Trying to help a Resto Sham friend

[Athros]

So as i have been gearing up for the past couple of days i have been running with the same resto shaman healer being that he is the only 80 and geared healer in my guild at the moment. One thing i've noticed about him is that i have went from never having to really think twice when i hear the low health sound to watching my SW/SB/LS+ER like a hawk.

I would like to think i am decently geared. The problems i see with him at the moment is he tends to go oom pretty fast in some fights/pulls. Is this a general shaman concern at the moment or is it just something with his healing rotation/choice of heals?

Also i know shamans are not very mobile but on some bosses(mainly noticed on the second boss of H DTK and Skadi) that him dying was the reason we wiped. Now on skadi he was not dropping a poision cleansing totem and he kept getting posioned and skadi poped his whirlwind and he was caught not being able to do anything. I realize 100% that a bit of his problems come from the way the shaman is designed and what not, but i was wondering if any of you shamans had some tips that might help him out.

[tobarstep]

Shaman healing changed dramatically in WotLK. A good place to go is... EJ.
Shaman: Restoration - Elitist Jerks

While still being a work in progress, it's probably the most comprehensive look at Resto out there currently.

An interesting read on LHW:
[Resto] LHW Spamming for Fun and Profit - Elitist Jerks

edit: the LHW article is probably a better read if he isn't interested in every single aspect of it just yet

[Athros]

Thank you for that very much. So by the looks of it it just seems like pretty much bad luck and the fact that shaman are not very mobile. That seems to be the exact way he is healing so that is not the problem. That's really good to know. I guess ill see what i can do to help the situation out then or just take it as it comes.

[Fayre]

It depends how geared up you're talking, but certainly most of the healers I've run with had real trouble on their first few heroics until they started to get into the ilvl 200 gear.

[drug]

When I healed in BC and did my first heroics I felt like I was really behind other healing classes in equivalent gear. Now that completely changed. The group support your totems bring is huge. Bloodlust trivializes many fights. Your group can't kill orbs in violet hold? Group can't kill loken? Pop bloodlust, spam chainheal and just let that dps do the work.

On mobility: ES is mobile. Healing stream doesn't require me to stand still. Riptide is a mobile spell. Tidal wave hastened LHW nearly always fit in. Mobility in most boss encounters and instances is just a question of knowing what's going to happen.

In short: I can't really agree on shaman being inferior to any healing class in WotLK while this was clearly the case in BC. If you're properly geared, know your class and the instance shamans just do amazing now.

[hvidgaard]

I wouldn't say shamans was inferior in BC, they was just the only class that was good enough to handle massive AoE, and they didn't match other healers on single target - hence the CH spamming was a reality in Sunwell.

Shamans aren't as mobile as Druids or Priests, but (at least according to the paladins in my guild) they are at least better than paladins in that aspect. But as drug said, it's all about knowing when you have a window of time to stop and cast that heal.

When I'm tank healing I try to keep Tidal Waves up as much as possible to get the extra SP to my heals. The best thing is you don't have to use it on your tank - if you just toped your tank off, feel free to throw it on whoever needs it. Personally I don't bother with CH on tank healing unless I know he doesn't need more healing and I can top some dps off as well.

[Tahaz]

My 5 man heroic shammy healing technique.

ALWAYS have Earth Shield on tank.
Get the LHW Glyph.
Get the 2 Water Shield Glyphs.
WATCH Water Shield like a hawk, crits eat orbs and return mana. No Water Shield = OOM fast.

Obviously there are variables depending on group and boss being fought, but generally.

Riptide tank when he starts to take some damage, while Tidal Waves is up top off any DPS or continue dropping Lesser Healing Wave on Tank. Repeat.

If there is a lot of damage coming into the tank its Riptide Tank, LHW, LHW Tank, Riptide Tank. Repeat as necessary.

If there is a lot of AOE Riptide Tank, Chain Heal with Tank as the target, LHW a low member with priority on the Tank, Riptide a party member if Tank OK. In these situations its good to get DPS close to Tank for CH to hit them, doesn't work so well in a caster heavy party.

Make sure he is using the correct totem for the fight, Nature Resist, Poison/Diesese cleansing, Tremor etc.

Tell him to become an alchemist for the increased potion benefit. Time the use of potions and Mana Tide.

Try to keep Mana Spring down if he is having OOM problems. Tell him to gem for Intelligence>MP5>SP. Intelligence adds crit, mana regeneration (Water Shield Glyph/Talent, Improved Shields), Spell Power and maximum mana of course.

My talents:

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Make sure he has a healer mod like Healbot or Grid, I also use Decursive. I like a 4 button mouse to put all my healing spells and oh crab buttons macro'ed to.