I dinged a resto druid yesterday (got it to level 70). By 365 I was comfortably and effortlessly able to do the same healing on it that would be a huge struggle on the shaman @ 390 ilvl.
We need more throughput, without cloudburst we’d be totally useless. Chain heal needs to be much higher so its bursty at the cost of mana. I think the primary target heals for 16-17k? Wtf is that thats not even 10% of a tanks hit points.
Rotational Issues (Mythic+)
Mythic+ is a shambles. We need a viable Mythic+ build that pumps for the huge AoE healing required. A Resto druid with all hots up and activating Flourish does insane healing. That’s what we need. Quick burst. A chain heal build would do that. As well as buffing Primordial wave to make it burstier.
At the moment its just spam healing wave and riptide because chain heal is useless (even with all talents put into chain heal build, its atrocious at the moment). Healing wave and riptide are the only things that we can do. Even during massive AoE damage in dungeons the only thing we can do… healing wave and riptide.
Healing surge doesn’t cover the damage fast enough, its heal is so low it doesn’t get used in M+. Chain heal relies on people being stacked but also heals for pitiful amounts anyway so it just doesn’t justify the mana cost, especially on Tyrannical.
Even primordial wave isn’t punchy enough, a good cast with all procs and buffs lined up does 12-15% of parties HP. And the procs and buffs are part of the problem. To get a good cast off, it takes a lot of effort to line up various talents, procs and buffs. Other classes don’t have this kind of issue.
Resto Image/Reputation
This is such a good expansion but kind of spoiled for me personally because I keep jumping between specs or going Enhance which I dont want to do because nobody invites resto shamans. Even for keys that are below what i’ve already timed. If anyone sees a shaman - that it’s, you’re getting ignored for 5 minutes or declined. It’s so hard right now, it’s just rubbish. Seeing other classes have such a good time and then Shamans just… yeah. Not cool. Buff shamans or the community will always look at them as useless and not invite.
Raids
Raid gameplay is fantastic btw. Numbers are a little low, but game play is amazing - huge range of abilities and synergies that work really well. Sure if the raid isn’t stacked properly we suffer that thats just in inherent weakness of the spec. Can’t be good at everything (even though some healing specs are).
Suggestions
Mythic+ is clearly our weak point, but we’re lacking in other content too. The less targets we have to heal, the worse the spec plays (gameplay) and performs (throughput).
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Giving the spec a blanket 5-10% healing increase, at least for PvE. Given the current state of the spec and lack of throughput in Mythic+ and Raids, this seems like a given.
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Chain Heal gets buffed massively (50% or more) when in a group of 5 people or less (Like the Healing Tide and Tranquility modifier), and give shamans the option to use a Chain Heal oriented M+ build that pumps like other specs can.
2a) Additionally, buff the High Tide talent to increase Chain Heal healing by 25%, not the pitiful 10% it is now. This makes it punchy in both Mythic+ and Raid content with the above change. *We need a QUICK, REACTIVE healing alternative with little setup, and less reliance on Cloudburst in M+.* 2b) Rework the Flow of the Tides talent. Nobody takes it. Ever. Rework so casting Chain Heal will instantly recast another Chain Heal at 10% effectiveness per active Riptide. *2bii) Maybe have this duplicated chain heal flow the opposite direction to the initial cast? Or in raids, on another random target? Or maybe the duplicate cast branches off from one of the original targets? Either way - duplicate based on active riptides.* 2c) Rework Ancestral Reach talent. Add double the jump range (15 > 30yds) to it. It's kind of in the name of the talent. Nice talent for both Mythic+ and Raids. 2d) Remove Nature's Focus or Buff to 50%. Not really worth a talent at all. I was going to suggest a rework to apply a Riptide but that's too much, so I'm not sure what else to suggest for this one. A completely new talent?
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Buffing the Improved Primordial Wave talent to 15/30% and removing the Healing Wave spell reduction thats baked into the spell. Just have it cast a full Healing Wave on all targets, no strings attached. We set up our riptides, anticipate the incoming damage and then use PWave to good effect.
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Cap Riptide to 5 targets and bake in the Undercurrent talent into the spec. Usually we can’t really get more than 5 or 6 anyway, and it helps to keep all the above changes in check.