Totem Talk: Echoes of Doom Restoration review
by Matthew Rossi 
Oct 23rd 2008 at 4:00PM
Last week we talked Enhancement. This week, it's Restoration's turn as we move through patch 3.0.2, ward off angry zombies and get ready for Wrath of the Lich King. Last week I was hesitant to talk about glyphs, but it's clear that you guys want to talk about them, so we'll do that too. First off, behold in all his cobbled together glory my orc shaman, wearing a miz of Karazhan, PvP, badge and heroic gear (with the exception of a blue mail chestplate from a quest) - wearing this gear I have successfully healed heroics, Headless Horseman attempts (but let us be honest, the new DPS and tanking abilities make that fight a complete joke at 70), and a variety of PuG raids including a relatively successful Black Temple PuG.
Right now, I'd say Restoration is a powerful healing spec, but the problem is, it's hard to tell how powerful when all the content has been reduced to the point where fights that used to be hard can now just be muscled through. Prince Malchezzar, already a pushover once you're in Tier 5 or better gear, died so fast on my most recent Kara run that I barely had time to cast a few Riptides. Phase 2? Oh, yeah, that already happened? This makes the effects of the downranking and potion changes on mana efficiency rather difficult to determine as we progress forward. For now, I have no mana issues whatsoever, because everything dies before I can even look crosseyed at my mana bar.
Right now, I'd say Restoration is a powerful healing spec, but the problem is, it's hard to tell how powerful when all the content has been reduced to the point where fights that used to be hard can now just be muscled through. Prince Malchezzar, already a pushover once you're in Tier 5 or better gear, died so fast on my most recent Kara run that I barely had time to cast a few Riptides. Phase 2? Oh, yeah, that already happened? This makes the effects of the downranking and potion changes on mana efficiency rather difficult to determine as we progress forward. For now, I have no mana issues whatsoever, because everything dies before I can even look crosseyed at my mana bar.
Okay, first off, let's talk about spec. I am running with this build, which I am not entirely happy with. I'm considering going with this spec instead, as I'm not seeing a lot of mana issues at present and the benefit of Healing Way after Tidal Waves procs seems like it would make Healing Wave worth casting a lot more. I find my current healing style is to use Earth Shield almost constantly on the tank (no more mana cost) and throw Riptide around as my 'everyone else' heal, then use Chain Heal as my primary healing spell, only casting a Healing Wave if Tidal Waves procs.
I'd really like to go up the enhancement tree to get Improved Shields, an extra 15% on my ES would be lovely, but for right now I simply can't forgo the deep restoration talents for 8 points in enhance when I don't even have all I want for 61 points. I might dump Cleanse Spirit, which makes me sad, but as you guys have often pointed out a talent point in a bloated tree is worth more than an extra decurse in a raid setting that has it covered already. I'm also debating Imp Water Shield. I may take it out and see how my mana holds up, and if it turns out I'm undervaluing it I'll pick it back up. But I really want Imp Shields, so we'll see if I can make the room.
So far, I'm really liking how the tree shakes out in actual healing. Riptide is a spell I didn't even know I wanted, an instant cast heal with a heal over time component that I can just dump on a rogue or ret pally who's taking damage for whatever reason and then forget all about them. The Chain Heals I'm using on the tank will take care of any additional healing that they require. I also really enjoy Earthliving, as it seems to proc faily reliably. Last night I ran ZA as DPS (for my upcoming Elemental post) and saw several procs of the healing shaman's Earthliving on me, enough that I actually started to find it a little annoying (change that sound please, Blizz). In general, having an instant cast heal outside of the "Oh crap oh crap oh crap" combination of Nature's Swiftness and Healing Wave appeals greatly to me, so much so that I almost lost sight of the Heal over Time aspect of the new spell.
What's interesting and lovely (and which was pointed out to me by another healer on a 18 person Tempest Keep PuG that we did to get someone his VR shoulders, which of course he did not drop) is to see the synergy between Earthliving, Riptide and Chain Heal. Throwing Riptide around when it's up means that lots of people can get the benefit of the bonus to CH if they happen to need it, and on each CH I throw I see at least one Earthliving proc per cast. Shamans have an unusual but potent HoT capacity now, which still seems in the spirit of the RNG that abilities like Windfury have cemented as a shaman 'thing'. Meanwhile, Tidal Waves is pushing me to cast Healing Wave more, so I'm having to adjust and learn when it's best to use a cast time for a big HW over an instant cast like Riptide, changing my dynamic to some small degree while still feeling like a shaman.
I still never cast Lesser Healing Wave. Sorry. I probably should, but I can never come up with a time when I need a fast clutch heal that I wouldn't use Riptide or NS/HW for it. or even NS/CH.
Since I was a huge proponent of downranked healing to conserve mana, I never really chugged a lot of potions. But whether you were a potion addict or a downrank monkey like myself, the game has changed and you're learning to adapt. I have to say, while I'm not having a lot of trouble keeping up right now (there's been one fight, Halazzi in ZA, where I had to use a potion) I do wonder if this trend is going to continue as we start leveling.
As for glyphs, the major glyphs I want right now are Glyph of Earthliving Weapon and the Glyph of Chain Heal. I say want because I can't find either of them. But once I have them, we're talking a total 25% for Earthliving to proc on every jump of Chain Heal, and four jumps total. That fourth jump isn't going to do a lot of healing by itself, no, but as a means to get the Earthliving HoT effect spread out I find it beautiful and a nice combination of glyphs. For resto, I can't really see a reason to take other major glyphs like Glyph of Healing Stream Totem. Minor glyphs I'm looking at for restoration are the Glyph of Water Shield (extra charges are always good) - I haven't seen Glyph of Mana Tide on live so I have no idea if it's a major or minor glyph. If it's minor, I would definitely use it, as I use mana tide almost reflexively unless I need to remove poison or disease a lot.
I really hate the Glyph of Renewed Life. If you use Reincarnate as a pop up to keep healing on a boss fight, it's an excellent glyph, I admit it, but I often find myself using it as a wipe recovery tool, so I find it annoying. Still, I'd probably use it, I have had horrible luck getting this dude any glyphs and it's somewhat vexing at present. Where are the shaman glyphs, AH? I know three people leveling this profession and none have any glyphs for me! My warrior's drowning in glyphs, show a shaman some love!
Sorry, needed to rant.
In general, the tree feels solid, maybe even bloated, and it's working for the content I'm seeing, which is way above my previous gear level. Ghostcrawler's promised us some changes to how healing works similar to what they've done for tanking (and if it's as much fun as tanking is now, bring it on) but for now Resto still feels powerful and versatile, and my fears for mana regen have been put on hold until I see more Lich King content.
Next week, Elemental. Both my orc and draenei are going elemental: does that draenei racial make up for lost hit? How are we faring on mana regen? And how's our damage? I'll let you know as soon as I know, and discuss concerns for level 80 shamans.and AoE dps.
Patch 3.0.2 "Echoes of Doom" has landed and WoW Insider has you covered. From patch notes to talent guides for every class to fixing your addons to 5 easy achievements you can snag right now. Make sure to check out the latest news.Filed under: Shaman, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Naix Oct 23rd 2008 4:08PM
Wrath is going to be more about talents and skill and less about gear. Blizzard has already stated and estated this style of play by making instances easier and less class specific and more skill specific.
Arcaria Oct 23rd 2008 4:19PM
I think you're getting confused with another game or you didn't read carefully. They said that it will be gear and skill specific but not based on having the perfect class setup. You will still need to have the right gear to progress to the next level.
AoC made gear unimportant and aside from the amazingly great graphics and the instancing of the first 20 levels, the game sucked.
Naix Oct 23rd 2008 6:00PM
From what I have experienced in Wrath the green drops have very very good stats comparable to high level raiding gear. Sure gear is still going to be important, but not as dependent on to progress. I think what Blizzard is trying to do is eliminate the elitist and cater more to the casual. You can see that when Blizzard introduced daily money run quests, nurfed instances, and buffing talents. Just expect WoW to be more about skills and less about gear.
Luke Oct 23rd 2008 4:16PM
According to my Earth Shield, it still costs 420 mana to cast.
And Glyph of Chain Heal won't be available till LK hits.
jrizutko Oct 23rd 2008 4:20PM
That spec has a lot of wasted talents for any Resto shaman with decent gear. I'd take the points out of Totemic Focus, Tidal Focus, Ancestral Awakening, and possibly even Healing Grace to grab ancestral knowledge, improved shields and still get mana tide totem.
This is my build, and I practically solo-healed Kara this week: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hZ0x0hZxcfzieoxkrhRt
jrizutko Oct 23rd 2008 4:27PM
Also, if you're looking for useful glyphs, Glyph of water mastery (+30% passive mana regen to water shield) is a great pick-up.
Matthew Rossi Oct 23rd 2008 4:34PM
To be fair, look at the clown suit I'm wearing up there. But yeah, you and Jonathan have me re-thinking Healing Grace pretty hard.
jrizutko Oct 23rd 2008 4:40PM
Yeah, being geared up with MP5 definitely changes the lower talents.
DShock Oct 23rd 2008 5:13PM
Why even bother taking Healing Way anymore? How often do you find yourself spamming Healing Wave on a target? I feel like it's a complete waste in the tree now. For 70 I've been using this build and I love it.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hZ0xbhZxcgkVxoxkrhRt
I found 3/3 Imp WS required me to refresh it way too often.
jrizutko Oct 24th 2008 9:55AM
Prince Malchezaar and the preceding trash, or in Heroics. I don't argue that its less important now, but I kept it because i figured I'd want it when WotLK actually drops. With the tidal waves I actually like to rotate riptide, chain heal, healing wave on many fights, so the buff does come into play for me.
I have yet to run into a situation where i needed to refresh water shield and couldn't spare the global cooldown. Maybe I'm more habitual than most, but i have it keymapped very conveniently and hit it anytime i have everyone topped off without even thinking about it.
In your build/gear, do you actually have any mana problems? If you do, you'd probably get more efficiency out of 1 point of improved water shield than 3 points of tidal focus. If you don't, why not take the threat reduction for SNAFU protection?
Ralphwiggum Oct 24th 2008 10:52AM
Healing Way is rarely required as of late. Even on Prince, I found myself only occasionally having to heal the tank and half the time all that was needed was a Riptide. I found myself spending more points outside of the Resto tree than I normally do. Take a look at the bottom end of the Enhancement tree and you'll see things to boost your mana regen, healing power, and crit ability. That was too much for me to pass up!
Here's the build that I solo healed Kara with last week: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hZ0xbhZx0euVxoxkrhRt
Remember that crit is becoming increasingly important for us. My goal is going to be to maximize my crit before taking too many talents that rely on having crit already.
I really love the addition of Tidal Waves. The combination of that and Riptide has made healing 5-mans an absolute BREEZE! Hats off to Blizzard on that one. Finally we can also heal on the move!
Kildon Oct 23rd 2008 4:23PM
What would be your recommended glyphs for Enhancement be then? Personally I'm using; WF weapon and Water Mastery for majors / Water walking, Water shield and Ghost Wolf for minors.
Thoughts?
jrizutko Oct 23rd 2008 4:31PM
I'd say the Glyph of Earthliving is worth using, though its wasted on the most critical targets if you already have 2/2 Blessing of the Eternals. Str of Earth glyph also gives melee and ranged +1% crit, which some folks appreciate.
turke Oct 23rd 2008 6:30PM
@Kildon - Thats exactly the combo of glyphs i'm using for my enhancement shaman.
Jonathan Oct 23rd 2008 4:29PM
With agro generation being what it is, do you really need, healing grace? I also don't believe Totemic Focus is that important. That would free up 8 points to slot into Ancestral Knowledge and Improved Shields.
AK being a % based int boost would also increase your +healing you gain from Nature's Blessing and the +15% mp5 you'll gain from imp water shield will make up for the loss of the totem talent.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hZ0x0hZx0euVxoxkrGRt
Matthew Rossi Oct 23rd 2008 4:30PM
You may be right: I'm just so used to taking Healing Grace that I never even considered not doing it, but a halfway decent tank can just go nuts on threat now.
akw Oct 23rd 2008 4:40PM
Maybe this has been made clear in testing or by a blue post, but does the 15% bonus from Improved Shields affect the passive regen from water shield or only the burst regen from consuming an orb?
Also, might not the Thundering Strikes talent be a better investment of those points?
Andre Oct 23rd 2008 6:43PM
You should see the agro from an instant chain heal crit. Caster mobs get very angry at you when you do that....
Joe P. Oct 23rd 2008 4:53PM
I've been raiding as resto for a while now and got to do BT all the way up to illidan and all of hyjal and various other groups with the new build. I personally love it. I think resto got a lot of loving. I love having to choose which heal to use instead of just CH rank 4 for everything.
Also, healing grace, with the tanking changes, is kindda moot and unneeded now. Esp if you just stick wind shock on your bar somewhere. I've found cleanse spirit amazingly useful esp when lets say its a 10 man run and the other healer can't de-curse or dies.
Neophyte Oct 23rd 2008 5:06PM
You wont find Glyph of Chain Heal until after the expansion. It uses Ink of the Sea which is made from Northrend herbs.