Shaman's Hut

[akora]

With the free re-spec, I did it I whored myself out to healing, got mana tide, purification, etc. I gave up my DPS crown, and the days of pulling aggro off of Kosath are over. I will miss those days of competing with Eve for DPS, gone are the 1300-1400 spell crits. My talisman of Eurphremal power is just now a healing enhancement toy.

But this is probably the right decision for the way I play now and how Akora is set up. I rarely see Shamans with higher mana pools than I, which leads me away from melee. I don’t PVP, I don’t solo too much, which leads me out of spell damage, which leaves me only healing. 50% of my time is in Molten Core, 20% in Zul Gurub, 5% Onyxia, 10% Solo, 10% 5 Man groups, 5% Inventory Mgmt. Also I have all of the Earthfury which is all healing specced.

I do think it does help me move up on the healing charts as Jabadue noted. Mana Tide is noticeable, albeit expensive to get.

I haven’t really noticed the one extra second it takes to cast shocks. But Solo grinding is slower.

What’s done is done, its best for the tribe and the raiding I do.
But I did keep two handed weapons specced, I just couldn’t not do it, call it clinging onto the days of former glory.

[akora]

Jabadue,

Could you please post your two Nature Swiftness Macros, so I can steal them

Thanks in advance.

[jabadue]

Akora,

This is what I used to use on current target:

/script CastSpellByName("Nature's Swiftness");
/script SpellStopCasting();
/script CastSpellByName("Healing Wave");

And on myself:

/script CastSpellByName("Nature's Swiftness");
/script SpellStopCasting();
/target <YouCharName>
/script CastSpellByName("Healing Wave");


But SpellStopCasting() does not work anymore since Patch 1.10., so I don't think these work anymore. Look at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Most_Used_Macros#Swift_Heal">http://www.wowwiki.com/Most_Used_Macros#Swift_Heal</a><!-- m --> for an alternative. I have gone a different way, as follows.

What I use now is an addon called ClickHeal. It allows me to use BonusScanner to calculate +healing, set overhealing etc... as well as cast healing spells by clicking
players in CT_Raid display. Left mouse for LHW, middle for Chain heal, and right for
HW. It is a great addon, and I would recommend it. Developer is actively supporting it as well. I am glad to answer configuration questions if need be.

I use it also for Nature's Swiftness (Shift-right click), and then, right click for HW. I can do that pretty quickly.

-Jaba

[Fanae]

I'm 20/31/0, like so:

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Still getting used to it. I like the extra little kick of Enhancing Totems (tooltip doesn't show the bonus to SoE/GoA, but it does work), and I'm actually growing to like Stormstrike. Last time I tried it it was borked and I gave up on it. I'm finding it very nice for finishing paladins off in PvP - War Stomp + Stormstrike + Earth Shock = dead.

I'm still kinda tinkering with my build. I've considered swapping a point from Elemental Devastation to Eye of the Storm, but I find I always miss the EotS proc. Maybe when I get used to the noise it makes I'll swap that.

It's also possible I might spec to something with resto for raid utility at some point (thinking maybe 0/12/39, for Enhancing Totems and Mana Tide), but probably not until we need it and I have another 60 for PvP (which will be very soon, as Shurka's level 48). As it is I do a fair bit of healing in raids, but not enough that I can't handle it with my current spec.

[Ulfric]

I read through this thread and it leads me to wonder if I'm the only one (aside from maybe efluvia) who DOESNT want to be a healer? I find it extremely irritating that Blizzard insists upon forcing the hybrid class characters into the role of becoming healers if they want to raid anything above MC. And while I'm sure some people don't mind and actually even like being healers, I really don't. I like having the ability to heal to catch someone before they go down because the healers are out of mana or taken out of the fight for one reason or another. I like being able to lend support to the group with totems to increase their abilities to help bring down mobs faster. But other than that, I want to be in the fight crushing our enemies, be they mobs, bosses, and especially foolish alliance people. I spend a good deal of time in PvP and really enjoy (or did until I hit 60) my time in the battle grounds. I love the excitement of combat and being able to take down other people to win victory and honor.

I've done enough raiding to know that everyone has a part to play, and that we use our abilities to help acheive victory for everyone. I don't care about DPS meters, because personally, I think that they in many cases cause people to act foolish by drawing too much aggro or not doing enough to support others. I have no issues with playing back up when its really needed, but I dont want healing to be my primary function. If that were the case, I'd have rolled a priest. I like being in the fight because its more exciting to me.

Now, the obvious solution to this is to just not raid and avoid the issue. But even that's not really an option because to be able to compete in PvP, the higher end gear is neccessary. I've learned that the hard way in the 60's BG's. Me and my green / barely blue gear is no match for people in full tier 2 armor sets.

I get really tired of hearing all the crying and whining people do about how over powered Shaman are, because its simply not true. Caster classes can EASILY out dps us, shaman have the weakest healing abilities of any class in the game, and every other class has some method of fearing, stunning or freezing us in place during a fight that we have ZERO ways to escape from. I really hope that Blizzard will pull its head out and correct this issue now that the alliance will have shaman too, but I'm not holding my breath.

-Ulfric

[jabadue]

I like healing and I think I am pretty good at it. I think that shaman can be effective healers, but that their effectiveness is more situational that priests and druids.

Shaman are most effective healing in raids, imo. My strategy in healing in waves is to keep everybody in the raid up on trash pulls. The thought is keeping the DPS up will put the trash down more quickly, and delay the raid the least amount of time. LHW shines in this situation.

On bosses, Healing Way allows me to spam lower rand HW spells on main tank for duration of fight. I heal for a good bit and it is fairly mana efficient. Mana tide is useful not only to myself, but also my group.

In 5-man groups, I think shaman are less effective. We have no heal over time, except for Healing totem, and I don't know how effective that is, because I usually drop mana spring. In a 5-man, shaman need a really effective tank because we have less agro reducing abilities than others. In conclusion, shaman can heal 5-man solo if the group is careful and takes its time on pulls.

I have started going back to BG. I have over 8000 kills as elemental shaman earlier in my career. As resto, I heal in BG. I have found that I am really effective in this role. I can take a lickin' and keep on tickin' so to speak. In AV the other day, I survived a long attack by at least 3 or 4 alliance because I could heal myself. Those enemy were not attacking others during a long time. We took that tower, by the way.

My thoughts,

Jaba

[Shillatae]

You're hardly the only one, Ulfric. I've been 31+ in Shadow for 90+% of my time /played and indeed am currently 16/2/33 into Shadow. I'd say outside our Priests, less than half of our druids and shaman in total are healing specced. The bottom line is numbers. 8 classes can do damage, 3 can heal. Those three are responsible for /all/ the healing, bandages aside for the moment.

I, like Efluvia, can make a respectable dent in the DPS meters without a major effort, but have to choose my battles. I know that in addition to being a powerful damage dealer I'm also probably our best geared healer (alongside some of our druids) so I stick to healing on bosses and let other people deal the damage. Most of the time. ; ) There are of course exceptions, like the time Rawne was tanking Geddon and I popped my soulstone not to heal him but to help get those last 2% off the filthy fire elemental scumlord.

Ahem.

Anyway, I'm sure our feral druids and other enhancement and elemental shamans sympathize with you. I find saying, "If I wanted to heal, I would have rolled a priest," however, probably as offensive as you would comments about "nerf shamans." If you don't want to be stereotyped don't perpetuate stereotypes of others.

Otherwise, I'll melt yer face. : )

Finally, about Friday's raid, I stated very clearly at the beginning that we were short on druids and priests (we had 3 of each until Dannae logged in). I was upfront and honest about what we needed from shamans that night and asked for everyone's help so that we could still be as successful as we normally are. It was a challenging night for healing; I used mana potions which I rarely need anymore and Fleethoof I know went through more bandages than she usually uses in a month. In the midst of that it was disheartening to hear your complaints about "having to heal."

That said, as I stated above, I understand and empathize. I think you will find that on Ironsong raids, however, while we expect everyone to be ready to use any and all abilities of their class at need, we will only ask people to play outside their comfort zone when absolutely necessary.

Good luck,
Tae

PS: Post your spec and some notes about your style so we can keep this on topic for the Shaman spec/strat thread, too! My little shammy is only 23rd!

[Oryx]

I'll throw in my two coppers -

Raiding as a shaman is about flexibility. We've reached a level of gear and skill that allow shamans to provide DPS on some of the early trash mobs, and we can really help speed things up during that part. Once we get to the lava packs and the bosses, our ability to provide quick-hit healing and totems allow the raid to survive damage spikes and to overcome personnel shortages that could otherwise kill us.

We are also the best buffers the Horde has, and will continue to be the best buffers for some situations even once the Blood Knights arrive. In a raid situation, it is critical that we always have earth, air, and water working for us! Grace or Windfury, Strength or Stone, and Mana or Healing provide enormous improvements to the survivability and damage output of your group. (by the way, Jabadue, lately I've taken to thinking of Healing Spring as a +heal/5 sec buff, not a HoT. When I look at it that way it becomes much clearer to me what it's good for.)

I'll also note that end-game shaman play is heavily gear dependent. I carry around three sets, with +nature damage, +healing, and +FR, and swap items out a lot; it makes a huge difference and is, in many ways, more important than your talent spec.

I'll be finishing my service to the Frostwolves soon ((currently at 75% exalted with AV, phew)), and will be respeccing -- probably to an enhancement/restoration setup with a focus on buffing and healing and a modest ability to melee. It will be a switch; I've enjoyed my Lightning Master build quite a lot, and chose it in part because my first Molten Core item was +nature damage shoulders. But I am also quite confident that I can continue to help the raid in many ways - whether it is lightning DPS on Molten Giants, chain heals on the melee groups when they're getting AoEd, or buffs and rapid-fire LHW on the lava packs. The shaman is able to swing very quickly between different roles in order to help the team, which is great.

[Fanae]

I read through this thread and it leads me to wonder if I'm the only one (aside from maybe efluvia) who DOESNT want to be a healer? I find it extremely irritating that Blizzard insists upon forcing the hybrid class characters into the role of becoming healers if they want to raid anything above MC. And while I'm sure some people don't mind and actually even like being healers, I really don't. I like having the ability to heal to catch someone before they go down because the healers are out of mana or taken out of the fight for one reason or another. I like being able to lend support to the group with totems to increase their abilities to help bring down mobs faster. But other than that, I want to be in the fight crushing our enemies, be they mobs, bosses, and especially foolish alliance people. I spend a good deal of time in PvP and really enjoy (or did until I hit 60) my time in the battle grounds. I love the excitement of combat and being able to take down other people to win victory and honor.

Nope, you're definitely not the only one, Ulfric. I am first and foremost a melee shaman. However, I appreciate that I'm sometimes needed to heal for raids (primarily for the bosses), and I like to think I'm fairly good at that too. I'm working on two pretty-much-disjoint sets of gear, one for hardcore melee damage and one for raid healing, with a lot of mana/sec (and also some FR pieces to swap in when necessary.)

It'd definitely be nice to get into the position where we could have shamans meleeing more, though some of us are already doing quite a bit of melee on trash pulls and even a bit on certain bosses (like Lucifron, Gehennas, and Garr.)

As Shillatae was saying, the problem is the number of classes capable of healing. The encounters are more or less balanced for that number of healers.

[Guest]

Shillatae is a vile usurper! Stealing my mantle of shadow-priesthood in my absense - For shame! You are supposed to have no other shadow-priests before me. Its written in the 10 command ments of the Shadow!

But for as much as I loathe healing (mainly because of the mindlessness of it as well as being an incredibly thankless profession) I knew when to drop shadowform and heal like crazy. I just grew quite adept at taking shadowform up again quickly so none were the wiser :p

[Fanae]

I'm pondering a respec to 0/32/19. What do you guys think of this?

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I'd miss Elemental Focus most, I think. Those Clearcasts have saved my butt a few times. Ditto the 5.2-second shock cooldown, but as I move more toward melee gear I'll have less mana to throw around on shocks anyway. I don't think I'll miss Eye of the Storm too much with Healing Focus - I'll probably appreciate a 70% chance to avoid interruption all the time over an occasional 100%. Ditto Elemental Devastation - as I swap spellcrit for melee crit, it won't kick in as often, and I think the 3% melee/spell hit bonus from Nature's Guidance will be a lot more useful.

The mana reductions will help my mana pool raidwise, too (5% on healing and 25% on totems.)

I pondered dropping Stormstrike for Nature's Swiftness, but damned if I don't love Stormstrike. Also, that'd require me to drop either Healing Focus or Nature's Guidance + Totemic Mastery, neither of which particularly appeals (I'm looking forward to the additional totem range when I'm in DPS groups - it's sometimes tricky to keep totems on both rogues/warriors and hunters without it.) I'll probably drop Totemic Mastery and put a point somewhere else (maybe another into Toughness) once I get 3/8 Earthfury, since that does the same thing and I don't really need the range bonus outside of raids.

Opinions?

Edit: I may dump Totemic Focus in favor of Ancestral Healing + Imp Reincarnation, but I'm not quite sure yet.

Edit: Ditto Toughness for Imp Weapon Totems. 4% isn't much.

Update: I respecced to this yesterday evening. Liking it so far. I dropped Toughness for IWT, but kept Totemic Focus.

[Zuipol]

But for as much as I loathe healing (mainly because of the mindlessness of it as well as being an incredibly thankless profession)

Like it's a thankless profession in Ironsong. =P It's pretty well accepted that the amazing healing our raids get is a large (largest?) reason why we've been so successful with encounters.

Ironsong healing is second to none.

That said though, the healing you would give to us ranged and non-melee classes with Vampiric Embrace was insane. hock:

[Guest]

That said though, the healing you would give to us ranged and non-melee classes with Vampiric Embrace was insane.

Ack!

I am easily flattered, so no brown-nosing! I'm having enough trouble from myself keeping my vow to not play WoW without others waving it in my face. I am a still horribly addicted...

Granted, me lingering on this forum is like an alcoholic lounging around in a bar but not ordering anything. :p

<breaks>

[Fleethoof]

I *love* vampiric embrace. Lovelovelove it.

[Zuipol]

Ack!

I am easily flattered, so no brown-nosing!

Sorry, just stating the truth.

I mean, it's hard not to be impressed when my combat log looks like this:

Your Frostbolt hits Molten Giant for 730 damage.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Your Frostbolt crits Molten Giant for 1360 damage.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Your Frostbolt was resisted by Molten giant.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.
Efluvia's Vampiric Embrace heals you for 100.

Alright, I'm done hijacking the thread. Sorry shaman!

/blink