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Single target healing
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Post by
379034
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
exavious
On single target healing... get rid of chain healing. If you have high enough crit, you will consumer a lot of water shield orbs from your LHW.
Riptide/lhw/lhw repeat.
You want high crit though as then you prot ancestral awakening/water shield for bonus healing and mana regen. There really isn't a rotation for shaman healing, you just fit in what works best at the time.
Post by
JaxOmen
Max HPS (mana is no object):
RT->HW->HW->CH->HW->HW->repeat
Mana Efficiency:
RT->LHW->LHW->LHW->repeat (drop the last LHW if you're wearing T8)
Realistically though, the ideal is going to be some variation thereof. There are times when simply spamming Chain heal on the tank is ideal, such as on Twins, where the melee is likely in range of the Chain Heal bounces coming from the tank, or during Gormok, where the chainheal can and will bounce to both of the other tanks who are taking Impale bleed damage.
A good resto shaman uses all of their spells as the situation requires.
Also, if you're finding yourself going oom, you need more int/mp5, or you're missing important raidbuffs such as replenishment. Also, do not be afraid to use Mana Tide. That's what it's there for.
Post by
d2thomas
There is no such thing as a healing rotation.
le sigh.
Post by
MegaVolt
How about Rip - LHW - LHW - CH - LHW - LHW - (repeat) for mana efficient healing? Basically use the max hps rotation and replace HW with LHW. This way you will always have the buff up, Rip - LHWx3 won't do that.
@thomas: There is no such thing as a single strict healing rotation that one should actually use in a real fight.
There is however a rotation that will maximize your theoretical maximum single target healing throughput. That doesn't mean you should use this rotation in every single fight but it is a very good thing to at least keep this theoretical maximum in mind when choosing the appropriate healing spells for an encounter.
Post by
d2thomas
How about Rip - LHW - LHW - CH - LHW - LHW - (repeat) for mana efficient healing? Basically use the max hps rotation and replace HW with LHW. This way you will always have the buff up, Rip - LHWx3 won't do that.
@thomas: There is no such thing as a single strict healing rotation that one should actually use in a real fight.
There is however a rotation that will maximize your theoretical maximum single target healing throughput. That doesn't mean you should use this rotation in every single fight but it is a very good thing to at least keep this theoretical maximum in mind when choosing the appropriate healing spells for an encounter.
um yeah that's called knowing the synergy of your class and abilities, not a rotation.
Post by
JaxOmen
How about Rip - LHW - LHW - CH - LHW - LHW - (repeat) for mana efficient healing? Basically use the max hps rotation and replace HW with LHW. This way you will always have the buff up, Rip - LHWx3 won't do that.
@thomas: There is no such thing as a single strict healing rotation that one should actually use in a real fight.
There is however a rotation that will maximize your theoretical maximum single target healing throughput. That doesn't mean you should use this rotation in every single fight but it is a very good thing to at least keep this theoretical maximum in mind when choosing the appropriate healing spells for an encounter.
um yeah that's called knowing the synergy of your class and abilities, not a rotation.
RT->HW->HW->CH->HW->HW-> repeat is a rotation. it is max HPS on a single target that we can possibly output. This is non-arguable.
Knowing when to use that rotation, when to end that rotation, and what other spells to use at other times, is how you demonstrate skill at healing.
So yeah, there's no "healing rotation", per se, but there sure as hell is a rotation you can and should use when you need to output maximum single target healing.
Post by
181706
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Tenshigure
I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you're a single-target healer, you should not be worrying about HPS, but healing efficiency. Know your tank, know the boss' mechanics, and you'll have a much easier time keeping your mana efficiency up in case you need to pull emergency double-duty.
On a tank, it's not about rotations, it's about priority. My rule of thumb is ES & RT should always be up on your tank to keep Tidal Waves procced (I have both T8 x 2 & T9 x 2 for this). LHW to cover the vast majority of your hits, and if a big incoming slam is coming then fire off a HW to get the rest. The main trick is to know how much you can heal for with each spell.
For me, it's like this (unless I know a big hit is incoming):**
0 - 3K: Riptide
3K - 10K: LHW Spam
10K+: HW
CH should rarely be used, and honestly I only use it when I'm dual-tank healing and the OT healer is struggling (twins or worms typically). If your Raid Healer(s) can't keep up, you have more pressing issues to worry about. Trust your tank, let them know they trust you, and let the rest of the raid do whatever they need to keep progression going.
**Disclaimer: This is my personal playstyle, and does not necessarily mean it's the "correct way" of doing things. I've rarely had any struggles keeping someone up with these guildelines if I'm single-target healing though.
Post by
MegaVolt
if it is non arguable, can you show me your statistics then?
riptide, for example consumes a GCD wich can be used for LHW spam. fast HW is still slower then normal LHW. It can heal for more though. Where is the breakdown. Iam very interested where you base your facts on since iam not really convinced yet.
Personally I have never ever used a rotation for healing. I use LHW, riptide, CH and Earthshield. Dont fit in HW since i dont have it talented + its not really mana effective + my LHW spam is enough (combined with the healing powers from the other healers ofc).
It has been discussen in detail
here
.
Rip - HW - HW - CH - HW - HW is indeed the max hps rotation for a single target healing Shaman. For TotGC (heroic TotC raid) you have to spam that at tanks sometimes to be able to keep them alive.
(unless I know a big hit is incoming):
On heroic end game raid content you
always
know that there is a big hit incoming. There is nothing but big hits.
Post by
Tenshigure
On heroic end game raid content you
always
know that there is a big hit incoming. There is nothing but big hits.
I must have some rather impressive tanks in my guild then if they're able to absorb hits pretty nicely on my watch. I use the above strategy as the MT Healer for ToGC10 & OT Healer for ToGC25, and there seems to be quite a few "non-big hits" in between their special attacks that I'm keeping an eye out.***
I don't know if you're just joking here or not, but if your tanks are getting smacked around that easily in end-game content they should be high priority in gearing up. That or they (or you) need to learn how to use your CDs more effectively (ie Interrupts).
***Disclaimer #2: Our guild's MT is a Prot Warrior & 2nd MT/OT is a Prot Pally for 10-man, these same two are joined by an Unholy DK in 25.
Post by
JaxOmen
if it is non arguable, can you show me your statistics then?
riptide, for example consumes a GCD wich can be used for LHW spam. fast HW is still slower then normal LHW. It can heal for more though. Where is the breakdown. Iam very interested where you base your facts on since iam not really convinced yet.
Personally I have never ever used a rotation for healing. I use LHW, riptide, CH and Earthshield. Dont fit in HW since i dont have it talented + its not really mana effective + my LHW spam is enough (combined with the healing powers from the other healers ofc).
So, what talents do you use instead of Healing Way + Improved Healing Wave? There's nowhere you can spend the points for more healing output than those talents. No, it's not mana effective. Yes, HW is (roughly) as fast of a cast, if you build your shaman properly, as LHW (within .2 seconds), with Tidal Waves up. It also heals for more than twice as much, and does not require ES on the particular tank you are healing to be effective (although this last one is a situational at best benefit).
For a properly specced/geared shaman, LHW should be CRITTING for ~10k, and HW should be HITTING for 13k, critting for 20k. That is a tremendous HPS increase from those .2 seconds. It also procs IWS on every crit, not just 60% of them, so it's not AS mana-inefficient as it looks (although it's still more mana consumption than LHW or CH)
I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you're a single-target healer, you should not be worrying about HPS, but healing efficiency. Know your tank, know the boss' mechanics, and you'll have a much easier time keeping your mana efficiency up in case you need to pull emergency double-duty.
On a tank, it's not about rotations, it's about priority. My rule of thumb is ES & RT should always be up on your tank to keep Tidal Waves procced (I have both T8 x 2 & T9 x 2 for this). LHW to cover the vast majority of your hits, and if a big incoming slam is coming then fire off a HW to get the rest. The main trick is to know how much you can heal for with each spell.
For me, it's like this (unless I know a big hit is incoming):**
0 - 3K: Riptide
3K - 10K: LHW Spam
10K+: HW
CH should rarely be used, and honestly I only use it when I'm dual-tank healing and the OT healer is struggling (twins or worms typically). If your Raid Healer(s) can't keep up, you have more pressing issues to worry about. Trust your tank, let them know they trust you, and let the rest of the raid do whatever they need to keep progression going.
**Disclaimer: This is my personal playstyle, and does not necessarily mean it's the "correct way" of doing things. I've rarely had any struggles keeping someone up with these guildelines if I'm single-target healing though.
I do not disagree in the slightest. However, there are times when "your priority" should be max HPS on a single target. RT->HW->HW->CH->HW->HW->repeat allows you to do that WHEN you need to. A good example would be when dreadscale is enraged after acidmaw dies on heroic beasts, the tank is taking constant massive damage. During that enrage, your mana means less than your HPS, so spamming your (mana-inefficient) high-output rotation is the way to heal it the best.
On heroic end game raid content you
always
know that there is a big hit incoming. There is nothing but big hits.
I must have some rather impressive tanks in my guild then if they're able to absorb hits pretty nicely on my watch. I use the above strategy as the MT Healer for ToGC10 & OT Healer for ToGC25, and there seems to be quite a few "non-big hits" in between their special attacks that I'm keeping an eye out.***
I don't know if you're just joking here or not, but if your tanks are getting smacked around that easily in end-game content they should be high priority in gearing up. That or they (or you) need to learn how to use your CDs more effectively (ie Interrupts).
***Disclaimer #2: Our guild's MT is a Prot Warrior & 2nd MT/OT is a Prot Pally for 10-man, these same two are joined by an Unholy DK in 25.
You fail to mention what other healing classes you have. If you're running with a resto druid or a disc priest, those classes provide large "buffers" so that the tanks appear to be taking smaller hits (because part of the hit is being absorbed by shields or is being healed instantly by HoTs). Also, if you're running with a 25-man geared tank (which it sounds like you are), the tank is not going to be taking massive hits during 10-man ToGC, despite it being on "hard mode", and there is rarely, if ever, a need for the mana-inefficient maxHPS rotation.
.
I don't know how many times I can say this. There is no proper "healing rotation" like a holy pally uses where you just spam one rotation all fight. Part of playing a resto shaman is knowing what healing spells to use when, and on whom.
BUT, if and when you are fighting a boss that does massive sustained single-target damage, the rotation I've posted will provide you with the most output to attempt to keep your tank alive. Hell, as I've said, there are times when just spamming CH on a tank so it bounces to the other tank is ideal. Your job as a healer is to learn when to use a rotation, when to stop using a rotation, when to spotheal, and when to stop healing and regen mana so you can continue healing for the rest of the fight (AnubP2, Beasts transitions, for a couple examples).
Post by
Tenshigure
I do not disagree in the slightest. However, there are times when "your priority" should be max HPS on a single target. RT->HW->HW->CH->HW->HW->repeat allows you to do that WHEN you need to. A good example would be when dreadscale is enraged after acidmaw dies on heroic beasts, the tank is taking constant massive damage. During that enrage, your mana means less than your HPS, so spamming your (mana-inefficient) high-output rotation is the way to heal it the best.
Again, this is knowing your class here. In the situation of Beasts, as I mentioned in my previous quote I do throw in CHs and switch to a HW due to the Enrage hits. However, even during the Enrage the healers shouldn't be struggling because it's a basic tank-n-spank at that point (other than needing everyone to stay out of poison clouds).
So, what talents do you use instead of Healing Way + Improved Healing Wave? There's nowhere you can spend the points for more healing output than those talents. No, it's not mana effective. Yes, HW is (roughly) as fast of a cast, if you build your shaman properly, as LHW (within .2 seconds), with Tidal Waves up. It also heals for more than twice as much, and does not require ES on the particular tank you are healing to be effective (although this last one is a situational at best benefit).
For a properly specced/geared shaman, LHW should be CRITTING for ~10k, and HW should be HITTING for 13k, critting for 20k. That is a tremendous HPS increase from those .2 seconds. It also procs IWS on every crit, not just 60% of them, so it's not AS mana-inefficient as it looks (although it's still more mana consumption than LHW or CH)
I actually do keep my points in Healing Wave because it's still part of my rotation as a Single-Target healer, it's just not my primary healing spell that's all. As you said, it's not mana efficient, and if I want to keep my procs up and running, I would rather toss out a small LHW than waste it on an almost identical speed HW.
That's why I said that within HP damage healed I switch to Healing Wave, it's just a matter of topping the tank off without overhealing. Again, YMMV since I said it's the way that works for me, but I found that I'm not struggling as much with my MP after switching to this method (21K pool unbuffed FYI).
Again, I'm not saying your methods are wrong, nor am I disagreeing that your methods would work either. You just gotta feel your own guidelines down to keep things going strong. Personally I've found that as long as RT is up and running, my spells can keep up no problem.
I do not disagree in the slightest. However, there are times when "your priority" should be max HPS on a single target. RT->HW->HW->CH->HW->HW->repeat allows you to do that WHEN you need to. A good example would be when dreadscale is enraged after acidmaw dies on heroic beasts, the tank is taking constant massive damage. During that enrage, your mana means less than your HPS, so spamming your (mana-inefficient) high-output rotation is the way to heal it the best.
Again, with the disclaimer that this is a single target, I will have RT up at all times. I don't even bother thinking of a 'rotation' at that point, it's "where is my target's HP at currently?" and nothing more. If they're still struggling to keep up (maybe blew off CDs early), I would never throw a Chain Heal in due to it being too high of a liability with the cast time. That's the raid healer's job, not mine.
You fail to mention what other healing classes you have. If you're running with a resto druid or a disc priest, those classes provide large "buffers" so that the tanks appear to be taking smaller hits (because part of the hit is being absorbed by shields or is being healed instantly by HoTs). Also, if you're running with a 25-man geared tank (which it sounds like you are), the tank is not going to be taking massive hits during 10-man ToGC, despite it being on "hard mode", and there is rarely, if ever, a need for the mana-inefficient maxHPS rotation.
Good point, I suppose I should've mentioned that. Typically in 10s I'm paired up with a Holy Pally & Resto Druid. Both of them are only 10-geared though (schedules conflict time for 25s), and the Resto Druid is typically our Raid Healer. In 25s, we also add in a pair of Priests (Holy & Disc) and a second Resto Shaman (CH-specced who switches to Elemental when we don't need her).
As for the tanks though, even in 25s he isn't taking "big hits" on every hit. I guess my definition of what a "big hit" is differs from most others. 35% of your HP = Big Hit to me, 20% not so much, heh.
Post by
JaxOmen
Yeah, a big hit is 35% or more of the tank's health. I'm not sure why you think these don't happen frequently? Enraged ToGC25 worms, for example, hit my bear druid for 20-25k of his 52k health pool on every single melee swing that lands. They hit all our other tanks harder (I'm an EH #$%^&, 36k armor raidbuffed). That's not just big, that's HUGE, especially stacking on top of that, burning bile damage, molten spew damage... just OW. So yeah, when the tank is taking hits like that, you should be spamming your maximum throughput as much as you can, because if you start casting a tidal-waved HW when he takes the hit, he may be dead before your 1.3 second cast finishes, factoring in latency + your natural reaction time (all it takes is some RNG to take 2-3 hits back to back).
Post by
Tenshigure
I already said I switch to HWs when Enraged comes, what more do you want from me? Again, those are expected big hits coming in, it's not like all fights are always 100% Enraged after all! =P
Post by
JaxOmen
... so we agree then?
You just said what I've been saying from the beginning!
Post by
MegaVolt
I already said I switch to HWs when Enraged comes, what more do you want from me? Again, those are expected big hits coming in, it's not like all fights are always 100% Enraged after all! =P
I'm not sure with what kind of imba tanks you are running but I see >10k hits from Gormock quite often. Add in 2-3 stacks ticking and you have to be prepared for big hits at all times.
Post by
342035
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
323658
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Tenshigure
I'm not sure with what kind of imba tanks you are running but I see >10k hits from Gormock quite often. Add in 2-3 stacks ticking and you have to be prepared for big hits at all times.
The fact my LHWs typically heal for 9K (note: I do gear myself up specifically for the RT/LHW/HW style, so that includes glyphs and proc trinkets) hardly makes me break a sweat on those strikes. The only time I'm really needing to crank up the HWs, again, is during Enraged Worms and, naturally, ToGC25 Anub'arak. But even during that, typically the last two standing in our group is myself and the tank, and he never goes down before I do.
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