Blood Pact: Flow like a shaman, sting like a hunter

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill wants to look into a popular counterargument to the nerfing of Kil'jaeden's Cunning.

Or not, as I'll argue we warlocks have our own style of play.

The damage dealing game isn't just about turning a mob down to 0 points at the end of the night, but about using the mob's health bar to vault over cooldown or resource barriers. Turning a warlock into a sitting duck in PvE requires either getting rid of all the mob health bars or getting rid of the warlock, which is usually accomplished by movement or threat of certain death. This struggle against being useless is what makes choices in a damage dealer's arsenal meaningful.

Life can't be boring with all instants

The most popular counterargument to the nerfing of Kil'jaeden's Cunning is that hunters can do everything on the move, so why not warlocks. It's actually true -- the cast-time abilities of a hunter are either by default or glyphed for moving while casting and everything else is instant.

But is movement really the meaningful choice for hunters?

Standing still or on the run, Auto Shot is going to contribute for approximately 10-20% of the damage done, depending on spec. The hunter is literally standing there with his bow or gun firing plain ammunition for no special reason. Why doesn't the hunter just use the focus generator ability? You know, that one he can cast while moving?

Probably because it's actually a temporary minor DPS loss to do so. Cobra Shot does 70% weapon damage in return for 15 focus generated. Auto Shot will give a hunter 100% weapon damage going out in return for whatever amount of focus their passive generation (increased by haste) gives them.

Beastmasters and survivalists still assure me that Cobra Shot still sees action to prevent the focus bar from drying up too much, but it's clear from ranked logs that letting the bow or gun autofire is the more frequent choice. As all the regularly used abilities are instant, movement doesn't really have any effect on a beastmastery or survival hunter's personal DPS (outside of pets or traps, anyway). But Aimed Shot is a cast-time! ... or is it?

The two main focus-spending shots for marksmanship hunters, Aimed Shot and Chimera Shot, cost 50 and 45 focus each, which amounts to half the resource bar. Chimera Shot is instant but on a cooldown and Aimed Shot is that well-known glyphed for moving while casting ability.

Steady Shot, that other casting while moving ability, is not actually used for that much for focus generation. Well, it is, but it also isn't. Marksmanship hunters want to decrease either the cast time or the focus cost of their abilities, and Steady Shot helps them do both.

Steady Shot deals 60% weapon damage in return for normally 14 focus. When Steady Shot is cast twice back-to-back, the marksman gains a substantial buff to his ranged attack speed and also to his focus generation. Furthermore, Steady Shot can help stack another buff to reduce Aimed Shot's painful cast time and cost. Steady Shot is by default able to be cast while moving.

In fact, according to the Icy Veins marksmanship guide, regular cast-time Aimed Shot is labeled as a focus dump, and it's the procced instant version that sits higher up as a major ability priority. Later on, the guide specifies that it's not worth it to use cast-time, cost-heavy Aimed Shot unless the hunter is under significant attack speed or haste buffs.

There's more icing on the cake: Auto Shot is still going to contribute for approximately 10-15% of the damage done. The hunter is still impeded from using special abilities by cooldowns or focus generation, rather than aided by casting essential spells on the run.

Ability management adds complexity, meaning

Elemental shaman work better as a casting while moving comparison than hunters do. After all, the hunter resource works more like the melee-friendly energy bar, which does not work very well with caster ABCs (Always Be Casting). Melee and hunters are rather meant to be occasionally sitting on their duff with white attack damage floating by rather than being limited periodically by movement.

Shaman have a DoT just like warlocks do, but their DoT isn't for damage. Well, Flame Shock does deal damage, but they don't keep it rolling for the damage done like we do. Flame Shock's presence on a target will buff Lava Burst's damage and its ticks have a chance not only to reset the cooldown of Lava Burst, but make the nuke instant-cast. Flame Shock and Lava Burst are a rather contained set of mechanics -- that is, you can't really mess it up unless for some reason you can't cast Flame Shock.

But elemental shaman do have a shock complexity going on. Triggering Earth Shock will set its sister spell Flame Shock on mutual cooldown. Why would you want to hit Earth Shock? Elemental shaman have two passives at work with Lightning Shield: one that allows Lightning Bolts, chained or single, to regenerate mana and charge the shield, and one that buffs the damage to Earth Shock using the charges on the shield. So it turns out that Lightning Bolt isn't just another thing to cast when bored. In between the shock dancing, elemental shaman also often throw another cast-time spell into the mix: Elemental Blast. It has a 12-second cooldown, and Lava Surge will only serve for about half the Lava Burst casts. Shaman get a bit of a damage boost through their mastery, which can copy a Burst or a Bolt for a portion of the damage dealt.

So even with a movable filler cast-time spell, elemental shaman are still stuck with short cooldown management and stagger-casting for a portion of a moving fight. Spiritwalker's Grace is there to sometimes aid shaman when procs are missing to help them during movement.

Why don't warlocks get to keep a "Felwalker's Grace" cooldown, too? We have the instant Fel Flame as an option where shaman don't. The idea behind Patch 5.4's buffs to Fel Flame is that the spell can actually start filling this movement substitute role rather then continuing to collect dust in our spellbooks.

Warlocks: all your health are belong to us

I said in a podcast recently that as a warlock, "you're not really dead, until you're dead." Warlocks aren't truly finite in the resource department the way other casters are. Resource gain and spending is going on all the time as a warlock -- in fact, it's what we do. The various bars on a warlock's unit frame are very mutable during combat. We use our mana to generate our shards, our fury, our embers, and our overall damage, and then we use those secondary resources to regain mana or health again in addition to dealing more damage.

An essential part of being a warlock is realizing that all of the attackable health bars in the field are eventually going to be part of your resource bars for damage purposes, one way or another. DoTs have "cooldowns" baked in with their punch. We aren't limited by hard cooldowns because our DoTs are often high sources of damage themselves -- we would much prefer to let them run as long as possible when applied with significant stat buffs. DoTs can also generate resources or provide additional perks. We already have importance in when to cast a DoT, without movement interfering.

So we're building up this secondary resource all the time -- what makes it meaningful?

Affliction spends shards primarily on Haunt, which is a target debuff that buffs all our damage done to the target. Haunt is a fast cast, but Malefic Grasp is a channel. Haunt trades a limited resource for power, while Malefic Grasp demands safety from interruption in exchange for power. Without Malefic Grasp, affliction would be bored waiting for DoTs to tick on, so it would be quite the bummer for playstyle to interrupt the channel with movement.

Demonology spends demonic fury through abilities in Metamorphosis stance, which is already pretty powerfully mobile through the instant nuke Touch of Chaos. However, the best default gain of fury outside of a proc is to spam the cast-time Shadow Bolt. Moving all the time would result in too much fury spent and not enough gained, so demonology needs some help in the gain department. Soul Fire already has meaning, for it gets a hasty proc; Shadow Bolt needs a similar concession.

Destruction spends a whole burning ember on a hugely awesome nuke, whether that is a cast-time Chaos Bolt or the execute-limited Shadowburn. Embers are readily generated through Immolate or Rain of Fire, though less so through the latter in patch 5.4. This will place more emphasis on the gain of embers through the casts of Incinerate, which places more weight on those casts. Sure, you can't cast a Chaos Bolt on the run, but you won't be casting a Chaos Bolt at all if you can't get the embers to do so. When movement restricts spell casting, it puts pressure on spell priority, for you need to cast the best spell at the right time to make up for less damage on the run. In turn, this makes the spell rotation abstractly interesting, complex, and skill-oriented rather than gear-oriented. Total casting while moving Kil'jaeden's Cunning is overpowered and generally a boring idea -- it weakens our rotation and eventually the meaning of a well-played warlock.

The latest Kil'jaeden's Cunning change passively allows the three main fillers -- all of which have their own inherent importance to keep our rotation going -- to be cast while moving. Warlocks need movement as an challenge to casting to make life more interesting, but this recent change is a good compromise to keep movement from tipping too far into the domain of "not fun." Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DOTs, demons and all the dastardly deeds done by warlocks. We'll coach you in the fine art of staying alive, help pick the best target for Dark Intent, and steer you through tier 13 set bonuses. Tags: affliction, chaos-bolt, destruction, elemental-shaman, featured, fel-flame, guide-to-locks, guide-to-warlocks, hunter, hutner-q-and-a, incinerate, kiljaedens-cunning, lock-guide, lock-info, lock-talents, malefic-grasp, meaningful-rotation, shadow-bolt, spell-complexity, warlock-guide, warlock-info, warlock-talents, wow-lock, wow-lock-info, wow-locks, wow-warlock, wow-warlock-info, wow-warlocks

Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact, Mists of Pandaria

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Siege of Orgrimmar Boss Preview: Kor'kron Dark Shaman

The Kor'kron Dark Shaman are the seventh boss of the new Siege of Orgrimmar raid instance, which will arrive in patch 5.4. They are the second boss in the Gates of Retribution wing, which is the first of three wings which are located in Orgrimmar. These wings will be applicable to both the Raid Finder and Flexible Raiding difficulties. Kor'kron Dark Shaman was tested in 10-man normal mode with three healers, and two tanks.

The start of the fight sees the two shaman, Earthbreaker Haromm and Wavebinder Kardris, who share a health pool, inside what used to be Garrosh's throne room. They are accompanied by two dogs, and the room is extremely small for the fight on 10-man difficulty, let alone 25-man, so it is best that all four are pulled outside. On PTR, the pull required quite some caution, as the combination of a +100% frost damage debuff cast on the Haromm tank and Kardris' Froststorm Bolt caused some serious issues if aggro was not well-managed, not to mention the bolt one-shotting DPS and healers. The two wolves seemed completely insignificant, with only 12 million HP each they were DPS'd down extremely quickly, then the fight begins for real.

Totems

Just like any shaman, these bosses' abilities revolve around the summoning of totems. There are three totems, which are placed at 90%, 80% and 70% health, and give each boss different abilities. These totems really are the key to the fight, as with the exception of the two frost abilities mentioned before, the bosses really don't do a great deal that isn't related to the totems.

Poisonmist Totem

This is the first totem to appear, when the bosses' joint health pool reaches 90%, and grants the two bosses two abilities. Firstly, Earthbreaker Haromm will be granted Toxic Mist, which seemed to debuff two players at a time, not only inflicting a reasonable 120,000 nature damage per three seconds, but also applying stacks of Toxicity, which was far more problematic, as it stacked up, increasing nature damage taken but 10% per stack. We didn't see it stacking up above 5 stacks, but in a fight where pretty much all the damage is nature damage, +50% is a big deal. The good news is that the majority of the damage is avoidable, but obviously this debuff makes any misstep a far bigger issue. I wouldn't be surprised to see this nerfed somewhat before this encounter goes live. Wavebinder Kadris is granted Toxic Storm. This stormcloud not only deals heavy damage to anyone near it, but also periodically summons Toxic Tornadoes. You can see both the cloud and the tornadoes above. The cloud, like most of Kadris' abilities, seems to spawn on her head, meaning she needs to be kited quite a lot to avoid excessive damage. Once the cloud has appeared, it will periodically fire off Toxic Tornadoes. These, unlike the ones on Blademaster Ta'Yak don't appear to fixate on a particular player, nor do they seem to pick a spot and remain stationary. Instead, they meander around the area, often in groups, and knock players upwards. They do despawn, but it seems to take some time, and they will cover a fairly wide area, as you can see in the image above.

Foulstream Totem

This is the second totem to be summoned, when the bosses' joint health reaches 80%. Earthbreaker Haromm is given Foul Stream, which appears to fixate on a single player, then flash a broad line of liquid onto the floor, which lasts a short while before disappearing. Again, this inflicts nature damage, and a lot of it, 300,000 to be precise. Don't stand in it! It really does disappear very quickly, the only screenshot I was able to get of it is the one in the header image at the top of the article. Again, Wavebinder Kadris is granted the far more tiresome ability, Foul Geyser. This spawns, again, from the boss herself, firing bright green liquid off in all directions. The liquid deals damage where it lands, and every bit of liquid spawns a Foul Slime, which emit Foulness. These slimes are many in number, but don't have a great deal of health. They do, however, deal a reasonable amount of AoE damage, particularly en masse, and are best kited by a tank. Hunter misdirects and the like are invaluable here, to turn the slimes' attention to the kiter while they are burned down. Of all the aspects of this fight, the slimes caused the most trouble. We seemed to be getting 18 slimes from every cast of Foul Geyser, which is a lot to handle for a 10-man normal mode. Strong ranged AoE abilities are very important thanks to the AoE damage dealt making these a tricky proposition for melee. Ashflare Totem

This totem is the last of the three to appear, when the shamans' health pool reaches 70%. Of the totems, it seems to be, mercifully, the least troublesome of the totems. It gives Earthbreaker Haromm, for once, the more entertaining ability, Ashen Wall. This wall of elementals will deal damage to anyone near enough to it to be in their range, but on the PTR, it seemed that they had come over all Gallic and gone on strike. They did almost no damage, and we couldn't find anything in the combat logs indicating that they were doing anything at all. They look cool, though.

Wavebinder Kadris is given Falling Ash by the Ashflare totem, which is the huge red circle of doom you can see in the image above. Oddly enough, standing in it isn't a great idea, what you unfortunately can't see is the slowly falling meteor that is above it. If you're in the circle when that meteor lands, you will not live to tell the tale. It will deal 200,000 damage to everyone in the area regardless of where you're standing, too, but it is easily prepared for with spirit shells and the like.

Bloodlust

Yes, they really are shaman! The fight continues to revolve around these three totems and their associated abilities, until the shamans' health reaches 30%, when they will Bloodlust, increasing all their damage dealt by 30%, and their haste by 30%. While it isn't 100% confirmed to be the case, it would be odd indeed if this didn't include all the summoned abilities, as the shamans themselves really don't do a great deal.

Obviously, this fight involves a good deal of kiting, and as such is not ideal for melee DPS. Haromm is probably the best primary target, as they share a health pool, and Kadris has this annoying habit of constantly summoning things on her head. All the really troublesome abilities come from Kadris, so it could be viable to take Haromm somewhere quiet, like inside a building, and DPS him down while leaving a smaller party outside to deal with Kadris. Of course, this is PTR, so everything's subject to change!

Tags: featured, guide, guide-to-raid-leading, leadership, patch-5.4, patch-5.4-korkron-dark-shaman, patch-5.4-ptr, patch-5.4-raid, patch-5.4-raid-guide, raid-guide, raid-leader, raid-leader-guide, raiding-guide, raids, wow-guide, wow-guide-to-raid-leading, wow-raid-leader, wow-raiding, wow-raids

Filed under: Raiding

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Know Your Lore: The rise of the Dark Shaman

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

We had warning that this was coming. When Ragefire Chasm was given an overhaul in Mists of Pandaria, the changes didn't escape the notice of players -- but nobody really knew the extent of what was going on. Remnants of the Twilight Cult from Cataclysm could be found in the depths of Ragefire, carrying insignias that noted they were part of a new order -- not Twilight Cult, but something quite possibly far darker, called the Dark Shaman.

These shaman were highlighted briefly in the novel Tides of War, as part of Garrosh's assault forces on Northwatch Hold. While the question of how they came to be seems to be fairly self-explanatory, there's a little more to the story than previously thought. It stretches all the way back to the days of Wrath of the Lich King, and the discovery of a different, new, hardy race of warriors and shaman that were far more used to doing what was necessary to survive, than what may or may not have been right.

Shaman and the elements

But first, let's go back just a little farther and look at shaman as a whole. While some races may have been practicing shamanism far longer than others, the essential core of what a shaman is hasn't really changed that much over the centuries. Shaman by and large act as a kind of spiritual leader, promoting the harmony and balance of the elements. Left to their own devices, elements tend to gravitate towards a chaotic state -- it's simply in their nature. A shaman typically feels a deep spiritual connection to the elements that make up the world, and the spirits of the dead themselves.

But the elements are a tricky thing. Shaman treat them with reverence, acting as a moderating force between the chaos and encouraging that balance -- but the elements don't always listen to these requests. Shaman don't harness the power of nature in the way that druids do -- instead, they ask the elements for their aid and are either answered, or denied, depending on the whim of the elements. Shamanism was practiced extensively by the orcs of Draenor long before the First War, but the influence of the Burning Legion on the orcish race offended the elements, and they simply turned away. It wasn't until much later with the rise of Thrall after the Second War that shamanism made a comeback to the orcish race.

But here's where we get a little tricky. For most shaman, the idea of balance and harmony is more than enough to keep them practicing shamanism. In Wrath of the Lich King, Garrosh Hellscream and the Horde discovered an off-shoot race of the tauren called the taunka, who had been living in Northrend for countless years. The taunka were powerful warriors and shaman in their own right, but they had to adapt to the harsh realities of living in Northrend. Taunka shaman do not ask the elements for their assistance -- they demand it, taking it by force.

Commend vs. control

This may be where Garrosh Hellscream first witnessed the power that a shaman could wield in full force. While Thrall is a powerful shaman -- perhaps one of the most powerful on Azeroth -- he is still playing to the whim of the elements, and if the elements decide not to answer Thrall's call, he's just as powerless as anyone else. The taunka, on the other hand, demonstrated what could be done if one simply demanded and forced, rather than asking and waiting for an answer. Garrosh was impressed with the taunka -- it's part of the reason he allowed them to join the Horde in their Northrend campaign. They represented a strength and a ferocity that many of the other Horde races seemed to lack, and made valuable allies.

In Cataclysm, the Twilight Cult rose to heights previously unseen. Keep in mind, the Twilight Cult may have appeared to be working for Deathwing, the Old Gods, Ragnaros -- but that really wasn't the case at all. What the Twilight Cult was focused on was sowing chaos, with the intent of bringing about Armageddon. They weren't exactly the most sane group of people on Azeroth. But their focus -- chaos -- tied in wonderfully with what the elements and the Old Gods were all about. They were fine with helping the Old Gods and the Elemental Lords, because the Old Gods were pretty intent on bringing about exactly what the Twilight Cult wanted -- the eradication of existence.

While Cataclysm's story was convoluted at times, one thing was incredibly clear -- Ragnaros and Al'Akir both signed back on to the army of the Old Gods. Al'Akir may have been largely silent in Uldum, but Ragnaros quickly became a force to be reckoned with. He allied with the Twilight Cult, and he created a new order of druids -- the Druids of the Flame -- giving them the ability to manipulate and use the elemental force of fire to their whim. What few realize is that this was not the first time he'd gifted someone with the ability to perform this task.

Shotoa and the Earthen Ring

The manga Warcraft: Shaman holds an interesting tale. Roughly two hundred and fifty years ago, the War of the Three Hammers raged in the Eastern Kingdoms, and Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan summoned the Elemental Lord Ragnaros, unleashing his fury on Azeroth. Ragnaros later haunted the depths of the Molten Core, but his release was felt by tauren shaman all the way in Kalimdor, long before any of the races in the Eastern Kingdoms sought out the continent. One of these shaman, Shotoa, argued the wisdom of asking the elements for their aid, particularly since their unrest meant they were unwilling to answer the call -- but Oreg Earthfury discouraged the notion. When Shotoa's apprentice was trapped as a result of the tumultuous elements, Shotoa sought to save him, but was swallowed by the earth, presumed dead.

Fast forward to the days of the Cataclysm. Oreg's great-grandson, Muln, now led the shaman organization known as the Earthen Ring, and continued his ancestors' teachings. But the elemental unrest was a cause of great concern -- and even more so, the mysterious re-appearance of the shaman Shotoa, who claimed to have spent the years underground communing with and eventually harnessing the spirits of the elements. He did not ask for the aid of the elements -- he demanded it, using them in a way that had been frowned upon for generations. By demonstrating his power, Shotoa soon had many members of the Earthen Ring interested in learning his secrets.

If Shotoa had had his way, the Earthen Ring would have collapsed altogether -- but not for the reasons most would assume. In reality, when Shotoa was swallowed by the earth and imprisoned underground, his body was consumed and fed by the energies of the Firelord. This resulted in a shaman that was possessed by the element of fire, able to bend and manipulate flame to his will. Shotoa was defeated, and the Earthen Ring rose once more to heal the world after the disastrous cataclysm -- and Ragnaros created the Druids of the Flame instead.

Dark shaman

In between all of these tales of elemental control vs. reverence, we can begin to pick out where the dark shaman eventually came from. In Ragefire Chasm, these remnants of the Twilight Cult are summoning beasts from the Firelands -- Ragnaros' former domain -- and enslaving them for their own purposes. In addition, they're experimenting with elemental ascension, using the energies from the Firelands to create shaman that act as living conduits for energies pulled from the Firelands -- eerily similar to what happened to Shotoa.

The Twilight Cult no longer had Ragnaros to follow as a means of sowing chaos. The Old Gods were quiet, no longer whispering their dark, mad secrets, and the leader of the Twilight Cult, Cho'gall, was dead. But chaos and destruction was not an absent force on Azeroth -- far from it. In fact, Warchief Garrosh Hellscream seemed to be particularly devoted to the idea of claiming the entire continent of Kalimdor for the Horde ... a bloody task that would likely result in thousands of dead, perhaps more. And the Twilight Cult was all about the destruction of life.

Many assumed that the Dark Shaman of Ragefire Chasm were traitors, but there's another twist to this tale, a subtle one. In the days of vanilla, the Blackrock Clan of orcs worked hand in hand with the black dragon Nefarian. When Nefarian was killed and Deathwing ultimately made his return, the Blackrock allied with Deathwing in his stead, becoming allies with the Twilight's Hammer clan -- the Twilight Cult. See where this is all folding together?

Power unimaginable

Warchief Garrosh Hellscream granted the Blackrock orcs amnesty and brought them into the Horde in Mists of Pandaria, making many of them members of the Kor'kron -- even appointing one of them, Malkorok, as leader of the Kor'kron. Why? Because these orcs were incredibly powerful, and represented one of the last bastions of the Old Horde -- the powerful Horde that sought to conquer Azeroth. The Blackrock were allied with the Twilight Cult in Cataclysm, and thus presumably aware of the potential power the Cult could wield, telling Garrosh about it.

And Garrosh listened. Because if there is one thing Warchief Hellscream craves, it is power and domination. He witnessed the shaman of the taunka and their ability to demand obedience from the elements in Northrend, so he knew it was possible. To Garrosh, control is everything -- and the Dark Shaman represent one of the greatest aspects of control. They don't control people, they control the powers of the elements themselves, in a way that can be used as an incredibly effective weapon.

The Dark Shaman aren't just a mysterious group that popped up out of nowhere -- they are the pinnacle of everything that is wrong with Garrosh Hellscream. They represent everything he is looking for in his reign as Warchief -- phenomenally powerful allies that are a physical representation of the height of control and domination. They seek not only to provide the Warchief with elemental weapons to use at his disposal, but also to imbue warriors with the very essence of the elements themselves, creating the new breed of warrior that Garrosh has been seeking throughout Mists.

Yet, in the end, what Garrosh doesn't realize is that he is not controlling them -- they are controlling him. By offering him what he asks for, by giving him everything he desires, the Dark Shaman can continue the legacy of the lost Twilight Cult, and reap the rewards of chaos, right under the Warchief's nose, and with his full approval. It's this blind, bullheaded, willing commitment to power that will, in the end, signal the doom of Hellscream's reign -- we can only hope that it won't bring Armageddon right along with it.

While you don't need to have played the previous Warcraft games to enjoy World of Warcraft, a little history goes a long way toward making the game a lot more fun. Dig into even more of the lore and history behind the World of Warcraft in WoW Insider's Guide to Warcraft Lore. Tags: blackrock-clan, dark-shaman, earthen-ring, elements, featured, garrosh-hellscream, guide, guide-to-lore, lore, lore-guide, malkorok, muln-earthfury, oreg-earthfury, ragnaros, role-play, role-playing-guide, rp-guide, shaman, shotoa, thrall, twilight-cult, twilights-hammer, warcraft-shaman, world-of-warcraft-lore, world-of-warcraft-shaman, wow-guide, wow-lore, wow-role-playing, wow-role-playing-guide, wow-rp, wow-rp-guide, wow-rping

Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore

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Totem Talk: 2012 for restoration 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.

I like to do these at the end or beginning of every year. I always find it interesting to take a step back and look at how the events of the year unfolded. Every year is exciting, there is always announcements, class changes and new things to learn. It seems like it was no time before that we were talking about all the exciting changes that were ahead for us in then upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion.

All the anticipation leading up the release of MoP and everything that has change and adjusted in the months following the release have been equally exciting. As the expansion rolls on we continue to speculate to what the future may hold.

The end of Dragon Soul

Dragon Soul was a raid that was good to us shaman healers. Resto shaman excelled in many of the fights because of the nature of most of the encounters. Even at the first part of the zone, the Siege of Wyrmrest Temple, started with an extremely shaman friendly fight in the form of Morchock and fights like Ultraxion that would later come to give us the base for one of our class defining abilities. It was a good time to be a restoration shaman, highly desirable, our cooldowns were great and our set bonuses were really well done. The tier 13 2-piece bonus was fantastic, making your healing spells cheaper for 15 seconds after your Mana Tide totem was cast. It might not seem like a lot, but with the haste we were rocking by tier 13, you could cram quite a bit of healing into 15 seconds. The tier 13 4-piece bonus was by far my favorite at the time. Every time you cast Spiritwalker's Grace you gained 30% additional haste for as long as the spell was active. I think it was a great bonus that made one of our spells even more useful.

By the time January rolled around, though, we had spent countless hours in the zone. As with every other raid content, no matter how good it is, it will eventually become a little stale for us. At least for a little while that is. But it was around this time that our focus started shifting to the isles out of time, that lay beyond the mists that concealed it. News about Mists of Pandaria really became the new focus for our healing endeavors.

All about the Mists

The vast majority of 2012, though, was spent waiting for Mists of Pandaria to hit release date. The first of it started with speculating about what healing would look like in mists, and what they would mean for restoration shaman. The new monk healing model caused most healers to start questioning if other healing classes would undergo under massive changes. That speculation though gave an opportunity to talk about what changes we would like to see come to our class and how we heal, I even submitted my own wish list. One of the first changes that was announced by the developers at Blizzard for restoration shaman was that the interaction between Chain Heal and Riptide. It was announced that Riptide would no longer be consumed by Chain Heal. It was more a quality of life change than anything else, but still a significant one. It has resulted in a nice constant boost to healing as long as you keep track of where you riptides go.

For the longest time, the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator was updated frequently while we waited for the next expansion. The talent system change was a big one, as big as the one that moved us away from the system that had been in place since Classic WoW and Burning Crusade. The news system sported 6 talents to choose from, with a completely new design goal. The idea was to make the talents fun and interesting without making any configuration outshine any others. Basically to give real choice and make it fun for the player instead of just having to look up which talent choices were going to let you do your job properly. Early though, there was no listing for our current level 90 talents, and it let to much speculation as to what they could possibly be. Of all the things I would wished for, I'm not certain I would have called what we actually have been given for level 90 talents.

Many other changes were also talked about, leading up to the release of mists, most noticeable was that some of our totems would be going away. A huge change for Mists was that static buff totems would be going away, meaning no more Strength of Earth or Mana Spring Totem. It was the beginning of turning our totems into mini cooldowns instead of constant companions and marked a huge departure and from something that was a certain way for us for so long. This lead up to right before release a bunch of us shaman types getting together to say one final goodbye to our totem forest before Mists pre-patch launched. Sure there's a glyph to make an illusionary totem circle, but it still isn't quite the same.

The big release, and the months after

So the big day came, and Mists was released, and everything that we had basically been waiting for was finally live. We survived patch 5.0.4 and started diving headfirst into dungeons and quests. Gearing up through dungeons was actually easier than expected, and even reputation rewards were fairly easy to obtain and find. It wasn't long at all before we started figuring out stat priorities, and healing through all the new raids. Finding places for our totems beyond healing and discovering new problems to overcome. We've been healing our way through forgotten tombs of a land we know nearly nothing about in the grand scheme of things, and we'll be healing our way through so much more. There are even raid encounters that seem like they were designed just for restoration shaman to do crazy good on. Honestly, 2012 has been very good to us healing shaman. With new raids on the horizon, and at least two whole tiers of content yet before we can even start considering the end of the expansion, 2013 could also be a really good year for restoration shaman.

So how was your 2012? What are you looking forward to in Mists of Pandaria for restoration shaman in 2013?
Totem Talk: Restoration lends you advice on healing groups, DK tanks and heroics and mana concerns in today's endgame -- or take a break and look back at the rise of the resto shaman. Happy healing, and may your mana be plentiful! Tags: featured, guide-to-shamans, resto, Resto-Shaman, restoration, restoration-shaman, restoration-shaman-column, shaman, shaman-guide, shaman-healing, shaman-info, shaman-restoration-column, shaman-talents, wow-shaman, wow-shaman-info

Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk

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