I don’t usually post here but feel that it’s warranted given the most recent changes that have been proposed to Resto Shaman. These points address the topic purely from a raiding perspective as that’s my niche.
Now, I’ll preface this by saying that Shaman isn’t in the worst state that it has been, and it’s certainly playable in all content that the game has to offer at all but the very highest level of play. However, there are some fundamental issues with the spec and current tier design, and the most recent changes which buff the current tier set are concerning as they fail to show an understanding of the key issues which we are experiencing currently. Clearly it is recognised that the spec is underperforming, given the fact that they’re targeting us for buffs.
The issues with these changes are:
The 2-set bonus, Tidewaters, on live currently overheals by ~50% in most content. There has been feedback from some of the most experienced players on a number of occasions that this simply heals for too much. Due to the fact we are casting Healing Rain on cooldown, regardless of the health of the raid, there is a high chance that this is not meaningful throughput in the majority of scenarios. The fact that this healing does not feed Cloudburst Totem further compounds the issue. The proposed 40% buff to Tidewaters does absolutely nothing for our current shortcomings, which makes the idea behind the change somewhat confusing.
Secondly, the 4-set bonus has a number of issues. The Rainstorm portion which was buffed is not one. The most pressing issues with this set bonus are:
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The Swelling Rain buff has a short enough duration currently that it makes stacking the buff difficult during raid encounters, especially given the length of time it takes to cast Healing Rain.
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The fact that Chain Heal consumes the buff, despite the fact that it is mathmatically never worthwhile to do so, causes gameplay issues especially when we’re often reliant on Chain Heal for throughput in heavy damage encounters. At times it feels like you have to choose between utilising the tier set and utilising your core toolkit, which is not engaging and quite frustrating in my opinion.
The fact that these changes do nothing to address the glaring issues with the current design is a little perturbing.
Now, on to some more of the current issues while I’m at it.
The proposed change to Ancestral Guidance in the 10.1.5 patch, although potentially somewhat minor to us in it’s impact in a lot of scenarios, feels like we are being caught in the crossfire of what is an intended nerf to DPS off-healing. The cap on healing during these cooldown windows will mean that Ascendance or Deeply Rooted Elements procs will be wasted, and our largest throughput abilities such as buffed Chain Heals or buffed Primordial Wave cleaves will suffer greatly. This will also impact the feeding of Cloudburst Totem, which is a major source of our throughput in these cooldown windows. This change also seems somewhat contradictory given the fact that the current tier set is intended to increase the potency of our heals.
There are also some significant issues with the spec tree, most of which is down to pathing in the upper part of the tree, where we’re forced to invest points in talents which are negligible in impact. Deluge and Water Totem Mastery are mandatory but do very little, and some choices such as Flash Flood or Torrent are equally lacklustre. Further down the tree, the Healing Tide choice nodes are never taken, and for the Mana Tide Totem choice node, one option is never taken, whilst the other is extremely niche. Improved Primordial Wave costing 2 points just to get to the choice node is also a limiting factor, and Improved Earthliving Weapon is never a worthwhile pick (even after multiple buffs) either.
Considering the majority of the impactful choices are at the bottom of the tree, having such limited options elsewhere in the tree really curbs the potential of the spec. If the development team does indeed recognise that this spec is in need of some attention, given the high effort/low reward of the current design in comparison to other healers, please consider the above points, which are not new feedback by any stretch of the imagination.
Tsunki