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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-18-2011 @ 11:53PM
Pled said...
"they spam Healing Wave while saving Greater Healing Wave for serious damage."
This is a gross misrepresentation of Restoration Shamans. Healing Wave's low healing make it only useful when people aren't actively taking damage (and won't for a few seconds) and are already at a high health level, but its low mana cost make it pretty much free to cast. I rarely feel like it's even necessary when I have a druid rolling HoTs on everybody already.
On the other hand, Greater Healing Wave represents the largest % of my healing done, and is my go-to spell (hasted with the Tidal Waves buff) almost all of the time.
One more thing I think wasn't covered was that Resto Shamans have relatively limited ability to boost their healing output temporarily. Paladins have Avenging Wrath and Divine Favor, like you mentioned, but all the Resto Shaman has is Nature's Swiftness every 2 minutes, which of course applies to only one heal, and it lacks the +50% increase that druids have and there is no mechanic to decrease the cooldown, which druids also have.
With that being said, I think the synergy between these 3 classes is great, and I thank you for writing the article, because it's great fun getting to know the healing strengths and weaknesses of other healers, and working together to cover everything makes the group more effective overall.
Reply
9-19-2011 @ 10:04AM
Vil said...
I don't really see how this is a misrepresentation, standard way (at least for me) is Riptide, HW, HW, repeat, whenever a bigger heal is needed replace HW with a GHW. As a Riptide, HW, HW combination can be cast indefinitely (I actually gain mana while doing this and it keeps my darkmoon card buff up) there simply isn't a good reason to not have a heal in the pipe constantly.
Also, I'm not quite sure why you feel that we are lacking ways to boost our healing output temporarily? Nature's Swiftness, Unleash Elements (small heal and 20% bonus on the next heal) and Focused Insight (30% bonus on the next heal after you shock) all gives us boosts to our healing output when we need it. Technically I think you can stack UE and FI if you can prepare for the incoming damage ahead of time (UE, Shock, Heal), haven't tried it though.
Cheers!
9-19-2011 @ 2:07PM
redikolous said...
@Vil
When you need such a big heal, it shouldn't take 2 GCDs for such a big heal. For certain fights, where the damage is all predictable (Ragnaros), you may want to save certain cooldowns for certain areas of the fight, so I don't count Nature's Swiftness as an HPS buff.
Plus, while I have seen resources on how Focused Insight is a gain for Healing Rain (I took it specifically for Staghelm), I haven't seen any on how it's good for single-target heals.
If it came down to it, I'd rather have another spell that's more bursty. Under the three-heal model, Flash Heal and Regrowth have their uses (and priests have a double-whammy heal under Binding) but Healing Surge is just useless. I can't do much speaking for Paladin since I don't have one. Flash Heal brings Serendipity, and it's not as great as Greater Healing Wave, but it's faster. Penance has its uses, and with the new Grace model you can use it on non-tanks. Regrowth crits to hell and back with Nature's Bounty, and it's free when the druid is playing right. All we have is Greater Healing Wave, and it doesn't feel bursty at all.
I'm still rather miffed they took away Tidal Force when it would have been a million times more useful in Cata than it ever was in Wrath. (When did I use that spell...on Marrowgar and BQL, Sindragosa, and Lich King, iirc. Only one time a fight, to buff a chain heal. It was less a tank cooldown and more a general buff to my HPS. But I would use it as a tank cooldown now.