), I would think that the [] would be very useful. During these phases you are spamming chain heal over and over and over again. I would think that you are almost guaranteed at least one proc of that meta gem during this intense spam, and since the damage on the raid is equally if not more intense, that proc of a half-cast can and WILL help.

I would apply the same logic to spell haste. As stated by Skyhoof's post earlier, the value of spell haste comes when you are spamming heals nonstop. Boosting your HPS through spell haste can and will aid you in saving your raid during these times.

To reiterate:

Mana regen does something for you during any time in which you have less than 100% mana. However, if you have a good enough feel of an encounter to be confident that you will not go OOM during or until the fight ends (it's OK to be OOM when the boss hits the ground, guys, just not before) further mana regen has very limited use.

Burst spell haste like the MSD and the [] have a very high chance of proccing when you are spamming non-stop, and their procs will most likely NOT go to waste if the raid is taking heavy damage. Even though they do nothing during times of light raid damage, they will probably come through for you when you really need it.

Dependable spell haste follows the same logic as burst spell haste. It is nearly useless when there's not much raid healing to be done, but it will greatly facilitate you in keeping your raid alive when they need it.


In conclusion:

Assemble a set of healing gear, focusing heavily on Mp5. THEN assemble a set of healing gear with spell haste. Put on the spell haste stuff when you feel comfortable with your ability to not run out of mana during an encounter.