So, my shaman Larue dinged 70 recently and have been trying out the Resto way for a little while. I have been healing mostly on my priest and a little dabbling on the side in the druid way of healing while still specced feral. In short, I have healed very little on my shaman, and while there are many similarities to the priestly way of doing it, there are also differences and it takes some getting used to.
A brief spell comparison
(Casts times with talents, mana costs without talents, healing amount without heal bonuses, spells or effects from set bonuses, trinkets and similar not included)
Slow large heal
Priests have Greater Heal, 2,5 secs cast, 825 mana, heals for about 2550, while shamans have a similar ability, Healing Wave, 2.5 secs cast, 720 mana, heals for about 2300.
Faster smaller heal
Flash Heal for priests, 1.5 secs cast, 470 mana, heals for about 1200. Lesser Healing Wave for shamans, 1.5 secs cast, 440 mana, heals for about 1100, so not much difference here either.
HoTs
Priests have Renew, instant cast, 450 mana, ticks for 222 heals every 3 seconds (about 255 with Improved Renew)
A draenei shaman has the racial ability Gift of the Naaru, which has a 1.5 secs cast, costs no mana and heals for (your level * 15 + 35) damage in total over 15 secs, which for a level 70 character means 217 heal every 3 seconds. This spell has a 3 min cd, which makes it marginally useful unless you have some way of remembering that its cd is up and its available for use.
Shamans also have Healing Stream totems, which can be considered a form of HoT as long as the group members stay in range of it (within 30 yards if the shaman has the talent Totemic Mastery). The Healing Stream costs 90 mana to pop and heals 18 damage (23 with Restorative Totems) every 2 seconds for 2 minutes. (Its not as low as it seems, Larue's current heal bonus of 931 makes this totem heal 81 damage every 2 seconds.)However, this totem can't be used at the same time as Mana Spring totem though, they both use the water totem.
Group heals
Priests have Prayer of Healing and (if specced for it) Circle of Healing. PoH has a cast time of 2.5 secs, heals group members within 30 yards of the priest for about 1000 and costs 1070 mana. CoH is instant, heals the target and group members within 15 yards of her (not the casting priest) for about 430 and costs 450 mana.
Shamans have Chain Heal, their white lazer beam heal with a 2.5 secs cast that heals up to three targets for about 900, 450 and 225 respectively (1080, 540 and 275 with Improved Chain heal) for a cost of 540 mana.
On-damage heals
Priests have Prayer of Mending, an instant spell that for 390 mana throws a frisbee to her target. When the target takes damage the frisbee heals her for 800 damage and then jumps to another group member within 20 yards.
Shamans place an instant cast Earth Shield on their target. The shield is instant cast, costs 450 mana and stays on the target with 6 charges that heals for 270 every time the target gets hit.
Oh-shit heals
When that oh-shit moment turns up, a priest pops a Power Word: Shield on the target, quickly followed by a Flash Heal or if time permits, a Greater Heal.
When a shaman needs an emergency heal, she pops Nature's Blessing, followed by presumably a Healing Wave.
Aggro dumps
A priest has Fade, which drops her aggro level for 10 seconds, and by the time Fade fades, someone else usually has worked up enough aggro to keep the mob from going for the priest again.
A shaman has a Tranquil Air totem that she can pop. However, since this affects the entire group within range (30 yards if you have the talent Totemic Mastery) it's usefulness is very limited.
Luckily, since a shaman can wear mail she usually can take a little beating before she goes down, which hopefully gives the tank or other enough time to re-establish aggro. (As a comparison, my freshly dinged shaman in greens and blues has 7200 armor whilme my epicced-out priest has 1500).
Mana preservation and regeneration
Mana regeneration for both priests and shamans at lvl 70 are calculated in the same way. Priests have a talent, Meditation, that allows 30% of this mana regeneration to keep going while they cast. Shamans have a somewhat similar talent, Unrelenting Storm, but this is deep in the Elemental tree and out of reach for a Resto shaman.
Priests have the talent Inner Focus that gives you a free spell cast every three minutes, and also a talent Holy Concentration that may give you another freebie.
A talent in the Discipline tree, Divine Spirit, also gives a buff that improves the priest's Spirit-based mana regeneration, and the Improved version also increases the healing bonus. (This talent requires at least 21 points (23 for the Improved version) so if you choose this one you can't have the Circle of Healing from the Holy tree)
Priests also have a Shadowfiend, a pet on a 5 minute cooldown that gives the priest mana back when the pet deals damage.
Shamans have no talents for mana-free spellcasts but they have a Mana Spring totem, that for a measly 120 mana pops a totem that with Restorative Totems will replenish 2800 mana for the 2 minutes its up.
Resto shamans also get the Mana Tide totem, which has a 5 minute cd like the Shadowfiend and gives mana back to all group members withing range.
Cleansing
Priests can Cure Disease and Abolish Disease (for those nasty mobs that keep contaminating people), they can Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel (extra powahful area dispell)
Shamans can Cure Disease and pop a Disease Cleansing Totem when hanging around unwashed mobs crawling with germs. They can also Purge mobs, but can't dispel magic effects from friends. They can however Cure Poison and use Poison Cleansing Totems.
Fun-ness
I have been healing on my priest for so long now I can probably do it in my sleep (but don't tell my fellow raiders I do this! ;P) and I still enjoy it. There are certainly still things to learn and ways to improve, but overall I am pretty happy with my priest at the moment. I will not bring her to Karazhan anymore because that probably would make me fall asleep, although she still could use some of the drops in there I have been there too many times to find it even remotely fun on my priest. I save the ZA and 25-man runs for Jools, that is where I enjoy playing her the most.
Shaman healins is not yet as instinctive but it's novel and fresh and although there are many similarities it is different enough to be interesting, and I am really looking forward to honing her skills and abilities in normal and heroic 5-mans and it would be great fun to take her to Karazhan.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Shaman vs priest healing
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Learning shaman
Like everyone else who usually plays Alliance I started a draenei shaman when TBC came out. She got to lvl 10 and there she hibernated for a long time.
I pulled hero ut of hibernation some weeks ago and now she has reached the mature level of 36. Shaman is a pretty interesting but rather confusing class to play so far, not like any of the other classes I have played (and as you know, I have played a few).
As I leveled her, I encountered many hmm- and wtf-situations, most of the regarding totems. Totems, totems, totems…
Having never really even played with a shaman except very recently at lvl 70 these took a while to get used to, and their special attributes took even longer.
Searing totem – fires a firebolt at the enemy. Sounds good, doesn’t it? I learned the hard way that ”the enemy” is not always the same mob you have targeted for a lightning bolt that already happen to be sizzling through the air… The last thing you want to do when trying to single-pull some orange mob is another orange mob running to you and beating your fragile but hostile totem to pulp and then turning its unwelcome attentions to you.
Even if you drop the searing totem after you have pulled it might misfire (pun intended ;P). You are sitting there peacefully by the body of a dead mob drinking your way back from low to full mana when some other mob passes in range of your totem who merrily starts firing away. Yippie!
Another interesting thing about totems is that if you prepare for a fight by placing yourself somewhere along the path of the mob you want to pull and start setting up totems – stoneskin perhaps, and a mana spring maybe - occasionally the totem itself will aggro the mob which will charge in and destroy it, and then look for the totem’s owner.
I guess the totem happened to be placed inside the mobs aggro radius, but I wonder if totems have the same aggro range as the shaman, or if maybe even different totems have different aggro ranges. Stoneskin totem at least seemed to be very affronting to mobs.
And let’s not forget that you don’t get the skill to recall the totems until level 30. Before that level, you had to leave your totems behind to die on their own. This resulted in many wtf’s as you are in a place clearly devoid of any hostile agents but still you see the red ”Entering Combat” text float up without being targeted by someone/something. Wtf? But of course, its that sweet little totem of yours far behind you that has aggroed some mob. Coincidentally, its that same mob which now is charging towards you, intent on striking you down.
Shaman must be somewhat of a master of fight planning, since totems have a limited range for their abilities. Cheap mana-saver that you are, of course you don’t want to waste mana by popping totems all over the place, or waste time when you are fighting actually popping them, so you try to stay in the general area of your totems, pulling mobs to you rather than running after them in some haphazard way. ”Ah, this looks like a great spot for taking down a few of those wandering treants. In firing range to at least 3-4 of them, which should be enough to get maximum use of my totems.”
I am a slow learner so I am still figuring out which totems to use and when, and how useful they really are. I suspect that I will be a little less uncertain about these things some months after I ding 70 ;P
Last of my hmm-thoughts about the shaman class is: what the hell is she supposed to wear? (Yes I know I ask this a lot, maybe its in the female psyche or something…I have nothing to wear! Better go out shopping then!...)
She needs intellect for her mana since she uses totems and cast spells, she needs agility and strenght since she whacks the mobs over the head when they get too close, she needs stamina to be able to withstand the mobs whacking on her, she needs bascially everything!
Maybe it will get easier as she levels up and get more specialised, but for now she looks like a hopscotch of assorted hand-me-downs…
