Cataclysm Talent Preview: Restoration shaman
by Joe Perez 
Jun 10th 2010 at 9:00AM
Remember a little more than a month ago when we started seeing leaks of the talent trees from the Cataclysm alpha? They were popping up on sites all over the place, and quickly thereafter torn down at Blizzard's request. We got a sneak peak at the shaman talent changes, and I was lucky enough to get to talk about them a little bit before they got torn down. Since then, we have been wondering what of the glimpsed changes would stay and what would go, and in truth whether or not they were completely real. Now, however, Blizzard has released a talent preview for four classes: druids, rogues, priests and shaman. So we now have an official preview for all three talent trees for all four of these classes. Seeing as we have now moved past leaked information and onto official news, what do we have to look forward to as restoration shaman?
What we know
- Improved Healing Wave now affects the new Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave.
- Healing Way now affects both Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave.
- Tidal Waves now also affects Greater Healing Wave.
- Tidal Mastery is still gone.
- Thundering Strikes is still M.I.A.
- Cleanse Spirit has still been replaced with Improved Cleanse Spirit, which allows for the removal of magic effects from friendly targets. Cleanse Spirit is now a base spell.
- Ancestral Knowledge still increases maximum mana by 15% at max rank.
New talents
So, out with the old and in with the new, right? There were a couple additions to the restoration talent tree.
We caught a glimpse of this with the alpha leak, but it would appear it is real and it is here to stay, at least for now. I talked about some of the merits of this talent before, and even now I can begin to see the usefulness of it. I talked about previous fights that had us using shocks in rotations with healing in the past such as Fathom-Lord Karathress, where it was not uncommon to have a restoration shaman on interrupt duty on the priest with Earth Shock, or even Karazhan, where you could find a shaman using Frost Shock on Tinhead or Flame Shock on Strawman. It would not be too surprising to see something of these former fight mechanics make their way back into use. While I know in raids today there is a ton of redundancy and in Cataclysm there will be even more so, we can't forget about smaller groups such as heroics. The LFD tool has made it very simple and easy to run heroics and there may be times where you may not have an ideal group for every fight, so you may find yourself throwing shocks around when things get hairy. This talent could come in handy in those situations when we are forced to use our mana in other ways.Focused Insight
Rank 5/5
Requires 15 points in Restoration talents
After casting any shock spell, your next heal's mana cost is reduced by 75% of the cost of the shock spell, and its healing effectiveness is increased by 25%
Again, we saw this with the initial talent leaks, and it seems it was real after all. After seeing fights like Halion and living through The Lich King encounter, I can understand how something like this would be useful. In Cataclysm, the developers have been stressing that every healing spell you cast will be a choice and will have its own consequences. Whether the consequence is wasted mana or picking the wrong heal for the job, Blizzard wants to increase the difficulty in healing. In fights with a lot of raid or group damage going out, the less you have to worry about your own health, the better. Keeping yourself alive as a healer is a priority, and in fights where you find yourself pumping out Chain Heals like a machine gun, taking 10% off the damage you are taking can really add up.Ancestral Resolve
Rank 2/2
Requires 25 points in Restoration talents
Reduces damage taken while casting spells by 10%
Looking ahead
Restoration shaman have always been one of the more stable classes and roles. While there have been tweaks here and there along the way, we have not seen the same level of sweeping changes others have, and these talent changes seem right in line with that. The restoration talent tree still feels very familiar and our tools are still there, even if they are modified some. While there is sufficient shuffling of the talents, I think that we really will not see much change in how we heal until we get the final word on our new spells and the new mechanics for healing and mana regen, or unless there are vast changes to these trees from what they are now. I do find it interesting we see few talents directly affecting any of the spells we were told about in our class preview. There is still nothing listed that affects Healing Rains or any mention of Spirit Link yet.
Keep in mind that this information is subject to change at any time as things are balanced and as the game enters and moves through its development and beta paces. This is not the final draft and talents may be removed, combined or completely obliterated as time moves on. But what if this was to be the final release of the talents? How do you feel about them? Be sure to check back as we will keep you up to date with any further changes on the road to Cataclysm.
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.Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Qot Jun 10th 2010 9:24AM
Even though it's not finalized yet, I've been playing around with wowhead's talent calculator. I'm guessing the standard level 85 build will look something like this:
http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#hxMZVI0oZx0ezIeoizRfuio
The two points in Elemental Warding and Ancestral resolve are filler, they could go elsewhere if someone wants a more PvP oriented talent. I understand "taking less damage is good!" but, if we're going to be overhealing less, it may be easier to simply let Riptide's ticks or Healing Stream Totem heal us up the last few points rather than trying to avoid that damage. I could also see points taken out of Ancestral Resolve and another talent (maybe Improved Chain Heal, Blessing of the Eternals or even Nature's Swiftness) to make an 11/12/53 or an 11/11/54 build that gives Clearcasting and Shamanistic Focus.
http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#hgc0oZVG0oZx0ezIe0VzRfuio
The advantage of that build, of course, is mana efficiency with Focused Insight. You reduce the cost of the shocks by 45% in the enh tree, by an additional 10% in the ele tree and you pick up clearcasting (which also works for heals) when your shocks crit.
Then, of course, there's my dream scenario:
http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#hZVIfo0uZx0ezIeoVzRfuio
If there's a spellpower weapon that's not limited to mainhand, even if it's just a green... Just thinking about a dual wielding healer makes me giddy. Not for any logical game-play reason, of course, I just think it'd look cool.
Res Jun 10th 2010 9:43AM
Agreed, that would be awesome. :)
deffo Jun 10th 2010 9:52AM
if my understanding of focused insight is correct, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by talenting shamanistic focus
Sei Jun 10th 2010 9:54AM
I actually plugged in the exact same build for dual wield as you did. Everything is just laid out too nicely for a cool combination of talents, and really hope Blizzard leaves that in place for us to try out.
An offhand spellpower weapon would probably be incredibly overpowered, but slapping earthliving on an offhand that had haste and crit might just work out for everyone.
Qot Jun 10th 2010 10:19AM
Deffo, I'm not sure what your understanding of Focused Insight is, but I can't see any downside to taking Shamanistic Focus.
Without Shamanistic Focus:
Let's say you use Flame Shock, which is 17% base mana (the cheapest shock). Your next heal, let's say Riptide (29% base mana) is reduced by 75% of the cost of Flame Shock. So, Riptide is 29% base mana - (75% * 17% base mana) or 16.25% of base mana. Total mana spent for the two spells: 33.25% (17% + 16.25%) of base mana.
With Shamanistic Focus:
I'm assuming, from Focused Insight, that you reduce based upon the actual cost of the spell rather than the base cost. So, you cast Flame Shock, which is now 11.05% of base mana (17*.65). Then you cast Riptide, which is now 29% base mana - (75% * 11.05% base mana). That works out to 20.7% of base mana. Total cost for both spells: 31.75% of base mana.
In both cases, you get Flame Shock and an empowered Riptide cast, but the overall cost is lowered with Shamanistic Focus. Basically, you don't decrease the cost of your Riptide as much, but you decrease the cost of the shocks themselves by a greater margin, saving you mana.
Aalokor Jun 10th 2010 10:50AM
i get the impression movement is going to be a bigger deal with cat than previous expansions (look at th move-while-casting ability shaman are getting). I wouldn't be surprised if most specs try to go for ancenstral swiftness
Swampsquatch Jun 10th 2010 11:06AM
Judging by current normal 25 icc weapons vs. offhands, by being able to DW, you would be gaining about 600+ spell power (not counting flametongue weapon enchant) over all other caster classes. Of course this is in weapons alone and maybe would actually be "balanced" through talents in the grand scheme of things.
+1 for healing shamans dual wielding, it would look pretty sweet.
Qot Jun 10th 2010 11:17AM
Aalokor, I think the question is whether movement or mana efficiency and GCDs will dominate the fights. The spells and talents say movement, the blues say efficiency, so who knows what will win out. It may even change from raid to raid (though I really hope I don't have to do dailies in resto again because I'm raiding with a resto/resto dual spec).
If we need big heals or heal-per-mana efficiency without worrying about overheal (as the blues have said), the math I gave above (125% of the Riptide heal for ~110% of the cost but 200% of the GCDs) indicates that, if we have the GCDs to spare, we'll want to cast shocks almost on cooldown. This is important even if a bit of movement is required, since shocks/Riptide can be cast while moving. (A little off-topic: this talent will be great for movement fights, since we can shock on the run and then get a big heal off when we stop running)
Now, extending that logic, if we have the GCDs, are going to be casting shocks regularly and have, let's say, 25% crit on our gear... Then 40% off the cost of two big heals every 24 seconds (on average) is a huge, gigantic boost to our mana efficiency for a few talent points.
On the other hand, if fights require ridiculous amounts of movement, especially simple "get from point A to point B" movement rather than "run away from the ghost" or "Heigan dance" movement, then we'll be playing catchup when we stop to heal and may not have the GCDs to spare. In that case, the 0/18/58 or 0/19/57 options start looking better since you cut down on the running time with greater speed. Also, if we are running and playing catch-up, then the "mastery" bonus that we have (healing more at lower health) could look more attractive as well, meaning those few extra points in resto would be good.
Shelly Jun 12th 2010 9:36PM
They added back in the snare to tol,if movement is a factor come cataclysm, druids will be screwed for 45 seconds every 3 minutes. Or like me, people will forego the goodness that is wild growth and refrain from picking up tol.
Feraley Jun 10th 2010 9:36AM
I gues we will be mostly using http://www.wowhead.com/spell=49231 since most bosses have meele attacks, while http://www.wowhead.com/spell=49236 cause a lot of threat its slow doesn't have an effect on bosses so I don't see him as logical choice. http://www.wowhead.com/spell=49233 doesn't have any side effect rather then a dot, on the side note he does have a bit less mana cost.
Kemikalkadet Jun 10th 2010 9:46AM
All tanks have an attack speed debuff that doesn't stack with Earth Shock. Warriors have thunderclap (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=47502) for example, the other tank classes have similar moves which they incorporate into their usual rotations.
mpeton Jun 10th 2010 9:41AM
I have to expect the trees to get shaken up a lot, as playing around with the talent Calculator on MMO-Champ, I'm having a really hard time finding more than 14 or 15 points in any tree other than resto. With a lack of supporting spells in other trees, I don't see any way to avoid putting 60+ points into the primary tree. It seems to be the case for Druids aswell.
KPB Jun 10th 2010 11:16AM
Yeah I got the same feeling playing with both Enhance and Resto specs. Going up the second tree there just doesn't seem to be enough to appeal to the other specs with the talents taken out so far.
For Resto AK and imp shield are a given but what do you do after that? Enhancing totems will be a duplication with an enhancment shaman around. Imp ghost wolf for instant cast wolf might be handy in some cases but I'd expect that most of the time we will want to use riptide or even a Shock to setup Focused Insight while moving so can't be in Ghost Wolf.
From there Shamanistic focus isn't bad with Focused Insight but nothing really good for a shaman beyond that.
Try to go up the elemental tree and Convention works ok with focused insight and Elemental warding doesn't sound bad but what do take after that? Concussion, Elemental Devastation and call of flame are all pretty pointless for a resto shaman. Elemental focus could be pretty handy for the mana savings but you'd have to waste 2 points to get to it.
Instead of feeling like I've got a bunch of great but mandatory talents I feel like I'm grabbing almost everything that is even kinda useful because there aren't enough good talents left to spend the extra talent points you get with out having an extra teir of talents.
Qot Jun 10th 2010 11:27AM
"Enhancing totems will be a duplication with an enhancment shaman around. "
The SoE enhancement would be a duplication, but enh would probably be dropping Searing or Magma, not Flametongue. It's a minor increase (at 80, 144*0.15 = 20 spellpower for 3 talent points), but not a complete waste. Imp Ghost Wolf is more fun, though.
Boobah Jun 10th 2010 12:02PM
Flametongue is changing from a static amount to a multiplier; +4% to recipient's spellpower, as I recall. That makes enhancing totems a .6% boost, assuming there's nobody with a better version, like a demo lock or elemental shaman. That's 18 spellpower for someone at 3 000 natively. Less than a Wrath blue-quality spellpower gem, for three talent points.
And it's still getting overwritten by Wrathful Totems and Demonic Pact. Not to mention that there's still that whole unfinished thing combined with a stated desire to remove buff-enhancing talents.
JBluntz Jun 12th 2010 11:32AM
I had a similar thought when putting together a cata enh build, but it seems like that's slightly on purpose, what with the mastery stat/effect. It had me wondering, if you had enough mastery on gear, at what point does a talent point in your primary tree become worth it on the basis of the bonus alone? Might we see builds that max a tree out at high gear levels to play off the mastery mechanic?
Valorous Jun 10th 2010 9:46AM
Honestly, I think that your dream scenario is a great one. It doesn't look like you'd be missing much...if anything worthwhile at all by going that route. Also, imp ghostwolf would be baddass when trying to move in an outdoor raid if there are any. In the end, I'm a little doubtful that the developers would allow dual wield healing weapons ( end game quality ), just like you're hinting to thar, but we can hope!
Qot Jun 10th 2010 10:46AM
The only question is "will there be a decent offhand?" I just checked the AH and most of the things with spellpower also have "main hand" requirements. There are a few exceptions in Wrath gear, just greens (Nerubian Mace of the Invoker, for instance), and a few off-the-wall options (Librarian's Paper Cutter, for instance) that are rogue weapons with some semi-useful stats.
The interesting thing, to me, is that they moved Dual Wield up to the point where it could be possible. Right now, it's at 31 points while the pre-req "Spirit Weapons" (parry + reduce threat) is at 21. In Cata, it looks like "Spirit Weapons" is moving off to the side and "Dual Wield" is now at 21 with no pre-req.
It's not simply "this is possible", but "Blizzard has made it way easier to try".
Boobah Jun 10th 2010 11:55AM
Blizzard specifically changed all the spellpower weapons to mainhand back in BC to keep enhancement shamans from being gods with their spells. (They missed some initially, and sometimes a new one shows up. This is always a bug, and gets fixed as soon as Blizz notices.) The most a resto can expect from dual-wielding is some dual-purpose DPS/healing stats like crit and haste, and a second weapon for earthliving and enchants to go on. I'd expect a healie shield to be a better choice since all its itemization is more likely to be useful, but it's probably worth working the math as we get closer to a final version.
Arbolamante Jun 11th 2010 11:49AM
@Boobah - as long as more healy/elemental shields even show up. I don't get much chance to raid with my shaman (except when a guildmate says "Help, we need Heroism!") and I've been very frustrated at the the limited availability of spellcaster shields in 5mans and from badges.