Totem Talk is written by Matthew Rossi for shamans, and the people who love them. You'd better be one of those people that love them or are them... is them? Wait, how did this paragraph get away from me so fast? Crap, don't die, don't die, don't....whew, the heal landed! I'd better burn an NS and drop a Healing Wave on it, just to be sure. Man, the paragraph's health just started bombing!
So you've decided to heal.
Maybe you're full resto, or maybe you're an enhancement or elemental shaman but you have good healing gear and you need to heal for some reason. Perhaps your raid needs just a little extra healing. Perhaps you really just want to get that Shadow Labs run out of the way before 2.4 comes in and the only slot open is for a healer. Maybe you just like being yelled at by people if you don't keep them at full health at all times. I'm not going to sit here and psychoanalyze you, oh my no. First off, have you seen my picture? If I were you (and I'm not, I'm me) I wouldn't take any mental health advice from that guy. He looks kind of insane. Secondly, it's not Totem Talk's aim to discourage you, but rather to facilitate you in any way we can. If you want to spec resto and heal, we want to help you. If you want to heal as an enhancement or elemental shaman, we're on board. If you want to rob several banks and then flee to Prince Edward Island, you're on your own. We're terribly lazy.
We've discussed the nuts and bolts of shaman healing before, so today we'll mostly touch on it but not go into detail to that extent.
Totem Talk is the column for Shamans. Matthew Rossi was up all night trying to get a new hat. Only in Azeroth does getting a new hat involve wading in the blood and viscera of dragons from outside the time stream. Seriously, they really need to just put in a freaking boutique or something. Imagine how bad it would suck if you had to prepare for a new job interview by killing Aeonus every time. Heck, maybe you do, I don't know where you work.
Last week we talked about gearing up your off-spec sets. This week, we'll talk about those times when, either by accident or design, you end up having to fill an off-spec role. Usually, this means an elemental or enhancement shammy has to fall back and throw some heals, but not always: my resto shaman has ended up in groups with other healers and actually had to switch over to casting lightning bolts at things on a couple of occasions.
Of course, it helps if you happen to have gear for the role you're taking up: when I find myself forced to heal I usually equip my healing shield and weapon (since we're usually in combat anyway) and switch out to the best possible totems for my limited +heal and mana pool (either healing stream or mana spring depending on the situation, and wrath of air for the bonus to healing) but expect to run out of mana and burn a potion when you're doing this kind of emergency healing. Elemental shamans tend to last a little longer doing this because their gear usually has spell damage and healing on it, which will translate to more effective healing, even if your enhancement shamans have full mental quickness. But neither DPS spec is really suited to healing, especially not when in their DPS gear, so don't feel too bad if you try your best and the tank still goes down - if you're healing then things have already gone pear shaped.
Totem Talk is the column for Shamans. Matthew Rossi spent most of yesterday running instances on his blueberry shaman, and a lot of healing and caster mail dropped, which is weird when you're enhancement and you're running with two priests, a mage and a warrior. I now have half of a very decent elemental set and a resto set that would serve to heal regular instances. Absolutely no enhancement gear dropped.
Being a shaman, like the other hybrids, means that you end up picking a role and dedicating your time to it. You spend your talent points in one of the trees, run instances, PvP, and raid for gear to supplement that role, and you find yourself with lesser viability in other roles. My enhancement shaman can still cast healing spells, yes, but they're nowhere near as effective as my resto shaman's heals. Meanwhile, my resto shaman can still put Windfury Weapon on his Hand of Eternity, and often does when healing in a BG. This should not be taken to mean that he can actually melee as well as an enhancement shaman, and the bonus spell damage on his healing gear does not make up for the gear and talents, much less experience, of an elemental shaman.
This is more or less how it should be, but I think it's an error to ignore the other specs too much. One of the biggest mistakes I made when I first started playing a shaman was to focus too tighly on the enhancement tree and not looking at the others: as a result, I was fairly ignorant of how shaman healing worked, an oversight I paid for later when I had to start healing when I went resto. Meanwhile, in my guild there was another shaman who refused to spec out of the resto tree even though he wasn't healing any groups, meaning that he leveled exceptionally slowly. (He was level 30 when I started my first shaman, he's still not 70 yet long after I reached 70 on my second.) You can level resto, certainly, but you should look into a few points in elemental (in my opinion) if you're going to do that, just to give your shocks and spells some more bite and lower mana cost.
Ret Paladins are currently in an uproar. They want their dps increased so they can be viable at raiding, yet they are given no way to shed aggro.
The idea behind the paladin class is tanking and healing. Most classes have two roles they can play very well given the proper spec and equipment. But Druids can play more, why shouldn't other classes?
This isn't a qq moar ret pally question or a n3rf druids question. The question I'm putting forth is: should all classes get to do all things? And should they be able to do them very, very well to get raid slots?
Every week Matthew Rossi brings to life The Care and Feeding of Warriors, a column meant to help our friends and even sometimes our enemies, the women and men who don't know which end of a prayerbook is which, couldn't backstab you if you turned around and wore a target on your spine, and who think Arcane Brilliance really should make them glow in the dark.
Last week, we talked about builds. This week, we'll look at a few first hand. I do think, in general, that many warriors are feeling the pinch between speccing for as much tanking viability as possible and having talents and abilities that allow them to grind and solo/quest in a timely fashion. I definitely think there's an entire column to be had in discussing this factor, but for now I'll just say that I am attempting in selecting these specs to err on the side of overall viability. I may have skipped a few obvious talents for ones that I thought helped provide more general ability, and I especially welcome commentary and suggestions.
Each week, Jason Lotito contributes Hybrid Theory, a new column on hybrid classes in World of Warcraft.
Last week we discussed hybrids playing more than just the healing role and the flame wars that causes on the forums. This week I'd like to focus more on off-spec hybrids and how they can get into raids. Let's be clear now -- I'm focusing on off-spec hybrids and them getting into 25-man raids. And we aren't just talking about farmed content. I'm focusing on real progression raids. So let's get started!
Be realistic
Knowing if you can actually fill your needed role is important. But you have to be honest and realize that just not everyone is open to allowing off-specs into raids. And while you might get into a raid eventually, are you actually a regular player? Are you someone who is actually contributing to the raid as a whole?
The whole goal is for you to play an active part in your raids daily successes, not sitting on the sideline hoping for a pity invite. So really you have to ask yourself from the outset if your guild and raid leader are open to giving you an honest shot.
One way to go about doing this is to get support from key members of the guild. Class leaders and officers can do a lot in getting you in on raids. Of course, it also doesn't hurt if you are an officer or guild leader yourself.
Each week, Jason Lotito contributes Hybrid Theory, a new column on hybrid classes in World of Warcraft.
Healing has long been the widely accepted, much debated, raiding role of most hybrids. Most of the discussions regarding hybrid viability in end-game raiding are on helping hybrids in non-healing areas. This leads to a lot of discussion on the class boards that revolve around making other trees equally viable, or at least making them as desirable as the healing role. The outside audience generally views hybrids as healers first. Sure, the concept of a protection paladin, a feral druid, and a enhancement shaman enter the discussion on occasion, but at the end of the day, the popular opinion is if you have healing spells, you are healing.
This very attitude has long dictated many hybrids specs. For many hybrids, the desire to see end-game dominated their desire to play what is known as an off-spec build. These players bit the bullet and went the healing route. This isn't to suggest all players chose their healing spec because of outside pressure. Many healers really did want to heal and enjoy the art of healing.
Regardless, the attitude of many hybrids is to look down at those who spec for healing regardless of the reasons. Who's to blame them though? Often these players are playing an off-spec themselves. The retribution paladin or the "Boomkin" have been on the receiving end of these attacks for a long time, and all too often it's the healers making these very attacks.
An off-spec is any talent distrubution that doesn't agree with a class's canonical raid role. Shadow Priest, feral or balance Druid, retribution or protection Paladin, elemental or enhancement Shaman, or fury or arms Warrior. You'll notice that those are all classes that can heal. DPS classes don't tend to have on- vs. off-specs per se, since by and large all of a DPS class's talent trees add to their DPS. Their raid role is to DPS; therefore, all specs help their raid role. But for a class that can heal, most of the time, their raid role is to heal.
Now don't get me wrong -- I'm a huge supporter of raiding shadow Priests, feral Druids, and all the rest. Your character is your own, and you should spec it however makes you happy. With that in mind, what's your favorite off-spec, either to play yourself or to have in your parties/raids?
Totem Talk is written by Matthew Rossi for shamans, and the people who love them. You'd better be one of those people that love them or are them... is them? Wait, how did this paragraph get away from me so fast? Crap, don't die, don't die, don't....whew, the heal landed! I'd better burn an NS and drop a Healing Wave on it, just to be sure. Man, the paragraph's health just started bombing!
Totem Talk is the column for Shamans. Matthew Rossi was up all night trying to get a new hat. Only in Azeroth does getting a new hat involve wading in the blood and viscera of dragons from outside the time stream. Seriously, they really need to just put in a freaking boutique or something. Imagine how bad it would suck if you had to prepare for a new job interview by killing Aeonus every time. Heck, maybe you do, I don't know where you work.
Totem Talk is the column for Shamans. Matthew Rossi spent most of yesterday running instances on his blueberry shaman, and a lot of healing and caster mail dropped, which is weird when you're enhancement and you're running with two priests, a mage and a warrior. I now have half of a very decent elemental set and a resto set that would serve to heal regular instances. Absolutely no enhancement gear dropped.
Ret Paladins are currently in an uproar. They want their dps increased so they can be viable at raiding, yet they are given no way to shed aggro. 
An off-spec is any talent distrubution that doesn't agree with a class's canonical raid role. Shadow Priest, feral or balance Druid, retribution or protection Paladin, elemental or enhancement Shaman, or fury or arms Warrior. You'll notice that those are all classes that can heal. DPS classes don't tend to have on- vs. off-specs per se, since by and large all of a DPS class's talent trees add to their DPS. Their raid role is to DPS; therefore, all specs help their raid role. But for a class that can heal, most of the time, their raid role is to heal.
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