Totem Talk: Ask a restoration shaman (again)
by Joe Perez 
Aug 2nd 2011 at 6:00PM
Last week we talked about shaman with axes and a little bit about the restoration shaman two-piece bonus from tier 12 gear. The last week has certainly been a busy one for most folks. With the video now out for DREAM Paragon's 25-man heroic Ragnaros kill and an idea of their group's raid composition, it has been a week of speculation and debate.
There's one thing that always will remain constant -- there are always more questions to be answered! This week, we'll be taking reader questions that have come in through comments, Twitter or email in another installment of Ask a Restoration Shaman!
Keeping up with the healers
Hey,Tin, you've got a couple of questions nestled in there; let's see if I can help you out a little bit. Your stats -- at least the secondary ones -- are what I would expect to see for someone with that progression. It's honestly normal at that point to feel like you might be having a hard time keeping up.
I am a resto shaman for a 25 man raiding guild that has cleared normal and killed heroic Shannox. I have been having a hard time keeping up with the other healing classes on most fights, excluding Majordomo and Baleroc. I have just over 15 mastery which is up to 46% increased heals, around 916 haste and 17 crit before buffs.
I have also recently switched to a spec with Telluric Currents with the hope that being less mana reliant will allow me to use mt bigger heals more frequently and use up my mana before regen phases.
I was wondering if going for the next haste plateau would be worth it.
Thanks
Tintenfisch
The Telluric Currents specs do actually help out with this, especially when a fight has clear regen phases. It does allow you to drop some bigger heals like Greater Healing Wave, especially on tank, and recoup the mana. With that much mastery, you can easily drop some very large heals; relying on the regen from TC, you can do it more frequently. I've had a lot of success with that in fights like Alysrazor, Majordomo Staghelm and Shannox.
As far as going for the second haste plateau, that's a trickier question to answer. Haste is always useful, but mastery has really come into its own with this patch. My personal experience after attempting to reach the second haste plateau was not a good one. As I reached the haste level, my healing numbers diminished quite a bit. When I started going with a little more mastery and crit at the expense of haste, my numbers increased back to a more competitive level.
Some of this has to do with healing team composition, so if you're running with a lot of druids or paladins, haste might not be the best for you. Both are still viable, and I encourage you to test it out. Worst-case scenario, you try for the second haste tier, and if it doesn't work out, you can always swap back. I plan on doing a much more in-depth post about this very soon.
Competitive eye
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.TLE, don't be discouraged by not being able to keep up with holy paladins and druids. For some reason, they always seem to enter the new tiers of content incredibly strong. I understand your feeling that your team would be better off bringing another class along, but the truth is as a shaman healer, you do offer a lot to the raid environment. Our mastery is unique in that it becomes better the more damage everyone takes. That means for less mana, you can get that clutch heal on a tank before he dies and bring him to full, and Spirit Link Totem really is quite a useful cooldown to have.
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 noticeable 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.
The Lesser Evil
As far as not feeling like you can reach full potential without anyone being grouped up, while we're best when we can get people in range of Chain Heal or get everyone standing in Healing Rain, we're far from helpless when people are spread out. Riptide is a very strong spell, and you can roll that throughout the entire raid. Healing Surge is good for sniping heals when you need the speed, and GHW is fantastic for deep or predictable damage. We just have to work a little bit harder at it, but we can do just fine in a spread out fight.
As far as SLT, I understand that frustration quite well. It has taken a bit to convince people to group up, but you can do what I do to alert people. Make a macro that announces that the totem is down and to group up, and if you can, announce it in voice chat before you drop it. You'd be surprised how people react with just a gentle reminder. As far as the question about balance, SLT can sometimes get lost in the huddle of a spell-intense fight, but I'm not sure giving it a different effect would help much.
As far as increasing Tidal Waves to give more stacks, honestly, if you're rolling Riptides, it should almost always be up anyways. Considering a 6-second cooldown, you might miss one cast of a spell without it, but I'm pretty sure the developers have already considered it before. It would amount to a constant 30% reduction in cast time for Healing Wave and GHW and what is essentially a permanent 30% crit increase to Healing Surge. Without the possible lapse in uptime, I can see that potentially becoming quite unbalanced. I like the train of thought, though, and maybe we'll see another tweak before the end of this expansion to our healing.
Tiers of happiness?
Currently I am wondering if the 4 set Tier 11 is better than the 2 set tier 12?Ciseres, without hesitation, I can say that two-piece tier 12 set bonus is better than the four-piece tier 11 set bonus, flat-out. It is almost double the amount of MP5 when compared to the previous set bonus. There's tons of math out there showing this, but rolling Riptides with the four-piece T11 in a 6-minute boss fight (assuming normal reaction time on keeping Riptide up) will give you somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 MP5 and 263 MP5. With the same conditions, Flametide can earn you something between 312 MP5 and 469 MP5. Remember that instead of working whenever you cast Riptide like the T11 set bonus, the T12 set bonus has a 40% chance to proc off every tick of Riptide.
Ciseres
Considering that you can lengthen the time Riptide is up with Glyph of Riptide, that 1% of your base mana starts to add up. Unlike other classes, you can safely break that set bonus the second you get two pieces of tier 12 gear. From first-hand experience, I can tell you that it does have a very visible impact on your mana while healing, and you'll notice this change almost right away.
That's it for this week's Ask a Restoration Shaman. If I didn't answer your email in this post, don't worry -- you'll be getting a direct reply email from me soon.
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)
Crispn Aug 2nd 2011 6:17PM
Is it worth going for the next haste breakpoint if your having mana issues, and have the two piece. I assume that the extra tick from riptide won't do much for mana, but I havn't grabbed telluric currents either. Is telluric currents large mana return?
Joe Perez Aug 2nd 2011 6:41PM
TC is an insane amount of mana return if you're using it. I've pretty much eliminated my entire need for potions with just 2-piece and TC.
Heather Aug 2nd 2011 6:49PM
@Joe: Yes, but when you're shooting lightning bolts, you're not healing. And I guess maybe that's acceptable in normal content, but I have yet to see a fight on heroic where I didn't want to be healing as much as possible. In my experience, either people need healing, or I have a full mana bar. And with a spec that is currently acknowledged to have serious throughput issues when compared to the other healing classes/specs, can a Resto Shaman -really- afford to be shooting lightning bolts instead of healing?
Joe Perez Aug 2nd 2011 7:02PM
If you have zero mana, yes it's worth it. If you don't have any mana you can't heal, and some fights do have periods where you can regen. As far as hardmode fights go, that's a different animal. Some do, some don't. I'll be dealing with those individually in the weeks to come.
Soulddoubt Aug 2nd 2011 7:33PM
I tired out the TC build and to be honest it just did not work for my raid group. I find that I am healing far more than I have down time getting in some clutch saves with HS on raid members of timing a good GHW in between our pally healers tank heals. I have noticed though that I do not seem to be hurting much on mana, so for me it works out fine (the only time I have oom'd is when one of the other healers goes down or dc's mid fight and I need to pick up the slack). The one thing that I have found most useful is communication. Letting people know when you are about to drop SLT or MT totem really makes a huge difference overall.
The one change I would still love to see would be a totem throw ability/talent. This would be helpful for totem placement in certain fights. For example, being able to throw SLT to where melle and tanks are without having to run over there would be a big help in my opinion. Any thoughts?
Snuzzle Aug 2nd 2011 6:38PM
Can totems be targetted with raid icons? In other words, is it possible to make a macro that drops the totem, announces it in raid (or /rw) and marks it with a star, or square, or something?
Maybe it's just my raid, but before world markers (and even sometimes still) we use the totem clump as a visual marker of "ranged stand here" on certain fights.
Heather Aug 2nd 2011 6:46PM
I'm not sure if that's possible.
But more to the point, what kind of idiots is that letter writer raiding with? When I drop Healing Rain for my melee during the Ragnaros fight, there are melee who MOVE to get into the circle, because they KNOW that it helps them. When we clump for the stack phase and I drop SLT, people MOVE to get inside the extremely obvious green swirly circles. If your DPS aren't paying attention to their surroundings, they're pretty fail DPS, imo.
Joe Perez Aug 2nd 2011 6:47PM
You sure can!
http://twitpic.com/601dqg
patgamer Aug 9th 2011 6:46PM
Shamanfriend addon will also announce what you have dropped in whatever chat channel you wish :) I currently have SLT/MT and Hero hooked up to let people know through /y
I've noticed my fellow healers staying near me more often on most fights so it's definatly helped I think.
Erebos Aug 2nd 2011 6:52PM
I don't raid with the same people that consistently (our guild does sign-ups and we pug a good amount), but I've noticed that shaman usually end up last on meters. I know meters aren't the be-all, end-all, etc., and as a holy priest who came from playing a resto druid, I'm definitely used to pumping out big numbers all around. But it doesn't make sense to me that I'm doing 35-40% of the healing and the shaman doing only 25-30% (with whoever else is healing in between us, for example) and all of us are still OOM at the end of the fight. And yes, player skill and gear has to do with this, but I've seen it pretty consistently when I happen to raid with a shaman.
I know healing on one is difficult, I've done it. I feel bad because they seem to be in a bad place, and one of my friends has changed her main from a resto shaman to a mage because she doesn't find it fun anymore and people constantly tell her she has to "heal moar" or whatever.
I know they follow the same three-heal model as the other classes, but it almost seems like they just don't have enough tools, or maybe not the right ones (I know I'm gonna take crap for that, but I do know they have a bunch of spells XD). Or maybe it's just that whatever assignment they have, another class can do better. Tank healing? Disc priests and holy paladins will beat them pretty much every time. Raid? If it's a spread fight or even just a 10 man, they'll have trouble and probably be beat by the holy priest or druid.
I don't know what it is. To be honest, I'm just glad my main isn't a resto shaman, it'd just be discouraging to me. On another note, it is really satisfying to see that chain heal jump all over, though :)
Diop Aug 2nd 2011 8:44PM
As far as I'm aware Joe heals in a 25man raid so I'm not sure he fully appreciates the problems that are facing 10man healing Shaman and the shortcomings of the spec. Whilst his advice of keeping up Riptides, healing surges and GHW is fine, any healer can be brought for their flash heals and greater heals, the reason you're an asset is because of your unique heals and cooldowns and Shamans don't cut it.
In 25mans the melee are almost always nicely clustered up so that you can get the full effect of chain heals and healing rains, but in 10mans where you might have 1 or 2 melee those spells get almost no usage outside of 'stack and heal' fights. The same problem persists with our cooldown SLT which also requires specific positioning just not usually present in 10man raids.
Then there's the fact that we're only bringing one decent cooldown to the raid where other classes are bringing one or two more, in 25mans with 6 healers you might not notice one less cooldown but in 10man you do, Resto Shaman definitely need another strong raid heal without positioning conditions that can be easily prevented/stopped/interupted in PVP to not make RShaman even more overpowered than they are.
I'm not going to say RShaman are not viable or able to do the current content, but the issue is you do have to work harder for less results and generally might be holding the raid back than if they took a different healer of equal gear and skill.
Achos Aug 3rd 2011 5:56AM
I keep reading that resto shamans are the 'worst' healers around so it must be somehow true... but my experience is totally different.
I find myself always (95%) on the top of the meters mostly by 5-10%.
As a resto shaman i dont got to play with other resto's, only doing 10mans, so can't really say what other shaman healing is like.
It might be playstyle, skill or gear but from BoT, BWD and the spider and hunter boss from firelands i always did the most healing as a resto shaman.
You could also say the other healers just suck, but i just want to point out that shaman healers can be on the top of meters, even in 10mans.
Galbatros Aug 2nd 2011 7:57PM
i'v been playing a resto shaman since early TBC and i still dn;t understand why so many shamans think resto is underpowered when it comes to tank healing a shaman can easily heal a tank as well as a paladin and they can do it while using less mana due to our amazing mastery just a matter of letting the tanks HP drop slowly by using HW and Riptide as your base tank heals as they can be spamed with almost no mana cost and then using GHW once a tank is arround 30% or so (varies with fight) to get an larger heal than other classes from mastery which saves mana in the long run and can allow us to carry on healing for what i find to be longer than other tank healers.
When it comes to raid healing encounters which require the raid to spread out it's not that bad either the main problem a lot of shamans have is that they start to relly on CH and HR 2 much for raid healing when it's just a matter of rolling riptides with HW or even GHW if a player has taken a lot of dammage and you know chain heal is not likly to bounce to more than 1 target.
Even now in cata raids where entire raids need to be topped up fast it is still extremly important to use triage as a shaman our entire class is based around it (just look at our mastery). Imho it's the ability to heal the RIGHT people that will benefit any resto shaman more than any amount of gear or buffs
In my raid group which consists of Myself as a resto shammy along with a holy pally and either a resto druid/holy priest i find myself topping the meters of most boss fights with a few exceptions.
And keep this in mind guys it;s not always about healing the mostit's a team effort if u get through a fight and everyone is alive then u done well regardless of whether u top or not
Mojo09 Aug 2nd 2011 8:34PM
The problem is that if you don't have a guild that is consistently giving you gear and getting bosses down lots of times you have to rely on pugs to get gear as well as valor. And guess what pugs rely almost entirely on meters to determine performance. Your guild may know you strengths and weaknesses very well which makes your ability to heal go much higher then most.
I'm just saying that without a good consistent raiding team it can be difficult for a resto shaman like myself to get gear and improve.
leifr_shepherd Aug 2nd 2011 8:40PM
aye can see why it could be a problem with pugging but hopefully the tips i'v put will help others get higher on the meters regardless
Mojo Aug 2nd 2011 8:58PM
Damn i meant to reply.
Mojo Aug 2nd 2011 8:58PM
What tips?
Grimtar Aug 3rd 2011 1:10AM
The thing with Resto Shamans right now is that there is no single answer to the usual spec/glyph/stat questions. The answers all depend on raid size, healing role, healing comp and so on.
Some simple examples:
Many of the standard raiding talents are worthless in 5-man heroics, so if you're not raiding, there is no point having a full raiding build.
In 10-mans, AA is awesome, and BotE is crap. In 25-mans, it's reversed. There are a couple other talents that have more value in one raid size or the other as well.
10-man raiders have little reason to glyph CH, depending on their healing team, which frees up a glyph slot for them.
Mastery is amazing all round, but for 10-mans the balance point between Mastery and Crit is earlier.
Haste is generally not worth going past the first breakpoint, especially in 25-mans, but for Heroic modes of any raid size, an EP-TC/Haste build is far more viable, assuming you're a very aware, low-ping player who can handle the ABC context switch between heals and LBs.
There are even more factors depending on whether the Shaman is going to be tank healing, raid healing, or mixing it up. Really, answering any Shaman question without knowing the full specifics of their playstyle, raid size and usual healing comp is difficult at best. Similarly, it's impossible to judge whether a Shaman is or isn't being competitive relative to other healers without those same details... plus there is the question of whether HPS measure competitiveness :P
For certain, 25-man raid healing Resto Shamans should be very competitive, if not top, on most encounters. Tank healing Shamans should also be extremely competitive. Switching between the two mid-encounter is where you'll see the biggest drop-off.
redikolous Aug 3rd 2011 1:32PM
This is so true.
At first, I wondered what the hell was going on, this shaman stacks crit, this one still likes haste, this one likes mastery, but talking about their raid sizes and roles, it all made sense.
Our guild has gone from 25s to 10s temporarily, and I stubbornly stuck to my mastery build/25m raid healer setup. We did fine on Shannox and Beth'tilac, but when we had to do Baleroc, I just couldn't. I had to go back to town, quickly respec to take out TC, and reforge all that mastery to haste (went from 916 to 1500~). We downed him, and it was easier because my targets weren't dying before a heal came off.
Revnah Aug 3rd 2011 3:02AM
"When I started going with a little more mastery and haste at the expense of haste, my numbers increased back to a more competitive level."
Do you mean "a little more mastery and spirit at the expense of haste"? Or mastery and crit?