Right after 4.0.1 I started to write a “guide”, or maybe more a summon up of the changes to resto shaman in the newest patch. However, I never finished and sort of forgot about it, but I thought I’d post it anyway, better late than never. Other classes have had many more changes to them than shamans, but there are still some changes worth mentioning, and they will probably be more or less what counts in Cataclysm also.
Talent tree
I have been playing around with the talent tree for a few days now, testing out talents and spells. Wanted to summon up a few things for the resto shaman. Note that lots of the stats and spells are meant for level 85, so at the moment nothing is optimal.
Is now at 31 points at level cap (85).
My choice so far, but absolutely not the only way to go:
Stats
Good bye, mp5, welcome spirit– all the lovely mp5 that used to be on your gear is now converted into spirit.
My mana pool is huge! The spellpower on your gear is gone (apart from the caster weapons) and has been converted into intellect. 1 int will give you 18 mana.
New passive Meditation– A stat that all healers will have in common. Currently, Spirit increases your mana regeneration both in combat and out of combat, but mp5 is much more efficient for the in combat regeneration. This is because mana regeneration from spirit is drastically reduced in combat. With this spell, a resto shammy will gain precisely half of the combat regen while in combat.
And where did the crit go? With the change in talent tree (no more Thundering Strikes and Tidal Mastery), resto shammies will see their crit % been decreased. New talent Acuity will make up for some of this, with up to 3% more crit on all spells. Since I am still on 25 % crit, I have chosen to wait putting points here til I gain more talent point, but it’s definitely a good place to set your points if you need more crit.
Glyphs
Prime glyphs:
♣ Earthliving Weapon – Increases the effectiveness of your Earthliving weapon’s periodic healing by 20%. (Old: Increases the chance for your Earthliving weapon to trigger by 5%.)
♣ Earth Shield – Increases the healing of your Earth Shield by 20%
♣ Riptide – Increases the duration of your Riptide by 40%.Water Shield – Increases the passive mana regeneration of your Water Shield by 50% (Old: 30% increase)
♣ Water Shield – Increases the passive mana regeneration of your Water Shield by 50% (Old: 30% increase)
Major glyphs:
♣ Chain Heal – Increases healing done by your Chain Heal spell to targets beyond the first by 15%, but decreases the amount received by the initial target by 10%. (Old: Your Chain Heal heals 1 additional target.)
♣ Ghost Wolf – Your Ghost Wolf form grants an additional 10% movement speed.
♣ Healing Stream Totem – Your Healing Stream Totem also increases the Fire, Frost, and Nature resistance of party and raid members within 30 yards by 150. (Old: Your Healing Stream Totem heals for an additional 20%.) Will NOT stack with Blessing of Kings / Mark of the Wild.
♣ Healing Wave – Your Healing Wave also heals you for 20% of the healing effect when you heal someone else.
Minor glyphs:
♣ Water Walking – Your Water Walking spell no longer requires a reagent.
♣Water Breathing – Your Water Breathing spell no longer requires a reagent.
♣ Renewed Life – Your Reincarnation spell no longer requires a reagent.
♣ Astral Recall – Cooldown of your Astral Recall spell reduced by 7.5 minutes.
♣ Arctic Wolf – Alters the appearance of your Ghost Wolf transformation, causing it to resemble an arctic wolf. Cause blue wolves have more fun.
Healing in general
We got some, we lost some, but the resto shaman is not totally revamped. Changes worth mentioning:
Lesser Healing Wave (LHW) is gone *sniff*. The new Healing Surge (HS) is the “new” LHW, however, it will eat your mana quickly, so don’t rely on using only this.
Healing Wave (HW), way less mana consuming than HS, I use it a lot.
Greater Healing Wave (GHW), gives big heals but also takes a long time to cast, so far mostly used it while healing boss fights like Valithira.
Chainheal (CH) affects 4 targets by default. Then you can glyph it so that it increases the healing done by your CH spell to targets beyond the first by 15%, but decreases the amount received by the initial target by 10%. (Old: Your CH heals 1 additional target.)
Riptide now scales with haste and crit.
Cleanse spirit used to remove poison, disease and (for resto shaman with the talent) curse. Now it removes magic and curse and you can choose a talent to throw in a little heal at the same time.
Tidal Force is gone.
Improved reincarnation from talent tree is gone.
♣ CH is not that powerful as it used to be, but again, we are not level 85 yet. What I do believe, after reading and playing a bit in beta, is that the resto shaman will be better at using more spells. Before we pretty much only used this with LHW, then riptide was added. With the 2 set t10 bonus, riptide is a must since it reduces cast time on your next healing spell. Also, I think HW will be used more, not to mention the new spells that will come with higher level, I think it’s safe to say that a resto shaman will no longer be all about chain heals.
♣ The ghost wolf form can now be used indoors, and I would recommend moving down enhancement talent tree to make this cast an instant spell at level 85. With the glyph for increased speed while in wolf, it will be a great way to escape fire / aoe / other stuff you are not supposed to stand in while in a raid, and it also means you can have an other enchant that the +speed increase on boots. If you think the ghost wolf form looks dull, go arctic!
♣ When it comes to gear, it will from now wont be worth wearing cloth or leather items, even though they have the stats you want. With Armor Specialization it will be mail gear you’ll want.
Totems
Sentry totem is gone. I think I used it once, in a silly attempt to defend goldmine in Arathi Basin.
Cleansing totem GONE. I miss it so much! 😦 Rip!
Mana tide is, imo nerfed. It now increases spirit by 300 for 12 seconds with a 3 min CD. Tp party members, rest of raid members will not benefit. Fair enough, but doesn’t feel as great as old, lovely mana tide.
Mana spring totem gives mp5, but no more “oooh mine is improved and yours is not, so I’ll use mine, wait, mine is better than Blessing of Wisdom” blah blah blah, mana spring is now same for all resto shamans. Also, no need to constantly, all the time, non-stop keep bugging the paladin for BoW, since this is part of the Might buff.
Healing totem can be glyphed to also increase resistance for raid members.
Totem of the tranquil mind is new and causing party or raid members within 30 yards to lose 30% less casting or channeling time when damaged.
Gems
Some changes in stat colours, this site is updated for cross references if you are not sure what all the gems are called.
Spellpower gems are now intellect ones, but went from yellow to red.
Your mp5 gems have been turned into spirit. Still a blue stat.
The gems I use for red, blue and yellow slots are:
Quick King’s Amber (20 haste)
Reckless Ametrine (10 haste, 10 int)
Energized Eye of Zul (10 haste, 10 spirit)
Metagem: Insightful Earthsiege Diamond or Ember Skyflare Diamond
I don’t really care to keep socket bonuses other than the metagem, but my gear is mostly 277/264, and I feel I benefit more from haste than more spell power. However, for lower level gear, it’s a good idea to socket so you get the bonuses (usually +sp). The haste (soft) cap for resto shaman is still supposed to be around 1260, or 38 %.
Relics / totems have lost their special effect, which I think is a bit sad, it was like having an extra trinket. Now it is all about stats, and also got a socket. So the totem you used before is not necessarily the one you want to use now.
Mastery and Reforging
The resto shaman’s Mastery is Deep Healing, which is described like this:
Increases the potency of your direct healing spells by up to 20%, based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Each point of Mastery increases direct heals by up to an additional 2.5%.
There is no gear with +mastery on yet, but you can reforge other stats into it. I personally only have 8 mastery atm, and I’m not going to reforge any of my other stats before Cataclysm. Since boss damage, player stamina, and player healing are all (roughly) where they were before the patch, our Deep Healing isn’t very helpful. Yet! This makes mastery our least valuable stat, and it makes our healing model very similar to what it was before the patch. With new content, abilities and ways of playing I am sure I will, but for now I think the benefits will be minimal.
From interesting shaman article on Wowhead:
Mastery is an important stat, but like spirit, you shouldn’t focus on it solely. Deep Healing is very useful, but the game developers have even said that they will not be designing healing encounters around this ability. Most of the gear that we’ll get through dungeons, questing and various reputation rewards will provide us with more than enough mastery rating. With a lot of our passive crit rating going away with Cataclysm, reforging that into mastery really will not be worth it.
However, just a tip, if you just reached 80 and have some pvp gear in lack of better pve ones, you could reforge some of the crit into better stats, like haste. Unfortunately you can’t refore recilience. That would be great, though!
Enchants
Pretty much same old, same old, but someone I know who is not yet level 80 asked me if I could make a list over resto shaman enchants. Of course I can:
Head enchant: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries or Arcanum of Blissful Mending
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Storm or Greater Inscription of the Crag. If you are an inscriptor, use Master’s Inscription of the Storm.
Cloak: Greater Speed . If tailor: Lightweave Embroidery. If engineer: Springy Arachnoweave
Chest: Powerful Stats
Wrist: Exceptional Intellect or Superior Spellpower. If leatherworker Fur Lining – Spell Power
Gloves: Exceptional Spellpower. If engineer, Hyperspeed Accelerators.
Legs: [Sapphire Spellthread] or Brilliant Spellthread. If tailor, Master’s Spellthread
Feet: Tuskarr’s Vitality
Rings (if enchanter) Greater Spellpower
Weapon: Mighty Spellpower
Shield: Greater Intellect
ShammyLove 