{Resto Shaman} So I healed my first Heroic...

[hvidgaard]

Subpar: it was more for OP to read about how to gear for single target IWS healing.

Durandro: Armor buff doesn't matter for melee since they should not get hit by any melee damage. Any Shaman relying on FSR to regain mana are doing it wrong - you need Spirit for that to be viable.

I'm not going to use any more energy to talk about LHW and HW - you guys are stuck in the Shaman == Chain Heal mindset. It is quite simple and viable, IWS and gear for SP and Crit is a win for single target healing. IWS procs will return more mana than replenisment (it ticks in at about 200-250mp5 for me) and it scales with Crit, it becomes even better with the changes to AA. Do I like to heal this way? I find it more interesting than 25man raidhealing at least, and my guild have chosen to only do 10man (so I pug 25man) so I have to heal like this anyway. I would however like to see LHW, HW and RT get looked at because in it's current state it's fairly gear dependant if you succeed or not (this is why they recomment Elemental gear - SP, Crit and Haste in place of Mp5 which is an awful expensive stat in it's current form and this translates into alot Crit and Haste). This exactly why I keep 2 sets of gear, one with SP, Crit, Int, Haste, Mp5 in that order, and one classic Haste/mp5 set for 25man raidhealing.

Syberia, HW hits often overheal, and a crit almost always overheal so there is absolutly no point in in Healing Way unless you: 1st, heal a very geared tank so you can let him drop to below 12k of his max hp before it lands, 2nd slightly undergeared in your role and intent to use HW as the primary spell.

Edit: I must however admit, I haven't tried to single target heal with CH, but I just can't see it going that well. I'm using more mana, don't proc IWS and I sure as hell don't get 250mp5 more in my haste gear, and it's still around 1.9s cast time on a medium-size heal.

[Subpar]

I dont want to sound like I'm badgering you because I'm not. I like talking resto shammy alot especially with someone that is backing their opinions up like you are. However the OP was talking about the Drak fight where his tank was getting gimped and he had a rogue pulling adds. With that setup gearing for single target IWS healing isnt going to work IMO.

As I've said in actual Raids there isnt too many fights (none that i can think of) where I cant main tank heal with actual resto shaman gear and ES RT and CH (with the occasional HW if things get rough). It's not that i dont enjoy it or the idea of doing it, its just that shammies are so good at raid healing that its like making a geared up rogue spec and use his ranged attack and having a hunter melee because he geared up for it...you can do it but that doesnt mean your not making things harder than they need to be.

As for not trying it and your gear not working: although i cannot see your gear i would have to admit if you are in ele gear, you are right you probably do not have the mana pool or mp5 to do it. Hopefully you have at least picked up some of the CH totems that dropped, that can help in trying it out. As for the final thing about the LHW i have a totem and a very strong naxx and os ele set i might throw on just to change things up when we are out gearing a raid. its something to have fun with but in progression yes im stuck on the idea that resto shammies should be doing what they can bring to the table better than anyone else.

[Durandro]

With my comment about the increased armour from the Ancestoral Healing proc, I ment it helps the Tank indirectly (since a Chain Heal to them will only be a small heal), since I think a critical Healing Wave will proc on everyone healed.

Course, it also means you need a high crit rating for it to proc often enough to be useful. Which would require a certain amount of Elemental gear, or so much Intellect that you get the crit passively (intellect does give spell crit, right?).

[hvidgaard]

Subpar, I didn't say you where badgering me at all, if anything you'd argumented properly, but you didn't seem to give LHW and HW much credit tho

I'm not using that much elemental gear, but more a balanced set with a some pieces without mp5 because they are crit monsteres (like the cloth bracers from VH). If I switch to my classic haste gear I gain around 100mp5 over my current and that just will not regen enough mana for tank healing

Durandro, you do get spellcrit from Int, but it's not enough to make a difference tbh, if you want to up your crit % you need to use gear with crit rating

[Subpar]

Yeah most of my crit is off int stacking (1192 int unbuffed) . I actually need to regem a bit when you initially get to 80 int mp5 is the way to go and I had won some early epics and gemmed them as such, but now that I have geared up a bit i think I actually need to move some of my gems to haste/sp/crit even for chain healing (since all 3 or 4 if you have the glyph like me hits from CH can crit).

My buffed mana pool for 25 man raids is around 25k. I think its a little overkill. (unbuffed at almost 22k). My crit is at 24% unbuffed. I think haste is my weakspot. My CH is a 2 second cast I'd like to get it closer to a 1.5 second cast.

[hvidgaard]

I don't find a unbuffed manapool of more than 20k is needed in 25man, even when only using 4 healers. On the other hand 2s CH is also enough, so whatever you like really :P

[Subpar]

Well only time i was out raid healed was by another resto shammy shammy 2 weeks ago and his CH was closer to 1.5 and he had way less mana and less unbuffed SP also. SO with that being said I really think the haste boost over the mana would be a benefit (knowing i will lose a small amount of crit from the int loss)

[hvidgaard]

in all fairness, you should turn off the healing meters. The true test is whether or not the targets you're assigned to heal dies or not

[drug]

First something about heroics in general:

Every healer who's struggling with heroics shouldn't just look at himself. In heroics those 4 party members just count a lot. Always ask yourself if your tank is properly geared, using his cooldowns when needed and if your dps are performing at an acceptable level.

Even the easiest heroics can get brutal hard with a badly geared tank or slacking dps.

Shaman healing in heroics:

Learn to single target heal! Chain heal is for 25 man raids. Chain heal is often an excellent tool in 10 man raids but spot healing shouldn't be neglected. For heroics please do learn to heal with your single target spells. The only time heavy chainheal usage in heroics is justified is very melee heavy groups or quickly bringing up the health of everyone when you're grouped up closely.

The main reason for heavy LHW and HW usage in heroics is your main task: keep the tank alive! And LHW and HW will always bring a significant higher HPS on your tank (even of course overall HPS of chainheal is often higher, because you'll hit that one melee and the hunter pet).

The second reason for the choice for HW and LHW is mana management: IWS is a very strong mana regen tool but needs a decent amount of crit. Just don't forget to leave a good chunk of mp5 on your gear for whenever you're not casting (=moving out of the fire).

The third reason for LHW and HW is the learning effect. Someone might not be interested into 10 or 25 man raids now but maybe in some months. And then every healer with great single target abilites will have an advantage over someone whose keyboard is one gigantic chainheal button. Get a feeling for LHW and HW and recasting WS/ES with the occasional Riptide. You'll have a lot of use for that knowledge whenever you pick up a single target healing duty in a raid.

The fourth reason is conserning blizzard. If every resto shamans does 80%+ of his casts with chainheal, blizzard will nerf chainheal (bad) or never ever have a close look at LHW and HW and just guess we're happy with chainheal spamming (bad as well). The more feedback blizzard gets on our single target healing the better they may tweak it.

And especially in heroics: don't forget your tools: bloodlust, totems for every situation, interrupts, hex etc.

For numbers on LHW vs HW check my blog.

[Subpar]

Sorry I didnt answer been busy....I dont see them nerfing chain heal anytime soon there are a ton of blue posts where they are sticking up for chain heal being what they built resto shamans around. Couldnt find the one from 1 to 2 months ago i wanted but i did find one at MMO-Champion BlueTracker - Examination on CoH's overuse during a quick search.

If you dont feel like reading it here is one part "The difference in this case is that we agreed Chain Heal virtually *was* the Resto shaman. It was one of their most signature abilities, like Mortal Strike for the Arms warrior, Windfury for the Enhancement shaman or Frostbolt for the Forst mage."

There are a ton of posts where they say stuff like this. Again you point of HPS is all in how you gear. Ive built my spec and gear (totem included) around chain heal so as the elitistjerks post says chain heal is my most eff heal even with no jump. You can gear for HW and LHW but we are built to be group healers not single target healers. Ive done every heroic 10+ times and never had an issue with keeping the tank up using chain heal as my primary. Yes, i do keep ES up and ELW and WS and i do use riptide. But I think those (and knowing at least the use for LHW and HW) are just part of being a good player.

If you are getting a MT assignment in 25 man raids there is an issue. In 10 man encounters at least pre-3.1 you can 2 heal any encounter and main tank heal with CH as long as your tank isnt complete crap.

I do completely agree with look at the others in your group. Pugged a OK group last week that the tank couldnt hold aggro (which is a joke the way the game is currently built) and dps that would run like hell the first sign of things not going perfect. It's not always the healer or the tank or the dps. One of those 3 being completely off there game or just being bad players can cause the group to be a failure no matter how good the other one or 2 aspects of your group are, thats why they have enrage timers aoe damage and adds on boss pulls, to challenge more than one certain part of your group in an encounter.

Again I'm not saying LHW and HW dont have uses (patchwerk ive definately thrown out the occasional HW but again CH is gonna help out with more than one tank, KT i like riptide followed by LHW as my frost blast healing) but CH is 80-90 percent or what i hit and what i think we are supposed to hit. Again if I wanted to be a MT healer I woulda rolled a pally as my healing alt instead of a shammy.

[Arkunsun]

You'll likely have a better time healing in a raid situation. I recently respeced Resto on my Shaman to help my guild out on healing, and my first few heroics were a disaster. A combination of not enough mana/mp5 and noob mistakes learning the ropes. Now I'm pretty solid on the gear end of things but 5 mans are still harder that raids for me.

I have healed 25 man OS and VoA and those are a breeze compared to some 5 mans.

What I usually do is this, always have ES on the tank, always put riptide on the tank, LHW (with Glyph) for spot heals, and have an OH @#$%! button macro for a Natue's Swiftness, Tidal Force, Healing wave for when/if the tank takes a big hit.

That's about it, if you're doing that then you're OK. Wipes happen it's usually not the healer's fault

[hvidgaard]

if raids are easier than 5man you are running with 1-2 healers too many

[Subpar]

Yeah, Raids should be more challenging however there is a chance also your guild or pugs are overgearing those 2 particular raids. VoA is pretty much hold your hand out and thanks for the gear. With the discussion being present about CH vs. LHW (which again i believe to be depends on what you gear towards) I dont think that anyone was making discussion that LHW is your primary heal in a 25 man raid.

Valid point about the oh crap macro though. I take Tidal Force out of the macro because if your tank is about to die that extra GCD can be the diffrence.

If OS isnt challenging for you (and if your geared up it wont be) then you should try to get into some drakes up groups. My casual raiding guild took down 1 drake up first night trying it on 25 but it was a bit more of a challenge. I also have pugged and fell on my face on some 2 or 3 drake up attempts so if you are looking for a challenge thats the way to go.

[grog242]

I got a simple macro for this problem, everytime i drink, i announce in party chat "mana"

/p mana.
/use "drink of choice"

i watch the tanks health while i'm doing so... if they get one shotted, I'm booking to the instance entrance.

also... in order to keep my water shield up, I have setup a macro that castsequence's earthshield target=focus, water shield. between every pull, and sometimes during combat, that button gets tapped twice. always twice.

I'm finding I'm often having to LHW party members, because they think it's a good idea to stand apart. Which, as you can imagine, is a bit of a strain on the mana.

And what makes things worse is tanks that don't even let you drink between pulls. It's almost as annoying as being told to 'gogo' while I'm tanking because I'm allowing the casters to drink...

[bludwork]

When my shaman was resto I found druid tanks the hardest to heal. Sure they had a lot of hp but they were almost always dead. I preferred healing a DK/paly/war over druid.

One of the biggest things as a resto shaman is to get the mod called "Shields up". This way your earth shield is constantly up and your water shield is contantly up. They are huge in terms of healing and mana regeneration.