Totem Talk: Shaman healing Q&A
by Joe Perez 
Mar 22nd 2011 at 5:00PM
Last week, we talked a little bit about our incoming cooldown, Spirit Link Totem. The spell has been something we have been looking for since the days of early Wrath of the Lich King. The new cooldown offers us some very nice flexibility and a new ability to deal with certain mechanics we either couldn't deal with or had a rather difficult time dealing with before.
In the last couple of weeks, I've received quite a few questions regarding shaman healing in heroics, PvP, and even overall class design. I thought today I would take a few moments and answer some reader email before the big patch, 4.1, is released and reaches live servers.
A professional opinion
Hello m8y!
Wanna pop a question for ya. It's been a lot of talk about builds but my question is more about perks. With the new 85 cap how will professions balance out for all the trees? What new perks will be the strongest, f.ex. restoration from engineering etc? And how does archaeology benefit us in pvp and raiding? As far as i have read not much on that topic. Have a good one m8y!
Cheers
Hulkmosaren
Hulk, professions are something that gets looked at not only every expansion, but also every major content patch. There is a lot of theorycrafting done to determine which profession gives us the edge in various circumstances, be it PvP or PvE. Here are my thoughts on the topic. Overall, I think that the following professions offer us the best PvE boost: alchemy, jewelcrafting and blacksmithing.
Alchemy allows access to Mixology, which grants you a larger duration on elixirs and flasks. This gives you a better bang for your buck every single time you step into a raid and pop a flask. It doubles the time on flasks like Flask of the Draconic Mind and Flask of Flowing Water, and it will even affect the duration of flasks gained from the Cauldron of Battle and the Big Cauldron of Battle. That bonus alone is quite useful, especially when the average raiding night for most people is around 3 hours. With this perk, you will only have to pop one flask to see you through your raiding night.
Jewelcrafting allows you access to some very useful gems. If you choose jewelcrafting, you get the chance to transform Chimera's Eyes into some very useful cuts. Brilliant Chimera's Eye, Quick Chimera's Eye and Sparkling Chimera's Eye are a few examples of what you will gain access to with this profession. Jewelcrafting allows you the ability to fill the gaps in stats that you may be missing on gear as you gather it. If you find yourself short on spirit, intellect or any other number of stats, you can easily cover the spread.
Along those same lines, blacksmithing allows you to add two additional sockets to your bracers and your gloves. The ability to add sockets to gear that may not normally have sockets is pretty nice and, when combined with jewelcrafting, can give you quite a boost.
Leatherworking and enchanting are also very useful, with things like Draconic Embossment and Ring Enchants. Honestly, all of the professions have at least something to offer a healing shaman.
Archaeology does more than just give us some flavor pieces and has a few things to offer us as far as raiding and PvP goes -- namely, Ring of the Boy Emperor and Tyrande's Favorite Doll. If you're lucky enough to get either of these in your travels through Azeroth, you will be in a good spot. Both of these items compare well with our trinkets and rings obtained through valor points, raiding or heroics. With news that the developers at Blizzard are looking to add new items to archaeology over time, the number of useful items for restoration shaman may increase over time. Hope that answers your question!
On class design and healing
Joe,
In your opinion, does something fell off about restoration shaman class design? Do you think when the shaman class was redesigned for Cataclysm that the developers may have missed some things along the way? I don't know about you, but healing just feels off when compared to other healers. Do you think that's why the class has received so many changes lately, and more in the incoming patch?
D
Honestly, D, I think that when Cataclysm was first released, restoration shaman wound up in a much different place than the developers at Blizzard originally intended. While our healing style was what they were really going for as the model for Cataclysm healing, it was more our numbers that they weren't happy with. This led to various changes such as Purification getting boosted and Chain Heal getting buffed. Restoration shaman numbers have steadily improved and are starting to come into line with the other healers, but that is much different than having missed anything in the actual class design; rather, it's more about fine tuning balancing than anything else.
Our new Spirit Link Totem is something that has been talked about for several years now. The idea that shaman needed a defensive cooldown is nothing recent and is something that the developers at Blizzard have been trying to work in since Wrath of the Lich King was in its beta phases. The problem was that until recently, there was really no good way to work it in amongst our tools. I don't think any of it boils down to that they missed things in the class design; it's more of a growing pains thing. Over the years, shaman healing has gone through these cycles. As content changed and evolved, our roles within the raid or group as healers was affected. Right now, I think we're just seeing more rebalancing rather than flat-out character redesign -- after all, we aren't in Sunwell anymore.
How good is 4.1, really?
Joe,
Will patch 4.1 really make a big difference as far as shaman healing is concerned? Will the changes actually benefit us or will they be made moot by the time the Firelands raids are released? Are all these changes really going to matter as more content is released? Will Spirit Link Totem actually make a difference in our usefulness in raids and heroics?
Tom
Tom, patch 4.1 is going to be quite good for restoration shaman as a whole. I've recently been able to get into a few raid groups with some very geared healers, and our numbers (at least right now) are very competitive. We're in an okay place when the patch hits, and I don't think that it's something that will be made moot or lessen as new content is released. We're growing as healers overall, and any buffs we get along the way are more than just temporary fixes; they are attempts to balance us against other healers with future content in mind.
Will we not see any further tweaks to our healing throughout the expansion? That I don't know, but I do know that the developers at Blizzard have been doing a fantastic job hotfixing spells and abilities very quickly. Things that we used to have to wait for major content patches for are fixed with an overnight fix and a server restart. If anything does need to change in future content, I'm confident it will be delivered quickly.
As far as Spirit Link Totem is concerned, I'm in love with the spell. Knowing when to use it and how to use it has made a big difference in the PTR groups I've run with. It's an incredibly useful tool and one that I think most shaman are pretty happy with receiving. The mechanics of the spell are different enough when compared to the other healers' defensive cooldowns, and it honestly does nothing but improve our usefulness to the raid and group. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you get your hands on it in a live environment.
I hope that has answered some of your questions, but if you still have questions you need answered, feel free to email me. Until next time, happy healing!
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 1 of 2)
Zayd Mar 22nd 2011 5:08PM
This seems as good a place as any to ask...
Why does Chain Heal have a casting animation to imply it's a holy spell?
TheBlob Mar 22nd 2011 5:26PM
I have ALWAYS wondered that. Now, all of our spells do a water hands animation, but Chain Heal still does like the Redemption animation under our feet. I do not understand.
Joe Perez Mar 22nd 2011 5:27PM
You mean why when we cast it does it seem like a charger should appear beneath us? Honestly, it's just one of those old hang overs from the good old days. To be honest I'm fairly surprised it hasn't gotten the new "water treatment" that all the other healing spells have received. Will it ever get updated? I don't know, but we can always remain hopeful.
Thèra Mar 22nd 2011 5:29PM
Jesus beams.
Joe Perez Mar 22nd 2011 5:39PM
@Thèra I always preferred calling them lazer beams of love. The Z makes it exotic.
thegatherer Mar 22nd 2011 5:47PM
This is a good question, seeing as how (most of) our spells now have water effects instead of druidy-nature effects. Kind of like how Nature's Swiftness still has a druid nature effect. That one, I think, should be lightning instead of leaves...
Greenimeani Mar 22nd 2011 6:12PM
Whenever I cast chain heal on my troll, I always want to shout "HAMME HAMME HEAL!"
squig_masta Mar 22nd 2011 8:20PM
Its not that chain heal looks like a holy spell, its that all holy spells were modeled after this spell. See, its well known amongst most bibliwow scholars that Jesus was a shaman. Between his ability to walk on water, heal the sick and raise the dead (including himself) its pretty clear he was playing for team totem.
Other miracles that fall out side of the shaman line of abilities are easily explaned, such as he probably didn't ACTUALLY feed the people with just one loaf of bread, he was just the one who clicked on the portal to summon the table (and since mage tables were new at the time, everyone attributed it to him because of his already established fame). Another example of this was the curing of lepers, since shaman cannot cure diseases. However, since Jesus was around before wrath, he could infact easily cleanse all manners of diseases and poison (including whole groups with the use of his totem!)
Now, the most astute among you are probably wondering why holy spells don't look green and leaves shooting out like other nature spells. You see, as stated previously, Jesus was around pre cata, which is to say, in the time where chain heal spam was perfectly viable. Since he rarely used his other spells, people just assumed that the yellow glow is just the best choice of casting lights, and thus all holy spells were model after chain heal.
Necromann Mar 22nd 2011 5:26PM
At he bare minimum, spirit link totem gives you a 10% damage reduction to your self right?
Joe Perez Mar 22nd 2011 5:28PM
yes, at bare minimum if no one else is in the "bubble" with you, you will still receive the 10% damage reduction, but it will not affect your health total. In theory you could use it to save your own bacon based on the DR alone, but that may be impractical when compared to actively healing yourself.
Nolls74 Mar 22nd 2011 6:10PM
Question: My shaman alt recently hit 85. I raided on him as enhancement in WoTLK, I leveled him from 80-85 as elemental. My main is a pali healer. I am working to gear up my shaman to be MS heals for a 2nd 10m group in my guild, but have not delved too far into the theory of Rshaman. Compared to Hpali, what is the shamans repertoire like? Which heal is the super efficient "spam" heal, which one is the "oh shit" button, which one is the "use only sparingly"?
Greenimeani Mar 22nd 2011 6:21PM
super-efficient spam heal = GHW, because of the good healing:mana ratio, but it's best with riptide/CH to get the reduced cast time (if you have that talent)
Oh Shit button = nothing, really. closest thing I think is Nature's swiftness, GHW, then healing surge-spam
use only sparingly = healing surge. it's got a base cast of 1/2 that of GHW, and about 1/2 the healing, but 3/4 the mana cost.
This is all my opinion, though.
Ice Mar 22nd 2011 6:28PM
Oh shit buttons: Pre-4.1 Natures swiftness. lol.
Huge heal: Greater healing wave
Stay away: Healing surge. Tho It gets 30% crit chance after riptide or chain heal when talented.. but still no. (kinda like flash of light)
Spam: Healing wave.
Well if you wanna compete against other healers let people get bit low and spam chain heals or healing rain it seems. Meh.
Nolls74 Mar 22nd 2011 6:42PM
thanks both.
squig_masta Mar 22nd 2011 8:29PM
Also big note: do not neglect Unleashed Elements. While a decent 'top-off' heal in its own right its best used coupled together with chain heal, riptide and Greater Healing Wave. If you ever have a tank dipping dangerously low but can survive one more hit, use the extra gcd to pop UE on them before your NS-GHW.
Kravos Mar 23rd 2011 12:18AM
GHW is NOT the spam heal, it's the big huge heal to use in conjunction with Nature's Swiftness, if at all. I almost never use it in groups.
Plain ol' Healing Wave is your spam/nuke heal. It probably depends on gear, but I find it to be mana neutral or even a mana gain with stuff like Heartsong pumping my Spirit up to crazy values. It's especially good with faster cast speed when you have Tidal Waves up - for me, this makes Riptide -> Healing Wave -> Healing Wave a good generic "rotation" to use when nothing crazy is going on.
Healing Surge is the OH SHI- heal for me. It's expensive, but it's fast and it's a great way to play catch-up, especially when you crit with it (Tidal Waves increases crit chance). Frees up GDCs for mana regen tactics or chain heals or Healing Rains.
Jackwraith Mar 23rd 2011 9:35AM
@Kravos: GHW is absolutely the spam heal. It's the base heal in any 5-man heroic or raid because both of those situations reduce Healing Wave to irrelevance. You can keep tossing HW in hopes of getting a nice crit and excellent healing/mana ratio, but if you actually want to keep people alive, you forget that HW even exists and go with GHW, Riptide, and Chain Heal.
At the level cap, priests don't use Heal... except to activate a couple talents to good effect; paladins don't use Holy Light... except to activate a couple talents to good effect; druids... use Rejuve constantly and 1/5 of their tree is based around enhancing it. Shamans, at the moment, are the only healing class that can make no effective use of their original, base, "spammable" direct heal at the level cap. What should have happened with the Cataclysm change is that Surge should have been removed from Tidal Waves and the crit chance of HW should have been enhanced, leaving the casting time reduction to Chain. Lesser casting time on a heal that doesn't even contribute 1% of a tank's health pool is still a waste of that lesser casting time.
Jprich Mar 22nd 2011 6:19PM
Why is no one on a camel in that screenshot!
Dan Mar 22nd 2011 6:32PM
Hey quick question, I am really torn up on what prime glyph to use, I am using ES and WS, the last one is between ELW and Riptide, I think for heroics riptide is nicer, As you can keep 3 RT's rolling on 3 people at once, I think for a raiding environment ELW would be better as you would be getting a lot of ELW procs from healing rain on the raid. Am I thinking about this correctly? Thanks.
Ice Mar 22nd 2011 7:06PM
Hmm.
Its basically choice between: Water shield or earthliving not between Earth shield or Riptide.
ES and RT should be on every glyph book.. then choose do they want more regen or more healing from EWL.
Rolling 3 RT's is very good and important so is ES healing.. so you shouldnt choose from those. EWL is the weakest of four but WS is static and wont scale with gear so "later on" it might be EWL not WS. Since you are doing heroics I would go with WS actually. Less downtime too and heroics can be bit tight. Manaregen is way better in raids so the balance might scale otherway around