The (rest of the) Restoration Tree

So I’m back to make the bread and butter of this blog. Lord knows it took me forever to get off my hooves and give you this last bit that I kept promising you FOREVER ago. Procrastination is the enemy but it feels so good when you’re down in the dumps. Regardless of the reasons I’m going to go ahead and finish the tree of life (Pun).

Improved Reincarnation is really something every single Shaman should strive to get. We are only one of two classes that can regenerate after a wipe. Warlocks are the only other class that can make sure someone can come back from the dead without having to run from the graveyard with Soul Stone. Reincarnation has a one hour cool down, with two points into this talent that wait time goes down to forty minutes and I can’t even begin to tell you just how important something like that is. While grinding alone, you may not notice it; in a group setting it can make a reset for a boss fight that much quicker. If you look at most builds used by Shamans in the game now, each one ‘minors’ in Restoration.

Ancestral Healing is a talent that gives an extra boost to a player that you’ve given a critical heal to. Giving the three talent points into this one will grant the healed player an additional 25% armor for fifteen seconds. While that doesn’t sound like a big thing, you get a critical heal on a player that’s tanking and it gives them a little more unsquishability.

Totemic Focus is a cost reducer. Obviously by now you’ve realized that your totems aren’t spawning for free, there’s a tax on your mana pool. This talent, if maxed out with five points will reduce the cost of all of your totems by twenty five percent. As a healer, you’re going to have totems that you put down not only for yourself but also for your group as it’s REALLY important that everyone feel that the proper totems are being dropped for bosses during instances. It’s a good talent to think about using as with a healer, mana is what you’re going to be using the most of at any given time.

Nature’s Guidance, to me, is a throwaway talent really. Reading the description: “Increases your chance to hit with melee attacks and spells by 1% (Up to 3%)”. First off, you’re not going to be doing much melee with this build. You’re not going to be in striking distance of ANYTHING because you’ll be behind your group, praying to God they keep agro. The other thing is that your spells are going to be mostly heals and I don’t know about you but I’ve never gone to heal anyone and seen ‘Miss’. Pass on this one….

Healing Focus is nice for interruption. If you manage to get agro, and you will cause you shine like a lighthouse, this talent will make sure that you have less of a chance to get interrupted by the mob, up to a seventy percent chance to not get interrupted, this is a talent you seriously want to consider, no heals, no loot.

Totemic Mastery is a one point talent that almost feels like it’s not worth it but it very well is. It increases the radius of totems for friendly targets by thirty yards. This means that you can be further back from the action, drop a totem and the desired effect will still reach your tank and dps. Stoneskin, Mana Spring, Wrath of Air, they would all get a bigger boost in size. Great pick up for one point.

Healing Grace is a three point talent and one that any healer should have if they hate being a big agro magnet that needs to be coddled during runs. It’s a three point talent and for every point that you put in, you get an additional five percent threat reduction. So in total you’ll have lessened your threat by 15%. Nothing to sneeze at and your group/raid members will gladly tell you that. A healer himself is only as dangerous as the player that works him. If you can control your agro, then you’re golden.

Controlling agro is about learning to not use your big flashy heal but to use the more consistent and slightly less notable smaller and chain heals. The smaller the heal, the better off you’re going to be on the Agro chart. That’s why it’s so important to work on your plus healing any time you get a chance. In my low 60s on Luciel I was plus 373 healing. While it’s not a lot when compared to end game healing, it does make the job easier when you’re running through Ramparts and Blood Furnace. With plus healing, even the small heals, will heal a tank well. That’s all you need, you don’t need it to be flashy.

Restorative Totems is five points for max. It makes your healing and mana totems better. When I say better, I mean they give more healing or mana for the time that they are around. That’s something that, again, your group will thank you for as you won’t waste as much time with consumables. It also helps in fights. I always try to maintain and Mana totem up and running when I’m in a group, it helps ensure that it will take longer for me to run out of mana and ensure that the heals will keep on coming.

Tidal Master. I’ve talked with a handful of Resto Shamans and they all say the same, this is an absolute must for us. It’s a five point talent that ‘Increases the critical effect chance of your healing and lightning spells by 1% (up to five)’. Think of the moonkin aura, gives you a five percent chance to get a critical strike on every spell, this is doing the same for the Shaman but ONLY for the Shaman. Remember that many of the talents that we’ve seen in all three trees count on critical strikes, be it spells or melee. This one is spells and healing. Pass this up at your peril.

Healing Wave (3 pts) max it out and it gives a 100% chance of making the next heal that you toss at a target will heal them even more, or better using the wording given. It also stacks up to three times. So you heal the player three times, you have three chances to heal him more each time, and those heals also continue to stack. So the least you’ll have on a player you’re healing is one, the most will ALWAYS be three. Very nice.

Nature’s Swiftness is a pass for me. It’s a one pointer but there are too many drawbacks to it. First off it’s a spell that you have to initiate. When I’m in the middle of a fight and I’m healing I don’t want to think about any other spells other than healing and I’m not looking at anything else beside health bars of my group mates. Second, it has a three minute cool down. Three minutes?! And it’s only for one spell, one time. No. This just isn’t right.

Focused Mind is supposed to help stop interruption and silence effects. However you many have already sunk the points into Healing Focus and this talent is stating that it doesn’t stack with any other talents. So do you really want two different spells affecting you that don’t stack and don’t really help you visibly? Yea it’s a pass to me, unless someone can convince me otherwise.

Purification gives you effectiveness of healing by up to 10%. This is good, it means that your heals are going to be stronger and affect the player being healed more. You should have this maxed out if you want to be a worthwhile healer without having to suffer with low mana or high agro.

Restoration Totems leads to Mana Tide Totem. The Beast of all Mana totems as it has a short life span but gives HIGH amounts of mana in that time frame. It’s a great loving totem and every group that has a Resto Shaman wants you to break it out every chance you get. It’s one point, definitely worth the pick up.

Nature’s Guardian is a talent that’s built in to help you when you’re getting agro and being attacked. It helps you in two ways. First it has the possibility of healing you for 10% of your full health AND reducing your agro. Good to have really since at some point you’re not going to be able to count on anyone but yourself in a group, hey it happens!

Nature’s Blessing is a three pointer. It’s an interesting one as it increases heals and spell damage by 30% of your intellect. So if you have 10 intellect, it increases your heals and damage by 3. That’s at three points. While it’s not HIGHLY Impressive, it does help you get up there as far as plus healing. Remember that at this point in the tree you’re in your fifties. So you’re not needing I right away but later on, as you prepare for higher content, something like this is going to be very useful It also leads into my favorite talent of this tree.

Before that talent though you have Improved Chain Heal, like I said this is a low level heal and one that you’ll end up using often. Shamans are one of the few that have something like this and it comes in handy if you’ve got three group members taking damage at the same time. Imp Chain Heal gives a boost to the size of heals that you’re giving out. Very good stuff as it’s one that I enjoy to use myself all the time.

The last talent on this Tree and the one that makes everything else worth it is Earth Shield. It’s a one point talent. Think of Lightning Shield and Mana Shield and it’s the same principle. The difference is that this is a Shield that you can throw onto another person in party with you. So you can have the Tank covered with Earth Shield and use Lightning or Mana shield on yourself. It’s great for off healing the tank while you spam heal to make sure he’s near topped off at all times.

The one down fall to Earth Shield since 2.3 is that for some reason you can’t recast it before it’s completely gone. So if your tank has Earth Shield and you’ve cleared out all the mobs before a boss and he’s only got one charge left on the Shield (There’s 10 charges to the Shield). You can’t go over and just recast it. You have to WAIT until that last charge is spent before you can cast it again on the same character. Time consuming and illogical as you now not only have to watch health bars but watch to see when that Shield has expired on your tank at all times. =/

Alright, there you have it, the restoration Tree in all its beauty. This was a long endeavor and I thank you for the patience that you had waiting for me to finish this bit of information on Shamans.

I’m going to chill on the builds for a bit, I’m working on Bosque at the moment and he’s at 42. I will however continue to blog and let you know how things are going on my realm and my life.

I had no idea that this article would be so long….oh noes!