Resto Shaman Feedback
Currently the spec is less fun on Alpha than it is on live in dungeons.
The stripping down of the class to 4-5 basic healing abilities really affects the depth of the class to a level that is boring and unfun to play. At a baseline level the class needs to be fun to play in order to enjoy the content no matter how good or challenging dungeons and raids are.
To me what initially drew me to the spec in legion was the toolkit and the feeling that I had a button for every type of situation as long as I responded correctly. That has been stripped away in favor of many passive talents that are unfulfilling to play with.
Thoughts on a few removed abilities
Cloudburst Totem - added depth to the class and engaging thoughtful gameplay throughout encounters. Little hits of dopamine from timing cloudburst perfectly or seeing huge cloudburst number go up were a ton of fun. Removing this really affects my enjoyment of the spec, you replaced this gameplay loop with nothing. Reacting to damage with baseline abilities that have little to no interaction with each other is not fun.
Unleash Life - Lately this had become a Maintenace buff to spawn ancestors on cd but the idea of it augmenting your next spell depending on what you cast is worth pursuing.
It adds a small amount of thought such as planning a big chain heal for the next incoming damage event. That is better than just making chain heal baseline better but having 0 thought behind it just reaction. This is similar to when you removed Ancestral Guidance a 2nd time, you buffed baseline healing to make us just as strong but ultimately the spec was less fun with its removal.
Healing surge - I am not torn up about removing this but its just another tool that we lose. Even with reducing the cast time of healing wave it is painfully slow compared to live with tidalwaves. Just adds more situations where other healers have the tools to react faster to incoming damage so why would you not play them instead?
Why was wellspring removed? It was a fun spell in shadowlands that really has not had a good time to shine in the past two expansions. Disappointing
High tide - seemed like a simple to understand talent that modified chain heal to be more powerful once the mana spent component was met. It did not add a huge amount of complexity but did require a weakaura to track mana spent if you wanted to min max.
Talents like this are good for the spec, I think mana spent is the wrong resource to enable the talent but the direction of spending resources to gain a large payoff is good.
Maybe every 3 healing streams you spend gives hightide or something. Just think it is a loss to go from this to passive talents that have no interactions.
What was added
Extremely passive spells that offer little to no gameplay interaction are not fun and seem uninspiring.
- Passive hst buffs
- Passive earth shield buffs,
- Passive riptide/healing wave buffs,
Talents like Current Control - Reduce mana cost of healing wave by 15%.
Or Crashing waves - Healing wave crit chance increase by 12%
None of these talents interact in anyway with another spell why is this just not baked in baseline to the ability? There are no real choices
I wrote the word passive a ton in this feedback and that is basically what the whole spec feels like. Just like the live version of the raid spec in Manaforge. I see 30 healing spells on details but I am pressing 2 buttons. very boring
I am not going to make this extremely long; this is a tenth of what I want to convey to the devs based on these changes. I will iterate on this as Alpha goes on.
Bottom line the class is less fun to play and was over pruned. We are missing any real gameplay hooks or minute to minute gameplay decisions that are engaging. Rotationally, we have less tools and ability to perform the role in a unique way.
I really want the devs to ask themselves what would inspire someone to pick the class in this state over another healer? What about this version of resto shaman would make you want to include them in your team?