Resto QuestingFollow

I'll quest from time to time as resto at 80, but if you are going to do anything beyond 4-5 quests a day then I wouldn't even try it. It's very easy to kill things, but takes forever. I wouldn't even do the dailys on IDQ as resto. If you don't have a good enh set then just respec to ele and go from there.

Also if your gear is any good you should be able to heal 5 mans as ele no problem.

I don't want to sound too belligerent here--everyone is entitled to their opinion--but if you don't think Resto is slow questing then you probably haven't even tried questing as Enhancement or Elemental.

It's certainly true that Resto can quest, and it does have the benefit of making you practically unkillable--I've finished group quests involving elite mobs and several adds--but the killing speed compared to Enhancement and Elemental is abysmal. On your average collection or kill-X-number-of-mobs quests, the two DPS specs will be done in half the time of Resto if not less.

Unless you really want to be on tap to heal five-mans for your guild or friends, I would strongly urge you to pick up a DPS spec until maybe 77 when you can start healing every instance in Northrend. At that point in the game you're pretty much in gear-collection mode anyways; you won't be grinding out every quest in your log for XP and gold, just targetting specific quests that yield good rare equipment and chain-running instances until you get your drops.

That's what I did and it served me quite well.

I totally agree as well, that Enhance and Elemental will level way faster than resto, my point was that it can be done and it was actually faster then i thought it would be. Much faster to be perfectly honest.

In my opinion, this being the first toon i took to 80, the content is quite fun but it's not that tough at all. I had no problems solo-ing to 80, save the very few instances i did along the way to get to know them. Also, if you don't already have an epic flyer by the time your 77, i advise to stop everything and get it before venturing forth, it makes a big difference, and farming at 77 is pretty easy (that's what i did).

Back on track though, i do agree with Gaudion and Dread, that other specs are the way to go, but if you don't really want to re-spec for whatever reason, i totally confirm that you can level as resto all the way up, no worries.

Actually I HAVE quested as all three, and found it all the same. Sure enhancement or elemental is a "tad" faster, but everyone is making it sound like it takes 3 minutes to kill one mob as resto while it takes a few seconds to kill the same mob as one of the other specs. It seriously doesn't. The difference is only a couple of seconds.

I've only respecced to elemental again recently because I got tired of healing stupid people. Same amount of time to kill mobs still.

Edited, Dec 15th 2008 3:10pm by xNocturnalSunx

Thank you everyone.

Yeah, I CAN grind as Resto but coming fresh from whopping all over the Outlands as Enhance.... it was frustrating.

I like the idea of speccing Elemental for questing, same gear as Resto and still able to jump in and heal 5-mans for friends when needed. I dont have a lot of healing experience so I was concerned about off-spec healing, sounds like it shouldn't be a problem though. I will give it a go, worst case = a few gold.

Thanks again for all the input.

Vrom

Pretty much.

If you didn't notice any difference in killing and questing speed as Elemental and/or Enhancement compared to Resto then you were doing something wrong with the DPS spec(s). I really must insist upon this fact.

I levelled as resto. But it definately takes longer to kill mobs. Esp. if they aggro on you and you can't get any lb's off.

Though I think some of you overestimate how fast you can kill things as enhance/ele. Are you assuming crits? You guys rolling in epics? It's been a while since I've been elemental, but I've never been able to kill something before it gets to me unless I crit.

definately doesn't take me 2 lava/shock rotations.

lb/lb/ and often you can get a 3rd lb (sometimes a little pushback, but sometimes you can before they get to you). flame shock/ lava burst= dead mob. sometimes you have to put a earth shock after the lava burst. What are lb's? 2.5 secs? So that's 2.5 X 3= 7.5 +6 flame shock rotation approx (not letting it run it's course- consuming it with lava burst). = 13.5 sec kill.

I'm sure elemental can do this in 8 or under but probably not better than 7. So I'll say twice as fast. If you are T7 geared you can probably do this in 5, but I'm not T7 geared either. So you can't compare. We're talking 80 geared, nearly heroic geared (I have been running heroics, but still a little undergeared)

Edited, Dec 16th 2008 1:26pm by thrashering

I would like to add my 2cents if i may about kill speeds for enhancement vs elem vs resto.

1st off, Im enhancement, and my gear is lacking (imho). I have mostly L70 epics, a few heroic L80 blues and a few naxx 25 man L80 epics. Id call my gear average at best since i have yet to upgrade alot of my old L70 raiding stuff, primarily my weapons have yet to be upgraded at all =(

That being said, I can kill a regular world spawn L80 quest mob (non-elite) in about 4 GCDs (6 seconds ish). Im not in T7 at all. ES (for the pull), SS, LL, ES. I am pretty much guaranteed a WF proc in there, and often im able to get a MW instant LB off too to replace the 2nd ES. I dont use totems except in raids during large pulls or boss fights so you can skip that argument, I also tend to not use SpWo. or ShRg. to save them in case i get in trouble - pull too many mobs or get atked by an ally. So that also is out of the equation. (Note that when i do use ShRg. to refill my mana every dozen mobs or so, it completely eliminates all downtime.)

When I was elem for a few levels, I found it to not be as fast or efficient, but I will also admit that my elem gear is worse than my enh. gear. However, it was still considerably faster than when i leveled as resto for a bit, just to test it out for the purposes of being able to heal instance and level with no respec's. It was workable, but it was slow. Even using your "perfect" rotation to get a kill speed of 13 seconds, that means I'm killing mobs twice as fast as you as enhancement.

I will concede that it is infinately do-able to level as resto, but you must concede that a dps spec kills faster than a healing spec. If this were not the case, then why would dps specs even exist? Its simple logic, if you take all opinions and examples completely out of the equation, simple reasoning tells us that dps specs are designed primarily to kill things quickly, while healing specs are designed primarily to survive.

like I said, about twice as fast. More for enhancement who has adds (as they are melee anyways)/ maybe 2.5 times faster.

But posts seem to say that it wasn't doable, or would take like 30 secs to kill something. And it just isn't that.

And yes I concede that 6 secs does add up over a long questing session. So you will eventually be saving hours questing in Northred as enhance or elemental over restoration. But many quests don't require much killing. Not nearly as bad as old world quests where you have to kill 100 yetis for one item lol.

Edited, Dec 22nd 2008 8:29pm by thrashering

on my 1st char (warrior) i wanted to get to 80 ASAP, but firing through the quests i missed a lot of the fun and didnt even realised i was on a great chain quest that lead to a great cut scene.
Now I am leveling my shaman as Resto, fair enough, yes with procs when i was ele i did 2 shot a mob (LB>CL>LO>Lightning capacitor) in Boring tundra but i much prefer being a resto shaman.

I was healing Nexus the other day and ES was keeping tank a live and i was nuking my lil hooves off and managed to out dps a rogue.

So if you wanna race to 80, don't go Resto.
If you want to jsut level as and when you aren't on your main go with what you fell suits you best.



**DISCLAIMER** if i go mental from not killing anything in 30 seconds this statement is void.

Well, there are a couple of other factors to consider as well. Most poeple are comparing the time difference to kill a mob as the main difference between the dps specs and resto specs, but killing mobs is not the only time sink in questing.

Let me list some of the pros and cons.

Resto:
Less time spent healing, drinking out of combat
Easier to cast a heal in combat.
Less time for corpse runs cause you just don't die as easily.
More time to kill a mob.

Elemental:
Less time to kill a mob
More time spent drinking and healing out of combat
slight bit more time on corpse runs (lets face it, sometimes you die)
Harder to get heals off in combat.

Enhancement:
Less time to kill mobs
More time spent healing and drinking out of combat
more time on corpse runs (I don't care what you say, sometime the *&^# hits the fan)
Harder to get heals of in combat.

I don't care how you try to argue it, the dps specs will die more often than the resto specs. Yes it will take longer for the resto spec to kill a mob and it will take more down time for the dps specs to get mana and heal up during non combat times.

Bottom line there is not a significant time difference in leveling between the dps and resto specs. In individual battles the dps will be done faster than the resto with out a doubt, but lets not confuse that with the time it takes to level. It does not matter what spec you decide to level with, there is not a significant time difference in any of them, so just pick one you enjoy and run with it.

well that's my 2 pennies.

Correct. Though I would have said much lees time.



Between Shamanistic Rage and Maelstrom Weapon I never stop to drink or heal any more.



Sometimes, but honestly these days it is so rare as to be almost never. Between elementals and stoneclaw as well as spirit wolves to pull stuff off me and instant cast ghost wolf for the get away the only times I get killed these days are ganks.



See above comment on Maelstrom Weapon. I can instant cast a healing Wave every 8-10 seconds on average.

Honestly the difference between Ele and resto may come a little closer with all the factors you mention though ele will still be faster but as things currently stand enhancement is a leveling monster and capable of leaving both other specs in its dust.