How can I improve my performance as a resto shammy ?

[Roothar 0]

Hello Everyone,

I've  rerolled resto shaman to help my guild in 25man progression. I've readed many guides (from this site, mmo-champion, healing wow etc. ) and also watched youtube streams but I feel my hps isn't still good enough (ep for hc progress). Could you help me and say what i am doing wrong ?

Here is WoL report:

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/4iko4p8h5uw8g2mn/

and also VoD from Siegecrafter & Thok:

 

 

There is my armory:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/the-maelstrom/Noorth/advanced

 

I think i don't use my cooldowns as many times as i could. Could you give me some tips ?

 

Will my hps be much higher when i get legendary meta or cloack ?

 

[Stoove 347]

Hi there Roothar, thanks for coming here and asking for advice. I tend to talk a lot, but hopefully you will find it useful

 

I'm going to tackle things in this order;

1. Your videos,
2. Your logs,
3. Your armoury.

Videos

 

I don't want to go into too much detail, because this is probably the least important of the things I have to say. I think that there are lots of ways in which you can improve your UI and your general play which will allow you to respond better to what's going on in the fight. If you want me to go into some more detail, I'll be happy to. For the moment, let me just say that I think your UI is unnecessarily cluttered.

 

Logs

 

It can be quite hard to tell what's going wrong on logs, so bear with me a bit. At first glance, your logs don't seem completely unreasonable. However, the devil's in the details. I'll take your log on Nazgrim as an example;

 

Cooldowns

• You used Healing Tide Totem three times on this fight (good)
• You didn't use Ascendance or Spirit Link Totem at all (bad)
• Are you using your cooldowns to react to spike damage?
• If so, you should be planning when to use your cooldowns rather than just waiting for a good chance. Nazgrim isn't essential for this, but other fights definitely are.
• Healing cooldowns are always better when you use them just before the damage spike hits. This is because you ensure everyone is topped for the damage.

Smaller cooldowns

• You've specced for Call of the Elements, but don't seem to use it at all! If you're not using it, the talent is redundant. Use it better or take a different one (I like Projection for Nazgrim).
• You've glyphed Riptide, but you still seem to be casting it about the same amount of times as you should normally. Do you find that you make the most of Glyph of Riptide?
• Looks like you're making good use of Healing Rain.

Other Abilities

• Chain Heal - it's doing huge amounts of overhealing for you. Are you just using it regardless of the situation/timing? It looks a lot like you're spamming this spell, and you shouldn't. Chain Heal is good when damage has already happened, or if you time the cast to hit just after spike damage.
• Healing Wave - at this point in the expansion, I can't think of a good reason to use Healing Wave over your other spells. If Greater Healing Wave or Chain Heal won't suffice, why are you using Healing Wave?

Armoury

 

OK this is interesting.

 

I think that you don't have an unrealistic amount of Spirit considering that you don't have the Legendary Meta Gem ("LMG") yet. Once you do get it, you can remove a good chunk of Spirit. On the other hand you're using the regen trinket as well - if you have a different trinket, use that instead. If not, you likely have too much regen - in which case drop some Spirit for more Crit.

 

You want to gem Orange in Red slots, not Red. Orange gems get you more throughput than Red ones, because 2 Crit > 1 Int.

 

I think that your choice of Haste rating is pretty good, and that you have a bit more Mastery than I would recommend. Mastery is really good when you're doing Heroic progress, but when you're on farm it's not really worth it. One of the reasons you feel you're not doing "enough" healing might be because you have so much Mastery, which only really shines in Heroic progress.

 

Legendaries

 

The legendaries will improve your throughput a bit, but don't rely on them for it.

 

The biggest change is when you get the LMG, at which point you can drop a while ton of Spirit. This is especially true if you start to game the proc and the Glyph of Totemic Recall.

 

I hope that helps, just ask if you have any more questions :)

[Roothar 0]

Thanks for the advices,and really long and detailed ansfer. I'll try to better manage my smaller cooldowns and also move Healing Weave out from my rotation, as you suggest.  We're starting heroic 25 progress for now so i don't want to drop too much of  my mastery, but I'll consider reforge a little bit for crit aswell .

You also said that there is a little mess in my UI. Should i decrase numbers of the action bars and i guess try to bind more spells ?or mb drop/change some addons ?

[Stoove 347]

I'm glad I can help! Let us know how your Heroic progress goes. CptDan knows a lot more about 25s than I do, so maybe he can give you some more pointers

 

I think the big problem with your UI is that there is so much clutter. You honestly do not need all of that information, and it is getting in the way of important things. I'm going to make some suggestions, but you need to weigh them up yourself and think carefully about which ones you do. There is no right answer here, so if it won't work for you then don't do it.

1. Scrolling Battle Text isn't giving you any useful information, but it takes up a huge amount of screen space. I'd get rid of it all.
2. You have a nice graphic in the center of your screen showing you cooldowns (the bar with the icons moving along it). Right next to that you have timers for all sorts of different buffs. I don't think that you need the timers when you have your cooldown tracker.
3. You don't really need Recount to show in-fight. I would tell it to hide during combat.
4. You have a huge number of timers and things in the top left. I doubt that they are useful for much, so I would remove them too.
5. Your boss timers are in a very important part of the screen, you could probably move them out of the way a bit to get a better view of the fight.
6. Your healthbar and your target are center-middle of your screen - how important is this to you really? I usually recommend that you have your raid frames low-center and your target/self in one corner. That serves two benefits; you spend more time looking near your feet and you have the most important information (the raid's health) near where you want to look at your buttons or spell timers.

If you want to look at my UI, there's a picture here in the middle of a set of posts I have been making about WeakAuras. It's as minimal as possible, and gives me the most important information and little more than that. It works for me, but again it might not work for you. Think about it and have a play :)

[lynx 19]

You don't really need Recount to show in-fight. I would tell it to hide during combat.

 

I actually use it in pugs. Put it on damage done, and prioritize heals according to best dps .

When the margin gets big (lets say when one dps is sustaining over 500k, followed by a sub 300k), I've even been known to prioritize them over tanks. Because a tank can get a cr and be back in nearly full shape, while dps getting a cr is 2/3 of his former self in best case scenario. And in case you're wondering, it even included earth shielding them if he's in a rough spot. 

Edited March 30, 2014 by lynx

[Stoove 347]

OK, but not entirely relevant for guild groups :P

[CptDan 25]

Hello, sorry ice been way for a bit. We are refocusing our main team for a final push for the tier so the leadership stuff has kept me busy.

So, as stated by the wizard above (stoove) I raid 25 man almost exclusively and love it. I'll try to address the comments and questions but feel free to ask more!

1. I felt like I needed a nap after seeing your UI. I will have to post mine sometime. Remember that especially in heroics, the healer is no good if he/she/it is dead. The more complex your UI is, the harder mechanics are to see and follow. What if your addon is covering a crappy void zone? Or some scrolling text blocks the view of an orb on malk? Try to simplify the UI if at all possible. I use elvui with a lot of it disabled, vuhdo, skada, and DBM. That's pretty much it. I keep skada windows open on damage taken and per fight metrics like dispels but this is mostly due to me providing oversight. Also if an addon bugs out (never happens right?) you could be hurting.

2. I agree with stoove on the logs. Pay really close attention to cooldowns. Coordinate with co healers for max gains on this. Also study the fights out and see which timings are best. Sometimes it's not the heal that is as important as the timing of said heal.

3. Stat weights: the LMG will help in ways that you will love. The best part is that the proc scales with talent in that as you get better at gaming it, the yields grow quickly. Mastery is great in progression but only with a few caveats: first; if you are 5-6 healing mastery weakens a bit and second; if you are matched with a lot of absorption healers. One disc won't hurt much but two disc priests and a pally will really hurt your mastery overall. Orange gems and green gems are amazing. Use the orange for int/crit or int/haste and green if you want a tad more spirit and/or want to grab a powerful socket bonus.

4. Remember that resto shaman in general are very subject to getting "watered" down (couldn't resist) and if you're bringing too many heals you won't shine as much. In ten mans this is almost never an issue as the heals are more naturally balanced in most cases and they have to heal their asses off. If you are feeling weak, try running with one less healer if you're raid leader is keen. On a farm boss go with 4 heals and prog bosses 5 and then the tuning will bring your numbers up and let mastery shine a bit for you.

5. A bit more on UI: I don't want you to go too minimal like I have been. I've been slowly adding addons lately but I love my screen space. Weak auras is amazing and I'm getting used to that. My goals in a UI are simple 1. Is the information clear and absorbable in 3 seconds or less? If we wipe can I give a reason why before we run back? 2. How often will the addons crash/need updating? 3. Can I use the addon without distracting me from any mechanic? 4. Is another addon of mine giving me this functionality already?

6. Meters in combat: I tend to agree with stoove on this one, but as stated I keep skada up but not on HPS instead using dispel or ability tracking so I can shout out at other healers. Stoove has an excellent ui to base some things on and as I get better with WA I may move in that direction.

7. In closing, let's talk about your guild. Make sure make sure make sure you work with your team. Make sure needless Dmg is avoided and coordinate with your co healers.

I would be happy to chat in vent/mumble with you and talk for hours on all of this if you ever wanted. I really need to make theory crafting den voice server for all of us nerds.

[Roothar 0]

Thanks for the responses. Ill let you know how it is going after changes. Cheers.

[Saesenthessi 0]

Mouseover macros have heIped me, might heIp you once you get used to them. And weII why use spirit fiask when youre not even cIose to running out of mana.

[Stoove 347]

Definitely use some form of easier casting tool. You will probably find that Clique will be easiest to implement, and mouseovers you can also do without changing your frames. Really, the ultimate addon is Vuh'do, which is a raidframes addon and click-to-heal tool all in one. It's 100% awesome, but takes some time to get used to. :)

[Roothar 0]

My raidframes addon also support click to cast and i have several spells binded to my mouse or shift/alt + mouse. Mb ill try mouseovr also.

[CptDan 25]

Not to necro a post but I wanted to see how it was working out for you.

[Stoove 347]

Totally fine by me, I'd be interested to see an update :)

[Roothar 0]

Hi there is update :

1. i rid off some addons and little rebuild UI:

 

2. There is a log from last week SoO:

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-p1s72z9zrefsqal3/

I think i don't make big progress (recalls still ain't work good and i guess i can improve with my cooldowns also a bit more) but I think your advices help a lot.

3. I'm still using too much chain healing and too few Riptiles - working on it 

4.I don't use Healing Weave now 

5.Still i can better use Call of Elements and Ancestral Swiftness

 

Unfortunately our logs from first 5 bosses (2 on heroic) broken so i can't post it there.

Edited April 9, 2014 by Roothar

[Stoove 347]

I like the change to your UI (though seeing it in combat is the real test!).

 

Did you run out of mana towards the end of that Garrosh kill?

[Roothar 0]

Hm, if I remember good i have enough mana at the end of the fight. (I agree my hps is low at this point ).

[Stoove 347]

Hm, if I remember good i have enough mana at the end of the fight. (I agree my hps is low at this point ).

 

Interesting. I notice that your healing really dropped about the time the final phase started. I think that's odd because it's the highest throughput phase!