Totem Talk: Restoration raiding glyphs and patch 4.1 changes
by Joe Perez 
Apr 19th 2011 at 7:00PM
Last week, we talked a little bit about picking a raiding spec for entry-level raiding as a restoration shaman. There was some great comments and some great emails, which I am still going through and replying to. As always, if you haven't gotten a reply quite yet, don't worry -- it's on its way.
We have already covered some pre-raid gear choices, as well as gems and enchants with a little discussion on stats and stat pirority. This week, I figured we would round out or pre-raid preparations with a quick list of raiding glyphs as well as taking the opportunity to talk about some upcoming changes in the forthcoming patch 4.1 that will have a potential impact on our raid healing.
More than just pictures on the wall
The last piece of your pre-raid setup is your glyph choices. Some of our glyphs are pretty awesome; others are situational. We'll just talk about glyphs for when you're starting out raiding, as well as my personal thoughts on the choices. Here is the list of what we really have to work with.
Prime
Major
- Glyph of Chain Heal
- Glyph of Ghost Wolf
- Glyph of Healing Stream
- Glyph of Healing Wave
- Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem
Minor For prime glyphs, I recommend Glyph of Earth Shield, Glyph of Earthliving Weapon, and the last slot for Glyph of Riptide. Glyphing Earth Shield is about to become a little more important, especially after patch 4.1, but we'll get into that in a little bit here.
For Glyph of Earthliving Weapon, it should be known that this only applies to the HoT effect. It does not increase the spellpower gained from Earthliving Weapon or have any effect on Unleash Elements. That said, the glyph really pays for itself, especially when you consider that it can trigger off of Healing Rain as well as your other heals, so you can have the HoT up on large numbers of raiders in the group.
Glyph of Riptide gives Riptide an additional 6 seconds to tick, bringing its total duration up to 21 seconds. Since the spell has a cooldown of 6 seconds, you can in theory keep it up on three targets at a time once you get rolling. Now, if you find yourself having mana issues, you can swap one of them out for Glyph of Water shield, but it ultimately only results in a gain of about 170 MP5.
For major glyphs, there's a lot of choice here, but I highly recommend Glyph of Healing Stream, Glyph of Chain Heal and Glyph of Healing Wave for starting out. Chain Heal is a great spell when you can use it and get it to hit at least three people. The only problem is that if the spell hits fewer than three, this glyph can result in reduced overall healing. It is really good for 25-man raiding, but it is on the fence for 10-man raiding. If you're in situations in 10-man raiding in which you can make sure it hits at least three people, it can be a great pickup. I suggest Healing Wave because when you're first starting out raiding, chances are good that you'll have times where you are low on mana and may need to heal yourself and someone else. This makes sure you get some health back every time you cast that Healing Wave, and that can be pretty handy.
Glyphing Healing Stream Totem is almost a necessity at this point. While it won't stack with Kings or Mark of the Wild, it still raises resistance to fire, nature and frost by 195. While other classes may be able to do that as well, you can't always count on them being there or being alive. Besides, you're likely to be keeping a HST down anyways -- why not make it that much better? Keep the others in mind; we'll be coming back to them at a different time.
As far as minor glyphs go, the only one I really recommend is Renewed Life. There's nothing worse than needing to use Reincarnation only to realize you forgot to stock some Ankhs. Now some fights may do better with other glyph combinations, but as we discuss the bosses themselves, we will point those out as we come across them.
Patch-type goodness
Patch 4.1 is on the horizon, and when it does go live, there are a number of changes in store, even for restoration shaman. In the last few weeks, there have been a couple of changes announced, and I figured now would be a good time to address them while we all eagerly await Spirit Link Totem's arrival.
Shaman
Restoration
Restoration
- Cleansing Waters now has a 6-second internal cooldown.
- Earth Shield healing done by Restoration shaman has been reduced by 20%.
- Nature's Blessing has been improved to 6/12/18% bonus direct healing on Earth Shielded targets, up from 5/10/15%.
Right now, I really like Cleansing Waters, if you hadn't already gathered that last week. The reason I like it right now is because on trash and some bosses it can be very handy for the reduced cost to Cleanse Spirit and a free heal. When you find yourself in 10-mans, without a plethora of cleansing options, it can be useful; even in 25-man raiding, you may find yourself having to cleanse something. Any reduction in mana expendeture is good, as it leaves you with more mana to cast a heal with later, and I'm never one to pass up a "free" heal.
After the patch, though, the heal will only be able to be used every 6 seconds. While Cleanse Spirit remains spammable, the heal won't be. This means that it moves a little lower on my priority list after the patch.
Earth Shield's healing being reduced was something I was surprised to see. In our heroic Maloriak kill this week, ES was less than 10% of my overall healing. In every other fight, it clocks in somewhere around 3% to 4%. This is with me keeping my ES on the add tank. While I don't think the reduction will hurt too terribly much, I do like the change to Nature's Blessing. It gives your heals a little extra kick when healing anyone that has your ES on them. This is particularly handy if you pull tank healing duty. It's an extra 3% healing at rank 3, but sometimes that extra 3% is all you need. I can tell you that when I pull tank healing on boss fights, anytime I have to use a big heal, every percent matters.
Overall, patch 4.1 is shaping up to be something I'm excited about as a restoration shaman. The further tweaking we're getting, as well as our brand new raid-wall, are really working to help us out in the long run as far as raid healing goes. What do you think of the upcoming changes? Next week, we'll begin diving into actually healing through the entry-level raid encounters in Cataclysm.
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)
THAT'S A LOW PRICE Apr 19th 2011 7:07PM
I am so surprised on the Cleansing Waters change. Any reasoning on why they are implementing it?
Brad Moon Apr 19th 2011 7:17PM
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Bas Apr 19th 2011 7:22PM
Restoration shaman is very strong at arenas at the moment. The heal effect on cleansing waters pretty much negates big portion of dot damage.
Condor Apr 19th 2011 7:51PM
Is there a 'how to heal as a shaman' post? I find myself just randomly using different heals rather than having a set tactic or rotation-- and I'm frequently not using a lot of my abilities.
Enhancement's priority system I have down but resto is still a 3-ability whack-a-mole for me.
Crede Apr 19th 2011 8:07PM
There isn't a specific 'how to heal' as a shaman, its all about the situation your in ( i guess thats with all healers). There are some important things to keep up tho -
1. Allways use riptide when its off CD, for the tidal waves proc.
2. Keep Earth Shield up on the tank or off tank, whatever your raid agrees on.
3. If you expecting alot of raid damage incoming and the raid is stacked, Healing raind and chain heal are your friend!
The closest i come to a 'rotation' would be = Riptide, healing wave. healing wave, chain heal, healing wave, healing wave, repeat. This rotation will allow your tidal waves (procs off riptide and chain heal) to be up allmsot allways, so you can spam those healing waves to your hearts desire!
Once again this is my own little way to heal, any other tips or rotations im interesting in hearing :)
Condor Apr 19th 2011 8:23PM
Cool, ty-- this helps. I feel like I've been just faking it in 5-mans.
Healing Surge vs Healing Wave vs Greater Healing Wave? They seem mis-named. Healing Surge seems like what used to be a Lesser Healing Wave, quicker and less. Greater is still great-- then Healing Wave also heals me? I don't get it. Cast times all seem too similar, I just GHW and Chain Heal with a Riptide here and there atm.
Are there any guidelines to whether I should have mana stream or healing stream down? I forget which ability overlaps with mana stream totem... isn't it a mage or paladin ability? I assume I want to check whether they're bringing that and then drop healing stream.
Wasn't there a spell before that made my cast-heals an instant cast? So I could throw out an emergency GHW every now and then? Is Riptide now my only emergency-heal ability?
Grounding Totem? Glyphed Stoneclaw? Stoneskin vs added awesomeness of Strength of Earth? Again, I'd like to know which buffs like SoE are 'necessary' and I should supply when missing over a Stoneskin.
Basically I don't know how useful a lot of my abilities are nor when they're already being covered by another class. I just keep clicking Healbot and that makes me noobish.
Crede Apr 19th 2011 9:17PM
Well we have 3 main heals - healing wave, greater healing wave, and healing surge. Whenever there isn't much damage going on, everyone is about 70% plus, healign wave is what your looking for. Thats the mana efficent one and the spell you use when nothing really is going on. Greater healing wave is used when someone is really low, especially a tank. I great combination with GHW is using unleash elements before you cast it ( this si with earthliving wep enchant on ofcourse) - it will increase your next direct heal by 30% ( or 20%, i dont have wow opened so i forget). Using these 2 in conjunction will bring a allmost dead person back to the safe zone, especially if it crits. Now ehaling surge, i personally never use it in 5 mans, and i only use it on 1 fight in raids ( chimareon), so IMO, leave it be :).
The spell your thinking of is natures swiffness, its a 2 min CD and your next heal is no cast time. Only use this with GHW, don't waste it with a healing wave. I good combonation and macro would be to cast unleash elements, cast natures swiffness and then GHW. This is my emergency button when tank gets really low.
I allways use healing stream totem, basicially because of the glyph mentioned in this article and i allways play with a pally, so they have the mana regen buff covered ( blessing of might ). If there wasn't a pally in your group, you can use mana stream but the healing totem is what msot raiders use.
As a healer, you do have some options for totems. Flametounge totem you should allways have down, but the earth and air totem will depend on your groups composition. If you have a melee heavy group, use SOE and Windfury totem - If you have a caster heavy group, use Stoneskin and Wraith fo air totems.
Is that all clear? Once again this is my own play style, there isn't really a 1 road way of playing.
Ghost Dancer Apr 20th 2011 4:31AM
Another good tip in high damage fights is to NOT keep your party topped up. Wait until they hit around 50% health before you heal so you gain the beenfit of your deep healing. The exact amount amount can be higher or lower depending on how fast the damage is coming in but you soon get a "feel" for it.
This can take a little getting used to as pre-cata I always liked to see everyone's green bar at max, but by healing this way you are getting more bang for your buck giving bigger heals and using less mana - in big fights this can mean the difference between going OOM or lasting the duration.
I generally tank heal and as others have mentioned I tend to keep riptide going, but other than that, for single target heals I use GHW almost exlcusively unless they need an emergency HS - HW just doesn't cut it. If you can spare the time of your GCD then popping Unleash Elements adds a nice boost to your heal and used on GHW will give you some nice big heals :)
Alexa Apr 20th 2011 7:52AM
Whenever a new healer starts working with my raid group, I like to ask what mods they use - healbot, grid, clique, or whatever. Then, I ask that they run a heroic or easy raid boss, and forgo any of these types of mods that they are using.
There's nothing *wrong* with healbot, however, this helps people get away from the, "I just click buttons on healbot," mentality. It forces people to read the tooltips of their spells and abilities and really figure out what they do. You might find it helpful for your situation.
***
As for a general shaman "rotation," I'd say there really isn't one. It's more of a process of determining which spell is appropriate to cast, given your current situation.
As someone else has mentioned, it's great to use Riptide when it's on cooldown to keep Tidal Waves going. It's also generally appropriate to use Healing Wave (as opposed to GHW or HS) unless there is a lot of intense damage going on.
For tanks, keep ES up.
In terms of group healing, sometimes CH is better than HR. If people will need to run out of the HR circle, then don't cast it. If people aren't clumped up enough to use CH, don't use it. At this point in Cataclysm, the name of the game in most fights is, "How can I be the most efficient and most effective healer with my mana, given the situation our group is in right now."
icepyro Apr 20th 2011 4:28PM
Do remember that Chain Heal consumes Riptide (and gets a boost). So I like to riptide the tank then Chain Heal or healing rain the melee. When riptide is almost up, a chainheal on the tank gets a nice fat hit. Then again, I'm still working this stuff out myself.
Also, Unleash Elements triggers the gcd, so if a tank is in trouble enough to need the Swiftness/GHW, then use a macro that combines swiftness/ghw then unleash and then healing surge to top them off. Seriously, how did the tank get in trouble if they can survive 3 seconds more for a big heal?
Condor Apr 20th 2011 4:37PM
@icepyro
"Also, Unleash Elements triggers the gcd, so if a tank is in trouble enough to need the Swiftness/GHW, then use a macro that combines swiftness/ghw then unleash and then healing surge to top them off. Seriously, how did the tank get in trouble if they can survive 3 seconds more for a big heal?" -ice
^^That's what I was thinking. I've only ever used that spell when I see a boss casting a Giant F-ing Spell with a short cast time-- to try to get a big heal out immediately after... but my understanding is that those kinds of things largely went away in Cat.
These comments are all really helpful, thanks a ton-- but it still seems like there should be more strategy to it than this, there are just so many abilities I don't ever use... Thanks again!
nerdrage Apr 19th 2011 9:21PM
something to note, the healing stream glyph only raises resistances for the party that is affected by the healing stream. While that might seem obvious it does mean that this glyph can not be counted on in a raid environment to provide the resist, becauses its party wide, not raid wide.
Wrymstrum Apr 19th 2011 9:29PM
I'm pretty sure that isn't the case any more.
Wrymstrum Apr 19th 2011 9:28PM
I can't understand why you would suggest cleansing waters for raiding. The things you need to dispell are few and far between. You're basically wasting two points.
Magmaw- no dispells
Omnitron- no dispells
Maloriak- no dispells
Artramedes- very rare fire dot
Chimeron- no dispells
Halfus- no dispells
Valiona- maybe 6 or 7 blackouts per fight
Twilight Council- this one has a decent amount of dispells needed.
Cho'Gall- max of 1 dispell per raid member
Nefarian- haven't done it.
So basically, there is 1 or 2 fights that have more than a handful of dispells needed, and those are some of the later fights. Trash mobs generally might have a thunder clap that's not even worth dispelling (you'll be spamming heals on the tanks for the most part).
Wrymstrum Apr 19th 2011 9:44PM
Also, Telluric Currents should be a pretty high priority for new raiders because a lot of the early fights have periods of low damage where you can regain tons of mana.
As far as glyphs go, Earth shield is getting toned down because it will now benefit from mastery. It probably won't break quite even unless you are highly geared, but the mastery change definitely negates a lot of the nerf (and it will hit harder when you need it more which is nice). I do wonder, though, if the hp % is calculated before or after the hit that procs ES's heal.
Anyway, I like ES/RT/Water Shield for a starting resto shaman. When you get better gear drop WS for ELW. Major glyphs are more situational. For constant/predictable damage, stoneclaw is great. Healing Wave glyph just depends on how much you use that spell, which will very greatly depending on the fight, your healing assignment, and your gear level.
Pomma Apr 20th 2011 12:35PM
I would have to agree on this here. Those points are better spent in Ancetral Resolve (reduced incoming magic damage while casting), Telluric Currents, or Blessing of the Eternals (guaranteed EL proc when the target is below 35% health).
I bet if any serious raider were look at their logs they would see that 10% of the incoming magic damage they take is far greater than the healing they do with 2/2 cleansing waters especially afer you account for overhealing. Most of the damage you will take over the course of a right of raiding is totally unavoidable.
Wrymstrum does a good job of outlining the raid encounters where dispells are needed. Keep in mind that a tremor totem does wonders on Cho'gall so casting a dispel would be needed only when someone gets the corruption debuff.
Aside from my quibble with Joe on his selection of cleansing waters, this article is an improvement from previous efforts. Please keep it up.
Condor Apr 19th 2011 10:08PM
Yeah, that's awesome, thank you!
Any other comments on ability-related tactics would be really helpful!
Pinochet Apr 19th 2011 11:55PM
It's my understanding that Earth Shield is going to be affected by mastery starting in 4.1, taking the much of the teeth out of this 20% nerf mentioned in the article.
Joe Perez Apr 20th 2011 12:16AM
@THAT'S A LOW PRICE PvP, having a spammable spell that removes debuffs while giving out heals makes PvP against a restoration shaman not so much fun.
@nerdrage It's raid wide now, has been for a bit.
@pinochet that is true, but it will only kick in when there is already a health deficit and will increase the lower the target's health is. If that will average out to cover the 20% we don't know quite yet.
wow Apr 20th 2011 4:55AM
Wow. My ES can easily be 20-25% of my healing done. Even when I was well geared for wrath, it was always a high percentage. Not sure if that's the nature of swing healing/heroics (in that the tank always has it on him while i may or may not be constantly using other heals), or if I'm just a crap healer! *merf*