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Section I. Stats
In an effort to tone back some of the stat complexity that came to the forefront in WotLK, 4.0.1 will be removing a small selection of stats in favor of more more streamlined primary and secondary stat system. And while the removal of defense and armour penetration won’t be of consequence to Resto Shamans, the removal of Mp5 and Spellpower as available stats is something that should catch our attention.
Spirit (the new Mp5)
While the concept of mp5 will remain in effect long into the xpac, no longer will healers be split between the mp5 fans and the spirit fans. Come 4.0.1, all of the mp5 that you have on your gear will be converted to its equivalent value in spirit. Meditation, a core Resto Shaman skill, will then convert that Spirit into in- combat regen.
Intellect (the New Spellpower)
Another big stat transition before Cataclysm is the removal of spellpower from everything except caster weapons. From 4.0.1 forward, each point of Intellect will equate to 1 point of spellpower (and also contribute to an increase in your mana pool).
Haste
Thankfully, Resto Shamans’ treasured haste will remain the same in Cataclysm’s precursor patch. And despite the fact that Int’s stat value will be increasing in terms of HEP (because 1 Int = 1 SP come 4.0.1, instead of the previous 1 Int = 0.18 sp in Wrath), haste will remain a valuable stat for Resto Shaman not only because of our long base cast times, but also because haste will now affect hots like Earthliving, Rtiptide, Chained Heal, and in Cataclysm, Healing Rain.
Crit
Unfortunately, in the pruning of some of the talents in the Shaman trees, Restos will be losing out on about 14% static crit rating from talents (farewell Thundering Strikes, Tidal Mastery, and the crit portion of Blessing of the Eternals) and gaining only 3% through the new elemental talent, Acuity. While this shouldn’t have an adverse affect on most shaman given current gear levels, it will definitely be a concern in the expansion, when crit levels will drop off considerably.
Mastery
A new stat introduced with 4.0.1, each spec for each class will now have a unqiue talent which buffs a core ability or function. Mastery is exclusive to a spec (meaning no two specs have the same Mastery), and like other supplemental stats such as haste and crit, you can increase the effects of your Mastery by picking up Mastery rating on gear and through enchants and gemming. Resto Shamans’ Mastery is Deep Healing, which I’ll talk more about in the following section.
Section II. Talents & Spec
Along with the changes to specs, patch 4.0.1 ushers in new, more simple talent trees for each class and spec. Dropping down to 31-points each, talent trees now require that you invest 31 points within your chosen spec before you can pick up points in any other tree. So, if you spec Resto at level 10, you will be required to invest 31 points in Resto before you can spend points in Enhancement or Elemental. In addition, each spec will now have a series of core skills and a unique specialization (Mastery), trainable at level 75.
Earth Shield
The definitive class ability, Earth Shield will become trainable once you hit level 10.
Purification
Providing a mediocre 10% increase to healing power, Purification’s real power lies in the 0.5sec cast time reduction for Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave, making them a baseline 2.5sec cast for all Restos.
Meditation
Like many other healers, to encourage Resto Shaman to take more Spirit on gear, Blizzard incorporated Meditation as a part of Resto’s base talent tree. With Meditation, Restos will gain precisely half of their out of combat regen while in combat. In the new character window, this number is calculated for you and displayed as “In Combat Regen”.
Mastery: Deep Healing
The real reason you’re going to love speccing Resto, Deep Healing provides an increase to our healing based on the target’s health. The effect functions much like a sliding scale, with the maximum effect being achieved on a target at 1% HP and no effect being applied to a target at 100% HP. At level 80, you start with a maximum 20% gain in healing, and for every point of Mastery you gain (179.6 mastery rating is equal to 1 point), your maximum Deep Healing increases by 2.5%. Deep Healing’s effects stack with other healing multipliers, but do not currently modify the healing done by hots.
Talent Points Explained:
The following is a brief explanation of each available talent within the Resto tree, along with any relevant notes regarding the talent and an indicator of the importance of the talent’s inclusion in your own Resto spec. Note that “optional” spells are defined as those which has a marginal impact on performance, “recommended” talents are those which do have an impact on performance but are not vital, and “strongly recommended” was as close as I was willing to go to absolutely, unequivocally, do-you-really-want-the-math-on-this mandatory.
Ancestral Resolve – Reduces the damage you take while casting by up to 10% (optional)
Tidal Focus – Reduces the mana cost of your spells by up to 6% (Strongly recommended)
Spark of Life – Increases the (active and passive) healing your spells do on other targets by 6% and increases the healing you receive from all sources (active and passive) by 15%. (Strongly recommended)
Improved Water Shield – Provides up to a 100% chance to gain a Water Shield orb when you land a critical heal with GHW, HW, or RT, a 60% chance when you crit with HS, and a 30% chance when you crit with CH. Do note, in regards to the latter spell, each CH bounce has the chance to proc Imp WS, so it is possible (although unlikely) that you will proc multiple mana returns on one CH cast. (Strongly recommended)
Totemic Focus – Reduces the mana cost of your totems by 30% and increase their duration by 40%. Do note, the increased effect does apply to Mana Tide totem, adding 5seconds to its duration, which in turn, equates to more regen. (Recommended for raiding Restos)
Focused Insight – Reduces the mana cost of any heal which follows a successful shock and increases the effectiveness of that heal by 30%. Do note that Wind Shear does not count as a shock which will proc this effect and the shock must land for FI to be activated. (Recommended)
Nature’s Guardian – Whenever your health is reduced to below 30%, your total HP is increased by 15% for 10 seconds and your threat against that target is reduced. (Optional, this is primarily a PVP talent, despite the inclusion of threat reduction)
Ancestral Healing – Reduces the physical damage taken by a target of one of your critical heals. The effect lasts 15 seconds and can be refreshed by subsequent critical heals on the target in question, though it’s worth noting that the effect does not stack with multiple shaman nor does it stack with Priests’ Inspiration. (Strongly recommended)
Nature’s Swiftness – When activated, it makes your next spell an instant-cast, provided that you cast it within 10-seconds of activating NS. NS can be combined with any cast-based spell in the Resto arsenal. (Strongly recommended)
Nature’s Blessing – Increases the effectiveness of healing done on Earth Shielded targets by up to 15%. This applies to direct healing spells only (HS, HW, GHW, and CH) and is shared between Resto shaman (meaning that your healing on an ES’ed target is increased even if it is not your ES on the target). Do note that this effect also stacks with other healing modifiers like Spark of Life and Focused Insight. (Strongly recommended)
Soothing Rains – Increases the amount healed by your Healing Stream by up to 50% and increases the amount healed by your Healing Rain by up to 30%. (Recommended)
Improved Cleanse Spirit – Enables you to dispel magic effects along with curses. Do note that this no longer enables you to remove poisons or diseases. (Strongly recommended)
Cleansing Waters – Reduces the cost of cleansing by up to 40% and provides a small heal on the cleansed target. (Optional)
Ancestral Awakening – After you critically heal with any single-target healing spell (HS, HW, GHW, and RT), you will also heal the lowest HP target in your party or raid for up to 30% of the amount of the critical heal. Do note that this effect is not instant, as indicated in the tooltip, but rather follows your critical heal by about a 1-second lapse. (Strongly recommended)
Mana Tide Totem – Increases party members’ Spirit by 350% for 12 seconds, 17 seconds when you pick up Totemtic Focus. Do note, in patch 4.0.1, MT was changed to a 3-minute CD to align with other class’s regen mechanics. (Strongly recommended)
Telluric Currents – Will restore 40% of the damage dealt when you cast a Lighting Bolt. Do note, this talent is intended to be mana-neutral and not a viable regen mechanic for Resto Shaman. (Optional)
Tidal Waves – After casting RT or CH, you will gain 2 charges of a Tidal Waves buff which will decrease the cast time of the following GHW or HW spells by 30% and increase the critical effect chance of Healing Surge by 30%. Tidal Waves will last until 2 spells are cast or after 10 seconds. (Strongly recommended)
Blessing of the Eternals – Gives your Earthliving hot an 80% chance to proc on targets below 35% HP. This talent no longer increases critical strike chance, as of the patch. (Optional)
Riptide – An instant cast spell which also applies a hot to the target, it will also increase the healing done by a CH hit by 25%, if CH is cast on a target with a Riptide hot still active. (Strongly recommended)
Elemental Weapons (Enhance) – Increases the passive bonus granted by Earthliving Weapon by up to 40% and increases the effectiveness of Unleash Elements. While the latter effect isn’t applicable to level 81, the former increase now grants 60 spellpower. (Recommended)
Improved Shields (Enhance) – Provides up to a 15% increase in the return of Water Shield orbs and a 15% increase in the healing done by Earth Shield. This effect stacks with other healing modifiers like Spark of Life. (Recommended)
Acuity (Elemental) – With an increase of up to 3% on all spells (both dps and healing), Acuity goes a long way to making up some of the crit lost during the conversion to 31-point trees. (Recommended)
Potential Specs
Because at this point you will be required to spend at least 31 of your 36 available talent points in the Resto tree, we still won’t have access to deeper tiers of the Elemental and Enhancement (including Ancestral Swiftness) just yet. So, there are a number of options floating around which constitute viable raiding specs. Personally, I would pick up the above “Strongly recommended” talents and then do some testing to confirm what is or is not a priority.
My builds thus far in 4.0.1 have been:
2/3/31 : Picking up Ancestral Resolve for some additional incoming damage mitigation and Focused Insight to buff my healing on movement intensive fights, like inside Halion’s portals
3/2/31 : Picking up Elemental Weapons for the large boost in spellpower, Acuity for the increased crit, and Soothing Rains for more powerful Healing Stream ticks
2/3/31 : Picking up both Focused Insight and Telluric Currents for some DPS-while-Healing-heroics action.
In all reality, these are just a sampling of potential specs; it is unlikely we will see a true “cookie cutter” build because 2 talents which will become almost mandatory in Cataclysm (Soothing Rains and Blessing of the Eternals) do not currently provide the same benefits that they will at 85. So, that creates some buffer in the tree to spend those additional 4 points, and some others, however you please. (Believe you me, you’ll get your fill of “required” and “mandatory” come Cataclysm, so enjoy some freedom now.)
0/3/31 is what I have personally been using.
Section III. Gearing / Gemming
The stat changes that went into effect with 4.0.1 will also be changing the stats present on Resto Shaman gear and affecting how we collect upgrades. Just remember, you can no longer laugh at low-level Resto shaman who collect Spirit gear but you can taunt them for wearing cloth and leather!
Mail specialization
Starting in 4.0.1, shaman will receive a 5% bonus for wearing all mail pieces (except for the obvious slots which are type-neutral, like rings, cloak, trinkets, neck, offhand, and relics). For most shaman, except maybe those leveling, this 5% bonus to intellect is enough to outweigh the benefits from most any leather/cloth alternative, because as stated above, 5% Intellect not only increases your mana pool (which accordingly increases the amount of replenishment you gain), but it also increases your spellpower and your crit. Lastly, remember that mail specialization does scale with gear, so the benefit will endure as your gear improves.
Gemming
With the change in stats, gems will be undergoing a slight overhaul as well. And while pure haste gems will remain the same (hooray for haste stacking) a number of our supplemental gems will be changing (A complete and all-inclusive listing of gems can be found at Revive and Rejuvenate):
•Runed Dragon’s Eye: 34 spellpower = 34 Int (Brilliant Dragon’s Eye)
•Runed Cardinal Ruby: 23 spellpower = 20 Int (Brilliant Cardinal Ruby)
•Reckless Ametrine: 12 sp, 10 haste = 10 Int, 10 Haste (same name)
•Quick King’s Amber: (will be staying the same)
•Brilliant King’s Amber: 20 Int = 20 Int (Brilliant Cardinal Ruby)
•Brilliant Dragon’s Eye 34 Int = 34 Int (Brilliant Dagon’s Eye)
Relics
Along with changes to your gear, relics are being diverted away from the proc-based model and made more similar to wands in that they will be a source of stats. So, for Restos, this means that our favorite Relics will be changing. Do note that although the sockets in these relics are associated with a color, there is no penalty for socketing whatever stat you’d like.
•Totem of the Surging Sea
•Totem of Calming Tides
•Bizuri’s Totem of Shattered Ice
Section IV. Reforging
Introduced with patch 4.0.1, reforging makes it possible to convert various secondary stats on gear to a more appealing option. This means that on any piece of gear you can reforge the following stats:
•Crit
•Dodge
•Expertise Rating
•Haste Rating
•Hit Rating
•Mastery Rating
•Parry Rating
•Spirit
Of course, there are limitations on this treasure-trove of possibilities. You cannot reforge any primary stats on gear (eg: agility, stamina, strength, and intellect). You can one reforge one of the stats on an item, and you cannot reforge a stat to something that is already present on the item. (So no changing a crit + haste item to only haste). Most importantly, you can only reforge 40% of one stat into another secondary stat, so while this allows for minor “tweaking of gear”, it will not make up for the RNG that plagues raiders.
What Stats to Reforge
At this point, if you feel included to scratch that Reforging itch (because hey, it’s shiny and new), I’d recommend placing some additional spirit and crit on the chopping block in favor of haste.
While other classes rush to reforge stats into Mastery, at this point I would caution Restos against doing the same. Because Resto Shamans’ mastery is intrinsically tied to player health (which is not currently operating under the triage conditions of Cata and thus you will very rarely encounter players who are hovering at lower percentages of HP), the gain from any Mastery is currently thought to be nominal in comparison to other supplemental stats. However, if you’re up to your eyeballs in haste and have sufficient time and patience, I won’t discourage you from giving Mastery a try. The best thing about reforging is that it isn’t permanent, so if you find yourself regretting your decision, you can always reforge your items back to their original stats.
Section V. Glyphs
4.0.1 heralds the introduction of an expanded glyph system, with (hypothetically) more choices for Restos. With the introduction of Prime Glyphs, we’ll now have 9 total glyph slots open to us at level 80. 1 of each type of glyph—prime, major, and minor—becomes available at level 25, level 50, and level 70. Unfortunately, the current glyph selection at this point is slightly limited so it really doesn’t allow for much variation in the 3 glyph categories. Do note that one of Resto’s staple glyphs for tank healing—Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave—has been removed in favor of the talent Nature’s Blessing.
Prime Glyphs
•Glyph of Earth Shield – unchanged (Recommended)
•Glyph of Earthliving Weapon – Increases the effectiveness of your ELW’s periodic healing by 20%. (Optional)
•Glyph of Riptide – unchanged (Optional)
•Glyph of Water Shield – increases passive regen by 50% (Recommended)
Major Glyphs
•Glyph of Chain Heal – increases the healing done to targets beyond the first by 15% but decreases the amount received by the first target by 10% (Recommended for 25-man raiders)
•Glyph of Ghost Wolf – your GW gains 5% additional movement speed (Optional)
•Glyph of Healing Stream – Increases resistances by 195 (Optional, does not stack with Kings/Marks resistances)
•Glyph of Healing Wave – unchanged (Recommended)
Minor Glyphs
•Glyph of Arctic Wolf – changes your appearance to that of an arctic wolf
•Glyph of Renewed Life – unchanged (Recommended)
•Glyph of Water Walking – unchanged
•Glyph of Astral Recall – unchanged
Section VI. Spells & Totems
In line with Blizzard’s skill over class philosophy, as of patch 4.0.1, all healers will now be equipped with of 3 basic heals addressing the trinity of healing spell qualities—Healing per second (HPS), power (max heal value), and Healing per mana (HPM). For resto shaman, our 3 base spells will be:
•Lesser Healing Wave (now: Healing Surge) – High HPS, Moderate Power, Low HPM
•Healing Wave – Low HPS, Low Power, High HPM
•Greater Healing Wave (NEW!) – Low HPS, High Power, Moderate HPM
The thing to keep in mind here is that with this change, the spammable quick-and-powerful LHW/HS that we used for tank-healing will now be a big mana sink and a fast way to OOM. Instead, Healing Wave becomes the moderate (and as GC put it) “healing white attack”, the frugal healers’ way to keep the group alive. And rounding out the group, Greater Healing Wave becomes our long-bomb powerhouse. The interplay of these 3 spells, and their applicability in any given situation, will now be what defines a good Resto Shaman from a great one.
Other spell changes/revisions (or lack thereof) to be aware of:
•Riptide – remains the same functionality, although the initial heal amount was increased and the hot now scales with haste and crit
•Earth Shield – remains the same (although the charges were increased to 9)
•Tidal Force – removed
•Cleanse – will still remove curses but when talented, will only remove magic as well
•Chain Heal – changed to 4 targets baseline, although the healing range was significantly reduced
Totems will be getting a slight facelist as well; notably for Resto:
•Cleansing Totem – removed from game
•Sentry Totem – removed from game
•Mana Tide – will now increase Spirit by 350% for 12 seconds (17seconds if talented through Totemic Focus)
•Mana Spring – 92 mp5 return from all shaman specs
•Totem of the Tranquil Mind (NEW!) – 30% less casting or channeling time for all party or raid members (useful if there is no pally in raid and you’re in an encounter with significant pushback)
And lastly, you’ll need to wait until Cataclysm to get your hands on these spells:
•Unleash Elements (Earthliving Weapon) – trainable at 81
•Healing Rain – trainable at 83
•Spiritwalker’s Grace – trainable at 85
Section VII. Other Changes Affecting Resto
Finally, there are several important tidbits to keep in mind as you move forward into the pre-Apocolytic World (of Warcraft):
•Replenishment will now be 1% mana per 10 seconds (instead of 1% mana every 5 seconds).
•Innervate was seriously hit with the nerf bat, granting mana equal to 20% of the casting Druid’s maximum mana pool over 10 sec.
•Blessing of Wisdom has been rolled into Blessing of Might
•Blessing of Kings and Mark of the Wild are now synonymous (5% stats, exclusive of spirit, plus magical resistance)