Why is Rsham the underdog?

Classes Shaman
21

Slap in the face when resto druids getting a buff and Rsham stays untouched :smiling_face_with_tear:

1 Like
22

  • Poor passive damage, and passive is the key word. Druids, paladins, mistweavers, and priests contribute passive damage that doesn’t really take away from their healing. Shaman is a very active healer. Pressing a damage spell means that, for that GCD, you are not healing. Having to choose between one or the other presents an issue when it comes to overall throughput.

  • A lack of unique raid utility. Shaman doesn’t have a specific buff, nor does it bring anything absolutely necessary to a group that another class can’t bring. Druids have roar, other healers can restore mana, etc etc.

  • No external cooldowns. Resto Shaman is the only healer in the game that doesn’t have an external cooldown - Barkskin, Pain Suppression, Blessing of Sacrifice, Guardian Spirit, Time Dilation, Life Cocoon. Shaman does not have a button like that. We sort of make up for it with our mastery boosting our heals on injured targets, but not having a proactive cooldown really sucks sometimes.

  • Somewhat mediocre throughput when the group isn’t stacked. Primordial Wave makes this a bit easier, but Restoration really struggles with spread healing when you can’t make efficient use out of your totems and AoE spells.

With all that said, Shaman is still a fine healer, and you can play it to success in all content that matters for the majority of the playerbase. Unless you have dreams of winning the MDI or you want to pug 20+ keys, it’s fine.

2 Likes
23

Preservation evoker’s 25 yard range on heals really sucks when you have a group that wants to spread out all over the place

1 Like
24

We kind of do, but it’s awkwardly placed and watered down. Mana spring and Mana tide totems are there, but it’s hard to say how much of a net positive they bring

  • A) with mana isn’t as rare a resource as it once was
  • B) mana spring provides so little it feels forgettable

Stone Skin, Ancestral Protection
and Spirit Link totems are kind of the external cooldowns for Resto. They are reduced in power in some ways compared to pure targeted defensives. They are obviously diluted due to the obvious group benefit that they can apply.

I definitely agree with you on the broad strokes. These are definitely persistent concerns.

Thematically, I think shaman have the tools that do what we want them to do. They are uniquely shamanistic spells and abilities. But they are hampered by the impact they provide, particularly in small group content. The deficiencies are very pronounced with how the abilities have to also compete with our other options in the talent trees, and we can see how much or how little a return on investment some abilities are providing.

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