I got asked a doozy of a question by Lytha about Resto Shaman PvP specs.
It’s a doozy because I don’t have a simple answer right now, but since when has ignorance ever stopped me posting a “guide”?
Maybe if Jagerbombz was still writing Shaman stuff he could fill us in. Maybe one of the other Resto bloggers out there will know. Maybe the answer is in your head.
I sort of figure that there is a bucket load of knowledge out there amongst the 12 million (12,000,000 seems bigger doesn’t it?) WoW players and someone will have a definitive answer.
Meanwhile I am always open to speculation, shooting my damn fool mouth off and near enough is good enough (the kind of thinking that has made our once great nation Australia).
The way I see it there are two different styles of BGs, which could (ie: don’t need to, but could) support two different spec styles.
- Zerg BGs
- Up close and Frost Shockable.
Zerg BGs
These BGs are the big ones, your Alterac Valleys, Wintergraps, Strand of the Ancients etc.
There are a pile of targets apart from yourself for opponents to hit and a pile of teammates for you to heal.
In the case of Alterac Valley and Wintergrasp (if you win and cant be bothered respecing) you even have a couple of raid bosses to defeat.
Therefore I think your bog standard raid healing spec will do you fine. If you can beg, borrow or steal (err earn, craft or buy) some resilience gear all the better.
Healing and staying power will be the order of the day. You want to make sure your heals are effective and your mana pool is deep enough (and replenishing fast enough) for you to pump out the heals – you may not get to rest for a drink for a while.
Up close and Frost Shockable.
These are the smaller BGs, your Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm.
The percentage of healers to damage dealers may be the same, but there are less bodies to target, so you are more likely to be one of the targets.
Resto Killing Machine
Did I tell you I solo’d a Rogue in EotS the other day? Poor bugger… My health kept going up, his kept going down… Fire totem here, Flame shock there… It wasn’t pretty or fast, but he can shove is poisons where the sun doesn’t shine.
So your spec needs to be a bit more versatile, both through taking more of the survival oriented talents as well as pumping your damage capabilities (especially if they can have a neutral or positive impact on your healing).
Holding down the fort while keeping up the health
You want to know that when you are the last one at the flag/resource/tower (cause those bloody dps you kept alive just ran off in search of more honor kills), that you can solo at least one opponent wile screaming invectives into BG chat and pinging your mini map for support like the mad (angry that is, I would never call you insane to your face) little Shaman you are.
Run Resto Run!
You want to know that when you are the last one standing in the enemy’s flag room that you can pick up that flag and have a fair chance at surviving through judicious use of instant ghost wolf, earth shields, totems etc.
You grab the flag, ES yourself, get outside hit ghost wolf and your off… inc gankers, drop an earthbind totem and instantly back to shadow wolf to leave them rotting in your snare.
What are we here for again?
Of course you don’t want to forget your primary reason for being there, healing, otherwise you might as well just spec Elemental or Enhancement. So your spec would still be mainly Resto, just with a few tweaks so you cam grab the occasional “defensive” 😉 killing blow yourself.
Remember you may be healing in your flag room, but it’s still your job to stop that enemy flag carrier, rock that frost shock and earthbind totem!
Bring a smile to your face lightning quick
Let me tell you now, nothing will bring a smile to your face more than a pinch hit Chain Heal followed by a devastating Chain Lightning.
If it’s you and a DPS against 2 opponents, rather than playing 2v2, play 3v2. Your heals + DPS & your team mates against their sorry corpses.
If it’s 2v3, then I guess things are more even, but you want to make sure you spec keeps the fight even.
Elemental my dear Resto
Of course you wouldn’t forget you Elementals would you? There is something about the Earth Elemental that causes people to forget their human opponents…
Must be all that PvE training…
God forbid they remember the fragile totem it’s attached to…
Question asked… Question Answered?
So anyway folks, help me out here. I think I am reasonably close to the mark on why you would spec differently, but now I want to know in pretty pictures what these specs would look like.
Bring on your wowhead spec links!
Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/10/09/squidlys-shaman-pvp-tips-2-resto-shaman-pvp-specs/
Hello Armaggedon! 🙂
Here is some build that i use in BG and arenas. I’m quite happy with it.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hZ0gMI0VZVcehc0sEzbhRt
Good luck!
Hey Laacis,
That was quicker than I expected… awesome thanks!
What glyphs do you use with this spec?
Amendment on the Elemental totem
As far as I recall
the totem itself had the same hp as the Elemental now…
So the only option left is
“Kill the Shaman…not the elemental!”
What.. Kill the shaman!?!
But this shaman means you no harm… he’s just here to heal 😉
I tried reason (After Reincarnation) that in AV with the Horde as well….
But seems that they don’t speak common
and have some problem with people surrounded by blue bubble and on the end of the Juses Beam.
😦 seems that the only way we can communicate with them are lighting blot and fireball….
Btw “Kill the Shaman…not the elemental!”
is from Jager’s PvP Tip o’ the Day
The “common” we understand is WAR… for better or worse…
That said, we can all learn from our Ancestors… Jager being one such holy cow.
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman#fJqe-_o6VvAQuD,MFy,10554
Here’s mine. HW is great for powering through MS effects, though I’ve toyed with taking away the HW talents and instead getting 5 Totemic Focus, 2 Nature’s Blessing and 1 Imp. Earth Shield so I could get the Earth Shield Glyph instead. So far the hps of a Riptide => HW => HW is too powerful a tool to ignore, particularly with the HW glyph and Ancestral healing keeping me up as well.
With Ancestral Healing and all our crit from talents, any heal we cast has the potential to heal multiple targets, so you can keep up a group even when casting CH is too clumsy. (Hai rogues!)
Hey Ledin, thanks…
Good thinking on the HW (or LHW) vs. Jesus beams.
I just spent 5 minutes spamming LHW, mid battle… normally I only get 30 seconds max with jesus beams.
And as you say, why heal multiple targets with spells that light you up, when you can so some stealth Ancestral healing.
Mmm Rogues… I’d like to say that I have seen a few, but I normally don’t notice till too late, and they are quick to look my corpse and send me to the GY.
The 5 minute battle was a case of me being the aggro magnet (probably 2 heals for me, 1 for someone else), but when the horde would run in for me, the Allies would just pick them off again… sweet…
Must remember fire elemental…
Great post Armageddon!!!
Even though I’m a Retpal, I rarely have the time or ability to heal others since I’m so busy in the center of it. Mayhaps if I focus on healing others, I might be of better use.
And well, if they come directly after me, I’m not really all that squishy 😉
But on to the BIG Q of the day: I don’t “speak Shammy” so I don’t know what all your acronyms & slang for things are: jesus beams, etc. or how shammies can interrupt. What are your “basic” spells for things?
Interrupts?
Heals?
I run with a Shammy, and anything you can help with would be a MASSIVE help!
I just dinged 70, so the thought of going toe to toe with some 79’s has me cringing, so maybe being a heal-retadin may be my best hope for now…
I will see if I can make sense of the terms and then present my misunderstanding in a way that warms the hearts of every shaman you ever play with.
Gotta love being in the top of your bracket 😉
But now you are lv 70! Scary stuff out there…. and I have some bad news for you about alliance’s ability to win battlegrounds in the 70-79 bracket on our battlegroup.
It hardly ever happens.
Of course with you involved I’m sure all that will change, but be prepared for some /bennyhill style nonsense.
Seems to be all fixed up when you get to level 80 though!
Yeah I got the news about Alliance and BGs @ 70 over the weekend.
Seems like all the good (read BG chant and comply) players stop at 70 and go questing till 80.
I will have a post up about the BG lemmings tomorrow arvo.
[…] guildies!), but mostly I’ve been pvp’ing to level, much like Gnomer has been doing with Squidly. Unfortunately, Squidly and Kor are not likely to ever meet in the battlegrounds since we play on […]
Ohh NOEZ!
The Horde are in my blog eating my Gnomes!
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