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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsTotem Talk: 4.0.6 restoration shaman study guide
by Joe Perez 
Feb 8th 2011 at 7:00PM
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how.
Last week, we talked about healing my favorite 5-man instance, The Vortex Pinnacle. Before continuing on with our series on healing Cataclysm dungeons and heroics, I thought we would take this week to talk about the incoming set of changes heading our way when patch 4.0.6 goes live, since it has grown and changed quite a bit since it was first announced.
The patch has been highly anticipated since it was first mentioned. These changes will have an impact on our spell choices, our ability to keep up with other healers in raids, and in truth should help begin balancing everything out. It will have an impact on our healing spell choices in many fights, our healing styles, and to a lesser degree, our trinkets and enchants. Let's take a look, shall we?
Last week, we talked about healing my favorite 5-man instance, The Vortex Pinnacle. Before continuing on with our series on healing Cataclysm dungeons and heroics, I thought we would take this week to talk about the incoming set of changes heading our way when patch 4.0.6 goes live, since it has grown and changed quite a bit since it was first announced.
The patch has been highly anticipated since it was first mentioned. These changes will have an impact on our spell choices, our ability to keep up with other healers in raids, and in truth should help begin balancing everything out. It will have an impact on our healing spell choices in many fights, our healing styles, and to a lesser degree, our trinkets and enchants. Let's take a look, shall we?
Patch notes and changes and healing, oh my!
So I think we should start by consolidating all of the changes that are coming in a nice, tidy box.
Shaman
- Chain Heal's effectiveness has been increased by approximately 10%
- Healing Rain now has a 40-yard range, up from 30, to be consistent with other shaman heals.
- Spiritwalker's Grace duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 10
- Cleansing Waters no longer fires its heal effect twice when a shaman removes a Magic and a Curse debuff with a single cast.
- Deep Healing (Mastery) has been increased to 3% per point, up from 2.5%.
- Greater Healing Wave mana cost has been increased by 10%; healing done has been increased by 20%.
- Mana Tide Totem has been redesigned. The totem no longer multiplies the Spirit of those affected by it. It instead gives a flat amount of Spirit equal to 400% of the casting shaman's Spirit, exclusive of short-term Spirit buffs affecting the shaman when the totem is dropped. In addition, its effects are now raid-wide.
- Reincarnation can now correctly be used after Soulstone Resurrection or Rebirth has already been used on the shaman during a boss encounter
That's the complete list of all changes we can look forward to in the upcoming patch. Quite a bit to digest there, so let's break it down into some nice, easy-to-digest tidbits.
Dust off Chain Heal and Greater Healing Wave
Two of our spells are getting a little bit of tweak, and it is a tweak that we needed. I talked a little bit about this last week on World of Matticus, but we've had a little bit of a problem in the department of our spells. Chain Heal was getting pushed aside for other heals like Healing Surge. It was sadly falling slightly short when compared to other AoE healing as compared to other heals like Prayer of Healing. The 10% increase should help make positive steps towards re-establishing Chain Heal's place in our healing toolkit. On the PTR, the spell is really started to fill in as a niche tool -- no longer the spammable spell of the Burning Crusade days, but far from useless. Comparing the healing throughput to the other healers, it really seems to have found its place. Get ready to make use of it once again, as there are many places in 5-mans and raids where it really comes in handy.
Just like Chain Heal, Greater Healing Wave has been pretty much unused. The reason for this is that Healing Surge was healing for pretty close to the same amount as GHW, while costing almost the same mana. With the tweak, though, GHW is really becoming that dig-deep heal it was originally intended to be. The increased cost of the spell is negligible compared to what it heals now, and it really is a specialized tool like it should be.
Mastery, Healing Rain and Spiritwalker's Grace
Our mastery has been pretty lackluster, all things considered. The big problem with this is that Deep Healing only kicks in when a target is at low health totals. So, the lower the health totals, the more our direct healing healed for. This means it doesn't do a whole lot for us most of the time, because as healers, our job is to keep people from riding that dangerous line of death. The change from mastery's granting 3% per point instead of 2.5% sounds minuscule, but really counts in those situations where we have a lot of people at low health totals and every single heal counts. This works really well now with those emergency GHWes and will go that much further in progression raid healing, where health totals are naturally going to be lower.
Healing Rain is also getting a minor tweak, but one that will help out a little bit. Right now, all of our healing spells come with a 40-yard range. Problem is that pre-patch 4.0.6, it only has a range of 30 yards, meaning that in many cases you have to move to set the spell optimally. This extra 10-yard range helps keep you stationary a few more precious seconds and helps make your healing throughput a little better.
On the topic of movement, Spiritwalker's Grace is getting a few more seconds to let you move and heal. While 5 seconds may not seem like much, it helps in those situations where you have to use it. Also, since any spell you're casting gets cut off if you're moving when SwG ends, it gives you a few extra moments to plant yourself before losing the cast.
Mana Tide Totem and trinkets
This has been one of the biggest concerns about the patch so far. Mana Tide Totem will now grant us a 400% spirit boost, up from 350% while active, and will now affect the entire raid group. While this seems like quite a boost, the downside is that procs from trinkets or abilities no longer count towards the spirit total increased. This means that Heartsong Enchant, the tier 11 four-piece bonus and trinkets like the Core of Ripeness no longer count. It also only grants 400% of the casting shaman's spirit total to the raid group, not the individuals healers. The change means that you will want to use MTT early and often. If you can use it early enough in a boss fight to top off your mana totals that you can use it again 3 minutes later, it will go a long way toward helping keep your mana totals high.
Don't abandon those spirit trinkets, either. Keep in mind that those trinkets still increase our overall spirit, which when combined with Meditation, keeps our mana regen going strong. Darkmoon Card: Tsunami, Tear of Blood and Core of Ripeness are still very effective pieces to have on you. Just make sure that you are using any on-use trinkets whenever they are up.
Compared to other healers, our changes are pretty good. After extensive testing on the PTR, our healing numbers are not very far below that of paladins and priests. This has been a great concern for a while now, and it seems that things are starting to normalize. While there are still some things that could potentially use a little bit of a tweak, we're not in a bad spot. Our throughput has gone up, and our tools are starting to fill their roles as they are supposed to. There are distinct choices between spells in boss fights now, and mastery isn't quite the write-off it was before -- at least, not for heroic mode and progression fights.
Totem Talk: Restoration will show you the basics of endgame resto shaman play as well as how to find the expansion's best reputation gear for resto shaman and tips for easier leveling. Happy healing, and may your mana be plentiful!Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Boobah Feb 9th 2011 2:34AM
Yeah, it's just HORRIBLE to have a mastery that really digs in most just when you need it.
Deep Healing beats Echoes of Light (Holy Priest) if the target is at 58% or below in pure throughput, and without the six second delay; if somebody drops below a sixth of their max health and you hit panic mode, Deep Healing has twice the throughput of Echoes of Light.
Holy Paladin bubbles have the same strength as Echoes of Light, except that your target has to take more damage for them to matter.
Disc priest mastery has twice the magnitude of Echoes of Light or Illuminated Healing.. except that it only applies to bubbles (and consequently, it has the same limitation as the Paladin mastery, although it's more under the caster's control.)
Symbiosis (Resto Druid) has the disadvantage of taking two spellcasts to activate; it's still weaker than Deep Healing once the target drops to 51% health.
I can see where it throws a spanner into theory crafting; nobody's had to care where the raid's average health was to evaluate anything before. And, of course, it varies by the fight; the first boss of SFK is going to make Deep Healing look very, very good, while Ozruk tends toward binary health; you either don't need healing or you're dead. "Hard to evaluate in practical conditions" is by no means equivalent to "Useless," however.
As for the 'randomness'; it's not random. It's not consistent, but predictably so. And in a GOOD way; the more healing the target needs, the more they get.
Sky Feb 9th 2011 11:30AM
That totally explains why Shamans are the best healers right now. We're totally topping the effective healing meter according to the statistics. As it is, we're so good that we're taken before other similarly geared healers especially Paladins and Priests. We bring so much to the raid in terms of buffs that no other classes can give (like totems and heroism those 2 are the best buffs in the game!). We also have the best cooldowns in the game. Yes, paladins have 5 cooldowns, but Nature's swiftness is so good it beats all those 5 cooldowns rolled into one. We also have the best mana efficiency among healers. I mean we get so many free spells (Paladins only have 2) it's amazing. Mana Tide Totem is also super awesome since I stack spirit (not haste or crit before spr). Don't even get me started about Mastery. It's so awesome it's the best mastery bonus among healers because targets are always below 58% (even after I heal them). Man shamans are so awesome I could totally see raids stacking Shamans right now. When raid leaders think healers they automatically think Resto Shaman. We're that awesome right now.
Onebaddude Feb 8th 2011 11:34PM
I'm really not trying to be nagative when I say that chain heal is still very much underpowered. I played with it in four heroics today, and still found it to be weak. The only time I have found it to be usefully is when there is large amounts of aoe going out, and I only use it to supplement healing rain. It still costs too much for what it does. Waiting for healing rain to come off cooldown is a better option. IMHO.
Boobah Feb 9th 2011 2:44AM
Oh, yeah, it was great fun having your interrupts on the GCD. Especially when the one with the relatively short cooldown was designed to be part of your regular threat rotation. Ah, good times.
And it got better when none of your DPS (y'know, a shaman, a DK, and a rogue, for example) could ever be bothered to interrupt.
I'm just hoping that now that Lay on Hands is on the Forbearance train that I'll see fewer pugged paladin healers decide that Hand of Protection is a jolly good choice of a spell to throw on the tank during a boss fight. (For what it's worth, my totals are currently running at 2/2)
Sypher Feb 9th 2011 5:11AM
We raid 10M HC and our Resto Shaman has experimented a great deal with Mastery and currently swears by it. Because of the new healing paradigm, people need to be healed from 20% (after a big boss ability like Crackle, Security Measure or Fued) to safe HP totals ASAP. If someone is >70% HP, he probably won't need heals unless he's a tank and would take a big beating anyways. In all these circumstances, the mastery throughput helps a ton. And, in comparison to haste, it doesn't cost you anything, meaning more mana for Chain Heal and Surge/GHW.
I don't know about 25M, but on 10M HC Mastery is king.
Grak Feb 9th 2011 5:45AM
If pally tanks having a proper interupt makes a warrior tank inferior, then the warrior player was a bad tank, not the class. Warriors are and always will be the kings of 'personal' utility; abilities that help themselves to tank better (mobility and control). Pallys have and always will be the kings of 'group' utility; things that help the party/raid (variety of Hands, damage reduction, healing). They each have their niche, and having a 10sec interupt just brings Pallys to the same place the other 3 tanks are in (with Bears having just recently had the same thing with Skull Bash).
glyakk Feb 9th 2011 8:05AM
I love the mastery talent, especially in progression when health will be low(ie when we are most effective). Seriously, deep healing was designed for raid progression. Maybe its about useless for trivial content since people may not very often be below 60%, but does that really matter? If the content is challenging for you then your mastery is on your side. If its easier for you then you don't need it anyway.
Onebeasto Feb 9th 2011 8:21AM
I gotta say, just chaining a few heroics lastnight, things seemed to be ALOT better. I still had tough fights and all, but the Healing Rain/Chain Heal combo was awesome and extremely effective. We're still going to have tough fights no matter how geared we get, so the buffs weren't OP and feels right.
I don't think GHW is going to replace healing surge, but be more of an 'oh crap' spell, coupled with Nature's Swiftness as its always been.
In hindsight now, it really feels like what they nerfed in chain heal, was caught up by healing rain. So they've introduced an element that requires skill and knowledge from your heroic buddies and fellow raiders.
I think Mastery is kind of a lost cause for the shaman. Unless you're specifically building a raid tank healer, and not being depended upon to do raid heals, then sure, its a nice stat, and even at that, i haven't tested it, but the bird's eye view of it, would suggest this.
My preference is raid healer, as most other shamans, so if Blizzard ever decided to make mastery worthwhile, they'd have to have it directly effect out Healing Rains and Chain Heals. But who knows. I'm no theorycrafter and maybe that bit of mastery i can't reforge is providing alot more benefit than i can see.
wetleaf Feb 9th 2011 8:35AM
It's funny you say this, 'cause I totally hate being set to do raid healing. Both druids and priests have better tools to do raid healing than us Shamans, while we together with pallys, and maybe disc priests, have better tools for tank healing.
If there's one thing the Mastery talent together with how Riptide works, tells me it is that Blizzard wants us to be Tanks specific healers more than Raid healers.
Firestyle Feb 9th 2011 9:37AM
I disagree. Mastery would not be the choice stat for tank healing, since you want to keep a tank topped off and while mastery may save a low health tank, it won't be effective most of the time. I'd prefer a combo of crit/haste , with a little mastery to tank heal.
wetleaf Feb 10th 2011 6:30AM
... point is that we can't keep a tank topped off... no-one can! However, we are surely the best in getting the tank back to acceptable health level - fast. If you try and keep your tank topped off, you are burning off your mana faster than you should. With Mastery talent we can live life a little more dangerous since we know that Mastery talent will help us when the Tank is getting seriously low on health. Unleash Elements + Riptide + Greater Healing Wave is a seriously big heal now and quite fast to cast for the output it gives.
Our raid heals however are still very poor compared to druids and priests. What we can do effective is this area is keeping the melee group up with healing Rain and Chain Heal. This hasn't changed since... forever.
scott Feb 10th 2011 2:19PM
Can anyone link the last blue post regarding resto shamans(Besides the patch notes)? I have looked everywhere and it looks to me like there is just no response to the resto shaman community from blizz.
Sally Bowls Feb 12th 2011 12:19AM
Back in the day, you brought a pally for the tank and shamans raid-healed with totems and chain heal.
Pallys still tank heal, but is there a niche for shaman's? If we are raid healing with what? It's not CH, so is it "bring a shaman so they can do a few riptides per minute?" And every tank learns that Healing Rain is the universal symbol for "time to move the boss."
Shasham Feb 15th 2011 1:50PM
Shamans can do anything and everything. Since Cata and all the patches I have still yet to see another healer heal more than my shaman on the healing charts. It does not matter whether I am healing the raid or the tank. It is so easy to keep the raid healed through Healing Rain and CH. If your haste/mastery/crit are at acceptable levels then your Healing Wave will heal for about 15k+ hp and will be able to rip off one after another. It all depends on the situation and knowing which spell to use. I can heal a tank for days by using Unleash elements, Riptide, Healing wave x2. Healing wave is so powerful if you have your stats to back it up and you do not even have to worry about mana regen because the spell costs hardly any mana. Throw in an occasional GHW and resto shaman are still superior. I laugh when I read or hear people complain about their shaman healing because I know that is just 1 more person who doesnt know how to play their class.