Resto Shaman Healing in Cata

[javelin3o4]

In both of the situations you mentioned, you can use Wind Shear to dramatically reduce the incoming damage. The transformation in Stonecore is a long cast and can be interrupted - although, if it gets off then it's your group's fail, not yours. In HoO, look for a mob called Temple Shadowlancer. They channel a spell called Pact of Darkness that does massive damage to everything in melee range - interrupt that.

This is in addition to the usual stuff - somebody should be marking, targets need to be prioritized correctly, and CC should be used as necessary to avoid having multiple high-damage mobs up at the same time.

So just to follow up on some observations, I did a dungeon with a couple people from guild. I was on my lock and the healer was a shaman. I looked at the healing recount and noticed he used Healing Rain and Healing wave the most. He didnt seem to run into much trouble healing, and I think the key was CC. He does have some better gear than I do, but I think the problem is generally the tank I run with generally just runs in and trys to tank everything without any CC. So while myself, and my friend are at ilvl 335ish, and then whatever random person we happen to get I think we just need to slow it down and CC where needed.

So next time I'm going to have him let us CC and see how it works out.

Thanks for the tips aswell.

[Heelzplz]

In response to Javelin3o4s post,

I'm only in the process of levelling my resto shaman to 85 to take a break from tanking for a bit and let another guild member try out tanking, but my main is a prot paladin, ilevel 352 atm, sitting at 162k hp unbuffed, about 175-180k in most heroics. I just wanted to point out some things that may be affecting your group problems in these two heroics you mentioned. As you mentioned you roll with a prot paladin a fair bit (guildmate or something?) i think the main issue is with the tank sadly, i don't think they've adapted to the cata mindset for tanking just yet. Marking in heroics is a must imo, not just to make things easier for the dps to actually go for the right target but it makes tanking considerably easier if you know your dps are attacking the skull! This in turn helps out the whole group and in fairness it takes what.. less than 5 seconds to mark a few different mobs with ,say, a skull, X, moon (my usual marks, skull=kill, X=kill after skull dies, moon=CC). One thing i will say though, on the Stonecore initial mobs, i mark the marvin manastorm or w/e he's called as a skull, but i focus on the elemental transforming guy as now paladin tanks can use Rebuke, coupling that with Avenger's Shield he will NOT transform, if he does in your case, i'd suggest to your tank, politely of course, to interrupt those. This is simple to do and you can easily keep the aggro of Manastorm guy for the short time before he runs off.

As for the HoO starting mobs, yes, they hurt a LOT in initial damage for me too, but again with simple marking this can go easily too. Don't stress as the healer is my advice, you will get people griefing you and you will get blamed for everything, you are the healer, it's your job to be the blame :P I find the same as a tank with people still dpsing like this is wrath and if i lose aggro for half a second even it's catastrophic according to some people, regardless of the fact they may have only lost about 20% hp due to their own stupidity..

But to get back to the topic of this thread, i'm currently levelling a resto shammy having never healed before in wow.. ever so far it's been a breeze, just getting thorugh the earlier wrath dungeons atm, which has been a step up in difficulty yes, but it still sees me sitting at over 90% mana for pretty much the whole dungeon. Looking forward to trying out the cata dungeons on this healer but i'm glad i already know the tactics by heart from tanking them for months ^^ I'll let you know how it goes when i get there, or if i delete my resto and go cry in a corner for a few days when i see what it's like from a healers perspective!

[javelin3o4]

In response to Javelin3o4s post,

I'm only in the process of levelling my resto shaman to 85 to take a break from tanking for a bit and let another guild member try out tanking, but my main is a prot paladin, ilevel 352 atm, sitting at 162k hp unbuffed, about 175-180k in most heroics. I just wanted to point out some things that may be affecting your group problems in these two heroics you mentioned. As you mentioned you roll with a prot paladin a fair bit (guildmate or something?) i think the main issue is with the tank sadly, i don't think they've adapted to the cata mindset for tanking just yet. Marking in heroics is a must imo, not just to make things easier for the dps to actually go for the right target but it makes tanking considerably easier if you know your dps are attacking the skull! This in turn helps out the whole group and in fairness it takes what.. less than 5 seconds to mark a few different mobs with ,say, a skull, X, moon (my usual marks, skull=kill, X=kill after skull dies, moon=CC). One thing i will say though, on the Stonecore initial mobs, i mark the marvin manastorm or w/e he's called as a skull, but i focus on the elemental transforming guy as now paladin tanks can use Rebuke, coupling that with Avenger's Shield he will NOT transform, if he does in your case, i'd suggest to your tank, politely of course, to interrupt those. This is simple to do and you can easily keep the aggro of Manastorm guy for the short time before he runs off.

As for the HoO starting mobs, yes, they hurt a LOT in initial damage for me too, but again with simple marking this can go easily too. Don't stress as the healer is my advice, you will get people griefing you and you will get blamed for everything, you are the healer, it's your job to be the blame :P I find the same as a tank with people still dpsing like this is wrath and if i lose aggro for half a second even it's catastrophic according to some people, regardless of the fact they may have only lost about 20% hp due to their own stupidity..

But to get back to the topic of this thread, i'm currently levelling a resto shammy having never healed before in wow.. ever so far it's been a breeze, just getting thorugh the earlier wrath dungeons atm, which has been a step up in difficulty yes, but it still sees me sitting at over 90% mana for pretty much the whole dungeon. Looking forward to trying out the cata dungeons on this healer but i'm glad i already know the tactics by heart from tanking them for months ^^ I'll let you know how it goes when i get there, or if i delete my resto and go cry in a corner for a few days when i see what it's like from a healers perspective!

I've gotten a few new peices of 346 gear. And have been doing dungeons the last couple days (randoms for CTA), and havent really had issues. Most groups have marked and whatnot but I've done HoO, the last half of stonecore, and a bunch others without really any wipes, maybe a death here or there from dps standing in stuff, but no full wipes (that i think were somewhat in my control see below).

I did get kicked from a Heroic Throne group the other day which I dont think was my fault I've completed that place a few times. The group decided to go down that one hallway to the boss that has the squidward that jumps on yer head, well they are attacking hte first giant, with those little guys aswell attacking, the giant pulls us into the air and like all the DPS seemed to run to the otherside pulling another giant, so we wipe due to us getting beat in the face by 2 giants and those little adds.

Then we get back in and im in the first hallway getting my mana up the tank decides to go run and start tanking the giant again when I'm damn near at the front of the dungeon. Needless to say I haul ass in ghost wolf form but its too late. Then I'm kicked.

[Dumbeez]

R.Shaman have a unique flow to their healing spells and I feel that they are the most difficult healers to perfect. They hindered due to their lack of raid wide healing spells, however they bring utility to any raid team, whether it be a 10 man or 25 man. However; their uniqueness is more visible in a 10 man scenario.

[Neblivion]

One of the best things i have found while healing heroics, which i have done a lot lately is to always drop a healing stream totem. After most runs it is always within my top three effective healing spells and often top. Another thing i have leant is that once you get enough mana regen to sustain casting healing wave cast it on the tank even if not taking very much damage as any crit it does will give you extra mana.

[H2ojames]

Well i play a 354 Resto Shammy and this is how i look idk if this post was after or before 4.2 but the new talent resougence is beautiful. Before the patch i had major problems with mana no matter what fight i was always running out. With the talent i stack crit and some haste mainly crit cause now my crits refund me many. So the more crits i have the more mana i have. In almost anything im doing whether healing fireland trash or puging i earth shield main tank. Keep riptide on him at all times and when it gets low throw in a chain heal. By then i should have crited at least 3 times or so. You can easy notice if you crit cause asteral thingy pops up and you can see the damage reduction. If everyone is taking damage i do not just throw a rain down i will chain heal and that will usually do it but if i really need it ill pop it down and chain heal threw. Now you arent suppose to have down mana always ALWAYS healing stream this saves alot of your mana and its about 3k every 4 seconds of heals which is pretty nice. In any fight drop your mana tide down when you have gotten rid of 1/4 of your mana. I do this so it can go on CD and maybe get off cd later in fight if i need to. Now when geming you gear have about 2 crits for 1 spirit or haste. The only reason i like haste is for riptide. Make sure you have natures swiftness or w.e for emergency heals. When healing tank dont spam surges or greater healing waves.I rarely use surges they waste alot of my mana for not that much healing i will use them in case of emergency emergency ill throw unleash swift and pop one if needed but again most the times for emergencies like that i use greater cause if it crits its alot of health. Thats how i heal ill throw a riptide chain heal if dps takes damage. Another helpful tip if you have a pally make sure he has ret aura up and make sure you have the glyph that turns your healing stream into resistance so you can stack buffs. I hope this helps. I haven't had problems at all with how i heal since patch. Actually troll heroics(as i call them) are fairly easy for me. I usually wont run out of mana threw fights if im low i have a mana potion(i use endless works fine)

[Ion]

Well i play a 354 Resto Shammy and this is how i look idk if this post was after or before 4.2 but the new talent resougence is beautiful. Before the patch i had major problems with mana no matter what fight i was always running out. With the talent i stack crit and some haste mainly crit cause now my crits refund me many. So the more crits i have the more mana i have. In almost anything im doing whether healing fireland trash or puging i earth shield main tank. Keep riptide on him at all times and when it gets low throw in a chain heal. By then i should have crited at least 3 times or so. You can easy notice if you crit cause asteral thingy pops up and you can see the damage reduction. If everyone is taking damage i do not just throw a rain down i will chain heal and that will usually do it but if i really need it ill pop it down and chain heal threw. Now you arent suppose to have down mana always ALWAYS healing stream this saves alot of your mana and its about 3k every 4 seconds of heals which is pretty nice. In any fight drop your mana tide down when you have gotten rid of 1/4 of your mana. I do this so it can go on CD and maybe get off cd later in fight if i need to. Now when geming you gear have about 2 crits for 1 spirit or haste. The only reason i like haste is for riptide. Make sure you have natures swiftness or w.e for emergency heals. When healing tank dont spam surges or greater healing waves.I rarely use surges they waste alot of my mana for not that much healing i will use them in case of emergency emergency ill throw unleash swift and pop one if needed but again most the times for emergencies like that i use greater cause if it crits its alot of health. Thats how i heal ill throw a riptide chain heal if dps takes damage. Another helpful tip if you have a pally make sure he has ret aura up and make sure you have the glyph that turns your healing stream into resistance so you can stack buffs. I hope this helps. I haven't had problems at all with how i heal since patch. Actually troll heroics(as i call them) are fairly easy for me. I usually wont run out of mana threw fights if im low i have a mana potion(i use endless works fine)

Sweet jesus man...hit enter once in a while...that's not legible at all.