shaman-restoration-column
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Totem Talk: The best healing advice ever
Every other week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for the shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. So, I've been playing this game for a long time. I mean, since before the game actually went to retail. I'm an old man at this point, at least in game terms. I've been around for the good times and the bad times, the highs and the lows and everything in between. For officially four of those many years, I've been writing here at WoW Insider. A dream job for me for sure, and one I'm very grateful to have landed. Over the course of that time though, both in terms of just game time and of writing blog posts, I've dolled out and received a ton of advice. As always it came with the caveat that your mileage may vary, but I like to think it's been good more often than not over that time. But, in all my years of playing and writing, there has been one bit of advice that I received that has been by far the best advice I've ever received, and the best I can ever give.
Totem Talk: Falling in love with PVP Healing
Every other week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for the shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. With the end of season 14 announced, and the imminent arrival of Patch 5.4.7, I thought I would take some time and get involved in some PVP action. I've always had a fondness for PVP, but raiding always took so much of my time in game, that between out of game things and raiding I just didn't have the time to invest into any amount of PVP. That's changed with a new guild, a new raiding schedule and a new work schedule out of game, so when a friend of mine asked if I wanted to start PVPing again, well I jumped at the chance. While I'm not nearly as well versed in PVP as my fellow shaman of awesomeness Oliva Grace, I still manage to have a lot of fun in both Arenas and Battle Grounds. That said, I've been away from the PVP scene for a while, not setting foot in an arena since the middle of Cataclysm. I thought I would share my experiences and thoughts from this past week.
Totem Talk: Resto fashion through Mists
Every other week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for the shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. Something that I've always loved over the years has been the aesthetic of shaman armor and tier sets. Over the years we've had some really killer tier sets that have showcased our connection to the elements. From the magma, water and planet armor from Burning Crusade, to frozen tusk armor of Wrath of the Lich King. We've had some really killer sets with some really awesome particle effects over the years. I feel though, that with transmog, we've sort of moved away from looking at our gear sets in favor of using our older sets of gear. With that, I think that this past expansion has produced some of the greatest shaman armor we've had, arguably since the very beginning of the World of Warcraft. I thought it would be nice to take a look at the tier sets from the aesthetic perspective that we've received over the course of the Mists expansion.
Totem Talk: Why do you play a resto shaman?
Every other week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for the shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. It was a question asked of me the middle of last week by a friend over drinks. We Have been playing video games together, and in particular World of Warcraft, for close to the full decade of it's existence. He has always been more of the DPS type, and never really took to healing as any class, and since I've always been the healer, he was intrigued by what my answer could possibly be. It seems like a simple question at first. Why do we play any class at all really? But there are a miriad of factors that can be cited as the reason we do. Lore, aesthetics, mechanics, armor. The list can be quite a long one. I sat back and I thought about exactly why I played a restoration shaman for so long, and thought that I would share.
Totem Talk: Resto Shaman's Year in Review
Every other week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for the shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. I like looking back and seeing how the past year has been for us, the dedicated water healers we are. I don't know about you, but at least for me I enjoy looking back over some of my favorite moments from the year prior. 2013 was certainly a bit of a roller coaster ride for restoration shaman, both in terms of how we performed and dealt with healing in a group and the changes we had to endure between tiers of content. It was filled with many good changes and things that made this a very good year for resto shaman.
Totem Talk: For the Love of Healing set bonuses in Siege of Orgrimmar
Every other week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for the shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. When it was first announced, the tier 16 set bonuses were something that I was initially pretty excited about. Both the tier 16 2-piece and 4-piece bonus seemed to be things that would fit well into our repertoire and gives us a little bit of a boost. Some healers weren't too convinced that these would ultimately be any good for us. It's a debate that happens pretty much every time we get a new tier of content and gear. So, we've been in Siege of Orgrimmar for a bit now, and a fair number of healing shaman have either obtained their pieces of tier gear from the various raid difficulties, or are starting to now. So then the question of the quantum second is ultimately whether or not they are any good. I figured I would share my own observations on the matter.
Totem Talk: Restoration between now and Warlords of Draenor
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for the shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. Well, I don't know about you but I'm still very excited about the announcement of Warlords of Draenor. I mean, it was honestly the big news from BlizzCon 2013 and the feeling is still quite electric from almost everyone in regards to it. For some, The Burning Crusade and going to Outlands was one of the greatest things to ever happen in the World of Wacraft. For restoration shaman in particular, BC was that point in time where everything was awesome and shaman were the top of the food chain for healing. This week though, I'm not here to talk about the glory days of shaman healing. No, that will be an article for another week. This week I wanted to talk about the time between now and the next expansion. It is always a topic to think about what to do in that time where you're waiting for the next expansion to even enter beta phase. The good news is Mists of Pandaria offers so many more options than any other expansion before. I thought I would share how I'm spending my time between now and Warlords of Draenor.
Totem Talk: What's Next for Restoration?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for the shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. BlizzCon has come and gone and it has left us, as it usually does, with a very small glimpse of what is yet to come. It seems like every expansion restoraiton gets shifted one direction or another. Whether it is focus on stats or our role in the healing team of a raid. No matter what way you look at it, excitement or fear, change is coming. While the expansion, Warlords of Draenor, has just been announced and system changes are still being developed but it is never too early to start taking a look into what we can start to expect. Whether it's from gear, to stats, to spells and ability well... I'd rather start taking a gander now and not be blindsided later. That said, right now it's all speculation, since the game isn't even in beta yet.
Totem Talk: Resto Faces Another Sha, and Ganks a Dragon
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for the shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. You've made it this far, and you're almost through the opening act in the Siege of Orgirmmar. You are getting ever so much closer to facing down Garrosh. The next two bosses that stand in your way are both pretty straight forward, but also have the potential to be infinitely annoying. The good news, at least for Restoration shaman, is that both of these upcoming fights have amazing opportunity to make use all of our group healing spells and abilities. The mechanics aren't too terribly hard, but they are certainly worth going over so you can know what to expect. This is not a comprehensive boss guide, but is instead tips and tricks I have learned through my own personal experiences.
Totem Talk: The Curious Case of Chain Heal
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. Back in the glory days of restoration shaman, say around The Burning Crusade, Chain Heal was the best things since Roasted Kodo Meat. It was the premier group heal, it was incredibly efficient in terms of mana cost, and you could heal for the same value as two healers. It was truly the greatest of times for those healing minded of us. Anyone who has been following me on Twitter has probably noted that over the last few weeks I've had a pretty love hate relationship with CH on various fights in Siege of Orgrimmar. It is a complicated matter, at least through my eyes, for a few reasons.
Totem Talk: Immersing yourself into the Siege of Orgrimmar
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. I don't know about you, but for the last couple of weeks I've been super excited. I love new content patches, and this one I think is one of my favorites. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I love lore, and this patch is pretty full or some tantalizing story bits. It's made all the cooler, at least for me now being horde and all, seeing all the nifty tie-ins inside and around Orgrimmar. To see the awesomeness that is the Siege of Orgrimmar, well, you're actually going to have to get in there at some point. Be it LFR, Flex raiding or normal raiding, there are so many ways for you to get in and experience what I think is one of the best raid zones to date. To do that, you're going to need to get in and get past the first set of challenges that await you. This is not a full step by step healing guide, instead it is my own observations and the sharing of information that I found useful as a resto shaman in these encounters.
Totem Talk: The Final Healing Preparation for Patch 5.4
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. Well, friends, if you're reading this then you are likely doing just like me and anxiously waiting for servers to open back up and to begin the Siege of Orgrimmar! I mean, I'm so excited I've gone as far as to faction change and bring Lodur back to his home town roots and have gone back to the Horde! As such I decided to take a quick photo with the soon to be former Warchief, you know, for posterity. So with the final countdown at hand, it is time to take stock of all the last minute notes and things we should know. How will Healing Rain fare? Any other last minute changes that occurred over the course of the last two weeks? How are those very first fights going to go as we make our way into Orgrimmar?
Totem Talk: Responding to Resto Concerns for Patch 5.4
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. September 10th looms ever closer, and with the Siege of Orgrimmar coming now having a release date, it is officially crunch time for any and all hot fixes and changes. That means we're starting to see some rapid fire changes right at the end, and restoration shaman are not exempt from those last minute modifications. Interestingly enough, some of the changes we're seeing spawn from the recently discovered lag source that is healing in 25-man raids. The changes that we're seeing are causing quite a little bit of alarm for shaman, and there was an attempt to address it on the forums, at least a little bit.
Totem Talk: A Healing Rains reduction and Purification update
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. This week will be another week focused around what is waiting for us in the upcoming content patch of 5.4. We've been focusing on this a lot recently, but it is because seldom do we get such rapid fire change and balance adjustments as when World of Warcraft is in a beta phase for an expansion, or when new content is being tested and adjusted on the PTR. The past two weeks are no different than the ones before, and we still have changes rolling in. The only thing I can say is that it does appear that they are slowing down a bit, which usually indicates that we're reaching a state of equilibrium in the eyes of the development team. That doesn't mean the changes weren't significant, though.
Totem Talk: The little things of resto in patch 5.4
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. The changes on the horizon for patch 5.4 just keep coming and coming. We've talked about some of the big ones, but truth is that generally the little things that change wind up being the most fun. Today, while we're going to discuss two big changes on the horizon, we're going to look at all the little things that are being updated that make it fun and awesome to be a shaman. Class spells and specializations are always an important thing, but talents and glyphs allow us to customize our characters, or at least that's what they were supposed to do from the very beginning. We're starting to see that now though, especially with glyphs, and it's only getting better in patch 5.4.
Totem Talk: More patch 5.4 updates for the healing shaman
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. Thins are still shifting, as they always do on the lead-up to a major content patch. This time though, it looks like our topic from last time had some good timing. The debate about Healing Tide Totem seems to have been answered by our good friends at Blizzard right before the holiday break occurred. The breaking news was that the totem of healing goodness would no longer be a talent, but rather would be a baseline ability for all shaman. The news brought up a cry of relief from all shaman, as it meant in the near future they'll just have it to use without having to invest a talent point for it. On top of everything, HTT going baseline means we're going to have to get a new talent to replace it, and anticipation has been pretty high for it.
Totem Talk: All about Healing Tide Totem
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. This week, we're going to talk a whole lot about Healing Tide Totem. Why are we going to spend that time discussing this resto shaman healing talent? Well, because like with everything else lately, there is a hot debate springing up about it. This has to do, of course, with the upcoming patch 5.4 that is currently being tested on the PTR. Again the information we have on this is subject to change, but we can still talk about it until things go live. Since the start of the expansion, there has been a love hate relationship with HTT. The debate started day one with if this talent was mandatory for restoration shaman and how much of our healing truly relied on it. After just a little bit into the expansion's first tier of raid content, the debate intensified and has been going on ever since.
Totem Talk: Restoration predictions and set bonuses for tier 16
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. Recently we've been focusing a lot on the here and now, which is always good, but this week I thought it would be time to take a look at what's coming up. The PTR is alive with the sounds of music... or at least the thrashing and ravings of the soon to be defeated Garrosh. Patch 5.4 is starting to take shape with a the world receiving more changes for one particular area. There are some very interesting changes right now for restoration shaman on the PTR, and they lead us to a point of speculation on what the next tier of raiding will bring for us. These are changes to glyphs and new set bonuses for tier 16 gear that may be portents for the future of shaman healing. As always this is information gained from the PTR and is subject to change prior to going live.
Totem Talk: The Spirit of Restoration
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how No matter what expansion, and regardless of the level of content you're doing, one of the things that comes up regularly as a topic of discussion is Spirit. A stat that took over for MP5 as the hot regen item, and rose to even more prominence and popularity among healers with the announcement of fixed mana pools. It is something that has a presence you will always feel and will never be able to escape. This isn't a bad thing mind you, but it sparks conversations and discussion about how much Spirit you need. What is the right amount? How much is too much? Is there such a thing as too much? Is it worth it at the expense of other stats? I know that many of the fine folks I talk to have had plenty to say on the topic recently, which lead me to today's post.
Totem Talk: Restoration and the Throne of Thunder, Part 4
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how Turtles and Hyrdas have a special place in the sewers of the Isle of Thunder. Their existence does sort of answer the question about what happens when turtles and snakes find their ways into the refuse of an empire full of magic and chemical experimentation. I mean, I know that was a burning question for me before this raid tier started. But now that you've stomped shells and knocked out a few one eyed monsters tentacle things, I'm sure you think you've done it all. Well, there's more to do still. As you dive deeper into the sewers looking for a way back into the main castle, there is still a great number of horrors that await you. Well, rather, they're waiting for you so that they can try to eat you whole. The good news at least is that they mark the midpoint on the way to the final encounter with the Thunder King himself. This will not be a comprehensive boss guide, instead this will be a quick run down on things that you, as a resto shaman, should be aware of or tips to help make your healing of the encounter easier.
