Well, I had a draft post about the new Shaman talent specs, but recently Blizzard has announced that they are cutting the talent trees down greatly, which is going to render that entire post moot. If you’re curious, here’s what I was thinking about using for a raiding spec based on the last beta talents. Although the trees are going to be drastically different, I’d guess that most of the “interesting” talents will remain. That means we’ll probably no longer see talents that just add to our healing or crit rating, and instead those buffs will be incorporated into our base abilities.
If it remains, you’ll probably still need to decide whether Focused Insight is a PvE healing talent. Fully talented, Focused Insight reduces the mana cost of your next healing spell by 75% of the cost of the shock spell and increases its healing by 25% after you cast a shock spell. As an example, if you cast a Flame Shock and then a Healing Wave, your Healing Wave will cost less mana and do more healing. In my opinion, this is going to shake out as a PvP talent, for a few reasons.
The biggest reason is that in a stressful healing moment, using a GCD on a DPS spell is just not going to be worth it. Let’s consider that the tank is about to take a large, predictable damage spike (something like Fusion Punch from back in Ulduar). Your first option is to fire a Flame Shock on the boss and then wind up a Greater Healing Wave on the tank. The Flame Shock costs 17% of your base mana, and the Greater Healing Wave normally costs 30%. With 5/5 Focused Insight, you should save 12.75% (75% of the Flame Shock cost) on the GHW, meaning it costs only 18.25% of your base mana.
That’s not a bad savings on the GHW, but let’s look at what you’ve really done here. You’ve used the first global cooldown to cast a DPS spell, which in effect did zero healing and cost 4.25% of your base mana (taking the Focused Insight effect into account). You then cast a GHW that was 25% more effective. That’s great in a PvP environment where the DPS can be useful, but I’m not yet convinced the net mana loss will be worthwhile when we need to be doing max healing in a PvE raid.
The other alternative would have been to cast a Riptide followed by a GHW. Riptide costs 20% of your base mana, but of course will of course do its own healing and put a HoT on the tank. Not only that, it will proc Tidal Waves, allowing you to cast your GHW 30% faster. GHW is going to be our big nuke heal, so let’s assume that it has something like a 3.0 second cast time for the sake of argument. Tidal Waves would shave almost a second off that cast time, allowing you to possibly get a third healing spell in the same amount of time, perhaps a Lesser Healing Wave.
We know that the healing landscape is going to change in Cataclysm. We’re supposed to see larger health pools, a greater focus on mana efficiency, and more time with raid members not being topped off. This is all speculation, and the folks at Elitist Jerks will figure out the actual numbers for these situations. But, at least initially, I just don’t see Focused Insight as a great PvE talent. Now, if Wind Shear for some reason is considered a shock spell, this whole analysis changes, but I don’t see that happening. If it did, I’d macro /cast Wind Shear into all my healing spells (since it is off the GCD) and completely exploit this talent without using a GCD on a shock spell.
I’m going to hold off discussing other beta info for the time being, because, well, they keep changing things on me. 
On a non-shaman note, it has been interesting to watch Blizzard completely fail on their announcement that forum posts will use the RealID feature in the future. There are so many reasons this is a bad idea. The one thing that most people seem to agree on is that this will reduce the number of trolls, since there will be much less anonymity. On the other hand, you have (1) not wanting your boss to know about your WoW activities, (2) not wanting to get harassed in real life for your in-game actions (if you don’t think that’s a valid concern, use your imagination), and (3) not wanting to get stalked (especially if female, one would assume), to name a few of the downsides.
Frankly, I don’t visit the forums now, and this change ensures that I never will in the future. Obviously, with the current change, you can just opt out of having your real name used, if you avoid RealID and the forums. I’m sure there are many others who are having the same reaction, so I don’t see how this is a good change for Blizzard. It seems they are looking for ways to insert our real names into our gaming lives, in an effort to become more like Facebook. They don’t seem to understand that many people are uncomfortable with the extent to which applications like Facebook have become invasive in their personal lives. If I had to sign up again for Facebook again today, I might just pass, but I stick it out because I have friends that I can keep in touch with there. I grudgingly use the service, despite the privacy concerns, but it wouldn’t take much to make me stop. Facebook is old news (though it will linger for a long time), and eventually a new social networking site will become popular because it can more easily be made private.
So, should that really be the model for your privacy policy in a successful MMO? Invade privacy just enough so that people are ready to quit? Slowly chip away at anonymity until the only people you have left are those who don’t mind mixing their gaming, professional and personal lives? That’s a pretty small market. It’s closer to the small, hardcore, mostly male gaming market that WoW started with, and farther from the broad, mature player-base that currently makes WoW so great. There are successful lawyers, doctors and businesspeople who play WoW. I’m guessing that many would stop if they thought their careers could be negatively impacted by being “outed” as a serious WoW player. People with families may be wary of having their real name connected to their WoW character when that hunter you’ve been ganking decides it would be a good idea to get some revenge by showing up at your door. Women who currently feel safe playing WoW despite the legions of creepy dudes out there would probably rethink their decision.
Frankly, integrating RealID with the forums is a total disaster move for life on the forums. If it goes much further and associating your real name with your WoW character ever becomes unavoidable, look forward to a mass exodus. I could be wrong, and maybe a younger generation won’t mind this level of sharing between the various aspects of their lives, but I doubt that many of the more experienced gamers will have that reaction.
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From this point out, I’m going to assume that you have access to the dual spec feature, or have just decided to level as a resto shaman. That way, we can focus on one talent tree at a time, rather than discussing elemental leveling along the way. I’m going to deal with a big chunk of levels in this post, because we learn very few new spells in this range.
However, the first one you learn is a major game changer in the form of Chain Heal. While our other healing spells work around a water theme, Chain Heal works around an awesomeness theme. Now, you’ll start to see why shamans are such good AoE healers in the end game. Chain Heal will heal your initial target, and then jump to two other players (3 with the glyph) and heal them as well, for a smaller amount with each bounce. It is a smart heal, which means it picks its targets based on who needs healing.
Credit for this image goes to Cassandri
One of the great things about Chain Heal is the awesome healing laser graphic, which will give you a great visual indication of whether or not you cast a good Chain Heal. If you see your healing laser fly off to one lonely ranged DPS standing off in a corner, and you don’t get any bounces, you know that you just wasted some cast time and mana on the wrong healing spell. If you see a nice laser light show flying around the room, good job, you just used an efficient Chain Heal.
Chain Heal is something that a third grader could use somewhat effectively, but using it to its full effect will take some experience and strategic thinking on your part. Here’s a great post by Cassandri talking about some of the positioning and spacing issues with Chain Heal (which currently has a 12.5 yard range for bounces).
Aside from Chain Heal, it’s pretty slim pickings for trainable talents until well past level 60. You will pick up two more spells that allow you to create sets of four totems, Call of the Ancestors at 40 and Call of the Spirits at 50. You might find it useful to have a PvP totem setup, for example, especially if you play on a PvP realm, so you can easily get your important defensive totems out (such as tremor, cleansing, or grounding), without having to hunt around on your bars while you get blown up.
At level 40, I would go with this talent spec for healing dungeons. From 41-44, you’ll want to grab Cleanse Spirit, fill in Anestral Healing, and grab two points in Healing Way. Cleanse Spirit is great because it allows us to do all our dispelling with one button. I like to just have my bottom left corner icon in Grid pop up whenever a disease, curse or poison shows up, and I know no matter which it is Cleanse Spirit will get rid of it for me.
From 45-49 I would first pick up Improved Chain Heal and then Blessing of the Eternals. Put one point in Nature’s Blessing for now, with the plan to fill it in later when you have more Intellect on your gear. So, at level 49 it looks like this.
Continue filling in your top tier resto talents until you get something like this at level 64. The exact order does not matter all that much, but make sure to pick up Earth Shield right at level 50 and Riptide right at level 60. These are both fundamental shaman spells and will be an integral part of your healing from now on. You will want to keep Earth Shield active on your tank 99% of the time for PvE, although sometimes it may be better used on yourself or another caster for the pushback protection. Riptide is your only instant cast heal besides Nature’s Swiftness, and your only controllable heal over time spell, so learn to love it. Try to keep the HoT active on the tank during instances.
At level 64 we finally get a new trainable spell again, in the form of Wrath of Air Totem. This is a great buff for any healer or caster class, and it should quickly become your new default air totem to drop for PvE. Haste is simply an amazing stat for resto shamans, so unless you have another shaman in the group who can cover this totem, you probably want it down. Once you’re at level 80 and overgearing heroics, you might want to drop Windfury instead to help the melee out, but that’s when you have a ton of haste and are basically bored with the minimal healing required. For now, Wrath of Air is your friend.
At level 66 you get your first quasi-pet totem in the form of an Earth Elemental. When you drop this earth totem, you’ll get a pretty solid companion that focuses on taking punishment, rather than dishing it out. He lasts for 2 minutes, assuming you can keep him alive that long. The Earth Elemental is great for tanking elite mobs or group quests. Don’t be afraid to toss him a few heals while you try to stay below him on threat and DPS the mob down. Using this tactic can get you through many rough spots in PvE, so don’t be afraid to use your Earth Elemental, sometimes even in raids at level 80. My Earth Elemental once saved an embarassing wipe on the Gunship Encounter in ICC, tanking the mobs on our boat for a minute or so when we lost a tank near the end of the fight.
You get your other totem pet, the Fire Elemental, at level 68. Where the Earth Elemental focuses on tanking, the Fire Elemental does some pretty decent AoE DPS. Unfortunately, you cannot have both the Fire and Earth Elementals out at the same time. The Fire Elemental is great when you get in a rough spot and have a large number of mobs attacking you. When running dungeons and raids, you should drop him on boss fights or difficult AoE pulls to help out the DPS. Sure, it’s a 10 minute cooldown, but don’t be afraid to use him when needed. He doesn’t do any DPS while sitting on your spell bar.
From Level 65 to 69, put all your points into Ancestral Knowledge in the enhancement tree, so you end up with this spec at level 69. The added intellect is nice, and should help your longevity while healing. At this point, you have everything that really makes you a shaman healer. I have skipped Healing Focus for now, since I don’t remember much pushback while leveling. If you feel that pushback protection would be helpful, feel free to grab that talent at any point during your level process, probably sacrificing points in Healing Way to do so.
In the final segment, we’ll look at levels 70-80, where you get a few new spells (mmm, Bloodlust), but more importantly, can practice using all the tools in your arsenal to become a great healer in the end game.
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Power Auras is a great addon to help you keep track of buffs, debuffs, cooldowns, etc., while keeping your eyes up on your character, where you can see what is happening. Instead of on your action bars, where you can’t see what is happening.
I use Power Auras to track my Riptide Cooldown, Earth Shield, Water Shield, and Nature’s Swiftness. The addon is extremely customizable, but here’s what I do:
The Riptide icon only shows up when the spell is off cooldown, letting me know that it’s available to cast.
Earth Shield pops up as yellow when there are less than 2 charges, and goes red and flashes when I do not have Earth Shield on anyone. It goes away completely when I cast Earth Shield on anyone in the raid.
Water Shield shows up when I have only 1 orb left, and flashes when I am down to 0.
The green bar represents my Nature’s Swiftness cooldown, and lets me know if I have my emergency instant heal available. Combined with Riptide, I can look here while running and see if there is anything I can cast.
Before using Power Auras, I figured I had pretty good uptime on my shields, but I have been able to improve them using this method. Here’s the uptime from our three resto shamans during some recent Lich King attempts:
Earth Shield:
Wugan: 89.3%
Offspec Healer: 80.5%
Newer Healer: 73.1%
Water Shield:
Wugan: 95%
Offspec Healer: 56.6%
Newer Healer: 41%
Riptide:
Offspec Healer: 88.9%
Wugan: 84.7%
Newer Healer: 38.7%
The Lich King is pretty hectic, especially if you’re not used to it. Our newer healer hadn’t seen the fight before, and that’s one reason they saw such low uptimes. I expect that naturally to improve over time.
Using an addon like Power Auras is great, because it makes it very hard to ignore certain things, even when you are learning a new fight or are otherwise distracted. Getting up that missing Earth Shield just might keep a tank alive. Keeping Water Shield up, especially during the transition phases, means you can gear for less Mp5 and more Haste, which will really help your throughput. Keeping Riptide up means more HoTs, and better uptime on your totem, both of which will improve your healing.
You don’t have to use Power Auras to be a good healer, but make sure you have a reliable way of tracking uptime on your important spells.
For those using Power Auras Classic, here are the settings I use. I promise that configuring your own auras is much easier than the garbled mess below would lead you to believe. Copy and paste these strings into your own Power Auras to get what I use, which you can then tweak to fit your own purposes.
Earth Shield string 1:
Version:st3.0.0F; gcd:bofalse; b:nu0.11372549019608; anim1:nu4; g:nu0.58039215686275; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; Instance25ManHeroic:nu0; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Nature_SkinofEarth; size:nu0.18999999761581; torsion:nu1; r:nu1; Instance5ManHeroic:nu0; y:nu-75; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu2; focus:bofalse; Instance10ManHeroic:nu0; raid:bofalse; texture:nu21; alpha:nu0.90000003576279; aurastext:st; InstanceBg:nu0; symetrie:nu0; owntex:botrue; isResting:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:botrue; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; Instance5Man:nu0; anim2:nu0; InactiveDueToState:botrue; stacksOperator:st<; realaura:nu1; sound:nu0; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; id:nu7; HideRequest:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; Active:bofalse; buffname:stEarth Shield; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:botrue; customsound:st; combat:nu0; inRaid:botrue; InstanceArena:nu0; inParty:botrue; tooltipCheck:st; GTFO:nu0; aurastextfont:nu1; stance:nu10; spec2:bofalse; Instance10Man:nu0; customtex:bofalse; PvP:nu0; spec1:botrue; Instance25Man:nu0; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1; stacks.a:nu1; stacks.Showing:bofalse; stacks.HideLeadingZeros:bofalse; stacks.y:nu-71; stacks.h:nu1; stacks.id:nu7; stacks.Transparent:bofalse; stacks.UpdatePing:bofalse; stacks.enabled:botrue; stacks.x:nu-3; stacks.Texture:stAccidentalPresidency
Earth Shield string 2:
Version:st3.0.0F; gcd:bofalse; b:nu0.25882352941176; anim1:nu4; g:nu0.03921568627451; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; Instance25ManHeroic:nu0; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Nature_SkinofEarth; size:nu0.23999999463558; torsion:nu1; r:nu1; Instance5ManHeroic:nu0; y:nu-75; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; Instance10ManHeroic:nu0; raid:bofalse; texture:nu21; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; InstanceBg:nu0; symetrie:nu0; owntex:botrue; isResting:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:botrue; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; Instance5Man:nu0; anim2:nu0; InactiveDueToState:botrue; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; sound:nu0; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; id:nu8; HideRequest:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; Active:bofalse; buffname:stEarth Shield; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:botrue; customsound:st; combat:nu0; inRaid:botrue; InstanceArena:nu0; inParty:botrue; tooltipCheck:st; GTFO:nu0; aurastextfont:nu1; stance:nu10; spec2:bofalse; Instance10Man:nu0; customtex:bofalse; PvP:nu0; spec1:botrue; Instance25Man:nu0; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:botrue; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1
Water Shield string 1:
Version:st3.0.0F; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; g:nu0.85882352941176; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; Instance25ManHeroic:nu0; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\Ability_Shaman_WaterShield; size:nu0.18999999761581; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.60392156862745; Instance5ManHeroic:nu0; y:nu-75; x:nu57; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu1; focus:bofalse; Instance10ManHeroic:nu0; raid:bofalse; texture:nu26; alpha:nu0.60000002384186; aurastext:st; InstanceBg:nu0; symetrie:nu0; owntex:botrue; isResting:bofalse; duration:nu0; mine:botrue; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; Instance5Man:nu0; anim2:nu0; InactiveDueToState:botrue; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; sound:nu0; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; id:nu9; HideRequest:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; Active:bofalse; buffname:stWater Shield; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; inRaid:nu0; InstanceArena:nu0; inParty:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; GTFO:nu0; aurastextfont:nu1; stance:nu10; spec2:bofalse; Instance10Man:nu0; customtex:bofalse; PvP:nu0; spec1:botrue; Instance25Man:nu0; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1
Water Shield string 2:
Version:st3.0.0F; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu4; g:nu0.87843137254902; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; Instance25ManHeroic:nu0; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\Ability_Shaman_WaterShield; size:nu0.18999999761581; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.33725490196078; Instance5ManHeroic:nu0; y:nu-75; x:nu57; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; Instance10ManHeroic:nu0; raid:bofalse; texture:nu26; alpha:nu1; aurastext:st; InstanceBg:nu0; symetrie:nu0; owntex:botrue; isResting:bofalse; duration:nu0; mine:botrue; multiids:st; CurrentMatch:stWater Shield; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; Instance5Man:nu0; anim2:nu0; stance:nu10; InactiveDueToState:botrue; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; sound:nu0; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; id:nu10; HideRequest:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; Active:bofalse; buffname:stWater Shield; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; inRaid:nu0; InstanceArena:nu0; inParty:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; GTFO:nu0; aurastextfont:nu1; CurrentSlot:nu1; spec2:bofalse; Instance10Man:nu0; customtex:bofalse; PvP:nu0; spec1:botrue; Instance25Man:nu0; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:botrue; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1
Riptide:
Version:st3.0.0F; gcd:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; g:nu0.69019607843137; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; Instance25ManHeroic:nu0; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\spell_nature_riptide; size:nu0.18999999761581; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.5843137254902; Instance5ManHeroic:nu0; y:nu-75; x:nu-57; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu15; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; Instance10ManHeroic:nu0; raid:bofalse; texture:nu1; alpha:nu1; aurastext:st; InstanceBg:nu0; symetrie:nu0; owntex:botrue; isResting:bofalse; sound:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; spec1:botrue; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; Instance5Man:nu0; anim2:nu0; InactiveDueToState:botrue; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; id:nu11; HideRequest:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; Active:bofalse; buffname:stRiptide; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:botrue; inRaid:nu0; InstanceArena:nu0; inParty:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; GTFO:nu0; aurastextfont:nu1; stance:nu10; spec2:bofalse; Instance10Man:nu0; customtex:bofalse; PvP:nu0; Instance25Man:nu0; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu3; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1
Nature’s Swiftness:
Version:st3.0.0F; gcd:bofalse; b:nu0.6; anim1:nu1; g:nu1; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; Instance25ManHeroic:nu0; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Nature_RavenForm; size:nu1.7400000095367; torsion:nu1.5; r:nu0.55294117647059; Instance5ManHeroic:nu0; y:nu-48; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu15; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; Instance10ManHeroic:nu0; raid:bofalse; texture:nu66; alpha:nu1; aurastext:st; InstanceBg:nu0; symetrie:nu1; owntex:bofalse; isResting:bofalse; sound:nu0; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; spec1:botrue; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; Instance5Man:nu0; anim2:nu0; InactiveDueToState:botrue; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; id:nu12; HideRequest:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; Active:bofalse; buffname:stNature’s Swiftness; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:botrue; inRaid:nu0; InstanceArena:nu0; inParty:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; GTFO:nu0; aurastextfont:nu1; stance:nu10; spec2:bofalse; Instance10Man:nu0; customtex:bofalse; PvP:nu0; Instance25Man:nu0; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; finish:nu1
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Like many others, I’m pretty solidly in the end of Wrath, pre-Cataclysm lull. If you’ve been following my lack of posts, you’ve realized this already. I’m still interested in keeping up the blog and will still post, but until things get more exciting, it’s not going to be at the several times a week pace that I was on before.
My guild downed the Lich King on 25 man a few weeks back, which was great. We’ve made a little bit of progress on hard modes, but I’m not so sure we have the drive and interest to down the Lich King on heroic difficulty any time soon. By all accounts it is an extremely difficult fight. That would require our top raiders to consistently show up and be dedicated to this goal, and instead many of them are realizing that now is a good time for a break.
Frankly, it’s hard to get all that excited about killing the same bosses again on a harder difficulty level. Sure, there are gear upgrades, but what are they going to help us do? Level faster in the expansion so we can get to max level and get bored again more quickly? If the reward for killing the Lich King on normal difficulty was a series of new, harder bosses, I think you’d see a lot more interest from mid-range progression guilds like mine. It’s always fun to learn new fights and down new bosses. But adding a new mechanic to an existing fight, or worse yet just ramping up the boss health and damage output, doesn’t really get most of us motivated.
So, it looks like we’ll continue to work on some of the easier hard modes and repeating our Lich King kill as we bring in some new players over the summer. We’re sort of treading water on progression, but you never know which trial member you bring into the guild will end up being a solid raid member for months to come.
I’ve tried to get into my alts. My level 80 paladin tank is pretty much as geared as he is going to get from heroics and emblems, but I can’t convince myself that pug tanking raids is going to be all that fun. So, he’s just kind of sitting there. I started a balance/resto druid, and that has been somewhat enjoyable. I have a max level priest and warlock on my old server, but I don’t like to divide my attention between servers too much.
One alt that I am waiting on Cataclysm for is a dwarf shaman. I just think this is a great race/class combo, especially as an enhance shaman. Until then, however, I’ll probably just continue to raid with Wugan and slowly level my druid. Anyone else in a similar situation?
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The resto shaman leveling guide lives. However, much like actually leveling a resto shaman, this guide is taking its sweet time. If we wanted a race to level 80, we’d all just roll paladins and apply some padding to our forehead. Today, lets look at levels 30-39.
In this range, you can still comfortably heal as an elemental shaman (although mana will increasingly become a concern), and that will greatly speed up your leveling time outside of instances. If you prefer to level as resto, you’ll want talents looking something like this at level 39. Note that we’ve only picked up two points in Ancestral Healing for now. It’s a great talent, but we can get more bang for our points with Purification, so we’ll come back to fill that one in later.
For an elemental build, try something like this. Most elemental talents are going to focus on pure damage. Unrelenting Storm will improve your mana regeneration a bit, and at this level, anything helps. You’ll have to cast more healing spells to top people off, since they are hitting for less than a true healer, and your spells will also cost more mana, because you’re missing out on some of the mana reduction talents in the resto tree. But, you can definitely still heal as an elemental shaman if you want to get some quick instances in while you level.
Level 30 comes with a whole bunch of new talents. Astral Recall is one of my favorites. It’s the kind of spell that you miss when you are playing your other characters. The spell basically gives you a second Hearthstone on a 15 minute cooldown. With a minor glyph, you can reduce this to 7.5 minutes, which means you can pretty much get back to your Hearthstone location whenever you feel like it. Astral Recall can be great when you need to head back to town to train new spells or unload some materials on the AH, and you’ll quickly learn to love the added flexibility. In fact, if you want to you can destroy your Hearthstone to save bag space (you can get a new one from any innkeeper whenever you’d like).
Reincarnation is a class-defining shaman spell, more commonly known as “Ankh-ing,” after the reagent required to use the ability. Make sure to keep a stack of Ankh’s with you at all times, or grab the minor glyph. There is something pretty cool about getting a do-over every 30 minutes should you happen to die. The uses are endless. While questing, you can Ankh to avoid a long, annoying corpse run. In instances, you can give the tank another chance to keep those mobs off you and save a wipe. In PvP, you can surprise an inexperienced opponent and finish them off before they figure out how you’re alive again. I’ve even heard enhance shamans refer to Reincarnation as their threat-reduction ability, which is a nice way of saying enhance shamans die a lot.
Earthliving Weapon will be your new weapon imbue of choice. You’ll want to make sure to have this up when you heal, and keep Flametongue Weapon up while you are out questing. Failure to use the right weapon imbue will really hurt your healing or DPS ability, so get used to using the right imbue for the situation. Earthliving will increase the power of all your heals, and has a chance to proc a 12 second heal over time on any player that you heal. It’s basically a free HoT, which you never want to turn down, since it can help even out the damage that you need to heal through. The Glyph of Earthliving Weapon was recently fixed to do what the tooltip says it should do, and it is a decent option while leveling or even when raid healing at level 80.
You’ll also train Windfury Weapon at level 30, but you can safely leave that one off your bars unless you’re an enhancement shaman. We don’t melee stuff if we can help it, and we certainly don’t want to be planning for it by putting this on our weapon.
At level 30, make sure to complete the Call of Air quest so you can access your final totem school. This will allow you to train two new air totems: Grounding Totem and Nature Resistance Totem.
Grounding Totem is a great tool for PvP, although it can also see some ingenious PvE uses as well if you plan ahead and think a bit outside the box. The totem will basically eat the next spell cast against you or a party member, which means it can be a great defensive ability. It’s kind of like a little secret service agent that will take a bullet for you, because you are such a big deal. If you see the boss winding up a big spell cast that can’t be interrupted, try dropping Grounding Totem and see if you can’t divert the damage. This won’t always work in PvE, and frankly I don’t use the totem enough at level 80 to tell you when it is most useful, but have some fun trying this one out as you level and see what it can do.
Nature resistance, like your other resistance totems, can be very situationally useful, especially in raid encounters that have a high amount of nature damage.
Lets talk about the game-changing ability Call of the Elements. Back in my day, we had to drop our totems one a time, uphill, both ways, in the snow. You could write cast sequence macros for common totem setups, but they would still require four clicks, and four global cooldowns, to get all of your totems down. That was annoying, at best, and meant you either had to be judicious with your totem drops, or wait a full four GCDs before you could really start healing. Thankfully, Call of the Elements now allows you to predefine a set of four totems that will all drop in one GCD. Take advantage of this gift.
You also gain access to Totemic Recall, which allows you to quickly pick up all four totems and get some mana back in the process. Try to get in the habit of recalling your totems before dropping a new set while you are instancing. It’s a small thing, but managing your mana efficiently means less breaks to drink, which keeps everyone happy. Keep Totemic Recall on an easy to reach keybind so you can always quickly make those totems disappear when necessary.
While healing at level 30, your default totem set should probably be Flametongue, Strength of Earth, Mana Spring, and Nature Resistance Totem (for lack of a better option). At Level 32, you learn Windfury Totem, which should be your default Air totem for now. Like Strength of Earth, Windfury Totem isn’t going to do a darn thing to help you directly, but it is a great buff for the melee members of your group if you don’t have an enhance shaman around to drop their souped up versions. If you do have an enhance shaman, you can drop Stoneskin and Nature Resistance.
Level 32 also provides access to Chain Lightning, one of my favorite shaman abilities. I tend to think of shamans as easy going, laid back types. But, if you piss us off, we will shoot lightning at you and three of you friends through our fingers. So don’t push your luck. Situationally fun to cast when you want to help out with DPS while healing (although at this level, probably best to save your mana), and also useful while out soloing anytime you pull more than one mob. Crowd control is not a big part of the game right now, but be very careful around CC’ed mobs, as Chain Lightning is extremely good at jumping to sheep and making them no longer sheep.
At Level 34 you get Sentry Totem. Reading the Wowhead comments is infinitely more fun than anything you will actually do with this totem. I recommend just removing it from your bars or totem UI so you don’t accidentally drop it and get confused.
Keep in mind that I’m only discussing new abilities. You’ll still want to hit your class trainer at level 36, and every two levels, in order to train new ranks of your existing spells.
Finally, at Level 38 you learn Cleansing Totem. Enjoy this one for the next few months, because it is going away come Cataclysm. For now, it’s a great totem to drop anytime there are disease or poison debuffs going out. Every few seconds the totem will pulse and cleanse one of these debuffs from your party members, leaving your GCDs free for casting healing spells.
That’s it for levels 30-39. As you can see, most of your new toys are front-loaded at level 30, so enjoy hitting that milestone and learning how to use these new tools. In our next edition, look forward to a thorough discussion of Chain Heal, which really is as much fun as it looks.
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I thought about doing your normal “How to heal the Lich King as a Resto Shaman” post, but then I had a revelation. Odds are, I’d come here to write that post after I get my first kill, all pleased with myself for finally downing this sort-of final boss in Wrath of the Lich King, with more than a little bit of “look at how awesome I am, I beat the Lich King” in my voice. That gets old. Because you know what? I’m not an expert on killing the Lich King. What I AM an expert on is wiping to him, repeatedly, and in every way imaginable. In both 10 and 25 player raids. So, I present: how to wipe on the Lich King encounter.
- Phase One
Your best option is probably to make sure that you bring a healer who can’t, or doesn’t like to, remove diseases. About 10 seconds in to the fight, the Lich King is going to start casting Necrotic Plague on one of your raid members. Bring 3 resto druids to this fight on 10 man and you can rest assured that the massive HoTs are not going to save you from a 50,000 tick of shadow damage after 5 seconds.
Assuming you want to make it more than 15 seconds into the encounter before you start losing raid members, let’s say you decide to remove the disease. Well, another great way to wipe is to frantically remove the Necrotic Plague as soon as it is cast, without waiting for the diseased player to position him or herself behind the Shambling Horror, which the off tank has parked about 10 yards from both the Lich King and the rest of the raid. You certainly don’t want to assign just one healer to watch for the diseased player to run to this location and then cleanse them before 5 seconds have elapsed, because then people will live and the adds will die in a timely manner.
There is very little raid damage in this phase. Once in a while, the Lich King will cast Infest, and it will hit everyone. This hardly does any damage right away, so I like to just watch the resto druids try to heal the entire raid up with their HoTs. I know it lets them dominate the healing meters, but sometimes you need to be a team player and let others get the glory. You most definitely do not want a disc priest shielding the raid here, because then there won’t be any raid damage at all, and everyone will get screwed on the healing meters.
Another, more subtle way, to help ensure a wipe in phase one is to make sure your DPS maximizes their AoE damage on all those little ghouls surrounding the Lich King. I mean, seriously, have you seen how high you can get on Recount by spamming Mind Sear here, while killing adds that would have died anyway and doing zero damage to the Lich King, thereby failing to progress the encounter into the next phase? Some might tell you that the meters don’t really matter on this fight, but that’s probably because you just owned them.
- Phase One Transition
Once the suckers doing single target damage get the Lich King down to 70%, he’ll run to the middle of the platform and begin casting Remorseless Winter. Make sure to stay inside the inner part of the platform to take some massive frost damage that should ensure your death in a matter of seconds.
Another great option is to stand right in front of a Raging Spirit as they spawn on top of your raid members. Melee dps seem to be especially good at this, but there’s no reason healers can’t join in the fun. If you can manage to stay grouped up in one big pile to ensure that everyone is getting hit by Pain and Suffering at the same time, even better. This is especially effective if your group seems completely incapable of grouping up on other fights. Your raid leader will be proud that you finally figured it out.
A good way to run out of mana on this encounter is to not pay attention to your Water Shield charges in this phase, since Pain and Suffering likes to pop them and give you mana back. Don’t keep them refreshed, or you might have enough mana to finish the fight. Also, don’t listen to those people who say that you should use Mana Tide more than once in a 15 minute fight to help out your fellow healers with mana. That’s crazy talk.
Finally, and this is one of my favorite ways to wipe, don’t be in a hurry to get back to the central platform as the transition phase ends. I mean, the big boss emote that says “Quake!,” along with the crumbling and glowing ice platform under your feet might suggest that you head to more solid ground, and fast, but I find that it’s a lot more fun just to see what will happen if you stay on the outer edge. I hear if you stay perfectly still, some rogue from Ensidia will unstealth and rebuild the platform for you before you can fall.
Oh, and if you see a big frozen orb coming at you on the way in, make sure to take it to the face.
- Phase Two
To get this phase started on the wrong foot, get in the way of the off tank as he heads towards the middle of the platform, so you can get silenced by Soul Shriek for 5 seconds, and maybe get one shot in the process. Once the Lich King is positioned in the center of the room, continue to ignore Infest like you’ve been doing. You definitely don’t want to start casting a Chain Heal timed to land right as Infest finishes casting.
Proper positioning is key to causing all kinds of interesting wipes in this phase. Of course, you don’t want to be paying much attention to the ability timers on the boss mod of your choice, but lets say you accidently catch a glimpse out of the corner of your eye. Well, make sure to get way the heck out of the middle of the platform when the Val’Kyr are about to arrive. This will ensure that the DPS has almost no time to break you free, and soon you’ll be plummeting to your death off the side of Ice Crown Citadel.
If you insist on standing near the middle of the platform, at least be spread in a big circle around the Lich King, so the Valks can head in 3 different directions and your DPS has no hope of cleaving them down.
The most common way to wipe in phase two is to pay very little attention to the Defile mechanic. Ideally, you want to make sure the whole raid is clumped up right in the center of the platform. When Defile gets cast on a raid member, they may try to run away from you, but don’t let them get away with that so easily! You make sure to run right with them, preferably bringing along all of your friends. If you happen to get targeted with Defile, I suggest either standing still, hopefully near the center of the platform, or running in the same direction as all the DPS trying to kill the Val’kyr adds.
By far the best way to ensure a wipe here is to tunnel vision Grid, and then freeze up when DBM or your raid leader start telling you something. Yeah, all signs point to getting the hell out of the middle of the room before Defile hits, but you just started a totally sweet Chain Heal cast, and damned if you aren’t going to finish it. And for the love of God, please do not plan ahead and make sure you’re out of the center of the platform well ahead of the Defile cast. That alone will almost ensure that your raid makes it to the next phase.
- Phase Two Transition
Anything you did in the phase one transition to wipe the raid you can do here, especially being really slow to get out of the middle of the room. For a shaman-specific raid wiping tip, make sure to NOT cast Bloodlust here, no matter how much your raid leader screams for it. I mean, the point of the encounter is to kill the Lich King, Mr. Bossy Raid Leader dude. Don’t waste that hotness on some silly adds that seemed to die just fine during the last phase transition.
Also make sure you still haven’t used Mana Tide yet. You want to save that bad boy for the last possible moment.
- Phase Three
If you’ve gotten this far, you have missed a lot of really great opportunities to wipe the raid, so I don’t even know what to say to you. Your number one priority is to completely ignore the Harvest Soul debuff that is probably rapidly killing one of your raid members every so often. Sometimes a soul is just going to get harvested, leading to your tanks getting one-shot, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Spamming Lesser Healing Waves on that person is just going to make you look kind of sad for trying.
Let’s assume that your soul is getting harvested, and for some reason people healed you. Now you find yourself inside of Frostmourne, and you can single handedly ensure a wipe, which is totally awesome. Aside from just standing there doing nothing while you enjoy the RP, you could try to kill the add with your sick resto shaman DPS. You’ve been practicing in your daily heroics; now’s the time to bust out that 2k DPS. Whatever you do, don’t heal up the NPC. This isn’t the Dreamwalker encounter, ok? Also, interrupts are for PvPers. You’re just here to heal, so don’t get any fancy ideas about using Wind Shear.
Back outside, you may see a bunch of little Vile Spirits flying around the room. If one targets you, resist the urge to kite this mob. Everyone knows that shamans are bad at kiting. I mean, Earthbind Totem only lasts for 45 seconds, and Frost Shock might draw aggro . . . on the mob that already has you aggroed. Your main goal should be to stand there and just take the 15k hit like a man, preferably several of those hits at the same time while you pop any one of the resto shaman’s many defensive cooldowns. Bonus points if you wave goodbye to the raid like pallies do when they bubble hearth.
Finally, you can continue to wipe the raid with Defile here. I suggest dropping it near the tank and melee DPS and watching them run away like you’re a leper or something. Another great plan is to place it in the middle of the room so the tanks have to dodge it as they reposition the boss from side to side. Really, doing pretty much anything except spreading out and dropping Defile on the edges of the platform can help lead directly to a soul-crushing wipe in the third phase.
- Phase Four
Well, if you have ignored all of these wonderful ways to wipe the raid, the Lich King will do it for you once you hit 10%. You see that? He just owned all of you. Noobs. I mean, he’s the Lich King. You really thought you were going to win? Go ahead and release.
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Well, I can’t help myself thinking about what raiding is going to look like in Cataclsym. You have to expect that more people will find themselves raiding in a 10 man group. As many folks noted on my previous post, it’s a lot harder to organize 25 people, and it can be more difficult to get everyone aligned on the same strategy, and even harder to make sure they execute that strategy. It’s not hard to imagine that 25 player raiding may become less common, and will be reserved for those who really enjoy the format or feel that if offers a better experience.
As you’ve probably noticed, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. I know many do not feel the same way, and we’ll just have to see how everything works out in Cataclysm. My instincts tell me that giving players a choice of how they want to raid will make raiders happier, and some of us might be surprised at what happens. Giving players a real choice seems to have been part of Blizard’s logic here:
Our goal through Wrath of the Lich King was that players could choose 10 or 25 as a personal preference. We think we missed that mark though. Because 25s still provided more powerful rewards, it felt like that was the “real” raiding, and 10s were what you did on off-nights, or if you just couldn’t stomach the logistics of recruiting or pugging 10 more players. We know there are a lot of players out there who just prefer to raid 10s but felt like we didn’t deliver on our promise to let them just raid 10s. The Cataclysm model is to let players raid 10s or 25s as they see fit. There are advantages and disadvantages to both raid sizes. The larger raids can feel more epic, yet the smaller ones tend to have less loot drama because there is less competition per item that drops. The smaller raids in some sense are more hardcore, because there are fewer opportunities to include novice raiders or folks who just aren’t carrying their weight.
In any case, lets think about how a shift toward more 10 player raids will affect resto shamans, since that’s what this blog is supposed to be about, not me getting everyone riled up about meta-raiding issues.
First, I think this finally drives home one of the advantages of “bring the player, not the class” into my sometimes thick skull. If you are going to build a successful 10 man raid, and that becomes the predominant form of raiding, it’s not going to work out so well if every raid feels they need a paladin healer for the tanks and a shaman for bloodlust, for example. Some form of specialization is still desirable, but it makes sense that each healing class needs sufficient single target and AoE capabilities.
I already saw someone in the WoW.com comments predicting that shamans would become the 25 man raid healer with our Healing Rain spell, while druids would specialize in 10 mans with their single target HoTs. Could that happen? Sure. But at this point, we do not have nearly enough information to worry that we will not be viable 10 man healers. In fact, all signs point the other direction.
Right now, more than any other healing class, resto shamans can easily switch between tank and raid healing. For the most part, the spec remains the same. Gear selection is almost identical, with perhaps a slight shift towards spellpower for a dedicated tank healer. At most, you might want to change around a few glyphs if you know a fight will require your optimal tank or raid healing capabilities, but in many cases we can already do a great job with one setup. We can tank heal, we have a smart raid heal, and we have fast direct heals to top off raiders who have gotten into trouble.
This should put us in a good position to be solid 10 man healers in Cataclysm. Yes, it is possible that Healing Rain will shine more in a 25 player fight, but we also know that the spell will suffer diminishing returns when spread over a large number of targets. Without much more detailed information on how the spell will work in-game, it’s far too soon to get worried about whether shamans will be viable 10 man healers. Especially when all of the other announced healing changes point to a raiding scene where healers are more interchangeable than they are right now.
Personally, I look forward to the increased importance of 10 player raids, because healing in a smaller environment requires us to use all of our tools. In a 25 player raid, you will often have paladins focusing on the tanks. You’ll probably help out with your Earth Shield and an occasional Riptide, but you can usually contribute the most to the raid by using a lot of Chain Heal to combat AoE damage. In some fights, you do little more than spam Chain Heal, and that can get quite boring.
In a 10 man, by contrast, Chain Heal is often the wrong tool for the job. You need to think more carefully about how many players are in melee range, or how tightly the ranged and healers are grouped up. When several players have taken damage, a few quick Lesser Healing Waves can be the right choice. You might need to toss Riptide on one target to keep them alive, and then use your haste bonus to top off two other targets that are spread out.
In a 25 man raid, you probably would be better served by just hitting Chain Heal and hoping it bounces, in part because the other healers will take care of the other folks. In a 10 man, you may be the only raid healer, so you can’t afford to waste time and mana on a Chain Heal that will only hit one target. In Cataclysm, I suspect this will become even more true, which should lead to some very challenging and enjoyable healing encounters.
So, what do you folks think? Anyone concerned that shamans will not be viable 10 man healers?
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Well, I woke up to what I consider some great news today. It appears that Blizzard is planning to normalize the loot that drops in 10 and 25 man raids, and share the lockout so that you cannot raid both in the same week. There are so many great things about this change, although people who are used to the existing structure are already upset. To me, the key aspect of this change is that it gives raiders the choice of how they would like to raid. I’m always a fan of greater choice, because it allows people to fit the game around their life, and not the other way around.
- Problems With the Current System
What are the problems with the current system? There are many, so I’ll just focus on the ways the current system impacts my raiding. By nature, I’m inclined to be a “hardcore” raider. I always want to maximize my performance, and I enjoy the competitive aspect of difficult raids. I want to have the best gear possible, make sure it is itemized properly, and be on top of the latest theorycrafting.
In practice, I’m a casual raider. I’m an adult, with a wife, friends and family. I have a lot of freetime, but understandably my wife does not want me raiding six nights a week. I get burned out on that schedule too. When I raid, I can’t be interrupted for 3+ hours, and I need to schedule my evening around the raid. That’s not something I can realistically do more than 3 nights a week with my lifestyle.
In the current system, that means that I have a very hard time raiding in both a 25 and 10 man group. Like most guilds, we run our 25 man groups during the week, from Tuesday to Thursday. 10 man groups usually start up on Friday, and may continue on Saturday, Sunday and/or Monday until the instance is clear. If you are working on hard modes or trying to get a new boss down in your 10s group, it’s easy to see how you can spend almost the entire week raiding.
With the current emblem system, there is a huge incentive, and pressure from your guild, to raid both 10s and 25s. First, you want to ensure that you are getting all the relevant 10 man drops to help your performance in 25 man raids. Then, once that is done, you likely still have emblem gear that will help you, and raiding both difficulty levels vastly increases the number of emblems you can earn per week. If you want a viable offspec set, that pressure becomes even higher. Last but not least, the more people who have seen the fight on 10 person difficulty, the easier your 25 man raid will go. Thus, you find that your most dedicated 25 man raiders are also running 10 mans each week.
- Diagnosing the Problem
This is a problem of incentives. Some people feel like they need to run 25 mans in order to be competitive in their 10 man groups. We’ve seen the rise of 10 man strict raiding in Wrath, and this is a great change for those folks. If you are not in a strict 10 man guild, but you do enjoy 10 man raiding with your friends, you will probably feel the need to pug 25 man raids to get the best gear. Even if you don’t enjoy the more impersonal experience of playing with 24 other people, and would much rather be playing in a smaller setting.
At the same time, some people, like me, feel forced to run 10 mans each week, for the reasons outlined above. We want to be competitive in our 25 man runs, so we push ourselves to get as much gear and experience through 10 mans as we can, even if we don’t really have the time to do so.
If you see some current styles of raiding disappear, it will be because people were grudgingly doing so, but did not actually enjoy themselves. Blizzard is not “killing 25 man raiding.” They are removing incentives that pushed people to be both 10 and 25 man raiders, even if they prefer one or the other.
- Predictions
While I don’t think Blizzard is killing 25 man raiding, I suspect that the raiders themselves will slowly reduce the number of 25 man raids over time. There will certainly still be people interested in 25 man raids, and it sounds like that will be the faster path to gear up your team, with a proportionately higher number of drops per boss kill. The most hardcore guilds will therefore likely continue to raid as 25 man groups.
Also, no matter what Blizzard does, the hardest encounters I have seen are usually those where one mistake wipes the raid (Lich King, I’m looking at you). It’s going to be hard to avoid the fact that 10 player raids are a bit easier in this situation, because you have 15 less people who can make a raid-wiping mistake. Thus, the most hardcore raiders will still consider 25 man raiding to be the “real” progression path.
You will also have people who just enjoy the more “epic” feeling of a 25 man raid. Those people will continue to enjoy the larger raid groups, and nothing about this change will prevent them from doing so. What it WILL do is remove the artificial incentive for people who actually prefer 10 man raids to suffer through 25 man raids.
I think we’ll see that a large percentage of raiders prefer 10 man raiding. They are doing 25 man raids right now because they want their character to be as powerful as possible, and 25 man raids drop the best gear. Those people will split into smaller guilds focused on 10 man raids, or into sub groups within their existing guilds.
People who enjoy raiding with 25 other people have little reason to complain, in my opinion. If there needs to be an artificial loot incentive for the other 24 people to raid with you, then your fellow friends are doing something they don’t really enjoy just for the sake of loot. Wouldn’t you rather raid with people who want to be there to enjoy the raid? This should mean that 25 person raids are more rare, but the raids that do exist should be more enjoyable. Your fellow raiders will be there because they appreciate the same epic experience that you do, not because they are solely focused on the loot.
I’m sure many people disagree, so I’d like to hear your thoughts. Just keep in mind that if you feel like this will ruin your current 10 or 25 man raiding group, it’s likely only going to do so because it frees your friends up to raid in a way that works best for them. Choice is a good thing.
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Well, it looks like Mages are slated to get a Bloodlust/Heroism equivalent spell in the form of Time Warp. I’m not annoyed by this as much as I am with the sentiment behind the change. This post will be full of complaining, so if you think that everything is fine, then just move along. But I think the game designers are veering off course here; they are creating one problem in trying to solve another.
Time Warp (level 83): Grants a passive Haste effect much like Bloodlust or Heroism to party or raid members. It also temporarily increases the mage’s own movement speed. Time Warp will be exclusive with Bloodlust and Heroism, meaning you can’t benefit from both if you’ve got the Exhaustion debuff, though the movement-speed increase will still work even when under the effects of Exhaustion.
As you can probably guess, I’m not a huge fan, based on my post a few days ago. I don’t think Mages were really clamoring for this ability. I don’t think they had a hard time getting into groups before based on a lack of utility. They already provide top notch DPS, an intellect buff, food, portals, and probably many other things I’m forgetting. So, I’m kind of struggling to understand this change.
Here’s what Ghostcrawler has to say:
On Time Warp vs. Bloodlust, we are really trying to give groups flexibility in who they bring to 10 player raids to an even greater extent than we did in Lich King. We heard over and over that shaman still felt like the one mandatory class in any raid. The more we hear “now there will be no reason to take me over X class / spec” the happier we will be. The reason should be that you’re a good player, not that your mere presence makes everyone else perform better. It’s fun to feel more powerful in a group – we get that, and we aren’t going to completely marginalize group synergy. But it needs to come secondary to the skill of the players involved.
I agree that Shamans feel mandatory in 10 mans, because no one wants to give up Bloodlust. I guess that means that the buff needed to be spread around to more classes, but why Mages? I’m sure Warlocks are going to feel left out here. If you have a good Mage or Warlock for your last raid spot, then you probably want the Mage for Bloodlust, right?
What I don’t agree with is Ghostcrawler’s statement that “The more we hear ‘now there will be no reason to take me over X class/spec’ the happier we will be.” I think this unfairly trivializes some valid concerns. If hybrid DPS is going to have a max output that’s about 5% less than the pure DPS classes, then we need some utility to justify our raid spots. The game designers will be happy if hybrid DPS feel there is no reason they should be taken to a raid over pure DPS? I don’t think that’s a particularly useful design philosophy.
It’s not just about being equal to another class, it’s about being at a disadvantage. If I’m an elemental Shaman, and I’m already fighting the approximately 5% hybrid tax, and the raid invite comes down to me or an equally skilled and geared Mage, then I might be screwed. If I can’t keep up with the Mage’s DPS and he can provide Bloodlust, it’s likely that my other group buffs will be viewed as a wash versus his, and I’ll be riding the bench.
Part of the draw of a Shaman is that your “mere presence makes everyone else perform better.” That was the point of our totems (before most of them got shared by other classes), and that was the point of Bloodlust. It’s why we can understand not being at the top of the DPS charts most of the time. If hybrid classes lose their unique abilities, then a smart raid leader will ensure that he fills his DPS slots with pure classes, all other things being equal, to take advantage of their higher potential DPS.
So, my complaint here goes beyond giving a Bloodlust equivalent to Mages. I think I’ve lost sight of the game designers’ vision for hybrid classes. Is the goal for every class to have the same DPS potential and provide equivalent utility? If so, then I hope that hybrid DPS will no longer be facing a tax on our DPS output as we lose our utility.
If not, then I guess I would have preferred to see another hybrid class, such as Druids or Priests, receive a Bloodlust equivalent. To me, that would make it easier to justify the lower top-end DPS of hybrid classes while still ensuring that almost every group can take advantage of the buff.
What do you guys think?
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This post is a bit off-topic, but ever since we learned about Healing Rain, the proposed new targeted AoE heal over time spell for Cataclysm, I’ve had this song stuck in my head. If you don’t listen to Christian radio (in the U.S. at least), you’ve likely never heard it. I’m guessing that covers just about all of my readers, so here you go if you’d care to listen:
I promise I’m not trying to evangelize you, but in any case, this song will be going through my head every time I cast the spell. Here are the relevant lyrics in case you don’t want to listen to the whole song:
Healing rain, it comes with fire,
So let it fall and take us higher;
Healing rain, I’m not afraid,
To be washed in Heaven’s rainHealing rain is falling down,
Healing rain is falling down,
I’m not afraid,
I’m not afraid!
Yes, you silly DPS who just won’t move, my healing rain will come along with the fire. It will fall, and takes us to higher GearScores. Wugan is here with his Healing Rain, so don’t be afraid!
Christian music is often really cheesy and over the top, with this song and Michael W. Smith in general being no exception, but I’d rather have “Healing Rain” stuck in my head than the stupid “Chocolate Rain” song.
But hey, that’s just me.
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