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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsCataclysm: Stat and system changes for resto shaman
by Joe Perez 
Mar 2nd 2010 at 9:00AM
Here's the list of things we need to be aware of:
- MP/5: Gone
- Spirit: Now the regen stat of choice for all healers, gear with spirit is specifically healer gear.
- Spell Power: Gone from all items except for weapons, marking specific weapons as caster items.
- Intellect : Spell power is now derived from intellect, making this stat very important
- Haste: Still around.
- Critical Strike Rating: Still around.
- Spell Ranks: Gone, Spells will now grow with you as you level. Levels at which you can learn spells will be changing.
- Mastery: This is a specialization stat found on gear. Mastery allows for you to be better at your defined role
- Existing gear: Your existing gear will be updated to fall in line with these changes before Cataclysm is released
What this means for resto shaman:
Stamina: With everyone getting more stamina we will see the evening out of health pools. Blizzard has said many times that they want to see mitigation through other stats and talents, and would like to see an increased overall raid health total. As a healer this means you'll have a better chance to predict incoming damage and plan your heals and heal priority accordingly. This also means that you will see players being one-shot less often and give you more time to land heals on them. This also means that you are less likely to die from a stray boss ability and it lets you focus on your job of healing that much more. This is a very good change for us.
MP/5 & Spirit: MP/5 has been a restoration shaman go to stat for as long as it has existed. Resto shaman gear has featured this stat many times over and has clearly marked it as gear for set aside from a healing minded totem thrower. Now instead our gear will come with spirit, and our talents and abilities will be changed to reflect this shift and we will see our mana regen derived from spirit now instead. Time to get ready for Spirit Fingers!
Intellect & Spell Power: Spell Power was another one of those stats that was present on all of our gear, but now Spellpower is being removed from all except weapons. Instead now we turn to intellect as our main source of spellpower. This may result in lower mana gained from intellect as we know it in order to even out the massive amounts of Int we will be seeing on gear.
Haste & Crit: Luckily for us, these stats are staying around, so not much will be changing on that front. You will still obtain the same benefit from them you do now.
Spell Ranks: The removal of spell ranks is actually beneficial for our particular specialization. Leveling as a restoration shaman was always a bit of a chore just due to the limited spells and the time between ranks. There were several levels in which the spells just weren't quite enough and you didn't get a rank up for a while. Instead now the abilities are being redone to increase with level. This means a smoother transition between levels and an easier time healing your way through your levels. I for one look forward to this change.
Mastery: The mastery stat is something that will allow you to be better at your chosen specialization. This equates to free stats found on "your" gear. Ghost crawler I think said it best.
GhostcrawlerThere is a small Mastery bonus for wearing "your" gear. So a Balance druid who takes cloth will be essentially giving up free stats. Sometimes that may be worth it to them (just as sometimes it's worth it for a Resto druid to take that piece of +hit gear), but often times it won't be worth it especially if it's an upgrade for you.
This will help us further define what is "our" gear and will help cut down on other classes claiming "our" gear for themselves. I look forward to this change and the further defining of where loot should be allocated.
Reforging: I will mention this briefly here. This new ability will allow us to move stats around on gear, allowing us to tweak each piece just that much more letting us shift certain stats around, like converting Haste into Crit. As more information on that becomes available we'll let you know, but the bottom line is this will enable you to further customize your gear to your specified role.
Existing Gear: Rest assured change is coming, we just don't know when yet. When it does come, it will come before the release of the expansion. At that time the gear we are wearing will be altered to fit the model Blizzard has set down at the time of change. You can expect to see some of the following things when this happens.
- A lot more Stamina.
- All of your Spell Power converted to Intellect and Stamina.
- Spirit instead of MP5, but since our talents and abilities will already be changed to benefit from spirit, this change shouldn't be that scary to you. In fact you will probably look forward to it.
Things may change between now and the release of the update, try to keep that in the back of your mind as you read through all the information that comes out. Conversion numbers may fluctuate, stat scale may vary, but you can be certain that somethings will change along the way.
We still don't know exactly how much Spirit will equal what amount or regen, or how much SP and mana we will receive from Int. In time all this information will become available and you can bet we will keep you up to date with each change.
I will finish by telling you I personally find this very exciting. The consolidation of stats reduces complexity of gear choices, but allows for a whole new depth. New players will find it easier to determine what is an upgrade on the fly, while veterans and number crunchers will have all the information they need to figure out the specifics with theory crafting as they do now.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Deathknighty Mar 2nd 2010 12:05PM
Nope, mastery has that covered, palas will lose stats by not wearing plate, etc.
Cipher Mar 2nd 2010 12:08PM
@seas
But alas, you are not everyone.
seas Mar 2nd 2010 12:20PM
@ seas... NO Ive just played since vanilla wow and I like not seeing end game bosses be killed 1 day after there released, and actually like working for gear not doing 8 min nexus runs. Ill get the 128 int on my lock so I can have a good gearscore. Grats on ur t9 u deserve it... and in 1 month of doing dumb quest u can be in full t10. Chucky cheese is more fun!
Henrah Mar 2nd 2010 12:26PM
@seas
Firstly, why oh why are you ranting at yourself?
Secondly, nobody cares that you've played since vanilla. I love how people wear it like a badge these days. 'Hey look! I've played since vanilla... therefore I'm more important than the rest of you.' Wrong.
I too have played since vanilla, and am happy to see these changes. It was impossibly hard to do anything during vanilla. Raiding? HAHA! Having a full set of 'Blue' gear was an impressive achievement, never mind epics.
And now, that gear is accessible to all, raiding is accessible to all, people can actually see content! Wow! A game, where you can see content? Surely not! AMG! What is the world coming to!
And my final point, why are you even moaning about gear being accessible on a post about system changes?
Your logic is skewed.
Brian Broom Mar 2nd 2010 12:37PM
You will still have theorycraft choices between int/haste/crit/regen. The situation now is that with mana pools and regen where they are, there isn't much of a endurance aspect to healing. Bomb your biggest heal as fast as possible is how it works now. One of their stated goals is to get healing back to worrying about efficiency, and not just throughput. Int/haste will still be the best for throughput, but if you run oom in 2m of a 4min fight, you're not going to win.
Even without the mana issue, there is still the decision of int vs haste, which could still be an interesting decision, but we'll have to see how the exact numbers end up.
I'm also hoping that the mana regen changes make blue slots more valuable, now they seem like a liability to everyone but tanks.
Deathknighty Mar 2nd 2010 12:03PM
Mastery doesn't come on gear. It comes from investing talent points in a talent tree. So a resto shaman would get Mastery passively making his heals better, while an ele shaman wuold get stronger spell (or something to that effect).
Basically, it's so that they can get rid of all the boring "5% bonus to all healing done" talents, and replace them with interesting talents. You get those bonuses passively, in the form of mastery, by investing points in the relevant tree.
Candina@WH Mar 2nd 2010 1:09PM
@ seas et al. Firstly, I've played since Vanilla - and guess what? the game is MORE FUN NOW than it was in Vanilla. If it's not for you, don't let the virtual door hit you on your back side - stop reading about the game, stop playing the game, stop bitching about the game and move on. Obviously Blizz is doing everything wrong, why just the other day I think their user base dropped below teh COMBINED user base of the top 5 other MMOs...
As for these changes? Less artifical complexity = greater transparency = greater user acceptance. Which in turn should lead to more happy gamers.
The death of the meta-game that is theorycrafting is a BONUS to the average player. Now I can just play the game, instead of having to research, at a variety of more or less reputible websites, HOW to play the game.
When I first started playing, I refused to use thottbot to look up quest/item info. I wanted to experience the game. The Lore, the Story. After the 3rd or 4th toon, experiencing the quest stories again were not as appealing.
But the system was SO complex, that figuring out how to become better (talents builds), or choose the best gear was very difficult. So, I had to branch out into the meta game. Especially in a PVP situation, if you don't do the research, you have little to no chance against some one who has, even if your 'skill' at manipulating your toon is 'superior' - if your build is wrong, or your gear is wrong, you are toast.
Now, we're streamlining the system, making it more transparent. This can be nothing but good for players, especially newer players. Who it is not good for are those who have invested heavily in theorycrafting to eck out some incremental advantage. This advantage will always be there [law of unitended consequences] to be found, but theory crafter set will have to start over from scratch with the new paradigm.
And they will gnash their teeth and wail about how Blizz is dumbing down the game.
If the game is dumber, but still fun, or heaven forbid MORE FUN, for the average player, the min/maxers can go play somewhere else because there are a hell of a lot more 'average' players than theorycrafters.
Roland Mar 2nd 2010 2:42PM
People are QQing about stat changes that really aren't going to change the fundamentals of the game - you're going to get clear upgrades if you kill hard bosses, and you're going to like it. The fact that stats might actually get closer in value - maybe you might actually WANT to change Haste to Crit - is actually a good thing for the game, because we won't be inclined to wear Cloth and Leather with Spirit and Hit just to eek out more Haste (well, I guess Spirit is good for us suddenly...but hopefully stacking Haste won't be so extreme). Does anyone honestly miss when bonus spell damage and healing were separate? Or Downranking?
What I'm really excited about is that this opens the door, I think, for more interesting items in Cataclysm, like Althor's Abacus or Trauma. We might see stuff as game-changing as 2pc T10 on really high-end armor! Also, if you look at the Resto tree right now, there are a bunch of talents that will probably just become static things, like Tidal Focus, Tidal Mastery, Purification, and Nature's Blessing. This opens the door for some really interesting talents, and as Ghostcrawler's been saying, we should actually have some choices, and not boring stuff like Elemental Weapons vs. Healing Focus.
I'm pumped.
pablo Mar 2nd 2010 6:24PM
": Now the regen stat of choice for all healers, gear with spirit is specifically healer gear."
Not True. Blur Posters say ele shamans will share gear with resto shamans.....they will have a talent that converts spirit to hit i think but we will rill on the same gear.