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Totem Talk: Restoration addons and macros
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast. We have come a fair distance so far, starting from the basics up through last week, when we talked about haste and its use to a raiding restoration shaman. Today I would like to discuss macros and addons for the restoration-minded shaman. Macros have been in the game for a long time, and over the course of years, they have changed to allow or deny certain functions. The same can be said for the various addons that have existed over the life of the game. There are some addons and macros that can be particularly useful to you as a restoration shaman.
Totem Talk: Haste and restoration shaman
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how. Brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast. Last week we talked about choosing a role for restoration and in that piece we talked about how raid healing shaman prioritize haste as their top stat. Haste is one of those stats that gained massive popularity around the time of Ulduar. Shaman were having a hard time fitting into hard mode kills as healers, and Chain Heal was slipping behind Wild Growth and Circle of Healing due to limited range between jumps and the need of many people to spread out beyond the maximum range (at the time 8 yards). Haste allowed healing shaman to use other spells to greater effect in these times, helping to close the gap somewhat. Through Trial of the Crusader and now well into Icecrown Citadel, haste has remained on top of most end game raiding shaman stat priority lists. Almost any blog you visit now will exalt the virtues of haste as the primary stat. Truth is it can be useful in many situations and there are many boss fights where haste really is king of the stats. So what do you need to know about haste? Let's take a look!
Totem Talk: Choosing a role for restoration
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how. Brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast. You have leveled to 80, done a plethora of heroics and gathered some gear. Now you are ready to begin picking your end game role. Whether it is healing a raid group in 10 and 25 man content, chain heroics with friends or everything in between, it is time for you to pick what your primary focus will be. This will have a large impact on what you choose for gear, key stats and upgrades along the way. As a restoration shaman you have three main choices for your healing focus. Tank (and off-tank) healing, group healing and support or swing healing. While you can fill all three roles regardless of gear, it will shift your stat priority depending on what you choose as well as affect your potential choice in glyphs. Let us take a look at each specialty
Totem Talk: Restoration gearing for the new 80
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how. Brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast. So you've hit that end goal of reaching level 80 and now you need to figure out what to do next right? We have already covered the basics of spells and totems, talents and glyphs, discussed specs and even talked about your journey to level 80. So now that you're at the level cap it is time to get geared up. Whether you stack resilience for PvP or get a set together to raid, you are going to need some gear to do it. Before we start it should be noted this is not a best in slot list. There are many of those floating around everywhere and that will largely be influenced by your play style. We will talk about choosing a play style and specializing next week. Instead this is a rough idea of where to start gathering gear pre-raid to help you on your next steps.
Totem Talk: Leveling as restoration
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how. Brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast. Three years ago if you had mentioned to anyone you were going to level as a healing spec, they would have scoffed at you and called you ambitious or question your sanity. It was not a very common occurrence and if someone mentioned that was how they leveled, it was often asked how long it took. Two years ago it was slightly more common to see people leveling as a healing spec. With the amount of quests and gear available for each dungeon in Burning Crusade, healers were in hot demand to go forth with a heroic party and clear these zones out. Leveling was still slow going when compared to DPS, but you could do it. When Wrath of the Lich King came out things were a lot easier for healers than in previous content if they decided to level in their healing spec, but it was still slower than if you were a DPS spec. Instances still were healer friendly, but while questing there were several NPC that you just couldn't kill without being DPS. Now things have changed and it is easier than ever to level as a healer!
Totem Talk: Restoration spells and totems
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how. Brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast. Last week in Totem Talk: Restoration we talked about talents and glyphs a bit more in depth, today I'd like to continue our class 101 series by going over your spells and totems as well as leveling restoration specced. We will discuss the tools of the shaman's healing kit and specifics about totems. The shaman toolkit might not have as many tools as say a holy priest, but the ones we do have are quite effective at their specific task. Each one is useful and colorful and we do have several that are quite unique. Lets take a look at them shall we?
Totem Talk: Restoration talents and glyphs
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how. Brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast. Last week in Totem Talk: Restoration 101 we talked a bit about the basics of being a healing minded shaman. Continuing in that vein today I would like to focus on the restoration tree's talents as well as glyphs. We will cover more specifics on other aspects of restoration in the weeks to come. The restoration talent tree is very strong and versatile, filled with a lot of the talents focused on augmenting your existing ability to heal. It is also very lean in the fact that it does not have many talents that you need to absolutely avoid, and they all have a very distinct role in the shaman toolbox. These talents also provide you with key spells essential to your success as a healer as well as our most iconic spells. While we may not have as many healing spells as a holy priest, our toolbox is still very versatile and it does the job quite well.
Totem Talk: Restoration 101
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how. Brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast. If you're reading this, you've most likely decided that healing is going to be one of your two possible specs and you're looking for information before you jump right into healing. I can think of no better place to start my inaugural post of Totem Talk: Restoration than to provide the basics to get you started on the path of one of the strongest healing types in the game. This is not the definitive Restoration guide this is just the basic overview, the more complex stuff will come later on.
