If I were standing in front of a crowd of WoW players, instead of writing a blog, and posed the question, “Who here likes getting Halls of Reflection as a random queue with a pug?”, I’d probably hear crickets. Except maybe the one masochist of a player near the back whose cries of agreement would quickly be snuffed out by lamentations of those around him. I’ve heard of those who suffer from severe flash backs of wipes cause by people who physically are unable to understand “line of sight” or those who still believe if you just wait behind the Lich King, he’ll leave without killing you. Maybe I’m being a little over dramatic with the description, but most players, myself included, at least groan a little when they chance into one of the hardest and least pug friendly of WotLK instances.
Then here’s me. Fresh resto shaman rocking a mix of cloth/leather/mail instance drops (very few from ICC 5-mans) and a PVP shield. My gear sports sparkling green quality gems and is completely void of enchantments. Go ahead and cry ‘cheap’ all you want, but I’ll be upgrading every piece within a few hours of playing. You’d think perhaps the gods of WoW and RNG might have some pity on this noob shaman, but no. Halls of Reflection will be my very first test of healing…
…and it was fine. I healed through what is often a very difficult dungeon without any deaths or really close calls. The rest of the group wasn’t even so overgeared to trivialize the instance, though it was helpful to have a group of players capable of hiding behind a wall. Trash pulls were a breeze with Chain Heal and Riptide for quick spot healing. I found myself using mostly Healing Wave on the tank during the boss fights with Riptide to assist and chain heal if the dps were taking any damage. Naturally I had Earth Shield on the tank for the duration of the instance. I can’t tell you how much help that spell is. Actually, I can. It’s a lot of help, use it all the time resto shammies! Needless to say, it’s a little bit of a different creature than the Holy Paladin that I’m used to, though not so much that I can’t bring the basic healing strategy over to help me figure out who to heal and when. The shaman tool box is diverse. At no point did I feel like I didn’t have what I needed to keep my group alive. On the other hand, I did find myself not really using Greater Healing Wave, much in the same as my lack of use of Paladins new Divine Light. With this fun and capable spec to explore further, I am much looking forward to raid healing with this guy (properly enchanted of course).
Below is a link to a great resource if you’re starting out on your resto shaman or looking to be brough up to date with the changes in 4.0.1.
Tribeca of Shammylove.com brings you Resto Shaman (PVE) in 4.0.1. Which focuses on the PVE aspect of the resto shaman and includes tips on talents, glyphs, gems, enchants, reforging, mastery, totems and healing in general. Check it out!