Restoration Shaman 7.3

[Guest Rainiar]

When it comes to Stat distribution do resto shamans want to just stack Mastery/critical and avoid haste/versatility like the plague?  This is with raid healing in mind.  Or is there a good Stat distribution that should be a goal? 

Thanks in advance and thanks for the guide.

[Pandacho 286]

15 hours ago, Guest Rainiar said:

When it comes to Stat distribution do resto shamans want to just stack Mastery/critical and avoid haste/versatility like the plague?  This is with raid healing in mind.  Or is there a good Stat distribution that should be a goal? 

Thanks in advance and thanks for the guide.

You shouldn't avoid any of the secondaries and definitely not like a plague. We are not adps spec that really sometimes have only 1-2 secondaries doing 95% contribution to their dps.

Resto shamans have a priority but the importance of all the secondaries is high (with maybe Versa falling behind a bit). The general prio would be Int > Mastery > Haste or Crit (depends on your philosophy, but they are so close in row numbers that it's not extremely important) > Vers.

You should never dismiss any of the secondaries completely, they all contribute to our healing.

PS: don't stack ridiculous amounts of Mastery either (much more than 100%) or you'll end up being pretty bad in healing any 'regular' content that doesn't involve people being consistently lower than 50% HP.

[Guest shammyjake]

So i have a theorycraft question.  CBT is the cookie cutter talent for that tier, but wouldn't you think that with our weapon talents(Queen's Decree and Tidal Pools) that Echo would feed better into our talents and thus provide more throughput?  The initial healing from extra RT's alone more than covers the loss of throughput from CBT.  I think the only reason CBT is favored is because the synergy w/ AG and if you pick it wellspring.  What are your guys' thoughts?

[Pandacho 286]

5 hours ago, Guest shammyjake said:

So i have a theorycraft question.  CBT is the cookie cutter talent for that tier, but wouldn't you think that with our weapon talents(Queen's Decree and Tidal Pools) that Echo would feed better into our talents and thus provide more throughput?  The initial healing from extra RT's alone more than covers the loss of throughput from CBT.  I think the only reason CBT is favored is because the synergy w/ AG and if you pick it wellspring.  What are your guys' thoughts?

Hmm, no one picks Wellspring in raids or high M+ right now. The last time it was recommended, was actually before the first raid opened in September. What you've wrote is actually a pretty accurate reminder of the Beta resto discussion before the last wave of nerfs went live :)

The situation may or may not change in 7.1.5 with the small buff to WS incoming but until now the talent is a no taker (I personally use it in the daily HC dungeon when I dps 80% of time and WS+Riptide+HST is enough to cover all the damage).

Now, there is no strict answer to your question because CBT is not a 100% best. It is the best for the most of the raid fights so far (still not for the all of them) but EotE is definitely better for M+.

CBT is better in raids first and foremost because it's a smart AoE heal that releases its stored power to all injured targets and you can attach it to AoE damage waves and even if there're no AoE damage, it still will heal all the injured people on release. While Riptide's initial heal is pretty strong,  it's a single target cast and we can't blanket the raid with Riptides in advance - if you start to precast Riptide, the initial healing part will be wasted, if you cast it after the damage done, how many people you'll be able to HoT in the 10 sec.recovery window - 3 at the best?

When you say that the "initial healing from extra RT's alone more than covers the loss of throughput from CBT", do you look at the raid or only at the number of Healing Done? It's not the same and I'll try to give an example: Let's say we are doing Ursoc Mythic and your team just soaked the Impact. All the team is on 30% HP and you release stored in your CBT power. Now all the team is on 50% HP and can live through the Roar that will drop some of the people to 20-25% HP. If you took EotE, you will be able to bring (let's be generous) 4 people to 80%HP, leaving 6 on 30% and with the Roar incoming there's a good chance you'll have 1-2 players dead.

This is a very general example but I tried to show that in raid not everything is measured by Healing Done, the spreading of your healing should be right too.

TL;DR: CBT is good for the raids (mostly), EotE is good for M+ (always better than CBT), WS is good for non of them (may change in 7.1.5).

[Guest CBT]

So basically it just becomes a minor cool down is what you're saying... and super powered if we choose AG

[Pandacho 286]

57 minutes ago, Guest CBT said:

So basically it just becomes a minor cool down is what you're saying... and super powered if we choose AG

Yes, pretty much it is.

For example here you can see a standard AG+CBT pair doing 4.1M burst that is actually a mana free byproduct of the regular healing.

[Valks 2,373]

The guides are currently being updated for 7.1.5! I just wanted to leave a few notes for all of our users that might be getting ready to leave a comment:

• Some pages do not require updates. The "Last Updated" stat does not mean the page is out of date, it might just not have needed any changes. If you feel that it does, leave a comment telling us what needs changing and why.
• The process will not happen immediately - some guides will be updated faster than others simply due to the number of resources available. Be patient, they'll be ready when you need them!
• There might be some continuity errors when making small adjustments to large guide pages. If you do find one of these, just let us know in the comments and we'll get it fixed ASAP.
• "Why have you not taken into account X buff to X ability?" - remember, just because something got buffed, it doesn't mean it is now automatically better than the other options!

As always, we want to thank you all for being patient while we get things updated and I'm always available to help you all if you need it :)

[Arkpit 101]

So, with the new set bonuses, have anyone tried swapping crit for haste?

I'm attempting to alternate my build for a more single-target based sustained healing and more available raid CDs to rotate through fights. The idea is basically getting the Haste for better use of Undulation talent (50% more heals ever 3rd cast) and the 2set bonus (Tidal waves adding 15% HW and Surge). Since you lose some mana sustain from the loss of crit you make up for this by making extensive use of Healing Wave as your primary casts alongside Riptide.

For raid dmg you can rotate Ancestral, Tidal and Anscendence to still make good use of Undulation hits to aoe heal. For most fights it seems you can have at least 1 CD up for every "scary" raid dmg coming in (2min Ancesctral, 3min on the other 2).

This is all just theory ofc but I like the idea of not just spamming Chain Heal for 30% of the fights so attempting to alternate with the added heal bonus from the set! Right now though the cast of HW for me is still to slow and makes unexpected dmg difficult to deal with, especially in M+.

You guys think this idea is a giant waste of time or is there a chance for Resto Shamans to expand beyond Chain Heals? :)

 

[Valks 2,373]

22 hours ago, Arkpit said:

So, with the new set bonuses, have anyone tried swapping crit for haste?

Definitely possible, I'm always open to new things! I'll put in a note to Furty and see if he has tested/found anything similar and let you know!

[Arkpit 101]

On 2017-01-31 at 3:06 PM, Blainie said:

Definitely possible, I'm always open to new things! I'll put in a note to Furty and see if he has tested/found anything similar and let you know!

In a recent FinalbossTV session with resto shamans "Keehn" from a top tier guild on Sylvanas is currently running a build which NEVER cast a single chain heal and is mostly haste based!

I basically got my theories confirmed and the only difference was that he runs Cloudburst instead of Echoes but still runs Undulation/AG/Ascendence! Checked his warcraftlogs and he is mainly casting Healing Wave and Riptide :)

[Valks 2,373]

10 hours ago, Arkpit said:

In a recent FinalbossTV session with resto shamans "Keehn" from a top tier guild on Sylvanas is currently running a build which NEVER cast a single chain heal and is mostly haste based!

I basically got my theories confirmed and the only difference was that he runs Cloudburst instead of Echoes but still runs Undulation/AG/Ascendence! Checked his warcraftlogs and he is mainly casting Healing Wave and Riptide :)

That's awesome! Thanks for coming back to confirm your findings, really awesome and should help us moving forward :) Will make sure the guide gets updated as needed!

[zooey 0]

I just started playing this expansion a few weeks ago and wanted to share a couple of my macros in case anyone finds them useful.  For interrupts and purge, I like to be able to target them via mouseover as well:

#showtooltip Wind Shear
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover,exists][@focus,exists][@target] Wind Shear
 

I've also got a mount/ghost wolf macro that I use pretty much constantly.  You can't do the random favorite mounts with it(that I'm aware of), but the convenience factor trumps that imho.  It works because /use (mount name) will dismount you if you're on it.  So, if you're standing still, unmounted, it will cast ghost wolf inside or mount riding or flying appropriately.  It will dismount if you're mounted.  If you're moving, it will always cast ghost wolf.  If you're in ghost wolf and moving, it will cancel ghost wolf.

/use [outdoors,flyable,noflying,nomounted]Red Flying Cloud;  [outdoors,noflying,nomounted]Kor'Kron War Wolf
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/use [mounted,flyable]Red Flying Cloud;[mounted]Kor'Kron War Wolf;[nomounted]Ghost Wolf
 

[EthToo 0]

I didn't see this listed:

 

Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus listed under legendaries... it's a neck.

 

2658 Stamina

1495 Crit

1495 Haste

1495 Mastery

 

And every 30 seconds, for 30 seconds, there is an absorb buff for 25% of total health.

[Valks 2,373]

On 2/19/2017 at 6:14 PM, zooey said:

I just started playing this expansion a few weeks ago and wanted to share a couple of my macros in case anyone finds them useful.

Bit late to this, but they're a huge help! Thanks for sharing! :)

[Valks 2,373]

On 3/13/2017 at 5:09 AM, EthToo said:

I didn't see this listed:

This was most likely overlooked from when it was a terrible legendary and the stats were very low too - will get it updated and included.

[Valks 2,373]

We are currently in the process of updating our guides in preparation for the release of 7.2 - please understand that we will not be answering questions in this section about "What is better for 7.2?" prior to the patch release, since all the information will be available when the patch goes live. Please be patient and thanks for waiting!

[Guest Guest]

Just commenting because there already is an artifact trait path section for 7.2, as a general opinion and feedback.

I think the proposed path is very undesirable and leads to a comparably weak progression through the first weeks/months of 7.2. Many traits offer serious throughput power, like Buffeting Waves,  Floodwaters, Pull of the Sea or even Wavecrash, especially with T19 4p. Former level 54 weapons get 4 traits to spend right now, additional traits being extremely costly and requiring artifact knowledge that will take weeks to acquire. This guide suggests spending traits #36-#40 on Tidewalker and taking Pitter-Patter and Deep Waters before getting to any of the other traits, which is hands down wasted time and potential. I love that Spiritwalker's Grace gets some extended duration - but this is in no way a priority. If it was some reasonable amount of cooldown reduction on SG, I'd go for it, but extended duration is very, very situational. SG is a great tool for healing while dodging and during phases with intensive movement, but it's hardly necessary to do that for 8 more seconds to get the job done. The buff to Healing Rain is powerful, no doubt, but it's only Healing Rain. Deep Waters is very situational, only affects one of our cooldown tools and will only be good for anything at all if cast at a very static camp with as many players as possible in it and during a phase of repeated or ticking aoe damage.

I'd rather start with the traits that actually affect the throughput of all my healing spells, my casting speed and my mana regeneration (thanks to higher crit rates) in the weeks to come before adding Tidewalker as nothing more than a very-nice-to-have bonus. Remember, you'll have these traits for many weeks before you'd get to Deep Waters and the less relevant traits, which in my opinion is much better than having nothing but bonus time on Spiritwalker's Grace, a stronger Healing Rain and a meh gold trait before actually getting any of the aforementioned bonuses. In my assessment, there is no point in rushing to get Deep Waters at all, especially since the only actually relevant trait on the way would be Pitter-Patter.

[Valks 2,373]

16 hours ago, Guest Guest said:

Just commenting because there already is an artifact trait path section for 7.2, as a general opinion and feedback.

Definitely some excellent feedback! I'll forward this on and see if I can get a reply and have things changed if need be! :)

[Guest Rig]

How long will it take until the new item BIS is here? (Not rushing, just curious!)

[Seksi 208]

On 3/30/2017 at 1:31 AM, Guest Guest said:

Just commenting because there already is an artifact trait path section for 7.2, as a general opinion and feedback.

I think the proposed path is very undesirable and leads to a comparably weak progression through the first weeks/months of 7.2. Many traits offer serious throughput power, like Buffeting Waves,  Floodwaters, Pull of the Sea or even Wavecrash, especially with T19 4p.

Hey, I'm Seksixeny the current reviewer of the resto shaman guide. You are absolutely right in that taking those talents will boost you more in the short term, I'd recommend doing so if you require it to kill new bosses / finish the current raid in 1-2 weeks.

If you are already done with progression or looking to be stronger in the 2-4 week period instead of in these first 1-2 weeks, however, I stand by the decision of taking the new traits first. Pitter-patter is extremely strong: 30% healing rain for one trait is the same as 7.5 normal rain traits, more than compensating for the 4 "wasted" Tidewalker traits, and the golden is worth at least as much as another point into Floodwaters, likely higher.

Finally, for 5 mans rain and gift see less usage so by all means take Buffeting / Pull / Wavecrash first if that's your focus. The edited article did not reflect these small nuances in the 7.2 traits but maybe we can get it in on next revision :)

8 hours ago, Guest Rig said:

How long will it take until the new item BIS is here? (Not rushing, just curious!)

The BIS list is updated for Nighthold and there were no relevant item changes, the Legs legendary were already amazing, now even more so with extra free crit, Bracers even at -50% heal surge mana after chain healing are not top tier and same can be said of Sephuz's boost, makes it much better but still not top tier. This should also get edited / added in the next revision. If you meant Tomb of Sargeras BIS, Blizzard has stated they will be tuning / changing items and set bonuses up to ~1 week before Tomb is released so we'll only be able to know where things stand around 13th June.

Any other questions, feel free to ask either here or in Discord at https://discord.gg/earthshrine

[Valks 2,373]

1 hour ago, Seksi said:

Hey, I'm Seksixeny the current reviewer of the resto shaman guide.

Thanks for coming by to help Seksi! Will make sure to reference this comment for future questions that will inevitably come! 

[Guest FlameHaze]

Nobundo's Redemption causes Chain Heal to reduce the Mana cost of your next Healing Surge by 30% . This is no longer accurate it now reduces the cost of the next healing surge by 50%

[Valks 2,373]

On 4/26/2017 at 0:01 PM, Guest FlameHaze said:

Nobundo's Redemption causes Chain Heal to reduce the Mana cost of your next Healing Surge by 30% . This is no longer accurate it now reduces the cost of the next healing surge by 50%

Will ask for this to be updated :)

[Valks 2,373]

We are currently in the process of updating our guides in preparation for the release of 7.2.5 - all questions about "What is better for 7.2.5, X or Y?" will be answered in our guide updates. Thanks for your patience while we get everything completed and good luck in the new patch!

[Doug 0]

On 6/12/2017 at 6:25 AM, Blainie said:

We are currently in the process of updating our guides in preparation for the release of 7.2.5 - all questions about "What is better for 7.2.5, X or Y?" will be answered in our guide updates. Thanks for your patience while we get everything completed and good luck in the new patch!

Since your changelog now shows: 
"13 Jun. 2017: Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5."

... I'll go ahead and ask a 7.2.5 question:  
1) In general, what are the implications of the new legendary rings, that add a 2nd talent? 
2) Specifically:  does the ring "Soul of the Farseer" compete, for BIS on any spec? 
3) Also specifically: when using the ring, Echo of the Elements is an automatic talent pick on level 90... is Cloudburst Totem still the best SECOND talent on that level?  ...and
4)  With EotE as first talent on level 90, are any other talent changes recommended? 

Thanks very much.