I had not considered the Resistance flask in my evaluation of Alchemy, but realistically it would only seem to apply to fights you would be popping the flask instead of the standard SP flask. I find that I only use it when doing Sindra HM. With the ICC buff increasing soon, I don't see survivability being an issue for too much longer.

I think I am going to go ENG for a few reasons. First, my guild provides consumables, so the financial benefit of the longer duration flasks is negated. Second, leveling BS, specifically for 40 extra haste seems like overkill, despite the fact that it being the best choice mathematically. Third, ENG provides the unique buff of the rocket boots, which cannot be made up by any other profession. With the number of fights in ICC that require either kiting or running away from something, it seems to be the most real-world beneficial, if not the best in theory

One can argue that Engineering actually "scales" due to the time saved on moving will be worth more and more healing the better your gear gets

It's less about how it helps or does not help your healing in HPS terms, Widewing. But being able to rocketboost saves your life, being able to pop +10% haste saves your target's.

Yes the other professions give better passive boni, but Engineering trumps then in oh-shit reactions.

One could argue that those "oh sh-" moments are a result of poor play, and in those scenarios where poor play causes a death - it's up to the raid to stop making those mistakes. If you're relying on engineering to save someone who makes a mistake, you have bigger problems at hand.

Personally, I prefer Alchemy and Jewelcrafting purely due to it's flexibility in situations. The Jewelcrafting gems allow extra throughput due to hitting the haste cap easier, and likewise Alchemy allows me to "always" use Trauma (277) due to the bonus effects of Lightning Speed and Manta Ray (+40 haste) food putting me on the magical 1269 haste rating.

Professions are merely a byproduct though. If you suck without professions, you'll still suck with them. Though one could argue rocket boots remedy this, somewhat. I've not found any 'true' problems with Shaman mobility though, I think it's easy to survive without any "boost" or "oh-shi" button.

That's also being a little ridiculous as there are situations where rocket boots don't make up for 'poor play', but rather accentuate good play in situations where rocket boots are extremely handy. They sometimes allow you to get into positions a little more quickly in order to set up for phase transitions / cover heals, etc. Gloves are also a bonus to have around for when you know raid damage is going to ramp up and you want a boost 'right nao' - having absolutely nothing to do with poor play at all.

They also help compensate for the 'poor play' of others as well, not just yourself. I use gloves / boots pretty offensively (so to speak) on just about every encounter in ICC right now, just as I did before I quit in ToGC. Eng is more than just an oh shit profession; it's very much a strong raiding profession, and I personally find it stronger than a static 40 haste (63 including cloak enchant), 40 spell power and whatever else the other professions give you.

I honestly can't think of a time where something like 40 extra static haste would have made my play better over a 340 burst or 5 second rocket boot (under whatever circumstance I was using it). I'm not bashing alchemy by any means either, though, as it's the other profession I've ever considered picking up just for versatility - but I find JC to be somewhat versatile as well and don't want to lose all the cuts.

It was merely a pedantic post. I know rocket boots are useful, and given that a DPS offspec is something that's very handy to have as a healer rocket boots help in the DPS department with Saronite Bombs, as well as the afforementioned profession-specific enchant. I just argue that, in ICC, there are very few encounters where the rocket boots would be used for anything other than covering a mistake.

Marrowgar: got caught off guard by Bone Storm? Rocket boots assist on this failure.
LDW: nearly hit by a ghost/in a bad DND spot? Rocket boots assist here.
Gunship: It doesn't really matter if you get hit on this fight.
Saurfang: I don't move on this fight anyway.
Rotface: Vile Gas > Ooze explosion is the only "valid" failure here in my opinion, although a quick HoF will remedy this. I'm unsure if the Rocket Boost breaks the Vile Gas root.
Festergut: You hardly need to move now that there are pools.
Putricide: I've actually never done this fight, but I can imagine Rocket Boots being specifically viable, and handy, on this "high movement" fight - especially in P3.
Blood Princes: Useful to run away from the Empowered Conjured Flame Balls, otherwise they're not so great due to the movement penalty debuff.
BQL: Don't need to move much, if at all, and any extra increase in speed just creates more fire if you have Swarming Shadows.
Valithria: Don't need to move on this fight if your DPS is awake/can interrupt (same thing, really). Useful 'partially' if you're on Dragon Healing duty.
Sindragosa: If you need rocket boots to survive on this HM, you don't deserve to live. Anything you'd fail at with normal movement speed is simply your own fault, and if you need Rocket Boots to help you survive. I suggest you learn to play, personally.
LK HM: Thus far our best % is 4 minutes into p1 at 72%. I guess, with the increased damage from Infest/LK/Shambling Horrors the speed boost from the Rockets would help greatly in applying the disease to the Shambling Horror.

Perhaps I'm looking at this the wrong way, but I honestly cannot see where I would ever "need" the rocket boots. Every fight in ICC, HM or not, is easily survivable - even as a Shaman - using basic class abilities and having decent eye sight. The "bonus" haste is nice, but if you're wanting to optimise your performance entirely the Beserking bonus (for being a troll) is probably much more efficient than the engineering bonus. It all seems rather superfluous to rely on Rocket Boots.

Just to be clear, this entire thing went away from any point I was ever trying to make. I only posted on the 'fun factor' of Eng and any other tradeskill, and in true EJ fashion it turned into optimization and then survival and eventually will get into some sort of arbitrary discussion about HPS and haste caps and everything else that doesn't matter. Tradeskills are barely necessary to raid even in the hardest content in the game right now (from a healer perspective), and keep that comment within reason as I'm not going to unlearn my tradeskills in order to be a martyr.

The only point I was ever trying to make is that Engineering is fun and also brings enough utility to the raiding table to make it at the very least - viable. And I could list off numerous other situations in which rocket boots (since that seems to be your primary focus of the profession) extend far beyond mistakes and survival, but there's little to no point and would just further add to uselessness.

BS, JC, Eng, Alch, Enchanting and LW all add enough utility to just ripen your own play style, and I think that's about all that really matters from a healers perspective when it comes to tradeskills. Unlike DPS, we don't really have to be at any caps (hit, haste, spell power, whatever) to still be successful and not leave something to be desired.

Surely the amount of time spent moving with or without rocket boots in ICC will remain similar. Only the distance travelled is affected by the boots, in situations where late reaction or long periods of movement due to the fight mechanics are required, in which no opportunity to cast a heal other than riptide is given. I don’t see how they allow more healing to be overall done; they are simply a survival tool in PvE circumstances.

Sixthy got a point though, the whole discussion is extremely minor.
I guess the end result is that there's an optimum, a versatile, and a reflexive tradeskill. What you specifically use is up to you then, as it will also vary greatly with the environment (Guild/Raidgroup/Playtime) you play in. Seems to be a YMMV-situation.

My guilds just started on Valithra. I apologise if it's been mentioned b4, however is it worth taking a set of drums of speed for myself and the other healers?

Any thoughts?

Also apologies if this should have gone in the simple questions thread, however i thought it linked in nicely with the professions discussion.

If I'm reading it right, he means to allow healers to grab more green clouds in the dream portals.

I've never done this, so I don't really know if it increases your "swimming" speed in the portal area. I suppose you could try it if your healers are having trouble getting stacks up; I don't think that's the area most guilds would struggle with, though.