Thread: Resto Shaman Guide for Raiders (Updated 3.3)

Note: The original version of this guide was written for Patch 3.2. Patch 3.3 did not introduce many changes except for the simple fact that itemization is a little easier due to the availability of higher level gear. However, I spent some time to reorganize this guide to make it a little more clear, as well as to revise parts of this guide to simplify some portions of it. As requested, I am also currently working on a PvP guide as well. Keep an eye out for it, and if you find it useful, give it a bump!

Just to make this clear, the contents of this guide are my opinion. Obviously I have incorporated factual information, but the majority of the opinionated theorycrafting comes from my own experiences, which might differ from other players. So if you happen to have different opinions about some of these sections, keep in mind that I don't intend to give the impression that I am the most knowledgeable resto shaman in existence.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction (Why would I want to be a resto shaman?)
II. General Healing Theory (I forgot how to heal, how do I heal again?)
III. Talents (I put 71 points in the resto tree right?)
IV. Spells and Glyphs (Don’t resto shamans only have one spell?)
V. Stats (How will I convince others that I’m not completely fail?)
VI. Gear (I’m a loot *%!%#, which purples do I want?)
VII. Shaman Healing Theory (Why don’t I just reroll tree?)
VIII. Examples (How do I down these ICC bosses?)
IX. Macros and Addons (Should I just use Healbot?)
X. Conclusion (So what was your point?)

I. Introduction (Why would I want to be a resto shaman?)

The shaman was my first character when I started WotLK, and remains my only character that does PvE and PvP content. Every raid needs a resto shaman, but I have seen alot of them that are not using their class to the best of the class's ability, effectively decreasing their healing output and limiting their utility. We are unique in that we are very good at playing the "hybrid" role, able to help keep up the tanks and relieve the pressure from raid damage. Our two main advantages are (1) our usefulness in supporting the other healers in our raids based on our ability to restore lost health by entire raid groups at a time, and (2) our flexibility that is allowed through our unique healing spells that can be combined in effective ways to meet any situation.

Strengths: able to fill the gaps that other healers leave, flexible enough to deal with most situations, well-suited for healing through burst damage, many forms of passive healing, little competition for gear

Weaknesses: the hybrid characteristic also means we are not the best at anything except supporting everyone else, not as well-suited towards long fights as other classes, impaired by movement-heavy fights, current itemization dictates that we are a little less mana efficient than other classes

My main reason for writing this guide was the observation that there was a lack of resto shaman guides on the World of Warcraft forums. This bothered me a bit more when I first started raiding in March 2009 (when I hit level 80), but in hindsight, the lack of information available for beginners forced me to learn most of this information through experience. I am one of the raid leaders of a very competent progression guild, and I am also 2200+ experienced in the PvP brackets. This guide aims to be thorough enough for beginners to understand but also advanced enough to help you with improve your raid performance. Additionally, Elitist Jerks is a very good resource if you want a more mathematical standpoint of some of these topics; while half of this guide comes from my own experience, the other half is based on their calculations.

II. General Healing Theory (I forgot how to heal, how do I heal again?)

-Healing is the most situational of the three roles. Learn how to work with your limits while taking advantage of your strengths to ensure that you are being used in the most effective way possible.

-A portion of your healing will be predictive healing. Learn to anticipate damage. A good predictive healer will time or setup their heals accordingly for the highest possible efficiency in response to predictable damage. Don’t wait until you see health bars dropping to start healing.

-A portion of your healing will be reactive healing. Some incoming damage will most likely be the result of mistakes or unplanned occurrences. Do not blame another healer for letting their assignment die if you could have easily helped reactively. A good reactive healer can be key to turning a wipe into something salvageable.

- A portion of your healing will be passive healing. If your class has methods or abilities that will allow you to heal without actively having to cast, then make sure to keep them refreshed or positioned. The best healers are able to heal reactively and predictively while making time to maintain their abilities that allow for passive healing.

-Communicate with your raid. The best raid groups succeed because of communication. Communicate with your tanks on who requires more healing or who has popped their damage mitigation cooldowns. Communicate with your raid members that are not in range or are in dangerous situations. Communicate with your healers about mana status, when you are disabled for whatever reason, or when others will need to pick up healing on specific targets. Adapt to your fellow healers, and try to predict how your other healers are going to heal based on both class and player so that your heals are as useful as possible.

-Manage your mana. A healer without mana is pointless. There are many ways you can help your mana conservation. Cancel heals with the Escape key or by moving/jumping if the heal won't be needed. Coordinate with the other healers about mana regeneration cooldowns such as Innervate or Mana Tide totem, and make sure you are managing your own cooldowns to ensure you will be able to last throughout the fight.

-Be raid aware; don’t tunnel vision. Most bad players out there are bad because they do not think about what is going on around them simply because they are staring at health bars. Don't let yourself die. You are a healer, which means you can heal yourself. Don't make the mistake of paying so much attention to everyone else that you end up dying to the very damage you’re supposed to be healing through. How you position yourself is also important, as you want to be in range of as many people as possible while staying safe. If the raid is about to move, be ready to adapt to the movement.

-Understand that it in any raid group, the healers collectively must have the upper hand on incoming damage; it should not be the other way around. A good mix of healers is necessary for progression; some healers are better at relieving pressure, some healers are able to adapt to burst situations, some healers are more suited than others to specific boss abilities, and some healers have the upper hand when dealing with incoming tank damage. Proper research of the fights will help to ensure that you are not fighting a losing battle against incoming damage, but being on top of all incoming damage instead.

III. Talents (I put 71 points in the resto tree right?)

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As of Patch 3.3, this spec is generally considered the best spec (0/13/58). Every talent point contributes to raid utility, skill effectiveness, or mana efficiency. Generally, people ask the question “why don’t you have this talent?”, so here are a few of the more common ones I here.

Why didn't you put points in...

Elemental Weapons: With the current level of gear, this talent provides very little benefit since it does not scale like other talents, but instead remains a constant insignificant spell power boost.

Totemic Focus: There are few fights I can think of that I am refreshing totems so often that the mana saved from this talent is worth the five points put into it. With the huge buff to Healing Wave in Patch 3.2, Improved Healing Wave is the much smarter choice for Tier 1 talents.

Improved Reincarnation: This is not a bad talent if you’re spending long nights on progression and you plan on dying a lot.

Focused Mind: Very few fights have silence effects that are so devastating that you need to reduce the duration of it.

Nature’s Guardian: There are some fights where this talent could be debatably useful and in some cases specced into, but in general you should not need to rely on this talent to survive.

Our variation in talents means that you can make specific specs for fights your raid is having trouble with. Just take out what you don't need (Examples: Restorative Totems for fights that don't allow mana regen, Healing Focus for fights with no pushback, Cleanse Spirit for fights that don't require decursing, Ancestral Awakening for fights where you will only be spamming Chain Heal) and put points into talents that might help (Examples: Totemic Focus for fights that require alot of movement in large spaces, Focused Mind for fights with silence effects, Nature's Guardian for constant unpredictable raid damage, Healing Grace for fights with add control problems).

IV. Spells and Glyphs (Don’t resto shamans only have one spell?)

Spells
Shamans have a unique set of spells that are most useful when used in combination. But to understand how they can be used together, it is important to understand how they are used individually.

Totems: Now that we are able to lay four totems in a single global cooldown, there is no reason why you should not have four down at all times. Your totem selection will always be dependent on what the raid needs the most for each fight. The most common set is Stoneskin, Flametongue, Healing Stream, and Wrath of Air. Healing Stream is one of our passive healing methods, as well as one of three sources of heals over time that shamans can apply. Keep in mind that many of our other totems are useful in different situations: Tremor for fights with fears/charms/sleep (Faction Champions), Earthbind for slows (Saurfang), Cleansing to remove diseases and poisons (Yogg), Resistance totems depending on elemental damage taken (Anub). Also keep in mind that some of your totems will be necessary depending on raid composition; for example, your Mana Spring totem will be important if there isn't a second paladin buff available, or your Strength of Earth if there is no Horn of Winter from a death knight. Lastly, keep in mind that totems do not stack, so make sure that you coordinate with other shamans in the raid.

Earthliving Weapon (ELW): This is the only weapon enchant you should be using for obvious reasons. The Earthliving effect that procs off of your heals is the second of three sources of heals over time that you can apply to the raid.

Water Shield (WS): WS should always be refreshed, as it is one of your main sources of mana regeneration. As of Patch 3.2, water orbs are no longer taken away through Improved Water Shield.
Earth Shield (ES): ES is generally our strongest contribution to passive tank healing in raids and should always be up on one of the tanks. With multiple resto shamans in the raid, you can have one on multiple tanks; however, they do not stack on the same target. Keep in mind that the healing power of your shield is dependent on your bonus healing when the shield is cast, but does not change during its duration. Therefore, it is more beneficial to wait until after all raid buffs have been applied, your EW is applied, and your Flametongue totem is down before casting the first ES.

Riptide: Riptide is our only instant cast, and the last of three sources of healing over time. The fact that it is an instant means that it is most often used to save lives in tight situations. Generally, Riptide is the more common way to proc Tidal Waves in burst healing situations. It is also important to remember that a target with Riptide on them will increase the effectiveness of a Chain Heal. After Patch 3.2, Riptide has become a heal that is more often used as a supplement as opposed to before Patch 3.2, when it was a more significant part of our rotation. However, our tier in Patch 3.3 is bringing Riptide back into our core rotation. Riptide procs both Ancestral Awakening and Improved Water Shield.

Chain Heal (CH): Before Patch 3.2, spamming CH was not always the most viable way to go, since CH was situationally less useful on most fights. It was generally used to proc Tidal Waves, which made our LHW casts insanely efficient. However, many of the drawbacks to CH spamming have been removed due to the fact that this heal has received alot of buffs since Patch 3.2. First of all, the utility of LHW has changed due to the change to Tidal Waves, which means Tidal Waves procs will not be utilizied as often as it once was. Each jump only reduces healing output by 40% instead of 50%, so its healing output has increased dramatically, especially with the glyph. The jump ranges have been increased to 12.5 yards, negating its previous uselessness on fights that required spreading out. The heal also procs Improved Water Shield now, which means that Chain Heal will also help our mana efficiency. The benefits of CH still stand: it automatically targets the lowest health pools after the first jumps, which means that it is very useful on fights with very inconsistent and unpredictable damage. Every jump still counts as separate heals, which means they all have a chance to proc "chance on crit" or "chance on spellcast" buffs. CH has become our filler spell, and is generally our choice for keeping Tidal Waves up.

Lesser Healing Wave (LHW): Before Patch 3.2, this was our main direct heal due to Tidal Waves, which decreased casting speed by 30%. The fact that the heal was faster than our global cooldown made it our most efficient heal, and was a major factor in our effectiveness when spot healing. The 30% haste buff has been changed to a 25% extra crit chance buff, which diminishes the usefulness it once had. However, there are still three main reasons why people will use LHW: (1) It is still the least costly on our mana pool, since it is has not only a cheaper mana cost but also procs Improved Water Shield, (2) It is also a very useful heal on the tank, since it has a high chance of refreshing Ancestral Healing, and (3) If we use up both Tidal Waves procs and require single target healing, LHW is the most efficient heal we have until we can refresh Tidal Waves.

Healing Wave (HW): This spell has become more favored after Patch 3.2 for several reasons: (1) LHW is no longer the more effective use of our Tidal Waves buff, since they are just as slow as our HW now yet heal for a lot less, (2) The Healing Way talent has been considerably buffed so that the heal is directly improved as opposed to before the patch when successive casts needed to be made to improve the heal, and (3) Now that our stat prioritization has changed (discussed later), the usefulness of haste dictates that are HW will become a very efficient way to heal through burst damage.

Mana Tide Totem: Generally, the timing of the totem will differ depending on the length of the fight. If you know you will be able to fit in two, don't hesitate to cast it early so that you can fit in another one at the end. Keep in mind that it is also useful because it can affect multiple targets; however, it will only affect raid members in your specific group, so be mindful of that when doing group assignments. Also remember that the totem is stationary like your other totems, so make sure to time it so you gain the maximum usage of it; laying it down right before you will have to move is not the way to do it.

Nature's Swiftness and Tidal Force: I have these spells in a macro along with any other cooldowns from trinkets or items. Generally, there are only two situations in which I use this spell: (1) If a tank or raid member gets dangerously low for whatever reason, an instant crit HW will generally be enough to save his life in most cases, and (2) For fights that have phases with huge amounts of burst raid damage, I generally use it in conjunction with a Chain Heal as many times as I can, such as Icehowl's Frost Breath or Festergut’s Gaseous Blight. This is often combined into an "Oh %#%#" button that all resto shamans generally have, a combination of Nature's Swiftness, Tidal Force, and any other spell power boosting trinkets.

Glyphs
In terms of minor glyphs, we don't have anything useful. Water Shield was very useful before Patch 3.2; however, now that Improved Water Shield no longer removes the water orbs, it is alot less important. I use Astral Recall and Ghost Wolf as my other two. However, when it comes to major glyphs, Patch 3.2 has given us more options to choose from since many of our spells have been buffed.

Earth Shield: My first glyph, this glyph is the only one I would consider necessary, because you will always keep ES up on the tank 100% of every fight, and it will be your main contribution to tank healing.

Chain Heal: My second glyph, since CH is one of our most commonly use spells, and the buffs it recieved in Patch 3.2, one more jump will increase our total healing output significantly.

Healing Stream Totem: My third glyph, which is useful for many of the fights in ToC or ICC, as well as one of our more powerful sources of passive healing.

Water Mastery: This glyph is helpful for beginning raiders who have less developed gear, since it is a significant boost to MP5.

Lesser Healing Wave: This glyph was also essential before Patch 3.2, but since it is no longer used as often, it is not as essential. It is more useful if I know in advanced I will be needing to throw a significant portion of my healing on the tanks (generally more in 10 mans).

Healing Wave: Though it isn't useful for every fight, its usefulness comes in for fights that have either continuous raid damage over time or periods of burst damage to the raid, since generally you won't have to worry about your own health since Tidal Waves procs will often be used on HW.

Riptide: I've never felt that this glyph was useful, but some argue differently. Since Riptide is a heal over time, adding more time is arguably useful; however, generally everyone is topped off so that the extra time really doesn't seem necessary.

V. Stats (How will I convince others that I’m not completely fail?)

Intellect (INT) vs. Spell Power (SP)

With the current gear that is easily obtainable in Patch 3.3 (and the stats that they come with), there is no more reason that anyone needs to gem for INT unless you are very undergeared, though it was a very different case before Patch 3.2. This means that SP is no longer less important than INT, and will increase healing output of our direct heals, chain heal jumps, and heal over time effects.

The Balance Between Crit, MP5, and Haste

Before Patch 3.2, this section would have been written very differently, mainly in terms of the prioritization of these three stats. Crit and MP5 used to be the focus, with haste being very unimportant to intentionally gear for since our LHW casts were already sitting below the global cooldown. Especially before Patch 3.2, when Riptide and LHW were used alot more consistently, it was important to prioritize SP and crit to make your heals larger instead of faster. However, the change to Tidal Waves and the buffs to CH and HW mean that haste has become the most important stat, which has changed stat prioritization immensely. Now that you are using spells that are not going below the global cooldown anymore and instead have longer base time casts, healing faster has become more important than healing larger. According to Elitist Jerks, haste currently has the highest HEP value as well. This has also placed a larger importance on balancing MP5 and crit, since more haste will also result in faster mana usage. Since we gain no benefits from spirit, MP5 is our only source of constant mana regeneration, while crit remains almost as useful for mana effiency as well.

A significant Crit percentage is still important for the following reasons: (1) It increases our healing output, making our heals bigger and proccing Ancestral Awakening which after Patch 3.1 has become a significant portion of healing, (2) It applies the 10% reduced physical damage taken buff due to Ancestral Healing, and (3) Most importantly, it is our main source of mana regeneration during a fight due to Improved Water Shield, especially now that CH will also proc this talent. Meanwhile, an adequate amount of MP5 is also our only source of constant mana return, which makes it just as important. However, if your mana efficiency is good enough to support your healing, crit/haste will always be more useful than MP5. There is no point to end a fight with a full mana pool, or you could have just turned all that MP5 into crit or haste. Generally when looking at gear, most people will try to obtain haste/crit over haste/MP5 gear. A good balance between crit and MP5 is important, but even more important is whether or not they are high enough to support our haste.

Balancing Stats and Gear

- As of Patch 3.3, it shouldn’t be hard to break 3000 SP with ELW. Keep in mind that successful healers aren’t successful because of how much spell power they have, but their skill as a healer. A lot of spell power won’t help you if you end up using it all on overheals. However, its usefulness definitely becomes more apparent on fights with constant raid damage.

- Remember that your haste is only as useful if your crit and MP5 can support it. Many people choose to stop gemming for haste at around 900. This is the point where diminishing returns becomes highly noticeable, and the majority decide that it is not worth it to overdo it. Others place more importance on reaching the haste cap of 1256, which is the point at which we have completely reached the minimum global cooldown (GCD). Although this number is difficult to reach, the result is the fastest heals you can throw. Most people are comfortably in the middle. I would recommend at least 900, which isn’t difficult at all considering the stats of current gear. I currently have a Battlemaster’s trinket that provides 128 extra haste, a useful trinket that I will replace once I can hit the hard cap without it. If you feel like your haste is higher than what you need it to be, I would recommend slowly swapping out haste gems to SP or SP/haste gems instead of any of the other stats.

-You want to aim for at least 33% crit chance or you will experience mana problems and terrible healing output. Keep in mind that the crit chance shown on your Character Panel DOES NOT take into account the talent Tidal Mastery, but it DOES take into account Thundering Strikes and Blessing of the Eternals. This means your real crit chance is 5% + whatever your Character Panel says.

-Your MP5 you want to aim for will generally depend on how difficult the content you are doing is. At this point, wth WS, 400 MP5 will generally be sufficient, since you will have either Blessing of Wisdom or Mana Spring, as well as a Mana Tide totem/Mana Potion to aid you. The important point is that your mana pool should be able to sustain your healing output.

-As of Patch 3.3, there are only two meta gems you should consider using. The "+21 Int and Chance to Restore Mana" meta gem is generally the one of choice for resto shamans. One purple gem (I have SP + MP5) will cover the Red and Blue requirement, allowing you to stack Haste in the other sockets. The mana restoration proc helps alot when it comes to our mana inefficiency. However, according to Elitist Jerks, the “+11 MP5 and +3% crit effect” is just as useful if you have a Solace of the Fallen off of Jarraxus, and even more useful if you have both the regular version and the heroic version. The other benefit of this meta gem is how easy the requirement is to fulfill, as you only need two red sockets, which can easily be met by SP/haste gems.

-I heavily recommend Jewelcrafting as one of your primary professions; the Jeweler's gems can make a huge difference especially with underdeveloped gear. I generally ignore socket bonuses, so I have +20 Haste gems in all my gear.

-Of the Tier 10 set, the leggings and the gloves do not have haste. For the leggings this is convenient because our best-in-slot leggings are the crafted Lightning-Infused Leggings. As for the gloves, they should be the piece that is obtained last, not to mention they drop off Vault.

Note: Keep in mind that most of this information only applies to those who have competitive gear, meaning you're at LEAST in all 232/245 item level gear. If you're just starting out, the key will be to boost your mana efficiency. Intellect gems to boost your mana pool might be more practical than gemming haste or or spell power off the bat, and optimizing more for crit and MP5 instead of rushing to increase your haste. The "21 Intellect + Mana Restore" is definitely the meta you'll want to use.

VI. Gear (I’m a loot !*@#*, which purples do I want?)

According to Elitist Jerks, this is our current best-in-slot list (not including heroic ICC content). I am only including mail gear, as you will probably be last in line for cloth gear, and in most cases the mail gear is just as adequate. While you are making the transition from ToC gear to ICC gear, keep in mind that the synergy between the T9 2-set bonus and the T10 2-set bonus is great.

Note: There are a few items that I disagree with Elitist Jerks on in this list, the most notable being the weapon Trauma. I don't feel like the proc is worth the loss in stats. I'm using Heartsmasher from 10 ToGC tribute chest, and I know there is a better one from 25 ToGC tribute chest as well. Another one I am skeptical about is the trinket Althor's Abacus. I don't feel like the proc is worth the slight upgrade in spell power either. I think a second Solace of the Fallen from Jaraxxus is even more useful.

Weapon: Trauma (Rotface)
Shield: Bulwark of Smouldering Steel (Marrowgar)
Head: Sanctified Frost Witch’s Headpiece (Frost Emblems)
Neck: Blood Queen’s Crimson Choker (Lana’thel)
Shoulder: Sanctified Frost Witch’s Spaulders (Frost Emblems)
Back: Frostbinder’s Shredded Cape (Valithria)
Chest: Sanctified Frost Witch’s Tunic (Frost Emblems)
Hands: Sanctified Frost Witch’s Handguards (Frost Emblems)
Wrist: Bloodsunder’s Bracers (Rotface)
Waist: Belt of the Blood Nova (Saurfang)
Feet: Earthsoul Boots (Leatherworking)
Legs: Lightning-Infused Leggings (Leatherworking)
Rings: Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom (Reputation) and Marrowgar’s Frigid Eye (Gunship)
Relic: Totem of Surging Sea (Frost Emblems)
Trinkets: Althor’s Abacus (Gunship) and Solace of the Defeated (Jarraxus)

VII. Shaman Healing Theory (Why don’t I just reroll tree?)

Spell Rotation

Unlike DPS, the healing role should never require a "rotation" in the same way that DPSers do. However, there are still more efficient ways to use your spells that will ensure the most healing output with the least mana costs. First and foremost, our totems must always be down, as their benefits to the raid are huge. Second, WS should always be refreshed on yourself, and ES should always be refreshed on the tank. We have a basic rotation to keep in mind which mostly centers around ensuring that Tidal Waves is always refreshed so that HW or LHW can be used when needed. As of Patch 3.3, Riptide will now be used more consistently once again to refresh Tidal Waves. Additionally, the buffs to CH and the nerfs to LHW mean that using CH as a filler spell (AKA opting not to use the Tidal Waves procs) is more viable than it was before. Additionally, our T10 set bonuses are excellent compared to our T9 set bonuses, and they are the reason why Riptide is coming back into the rotation along with CH as the filler spell. These are the two spells that are generally used for predictive healing, while LHW and HW are tools for reactive healing, making it important to keep Tidal Waves refreshed in case heavy single target healing is required. Totems and ES contribute to the majority of our passive healing, as well as the ELW effect.

Spell Combinations

Our spells are unique in that they can be combined in different ways to produce different results, making us very flexible and able to meet many situations. You will find through the examples below that we can combine our spells to effectively heal through consistent raid damage (Twin Valkyrs, Festergut), inconsistent raid damage (Faction Champions, Rotface), burst raid damage (Marrowgar, Deathwhisper), sustained single target damage (Anub), and burst single target damage (Gormok, Putricide).

CH Spamming: On fights with unpredictable raid damage, the fact that CH autotargets people with the lowest health means you can save lives without necessarily knowing who's life you're going to need to save. This tactic is especially useful if used on the tank, since spamming this heal on the tank will not only help keep the tank topped off, but will generally keep the melee topped off as well. Fights with constant raid damage also work well with continuous CH, especially if the raid is stacked positionally. This tactic can be especially useful since it is the most efficient way to proc your Earthliving. Keep in mind that there is a known bug with CH: if the CH jumps to you, it will not continue to jump, making it more useful to target yourself with the CH initially and allowing it to jump to raid members around you. Twins is probably the most obvious example of this combination, as constant raid damage is easier to heal through with CH (especially when targeting the melee). Also, you can somewhat control who CH jumps to by positioning yourself and targeting yourself so that the people around you will receive jumps.

Riptide + CH: It is important to remember that a target with Riptide on him will make a subsequent CH cast stronger. This means that you can use this combination to make your CH stronger when needed. Keep in mind that the Riptide's heal over time effect will be removed once the CH is cast, which means that the smartest way to use this is to leave the heal over time effect on the target, and then use a CH on him later on. On fights with constant raid damage, good resto shamans can actually keep track of which targets they have cast Riptide on, and alternate CH onto those targets to make all of their CH stronger. On some fights, the tanks are taking alot of damage, while the rest of the raid is taking significant damage. CH might be the best way for you to help with the pressure on the tank as well as help with the raid. If that is the case, a Riptide on the tank before the CH will boost your CH utility alot on tank damage-heavy fights. Lastly, this combo is useful in situations where you are expecting burst damage to the raid. For example, in situations where you can expect Deathwhisper’s raid-wide frost attack or Marrowgar’s Bone Storm coming soon, I have a Riptide pre-cast on a raid member (generally either the tank or myself) that acts as a healing bomb that will allow me to proc the stronger CH when the raid damage starts. Even better, pre-cast the CH out of anticipation to start relieving pressure as soon as possible. On Deathwhisper it can be easy to accidentally fail to the ghosts while a Frostbolt Volley is going off.

CH + HW/LHW + CH: In essence, this combination is simply saying to use your Tidal Waves proc. This is perhaps most important on fights with periods of inconsistent raid damage, where CH spamming is not enough. The reason why it might not be enough is simply because it targets the people with lower health at the time at which you cast it, which is not always so useful during phases of heavy inconsistent raid damage. A good example is Jarraxus, where on top of Fel Lightning and Legion Flames doing heavy raid damage, HW becomes the most efficient way to heal through Incinerate Flesh. Using your Tidal Waves procs on HW to top of raid members that have gotten signficantly low is a good way to get through abilities like Festergut’s Vile Gas. The added bonus to using HW is that more often than not, one HW (especially if it crits) is enough to top off any non-tank raid member. This means more often than not that on fights with periods of heavy burst raid damage such as Festergut’s Pungent Blight, using your HW will guarantee that the target will no longer need healing for the duration of that phase.

Riptide + LHW/HW: This combination is using your Riptide to proc Tidal Waves, and then using those procs on LHW or HW. This combination is especially useful if you need to heal a single target through consistent damage, and can generally be thought of as a rotation. Anytime you are healing a tank, or if a single raid member will be taking sustained damage (such as Penetrating Cold on Anub) or burst single target damage (such as Rotface’s Mutated Infection) this will generally be your combo, more often than not supplemented with a another Riptide to refresh Tidal Waves. The beauty of this rotation lies in its simplicity: Tidal Waves will ensure that both your LHW and HW are stronger, that your LHW will very likely crit, and that your HW will be 30% reduced in cast time. This means you have two heals at your disposal depending on which is needed. This combo works if you are using everything on the same target, or if you are using each heal on a different target. For example, on Phase 3 of Anub, multiple targets will have Penetrating Cold, which means you can Riptide/LHW/LHW three different targets, but both LHW casts will be benefited by Tidal Waves. Keep in mind that this combination also works well if you are anticipating heavy single target damage. For Casting the Riptide before the damage comes, and then timing your Healing Wave so that the cast finishes when the damage hits is a good way to use this combination.

LHW/HW + Riptide: This combination deserves special mention because it is the biggest heal you can cast at one time, which makes it the most effective way to heal through burst single target damage (Gormok’s Impale). This combination means you are using a Tidal Waves proc to ensure the largest/fastest LHW or HW possible, followed by an instant cast Riptide which will immediately add onto the LHW or HW. In addition, this will add a heal over time effect to the target, will give you two chances to proc Earthliving, and two chances to proc Ancestral Awakening, especially useful if the target you are healing is still the lowest in health. LHW used to be the heal of choice in this combo due to its incredibly short cast time, but now that that has been removed and HW is not much slower, HW is generally used more often in this situation. This combination is not only useful for a single target that needs sudden burst healing, but it is also the most effective way to help someone recover from a mistake. For example, if someone fails to Death and Decay on Deathwhisper, that person will be very low, if not dead. Since you were generally casting CH, Tidal Waves should be refreshed, and if the HW saves them, an immediate Riptide will most likely top them off, with the heal over time effects keeping it that way. Note that this combination is much different than Riptide followed by a LHW/HW. That combination is seen as two separate heals, because there is a global cooldown separating the Riptide from the next heal, whereas there is no global cooldown separating the two heals if Riptide is cast immediately after. The difference between these two combinations is highly situational, but if the global cooldown is enough time for someone to die, the Riptide first is generally not the best idea since it is the smaller of the two heals and the global cooldown might kill them, whereas an immediate HW/Riptide combination is seen as one very large heal. When using this combo, the Riptide will refresh your Tidal Waves again, meaning you can follow up with another LHW or HW if needed. An example that comes to mind is Rotface to heal through someone with Mutated Infection, as big heals are required due to the 50% reduced healing, and more HW can be cast immediately following the Riptide. But oftentimes, casting the Riptide first would be not enough to save them from the damage over time.

CH + Cooldowns + CH: Whereas other classes have alot more cooldowns, when resto shamans pop our cooldowns, it generally just means Nature's Swiftness, Tidal Force. However, in fights with burst raid damage, this combination can be very helpful if the raid is under alot of pressure. A CH followed by an instant (almost guaranteed critical) CH is alot of burst healing for intense situations (such as Festergut’s Pungent Blight).

Cooldowns + HW: Sometimes, you reach a situation where it is key you keep a target alive. At those times, your fastest way of doing so is popping Nature’s Swiftness and Tidal Force and casting a Healing Wave on them. The only times I really think this is necessary is if for some reason the tanks cannot receive any healing and it's up to me to keep the last tank alive.

It is important to realize that these combinations can be put together for even greater combinations. For example, a Riptide+CH followed by a CH+HW+Riptide followed by a Riptide+LHW+LHW can all be strung together to meet a situation where you are healing through constant damage, someone is inches from death because of a mistake, and then you must immediately heal through a single target taking consistent damage. These greater combinations are generally what carry us through the duration of entire fights. Do not ever think of your spells as individual spells, but tools to combine to meet any situation and support your other healers.

VIII. Examples (How do I down these ICC bosses?)

Some people had specific questions about certain ICC bosses, so I'll just give a few tips. Obviously not every boss has been released, so for now I'll just do the first first couple wings and update this when I have time as more content is released.

Marrowgar: The easiest way to do Marrowgar is to have the entire raid stacked inside Marrowgar's hit box, making the raid (with the exception of hunters) immune to Cold Flame. This means that CH is not so necessary during Phase 1, as the only people taking damage are the tanks and people affected by Bone Spike, making Riptide+LHW/HW the general combination. During Phase 2, it will be more important to balance CH with watching out for Cold Flames. It's important to keep Tidal Waves up, as some people might be taking damage from Bone Storm and failing to Cold Flame as well. Also, be careful about your positioning while the tanks are repositioning him, as he has a cleave.

Deathwhisper: On this fight, I generally just wait for Death and Decay and heal everyone until they all run out. The fight has been nerfed so much that adds are not even remotely an issue. On Phase 2, the only thing you have to watch out for is the raid-wide Frost Bolt Volley, which will require some burst healing. Have Riptide cast on multiple targets so you can cast stronger CH when recovering from the damage (Riptide + CH).

Gunship: This is the easiest fight in ICC by far. It's not even worth talking about.

Saurfang: CH will most likely be able to cover tank/melee damage, while Tidal Waves procs can help with range single targets. This fight can be easily done with 5 healers, or 4 good ones. It is an easy fight if you manage Blood Points and learn to postpone the first Mark for as long as possible. Get ready for some reactive healing when Blood Beasts come out, as some people might fail to kiting them and get hit. Keeping Tidal Waves up will make it easy to do so.

Festergut Don't be spamming CH so hard that you're spamming it on the range, as they are spread out as much as possible. CH the melee, Tidal Waves on the range (CH+HW+CH), and get ready to heal through massive burst raid damage (Riptide+CH or CH+cooldowns+CH). This is probably the most CH spamming fight in ICC so far.

Rotface CH is perfect for people failing to Slime Spray, and your Tidal Waves will definitely be necessary to heal through the debuffs seeing as they reduce healing received by 50%. HW+Riptide will work especially well, since you'll be leaving a heal over time effect on them as well, which will help recover some of his health after he is dispelled. When the oozes explode, try and get as many people's health in the safe zone with CH+LHW/HW as possible before you worry about running anywhere.

Putricide: There are a few ways to put your spell combinations to good use here. A Riptide+LHW/HW on the target of the green ooze will keep them alive, and the Riptide+CH afterwards will heal through the explosion. The orange ooze can be easily healed through with single target healing. On Phase 3, expect alot of raid damage towards the end of the fight, and have your CH+cooldowns+CH ready, as well as Tidal Wave procs on anyone that might need them due to errors (CH+HW+CH).

IX. Macros and Addons (Should I just use Healbot?)

Macros
-For my ES spell, I have a focus target macro which puts the ES on whoever my focused target is, regardless of who my current target is. Thus, if I am anticipating a tank swap, I can set my focus beforehand so I will not have to worry about it later. This is a good way to keep your ES refreshed without actually having to target him.

-My Wind Shear is also on a focus target macro, allowing me to help out when I can on fights that require interrupts (though the 0 hit rating makes that undependable). The focus target macro is “/cast [target=focus] Spell Name”. Your focus target key bind can be set in Interface options. My focus target key bind is Shift+Tab.

- Any good resto shaman will have a Nature’s Swiftness + Tidal Force macro. I prefer to leave the actual heal out of the macro because I prefer to leave the option open as to whether or not I want one instant single target large heal or one instant multi-target heal. You can also combine any trinkets you have to this macro. The macro is easy enough: “/cast Nature’s Swiftness /cast Tidal Force /use Item Name”.

-One additional macro I sometimes use is a macro that announces in the area around me that I am putting down a Mana Tide totem, which can be helpful to other healers that also would like the benefit of 25% of their mana pool back. The macro is: “/s I’m dropping Mana Tide /cast Mana Tide Totem”.

Addons

-The raid interface I support the most is Grid, mostly because it allows me to display alot of information that is really helpful when healing. You can set different corners of each box to display information, such as aggro alerts, incoming heals, etc. You can also set the boxes to display specific debuffs which come in handy on fights that require quick burst healing to single targets.

-I am not a click healer, mostly because I use my mouse alot in character movement and camera movement. However, I do support the Clique addon because I have my Purge (Shift + Right Click) and Cleanse (Shift + Left Click) bound, and it works well with Grid. Some people also like to bind ES, CH, and other spells to mouse combinations as well, which can make those spells just as easy.

-I like Flo Totem Bars the best out of all the totem management addons. They've integrated the 4 totem system with Patch 3.2 pretty nicely into the addon itself, allowing you to change the assigned totems mid-battle instead of slowly going through the dropdown menus that the regular totem interface gives you. You can also plan all 3 different sets of totems very on one interface.

-Obviously, I use the addons that most raiding guilds require, such as Deadly Boss Mods (some guilds prefer Deus Vox Encounters) and Omen Threat Meter. I also use Recount.

X. Conclusion (So what was your point?)

It is important to know your limits as a class. There is a reason why I say that we are best classified as a support healer. We have different spells, and different ways to combine them, that allow us to help the other healers keep their targets topped off. However, assigning a resto shaman to a specific target is generally less useful than assigning other classes to a specific target, since there will always be a class better than us to fulfill that role. There are much better tank healers than us, because we don't have the mitigation effects that disc priests do, and we don't have the huge single target heals that paladins do. Similarly, druid healers and holy priests can often do a better job at relieving pressure on incoming raid damage. Our mana efficiency is generally the worst of all healing classes. We also lose a lot of effectiveness when we are forced to constantly move. Thus, there will always be someone else better at any given job. However, we shine in our ability to support. Through our indirect heals (ES, Ancestral Awakening, EL procs, CH jumps), we can alleviate pressure on the other healers. Our Tidal Waves allows us to spot heal where needed, on both tanks and the raid. On fights with inconsistent or burst raid damage, there is no one better at topping everyone off quickly. If you are going to play a resto shaman, the biggest challenge is to accept your limitations and learn how to support your other healers in the more challenging fights. This makes resto shamans one of the hardest, but also funnest healers to play, as there is no other class better at spot healing then us.

Most veteran resto shamans would agree on most of the details in this guide, while non-raiding resto shamans wouldn’t find this guide too useful. I hope you found this guide to be adequate for whatever your situation may be.

-Rednaxela, All For One, Shattered Halls

Could you post your talents in an image? that way we'll can see it even if wowarmory is down or updated.

Thanks for this wonderful guide

lol

Man, u explaining all time for patch 3.3 and post a link for cataclism...

Is there any other site where I can see talent trees for 3.3.5 patch?