Healing Tide Totem is now baseline for all shaman

[Pretolkos]

The devs have made Healing Tide Totem a baseline ability for all shaman and are replacing its spot in the talent tree with something else (as yet undefined).

I haven't raided in months and my mouth still dropped on that one.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic ... age=22#439

[Bacontime]

Also heals 12 players each tick? The class is still underwhelmingly weak

[Shaank]

Thanks bacon u dick, lol j/p but yeah not as strong this tier compared to last.

[Mahlaa]

Have to agree with Bacon and Shank.

This change was actually suggested by some of the resto shammy's theory crafters and bloggers during the MoP PTR cycle; along with changes to our level 75 talents to help make resto shammy's more competitive. Blizzard has apparently taken the first step in implementing a change strongly suggested about nine months ago.

Getting difficult to justify to the PM Team why they should bring my resto spammy to the raid, especially on heroic progression fights. If I play the fight perfectly, I am at times able to avoid being in last place, healing cooldowns are at best duplicative of others, and the uniqueness of the class and spec is almost gone.

While I never panic early in a PTR cycle, the changes to resto shammy's blizzard is testing do nothing to fix our inherent weaknesses.

Is it time to reroll a new healer?

[Pretolkos]

All of this is admittedly easy for me to say, since I'm now a backseat raider. I do hope, however, that people aren't getting ultra-focused on hps as the sole indicator for a healer's efficacy.

From a design perspective, every class in a 25man raid should have weaknesses. If we didn't, then an argument could legitimately be made that there should be one class that we label 'healer'. And last I checked, resto shaman still have incredible strengths when the raid is able to stack. Admittedly, most fights don't always allow for that, but it doesn't remove that strength.

But putting that aside, aren't resto shaman still the only class with a Spirit Link Totem cd? It does nothing for your numbers but absolutely prevents raider death and helps achieve kills.

I'm also guessing that our heals still buff the absolute health of raiders, giving tanks extra breathing room and allowing us to heal players (even if they're already at full) when we know they're about to take extra damage so that all healers have an extra second or two to heal them up (even beyond what absorbs can carry) once that massive spike damage occurs. Again, this makes your individual hps lower, but prevents raider death.

And I know I'm biased on this, but when I was pugging earlier in this cycle, I was quite glad to be a healer with an interrupt with a short cd, given that I couldn't always count on others to have an interrupt available (or able to find their button). Heck, even in our 25man days, I remember jumping on interrupts when our interrupt folks were dead or unavailable. Since I recall the team now has approximately 48 rogues, there's probably less call for that now.

Now that HTT is baseline (and hitting 12 players is the same as Tranq and other similar cooldowns), we're basically going to get another talent on the healing tier for free!

Again, I recognize I haven't raided in several months and everything may be different now. But healers aren't their hps, and I'd think shaman still have a lot to add.

[Nyonjia]

Pret brings up good points for bringing _a_ resto shaman. ;p

[Numerical]

I could care less about HPS. As long as your assignments don't die and as a healer, you don't die then its all good. The reality is, you still bring 2 very strong cooldowns and "someone" has to be at the bottom the same as someone has to be at the top.

[Pretolkos]

Pret brings up good points for bringing _a_ resto shaman. ;p

When I was the raid lead for AM, I always used to tease the team that I would deny any shaman applicants so all the gear would come to me. It'd be hypocritical to argue now that any team needs more than one!

(For those who didn't raid with me, I really wasn't that self-centered. We had as many as 3 resto shaman during Cataclysm, but I never could find and keep a qualified ele shaman despite my best attempts.)

[Gnomemages]

Shamans bring pretty blue circles to put on the ground!

[Pretolkos]

Shamans bring pretty blue circles to put on the ground!

That's why I chose the class. When Blizzard said, "Shaman can heal their allies with pretty blue circles," I couldn't click 'Create New Character' quick enough.

[Shaank]

Blue chain heal is awesome! lol I like the shaman! Not bad dps either. But still like healing as one a lot more.

[Pippilongear]

Shamans bring pretty blue circles to put on the ground!

Holy Necro-Thread Batman!

[Forestland]

Shamans? Never heard of them Green circles ftw

[Shaank]

This is why forest use to be benched!