Resto Shaman Viability

[Yesintheface]

Srsly, Druid, shaman are not as survivable. I think pretty much everyone said they can be fine. But palies and druids are better healers.



LoS you say? Resto shaman have one instant on a 3m cooldown. Plus breaking LoS is a good way to get pinched by a rogue where your teammates can't see you. If you're casting ES, you aren't casting a heal. Having to even worry about dropping grounding totems and ES to stay un-CCed is distraction enough to lessen your healing. Finally, if you're out of range, you're not healing.



I hate playing this card, but I have both an 80 shaman and an 80 druid. Healing on the druid is 300% easier. There are some really good resto shaman out there and the class isn't worthless. But it's so much easier to dictate the fight to a resto shaman than holy paly or resto druid.



My Shaman.

My Druid.



Just so you can see I've done a little PvPing on both. I love shamans. It's my favorite class by far. But I'd never tout them as equal PvP healers to druids. Maybe 3.1 will change some things, we'll see.

 

[Druiddroid]

never said which was better, just saying shamans have enough survivability so that if they are smart, they should be able to stay in control of most situations. a resto shaman that is aware and knows generally where to be and where to drop totems should be able to have good survivability.

 

[Falkor]

in 3.1 with earthbind actually rooting, shaman might be a bit better but they still have to dump 7 in enh or take 2 secs to get into GW, which doesnt even remove snares. i just love my druid so much more for healing. i get a 1sec healing touch, 2 awesome hots, swiftmend, and natures swiftness if things get sticky; plus all the mobility in the world with cat/sprint and travel form. if druids had water shield, i would never even play my shaman again i think lol, even tho i rarely go OOM on my druid and have innervate ready just incase.

 

[Naddia49]

Ah, I decided to roll a Resto Shaman Tauren after years of pinning for a healer in the 49s. I've never played shaman before, nor a healer proper, so you could imagine the learning curve was a little steep, even though I did my homework.



3.1.1 has made my Resto Shaman a lot more viable... before, I really needed my team to keep an eye on me, as rogues were surely, my achilles heel. The Stoneclaw glyph has definitely increased my survivability; it also procs a mana return on my water shield for everything absorbed. The changes in the Green Dragonscale set have also pushed my overall SP higher than in pre-3.1. With a mana totem down, I'm crunching 126 mp5, which gives me plenty of endurance for those long hauls!



Resto Shaman's bring a bag full of utility to the battlefields. I'm more of a generalist who likes to focus on game objectives, as opposed to harping on narrow game mechanics and dueling... My main concern is usually with escorting and babysitting our flagrunners... earthbinds, groundings, purgings, shocks, totems; oh my, you can really flex some nice CC and control over the battlefield in a pinch and be very annoying in the process.



Also, 1v1, I've found the resto shaman works real well... usually it's a matter of outlasting and grinding an opponent down, searing totems, self-heals, shocks, allow you to whittle down most foes. The introduction of the Stoneclaw glyph, in rotation with my racial stomp has given me more breathing room to fix mistakes in the mix!



Overall, I've noticed, post 3.1, that I can finally go toe-to-toe with holy paladins on the scoreboard as well, instead of playing catch-up. I wish the mana spring totem didn't override a paladin's Blessing of Wisdom buff, or that my Mana Tide totem could be raid wide. (Annoying that you can no longer lump the huntards into Group 8 to prevent Aspect abuse)



I'd say holy paladin and resto druid are perhaps easier classes to tackle, but resto shamans bring something unique to the mix, and compliment a team rather well if you're willing to work with the learning curve!



Cheers!

 

[Seleucidis]

HI...



I think this post is a bit old... but I will agree with most ppl here. Resto shaman is not the best healer in this bracket but it is not worst ether. Best healer would be priest, of course... druid could be best as well, but no - my vote goes to priest definitely! Should I say why? No, I don't thin you need an answer on that question. But resto shaman in skilled hands can be very, very nasty healer, same as each other class, trust me.



But still it depends from many factors and team setup of course! My opinion is next: resto shaman + skilled afl warlock - nothing can beat that!!! I used to play resto shaman + lock and it works just awesome ... Shaman has much more survivability after patch 3.1 and will also be much more improved after 3.2 patch as well. I mean: Stoneclaw totem + instant heal + 50% dmg reduction from armor + totems... All you need to find is right ppl to play with. True is: CC is very bad, but if you have lock to fear rogue or warrior from you - job well done. And you can not be CCed as well since you can use your totems, just find right timing! Totems without timing are nothing, better don’t trigger global CD . It is not necessary to go for improved ghost wolf since you have your totems; all you need to do is to use them properly. No one can play healer without support. It is true that I as resto shaman can survive each caster and even 2 of them if they don't interrupt me perfectly. I can stand in place and overheal very easy. Biggest problem for resto shamans would be warrior and rogue since they reduce healing and if they interrupt my heals and I don't have CD - I am dead in like 3 seconds. MM hunter is hard as well but I can survive any hunter on me long enough to get him killed by other players. Chain heal is not so useful I think. 2,5 sec cast time is to much. Lesser heal is best option. Chain heal can be used just in flag rooms or in hard rock 5vs5 middle farming. Healing wave is so strong and I think that nothing can beat shamans instant heal. So make sure to avoid unnecessary exploitation to ranged attacks and spells and yell for CC if there is warrior or rogue on you, since you can’t heal.

 

[darzk]

Bumped from April, actually.



Rogues arent a problem, MS warrs are about the only thing that can (in the majority of cases, some really glassy MM/BM hunts can as well, and there was this one balance drood...) reasonably take down my resto shammy before the 5 pug'd idiots around me finish killing thier current targets and come to help. Stoneclaw>Cleansing->EB->GW can get most rogues off you, just stay in range for the inevitible kidney shot. With the Dragonscale set, you can now reasonably run around in just about full mail, and with a Wall of the Dead I'm rocking ~4k armor, 47% reduction.



I've been playing 0/7/33 and I find it far superior to 0/0/40 - Instawolf is a HUGE addition to your aresenal, far more valuable than 4% crit or Nature's Guardian.



I'm also working on a stamina set, shown here, which should help considerably for surviving rogues and warrs. There are *some* situations where a higher hp pool is the way to go.



I don't feel the shammy is weak at all. He wasnt 49 yet at the time of the original posting, and perhaps the patch or two since then has made that much of a difference. I've had a priest and druid in the bracket as well, and found them both far to vulnerable to the same classes, plus shamans (purge is just as annoying as a MS against priests and druids). My drood was much stronger against rogues than the shaman, but both can reasonably survive and escape. The drood was absolutely fucked over by Enh+Ele Shammies alike, but this was pre-HT glyph, although I cant see that helping much; a 1.5 second cast is still easily inturruptable, and now your NS heal is nerfed.

 

[Seleucidis]

I agree 0/7/33 is nice spec, but since I play without instant wolf, rogues are not so easy to escape from. Warriors are still my biggest enemies, but rogues and kicks can be very annoying too. You can not heal ppl with rogue on you. I mean, I can survive rogue too quite easy, but ppl will die since I can't heal. Warriors are same, if not bigger, problem; all I can do is focus heals on me and try to survive. I mean if ppl are focusing all the time on their own targets and don't give me support I can't heal, no one could. That was my point.



Balance can do burst damage, ele shaman too… it is true... but trust me, I survived both balance druid + BM hunter with no CDs... I can overheal long enough to stay alive and to let other ppl kill them both. I do also have about 4k armor and like 3,3k HP as resto. My mana pool is about 4k and healing power is about 300. I could also maximize my healing power to 370 but I will lose 300 HP, and I do so only if I am playing with decent team. I like your stamina set, but I still think that biggest shaman’s friend is critical chance + healing power. Stamina is also very important but with Stoneclaw totem it is much easier then before.

 

[Falkor]

Bumped from April, actually.



Rogues arent a problem, MS warrs are about the only thing that can (in the majority of cases, some really glassy MM/BM hunts can as well, and there was this one balance drood...) reasonably take down my resto shammy before the 5 pug'd idiots around me finish killing thier current targets and come to help. Stoneclaw>Cleansing->EB->GW can get most rogues off you, just stay in range for the inevitible kidney shot. With the Dragonscale set, you can now reasonably run around in just about full mail, and with a Wall of the Dead I'm rocking ~4k armor, 47% reduction.



I've been playing 0/7/33 and I find it far superior to 0/0/40 - Instawolf is a HUGE addition to your aresenal, far more valuable than 4% crit or Nature's Guardian.



I'm also working on a stamina set, shown here, which should help considerably for surviving rogues and warrs. There are *some* situations where a higher hp pool is the way to go.



I don't feel the shammy is weak at all. He wasnt 49 yet at the time of the original posting, and perhaps the patch or two since then has made that much of a difference. I've had a priest and druid in the bracket as well, and found them both far to vulnerable to the same classes, plus shamans (purge is just as annoying as a MS against priests and druids). My drood was much stronger against rogues than the shaman, but both can reasonably survive and escape. The drood was absolutely fucked over by Enh+Ele Shammies alike, but this was pre-HT glyph, although I cant see that helping much; a 1.5 second cast is still easily inturruptable, and now your NS heal is nerfed.

3.1 helped shaman so much. glyph of stoneclaw for an almost 1k damage absorb shield just for starters.



i have no problems against enh on my druid, i can heal thru their burst and run for help lol. oh and HT is 1sec when talented and glyphed, pretty hard to intterupt imo.....if you get the slightest bit of lag or miss a key the heal is going to land, plus rejuv + NS is instant and unintterruptable. i mainly only use HT now, 1sec cast that does 1k+ is just awsome. its like flash of light on steroids (stronger, but more mana) and great for single target healing especially when supplemented with HoTs for everyone.