lot of these healers need something for + - like holy priest and resto shaman
Surge of Earth could be the perfect opportunity to finally give Shamans a much needed tank/single-target CD (consume the charges to give its target, and only its target, a large heal/shield), which would greatly improve its sub-par/lackluster dungeon viability, instead of yet another "heal up to 6 clustered targets" spell which Shamans already have plenty of...New abilities should be used to enhance class toolkits, expanding them or fixing their shortcomings: adding clones of already existing spells for the sake of it is just adding clutter, something they said they wanted to steer away from... Chain Harvest is another good example of this: a lazy clone of Chain Heal, not impactful/reliable enough to improve the spread AoE weak point of the class, with only its mana cost justifying its use over a regular Chain Heal... how thrilling...
Strange, I thought "Lackluster GCDs" was going to appear in the title of all of these healer reviews.
that could be a tag line"restoration shammy, not great but not terrible either"lol
Not sure the hate for Resto Shamans in M+, a guild member of mine is amazing at Resto...
For M+ we need an external defensive CD for tanks, any form of single target healing other than spamming healing surges (maybe a stronger riptide, another hot or something new to help, maybe a big instant ST healing spell on a 45s timer. something for us to catch up if we fall behind), some form of aoe damage that doesn't require you to stop healing entirely (comparison to druids hots/dots).For raids we seriously need help with spread healing situations and an external tank defensive. We're pretty much useless in fights like Drest'agath, Il'gynoth, etc.It's also never fun to achieve 90% on wclogs and doing 1/3 less healing than a 70% druid. Our stacked healing and our mastery don't exceed on progress situations, they barely make us viable and completely expandable on farm.Also make Wellspring a baseline spell or just delete it and give us something else instead. This talent hasn't been viable in ages and will never be. Nerfing chain heal is NOT a solution to make wellspring viable.
" Flametongue Weapon require you to be in melee " ..? It's a spell power bonus...
pog
As someone who has every healing class geared and able to run raids and mythic +, Shaman is the one that needs the most love from the dev team. No matter how geared you are, no matter what corruption you have, there are affixes that are just overly punishing to the Resto Shaman. It can be done, but requires a team of players that understands your CD's, and understand they have to stand in your rains + spirit link. I can't begin to tell you how many times in a Mythic group that people actually step outside of spirit link on purpose. Mana Tide will be nice to have back in our kit, but a 15 yard range requires other players to actively utilize it and stand appropriately (very reminiscent of light well)
I'm extremely excited for the Enh and Ele reworks, it's looking like Shaman is going to get its time in the sun for Shadowlands, and I'm likely going to main Shaman because of it.It's sad to see Resto not getting the same level of love.It's clear that Blizzard is much happier with the design state of BfA shaman compared to ele and enh, so I wouldn't expect to see Resto Shaman get any overhauls (although it would be nice to see.)The way I see it, there are 3 main issues with Resto Shamans kit1. Mastery - It's a nice idea, but I think it just doesn't work as well in practice as it does on paper. While it works, it's just as good as any other mastery, but the issue is as players progress, it stops working while other healer mastery does not. Players get stronger, learn fights better, and just take less damage (aside from one-shots, which can't be healed.)Solution - Mastery Rework! I think it'd be much in the theme of Shamans to have a mastery called something like "Returning Waves" whenever the Resto Shaman does a direct heal on a target, or is the primary target of their chain heal, they receive another heal after X seconds for X% of the initial heal. Keeping in theme with the "come and go" theme of ocean waves, and increasing the strength of single target healing for resto shamans.2. Battle Rezes - A problem for all healers that aren't resto druid. Shamans are slightly fortunate that they have the option to talent into a battle rez totem, but it's much more difficult to use, and it takes a talent row. Part of the reason Resto Druids are so powerful in M+ is because of Rebirth, it's simply become an expected addition to any comp, and it's too strong of an ability to not be present for all healers in some way (not just resto shaman)Solution - Either take it away from resto druid (bad, I don't want this) or just give all healers the ability to battle rez! It will boost up viability of dead M+ healing specs like resto shaman or potentially even holy priest, and help even the playing field against the incredibly dominant Resto Druid.3. Lack of strong single target support - Tank healing, Tank external, burst single target healing. All things that the Resto Shaman struggles with. If Blizzard's intent for resto shaman is to be weak at single target healing, but strong for group AoE healing, then why does the mastery design leave resto shaman so weak for AoE healing in raid? If they aren't strong for M+ healing, and they aren't strong long term in raid healing once players know the fight, where can they find their dominance?Solution - Either a re-design of Earth Shield / Surge of Earth to give strong single target healing/shield/etc WITHOUT COSTING SHAMANS ECHOS OF THE ELEMENTS or, just make resto shaman's "astral shift" castable on any party member! This, combined with the re-designed mastery, will do wonders for resto shaman's single target support. Resto Shaman feels like it's almost there, and I don't think it needs a major rework like the other two specs have received, I just hope Blizzard takes a bit of a look at it's drop in viability in virtually all game content aside from early progression raiding, and throws them a bone so I can be just as excited about healing on my shaman as I am about DPSing on it.
blizz is deluding themselves that they can juggle balancing m+ and raiding with these feeble/uninspired tweaks.just look at how the 'hybrid utility' and pvp balance played out over nearly a DECADE. if its competitive then players intrinsically want some homegenization to stay relevent (in community perception atleast). then its about not being unique enough. there's no winningi thought blizz had an opportunity with the de-pruning to craft former iconic spells into scalpels for m+ specifically (think pvp talents), but im not seeing the light. or at least do more to revive dead talents into something obviously sculpted for 5man play. rather have blaring signs saying 'THIS IS A DUNGEON TALENT' than dubious attempts to trick players into some non-choice.for resto shams in particular though? same core issues in both raids AND m+. maybe there is some lone shaman out there averse to a mastery overhaul or total spec evolution, but i aint ever heard of em.dont get me started on holy priests, and priests in general for that matter. class with 2 heal specs with paltry offerings (mostly shared) between them. 'training wheels for new healers' isnt a spec identity and big surprise other healers do decent-but-not-equal dmg when m+ becomes a binary of countering insane modifiers/mechanics/pulls lest be dumpstered, and having free time to hit stuff thanks to tanks/dps having tools for raids and pvp. no wonder specs caught spamming their 'faster but costs a little more mana' direct heals with no recourse cant keep up. its a symptom of not enough depth and options.
It's really refreshing to see a spec that needs looking at not because it's mechanically or fundamentally broken, but because the numbers aren't quite there and maybe one or two issues with a skill need tweaking (things like chain heal link range and twisting Mastery to have some benefit at high HP too).Other than that, Resto Shaman doesn't really need to change and that's actually nice to see; it just needs the numbers.It's just a shame that Blizzard have a history of totally leaving Shaman's numbers in the dirt expansion after expansion, so I don't fancy Resto being anything but SLT bots again.