My Interface

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There has been a flurry of Raiding interface posts (courtesy of Kirk and Galadria). I’m going to show a screen shot of mine in a moment and label all the present addons in the screen. But first, I want to show you an addon that will blow your mind away as a healer and make you drool. Check out the following shots:

Edit: Forgot to enable comments

Now that I’ve caught your attention, you will most likely be asking yourself “OMG WTF IS THAT?”. This, my friends, is a raid user interface called Pitbull. You can find a copy from Curse Gaming.

As you’ve seen from the shots above, it has a special feature which functions like bullet tracers. It graphically generates a line from you and your raidmates to the players they are healing so you can visually see on your screen who is healing who, with what heal, and when it hits in real time. Is that not mindblowingly awesome? It’s like little lasers! Now healers can really pew pew. I believe the numbers you see on their names are the estimated heal amount.

But there is a problem.

With all the graphic generation, heal calculation, and so on and so forth, you will need a nuclear reactor to power your computer. As much as I want to run this, I know my computer would buckle especially in a raiding environment. So to you healers who have kickass machines, give this a shot. It’s got a ton of more features as well, but that part caught my eye the most.

Here’s the interface that I use. Make a note of the numbers that I photoshopped in there:

1: This is singlehandedly the most important addon you will ever use in your WoW Raiding career. You can skimp out on the heal addons, and the threat addons, and the pretty addons. But get Deadly Boss Mods. It highlights important knowledge and phases during your encounters. It is an absolute must.

2: X-Perl Unit Frames is my primary UI of choice when interacting with my party and my raid. It boasts a whole slew of options and is compatible with CT Raid, oRA2 and a few others. It’s able to show me the target of my target’s target (four windows). It can show all MT targets. It shows who’s targeting you. It shows who’s also assisting you. It also shows players with buffs that you can provide. It’s an easy way to spot if a player is missing Fortitude or DS. It’s also got a built in range finder, spell cooldown (you can see how long before you need to refresh renew), if the raid is down it shows who has soulstones or Shaman’s self res active, and most importantly, your screen flashes if you pull aggro.

3: I use Bongos 2 to manage my extensive array of options and choices for my bars. If you look really carefully, you can even see the way I bind my keys. It allows me to flexibly move my map, my bars, my FPS and castbars all around. Note that I don’t have my menu’s or my bags on screen (I rely on Esc. and Shift + B for that respectively).

4: I like my map square so I can see more surface area. Thank you Squeenix.

5: I didn’t like the way Blizzard organized my buffs, so I turned to CT_Buffmod. I do believe you need to download the core, however…

6: KLH Threatmeter (or KTM). It’s a way to graphically view your own aggro and threat generation. Normally I disable the view but keep the transmission enabled to free up more real estate on the screen.

7: Finally the last one I use is Natur EnemyCastBar so that I can see at a glance what is being cast by my target. It’s an excellent tactical addon to download to help you prepare for any incoming spells or attacks. Allows you to deliver an appropriate and timely response.

There ya go! That’s how my setup is at currently and it’s served me well. It delivers a lot of information that I need so I can calculate my next move.

Calling the Wipe

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This is one of the toughest calls for any raid leader to make. But it’s one of the best ways to optimize your raiding time and not waste any more effort or consumables trying to prolong a fight that’s already lost. I know some of you may think “Never! No surrender!” but really, it is a futile effort if your MT dies or over 50% of your healers are dead, or some other crap hits the fan. I want to give an example of a wipe procedure since not many young Guilds have such a concept in mind. Many inexperienced Guilds will continue to engage to the bitter end.

Wipe Preparation

What, you thought Warlocks were only good for Healthstones and DPS? No, they have Soulstones which when applied to any player allows them to resurrect themselves whenever they like. If that player falls in combat when the entire raid is still alive, it’s best to blow it. When you are engaging raid bosses, operate as if you are not going to wipe unless it is painfully obvious. So again, blow the stone. If you’re the last man standing, don’t blow the stone.

Wipe Calling

I sympathize with the Raid Leader when it’s called. It’s not a very decision to make and a false call will involve a waste of over hundreds of gold in repair bills and consumables. The correct call will save time and allow for more attempts. Typically, your Raid Leader will announce a wipe. When that happens, the following should happen: Ranged DPS would run to a location where they can be easily picked up (Such as the Gate when engaging Gruul). Try to get a Priest, Shaman, or Paladin in that same position and have a Paladin use their Divine Intervention to render that player immune. Shaman’s have the ability to self resurrect themselves, but that is an ability which should be used if the other two options are available. If you want to be really crafty, get a Druid outside in a clear position from where he can Battle Res a healer. Generally that is not recommended since it can be put to better use during combat. But if you’re in a raid instance and mobs start to respawn in ten minutes, you may not have the time or energy to reclear it all. Make sure that healer doesn’t accept it until after the encounter is reset. The moment wipe protection is utilized, make sure it’s called in vent so that players know. If there isn’t one, the last thing to do is the walk of shame back from the graveyard.

So to summarize in the following order:

* Soulstone
* DI
* Shammy Res
* Fancy Druid maneuver

Post Wipe and Analysis

Your Stoned healer picks himself up and starts ressing other healers OR Your DI’d player clicks off the buff (debuff?) and starts ressing other healers OR Your Shaman activates his self res and starts ressing other healers OR your Battle Res’d Healer wakes up and starts ressing other healers.

See a pattern here? Let your tanks and melee run back since most of the time you won’t be able to pick them up without drawing Aggro. If you can get a player, call it out in vent so they don’t zone in and be forced to run the gauntlet.

As players are being ressed, buffed, and positioned for the next attempt, go over the encounter and figure out what happened. What is a badly timed misheal? A crit from a mage which pulled aggro? The tank not eat his Wheaties that morning? Figure out what the problem is and remedy it, or else it will happen again. Raid Leaders should not be afraid to reassign healers to different assignments. Some healers are better tailored for certain jobs then others. Maybe you want your veteran healers to focus more a bit on the clothies during some phase where they take damage (Mage tank in Gruul’s lair). Sometimes you need to mix and match. But more importantly, analyze what your mistakes were so that they don’t happen again. If the fault was the result of a player, don’t call it out in raid but allow them to speak up and take responsibility. It shows signs of maturity and trust. If no one admits fault but you know who it is, send them a light whisper letting them know that they forgot an assignment or made a mistake because some players just aren’t aware that did anything wrong.

Sometimes, I wish Blizzard would implement an Instant Replay function with speed up and slow down functions so certain phases can be analyzed.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, PvP Stories

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I started to level a Paladin.

Yeah, that’s right, it’s my third healer (I have a 53 druid lying around somewhere too).

Herein lies the problem. I’m out in the middle of hell(fire) happily wailing away on random boars so I can treat their toxic carcass (worst quest ever by the way) into something purified. Then receive a tell being asked if I want to heal Ramparts. I’m thinking about doing it until something hits me: I’m Retribution specced. Sadly, I turn the poor chap down.

Well, here I am in a sort of catch-22 situation. There’s almost no chance whatsoever that I can heal Ramparts with a ret-specced pally without substantial healing gear. But at the same time, if I switch over to Holy it makes grinding quests and leveling way more difficult then it should be (I leveled Holy/Disc on my Priest). So here’s my dilemma:

I can spec Holy and simply instance grind my way up to 70 and do whatever easy quests I can do.

or

Stay Retribution and stay out of Instances altogether relying on drops from Quests or the AH to upgrade my equipment.

I’m quite glad with Blizzard’s decision to at least look at the possibility of adding an element of spelldamage to all of us +heal users. Even though we’ll go down, we’ll go down with the intent of delivering a bloody nose to that bastard warlock or sneaky ball-less rogue who ganked us healers.

When I was grinding my Priest to 70, I didn’t have as much runins with the Horde as I anticipated. I guess that was because there was a mutual ceasefire between the two sides as both factions wanted to rush to 70 quickly. Oddly enough, I was the first to hit 70 in my Guild. Now it seems all bets are off as both Horde and Alliance are hanging out in early leveling areas to take out their frustration on us low level guys.

Carnage has developed a healthy hate relationship with Sword of the Horde. My Guildmates were out in Thorium Point in the Searing Gorge just leveling up their Shaman Alts. A few SoH members arrive and a skirmish ensues. Both sides begin calling for reinforcements but alas, I do think the decision went to SoH.

A few days later, we caught wind that SoH was planning to engage Doomwalker! Oh how the WoW Gods must love us. For those unaware, Doomwalker is an outdoor Worldboss. Ner’Zuhl is a PvP server. It didn’t take long before a battle plan was in the works. We had a few observers out by Doomwalker over in Black Temple and sure enough, SoH members began trickling in. Immediately the siren was sounded and a wing of Carnage members in epic mounts in PvP took off from Shattrath to head straight for BT. There were only ten of us but that’s all that was needed. We had no intention of engaging them in direct combat. Sheer numbers would dictate that we would lose. Our goal was to disrupt and harass. All is fair in love and PvP servers after all. We were noticed by one or two members and they broke away from their main raid group to engage us. Bad idea. All of us swooped down, dismounted smoked the lone Shaman, mounted up, and orbited the area within a span of 7 seconds (1 second to dismount, 3 to kill, 3 to mount). I love surgical strikes! Of course, we did have our share of problems with accidental Doomwalker pulls (I forgot he shoots people out of the air). Decision to Carnage.

Just a few days ago, SoH must’ve still felt bitter over the events that transpired. They start harassing my Guildies Shaman alts yet again (now in Hellfire). They ran back into the second Horde town (blood elf town) in the area hiding behind the town guards thinking they were safe. Our guys hopped on their mains. If you’re trying to get at two Horde low level Hunters who think they’re safe behind guards, so what do you do?

AoE the town Guards. It was absolutely hilarious when I heard about it over ventrilo. I’ve always known Mages were powerful, but you really do not want to get on their bad side. Decision to Carnage on this one. My hats off to them, they’re a great sport.
Now I wonder if I’m going to get jumped when I’m out there leveling.

Gearing Your Fresh 70 Resto Shaman: My Recommendations

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Due to the overwhelming popularity of my pre-raid Priest gear checklist, I’ve decided to compile one for my resto Shaman. Bear in mind, this list only contains the best possible healing gear you can obtain before Kara that is mail. If you wanted just the best possible healing set, refer to my Priest check list. It’s bad enough my Priest is a squishy. I wanted my Shaman to hold his own (for a few seconds longer anyway). Your ideal professions here would be skinning and leatherworking. Similar to my Priest, I place a huge emphasis on MP5 even more here alongside Healing. Remember, these pieces may not be the best overall, but they’re the quickest to acquire the moment you hit 70.

If you have any pieces you can think of that aren’t on this list, please add a comment or email me and I’ll make the addition. When I was building my Shaman’s Resto gear, I built him with PvP in mind therefore my gear consisted mostly of Arena or BG pieces.

Head

Living Dragonscale Helm (+81 Heaing, 14 Mana Per 5): It’s a craftable item made by Leatherworkers with a 365 skill which is bind on equip. It’s quite costly but you’ll be using this head piece for a while. The required materials to create it are:

The pattern is also a random world drop.

Headdress of the Tides (73 Heaing, 9 Mana Per 5): If you’re unwilling to acquire all the materials to create the above Helm, you can try your hand at running Heroic Underbog repeatedly until you get this. You’re looking at Ghaz’ran, the hydra boss in the middle so set aside a good portion of your time for it.

Neck (Recycled from Priest Page)

Necklace of Eternal Hope (+48 Healing, 8 Mana Per 5): This one will set you back about 25 heroic badges. If you don’t think you’re geared properly enough for heroics yet, then try the next one which is a little longer to get.

Natasha’s Guardian Cord (+55 Healing, 6 Mana Per 5): You can get this neckpiece from Blade’s Edge Mountains. It’s at the end of a ridiculously long chain quest which starts when you find a Mask on the Ground that you hear voices from. The 9th step in the quest will reward you with this decent neck.

Shoulder

Pauldrons of Surging Mana (No Healing, 13 Mana Per 5): Check the Auction House as you are levelling up. You might be able to snag these discount shoulders for a good price before you work your way up to something better. I picked up my Shoulders for about 17 Gold. They’re not very popular, so expect a slightly lower price. But that will depend on your server population.

Various PvP Shoulders: Just bite the bullet and either do some Arena’s or general BG PvP. The next decent upgrade you can acquire will be in Karazhan. Otherwise, your option is…

Mantle of the Sea Wolf (+51 Healing, 8 Mana Per 5): Ugh. Heroic Mana Tombs. Kill Tavarok.

Back

White Remedy Cape (59 Healing, 7 Mana Per 5): Easiest cape you can possibly get. It’s a tailoring BoE blue. The pattern itself is a world drop. If you put a tell in trade chat, hopefully you’ll be able to find someone who can create it on your server. It’s Level 69 so you can start shopping for it a little earlier. If you’re on Ner’Zhul, look up Mallet and I can craft it for you. Here’s the mats requirement:

Chest

Void Slayer’s Tunic (+88 Healing, 8 Mana Per 5): This one requires a group quest to complete. You need to complete a fairly long quest chain which involves killing Dimensius the All-Devouring way out in Netherstorm.

Earthpeace Breastplate (+92 Healing, 16 Mana Per 5): A slight edge in healing and twice the mana per 5 as the Void Slayer’s Tunic gives the one the slight edge. Unfortunately, this chest piece has no stats on it. I highly recommend using this one in environments where you know you won’t take a lot of damage, or if you do minimal at best.

Bracer

Primal Surge Bracers (+37 Healing, 6 Mana Per 5): You can get these from the last boss in Black Morass, Aeonus himself. Expect multiple runs. But it might be better off…

Veteran Ringmail Bracers (+42 Healing, No Mana Per 5): …For you to spend a day or two grinding out Alterac Valley or some other Battleground and pick up these instead.

Gloves

Fathomheart Gauntlets (+55 Healing, 7 Mana Per 5): The last boss in normal Steamvaults, Kalithresh drops these gloves. Again, these ones may take a while to pick up just because he’s a pain to get to.

Belt

Stillwater Girdle (+53 Healing, 8 Mana Per 5): Ugh, Resto Shamans really don’t have it easy when it comes to gear do they? This one comes from of Heroic Mana Tombs of all places. Furthermore, you have to clear all the way to the end and kill Nexus-Prince Shaffar to pick it up.

Pants

Oceansong Kilt (+84 Healing, No Mana Per 5): The Reinforced Chest you get after dropping Vazruden and Nazan will have a chance to reveal these pair of pants.

Feet

Wavefury Boots (+55 Healing, 8 Mana Per 5): The last thing you need from a heroic instance will be the easiest to get out of all the ones listed. Chances are, it will be super easy for you to find groups to go into Heroic Slave Pens and kill Rockmar.
Rings

Keeper’s Ring of Piety (+42 Healing, 7 Mana Per 5): This one’s easy to get. If you’ve been following your Karazhan attunements, then you will have this one by now. The Quest is given by Sa’at in the Caverns of time after you’ve completed Hero of the Brood.

Ring of Convalescence (+57 Heaing, 4 Mana Per 5): Requires you to be Revered with Honor Hold (Or Thrallmar). Will cut into your gold pouch with a price of about 18G. Pick it up from the Quartermaster.

Trinkets

Lower City Prayerbook (+70 Healing): Yeah the on use effect sucks. But just look at the passive ability! Besides, -22 mana isn’t that bad. Any mana saved is mana that can be used later. Think of endurance fights. Think of how often you you will use it and think of what that mana can be used for later. Requires a Revered Reputation with Lower City (Shadow Labs loves you). Remember that this item isn’t unique so you can pick up two of them.

Scarab of the Infinite Cycle (+70 Healing): Spell haste rating is cool. It makes your spells go faster. Too bad it requires running Black Morass a couple of times.

Weapons (1 Hand))

The Essence Focuser (+227 Heaing, 11 Mana Per 5): Scout your local auction house as it is a world drop. Unfortunautely, no stats.

Gavel of Pure Light (+299 Healing, 8 Mana Per 5): Do lots of Mechanar runs to increase your rep. You need Exalted to be able to buy this from the Quartermaster. This will really make your wallet hurt with a near 192G cost. If you’re lucky, you might be able to get Hammer of the Penitent to drop off of the Mechano-Lord in Mech. Either way, you’ll get a good mace to use.

Shield (Off hand)

Crystal Pulse Shield (+35 Healing, 6 Mana Per 5): Check your Auction House for this other great BoE drop. It’s a great early shield and will last you before you upgrade to the one from Chess.

Totems

Totem of the Plains (+79 Healing): Note that the increase in healing is only applied when you cast Lesser Healing Wave. Once you kill Tusker and turn in the quest, it should be a no brainer to pick up this reward.

Totem of Spontaneous Regrowth (+88 Healing): The increase in healing is applied after you cast Healing Wave. To get it, you’ll be wanting to visit Mennu the Betrayer in Heroic Slave Pens.

Enchants & Other Augments

Glyph of Renewal (+35 Heaing, 7 Mana Per 5): This goes on your head. Requires Honor Hold/Thrallmar repuatation of revered. Costs 100G.

Greater Inscription of Faith or Greater Inscription of the Oracle: Depends on which faction you chose (Aldor or Scryer). Aldor for the win!

Enchant Cloak – Subtlety: Wait for Patch 2.2 and Enchanters will be able to get this beauty. It’s updated for BC materials. It reduces the threat you cause by 2%. That means 2% more healing! Whee!

Enchant Chest – Restore Mana Prime (6 Mana Per 5): Easy to get. You’ll want this.

Enchant Bracer – Superior Healing (+30 Healing): Same thing. 4 Primal Life’s and 4 Greater Planar Essences and your bracer got a whole lot better.

Enchant Gloves – Major Healing (+35 Healing): Ouch. In addition to 6 Greater Planars and 6 Primal Lifes, now you need 6 Large Prismatic Shards. Put it on the best possible gloves you have knowing that you won’t be replacing it for a while.

Enchant Weapon – Spellsurge: This unique enchant has a 3% chance on cast to restore 100 mana (not 100% mana) to all party members over 10 seconds. This is most useful in a raid environment, but there is a lot of debate between this and +81 Healing. Hopefully one of my other fellow Priest bloggers will dwelve on this topic (Ego? Kurt? Anyone? Eh, guess not. I’ll get around to it eventually).

Enchant Weapon – Major Healing (+81 Healing): Stick to this for now. It’s cheaper.

Enchant Boots – Vitality (4 Mana Per 5): Restores Health and Mana every 5 seconds. The enchant is a world drop.

Enchant Ring – Healing Power (+20 Healing): Remember when I told you to take up Tailoring and Enchanting? Here’s the other half of the reason why. Enchanters are able to enchant their own rings (Must be Soulbound).
Golden Spellthread (+66 Healing): Here’s a big hint: Put this on your Whitemend Pants. You’ll need 10 Primal Life’s and an Aldor Exalted Tailor with a Primal Nether. If you’re on Ner’Zuhl as Alliance, send Mallet a tell and I’ll do it for you.

Gems

Royal Nightseye (+9 Heaing, 2 Mana Per 5): This is your best friend. Most of the time, you’ll want to get a yellow gem for the socket bonus. Personally I say it’s hogwash. Most of your red and blue’s should be Nightseyes. There’s not a lot of gear where the socket bonus is good enough to warrant not using a Nightseye.

Teardrop Living Ruby (+18 Healing): I don’t use this at all personally. I heavily favor Mana Per 5 over miniscule amounts of +healing. It’s only 9 more than the Nightseye. I do not foresee it making a huge impact.

Luminous Noble Topaz (+9 Healing): For the rare pieces that do have a kickass bonus when you slot in a yellow gem, use one of these babies.

Conclusions and the Math

I’ve factored in my top choices in gear and included the best enchants, augments, and recommended gems. Here’s the final numbers:

Head: 116 Healing, 14 Mana Per 5 (Living Dragonscale Helm, Glyph of Renewal)

Neck: 48 Healing, 4 Mana Per 5 (Necklace of Eternal Hope)

Shoulders: 24 Healing, 19 Mana Per 5 (Pauldrons of Surging Mana, Greater Inscription of Faith)

Back: 59 Healing, 7 Mana Per 5 (White Remedy Cape)

Chest: 92 Healing, 22 Mana Per 5 (Earthpeace Breastplate, Enchant Chest – Restore Mana Prime)

Bracer: 72 Healing (Veteran Ringmail Bracers, Enchant Bracer – Superior Healing)

Gloves: 90 Healing, 7 Mana Per 5 (Fathomheart Gauntlets, Enchant Gloves – Major Healing)

Waist: 53 Healing, 8 Mana Per 5 (Stillwater Girdle)

Legs: 144 Healing, (Oceansong Kilt, Golden Spellthread)

Feet: 55 Healing, 12 Mana Per 5 (Jeweled Boots of Sanctification, Enchant Boots – Vitality)

Ring: 57 Healing, 4 Mana Per 5 (Ring of Convalescence)

Ring: 42 Healing, 7 Mana Per 5 (Keeper’s Ring of Piety)

Trinket: 70 Healing (Lower City Prayberook)

Trinket: 70 Healing (Scarab of the Infinite Cycle)

Weapon 1H: 380 Healing (Gavel of Pure Light, Enchant Weapon – Major Healing)

Shield OH: 35 Healing, 6 Mana Per 5 (Crystal Pulse Shield)

GRAND TOTAL:

1407 Healing

110 Mana Per 5

Naturally, those numbers don’t look good as the Priest who is fully geared with non-raid epics. But as this is a Shaman, exceptions must be made. Again, if there’s a piece of loot which is easier to obtain and is better then what I have listed, please drop me a line.

And there you have it! Matticus’ recommended pre-raiding checklist for the Restoration Shaman.

Fun in Gruul

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Our main tank just died tanking High King. Why? Because one of our Paladin’s had Alterac Valley on auto join who was assigned to our MT. Turn off your auto joiners when you raid, folks.