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Dofri

Totemic Recall

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Greetings fellow shammies!

 

 

I have been wondering for a couple of weeks if totemic recall is worth using. I know of course that glyphing into that and by playing correctly it can be worth something like 2-5k spirit but im not sure where on that range it lies. So the bonus is pretty clear, it is a lot of spirit which means you can have lower base spirit and going for more throughput stats (likely crit).

 

The negative of it however is what has kept me from this play for quite a while. It seems to me that when i need mana the most are also the fights when i have a really hard time spending the GCD's needed for this play to be efficient. Decent example of this is problably fight like Iron juggernaut or perhaps even protectors HC. There is a lot of action going on and spending perhaps something like 6 GCD's per min. is just asking quite a lot.

 

So my question to all of you is this. Is this kind of play worth it throughput wise and then upto what point should it be used? Should it be used only be used with HST to get a lot of spirit back with pretty low effort and few GCD's (probably sacking the last tick of it though!) or should it be used more aggresively with magmatotem trick (sacking 2x GCD's each time) and perhaps even with stonebulwark when used?

 

Also, does anyone have any numbers on just about how much spirit this play is truly worth?

 

 

 

Dof

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When I used it, (when I had less gear) I  didnt sac HST every time it was dropped, would use it when I could sac my sheild totem and HST together, and to sac fire ele totem

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if you have the legendary meta, you wait until it procs, drop a magma totem for zero mana, and then use recall to get a full refund of the mana the totem would have cost.

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The value of your recall play is really dependent on how good you are with it and what you aim for. There are different levels of play that you can consider, so I'll start by listing them;

  1. Just Healing Stream Totem
  2. Just Magma Totem
  3. HST + Magma
  4. As many totems as possible

Healing Stream Totem on its own is a very hard tactic to master and doesn't return a huge amount of mana on its own. The problem is that you have to recall the totem as late as possible; your lag and your own reaction times will come into this. Some people try to recall it in the last few hundred milliseconds of the totem (after the final tick), which I think is unrealistic. Yes, you can do it, but the finesse required to do so successfully is way beyond my skill. It also requires a lot of extra mental effort for a comparatively small gain. On the other hand, if you only aim to recall the totem after most of the healing has been done, that makes it much easier and lets you do so more consistently at your own convenience. I tend to aim for recalling it as late as possible, starting when there is a 2s duration left on the totem. This is a real skill which practice will make you good at.

 

Magma Totem on its own is a really easy thing to do. Every time you get a LMG proc, you press Magma Totem. Once the LMG proc has expired you recall the totem. You gain lots of mana and you can time the recall at your own convenience, meaning for minimal GCD investment you gain a lot. Even on HC Protectors of HC IJ, this is a viable tactic. On its own, this tactic is worth roughly 3000 Spirit. That is a lot of Spirit, and the throughput gain from (say) 3k Crit far offsets the few GCD's you have to use. Again, you need to practice, but it's significantly easier.

 

Both Magma and Healing Stream is much more complex. You want to basically do both of the above, recalling if;

  • Only Magma Totem is up
  • Healing Stream Totem is in its last few seconds (whether or not Magma totem is up)
  • NOT when any other totems are up
  • NOT when HST is up with more than 2s remaining

The advantage is that the mana return is bigger, because you get the benefit of both recalls, potentially massively increasing your recalls. On the other hand, it requires juggling the totem priorities and spotting when it's appropriate to recall.There is a lot of extra mental strain involved, but it pays of extremely well. One thing to remember is that you will not always be able to recall your Magma totem as soon as possible, so you cannot always use every LMG proc for Magma Totem (as it will be still up during some LMG procs). This is only a small decrease, and is definitely worth it trying if you can handle the strain.

 

As many totems as possible is what you ultimately would like to do. You want to recall when any totem is near the end of its duration, including dropping Magma Totem during your LMG procs. Stone Bulwark Totem and Fire Elemental Totem are good examples, but you might also consider Spirit Link Totem, Healing Tide Totem, Windwalk Totem, Earthbind/grab Totem, and so on. This is really hard to do well, but it follows on naturally when you get good at the strategy above. It returns a lot of mana, and in the case where you do it well will more than compensate for your lost GCD's. However, the returns in this case vary wildly depending on how much of your utility you use, so on fights like HC Nazgrim you can get a lot back but on HC IJ you might not. It's much harder to predict the amount you get back, so you might find on some fights you gasp for mana more than on others.

 

All of these strategies get easier/more efficient as you practice, and all except the last one can have WeakAuras made to help you remember when to recall totems. Seriously, practice this for a few weeks and then decide which level you're comfortable with.

 

TL:DR; Try it out, make yourself a WeakAura, practice, then decide which level of difficulty you want. The best tradeoff between high benefit and low maintenance is Magma and HST, but aim for the most complex play you can pull off.

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