I wish I knew then what I know now...

Post by greywolfsage

So, I'm trying to gear up my shaman to heal, did alright with him in WotLK. Nothing progression really, but the one night I was healing beside a really superb Bubble Priest might have been the most fun I've had playing. It was definitely one of the most challenging nights for me. (10 ICC through to Dreamwalker, where the other shaman went resto for dragon healing.)

So at the moment, I'm deepsing my way through heroic grinding to get the gear, then go back down and practice, heh.

But I've always felt like a weak healer, and I was wondering if you folk have any tips, tricks, advice, or anything that has basically come in handy, especially with respect to how cata changed things in relation to WotLK.

*Side Note*:
One question that has been bugging me is that I deeps as Ele, main is a mage, and I wonder why everyone says Unleash Flame isn't worth it because the damage is too low, but to be honest, it wasn't until like a week ago that I even noticed it dealt its own damage. I just used it for the Flame Spell buff, but no one, even EJ, seems to address that particular part of the ability, except for the note down in movement sections to maybe use it prior to a refresh on Flame Shock.

Post by brrobid

I'm main spec Ele, but have to heal as well. I've finally made the jump to healing heroics (by dps'ing heroics to gear up). And yes, I feel like a weak healer too, always needing to over-gear content (that I could be undergeared to dps in).

1) Spirit. I always seemed to go OOM in Reg 5man boss fights. I reforged to increase my spirit. Over 2K seems to be better for me.

2) Most fights, just keep the dps alive .. not topped off. Know the fights though, there's some that require everyone to be topped off (or at least over a certain level). I try to keep my tanks topped off, as much as possible. Never let a tank (or yourself) die while casting a heal on a dps.

3) Learn the "Combos":
Riptide tank, Healing Rain on boss, Unleash Tank, Chain heal tank. This can provide good healing on the tank, and a nice topper to melee.

(Crit heavy stats): Riptide tank, Healing Surge, Healing Surge (numerous chances at getting passive smart-heals tossed around).

(Haste/Mastery heavy stats): Insta-Heal, Riptide, GHW, GHW (massive single target healing burst) Insta-Heal = macro (Nature's Swiftness + GHW).

4) Keep riptide rolling, especially on melee/tank. It's a relatively cheap heal, nice HoT to complement your healing stream totem and healing rain. And ensures Tidal Waves is always proc'd.

5) Always remember, tanks stand in fire too. If you just topped them off, and are casting heal on a dps, and they die ... not your fault (happens to me, I just mention seeing their bar drop like a rock, and they're usually pretty quiet).

6) Use a party/raid frame addon suited for healing (Healbot, Vuhdo, etc). Get Decursive, and keep it separate. It provides a clear marker that someone is in need of cleansing/decursing/whatever. These are high priority, as a simple cleanse is often more valuable than healing them later.

As far as Elemental and Unleash Elements goes. If you read deep enough (yes, it's on EJ too), you'll see them explain that the damage+buff from UE does not compensate for simply casting another Lightning Bolt. Even taking into account that UE is instant and only costs a single GCD, while LB's cast time costs about 1.5 GCDs.

Even in movement scenarios, it's a low priority spell, and should only be used if you're still moving after making sure your flame shock and fire totems are fresh and your shock is on CD. And if you had to move that much, Spiritwalker's Grace should be on CD as well.

It's nice in theory, but in reality, it's just weak.

Post by greywolfsage

Secondary Spell Section:

This spell causes a small amount of fire damage and (when talented) increases the damage of the next fire spell cast by 30%. Since the direct damage portion of this spell deals such a small amount of damage, it is not typically worth casting while stationary.

Movement Section:

Cast Unleash Elements or recast a shock spell. Get in the habit of casting something while moving, as it's one of the only things you can do. Movement is when Unleash Elements is best used, especially if Flame Shock will need to be recast soon or LvB is coming off cooldown.

But I fail to see anywhere about the buff to damage being good or not good, just the light hit it does on cast. Also hasn't been changed to reflect the 20% that my tooltip reads now, unless i missed a post buffing it.

Post by brrobid

Elemental Discussion on EJ, New Abilities section:

When should I cast Unleash Elements, and what does it affect?
Unleash Flame, the Flametongue-based attack from Unleash Elements, does a nominal amount of damage and boosts the next Fire spell you cast by 30%. UE's single-target damage is pretty low right now, so it's generally not worth it to cast if you're standing still (or using Spiritwalker's Grace). Instead it can be used while moving to reduce the impact that movement has on our DPS (and without triggering a Shock cooldown).

Should be enough to get the point across (file was edited on Feb 21, 2011) as of this copy.

However, early on (when the OP was originally being written), there was significant discussion of the topic. This pretty much dominates the first several posts of the thread (on the first page), and the OP author responds to a commenter with this:

Echoing what others have said here in that casting mechanics just do not work this way. In addition, whether you realize this or not, UE does in fact incur a GCD when cast, which at this point is not a DPS increase over using a LB in its place. As mentioned in the FAQ, it's useful for movement since it does not trigger a shock cooldown (and will boost a FS or LvB cast soon after, thus mitigating the loss of DPS from movement), but unless its single target damage is buffed considerably and its scaling issues are addressed, LB beats it out and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Further responses on the topic (on later pages) further address the full ramifications, and why the OP author is correct.

Why the tool tip and the EJ faq differ on the boost value (20% vs 30%), I have no idea. However, the faq was written assuming the larger buff. If that wasn't good enough to warrant consideration in a standing rotation, certainly the smaller buff mentioned in the tooltip won't change any advice on the subject.

Post by Evzal

I just gotta point out that remember that cata involves co-op from every member. If the dps fails, its not ur fault. If the tank fails it aint ur fault. If you cant heal a tank which stands correctly and dodge nasty spells and you cant heal dps that dont stand in fire etc. Its ur fault :P

Riptide should always be used on cd`s. Doesnt matter if u overheal. It procs watershield = win.

So basiclly, Earthshield, riptide, healing wave x2, riptide etc. Use chain heals if the dps gets some extra dmg, Healing rain in mass aoe runs =)

I wish I knew then what I know now...

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