Can anyone who is playing the Beta chime in about resto shaman pvp? The streamers havent been kind to them but i dont know if i believe them.
I spent the entirely of og wotlk getting REAMED by melee as a Priest, and i have no desire to experience that again. DKs, warriors, Rets, just rushing the priest every match and killing us through Pain Sup… not again lol.
I want to play shaman this time maybe. But does it fare any better vs those pesky melee cleaves in 2v2 like War/Ret, Ret/Dk, Ret/Enhance etc? Anyone on the beta do any pvp testing on the shaman?
Good question lol. Its because my irl friend and arena partner is a rogue! I dont think hpal/rogue would work, not sure we can land kills without an offensive purge of some kind.
Holy paladin is significantly better than all other healers in wrath. However, all the healers are good. I also played priest in all of wrath and hated all the double melee and beastcleave I fought (in 3v3 anyway). Ran priest mage mostly in 2’s and didn’t see a lot of double melee in that bracket.
Certain comps will still train the shaman, but they are good, and certainly have more tools to get away than a priest does. They are also great in 3’s with heroism etc. Wrath is an expansion where meta matters less in pvp (outside of warriors later on, they’re super broken).
Thanks for that rundown. Thats exactly what i remember as a disc priest back then. Hating comps like TSG, PHD, kitty cleave, turbo, and beastcleave with a passion. These teams know to melt the priest at the start of the match, and all of those comps are hard to peel.
I was thinking on resto shaman at least they have ghost wolf and snare immunity for kiting around pillars, mail armor + shield, earth shield, Nature’s Guardian, and Nature’s Swiftness, plus totems and shock for slows to kite. They’ve gotta be tankier than what i experienced in the priest.
I think i will go resto shaman for 2v2 this time around.
I would say its the same (if not worse). You have more armor sure, but way less instant healing. You will get melted by TSG much easier than a priest unless you have a partner that can peel/counter pressure.
Priest also has a lot more comps that can be played at a high level.
I do expect resto shamans to do well in 5s though.
If you want an experience where melee dont make your heart rate increase by 400%, I would play a paladin. All other healers need nerves of steel to play against TSG, KFC, Cupid, Jungle and Thug comps.
I’m not an arena pro, but id give a mention to Resto Druid.
So much insta cast HOTs and good cool downs in a pinch.
Way more mobility than priest and shaman which are pylons.
Shapeshifting for extra mobility/survivability/getting out of snares
I remember Rdruids being a real pain in the butt in actual Wrath. Though things might be different now that the game is so solved.
Wow, im surprised to hear this. I remember Resto Shamans being unkillable gods in pvp during this era, but i might be getting that confused with Cata.
I figured dropping an Earthbind and Wolfing around pillars would be strong against those sort of comps, but you’re right they dont really have instant heals other than Riptide and NS… and i dont know if Earth Shield alone is enough to keep you alive like it was in Cata.
Shamans have a great kit in wrath. The mail and shield will make melee pressure easier to deal with along with riptide and earthshield for non-cast healing. I predict shamans will do great with caster cleaves. If your friend is a rogue, i remeber rogue/LocK/Shaman being good, along with probably any caster in the lock position.
I don’t believe what he said to be accurate, honestly. As shaman you’ve got riptide, stoneclaw with glyph, earth shield, and you actually have some kiting tools. As priest you’ve got holy nova spam, renew, pws, and then your cd’s dp and ps. You will never get away as a priest, but you can feasibly get away on the shaman. Shaman throughput is also crazy so if you DO get a heal off on either class, the shaman will be more effective.
Even in terms of if you can land a cc, many many comps don’t run with a curse dispel, so hex can be a great defensive if leveraged correctly. I also forgot to add in NS for shaman in the instant cast heals section.
If we’re purely talking about healer spec viability, I think shamans also have more top tier comps than priests do. Almost any variation of double caster is significantly better with the shaman, then you have rls, shaman hunter ret, etc. Like I said above, I think any healer in wrath is good, but I do believe you’ll have a better time with shaman.
Anything said here of course is from memory of 12 + years ago now, so we’ll see what the meta shapes up to be in this version of wrath. I would bet on shamans being a very good healer, 2nd to or tied for 2nd to holy paladins. If you get bored of healing or your buddies decide to reroll, elemental is also viable in many set ups and extremely strong as a bonus.
