Welcome Shamans! Well Patch 5.4 has dropped and is currently on live servers, so hopefully you’ve had a chance to play around on the new “Loot-Isle” or perhaps you’ve already started raiding the Siege of Orgrimmar to take down Garrosh. Whatever you’re up to in the World of Warcraft, we’ve got your Resto Shaman Patch 5.4 changes covered.
From a big change to Chain Heal, a lot of changes to possible effects on Healing Rain and that glyph of Raining Frogs, we’ve got it all covered. If you haven’t yet got across changes for the Resto Shaman, now’s the perfect time to do it. In this post we go over the game play changes for Resto Shaman only so you can focus on improving your healing.
General
Chain Heal‘s effectiveness will no longer decrease with each jump (up from a 30% reduction to healing with each jump).
What a buff to start off with! Resto Shaman’s rejoice as Chain Heal receives a buff to it’s raw healing, with the reduction to healing per Chain Heal jump being removed. Now that Chain Heal no longer reduces heals with each jump AND will go through full-health players to reach injured players, this spell really is at a strong point. Combine it with our Healing Rain and we’re pretty darn good AoE healers!
Healing Rain‘s healing has been reduced by 30%, and the area-of-effect has been increased to 12 yards (up from 10 yards). In addition, Healing Rain now functions like a smart heal, healing the 6 most injured friendly targets within range, and minor guardians are no longer targeted (Wild Imps, Bloodworms, Snakes from Snake Traps, etc.). There has been no change to the total amount of healing granted by the ability.
Healing Rain’s healing has been reduced by 30% yes, but this is for all Shaman, not just Resto. This is negated for Resto Shaman in the next patch note regarding Purification, so don’t worry too much. But there are two other parts of this particular patch note that are more important. The first being the 2 additional yards that Healing Rain will cover. The second part is that it now functions as a smart heal. This is a welcome change as it will no longer try to heal those already at full health.
Restoration
Purification now increases the healing done by Healing Rain by 100% in addition to the ability’s current effects.
- Ancestral Vigor now has a duration of 30 seconds (up from 15 seconds).
There are 2 points to take note of here. The first is a change to the amount of healing done by Healing Rain, which has been increased by 100%. This is to counter act the 30% reduction that has been made to Healing Rain for all Shamans. The second change to take note of is the buff to Ancestral Vigor. Ancestal Vigor increases player’s maximum health when you heal them. A 15 second increase to this buff is substantial. We’ll take it!
Riptide‘s mana cost has been reduced by 25%.
A mana cost to any healing spell is a welcome change for us. With the increase in Chain Heal additional-jump heals no longer being reduced, and the Glyph of Riptide reducing the initial direct heal by only 75% (we’ll talk about this later), we could end up using Riptide a bit more, because Riptide effects the amount that Chain Heal heals, we’ll want it rolling on multiple targets before we Chain Heal, so a mana cost reduction is most welcome!
Talents
Astral Shift now has a cooldown of 90 seconds, down from 120 seconds.
A straight forward change to Astral Shift by reducing it’s cooldown by 30 seconds. Astral Shift is now available every 1.5 minutes.
Conductivity has been redesigned.
- Healing an ally with Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge, or Chain Heal, increases the duration of Healing Rain by 4 seconds.
- Damaging an enemy with Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Earth Shock, or Stormstrike increases the duration of Healing Rain by 4 seconds.
- Conductivity can increase the duration of Healing Rain up to a maximum of 40 seconds.
A big change to one of our tier 5 level 75 talents in Conductivity. Basically what this talent does now is change the way your Healing Rain works. Conductivity is a passive effect and changes your active Healing Rain depending on the spells you use after casting that Healing Rain.
For example. You cast Healing Rain on the ground. It has lasts for 10 seconds. Then you use your Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge or Chain Heal. Your Healing Rain now has 8 seconds duration, but with Conductivity, it has been extended by 4 seconds, so it now has 12 seconds duration. You can continue this way all the way up to 40 seconds. This could be a very strong mana saver, as you can keep Healing Rain up for as long as you can cast those 4 spells, which you’re bound to do in a normal encounter.
The main issue you’re going to run into is movement: If the raid or the stack on top of Healing Rain has to move, you’re going to need to recast Healing Rain in the new position. If you’re a lower geared mana starved Resto Shaman we recommend this talent for sustained AoE healing.
Healing Tide Totem is no longer a talent and is a baseline ability for all Shamans. Additionally, this totem will now heal 12 raid members (up from 5) when used in a 25-player instance.
- New Talent: Rushing Streams. Rushing Streams replaces Healing Tide Totem talent, increases healing done by Healing Stream Totem by 15%, and causes the totem to heal 2 targets at once.
Healing Tide Totem is now available to all Shaman including Resto. It will now heal up to 12 raid members instead of just 5 when used in a 25 player instance. Although available to all Shaman, it’s still at it’s strongest for Resto Shaman due to our Purification, which increases all healing by 25% and all healing done by our Water Totems by 50%.
Rushing Streams is the talent that replaces it. Rushing Streams is a tier 5 level 75 talent that replaces Healing Tide Totem. This new talent does two things: 1) increases healing done by the totem by 15% and 2) heals a second target. This is a very attractive talent, espcially as it’s a set and forget totem that heals automatically and allows us to focus on casting other spells. But it’s definitely up against 2 other good talents. This is probably the easiest/smartest talent to utilize in this tier now.
Stone Bulwark Totem‘s initial damage absorption shield now absorbs an additional 33% in damage.
Makes sense, a buff to this talent which was pretty mediocre to begin with really. Just a boost to the absorption shield this totem puts on you.
Totemic Restoration has been replaced with a new talent, Totemic Persistence.
- New talent: Totemic Persistence. Summoning a second totem of the same element no longer causes the first totem to be destroyed. Only one non-Fire totem can benefit from this effect at a time.
The old Totemic Restoration was a complicated and somewhat overwhelming talent, causing many Shamans to completely ignore it. It has been replaced with an easier to understand and actually pretty cool talent. Basically it allows you to drop 2 of the same type of totem at once, without being overwritten, but you can only do it for that type.
For example: You’ve just dropped your Mana Tide and getting your mana back. Suddenly the raid takes significant damage and you need to drop your Healing Tide Totem. Well now you can without the fear that you will lose the remaining Mana Tide return ticks. The same can be done vise versa. Even then, once your Mana Tide Totem has expired and dissappeared and you Healing Tide Totem is still ticking, you can drop your Healing Stream Totem and combined with the new Rushing Streams talent, that’s some pretty serious Totem healing right there! The possibilities are pretty endless!
- Earthliving Weapon effect now applies to the Shaman, not the target.
This is a pretty cool change to the Unleashed Fury talent, which changes the effect that your Earthliving Weapon has when you unleash it. With this change, not only does unleashing our Earthliving effect our next direct healing spell or Healing Rain by 30%, but with this talent it effects is by an additional 50%. That’s an 80% increase to one of our direct heals or Healing Rains every 15 seconds. We would definitely suggest taking this talent as our tier 6 level 90 talent. Especially combined with the new conductivity. Unleashing a 80% Healing Rain and being able to keep it going with just Healing Wave and Chain Heal makes AoE healing very strong for Resto Shaman.
New Major Glyphs
Glyph of Eternal Earth: Lightning Bolt now has a chance to add a charge to the Shaman’s active Earth Shield. This cannot cause Earth Shield to exceed 9 charges.
This could be a good glyph to use to change up the way you play. For example, if you’re also taking the talent Conductivity in tier 5, laying down your Healing Rain and using Lightning Bolt won’t just extend the duration of your Healing Rain, it will also add a charge (up to a maximum of 9) onto the Earth Shield that is currently on a target.
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Chaining now increases the cooldown on Chain Heal by 2 seconds, down from a 4 second increase.
Previously, this glyph would increase the jump size but also add a 4 second cooldown. That cooldown has been reduced by 2 seconds, so a buff to this glyph.
Glyph of Cleansing Waters now heals the target for 5% of the Shaman’s maximum health (up from 4%).
Much like the changes to the dispel glyphs for the other healing classes, this glyph now heals for an additional 1% when successfully removing a magic or curse. Could be a useful glyph, should you find yourself dispelling a lot during an encounter.
Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem now reduces the cooldown and duration for Fire Elemental Totem by 50%, up from 40%.
Probably not one of the Resto Shaman’s go-to glyph, but worth mentioning the buff to the change it makes to our Fire Elemental Totem.
Glyph of Frost Shock now reduces the cooldown of Frost Shock by 2 seconds.
Again, not huge for Resto Shaman, but if you’re a PvPer who uses Frost Shock to slow or even Freeze an enemy in place with the tier 2 talent Frozen Power, this could be a useful glyph for you.
Glyph of Grounding Totem now increases the cooldown of Grounding Totem after reflecting a harmful spell by 20 seconds (down from a 35-second cooldown increase).
Again, probably more specific to PvP players, but still worth mentioning, this glyph allows your Grounding Totem to reflect a harmful spell every 45 seconds. This number used to be once every minute. Without this glyph of course, it doesn’t reflect it but absorbs it.
Glyph of Riptide reduces the initial direct healing of Riptide by 75%, down from a 90% reduction to healing.
A basic straight up buff to this Glyph, with the reduction in the inital direct heal to remove the cooldown of Riptide.
New Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Astral Fixation: Astral Recall now takes the Shaman to their capital’s Earthshrine.
Pretty cool change. Returns you to your capital’s Earthshrine, which is the place that you would previously have gone to to get to Cataclysm zones. This is basically a second Hearthstone, as now your Hearthstone can be set to somewhere else (i.e. Pandaria) and your Astral Recall can be set to your capital.
Glyph of the Compy: Hex now transforms enemies into a Compy.
A neat little glyph. You’ll be able to turn your enemies into little tiny dinosaurs, rather than frogs!
Glyph of Elemental Familiars: Summons a random Fire, Water, or Nature familiar. Familiars of different types have a tendency to fight each other.
Another cool glyph that allow you to summon little companion type beings.
Glyph of Flaming Serpents: The Shaman’s Searing Totem now resembles Vol’jin’s Serpent Ward.
A cosmetic change to our Searing Totems. We don’t use Searing Totem much so we probably won’t see much of this Glyph.
Glyph of Lingering Ancestors: Resurrecting someone with Ancestral Spirit causes a ghostly ancestor to follow them around for a short time.
A sneaky glyph that could freak out your party or raid members. Beware of the ‘what is this thing following me’ chat spam as a result!
Glyph of Rain of Frogs: Allows the Shaman to summon a rain storm of frogs at a targeted location.
Quirky and pointless, possibly confusing to party and raid members! It provides you a whole new spell. Do not confuse this with your Healing Rain spell as things could get a bit embarrasing!
Glyph of Spirit Wolf: Ghost Wolf can be now be used while the Shaman is a ghost.
Allows us to tranform into a Ghost Wolf when running back to our corpse allowing us to run at an increased speed.
Well that’s it for all the Resto Shaman changes. What do you think of the Patch so far? What’s your favourite change for us Resto Shaman? Let us know in the comments below!