mah na mah na...

     The idea of the 'mana battery' is certainly nothing new to WoW; from shadow priests in Burning Crusade to the addition of replenishment to several classes throughout Wrath, the game has always had some random mechanic with which to return massive amounts of mana to casters and healers alike.  Now with the Cataclysm upon us, and a new patch just around the corner, it seems that restoration shamans will take their turn as the proverbial 'mana bitch' in raids.

• Mana Tide Totem has been redesigned.  The Totem no longer multiplies the Spirit of those affected by it.  It instead gives a flat amount of spirit equal to 400% of the casting shaman's Spirit, exclusive of short-term Spirit buffs affecting the shaman when the totem is dropped.  In addition, its effects are now raid wide. 

     This change is slated for patch 4.0.6 and is currently testable in PTR build 13529.  The basic idea is that Mana Tide goes from being group-wide, and based off each individual's spirit, to affecting the entire raid and being based off of the shaman who laid the totem's spirit.  In addition it is getting the rather nice buff that it increases spirit by 400% (up from 350%) with the slight downfall that things like short duration trinket procs can no longer effect it.  Gone are the days of hitting Core of Ripeness followed by tide and having upwards of 30,000 spirit, but I am personally glad to take that hit in trade for the slight buff to its percentage and the fact that I can offer pretty much the entire raid a (very close to) full mana bar.

     In addition to the change to mana tide, the following changes will also be shaping resto shamans come the patch.  It's all certainly a welcome buff, no matter how small.  Please keep in mind these are -not- the complete shaman patch notes.  For that, head on over to MMO-Champ(link to the right).



Spell Changes

• Spiritwalker's Grace now lasts 15 sec (up from 10) 
• Earth Shield can no longer be dispelled 
• Chain Heal's effectiveness has been increased by approximately 10%
• Deep Healing (Mastery) has been increased by 10%, up from 2.5%
• Greater Healing Wave mana cost has been increased by 10%; healing done has been increased by 20% 
• Cleansing Waters no longer fires its heal effect twice when a shaman removes a magic and a curse debuff with a single cast.

Now if only they could fix our gear scaling issues a bit to be more in line with other healers I'd be a happy panda.

 

Since we're basically BC shadow priests now...

COMING SOON: my thoughts on mastery, and likely an angry rant about people complaining that healing is too hard.

<3

So it begins...

Welcome to my blog!

Just a bit of an introduction; I am Morinozuka, a goblin resto(main)/ele shaman in the guild <Reawaken> on Staghelm-US.  This blog, which will often be full of my angry rants, will also take a look at the shaman class on a whole.  Once we get a bit further into the expansion I'll start looking over the best in slot gear for each tier of raiding, and try to focus in more on our role in raids.

I welcome discussion, constructive criticism, as well as theorycrafting, since I'm rather new at the the shaman class.  If you're new as well, I suggest checking out a few of the links I have posted at the right.  They are great resources for any class.