Bwappo's 70-74 Restoration Shaman Guide

Kirise

Kirise

OG
4.2 introduced a new, strong choice for resto shamans in the 70-74 bracket. Now that critical heals grant a 100% increase instead of the traditional 50% increase in healing, crit rating makes for a tempting option for some resto shamans. With the combination of BC-capped accounts, the return of PvP Guardian armor off-pieces, and the only live XP-off bracket to feature arenas and rated battlegrounds, the 70-74 bracket boasts the largest XP-off population in the game. Restoration shamans, like all healers, stand exceptionally strong in this bracket, in part by reaching the end of their talent tree for the all-important Riptide instant-cast healing spell.



In the 70-74 bracket, restoration shamans have a tremendous variety of choices to suit their wildly varying playstyles, thanks to two factors. First, plenty of PvP and PvE gear creates a multitude of gearing options, further augmented by gem sockets capable of WotLK gems. The bracket is almost entirely devoid of BoA gear, thanks to better options. Second, players encounter significant advantages and tradeoffs in choosing any of the five levels available in the bracket.





I. Gear

II. Talents

III. Glyphs

IV. Professions

V. Races

VI. Consumables

VII. Armories

VIII. Tips

IX. Which Level Should I Play?





I. Gear



I organize gear by primary and alternate choices. Primary choices offer the greatest overall stats boosts, while alternate choices may help a healer shaman optimize for a specific stat. The same goes for enchantments and other augmentations, while trinkets follow their own organization. In this way, you can mix and match which combination of bonuses works best for your particular healing style. While this guide avoids predetermining gear decisions for players, it does make one assumption: all healer shamans carry shields. No two-hand weapon in the game is worth giving up the armor bonus of a shield for a healer shaman.



With so many close choices for gear in this bracket, it may help to think of itemizing gear in terms of "socket units" when choosing between two close pieces, determining set bonuses, and so forth. Each socket provides the opportunity to add 30 stam, 20 int, 20 hit, 20 resilience, 25 spell penetration, etc. (For a complete list of epic WotLK gem combinations, check WoWwiki's Northrend Gems by Stats Page.) Thinking in terms of a piece of gear having "3.5 sockets' worth" of stats, while another piece has more or less, may help determine which gear combination will serve you best according to the stats you value.



For example, you might like the Brutal Gladiator's Ringmail Leggings, and have your eye on the Chain Links of the Tumultuous Storm as well. The Leggings have 0.5 sockets of stamina, 1.5 sockets of spirit, and 1.5 sockets of resilience over the Chain Links, so to speak. Meanwhile, the Chain Links have 0.5 sockets of int, 1.5 sockets of haste, and 3 actual sockets over the Leggings. In these terms, the Leggings have a 3.5 socket advantage, and the Chain links have a 5 socket advantage. Now, you might have already chosen another Brutal Gladiator piece, bringing almost two more sockets' worth of resilience to the Leggings for the 2-piece set bonus, for a total of 5.5 sockets vs. 5 sockets. Finally, you made decide you don't care about spirit, so the Leggings lose 1.5 sockets of value to you, for a final tally of 4 sockets vs. 5 sockets. So, you go with the Chain Links. Thinking in terms of "sockets" can help reduce the complexity of gear choices for the 70-74 bracket, while reminding you how customizable your gear really is.



When choosing your stats, the high damage of the bracket makes resilience generally more valuable than stamina. Be sure to get hit capped (see section IX for details in your chosen level), and get a minimum of 73 spell penetration to overcome resistances so that opponents don't often resist your purges. Whether you prefer int, haste, crit, or spirit depends entirely on your playstyle and whether you spend your time in arenas or battlegrounds. Int increases your throughput, haste makes you less vulnerable to interrupts and silences, crit helps proc talents, and spirit ensures you never run out of mana. Build two or three gearsets if you want -- you may find yourself wishing for different combinations depending on the situation.





HEAD

Primary: Brutal Gladiator's Ringmail Helm, Brutal Gladiator's Mail Helm, Skyshatter Headguard. Add the Arcanum of the Gladiator.

Alternate: Electroflux Sight Enhancers, Cowl of Gul'dan. Add the Arcanum of Renewal (Alliance/Horde).



NECK

Primary: Guardian's Pendant of Subjugation, Guardian's Pendant of Conquest, Guardian's Pendant of Reprieve, Guardian's Pendant of Dominance, Guardian's Pendant of Salvation.



SHOULDERS

Primary: Brutal Gladiator's Ringmail Spaulders, Brutal Gladiator's Mail Spaulders. Add the Greater Inscription of the Gladiator.

Alternate: Equilibrium Epaulets, Erupting Epaulets.



BACK

Primary: The Tattered Cape of Antonidas or the Volanthius Shroud. Add Enchant Cloak - Spell Piercing, Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed, plus a Flexweave Underlay for engineers.



CHEST

Primary: Brutal Gladiator's Ringmail Armor, Brutal Gladiator's Mail Armor. Add Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats, Enchant Chest - Super Health, or Enchant Chest - Exceptional Resilience.

Alternate: Skyshatter Breastplate, Garments of Serene Shores, Garments of Crashing Shores, Sun-Drenched Scale Chestguard.



WRISTS

Primary: Guardian's Ringmail Bracers, Guardian's Mail Bracers. Add Enchant Bracers - Major Stamina. Leatherworkers can add any of the Fur Linings.

Alternate: Skyshatter Bands.



HANDS

Primary: Brutal Gladiator's Ringmail Gauntlets, Brutal Gladiator's Mail Gauntlets. Add Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower or Enchant Gloves - Precision. Engineers can add one of the following: Hyperspeed Accelerators, Z50 Mana Gulper,Tazik Shocker, Synapse Springs, Spinal Healing Injector.

Alternate: Skyshatter Gauntlets, Skyshatter Gloves, Gauntlets of the Ancient Frostwolf, Gauntlets of the Ancient Shadowmoon, Sun-Drenched Scale Gloves.



WAIST

Primary: Skyshatter Cord, Skyshatter Belt. Add an Eternal Belt Buckle. Engineers can add a Mind Amplification Dish or Nitro Boosts.

Alternate: Guardian's Mail Girdle, Guardian's Ringmail Girdle.



LEGS

Primary: Brutal Gladiator's Ringmail Leggings, Brutal Gladiator's Mail Leggings, Chain Links of the Tumultuous Storm, Kilt of Spiritual Reconstruction. Add a Sapphire Spellthread.

Alternate: Skyshatter Legguards, Skyshatter Leggings.



FEET

Primary: Skyshatter Treads, Skyshatter Boots. Add Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality, Enchant Boots - Greater Fortitude, or Enchant Boots - Icewalker.

Alternate: Guardian's Ringmail Sabatons, Guardian's Mail Sabatons.



RINGS

Primary: Loop of Forged Power, Guardian's Band of Dominance, Guardian's Band of Subjugation, Ring of Omnipotence.

Alternate: Ring of Flowing Life, Band of Lucent Beams, Guardian's Band of Salvation.



TRINKETS

Escape: Medallion of the Alliance/Medallion of the Horde, or the Inherited Insignia of the Alliance/Inherited Insignia of the Horde.

Engineering: The Noise Machine, Gnomish Poultryizer, Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector, and the Gnomish Cloaking Device.

Engineering Damage: Gnomish Lightning Generator, Goblin Rocket Launcher.

Bonus: Battlemaster's Courage, Figurine: Crimson Serpent, The Skull of Gul'dan, Horn of the Herald, Strike of the Seas, Fury of the Crimson Drake, Harbinger's Wrath (Alliance only), Infused Coldstone Rune, Vial of Renewal, Warsong's Wrath (Horde only), Redeemer's Alchemist Stone, Sorcerer's Alchemist Stone.



MAIN HAND

Primary: Crystal Spire of Karabor or the Hammer of Sanctification. Add Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower.

Alternate: Brutal Gladiator's Gavel, Archon's Gavel, or the Sunflare.



OFF HAND

Primary: Brutal Gladiator's Redoubt, Brutal Gladiator's Barrier. Add Enchant Shield - Greater Intellect or Enchant Shield - Major Stamina.

Alternate: Tharon'ja's Aegis.



RELIC

Primary: Brutal Gladiator's Totem of Survival.

Alternate: Brutal Gladiator's Totem of the Third Wind.



NO LONGER OBTAINABLE

Medallion of the Alliance/Medallion of the Horde.
 
II. Talents



The 70-74 bracket restoration shaman rarely worries about mana on battlefields, but needs to consider it for long arena fights. The best way to construct your talent tree, then, is to optimize for your strongest healing, then move points as needed into mana-saving talents.



For the first tier of the restoration tree, choose Spark of Life and Ancestral Resolve. Focused Insight in the second tier brings a significant buff to restoration shaman healing when a shock lands, so get hit capped. Nature's Guardian grants an instant heal of over 2100 health when you get in trouble.



Nature's Swiftness, Nature's Blessing and Ancestral Healing deserve your talent points, and Improved Cleanse Spirit gets a nice boost from Cleansing Waters. In the fifth tier Ancestral Awakening helps you out, alongside the The Spirit Link Totem, which offers situational advantages that make it a must-have addition to a restoration shaman's arsenal. However, the totem needs careful use to maximize effectiveness. The more teammates in range of the totem, the more effectively the totem buoys everyone's health. Moreover, a greater total number of friends and foes in range make it (counterintuitively) less likely that someone will target and prematurely destroy the totem.



The Mana Tide Totem offers less advantage in battlegrounds. Arena situations may offer a better opportunity for the small amount of mana the totem helps to regenerate. Both totems benefit from Totemic Focus back in the second tier.



But now, how do we get to the sixth tier? Normal battlegrounds will likely see a significant impact from the Glyph of Healing Stream Totem, which makes Soothing Rains a potential place to dump two points for a little extra healing, if you don't want the Mana Tide Totem. However, you can expect adequate spell penetration in arenas and rated battlegrounds to nullify the glyph's advantage, so plan accordingly. Arena players will likely prefer to put points in one of the mana-saving or mana-generating talents.



Whichever way you choose, you'll finally reach tier six. Tidal Waves reduces the casting time of Greater Healing Wave, and Blessing of the Eternals finishes the tier. Finally, you reach Riptide! The bottom of the restoration tree brings this powerful instant-cast heal.



If you earn an extra talent point or two by choosing to play above 70, the points can go almost anywhere. Outside of the restoration tree, you may want Elemental Weapons or 2/3 Improved Shields in the Enhancement tree. 2/3 Acuity might also intrigue you from the elemental tree.





III. Glyphs



Prime:



Glyph of Earth Shield: capitalize on your strong Earth Shield via this glyph.

Glyph of Shocking: faster consecutive casts, especially interesting for shamans who don't stack haste.

Glyph of Earthliving Weapon: minor buff to the heal-over-time effect.

Glyph of Riptide: Possibly good for more offense-focused healers, who spend more time between heals.



Major:



Glyph of Healing Stream Totem: a tremendous glyph that adds 28% fire, frost, and nature resistance to everyone in range of your totem. Does not stack with racial resistance bonuses or Blessing of Kings.

Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem: A free shield for extra survivability -- a favored second glyph for the 70-74 bracket.

Glyph of Frost Shock: 25% longer slowdown is nice, but not really worthwhile.

Glyph of Grounding Totem: With precise timing, reflect CCs and burst damage with this glyph. However, the increased cooldown penalty undermines the usefulness of this glyph as the 70-74 bracket has a lot of survivability.





IV. Professions



For the 70-74 bracket, there's engineering, and then there's everything else. Between the engineering trinkets available, and the overpowered Cataclysm weapons for non-rated battlegrounds, engineering works as a must-have for most players in the bracket. This needs to be said: the current damage from the Big Daddy breaks the bracket. While the bomb isn't seeing widespread use yet (in part from its expensive construction materials), do be aware of its existence.



Alchemy: With a Redeemer's Alchemist Stone or Sorcerer's Alchemist Stone, healing potions average an extra 1440 health, and mana potions net an extra 1720 mana.

Blacksmithing: Socket Bracer, Socket Gloves.

Enchanting: Enchant Ring - Stamina, Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower.

Engineering: Electroflux Sight Enhancers, Z50 Mana Gulper, Tazik Shocker, Synapse Springs, Spinal Healing Injector, Hyperspeed Accelerators, Mind Amplification Dish, Nitro Boosts, Noise Machine, Gnomish Poultryizer, Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector, Gnomish Cloaking Device, Gnomish Lightning Generator, Goblin Rocket Launcher, High-Powered Bolt Gun, Global Thermal Sapper Charge, Goblin Beam Welder, Big Daddy.

Herbalism: Lifeblood.

Inscription: Master's Inscription of the Crag, Master's Inscription of the Storm.

Jewelcrafting: Can use three Jeweler's Gems.

Leatherworking: Fur Linings, Jormungar Leg Reinforcements, Drums of Battle, Drums of Panic, Drums of Restoration, Drums of War, Drums of Speed.

Mining: Toughness.

Skinning: Master of Anatomy.

Tailoring: Darkglow Embroidery, Lightweave Embroidery, Master's Spellthread, Sanctified Spellthread, Embersilk Net.





V. Races



The relevant racial bonuses for a healer shaman are as follows:



Draenei

Heroic Presence: +1% chance to hit with all spells and attacks. Gift of the Naruu, an instant cast heal-over-time spell that heals for 15 seconds, with a three minute cooldown, for 20% of your target's maximum health (each tick has a chance to crit). 28% shadow resistance.



Dwarf

Stoneform: cleanse poisons, diseases, and bleeds, and grants 10% damage reduction, on a 2-minute cooldown. 28% frost resistance.



Goblin

Rocket Jump: jumps quickly forward, with a two minute cooldown. +1% haste.



Orc

Blood Fury: increases spell power by 92/117/123/127/132 (for level 70/71/72/73/74) for fifteen seconds with a two minute cooldown. Hardiness: reduces stun duration by an additional 15%.



Tauren

War Stomp: Stuns five enemies within 8 yards for two seconds, 0.5 second cast, two minute cooldown. Endurance: 5% base health increase (only for base stamina, not bonus stamina). 28% nature resistance.



Troll

Regeneration: +10% health regeneration out of combat, or +1% during combat. Da Voodoo Shuffle: reduces received movement impairing effect durations by 15%. Berserking: +20% haste for 10 seconds.





VI. Consumables



Only one guardian elixir and one battle elixir may be active at a time, and are noted below. In addition, world events can make additional consumables available.



Arcane Bomb

Big Daddy

Blackened Worg Steak

Discombobulator Ray

Drums of Battle

Drums of Panic

Drums of Restoration

Drums of Speed

Drums of War

Elixir of Accuracy (Battle)

Elixir of Camoflage

Elixir of Dream Vision

Elixir of Empowerment (Guardian)

Elixir of Lightning Speed (Battle)

Elixir of Mighty Fortitude (Guardian)

Embersilk Bandage

Embersilk Net

Firecracker Salmon

Flask of Chromatic Wonder (Battle) (Guardian)

Free Action Potion

Global Thermal Sapper Charge

Goblin Beam Welder

Greater Ward of Shielding

High-Powered Bolt Gun

Imperial Manta Steak

Ironshield Potion

Lesser Flask of Resistance (Battle) (Guardian)

Lesser Flask of Toughness (Battle) (Guardian)

Lesser Invisibility Potion (Triggers an extended 10-minute cooldown on all potions.)

Living Action Potion

Potion of Speed

Potion of Wild Magic

Runic Healing Injector

Runic Healing Potion

Runic Mana Injector

Runic Mana Potion

Saronite Bomb

Small Feast

Swiftness Potion

Very Burnt Worg





VII. Armories



Claw

Kevincostner

Tirise
 
VIII. Tips
  • Keep casting. Move around while casting your instants (shocks, shears, purges, riptides), staying still only for your cast heals. In the moments that your teammates don't need heals, purge enemy buffs and especially shields.
  • Your shocks help your heals. Keep your shocks on cooldown.
  • Use shocks appropriately. Frost to slow melee, flame to DoT rogues, maybe an earth now and them to reduce melee damage. Remember that your flame shock DoT will break any subsequent sheep, so stay aware of what your mage teammates target. This goes triple for searing totems.
  • Riptide reduces the casting time of your Greater Healing Wave to almost match your Healing Surge. Plan in advance for this effect to maximize your heals -- hit a half-alive teammate with a Riptide, then drop a Greater Healing Wave on another teammate who has two seconds to live.
  • Glyph of healing stream totem. In other words, be sure to have your healing stream totem up all the time, and kill enemy healing stream totems. The 28% fire/frost/nature damage reduction can help decide who gets worn down by mages first.
  • Earth and fire elemental totems may not do much damage, but the elementals' large size helps clutter the battlefield, drawing attention away from yourself, and scaring off inexperienced opponents.
  • Your magma totem pulses interrupt opponent actions. Use the magma totem to help protect captured nodes in Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley, and to protect set seaforium bombs in Strand of the Ancients.
  • Silences happen often in the 70-74 bracket. Have your embersilk bandages ready in case you can bandage a teammate who has no DoTs.
  • As a resto shaman, you have two strengths. The most obvious is your healing, both direct (via healing surge) and preventative (via purge, grounding totem, etc.). But less obvious and just as important is your field control. As a resto shaman, you set up your teammates to kill enemies. Your shocks and totems help melee teammates gain the upper hand, and your offensive purges set up caster teammates to make the most impact.

IX. Which Level Should I Play?



This question, prominent in the 70-74 bracket, offers a second dimension of player choices that any restoration shaman needs to consider. In a nutshell, moving higher in the bracket increases the base throughput for your spells, while also increasing the amount of secondary stats you need to achieve the same results, including the all-important resilience stat.



Table of Base Healing Spell Averages:



Code: 
		70	71	72	73	74

Healing Surge	3106	3301	3503	3713	3929

G. Healing Wave	4969	5282	5605	5940	6286

Riptide		1223	1299	1379	1461	1546

Riptide HoT	1930	2050	2175	2305	2440

Earth Shield	915	973	1033	1094	1158



Remember, these numbers are before the +25% Purification talent, the +6% Spark of Life buff, and the +20% Earth Shield glyph. Moreover, they don't include spellpower bonuses. Basically, these average healing numbers simply show the base difference between levels. Going from 70 to 74 results in just over a 26% base healing increase.



To provide a sense of scale, let's see how much extra spell power a 70 resto shaman would need to reach these higher numbers, taking into account the spell power coefficient (in parenthesis) for each spell after adding in all typical resto shaman buffs (i.e. Purification, Spark of Life, Earth Shield Glyph).



Equivalent Additional Spell Power required at 70:



Code: 
			71	72	73	74

Healing Surge (86.8%)	225	457	699	948

G. Healing Wave (139%)	225	458	699	947

Riptide (34.4%)		221	453	692	939

Riptide HoT (53.0%)	226	462	708	962

Earth Shield (25.8%)	225	457	694	942



The numbers for each level come very close. A 70 resto shaman would need about 950 extra spell power to match the healing throughput of a 74 resto shaman.



On the other hand, higher level shamans need to stack more of their secondary stats to reach the same percentages as a level 70 shaman.



Table of Decaying Secondary Stats:



Code: 
		70	71	72	73	74

+1% hit		12.6	13.6	14.6	15.7	16.9

+1% crit	22.1	23.8	25.5	27.5	29.6

+1% haste	15.8	17.0	18.2	19.7	21.1

+1% resil*	12.6	13.5	14.5	15.6	16.8

int for 1% crit	80	86	92.6	99.5	107

 

*Resilience scales slightly more than linearly, so higher resilience stacking requires slightly higher resilience rating until diminishing returns at 32.5%



Note that in each case, a 74 shaman needs roughly 34% more of a given secondary stat to reach the same +1% gained by a 70 shaman. Note that these are base numbers, before the 5% intellect bonus granted from wearing all mail armor.



Unlike other classes, restoration shamans gain no significant spells in this bracket when going above 70. One or two extra talent points helps, but doesn't make a significant impact. Likewise, remember that unlike PvE, PvP hit caps are universal, regardless of level i.e. spell hit capping at 4% works against 74s the same as 70s. Finally, only two pieces of gear above 70 are worth considering for restoration shaman: the reforgeable level 72 engineering helm, and a level 74 shield, the latter having nearly equal stats as the level 70 PvP shields. With this in mind, and using 70 as a baseline, we can summarize each level as follows.



Level 70

Pros: Strongest secondary stats. Can join any arena team.

Cons: Weakest base throughput.



Level 71

Pros: Over 6% gain of base healing. One extra talent point.

Cons: Almost 8% loss of secondary stats. Cannot join new arena teams.



Level 72

Pros: Almost 13% gain of base healing. One extra talent point. Can use reforgeable engineering goggles.

Cons: Over 15% loss of secondary stats. Cannot join new arena teams.



Level 73

Pros: Almost 20% gain of base healing. Two extra talent points. Can use reforgeable engineering goggles.

Cons: Almost 25% loss of secondary stats. Cannot join new arena teams.



Level 74

Pros: Over 26% gain of base healing. Two extra talent points. Can use reforgeable engineering goggles.

Cons: Roughly 34% loss of secondary stats. Cannot join new arena teams.



In addition, stealth detection goes up slightly with each level versus lower level players.



Remember that armor depends on the attacker, not your level. So leveling past 70 won't change the damage reduction you achieve against a 70. Likewise, staying 70 won't maximize your damage reduction you achieve against a higher level opponent.



What does this mean overall for restoration shamans? Let's say you're at 70, and want to increase the strength of your heals. In any other bracket, you would swap out gear (or gems) and lose some particular stats to gain other particular stats. But in the 70-74 bracket, you have the option to level up, and gain healing throughput without a gear change, by taking an overall loss to secondary stats. Clearly, the desire to be able to form new arena teams establishes the "go or no go" prerequisite for leveling past 70. But beyond that, a higher level restoration shaman provides some intriguing possibilities.



Think of it like this: every bracket outside of 70-74 lets you gear on a scale of survivability vs. glass cannon. The 70-74 bracket adds a second dimension of the same scale based on your level. So, the four corners of the bracket are double survival, high survival, low cannon, or double cannon. A restoration shaman can succeed anywhere within these four corners, helping you choose what fits your playstyle the best.
 
Almost done! I need a prettier way to do tables, and I need 4.1 to drop, so we can see the changes to resilience (and getting our 2-min trinket back will be nice). Also, I'm having a hard time finding more armories. Shout out if you finished gearing your 70-74 resto shaman!
 
Looks good, I can't find anything that looks like it needs more detail or anything. Very nice. Make sure you get all the 4.1 changes in though. I'll move this though now.
 
I'll get the resilience calculations and the new spirit link totem/talent for restoration shamans finished ASAP, while we get the HTML formatting issue with the links figured out.



Thanks!
 
Perfect! Thank you.



I'll update the guide as soon as possible. Blizzard's website hasn't been updated, so new resilience stats will be more difficult to gather until then.
 
Thanks, excellent guide. Only thing I'd add is a change log at the bottom to check if it's up-to-date right away.



EDIT: 2 of the Armory links are dead
 
Holyashley said:
Thanks, excellent guide. Only thing I'd add is a change log at the bottom to check if it's up-to-date right away.



EDIT: 2 of the Armory links are dead
Click to expand...



Thanks for the heads up! I updated the guide to 4.2, and updated the armory links. However, the healing and resilience numbers in section IX are still wrong. While I do need to update those, they remain relatively correct as far as their proportion between different levels, so I didn't have as high a priority on that as I did for other parts of the guide.
 
Glyph of Shocking especially interesting for Shamans that stack haste? LOL



In case you didn't realize what effect haste has on the global cooldown, it lowers it. This means that with each point of haste the glyph becomes less valuable, as your natural GCD approaches one second. Why any shaman would choose this glyph over Riptide or Earth Shield is beyond me.



Other moments of great lulz:

Spirit Link and Mana Tide Totem being labeled as "situational advantages" - a person new to Shamans might actually skip these talents based on your advice. Dear lord... Your talent recommendation in general is just inane. Your wording makes it unclear if you understand this, but Soothing Rains doesn't increase the resistance granted by the glyph. Also, it's a terrible talent.



Didn't read further, but will be back tomorrow for even greater lulz.
 
As Justhealme mentioned, some sentences in the guide are structured in a somewhat poor way. They allude to new players untrue ideas. The term "situational advantages" as Justhealme pointed out gives the new reader the impression that they are optional talents, when they are in fact, quite cornerstone: especially Spirit Link. Perhaps what you meant to say was "they should be used in appropriate situations, such as..."



I, as well didnt read much more, however the guide upon three quick skims appears to be very detailed and I commend you on that note. Good job
 
Justhealme said:
Glyph of Shocking especially interesting for Shamans that stack haste? LOL
Click to expand...

Ugh. Yeah, there's a "don't" missing in front of the word stack. I'll fix that. The whole glyphs section has formatting errors and references to the 59 and 69 brackets, which I'll clean up as well. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. (Edit: done.)



Justhealme said:
In case you didn't realize what effect haste has on the global cooldown, it lowers it. This means that with each point of haste the glyph becomes less valuable, as your natural GCD approaches one second. Why any shaman would choose this glyph over Riptide or Earth Shield is beyond me.
Click to expand...



Consider that even at 10% haste, the Glyph of Shocking lets you start casting a heal 0.4 seconds sooner after shocking someone. Granted, when Riptide is your immediate next heal, that means nothing. But when Healing Surge is your immediate next heal, that's like adding 17% haste on top of the 10% you already have when going straight from a shock to a Healing Surge. Which is more than what Lifeblood or the Skull of Guldan grant. Landing a heal just in time, even if it's only part of the time, can make much more of a difference than an extra tick at the end of a HoT. However, I listed both glyphs as some may prefer the extended HoT depending on their playstyle and gearing choices.



Justhealme said:
Other moments of great lulz:

Spirit Link and Mana Tide Totem being labeled as "situational advantages" - a person new to Shamans might actually skip these talents based on your advice. Dear lord... Your talent recommendation in general is just inane. Your wording makes it unclear if you understand this, but Soothing Rains doesn't increase the resistance granted by the glyph. Also, it's a terrible talent.
Click to expand...



Soothing rains isn't any worse than the rest of the nonessential talents in the tree, especially if a resto shaman uses a glyphed healing stream totem out most of the time. If you have specific talents you want to argue (as you did with the Glyph of Shocking), I'm definitely open to hear about it. But I couldn't figure out what you were trying to tell me, not the least of which because of your "OMG I have to lulz at you" compulsion. Stick with your specific criticisms, which makes you much more effective.



Brutallus said:
As Justhealme mentioned, some sentences in the guide are structured in a somewhat poor way. They allude to new players untrue ideas. The term "situational advantages" as Justhealme pointed out gives the new reader the impression that they are optional talents, when they are in fact, quite cornerstone: especially Spirit Link. Perhaps what you meant to say was "they should be used in appropriate situations, such as..."
Click to expand...



That helps much more. I'll rewrite that part of the glyph section to clarify the importance of the Spirit Link totem, and discuss optimal times to use it. I can't say the same for the Mana Tide totem, which received a series of nerfs that make it lackluster, but it deserves discussion as well. (Edit: done.)
 
the nitro boosts to hands/belt are useable in arena?



also is the Big Daddy useable in arena? and the engineering potion injector.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Top