this is a Shaman blog right?

Its true. I know that my blog is more of a general WoW-personal experiences-misc-nonsense blog, but I do like to give some good information about my beloved Shaman class.

Patch 3.3 has been out for a few weeks now. We just entered the third full week of the patch and I have had my time to collect my thoughts about all the changes and what they mean for us.

Fire Nova!

Holy crap this fun to play around with. If is very effective now that we have actual trash mobs in the new raid instance, ICC. Not to menation all of the heroic badge farming with the new LFG tool....shamans need to add this to their rotatoin right away. We now have a legit AoE spell.

Noticed how I said "shamans", meaning all specs. Yes, even resto can move up on the dps chart lol.

It has a 30 yard range which means you have to have line of sight of the totem and be at a maximum 30 yards away for the spell to work. You also don't have to drop the totem right by the mobs in order for the spell to hit the baddie. I don't know the exact yardage because I am at work and most sites are block, but from playing around with it I would say the totem itself has a 10 yard radius. Just plop that sucka down, hit the button, and watch the pretty numbers fly.

Pretty simple right? So how good is it and is it worth your dps lost to run up and place the totem in range?

It is very situational. You should not be overly concerned with it in regards to your dps rotation. However, if you are proactive and not just hanging out in the back of the raid/group, you should be able place the totem in range with minimum lost of "dps time".

Another important aspect of this new ability is that you shouldn't be using it unless you are AoE'n things. I am going to have to check on the math, but if there less then 3 mobs, I highly doubt it would be worth using for a dps spec'd shaman. It isn't going to be worth the dps drop from using the Fire Nova spell and losing a GCD while you could have casted a CL, LB, or LvB.

Resto shamans though....feel free to use it as much as you can! There is no reason that you shouldn't be using this on every pull in a 5 man heroic and most trash pulls in raids....just be careful about cleaves and you know...actually healing =P. Now, I am not saying that you should focus on dps'n and using the spell more then keeping people alive...but if you are just chillen and everyones health is good, use that sucka!

It is some pretty sweet dmg even for a Resto shaman, 2k+ dmg to everything. Spell hit and power does factor into if you hit and how hard, so keep that in mind.

I did 25 man Ony yesterday and I placed my totem in the middle of the floor where the whelps would be collected. I hit the spell and BAM! 1.600 dmg to 25+ whelps lol. It was pretty sweet.

What about you guys? How do you feel about the new ability of our fire totems.

Updated 3.3 Resto Shaman stats / gemming / haircuts / medical operations, ect...

Haste anyone? Because haste has overtaken the Shaman community in regards to the restoration spec. I have been reading that some shaman in heroic 25 man guilds are getting close to the haste softcap.

Ya...the haste softcap. What is the haste softcap? Well, there isn't such a thing as the softcap per se...but I hear it mentioned alot, which is confusing to me. Nonetheless, you can not benefit from more then 50% haste. That would bring your GCD to 1 second. Even if you had 50% and then used Bloodlust/Heroism, you wouldn't be affected by the buff at all.

Going back on resto shamans in heroic 25 man guilds....they are approaching 1100-1300 haste!!! Good f'n lord. That is damn close to 40% haste and equals a very, very, fast heal.

What does it mean!!!

So am I telling you to gem the hell out of haste and screw everything else? No. What I am telling you is that once you get your average item level is around 232...you should really gem for haste, it will help your performance, especially in 25 mans.

Red socket - Reckless Ametrine (12 sp 10 haste - 27 HEPs)
Yellow socket - Quick King's Amber (20 haste - 30 HEPs)
Blue socket - Energized Eye of Zul* (10mp5 10 haste)

*Note, in regard to blue sockets. You need 1 to meet the requirement for our meta gem, so only socket one blue socket with Energized Eye of Zul. The rest of your blue sockets should be Quick King's Amber to maximize your HEP (Healing Equivalency Points).

With that being the case, if you notice that you are running out of mana too quickly, definitely roll with the Energized Eye of Zul for your blue sockets. However, its not always a good thing to end a raid boss encounter with a bunch of mana. What that means is that you have too much and you are not maximizing your other stats....to a point. I would go more indepth about it, but I think you know what I am trying to say.

Break it down...

Haste > Spell Power =/= Mp5 > Crit > Intellect

Consider yourself broken down. For a resto shaman, that is our stats ranked in order to maximize your performance. What? Need more information? Slightly confused?

Again, I am going to use HEP. The point is to get your HEP number is high as possible while maintaining a good mana level and throughput. With that said...

Haste - 1.5
Spell Power - 1.0
mp5 - 1.0
Crit - 0.8
Intel - 0.6

Even if you are confused on how HEPs work, just look at the numbers for each stat and gear appropriately. Quite a change from a few patches ago when spell power and intellect was king.

Changes to my Shaman

Since my gear is not quite up to the level or stacking haste like a mad man...I decided to get my shaman for 28% crit, 575 mp5, 2850 spell power, with a whopping 786 haste self buffed.

I went ahead and regemmed for a little more haste at the expense of losing alot of mp5. I dropped about 50mp5 and gained 50 haste. I have only been in one VoA 25 man raid, but so far its pretty nice. My HPS is much more consistent and although I have noticed the difference from the 50mp5 that I used to have, its not making me go out of mana.

Which you know...is a good thing.

I also got a wild stick up my ass and decided I was tried of being a fat cow. It was rather annoying that I didn't fit through 75% of doorways while mounted and going off of racial that would be beneficial for raiding...Tauren shaman don't have anything.

So I could have choose an Orc or a Troll. Orc has +pet dmg and a free spell power trinket. Trolls have better regeneration and a free 20% faster casting trinket.

I choose the troll of the faster casting racial and regen....and because I can have DREADLOCKS!

/headbang

Its funny when you do a race change. Its like your playing a completely new character. I kept looking at my name and thinking...this is Tek...who da F is dis troll mon....

/gasp

I am already talking like a troll now!

I haven't regretted it at all and it has renewed alot of the fun I used to have with my shaman. Not to say I didn't enjoy him before, but it started to feel like a grind almost.

Change is a good thing my friends and with that, I'm WTFout!!