Totem Talk: Onnix's Ultimate Casual Hardcore Guide to Shaman Resto Talents
by Robin Torres 
Aug 3rd 2007 at 11:02AM
Every other week, Robin Torres investigates Shaman issues, interviews experienced Shamans and reports her findings in Totem Talk.
For those of you just joining us here in Totem Talk, Onnix the Shaman is a level 70 Tauren raiding healbot of a shaman who is also my husband. He has played this character since a few months after WoW's launch -- after he abandoned his level 60 Dwarf Pally, changed to a PvP server and changed factions. This was all while I was suffering from morning sickness (stupid name -- lasted all day) and couldn't play for a few months. Though I tried multiple times to get him to play other classes and help me catch up with my drood, he always goes back to Onnix after half-hearted attempts.
I have often made fun of how much gold Onnix has wasted on respecs. He used to spec one way for raiding and another for his non-raiding activities. He also experiments with new talents whenever he feels the urge. He has stayed with his current spec for some time now for survivability when soloing and healing for raiding.
Without further ado, here is
Onnix's Ultimate Casual Hardcore Guide to Shaman Resto Talents
Improved Healing Wave: Reduces cast time of Healing Wave by .5 seconds at max rank (5 points).
This is a must have for any serious healing spec. Half a second is too often the difference between a good boss kill and a raid wipe. It is not necessary for a hybrid build, but is still good to have.
Tidal Focus: Reduces mana cost by 5% at max rank (5 points).
Because it increases mana efficiency, this is a must have. Take it over Imp Healing Wave to unlock the next tier for hybrids.
Improved Reincarnate: Reduces cooldown on Reincarnation by 20 minutes at max rank (2 points).
Meh, sure it's ok, but a completely unnecessary use of 2 points.
Ancestral Healing: Increases target's armor value by 25% after healing crit at max rank (3 points).
Useful. I would take for a full resto spec, but in my opinion, I prefer to save those points for another tree to help DPS for solo farming. In high end raiding, all of your tanks that are getting beat on should be so close to the armor cap anyway, that any increased mitigation would be marginal. (Admittedly, my tank knowledge is minimal.) Also, any restoration shaman will typically have a very low crit chance, therefore making the effect a rare occurrence.
Totemic Focus: Reduces mana cost of totems by 25% at max rank (5 points).
For up and coming shamans struggling with mana problems, I would probably recommend this. But once you're up over 150 or so MP5 while casting, mana becomes less of a problem, and the mana cost of totems becomes negligible.
Nature's Guidance: Increases chance to hit with melee attacks and spells by 3% at max rank (3 points).
No resto shaman should have this talent, period.
Healing Focus: 70% (max rank) chance to avoid interruption when casting healing spells (5 points).
This talent is indispensable. You need to be able to reliably heal your team, even while being beat on (part of the reason we have shields).
Totemic Mastery: Increases the radius of your totems to 30 yards (1 point).
Unless you're rocking 3 piece Earthfury, take this talent.
Healing Grace: Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 15% at max rank (3 points).
I'm a big believer in this talent -- a must have for a resto build. Although, I could see it being less useful in higher end raiding, with very well geared tanks. (I might have to do some testing) But until then, take it and keep mobs off you!
Restorative Totems: Increases the effect of your mana and healing stream totems by 25% at max rank (5 points).
The usefulness of 15 mana vs 12-13 mana per tick could probably be debated until the next expansion is released, but with 3 piece Cyclone Raiment, it puts you at 19 per tick, which is nice. Lucky for us though, it's necessary to get Mana Tide, which no Resto build would be complete without.
Tidal Mastery: Increases chance to crit with healing and lightning spells by 5% at max rank (5 points).
Personally, I like this. It helps boost solo DPS a little, but honestly for a heavy resto build, this could be left out -- if you needed points for something else.
Healing Way: 100% (at max rank) chance to increase the effectiveness of subsequent Healing Waves by 6% for 15 seconds, stacks up to 3 times. (3 points).
LOL WUT? It's a bit of a mouthful, but this is particularly useful if you have a lot of resto shamans. But since my guild is light on shaman healing, I personally forgo it and resto shaman crit percent is horribad anyway, reducing the chance this spell will be activated. However, I would include this on a heavy resto build.
Nature's Swiftness: When activated, makes your next nature spell instant. 3 minute cooldown (1 point).
This is your defining 21st point in any hybrid build -- no shaman build should leave home without it. It could mean the difference between an epic save or a run back from the Spirit Healer for your raid. Elemental Shamans often spec to here to get as much burst damage as possible.
Focused Mind: Reduces the duration of any silence or interrupt effect by 15% at max rank (3 points).
I have this talent, but have mixed feelings about it. It's only practical use would be in PvP, but I personally haven't seen it shine. Maybe somebody else has a more solid opinion about it? If you have the extra points to spend, it certainly won't hurt, and will likely make a difference if you Arena a lot.
Purification: Increases the effectiveness of healing spells by 10% at max rank (5 points).
Makes you a better healer. Get it. 'Nuff said.
Mana Tide: Restores 6% of your total mana every 3 seconds for 12 seconds (1 point).
This is why we took restorative totems, please don't stop now. This is just another thing that will increase your efficiency as well as those casters around you. One of the defining characteristics of a "restoration" shaman.
Nature's Guardian: 50% (max rank) chance to increase your health by 10% whenever an attack takes you below 30% health (5 points).
Another long winded description, but a great talent. It's particularly useful in PvP to give you a chance to squeak a heal in just before you go down, and is one of the things that makes full resto shamans so hard to take down. Marginally useful in raids, but helps quite a bit while soloing when you forget to heal yourself which i do quite often when I'm not paying attention.
Nature's Blessing: Increases spell damage by 30% of your intellect at max rank (3 points).
Fairly useless, but necessary to get Earth Shield. It actually does help with solo DPS, but since your elemental spells are so gimped this far down in the tree it's purpose is kinda moot.
Improved Chain Heal: Increases the amount healed by your Chain Heal spell by 10%.
Chain heal has often been referred to as your bread and butter spell in high end raiding, and I have to agree. It's amazingly mana efficient and works extremely well when you're assigned to keep melee groups alive. This is a must have.
Earth Shield: Protects your target with an earthen shield, giving a 30% chance to ignore spell interruption when damaged, and causes melee attacks to heal shielded target for 270 at max rank (1 point). Ranks 2 and 3 are trainable from your Shaman trainer.
This is the last rung on the ladder for any restoration shaman, but is what puts our survivability through the roof. The healing effect stacks with +healing gear, so an average heal for me is 1K, with the range being 800ish and about 1200 with crits. Each heal effect also has a chance to proc the Gruul's Eye trinket which makes it particularly useful in soloing. Its usefulness really can't be understated. However, its biggest problem is that it can be dispelled, purged, and taken via the mage's Spellsteal ability. It is also expensive, making it unlikely to be recast in combat. Despite its problems, it is still the best tool a shaman can have.
Random Tips:
1. Real shamans use a one hander and a shield. Please, please, please don't use a staff. Those are for druids and priests. The armor increase alone from using a shield is enormous.
2. I always say, if you're gonna put one point in a talent, go all the way and maximize that talent. There are of course exceptions to this rule, but it's a good one to stick by if you're not sure what you're doing.
3. A full restoration build is roughly 55 points, depending on what your personal preferences are. I'm currently using a build that minimizes the resto tree to the point of just barely getting ES, and putting the rest into early elemental talents. This is specifically for solo farming, and i find it works really well. If you have some good enhance gear, you could easily shift those points to the enhancement tree and do well there as well.
4. Ancestral knowledge in the enhancement tree is worth picking up if you find that you need the extra mana, and is often included in various restoration builds.
5. This may seem obvious, but i have seen far too many cowpriests running around to not say anything. Use mail gear. There is a ton of resto shaman gear in the Burning Crusade -- find it. Cloth or leather are generally designed for priests and druids who can actually use spirit. There are some really nice cloth pieces, but they are the exception.
6. Stat priority for a level 70 shaman considering gear should be MP5, +heal, Int, then stamina.
Are you a level 70 Shaman with interesting experiences or insightful opinions or inside knowledge that you would like to share? Please email Robin.Torres AT weblogsinc DOT com for a possible interview.
For those of you just joining us here in Totem Talk, Onnix the Shaman is a level 70 Tauren raiding healbot of a shaman who is also my husband. He has played this character since a few months after WoW's launch -- after he abandoned his level 60 Dwarf Pally, changed to a PvP server and changed factions. This was all while I was suffering from morning sickness (stupid name -- lasted all day) and couldn't play for a few months. Though I tried multiple times to get him to play other classes and help me catch up with my drood, he always goes back to Onnix after half-hearted attempts. I have often made fun of how much gold Onnix has wasted on respecs. He used to spec one way for raiding and another for his non-raiding activities. He also experiments with new talents whenever he feels the urge. He has stayed with his current spec for some time now for survivability when soloing and healing for raiding.
Without further ado, here is
Onnix's Ultimate Casual Hardcore Guide to Shaman Resto Talents
Improved Healing Wave: Reduces cast time of Healing Wave by .5 seconds at max rank (5 points).
This is a must have for any serious healing spec. Half a second is too often the difference between a good boss kill and a raid wipe. It is not necessary for a hybrid build, but is still good to have.
Tidal Focus: Reduces mana cost by 5% at max rank (5 points).
Because it increases mana efficiency, this is a must have. Take it over Imp Healing Wave to unlock the next tier for hybrids.
Improved Reincarnate: Reduces cooldown on Reincarnation by 20 minutes at max rank (2 points).
Meh, sure it's ok, but a completely unnecessary use of 2 points.
Ancestral Healing: Increases target's armor value by 25% after healing crit at max rank (3 points).
Useful. I would take for a full resto spec, but in my opinion, I prefer to save those points for another tree to help DPS for solo farming. In high end raiding, all of your tanks that are getting beat on should be so close to the armor cap anyway, that any increased mitigation would be marginal. (Admittedly, my tank knowledge is minimal.) Also, any restoration shaman will typically have a very low crit chance, therefore making the effect a rare occurrence.
Totemic Focus: Reduces mana cost of totems by 25% at max rank (5 points).
For up and coming shamans struggling with mana problems, I would probably recommend this. But once you're up over 150 or so MP5 while casting, mana becomes less of a problem, and the mana cost of totems becomes negligible.
Nature's Guidance: Increases chance to hit with melee attacks and spells by 3% at max rank (3 points).
No resto shaman should have this talent, period.
Healing Focus: 70% (max rank) chance to avoid interruption when casting healing spells (5 points).
This talent is indispensable. You need to be able to reliably heal your team, even while being beat on (part of the reason we have shields).
Totemic Mastery: Increases the radius of your totems to 30 yards (1 point).
Unless you're rocking 3 piece Earthfury, take this talent.
Healing Grace: Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 15% at max rank (3 points).
I'm a big believer in this talent -- a must have for a resto build. Although, I could see it being less useful in higher end raiding, with very well geared tanks. (I might have to do some testing) But until then, take it and keep mobs off you!
Restorative Totems: Increases the effect of your mana and healing stream totems by 25% at max rank (5 points).
The usefulness of 15 mana vs 12-13 mana per tick could probably be debated until the next expansion is released, but with 3 piece Cyclone Raiment, it puts you at 19 per tick, which is nice. Lucky for us though, it's necessary to get Mana Tide, which no Resto build would be complete without.
Tidal Mastery: Increases chance to crit with healing and lightning spells by 5% at max rank (5 points).
Personally, I like this. It helps boost solo DPS a little, but honestly for a heavy resto build, this could be left out -- if you needed points for something else.
Healing Way: 100% (at max rank) chance to increase the effectiveness of subsequent Healing Waves by 6% for 15 seconds, stacks up to 3 times. (3 points).
LOL WUT? It's a bit of a mouthful, but this is particularly useful if you have a lot of resto shamans. But since my guild is light on shaman healing, I personally forgo it and resto shaman crit percent is horribad anyway, reducing the chance this spell will be activated. However, I would include this on a heavy resto build.
Nature's Swiftness: When activated, makes your next nature spell instant. 3 minute cooldown (1 point).
This is your defining 21st point in any hybrid build -- no shaman build should leave home without it. It could mean the difference between an epic save or a run back from the Spirit Healer for your raid. Elemental Shamans often spec to here to get as much burst damage as possible.
Focused Mind: Reduces the duration of any silence or interrupt effect by 15% at max rank (3 points).
I have this talent, but have mixed feelings about it. It's only practical use would be in PvP, but I personally haven't seen it shine. Maybe somebody else has a more solid opinion about it? If you have the extra points to spend, it certainly won't hurt, and will likely make a difference if you Arena a lot.
Purification: Increases the effectiveness of healing spells by 10% at max rank (5 points).
Makes you a better healer. Get it. 'Nuff said.
Mana Tide: Restores 6% of your total mana every 3 seconds for 12 seconds (1 point).
This is why we took restorative totems, please don't stop now. This is just another thing that will increase your efficiency as well as those casters around you. One of the defining characteristics of a "restoration" shaman.
Nature's Guardian: 50% (max rank) chance to increase your health by 10% whenever an attack takes you below 30% health (5 points).
Another long winded description, but a great talent. It's particularly useful in PvP to give you a chance to squeak a heal in just before you go down, and is one of the things that makes full resto shamans so hard to take down. Marginally useful in raids, but helps quite a bit while soloing when you forget to heal yourself which i do quite often when I'm not paying attention.
Nature's Blessing: Increases spell damage by 30% of your intellect at max rank (3 points).
Fairly useless, but necessary to get Earth Shield. It actually does help with solo DPS, but since your elemental spells are so gimped this far down in the tree it's purpose is kinda moot.
Improved Chain Heal: Increases the amount healed by your Chain Heal spell by 10%.
Chain heal has often been referred to as your bread and butter spell in high end raiding, and I have to agree. It's amazingly mana efficient and works extremely well when you're assigned to keep melee groups alive. This is a must have.
Earth Shield: Protects your target with an earthen shield, giving a 30% chance to ignore spell interruption when damaged, and causes melee attacks to heal shielded target for 270 at max rank (1 point). Ranks 2 and 3 are trainable from your Shaman trainer.
This is the last rung on the ladder for any restoration shaman, but is what puts our survivability through the roof. The healing effect stacks with +healing gear, so an average heal for me is 1K, with the range being 800ish and about 1200 with crits. Each heal effect also has a chance to proc the Gruul's Eye trinket which makes it particularly useful in soloing. Its usefulness really can't be understated. However, its biggest problem is that it can be dispelled, purged, and taken via the mage's Spellsteal ability. It is also expensive, making it unlikely to be recast in combat. Despite its problems, it is still the best tool a shaman can have.
Random Tips:
1. Real shamans use a one hander and a shield. Please, please, please don't use a staff. Those are for druids and priests. The armor increase alone from using a shield is enormous.
2. I always say, if you're gonna put one point in a talent, go all the way and maximize that talent. There are of course exceptions to this rule, but it's a good one to stick by if you're not sure what you're doing.
3. A full restoration build is roughly 55 points, depending on what your personal preferences are. I'm currently using a build that minimizes the resto tree to the point of just barely getting ES, and putting the rest into early elemental talents. This is specifically for solo farming, and i find it works really well. If you have some good enhance gear, you could easily shift those points to the enhancement tree and do well there as well.
4. Ancestral knowledge in the enhancement tree is worth picking up if you find that you need the extra mana, and is often included in various restoration builds.
5. This may seem obvious, but i have seen far too many cowpriests running around to not say anything. Use mail gear. There is a ton of resto shaman gear in the Burning Crusade -- find it. Cloth or leather are generally designed for priests and druids who can actually use spirit. There are some really nice cloth pieces, but they are the exception.
6. Stat priority for a level 70 shaman considering gear should be MP5, +heal, Int, then stamina.
Are you a level 70 Shaman with interesting experiences or insightful opinions or inside knowledge that you would like to share? Please email Robin.Torres AT weblogsinc DOT com for a possible interview.
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jason Aug 3rd 2007 7:22AM
A few things of note:
1. Healing Way has nothing to do with spell crit. You cast HW, and it's there. No further effort needed. However, it's only really useful if, as you say, the group is heavy on Shaman heals. There's no benefit from it if it's all overhealing.
Earth Shield: Expensive? It's one of our most efficient heals, period. 900 mana for minimum 2700 heal before gear vs 720 for 2134-2436 is nothing to sneeze at, especially since it's fire and forget.
Imp Reincarnate: If you're not part of a guild large enough to run 5 mans and raid, it's worth the two points. Never underestimate the abilities of a PuG to suck.
Nature's Blessing: Farthest thing from useless ever. If you're rocking enough int to get up around 9k-10k mana, then this is easy 200 spell power for 3 talent points.
Nature's Guardian: Marginally useful. If you're soloing as full resto, I'd say go ahead and take it. In a group environment, you shouldn't be getting hit unless your tank sucks.
Focused Mind: Strictly a PvP talent. Mobs that Silence are few and far between, and it's not hard to simply avoid farming them.
Ancestral Healing: I'm also torn on this one, but the 25% armor bonus isn't that bad. Getting up around 15% spell crit isn't that hard as resto, especially if you're taking Tidal Mastery. When I raided as resto, I'd see this in the combat log every 4-5 casts.
Nathan Aug 5th 2007 4:47PM
> 1. Healing Way has nothing to do with spell crit. You cast HW,
> and it's there. No further effort needed. However, it's only really
> useful if, as you say, the group is heavy on Shaman heals. There's
> no benefit from it if it's all overhealing.
Umm... downrank much? Pick the HW that heals just as much as you need it to heal and never worry about overhealing. Know how much each rank of your HW will heal for before you cast it.
And while you're at it, stack up three Healing Ways with your Rank 1 Healing Wave for maximum efficiency on single-target healing. Rank 1 is a 1 second cast and costs less than the mana you'll regenerate in the same amount of time. You'll stay at full mana and and a cool 18% to your HW's strength when it comes time to cast it. So yummy...
If Chain Heal is your bread and butter, then Healing Way should be your raspberry jam (in PVE).
Bad Guide.... Aug 3rd 2007 10:48AM
Nature's Blessing: Increases spell damage by 30% of your intellect at max rank (3 points).
Fairly useless, but necessary to get Earth Shield. It actually does help with solo DPS, but since your elemental spells are so gimped this far down in the tree it's purpose is kinda moot....
Are you joking?! Because getting this actually increases your + healing as well by at least 100 + depending on your int....
Esside Aug 3rd 2007 11:18AM
"Ancestral Healing: Increases target's armor value by 25% after healing crit at max rank (3 points)."
As a tank, I must say that I strongly disagree. 25% armor increase is huge, and as far as know, even with the best gear, a warrior or paladin won't reach the armor cap without it.
Even if your crit rate is low, don't forget that you won't be the only healer on the main tank, and that priests have a similar talent too.
Chryse Aug 3rd 2007 11:32AM
Start posting news like mmo-champion do, instead of this fakking crapy shaman who the fakk cares
Physical Original Aug 3rd 2007 11:31AM
Improved Reincarnate: also increases the amount of health and mana you have when you pop. This makes poping during combat useful.
Ancestral Healing: Bears are the only one coming close to the armor cap and non of them are at the cap for level 73 monsters. This proc is going to add ~3% additional mitigation.
Nature's Swiftness: unnecessary crutch. you don't "have to" take this. You'll be a better healer if you don't rely on it.
Nature's Blessing: also adds to healing....
Cow priests comment: mail gear prior to level 70 is primarily +damage/healing. for pure +healing gear you need to be wearing a lot of leather and cloth (and there arent any +healing shields until 70 either). If you are healing you should have the gear that gives you int, mp5 and +healing, cloth or not. Don't worry about going full mail until well into your life as a 70.
Matthew Rossi Aug 3rd 2007 11:48AM
Chryse - if you already have a site that posts what you want, why do you troll a post that's intended to discuss Shaman specs? Some of us are interested.
Grummsh Aug 3rd 2007 12:00PM
Ok, as far as Tidal Mastery and Nature's Blessing go....I use them constantly, when I'm out farming. I went with an Resto/Elemental hybrid sort of thing, http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-talents.xml?r=Madoran&n=Grummsh and I get about 15% crit chance out of my heals, and almost 25% out of my lightning bolts, when I'm out farming, and my DPS gear kinda sucks..so! Those two skills are of immense use. Also: Nature's Swiftness is of great use as an "Oh $h17" button, like on Gruul , or starting phase 2 on Prince.
Brian Aug 3rd 2007 12:08PM
As far as Improved Reincarnation is concerned, it really depends on how you view it. If you think Reincarnation is "Wipe Prevention" then it's not really worth it. However a lot of us Shammy's consider it something to use to get back into a fight. You don't save it until everyone is dead, you use it to get back in the fight and possibly prevent the other people from dieing. It's also known as our aggro wipe skill (thanks a bunch Blizz). Anyway, if you are ever planning to use reincarnation while in combat (I have done so many times where it allowed us to win the fight) Improved Reincarnation is a must have.
Healing Way is also much better than the original article seems to think. If you are ever going to be single target healing in a raid, this will let you be mana efficient by downranking (if you aren't downranking you don't know how to heal). It has no crit requirement to proc (not sure how that got in the article) and the 18% bonus to healing is great. Just spam a low cost Heal to keep healing way up.
I'm also pretty sure Nature's Blessing Increases +healing as well as +spell damage. Not sure why anyone would think 100 to 200 extra healing is not very good for 3 talent points in Resto.
Murloc Warlock Aug 3rd 2007 12:32PM
“LOL WUT”?
Tips from a restonoob who don't know what Healing Way is? Nothx.
Angel Aug 3rd 2007 12:38PM
Improved Reincarnation is indispensable, especially with our aggro issues.
Ryanoth Aug 3rd 2007 12:51PM
Wow, I thought this would be an interesting read since my alt is a 70 resto shaman I use to help when our raids are short heals. But some of the advice is way off. You don't even really know what Healing Way does, and it is a huge boost when main healing a tank. Also Nature's Blessing is a nice boost to +healing as well as damage. You need to rethink some of those talents.
Ryan Aug 3rd 2007 1:25PM
Getting around 18 points in elemental also helps out in pvp, making you that much harder to interrupt and kill, plus the second cooldown reduction on shocks in indispensible. BTW, you can use rank 1 shocks for their utility purposes only if you want to conserve mana.
Bucs Aug 3rd 2007 6:48PM
wow this is the first time im ever making a comment and i just have to say WHAT A TERRIBLE GUIDE THIS IS
ive been a shaman for about 2 years now and i just see WAY 2 many flaws to approve this.
Dready Aug 3rd 2007 5:17PM
While some of this advice is solid, a lot if it is way, WAY off base. Most of the gaffes have already been mentioned, but I had to throw in my two cents.
Please don't give advice on playing a resto shaman if you don't even know what the trees do. Last thing we need is know-it-all GMs thinking they know the shammy trees because they read this way-off-base article.
Kendry Aug 5th 2007 1:21PM
This is also the first time I've posted, because this is the worst "Guide" I've ever seen.
First of all this is assuming you are at least in Karazhan.
First of all, Improved Reincarnate and Ancestral Healing are two of the best talents you can get. It's not the cooldown reduction, it's the health and mana boost when you pop up. There are so many times when you get killed during a boss fight and that extra mana from ahnking makes a big difference.
Ancestral Healing is amazing. No non-druid tank is going to be above 35k armor raid buffed, and this is a very nice boost on bosses that hit like a truck.
Tidal Mastery is 5% crit for your heals, there is NO reason to skip over it if you're serious about healing.
Healing Way is the single biggest HPM boost in the game... It has nothing to do with crit, it's 3 casts and 18% more healing for healing wave. You can downrank to around rank 7 and watch this talent shine. If it's about to expire toss a rank 2 to renew the duration, and NS max rank if something goes wrong.
THIS TALENT IS NOT LOL WUT, ITS $%&^ING AMAZING WHO THE HELL IS WRITING THIS.
Focused Mind has some uses, mainly if you're trying to down Gruul for the first time.
Nature's Blessing is another amazing talent; it adds plus heal not just plus damage. Raid buffed it will ad 250 +heal at least, for 3 talent points.
Earth Shield is always about 10:1 HPM, making it one of the most mana efficient abilities in the game. The ONLY downside of ES is that it doesn't count the heals on your meter :P
"6. Stat priority for a level 70 shaman considering gear should be MP5, +heal, Int, then stamina."
No, not really. You want to balance mp5, +heal and int, and if anything stack int. 3 int gives you 1 +heal, and most importantly MANA TIDE SCALES WITH INT! The more mana you have the more you gain back from mana tide. Stacking MP5 will not equal out the mana you lose on mana tide from skimping on intellect. BALANCE your stats if you're a resto shaman, and if anything go Int, MP5, +heal.
11k mana 100mp5 and 1500 +heal is something to shoot for.
J. Aug 5th 2007 6:34PM
Woah, that is some horrible advice on some talents. The most ridiculous comment however is the following:
"Nature's Swiftness: unnecessary crutch. you don't "have to" take this. You'll be a better healer if you don't rely on it."
Yeah, right.
Obviously one should not rely on it. But not taking this as a Resto Shaman for one single freakin' talent point is just outright stupid. Even if you are the best healer in the world - other people WILL screw up. A tank forgetting Shield Block and getting a sudden crushing blow, Prince when your tank is not equipped that well, Warlocks not fearing/banishing Magtheridon Adds quick enough so that you get pounded on as well as your tank.. just ns-heal yourself/the tank and regularly heal the other one .. or being focused in pvp .. there are so many situations where NS may be your savior.
This is a spec i would recommend for raiding:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=GZxZEfxtVestsd
I think that threat reduction is not really necessary for raiding. In crappy instance groups it's nice but once you're past that stage it's not that important i guess. Improved Reincarnation is nice to have if you screw up and die in a boss fight (or someone else screws up ;) ) .. ankh+mana potion (preferably with alchemists stone)+mana tide and you're as good as new).
Focused Mind will be buffed to 30% in the new patch and .. well, it's a nice thing to have. Not too important though. One might go for 8/0/53 to get Elemental Warding and skip this + Ancestral Knowledge.
For farming i'd simply suggest getting Herbalism. Getting my fast flying mount was not that difficult. Had lots of money from leveling and having all the crappy greens disenchanted, borrowed the rest from a friend, bought the mount and just farmed herbs for a couple of hours. Depends on your server though. For Dailies Resto is fine since you hardly have to kill any mobs (except for Netherwing but their Dailies suck anyways)
And another point ;) .. i don't consider Int to be that important. Sure it does scale with manatide but you only get manatide every 5 minutes. mp5 works all the time. I think a good balance of +heal:mp5 is at around roughly 10:1, obviously depending on the fight. Int will come naturally as your gear gets better. For long encounters, mp5 is king. If you are willing to consume a lot of bufffood and consumables, mp5 is a lot easier to get with that. Flask + Mana Oil + Fish is 47 mp5 or so which is huge in a long fight.
Just my 2 cents :)