Hello all,
TBH, I know how to heal. I mained holy priest for 6 years and resto shaman was my one of my alts that I knew how to play back in Cata.
I’m finding it hard to understand how RShaman works. It seems like a very combo-y healer and the Primordial Wave gameplay is very unusual and different from what I knew. and you have to combo spells with Unleash Life to Maximize the healing.
- In what situations is Primordial Wave used over Chain Heal?
- Should I hard cast CH or boost it with Unleash Life?
- What is the best combo to maximize the healing of Cloudburst Totem
- When, and how do I use Cloudburst Totem?
- What is the best spell to use for Swirling Currents?
- Do I use Unleash Life before Healing Wave after a Primordial Wave?
I did my first raid and noticed that we have so many spells with different effects and usages that when the raid took aoe dmg I was spamming chain heal and barely found a reason to use Primordial Wave. Is cloudburst totem the shaman version of priest Halo spell? almost the same cd and effect
I feel like I have to pre-charge so many spells, everyone is topped by the other healers before I have the time to do anything.
Healing Rain, x2 Riptide, Primordial Wave, Unleash Life, Healing Wave, Cloudburst Totem, recast Riptides and then I have barely enough time to Chain Heal before having to recast Healing Rain.
As you can see there’s so many questions. A bit of help would be appreciated.
heres my talent set up for raid atm. 3/1/1/2/1/3/2.
generally what i do is keep riptide, and rain on CD, as well as cloudburst.
then i focus on upkeeping earth shield on the tank who is main tanking.
i like to set up riptides, then prim wave[ensure its on the tank or someone taking heavy damage.] then i also have the conduit for increased healing wave/healing surge/riptide once cloudburst is dropped. once i use prim wave ill unleash life, ensure all riptides are used, and then heal the lowest health person in the raid. otherwise i just use UL on riptides, and find myself almost never casting chain heal in raid unless its a fight like council of blood, or darkvein inerva. i use wellspring after raid wide damage. for swirling currents i like to use those for 2 riptides, then a healing wave after prim wave, otherwise use a healing surge or 3rd riptide depending on the situation. make sure you are using emeni as your soulbind until you unlock the 3rd guy, who is our best soulbind. if if riptide is on cd and theres raid wide damage going out, use wellspring, then UL lowest hp person, and chain heal.
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Mr. Yiffer above gives good advice. Here’s my dumbed down explanation of Resto Shaman healing: Use Riptide, Cloudburst, and Healing Rain whenever they’re available. Spot heal with Healing Wave. That’s generally it. Wellspring is incredible when raid wide damage going out (think Shriekwing swipe, Sludefist stomp).
Chain heal and healing surge are rarely used in raid situations, but can certainly be good situationally (biggest weakness is they suck your mana dry, so use sparingly).
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Hello there, I’ll try and offer the best advice I can but these are my 2 cents atleast based on your questions:
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Primordial Wave you want to use more or less on cooldown as it can be the most efficient heal if you have a few riptides going and the raid isn’t 100% topped.
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If you are using Unleash Life you should cast it on cooldown and if possible use Chain Heal after (assuming raid isn’t topped)
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Keep Healing Rain down on group and then just use spells as normal. Don’t worry to much about maximizing Cloudburst as it will just happen naturally as you heal when the totem is down.
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To utilize Cloudburst Totem best, I would say keep an eye on DBM/Big Wigs timers. Ideally you want it to pop right after a big damage spike. You still want to use it on cooldown more or less and there is also not much harm in letting it pop naturally after 15s especially if you are re-learning and getting use to Resto again.
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Riptide or Healing Wave
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You can as long as enough people are blanketed with riptides but you have a higher chance of overhealing. Unleash Life is typically best paired with Chain Heal as CH is a smart heal and will typically pick lower health targets.
That being said, we don’t typically use Chain Heal as much anymore since it’s not as efficient on mana and healing as it once was. Wellspring is the go to talent for an AOE raid heal. Yes you can still use Chain Heal if the raid is taking massive damage but it is a big mana burner.
More and more shamans are taking Torrent over Unleash Life in the first row and less and less shamans are using chain heal to heal up the raid. If you check out logs and look at a good portion of resto shamans on there you can see that Chain Heal is seldom used and there tends to be more Torrent then Unleash Life in the talent row.
I believe if you eliminate Unleash Life (and pick Torrent) it will help ease the amount of spells you use. Also, chain heal shouldn’t necessarily be a go to heal to be used regularly. It should just be used if there is heavy group damage and you already have Healing Rain, Cloudburst, Wellspring, and Primordial Wave on cooldown.
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I’ve been a resto shaman main since wrath. I typically try to learn this spec and class the most. Plus my best friend is also a rsham so if she doesn’t know something or have the time to look around or ask advice I do it for her. So not only do I want to do good, I also want her to as well so I’m always learning/willing to help others about rsham 
I still go for crit/vers. Only at 204 ilvl at the time last week but I parsed a 92 on h darkvein lol. Slapped out 7.3k hps. I felt good lol.
Ngl I looked up your parses. How I can tell you’re not completely full of it.
That’s a very impressive Darkvein parse; best I hit was a 7k on wipe 5 of 20 on Saturday (we got her down to 9% I believe). I see that true to your advice here, you use chain heal very liberally on that fight. Definitely makes sense, there’s an insane amount of raid wide damage going out with draining the vials. I think I’m gonna give that a shot when we try again on Thursday. I think using manatide at like 1:30 and 4:30 I should be able to hold out. Do you also use mana pots?
Most of the other fights I know the other healers can handle things pretty well off if I don’t need to dump mana. I’m not here to parse lol. But that darkvein is intense. Plus we have rotations for healer CDs and whatnot. But darkvein I went more proactive with my healing. I do use a mana pot as well, normally when I’m starting to get around 50% if mana tide is on cd. I typically use mana tide when I’m around 75-80% mana as well.