Demoralization

I am primarily a player who is motivated by challenge.  When I first started playing this game, I was fascinated by the idea that people were out there fighting in something called the “Black Temple” or the “Sunwell.”  From the perspective of a solo player, new to MMOs and leveling up at the tail end of the Burning Crusade, the idea that there were people who had the time and skill to work on these raids was captivating.  I knew that their knowledge and experience of the game had to be much higher than mine in order to work on this content.  I was just trying to hit level 70, gear up as best I could, and maybe see the inside of Karazhan.

It’s quite possible that I’m in the minority, but I was never annoyed that there was “content” in the game that I wasn’t going to see.  The complete opposite was true.  The existence of this entirely different level of play made me significantly more interested in the game.  This was an alternate universe, one where you could see hidden but important encounters if you had the time and/or skill to do so.  That’s fascinating to a person like me, and motivated me to get into early Kara runs even though I had no idea what I was doing.

At some point, however, Blizzard has shifted towards a philosophy that everyone should be able to see the content.  And not just next expansion when it becomes much easier, but while it is the current tier of raiding.  While I understand the appeal of following the story to its conclusion, the idea of raiding as a tourist has never appealed to me.  And if you’re just talking about seeing content, as opposed to experiencing it as it was designed, you are a glorified tourist.  This distinction between seeing content and really experiencing it is critical, but has become muddled.

The normal mode/hard mode split was supposed to solve this problem (although it created plenty of problems on its own, for people who didn’t want to kill the same bosses twice, the second time on annoying mode).  In Tier 11, Blizzard massively nerfed the normal mode raids as Tier 12 was coming out.  This allowed more people to see the content, and from what I can tell, was a great success.  Seeing the content after the nerfs was not a huge draw to me, but I can understand how others would have really enjoyed it, and it didn’t impact me at all.  Win/win.

In Tier 12, however, Blizzard has taken things a step too far, and in the process shown a real lack of understanding about what motivates players like myself.  Instead of nerfing last tier’s normal mode content, they significantly nerfed both normal and hard mode content in the current raid tier.  Why they would do this is beyond me.  At the beginning of Tier 12, I was in a more hardcore progression guild.  We wiped over 100 times to heroic Rhyolith will learning the fight.  Finally getting him down was a huge achievement for the guild, and meant that all 25 players were at the top of their game.  At the time of the nerfs, I was in a smaller, more relaxed guild.  We went in and got Rhyolith to 2% on our first heroic attempt.  We downed him a few pulls later.

Did I take any satisfaction in that kill?  Of course not.  There was no struggle involved.  We screwed up all kinds of things and still comfortably defeated the boss.  This was a boss we hadn’t even attempted before the nerfs because it was too hard for us, and now it was a glorified 5-man boss.  Rather than letting me experience the content, Blizzard took away my chance to defeat this difficult encounter with my guild.  I got turned into a tourist, rather than an adventurer.

I hope that helps explain how nerfing current hard mode content can be demoralizing.  It takes something that was a challenge and required our best performance, and turns it into just another check box on our progression list.  Yes, there are still several hard modes we have yet to kill, and I know that Heroic Ragnaros will still be an epic challenge if we get that far.  But honestly, changing the rules of the game halfway through has ruined the thrill for me.  Raiding now seems to be mountain climbing, where the mountain constantly gets shorter, the weather improves, and the path gets easier.  It’s one thing to clear a nice path for some weekend hikers, so everyone can enjoy the great outdoors and get some exercise.  But would anyone feel accomplishment in climbing Mount Everest if it was anything like Tier 12, where a large group of serious climbers had the mountain give up on them halfway to the top?

Lack of Investment

The second issue sapping my will to play is the complete ambivalence I feel about Deathwing as an end-boss to this expansion.  I have never been a huge lore person.  At the same time, I believe that Blizzard needs to find some convincing way to interest players in battling the enemies they trot out for us.  I remember when Trial of the Crusade came out, and it was a similar situation.  We had been battling an Old God in Ulduar for months, trying to save the very existence of the planet.  Now we were supposed to get excited about a silly tournament that never made much sense in the first place, and felt extremely like rushed content without any purpose.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing Cataclysm, and I really just don’t care about Deathwing.  I’ve never seen him out in the world.  He’s supposed to have “destroyed” Azeroth, but I mostly like the things he changed.  He kind of spruced things up, to be honest.  If I never kill him, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.  I will completely admit that I share some of the blame here.  I’m sure if I read all the quest text closely and put my heart into it, I could talk myself into wanting to kill this big old dragon.  But really, he and his friends just represent a new tier of epic loot to me.  Another set of items that I need to research, earn, gem, enchant, and then replace again with the next patch.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with gear progression, but when there’s no compelling story involved, it becomes rather meaningless.

Nothing New

The final reason I’m no longer excited about WoW is not Blizzard’s fault at all, and is completely inevitable.  One of the things I’ve always loved about this game is that I was constantly learning new things.  Even after 2 years of playing, I felt like I was still learning new things almost every week that improved my ability or understanding of how the game worked.  I’m the kind of nerd who would have just stayed in school forever if that was a viable career path (note: becoming an academic is sadly not the same thing as being a lifelong student).  So for me, a big draw for World of Warcraft was the fact that this was a whole separate world that I could learn about.

Now, over fours years later, I find there are a lot less things for me to learn.  I’ve played just about every class and role in the game.  I’ve played on PvP, PvE, and even RP servers.  I’ve raided with casual guilds, with hardcore progression guilds, with 10 and 25 man guilds, and with efficient progression guilds.  I’ve done enough PvP to thoroughly declare that I just don’t enjoy it.  I’ve learned about macros, optimal rotations, and maximizing my play.  I’ve taken apart the default UI and rebuilt it with addons.  I’ve been a new recruit, a class leader, an officer, and a guild leader.  I’ve experienced content that pushed me to my highest level to perform, and I’ve spammed chain heal through ICC normal modes one too many times.  Throughout it all I was learning new things about the game, and enjoying almost every minute of it.  Now, it all seems to have lost its appeal.

Moving On

So, I’ll continue to log in for raids for a couple of months, but after that I will likely be done with WoW for the time being.  I can’t say I’ll never return, since it’s still a great game that could capture my interest in the future.  But for now, I’ll be transferring my interest to Star Wars: The Old Republic.  It’s a whole new galaxy to explore, with characters and stories that I’ve been excited about since I was a little kid.  At some point I may start up a SWTOR blog if I find that it would be helpful to anyone, but for now I’m just going to enjoy playing the game.  If you want to look me up, I’m Wugan on the official forums, and I’ll be helping to run a progression raiding guild on the Republic side.

Thanks to everyone who commented on and supported this blog, especially in the initial weeks when I was trying to decide if anyone would be interested in what I had to say.  WoW has a great community, and I really enjoyed being able to be a small part of it in my own way.

Best of luck in all your further adventures,

Wugan

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The Problem

Let’s see if this situation sounds familiar to you.  Your raid group has been making steady progress throughout the current content.  Lately, you’ve hit a bit of a snag and haven’t downed a new progression boss in a few weeks.  Either you’ve found a boss that is just really challenging for your skill level or composition, or maybe the attendance bug has hit a few key raiders.  As a guild leader, you’re feeling the pressure to do whatever it takes to get that boss down.  Unfortunately, after a week of frustrating wipes, you get the news.  You log on to the forums to see a “So Long Guys” post from one of your best raiders, who is heading off to greener, more progressed, pastures.

Depending on the size of your raid team and the importance of this player, that one decision to leave the team can have drastic consequences.  If a 10 player raid loses a main tank or amazing healer, it can often be hard to simply plug in a replacement.  While every good raid leader strives to have a talented rotation of backup and bench players, in reality, it’s often hard to do.  Worse still, that one player leaving can start a chain reaction, as his closest friends decide to jump ship as well, or other talented raiders start to sense that things might be going downhill and scramble to find another place to raid.

All of this because your group was having trouble with a progression boss (which is kind of the point of progression raiding).  The problem here, and it’s solution, is setting proper incentives.

The Current Incentives

Right now, the only thing keeping your raiders from server transferring is the $25 realm transfer fee and any sense of loyalty they have to your existing guild.  Everyone is a free agent all the time.  For most working adults, the $25 is not going to prevent them from transferring pretty freely.  We play this game to have fun, and if we’re not having fun in our current raid, well then we’ll just leave and find out if the grass is greener elsewhere.

Loyalty, in my experience, is nearly non-existent unless you are part of a group of people that has been playing together for many years or has substantial connections outside of the game.  Even then, it’s not unusual to see people leaving to join a more progressed group.  More often, you have a group of raiders that is constantly changing, with only a few core members who stick around from content patch to content patch, much less expansion to expansion.  Everyone seems to be engaged in a search to find “the perfect guild.”  Loyalty is amazing when you can find it, but as a raid leader, you just can’t count on it to keep your team together.

I’ve fallen victim to this myself.  I’ve left a guild because I knew I was talented enough to see more progression content.  I’ve left a guild because some of the people and leaders were tools that I didn’t like spending time with.  Unless you have found that perfect guild home that matches up to your skill, desire for progression, social standards, and play times, there is always some appeal in the idea of transferring to another group.  No matter how well your current raid leader runs his group, there will ALWAYS be someone in your raid team who is unsatisfied on one of these accounts.  If you don’t believe me, you’ve probably never run a raid.

The Solution: Restricted Free Agency

Sports teams don’t often have this problem.  Imagine if, halfway through the football season, all the good players from the 2-6 teams decided to jump ship and join the 6-2 teams.  Or at the all-star break, all of the best baseball players migrated to the top teams in each division so that they’d have a better chance of making the playoffs.  Essentially, that is what the current unrestricted market for raiders has created.  And yes, I’m sorry for making a sports analogy to WoW players, many of whom are not that into sports.  But what progression raiding resembles most is a competitive team sport, so we shouldn’t be surprised to find similarities with more traditional sports.

We have a completely free market for labor in WoW, which more or less mimics the “at will” situation of most employers and employees in the real world.  If you don’t like your job, you can (usually) just quit today and stop going.  Your employer can do likewise and tell you to hit the road.  The relationship lasts only as long as it is mutually beneficial.  And in 99% of the jobs out there, this is the right way to do things, because it allows people to freely and easily change jobs and run companies efficiently.

In sports, there are difference incentives.  Sports teams are organized around a common goal of winning a championship.  The season lasts a defined length of time and requires full commitment from all members (and if you want to get technical, there are all kinds of strange incentives created by the essential monopoly that a sports league enjoys).  Accordingly, players are signed to binding contracts.  The length of these contracts can vary.  However, in most sports and for most competent players, the minimum length of the contract is at least one full season.  The reason is pretty obvious: as a manager, you don’t want your best players jumping ship halfway through the season.

If a player wants to stop playing in the middle of the season, he can do so, because as a society we don’t generally enforce contracts requiring people to work (too close to slavery for our tastes).  But, and this is the key point: he cannot simply go play for another team until his contract expires or is voided by his current team.  Instead, he has to wait until his contract expires and he becomes a free agent.  Then, he is free to transfer to any team that is willing to pay what he thinks he is worth.

Applying Restricted Free Agency to WoW

How would this system work in WoW?  In my vision, at the beginning of each content cycle, guild leaders and officers would have the option of offering a raid contract.  The contract, if the player chooses to accept, would restrict that character from entering a raid in the current content tier that is not run by his guild.  The contract would be in effect until the next major content patch, unless cancelled by the guild leadership.  If the player wishes to raid on that character during the current content, he has to do so with his guild, or negotiate to be released.

The guild can decide whether contracts are required from progression raiders.  Maybe it will only require them from officers, or from tanks, or maybe everyone on the roster has to sign up.  The choice would be up to each team individually.  The leaders can let people out of contracts for extenuating circumstances.  Or they can charge people gold to get out of their contracts.  Or they can say, screw you, you said you’d raid with us so you’re not taking this character to another raid until the next content patch.  Leaders would finally have some leverage, and players would have an incentive to stick around and be a part of the team.

Note that this does not force a player to raid, or even to stick with his current guild.  No one is stopping him from taking a break from raiding.  He can pug older content with whoever he likes.  Or, he can abandon his main and start raiding elsewhere on an alt.  What it does, do, however, is provide guild leadership with some incentives that can help keep talented raiders on the team.  At the end of the content patch (so in our current case, when 4.2 hits), all existing contracts are void, and there would be a period of free agency where raiders can freely transfer guilds and/or realms.

Like other aspects of WoW, this system puts control directly in the hands of the players, rather than Blizzard controlling things from above.  Guild leaders would have the option to implement raider contracts.  For many casual raiders, the idea would be somewhat ridiculous.  In that case, the option can simply be ignored.  However, in more serious guilds, there is often an implied commitment to the team.  The raid leader assumes people are going to stick it out for a reasonable length of time.  If he wants to ask his raiders to put their money where their mouth is, he can offer raiding contracts.  If people can’t commit to raiding with a guild on their main character for at least one content cycle, then the raid leader has a good sense of how interested they are in the team aspect of raiding.

Conclusion

I suspect that many people will find this idea somewhat ridiculous.  We live in a culture where absolute individual freedom has become almost a religion.  We expect to be able to leave our current obligations in the endless quest for happiness.  What most people don’t consider are the aspects of happiness and satisfaction that can only come from long-term commitments to other people.  Instead of constantly worrying about whether your fellow raiders are going to bail on you, you can focus on making things better.

By applying a system of restricted free agency, Blizzard would be able to give raid leaders the option of offering raiders a more committed experience.  Raid morale would improve, and players would feel much more a part of their raid teams.  Since the system would be completely voluntary on the part of both leaders and raiders, I don’t think we have much to lose by giving it a shot.  Choosing to sign up for a longer term commitment doesn’t remove any of your freedom.  Instead, it gives you some assurance that your fellow team members are actually interested in accomplishing shared goals with you, and thereby frees you up to focus on achieving them.

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The support: On what basis do I make these statements?  A bit of personal experience, a bit of anecdote, and some solid data from WoL.  Lets start with the data first, since everything else is pretty unconvincing.  Here are the numbers from an average of the top 200 healing parses from 10 man heroic bosses, from State of DPS.  On just about every fight except Chimaeron, resto shamans are solidly in the rear (Holy Priests aren’t looking so hot either, to be fair).  In some cases, it’s a pretty minor difference.  In others, however, a 2k HPS difference between a skilled and talented resto shaman and a skilled and a talented resto druid can be the difference between a kill and a wipe.

When you look at 25 man heroic content, the numbers are a bit more balanced, although resto shamans still end up on the bottom overall.  Based on what I have been hearing around the internet and in-game, I’m actually surprised that the 25 man numbers look as bad as they do.  So, perhaps the changes I suggest below will help out 25 man resto shamans as well.

Personally, I feel very underpowered as a 10 man healer right now.  In 25 mans during Wrath, I was used to being consistently one of the top healers in the raid.  I felt extremely important to the success of the group.  I know that when I didn’t heal well, people would die, and when I did heal well, people would live.  Now, I struggle to even get close to the output done by our resident Resto Druid.  He is also a really solid player.  Yet, I feel that no matter how well I play, I have a very hard time being as valuable to the team as he is right now.

The source of the problem: Resto shamans shine on one heroic mode fight: Chimaeron.  Why is this the case?  It is because we can generally (a) stand in one spot for most of the fight, negating our lack of instant cast options, (b) abuse the heck out of Healing Rain during Feud phases and (c) actually get a lot of benefit out of our Mastery ability, since the raid is constantly at low health levels.  In no other fight do we have this perfect confluence of shaman-friendly healing.  We either have to constantly be moving, the raid is too spread out to take advantage of our Healing Rain, or the raid is generally above 50% health, reducing the impact of our Deep Healing.  We are reduced to mostly spot healing with our single target spells.  In 10 mans, even Chain Heal becomes hard to use effectively on most fights.

The proposal: Buff our single target heals.  Healing Rain is already a solid solution to grouped up healing.  Chain Heal still feels underpowered at times, but buffing it will help 25 man raiders much more than 10 man raiders.  By making our single target spells hit harder, you can give Shamans a useful niche in the raid: the spot healer.  It’s not a fun spot in the raid for most of us, but at least we can feel like valuable members of the team.  We have already been reduced to this role in 10 mans, but it would be nice to be really good at it, so I don’t feel like rolling a resto druid to help my guild through heroic content.

Buffing our single target cast-time heals (Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge) should not do much to upset the PvP balance.  My sense is that we are generally very strong in certain arena comps because of Earth Shield, Riptide, and most importantly, our ability to dispel magic debuffs while healing at the same time through Cleansing Waters.  The impending nerf to Cleansing Waters supports this hypothesis.  Getting off a long cast time in the arena is pretty tough to do with all the interrupts, stuns and CCs flying around.  If it does present a balance problem, then simply increase Healing Wave and GHW, leaving the faster Healing Surge alone.

The alternate proposal: Of course, what I would rather see happen is to give shamans a viable mastery mechanic.  It is clear that mastery works great on Heroic Chimaeron.  I had expected it to work more effectively on other heroic mode encounters, but even in this level of content, people do not stay at low health long enough for us to really see an impact.

I will acknowledge that “life saving heals” are hard to track on the meters.  Perhaps our mastery is keeping people alive so that other healers can top them off.  However, I’d argue that the opposite is just as likely.  Our heals on low health targets simply “pad the meters,” giving us a bit more initial healing done on people that are likely to survive anyway.  What generally saves lives from a raid healing perspective is the ability to crank out a large amount of HPS when needed, to keep the raid topped off and out of imminent danger.

Thus, I would really like to see our mastery mechanic changed.  It’s fairly clear to me that the key to sustained HPS in the current raid environment is either the ability to get HoTs rolling on multiple players (Druids) or the ability to get sustained throughput on more than one target (Paladins).  So, the most obvious solution might be to give us a mastery closer to Holy Priests.  I feel like the ability to roll HoTs on the raid in ICC through our 4-piece bonus is what really made us strong healers in that content.

However, I think a more unique possibility would be to allow our mastery to increase the effect of Ancestral Awakening.  Since I have accepted that our best role at the moment is generally to use our single-target heals to spot heal the raid, why not improve that ability with our mastery?  It seems like that was the goal with our current mastery, but it just doesn’t work well in practice.  So, what if mastery increased the percentage heal of AA?  If we got to the point where AA crits were healing a second low-health target for 50% of the original heal, that would greatly improve a shaman’s ability to raid heal in 10 man content, where everyone is spread out.

Of course, this might be a horrible idea.  Maybe it makes us too reliant on crits.  Maybe it results in a lot of overheal.  Maybe it would make us as good at tank healing as Paladins, which is just not allowed. What do you think should be done to make resto shamans more competitive PvE healers, without making us Arena gods?  Or am I just making too much out of minor differences in the healing meters?

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• Mostly playing Elemental now because we have a lot of great healers and can’t fit them all in a 10 man raid
• Becoming the GM of my guild after the existing leadership left for various RL reasons, which is taking up most of my energy outside the game
• Having a real lack of things to add to the Resto Shaman discussion that are not being covered in more depth on other blogs

Because of the last reason, I’m confident that people will not suffer from a lack of Resto Shaman content on this site.  When I started this blog, there were very few other active Shaman bloggers, but right now I’m just not feeling a huge need for content I can provide, and when I lack the time and energy to come up with something truly original to say, that’s when I know it’s time to take a break.

I don’t want to say I’ll never post again, so if you don’t mind inactive blogs in your feeds, keep me around.  But I just wanted to explain my general absence from posting rather than silently fade into the background!

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• Answering Questions with Links

I’ve had several requests for a basic “how should I heal as a Resto Shaman” post.  Thankfully, Jadeira has already done a great job of this over on her blog, Totem Forest (I think it’s “her” please correct me if that’s wrong).  Check out “So You Just Specced Resto” for a rundown of our heals, what they do, and when you want to be casting them.  There are also a ton of other great posts there, and sometimes I will have something I want to write about, and then realize Jadeira has already done it.  So rather than duplicating that effort, add Totem Forest to your reader as well.

I have also had lots of questions about whether Core of Ripeness is worth the Valor Points with the impending Mana Tide change.  Another great Shaman blogger, Vixsin, has tackled this one too with a nice math-laden analysis of our various trinket options.  His general opinion on Core of Ripeness, which I agree with, is that although it’s no longer an amazing, must-have trinket, it’s still a solid version for those who don’t have access to a lucky raid drop or the Archaeology trinket that never seems to come up.

Many people are also wondering how to build up, gem and enchant their gear.  As I predicted a while back (along with many others), Cataclysm has made theorycrafting out our numbers pretty tricky.  Because we need to make sure we don’t run out of mana, Spirit and a big mana pool are really important on some fights, especially as you learn them.  In other fights (Chimaeron and lots of the hard modes, from what I hear), we need to take low health people out of the danger zone very quickly, so our Mastery is amazing.  Sometimes, what we’d really like is some more throughput with Haste.  Crit seems like it should be amazing by giving us bigger heals and increased mana return through Improved Water Shield, but in practice stacking a lot of Crit doesn’t always work well, because it takes so much Crit to get an increase in our rating.

With all of that in mind, I’m doing the same thing as Vixsin and trying to build a balanced gear set for Tier 11.  Your general approach should be to pick up epics to replace your blues wherever you can.  It’s hard to make a really “wrong” choice, because all of our secondary stats provide something useful, and it’s quite easy to gem and reforge to change up your gear.  With Mastery, Crit and Haste all proving beneficial to varying degrees, you really don’t want to turn down a clear upgrade just because it has Mastery, and you heard Mastery was bad from some random poster on MMO Champion.  Frankly, it’s not bad at all depending on the fight, and with patch 4.0.6 incoming shortly, it’s getting even better.

• My Healing Experience So Far

So, how am I healing right now in Cata?  First, I’m taking care of the basics and making sure I have high uptime on Earth Shield, Water Shield, and Tidal Waves.  You really want to keep Riptide on cooldown as much as possible, both for the HoT it provides and to take advantage of the Tidal Waves buff.  Looking at my logs from last week, Riptide is consistently my highest heal, doing between 23-27% of my healing depending on the night.  Keep in mind this is for 10 man raiding.   I had between 72-84% uptime on Tidal Waves throughout the week.

You want your Earth Shield uptime to be up over 90%.  One night mine dipped to 86%, and there’s not really a good reason for it to go any lower.  Water Shield should be around 90% or more as well, which I’m generally pretty good at.  If your Water Shield is not up, you are absolutely killing your regen, so make sure you can easily track this.  Power Auras or another buff mod is key to making sure you always have your shields up.

Healing Rain is a great spell when people are grouped up, so I use it as much as possible depending on the encounter.  If you’re only hitting 2-3 people, however, it’s going to burn right through your mana without providing much benefit.  On a fight like Magmaw it’s my top heal, while on Halfus it was hardly used.

With our direct heals, I find that I get the most use out of Healing Surge.  It was generally my second highest heal last week, ranging between 15-25% percent depending on the night.  When you fire off a Healing Surge with Tidal Waves up, you have a great chance to crit.  The mana return from the crit helps make up for the increased cost of the HS, which ends up healing about as much as a Greater Healing Wave, but much faster.  This calculation will change a bit in 4.0.6 with a buff to GHW (and an increased mana cost), but for now HS is really your go to spell when one player is taking some significant damage.

Healing Wave is unfortunately lagging behind for me, making up only around 3-5% of my healing.  It’s nice when things are going steady and no one is about to die, but when things hit the fan, it drops right out of my healing rotation.  I’d rather get out some quick Healing Surges, make sure no ones dies, and then drop Mana Tide to replenish my mana.

Earthliving and Ancestral Awakening are doing their job nicely, usually around 7% of my healing done for each.  Of course, the great thing about these spells is that they pretty much take care of themselves, allowing you to focus on everything else.

Unleash Elements is something you want to get used to casting pretty often for the 20% buff to your next heal.  I generally try to follow it up with a Greater Healing Wave if I have the time, or a Healing Surge if I don’t.  I have seen indications that if you queue up a Riptide while your direct heal is casting, it will also gain the Unleash Life benefit, although I have not confirmed this in practice.  I try to do it anyway, in part because if Riptide is off cooldown it’s usually what I want to be casting next anyway.

Chain Heal must think I’ve gotten sick of it and moved on to a younger, more attractive heal.  We had a nice run in Wrath 25 mans, but right now, the opportunities to make much use out of Chain Heal in a 10 man are few and far between.  It’s basically a way to get a large group healed up after HR has already been dropped.  Even then, it’s sometimes too slow and I revert to HS spam.  The 10% buff in the next patch should help work Chain Heal back into my rotation more often, and should be a nice boost to 25 man raiders who are probably still using it, but cursing its ineffectiveness.

Minimizing overhealing is key to stretching your mana.  I’m trying my best to let my Healing Stream Totem and HoTs top people off, rather than firing off another Healing Surge and wasting mana.  Last week I was right around 14% overhealing each night.  That seems generally pretty good to me, but I’d love to hear what other people are doing and see if this is an area I can improve.

Finally, I use Wind Shear, a lot.  I pride myself on doing the most interrupts every raid night.  There are so many boss fights where interrupts are simply not optional.  If you want to defeat the encounter, you need to have solid interrupters.  With a six second cooldown and no GCD, the only reason you shouldn’t be interrupting is if you miss due to lack of hit rating.  Bosses like Halfus, Omnitron, Ascendant Council, and Maloriak all have tons of opportunities to interrupt, so make sure you’re not missing this important part of being a Resto Shaman!

• Some Thoughts on Talents

Right now, I am running with this spec, which takes Ancestral Swiftness, Cleansing Waters, and Blessing of the Eternals.  In my opinion, Ancestral Swiftness is pretty much mandatory.  In just about every fight, I find a reason to cast an instant ghost wolf to get out of the bad stuff or more quickly get grouped up for heals.  Off the top of my head, it’s invaluable for kiting the flame breath and death beam in Atramedes and avoiding Valiona’s gigantic purple breath.  At all other times, it provides a constant movement speed buff (and frees up my boots for the Haste enchant) that keeps me out of bad while maximizing my healing time.

Cleansing Waters is kind of a “meh” talent for raiding right now.  I use it a ton in heroics and on trash pulls to help heal while I dispel, but all of last week I only got off 14 dispels on boss fights.  That’s not much of a return for two talent points.  So, as much as I love reducing the mana cost and adding some healing to my dispelling, this talent might be on the way out shortly, since heroics are getting much easier as I gear up.

I am probably going to remove those two points and stick them back into Telluric Currents.  (Edit – apparently you can’t actually do this and still move down the tree.  Try something more like this build)  I tried TC out for a while, and while I don’t have any math to back it up, there are definitely fights where it is useful.  On Magmaw, you can spam LB during the burn phases and return a good chunk of mana.  After the initial Halfus craziness is over and some drakes have died, there is room to hit LB to regen a bit of mana.  Or, if you happen to get low near the end of a fight or need to Ankh, spending a bit of time to regen with TC can let you build up a mana cushion and give the other healers a chance to regen once you’re done.  Some people seem to hate TC, but I’d urge you to give it a shot, and see if you can’t find some time to fire off a few LBs.  Long ago Ghostcrawler said that we weren’t supposed to regen mana this way, but in the game we’re playing right now, it can be a useful tool.

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I have a few thoughts in mind for upcoming posts.  One will definitely be about the importance of using Purge.  You already know how I feel about interrupting, and Purging is no different.  I’ve been able to find opportunities to Purge in most heroics and raids, and of course it is an amazing ability in PvP.  I would also like to do a post or two about my UI, which allows me to easily see what needs to be purged and interrupted, while also leaving the screen pretty clean so I don’t stand in the fire.  If anyone has any requests for future topics, please let me know and if it’s something I can help with, I’ll add it to the list.

In my mind, Cataclysm is the expansion of the guild.  There are a ton of fun (if not necessary) perks to leveling up your guild, and with the loot normalization on 10 and 25 player raids, there is more reason than ever to seek out a group of like minded folks and progress through the raids as a team.  There is really very little reason to slog through a raid with people you can’t stand just for the loot or progression.

With that in mind, I want to make a small plug for my own guild, The Way, over on Emerald Dream (US).  We are a group of mature (when necessary) adults who like to play with talented players who are also quality human beings.  We raid 3 nights a week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday).  We are not uber-hardcore in our mentality, but we expect raiders to be prepared and push themselves to play at their best.  We’re currently 3/12 on progression, with a new boss dying each night we have raided so far!

We could use a few more like minded folks to ensure we have enough numbers on a consistent basis.  Ranged DPS or Healers who like to raid Mon/Wed would be absolutely ideal.  I know my audience is almost entirely Resto Shamans, and we could probably fit one more in, but if you happen to play another class or know of any friends looking for a place to call home for Cataclysm, we’d love to see you apply.

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As always, deciding which set pieces to wear is an important factor in your gear planning.  One thing that seems clear is that the 4 piece bonus is very desirable.  If you keep Riptide on cooldown, like you usually should, that’s a static 540 Spirit.  I’ll talk a little bit more about how I think the set pieces will work out at the end of this post.

I’m going to ignore the heroic (ilevel 372) versions for purposes of this guide.  You can generally rest assured that if you have access to a heroic level piece, it’s better than the non-heroic gear.  For comparisons among heroic pieces, the same analysis applies as it did to the ilevel 359 gear.

- Head -

Faceguard of the Raging Elements (T11) – The only way to get your T11 helm is to win the Helm of the Forlorn Protector token which drops from Nefarian in Blackwing Descent.

Helm of the Nether Scion – Your alternative to the tier helm drops from Halfus Wyrmbreaker in Bastion of Twilight.  Comes with a hefty helping of Spirit and Haste.

- Neck -

Wyrmbreaker’s Amulet – As the only option with Spirit at this level, along with a nice amount of Crit, I’m going to declare this drop from Halfus Wyrmbreaker your best option in the first tier of raiding.  Your patience will be rewarded.

Yellow Smoke Pendant – The best thing about this piece is that you can grind it out out by completing Dragonmaw Clan quests and wearing the tabard in dungeons, so it also appears on the pre-raid list.  Don’t forget the Dragonmaw dailies either, which are fun and nice source of reputation.

Valiona’s Medallion and Dorian’s Lost Necklace – These necks have identical itemization, and just convert the Crit from Yellow Smoke into Haste.  Because I believe that Crit will outweigh Haste once you reach your initial goal of 916 Haste, which should be fairly doable in pre-raid gear, I prefer Yellow Smoke.  Why 916 Haste?  Vixsin can tell you here.  It’s probably best to leave these both to the ranged DPS in your raid, or grab them for an Ele set.

- Shoulders -

Mantle of the Raging Elements (T11)- If you want this one, you’ll need to kill Cho’Gall in the Bastion of Twilight and get the token drop.

Feludius’ Mantle – Drops from the Twilight Ascendant Council in BoT.  With Spirit and Crit rating, this is a pretty decent alternative to the tier shoulders, and the model is the same so you’ll look just as much like a Warlock as you would with the tier piece.

- Back -

Heavenly Breeze – This cloak has a few things going for it.  First, you don’t have to get lucky on a drop or roll, because it costs 1,250 Valor Points.  Second, it has Spirit, which is found on only one other cloak at this level.  The Mastery is the wildcard, and whether it is better than Haste is going to depend on your other gear, the encounter, and your Raid’s ability to avoid damage.  Too many variables for me to tell you which is better, that’s for sure.

Drape of the Twins – Drops from either Theralion or Valiona in BoT.  This is your Spirit/Haste option among the level 359 cloaks.  Depending on your haste levels, you may prefer the Spirit/Mastery from the Heavenly Breeze.

Haunt of Flies – In my opinion your next best option is another Valor Point purchase, this time with Crit/Haste.  It doesn’t have Spirit, so I can’t recommend it over Heavenly Breeze.  However, if you’re a mainspec Ele DPS, this works great for your Resto set.

Ritssyn’s Ruminous Drape – The advantage of this one is that it’s a world drop BoE, so you might get a lucky drop or you can fork over some major gold on the AH.  No Spirit, but the other stats are all very solid and it comes with a Yellow gem slot.

Shadow of Dread – Drops from Nefarian in Blackwing Descent.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this cloak, but I still feel like I would pass it to a mainspec caster while I save up for the Valor Point option or get Drape of the Twins to drop.  If you’re feeling greedy or there are no casters around who can use it, then by all means pick this one up.

- Chest -

Tunic of the Raging Elements (T11) – Your three chest options are all very close, so I’m listing the tier piece first because of the set bonuses.  No Spirit, but the Crit, Haste and 2 sockets are all great.  Costs 2,200 VP.  Note that this is the only Tier piece that is only purchasable with Valor Points.  The Head and Shoulders are tokens, while the hands and legs are either points or a lucky drop from Argaloth in Baradin Hold.

Circuit Design Breastplate – Drops from the Omnitron Council in Blackwing Descent.  As your only chest option with Spirit, there is an argument for using this piece instead of the tier option for a regen-based set.

Twilight Scale Chestguard – Advantages: this is a BoE leatherworking item, so you can have it crafted or find it on the AH without stepping into a raid.  Disadvantages: it won’t help towards your T11 bonuses, and it has no Spirit.  You’ll have to decide how much that is worth as you begin raiding.

- Wrist -

Chaos Beast Bracers – These seem to be the only caster bracers in the current raid content for either Resto or Elemental shamans.  That seems somewhat strange to me, but thankfully these come with Spirit so they are a good option.  It looks like these mainly drop from Chimaeron, with a small chance to drop from Toxitron in the Omnitron Council.

- Hands -

Handwraps of the Raging Elements (T11)- Get a lucky drop from Argaloth, or spend 1,650 Valor Points.  Spirit/Haste is a decent itemization, but as I discuss below, I think this might be the weak link as far as the odd tier piece out.  Of course, there is nothing stopping you from using all 5 tier pieces if you have access to them and you like the stat allocation.

Gloves of Cacophony – A good vocab word (look it up), and good gloves which drop from Altramedes in Blackwing Descent.  Which is funny, because you need to be very quiet while killing this guy.  In my opinion, Spirit/Crit is perfect itemization, so I prefer these slightly over the tier option.

- Waist -

Lifecycle Waistguard – Appears to drop off several bosses in Blackwing Descent (Magmaw and Omnitron confirmed so far on Wowhead).  As you can probably tell by now, I’m a fan of the Spirit/Crit combo on these, so they are what I’ll be aiming for.

Waistguard of Hatred – Drops from Theralion or Valiona in Bastion of Twilight.  With Spirit/Mastery it’s still a good option, and really you could probably take whichever comes your way first between this and the previous option.

Stormleather Sash – Another Leatherworking BoE without Spirit.  If you can afford it or make it cheaply yourself, this works well as an initial option.  Personally I think I’ll be waiting for a Spirit drop.

- Legs -

Legwraps of the Raging Elements (T11) – Unlike your wrist slot, there are ton of good options for your legs.  The Tier legs can be purchased for 2,200 JP or can drop from Argaloth.  Great itemization here, with Spirit, Crit and 2 gem slots.  These will likely be an early VP purchase if I’m unlucky with Baradin Hold.

Kilt of the Forgotten Battle – Drops from Cho’Gall in BoT.  The itemization is great, depending on your view of Mastery.  The only issue is whether you want to use a non-tier option in this slot, which doesn’t seem that likely.

Phase Twister Leggings and Kilt of Trollish Dreams – These are identical, and are both BoE drops.  The Phase Twisters drop in Bastion of Twlight, while the Kilt is a world drop.  In either case, expect to pay a ton of gold on the AH.  Again, you’ll have to decide whether you’re going for the T11 legs in this slot.  If not, these are both good options.

- Feet -

Earthmender’s Boots – For me, the clear BiS for this tier, and they are available from a reputation grind.  If you aren’t exalted with Earthen Ring yet, get on it!

Boots of the Perilous Seas – At 1,650 Valor Points, with nearly identical itemization to the Earthmender’s Boots, these seem like a real waste of Valor Points if you’re gearing up your main raiding toon.  Because they are BoE, these might sell well on the AH once you no longer have a use for Valor Points, but that time is a ways off for most of us.

Treads of Flawless Creation – Nothing really wrong with this drop from Maloriak in Blackwing Descent, but nothing really better than the Earthmender’s boots either.  Probably better for your Ele set, since Crit is a pretty low priority in that spec.

- Rings -

Security Measure Alpha – A pretty awesome name, and my top choice for rings.  This drops from the Omnitron Council in Blackwing Descent, and has Spirit and Crit.  It’s your only ring option with those stats at this level.

Twined Band of Flowers – A decidedly less awesome name, this is the other Spirit option, and it comes with Mastery.  Available for 1,250 Valor Points.

Band of Secret Names – The other Valor Point ring, this is aimed more at caster DPS classes, but the Crit/Haste combo is still very solid for us.  If you are unlucky with drops, you could do worse than wearing the two Valor Point options.

Signet of the Fifth Circle and Ring of the Boy Emperor – Identical itemization, very different ways to get your hands on them.  The first is a raid drop from Cho’Gall, while the second is a rare Archaeology project from the Tol’Vir digsites.  Depending on your playstyle, you may come across one or both of these, and either is a good option, worth using instead of spending Valor Points on the above rings.

- Trinkets -

Core of Ripeness -The beauty of this trinket, besides the static 321 Intellect (which is pretty great too), is the thought of popping it in conjunction with Mana Tide.  If you do that, you will see an amazing boost to your Spirit while Mana Tide is up, which in turn will do great things for your mana pool.  People love to argue about the relative value of trinkets (usually because they have hard to model or quantify effects), but for Resto Shamans, I’m pretty confident you’re going to want this one throughout T11 and perhaps beyond.  A nice use of 1,650 Valor Points, and likely my first purchase.

Darkmoon Card: Tsunami – What I like about the Tsunami trinket is that it’s not at all complicated to use.  You just slap it on and you get 321 Intellect and a solid boost to your Spirit that will stack up naturally as you heal.  The downside is that this is going to be very expensive on the AH for a very long time.

Fall of Mortality – Drops from Cho’Gall.  Again we see the standard 321 Intellect.  It also comes with a chance to grant 1926 Spirit for 15 seconds.  In order to properly evaluate this effect, we’ll have to have more data about the frequency of the proc and the internal cooldown.  Right now I haven’t been able to find a good source for that information, so we’re just going to have to assume this is “good” without knowing the exact details.  Suffice it to say that if you see it drop, you probably want to roll.

Tyrande’s Favorite Doll -Well, it has a lot of Int and it can regen around 350 Mp5 if you use it on cooldown and spend at least 21k mana/minute.  The biggest problem will be tracking one down with Archaeology.  The damage effect should usually just be a fun side effect, since you’ll be back with the casters and away from any adds.  Of course, there will be times when you blow this at the wrong time and break CC, or times when you use it perfectly and help out with some AoE.

Jar of Ancient Remedies – This is definitely a good healing trinket, but a few things about it have the potential to be a little annoying.  First, it doesn’t have any static Intellect.  When you compare that to the 321 Int found on other trinkets at this level, it’s a noticeable omission of our best stat.  Second, it’s going to be a little hard to use this effectively in conjunction with Mana Tide.  Ideally, you would want to pop Mana Tide when you have built up 5 stacks of the Spirit Buff, but before you pop the use effect for the lump sump of mana.  However, waiting until after every Mana Tide will not maximize your uptime, so you’re left trying to weave in Mana Tides during a high stack of the buff.  This micro managing seems to be a bit much for me although it’s certainly something you can get used to and the mana return looks to be very solid.  It drops from Maloriak in Blackwing Descent.

Figurine – Dream Owl (JC Only) – Yeah, it’s a blue item, but in many cases this will be better than some of the other epic trinkets.  It’s basically a weaker version of the Core of Ripeness, but you do need to be a Jewelcrafter to use it.  As of right now, the two trinkets do not appear to share a cooldown, so you can use them both with Mana Tide and watch your mana bar refill while pondering the incoming nerf.

Mandala of Stirring Patterns -Available when you hit exalted with Hellscream’s Reach, which also has some other nice rep rewards.  While 321 Spirit is great, Intellect is still a better stat for us on a 1v1 comparison.  On top of that, a random Mastery proc is going to be hard to use to full effect in a raid.  For that reason, I don’t see this as a great option for raiding, despite the high item level.

Soul Casket – I’d be a lot more excited about using this one for my Ele spec, where the static Mastery is more useful and the Spellpower on-use is a nice DPS cooldown.  Available for 1,650 VP, although I’d wait until you have VP to spare for your off spec.

- Weapons -

Andoros, Fist of the Dragon King – I’m a sucker for any weapon with a comma in the name.  That dramatic pause really completes the epic feel.  If you want Spirit on your level 359 epic weapon, this is it.  Also comes with ton of Spellpower and some Mastery.  Drops from Nefarian in Blackwing Descent.

Twilight’s Hammer – I’m not real up on the lore, but my sense is that when there is an evil doomsday cult with the same name as your healing weapon, it’s going to be pretty awesome.  This drops from Cho’Gall, which is starting to be a theme on this loot list.  While there is no Spirit, it comes with nice amounts of Spellpower, Crit, and Haste.

Blade of the Witching Hour – Drops from Theralion and Valiona in BoT.  Again no Spirit, but Spellpower, Crit and Mastery make this a very decent option.  Really, all four epic weapons are fairly similar, and with a bit of reforging will end up with roughly equal stats.  You could probably just roll with whichever you can get first and be satisfied with it.

Incineratus -  I can confirm this drops from Magmaw in Blackwing Descent, because we saw it this week on our first kill.  I passed to the caster DPS types, because I figured I should hold out for a Spirit option.  In hindsight, I probably would have been entitled to roll, since most of the epic one-handers are lacking Spirit, and most caster DPS don’t mind using Staves.

- Shield -

Kingdom’s Heart – Drops from Atramedes in Blackwing Descent.  I love the itemization here with Spirit and Crit, and the name is very appealing to me as well.  However, if you have already crafted or purchased the next shield on the list, you would demonstrate your generous Kingdom Heart by passing to a fellow shield-using raid member who has a lesser option.

Elementium Stormshield – This is a great shield if you have a friendly Blacksmith available, as it comes with Spirit and Haste, and can be made before your first foray into a raid.  You’ll be seeing a lot of healers rocking this one throughout T11 content, including this guy.

- Relic -

Relic of Eonar – This relic is available for only 700 Valor Points, and is perfectly itemized with Spirit and Crit.  Hard to go wrong here, and the Spirit is useful as hit in your Ele offspec.  I don’t see any real reason to consider Relic of Norgannon unless you are mainspec Ele, but even then Eonar may be preferable.

- Planning your Tier 11 and Valor Purchases -

One of the reasons I wanted to write this post is so I could see all my various options and decide how to best spend my Valor Points. Unfortunately, I’m only slightly less confused now than when I started.

If you are trying to determine the relative value of Spirit, Crit, Mastery, and Haste, you are not alone.  You can wander over to Elitist Jerks and watch smart people try to come up with some kind of rational metric that will tell us how to min-max our gear for maximum performance in raids.  They have yet to succeed.

Because of this confusion, I don’t think it’s really possible to come up with a cut and dried “Best in Slot” list that can tell you exactly what Tier and Valor pieces you should purchase.  If you’d like to try, this item comparison at Wowhead takes what I consider the best non-tier piece in each slot and compares it to the other options.  My tentative conclusion is that using non-tier gloves will give me the best balance of the most important stats, with a slight preference for Crit.

Unless you are in a top-tier raiding guild that has most of these bosses on farm already, you’ll also want to consider ease of access.  You’re going to have to down Cho’Gall and Nefarian before you can get your T11 shoulder or helm tokens.  Your legs and hands can drop from Argaloth, which is extremely puggable, but you might not see them for quite some time.  The T11 chest is the only option that you can purchase with Valor Points that does not also drop from Argaloth.  With all of that in mind, my rough plan will be to purchase the Tier 11 chest and legs from the Valor Point vendor, with the Chest first.

However, there are other great options for your Valor Points.  The T11 2 piece bonus does not seem quite as important as the 4 piece (because Healing Wave is often not a huge part of raid healing based on my limited experience).  Thus, the Chest and Legs can wait a little bit until I have access to the other two pieces to complete the set.

Core of Ripeness seems too good to wait for because of its interaction with Mana Tide, so I think I will spring for it first.  I will likely follow that up with the T11 Chest and Legs for the huge stat upgrades over 346 level gear.  Next I will go for the Relic of Eonar, since there are no comparable raid drops in that slot.  Then, I will pick up the ring and cloak depending on how drops and rolls go.  Finally, I will get the T11 hands if I need them for the 4 piece bonus.

I hope that’s a helpful wall of text as you plan your tier 11 gear.  Happy healing!

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The last time CC was really required in most instances was in The Burning Crusade.  I didn’t start playing WoW until well into that expansion, and by the time I reached level 80, I was just learning how to run heroic dungeons and raids.  Shamans were not known for their crowd control abilities.  We had no spells like Polymorph or Sap that could lock down a mob completely.  The best we could do was kite using Frostshock and/or Earthbind.  While kiting is a valuable skill, it pretty much ties you up and doesn’t leave you with time to do anything else.  CC that would allow us to focus on our main job of healing or DPS was sorely lacking.

With Wrath of the Lich King, we were given the Hex spell, just in time for CC to disappear from most dungeons.  Similar to Polymorph, Hex was situationally useful (and was great in PvP), but it still wasn’t as effective as it could have been.  The cooldown on Hex was longer than its duration, which meant that you could not re-cast Hex during the fight to keep a mob locked down.  It was alright for an initial pull or emergency CC, but beyond that, you would have rather had a Mage in the group.

Thankfully, we are going into Cataclysm with two bona fide CC abilities at our disposal.  Hex now turns your PvE target into a frog for a full minute, and only has a 45 second cooldown.  This means you have a 15 second window where you can recast Hex and keep the mob locked down.  Bind Elemental is similar, and will occupy an elemental opponent.  It has no cooldown, so it can be recast instantly to CC a mob repeatedly, although you can only bind one elemental at a time.  By using both Hex and Bind Elemental, you can take out two mobs on some pulls, and keep them tied up as long as necessary.  Compared to our BC lack of crowd control, that is amazing.

Once you have hexed and bound your hapless adversaries, you will be free to focus on healing or DPSing, and you’ll want some way to watch the timer on your CC, so you know when to switch back and re-apply your spell.  One tried and true method of doing so is to put your CC target on focus (so you can monitor the debuff timer on the namplate or using an addon), and then use a focus target macro cast your CC when necessary.  Something like:

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus] Hex

Lots of people use macros like this.  It allows you to re-cast your CC without switching targets, which is very useful.

However, I personally have gotten very used to keeping my tank as a focus target, which has a lot of benefits.  I then use a macro like:

/assist focus

I bind this macro to my F key, so whenever I need to get my tank’s target, I just hit F.  When I am playing as DPS, this allows me to easily make sure I am focus firing the correct target 90% of the time, because if the tank is targeting it, I probably want to be killing it.  It also lets me help out with the interrupts or purges that might be needed on the kill target.  When you need to CC mobs, getting the initial crowd control cast is actually the easy part.  The trickier part is making sure you don’t go breaking that CC by hitting the wrong target, and using a focus macro is a really great way to do so.  With this approach, if you break CC you can just blame the tank for targeting the wrong mob.

So, how am I going to put the tank on focus, have the kill target as my target, and still watch the timers on Hex and Bind Elemental, neither of which I have on target or focus?  Enter Tidy Plates, one of my favorite addons.  By using the Neon Theme (included with the default Tidy Plates addon), I am able to track debuffs right on the mob’s nameplate, even if I don’t have the mob targeted.  Here’s how it looks in action with one mob hexed, one bound, and neither targeted:

Click for Full Size Version

Now my focus and target slots are free to use for my tank and kill target, respectively, and I can still easily monitor the remaining time on my CC abilities.  When I need to re-apply, I simply click on the nameplate, hit my keybind (for me, Shift+1 for Hex, CTRL+1 for Bind Elemental), then hit F to get back to the kill target.  While this doesn’t allow the seamless application of simply CCing my focus target, it gives me more flexibility.  It’s a great way to track CC on more than one target, which is pretty hard to do when you can only focus one mob.  And, if I need to change my CC target on the fly, there’s no need to mess with changing my focus.

Ultimately, you can handle tracking your CC abilities a variety of ways, and this is just an option that I think will work well for me.  I hope you find it useful, and if you have other ideas on how we can improve our crowd control skills, I’d love to hear about them!

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