There are a couple of changes coming up for the resto-shamans in patch 3.0.8 that may end up how I am spec’ed for raiding and heroic 5-mans.
First off, the spec that I am currently running is not exactly the same build that I had posted last week. While I was doing some research I found that Matticus had done a post on the shaman at 80 and his build intriqued me so I gave it a shot with a small tweak. I took a full three points into Ancestral Healing and only 1 point in Nature’s Guaridan.
The build has been holding up well, but I am starting to notice something that I have heard about, but really wanted to see for myself…the weakness of Ancestral Awakening. Currently it only accounts for 2-4% of my healing and like most that have found this, I will be looking for another place for these three talent points. This is where the new patch comes into play for the raiding shaman.
Healing Way doesn’t stack up to 3 times anymore and now increases the effect of subsequent Healing Wave spells on the target by 18%. (Up from 6%)
I will be taking the points out of Ancestral Awakening and putting them into Healing Way. Currently I am a tank healer in a 10 man raid group and I need all the help I can get and the 18% increase in healing on the tank will be a big help. Plus on a side note, I know that I will be able to have this 18% increase all the time and not the % of healing from Ancestral Awakening on a crit.
Improved Water Shield has been changed to – You have a 33/66/100% chance to instantly consume a Water Shield Orb when you gain a critical effect from your Healing Wave or Riptide spells, and a 19.8/39.6/60% chance when you gain a critical effect from your Lesser Healing Wave spell.
As I have gotten some raids and heroic experience under my belt, the watershield global cool down thing has started to wear me down. It was getting to the point where I was getting a blister on my watershield finger. Because of this, I was getting ready to take 1 or 2 points out of this talent but now I think I can let it be. I still might take a point out of it if the global cool down still is an issue but I will need to run with it for a bit to know this for sure.
So there we have it. I guess we will have to wait until this goes live or I get super prepared and roll onto the PTR but I doubt that will happen. Once this goes live I will follow up with how this works and how viable it actually has been.
4 comments
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December 17, 2008 at 7:20 am
Salina
Yes, i think youre going the right way. I have also been thinking about getting rid of Ancestral Awakening in the patch and give Healing Way a new chans.
About the Imp. Water Shield, ive already been taking points out of there and im currently very happy with 1/3.
I raid mostly Naxx 10, we just cleared our way to Sapphiron last night, and i really like this build for 10-mans and heroics. Been trying it on OS 25-man also and had no problem – we didnt leave any dragons alive – but still.
December 17, 2008 at 1:23 pm
drug
I still haven’t respecced and tried out AA. Is it really that bad? Is the 2-4% healing it does overall healing or in boss encounters? Did you ever filter a boss encounter where you had tons of crit and did single target healing?
And how do you handle heroics without healing focus? Like strat where you have zombies beating on you or that voidwalker dude in VH that does tons of periodical damage?
The only thing I’d personally change in your spec would be leaving out elemental weapons. If you read the tooltip and calculate that is only 45 additional spellpower and no change to the earthliving hot at all. So if you’re going towards 1.8-2k spellpower this talent gets really bad.
As for HW. I really have to test this out. But I have a gut feeling Riptide and LHW will stay my primary heal for tank healing. The amount healed by LHW is just exactly right for spammage and topping up a tank very fast. HW on the other hand can’t be spammed and I have to stopcast if i don’t want to waste all my mana in a short time. Stopcasting has two major problems:
1. if you precast and you see your tank needs a heal but not as big as the one you’re precasting you’ll do so much overheal.
2. stopcasting as a priest is pure beauty, as it lets you get outside the 5SR. As a shaman I don’t benefit from 5SR so heals I can spam do fit better.
So I’m not sure if I’m down with healing way. It sure looks better now, but I just can’t see myself use HW as my primary single target heal.
December 18, 2008 at 2:17 am
Manijak
Build is ok – but now when there is no real hard job to heal and no long fights where u go oom i stick on spamming LHW/riptide… with glyphs mine LHW is 70% healing as HW – same is mana cost about 70% and no so much over healing as with HW. As u gear up and get more spell and mp5 u won’t think about mana anymore… self buffed i got 2450 healing 505 mp5 while casting and 570 haste 19k mana – so in raid with other shamans and wisdom i don’t care about mana usage – only about to heal my target in shortest period of time – and while i cast HW mine tank get from 100%-40%-100% /patchwork fight) and if i don’t use LHW and riptide i’ll have 80% over healing with HW – or he will die while i cast it… but 1.2 cast of LHW and after riptide 0.9 is 2 imba to not use it now…
I clear naxx 10/25 3 times for now, malygos 10/25 only 2 times and OS with 1 dragon only alive in 25 mode – but we oneshot it so i think we will manage to do it with 2 easy – with all 3 is other story – still some ppl don’t know to move – but for now wipes where not because lack of healing or mana – it was because lack of xp of some ppl…
January 25, 2009 at 2:49 am
Biggeth
“The build has been holding up well, but I am starting to notice something that I have heard about, but really wanted to see for myself…the weakness of Ancestral Awakening.”
I raid a a fair amount at 80. Ancestral Awakening only seems weak until your in a situation where you can’t use chain heal. On those boss fights I’m casting mostly lesser healing and riptide, with healing wave on main tank (preferably right after a riptide). Without Ancestral Awakening I wouldn’t be able to even pretend to keep up with other healing classes on those.
This is the talent build I assembled less than a minute after logging in to 3.0.8: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hZ0xxIZxcezVeoxkrIot
A couple notes about the build, no nature’s guardian cause its useless. If your down to where your praying for snake-eyes or bust its time to throw in the towel. No Improved Earth Shield. Good tanks don’t get hit often enough to make it worth the 2 points. The rest my choices should be self-explanatory.