As shamans, we're not quite built at the moment to easily deliver the raw HPS output required for some of the toughest current hard modes. Instead of settling on the idea that we're never going to get raiding positions as healers in hard modes, though, let's think about what we can do to maximize our utility in today's regular or heroic raid. Before I begin, I'd like to insist that none of the below suggestions are built to increase HPS for the sake of topping the charts, but rather for the sake of keeping the raid alive. Simply put, hard modes deal a lot of damage. One of the best things a healer can do is turn off recount and think about keeping one's own assignments alive instead of obsessing over that number-1 position, but that's another post for another day.
1.)
As your Riptide HoT gets low, eat it up with a Chain Heal. Don't forget you have this cool mechanic! Thales often whines to me that his spells are all too straight-forward; exceptionally strong as they may be, he feels like they aren't as mechanically interesting as are our spells. As you are dropping riptides all over the raid, try to remember who they landed on. Having a battletext mod like
MSBT helps for this because it shows each tick on your screen along with the target's name. Revisit this target later in your rotation with a Chain Heal, as you probably intend at some point to cast CH regardless, and you'll find your CH output to be significantly (25%, in fact) stronger.
2.)
Don't glyph into LHW unless you expect to be a significant contributor to tank healing. Most of the shaman community, including those who run the
EJ Restoration Shaman Forum*, insist that a shaman using the RT/LHW rotation should be glyphed into LHW. Keep in mind that
Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave only affects the target that has your Earth Shield. As your tanks will probably be kept alive mostly by Discipline Priests and Holy Paladins, they likely won't be seeing many of your LHW's. I recommend glyphing for LHW only if your raid expects you to be the actual main tank healer. In
that situation, this is a fantastic glyph. While we're on this subject, I suggest these glyphing arrangements:
- Raid healer: RT, CH, and ES. CH and ES are obvious choices. RT, however, is the replacement I suggest for most people's LHW glyph. The extended timer on the RT HoT will allow for more of the aforementioned empowered CH's, and will also slightly increase your HPS output.
- Tank healer: ES, LHW, and RT. Still try to eat up the end of your RT HoT on the tank with a CH. It essentially becomes a bomb heal that is cheaper than HW, and it procs tidal waves. CH can also spread to the melee in some circumstances, and every little bit helps. ES and LHW are obvious.
3.)
In times of high AoE damage to the raid, heal the second-lowest raid member, not the first. When most raid healers see huge AoE bombs go off, their minds swing into panic mode and they quickly queue up large heals on whomever is most hurt in the raid. You should, then, ignore this raid member and heal whomever is second- or third-lowest in health. Again, this is not an attempt to lead the meters. You should never have this mentality. When healers begin to compete and snipe, assignments die. Besides, you can forget about topping the meters right now as a resto shaman, even if the druids and priests in your raid are in quest blues and are recovering from moderate to severe concussions. The idea here is that you'll minimize useless overheal. Overhealing during huge AoE moments is time lost on other people who need to be healed. Instead of keeping one person super-duper-alive, you'll be keeping two or three alive with this strategy. Just make sure not
every healer is doing this. ;-)
4.)
Download the ShieldsUp mod for maximizing ES uptime. You might think you have a good grasp on where your ES counter is, but I can guarantee you don't have 100% uptime during intense hard modes without the helpful reminder this mod brings. It is small, simple, and easy-to-use. I consider it a must for raiding resto shamans.
5.)
Switch to DPS as often as possible. Recall that as resto shamans, we're significantly better (or at least quicker) at DPSing out-of-spec than are, say, resto druids, who must shapeshift back and forth to do so. In hard modes like XT and Hodir, every little bit of DPS counts at times, and your help will be much appreciated. Of course, keep an eye on your mana. If you can't afford it, let the DPS do their job.
6.)
Suggest that the Enhancement and Elemental shamans in your raid be the ones to pop heroism. Heroism costs over 1,000 mana at level 80. That sucks for us. If you have lava bursty or storm strikey friends in the raid, make them do it. Especially the storm strikey kind. They should have zero issues with mana.
7.)
Queue up bombs to hit directly after spells, timed by a boss encounter mod. A good example of this is Gravity Bombs in XT. You should have a spell-timer going from DBM or BigWigs, showing exactly when the Gravity Bomb is going to explode. Target that member, wait until about 2 seconds are left, and queue up a Healing Wave. Raid members can easily die if they are Gravity Bombed while Tantrum is going off, and this is a great way to prevent that death.
8.)
Give your CH love to the melee more often than the ranged. It can be the tendency for ranged raid members to spread out, and most of the time it's for good reason, like avoiding chain lightning arcs. Melee**, however, often have little choice but to stand right next to each other. It might be worth arranging, then, that your chain heal goes to the melee while your priestly friend's CoH goes to a ranged group. Again, this will minimize overheal. It's also worth reminding the ranged members, when it is safe to do so, to bunch together.
Alurel
Coming Soon: Restoration Shaman Gear Theory*But I hear they're just a bunch of elitist jerks over there anyhow.
**It's pronounced "maylay," by the way. Nothing bothers me more than people saying "meelee". Or "Hurth" instead of "Harth". In fact, one time somebody said "One of the meelee just hurthed to dalaran," and I vomited all over my computer screen.
