Updated Shaman FAQ/Guide 3.0.2Follow

i requested my sticky un-stickied, great job para =)

Parcleets, I must say this is a great guide; however, I really don't like your Resto PvE build. AK is next to useless; Elemental Warding is much better for raiding.

This is a great raiding build for someone who's now past Karazhan, or still in Karazhan. Lots of elemental damage all over the place, wherever you are.

This is a great build for someone doing Heroics/Karazhan, with 5 points left to spend wheresoever one chooses. AK would not be the place to do that, unless you have a really really bad mana pool.

One thing I've been wondering is how useful Healing Way is in 25 mans. All shamans do in 25 mans is Chain Heal, from my limited experience -- so why would you need a talent that will almost never be used to its full potential?

I'm going to make a forum post on EJ to see what they think of it, and on the O-Boards.


EDIT: It seems that NG is a good place to put your points, no matter if you raid or if you PvP.
EDIT2: It also seems that Healing Way is useful in raids because sometimes you ARE assigned to heal one target; or perhaps you run a heroic, and respec'ing would be idiotic. I would stick with taking it; ignore what I said, lol.

Edited, Jan 19th 2008 6:23pm by GWynand

What we need is a link at the top saying, for a super in-depth Resto Shaman guide, go here.

That's a link to Skyhoof's guide on Elitist Jerks, "How to Heal Like a Pro". I've read through it many many times, and I've also read through the entire 11 pages of it. =D

If you're serious about raiding as resto, you've got to read through this entire thing; it's incredible. These guys have serious experience, and they all are really knowledgeable about Resto Shaman raiding.

Also, Grandmother Baelnic's gearing-up for Kara+ guide is pretty fantastic for newbie Restos who are wondering how to get geared for Kara and begin 25 mans.


EDIT: Skyhoof's guide is not for the light of heart, or those who just want to know the basics of Shaman gameplay. It's really only for Shamans who are in, or past, Kara (a lot of it seems pointed towards BT fights, but a lot of TK/SSC/MTH as well), and want to know how to finetune their healing to be the best that they can be.



Edited, Jan 20th 2008 9:37pm by GWynand

/bonk

Nice! You're a genius.

And, well, the spec you linked is a bit different than mine, although it does have the basic 8/0/53 idea in there.

More like this; I left out 6 points, for you to decide where to put them -- depending on your situation.

Let's say your guild is collectively just starting in Karazhan and still doing some heroics. Well, here's a build for you. Basically I just added in Healing Grace and Healing Way.

Your guild is now full off in 25 mans, TK/SSC/MTH/BT? Ok, here's a build for you.

Now, I left out Totemic Focus every time. Unless you're in the MT group, dropping Windfury, SoE, Searing or some other Fire totem, and MS/HS Totem, it only equates to something like 4.5 mp5. Usually you're in the caster group, only dropping Mana Spring and WoA, so you don't need the reduced mana cost as much. If you are in the MT group, then I think it's 11.8 mp5. I'm not sure, but it's in Skyhoof's guide on EJ.


Imp Reincarnation -- some swear by it, some say it's junk. This is wholly a matter of personal preference and situation. Decide from your experience if you would rather have less of a CD and more health/mana when you do self rez.


Healing Grace
-- This is also a matter of personal situation. One of my guildies, who has 3 70's, wanted me to come to Heroic Slave Pens with him. Now, 2 of his 70's are geared up really well, and the third, a feral druid, just hit 70 yesterday. Even so, I came with him; he's a really cool guy, and I need the badges! =P Anyway, he had like 12k health in bear form, and 400 defense -- 15 short of being uncrittable (druids are different than warriors and pallies, they need less def rating to become uncrittable). It was hell, let me tell you. I throw 2 heals his way and I'm already pulling aggro. This was one of the (few) times that I've wished I had Healing Grace.

I would only take it (Healing Grace) if your guild is progressing through heroics/Kara, and not just farming them for the new guys' gear.

Focused Mind -- totally situational. I think it's a waste of 3 points, but where else am I going to put them? Although, when you do get silenced (think...TK trash, ZA, etc etc), it's great to be the first healer to start healing before the others; you might save the day! =P

Not to nitpick, because I think your guide is very good...but here is an Elemantal PvP build that I think would work.

The reason I posted this is because I saw your elemental build, but it looked like it was missing several key talents. If most of your damage output is going to be from shocks/LB damage, you need to max out your Crit chance, hence 5/5 tidal mastery. Also, if PvP is your goal, you're going to be using ankhs like mad, to finish off a kill, so you might as well have improved reincarnation. Healing focus is required as you're going to be taking shots in the face, good luck popping a heal otherwise.

For the second tier elemental talents, I think they are all total garbage for PvP to be avoided. Perhaps some damage mitigation by elemental warding, but I'd still rather have concussion and convection maxed.

Input is welcome, as this is the PvP build I plan to use.

Also...for those throwback shaman who refuse to accept that Enhancement is dead for PvP...here is a suicide build I would consider using: Enhancement suicide build

Edited, Feb 3rd 2008 5:19pm by Taurrus

Upon further consideration, I guess Imp reincarnation is just a personal preference. Putting the 2 points into totemic focus probably wouldn't hurt too much. Call of flame would increase your Fire Nova totem damage from 654~730 damage to 752~839 damage. A whopping extra 139 damage for 3 talent points. Probably more effective for searing totem, over the full duration will do an average of about 696 damage, with Call of flame it goes up to around 800. I don't know if this extra 130ish damage is really worth 3 points, might as well dump them all into reverbration?

Agreed, unrelenting storm is probably more of a pve talent. Lets face it, as an elemental shaman, your best bet at a win is to out burst your opponent and burn them down fast. The mp/s is probably not going to make much difference, so again, I would dump those points into reverbration as well.

Edited, Feb 4th 2008 12:30am by Taurrus

fixed-updated

If only we could rate up moderators, but be able to rate them down. =P

I didn't see this in there.




Flametongue Weapon damage effects for rank 3 and above now also reduce healing done to the target by 50% and lasts 5 seconds.
Flametongue Totem damage effects now also reduce healing done to the target by 50% and lasts 5 seconds. Ghost Wolf: Cast time reduced to 2 seconds, down from 3.
The Global Cooldown of all Totems has been reduced to 1 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds.
Rockbiter Weapon: Tooltip and error messages have been adjusted slightly.
Shamanistic Rage is now a Physical ability instead of a Magic spell, and thus is no longer dispellable. It now reduces all damage taken by 30% and gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power. This lasts for 15 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown.
Toughness will now also reduce the duration of movement impairing effects on you by 10/20/30/40/50%.
Tremor Totem now pulses every 3 seconds, down from 4.




Edited, Mar 6th 2008 2:16am by Draeneipally

Ah ok, was just making sure the only shaman faq wasn't getting neglected. I think I may take another crack at either resto or ele with some more theorycraft and better explenations this time.

One thing I would like to see n this FAQ, altough this only being my opinion, is that that it be organised to have spec catagories, that way people only wanting to read up on enhancemet can go straight to it and just read that entire section. That just being my opinion.

edit : thanks for the rate-down for stating my opinion.

Edited, Mar 13th 2008 9:51pm by Draeneipally

I would take that out, wasn't me and I respect other people's opinions. I know there should be a more involved piece to each spec's puzzle but at the present time I haven't dedicated enough time to rewriting the bulk of it. I want there to be more, I believe there should be, understanding the Mechanics is hard enough so I'd want to tone it down for everyone anyway.

Interesting request Raglu when I get time I'll try to work it in there or at least post a link to your thread about the dmg cap.

Shaman

* Call of Thunder: (Rank 5) now gives 5% critical strike chance, down from 6%.
* Earth Shield: Mana cost reduced roughly in half, and charges reduced from 10 to 6.
* Elemental Focus: This buff will no longer be removed when Shamanistic Focus is triggered.
* Flametongue Weapon: Having different ranks of this enchantment cast on two different weapons will no longer cause the enchantments to trigger multiple times per swing.
* Ghost Wolf: Cast time reduced to 2 seconds, down from 3.
* The Global Cooldown of all Totems has been reduced to 1 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds.
* Healing Grace: This talent now reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 10/20/30%.The resistance to being dispelled modifier from this talent now applies correctly to Water Breathing.
* Rockbiter Weapon: Tooltip and error messages have been adjusted slightly.
* Shamanistic Rage is now a Physical ability instead of a Magic spell, and thus is no longer dispellable. It now reduces all damage taken by 30% and gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power. This lasts for 15 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown.
* Stormstrike has a new icon.
* Totem timer icons will now show up under your player portrait when you cast totem spells. Right-clicking a totem timer icon will destroy that totem.
* Toughness will now also reduce the duration of movement slowing effects on you by 10/20/30/40/50%.
* Tremor Totem now pulses every 3 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
* The Shaman spell Fire Nova Totem will no longer sometimes detonate without doing any damage.