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.