Earth Shield and Healing Stream - Trinkets and Totems

I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

Earth Shield and Healing stream totem benefit for the duration of the spell from the total +Healing when cast.

So if you have trinkets or anything else that contributes to +Healing use them before you cast these spells.

It increases their effectiveness that much more.

So what do I do before a fight?

First, I cast wrath of air.

Wrath of Air Totem (Rank 1)

320 Mana

Instant cast

Summons a Wrath of Air Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster. Party members within 20 yards of the totem have their spell damage and healing increased by up to 101. Lasts 2 min.

And then I use the following trinkets.

You know how most trinkets that have similar effects share the same cooldown? Well these don't.

and

So what does that mean?

After I cast Wrath of Air, and use these 2 puppies (one is on a 1min 30sec cooldown, the other is 2mins btw, meaning I can benefit from their healing goodness almost every fight.)

This is where my +healing starts



And this is where is ends up..



When its all said and done, this is what it does to my Healing Stream totem.

I go from 120 per tick to 151. Not too impressive. However a potential extra 9000 healed for 95 mana is pretty sweet. (30 extra hp*60 ticks*5 group members = 9000.)

Bringing the healing potential of Healing Stream Totem to:

151hp*60 ticks*5 group members = 45,300 for 95 mana!

As I stated in a previous post, if your entire group is getting beat on at the same time, odds are things have either gone horribly bad, or the team itself is just horrible in general. So, the total potential for this totem may never be realized, but if a portion of it is, it is still a great benefit.



Moving on to Earth Shield.

With the 1559, Earth Shield heals for 788 per charge (7880 minimum total) and crits for 1181 for 900 mana.

With the 2111, Earth Shield heals for 962 per charge (9620 minimum total) and crits for 1441 for 900 mana.

Earth shield usually lasts a couple of pulls so the tank almost always has the improved healing values per charge.

So there you have it. If anyone out there knows of trinkets like the ones above that don't share the same cooldown let me know and I will add them / start a list.

As a side note, using the above trinkets/totem in addition to having



stacked 3 times (18% increase) and casting Healing Wave rank 12, my current record for a crit heal is 8469.

Contact Me!

While comments on my posts are always welcome. If you have a question or comment for something I should dedicate a post to, thats great too.

I set up the following email address that I will be checking.

AshunaShaman@gmail.com

I also set up an easy to use link on the righthand side of this blog.

- Ashuna

Being A Resto Shammy - Part 2 - The Stats Make The Man (or Woman)

In my previous post I covered the basic arsenal that a restoration shaman has at his or her disposal. Looking at each of the spells at face value one might say they look utterly unimpressive. However, the majority of people would say they downright suck. To keep a group alive using just those spells would be quite a chore to say the least.

Thankfully, we are blessed with things that augment our spells and unlock their full potential. We are given the ability to use and equip gear that increases our stats and greatly enhances the effectiveness of our spells and our ability to heal.

So before we can figure out what we should be wearing, we need to look at what stats are important to resto shammy's.

While most everything in WoW is debatable (this being no different), here are the stats I value in order from most important to least.

1. +Healing - The stat that increases how much our healing spells heal for.

2. Intellect - Increases the mana pool we have to work with. It also effects are chance to crit with spells. I don't put any stock in to crit as a healer. I need consistent sustained healing. If I can't count on it, I don't want it.

3. Mp5 - Mana per 5 seconds. As a healer I'm always casting spells to keep people alive. Because of this, I don't receive much benefit from spirit (i.e. - mana gained when not casting). In prolonged fights mana regained while casting is essential.

The above represent the most important stats we have. These are essential to be an effective healer. The following stats are still important, but to a much lesser extent. So, we've seen the best, here are the rest.

4. Stamina - Sometimes we get hit, more health means more time for people to get the mob off of me before I croak.

5. Spirit - While its true that I'm casting most of the time. I'm not casting ALL of the time. Spirit does provide a limited benefit.

6. AC - lessens the damage I take from mobs. Like Stamina its benefit is that it keeps me alive longer to allow time for other group members to regain aggro off of me.

So, if Spirit doesn't seem to do me much good, and AC can directly help to keep me alive; why then do I value AC the least? Simple, as a healer I shouldn't be getting hit anyway. To that end, I wear mail (highest AC) when I can, but other than that I go where the stats take me.

As shaman we can wear mail armor, unfortunately until higher tier dungeons dedicated restoration shaman kind of get the shaft when it comes to mail healing gear. The bright side to this is that unlike priests who are stuck with cloth, and restoration druids that can use leather and cloth. We have access to all three types. This gives us a much more diverse selection when it comes to healing gear.

As I said, I shouldn't be getting hit anyway as a healer. With this in mind, I let the stats dictate what gear to equip. It doesn't matter that I'm "intended" to wear mail. In order for me to maximize my potential as a healer, I'll wear whatever benefits me the most. In my opinion, this point is one of the most important things a restoration shaman has to realize. Can you be an effective healer wearing just mail? Yes. Can you be as effective as a shaman wearing various types of armor? Nope. Until the higher end game, you simply can't.

When I decided I was going to spec restoration at 70. I made a gear plan. I have a rogue that has done instances looking for drops and I found it frustrating and unfulfilling. So what is a gear plan? I searched Thott, Alla, WoWhead and the armory and found all the best quest rewards and crafted items that had the stats that I was looking for. I then set about gathering the mats, completing the quests, and banking the items. I decided that this character would be about having fun with the execution and completion of instances and less about the loot that never seems to drop. Getting a drop in an instance would be more of a pleasant surprise than a reason for going. At the higher end game (25 man raid content), the drops are far better than anything I have now, but seeing how my guild is just getting ready to do Kara I'm going to be wearing this stuff for quite a while.

So here are my current stats.

Overall:

Health/Mana



Mana Regen





I could have more healing, I could have more MP5, I could have more Intellect. The thing is, gaining one usually is at the sacrifice of the others. The key is to find a good balance. In looking at my armory:

Ashuna's Profile.

You'll see that I have exactly 1. 1! BoP drop. The rest are crafted, quested, rep rewards or, BoE items purchasable at the AH.

So, what does this mean? It means I have gear that makes me very effective as a healer, but did not take lots of repeated grinding in instances for drops. Not to mention that a lot of these crafted items are better than most stuff I would have gotten in instances anyway. Primal Mooncloth for example is some of the best healing gear in the game, because of this picking up mooncloth tailoring was a no brainer. So what if you rarely see a shammy wearing mooncloth. Buck the trend I say, wear the things that make you the best healer you can be.

Lets not overlook shaman can equip shields as well, that injects a good chunk of AC, and helps to compensate for AC lost to cloth and leather items.

So where does my sacrifice of mail for cloth and leather get me?

Lets take a second look at those 5 spells from my previous post.

Healing Wave then:

1.

Healing Wave (Rank 12)
720 Mana	40 yd range
3 sec cast
Heals a friendly target for 2134 .

Now:

My Healing Wave ranges between 4100 - 4900. With the average right around 4400.


Lesser Healing wave then:

2.

Lesser Healing Wave (Rank 7)
440 Mana	40 yd range
1.5 sec cast
Heals a friendly target for 1039 to 1185.

Now:
My Lesser Healing wave heals between 1900 - 2100, with an average of 1980.

Healing Stream totem then:

Healing Stream Totem (Rank 6)

95 Mana

Instant cast

Summons a Healing Stream Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 2 min that heals group members within 20 yards for 18 every 2 seconds. lasts 2 minutes

Healing Stream totem now:

Heals for 120 a tick. Thats 120x60 ticks over 2 minutes. Thats 7200....but wait theres more! It doesn't just heal 1 person, it can heal all 5. Potentially, thats 7200*5. That would be 36,000 hp for 95 mana. Will that ever happen? I doubt it, and if it does, the group is doing something wrong. But it may heal the tank and a couple of melee during the fight for the duration. 21,600 for 95 mana isn't bad I'd say.

I choose Healing stream over Mana Spring depending on the Caster/Melee make-up of the team. In most cases, healing stream provides a greater benefit to the group than Mana Spring would. 720 mana per caster over 2 minutes, or 7200 health per person, caster and melee alike.

There is a rumor that Mana Spring is going to be greatly enhanced in an upcoming patch. Most likey 2.3, at which time my views on this may shift. Only time will tell.

Chain Heal Then:

4.

Chain Heal (Rank 5)
540 Mana	40 yd range
2.5 sec cast
Heals the friendly target for 826 to 942, then jumps to heal additional nearby targets. If cast on a party member, the heal will only jump to other party members. Each jump reduces the effectiveness of the heal by 50%. Heals 3 total targets.

Chain Heal now:

Heals initial target between 2600 - 2700. So, Heals Targets 1, 2, and 3 for 2700 / 1350 / 675 respectively. Not too shabby. Also, each jump has potential to get a critical heal. While I don't put much stock in crits when it comes to healing. It can be a nice little bonus.


And Finally..

Earth Shield then:

Earth Shield (Rank 3)
900 Mana	40 yd range
Instant cast
Protects the target with an earthen shield, giving a 30% chance of ignoring spell interruption when damaged and causing attacks to heal the shielded target for 270. This effect can only occur once every few seconds. 10 charges. Lasts 10 min. Earth Shield can only be placed on one target at a time and only one Elemental Shield can be active on a target at a time.

Earth Shield now:

Heals for 787 per hit. 787*10 charges = 7870 healing over 10 minutes for 900 mana. Also, each charge can critically heal. The great thing about Earth Shield is that the amount healed per charge is determined by any plus healing bonuses when the spell is cast. Therefore, throw down wrath of air, use any trinkets you have, cast the spell and the bonus to healing will remain for the 10 charges. Unlike the Druids spell Lifebloom, if you recast the spell before the charges are up, the new charges are calculated from you current bonus to healing.

I plan on doing a seperate post on which trinkets are really helpful for the above scenario. I promise it won't be as long as this one.

So there you have it, thanks to my spec and gear this is what I ACTUALLY have to work with. It is a noticeable upgrade from the base spell values and makes me a very effective healer. In most Non-Heroic Instance runs I very rarely finish pulls with less than 3/4 mana. Many times I finish at full. Will things change with more Heroics and Kara? I'm sure, but I think I've put myself in a good position to deal with that.

In part 3 - I'll discuss what makes and shaman regardless of spec, a shaman. Namely our totems and non healing spells.

Being A Resto Shammy - Part 1- What We Do Well - The Basics

Being a healer, requires a few things.

The spells you use.


The gear you wear.



And the ability to think quickly and react accordingly.




The last point being one of the most important aspects to healing. Great gear and limited skill can get you to a point, but after that you'll need to be able to read a situation quickly. If things go bad, you need to do an on the spot mental triage and identify who needs to be healed most (including said healer), who needs to be healed in the middle, and who can take a beating for a few seconds while the others get their meds.

Ideally, you only want to have worry about the tank. In a best case scenario, the guy or gal with the plate on that wants the aggro is the one getting the aggro. Really though, whats the fun in talking about that?

What I'm talking about are the situations where things DO NOT go according to plan. Times when a runner goes for a stroll to visit his 6 elite pals. Or when the PuG mage forgets he wears cloth, doesn't mention what he's about to do to anyone, and sheep pulls a group of mobs while everyone else is sitting and drinking at half health and mana.
+



I'm refering to the times when things start out looking bad, often look worse in the middle, but turn out good in the end.Those instances when after all is said and done, no one needs a rez, but more importantly no one can believe the group managed to pull it off.

These situations take a great group effort, an integral part of this is the healer. If the group doesn't stay alive, there is no chance the group can succeed.

As a restoration shaman, we have 5 types of healing spells at our disposal with varying ranks of each of those 5 types. In this post, I'll only be looking at the highest rank for each type. However using lower ranks of certain spells is very important, but I'll get to that at some point in the future. Also, for the purpose of this entry, when I say healing I'm referring to the restoring of hitpoints after some monster has beaten you down and taken them from you. Shaman also posses abilities that cure diseases and poisons, but I won't be touching on those here.

1.

Healing Wave (Rank 12)
720 Mana	40 yd range
3 sec cast
Heals a friendly target for 2134 .

This the main spell for when things are going right. I let the tank get beat on, he takes all the damage and I heal him back to full. With each point healed only giving me half a point of threat, there is very little chance of me drawing aggro in this situation.

2.

Lesser Healing Wave (Rank 7)
440 Mana	40 yd range
1.5 sec cast
Heals a friendly target for 1039 to 1185.

For when things get a little dicey. If I see a mob headed for a clothie I need to be ready with this spell, or if the tank isn't going to last the 3 seconds to cast Healing Wave, I may need to spam this a few times until things calm down a bit.

3.

Healing Stream Totem (Rank 6)

95 Mana

Instant cast

Summons a Healing Stream Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 2 min that heals group members within 20 yards for 18 every 2 seconds. lasts 2 minutes

At this point it is important to point out, that so far these spells don't look all that great at face value. Especially numero 3, however these spells are not factoring in the other piece of the puzzle I mentioned at the top of the post: gear. I'll be getting to the gear in part 2 of Being A Resto Shammy. So for now lets just pretend that good tanks have 2000 hitpoints total, and most casters have around 800 or so. Well damn if all these spells don't start looking better and better.

So, lets say for example that we're in an instance and a Mob does an AoE ability damaging the tank, myself and that PuG mage we'll call Spazzie. If in this example I have 1000 total hp, and Spazzie the PuG mage has 800 and we each take 200 from the AoE. It is in the groups best interest to heal that damage in case something should go wrong later on down the road. Rather than switching my focus from the tank and waste time healing myself and Spazzie, I can drop the above totem and let the health regen over time. If neither myself nor Spazzie is getting aggro then we can let time and the totem take care of us. Not to mention the fact that this totem is also healing the tank, and while it may not seem like much to someone with a lot of HP, over time it does make a difference.

In part 3 I plan on discussing totems and other Shaman abilites in group situations. I will explain why in most circumstances I use healing stream over the other water totems. (For those that might be thinking "Healing Stream suxxors use XX water totem instead.")

4.

Chain Heal (Rank 5)
540 Mana	40 yd range
2.5 sec cast
Heals the friendly target for 826 to 942, then jumps to heal additional nearby targets. If cast on a party member, the heal will only jump to other party members. Each jump reduces the effectiveness of the heal by 50%. Heals 3 total targets.

Ahh, now we're getting to the good stuff. So what happens when we don't have the time for Healing Stream Totem to do its job? Or if there is a 6 mob pull and the warrior is having trouble keeping the aggro from all the mobs on him/herself and other group members are getting beat on? Chain heal, thats what. Chain heal is my go to healing spell. It allocates who needs the HP perfectly almost every time. If I target the tank (the guy with the most HP) it hits him for the full effect of the heal, jumps to the rogue at 50% effectiveness, then halves again and hits that hunter pet. Often times I'll use this spell over Healing Wave so long as I'm not worried about picking up aggro on to myself. Its a good way to heal the tank, and top others off as well.

It is one of the defining factors of Shaman healing. It can heal many people at once for a low mana investment and is more predictable than something like Prayer of Mending.

Speaking of defining Resto Shaman Spells.....

5.

Earth Shield (Rank 3)
900 Mana	40 yd range
Instant cast
Protects the target with an earthen shield, giving a 30% chance of ignoring spell interruption when damaged and causing attacks to heal the shielded target for 270. This effect can only occur once every few seconds. 10 charges. Lasts 10 min. Earth Shield can only be placed on one target at a time and only one Elemental Shield can be active on a target at a time.

That brings us to Earth Shield. This spell is simply amazing. Cast it on the tank and it removes the worry of him or her dropping too fast and you not being able to heal in a tough spot and in many situations removes the need to heal the tank at all. Also, unlike the priest spell Power Word: Shield, Earth Shield does not prevent the tank from generating rage as the tank is still taking damage, the spell just heals the damage back every few seconds. And the HP healed generates threat to the tank, not to the Shaman. Huzzah!

Or if there is a group of non elites that need some AoE smack down, just cast Earth Shield on Spazzie the mage and you don't have to worry about losing him either. Not to mention the fact that it lasts 10 minutes, has 10 charges (usually lasts a couple of pulls) and tacks on a 30% chance to ignore spell interruption. In short, its a beast.

So there we have it, when it comes to healing, thats pretty much what we have to work with. At the same time that doesn't quite cover it. To really understand just how good these spells are, we need actual numbers. Numbers that factor in the stuff that lots of people like to play this game for, namely the gear.

In part 2 I'll delve in to what gear a resto shammy can use, what gear a resto shammy SHOULD use (if serious about being the best healer he or she can be IMO), and just how that gear actually effects our abilities.

Before I go, here is a quick rundown of my plan on this series.

Part 1 - The Basics
Part 2 - The Gear
Part 3 - Totems
Part 4 - Talents
Part 5 - Bringing it all together.

These may not go one after the other. Odds are there will be many a random post in between.

-Ashuna

The intro, thats not an intro...

Well it's my inaugural post.

I considered a proper introduction, gaming history, other characters in WoW, why I chose to create a blog for this character, etc.

Well, I don't really want to do that. However I will answer the last question.

So why did I start a shammy blog? Simple, I didn't see any others out there updated regularly and thought I'd give it a shot. So here goes.....

Shaman being a hybrid class are capable of filling many roles. Melee DPS, Caster DPS, and Healing. Each spec allows for group support with the totems a shaman has at his or her disposal.

Well, I leveled like pretty much everyone else, I specced enhancement. I did know that I would respec at 70 to one of the other trees. Mainly because there was a lot of bad press going around about level 70 enhancement shaman. Also, I wasn't really interested in doing content as melee DPS. Initially I thought of going elemental, but quickly changed my mind and decided I would become a healer. Why? Being alliance for my entire time in WoW I had never grouped with a shammy until the expansion. Even then, as the army of newly created alts began to shrink, and the novelty started to wear off, I very rarely encountered a restoration specced shaman.

So there it was, restoration was the tree for me. If only for the reason that I didn't know how it would work out. I didn't know what I would bring to the table when it was all said and done. If anything, it would be an interesting experiment.

In short, further tests need to be done, but results thus far are very positive.

The intention of this blog is to relate my experiences as a hybrid healer in a guild just starting its journey in to Kara. It seemed like the perfect time to start a blog of this nature. Nothing like documenting your awkward phase, eh? Just like looking back at photo's when you were 12 years old rocking a hyper-color T-shirt and a sweet rattail.
+= Awesome.


Anywho, in future posts I intend to write about such things as gear and stats, my role in instances, the fun of falling on our faces as a guild in Kara, and anything else I can think of.

- Ashuna