Hi guys! I have had a lot of requests in and outside the game to finally share some of my shaman knowledge with the molten community for some time now. Well I finally got around to doing so after a year of procrastinating.
A little bit about myself: I played retail for 7 years nonstop from vanilla to cataclysm before quitting a few months into cata, i currently play casually on retail now just to keep in touch with friends mostly. I have many posts on elitists jerks and blizzard forums with theory crafting for classes. I’ve raided with 2 different top 50 US guilds for most of my time in retail. I Love to theory craft and find out how best to maximize my healing on all of my healers not just shamans as my druid is my main.
I hope this guide helps you with all your questions and if you have any feel free to hit me up in game (if im not busy raiding), PM me in game, message me on twitch, or hit me up in this thread. You can find my current spec here.
Note: This guide will not cover healing at lower levels of gear or a fresh lvl 80 shamans this is for those of you with decent to great gear. I will NOT be covering a 10m normal or 10H healing guides. THIS GUIDE IS FOR 25 NORMAL AND HEROIC MODE HEALING ONLY. 25man modes offer the highest gear and difficulties and that’s what I am basing my guide on.
Breakdown:
1. Breakdown and abilities of our class
2. Stats and Priorities
3. Specs
4. Healing spells and breakdown
5. Glyphs
6. Gear
7. Gemming
8. Common Questions and current bugs
9. Totems, Addons and Tricks
Shaman Abilities
Shamans by far bring the most buffs of any class to a raid.
Our totems offer many buffs to many classes no matter what their role is in the raid.
We have reincarnation which allows us a free rezz during combat if we die.
Alliance shamans give the ability of heroic presence which increases hit rating for the party by 1% as well as gift of the naaru which does a HoT spell on the target.
Horde Tauren shamans gain the abilities war stop which stuns targets and endurance which increases your total health by 5% as well as Horde Troll shamans which have Beserking which increases casting speed by 20% for 10 seconds.
We also provide the raid with heroism/bloodlust (increases attack, ranged, and spell casting speeds by 30% for 40 seconds)which is key for any raid as it basically makes everyone’s abilities better for a short time.
Another talent that we get is ghost wolf this allows us to move 40% faster outside only.
Shamans are very versatile and there is no one “perfect” guide that can be given to really define them it all comes down to playstyle but there are some obvious choices that you should get and build your healing around.
Stats and Priorities
I will do these in order of importance
-Haste-
First off let me say that there is no such thing as haste cap for chain heal especially here on molten where most the fights in comparison to retail are AoE friendly fights thus making haste and chain heal the better choice. To maximize your healing in these encounters haste becomes key in making your chain heal do its best. When focusing on more direct healing fights such as Heroic Lich King spell power comes in as a better choice. This is why you will want separate pieces of gear and be able to constantly be able to swap items based on the type of fight you will be encountering.
So how much haste should I try to get? This varies upon your play style. I personally stack almost every stat and piece of gear for it on all my AoE encounters. On other fights such as HLK mana regeneration and spell power becomes more important. Just a few pieces or trinkets swapped should be enough to keep you going through the fight.
Others have posted that there is a GCD cap for haste. This again is not true. There is a haste cap for lesser healing wave only which is 1269 haste rating. There is no GCD cap for chain heal or rather it is impossible to hit.
How much haste you want to use is really up to you I would not suggest going over 1400 as the diminishing returns become really noticeable at that point I would focus more throughput on spell power.
-Spell Power-
Our Second best stat and in some cases our best stat again depending on your play style. Spell Power increases how big our heals hit and for how much. More spell power is much better on fights that require less AoE healing and more direct healing such as Lich King, Rotface, Marrowgar, and VDW.
-Intellect-
Our 3rd best stat in terms of providing us with crit and a bigger mana pool. Remember shamans gain nothing from spirit like druids and priests do which gives them spell power and mana regen. Most of the pieces of gear you will be wearing if not all of them will have intellect on them. Intellect also provides us with 15% additional spell power if you have the talent Natures Blessing.
-MP5-
Our biggest mana regen and only mana regen. MP5 is a hotly debated topic among shamans because they do have issues with going oom unless druid vates are applied readily. This is not for every boss but this is the case for some bosses which are very mana intense. Personally im using MP5 trinkets along with spell power ones like solace to help me on those fights. Do not go around gemming or gearing a whole lot for this stat as generally mana will not an issue on every boss.
Agility,Spirit, Stamina, and Armor provide nothing to use useful or rather anything we should gem/enchat for. Stamina will be on almost every piece of gear.
Specs
Let me say here again there is a lot of room to play with specs but then again not. The First spec is what I am currently running with.
This spec drops the Imp Earthshield talent in favor of Imp. Reincarnation.
Funky why no Elemental Weapons?
I get asked this literally all the time. It is a simple answer. Add up the actual % you gain from the talent. It increases the bonus healing from your Earthliving weapon by 10% for each point in EW. When you do the math 150 spell power times 30% only means you’re getting 45 spell power. 3 talent points for 45 spell power is pointless.
Why Imp Earth Shield? Is it not broke still?
Yes its broke still (see explanation down below in healing spells section) but having 2 extra charges is nice so im not refreshing it so fast and trust me on some fights you will be refreshing it a lot. Besides there is really nothing else to go for in the resto tree at this point.
Why Imp Reincaration? This will reduce the CD of your personal battle rezz and allow your druids to spend less battle rezzes throughout the course of an encounter on you. However this talent totally is dependent upon when you die even if you die. If you’re working in a progression guild I highly recommend this talent if you’re a more seasoned shaman and know fights inside and out I don’t really see the need for it.
Healing Spells and Breakdown
-Chain Heal-
By far our most go to heal. Hits up to 3 targets (4 with glyph) and causes us to proc tidal waves and many other things in our healing set like earthliving that increases our healing in variouse ways. It is literally the bread and butter of a restoration shaman. The only time your not going to be using this heal a lot is on a lot of direct damage fights where tanks are mostly the ones being pummeled.
-Lesser Healing Wave-
LHW is our oh crap fast but small heal. Works great when tidal waves are up for a bonus of it being a critical strike. I would say this heal is perfect when wasting the mana to chain heal 1 target seems like a waste and is a good solid choice for very mobile fights (heroic RS) as it should be haste capped and allow for a much faster heal while on the move
-Riptide-
Our second best and most used heal. An instant heal it is great for those on the move fights as well as lowering the cast time on chain heal at a specific point on a specific target. Great idea to roll this on tanks and follow it with a chain heal on the target for an increase in healing.
-Healing Wave-
Our Big but long cast heal. Great for topping tanks off when they are at low HP. Used very sparingly or in certain situations in time with tidal waves or unless your holy paladin is dead you should generally be ok with not using this unless you need to get someone up who is near death and get them topped off. Used with Natures swiftness it can be a heard hitting instant cast heal (once every 3min).
-Earth Shield-
Currently bugged but still does a decent job. The problem with ES is that when a tank is at full health and he get hit it is triggering as an over heal. However if the tank is below full HP and gets hit this heal will trigger correctly. It still does a considerable amount of healing enough to warrant the points into improved ES so you’re not spending a GCD early to refresh it.
Glyphs
Another hot topic here with resto shamans. But lets cover the obvious choices first…
Glyph of Earthliving Weapon-
Increases the chance of your EL weapon to proc by 5%. A great way to get more earthliving out there and get more healing from your most used heal CH.
Glyph of Chain Heal-
CH heals an additional 1 target. A no brainer here.
The 3rd slot like most classes is debatable although 2 of them stand out to me the most
Glyph of Riptide-
the duration of riptide is increased by 6 seconds. Great for those mobile fights to squeeze out a little more healing.
Glyph of Healing Wave-
Your HW spell now also heals you for 20% of the amount when you heal someone else. A great little mini kind of beacon on yourself. Although again this is really only useful for when your actually casting the spell which is few and far between unless you are on certain bosses which require more direct healing.
Glyph of Water Mastery-
Increases the passive MP5 from your watershield by 30% so you will be increasing your mana regen from 100 to 130. I highly recommend this at lower levels of gear or if you are having mana issues.
Gear
First off let me say that I will NOT be doing a BiS list as shamans really don’t have one per say. The class is built to be flexible at the gearing table and I cant for sure say that one piece of gear is better than the other unless we were to discuss only tank healing or only aoe healing. Hybrid gearing could also be brought up as a valid discussion here. I will however cover some of the basics.
Get gear with intellect/spell power/crit rating/haste rating. Those pieces of gear will give you your biggest healing increases. Do not pick up spirit gear. MP5 gear is on some of our gear regardless so don’t worry about collecting it.
Valynar (Legendary OMGWTF mace)- is good on shamans and I would say our BiS on Aoe healing without a doubt it does however perform less than the mace from HLK 25 on direct healing fights so swapping between the two may be of some use in those fights.
Trinkets- I personally have 6 different trinkets I swap in and out of depending on a boss. Just remember on AoE fights get haste/spell power ones. On heavy hitting non AoE fights go for Spell power/MP5. I have found this combination has worked well in all heroic ICC/RS and is a rule of thumb so to speak.
Gemming
Again you generally want to gem according to the stats I listed earlier. Haste and intellect or straight spell power. Although I generally discourage intellect gems as they only provide a 15% increase in sp for every 1 intellect. This is really dependent once again on your play style if your AoE healing gemming haste is a good option. Tank healing might require more intellect and straight spell power gems.
For meta gemming I would have to say that the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond is probably the best choice. To meet the meta gem requirement I would suggest 1 reckless Ametrine (haste+sp) and 1 Energized Eye of Zul (haste+MP5)
Common Questions and Current Bugs
Is 4 set worth it?
Yes of course it is.
What Totem should I use? Calming Tides? Surging Sea? Or Shattered Ice?
This is again all dependent upon the player although I find Shattered Ice to be a waste of a GCD and there is no guarantee of it hitting since you will not be hit capped. Some people swear by this totem and the haste it provides but again i just cant see spending a GCD on a spell that might not even hit at all. Surging sea does well when your doing direct healing fights or just want more spell power but again requires you to keep riptide up and maybe forcing you to spend a GCD when you don’t really need to. Calming tides is less spell power than surging sea but it does proc off our most used heal thus making it a great choice seeing as how you know it will be up almost all the time.
You can follow and vote up issues dealing with this class here
Earthshield is up on the bug tracker you can find that link here please vote these issues up.
Totems, Addons and Tricks
Ill be adding to this list as time goes on.
What totems should i be dropping?
Earth- If no Dk, strength of earth, if dk is there Stoneskin is a good option. Earthbind and Tremor are also very good but very situational use them appropriately.
Fire- Flametounge if no ele shaman, Frost resist if not enough paladins.
Water- Mana tide (yes they still stack with GBOW), Mana tide when needed, Healing Stream if double resto shamans.
Wind- Wrath of Air
What Raid Frames should I use? The debate still goes on to this day. Grid? Grid2? Healbot? Ect. It’s really all a matter of personal use. I myself prefer grid2 for its smooth look and upgraded abilities over grid. Use what is most comfortable to you. You can find these addons and get them to work by using wowace, wowinterface, and curse and searching for previous downloads and getting the last version dated for 3.3.5
Professions? to get the maximum effect from your professions choose ones that boost spell power or haste such as JC, enchanting, LW, BS.. ect. If you really are about min/maxing your gear drop your gathering spec and go duel professions such as JC and enchanting as i am doing.
What about other addons? I personally use LuI although I run skada over recount (so I can see absorbs) ive also added fortexorcist for CD tracking and Eventalert to watch for key procs. Ive also added many other things to tweak the look but as you can see here is what It currently looks like. Clique is a great moseover addon that can be used for not only healing but any class or abilities in game. You can download all my current addons and variables by clicking here.
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