Blizzard, can we get some insight on current state of Resto Shaman? It's performing so badly at the moment

[Zeragon-silvermoon]

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).

1. 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.

2. 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?
   

3. 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.

4. 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.

[Hextech-amanthul]

other options:
buff earth living weapon and riptide hot in 5 man by massive amounts as it ticks for not even 2k

healing stream totem is garbage even after the big buffs.

first and foremost the need to get rid of the healing modifiers and make it into the baseline spell.
25% from hst
15% from 2 flame shocks
30% on selfheal

without the 25% from hst and then only 3 stacks, heals are just so bad

single target heals are often used in m+ for aoe dmg but most of them are healing triple the amount of shamans.
except hpals which heals are also trash but word of glory and wings just tops the whole group at least

[Delanai-lightbringer]

Where a ST (surge) in SL used to heal someone to full in 1 go, now it feels like 25% of what it used to do, it’s just really low.

Take holy priest, their healing is really good. As shaman I don’t even have time to do dmg, since I heal all the time.

There’s also something wrong with chain heal, I know nobody is using high tide, but I used to in BFA, SL. It used to be really good, but now it’s just a waste of talent points.

[Hextech-amanthul]

well the issue is that high tide does nothing. a 10% buff to chainheal is like 2k heal …
it is also stupid because resto need to pick so many dmg talents that your healing suffers even further… but taking the healing talents is also wasted as they barely do anything useful.

i found downpour to be quite nice but often useless if people too spread. and we have lots of spells like that…
at this point shaman is only playable if you have a full range or full melee team. mixed teams feel awful to heal

[Delanai-lightbringer]

Before it was 20%, but the part that should make it different from a normal chain heal, is that it doesn’t loose its healing with each jump. And THAT part, I don’t really see, or chain heal is already weaker than it was.

In SL, it performed WAY better than now, now it’s a DEAD talent . And unlike most shamans, I can share that experience, since I have actually been using it a lot

[Healonaut-ravencrest]

the last drop for me was when a 372 ilvl druid with blue heroic gear, no sockets, no enchants and a silly talent build was doing equal or better healing with little effort vs a 392 ilvl shaman, fully enchanted, socketed etc.

It makes 0 sense having less output than someone with 20 less ilvls than you and nothing invested in their gear…

[Zeragor-silvermoon]

"the last drop for me was when a 372 ilvl druid with blue heroic gear, no sockets, no enchants and a silly talent build was doing equal or better healing with little effort vs a 392 ilvl shaman, fully enchanted, socketed etc.

It makes 0 sense having less output than someone with 20 less ilvls than you and nothing invested in their gear…"

Yup, i’ve had the same experience. It’s silly how bad Shaman is right now at healing. Evoker, Druid, Pala, holy priest all so so much better at healing.