Totem Talk: Getting resurrected restoration shaman back to speed, and level 90 talents
by Joe Perez 
Mar 20th 2012 at 1:00PM
The Scroll of Resurrection revamp has been a topic of hot debate recently. Whether you love it or hate it, the feature's still an opportunity for our healing brethren to come back after a long break. To be honest, one of my friends has done just that.
But being away from the game for any period of time, whether it is an entire expansion or just a content patch, can be jarring. So when my friend reactivated, I asked him what his most pressing concerns were coming back to Cataclysm. What did he want to know the most to get back up to speed? I thought that were probably quite a few number of folks coming back to the game who might have the same questions, so I figured now would be the perfect time to talk about that, as well as some news regarding the new level 90 talents that we just received.
Oh, and the video has nothing to do with today's post ... I just had that song stuck in my head.
What are my talents looking like now?
So if you haven't been around for Cataclysm, things have changed a bit. Even though they've changed, though, don't get too comfortable, because it will change again in Mists.
But in the meantime, there are some things that you'll notice. First of all, we have considerably fewer of those things. Some talents are considered optional and suboptimal, while others make you a force to be reckoned with. Become acquainted with Telluric Currents; it will greatly increase your mana regeneration and help you hang in there in the new content. Originally, it was thought that TC wouldn't be that big of a deal, but honestly, it's pretty important in terms of your overall healing output if you intend to raid.
Cleansing Waters is pretty useless in PvE when compared to our other talents now, as it carries a cooldown between healing procs. The reduced cost on the Cleanse Spirit is nice, don't get me wrong, but two talent points for the 40% reduction is not the best of choices. Mana Tide Totem, Nature's Swiftness and Riptide are all still talents that you have to choose. Riptide is a must-have and is still one of your greatest healing assets, and Nature's Swiftness is still just as useful as ever. Mana Tide Totem has undergone quite a number of changes since the start of the expansion, but it seems to have settled for the time being. It does not give you 200% of your spirit, and temporary buffs like the one afforded from Core of Ripeness are no longer applicable. It has a 3-minute cooldown and is now something you can use pretty aggressively to make sure you and your healing team around you have a solid store of mana.
How bad is the content to heal?
To be honest, right now is one of the greatest times to be a healing shaman. First off, the new Hour of Twilight heroics are amazingly well done and fantastic to heal through. You get the chance to gather some awesome trinkets and to be a part of history quite literally. These heroics are challenging without being too bad, especially if you haven't been around since Firelands.
Also, the Raid Finder is a wonderful tool for you to get your feet wet with in Dragon Soul. It takes normal raiding and makes it a little more accessible, providing very good gear rewards, including versions of the current tier gear. It's a great way to dust off those raid healing skills and earn some very good loot to get you ready to do the normal mode raid.
Dragon Soul in general is much more shaman-friendly than tier 12 was. Fights have a lot more stationary healing intervals and allow us to really dump out the healing. Many of the fights mechanics also force the raid groups to group together, making it ideal for our Healing Rain and Chain Heal to really dish out some truly massive healing. For full information on all of the encounters, be sure to check Ready Check and previous articles in this column. All in all, the current content is a great place to shake off your healing rust and to rise and shine while you're getting ready for Mists.
Level 90 shaman talent information
Did you enjoy watching that NDA break on the Blizzard media event? I know I sure did, if for no other reason than all the cool class stuff we found out. What was of particular interest, of course, was the talk about the level 90 shaman talents. If you missed it, please allow me to recap them for you.
- One supercharges your Unleash Elements to provide a much better bonus for each imbue type.
- Another removes the cooldown on your Fire and Earth Elemental Totems and allows you to control them.
- And the last is a blast of elemental energy in a cone on a 15-second cooldown.
The second point is a pretty cool idea depending on what it actually does. The wording on the the idea almost makes it seem like it's going to make the elementals become a constant, summonable pet much like a mage's Water Elemental that also gets a pet bar like a hunter's pet. I'm not sure if that's the case or if this is a talent that will just let you finish the cooldown on the elemental to cast it again while giving it a pet bar. My money is on perma-pet, which for restoration shaman will be potentially a ton of fun when soloing dailies or anything else where we might need a little DPS backup but don't want the elemental just going all crazy and attacking everything in sight.
The last point is what really piqued my interest -- the blast of elemental energy in a cone on a 15-second cooldown. What I'm curious about is really how it is going to work exactly. Will we get a different version of it based on what spec we are? If we're in restoration spec, could it give us an ability like Holy Radiance but on a 15-second cooldown? I don't know about you, but the thought of that got me a little excited -- the potential for another heal, this one conic, on a relatively short cooldown. The idea of a conic heal would really fit well with our other AoE heals, and I don't think it would take too long to get used to. Honestly, I would welcome it. On the other hand, it could just wind up being nothing but a DPS ability, and then my hopes and dreams could be dashed.
Either way, I think we'll find out pretty soon, probably within a week or two, as to what these will actually do. What do you think?
Totem Talk: Restoration lends you advice on healing groups, DK tanks and heroics and mana concerns in today's endgame -- or take a break and look back at the rise of the resto shaman. Happy healing, and may your mana be plentiful!
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Bapo Mar 20th 2012 1:09PM
Idk about anyone else, but there is no header video?
Matthew Mar 20th 2012 1:19PM
I'd love to quest as resto with both a fire and earth elemental at my side!
This, however, would be pretty OP for the DPS specs dontcha think?
followthategg Mar 20th 2012 1:35PM
"Another removes the cooldown on your Fire and Earth Elemental Totems and allows you to control them."
Well if the AI of the two elementals is still the same in Mists as it is now then i know i will be using this one.
It is so frustrating using one of our long CD abilities only to have a boss go out of range of our element's bungee cord to the totem or for it end up attacking the wrong mob and in the worst case scenario: attacking a mob that is immune to damage.
Jackwraith Mar 20th 2012 1:36PM
I've been getting by without TC, to be honest. The time it takes to toss LBs is the time I could be taking to do more healing and my mana management is still pretty decent without it. Overall, I was pretty disappointed by both Focused Insight and TC, as neither seems to really work mechanically in a way that would make either a must-have, despite TC having a good thematic edge to it. I attempt to use FI pretty regularly, but I'm not sure that it's really worth either the mana expenditure or the GCD.
The idea of a Holy Flashlight-style heal is certainly appealing. I love using it on my paladin, although I occasionally have spacing issues with it in the same way that I do with Chain Heal. Still one more tool to bring us closer to the endless stockpile of tools that are priest and pallies is a good thing.
iadamson Mar 20th 2012 1:38PM
I believe those 90 talents are just a look at what Blizzard was playing with and didn't really mean for the public to gain knowledge of it. My reason for that is because it hasn't been added to their official site's talent calculator. Also someone at wow insider sort of stumbled onto it and wasn't actually addressed during the meeting. (To my knowledge & how I understand it).
With that said these abilities still hold the possibility of being implemented if they seem to work well enough for Blizzard.
What I can say about these talents thus far is not much because they are very alpha looking. However if I was to analyse them from what I have to read thus far. I would say that these talents make the choice rather simple for resto. None of the elementals heal (yet) and a close range damage spell seems to appeal strictly to enhancement. Beyond that you could speculate that there could be some utility or healing effects added... but i'm not going to speculate any further on talents that seem very alpha.
I do however think the ability to choose of controlling your elemental is a step in the right direction because the Shaman community is often divided on that issue. This simply gives them the choice.
Personally from my own opinion and play style I hope Blizzard changes the 90 talents into Earth, Fire & Air elemental... and making Earth a healing pet. Which I think maybe plausible if they see the majority of the shaman community all picking the same talent - they will likely have to make it baseline.
hisnameismunky Mar 20th 2012 2:58PM
I'm fine with a "permapet" option. but there are plenty of pet classes, and i don't play one for a reason. playing elemental throughout firelands, I've really come to actively hate my fire elemental. even pushing the button as it comes off of cooldown irks me. i'd rather see them removed, but as I said, the option is there and i can chose something else. that being said, as a permanent pet, they will certainly get active abilities like any other pet, as well as passives. My money is on earth elemental getting an absorb/damage reduction ability that will make it appealing for resto.
iadamson Mar 20th 2012 3:14PM
@hisnameismunky
Yeah I feel you on that.
Only time will tell what Blizzard decides to do.
I really like the absorb effect idea like a lesser earth shield or something to that avail as far as visuals are concerned. Plus we don't have an absorb shield healing ability outside of stoneclaw, which only effects us.
iadamson Mar 20th 2012 2:02PM
I would like Cleansing Waters to return as a (Passive) resto ability in MoP. Right now it may seem pretty useless. However given that druids & paladins can dispell 3 effects off allies and we can only cure 2 harmful effects (we also have purge for offensive but so does elemental & enhancement - purge isn't necessarily a healing responsibility) I feel we should be compensated with a healing proc after every successful removal. Although that would mean removing the cooldown... which Blizzard could do. Plus I felt that ability was unique to a Shaman... I'll miss it more then TC simply because I understand its useful but from how I like to heal... I wouldn't want to add hit to my gear in MoP. I feel I should be busy healing and not dpsing. I hope the the mana regain from TC is made up in the numbers else where in MoP.
Noob Mar 20th 2012 2:39PM
It's "conic" - "conal" means something else
gapid Mar 20th 2012 3:38PM
My resto shaman is geared in mostly DS or heroic DS gear, yet I still get owned on the charts in 10-man vs a priest or paladin in similar gear. I don't know if I'm playing the class wrong - I have healing rain usually off CD, rip-tide off CD with three of them usually active, chain heal when appropriate, and greater healing wave. I use the other heals as needed, but that's generally it. Are other resto shamans in 10-man getting similar results, or do I just suck?
Elantheos Mar 20th 2012 4:42PM
A good holy pally will blow you away in ten man. I hear shaman really shine in 25. (Chain and Rain) I'm about even with our druid healer in 10 man atm. But yea a lot of our healing is about utility over output. So I'm cool with it. :)
fromnowear Mar 20th 2012 7:58PM
In the words of Yoda:
Raw HPS, does not a good healer, make.
If you're keeping your group alive 'til the end of the fight without being too far behind the other healers, you're doing just fine. People worry way too much about healing done when efficiency and timing is so much more important- both to keeping people alive and to pushing progression.
Twill Mar 20th 2012 10:40PM
"To be honest, right now is one of the greatest times to be a healing shaman."
While true, every other healing class has it even better. That's the Shaman's problem :(
Marg Mar 22nd 2012 2:03AM
Focussed insight + Healing Rain = Win That's the trick I've found in 10's and 25's. Also, keep in mind that your Earth Shield buffs your direct heals by 18%. Keep your tank shielded, and keep riptide ticking. When raid damage occurs, you can fire a chain heal on your tank to maximize the output of chain heal, then immediately riptide him again. Also, know your fights and classes. When I have to maximize my chain heals for heavy raid damage (i.e Skittle Boss clump phases or Zon'ozz) I'm been well known to throw my earthshield on our rogue to maximize output (He's a "mut" rogue with the quickening talent. Due to our lack of absorbs, we sometimes fall behind pallys and disc priests, but it is also the nature of our class since we are reactive healers and our HoT's are somewhat limited. Knowing when to use spirit link can be a raid saver in a 10 man. We have used it to bring a tank back from the edge at the end of Madness, and it will heal people inside Hagarra's ice blocks.
Firestyle Mar 20th 2012 3:42PM
I really like the perma-pet idea as elemental. Frankly, in the absenceof other totems, managing searing totem once a minute is going to feel really dumb. They might as well scrap it and make it a DoT.
iadamson Mar 20th 2012 5:21PM
They will need to add more fire totems or have none at all.
A whole new Shaman problem appears.
Ailuvan Mar 20th 2012 3:55PM
I'd almost bet on the cone operating in the same way as the new Holy Paladin "prism" spell - friendly targets in the cone get healed, up to X targets, hostile targets get zapped, also up to X targets, with the weighting leaning toward consuming friendly targets first.
iadamson Mar 20th 2012 5:19PM
Hopefully it will have a different effect for each spec you are.
Elemental: Low damage - push back utility?
Enhancment: High damage
Resto: AoE healing cone
Something to that avail.
Lohkie Mar 20th 2012 4:50PM
I just got my shaman to 85 and was wondering if there are any good addons for healing on my shaman. Also I never healed on him so what's the "priority" on our heals
Brett Porter Mar 20th 2012 8:20PM
There are a lot of different addons out there that might be useful to you. I currently use Healbot (only healing addon I've ever used), but you can also use Vuh-do, Clique + Grid (2 separate addons) or just regular mouse-over macros and standard raid/party frames.
You may want to have an addon letting you know when things are off cooldown... NeedToKnow, TellMeWhen are both useful, I use MSBT for the shorter CDs but it does other things as well.
If you're new, here's a great site for beginners to both a class and spec:
http://www.noxxic.com/pve/shaman/restoration
Lot of great info there to get you started!