If he doesn't bring an all spirit all the time set to serve as a mana battery then he will not sit at the bottom of the meters.

I hate to get nerffed, but shaman have spent enough time with boring play mechanics being just buff bots with heroism, totem of wrath, or mana battery mana spring. I'd hate to get stuck in that spot again.

This really sucks. I play a resto Shaman and I'm the main healer for my guild. I still get the job done, but as shaman continue to get the hammer, we might have to find an alternative. I'm leveling my priest as quickly as possible!

They also nerfed resto druids' ability to innervate other people, so that we'll basically have to use it just on ourselves now.

You're really gonna need to just wait and find out on this one. The spell is a nerf to multi-target spells' mana usage, but not to the big single-targeters like Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave.

It seems Blizzard is really trying to push Shaman into more of a single-target healing role. That may be the adjustment you need, not telling your friend to reroll. Have him become more of a tank healer.

The other major problem is that a mage can cast heroism. So there's even less of a reason to bring a shaman. Spirit link totem is pretty OP but there are other CD's that can be just as effective. Mana tide was HUGE!! With that being gone (or at least useless), I can't justify one in a heroic raid. Priests and Pallies just bring more to the table (probably druids too after the change).

I for one hope the mana tide change gets reversed.

I hope your shaman gquit after reading that, as well as rest of guild. Leveling and gearing a new character is a huge request of someone that you admit is talented. Blizz will never have a healing spec nerfed so hard that it is not viable in current content. Sure, they may be behind othe classes some, but never enough to matter that much. I can't believe anyone would stay in a guild with a leader who makes unreasonable requests like that.

i dont get this post, sure some boss fights tend to favour one class, but there is others to compensate
( heroic magmaw anyone? my raid minus kiters and tonk just stand at one place for most of first phase and shamies have np toping meters with spam chain and nevergowaste Healing rain)

and do you saw this new totem? on fights like hc chimmy /maloriak its tends to be as good as pw: Barrier!.p

and in all honesty, that ( another) mana tide totem nerf was coming was quite obvious, especialy with 4 set bonuses it geting ridiculous again, imagine all the spirit you will get in firelands

You have a bad player on that shaman. That is the problem, not the freaking class.

We 2-healed Cho'gall with a shaman, they're amazing for spot heals on Chimaeron, and even now, shaman make awesome, mobile, tank-healers. They'll be fine.

The entire healing model for the expansion is "mana matters" and it's also something that was too quickly becoming overcome by simple gear scaling. As it was, the entire concept of watching your mana would have been outdated by the end of T12.

More gear means more intellect and more spirit. More Intellect and more Spirit means more effective replens, more effective Innervates, more effective totems, more effective heals. In order to keep the "mana matters" paradigm, Blizzard needed to do something. They could ramp up raid damage (eventually going back to the ICC situation of constantly spamming everyone to keep them from being one-shotted) or nerf big regen cooldowns like Mana Tide/Divine Plea/Innervate, raise the base cost of spells and tone down base regen through talents, etc. Mana Tide was Public Enemy No. 1 in that and unsurprisingly the first thing to hit the chopping block. Innervate also got thrown in front of the bus and you can expect others to follow. There was a blue post that even outright said that Paladins have way too much regen right now. They're in line too.

IMO, this is a good thing for Shamans since they wont feel as much of a need to stack Spirit over throughput stats for the good of the raid. 200% of the average T11 Shaman's Spirit is still substantial, even if it's not ZOMGAWESOMEWATCHMYMANABARFILLUPINTWOSECONDSROLFLOLOMAO!!.

The bad news is that healers of every spec can expect to see a new string of nerfs with every patch. It's just one more stage in the Mana Wars that are likely to plague the entire expansion. As a DPS I've accepted the fact that I will always need to consider my Hit/Expertise ratings. Healers should likewise accept the fact that managing their mana is something they won't get to out-gear while Deathwing is alive.

Besides, rather than telling your Shaman who (by your account) really knows what he's doing and has been playing the same character for years to pick up, level, learn and gear an entirely new class because Mana Tide got nerfed, why not just let him roll Ele or Enhance for a while? Class Balance has always and will always be a thing of constant flux. Forcing someone to reroll as a FoTM healer because of a few nerfs THAT HAVENT EVEN BEEN FINALIZED YET and we can't see the end result of is downright ridiculous.

Our only Resto Shaman is a fantastic player and, though he may fall a little behind the paladins, priest and druids due to simple balance issues, it's a difference of 2-3% healing done on average, not 25-30%. If your shaman is having that much trouble keeping up, then it's likely he's gemming, enchanting, gearing, and reforging for spirit in every possible way to make his Mana Tide more effective (which, judging by your comment, he's probably come to feel is his only ticket to a raid spot), instead of looking at throughput stats to make himself a more effective healer.

There are no totally unique buffs/debuffs now (Ebon Plague not withstanding), so saying "Shamans are nerfed because they don't have exclusive access to Bloodlust" is stupid. What's the point of bringing my mage if the lock in my group provides the 5% crit debuff, the druid provides Replenishment, the shaman brings Bloodlust, and the Beast Mastery Hunter brings 3% crit? Because I'm a badass, that's why.

If you need a special unique buff to be viable, here's a hint: it's not your class that's bad.

All of the healing classes have unique tools. Shaman's Spirit Link totem and Chain Heal, Priest's Barrier or Guardian Spirit, Paladin's Beacon of Light, Druid's HoTs and Tranquility. None are left out of the loop, and all are useful.

This is still such stupid game design. What's the point of having improving gear if your abilities are just going to be nerfed to compensate for said gear upgrades?

I know the point, but it's still dumb.

This is going to screw people that want to raid BWD/BoT/TotFW at the normal iLevels. (LFM BWD 1 healer and dps 365 gs minimum, right?)