My armory - http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Aegwynn&n=Yavanna
Background: I have a dics priest as my main raid healer, so healing isn't new to me. I've healed raids in BC and now in Lich King.
Issue: I've leveled Yavanna as enhancement from day one. I've occassionaly healed 5 mans as enh spec'd. She is now got the dual spec. I have all these new shiny spells and don't know how to use them well. I'm currently logged out in the gear I used for healing last night, although I did pick up a new piece in UK.
My question is what are the main healing spells I'll be using and which are the oh **** buttons? Two, Should I put on some cheap enchants to help until I can really get a decent healing set built up? Am I on the right track for the resto spec?
I healed UK for the first time last night and had trouble keeping myself alive plus the dps. I had water shield on me and earth shield on the tank all the time. I used lesser healing wave and chain heal. I had the mana totem down, the windfury totem and the strength totems down. I didn't have a mana issue, I just couldn't put out large enough heals to keep the tank + dps up all the time. So I sacrificed dps for the tank, especially when all of them were tanking their own mob. grrrrrr
I know I'll eventually get a feel for this, but a 45min instance taking 2 hours cause we wiped isn't what I want to use as my learning curve. Now I know that not all the wipes were my fault, but some definately were.
Tips and tricks from resto shammies needed please, pretty please.
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Healing help neededFollow
Gear:
You need a relic totem--besides the obvious benefits, it'll let you clear up some inventory space. You should have had the opportunity to pick one up in Outland. Trinkets could also use some work, you should be able to find plenty of good caster trinkets in Northrend. If you have no luck there, some of the caster trinkets from BC dungeons seem like they keep for a while.
A staff is not such a great choice--a shield and one-hander are what Resto shamans usually prefer, the shield will give you a lot more armor which may help with the survivability problems you're having.
Spells:
Were you using Riptide at all? Having an instant heal/HoT really makes a difference in keeping everyone alive, and it will speed up your healing wave casts too. For bigger emergency heals, set up a macro with Nature's Swiftness, trinkets, etc that you can combine with Healing Wave.
With Chain Heal, make sure you're not just casting it on the same target, switching around main targets depending on who needs the most healing to keep everyone topped off works very well. If you're not having mana issues (or if you run with a pally who can give you BoW), try leaving down your Healing Stream totem as well.
Chain Heal and Earth Shield major glyphs are really, really nice.
Oh, and make sure you have max ranks trained up for your talented spells. ^.^
You need a relic totem--besides the obvious benefits, it'll let you clear up some inventory space. You should have had the opportunity to pick one up in Outland. Trinkets could also use some work, you should be able to find plenty of good caster trinkets in Northrend. If you have no luck there, some of the caster trinkets from BC dungeons seem like they keep for a while.
A staff is not such a great choice--a shield and one-hander are what Resto shamans usually prefer, the shield will give you a lot more armor which may help with the survivability problems you're having.
Spells:
Were you using Riptide at all? Having an instant heal/HoT really makes a difference in keeping everyone alive, and it will speed up your healing wave casts too. For bigger emergency heals, set up a macro with Nature's Swiftness, trinkets, etc that you can combine with Healing Wave.
With Chain Heal, make sure you're not just casting it on the same target, switching around main targets depending on who needs the most healing to keep everyone topped off works very well. If you're not having mana issues (or if you run with a pally who can give you BoW), try leaving down your Healing Stream totem as well.
Chain Heal and Earth Shield major glyphs are really, really nice.
Oh, and make sure you have max ranks trained up for your talented spells. ^.^
I know the gear is terrible, it's just what my LW was able to make for her, and I can't remember where I got the staff. My BS can't make me any decent shields yet, so hitting the AH tonight may be the best way to fix those two pieces.
My trinkets are all for damage, so I'll work on getting some healing ones. Gear is the easiest thing to fix, but spells is what I'm most concerned about since I'm not familiar with them, and I'm spoiled on my priest with her hots. I also have a druid dual spec'd heals and she has hots too.
I'll put riptide into my healbot as a main spell and work on some macros. Thanks for the advice.
My trinkets are all for damage, so I'll work on getting some healing ones. Gear is the easiest thing to fix, but spells is what I'm most concerned about since I'm not familiar with them, and I'm spoiled on my priest with her hots. I also have a druid dual spec'd heals and she has hots too.
I'll put riptide into my healbot as a main spell and work on some macros. Thanks for the advice.
What Isyris said, is pretty good advice. Once you're able to get to Zul'drak and do the Amphitheatre, you can get the mace from there, so that can help a bit (especially if you do find a shield that'll work). I'm assuming you just made those LW items due to the SP and not Hit (since, as you may know, hit doesn't do anything for healing), and obviously, the certain pieces of gear that you have that are dps items.
As Isyris said, Earth Shield and the Chain Heal glyphs are really nice. So, if you have learned them with you being a scribe, that'd be great to use.
Your spec looks good thus far. I personally changed out the Water Shield minor glyph for the Reincarnation one, just because I didn't like to keep remembering to pick up ankhs whenever I actually ran out. But that's just me.
As for your "rotation," well we really don't have one. We throw our heals depending on the situation. AoE damage > Chain Heal... Earth shield tank (or whomever you notice taking a lot of damage. Most of the time I ES the tank, but sometimes there's always that one...)... Throw riptide when you're on the move so it can give you a bit of time to throw off a LHW/HW. Nature's Swiftness is very nice when you need to throw an instant big heal. I usually pair that up with HW, when the tank all of a sudden drops in health.
That's about all I can think about so far. If I think of anything else, I'll edit the post =)
As Isyris said, Earth Shield and the Chain Heal glyphs are really nice. So, if you have learned them with you being a scribe, that'd be great to use.
Your spec looks good thus far. I personally changed out the Water Shield minor glyph for the Reincarnation one, just because I didn't like to keep remembering to pick up ankhs whenever I actually ran out. But that's just me.
As for your "rotation," well we really don't have one. We throw our heals depending on the situation. AoE damage > Chain Heal... Earth shield tank (or whomever you notice taking a lot of damage. Most of the time I ES the tank, but sometimes there's always that one...)... Throw riptide when you're on the move so it can give you a bit of time to throw off a LHW/HW. Nature's Swiftness is very nice when you need to throw an instant big heal. I usually pair that up with HW, when the tank all of a sudden drops in health.
That's about all I can think about so far. If I think of anything else, I'll edit the post =)
Thanks, yea, I still have some hit gear, else I'd be partially naked and it's cold in those Northrend dungeons.
I will upgrade the glyphs, hopefully tonight, for sure this weekend.
I will upgrade the glyphs, hopefully tonight, for sure this weekend.
Xenexia wrote:
healbot
Well theres your problem! Nothing beats learning a spec better then reading your spells and talents and making your own decisions.
I'm waiting for the day that blizz requires healers to actually know what their doing again, instead of beeing the overheal whores that just spam heals and stay at full mana...sadly idk if that day will come :*(
Shaman healing is all about anticipation. We don't have the insta heals and HoTs that priests and druids have or the ability to forget about mana like pallys. Like isyris said, riptide is one of the most important spells. Not so much for the heal itself, but for the tidal wave buff. Being able to snap out two lesser healing waves quickly is key. If there's some splash damage hit the lowest non-tank target with a riptide, then top off the tank with a LHW. Or if it's a melee heavy group you can hit the tank with a riptide, LHW on a low target, then a CH on the tank for the riptide buff. This all comes down to knowing where, when, and how much damage is comming.
Placement is also key for a resto sham. If you can always stand with the other ranged people. That way you can heal them and yourself with a CH if need be. Nothing hurts a shaman more then having 5 people all spread out (although next patch with the CH jump going from 8 to 12.5 feet will help this).
Healing wave is a very situational spell. The cast time is so long and the heal usually to big for you to spam it on the tank when you can toss out a riptide and two LHWs on 3 different targets in the same amount of time. A lot of people use a NS+HW macro but I prefer just a HW+Tidal Force macro instead. Then I'm free to hit HW or CH after depending on if I need a quick group heal or just a big single target heal. It's totally up to you though.
I missed your resto gear on your armory so just go with what isyris said. Make sure your picking up some decent MP5 and int on your gear to help with longer fights. Also for more mana when your in a group with a pally continue to drop mana spring totem and have the pally hit you up with kings. Then you get the extra int plus the extra MP5.
Good luck and just keep healing.
Placement is also key for a resto sham. If you can always stand with the other ranged people. That way you can heal them and yourself with a CH if need be. Nothing hurts a shaman more then having 5 people all spread out (although next patch with the CH jump going from 8 to 12.5 feet will help this).
Healing wave is a very situational spell. The cast time is so long and the heal usually to big for you to spam it on the tank when you can toss out a riptide and two LHWs on 3 different targets in the same amount of time. A lot of people use a NS+HW macro but I prefer just a HW+Tidal Force macro instead. Then I'm free to hit HW or CH after depending on if I need a quick group heal or just a big single target heal. It's totally up to you though.
I missed your resto gear on your armory so just go with what isyris said. Make sure your picking up some decent MP5 and int on your gear to help with longer fights. Also for more mana when your in a group with a pally continue to drop mana spring totem and have the pally hit you up with kings. Then you get the extra int plus the extra MP5.
Good luck and just keep healing.
I have a similar background as the OP, though my shaman is only L50 atm. I noticed that you listed 3/4 totems, not including Flametongue. Even if you have no casters to benefit from it, it does boost your healing.
I have been halfway through a run before I realized that Earthliving wasn't on my wep... oops!
This is the biggest learning curve I have experienced. Nothing makes my ears droop more then tossing out a CH, expecting it to jump and finding out that the target is out of range of the others.
I have been halfway through a run before I realized that Earthliving wasn't on my wep... oops!
DarkHybridX wrote:
Placement is also key for a resto sham. If you can always stand with the other ranged people. That way you can heal them and yourself with a CH if need be. Nothing hurts a shaman more then having 5 people all spread out (although next patch with the CH jump going from 8 to 12.5 feet will help this).
This is the biggest learning curve I have experienced. Nothing makes my ears droop more then tossing out a CH, expecting it to jump and finding out that the target is out of range of the others.
How do you get from...
... to...
... telling the OP to heal on reaction with fast, inefficient spells?
Shaman healing is all about anticipation, this much is true. But it is also about striving for efficiency in what is hands-down the least efficient healing class in the game. A lot of people tend to forget how hard it really is to sustain yourself as a new Resto Shaman at 80 without all of the fancy raiding gear. And months (or even years) of experience.
Therefore, I submit the following: A single Healing Wave heals for more than two Lesser Healing Waves, delivers quicker than the two combined, and costs less mana. You should be anticipating, yes, but you should be doing so in order to land a choice Healing Wave, not so you can just spam LHW on reaction like any other healing class would.
Solid advice, this, and will serve well into raids.
Which begs the question, why are you casting two LHW's and a Riptide on three different targets to make it better than Healing Wave when you should just be casting Chain Heal to take care of your multi-target healing in the first place?
LHW is the situational spell. Not Healing Wave. You rely on LHW when the single target you need to heal will die before Healing Wave will go off or when the multiple targets you need to heal are standing too far apart to connect Chain Heal jumps. Other than that you keep Riptide and Earth Shield up on the tank and use anticipatory Healing Waves for single-target healing or Chain Heal (preferably centered on said tank) to take care of multi-target healing.
A piece of advice I have for you it so make sure your tank understands that he needs to wait for you to lay your totems before a pull starts and pull them mobs into range of your totem field. The six seconds or so it can take you to run up and lay four totems after a pull has already started is often enough to generate some dead party members. Playing catch-up is difficult as a Resto Shaman and it's just an irresponsible, unnecessary risk.
Edited, Jul 13th 2009 4:28pm by Gaudion
DarkHybridX wrote:
Shaman healing is all about anticipation.
... to...
Quote:
We don't have the insta heals and HoTs that priests and druids have or the ability to forget about mana like pallys. Like isyris said, riptide is one of the most important spells. Not so much for the heal itself, but for the tidal wave buff. Being able to snap out two lesser healing waves quickly is key. If there's some splash damage hit the lowest non-tank target with a riptide, then top off the tank with a LHW. Or if it's a melee heavy group you can hit the tank with a riptide, LHW on a low target, then a CH on the tank for the riptide buff.
... telling the OP to heal on reaction with fast, inefficient spells?
Shaman healing is all about anticipation, this much is true. But it is also about striving for efficiency in what is hands-down the least efficient healing class in the game. A lot of people tend to forget how hard it really is to sustain yourself as a new Resto Shaman at 80 without all of the fancy raiding gear. And months (or even years) of experience.
Therefore, I submit the following: A single Healing Wave heals for more than two Lesser Healing Waves, delivers quicker than the two combined, and costs less mana. You should be anticipating, yes, but you should be doing so in order to land a choice Healing Wave, not so you can just spam LHW on reaction like any other healing class would.
Quote:
Placement is also key for a resto sham. If you can always stand with the other ranged people. That way you can heal them and yourself with a CH if need be. Nothing hurts a shaman more then having 5 people all spread out (although next patch with the CH jump going from 8 to 12.5 feet will help this).
Solid advice, this, and will serve well into raids.
Quote:
Healing wave is a very situational spell. The cast time is so long and the heal usually to big for you to spam it on the tank when you can toss out a riptide and two LHWs on 3 different targets in the same amount of time.
Which begs the question, why are you casting two LHW's and a Riptide on three different targets to make it better than Healing Wave when you should just be casting Chain Heal to take care of your multi-target healing in the first place?
LHW is the situational spell. Not Healing Wave. You rely on LHW when the single target you need to heal will die before Healing Wave will go off or when the multiple targets you need to heal are standing too far apart to connect Chain Heal jumps. Other than that you keep Riptide and Earth Shield up on the tank and use anticipatory Healing Waves for single-target healing or Chain Heal (preferably centered on said tank) to take care of multi-target healing.
A piece of advice I have for you it so make sure your tank understands that he needs to wait for you to lay your totems before a pull starts and pull them mobs into range of your totem field. The six seconds or so it can take you to run up and lay four totems after a pull has already started is often enough to generate some dead party members. Playing catch-up is difficult as a Resto Shaman and it's just an irresponsible, unnecessary risk.
Edited, Jul 13th 2009 4:28pm by Gaudion
Link to my Shamy. http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormscale&n=Tilltauren
I'm coming to love my shaman for healing and he will eventually replace my Priest, I think, as my preferred healing class.
Here is what I do so far.
Pre Pull
Water shield and earthliving up on myself at all times!
Drop Flametounge and Mana Totem every fight, I sometimes switch my mana out for a healing totem if my mana effectiveness is adequate, but that's rare.
Earthshield on tank, always!
Post Pull
Riptide on tank. I keep this up on tank always.
With Riptide and Earthshield, and a good tank, I can then sit back and cast a random Healing wave out to top up the tank.
If damage spreads to others I'll cast a riptide out on the one that took the damage then a Chain Heal out on the lowest HP person. You just have to prioritize depending on the situation.
GO, Go, Go Shaman Power!!
I'm coming to love my shaman for healing and he will eventually replace my Priest, I think, as my preferred healing class.
Here is what I do so far.
Pre Pull
Water shield and earthliving up on myself at all times!
Drop Flametounge and Mana Totem every fight, I sometimes switch my mana out for a healing totem if my mana effectiveness is adequate, but that's rare.
Earthshield on tank, always!
Post Pull
Riptide on tank. I keep this up on tank always.
With Riptide and Earthshield, and a good tank, I can then sit back and cast a random Healing wave out to top up the tank.
If damage spreads to others I'll cast a riptide out on the one that took the damage then a Chain Heal out on the lowest HP person. You just have to prioritize depending on the situation.
GO, Go, Go Shaman Power!!
Update on me. Thanks for all the advice. I have been healing a few instances since, and it seems to be getting easier. I'm getting used to the spells and how they work. Last two instances I ran were UK, and Nexxus back to back. Had a great tank, and we cleared those two places in record time. Kept earth shield and riptide on the tank and rarely had to use any other spells. Rest of the group were all ranged, so we stood together.
And to the person who implied that by using healbot equates to not knowing what I'm doing... pooh on that. That's like digging a hole with my hands instead of using a shovel.
My only concern right now is not having a shield. I am using a staff with some nice SP on it for my level. Should I be concerned about this or just go along as I have been and pick one up when I can?
And to the person who implied that by using healbot equates to not knowing what I'm doing... pooh on that. That's like digging a hole with my hands instead of using a shovel.
My only concern right now is not having a shield. I am using a staff with some nice SP on it for my level. Should I be concerned about this or just go along as I have been and pick one up when I can?
DTK provides a great blue shield for us. I think that is the first one form instances. I purchased a green from the AH earlier for like 15g I think?
Just my 2cs:
If you have a largely melee 5-man: riptide + chain on tank usually keeps everyone up. LHW for ******** and HW when you dont anticipate splash damage.
If you have a mix: ask your ranged to stand close to melee, try above. If it doesnt work, warn everyone that shammies are the weakest 5-man healers and not to expect chain and start spamming hws and lhws on tank. Make sure your mana totems are up, this will burn your mana pool.
If it's all ranged and tank: riptide, hw usually are fine unless your tank is extra squishy. Chain out the splash only if you think tank can survive 4 secs w/out a heal (2.5 chain, 1.5 lhw, minus haste natch).
Of course, always earth shield on tank.
If you have a largely melee 5-man: riptide + chain on tank usually keeps everyone up. LHW for ******** and HW when you dont anticipate splash damage.
If you have a mix: ask your ranged to stand close to melee, try above. If it doesnt work, warn everyone that shammies are the weakest 5-man healers and not to expect chain and start spamming hws and lhws on tank. Make sure your mana totems are up, this will burn your mana pool.
If it's all ranged and tank: riptide, hw usually are fine unless your tank is extra squishy. Chain out the splash only if you think tank can survive 4 secs w/out a heal (2.5 chain, 1.5 lhw, minus haste natch).
Of course, always earth shield on tank.
Scholar
17 posts
Okay I am going to comment on one of the earlier posts.
I have an 80 resto that I have run as resto since hitting cap at TBC.
There was a comment about having a shield vs a Staff. My Resto has a Staff because it is the best SP I have found for awhile. Yes I lost armor, but as the guild I run with has good tanks, I really don't need the armor that often. And when I do it just slows down the wipe. There is a stage in bringing up your gear that the shield and mace brings in the best SP. Just don't think of it as a hard rule.
With Dual Spec I finally repicked up an enhancement spec and am building that gear set. The Resto can solo quest but it is slower.
I have an 80 resto that I have run as resto since hitting cap at TBC.
There was a comment about having a shield vs a Staff. My Resto has a Staff because it is the best SP I have found for awhile. Yes I lost armor, but as the guild I run with has good tanks, I really don't need the armor that often. And when I do it just slows down the wipe. There is a stage in bringing up your gear that the shield and mace brings in the best SP. Just don't think of it as a hard rule.
With Dual Spec I finally repicked up an enhancement spec and am building that gear set. The Resto can solo quest but it is slower.
Quote:
There was a comment about having a shield vs a Staff. My Resto has a Staff because it is the best SP I have found for awhile. Yes I lost armor, but as the guild I run with has good tanks, I really don't need the armor that often. And when I do it just slows down the wipe. There is a stage in bringing up your gear that the shield and mace brings in the best SP. Just don't think of it as a hard rule.
This could be true, but not very often unless you manage to get the Staff of Endless Winter while you still have Naxx 10 staff/shield. If you pick up the rep mace from wyrmrest and the barricade of light from badges, then that will be a better combo then any staff outside of Ulduar save for maybe the Spire of Sunset in heroic Naxx. If you pick up the Torch of Holy Fire and the Voice of Reason out of heroic Naxx then that will be better then pretty much any staff in the game for resto, especially when there's other casters in the raid.
People also seem to be looking at the staff vs. 1H + shield argument purely from the standpoint of which gives you better SP. That's only half the issue. As a Resto Shaman with a shield, you'll be packing around 16k armor once you get into epics, which is very important for us. We don't have any reduction or absorption shields, we don't have a way to shed threat, we don't have an invincibility button. Armor is our insurance. It's to your benefit to be able to take a hit or two on the (hopefully) rare occasion that a mob gets on you.
Gaudion wrote:
People also seem to be looking at the staff vs. 1H + shield argument purely from the standpoint of which gives you better SP. That's only half the issue. As a Resto Shaman with a shield, you'll be packing around 16k armor once you get into epics, which is very important for us. We don't have any reduction or absorption shields, we don't have a way to shed threat, we don't have an invincibility button. Armor is our insurance. It's to your benefit to be able to take a hit or two on the (hopefully) rare occasion that a mob gets on you.
Pretty much. Having that extra armor on us helps, and I can't tell you how many times I've been attacked by a loose mob waiting for the tank to picked it up. I'm sure without it, I would have died and at a faster pace. The extra armor gives us more time to react. Not only that, but unless I've just not been paying attention... are there really many staves out there that have things like mp5? most staves that I pay attention to have spirit if anything.
Quote:
are there really many staves out there that have things like mp5? most staves that I pay attention to have spirit if anything.
The Spire of Sunset that I listed from heroic Naxx is the only lvl 80 staff with MP5 on it. It really is a good pick up if your still rolling with badge/vendor stuff.
Well, I got Yavanna up to 73, so my BS was able to make her a shield, so now I have the shield/one handed weapon combo. She doesn't get much play time right now as my guild has picked up raiding again and my priest is needed for heals. I know there are a couple of really good staffs out there with nice SP on them, so whatever gives me the best throughput is probably what i'll equip at the moment. I don't forsee this toon ever being a serious raider as I have 6 others ahead of her.
Eventually when you do normal DTK, there is a nice shield in there that will take you to 80. I leveled 70-80 as Elemental, since I did vanilla and TBC as Enhance. I had no problem as Elemental, and this shield is SP with crit at level 74.
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