How to Heal like a Pro - Page 7

Habanero · 01/04/08, 8:54 PM

Originally Posted by Sarutobi

A couple things to note on that. First, is that for a mouseover macro, in order for self-cast heals to work you would need to add an additional condition to that to the effect of [modifier:alt, target=player] otherwise attempting to self-cast using alt will not work properly. Second is a bit of personal preference, but typically I would move mouseover to be the first choice for healing targets. Makes things a bit simpler when you want to keep a closer eye on a tank (or anyone really, as your target), use mouseover to heal whoever needs it at the time, then mouseover blank space to heal the person you're focusing on.

That's a very good point; I am simply not good at reliably finding a point of blank space required to make priorizing mouseover work

Actually, there is one thing that bugs me to no end about the default UI and I don't think there is a way to change it: I would like to leave myself with NO target by default, and only acquire a target manually. Unfortunately, if I get hit by any incidental damage, my target will immediately change from no target to the target that damaged me. This is wonderful behavior in most situations, but in PvE healing it is a terrible behavior.

Landshark · 01/06/08, 12:40 AM

Ok so I have

[Pendant of the Violet Eye] [Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] and [Essence of the Martyr]

With Martyr and Scarab I have: 1616 healing, 133mp5 and 10325 mana.

Martyr and Violet eye give me: 1558 healing, 133mp5(but what does proc equal out to?) and 10955 mana.

What do you guys think is the better setup?

Skyhoof · 01/06/08, 1:36 AM

Originally Posted by Landshark

Ok so I have

[Pendant of the Violet Eye] [Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] and [Essence of the Martyr]

With Martyr and Scarab I have: 1616 healing, 133mp5 and 10325 mana.

Martyr and Violet eye give me: 1558 healing, 133mp5(but what does proc equal out to?) and 10955 mana.

What do you guys think is the better setup?

I don't like either set-up. I would go with [Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] and [Essence of the Martyr].

The mana regen from [Pendant of the Violet Eye] is nice but +40 intellect is of little help. It's not even a single cast of max rank Chain Heal.

The scarab and Essence give you a nice amount of plus healing. You should be fine on mana if you keep up Water Shield and keep down mana spring.

xska · 01/06/08, 5:30 PM

Originally Posted by Skyhoof

Berserking (Orc racial)

Just to note, Berserking is rather a Troll racial. Orcs have Blood Fury which is also affecting healing but differently.

Pitbuller · 01/06/08, 6:28 PM

[Pendant of the Violet Eye] passive 600 max mana w/o talents also its gives 0.5% spell crit + (how many manatide you get) X * 0.24 * 600 mana return via mana tide casts.

Mano · 01/07/08, 7:09 AM

Yesterday I got the [Sun-touched Chain Leggings] to replace my [Cataclysm Legguards] (with 9h/2mp5).

I normally have ~160MP5 unbuffed, and I feel like I have reached the point where MP5 isn't so important anymore (plus I could always drink pots earlier). OTOH my +heal is still a bit on the low side with 1770 unbuffed.

Since the new item is MH loot, I can get epic gems for it.

And now I'm internally debating should I go RRR(3*[Teardrop Crimson Spinel] for 66heal (or 70 heal with the personal JC gem)? Or should I go the "old" way with 2*[Royal Shadowsong Amethyst] and either [Luminous Pyrestone] or [Dazzling Seaspray Emerald]?

Because I don't value INT at all, my gut feeling is to go for RRR as it's essentially a trade between 4MP5 vs 24heal.

Any thought from better equipped shamans? Is it too early to go +heal only? Do I need (much) more MP5 for the last half of BT?

thrawny · 01/07/08, 7:42 AM

Originally Posted by Mano

Yesterday I got the [Sun-touched Chain Leggings] to replace my [Cataclysm Legguards] (with 9h/2mp5).

I normally have ~160MP5 unbuffed, and I feel like I have reached the point where MP5 isn't so important anymore (plus I could always drink pots earlier). OTOH my +heal is still a bit on the low side with 1770 unbuffed.

Since the new item is MH loot, I can get epic gems for it.

And now I'm internally debating should I go RRR(3*[Teardrop Crimson Spinel] for 66heal (or 70 heal with the personal JC gem)? Or should I go the "old" way with 2*[Royal Shadowsong Amethyst] and either [Luminous Pyrestone] or [Dazzling Seaspray Emerald]?

Because I don't value INT at all, my gut feeling is to go for RRR as it's essentially a trade between 4MP5 vs 24heal.

Any thought from better equipped shamans? Is it too early to go +heal only? Do I need (much) more MP5 for the last half of BT?

I have the Suntouched Leggings aswell and just followed the socket bonus out of old habit when I got them, plus the socket bonus is a nice +9 healing. I agree with you that going pure red gems is probably a bit better even tho socket bonus is so nice.

But there are some other issues to think about when it comes to the red gems. How rich is my guild on these gems? Should resto shamans get red gems before some of the dps classes? When I get new items I dont wanna ask for red gems if I feel we're short on them cos some classes can basically only socket red gems (SP's come to mind). If this is not an issue for you then by all means gogo pure +22 heal socketing.

Personally when I get my hands on T6 chest or shoulders I'm gonna ask for red gems cos I am way high on mp5 so I wont benefit from purple gems at all plus chest socket bonus is mp5. I can always put +13 healing gems in the sockets when I wait for us to get more gems.

Daidalos · 01/07/08, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by Mano

Yesterday I got the [Sun-touched Chain Leggings] to replace my [Cataclysm Legguards] (with 9h/2mp5).

I normally have ~160MP5 unbuffed, and I feel like I have reached the point where MP5 isn't so important anymore (plus I could always drink pots earlier). OTOH my +heal is still a bit on the low side with 1770 unbuffed.

Since the new item is MH loot, I can get epic gems for it.

And now I'm internally debating should I go RRR(3*[Teardrop Crimson Spinel] for 66heal (or 70 heal with the personal JC gem)? Or should I go the "old" way with 2*[Royal Shadowsong Amethyst] and either [Luminous Pyrestone] or [Dazzling Seaspray Emerald]?

Because I don't value INT at all, my gut feeling is to go for RRR as it's essentially a trade between 4MP5 vs 24heal.

Any thought from better equipped shamans? Is it too early to go +heal only? Do I need (much) more MP5 for the last half of BT?

Basically I wanted to go with 3 [Teardrop Crimson Spinel]. but due to guild shortages of spinels I went with the socket bonus and just use pure +healing trinkets most of the time. I think you have enough mp5 if you bring pots and use them early on the rougher fights like bloodboil you should be fine.

Skyhoof · 01/07/08, 12:39 PM

For [Sun-touched Chain Leggings], I would use [Teardrop Crimson Spinel] x 3. Sure, the set bonus of +9 healing is nice but you can get far more +healing by using three red gems – an additional +24 healing at a cost of 4 mp5 and +5 Intellect. That’s a pretty good deal in my opinion.

If Crimson Spinels are in tight supply, use [Teardrop Living Ruby] x3 until more epic gems become available.

Now, let’s say an item had a blue and red gem socket and bonus of +7 healing. In that case, I would recommend putting in the correct color gems. Because of the socket bonus, using a [Royal Shadowsong Amethyst] in the blue slot really gives you +18 healing. You lose +4 healing but gain +2 mp5. I would readily sacrifice +4 healing for +2 mp5. However, I would not give up +24 healing for +4 mp5 and some Intellect.

Epic gems of certain colors are usually in short supply when a guild first enters Hyjal and the Black Temple. Usually, red and orange gems are very popular. You may also be tight on blue gems (depending on how many you give your tanks). Guilds usually have more than enough green, yellow and purple gems.

Most guilds implement a policy of giving epic gems to item that drops in Hyjal and Black Temple. After guilds have been in BT and Hyjal for a while, they will usually give gems to loot that drops in ZA or items that won’t be upgraded soon.

The epic gems are usually provided the same night as you get an item or the next time that color gem drops. To decide who should get gems first if they are in short supply, use your guilds DKP system or simply give the gems in the order that the items dropped. Players can always use blue-quality gems while waiting for epic gems.

Originally Posted by thrawny

Should resto shamans get red gems before some of the dps classes? When I get new items I dont wanna ask for red gems if I feel we're short on them cos some classes can basically only socket red gems (SP's come to mind). If this is not an issue for you then by all means gogo pure +22 heal socketing.

Personally when I get my hands on T6 chest or shoulders I'm gonna ask for red gems cos I am way high on mp5 so I wont benefit from purple gems at all plus chest socket bonus is mp5. I can always put +13 healing gems in the sockets when I wait for us to get more gems.

Originally Posted by Daidalos

Basically I wanted to go with 3 [Teardrop Crimson Spinel]. but due to guild shortages of spinels I went with the socket bonus and just use pure +healing trinkets most of the time. I think you have enough mp5 if you bring pots and use them early on the rougher fights like bloodboil you should be fine.

________________________________________

I’m all for being considerate of guildmates. However, I think it is a big mistake to socket with [Royal Shadowsong Amethyst] and [Luminous Pyrestone] just because Crimson Spinels are in short supply. I would be reluctant to let someone resocket an item that already had epic gems. You would destroy three epic gems in the process that someone else could have used. You would be better off using [Teardrop Living Ruby] until Crimson Spinels were more plentiful. I would only want to see someone destroying epic gems due to a change in game mechanices such as the increased mana regeneration in Patch 2.3.

Shadow priests are no more vital to a raid than resto shaman. Healers are just as important as DPS. If your guild makes epic gems available to you, ask for the color gems that are the best for you. By all means be considerate of your guildmates but not to the point where you are “way high on mp5.” Did it occur to you that your shadow priests can also use Living Rubies while they wait for more Crimson Spinel to drop?

Daidalos · 01/07/08, 1:25 PM

Originally Posted by Skyhoof

For [Sun-touched Chain Leggings], I would use [Teardrop Crimson Spinel] x 3. Sure, the set bonus of +9 healing is nice but you can get far more +healing by using three red gems – an additional +24 healing at a cost of 4 mp5 and +5 Intellect. That’s a pretty good deal in my opinion.

We been farming Illidan for some time now its not really an issue of just starting BT Hyjal. My guild is structured a little differently than most with a heavy emphasis on DPS. So dps classes get spinels first combined with our perpetual lousey spinel drop rate it means its not really worth waiting around for the spinel for 3 months. That is not just shadow preists using spinels that's locks, spriests, mages, hunters, enh sham, ret pally, wars etc.

I didn't really feel the 10 healing gained by using [Teardrop Living Ruby] was worth the 4mp5 and 5int since the 5int is 1.67 healing as well making it 8.3 healing difference. Its stats I don't really need but that just means I can have less regen on other parts of my gear.

Since 18x3 = 54 healing

11x3form royals and +9socket bonus +1.67healing from int = 43.67 helaing + 4mp5 + 5int

I think thats hardly a clear which option is superior. For me since its more than likely we will start sunwell before there are enough spinels to go around ( we get like 1-2 a week it seems) I think that without spinels going the alternate epic gem route is fine esp if you are in a similar situation.

Skyhoof · 01/07/08, 2:11 PM

Originally Posted by Daidalos

Since 18x3 = 54 healing

11x3form royals and +9socket bonus +1.67healing from int = 43.67 helaing + 4mp5 + 5int

I think thats hardly a clear which option is superior. For me since its more than likely we will start sunwell before there are enough spinels to go around ( we get like 1-2 a week it seems) I think that without spinels going the alternate epic gem route is fine esp if you are in a similar situation.

I think you meant 11x2 from royals and 11x1 from luminous but the math is correct either way. I had no idea that some guilds were facing a three month wait. I still think the three spinels are the superior option. However, if I had to wait three months, I would make the same gemming choice as you did and go with the epic royals and luminous.

A little trash farming can greatly help a guild's supply of Hearts of Darkness and epic gems. We've done it a few nights when not enough people were logged on for the raid to start. However, we had enough to easily clear Black Temple trash.

Daidalos · 01/07/08, 3:21 PM

Originally Posted by Skyhoof

I think you meant 11x2 from royals and 11x1 from luminous but the math is correct either way. I had no idea that some guilds were facing a three month wait. I still think the three spinels are the superior option. However, if I had to wait three months, I would make the same gemming choice as you did and go with the epic royals and luminous.

A little trash farming can greatly help a guild's supply of Hearts of Darkness and epic gems. We've done it a few nights when not enough people were logged on for the raid to start. However, we had enough to easily clear Black Temple trash.

Yeah I should have been a little more clear on that 11x2 from royals and 11x1 for luminous. There is basically no time for trash farming unless we changed our raiding schedule. Usually we clear to illidan on tues then do Illidan + Hyjal on wed so farming is basically out of the question.

I would have preferred 3 spinels as well I have no disagreement there. However, due to our terrible luck getting them to drop and extremely high demand from basically every DPS class except for the blood frenzy war its not always practical. I don't know if other guild have better luck with them than we do or have less demand but its somthing to keep in mind.

Basically our gm said that since we just don't have the spinels to go around and dps has priority on spinels he gave us priority on shadowsongs so it works out in the end. We have alot of top 10 DPS (of WWS parses) for bosses in BT Hyjal (which makes it easier to heal) so I can't really argue with our results even if its mildly annoying missing out on the extra healing. If others guilds don't have similar problems, I would recommend others to get the spinels.

Mano · 01/08/08, 4:55 AM

ok, thanks for the input.

You're right - I'll probably have to first check the availability of the spinels. If I can get them, perfect - if I can't, I'll probably go the Shaodwsong/Pyrestone route.

The reasoning for not going with 3 living rubies is pretty much that I don't think I'd really replace them with the epic ones anyway AND with a bit of luck I'll have the T6 leggings at the point we'll have enough spinels.

I'll try to repost which gems I get.

thrawny · 01/08/08, 9:38 AM

Originally Posted by Mano

ok, thanks for the input.

You're right - I'll probably have to first check the availability of the spinels. If I can get them, perfect - if I can't, I'll probably go the Shaodwsong/Pyrestone route.

The reasoning for not going with 3 living rubies is pretty much that I don't think I'd really replace them with the epic ones anyway AND with a bit of luck I'll have the T6 leggings at the point we'll have enough spinels.

I'll try to repost which gems I get.

I would say keep the Suntouched Leggings and go for t6 on the other slots. Offset legs are better due to them having 3 sockets.

◊ Zoroaster · 01/08/08, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by thrawny

I would say keep the Suntouched Leggings and go for t6 on the other slots. Offset legs are better due to them having 3 sockets.

If you can get the other 4 pieces then yea, use Suntouched for sure. Since there was quite a line for the chest I took legs to get 4-piece.

Silverstorm · 01/08/08, 4:28 PM

Originally Posted by Skyhoof

III. Secrets of the Pros

Spell Hit
Talents
Draenei can get 1% spell hit from Inspiring Presence

Gear
[Manaspark Gloves] are easy to farm from the second boss in normal Underbog (Hungarfen)

Hungarfen is the first boss in Underbog.

Great post, I learned a lot about shaman healing by reading through the initial posts!

Reiyudo · 01/08/08, 5:45 PM

Does [Ribbon of Sacrifice] stack on all targets Chain Heal hits? I use this with [Essence of the Martyr].

Bobbo · 01/08/08, 7:57 PM

Yes, it still stacks on all chain heal targets as of 2.3.2

Mano · 01/09/08, 6:13 AM

Originally Posted by Zoroaster

If you can get the other 4 pieces then yea, use Suntouched for sure. Since there was quite a line for the chest I took legs to get 4-piece.

well I'll have to take what I can - we only have cleared MH but haven't yet killed any of the token-dropping bosses in BT :/.

Anyway, I've received epic red gems for my pants, so I'm pretty happy about it

Skyhoof · 01/09/08, 3:34 PM

The longer-lasting water shield in Patch 2.3.2 is great. So is getting a consistent amount of mp5 instead of getting one big chunk every minute. Anyone come across any undocumented changes that affect shaman? I read in another forum that [Bracing Earthstorm Diamond] does not need more yellow gems than blue gems. I'm at work so I can't confirm. However, this would make the gem a more viable option for healers. It would still have limited benefit for raids since threat is not an issue in the majority of fights. However, I'll take all the threat reduction I can get when I heal heroics for someone's alt tank and don't have a paladin for Blessing of Salvation.

I’ve added a few new sections to the main post during the past few days. The section on Tier 2 is now complete. I’ve been pondering a few additional changes. Let me know what you think. And thanks to everyone who has taken so much time and thought to post or correct errors. It greatly enhances the guide.

Grid/Xperl/Pitbill
One of the tips in the guide is "Find a way to easily monitor the health of everyone in the raid and target them for healing. Many healers like using either Xperl or Grid."

Should Pitbull be added to this list?

Also, are Xperl and Grid comparable or is Grid the better system? I use Xperl myself. I have tried Grid twice but I just don’t like how it presents information graphically (just a personal preference). Is there anything Grid does that Xperl cannot do? Also, will Grid show incoming heals if healers are using Clique or another mouse-over system?

Clique
I’d like to hear what other shaman think about Clique and similar mouse-over healing systems. All the healers in my guild started using this a few month ago and we will never go back to selecting a target and then pushing a key to heal. Switching to Clique (and other mods) slightly improved our reaction times (and freed up keys that could be bound to do other actions). Should the guide more strongly encourage healers to use this mod of targeting and healing?

Originally Posted by Blazingwater

A bit of a newb here....
You've posted a lot on what heals are the best on mana/heal ratio, what points to put in what spots, and on down ranking and all that stuff, but you haven't posted HOW to heal. This guide shows you what stats you should be looking for, the items you should get, but again, I've yet to learn HOW to heal from the guide.

Thing is, I just switched from a (nearly) epicced out enhance set to a resto set recently, with about +1000 healing. I would like to know things like how to heal 5 mans/heroics, and how to heal raiding wise. I know it all depends on the group make-up and boss fight, but I would appreciate some advice on what spells to use, and spell rotations. This guide teaches you how to heal like a pro, minus the "how to heal" part.

Please don't take my ranting badly, this really is a good guide =)

What do the rest of you think? Does the main page need a little more basic healing information before launching into mana/heal ratios and downranking? I went and reread Murderbot’s guide to see if I could incorporate some of his information into this post. I really like his guide but I also feel it’s more directed at a shaman in heroics or Kara. I wrote my guide from the perspective of a shaman in a 25-man raid. However, I did feel that Blazingwater raised a valid point. I really never tell you to heal. I assume that you know how to heal and were reading the post to find out how to be a better healer. Suggestions? Leave the guide as is or is it missing a key component?

Haste
The only major section that is still “under construction” is Haste. Haste is probably one of the most complicated mechanics in the game, especially for casters. I took a stab at modifying Diadalos’ Excel spreadsheet to include an option for lag time when making haste calculations.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...I4gmcKYw&hl=en

However, anything to do with formulas and math is not my strong point. So it’s entirely possible I’ve mucked up the calculations but I did a scenario with 1800 +healing and no haste and 1700 + healing and 100 haste rating (6.34%). I assumed that it would take me 3.0 seconds to get off a chain heal, rather than 2.5 seconds. All the benefits of +healing and haste are based on the 2.5 second cast time. However, the HPS is based on the 3.0 cast time to create a more realistic scenario. So with 6.34% haste (and -100 +healing) my HPS rose 3.35% for Rank 5 chain heal and 2.95% for Rank 4.

I would love to see some WWS data. Perhaps if there’s a boss that you do not one-shot you could wear your haste gear on some attempts and your regular gear on other attempts. That might give us a look at the benefit of haste under raid conditions.

If anyone has better suggestions on how to better gauge the benefit of haste, please let me know.

Horpti · 01/09/08, 4:18 PM

How did you calculate the +Heal equivalent to the 4pT6 bonus? It scales with +Heal, so you cant really apply a fixed value for it.

For the healing trinket section i am missing [Scarab Brooch] which has and will always have its moments, because it scales perfectly with gear.

Skyhoof · 01/09/08, 5:10 PM

Originally Posted by Horpti

How did you calculate the +Heal equivalent to the 4pT6 bonus? It scales with +Heal, so you cant really apply a fixed value for it.

For the healing trinket section i am missing [Scarab Brooch] which has and will always have its moments, because it scales perfectly with gear.

I forgot about that trinket and will add to the list.

I didn't factor in the 4pT6 bonus. I forgot that on the "Overview" tab that Diadalos had included set bonuses. I only modified the equations on the Healing Wave and Chain Heal tabs (and added a spot to add a value for actual cast time on Stat1 and Stat2). To be on the safe side, I wouldn't use the values on the Overview tab since my modifications may have screwed up the equations Diadalos used.

Binkenstein is working on a new version of ShamSpells, which should provide some great insights into haste. His files can be downloaded here: Binkenstein Profile, Binkenstein Details - FileFront.com

Daidalos · 01/09/08, 5:15 PM

Originally Posted by Skyhoof

The longer-lasting water shield in Patch 2.3.2 is great. So is getting a consistent amount of mp5 instead of getting one big chunk every minute. Anyone come across any undocumented changes that affect shaman? I read in another forum that [Bracing Earthstorm Diamond] does not need more yellow gems than blue gems. I'm at work so I can't confirm. However, this would make the gem a more viable option for healers. It would still have limited benefit for raids since threat is not an issue in the majority of fights. However, I'll take all the threat reduction I can get when I heal heroics for someone's alt tank and don't have a paladin for Blessing of Salvation.

I’ve added a few new sections to the main post during the past few days. The section on Tier 2 is now complete. I’ve been pondering a few additional changes. Let me know what you think. And thanks to everyone who has taken so much time and thought to post or correct errors. It greatly enhances the guide.

Grid/Xperl/Pitbill
One of the tips in the guide is "Find a way to easily monitor the health of everyone in the raid and target them for healing. Many healers like using either Xperl or Grid."

Should Pitbull be added to this list?

Also, are Xperl and Grid comparable or is Grid the better system? I use Xperl myself. I have tried Grid twice but I just don’t like how it presents information graphically (just a personal preference). Is there anything Grid does that Xperl cannot do? Also, will Grid show incoming heals if healers are using Clique or another mouse-over system?

Clique
I’d like to hear what other shaman think about Clique and similar mouse-over healing systems. All the healers in my guild started using this a few month ago and we will never go back to selecting a target and then pushing a key to heal. Switching to Clique (and other mods) slightly improved our reaction times (and freed up keys that could be bound to do other actions). Should the guide more strongly encourage healers to use this mod of targeting and healing?

What do the rest of you think? Does the main page need a little more basic healing information before launching into mana/heal ratios and downranking? I went and reread Murderbot’s guide to see if I could incorporate some of his information into this post. I really like his guide but I also feel it’s more directed at a shaman in heroics or Kara. I wrote my guide from the perspective of a shaman in a 25-man raid. However, I did feel that Blazingwater raised a valid point. I really never tell you to heal. I assume that you know how to heal and were reading the post to find out how to be a better healer. Suggestions? Leave the guide as is or is it missing a key component?

Haste
The only major section that is still “under construction” is Haste. Haste is probably one of the most complicated mechanics in the game, especially for casters. I took a stab at modifying Diadalos’ Excel spreadsheet to include an option for lag time when making haste calculations.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...I4gmcKYw&hl=en

However, anything to do with formulas and math is not my strong point. So it’s entirely possible I’ve mucked up the calculations but I did a scenario with 1800 +healing and no haste and 1700 + healing and 100 haste rating (6.34%). I assumed that it would take me 3.0 seconds to get off a chain heal, rather than 2.5 seconds. All the benefits of +healing and haste are based on the 2.5 second cast time. However, the HPS is based on the 3.0 cast time to create a more realistic scenario. So with 6.34% haste (and -100 +healing) my HPS rose 3.35% for Rank 5 chain heal and 2.95% for Rank 4.

I would love to see some WWS data. Perhaps if there’s a boss that you do not one-shot you could wear your haste gear on some attempts and your regular gear on other attempts. That might give us a look at the benefit of haste under raid conditions.

If anyone has better suggestions on how to better gauge the benefit of haste, please let me know.

Personally I use pitbull and love it. I actually have grid tucked away in a corner of my screen since it a little easier to tell the exact health decefit than it is with pitbull. However the reason I primarily use pitbull is having raid icons on the bars. For example on Illidan when a raid member gets the parasites a there is a big X on the bar to click on no reading of names needed. I think xperl basically has simlar features but I have not used it. So far pitbull just has a few more features I really like over grid. I would def add it to UI suggestions.

I've done some math on healing haste before and basically lag time between casts while does affect haste it affect everything else as well so long term it still has almost identical % gains after lag (~90%+ with .2s lag) in factored in (assuming you factor it into the non hasted calculations as well)

If I remember I'll try to not wear haste in next BT for comparison. This past weeks I wore haste on most fights. There is another shaman with similar gear who doesn't wear haste but healing style, assignments, and whatnot were different so not a comepletely valid comparison.

Shinwei · 01/09/08, 6:11 PM

Originally Posted by Skyhoof

Grid/Xperl/Pitbill
One of the tips in the guide is "Find a way to easily monitor the health of everyone in the raid and target them for healing. Many healers like using either Xperl or Grid."

Should Pitbull be added to this list?

Also, are Xperl and Grid comparable or is Grid the better system? I use Xperl myself. I have tried Grid twice but I just don’t like how it presents information graphically (just a personal preference). Is there anything Grid does that Xperl cannot do? Also, will Grid show incoming heals if healers are using Clique or another mouse-over system?

I share your point of view on Grid. I have tried it a couple times and just could not get used to seeing the little boxes. Everyone's names are cut off, and the Shaman health bar and mana bar are the same color so it confuses me. I use Pitbull for my raid frames exclusively and I have no problem with it at all. I feel that it should definitely be added to the list. For those of you who do not like Pitbull for any reason, I'd like to hear what your other mods do that Pitbull doesn't, or just why you don't like it.

Originally Posted by Skyhoof

What do the rest of you think? Does the main page need a little more basic healing information before launching into mana/heal ratios and downranking? I went and reread Murderbot’s guide to see if I could incorporate some of his information into this post. I really like his guide but I also feel it’s more directed at a shaman in heroics or Kara. I wrote my guide from the perspective of a shaman in a 25-man raid. However, I did feel that Blazingwater raised a valid point. I really never tell you to heal. I assume that you know how to heal and were reading the post to find out how to be a better healer. Suggestions? Leave the guide as is or is it missing a key component?

Since the title of the post is entitled "How to Heal like a Pro", I think it should have some discussion about healing strategy and not just gear and math. Murderbot's guide certainly did help me out a lot when I was still doing Heroics and Karazhan, so let's continue it. Perhaps some discussion about healing assignments and what a Resto Shaman should be doing in specific boss encounters would be the way to go.

On a separate note, I tried your suggestion of healing the Paladin tank for Illidari Council yesterday. I took one of the Paladins off of that duty and told him to raid heal instead while I spammed Chain Heal rank 5 on the tank. It worked just as good as you all said it would, and that's the way we're going to kill the Council from now on. Here is the log from the attempt:

WWS

I want to point out a few things here.

1) The [Eye of Gruul] procced 16 times during this 10 minute fight, which comes out to (16*450)/(10*12) = 60 Mp5. This makes it a very good trinket for this encounter.

2) The [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond] procced 16 times for the Resto Druid in my raid during this 10 minute fight. This gave him what amounts to 40 Mp5 for this encounter, and he cast a hot every global cooldown. In contrast my [Mystical Skyfire Diamond] was pretty much useless as the half-cast proc really didn't do much at all for the tank.

Now, before any of you starts getting in an "I TOLD YOU SO!!" attitude, I want to re-iterate what I said on the first page of this thread - and that's that not all gear is good in all situations, and this is especially true for trinkets. While the [Eye of Gruul] is awesome for the Illidari Council fight (when assigned to heal the tank), it's certainly not a very good trinket for the Illidan fight (one week it procced only 8 times for me over the 19 minute fight). Likewise, I knew the [Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] would not be very useful for the Illidari Council fight, so I took it off and put on my [Alchemist's Stone] instead. On the other hand, the scarab is amazing during Naj'entus, Bloodboil, and Reliquary of Souls. In order to do the same with Meta Gems, though, you'd have to have two helms =\.

In any case, instead of listing the trinkets on the main post by "tier"s, perhaps there should be a little discussion on each trinket describing the situations in which they shine and the situations in which they suck. What do you think?

• Binkenstein · 01/09/08, 6:39 PM

Originally Posted by Skyhoof

Binkenstein is working on a new version of ShamSpells, which should provide some great insights into haste. His files can be downloaded here: Binkenstein Profile, Binkenstein Details - FileFront.com

Doing a UI rebuild for ShamStats at the moment, so I'll probably start looking at ShamSpells next week.