The Current State of Resto Shamans

Classes Shaman
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Hey guys :slight_smile:

It’s been a few weeks since some of the buffs ( and the classic release to spend a lot of time in ! ). I hope everyone is doing great :>

I was wondering what you’re thinking about how the Resto Shaman is performing nowadays, the buffs certainly helped, but is it enough?

My quick not-in-depth opinion would be:
We’re doing “better than we did before” raidwise, still not amazeballs, but; Mostly it’s just Holy Paladins being overpowered with their over-the-top HPS while also granting a flatout 4% damage reduction ( for reference, Mythic bosses can easily do 500k dps to the raid, 4% of 500k is 20k effective hps purely for existing. ) while “also also” being able to dish out an insane amount of DPS for a healer. Same goes for Disc, in a less overpowered but still noticeably better than other healer’s way.

Wouldn’t wanna say Shamans are in a fine spot, compared to these 2 healers it’s just too blatantly obvious those 2 are overpowered and shamans are underpowered, but, the patch was a step in the right direction.

I can’t deny that I completely expected a nerf to Hpallies that same patch, or, if not that one, the very next “hotfix” patch. Nevertheless, I still have faith Blizzard will look into the rather pressing shortcomings of Shamans, it’s not just numbers, it’s playability. The Healing Rain changes were welcome, but they don’t solve the problems that our kit brings, which requires a stacked up raid. As no other healer has this problem, I had hoped for a change that atleast made it so we would be good when stars alligned, instead of seeing the same problems arise on multiple bosses while literally EVERY other healer just doesn’t care and heal every single raid member better than Rshamans ever can even when stacked up. This, to me, is still the main issue. If you want Shammies to have a niche like a clumped up raid situation, make it so it pays off, instead of making other healers better even when everything seems to be perfect for a Rsham friendly Environment.

Last note, on top of all that, it’s still Rshammies that lack DPS in raids, which seems to be a rather popular trent at this moment.
People play a Healer class for a reason, to HEAL, and NOT to DPS. The fact that healers can dps is one thing, but in my opinion it’s utterly ridiculous to not want to bring a certain healer class because they cannot do dps as well as the other healer in a raid environment. I don’t understand nor do I enjoy that type of game design, yet it is a thing right now and needs to be adressed.

Thanks once again for reading, I look forward to reading your own opinions about the Resto Shaman’s performance right now.

I remain your lovely Nyms <3

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I was benched on Ashvane due to my lower dps, ironically i got the first kill (and re-kills since) anyway as classic ate into our numbers and i had to jump in.

Now on Gorgonzola, and even though the raid is stacked the majority of the fight i struggle to compete with Disc and HPally. When we both rank 95+% our pally has at least 10k hps more while ALSO providing 10k dps more PLUS the passive DR. Disc is around the same hps but also provides 10k dps more.
Personally i feel that the stacked nature of the fight should give shamans an advantage there, but in fact it is not even enough to get even is concerning.

I think the designers tried for quite some time to get shamans away from chain heal spam, currently we are very much back to it (high tide into cloudburst). Not that i mind a lot, but it seems the designers just fail to reach their stated goals. a lot.

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I was doing first 3 bosses of HC yesterday in a pug, and I did heal quite nicely, but I noticed that I have these stupid meters open, I see myself looking at them and trying to compete with them. That shouldn’t be the case, I should be watching the health of the party, and heal where needed. Imo there’s something wrong there. I do dmg when I don’t heal though, but e.g. in some parts of fights, there isn’t much to heal, so I save mana, but many healers just continue to do their stuff, just to get those HPs.

And yeah, I don’t mind doing dmg during e.g. shield phases of 4th / 7th boss of EP. But the fact that healers are being rejected for not doing enough dmg, that is just plain wrong, then there’s something not right in the design, and not just the class. Healers’ dmg should be a bonus, same for tanks, but it seems now for both healers and tanks DMG is taken into account as well.

I like the classic setup wheren DMG is mostly done by DPS, the other 2 specs do what they’re designed for primarily.

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I dont raid, but i still feel i struggle with enough output in certain situations in m+. Maybe i am doing something wrong or maybe the others just take too much damage that can be avoided, i just feel like i struggle alot to keep everyone up on certain pulls/affixes combos.

What azerite traits do u guys use for m+? I know ppl stack 3xIP for dps, but i rarely find i have time to do alot of dps so i would like traits that helps me with healing instead. And what essences do u use?

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I use to play with Flash Food as well, now since I started using Cloudburst Totem, I never go without, it’s really amazing and not just for raids.

Also using Undulations in dungeons, I never feel I am underperforming. Last week i had one run with a crappy prot warrior, this guy was unhealable, but that was down to necrotic, he just took that for too long, then I think, not my problem, eventhough he was upset with the healing, fuc*er never even used ignore pain.

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I keep swapping my talents around a bit, like i use cloud burst when it’s bursting so i can pop it if ppl get low, or grievous. I just cant decide if i like it or not :stuck_out_tongue: didnt really need it the week we had now, not much group damage really.

Used to run undulation, but felt i needed another instant heal for all the movement that is going on, not really sure whats best :woman_shrugging:t3:

Sometimes i have no issues at all, other times it just feels impossible to keep ppl up, but it might be combination of us not being very good and taking too much damage and not managing our interrupts/stuns and so on correctly… i know restos run high keys so we are capable of it (not me though, i lack the skill :stuck_out_tongue: ).

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Yeah I am also thinking of trying out some other talents, maybe this week, since teeming/quaking seems fairly easy. I used to hate healing grevious, but I have really 0 issues with it in BfA.

Last night I healed SotS13, on my other shaman (was supposed to DPS it, but I made a mistake, so we were with 4 DPS and 1 Tank). My camera went nuts halfway through the fight with 2nd boss, so there went that in time :D.

I also try my best, but there’s one thing you have no influence over as a healer, and that is what the others do.

One fight I had a problem with, boss 5 of Op.Mech. but that area has a huge range, and DPS was on one side, tank on the other side. After death I may have said “I don’t have unlimited range” :D.

Just take into account, it is not always your fault if you can’t heal others. Some people dunno fights well, and still join high keys…they stand in stuff, don’t interrupt, don’t use defenses etc…last night I stated a FH run, tank rushed into all groups, and the void emmisary…then came the “Oh…didn’t know it was necrotic”…of course I knew by then how that run would go :wink:

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Griev is ok if ppl are good at not standing in stuff and taking more damage then needed. I think i actually like bursting the least, everyone just runs off while i stand there trying to heal them up again after each pull, so annoying :stuck_out_tongue:

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in dungeons shaman is to cast heavy, same as in pvp. our instant + hot doesn’t do anything. I remember riptide being a 25% heal or so in woltk.

I think dmg spells for healers should cost like 300% more mana.
I also dislike to dps while healing.
So either make dpsing punishing to your healing output or make the encounters actually require the healers to heal more.
disc dmg can be reduced severely and therefore increasing atonement %

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I don’t minding DPSing a bit when I can, but main focus should be healing and right now for healers and tanks.

If I don’t have to heal, I DPS for sure, but it shouldn’t be my main focus.

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Ive mained Shaman since TBC. Dont get your hopes up, Blizz never cared about Shamans and never will. Reroll while you can, or turn into a bitter Shaman loyalist over time.

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Haha its this one for me, mained resto shammy since BC myself. Just cant stop :sweat_smile:

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don’t forget that their “healing rain” is not just without cd but also instant ^^

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thats not entirely true. rshaman had glorious days (at least in pvp) in cata, panda and maybe even wod. can’t say too much about raiding in these expansions but in general I agree with you.

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Eww WoD, I never quite understood why ppl hated that exp so much. I actually still did garrison content years after the exp ended. As for class design, horrible. Thats exactly when they thought it would be a great idea to homogenize classes and prune like there lifes depended on it. I was slightly exaggerating in my comment, but yeah I agree there have been some glorious days but they have been rather rare. Last one I thought of as truly glorious was back in WotLK during ICC. After that I always thought they were okay, maybe just above average. Even so, its always felt like Holy Pally and Resto Druid had a guardian Dev, making sure theyd be average at the very worst. I do love Shaman though, the lore, as well as the gameplay. No matter how bad they get, Ill stick with my Shammy and prolly get even more bitter in the proces if thats even possible lol.

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Yes I couldnt agree with you more. Dont forget about how mana friendly Healing Rain is and the throughput of the spell is just humongous.

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I admit, I am now levelling this resto druid since I wanted to see what all the fuss is about. And secondly, I am getting tired of all the delines. My main resto shaman I have been working on really hard, and it’s so frustrating never hardly ever getting invited into groups. I guess I am a bit done waiting for an hour and getting decline after decline.

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How do you guys feel about raiding resto shm atm and for 8.3? I personally think it’s gonna be really good in 8.3. It has been popular during EP and with the coming nerfs to glimmer pallys and disc priests it’s likely we’ll see even more shamans… :slight_smile:

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Would be nice, I do see that, eventhough according to HP figures we’re on the bottom, we’re still next to disc, holy paladin, the mostly used healers in raids. I do love the spec, and hope that there’s a few nice stacked moments on these boss fights.

What I’d love most, is a return of ancestral guidance, if that’d happen, I’d probably cheer a lot. And if chain lightning would target more than 3 targets.

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i think blizz forgot shamans even exist at this point