(no subject)
Feb. 18th, 2010 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobel... I need an icon of my shaman. ♥_♥
It is, however, a little annoying to have two specs that I'm trying to gear for. Raidwise, healing is my primary spec, which is why almost all of my badgers* are going for healy gear and stuff. Which is good for healing (I finally am equipped entirely in ilvl 200+, even if my chestpiece is cloth ffs) but not so much for dpsing (my dps chest is a blue ilvl 183, pants are 200 but still blue, rings are 174, etc, and gearing is painfully slow).
[* not real badgers.]
I actually have found, odd as it is, that I prefer healing to dpsing, especially in five-man random groups. I mean, yes, there's the whole thing where I have to keep everyone alive (and in random five-mans there is generally only one healer), and there's a pass/fail metric associated with that; but people dying is not always the healer's fault. And there's no absolute scale, the way there is with dps: if you don't hit X amount of dps, you aren't doing your job, but if you don't do X amount of healing, it could just be because that much healing wasn't needed.
It can be a bit frustrating not having instacast heals. I have one way of doing instacast (Nature's Swiftness, which makes the next healing spell instant), but it's on a two-minute cooldown. Great for emergency use, not so much for standard healing. And I do have one HoT that I don't use often enough, but the rest of my healing spells take over a second, which is a darn long time in combat. (I swear a third of the time I'm casting pre-emptive healing just in case my target gets whomped between when I start and when I finish.)
I am thinking of doing up some macros. Specifically:
* binding together Nature's Swiftness and Healing Wave, bound to what is currently the NS key because I don't need it every time but, when I do need it, it would be nice to press one button for instaheal instead of two
* macro all of the damage spells (especially instacast ones like shocks and interrupt) to hit target-of-target. (well, more likely, once I dig up the syntax for it, "apply to: target, if hostile; else, target-of-target, if hostile; else, focus".) There are times when I'm not actively needing to heal, but switching targets from friendly to hostile and then back is a pain.
* possibly: set up mouseover options for the main heal spells, assuming it synergises with grid. with my keyboard/mouse setup (touchpad below the keyboard ftl) and mobility issues (same hand for mouse clicking and key pressing), I lose time clicking on the target and then jumping to the healing key. I may later decide I dislike mouseover healing, but I may as well try it.
* one I'm totally not sure about: binding Tidal Force to the primary healing spells. The disadvantage is that I can't trigger it when I need it, but I never remember to use it. (alternatively, or in addition, I could bind it to the NS+heal macro).
... what am I missing?
Also, for those of you what have done resto shamaning, any suggestions on how to use which heals when? I've sort of got it figured out, or at least there's the whole thing where LHW is faster and cheaper,healing laser CH is good for raid multi-target healing, and HW is the strongest heal, and Riptide I use when I remember, and earth shield ... I tend to put it on the tank, no clue how else I should use it.
(did I mention I <3 my shaman?)
It is, however, a little annoying to have two specs that I'm trying to gear for. Raidwise, healing is my primary spec, which is why almost all of my badgers* are going for healy gear and stuff. Which is good for healing (I finally am equipped entirely in ilvl 200+, even if my chestpiece is cloth ffs) but not so much for dpsing (my dps chest is a blue ilvl 183, pants are 200 but still blue, rings are 174, etc, and gearing is painfully slow).
[* not real badgers.]
I actually have found, odd as it is, that I prefer healing to dpsing, especially in five-man random groups. I mean, yes, there's the whole thing where I have to keep everyone alive (and in random five-mans there is generally only one healer), and there's a pass/fail metric associated with that; but people dying is not always the healer's fault. And there's no absolute scale, the way there is with dps: if you don't hit X amount of dps, you aren't doing your job, but if you don't do X amount of healing, it could just be because that much healing wasn't needed.
It can be a bit frustrating not having instacast heals. I have one way of doing instacast (Nature's Swiftness, which makes the next healing spell instant), but it's on a two-minute cooldown. Great for emergency use, not so much for standard healing. And I do have one HoT that I don't use often enough, but the rest of my healing spells take over a second, which is a darn long time in combat. (I swear a third of the time I'm casting pre-emptive healing just in case my target gets whomped between when I start and when I finish.)
I am thinking of doing up some macros. Specifically:
* binding together Nature's Swiftness and Healing Wave, bound to what is currently the NS key because I don't need it every time but, when I do need it, it would be nice to press one button for instaheal instead of two
* macro all of the damage spells (especially instacast ones like shocks and interrupt) to hit target-of-target. (well, more likely, once I dig up the syntax for it, "apply to: target, if hostile; else, target-of-target, if hostile; else, focus".) There are times when I'm not actively needing to heal, but switching targets from friendly to hostile and then back is a pain.
* possibly: set up mouseover options for the main heal spells, assuming it synergises with grid. with my keyboard/mouse setup (touchpad below the keyboard ftl) and mobility issues (same hand for mouse clicking and key pressing), I lose time clicking on the target and then jumping to the healing key. I may later decide I dislike mouseover healing, but I may as well try it.
* one I'm totally not sure about: binding Tidal Force to the primary healing spells. The disadvantage is that I can't trigger it when I need it, but I never remember to use it. (alternatively, or in addition, I could bind it to the NS+heal macro).
... what am I missing?
Also, for those of you what have done resto shamaning, any suggestions on how to use which heals when? I've sort of got it figured out, or at least there's the whole thing where LHW is faster and cheaper,
(did I mention I <3 my shaman?)
no subject
Date: 2010-02-19 02:08 pm (UTC)The further up you get with your gear, the more you will find yourself using Riptide; I use it every time it cools down, so it's generally running on three or four people at any given time. It also makes for a really nice stopgap instant heal, since it does do at least a little bit of burst healing when you first cast it, and you can then use it to pump up Chain Heal to a larger amount on that target while still getting two or three other people nearby healed up, too. :)
You're doing fine with Earth Shield -- the only time I don't put it on the main tank is if we have a super-important caster somewhere who needs extra healing and help with spell pushback (in the Blood Princes fight where we've got a warlock rounding up shadow balls, say, I drop it on him so he gets a little bit of pushback protection and a lot more extra healing).
I use absurd, ridiculous amounts of chain heal, all the time,
even in the bathroom-- I gather this is what Blizzard expects me to do, given all the ways they've buffed Chain Heal lately. I am pretty much left on my own to heal the melee, and I cover ranged with Riptide, and that does the trick nicely.I never remember to use Tidal Force, either. >_< I am only just getting into the habit of remembering to use my hyperspeed accelerators! (Which I bound to the Gift of the Naaru button, so now I have double the incentive to mash that button.)
In the end: wheeeeeeee shaman healing! I heart it so! Now if only they'd let me race-swap to dwarf already, I'd be so happy.