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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsRaid Rx: Healing changes and Firelands thoughts
by Matt Low 
May 13th 2011 at 4:00PM
Here's one of the larger healing changes coming up in patch 4.2. It'll affect all healers for sure, since it affects the critical strike of heals. We first learned Blizzard was contemplating this change several weeks ago in a Dev Watercooler post.
All healing critical strikes now heal for 2 times a normal heal (+100%), up from 1.5 times a normal heal (+50%).
I'll go over my thoughts about the proposed healing changes for patch 4.2. I also had the opportunity to try out some of the new raid encounters on the PTR in Firelands. Think you're ready for the upcoming healing challenge?
Big change for druids
Another significant change comes to druids. The mastery has been completely gutted and changed to something else.
Symbiosis (Mastery) has been removed and replaced with Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.
From my understanding, many druids were unhappy with Symbiosis straight from the beginning. It looks like this new mastery just might be able to help resolve some of the issues that players had before. But this is one strong mastery, since it affects both direct healing and HoT components. The overpowered factor might be there, but we'll have some time on the test realms to play with it and see if druids will consider investing additional points into mastery. I don't expect the mastery bonus number to be final, but it certainly is an extremely attractive secondary stat.
Shaman take a hit
Poor shaman. They took a slight hit to one of their iconic abilities, as well as the main reason why raid leaders bring them into raids.
Improved Water Shield has been redesigned and renamed Resurgence. When Water Shield is active, Resurgence causes critical direct heals to restore mana (Resurgence rank 2 is roughly equal to 150% of the old Improved Water Shield value when a Healing Wave or Greater Healing Wave critically hits, and scaled down accordingly for faster or multi-target spells).
Mana Tide now grants 200% of the caster's Spirit, down from 400%.
The only reason I bring Joe Perez into my raids is largely to benefit from his Mana Tide totem. But with this nerf, what shall I bring him into raids for now?
Just kidding, Joe! The renamed Water Shield talent continues to emphasize critical heals for shaman as a way for them to regain mana. The wording on it isn't the clearest, but it appears to be affected by the critical hits of other spells like Chain Heal or Healing Surge, with different coefficients.
The change to Mana Tide indirectly affects the other classes, since the bonus has been reduced. Plan to reforge or change your augments accordingly if you need to compensate for regeneration. I'm hoping it isn't too big of a deal, though. If you've been skimping on regeneration potions or consumables, you may wish to consider switching back to it.
Remember, the best solution to lack of mana regeneration is to bring in really hard-hitting DPS. The quicker bosses go down, the less healing you need to do! If you don't have such hard-hitting DPS, that's alright. Nowadays, we just need to find a way to win such as reminding all players to avoid all avoidable damage.
Paladin tweaks
Some slight mana cost adjustments are coming in for paladins, but I don't think that'll significantly impact their play much. After all, isn't it expected by now that paladins get nerfed in some fashion every patch? (I'm kidding!)
Divine Light mana cost has been increased to 35% of base mana, up from 30%.
Flash of Light mana cost has been increased to 31% of base mana, up from 27%.
Holy Light mana cost has been increased to 12% of base mana, up from 10%.
Speed of Light now increases movement speed when Holy Radiance or Divine Protection are cast. in addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance by 13/26/40 seconds, up from 10/20/30.
Flash of Light mana cost has been increased to 31% of base mana, up from 27%.
Holy Light mana cost has been increased to 12% of base mana, up from 10%.
Speed of Light now increases movement speed when Holy Radiance or Divine Protection are cast. in addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance by 13/26/40 seconds, up from 10/20/30.
Priests stay level
No significant changes. Why? Because we're amazing just the way we are. Honestly, I think we're in a decent shape right now. There's that bug fix about a cancelled channeling spell when clicking on Lightwell, but it's just a bug fix.
What's ahead for healers in Firelands
From the limited healing I've done so far, I can tell you that healing will be just as fast-paced as it is right now. In fact, it might be a little too hard. I expect the difficulty level to be dialed back ever so slightly. The gear advantage is practically gone, and your group will need at minimum Zul'Aman or Zul'Gurub level gear to even make the cut. This isn't the raid you want to bring a freshly blue-geared level 85 into at all.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to mess with any trash or anything, so I can't comment much about that. The new bosses will certainly give healers a workout -- and not just in the healing department, but also in the coordination and awareness factors. Judging by set bonuses, expect to dish out more raid healing. If you have items from heroic raids, you'll be in good shape to start, but that isn't necessary.
Need advice on working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered. Send your questions about raid healing to mattl@wowinsider.com. For less healer-centric raiding advice, visit Ready Check for advanced tactics and advice for the endgame raider.
Filed under: Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Lume May 13th 2011 5:11PM
Crit change will be the death of RBGs. =\
Matthew May 13th 2011 5:19PM
This really sucks for PvP shamans who don't take that water shield talent. (most don't)
Our crits won't help mana (without the talent), and our totem is nerfed.
Nopunin10did May 14th 2011 2:00PM
Crits do help shaman mana regen already, but you're right in that bigger crits won't help it more.
However, crit is the best heals-per-mana secondary stat, and increasing the output to 200% will only increase its potency. Thus, it won't help mana regen directly, but it will make that mana worth more.
Everyone does their stat priorities a little different, but the following resto shaman setup can get really good mana mileage with competitive overall healing performance in raids:
Intellect > Haste (to 916) > Spirit >= Crit > Mastery > Haste (over 916)
Moreover, with a crit rating high enough, the old complaint about being reliant on the RNG kinda becomes moot.
It's not what a lot of the heroic raiders are doing at this moment (I seem to be one of the few that vouches for this), but I have a feeling you're going to see the popularity of Crit rise for Resto Shaman after 4.2.
Wild Colors May 13th 2011 5:20PM
"If you have items from heroic raids, you'll be in good shape to start, but that isn't necessary."
Ah good, I'm glad it's not *absolutely necessary* for us to have geared ourselves up from the *Heroic* encounters in order to even enter the Firelands.
Though we'll die if we haven't.
;)
It's tricky enough to herd the cats through the normal modes! Though I have to say, I'm enjoying the troll heroics more and more. When I have the itch to raid, but can't get 10 people together, those things are pretty close. Almost as much fun, though not quite as epic feeling, as BRD and BRS used to be!
Wild Colors May 13th 2011 5:21PM
And really, the only reason they feel less epic is the lack of giant pools of magma.
Modern action movies have trained me too well...
kenny May 13th 2011 5:54PM
OK...Blizzard hates Shamans.
Sally Bowls May 13th 2011 7:52PM
And vice versa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Resto shaman main.
I would have been much angrier back when I cared a lot more about WoW in general and raids in particular.
Gorthol May 13th 2011 6:05PM
wow, a lot of complaining resto shamans in here
maybe this changes when you're doing heroic-mode bosses but i frequently am the top healer on my resto shaman in normal BoT and BWD.
Mmmmmm May 14th 2011 7:32PM
Visit world of logs sometime. Last time I did in HMs shammies were bottom or 2nd bottom in 11/13 fights. The good news is...we are very useful on h.chim. *rejoices*
This is 25m logs at least no idea on 10m.
friar_ken May 13th 2011 7:34PM
I get why blizzard are nerfing mana-tide, from a raid PoV, but i dont get why it can't increase the casting shamans spirit by the current 400% and other raid members by the proposed 200%. Are they really suggesting that shammy's atm have OP regen, compared to priests with tide, hymn and shadowfiend... its the other classes that have too much regen because of tide, not the shaman but the shaman gets nerfed too, and then they also nerf our water-shield in one go. I have played a resto shammy as my main since BT and ever since cataclysm I have felt that the balance is totally wrong, with the purification buff they made us just about competitive but still behind all other healing classes, except as a mana battery and now they take that one niche away. If they want to stop us being mana batteries which I understand then they need to give us the personal regen and throughput to justify a raid spot, atm shaman have lowish dps on both dps specs and low hps on our heal spec and now that we provide no unique buffs I can't see any reason (except the currently OP mana tide) to take a shammy to a raid unless the player outskills or out-gears your other options....
Lipstick May 13th 2011 10:48PM
I refuse to think the sky is falling. I imagine my regen will take a nerf but this is just something I think healers will have to grow accustomed to this xpac. The threshold of a raid encounter is on the healers, not dps this xpac, and as such in order to keep a level of difficulty in healing with the continued inflation of ilvl and stat budgets -- we'll constantly have to adapt every time the mana bar gets reset.
I think that increased crit values -- was to restore some of those "big numbers" feeling to healing without changing the challenge they want mana to present. One of the things many healers expressed this xpac was a feeling of being continually under-powered and how this divorced them from the illusive term "fun".
I also think that more crit will offset some of the mana issues slightly -- as the bigger a heal lands for the less additional healing they will need.
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