Resto Shaman Fine Tuning

[Apexis 1]

Hey guys, I am looking to fine tune my abilities as a resto shaman. I am currently raiding in a 11/14HC 25m guild. I started raiding with them early into SoO as a warrior and dropped it to help the guild, since then Icy-Veins has been my go to for resto information. When I started healing on this character is was my first time healing and there was a lot of big obstacles but eventually with browsing the this forum and visiting other sites I got comfortable and confident.

 

As a 10m normal progression guild I was quite often fighting for the top spot, as time progressed and we were 14/14N I was consistent. Than my world was flipped, with the announcement of WoD we as a guild decided to go to two 10m raid groups and begin building our guild for WoD mythics. 10 of our core raiders went on to progress in heroics and I stayed and lead our second 10m. Being ilvl 565+ in a 10m normal progression group I got lazy, didn't have to think so much, or be careful with my mana, I could afford reckless healing.

 

As time went on and group 2 progressed farther and farther we were now ready to step it up, into heroics it was. Group 1s current progression was 7/14HC while we were starting Immer. We carefully and skillfully worked out way through the bosses almost catching group 1. Where we decided it would be best for the guild to merge the groups and move into 25m HC. Since than we have made awesome progression, downing Heroic thok in just 12 pulls 2 weeks ago.

 

My gear is now @ ilvl 579 but my numbers aren't where I want them. I have gone over the logs, I have read the sites, and I searched almost any forum thread but I cant put my finger on where I have gone wrong. Fights where I know I can be doing much better and know where I have made some simple mistakes I can adjust but I think there is something at large that I am missing. 

 

I play the 6th healer/back up range dps. My gear is built around healing but some fights I am currently dpsing, such as Nazgrim on the logs I linked today.

 

Warcraft Logs - http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/k2q14QvwxgAJPazj#type=healing&source=21&fight=1

 

Armory - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/arthas/Apexis/advanced

 

 

My train of thought on gearing/my stat priorities is that spirit is utterly useless once at a certain crit level. I am touching a 40%(+) Crit with 42% haste, I have very very few mana issues, I love the fast bursty play style it brings, I am just not sure it is the most effective, especially in a 25m vs 10m environment.

 

I am hoping some of you with much better analytic skills can help me out, pick the logs apart, be brutally honest. I am trying to maximize my HPS and play at a skilled level, where I know I can be. I need someone with a fresh set of eyes to set me straight. Thanks in advanced, Apexis.

Edited August 2, 2014 by Apexis

[Stoove 347]

So, your build looks fine to me. I went to have a look at your logs and I can't see anything immediately wrong either. There are a few moments where you seem to be waiting too long to drop Healing Stream Totem, but your overall usage is good. I also looked at your usage of Unleash Life just before Healing Rain, and you seem to do that pretty well too (graph with pins).

 

Overall, I think that your raid is healing with too many healers; look at the overall healing done on some of these fights. The differential between your lowest and highest healers is massive, and that's a generally good indicator that you're overhealing as a group.

[Apexis 1]

I was curious if that would be the outcome. I am also currently our only viable hybrid in the raid. I guess we will have to wait and see whats going on. Thanks Stoove.

[dean771 3]

Don't bother comparing your numbers to the disc priests, they are beyond broken

[Stoove 347]

Don't bother comparing your numbers to the disc priests, they are beyond broken

 

Amen to that.

 

As I said, you're doing perfectly well and I can't see any specific common mistakes in your play. 25-man isn't my mode at the moment, so it would be good if someone else could have a look at your logs and give their opinion.

 

 

I was curious if that would be the outcome. I am also currently our only viable hybrid in the raid. I guess we will have to wait and see whats going on. Thanks Stoove.

 

You're totally welcome, but if I was your Raid Leader I'd be having a good long look at that Holy Priest. That's just my opinion, though - new DPS are two a penny, new Healers usually aren't!

[lynx 19]

Don't bother comparing your numbers to the disc priests, they are beyond broken

 

Only in 25 though In 10man they're good, but not broken.

Since I've transitioned from 10man into 25 one major thing comes to mind, unless you're 3 healing the fights resto shamans are needed there only for burst when disc is present. You will do some healing outside of burst, but with a disc it'll be just noise.

Malkorok is an exception, and your parse on him seems a little weak. Although resto shamans aren't the strongest healer there, you should be somewhat higher than that.

Few things I noticed about it:

1. Your HTT did almost nothing, not sure how that happened.

2. You didn't take AG. HST is a smart heal, and as a such it falls short on this fight because you don't necessarily want to heal the low HP people (unless going for ranks), but rather the low shield people. Use it on pull to top the raid, and then when needed.

3. You didn't use ascendance

4. You didn't use RT enough

5. For some reason chain heal is a little weak. Did you take chaining glyph? On this fight you should, since you won't be spamming CH anyway.

[Pandacho 286]

Sorry, lynx, but I definitely disagree with your opinion about shaman+disc healing. I did 8/14HM in 25-man and 10/14 HM in 10-man with me (resto sham), disc and holy pala in different setups. I was always at 1 place in overall healing and HPS. Maybe you are right for some ideal theorycrafting, but in the real raid the best player is the one why use his brain.

Here's the link to our guild logs (10 and 25 man, better to watch the July - more raids there), so you can check it by yourself.  http://www.warcraftlogs.com/guilds/2238

But, what's is true - you have to plan every fight, regem, reforge, retalent and reglyph a lot. It's not some LFR stile playing when every healing class throw some HoTs and immediately come to conclusions which class is better.

 

Here I have a funny logs - I came for the 4 last SoO bosses (normal) on my alt - disc priest 552 ilvl, no SoO trinkets at all, never did SoO NM on my disc before. My disc is Nascente, another one (Lisalla) is our raid disc.

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/zjRQ4daPmHCNynLc

So, imo, there are no best classes and worst classes. It's just about the willing to improve and to invest into your playing style.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Pandacho

[lynx 19]

Hmm I think I wasn't entirely clear on this hence the confusion. In 10man yes, your healing is always important. In 25 not so much, unless you're 3 healing. You're needed mostly for burst or when disc derps

Uncapped L90 talents accompanied with DA skews healing so much in favor of disc it's not even funny. Imagine your HR would heal all people inside for full capacity, that would be just mad! Or your CH jumping to 10 targets in 25.

 

I took a peek at your log from 17/7, and it's about as I said. Both discs derped on protectors hence you made the most impact on healing.

But take a look here

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/2Zb19BKp7MWT3hFd#fight=2&type=healing

Two discs performed well, and almost all of my healing was concentrated in burst. Don't ask me why we were 5 healing it, we just were

And when you take fights that discs derped on:

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/2Zb19BKp7MWT3hFd#fight=26&type=healing

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/2Zb19BKp7MWT3hFd#fight=39&type=healing

Suddenly my healing became important. Also note how on paragons one disc was dead for a full quarter of the fight and still healed the most.

 

Even when you take shaman's playground (aka Thok) discs excel at it too.

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/2Zb19BKp7MWT3hFd#fight=31&type=healing

Although I derped quite a bit on it. Happens as well.

[Stoove 347]

Seems like derping is the popular option! :D

 

Thanks for having a more detailed look at the logs lynx!

[grautod 6]

With Healing Team the judge of success is if people live long enough to kill the boss.

In the logs you uploaded there is only 5 wipes and they where when you were dps mode.

Absorbs will always take priority over direct heals and it is obvious with the discipline priest he is getting first bite at HPS meter as a result.

Iron Juggernaught is always a good fight to look at because of the burst nature of the damage, it allows a look at the max performance of the heals during the burst of damage.

In this fight you kept up with the other heals (0.6% between top 3 heals including yourself).

I did note 73.5% of your healing rain is overheal, or in otherwords wasted. Chain heal is running at 44.5% over heal. With no deaths in the fight either this suggests your team has a lot of over healing running with 6 healers. That number is nice and safe and makes for a quick run but really isn't going to be very taxing on the healers.

Of the 17 Healing rains used, 14 had unleashed life buff, try a macro to cast them both together and you wont miss buffing the healing rain

Riptide uptime on the two tanks was 83.27% and 73.6%. This could be improved.

Malkorok ...

HST is a smart heal, and as a such it falls short on this fight because you don't necessarily want to heal the low HP people (unless going for ranks), but rather the low shield people. Use it on pull to top the raid, and then when needed.

HST only had 15.18% overheal so in the logs it looks very effective, wonder if HST smart enough to only to look at the shield strength when shields are up

In Malorok you don't appear to have used any cooldowns to power the players shields when they are being established. This was done by the other healers and the shadow priest. As a result your HPS are low as an average across the fight. If you take a sample say 3:30 to 4:30 to excluded this burst of healing and you will see it much more even between yourself and the other healers

With all feedback it is just my perspective and it offered with no guarantees explicit or implied.

Have fun

[Apexis 1]

You're totally welcome, but if I was your Raid Leader I'd be having a good long look at that Holy Priest. That's just my opinion, though - new DPS are two a penny, new Healers usually aren't!

 

That priest usually plays disc and was trying out Holy, night #1 was less than successful for him A lot of the faults people pointed out and easily corrected. Such as not trying to burst shield off the pull on Malk, with every other healer blowing their CDs, its not much benefit for me to use mine. After some conversation with another raid officer I am going to start being more greedy and just use major CDs in line with major HPS points, regardless of what other healers are doing. We also talked about that fact that as a team, our healing time was @ 59% over heal for most fights. Our short comings are in, we have 6 available healers, only 1 being viable dps (me) and 4 being solid healers, #5 is too weak to depend on tougher healing fights, such as IJ. 

 

I definitely need to use RT more often and too its maximum potential with the glyph. Its been a while since I was able to push my numbers and we happened to be a bit short last night and ended a normal run. My parse from thok was insane, with 5 healers and 25m normal, two healers we at 400k HPS + (myself and a resto druid) while the other 3 were barely making 200k. I am capable of the numbers I want, I just need to make them happen, take some of the fight into my own hands if you will.  

 

Ive come to realise, I am making minuet mistakes, but ultimately we are overhealing and I am the healer that is sitting back and just casting lightly, not forcing my CDs, not using my spells to their full advantage. Thanks everyone for all the help!! If anyone sees anything please shed some light, I am always looking for more!

Edited August 5, 2014 by Apexis

[lynx 19]

HST only had 15.18% overheal so in the logs it looks very effective, wonder if HST smart enough to only to look at the shield strength when shields are up

Yes, HST is very effective! And it's a passive too, so using it on cd is very much advised. You quoted me only partially, so in order to not to be confused about this I meant use AG on pull and then when needed.

I'm not 100% positive about this, but I think that if people are at full hp, then HST just selects targets randomly.

The problem with HST is that if someone drops too low then it will exclusively target him. It's not all bad because obviously that person needs to have strong shields (and your mastery kicks in full time!), but it's not optimal either because healing soakers is just as important and HST will do nothing for them.

Edited August 5, 2014 by lynx