[Resto-BRF-Logs] Need Some Insight/Help

[Eaxoa 0]

Hello! First post, but I needed some input from others.

 

I'm getting back into the groove with my Resto shaman after having set her aside for two expansions. I've been playing since Vanilla, and I've raided in every expansion, always as a healer. Class might change, but role never does. I have personal experience with every healing class and spec except for Discipline, and I only know what I know of that spec because I was a raid leader up until Mists, where I decided to take a back seat.

 

Now I'm back in the raiding game, somewhat surprisingly, and while I enjoyed Highmaul quite a bit with the group I was in, moving into Blackrock Foundry is starting to grind my gears - and I'm coming out of each raid even more upset and doubtful as we go. It's not healthy or fun, obviously.

 

So, I come to you.

 

Here is my armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/moon-guard/Eaxoa/advanced

Here is the most recent raid log: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/AL1ZVBmDfTkw3K2X/

 

Talent Choice Notes -

 

Totemic Persistence > Totemic Projection: I generally have myself positioned in such a way that dropping a totem where I want it isn't an issue. 

 

Ancestral Swiftness > Echo of the Elements: I like the passive haste and the insta-heal. I feel it's a little more beneficial to my playstyle, but I may look into changing that up for my next raid.

 

Primal Elementalist > Elemental Blast: I am currently so paranoid about a member of my raid dying, having the raid wipe, and getting healer blame that the idea of using an ability that takes my attention off of healing for even a moment is actually a little terrifying. I did use the ability earlier in the expansion in 5-mans, but when I moved into raiding I simply felt like my cast time was better spent with healing.

 

Personal Notes -

 

Regarding Riptide, Earth Shield, and Healing Stream Totem up-time: I am aware that these need to be worked on. I have a bad habit of getting tunnel vision and letting these drop. I do run with Riptide glyphed.

 

I have just downloaded WeakAuras, and I'll be setting that up to give me better notifications so I fix that.

 

Regarding Chain Heal: I am aware I rely on it a bit too much. This is a left over from old healing habits. I've been working on weaving more riptides, healing waves, and healing rains into my runs.

 

Regarding Elementals: I'm a derp and totally didn't know the Earth Elemental will also increase healing done. That will be used more next run. Clearly, I need to learn to read!

 

Raid Gripes - 

 

We generally run with one additional healer, always. If we wipe once, people complain. If we wipe a second time, a healer is added. The go-to additional healer is a Discipline Priest - most often an incredibly geared one (as seen in this log: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/2k9QD4XxFrBMRK6z#type=healing).

 

Cue the issues.

 

Without fail, my healing numbers are brought up. I've probably spent more time in the last two weeks researching everything I can in regards to shaman healing than I have doing my homework for college. The general consensus I've gleaned is two fold; healing across Discipline Priests sucks, period... and if your Resto Shaman is topping the charts for your healers, your other healers need to be looked into - because we shouldn't be on top.

 

From personal experience, a good majority of the beginnings of fights, I'm left with my thumb up my bum. Our Disc priest bubbles, as they do, and what little damage is meted out is snapped up by our Resto Druid. This is part of the reason why I glyphed Riptide - at the very least, I can get the whole raid wet and not feel like I'm useless.

 

We do run fairly melee heavy, so while spread on some fights can still be a total pain, there are strong points in every fight where I can plan ahead so I know a Healing Rain or Chain Heal won't be wasted. 

 

But if the fight requires a lot of movement, I'm SOL. My numbers drop, inevitably someone dies, and I'm left holding the bag because there was diddly-squat to heal until the point that someone drops. 

 

I know I'm a niche healer and BRF is not a kind place for me - I don't have any issue with this. I knew the job would be hard, and I actually really like that. What I'm really not enjoying is ending every fight, even our wipes, feeling so mentally exhausted and just knowing that the first thing out of anyone's mouth is how healing was lackluster.

 

I would like to continue to improve and I feel there is room for improvement, but I'm also starting to reach a point where I'm honestly beginning to wonder if I'm simply dealing with a raid that does not understand, in the least, how my class and spec work, and how the synergy between the three healers we have may not be the most optimal.

 

Essentially, I feel a bit like I'm being crucified for being the wrong healer in the wrong place. I wish that log above had the trash pre-Gruul. I hit 60k HPS on one of the packs and was immensely happy because I had my chance to shine, but I fear it may have only made the other raiders feel like I should be pulling larger numbers during bosses.

 

I really feel like I'm disappointing the raid leader, who has become a friend. We can't figure out what's wrong, so I've come to you guys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thrallish 1]

I recommend Stooves weak aura config. Especially the rotational cooldowns. You can find them here. You should use hst on cooldown and this WA will do a phone noise to remind you to drop hst.

https://stoove.wordpress.com/restoration-shaman-weak-auras/

You shouldnt glyph riptide if youre going to cast it every 30 seconds. My go to rotation is riptide - healing wave - healing wave. Repeat. Weave in chain heal now and then.

[chiznitz 4]

1. You should go back to EotE and start using riptide on cooldown.  

2. You have the glyph yet you barely casted riptide.  

3. You dropped healing stream totem only 4 times.  It is one of your major healing abilities and should be dropped on cooldown.

4. You should probably look at Call of the elements over persistence as all persistence gets you with hightide selected is the ability to drop HST and HTT at the same time which really isn't needed.

5. When there is nothing to heal at the beginning of a fight you can dps.

6. Drop PE for Elemental Blast - Your heals will actually be much stronger/faster/etc w/ the buff you get, plus the 1000 spirit will allow to have more mana to cast more heals.   

7. Always try and keep healing rain on CD.  On maidens we have ranged stack for the majority of the fight and just move left or right depending on the debuff you have.  This allows a lot of people to stand in rain, or you can drop it on melee.

8. You have high tide selected yet you barely use riptide, if you throw out enough riptides your hightide will be even more powerful.  Try keeping riptide on the 2 tanks, a melee, and a ranged and then you can choose one of those targets to buff your chain heal.

 

 

Basically, get a set of weak auras and start using riptide and healing stream properly

[Cakepies 2]

Hello! First post, but I needed some input from others.

 

 

Hello! I can see you are a victim of the misconception that Resto Shamans are bottom of the barrel niche healers. A lot of the people who play this game treat healing like dps, in that there is a certain throughput associated with a certain ilvl, or that certain spells need to be prioritized and kept on cool down. The truth is that healing is a much more fluid and dynamic job where many variables change from encounter to encounter. Also, all healers are viable at the cutting edge level. Because a game can never be perfectly balanced or is sometimes built to favor certain classes in specific encounters, there will be times when RShamans are not going to hit the 99th percentile. There is not a single encounter in the current raid tier (and I couldn't imagine there being one this expansion) where taking a RShaman would be detrimental to a raid group. Unfortunately, most people don't understand this because they go to Warcraft logs, look at the fight statistics for heroic BRF and see RShamans at the bottom of almost every encounter, and disc priests well above the others. This is because when a raid group struggles on an encounter, typically the first change a raid leader makes is adding a healer. The more healers, the better disc priests will do in relation to their healing team, and RShamans are worse off. Disc's ability to overheal basically allows no damage portions of fights to be a sort of no contest. Also, the higher throughput of other healers lessens a shaman's ability to benefit from their mastery. With proper class knowledge and encounter instincts, a Shaman should have an equal ability to excel in most fights if the raid is not healer heavy.

 

Anyways, while that's all well and good in a perfect world, your numbers need some help.

 

I would start with removing glyph of riptide and speccing echo of the elements. With the recent buff to EotE it has become our best response to low damage fights and the extra spirit link comes in handy in fights like Gruul, Oregorger, and Kromog. If you see anyone dip in health, hit them with a riptide or a unleash elements, something that EotE lets you do very generously. glyph of riptide pretty much makes this impossible as the initial heal in negligible.

 

Elemental blast is our most important talent next to maybe high tide, although in a world where mana isn't an issue primal elemntalist would be better for throughput. This isn't ever going to happen though because chain heal is a highly mana negative spell and has to be cast a ton. Elemental blast needs to be pretty damn close to on CD use and should be woven into gaps between heals. 

 

This brings to me next point, chain heal is our most important spell and needs to be held on a pedestal above your other heals. *Whenever you have an opportunity to cast chain heal without minimal overhealing, cast it*. Don't wait to ensure you have three riptides rolling on the target group, although that would be ideal. Chain heal spam is where resto shams make our money, it's just very mana intensive.

 

Probably the last simple change to playstyle to bring up your numbers is to not be scared to use your major CDs in healing tide and ascendance. I haven't analyzed your logs as to major CD use, but on fights like Gruul or FB kagraz there should easily be spots to use both of those twice. Ascendance can be nearly as potent as healing tide if healing rain is cast right before you pop it and then you spam chain heal the entire time it's up.

 

Hope that helps!

 

[Toulip 2]

I would suggest using a different master glyph rather than Hex. 

Try either Spiritwalker's Grace or Focus - to enable you to cast while moving. 

[Eaxoa 0]

1. You should go back to EotE and start using riptide on cooldown.  

2. You have the glyph yet you barely casted riptide.  

3. You dropped healing stream totem only 4 times.  It is one of your major healing abilities and should be dropped on cooldown.

4. You should probably look at Call of the elements over persistence as all persistence gets you with hightide selected is the ability to drop HST and HTT at the same time which really isn't needed.

5. When there is nothing to heal at the beginning of a fight you can dps.

6. Drop PE for Elemental Blast - Your heals will actually be much stronger/faster/etc w/ the buff you get, plus the 1000 spirit will allow to have more mana to cast more heals.   

7. Always try and keep healing rain on CD.  On maidens we have ranged stack for the majority of the fight and just move left or right depending on the debuff you have.  This allows a lot of people to stand in rain, or you can drop it on melee.

8. You have high tide selected yet you barely use riptide, if you throw out enough riptides your hightide will be even more powerful.  Try keeping riptide on the 2 tanks, a melee, and a ranged and then you can choose one of those targets to buff your chain heal.

 

 

Basically, get a set of weak auras and start using riptide and healing stream properly

 

Wrong log. Not that most of your advice isn't still helpful, but the core raid that I am working with is not on Maidens and that particular logging was with me being moved to boat healing - where there is so little to be done that I likely could have just healed with UL just because the group I was in was actually capable of not screwing up.

 

Admittedly, that series of logs from that night is highly skewed - by the time we reached Maidens, half our raid had lost focus and we were wiping due to selfie cameras. 

 

 

Anyways, while that's all well and good in a perfect world, your numbers need some help.

 

I would start with removing glyph of riptide and speccing echo of the elements. With the recent buff to EotE it has become our best response to low damage fights and the extra spirit link comes in handy in fights like Gruul, Oregorger, and Kromog. If you see anyone dip in health, hit them with a riptide or a unleash elements, something that EotE lets you do very generously. glyph of riptide pretty much makes this impossible as the initial heal in negligible.

 

Elemental blast is our most important talent next to maybe high tide, although in a world where mana isn't an issue primal elemntalist would be better for throughput. This isn't ever going to happen though because chain heal is a highly mana negative spell and has to be cast a ton. Elemental blast needs to be pretty damn close to on CD use and should be woven into gaps between heals. 

 

This brings to me next point, chain heal is our most important spell and needs to be held on a pedestal above your other heals. *Whenever you have an opportunity to cast chain heal without minimal overhealing, cast it*. Don't wait to ensure you have three riptides rolling on the target group, although that would be ideal. Chain heal spam is where resto shams make our money, it's just very mana intensive.

 

Probably the last simple change to playstyle to bring up your numbers is to not be scared to use your major CDs in healing tide and ascendance. I haven't analyzed your logs as to major CD use, but on fights like Gruul or FB kagraz there should easily be spots to use both of those twice. Ascendance can be nearly as potent as healing tide if healing rain is cast right before you pop it and then you spam chain heal the entire time it's up.

 

Hope that helps!

 

 

Done and done. I ran a few LFR's with EotE to get into the hang of using it, but I won't be able to see how it's really changed anything until my raid on Sunday. Even undergeared, I've always topped LFR meters, so I can't gauge anything on them. But the raid is great for practice!

 

Part of the reason I stopped using EB was because it didn't give Spirit back when I hit max level, and even then I was really only running out of mana when my group was trying to be stupid. Even now, I'm really not running out of mana because the periods between each high-damage phase where I spam chain heal are low enough that I regenerate quickly. Regardless, I've picked it up again as well.

 

I've gotten better about CD use. My raid doesn't control these (yet) so I use them when I can - HTT is used nearly on CD during some fights, and Ascendance goes up alone or when I drop SLT. I'm still working on Healing Rain timing with regards to Ascendance.

 

I'll see if there's improvement this Sunday - Thank you for the help!

 

I would suggest using a different master glyph rather than Hex. 

Try either Spiritwalker's Grace or Focus - to enable you to cast while moving. 

 

I've replaced Riptide with Grace. Hex was used for a bit of trolling of a friend, and I forgot to switch it back out before I logged.