Resto Shamans?

Shamans cant heal :p Right Nathan S... anyways, what do you wanna know. I think that atm Nathan and I are the only resto's in the guild and he taught me everything I know. I can say that Mp5 is one of your most important stats for healing, and can also say that enhancement is probably the best way to level cause you can wear any good hunter gear but there will not be much caster gear until TBC atleast.
 
What about Dranoe? I know I haven't dragged her out into Northrend but she's a resto shammy too :)
 
Jason: I'm picking up a lot of cloth gear. I've decided to level Elemental for no particular reason - it's fun playing something that casts again :D It's possible that Enhance would be a faster way to level, but I don't really have complaints about my speed of leveling atm.

My question revolves specifically around the Lesser Healing Wave spam/Improved Water Shield combo used for single target healing, and the upcoming 3.0.8 changes. In case you were not aware:

# Healing Way: Now only one application is required to reach full benefit. No longer stacks.
# Improved Water Shield: Lesser Healing Wave now has a reduced chance to trigger this talent.
Click to expand...

It seems to me like Blizzard is reducing the mana efficiency of the LHW/Imp WS combo (by reducing the chance that a crit consumes a water orb), and at the same time making it easier to keep Healing Way up on a target. Do you think that Healing Wave might be the better spell to use for single target heals after this change?
 
I had not read about the changes but I know that Bliz was trying to make shamans be more than just a chain heal bot. I can't really answer which would be better until the patch. I personally don't have pts in Healing Way as I rarely use Healing Wave except in an emergency. Then I pop Nature's Grasp and a trinket and insta-cast HW for a big 1 time heal. To me, HW takes too long to cast and uses too much mana. I prefer LHW and Riptide with some Chain Heals thrown in. This may change though depending on the next patch.
 
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Been leveling up my shammy and i find that with the right talents now i never run out of mana as elem. so its been a nice leveling process.
 
I actually prefer healing wave over LHW. I think if I've done my math correctly its actually a more efficient use of mana. healing wave is 25% base mana for 3000-3400 healing +healing power while LHW is 15% base mana for 1600-1800 healing +healing power.

so then 25% base / 15% base = 1.6
1600 * 1.6 = 2560
so for the same mana you get less healing from a LHW (maybe thats why its called LESSER healing wave lol)

Now I know thats not exact math because each healing spell gains a different amount from your +heals but it's pretty good considering it's my math.

As far as casting time, with the talents for tidal waves the casting time is around 1.7 seconds depending on how much haste you already have. Add Heroism and it's close to a 1 second cast.

So my cast sequence for healing is usually to use riptide on the tank for the HOT then healing wave as needed. If the group needs heals I can chain heal or riptide to get the casting buff again and continue with healing wave.
 
Jason, are you adding in the Mana you get back from Improved Water Shield talents, and the boost to LHW from Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave?
 
Assuming you are talking about Improved Water Shield talents than no, but it also affects Healing wave, so either crits returns mana. I guess it would be a high % of mana cost for a LHW though. And I didnt take the glyph into consideration with that either. I think that the 20% from the glyph would just bring it on par with heaing wave

my math there is
1600 + (1600*0.2) * 1.6 = 3072
so I guess you can "spam" LHW with the same effectiveness as healing wave, assuming you have the glyph.
 
yeah, I think that's what some shamans do now (as the amount of mana restored is almost the same as the cost of LHW), which is why I was asking what people thought about that, in light of the up-coming changes. It feels to me like Blizzard is trying to encourage the use of HW again, with LHW used for emergencies. Either that or they've decided that the combo is just too mana efficient, and are adjusting.
 
I see what you are saying about HW vs LHW but I also think it may amount to alot of overhealing if you use HW primarily. I know when I use mine it seems to avg for about 7000 or so heals with crits up to about 10500 to 11500. When I am in a run, those size heals aren't usually needed except in certain circumstances.

Most of the time I am just topping people off or they are around 75% health which a LHW hitting for around 3000 - 6500 is fine. This is just my playstyle though and that may change in the near future.

I am always looking at other peoples talents to see how they have specced into resto and then considering if that would work for me. As I get better gear with possibly more haste, who knows, HW may look more attractive to me.

PS - I don't have all the fancy math calcs like you guys have due to 1) I'm too lazy to figure it out and 2) I hate math, so my ramblings above may be completely wrong. I just play what works for me at the time. :)
 
One thing for talents that I found running with an SGA resto is that there a few talents in enhancement that are good for healing. it takes 13 talent points to get them but they are Elemental Weapons which other 10 talents you take to get here is up to you but that is pretty good I think. I'm not sure how the healing from earthliving weapon is decided but at least in the early stages of healing I like it cause I don't have a lot of +heals yet from gear.
 
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Hey, I'm leveling a resto shammie now, and at level 52, I admit I'm still learning the class, but I'm finding it hard to level efficiently with my 100% resto spec. My dps is pretty paltry compared to the other options, and I use up a good bit of my mana after 2-3 mobs. Anybody have a smooth-leveling configurations for resto?
 
ugh, I would honestly go Elemental - you can still heal pretty good, and your gear is pretty much the same, lots of +spellpower.
 
yeah, levelling elemental and resto at the end is a very sensible, effective plan. Levelling enhancement, and trying to go resto at the end is way more complicated... right J? ;)
 
I fell like leveling enahncement can be faster than elemental, pre-TBC theres gonna be more gear atleast. My issue after leveling enhance is I loved so much I dont wanna be resto anymore :p. I do still have a full set of healing gear and I can re-spec if I need to, just hate trying to solo when I'm resto.
 
I definitely have to agree with Jason - pre-TBC the caster gear SUCKS. After about level 40 you start seeing gear with spellpower on it, but before then there really isn't anything.
 
I lvl'd elemental until 65 then switched to resto. When Wrath came out, I stayed resto for about 3 lvl's then switched back to elemental. As resto for those 3 lvl's, it took forever to kill anything, although, they couldn't kill me either. When I switched back to elemental, I was still using all my BC gear, which I didn't replace my 1st piece until lvl 78.

One thing I noticed though in Wrath is that it seemed that most of the quest rewards and drops in instances where geared toward enh. Now, I don't know if the instance drops are slanted that way or if I just had bad luck but that was what I was seeing. As I got higher into lvls, I started seeing more resto/ele gear drop and from quests.

I lvld my shaman with another shaman who was enh. I can say that when it came to dps, we were about even until lvl 60 or so. At that point he pulled away in burst dmg but on ling fights, I caught up.

It mainly comes down to, do you like casters more or melee? Either spec is a great spec to lvl. Staying resto though will make you tear your hair out until you are rdy to do higher instances. Just remember, you don't always have to have mail armor. Leather, and even some cloth, is still good to wear as a shaman until something better comes along.

On another note, looking at my spec, I realized a small mistake in the talent pts. I forgot to take the pt out of Imp Reinc, that was left over from lvling.

As for not having anything in healing grace to reduce healing threat, I am undecided on that one. I have been watching Omen alot on some of the instance fights in 5, 10 and 25 man runs and I still creep up there pretty quick. Chain heal generates a ton of threat. I have noticed a few times when I am 2nd on threat and have to make sure I try and back down just in case the mob decides the taste of the tank is not very satisfying and wants something a bit squishier yet still crunchy. Now, that is usually only happening in 10 and 25 man runs. 5 mans I am pretty much single target healing.

That being said, the only time I have found healing focus to be of any use is in PvP whne a horde is beating on me. Other than the times listed above, I am usually not getting beat on and if I am, well, something has gone terribly wrong and we prob won't survive anyway.

Anyway, looks like I need to fix my spec just a tad and correct the remnants of elemental that are left over. I shall now end my wall of text.

PS - Yes, the elemental weapons talent is nice and earthliving weapon is still good IMO.
 
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