Shaman Healing 1.12 (Classic)

[Valks 2,373]

This thread is for feedback concerning our Shaman Healing guide.

[Flamenc 0]

Error at source Cauterizing Band. Are these boots good for the healing shaman (Waterspout Boots, Boots of the Full Moon)?

[Guest Dubya]

Since when does Hammer of Grace drop in Maraudon?

[Seksi 208]

What the hell, could swear I had written the correct locations there..sorry for the obvious typos, the Hammer of Grace drops from the Seven chest (and also from the vault chest, sometimes). The Cauterizing Band drops from Majordomo (more specifically, the chest he leaves when his adds are all defeated).

On Waterspout Boots and Boots of the Full Moon, both of those are good options and I had already tagged them up to be added in my next page revision, which will literally be ASAP to fix these typos, thanks!

[Guest Mudz]

Had to do a double take when I saw that Hide of the Wild was listed as a source from Tailoring, it's actually from Leatherworking

[Seksi 208]

Another typo soon to be squashed! ?

[Guest Guldi]

I would argue cold forged hammer from AV is  on par or better than Lorespinner, though both are nice, easy to snag options.

[Seksi 208]

Added, will be showing up in the pre-raid BiS list soon!

[Jhnwyn 0]

Hey today i got the  Zulian Headdress out of ZG raid.
My raid role is the grouphealing, so im using the 3 piece T2 set. Right now im using the Helm of the lifegiver.

My question:

Wich one is the better option?
Are the +13 healpower a better tradeoff than losing 15 int ?

[Seksi 208]

+13 healing power is decidedly better in a raid setting than 15 int, especially in longer / harder fights ?

[Jhnwyn 0]

okay thanks ?
wouldn't it be better to update the BiS list then? Zulian Headdress over the Helm of the lifegiver?

[Seksi 208]

11 hours ago, Jhnwyn said:

okay thanks ?
wouldn't it be better to update the BiS list then? Zulian Headdress over the Helm of the lifegiver?

Working on it! Expect to see it soon ?

[Guest Bestsham]

Hi there, any comparison between 5piece tier 2.5, 3 piece t2 and this BIS list for AQ? Is T2.5 worth it for resto?

[Seksi 208]

The comparison was made and the result are the listed items.

Its not worth to use 5 piece tier 2.5 because you are forced to use sub-par individual items in exchange for a hasted chain heal. Every point of extra healing you can do because you cast chain heals faster comes at the cost of equal amounts of Mana, making it a Mana-neutral set bonus, 0 gain there. The only way you are profiting from it is if you could not make good use of your Mana pool before a fight ends.

From experience and simple math, even if you use all consumables possible, in a ~1 min to 2 min fight which fights in AQ will surely last as bosses have a lot more total health than BWL bosses, you can still run oom if all you do is cast max ranked spells from the start to finish, thus managing to spend your Mana adequately should not be a problem.

The other advantage, making your first chain heal lander quicker for reactive healing, can be minimized through good play and knowing fight patterns, once you are experienced in the content, you will be able to know when area effect damage is coming and start a big fat chain heal that finishes casting just as damage hits, which is more valuable than having a quicker, weaker chain heal.

Finally, going for the tier 2.5 set would require you to spend extra DKP, Gold DKP or other means of loot distribution, and take it away from other people in the guild who will benefit more from the set pieces and bonuses, feel free to grab some pieces for PvP and Elemental, but don't do it with Restoration as a serious argument.

PS: Tier 2's exceptional 3-piece bonus, on the other hand, is a must if you use chain heal as your main healing spell, as it provides a boost that is as strong or even stronger than tier 2.5's 5-piece while requiring only 3 slots of gear to be occupied by the trash pieces of Tier 2 and at this point pretty much all Tier 2 gear in most guilds is going for min bid or to the raid enchanter, making it extremely easy to get for the power it gives. Ideally use helm / gloves / bracers,  but boots can be good as well if you are missing one of the first few pieces. The other pieces tend to be much weaker than relatively easy to get powerful off-tier gear.

[Guest Bestsham]

Awesome, thank you very much.

[Guest Steven]

On 7/31/2020 at 4:33 PM, Seksi said:

The comparison was made and the result are the listed items.

Its not worth to use 5 piece tier 2.5 because you are forced to use sub-par individual items in exchange for a hasted chain heal. Every point of extra healing you can do because you cast chain heals faster comes at the cost of equal amounts of Mana, making it a Mana-neutral set bonus, 0 gain there. The only way you are profiting from it is if you could not make good use of your Mana pool before a fight ends.

From experience and simple math, even if you use all consumables possible, in a ~1 min to 2 min fight which fights in AQ will surely last as bosses have a lot more total health than BWL bosses, you can still run oom if all you do is cast max ranked spells from the start to finish, thus managing to spend your Mana adequately should not be a problem.

The other advantage, making your first chain heal lander quicker for reactive healing, can be minimized through good play and knowing fight patterns, once you are experienced in the content, you will be able to know when area effect damage is coming and start a big fat chain heal that finishes casting just as damage hits, which is more valuable than having a quicker, weaker chain heal.

Finally, going for the tier 2.5 set would require you to spend extra DKP, Gold DKP or other means of loot distribution, and take it away from other people in the guild who will benefit more from the set pieces and bonuses, feel free to grab some pieces for PvP and Elemental, but don't do it with Restoration as a serious argument.

PS: Tier 2's exceptional 3-piece bonus, on the other hand, is a must if you use chain heal as your main healing spell, as it provides a boost that is as strong or even stronger than tier 2.5's 5-piece while requiring only 3 slots of gear to be occupied by the trash pieces of Tier 2 and at this point pretty much all Tier 2 gear in most guilds is going for min bid or to the raid enchanter, making it extremely easy to get for the power it gives. Ideally use helm / gloves / bracers,  but boots can be good as well if you are missing one of the first few pieces. The other pieces tend to be much weaker than relatively easy to get powerful off-tier gear.

Hi. This is not entirely true. Its worth using 3 pieces of tier 2 and 5 pieces of tier 2.5 even though you lose some +healing power. Whats worth to mention is that it all comes down to clear speed, numbers of consums used etc etc. But from a min/Max perspective using 3 pc of tier 2 and 5 pc of tier 2.5 is better than what you suggested. 

[Seksi 208]

19 minutes ago, Guest Steven said:

Hi. This is not entirely true. Its worth using 3 pieces of tier 2 and 5 pieces of tier 2.5 even though you lose some +healing power. Whats worth to mention is that it all comes down to clear speed, numbers of consums used etc etc. But from a min/Max perspective using 3 pc of tier 2 and 5 pc of tier 2.5 is better than what you suggested. 

Only if all of those chain heals do effective healing and the fight's duration is incredibly short, as you will run out of Mana extremely fast when casting non-stop, even if you use pots and runes on cooldown. On a normal fight, the starts and stops on healing output, favor having stronger heals to begin with, and simple pre-casting / stop-casting negates the speed advantage of having a faster chain heal for the initial hit, which is literally the main point for taking the set bonus. It is also much harder to get 5 piece of tier 2.5 which only becomes arguably useful once you have all 5 pieces, huge waste of loot for your guild, especially while tier is rare.

This is a guide aimed at the average player who wants to cover for all situations and get as much value out of the limited gearing possibilities and time. If you are part of the 0,1% of Shamans who can get 5 piece tier 2.5 and will make good use of it, I'm sure you know that already! ? But this is an exceptionally easy tier set to shoot yourself in the foot with, if you can even assemble it in the first place.

I know this is not the opinion stated by Egregious and Melderon (whose videos / discord you probably have seen), and they have their own valid reasons to promote 5 piece tier 2.5, but I do not think that is the path the vast majority of Shamans will follow, or want to follow in the first place, hence the current BiS page.

PS: In terms of numbers, the raw HPS gain from having the 5-set instead of off-pieces is around 5%, but it comes at the cost of 16% faster Mana drain (2.5 * 0,84 = 2.1) and a weaker chain heal, which might simply overheal on your second cast, if all healers are landing their first heals before your second cast hits, which is extremely likely. The gain is just not enough to off-set the problems with the set, imho. On the other hand, if you want to have a super versatile set you can use for all specs, by all means go for it! ?