That's not exactly true, since you can't use aquatic form inside the portals.

Yes, this is it exactly.

When the automatic response to HST is "it's meter padding" and Glyph of HST is in so few shaman_hep reports that Stassart doesn't even list it in his glyph table, my assumption is that a great many folks aren't exploring this area of "advantage" fully and that new players looking for play advice here will likely avoid it.

To restate the summary of my first message: I'd recommend that you give glyph of HST a try especially if the raid can afford to have you be in the tank group. Then send your shaman_hep reports to Stassart so that he can update his table

Switched from Rogue to Resto shaman a short while ago and loving it!. But, as im browsing through WMO parses to figure out what other shamans do compared to me i see that mostly its CH spam for about 50+%.

Now, when damage is pouring in im usually going into a static spam mode throwing RT, Hasted CH (2t10), 2 hasted HW or LHW after which RT is or is just about to off cooldown and i start over, and so im seldom throwing anything that is not hasted.

Since everyone else seems to go CH spamming, im guessing im in the wrong here, so i started looking at one of the spreadsheets here, but cant find that specific rotation. How can i make that calculation?

I used HST Glyph a while ago in ICC-10. I'll dig up the report to check what they are saying.

The main reason I switched to another glyph is that I was the only cham, and some group member could use the extra regen of the MST.

Also, I would add that Glyphed MST is situational. Where in fight with little AoE damage, the main outcome will be overheal. On other hand, it can be awesome for example on Dreamwalker when you are the portal jokey... the glyphed HST can provide tremendous heal to the raid!

PS: It's my feeling, from mostly a 10-man raid point of view.

For the last couple guys, Greyhawk and Jodadda:

It all depends on the other members of your raid. My opinion is that shaman have the least flexible talents, but a very flexible healing style. So if two pallies and two disc priests showed up tonight... you're CH button is going to get smashed a lot. If 2 druids and 2 holy priests showed up.. your CH button will get quite dusty tonight.


Our normal raid makeup is 2holy paladin, 1 shaman, 1 druid, 2 priests (they change specs quite often per boss).
The following are my normal duties in ICC 25, if that helps:

Marrowgar - CH spam on the soakers with the tank... lately i have some free time to LHW a bone spiked person who is low.
LDW - RT+LHW and remove curse on the fanatic kiter. Randomly CH or LHW on other raid members depending on whether they are stacked or split up.
DBsaurfang - CH on whichever tank is currently holding the threat. We tend to have the first couple marks go to the melee spot.. so my CH splashes marked targets and the 2nd tank. I switch to LHW or a hasted HW when saurfang has really high blood power. About midway through the debuff wearing off on the 2nd tank, I'll RT that tank so when it's his turn to actually tank my first CH will be boosted.

Rotgut - cast whatever i can get away with... CH at melee, LHW at ranged people, nature totem is the real bonus i bring.
Fester - CH spam on whoever is currently tanking...unless we have 2 pallies and a disc priest. Then I'm pretty much CH melee, CH ranged when they are collapsed for spores, LH+RT ranged when not collapsed for spores. Again, the nature resist totem is probably the most important totem I can supply.
Putricide - CH mainly all over the raid. I'm also the healer of the red-gas target, that person gets RT+LHW.

Princes - lots of LHW+RT
BQL - CH ... and healing stream. I CH the tank's soaker, then CH someone else in raid. This is a 25man and we make sure to stand close to each other for AOE healing. In a 10man environment, I could see how you can't just CH ranged people.

Valritha - HW+RT, sometimes I CH the raid. I normally do not take portals... I'm the guy who stays outside and heals the dragon.
Sindragosa - all healing spells get used or I'm unchained and no healing spells get used. I'm considering glyphing healing stream for this fight... it'd be very nice for my group to get some healing during those blistering colds in phase3.

LichKing - I have yet to defeat the heroic. So my situation here is still in flux. Normally I'm healing tanks during phase1 and making sure to cast a chain heal such that it lands just after infest finishes casting. I usually do two CHs at that time. Rest of the time is LHW+RT on the tanks. During relentless winter, of course it's CH spam on the raid.

This may not pertain to this thread, may be a simple question, but its here and I can't bear to pass up this opportunity.

You say that you drop Nature Resis Totem for Fester/Rotface. I've been asking my guild If I should be dropping that for those fights as well, however they say that "It wont make a difference due to fight mechanics". I guess I can see what they are talking about *slightly* on rotface, what with the whole situation-If someone doesnt get the spores buff they wont survive- But this still doesnt make sense to me.
What can I tell them to convince them that the Nature Resis Totem WILL help mitigate damage done to the raid??

-Sorry, I'm new to this level of playing this game, but I want to learn.
Thanks!

For having removed Healing Focus for some time now I can tell you that you won't miss it for the first 11 bosses. No avoidable damage does cause pushback (I even saw latelly that Lana'Thel's aura doesn't trigger mana orbs anymore).
The only noticeable pushback is on the Lich King, both Infest and Pain and Suffering does trigger pushback. But honestly it isn"t a real problem. For Infest if you do time properly your CH you won't have any trouble with it and for Pain and Suffering just spam CH anyway. The only problem I have with not having Healing Focus is in P2 if I have to remove the Pest and Arthas is casting Pain and Suffering on me endlessly, then I may have to stop a heal to dispell the disease in time, but honestly nothing that troublesome.

Well if the infests are causing pushback then it may be necessary to throw the first CH through yourself. I was talking about the heroic mode where Infest is actually pretty damaging. In normal, it does disappear instantly yeah.

We may well be doing this tonight and I'm thinking of a 1/3 Healing Focus, 2/2 Guardian Totems build. If pushback is a problem then it may be Healing Way that's on the way out. Obviously you're then limited to LHW and your NS macro is hurt. Damaging your ability to heal the tank in favour of 200 or so armour may be counterproductive. Was hoping for 2 free points really!

Choices, choices.

Any 25-man raid should have a Shaman with imp Stoneskin Totem. Nothing LK specific about that one except it might be the current progress boss for most people. I see a lot of people not specced into Improved Reincarnation which I believe is a big mistake. Having it (almost) always available is huge, and the extra hp/mana you get from it when ankhing is very important. In fights where I don't die and ankh there is usually no mana issues anyway, and the hp prevents you from instadying again from aoe damage.

Why is this?

Doesn't 2/2 Improved Stoneskin Totem provide 1380 armor which is significantly less than the 1807 armor provided by 3/3 Improved Devotion Aura? I may be missing something, which is why I ask.

They stack.

Didn't get a chance to respec before the raid but just thinking about it there's a totally free point in cleanse spirit. I'd be tempted to drop tidal force too and then, tada, you've got your 2/2 guardian totems and slightly happier tanks.

yes, my spec is more screwy than I like.

Earthbind radius for vile spirits (on valks the stuns are much more important than my EB).
Earthbind was originally to slow the bloodbeasts on saurfang, but being in melee range ended up being too much healing aggro for us.

Like others have said, stoneskin stacks with improved devotion. At least it stacks on the character pane window.

The cold flame on marrowgar has caused me some pushback. Almost always getting out of coldflame is more important than finishing a heal (unless it's a heal on a spiked guy who is in cold flame... even then move to NS+heal as you run out).
Infest on heroic lich king does cause pushback and it's at a time, when I can't really afford pushback. So I'm thinking of dropping earthbind to grab a few points in HealingFocus. Until we get to vile spirits, it doesn't make a lot of sense for me to worry about earthbind. Relentless winter doesn't seem to cause pushback on me, I could be wrong.

While imp. reincarnation is cute I just don't agree. First off, yes you really shouldn't be dieing. You can say everybody is dieing on progression, but then everybody is dead and your ankh will mean nothing anyway. As for the mana aspect, (and somewhat the health aspect as well) it is a nice bonus. But you have many ways of getting around it. You generally don't use mana tide or a mana potion until late in a fight, so its likely you will have both available after an ankh.
Lets say you die to something stupid like Malleable goo (I'm sure we have all been guilty of this). You call on vent ankhing and the other healers instantly throw whatever quick heal they have on you basically topping you off within a second. Most deaths after ankhing aren't going to be saved by having 20% more health, such as ankhing into a malleable goo or infest. After that, you can easily get your mana tide down a mana potion popped and if you really need it Innervate or hymn.

Taking your self rez from 30m to 15m self rez is far more than *cute*, its borderline ridiculous. Its up every other attempt for progression content, up every attempt for lich king. I count on being able to self rez on some fights (sindy phase3 I'll let my stacks ride). Its a great way to aggro dump if your tanks are too busy to pull the 2 loose adds in dreamwalker off you

And yes, accidents do happen, far more than you'd like to admit. In a perfect world you should never die during a kill, but it can and will happen. Even if you never fail at mechanics, someone else failing can easily kill you. Lag can kill you. RNG can kill you. There are only so many druid/warlock battle rezes available, and guaranteeing that you can self rez in that critical moment can most certainly make the difference between a wipe and a kill. Every time this talent has saved the raid from a wipe, I put a little mark on a post-it note on my monitor. There are 27 marks at the moment.

I even purposefully die sometimes for the extra mana. It resets your potion timer too, so you can pot, heal until empty, die, rez with 40%, pot again, heal away.

Healing focus is pretty important for H LK since any Val'kyrs that pick up warlocks will be shooting you between taunts, which causes pushback. Also Pain & Suffering and Infest pushback are awful.

Imp. Reincarnation should just be in any resto spec in my opinion, because you don't need that 2% mana cost off spells. Really, you don't need it.

i tend to disagree with the people who say that on Dreamwalker, Lesser Healing Wave is the way to go, personally i try to Riptide on her as often as i can to keep Tidal Waves up, for the 30% decreased cast time of HEALING WAVE, and the 20% increase to healing effect. I've found that (with my gear) i can get 3 healing waves off before i can riptide again, so 2 of the 3 are gaining the increase from Tidal Waves. I mean for me there is like a .60-.70 second difference in the cast speed WITHOUT tidal waves (or any other speed boost) being up between Healing Wave and Lesser Healing wave

basically i'm saying that i use Healing Wave instead of lesser healing wave.

I don't think anyone is using straight LHW on Dreamwalker. The whole debate is whether after the 2 hasted HWs it's better to use HW or LHW. I think it depends on your haste level. With the LHW glyph and ES on Dreamwalker LHW is very comparable to HW in hps, so I've taken to a 3xHW 1xLHW rotation, which fits in perfectly in a 6 second window at my haste level. 1sec gcd (Riptide)+1sec gcd (HW)+1.13sec (HW)+1.6sec (HW)+1sec gcd (LHW)=5.73 seconds without any lag (yeah, that'll happen). If I know I need to move, I'll swap the third HW with a LHW and give myself a second of movement every rotation (actually 2 seconds with the riptide gcd), that's usually enough to get me to a portal if I came out away from them.

I would like to note that bonus healing effects to HW (20%) and LHW (10%) come from the Tidal Waves talent, not the buff, so if you have the talent, the bonus is always there.

In theory using a RT > HW > HW > HW > LHW rotation (yes for this one time it's really a rotation) is the best way to go. But that theory is without taking into account the portals' buff effect.
It seems that a pure HW spaming using RT only when you need to move or inside the portals gives the best results in the end. That result may be pure randomness or could be because of the way the portal buff works with HW and AA. Did some of you already tried the pure HW spam over the RT rotation and had better results with it ?

I think the "optimal" rotation depends on your personal haste rating. For instance, I run a full haste set with 2pc T10 (chest and helm) with the heroic Flesh Epaulets and the Unclean Surgical Gloves. I drop my heroic trauma for a LK weapon, and end up with about 1650 haste self-buffed.

My "rotation" for dreamwalker is then RT-->HW-->HW-->HW-->HW-->RT and it lines up almost perfectly, such that my 4th healing wave is completed right as RT comes off CD. During the GCD immediately following the RT cast, I run to my portal. While waiting for the portals to open, you can go through that cycle another 2 times, giving you 12 HW's between portal phases.

As for the improved reincarnation, I too believe it's a must-have in any resto spec--having an ankh up for every attempt on a progression fight is a huge plus, and the cost for it is virtually nothing--2% mana cost? Unless you are oom at the end of a fight, you don't need the extra mana anyway.

Also, the extra 20% mana and hp is a huge plus, especially in an RNG-heavy environment (h sindragosa, h putricide, etc.) where you can easily get insta-gibbed just trying to ankh. It won't always prevent it, but there are definitely some attempts where that extra 20% has saved me.

They do use the Shadowstorm spellschool (0x28 in the combatlog).

I believe you have it backwards. It does whichever type will do more damage. So if you put up only shadow resistance, you will take full damage. If you put up only nature resistance, you will take full damage. If you put up both shadow and nature resistance, you will take less damage. With both resistances up we seem to take roughly 20% less damage on average from the abilities, which is not an insignificant amount. Edit: Doing the math based on the resistance formula, if you have both resistances up you should take on average 20.31% less damage. That is extremely close to my estimate just looking at the numbers from combatlogs.