Totem Talk: Restoration shaman, axes and mana concerns
by Joe Perez 
Jul 26th 2011 at 6:00PM
For the last few weeks, we have been covering the various bosses of the Firelands raid. Beth'tilac and Rhyolith were taken down, Shannox and Baleroc have been toppled, Alysrazor and Majordomo Staghelm were retired early. This week, though, will not be about Ragnaros -- at least, not quite yet.
This week, I thought we could talk about a wonderful little zone drop and how it shapes up for restoration shaman. I also thought we could talk about the tier 12 two-piece set bonus for restoration shaman and how useful it is in heroic dungeon and raiding environments.
The Eye of Purification [normal/heroic] is quite possibly my favorite item from the new tier set. I really love unique weapons, either in look or function, and this spellpower axe definitely qualifies. It is unique enough that it can be used (and is coveted by) all three shaman specializations, and holy paladins can use it as well. It is oddly class-specific in that regard. The last time we saw a weapon like that was Wraith Strike from Naxxramas. I know I got my hands on one and wore it proudly for quite a long time.
It has a blend of stats that are good for all three shamanistic playstyles and looks pretty cool, as well. Here are the stats for the normal version of the weapon:
- 262 stamina
- 175 intellect
- 131 spirit
- Equip: Increases spellpower by 2,333
- Equip: Increases your mastery rating by 91
The weapon is one of a few items that has a chance to drop from every boss in the zone besides Ragnaros. This means Baleroc, Shannox, Beth'tilac, Lord Rhyolith and Alysrazor have a chance to reward you with this sweet main-hand. Now, it was originally thought that these bosses were the only ones that could drop it, but recently I've been receiving reports that Majordomo Staghelm has dropped it for some lucky folks.
The stats cover all of our primary stats and one of our key secondary stats. For a restoration shaman weapon, this is pretty solid overall, and if it drops, you should definitely try to get your hands on it. It will serve you well for quite a while. Oh and if you get one, be sure to let Josh Myers know about it, in excruciating detail!
Mana, mana everywhere, nor any drop to drink
Mana is a growing concern among shaman healers, whether they are just starting to heal heroic dungeons or getting ready to raid. Since the patch, we've been having some issues with Water Shield, having it proc too often and having to reapply it fairly consistently. This is important for many reasons when evaluating our mana regeneration.
First, while the spell is active, it grants a passive 354 MP5. Every time you are hit by a spell effect or attack that deals damage, you get back 872 mana, but it consumes a charge of the Water Shield. This has been standard for a while now, but with patch 4.2 came the reinvention of a core talent into Resurgence.
With the new talent, each time you get a critical strike with a healing spell, you have a chance to gain back mana. Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave critical effects will gain you 2,293 mana. Unleash Life, Riptide and Healing Surge will return 1,376 mana, and Chain Heal grants you 764 mana.That is, of course, if Water Shield is active. You can see why keeping Water Shield up is very important. In the latest Ask the Devs, some concerns were addressed, and we know that the problem is being looked at.
Quote:
Q: I spend a lot of my time in raids keeping Water Shield up, which I rely on to maintain enough mana. There have been times I've neglected to heal someone because I had to refresh Water Shield. Why are shaman healers less effective compared to other healing classes? – Epistemology (NA), ??? (EU-RU)
Q: I spend a lot of my time in raids keeping Water Shield up, which I rely on to maintain enough mana. There have been times I've neglected to heal someone because I had to refresh Water Shield. Why are shaman healers less effective compared to other healing classes? – Epistemology (NA), ??? (EU-RU)
A: We'd like to be more consistent about what does and doesn't trigger Water Shield. Having the shield trigger when taking direct damage, and consume an orb, is consistent with how all shaman shields work. On some encounters though, constant pulsing damage probably burns through those charges too quickly and doesn't need to do so – that said, if you're having to refresh Water Shield often, that also generally means that you're getting a large amount of extra mana from all those procs that are burning through it. A situational glyph (like we have for Lightning Shield) could help with this issue, and that may be something we consider in the future.
There was more, but that's the part we're going to focus on for now. If you miss putting up your Water Shield, you can lose out on a lot of mana. With the mana situation like it is, we need to get as much back as we can for the sake of healing longevity. I would love to see a glyph similar to the Glyph of Lightning Shield. It could save us a global cooldown and give us one less thing to worry about when healing through those hectic hard modes.
In the meantime, though, we can't forget about what is quickly becoming my new best friend for mana regeneration, the tier 12 two-piece set bonus for restoration. The set bonus reads as follows:
So how much is that in actual numbers? Base mana for a shaman at level 85 is 23,430; therefore, 1% of that works out to 243.3 mana. Doesn't seem like a lot, does it? Well, lets consider Riptide for a moment. The spell has a 6-second cooldown, so you can refresh it on another target every time it is up. Without Glyph of Riptide, the spell has a duration of about 13 seconds; with the glyph, it is raised to about 22 seconds. Every 3 seconds, the HOT effect will tick. So, if you have it glyphed, you can keep around three Riptides active simultaneously if you're refreshing it every cooldown. Also remember that as you reach the different haste levels, you can increase the number of ticks in the duration of Riptide. So without any haste in 22 seconds of uptime, you can have about 7 ticks. Over three active Riptides would be 21 ticks. If you're constantly rolling that Riptide, you have serious potential for excellent mana returns.Your periodic healing from Riptide has a 40% chance to restore 1% of your base mana each time it heals a target.
After receiving my two-piece bonus and watching my cooldowns closely, I've seen a very positive change in my mana regeneration. I'm ending fights relying less on my Mythical Mana Potions and even my Mana Tide Totem. Some fights, I've even been using Lightning Bolt and Telluric Currents much less desperately. Sure, there are fights where I need to cycle though all my mana regeneration tricks. The point is that in practical application, the set bonus has been making a big difference in my mana regeneration. So if you can get your hands on your two-piece bonus and watch your cooldowns, you can help alleviate some of your mana problems.
Next week, I'd like to do another ask a shaman, so if you have any questions you want answered, feel free to leave a comment here, email me or message me on Twitter!
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 1)
gobuywow Jul 26th 2011 8:42PM
So how many spirit a shaman need if they want to keep full mana in a heroic 5-man dungeon?
Joe Perez Jul 26th 2011 9:35PM
About 2k is still good for heroics, but anything above that is also good.
Docseuzz Jul 26th 2011 9:44PM
Your man's bar at the end of most 5 mans is less dependant on your spirit, and more on your tank. The more they overpull for their gear (or mismanage their cooldowns) , the lower your mana at the end of the fight
Kamileon Jul 26th 2011 9:38PM
The 2pc bonus shows up on WoL as "Flametide" and it is responsible for a LOT of mana regen.
Heather Jul 26th 2011 9:42PM
We were averaging out mana gains on our Rag attempts to try to see how awesome that T12 2pc bonus is, and I was pulling something like 50-55k mana from Flametide (the actual name of the proc that you get from Riptide) over the course of ~10 minutes.
Of course, Resurgence was proccing between 70-80k mana return over the same period, but...
Cambro Jul 26th 2011 9:59PM
My shaman is resto/elemental. Why would a weapon with spirit and spell power be attractive at all for enhance? Do they have a talent that converts one of those to attack power or crit? (not being snarky, I really don't know)
Heii Jul 26th 2011 10:23PM
More to the fact it's speed.
Due to how Enhance are pretty much 80% spell damage, and the axe is slow.
There's more elaborate write-ups, but basically (if I remember right,) Enh actually does MORE damage with this weapon hard-casting Lava Bursts between cooldowns then actually hitting with it.
And by MORE damage, I mean more then the guys who run 2.6/2.6 speed agi weapons, which there's a surprising lack of.
Rmatulac Jul 27th 2011 1:00AM
According to one of the dps aim sites, the top dps in full heroic t12 was an enhance shaman with a caster main-hand weapon. This was a similar scenario pre-cata I believe (can't fully remember haven't had my shaman that long) and was something the devs were specifically tryingto get us away from and use two agi weapons as intended. Unfortunately with the way our damaging abities work the way our hardest hitting abilities work, more spellpower can be a significant boost to our damage, moreso than intended use agi weapons. I don't think this is standard for very level of gear for enhance shamans (they always suggest using simcraft to find out) but I could be wrong. I play enhance/resto so I suppose it's something I could test myself...
Angus Jul 27th 2011 1:13AM
AoE.
Flame shock and Fire Nova use Spellpower. This weapon is superior to a normal weapon when doing a heavy AoE phase because not only does it make those 2 incredible, but the Maelstrom Weapon powered Chain Lightnings will also do more damage. The result is that any lost DPS due to the weapon's speed and damage is made up for in the spell damage.
patgamer Jul 26th 2011 10:42PM
Why not allow water shield orbs to stack, make it sort of like a reverse lightning shield, you release it for mana rather then damage, not sure what skill would release the orbs..
I guess having to watch a buff stack isn't any better then having to refresh a shield constantly though?
Anyway.. I like the 2pc bonus, hopefully the 4pc is just as good in 10mans.. >.> yay for a heavy melee raid comp.
The Lesser Evil Jul 27th 2011 3:27AM
Oh, I do like the idea of allowing Water Shield to stack like Lightning Shield does. Perhaps each stack beyond the first three could decrease the mana cost of our Healing Surge? Boost the healing buff of our Unleash Elements? Decrease the casting time on Chain Heal? I don't know what it would do, but it certainly does have potential.
I don't think watching those stacks would be anywhere near as annoying as watching our Water Shield. It would be a "Keep an eye on this, and be rewarded!" kind of thing, possibly with a visual effect on the screen like Fulmication gets. Not the "Keep an eye on this OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES" like it is now.
Beth'tilac is ridiculous right now, I can't manage to keep my Water Shield up AND heal, so I either run the risk of letting people die in a global cooldown, or later on in the fight when my mana pool is starting to dry up. I will sell my firstborn if it means I can glyph my water shield to not go below 3 stacks.
feedback Jul 28th 2011 4:03PM
@Lesser Evil: I know you were exaggerating but...
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/07/25/chinese-couple-sell-their-kids-to-pay-for-online-gaming/
JMount Jul 27th 2011 1:58AM
Question for Ask A Shaman:
I've been considering playing a shaman for awhile (looking for an alternative to my DK/Warlock), and I've been debating between Enhancement and Elemental. They both appeal to me, having experience with both melee and caster roles. However, there's one thing that I *still* have yet to fully comprehend: Enhancement weapon choices? Do I want Agility, or Intellect/Spellpower? What about weapon speeds? I've searched all over the place and I'm so confused as to how the heck I should be gearing if I wanted to play Enhancement. Can anyone please explain the difference between the two stats for the spec, what spells/abilities are affected by each stat, and what I should be aiming for?
Smoky Jul 27th 2011 7:26AM
Enhancement's affection towards spell power weapons has two main reasons - one, almost 50% of our single target damage and probably over 80% of our AoE damage are affected by spell power, and two, our scaling with weapon DPS is quite low; thus, any reasonably slow spell power weapon comes out grossly overbudgeted (using my own stat weights, the Eye is almost twice more DPS than a comparable Agility MH). That said, the Agi MH/OH route is fairly competitive and quite a bit simpler to play and Blizzard have repeatedly tried to steer Enh away from spell power weapons; thus, I personally haven't used a spell power setup so far.
Josh Myers Aug 1st 2011 4:38PM
As a general rule, enhancement wants a melee weapon in their mainhand. This is due to Stormstrike and Windfury both hitting quite hard and being a nice portion of our damage, as well as because auto-attack damage is still a very vital part of the spec. On top of that, melee weapons come with Agility, and Agility is our bread-and-butter stat, for which we can't get enough of.
However, A LOT of enhancement's damage comes from spells. Maelstrom Weapon procs instant lightning bolts, unleash flametongue does spell damage, our shocks scale with spellpower, lightning shield scales with spell power, etc. On top of that, despite the fact that point for point spellpower is way worse than Agility, spellpower weapons have a ton of spellpower on them, to the tune of four or five times the amount of agility on an equivalent iLevel melee weapon. As a result, in a few specific cases, caster weapons theoretically out DPS melee weapons.
Eye of Purification is one such case. Because of its 2.4 speed and not terrible melee damage, we use it in our mainhand imbued with Windfury, while using a regular melee weapon in our offhand with Flametongue. Our spells see a huge benefit from the spellpower, and it has delicious mastery on it...as well as a nice chunk of spirit that turns into spell hit for us. (Though we'd reforge the spirit to hit, so as to get some melee hit out of it as well.) Lava Burst also enters into the enhancement rotation at this point; we fill in global cooldown gaps with Lava Burst. Since the mainhand weapon is lower damage than a normal melee weapon, the damage we'd be losing by stalling our weapon swings with a cast is made up for by Lava Burst damage.
All of that said, it's fairly advanced stuff that requires 4piece tier 12 and an Eye of Purification. Blizzard's attempts to devalue spellpower weapons for enhance have been somewhat successful, and in normal course of play a melee weapon will almost always be the better choice. (The exception to this is AOE, where caster weapons still shine.) 95% of the time, a melee weapon is the right choice.
The Lesser Evil Jul 27th 2011 3:42AM
Is there any way for us to compete with Paladins, Druids and Priests when it comes to healing? I'm well aware that healing is a collaboration and not a race, but right now I often feel like my guild would be better off bringing a Priest or Druid instead of me. Right now the healing team (10-man) is generally a Holy Paladin, myself and either a Resto Druid or a Disc/Holy Priest. The Priest I can somewhat keep up with, but the other two are just a lot more effective than I am, it seems.
Aside from a few phases during boss fights in Firelands where the raid has to stack up, I feel like I'm squandering my full potential because Chain Heal doesn't bounce far enough, Healing Rain isn't efficient without enough people in it, and SLT totem isn't something people will group up for because no one will ever notice it.
Would it unbalance the game if SLT had a more noticable effect (like PW: Barrier has) or if SLT/Chain Heal/Healing Rain had a bigger range? Or if the Tidal Waves buff from casting Riptide/CH gave us three stacks instead of two so that we would be very competitive when it comes to tank healing? I just want... something to return us to being competitive. Right now it just feels like, at similar skill levels, Shaman healers just fall behind.
Tonho Aug 2nd 2011 11:30AM
Ask a Shaman question:
What is the generally accepted use of Unleash Elements and the Focused Insight talent? Should I be using UE and shocking the boss on cooldown as part of my standard rotation to buff every heal? Or are they not meant to be used on cooldown?
I've played both ways, but haven't healed in raids enough to know which is better.