Resto Shamans Bring People Closer Together...For Chain Healing.

My title is the truth...only Resto Shamans bring us closer together. Resto Druids are happy to let us drift apart because they can just show off their HoT skills. Therefore, Resto Shamans are better because they do not promote anti-social behaviour! Don't worry, I still love you, Resto Druids. And with the new Shaman combos being announced, I think I'll post my views on them in here and go back and slot them in the Enhance and Element Shaman blog posts I did too. So you're getting one blog post and two updated ones, you lucky readers! Anyway, let's take a look at the Resto Shaman.

Races

Alliance

Draenei-Resto Draenei Shamans works great for me. I always see Draenei as the race most likely to want to help others by healing them or keeping them alive and caring the most about if an ally dies or not. Therefore, Resto works well for them and I imagine the Draenei Shaman is happy when his group succeeds and no one dies around him due to his healing.

Dwarf-This is my least favourite spec for Dwarf Shamans. It's not that I think they're heartless and won't want to heal others and keep them alive (if I thought that, I wouldn't approve of Dwarf Priests after all). I just feel a Dwarf Shaman is more likely to want to use the Elements to attack with and Resto doesn't let him/her do that.

Horde

Goblin-Hmm, Goblins and Resto. I think it might work well but I imagine that the only reason a Goblin would heal others would be because he profits from it in some way if they are kept alive be it the chance of new loot, mooneh or simply because without them, the goblin dies. If I grow to enjoy the concept of Goblin Shamans more, I may consider this the next best spec after Enhance.

Orc-My least favourite of the Horde options when it comes to the Resto tree. I've made the Orc Shaman-Dwarf Shaman comparison before and that still stands when I look at Resto. Therefore, just look at what I said for Dwarves and that's what I'd say for Orc Shaman too.

Tauren-Tauren Shaman and the Resto tree are a great match for one another. The Tauren are all about protecting their allies and loyalty and standing by their fellow Hordies. Therefore, Resto lets them keep their allies alive which will give the Tauren Shaman a lot of personal satisfaction.

Troll-My favourite Horde choice if we're looking at Resto Shamans. To me, the Darkspear trolls Shaman wise would be fairly laid back and would be more inclined to standing back away from the fight instead of getting up close and personal so they are ideal for Elemental or Resto. I also think that the Trolls are one of the races most likely to enjoy healing their allies so when you put the two together, Resto fits them perfectly.

Abilities

Healing Wave-Us Shamans get to start off with our big one healing spell wise from the exciting level 1. This is the big single-target heal but you have to be aware that as the ranks get higher, cast time increases from 1.5 to 3.0 seconds. As a result of the lengthy casting time, it's best to start casting before the person you're targetting takes damage if you're expecting a hefty hit to come their way or to do it while the target is taking some damage but has a lot of health since while you're taking your time (3 seconds can be a long time!), that target is still getting hurt.

Ancestral Spirit-Pretty simple spell. Has an ally/friend died? Yes. Are you in combat? No. Well, be awesome and rez them then. And wait for them to thank you and tell you how awesome you truly are.

Cure Toxins-It was nice of Blizzard to combine Cure Poison and Cure Disease into this. Makes life much simpler really...now, I don't have to think about which toolbar key to press/click when I see a Disease or a Poison appear. I just use this spell and everything's a-okay. As a side note, if you're expecting a lot of diseases and/or poisons, you're better off saving mana by putting Cleansing Totem down.

Water Shield-Oh, Water Shield. How those water orbs make my day. This is the shield of choice for both Resto and Elemental Shamans thanks to the mana regen factor. If you've got Improved Shields (Enhance talent) and Improved Water Shield (Resto talent), it makes this shield a SUPER SHIELD! Also, I recommend getting the Water Mastery glyph...30% extra passive mana regen is a nice little bonus fo sho.

Lesser Healing Wave-Consider this your quick-fire healing spell. It's speedy but it's not good for your mana to just spam this. However, if you get the Glyph of LHW, you might find that you'll be better off for tank healing instead of raid healing. It's nice to see a bit of versatility given to us after BC made us well-known for Chain-Heal-spam-faces.

Earthliving Weapon-Not too much to say about this really...it's awesome if you're healing. If you're not, don't waste your time using this when there's Windfury or Flametongue sitting there waiting to be picked.

Reincarnation-Ah, the "shaman aggro dump"....I'm kidding, do not kill yourself to get rid of aggro. If you do, people will laugh at you. Anyway, this spell is awesome and it's main use is wipe recovery. You just have to love a self-rezzer who can then rez everyone else. Just be careful where you die otherwise your Reincarnation will be wasted. As a personal side note, I love when in PvP, someone kills you and they have only a tiny bit of health left and you use this and get your payback. Revenge is my Shaman's middle name....no really, he's called Ingredients Revenge Deathmoo.

Totemic Recall-Whilst levelling my Draenei Shaman, I've come to realise how much I love having this spell. You get this at level 30 and you'll be a better Shaman for it. Throw your totem foursome down to do their buff thing. Then when you're done, use this spell to "recycle" your totems and get some mana back. It also saves the environment too by not leaving your totems around to ruin the environment!

Chain Heal-This is a trademark Resto spell right here. Anytime you get some AoE damage, you zap your allies with this. I'd also recommend getting the glyph since that means you can heal 4 targets with this instead of 3 and that makes this spell even more glorious then it already is. And it's already pretty glorious. Anyway, point is....use this when you need to heal two or more people and make sure to get the glyph.

Tidal Force-I admittedly don't use this spell as much as I should do. It's pretty handy for increasing crit chance and healing in a tight spot but it's not perfect. In fact, some Resto Shaman complain that it's not as good as it could be because 20 seconds isn't a big enough window of opportunity and they find they only use 2 out of the 3 charges that's on offer to them. However, while it's not perfect, it's still a handy spell. Note to self, start using it more.

Nature's Swiftness-This spell is gold for Resto and Elemental Shamans. The spells it's best to use in combo with this spell would be Chain Heal or Healing Wave Resto wise. As for Elementals, take your pick from Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning.

Cleanse Spirit-Think of this as Cure Toxins only bigger, better and much more cooler. It's like having the Fonz instead of Richie on your toolbar.

Earth Shield-Stick this shield on yourself or someone else (usually the tank) and watch as they get healed every time they get attacked by the enemy. Your enemy heals them through their violence and you can sit back and be a little bit more relaxed about things.

Riptide-Last of the Resto tree talent spells...it's an instant heal with an added built in HoT. Fancy stuff really. I'm just glad that we finally got a HoT of some sort since HoT's are always handy for making healing easier. With the Tidal Waves talent, Riptide becomes handy for not only boosting Chain Heal but it also gives LHW a boost too. All in all, Riptide is fab.

Spirit Link-I was disappointed to see this spell go but I understand why it did. It caused Blizz a lot of problems and issues...and we got the handy Riptide so it wasn't all bad. However, a part of me would love to have this spell back..but how would it work without being overpowered? Well, I took some thinking time and this is what I came up with. Have Spirit Link only work on two targets (3 is too overpowered, I think) and it distributes damage between the two. However, it only has 3 charges (on both of the targets) and a lengthy cooldown so it can be broken by attacking either one of the Linked duo till all 3 charges are gone. Now, if that still seems too unfair, make it so that the Shaman links themself to the other target which will put the Shaman at a fair bit of risk. I think either version of SL would work out great and it doesn't seem too bad in my head. Hopefully, we'll see it make it's apperance some day in WOW.

And there you have it...my post on Resto Shamans. That's all three Shaman specs covered now. I can breathe a sigh of relief since I finally got round to finishing the Shaman specs after I constantly got sidetracked with posts about other things all the time. So you might be wondering...what's coming up next? Well, it will be one of two things. It will either be a blog post looking at all the Blizzcon info we got (which may actually come in two parts depending on the size) or a blog post looking at those things Hunters love...pets!

Either way, I hope you've enjoyed this post and the other two Shaman spec posts. If you haven't, feel free to tell me you found it boring/pointless in the comments okay? If enough people say it, I might just forget the spec related posts so feel free to leave your views in the comments section. So with all that written, I'll end the post with a Shaman related quote from the WC3 Shaman unit.

"You ever get hit by lightning where the sun don't shine?"