This year I decided to dust off my old vanilla wow Shaman. I must say that I found myself enjoying the Resto Shaman gameplay more than I expected. And the most surprising part of it was Unleash Life! Before I go into why, I should note that I pugged a lot of hardcore content (m+ resi 21 and 5 mythic raid bosses), and learned a lot about getting as much healing from the spec as possible. The 2pc set bonus is what made it enjoyable for me:
2pc - Unleash Life’s cooldown is reduced by 3.0 sec and its direct healing is increased by 100%.
4pc - Unleash Life affects an additional spell cast at 100% effectiveness.
In the m+ setting Unleash Life 2pc 100% increased healing feels amazing. Although, most of the time you want to prepare for the upcoming damage, and the healing portion won’t be used to it’s fullest potential (4pc shines there). But during long, hectic, high damage and high movement fights where you are trying to keep everyone alive, Unleash Life works like a micro - lay on hands, especially when it crits. I realized that I am missing this button so much when I got on my other healers.
I think it works so well with the rest of the Shaman kit, and it doesn’t feel punishing to press when you need a lot of quick healing. Unlike Unleash Life without 2pc, basically the healing is so low and the reward is sometimes not worth it.
I saw a lot of people complaining in the past about Unleash Life, but I think this Set Bonus fixed it and it would be a shame if it returned to the previous version. It is such a small thing, but it makes a big difference in gameplay and feel.
I wonder if other resto Shamans feel the same.