Totem Talk: Cataclysm and patch 4.0.1 restoration questions answered
by Joe Perez 
Oct 5th 2010 at 4:00PM
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast.
Even with an official release date finally announced for Cataclysm, we still have a beta going on in full swing and changes still happening, as is evident in the release of beta build 13117. There is still plenty to talk about and, most likely, still quite a bit that will change between now and when Deathwing breaks through The Maelstrom.
A couple of weeks ago, we talked about how our healing will change when the pre-Cataclysm patch 4.0.1 goes live, and last week, I talked to you about my first impressions about healing in heroics and dungeons in Cataclysm. Those posts generated quite a few questions. So as I like to do every so often, I'd like to take a minute or two to answer some of the more common questions I've been asked through email, comments and various other sources.
Even with an official release date finally announced for Cataclysm, we still have a beta going on in full swing and changes still happening, as is evident in the release of beta build 13117. There is still plenty to talk about and, most likely, still quite a bit that will change between now and when Deathwing breaks through The Maelstrom.
A couple of weeks ago, we talked about how our healing will change when the pre-Cataclysm patch 4.0.1 goes live, and last week, I talked to you about my first impressions about healing in heroics and dungeons in Cataclysm. Those posts generated quite a few questions. So as I like to do every so often, I'd like to take a minute or two to answer some of the more common questions I've been asked through email, comments and various other sources.
With 4.0.1 likely in the very near future and Cataclysm coming on Dec. 7, there are quite a few questions being asked about many aspects of our class and specialization.
While it is very true that all tanks have the ability to slow melee and ranged attacks down by a percentage built into their talents and abilities, there are many situations when the fact that we can do this at range will be very helpful. Running in on a pull, hitting a mob at range that the tank hasn't gotten to yet, or simply filling the gap until the tank can re-apply the debuff are all helpful. As far as the other shocks go, it will depend on the situation. Frost Shock is great for slowing down a runner before it can train more mobs and gives your party members a chance to drop the mob before you get an accidental train of mobs. Flame Shock is great for adding a little extra damage on a boss. The best answer I can give to this really is that it is situational. You have to use your judgment here on what is best given whatever situation you are in. When I talked about the usefulness of Earth Shock, it was honestly the best choice in that particular set of instances I was in.Is Earth Shock really that helpful? All tanks will have the ability built into their talents and mechanics, so is it really necessary to use Earth Shock? Wouldn't it be more useful to use something like Frost Shock or Flame Shock? Is the bonus given by Focused Insight really that useful, or would our global cooldown be better served healing?
As far as how useful or effective Focused Insight is, let's just take a look at some numbers here. Both Earth Shock and Frost Shock cost 4,217 mana at level 85, while Flame Shock costs 3,983 mana. Since Focused Insight gives you a reduction of 75 percent of the cost of the shock, you are looking at a cost reduction of 3,163 mana if you use Earth or Frost Shock and 2,983 for Flame Shock. Looking at our heals, at level 85, Healing Wave (which is our bread-and-butter heal) is 1,981 mana, and Chain Heal is 3,744 mana. You can do the math from there, I'm sure, but you can see it can be handy. Factor in the various shock effects and it can be even more useful. Again, the answer is all about the situation. The boost to healing FI gives is nothing to sneeze at either, especially when combined with bigger heals like Greater Healing Wave and Unleash Elements.
The developers have stated that spirit is primarily a healer stat now. All mana regeneration is derived from this stat for all healers, and Meditation uses spirit to calculate our regeneration while casting. This helps by allowing us to easily identify healing gear compared to, say, DPS gear. This has become a problem in the endgame of Wrath, as there are some pieces of gear that both elemental shaman and restoration shaman have fought over. That said, though, spirit shouldn't be the only stat you focus on. It will certainly be an important stat -- especially considering the endgame, in which we will have a lot more targets to heal and more damage going around -- but if you focus entirely on it and neglect your other stats, you really will be shooting yourself in the foot.Will there be a change in the functionality of spirit? As it stands now spirit is useless to us for a reason. Is spirit really that important for us? Should we be looking for it over other stats?
Mastery is an important stat, but like spirit, you shouldn't focus on it solely. Deep Healing is very useful, but the game developers have even said that they will not be designing healing encounters around this ability. Most of the gear that we'll get through dungeons, questing and various reputation rewards will provide us with more than enough mastery rating. With a lot of our passive crit rating going away with Cataclysm, reforging that into mastery really will not be worth it. The same goes for spirit. With mana being such a concern for healers, taking away spirit from our gear does the same thing as focusing too much on spirit. I will be compiling a list of gear from quests, instances and reputation rewards closer to the release of Cataclysm. That said, the rewards from reputations, quests, dungeons as well as justice and valor points are shaping up to be quite nice.I am trying to figure out if it will be worth it to reforge crit/spirit into mastery. How important is mastery really? Will we get enough of it on the gear we will be getting through questing and reputation? How about justice points?
I've spent a fair amount of time getting into some groups in the PTR testing healing raids/groups in the patch, and honestly it isn't that bad. We will be missing things like Tidal Force, but overall, our experience shouldn't change too much until Cataclysm actually gets here and we hit level 85.When patch 4.0.1 goes live, is it really going to be that hard to keep healing through ICC and RS? How much of an adjustment will we have to make?
If you have any questions about restoration shaman in Cataclysm or any questions about them in general, please feel free to email me. Next week I'll be bringing you a lot of numbers about our healing, mana usage and various spell combinations in Cataclysm.
Show your totemic mastery by reading Totem Talk. Whether it's Sarah Nichol's elemental edition, Joe Perez's coverage of restoration or Rich Maloy's enhancement edition, WoW Insider's shaman experts have you covered.Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tealdra Oct 5th 2010 4:13PM
With all the changes, will our stat choice still revolve around Chain Heal? Blizzard/GC stated that healers will try to keep the raid alive, rather than topped whenever we can. Combined with Deep Healing, it seems that we'll be Chain Heal bots again. Or am I exaggerating here?
Joe Perez Oct 5th 2010 4:42PM
In Cataclysm, in heroics and regular dungeons, you will be relying on Chain Heal a whole lot less. As raids become available for Cataclysm though, I will check spell usage in 10/25 man groups and let you know. But for now, at least at first, do not expect to rely solely on Chain Heal.
Josin Oct 5th 2010 4:15PM
As a resto shaman, when 4.0.1 goes live, what changes do I have to be ready to make to get my gear back in order ASAP?
Can we get a guide to stat priorities in the new system? Will haste be as key as it is now, or is Spirit going to be more of a focal point?
Joe Perez Oct 5th 2010 4:45PM
If you check the post about patch 4.0.1 that I did here http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/09/21/totem-talk-what-to-expect-for-restoration-shaman-in-patch-4-0-1/, honestly there is not much of a shift in anything for us when the patch goes live. All of our stats will still be as they are right now. You don't have to worry about changing gear, switching stats or anything at all. Just business as normal until Cataclysm is released.
Rhabella Oct 5th 2010 4:17PM
Isn’t one of the reasons shaman healers are so unaffected from many of the mana matters changes because the devs were actually happy with both the shaman triage and their mana regen? I don’t remember where I saw it, but I could have sworn there were comments like, “we’d like to make the other healers more like shaman.”
Joe Perez Oct 5th 2010 4:46PM
Restoration shaman are the healing model, so to speak. Our toolset, regen, and now triage abilities are what is being used as the healing model.
MikeLive Oct 5th 2010 4:54PM
I was very concerned about talk of the healing and mana changes too, but relieved a sigh when I saw that Shaman were the model they were basing the other healers off of. The only spell I have that I never use is Tidal Force, and if I let Water Shield fall or forget to hit Mana Tide in time then mana becomes a real problem.
Biskit333 Oct 5th 2010 4:32PM
I have a question about the interaction of Chain Heal and Deep Healing, if it has been answered before feel free to link to a post or ignore me. How does Deep Healing apply to each hop of Chain Heal? Is it individually, where each bounce gets its own Deep Healing modifier, or calculated once at the beginning of the spell? Since Chain Heal heals for a percentage of the first heal, would you double dip from healing all low health targets, i.e., the first heal benefits from Deep Healing, and then the second heal is calculated based on the higher amount, but is also increased by the Deep Healing coefficient on that target? Am I over thinking this?
Joe Perez Oct 5th 2010 4:47PM
That is a good question, and one that requires a big answer. Check back next week and I'll have a more in-depth answer as to how Deep Healing goes along with our spells.
youwrite2me Oct 5th 2010 8:15PM
Deep healing says it Increases the potency of your direct healing, isnt the jumps in chain heal indirect heals?
Vogie Oct 5th 2010 9:27PM
@youwrite2me It's called a "direct heal" as opposed to a Periodic heal. Chain lightning is a direct damage spell, even on the second target.
Then there are spells like Riptide, which are both.
Columhcille Oct 12th 2010 12:28PM
If Deep Healing affects the healing of your first heal on CH then it will indirectly afftect every just after. CH jumps are proportionatly less each jump based on how much the first heal does, right? If that's the case, if the first heal hits harder, the others will subsequently hit harder even tho their effectiveness is cut by 40% of the previous heal. no?
Docseuzz Oct 5th 2010 4:33PM
For next column. .. verdict on telluric currents?
Joe Perez Oct 5th 2010 4:49PM
To be honest, it is something I haven't used in heroics / 5 mans because there just isn't time. Instant cast shocks are one thing, cast time on LBs is another. I will however take another look at this when raids become available, as there will be other healers to fill gaps, and give us an opportunity to use this talent. Short version: Verdict still pending.
MikeLive Oct 5th 2010 4:57PM
Telluric Currents, and to a lesser extent Focused Insight as well, is mostly a talent for later in the expansion when you start to outgear content, allowing you to contribute to DPS (instead of sitting doing nothing) without your mana pool putting on a trenchcoat and leaving town forever.
Hagu Oct 5th 2010 5:25PM
1) What is your mix of healing spells now? I was an enthusiastic user of CH. OTOH, I can at least recognize my resto shaman; I shall miss playing my holy pally.
2) The 60 seconds I spent on talent builds, I did not spec into telluric silliness. We won't really know much until after 85, a 4.1 patch, and the nerfs and buffs and hotfixes settle down. But I guess I will need a talent build in 6 days. What are you using?
Thanks
Joe Perez Oct 5th 2010 6:46PM
In 5 man dungeons and heroics in Cataclysm I'm relying on Riptide, Unleashed Elements to throw out the instant heal and buff my next heal, and healing wave. Chain Heal is situationally useful depending on group composition, but for the heroics and regular dungeons, I haven't been using it all that much. Since the Cata raids aren't available yet, I don't know if this will change in 10/25 man content yet, but I suspect CH will be much stronger on the simple virtue of more targets to hit.
As far as 4.0.1, business as usual for the most part. You shouldn't notice too much change until you start pushing out of the current content and into the 81+ stuff that will come with Cataclysm.
For the specs I'm using, I'll give you a link after I get home from my 9-5, but I've toyed around with a lot of different compositions.
Columhcille Oct 12th 2010 12:33PM
Ch is not really incredibly necissary in current five man content so I don't see that being much different given the way things are changing so far, come Cataclysm five mans. There's just not enough bodies [probably not enough melee or enough ppl in the 12 yd range] to make the mana use of it efficient in five man. If things are CCd more in cata and not as much raid damage going out to all at once CH really will be used a lot more situationally along with our new aoe heal ability. I can see how it'd lean more toward using single target abilities and hots.
vanye111 Oct 5th 2010 5:31PM
Don't forget that paladins have the AOE healing that radiates from them as well, so they can be standing with a group healing them while they continue to heal some other targets as well.
KPB Oct 5th 2010 5:38PM
With out doing the math, it looks like Focused Insight will be best when followed with something other than our Healing Wave as Healing Wave will basically waste some of the mana savings making it less efficient overall. On the other hand Following it up with a GHW will result in the full mana savings and increase the healing by 30% while increasing the combined cost by less than that making it more efficient overall as long as you are avoiding over healing.