onsdag den 4. juli 2012

Thoughts on restoration shaman on beta.


Thought on restoration shaman on beta. 

I forced myself to level to 90 and dinged just shortly before the first raid bosses were tested, and I have not been on every of them yet. However, in spite of EU problems with a) Getting / Staying online, b) Getting / staying in the instance and c) Getting the boss to spawn I think it is time to sit down and think a little about "how" restoration shaman feels (and which is likely what it will feel like). 

What do I like?
In the beginning I disliked the less talents to pick system, however, I can see that it is "smarter" or whatever you would like to call it, and allow me to explain why: In Cata you usually went with a 3/5/33 spec where you had very little choice so to speak regarding talents if you wanted a raiding spot, and as the gear became better you were forced into using Telluric Currents (A play style which I generally like), but with the changes there is more "choice". 

Do you want a 40% CD reduction (Astral Swiftness) or a nice absorbing totem (Stone Bulwark Totem)?
Do you want your own mini heroism (Elemental Mastery) because you were getting too used for Spiritwalker's Grace and the 4-set  or 5% passive haste(Ancestral Swiftness) or a chance to duplicate your spell (Echo of the Elements)? All of them are good and usable, however, there will always be a best or most optimal way of speccing / gearing for a specific encounter, and no matter how many or little talents you have there will always be x is better than y. 

Another thing I like is the fixed mana at 300.000 or I like it as an idea because in practice there is some obvious flaws e.g. monks with mana and chi (And being ridicules overpowered atm. hello renewing mist and uplift) and then the way mana regeneration works. I haven't played my priest or attempted to level a monk, so I can only speak for a shaman, but currently I got these concerns:
A) Resurgence: Due to our very, very low amount of crit it does seem to be close to useless. e.g. I've looked at the log for a couple of bosses on Beta, and on fights varying at 3-5 mins of length (I am well-aware that it does also highly depend on the spell usage, however let us ignore that atm.) and I am gaining between 14.000-30.000 mana and that is enough mana for 1 Greater Healing Wave plus one Healing Wave. That is not much more than I would get from a Potion of Concentration so I think it either needs a rework or upping the amount of mana that you gain from it. 

B) Telluric Currents is a spell I've enjoyed, and I think that the glyph is mandatory due to the restrain on mana there usually is during the beginning for an expansion, however, I do have one major issue with it and that is that it regenerates 2% of your base mana which is 6000 with the fixed mana pools, and I am okay with that it removes the issue of it becoming ridicules overpowered on fights where bosses take extra damage, and that is okay. What I am not so keen on is that it also costs 4260 so for a 2,5 sec cast you gain 1740 mana which does seem nice (along with the additional regeneration from Water Shield and your spirit) but it is still not a lot when you consider the mana pool of 300.000 or to put it in percentage: 0,58% of your total mana is what you gain from casting a Lightning Bolt and I will argue that it is too low. I got two solutions a) Make the Glyph reduce (Remove would make it a too powerful regn. tool) so that it grants 1%-2% of base mana just like the priests new and hip version Power Word: Solace which in addition also has a shorter cast time. 

C) Mana Tide Totem: I don't mind to be a "buff bitch", however, I would really enjoy the ability more if it in addition to granting my fellow party members 200% of my spirit (hello spirit stacking shaman) that it would grant the shaman an additional buff / uniqueness so that you weren't forced to monitor your fellow healers mana and use it whenever they were down on mana, but instead also could use it for your own "gain" e.g. giving it a 5% increased healing / 300% regn. to yourself or something along those lines. 

Healing arsenal and what we got to play with: 

There isn't a giant change in the healing department beside we get another cooldown totem (Healing Tide Totem will be obligatory for resto) and a quite nifty cooldown (Ascendance) and the option to go bonkers with Mana Tide wait for it to run out, and then use Healing Tide Totem plus Ascendance and if we are stacking Spirit Link Totem as well, and the after the 10 seconds if the raid still is dangerous low you got the option to use "Call of the Elements" and before you can say "I would like a lager, please" you can use Healing Tide and Spirit Link again that is some quite serious burst healing. So whenever it comes to stacking fights, as we still got Healing Rain, we do look quite powerful in the area of stack healing and massive burst, however, you will need a crazy amount of regn. to keep up Healing Rain with its current cost of 32.340 mana (I was struggling with my mana even with the buff to raid gear for testing).
It does then look like we are pretty much as we used to be - great at stack aoe healing but quite worthless for whenever we need to spread, but no ! Or we are better off than we have ever been before with the new "Glyph of Riptide" which basically makes it into a shaman version of Rejuvenation just like a few attempts on Blade Lord Ta'yak shows:

This is from an attempt where I tried to see if "Echo of the Elements" was worth taking, and atm. it does seem to have a too low proc chance in order to make it useful compared to a flat out 5% haste that you get from "Ancestral Swiftness".  (And sorry for it looking like crap on the layout)


All in all I do look forward to the expansion, and I think that some of the issues I have been talking about will be addressed or I at least very much hope so.