So I’m no pvp god, but I play rshaman quite a bit on live in pvp. I finally had some time to heal some SS on the beta after the changes and my lord, does it feel awful. This spec is SO bloated and clunky to play compared to everything else I’ve tested that I’m amazed someone got paid to design this. Not only is it far harder to play, but totemic has to be by far the least mana efficient healer in the game. I’m going oom every single round and somehow consistently being out healed. I know numbers tuning can fix that, but it isn’t going to fix how rough the class is to play. If this is the best they can do with the spec after all the awesome feedback they got then I think it’s time to move on for me. I’m just happy I had beta access to test it so I didn’t waste my time when TWW comes out.
Apparently farseer is the go. Have a watch of https://youtu.be/V1iX43SSK8o?si=DO2Gpvn6x5l_JbWP
He does a really good job of explaining resto and their changes. He’s one of the best resto shamans to ever play the game and knows his stuff.
Specifically related to the mana issue. He explains there is a talent that restores mana every time you refresh your water shield. Says it’s impossible to go oom if water shield is getting consumed.
I wouldn’t make a final opinion based on beta. I don’t know if the numbers have ever been well tuned on beta, at least in terms of how the game is when it launches. There’s most likely going to be a fair bit of playing around with numbers between now and the beginning of the expansion.
Also, I don’t know how well suited totemic will be for pvp, especially arena. In arena with dampening, a build based around using chain heals is going to be suboptimal for mana. In bg’s/epic bg’s/world pvp, totemic may be decent. For arena specifically though, Farseer seems like its the go to, for both mana efficiency and mobility pruposes.
totemic seems like the obvious choice for pvp imo with the increased radius of earthen totem alone making solo shuffle possibly bearable, if they simply fix the rain dance bug not working on surging totem’s mana cost then that could potentially solve the mana issues otherwise we probly just play totemic and dont use surging totem often, just as an emergency button
I think with how mobile melee are, even with a large radius on Healing Rains and Earthen Wall, there’s still going to be issues. Maybe not DK’s, Ret’s or Enhancement, but look at WW’s, ferals, Dh’s and warrs. Some of these matches with these classes, the game will be all over the map.
If it’s an all melee lobby, I could see totemic working. If it’s a mix of ranged and melee, there’s no way they’re gonna stay inside the rain a lot of the times. Even if they fix the mana issue, I don’t think the totemic style will gel with the current meta of high mobility.