Stitchedlamb on WoW LJ wants to know: how do you do any questing as a healer? One reason WoW is such a popular game is that no matter your spec or role, Blizzard has done their best to make sure every class can play solo. But if you've ever played a Prot Warrior or a Holy Priest, you know for sure that some classes solo a little easier than others. Before the itemization changes hit in 2.3 and 2.4, healers had it pretty bad, and even after, it's tough to push out quests when all you've got is a bunch of +healing and no Shadowform to speak of.
I rolled my Shaman to 60 as Enhancement (Windfury while leveling is one of the great pleasures of Azeroth), but when I hit 60 way back when, I switched to Resto -- I like playing in groups, and being a healer makes sure you have groups whenever you want them. But when Burning Crusade came out, I still wanted to play instances, so I leveled from 60-70 as Resto.
Totem Talk's Matthew Rossi has had a small Horde renaissance this week, and decided to take his slightly dusty Resto shaman out for a spin, healing a heroic MgT run and then running about the IoQD doing the dailies. Turns out he learned a few things in the process. He wrote a little song about it, like to hear it? Here it goes.
Okay, I apologize, but there will be no singing. Tell you what, if enough people demand it, I'll belt one out on the next WoW Insider Show I'm on.
I've posted in the past about how to quest, grind and otherwise solo on a Restoration shaman, but I didn't go sufficiently into detail as the post ended up being about the odd things people think about shamans. So this week, we'll go more into detail. There are basically two ways you can go about doing this, thanks to the recent changes Blizzard made to healing gear: you can go out and quest in your regular healing set or you can also have a set of DPS gear. Unlike a priest and more like fellow hybrids like druids, you have a choice of what kind of DPS gear to wear. You could have a set of Enhancement mail and a big 2h weapon (since Resto shammies can't dual wield but can use 2h's now) and run around hitting stuff, or you could go for the spell damage gear and imagine that you're a powerful Elemental shaman.
My own personal preference (due to that fact that my shaman has a lot of Enhancement gear) is to go the whackity whackity route and Windfury up a 2h. But in the interests of experimentation I tried both spell damage gear and my normal healing setup, and I found that my personal preference is in fact the least effective of the three for the gear I happen to have. I'm sure no one is surprised.
At any rate, let's talk turkey. Isn't turkey delicious? Druids can turn into humanoid-turkey hybrids. None of this has anything to do with Shamans of any spec soloing anything, but I've always wondered about the phrase 'let's talk turkey' and how anyone could resist saying "yay, I love stuffing!" after it. I'll get a hold of myself now. Actual details of Shaman soloing behind the jump. Whee!
Today on Build Shop, we're going to take a look at a Shaman build that's a little different from the usual since we've already covered the basic cookie-cutter specs of Elemental, Enhancement, and Mike Schramm's personal variant of Restoration. The Enhancement spec that we'll tinker with will try to focus on the built-in synergy between some Elemental and Enhancement talents, as opposed to the more familiar complement of Restoration talents. This Enhancement build is focused on dealing damage, with less focus on the raid or party utility that Restoration talents provide. You can take a quick look at the build here. Shock and awe For optimum DPS, an Enhancement Shaman's spell cycle should be punctuated by shocks, which are instant cast damage-dealing spells that don't interfere with a Shaman's swing timer. The biggest problem with utilizing shocks as part of an offensive spell cycle is the prohibitive mana cost, which can make a dent on an Enhancement Shaman's relatively low mana pool. To alleviate this , we take 5/5 Convection from the first tier of the Elemental tree, which reduces the cost of Lightning and Shock spells by 10%.
Lately a lot of the columns here at Totem Talk have been aimed at endgame issues... getting into instances and raids, PvP, etc etc... so I thought it was about time we go back to the leveling shaman and discuss an issue that really starts to matter around level 40 or so. That is, what spec is right for you?
As a versatile hybrid class, shamans can play a role as excellent melee DPS, effective long range caster DPS, or that solid bedrock of every party, the main healer. And to a degree it's possible for a skilled shaman of one spec to play another role: my resto shaman has done melee and/or caster DPS in fights where I wasn't needed to heal (although bringing a resto shaman to a five man and then saying 'well, we have a holy priest, so you can DPS if you want' is in my opinion somewhat mean, like taking a chef into a five star kitchen with all the amenities and then telling him to sit down and have some food since someone else is already going to be cooking) and my enhancement shaman has main healed fights when the real healer went down due to bad luck or what have you. I've had elemental shamans throw the heals in between DPSing and even had one run up and windfury with a 2h on a boss once, although she mostly did that to make the rest of us freak out.
So, as a service to all the new shamans I'm hoping have started rolling the class over the past few weeks because my column has inspired you (look, let me keep my delusions, okay?) we'll go over what the three specs are, what they do and don't do in a party, and what you'll be expected to do with them as you level up. If you're a level 70 shaman already, you probably already know all this, and if not how the heck did you manage to get to 70? You're telling me you didn't spend any talent points the whole time? There's three trees, man, play around a little! Since I know most of you are very knowledgeable about your chosen specs, feel free to jump in with advice and ideas.
Every week, Alex Ziebart comes to you with Hybrid Theory. A column with... theories about hybrids, I guess. I mean, that's what it says at least. I guess it could be something else, but probably not. Honestly, you should probably just read it and find out for yourself.
In the past here on Hybrid Theory, we've discussed what Hybrids are capable of doing in a raid, as far as beneficial talents and utilities. We talked about the fact that a few well-placed hybrids in your raid can take your DPS from 'good' to 'horrifyingly good.' All of this comes to the front again in a boss that many high-end raid groups are clashing against right now: Brutallus.
If you haven't read anything on this boss yet, it's the single largest gear check in WoW yet. It's Burning Crusade's Patchwerk, mostly. To beat Brutallus, you need roughly 29,000 sustained DPS across your entire raid. If you don't pull that off, you hit his enrage timer and he destroys all of you. Simple as that! If you're lucky you can burn off a final two or three percent of his health after the enrage, but that's about as far as you go. That three percent is about 300,000 health, so don't get too confident.
We've been talking about Magisters' Terrace a lot. I have been talking about Magisters' Terrace a lot. Lucky you, we're going to talk about it some more!
Magisters' Terrace is the brand new 5-man that came with Patch 2.4, so it comes across as much harder than it actually is. It is hard, sure, but not the soul-rending pain we're all feeling right now. All new dungeons require a period of adjustment. I remember when Dire Maul first came out, way back in the day. Everyone thought it was utterly horrifying.
During this period of adjustment, you're going to run into groups being far more strict about group composition. Once the community has become accustomed to the difficulty level of Magisters' Terrace, things will ease up. Currently, a lot of damage specced hybrids are having a rough time finding a group consistently due to one pretty large factor: A lack of crowd control. There are a lot of things you can(and should) do to make up for that, and knowing those things will do a lot to contribute to speeding up the adjustment period.
Every Tuesday, Chris Jahosky contributes Build Shop, which takes a look into one of the many talent specs available to players.
It's been a long while since there was a Shaman build featured on Build Shop, and I think it's time that changed. I'm looking at an Enhancement build this week that's built for raid damage yet provides a good amount of utility and group buffs. As expected, the majority of the points go into the Enhancement tree, but instead of putting the remaining points into Elemental to buff personal DPS, this build places them in Restoration in order to provide stronger utility for the raid and additional hit chance for you.
Welcome to another installment of Hybrid Theory, wherein columnist Alex Ziebart assures the world that he does not, in fact, hate Retribution Paladins. In fact, he raids with a Retribution Paladin. Really. He does. Pinky swear.
Let's face it, folks. A lot of raid leaders have very little idea what they're doing when they're brand new to the raiding thing. I was there once, too. Until you have some experience in the 25-man raids, you have very little idea how group synergy works or anything of that sort. As a hybrid, especially one specced in a tree other than your healing tree, this could cause you some issues when looking to break into raiding from the ground level, rather than filling a gap in an existing raid that generally knows what's what.
You will most likely find that you'll need to sell yourself to raid leaders. What can you bring to the table? What can you do that a mage can't? What can you do that a rogue can't? The answer: Quite a bit! First thing to keep in mind, though, is that as a hybrid, you will probably not do as much damage as the other DPS classes in the raid. Healing specced, you will keep up just fine. Damage specced? Well, you won't keep up on every encounter. That's okay though. You don't need to. Why? Because you specifically allow those other classes to meet their maximum potential.
I'll go through each of the damage specs one by one. Tanks, healers, sorry. You come next week. I'm writing a column, not a novel!
After Skellum of Dalaran posts on the forums asking just where all these PTR changes are coming from, Nethaera sobers us all up about what the PTR is all about: progressive testing. She says that Blizzard has said from the beginning that there will be changes in the notes, and that things we thought were the end of the world in the beginning have changed or been completely removed. Welcome to the perilous world of progressive testing.
And it occurs to me that I've broken my own rule about patience on the PTRs. When those Shaman notes dropped with only a Stormstrike icon, it didn't occur to me (or almost any other players) that Blizzard wasn't done yet. And while the latest changes still aren't done (we're still waiting for an Elemental buff), things have been fixed somewhat since then.
But is this really just players doubting Blizzard? They posted the patch notes with just one small disclaimer -- would they have been able to quell the furor a bit more if they'd made it more clear that what's posted on the PTR notes has almost no connection to what will show up on the live realms? But then again, Neth never really answered the question of where these changes are coming from -- if Shamans hadn't QQ'd so much over the Elemental Mastery and Nature's Swiftness nerf, would it ever have been reverted? Blizzard seems to be simultaneously telling players to be patient and also give feedback. If players had been patient when the EM and NS nerf came down, and it hadn't caused such an uproar, would it have been changed back at all?
Hybrid Theory returns under the banner of column-newb Alex Ziebart. Incredibly biased opinions await you. If you are reading this, you have already been made a victim of his inability to create interesting graphics. No World of Warcraft players were harmed in the creation of the previous image, though that does not mean it won't hurt you.
When I decided on my topic for today, I was mighty excited. A fire raged within me, and my fingers flew over the keyboard as soon as I sat down at the computer. My first column! Awesome! Yes! About three paragraphs in, I realized I should probably make sure my predecessor, Jason Lotito, hadn't done the topic yet. Unfortunately, he did. Fortunately, I completely disagree with what he said in every possible way.
Perfect.
What is a hybrid class? The basic answer is pretty simple: A class with multiple viable roles. Paladins, Druids and Shaman are obvious examples of a hybrid class. If you disagree with the fact that they're hybrids, you must be playing the wrong game. Holy, Retribution, Protection. Feral, Balance, Restoration. Elemental, Enhancement, Restoration. All of them are viable specs, especially in raiding. As fun as it is to mock Retribution Paladins, even they have a place in the end-game.
Basically, Shamadruidins are hybrids. Don't try to argue that they aren't because you will lose.
Totem Talk is the column for Shamans. Matthew Rossi not only plays a shaman, he's come to appreciate their presence even when he's playing one of his other characters. That's his ridiculously mustached human warrior (who is still wearing a green belt to tank in SSC) next to one of the raid-saving shamans.
It can at times be easy to forget why we rolled a shaman in the first place. Sometimes it seems shamans are overlooked and underplayed, and its fair to say that the last year hasn't been the kindest to the class. With all this negativity and upset, it's fair to say that sometimes shamans must feel like there's no point to playing their class at all. So here I am to tell you that, while shamans may indeed have suffered (especially in PvP) over the past year, they're still incredibly viable in PvE, and if anything I wish we had more of them.
We've talked before about the shaman as a pinch hitter or panic button class, and these are both functions that they do excel at. But in running the 10 and 25 man instances, another aspect of shaman versatility is their broad array of totems and abilities - there's almost always a situation where a totem, a shock or a special ability like Heroism can help immensely with an encounter. I know having the ability to cycle in shamans to our DPS groups for heroism made a huge difference in our Tidewalker and Lurker kills, as well as finding the particular strength of Chain Heal very, very useful when a group of us are trying desperately to keep those murlocs tanked. Furthermore, I personally love having an elemental shaman in my group taking care of the priest add on Fathom-Lord Karathress, not only due to the damage they can inflict (and having seen it, I have had to re-evaluate my understanding of elemental shaman DPS - it's much, much better than I'd believed when geared properly) but due to their ability to buff not only their own DPS but the healer's healing at the same time with Totem of Wrath and Wrath of Air as well as being able to interrupt the heals after a tidal surge.
Totem Talk is the column for shamans. Matthew Rossi found himself sucked into a frenzy of Kara key runs this week, healing and DPSing, and as a result finds himself thinking about pre-Kara loot for shammies, who are after all the class this column is about.
So I and my guildmates in the Consummate Vees, Horde-side Malfurion, did some key runs this week. (No, I'm not going to tell you my toon's name, it's a super-duper secret, but I will give you a hint: it starts with the letter V.) It's our hope to get back into semi-serious raiding shape by the time Zul'Aman comes out, and since I'm still working on my elemental set for when I switch specs (I like Resto, don't get me wrong, but I'm antsy to try something new) I started looking at gear options. I'm lucky enough to have a couple of nice epic Kara pieces for an elemental shammy (the Ring of Unrelenting Storms and the Big Bad Wolf's Head) but in general, most of my gear is gemmed out for healing.
Since gearing up is part of the game, especially as you prepare for raiding, I thought it wouldn't hurt to talk over some options. The only limitations I'm imposing on myself are that I will only talk about mail pieces, and I can't cover gear for three separate specs in any comprehensive way so I'm just doing a few for each slot for each spec. (Also a note for lower level shamans - I'm testing stuff out on the PTR and will have a post about gearing up your lower level shaman with the 2.3 changes soon.) This time we'll cover belts, bracers and boots for the three specs, as well as some generic pieces that can fill a need for more variety. Belts, bracers and boots are often the hardest things to find since they're not often covered in the new dungeon sets, so it seemed to make sense to start with them first.
Okay. As yet another aside, in light of last week's post about dual wielding and enhancement shamans, I present unto you Rage and Fury. I expect a lot of arguments to erupt between Fury Warriors, Rogues and Shamans over these, but whatever else can be said it cannot be denied that these are two sweet 2.6 speed fists. If I were a deluded egomaniac I'd be tempted to believe that someone at Blizzard reads my posts. But I know they don't.
Eyonix is still running around causing havok on the forums (should we expect this regularly now?), and he's making a lot of noise in the Shaman forums specifically, always a welcome sign for Shamans like myself.
Where should we start? Mana tide trainable for all Shamans? Fat chance. The Spirit Weapons buff (from 15% to 30% threat reduction) will be a big help on uncontrollable burst damage like Windfury procs. And not only does he share some of his character stats (sounds like his right below where I'm at), but he's got a list of concerns that are being passed on to the devs.
And my own pet issue, the various "Shields" that we've got, are due to get some love as well. Along with the 2.3 Mana whoops, Water Shield buff* (it'll be free to cast), both Earth Shield and Lightning Shield could use a buff as well. A HoT on the Earth Shield? A Lightning Shield proc that passes off damage like Chain Lightning? We can only hope.
Shamans aren't a broken class-- I don't believe any class in the game is truly broken. I love my Shaman. But there are a lot of exciting days ahead for Shaman, I promise you.
* As Baluki points out in the comments below, Water Shield has other good stuff happening in 2.3, too-- not only does it give more mana, but at the end of a minute, it cashes out everything for you. Very nice.
Totem Talk this week is about beating your enemies to death, or hacking them up. It's time for our Shamans to call the wind down upon their weapons and deliver death up close and personal, with the help of some theorycrafting and a smile. Matthew Rossi plays resto a lot, but he's always down with a few well-placed Stormstrikes.
Before I even start talking this week, I figured I'd link this excellent compilation of theorycrafting for Enhancement Shamans from Elitist Jerks. I significantly improved my currently level 62 Draenei's DPS by making use of it and went through several group quests solo by dint of the damage increase. The shaman's combination of DPS and emergency heals (especially a Draenei's Gift of the Naaru) makes these quests a lot easier for my Shammy than they were for my warriors coming up. What also helps is an addon in the WoWAce suite called Enhancer that keeps track of the hidden Windfury cooldown that's at the heart of why my DPS was lower before I read that thread.
Basically, the issue is that Windfury weapon has a cooldown that, if you don't compensate for it by selecting the proper main and off hand weapons, will end up lowering your DPS considerably.
Eliah is away from the Build Shop this week, so I'm taking his place, and I figured what better time to look at a great Resto Shaman build-- mine. Sure, some of you talent pros will probably tear it apart (it's a little less than conventional), but for my preferences and my playstyle, this build works pretty darn well.
So let's start by telling you how I play my Shaman. Clearly, I'm not an Enhancement Shammy-- while I leveled as one, I decided right when I hit 60 (and yeah, I leveled to 70 with this build, too) that I wanted this character to be a raider. I was just getting in good with a great guild, I loved being a great healer (keeping a group up even in dire straits is fun for me), and I knew that healers would always be in demand, letting me run lots of groups.
On the other hand, however, I didn't just want to be a healbot. I wanted to have the opportunity, when I was able, to crank out some DPS.
Stitchedlamb on WoW LJ wants to know: how do you do any questing as a healer? One reason WoW is such a popular game is that no matter your spec or role, Blizzard has done their best to make sure every class can play solo. But if you've ever played a Prot Warrior or a Holy Priest, you know for sure that some classes solo a little easier than others. Before the itemization changes hit in 2.3 and 2.4, healers had it pretty bad, and even after, it's tough to push out quests when all you've got is a bunch of +healing and no Shadowform to speak of.
Lately a lot of the columns here at Totem Talk have been aimed at endgame issues... getting into instances and raids, PvP, etc etc... so I thought it was about time we go back to the leveling shaman and discuss an issue that really starts to matter around level 40 or so. That is, what spec is right for you?
After Skellum of Dalaran 
Eyonix is still running around causing havok on the forums (should we expect this regularly now?), and he's making a lot of noise in the Shaman forums specifically, always a welcome sign for Shamans like myself.
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