Resto Shaman healing/gear guide.

[Zonagle]

Once again, just posting some useful information that some people may not know. I do not claim credit for this work, nor am I trying to.

Link to the actual guide: [Shaman] How to Heal like a Pro - Elitist Jerks

This is the spot to discuss everything about healing as a shaman. You can use Ctrl-F to quickly find any of the sections below or to search the first page of the post. If you find any typos or small errors, please send me a private message so I can make corrections. I hope this post can become just as valuable as the enhancement and elemental threads with your feedback and suggestions. Thanks!

Recent Additions & Changes
* Updated spell haste section with new mechanics in Patch 2.4 (3/26/200
* Added great idea for spell interruption gloves. Thanks Psychopomp (3/24/200
* Added chart showing healing done with Tier 6 bonuses (3/14/200
* Updated values of Tier 6 set bonuses (3/13/200
* Added Redeemer's Alchemist Stone (3/3/200
* Added a new best-case scenario for the Totemic Focus talent 2/18/2008 (Thanks Vistol)
* Noted that the cooldown on Vial of the Sunwell has been increased to 2 minutes, from 1 minute (2/14/200
* Added two new healing trinkets from Sunwell (2/11/200
To do:
Need to determine the actual proc rate of [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond]. Tooltip says 2%. Wowhead says 5%.

Table of Contents

• I. Information for Raid Leaders
  II. Secrets of the Pros
  • Water Shield
  • Chain Heal
  • Cast Times and Latency
  • Consumables
  III. Talent Specs
  IV. Gear
  • Set bonuses
  • Stat Weights for T4, T5 and T6 shaman
  • Why We Value +Healing over mp5
  • Relics
  • Spell Hit for Interrupts
  • Using three pieces of Tier 2
  V. Haste
  VI. Gems and Enchants
  VII. Trinkets
  VIII. Raiding
  • Sunwell
  • Black Temple
  • Hyjal
  • Tempest Keep
  • Serpentshrine Cavern (SSC)
  • Zul'Aman (ZA)
  • Magtheridon
  • Gruul
  • Karazhan
  IX. Macros
  X. Mods & Add-ons
  XI. FAQ
  1. Which gear is better? X or Y?
  2. Should I choose Aldor or Scryer?
  3. Who should I Earth Shield?
  4. How much +healing and mp5 should I have?
  5. Can I make a macro to drop four totems at once?
  6. Can I make a macro to remove poison and disease with one button?
  7. Do Healing Stream and Mana Stream stack? What about…
  8. How do I heal in the arena and battlegrounds?
  XII. Healing Theorycraft (Warning: Math Ahead)
  • Chain Heal
  • Healing Wave
  • Lesser Healing Wave
  • Earth Shield
  • Healing Stream Totem
  • Gift of the Naaru (Draenei racial)
  • Berserking (Troll racial)
  • How to Calculate +Healing

Helpful Links

Binkenstein's ShamStats
Allows comparison of gear based on talents, buffs, etc.

Healing Calcs by Daidalos

RestoShammySpells by Boko
Calculates Avg. Healed, HPS, HPM, MP5 spent for each heal. In addition the real HPS depending on current MP5/Manapool/Time of fight calculated for each spell.

Murderbot's Healing Guide (no longer being updated but still useful)

Resto Shaman changes in Patch 2.4
(PVE only)

• Global cooldown on dropping totems reduced from 1.5 s to 1 s.
• Spell haste on healing gear will be more useful. Spell haste now reduces the global cooldown on spells, down to a minimum of 1 second. This change does not apply to melee and ranged abilities.
• Totem UI allows individual totems to be destroyed, and is accessible through the API for macros/mods.
• Earth Shield: Mana cost reduced roughly in half (450 mana instead of 900 mana), and charges reduced from 10 to 6. Each charge will cost 16.7% less mana to cast but you will have to cast the shield 40% more often.
• Tremor Totem now pulses every 3 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
• Archon’s Gavel will be as good (or perhaps better than) [Crystal Spire of Karabor], depending on how many people are below 50% health.
• You will no longer have to remember to retrain Earth Shield if you respect. Characters will now retain talented spell ranks so when they retalent they do not have to relearn the spells from trainers.
• Fixing [Totem of Living Water]. Unlike all the other relics, this one was being applied after talents and set bonuses. It will not be correctly applied before talents and set bonuses. So, instead of saving 19 mana per Chain Heal (17 mana with Tier 6) you will now save 20 mana.

I. Information for Raid Leaders
Who should I have the shaman heal?
Shaman are best at healing multiple targets that are standing near each. Assign them to heal melee or simply keep the entire raid topped off. In a 25-man raid, you should see their chain heal constantly jumping from player to player.

Shaman can heal a single target, such as the main tank. However, this role is better filled by a priest or paladin. You will want to make sure the shaman puts an Earth Shield on the main tank, another player who will take damage or someone who needs protection against spell interruption.

Should I let shaman roll on cloth or leather gear?
Yes. Sometimes a cloth or leather item is better than the available mail items for a slot. This is particularly true if there is no spirit on the cloth or leather gear. If the cloth or leather gear has spirit, it’s probably of more use to a priest or druid. Staves and off-hands are also more beneficial to priests and druids. If you have a question about a specific item, please send me a private message.

In which group should I put a resto shaman?

Resto shaman can either boost the DPS of a group or increase mana regeneration. Shaman are also sometimes placed in the main tank group to provide the tank with totems necessary for a particular encounter.

Where you place the shaman will depend on the other classes in your raid. Here are two good places to put a resto shaman:

• Shadow priests: While shadow priests boost the mana of a group, they need mana themselves to continue casting. Shadow priests and resto shaman are an ideal combination.
• Melee: The shaman’s windfury totem and Bloodlust/Heroism provide a significant DPS boost to any melee group. Rogues and warriors love having a shaman.

Here are some other possible groups that will benefit from a resto shaman
• Mages/moonkin: The more mana these classes have, the more DPS they can contribute. The shaman’s mana spring totem, mana tide totem and totem to increase spell damage (Wrath of Air) are useful. In general, warlocks do not need a shaman because their main source of mana is life tapping.

• Main tank group: In most fights, the main tank does not need a shaman in their group. However, there are a few fights in which the boss does high burst damage such as the Prince in Karazhan or Gurtogg Bloodboil in Black Temple. Even if a tank has 490 defence to avoid critical hits, the boss can still land crushing blows. Critical hits are 200% of normal damage and Crushing blows are 150% of normal damage. The shaman’s Grace of Air totem will increase the ability of a warrior to dodge attacks by 3% and a druid to dodge attacks by 5.24%

II. Secrets of the Pros

As a shaman, you bring three important qualities to a raid that no other healing class can top: Chain Heal, Heroism/Bloodlust and Totems. No other class can heal multiple players taking damage like a shaman can. And no other class has as many buffs as a shaman brings to a party.

1) Be familiar with the fight. Know what happens during each phase and where to stand to avoid taking damage. Know if aggro drops during any transitions and avoid healing for a few seconds at that time.

2) Know the person you are healing
Know where the tank is going to be during the fight. It's a weak excuse to say "They were out of line of sight."
Know the abilities of the mob he is tanking. Does it do steady or burst damage? Does it have any special attacks? How big of a hit is plate going to take?
Know the abilities of the person you are healing. Is this a protection speced warrior or a DPS warrior wearing his tanking gear? How good is their gear? Inspect them if you haven’t played with them before.

3) Talk to your fellow healers
If you are healing the same target(s) as someone else, talk to them and work out a strategy. Decide where each of you will stand and how to maximize your effectiveness.

4) Find a way to easily monitor the health of everyone in the raid and target them for healing. Many healers like using either Xperl, Grid or Pitbull.

5) Carry several sets of gear -- +Healing, mp5, haste, stamina and any needed resistance sets (mainly shadow).
You should not wear the same gear for every fight. Some bosses are short sprints. Others are more like a 10 km run. Sometimes you have a shadow priest in your group. Sometimes the mages get the shadow priest. Sometimes you need a lot of stamina to survive the raid-wide attacks of a boss. A mod such as Item Rack can quickly allow you to switch between gear sets.

Water Shield
This is a tremendous source of mana regeneration. It's important to have it on at all times and refresh it before it expires. Many shaman do not wait until all three charges have been used to refresh. When there is a lull in healing, they take that time to put up 3 new charges since they might expire at a time when you can't spare the global cooldown to refresh the shield.

I recommend using Shaman Friend to alert you when water shield expires. It has an option to give you an audible warning and you can choose several different sounds. It can also report a successful purge, interrupt or grounding to party or raid channel

You can also modify SCT to give an audible alert using these instructions:

I'd like to share this little line of code that is inserted into 'interface\addons\sct\sct_event_config.lua'
Inside the file there is a line local sct_Event_Config = { Next to that is a custom events list. I replaced 'lightning shield' event since it's usefulness is none to me. The file itself contains pretty clear explanations and examples for custom events so feel free to modify. It gives you warning when Water Shield fades. test.wav is your own to pick.


[3] = {name="--+ Water Shield Faded +--", type="fadeself", search="Water Shield", r=256/256, g=256/256, b=256/256, iscrit=1, soundwave="Interface\\AddOns\\sct\\test.wav", class={"Shaman"}},
CREDIT: Flopi

Chain Heal

1) Chain Heal is the best heal in the game. It's what Prayer of Mending wants to be when it grows up. In many fights, Chain Heal will be 90% of what you cast.

2) Many shaman downrank Chain Heal to Rank 4 (and sometimes even Rank 3). Rank 4 gets the full benefit of your plus healing since it is learned at level 61 and is not subject to the down ranking penalty. By using Rank 4, you reduce your mana costs by 19% but lose only 10% of your healing power.

3) If mana is not a problem, don't cancel your chain heal -- even if the person is now at full health. As long as there are others nearby who have taken damage, the heal will jump and still make it worth casting.

4) It might seem like a waste to use Chain Heal for a single target taking damage but it’s actually more efficient than LHW. Plus, there’s always the chance that someone else in range will take damage and the spell will jump.


Mana Avg. Heal/mana
Heal

Chain Heal 4 (1 target) 413 2635 6.38
Lesser Healing Wave 7 418 2072 4.96
Cast Times and Latency

You always want to start casting your next heal before the first one finishes casting. This is due to latency – or the time it takes for a command from the client to make a round trip to the server and back. However, if you hit the button too early (i.e. mashing buttons) it will slow you down slightly because the server says, “Spell not ready” and you have to send the request again to the server. To time this perfectly, install a mod such as Quartz. The portion of your cast bar in red represents your latency. As soon as the spell you are currently casting reaches the red zone, you can safely start casting your next spell. This will give maximum casting speed.

This method works well as long as you have 10-12 frames per second (FPS). If you have 5 FPS, you are only seeing the Quartz bar update every 0.2 seconds. You may be better off “mashing the buttons” in this case.

Consumables
Use either [Flask of Mighty Restoration] or a combination of [Elixir of Healing Power] and [Elixir of Major Mageblood]. The two elixirs are more powerful, giving you 16 mp5 and +50 healing. However, the flask can be more economical if you die a lot.

On your weapon apply [Brilliant Mana Oil] or the cheaper [Superior Mana Oil].

For food use [Golden Fish Sticks] or [Blackened Sporefish]

III. Talent Specs

These are the main healing specs for raiding: 8-0-53 (recommended for new content) or 0-12-49 (recommended for farm content, mobility, DPS). You can also spec 0-5-56 and 0-0-61 but they are not recommended.

0-12-49
You get the ability to cast ghost wolf instantly, plus the improved strength and agility totems to boost the DPS done by Hunters (BM) and feral druids. It will give a group an extra 11.5 agility and an extra 12.9 strength. Cheeky's spreadsheet in the Hunter thread can allow your to calculate exactly how much the group's DPS would increase but if your hunters are doing around 1000 DPS, the improved strength and agility totems would boost the DPS of each hunter by about 10 DPS. A feral druid might gain 15-20 DPS. So if the group's DPS increases by 50 DPS, over a 10-minute fight they would do an extra 30,000 damage. The spec sacrifices nothing in healing. What you lose is survivability (by giving up Nature's Guardian and Elemental Warding). However, if that's not an issue, extra DPS never hurts.

Here's a sample of the 0-12-49 spec

8-0-53

This spec is the best for raiding, especially when you are first learning an encounter. The build is designed to reduce the damage taken by fire, frost and nature by 10% while maintaining all the core healing talents. Shaman put 5 points in Concussion and 3 in Elemental Warding.

Many bosses in SSC, Black Temple and Mount Hyjal do quite a bit of elemental damage to the raid. And let's not forget all the elemental damage in Kara. The less damage you take, the less time and mana you have to spend healing yourself. This also boosts your ability to survive.

Here is a sample of the 8-0-53 spec
If you want both Elemental Warding and instant Ghost Wolf here's a 8-7-46 spec
If you want both Nature's Guardian and instant Ghost Wolf you can try 0-7-54

0-5-56
This is a very common spec but it’s not the strongest use of talent points.

Five points in Ancestral Knowledge boosts your mana pool by 5%. It sounds like a lot but a closer look shows you get a poor return on the points spent. The extra mana will probably be only enough to cast one extra chain heal.

Existing mana pool: 10,000
+5%: 10,500
Boost to mana tide: 120/5 minutes = 2 mp5

The smaller your mana pool, the less benefit you receive. A shaman with 8,000 mana gains an extra 400 mana and only 1.67 mp5 through Mana Tide.

Here is a sample of the 0-5-56 spec

0-0-61
This spec allows you to pick up nearly every talent in the resto tree. However, 8-0-53 is still the best choice.

If you raid and PVP, you could try 8-7-46. Here's a sample You don't have the talent to reduce threat from healing by 15% so be careful at the start of a fight or during transitions if the boss drops aggro. Also, this is not a pure PVP spec. If you want to get a high arena rating, there are probably better ways to spend your talent points.

So is there ever a reason to spec 0-5-56 or 0-0-61?

Yes, when you're raiding zones that have no raid-wide fire, frost or nature damage. The zone should also have no reason for you to need to move quickly outdoors.

So where do I spend my 53 or 56 or 61 points?

It’s hard to go wrong putting points into the restoration tree. In fact, the only talent that you want to avoid taking is Nature’s Guidance, which increases your chance to hit with melee attacks and spells. You are healing so hitting your target is not an issue. This talent is valuable for resto shaman in PVP to avoid players resisting your Earth Shock. It's also a great talent for Enhancement shaman.

These are considered must-have talents for raiding: Improved Healing Wave, Tidal Focus, Ancestral Healing, Healing Focus, Totemic Mastery, Healing Grace, Restorative Totems, Healing Way, Nature’s Swiftness, Purification, Mana Tide Totem, Nature’s Blessing, Improved Chain Heal, Earth Shield.

Where do I put the rest?

Nature’s Guardian: If you take damage that brings you below 30% health, then there is a 50% chance of being healed for 10% of your total health immediately after taking the hit. It heals you after the damage from the hit is applied, so if the damage takes you to 0%, it doesn't proc. It cannot proc more than once every 5 seconds. Plus, the heal reduces your threat. It’s a must-have talent for resto PVP and highly desirable for shamans who raid.

Totemic Focus: Reduces the cost of your totems by 25%. It provides a bigger benefit than Ancestral Knowledge. At worst, it will probably equate to giving you an extra 4.6 mp5 (Scenario 1). At best, it could give you the equivalent of 16.5 mp5 (Scenario 2).

Scenario 1: You are in a caster group dropping Mana Spring and Wrath of Air. You drop your totems every 2 minutes.
Mana Spring: 120 mana
Wrath: 320 mana
Total: 2,200 mana during a 10 minute fight. The talent would save you 550 mana or 4.6 mp5

Scenario 2: You are in a melee group dropping Windfury, Strength of Earth, Healing stream and Searing Totem. You drop your totems every 1.5 minutes, or 7 times during the fight.

Windfury: 325 mana (2275)
Strength: 300 mana (2100)
Healing: 95 mana (665)
Searing: 205 mana x 2 (2870)
Total: 7,910 mana during a 10 minute fight. The talent would save you 1,977.5 mana or 16.5 mp5

Improved Reincarnation: Many shaman swear by this talent but I think there are better uses of talent points. Instead of popping with 20% health and mana, you can pop with 40%. It also reduces the cooldown on your Reincarnation from an hour to 40 minutes.

There are a few fights were dying is unavoidable and it’s very handy to have a shaman pop (especially with extra health and mana). For example, if you get the Doomguard debuff during the Azgalor fight or if Teron Gorefiend chooses you for Shadow of Death.

However, on most fights you should not die. And if you do die, there are probably several things going wrong with the raid and you resurrecting will not fix them before everyone wipes.

Focused Mind: Generally seen as a weak talent for raiding since most bosses do not silence. It is often sacrified in the 8-0-53 and 0-5-56 builds. However, you can easily include it in a 0-0-61 build. A must-have talent for shaman who also PVP.

Tidal Mastery: This talent goes hand-in-hand with Ancestral Healing, which you absolutely should have. The 25% increase in armor from Ancestral Healing typically will give more protection than an Ironshield potion. Plus, the proc scales as your tank gets better gear. In addition, with multiple shamans in the raid, and each having 5% more crit, the chances of getting an Ancestral Healing proc rise a great deal.

IV. Gear

Set Bonuses

Tier 4: You want two pieces. The bonus boosts your mana spring totem by 7.5 mp5, which benefits you and your entire party. Don’t worry about the four-piece bonus.

Tier 5: Bonuses are nothing great.

Tier 6: You want four pieces. The set bonuses are fantastic. It doesn't matter what stats another piece of gear has, you are always better off with the set bonuses.

The two-piece bonus is worth 64 mp5 assuming you cast 15 chain heals per minute. If you cast 20 chain heals (3 seconds per CH), it's worth 85.5 mp5.

The four-piece bonus is worth 82 healing (from the base spell) plus 0.06675 per point of +heal.
according to Shamstats by Binkenstein. If you had 2000 +healing, your chain heal on three targets would gain an extra 216 healing.

Best pieces to wear: Bracers, Belt, Boots and Helmet/Shoulders

There are better non-set options for the chest, gloves and legs. The first pieces of T6 that most people get are the gloves (Azgalor) and the helm (Archimonde).

Stat Weights

Arriving at standard weights for stats is much more difficult for a healing class than a DPS class. In some fights, you may be assigned to heal a single target. In other fights, you may be healing the entire raid. Some fights may last 2 minutes, while others go on for more than 20 minutes. Plus, your needs change as you get better gear. Once you get a sufficient amount of mana and mana regen, other stats will take on more importance.

Haste is a hotly debated stat for both resto shaman and virtually all other classes. It can significantly boost your healing but at the cost of mana regen and other stats. Its value may also fluctuate depending on how often you are casting back-to-back heals in a fight.

To generate a list of gear using the rankings, I recommend Loot Rank. Be sure to enter the meta gem value or it will use the Bracing Earthstorm. To display these values in-game, try a mod such as Pawn.

For more control over gear rankings (such as playing with different gems and set bonuses), I highly recommend Binkenstein’s Shamstats. Shaman are also encouraged to customize their own stat weights. Treat the values below as a starting point, not the final answer on how to rank gear. These numbers were not carved into stone tablets on Mount Sinai. When customizing your own stat weights, it is not necessary to use every single stat listed below.

Entry-Level Shaman (Tier 4)
Stam = 0.20
Int = 1.00
Spirit = 0.1
Healing = 1.0
Crit = 0.25
Mp5 = 4.5
Haste = 0.0
Armor = 0.01
Meta = 90.75 (based on [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond] proc equalling 17.5 mp5)
Note: These values will cause Lootrank to choose Royal Nightseyes over Teardrop Living Rubies.

Mid-Level Shaman (Tier 5)
Stam = 0.30
Int = 0.75
Spirit = 0.1
Healing = 1.1
Crit = 0.5
Mp5 = 3.75
Haste = 0.75
Armor = 0.01
Meta = 74.625 (based on [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond] proc equalling 17.5 mp5)

High-Level Shaman (Tier 6)
Or grouped with a shadow priest

Stam = 0.30
Int = 0.55
Spirit = 0.1
Healing = 1.3
Crit = 0.5
Mp5 = 3.0
Haste = 2.0
Armor = 0.01
Meta = 59.1 (based on [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond] proc equalling 17.5 mp5)

Why We Value +Healing over mp5


Mp5 is wasted in a group with a spriest, +heal is never wasted. When you struggle with regen issues, downrank. This is pretty much the mantra for a resto shaman, IMO ~ Raut

As stated above the gains from +healing won't translate into overheal if you down rank. Stacking healing gives you the option of conserving mana via downranking or high HPS via top rank spamming. Mp5 gives you no choices ~ Daidalos
Relics

They come to two varieties: Ones that reduce the mana cost of your healing spells and one that increase your +healing for a specific type of healing spell. There is also [Totem of the Thunderhead]. However, your water shield will not continue to get a boost if you switch to another relic after casting it.

The amount added to healing from relics is applied the same way +healing is applied to your spells. Relics are applied before set bonuses.

Chain Heal
[Totem of Healing Rains]
[Totem of Living Water]

Use the Totem of Healing Rains if mana is not an issue.

Each Chain Heal you cast per minute with Totem of Living Water equipped equals 1.67 mp5 (20/12=1.6667) so if you do:

10 casts per minute you get 16.67 mp5
15 casts per minute 25 mp5
20 casts per minute 33.33 mp5 (pretty much the upper limit without haste gear)

Healing Wave
[Totem of Spontaneous Regrowth]
[Totem of the Maelstrom]

Each Healing Wave you cast per minute with Totem of the Maelstrom equipped equals 2 mp5 (24/12=2) so if you do:

10 casts per minute you get 20 mp5
15 casts per minute 30 mp5
20 casts per minute 40 mp5 (pretty much the upper limit without haste gear)

LHW
[Totem of the Plains]
[Totem of Life] From AQ40.
[Totem of Flowing Water] From Naxx. Rank 1 returns 4 mana. I don't see any use for this totem but you never know what fights might await us in the Sunwell.

Spell Hit
Normally, resto shamans don’t worry about spell hit. However, there are a few fights in which we may be asked to not only heal but interrupt spells cast by a boss. In these situations, it can be helpful to boost your +hit to cut down on the number of resists you will get. My favorite way is to get a pair of gloves with spell hit, gem them for spell hit and then enchant them for spell hit. You maximize your hit but at the sacrifice of only one piece of normal healing gear.

You may be asked to Earth Shock Hellfire Channelers (72) in Magtheridon, Shade of Aran (73), Kael’thas (73), or the priest (72) in the Karathress fight.

There is a 1% chance to miss against any target, no matter how much spell hit you have through gear or talents. Here is how much spell hit you need to become “hit capped,” meaning you have a 99% chance to hit the target.

Target Spell Hit needed
Level 70 3%
Level 71 4%
Level 72 5%
Level 73 16% (Boss level)

Talents
Draenei can get 1% spell hit from Inspiring Presence

Gear
[Manaspark Gloves] are easy to farm from the first boss in normal Underbog (Hungarfen)
Put a [Great Dawnstone] in each socket and enchant with Spell Strike (15 hit rating) and you have a total of 46 spell hit (3.65%). This is quite a bit of spell hit on one piece of gear.

Another option is [Handwraps of Flowing Thought] from Attuneman in Kara, which will give 45 spell hit (3.57%) but have better stats.

[Anger-Spark Gloves] will give you 51 spell hit (4.04%) but are a bit difficult to get if you don’t regularly kill Doomwalker.

The absolutely best option is to get the Tier 6 Elemental gloves [Skyshatter Gauntlets] and socket them with a [Great Lionseye]. You will have 44 spell hit rating (3.49%) plus a decent amount of +healing, stamina, intellect and spell crit.

Using Tier 2

One surprising way to boost your healing is to wear three pieces of Tier 2. Yes, the stuff that drops from Onyxia and in Black Wing Lair. The increased healing has been confirmed both by theoretical models and by actual experimentation in raids. Wearing three pieces of Tier 2 (3T2) can boost your effective chain healing by 10% to 15%. The more +healing you have, the better the set bonus becomes because it is percentage based.

The bonus is “increases the amount healed by Chain Heal to targets beyond the first by 30%.” What makes this such an incredible bonus is the fact that the third jump gets the set bonus that is applied to the second jump.

Let’s assume the first jump of chain heals for 1,000. With the set bonus, the second jump heals for 650 and the third for 422.5. Without the set bonus, the second jump heals for 500 and the third for 250.

While you have less +healing, your chain heal becomes more powerful due to the set bonus. If we assume no overhealing, your chain heal does roughly 10% more healing if it hits three targets on average. However, most overhealing is done on the first target (which other healers are targeting). Because your second and third jumps heal for a larger amount (and jump instantly to those who have taken damage), you actually become a more effective healer – boosting the effect of the set bonus to roughly 15%.

You should wear three pieces of Tier 2 if the following statements are true:
• Chain heal will be 90% or more of your healing for the fight.
• Your chain heal will hit all 3 targets.
• You are in a 25-man raid
• You do not lose any Tier 6 bonuses by equipping Tier 2. Tier 4 and Tier 5 set bonuses do not matter.

The best pieces of T2 to use are:
[Bracers of Ten Storms]
[Greaves of Ten Storms]
[Belt of Ten Storms]

What you lose (varies depending on current gear and which pieces of T2 you equip):
• Healing -200 to -350
• Crit -1% to -2%
• Intellect -15 to -35
• Stamina -25 to -80
• Mp5 -20 to -50

The loss of crit and Intellect is negligible. Depending on how much stamina or mp5 you lose, you may need to use adjust other gear or the make-up of your group or use more potions. However, you can wear 3T2 even on fights that require high stamina such as Naj’entus.

Here’s the math (credit goes to Thud00 and Daidalos):

In a regular chain heal you have X + (0.50*X) + (0.50*0.50*X) where X is the base healing on the first target or
X + 0.50X + 0.25X = 1.75X

With 3T2 you have X + (0.65*X) + (0.65*0.65*X) where
or X + 0.65X + 0.4225X= 2.0725X

So including talents and plus healing,


Without 3T2:
(884 + 87 + 2000 * (2.5/3.5)) * 1.1 * 1.2 *1.05 * 1.75 = 5820

(base + maiden trinket + heal * cast time) * purification * improved ch * t6 bonus * 2 jumps

With 3T2 (assuming you lose +250 healing)

(884 + 87 + 1750 * (2.5/3.5)) * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.05 * 2.0725 = 6380
Clearly you get more heal wearing 3T2, 9.6% more.

Thud00 wrote a custom mod to measure overhealing on a per jump basis. He found overhealing on the initial jump was about 50%, while overhealing on subsequent jumps was about 20%. This makes sense given that multiple healers will often target the same person who has taken damage. The beauty of chain heal is that it instantly jumps to two other people. They often take damage while you were casting so a chain heal or prayer of mending is the first thing to land – resulting in less overhealing.

Taking overhealing into account the 1.75 becomes 1*0.5 + 0.75*0.8 = 1.1
and the 2.0725 figure becomes 1*0.5 + 1.0725*0.8 = 1.358

This takes the effective healing to:


Without 3T2
(884 + 87 + 2000 * (2.5/3.5)) * 1.1 * 1.2 *1.05 * 1.1 = 3658

With 3T2
(884 + 87 + 1750 * (2.5/3.5)) * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.05 * 2.0725 = 4180
So the real effect of 3TS is around 14.3% more healing. In this example, you would need 2479 +heal to get the same effective heal without the 3T2 bonus so it’s worth about 729 +heal .

V. Haste

A large amount of healing gear with spell haste is available in Hyjal, Black Temple, ZA and Sunwell. And like with many other aspects of healing, its value is all in knowing when to wear it.

If your mana bar isn’t moving much, it’s time to put on gear with spell haste. However, spell haste does you no good if it makes you go OOM.

Many shaman find that when put in a group with a shadow priest, they cannot use their mana fast enough. Often, our mana bar will never drop below 50% due to the shadow priest, water shield, mana spring and other buffs. Many shaman also wear haste gear on trash since they can drink after each pull.

By wearing gear with spell haste, we can cast spells faster, boosting our overall healing done for a fight – and potentially have heals landing faster to prevent deaths.

Starting in Patch 2.4, spell haste lowers global cooldown on spells, reducing the GCD to as little as 1 second.


1% Spell Haste = 15.76 Haste Rating
1% haste means you will cast 1 additional spell in the time it would normally take to cast 100 spells. You do NOT cast 1% faster.

Spell Haste is calculated after talents. So if Healing Wave is 3.0 seconds normally and talents reduce it to 2.5 seconds, then 10% haste (157 haste rating) would reduce the cast time to 2.275 seconds.

Spell Haste can reduce the global cooldown but it cannot reduce it below 1.0 seconds.

Here are some formulas to calculate Spell Haste and its effects






No amount of haste including Bloodlust/Heroism will lower the global cooldown below 1 second.
This can be proven using the following UI hook and spamming an instant spell with no cooldown inside and outside of Bloodlust:


/run hooksecurefunc("CooldownFrame_SetTimer", function(_, start, duration, enable) if start > 0 and enable > 0 then DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(duration) end end)
Haste Rating "Cap"

With the gear currently in the game, you don't have to worry about your cast times bumping up against the global cooldown (unless you are using Bloodlust/Heroism).

To lower the cast time of Chain Heal and Healing Wave to 1 second, you would need 2,364 haste rating (or 1,455 with Bloodlust/Heroism). To lower the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave to 1 second, you would need 788 haste rating (243 haste with Bloodlust/Heroism).

You can get 372 Haste Rating from the gear below (not including the hasted off-hand or the DPS boots or trinket procs)

Lesser Healing Wave 1.21s
Healing Wave and Chain Heal 2.02s

With Heroism or Bloodlust
Lesser Healing Wave 0.93s
Healing Wave and Chain Heal 1.56s

Here are your options for Haste gear:

Helm: [Shroud of Chieftain Ner'zhul]
Neck: [Brooch of Nature's Mercy]
Shoulders: [Hex Lord's Voodoo Pauldrons]
Back: [Shroud of the Highborne] or [Cloak of Ancient Rituals]
Chest: [Hauberk of the Empire's Champion], [Robe of Eternal Light], [Sun-Drenched Scale Chestguard]
Wrist: [Living Earth Bindings]
Gloves: [Botanist's Gloves of Growth] or [Spiritwalker Gauntlets] or [Gauntlets of the Ancient Frostwolf] or [Sun-Drenched Scale Gloves]
Belt: [Belt of Primal Majesty] or [Angelista's Sash] or [Man'kin'do's Belt] or [Naturalist's Preserving Cinch] or [Skyshatter Belt]
Legs: [Achromic Trousers of the Naaru] or [Kilt of Spiritual Reconstruction]
Feet: [Skyshatter Boots]
Rings: [Blessed Band of Karabor] x 2 or [Signet of the Quiet Forest] or [Band of Lucent Beams] or [Ring of Flowing Life]
Neck: [Amulet of Flowing Life] or [Brooch of the Highborne]
Weapon: [Dark Blessing]
Off-hand: Nothing for healing. Could use [Fetish of the Primal Gods]

[Zonagle]

VI. Gems and Enchants

Enchanting your gear can quickly drain your bank account. However, it is well worth the expense if you will not upgrade your gear for a while. There are also a few "cheap" enchants that are worth putting on your gear even if you won't have it long: +6 mp5 to chest, Vitality for boots and the honored shoulder enchants. The best enchant to skip all together if money is an issue is Subtlety to cloak.

Gems can also be a major investment. It's ok to use green-quality gems as you level up and gear up. However, never leave a socket empty. Always put some gem in it. Also, it is well worth spending money to get the meta gem for a helm with that socket, even if you won't have it very long.

Meta Socket

[Insightful Earthstorm Diamond] (Recommended)

This the most popular choice among resto shaman because it has easy gem requirements and extra mana never hurts. You could have as little as Royal Nightseye x2 and Luminious Noble Topaz x2 and meet the requirements. Secondary colors (purple, orange, green) count for BOTH primary colors.

It procs off any spell cast, including totems and water shield. You then gain 300 mana from “Mana Restore.” The tooltip says it has a 2% chance to proc. However, both Wowhead and Thotbot list the proc rate as 5% and WWS data from raids would indicate that the proc rate is higher than 2%. There is no cooldown. On rare occasions, it has procced off itself.

In real raid situations using mainly Chain Heal, it returns about 20 mp5 (which would be roughly a 4% proc rate). Shaman may get more procs off the meta gem than others healers due to the fact that we are constantly dropping totems and casting water shield -- all of which can proc the gem.

Assuming it takes 3.0 seconds to cast Chain Heal given reaction time and lag, here are the mp5 values for various proc rates:

2% = (300 mana / (50 casts * 3.0secPerCast)) * 5 seconds = 10 mp5
4% = (300 mana / (25 casts * 3.0secPerCast)) * 5 seconds = 20 mp5
5% = (300 mana / (20 casts * 3.0secPerCast)) * 5 seconds = 25 mp5

[Mystical Skyfire Diamond]
This is another popular gem among resto shaman. Its requirements are also easy to meet. However, the benefit can be hit or miss. If you get the proc right when the tank is about to go down, it’s a life saver. If it comes at a time when no one is taking damage or doesn’t need a heal more quickly, it’s wasted. If you like this meta gem, you will also like the [Scarab of the Infinite Cycle]

The gem has a 15% chance to proc and it will proc off anything, including totems and water shield. When it procs you gain “Focus” and have 6 seconds to cast your next spell before you lost the buff. There is a 45 second cooldown since Patch 2.3. In real raid situations it will proc about once per minute.

You may want to try to get two helms. Socket your primary helm with the Insightful Earthstorm. Socket the second helm with the MSD and use it whenever you have a shadow priest. This is also an excellent gem to include as part of a spell haste set for when you have a shadow priest.


On PTR, it gives 320 spell haste for 6 seconds. 45 second cooldown remains
[Bracing Earthstorm Diamond]
This is the least popular among healing meta gems. Most healers would rather than 20 mp5 than 26 +healing. The reduced threat has limited benefit in 25-man raids. In Patch 2.3.2, the requirement of having more yellow gems than blue gems was eliminated.

Other gems
Use Living Rubies and Spinels as often as possible. It is often worth losing the socket bonus.
Red: [Teardrop Living Ruby]
Red: [Teardrop Crimson Spinel]
Red/Blue: [Royal Nightseye]
Red/Blue: [Royal Shadowsong Amethyst]
Red/Yellow: [Luminous Noble Topaz]
Red/Yellow: [Luminous Pyrestone]

Enchants

Weapon: Major healing +81 healing (Recommended)
Spellsurge (3% chance on spellcast to restore 100 mana to all party members over 10 seconds). In actual raids, this works out to about 6-8 mp5 per person.
NOTE: I recommend putting +81 healing on your best healing mace and then putting Spell Surge on another mace. Use a mod such as Caster Weapon Swapper to switch between them while Spell Surge is on cooldown.

Shield: Intellect (+12 int) or Major Stamina (+18 stam)

Head: [Glyph of Renewal] (Thrallmar/Honor Hold Revered)

Shoulders:
Aldor: [Greater Inscription of Faith]
Scryer: [Greater Inscription of the Oracle]

If you are at least honored, you can get:
Aldor: [Inscription of Faith]
Scryer: [Inscription of the Oracle]

Back: Subtlety (reduces threat by 2%)

Chest: Restore Mana Prime (+6 mp5)

Wrist: Superior Healing (+30 healing)
NOTE: Shaman who are just starting out may find Mana Prime (6 mp5) more helpful

Gloves: Major Healing (+35 healing)

Legs: [Silver Spellthread] or [Golden Spellthread]

Feet: Boar's Speed (Slight speed increase, +9 Stamina) Boosts speed by 8%. The haste effect does not stack with anything else such as the meta gems or [Explorer's Walking Stick]
NOTE: Shaman just starting out my prefer Vitality ( 4 mp5 & 4 health/5). Also Vitality is a much cheaper and easier to find so it may be the best enchant if you expect to quickly upgrade your boots.

Rings: Ring enchants are only available to enchanters. Your best choice is +20 healing.

VII Trinkets

Elitist Jerks: Healing Trinket Selection

How to calculate the value of on-use trinkets:

Take the amount of additional healing and multiple by the duration of the buff. Then divide by the cooldown. Let’s use [Essence of the Martyr] as an example

297*20/120 = 49.5 healing

I find it extremely difficult to remember to click on-use trinkets. Therefore, I create a macro to use the +healing trinkets each time I cast Earth Shield. This ensures I use them every 2-3 minutes.

Please note that some trinkets are listed in more than one category

Best of the Best
[Redeemer's Alchemist Stone]
Equip: Increases healing by 119 and damage by 40
Equip: Increases the effect that healing and mana potions have on the wearer by 40%.

A super mana pot, on average, restores 2400 mana. The Alchemist Stone boosts the mana returned by 40% or 960 mana. That's an extra 40 mp5 if you're chain chugging pots. If you drink 1-2 super mana pots during a 10-minute fight, it would restore, 8 mp5 to 16 mp5. However, the advantage is you get extra mana when you need it the most.

[Memento of Tyrande] (Illidan)
The theoretical proc equals 25 mp5. In actual use, you get about 20 mp5
Cooldown: 45 seconds

Pretty Darn Good

[Tome of Diabolic Remedy] (ZA-Hex Lord Malacrass)
On-use equal +66 healing
Cooldown: 2 minutes

[Item 'glimmering naaru sliver' not found!] (Sunwell)
Use: Gain 250 mana each sec for 8 sec. Channeled
Equip: Increases healing by 119
Cooldown: 5 min
Note: Restores a total of 2000 mana or 33.3 mp5. Time spent channeling is affected by haste.

I Need More +Healing
These will give your Earth Shield or Healing Stream a big boost

[Essence of the Martyr] (41 Heroic Badges)
Cooldown: 2 minutes
Equals 49.5 +healing (Total of 133.5 +healing)

[Xi'ri's Gift]
Equals 46.67 +healing
Cooldown: 1.5 minutes

[Warp-Scarab Brooch](Heroic Mana Tombs-Nexis-Prince Shaffar)
Cooldown: 2 minutes
Equals 47 +healing

These have a nice amount of constant + heal

[Battlemaster's Perseverance]
(75 Badges)
A little extra health can go a long way in some fights, plus it has 88 +healing.

[Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] (Black Morass)
Equals about 32 haste if it procs once per minute
Cooldown: 45 seconds

[Ribbon of Sacrifice] (Kara-Opera)
Cooldown: 2 minutes
This can be a nice trinket to use in the later growths on Gruul when all the healers are on the tank or hateful bolt soaker.

[Lower City Prayerbook]
The on-use equals 8.8 mp5
Cooldown: 1 minute
You can have two of them but they share the cooldown.

I Need More Mana!

[Alchemist's Stone]
A super mana pot, on average, restores 2400 mana. The Alchemist Stone boosts the mana returned by 40% or 960 mana. That's an extra 40 mp5 if you're chain chugging pots. If you drink 1-2 super mana pots during a 10-minute fight, it would restore, 8 mp5 to 16 mp5. However, the advantage is you get extra mana when you need it the most.

[Fathom-Brooch of the Tidewalker] (SSC - Fathom-Lord Karathress)
If it procs every 45 seconds, you get 37 mp5. If it procs once per minute (which is more realistic), you get 28 mp5
Cooldown: 45 seconds

[Figurine - Talasite Owl] (Jewelcrafting) Total of 29 mp5 if used every 5 minutes

Entry-level Trinkets
All these trinkets are available by completing a quest or can be bought once you have enough reputation with a faction.

[Lower City Prayerbook]
The on-use equals 8.8 mp5
Cooldown: 1 minute
You can have two of them but they share the cooldown.

[Xi'ri's Gift]
Equals 46.67 +healing
Cooldown: 1.5 minutes

[Auslese's Light Channeler] (Normal Blood Furnace-Broggok)
Equals 5.97 mp5

[Oshu'gun Relic] (Gava'xi - Nagrand Quest)
Equals 35.5 +healing
Cooldown: 2 minutes

[Heavenly Inspiration] (Success! - Netherstorm Quest)
Equals 40 +healing
Cooldown: 1.5 minutes

[Ancient Draenei Arcane Relic] (Quest)
Equals 28 +healing
Cooldown: 2 minutes (The 1.5 min cooldown on Thottbot and Wowhead is incorrect)


Under the Right Circumstances

[Vial of the Sunwell]
Collects 100 Holy Energy from healing spells you cast. Cannot collect more than 2000 Holy Energy.
Use: Release all accumulated Holy Energy to instantly heal your target by the amount of Holy Energy accumulated
Equip: 15 mp5
Cooldown: 2 min (Increased on PTR from 1 minute)

[Eye of Gruul]
Procs off each jump of chain heal, boosting the proc chance to 6%. If it procs once per minute, it equals 37.5 mp5. It will also proc off Earth Shield charges if you cast it on yourself. You need to make sure that you are in a fight where you are spamming chain heal non-stop. Otherwise, you can easily see the proc rate fall to once every two minutes (18 mp5)

[Fel Reaver's Piston] (The Eye - Void Reaver)
NOTE: 15% chance to proc. Does not scale with plus healing. Each jump of chain heal is another chain to proc. It will also proc off Earth Shield charges if you cast it on yourself.
Cooldown: Can proc as soon as the first HoT finishes

[Pendant of the Violet Eye] (Kara-Aran) http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t9788-pe..._put_good_use/

[Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] (Black Morass) Equals about 32 haste if it procs once per minute
Cooldown: 45 seconds

[Scarab Brooch] (AQ40)

[Battlemaster's Perseverance]
A little extra health can go a long way in some fights

[Ribbon of Sacrifice] (Kara-Opera)
Cooldown: 2 minutes
This can be a nice trinket to use in the later growths on Gruul when all the healers are on the tank or hateful bolt soaker.

For the “On-Use” Challenged
As I said earlier, I highly recommend making a macro that tries to use your trinkets every time you cast Earth Shield. This will boost the healing power of the Earth Shield and ensure you use the trinket every time the cooldown is up. Most shaman cast Earth Shield every 30 seconds to 2 minutes. However, if you won’t listen to good advice, here are some trinkets below that require you to do nothing.

[Rejuvenating Gem] (BWL)
[Shard of the Scale] (Onyxia)


Trinkets Shaman Should Never Use

[Bangle of Endless Blessings]
Cooldown: 2 minutes

[Ashtongue Talisman of Vision]
The proc is based on casting LHW. The trinket would truly shine if it were based on casting Chain Heal instead.

[Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon]

VIII. Raiding

***Under Construction***

Sunwell

Brutallus Grounding totem doesn't work on burn in Brutallus ver. 4 on the PTR

Black Temple

Illidan: Phase 1: After each shadowfiend debuff expires or the parasites die, water shield will proc. Use earth shield during phase 2 for anti-pushback.

Phase 2: If healing one of the flame tanks, one of the few fights in which you willl cast Healing Wave. Otherwise, use Chain Heal. Give tanks Grace of Air and Fire Resistance.

Phase 4: Drop Earthbind near Illidan to slow the Shadow Demons.

Illidari Council: Have a shaman chain heal the tank on Gathios (paladin). The heals should jump to melee DPS who will take damage from his Consecration (2,250 damage every 3 seconds for 21 seconds).

Reliquary of Souls (RoS): Phase 2: Essence of Desire doubles your healing but eventually reduces your mana pool to zero. Earth Shield casters to reduce spell pushback. At the end of Phase 2, cast healing totem and earth shield on yourself, while you still have the aura Essence of Desire so you have them for Phase 3. If you run out of mana before the phase ends, [Totem of the Maelstrom] will allow a shaman to cast HW rank 1 for zero mana.

Gurtogg Bloodboil
Amplify Magic: Use on everyone. His DoT is physical.

Teron Gorefiend: Haste friendly. Fight becomes very healing intensive the last 45-60 seconds.

Supremus: Each time he shifts his gaze, it procs Water Shield.

Naj’entus: Haste friendly
Note: Dampen magic does NOT reduce damage done when the Tidal Shield bursts. Use Amplify Magic on everyone.

Trash (Karabor Sewers): Several mobs will require you to drop poison cleansing totem
Trash (Sanctuary of Shadow): Several mobs will require you to drop poison cleansing totem, including Stalkers and Primalists. Purge the Lightning Shield from Ashtongue Stormcallers.

Mount Hyjal

Archimonde: The boss has an aura or pulse that will cause a charge of Water Shield to be consumed at the start of the fight. This can result in the shaman temporarily getting aggro

Kaz'rogal: Shadow resist gear will help you resist the Mark of Kaz'rogal. It's a short fight that favors gear with +Int rather than mp5.

Azgalor: Shadow resist gear will help you resist his AoE silence.

Tempest Keep
Kael’Thas: Second add (Sanguinar) fears in both Phase 1 and Phase 3. You can interrupt Kael’s fireballs with Earth Shock.

Solarian: Earth Shock: Will not interrupt Arcane missiles. She will sometimes target totems for Arcane missiles so it can be worth dropping all four.

Void Reaver: Stand directly under the boss and spam chain heals on yourself and melee so you don't have to run from orbs.

Trash: Astromancer: The molten armor can be purged
Bloodwarder Squire: Earthshock will interrupt heals
Tempest Falconer: His fire shield can not be purged
Crystalcore Sentinel: His Overcharge (16,000+) can not be interrupted with Earthshock

Serpentshrine Cavern (SSC)

Lady Vashj Grounding totem absorbs Shock Burst. Absolutely crucial for this fight. Shock Burst stuns the main tank, causes him to lose aggro and does 8325-9675 damage. Used in Phases 1 and 3.

Nature Resist: Static Charges do 2,775 to 3,225 nature damage in Phase 1 and 3. Forked Lightening does 2,300-2,600 nature damage in Phase 2. The poison clouds of the Spore Bats in phase 3 are also nature damage.

Earthbind: Slows Coilfang Striders

Tremor: Breaks the fears of the Coilfang Striders

Leotheras Fire Resitance Totem for whoever tanks him in the Demon phase. Save Bloodlust/Heroism for when he hits 15%. If you drop a searing totem during the Whirlwind, a tank can stand next to it since it will probably aggro Leo after the whirlwind is over. Recall your totems prior to the Demon phase to avoid any issues with the Searing Totem aggroing the boss.

Karathress
Earth Shock to interrupt heals Fathom-Guard Caribdis (Priest)
Grounding Totem will absorb the Frost Shocks from Fathom-Guard Tidalvess (Shaman)
One of the few fights where you should not use Amplify Magic.

Morogrim
Grace of Air: Give to tank
Amplify Magic: Put on the main tank. Up to 95% of Morogrim's damage is physical.

Hydross
Nature Resist/Frost Resist: You may need to keep one or both of these down for the tanks, depending on available pally buffs and hunter buffs. Searing Totem: Can cause wipes during the transition. Every transition is a complete aggro wipe.
Dampen Magic: Use on tanks

Trash
Purge: Greyheart Tidecaller of Poison Shield
Purge: Greyheart Nether-Mage of Frost Destruction, Fire Destruction and Arcane Destruction (if mages don't spell steal it first)
Tremor: Vashj'ir Honor Guard

Zul'Aman (ZA)

Zul'Jin: In Phase 3 (Eagle form), pop your trinkets and then drop Healing Stream. During this phase, using any ability that costs mana (such as healing) causes you to take 1250 damage. However, you do not take damage from dropping totems. Your Earth Elemental is immune to teh damage from the tornadoes. Also have any jewel crafters use [Dense Stone Statue].

Hex Lord Malacrass: Shadow resist gear helps. Earth Shield either yourself for 100% protection against spell push back or Earth Shield a DPS caster.
Amplify Magic on the whole group. Dampen magic will not reduce damage from Spirit Bolts.

Halazzi (Lynx): Grounding totem does not absorb anything.

Trash
Amani'shi Flame Caster: Purge their haste buff if a mage doesn't spell steal

Magtheridon
Earth Shock interrupts both the shadow volley and the dark mending (heal) of Hellfire Channelers
Stoneclaw: Will work on Burning Abyssals

Gruul
High King Maulgar: Grounding totem will absorb Kiggler’s (shaman’s) lightening bolt (3,000). Does not absorb Krosh’s (mage’s) Greater Fireballs. Earth Shock interrupts the heals of Blindeye (Priest). Use Tremor once Maulgar gets below 50% health -- he fears.

Gruul
Amplify Magic: Use on entire raid, including the tanks.
Grace of Air: Give to tank

Trash
Tremor: Breaks Psychic Scream (fear) of Gronn-Priest
Earth Shock: Interrupts Heal of Gronn-Priest. They always cast this after they fear.
Purge: Removes renew on Gronn-Priest

Karazhan

Prince: Give the tank Grace of Air since the Prince hits hard and can do burst damage.

Nightbane
Tremor: Will break Bellowing Roar (fear). You can stand at max healing range to avoid it.
Stoneclaw: Works on the skeletons
Earth Elemental: Works on the skeletons
Earthbind: Works on skeletons

Netherspite
Healing Stream: Drop at the end of the portal phase while you still have the +healing buff from the green beam.

Searing Totem: Aggro resets at the end of the banish phase. If a Searing totem was down during the banish phase, Netherspite will attack it and give your tank time to get control of the boss. A Searing Totem can also be dropped before the banish phase and used to tank Netherspite during the banish phase (assuming your raid does no DPS to Netherspite while banished).

Aran
Grounding: Absorbs Aran’s Frostbolts (3500-3400), Fireball (3910-5290) and Arcane Missiles (6300-7700 total) from Aran. Also absorbs water bolts from the Elementals (1000-2000)
Earthshock: Interrupts Aran’s Frostbolts, Fireballs and Arcane Missiles. You can't interrupt his Pyroblast.

Maiden
Grounding: Absorbs Holy Fire
Searing: She will target your searing totem instead of a player. Totem is destroyed. She does not target other totems (such as mana spring, etc.)
PVP trinket: Will not work to break Repentence

Wizard of Oz
Fire Elemental: Extremely effective on Strawman, who gets disoriented after taking fire damage
Searing totem: Will disorient Strawman
Magma: Does not work on Strawman beyond the first pulse
Frost Resist: Dorothee casts Water Bolt (2025-2475)
Tremor: Breaks Dorothee fear
Earth Shock: Will not work on Dorothee’s Water Bolt

Big Bad Wolf
Tremor: Breaks fear (Terrifying Howl)

Romulo and Julianne
Earth Shock: Interrupts her heal (Eternal Affection)
Earth Shock: Inerrupts her stun (powerful attraction). Best one to not interrupt
Earth Shock: Interrupts her holy damage (blinding passion ~6000)
Purge: Removes her Devoation (increased damage)

Remove Poison: Removes his Poisoned Thrust (which stacks)
Purge: Removes his Daring (increased damage)

Moroes
Poison Cleansing: Removes the Blind he casts on a target in melee range. If you are an enhancement shaman and no one else in the raid can remove poison, you MUST have this totem down since he could blind you. Resto and Elemental shamans can stand further away to avoid being blinded. Be quick to remove the poison from the tank because if the off-tank is gouged, he will run rampant on your healers.

Purge: Will remove any buffs cast by the paladins on Moroes

Earthbind: Slows the adds

Earth Shock: Interrupts the Mana Burn of Baronesss Dorothea Millstipe (shadow priest).

Trash

Spectral Stallion (before Attuneman)
Purge: Removes the buff the horse gets from the debuff Absorb Vitality

Spectral Charger (before Attunman)
Tremor: Removes Howl of Terror (fear)
Also note he charges the farthest player so don’t back up too far

Concubine (before Maiden)
Tremor: Breaks her Temptation (seduce)
Please note that the auras of the Wanton Hostess are not purgeable

Skeletal Usher (before opera)
Grounding: Will not Absorb Ice Tomb.

Spectral Performer (before opera)
Grounding: Absorbs Bad Poetry
Tremor: Removes Bad Poetry
Fire Protection: Reduces damage from Curtain Call (2775-3225)

Trapped Soul (before Curator)
Frost Resist: Can resist Cone of Cold attack

IX. Macros

Nature's Swiftness
There is no global cooldown when you activate a trinket so it won’t delay your heal.
13=upper slot trinket
14=lower slot trinket


#showtooltip Nature's Swiftness
/stopcasting
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast Healing Wave(Rank 12)
If you use Clique: change the last line to /cast [target=mouseover] Healing Wave(Rank 12)

Earth shock
This will will stop whatever you are doing and Earth Shock your focus, no matter what you currently have targeted. If you don't have a focus, it will shock your current target. Very helpful in fights where there are multiple mobs the raid is DPSing. Also, if you focus is dead, it will clear your focus.

/stopcasting
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead]
/cast [target=focus,harm,exists] Earth Shock(Rank 1)
/cast Earth Shock(Rank 1)
It shocks your target if it’s hostile. If you’re targeting a friendly target (like the main tank), it will shock their target. This macro is helpful in PVP. I prefer the first macro for raiding because I don’t have to worry about my target switching targets and then I earth shock the wrong mob.


/stopcasting
/cast [harm] Earth Shock; [target=targettarget, harm] Earth Shock(Rank 1)
Purge
If the person you are targeting is an enemy, it will cast purge. If it's friendly (i.e a person you're healing), it will purge their target.


/cast [harm, nodead] [target=targettarget,harm,nodead] Purge
Cure Poison/Disease
There's no way to cast both Cure Poison and Cure Disease with just one key.


#showtooltip [nomodifier]Cure poison
#showtooltip [modifier:shift]Cure Disease
/cast [help,nomodifier] Cure Poison;
/cast [help,modifier:shift] Cure Disease;
/cast [target=player,nomodifier] Cure Poison;
/cast [target=player,modifier:shift] Cure Disease;
Relics
You can swap relics during spell casts to enhance the effect of spells with casting times without invoking the GCD e.g. However, you first need to start casting the spell and then change relics. The spell’s plus healing will be calculated based on when you finish casting, not when you start.


/Cast Chain Heal
/equip Totem of Healing Rains
WARNING: If you immediately cancel the heal, you will have to wait 1.5 seconds before you can cast another spell. Switching the relic will activate the global cooldown.

If you have 5/5 Tidal Focus and the [Totem of the Maelstrom] you can cast Healing Wave Rank 1 and have it cost 0 mana. That means you can regen outside the five-second rule even though you are casting. It also gives you a chance to proc Ancestral Fortitude on your target. As an added bonus, if you have [Fathom-Brooch of the Tidewalker] equipped, the trinket may proc.

Fire & Earth ElementalsThis allows you to easily see the health of your elemental since Blizzard did not see fit to give us a pet bar. You have to click the macro twice to make the Elemental your focus.


/cast Fire Elemental Totem(Rank 1)
/tar Greater Fire Elemental
/focus
Mounts
Will cast your flying mount if you are in outland, cast your ground if you are in Azeroth, and will cast Ghost wolf if you are in combat. It will also show the icon of the mount that will be cast.


#showtooltip
/use [flyable,nomounted,outdoors] Reins of the Azure Netherwing Drake
/use [noflyable,nomounted,outdoors] Horn of the Frostwolf Howler
/cast [combat,nomounted,outdoors] Ghost Wolf
/dismount
X. Mods & Add-ons

Currently, Blizzard provides no in-game way to manage your totems. And putting 20+ of them on your hot bar is a bad idea.

• Call of Elements: Kiki WoW Addons :: Index
  Manages totems but not elemental shields
• TotemTimers
• Gotwood
• Yet Another Totem Addon (YATA): Updated through WowAce

Some other helpful mods:

• Shaman Friend: Audible warnings when an elemental shield expires. Can report a successful purge, interrupt or grounding to party or raid channel
• Clique: Mod to cast heals by mousing over a raid frame and clicking
• ProcWatch: Tracks how often a trinket procs
• Healbot
• Earth Shield Tracker (ES Tracker). Gives a small tracker that shows the remaining number of charges and the time left.

XI. FAQ
1. Which gear is better? X or Y?
2. Should I choose Aldor or Scryer?
3. Does Bloodlust/Heroism reduce the global cooldown?
4. Who should I Earth Shield?
5. How much +healing and mp5 do I need for a heroic or Kara?
6. Can I make a macro to drop four totems at once?
7. Can I make a macro to remove poison and disease with one button?


1. Which gear is better? X or Y?

For a simple comparison, go to Loot Rank. Enter the stat weights for your level that I give in this post. The only items that it won't rank correctly are trinkets and I have a whole section in this post about healing trinkets.

For a more accurate comparision, use Binkenstein's Shamstats at Binkenstein Profile, Binkenstein Details - FileFront.com

Or as a last resort you can use this list: WoW Forums -> GUIDE: Shaman Healing Gear for Raiders III

2. Should I choose Aldor or Scryer?
For the purpose of healing, it makes absolutely no difference. What does matter is that you become exalted with that faction so you have access to the best shoulder enchant.

3. Who should I Earth Shield?

During raids, I have cast my Earth Shield on every single class. Normally, I put it on a tank or off-tank who will take constant damage. However, sometimes the tank is getting so many heals that it’s more effective to use it on another player. And remember it will give casters an additional 30% chance to ignore spell interruption. I often Earth Shield mages and warlocks when they AOE trash. I sometimes use it on a hunter who will be kiting mobs out of range of healers. And sometimes I put it on myself or another healer when we pull aggro on trash.

Casters: Moonkin, Elemental Shaman and Shadow Priests have no talents to prevent spell pushback, which can sharply reduce their DPS in some fights. They will benefit the most from Earth Shield to boost DPS. Arcane and fire mages have talents to give them 70% resistance. Mages will have 100% spell pushback resistance on frost and fire spells with two pieces of T4. Destruction warlocks have 70% resistance with talents. Elemental shaman with four pieces of Season 3 arena gear (Vengeful Gladiator) get 70% resistance on lightning bolts.

Tanks: All paladins have a passive ability called Spiritual Attunement that restores mana equal to 10% of the healing they receive. Since Patch 2.1.0, they have received mana back from the healing done by Earth Shield (and Prayer of Mending). Each point of mana restored generates 0.5 threat.

4. How much +healing and mp5 should I have?

It depends on the make-up of your group. How many healers do you have? How fast do you usually kill a boss? Here are some (unbuffed) ranges:

Pre-Kara
Health 5000-6000
Mana: 7000-8000
Mp5 while casting: 115-145
Healing: 1200-1500

Tier 4
Health: 7000-7800
Mana: 8500-9600
Mp5 while casting: 125-150
Healing: 1750-2000

Tier 5
Health: 7500-8200
Mana: 9000-10,000
Mp5: 150-200
Healing: 1900-2100

Tier 6
Health: 8500-8700
Mana: 9500-10,500
Mp5: 150-300
Healing: 2000-2300
Haste: 0-200


5. Can I make a macro to drop four totems at once?
No. You can click one button four times and it will go through a cast sequence and drop four different totems.

6. Can I make a macro to remove poison and disease with one button?
No. You can bind poison to one key and use a modify to make that same key when used with shift, control, alt remove disease (see Macro section).

7. Do Healing Stream and Mana Stream stack? What about…
Healing: Yes
Mana: No
Mana Spring stacks with the Paladin’s Blessing of Wisdom
Tranquil Air stacks with the Paladin’s Blessing of Salvation (total of 44% threat reduction)
Healing Focus' spell interruption protection of 70% stacks with the Paladin's Aura of Concentration (35%) to provide 100% spell pushback protection (105% technically). This is one of the few mechanics in the game that is additive rather than multiplicative.

8. How do I heal in the arena and battlegrounds?
There's a good discussion here: [shaman] Resto questions

XII. Healing Theorycraft (Warning: Math Ahead)

Chain Heal (CH)
This is our signature heal and the one that all the other healing classes wish they had. After healing the initial target, the healing effect will jump to the most damaged target (by absolute health) within range. Each jump reduces the healing done by 50%. The jump range of the spell is approximately 10-15 yards. If there are no targets in range below 100% it will not jump. The heal can jump back to the shaman if they have taken damage.

Chain heal can crit on any (or all) of the three jumps. However, the healing done to the next target is based on the non-crit healing done. Crits from chain heal will proc Ancestral Fortitude.

There is a known bug with Chain Heal. If Chain Heal jumps back to you on its first jump (the second heal), it will not jump to a third target. It is sometimes better to target yourself for the first heal to make sure it jumps to two other targets.

Many trinkets will proc based on a “direct healing spells.” Each jump of chain heal is considered a direct heal. A trinket such as [Fel Reaver's Piston] or [Eye of Gruul] can proc on any jump of chain heal. However, the Fel Reaver’s heal over time will appear on just one person, not all three.

Other trinkets proc based on “each spell cast.” In those cases, the jumps do not count as separate spells. For example, [Pendant of the Violet Eye]

In many raids chain heal will represent 50-90% of all your healing.

It receives the following bonuses from +healing gear:

71% + 36% + 18% = 125% with no talents
94% + 47% + 24% = 165% with Purification (+10%) and Improved Chain Heal (+20%)

Many shaman downrank Chain Heal to Rank 4 (and sometimes even Rank 3). Rank 4 gets the full benefit of your plus healing since it is learned at level 61 and is not subject to the down ranking penalty. By using Rank 4, you reduce your mana costs by 19% but lose only 10% of your healing power.

Downranking is using a lower level of a spell to reduce overhealing and improve mana efficiency. To calculate the downrank penalty:

Level at which the next rank is learned +5/70 or
Level before next spell is learned +6/70

For spells learned before Level 20 there is an additional penalty:
Penalty = (20-Level Spell is Learned) * 0.0375



Cast Mana Avg.Heal per jump Healing/Mana
Time #1 #2 #3 #1 #2 #3
Rank 1 2.5 247 1762 2643 3084 7.1 10.7 12.5
Rank 2 2.5 299.25 2074 3111 3629 6.9 10.4 12.1
Rank 3 2.5 384.75 2456 3684 4299 6.4 9.6 11.2
Rank 4 2.5 413.25 2635 3952 4610 6.4 9.6 11.2
Rank 5 2.5 513 2946 4419 5156 5.7 8.6 10.0
CREDIT: Daidalos
NOTE: +1800 Healing with talents and relic

Healing Wave
This is our big heal but it takes 2.5 seconds to cast (3.0 seconds without talents). It receives 86% of our plus healing, which is not reduced by talents to shorten cast time. And by stacking Healing Way we can boost its healing by another 18%. Shaman often start casting this heal and then cancel if the tank is not taking damage

You can spam Rank 1 to proc Ancestral Fortitude and stack Healing Way either before a pull or during a fight.

Shaman often use Rank 8 as well as Rank 12.


Cast Mana Avg Heal Heal/mana
Time Cost HWx3 HWx3
Rank 1 1 23.75 176 208 7.4 8.8
Rank 2 1.5 42.75 353 416 8.3 9.7
Rank 3 2 76 621 733 8.2 9.6
Rank 4 2.5 147.25 1024 1209 7.0 8.2
Rank 5 2.5 190 1346 1588 7.1 8.4
Rank 6 2.5 251.75 1728 2039 6.9 8.1
Rank 7 2.5 323 2162 2551 6.7 7.9
Rank 8 2.5 418 2680 3163 6.4 7.6
Rank 9 2.5 532 3184 3757 6.0 7.1
Rank 10 2.5 589 3557 4197 6.0 7.1
Rank 11 2.5 622.25 3729 4400 6.0 7.1
Rank 12 2.5 684 4211 4969 6.2 7.3
CREDIT: Daidalos
NOTE: +1800 Healing with talents. HW=Healing Way

Lesser Healing Wave (LHW)
Many shaman make the mistake of making LHW their primary heal. However, it has a high mana cost and gets little benefit from your healing gear (only 43%). It also doesn’t stack Healing Way. You are not a Paladin and LHW is not Flash of Light.

It’s best used when time is of the essence and you don’t have an extra second to cast Chain Heal or Healing Wave. Tauren shaman often war stomp and then cast LHW. Shamans do not typically downrank this spell.


Cast Mana Avg. Heal/mana
Time Cost Heal
Rank 1 1.5 99.75 609 6.1
Rank 2 1.5 137.75 809 5.9
Rank 3 1.5 175.75 1015 5.8
Rank 4 1.5 223.25 1256 5.6
Rank 5 1.5 289.75 1557 5.4
Rank 6 1.5 361 1859 5.2
Rank 7 1.5 418 2109 5.0
It might seem like a waste to use Chain Heal for a single target taking damage but it’s actually more efficient than LHW. Plus, there’s always the chance that someone else in range will take damage and the spell will jump.


Mana Avg. Heal/mana
Heal

Chain Heal 4 (1 target) 413 2635 6.38
Lesser Healing Wave 7 418 2072 4.96
NOTE: With +1800 healing and CH relic

Earth Shield

NOTE: Earth Shield will be reduced to 6 charges in Patch 2.4 but the mana cost has been reduced 50%

Many consider this the shaman’s version of a heal over time. It will last about 30-60 seconds on a player taking constant damage. It receives 30% of your +healing per charge. The healing co-efficient will not change in Patch 2.4.

The +healing is based on gear at the time cast, not when it procs. Therefore, you can put down Wrath of Air and use two trinkets to supercharge the Earth Shield before a pull. Note that Earth Shields cast on others do not get the benefit of your Purification talent and will heal for 10% less

The healing is attributed to the person on whom the shield is cast. While this hurts you on the healing meter, it’s a tremendous benefit for a warrior or druid tank. Each point of damage healed will generate 0.725 threat against all mobs.

Healing Stream Totem
It gets 6% of your +healing per tick if you have 5/5 in Restorative totems and Purification. Otherwise, it receives 4.4% per tick. It’s a weak AOE heal. It can be a good choice if you are in a melee group and you have enough mana without mana spring. It can also be a good totem to drop right before a boss does a stun or raid-wide damage. However, once everyone is healed up, you’ll probably want to drop Mana Spring again.

If there are multiple shaman in a party, their healing streams can stack. Like Earth shield, the bonus healing is applied at the time the totem is dropped. You can therefore drop Wrath of Air and pop trinkets to maximize the effect.

Gift of the Naaru (Draenei racial)

Heals (Level * 15 + 35) damage over 15 sec. or 1085 damage at level 70, before factoring in +healing.
-Ticks 5 times, once every 3 seconds. Heals 217 damage a tick. (once again, before +healing)
-Receives 100% of your +healing over the 15 second duration.
-Costs no mana, and can be used to get out of the FSR for full mana regen.
-Counts as a holy spell, and can be used while locked out of the nature school. As a holy spell, it cannot be made instant by Nature's Swiftness.
-Gains no benefit from Purification or Healing Focus.
-As a HoT, it cannot crit, and thus cannot proc Ancestral Healing.

Berserking (Troll racial)
6% of base Mana
Instant cast (doesn’t trigger the GCD)
Cooldown: 3 min

Increases your casting and attack speed by 10% to 30%. At full health the speed increase is 10% with a greater effect up to 30% if you are badly hurt (below 50%) when you activate Berserking. Lasts 10 sec.

Do not wait until you are low on health to use this ability. It’s a good idea to use any trinkets you might have at the same time.

13=upper trinket slot
14=lower trinket slot


/use 13
/use 14
/cast Berserking
Overall Comparison
Chain Heal is the shaman’s most efficient heal, even when it doesn’t hit all three targets.


Mana Avg. Heal/mana
Heal
Chain Heal 4 (3 target) 413 4610 11.16
Chain Heal 5 (3 target) 513 5156 10.05
Chain Heal 4 (2 target) 413 3952 9.56
Earth Shield 3 (10 charges) 900 8100 9.00
Chain Heal 5 (2 target) 513 4419 8.61
Healing Wave 08 (3 healing way) 418 3163 7.57
Healing Wave 12 (3 healing way) 684 4969 7.26
Chain Heal 4 (1 target) 413 2635 6.38
Healing Wave 08 418 2680 6.41
Healing Wave 12 684 4211 6.16
Healing Wave 10 589 3557 6.04
Healing Wave 09 532 3184 5.99
Healing Wave 11 622 3729 5.99
Chain Heal 5 (1 target) 513 2946 5.74
Lesser Healing Wave 6 361 1822 5.05
Lesser Healing Wave 7 418 2072 4.96
CREDIT: Daidalos

And Chain Heal gets even better when you get the Tier 6 set bonuses.

Mana Avg. Heal/mana
Heal
Chain Heal 4 (3 target) 4pc t6 372 4841 13.02
Chain Heal 4 (3 target) 2pc t6 372 4610 12.40
Chain Heal 5 (3 target) 4pc t6 462 5413 11.72
Chain Heal 4 (2 target) 4pc t6 372 4149 11.16
Chain Heal 4 (3 target) 413 4610 11.16
Chain Heal 5 (3 target) 2pc t6 462 5156 11.17
Chain Heal 4 (2 target) 2pc t6 372 3952 10.63
Chain Heal 5 (2 target) 4pc t6 462 4640 10.05
Chain Heal 5 (3 target) 513 5156 10.05
Chain Heal 4 (2 target) 413 3952 9.56
Chain Heal 5 (2 targets) 2pc t6 462 4419 9.57
Earth Shield 3 (10 charges) 900 8100 9.00
Chain Heal 5 (2 target) 513 4419 8.61
Healing Wave 08 (3 healing way) 418 3163 7.57
Chain Heal 4 (1 target) 4pc t6 372 2766 7.44
Chain Heal 4 (1 target) 2pc t6 372 2635 7.08
Healing Wave 12 (3 healing way) 684 4969 7.26
Chain Heal 5 (1 target) 4 pc t6 462 3093 6.70
Chain Heal 4 (1 target) 413 2635 6.38
Healing Wave 08 418 2680 6.41
Chain Heal 5 (1 target) 2 pc t6 462 2946 6.38
Healing Wave 12 684 4211 6.16
Healing Wave 10 589 3557 6.04
Healing Wave 09 532 3184 5.99
Healing Wave 11 622 3729 5.99
Chain Heal 5 (1 target) 513 2946 5.74
CREDIT: Daidalos
Using 1800 +healing

How to Calculate +Healing

* Calculate spell time using the base spell cast time before talents and gear
* Spells that take longer than 3.5 seconds are treated as if their casting time was 3.5 seconds, and spells faster than 1.5 seconds are treated as if their casting time was 1.5 seconds.
* Damage and healing benefits from gear are applied before any talents or buffs that may otherwise increase your healing.

To calculate the downrank penalty:

Level at which the next rank is learned +5/70 or
Level before next spell is learned +6/70

For spells learned before Level 20 there is an additional penalty:
Penalty = (20-Level Spell is Learned) * 0.0375

For example: You have 1500 +healing and talents for Purification and Healing Way. You also have the relic [Totem of Spontaneous Regrowth]. We'll assume that Healing Way is already stacked three times. The base healing of Rank 12 Healing Wave is 2,285.

Healing = (2285 + (158(3/3.5))*1.1*1.18

[Edmutt]

oh god, you killed my scrolling finger :O!

[Zonagle]

oh god, you killed my scrolling finger :O!

Wall of text crits you for over 9000!

[ajs180684]

Here's an idea

Guide to (Insert Class) (Insert Spec) -> Link to EJ forums

[Selkiess]

Tier 5
Health: 7500-8200
Mana: 9000-10,000
Mp5: 150-200
Healing: 1900-2100

Might not be completely true... I have that with karazhan off set epics and helmet from zul aman.

[Zonagle]

Tier 5
Health: 7500-8200
Mana: 9000-10,000
Mp5: 150-200
Healing: 1900-2100

Might not be completely true... I have that with karazhan off set epics and helmet from zul aman.

I raid as a Resto Shaman, who clears BT. I don't mean any offense, but I don't see you having 1900+ healing, 150mp5 while casting, and 10,000 mana. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong? Even though I clear BT, I still use some Karazhan loot, that's true, but I also have items from BT/Hyjal/SSC/TK. I'm sitting at about 11900 mana, 202mp5 while casting, 2000 healing, and 8500hp.

[CodeNameIsSanta]

longest thread ever?

[xsx]

WALL OF TEXT but anyways nice guide ... ^&^

[careordietrying]

This is very usefull, thank you for this great guide!

[hueols]

Great job on the very thorough thread! i have played on my friends full t6 shaman and i have to say, chain heal is by farm the most effective (and fun) heal in the game, imo.

[ShamanGod]

longest thread ever?

i loled.......