Vrgo
01-30-2008, 06:46 PM
Resto shammie
Best site to use item wise pre raid for items http://www.wow-loot.com/shaman.htm
I would arrange it in this order: mp5 > heal > int or MP5 > Int > Healing
build i've found to work for me best
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/shaman/talents.html?0000000000000000000050000000000000000 000055030051355313515321
I find that going 0/5/56 works best for me. I would rather gimp myself in all other areas and becoming an amazing healer then be subpar at everything.
Decent numbers to start raiding with kara > 1100 + healing 90+++ Mp5 while casting thats just to get you started.
I will stick my head out and claim that shamans are the best raid healers and that is largely due to chain healing, so that would be the spell I use mostly.
I tend to focus on HW rank 8 for tank healing (getting 4.5k with 3 healing way buffs up), Chain heal for raid healing, and LHW for emergency top ups or when there's little left to heal.
As with all encounters, it depends on the fight, and the Shaman class is already up against a wall without having a HoT, save Healing Stream (which definitely can be used to your advantage at times).
For sustained long-duration MT assignments
I almost exclusively use Rank 10 HW, popping the Lower City Prayerbook as often as it is up. It goes without saying that you should be pre-healing and cancelling appropriately, otherwise you'll empty your mana pool out in the first few minutes of the fight. In an encounter like this, LHW is almost never used, except when the tank is spiked and your NS is down -- a couple of LHW 7s should suffice (Hopefully you have other healers helping).
If your assignment is more FFA-ish
and to keep the raid generally healed/topped-off, obviously CH is your best friend; I move between ranks 4 & 5 as needed, mostly focusing on CH 4. You really only want to use CH when you know you are going to be hitting a crowd and they are taking reasonable damage. I would hope it is self-explanatory, but CH is not exceptionally mana efficient and shouldn't be used to keep a tank up if that is your role.
Imp HW is a must to be a competitive raid healer, and if you are ever assigned an MT Healing Way 3/3 is only going to make your job easier. The "randomness of combat" you refer to are offset by other Shaman healing techniques, ie Trinketed Healing Stream, pre-casting HW and cancelling if necessary, etc.
I tended to use rank 8 Healing Wave for the majority of my healing as I liked the ability to heal for long periods of time without really having to worry about cancelling (I could just spam). Many people will say that's a boring way to play and doesn't show any ability, and they could be right, but it's the way I liked to play the spec and the way I will continue to if I ever revert back to restoration. That's not to say I ignored my other heals, I used Chain Heal and other ranks of Healing Wave etc, but my primary heal was rank 8.
After the +heal normalization changes in 2.1, downranking typically does not increase your mana efficiency a whole lot, if at all. For example HW8 is only around 5% more efficient than HW12 with +1500 healing. The main point of downranking now is to decease overheal and manage your mana in longer fights. You will actually get more mana by using max rank HW and taking regen ticks in between than downranking and spamming (assuming your HW doesn't overheal).
So for metagems, the choices seem to be...
Mystical Skyfire
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25893
Bracing Earthstorm
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25897
Insightful Earthstorm
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25901
Powerful Earthstorm
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25896
Gem's ,
Luminous Noble Topaz
+9 Healing Spells and +4 Intellect
"Matches a Red or Yellow Socket."
Royal Nightseye
+9 Healing Spells and +2 Mana every 5 seconds
"Matches a Red or Blue Socket."
Best site to use item wise pre raid for items http://www.wow-loot.com/shaman.htm
I would arrange it in this order: mp5 > heal > int or MP5 > Int > Healing
build i've found to work for me best
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/shaman/talents.html?0000000000000000000050000000000000000 000055030051355313515321
I find that going 0/5/56 works best for me. I would rather gimp myself in all other areas and becoming an amazing healer then be subpar at everything.
Decent numbers to start raiding with kara > 1100 + healing 90+++ Mp5 while casting thats just to get you started.
I will stick my head out and claim that shamans are the best raid healers and that is largely due to chain healing, so that would be the spell I use mostly.
I tend to focus on HW rank 8 for tank healing (getting 4.5k with 3 healing way buffs up), Chain heal for raid healing, and LHW for emergency top ups or when there's little left to heal.
As with all encounters, it depends on the fight, and the Shaman class is already up against a wall without having a HoT, save Healing Stream (which definitely can be used to your advantage at times).
For sustained long-duration MT assignments
I almost exclusively use Rank 10 HW, popping the Lower City Prayerbook as often as it is up. It goes without saying that you should be pre-healing and cancelling appropriately, otherwise you'll empty your mana pool out in the first few minutes of the fight. In an encounter like this, LHW is almost never used, except when the tank is spiked and your NS is down -- a couple of LHW 7s should suffice (Hopefully you have other healers helping).
If your assignment is more FFA-ish
and to keep the raid generally healed/topped-off, obviously CH is your best friend; I move between ranks 4 & 5 as needed, mostly focusing on CH 4. You really only want to use CH when you know you are going to be hitting a crowd and they are taking reasonable damage. I would hope it is self-explanatory, but CH is not exceptionally mana efficient and shouldn't be used to keep a tank up if that is your role.
Imp HW is a must to be a competitive raid healer, and if you are ever assigned an MT Healing Way 3/3 is only going to make your job easier. The "randomness of combat" you refer to are offset by other Shaman healing techniques, ie Trinketed Healing Stream, pre-casting HW and cancelling if necessary, etc.
I tended to use rank 8 Healing Wave for the majority of my healing as I liked the ability to heal for long periods of time without really having to worry about cancelling (I could just spam). Many people will say that's a boring way to play and doesn't show any ability, and they could be right, but it's the way I liked to play the spec and the way I will continue to if I ever revert back to restoration. That's not to say I ignored my other heals, I used Chain Heal and other ranks of Healing Wave etc, but my primary heal was rank 8.
After the +heal normalization changes in 2.1, downranking typically does not increase your mana efficiency a whole lot, if at all. For example HW8 is only around 5% more efficient than HW12 with +1500 healing. The main point of downranking now is to decease overheal and manage your mana in longer fights. You will actually get more mana by using max rank HW and taking regen ticks in between than downranking and spamming (assuming your HW doesn't overheal).
So for metagems, the choices seem to be...
Mystical Skyfire
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25893
Bracing Earthstorm
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25897
Insightful Earthstorm
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25901
Powerful Earthstorm
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25896
Gem's ,
Luminous Noble Topaz
+9 Healing Spells and +4 Intellect
"Matches a Red or Yellow Socket."
Royal Nightseye
+9 Healing Spells and +2 Mana every 5 seconds
"Matches a Red or Blue Socket."