Obviously all data mined things are taken with a grain of salt, but currently the resto shaman tier bonuses are fairly boring for a second phase in a row (See Resto Shaman Tier P8 Ideas for previous discussion about naxx bonuses and what could be done to be interesting).
- The 2pc is nice. Nothing major but a nearly guaranteed instant cast during a full Earth Shield is alright.
- The 4pc is on Alpha again. This should be on Earth Shield. We had this exact same problem with t3 6pc. Also there’s no incentive to press Healing wave on a non-tank target unless the raid has mechanics dealing damage to 2 tanks equally or a different target taking big damage separate from the raid
- The 6pc is more Chain Heal buffs. In total Chain Heal now hits 6 targets before overload. Why should resto every press anything that isn’t Chain Heal or Riptide to buff Chain Heal
The tier does nothing to change gameplay or encourage a resto shaman to press multiple buttons. Compare this to the restro druid tier which actively encourages the player to press multiple buttons.
I hope the ptr is long enough to revisit these ideas and hopefully bring some interesting gameplay changes for resto.