Tier 10 Shaman Setboni

The new Tier10 armor sets are in the making and so are our newest set boni. As stated several times by Blizzard Staff the numbers are not final yet.

2 Pieces (Resto): Your Riptide spell grants 20% spell haste for your next spellcast.
4 Pieces (Resto): Your Chain Heal critical strikes cause the target to heal for 25% of the healed amount.

The first bonus seems nice to further reduce the time till the next cast lands after you just cast Riptide and waiting for your global cooldown to finish. Some might argue that this is a fine thing to throw out a very fast Chain Heal practically doubling your haste bonus for this one spell. However recent calculations found on the mmo-champion shaman forums indicate that using Riptide every cooldown to boost a ‘Chain Heal Spam’ is actually a -decrease- in healing per second!

The 4 pieces bonus is yet to be tested. If the extra heal is capable of proccing other spells and abilities (e.g. Earthliving Weapon) it could be quite useful. Time will tell.

Official Enhancement PvP Specc

Most people think enhancement PvP is dead, but obviously this is not the case! In a recent MLG arena tournament 1st place on the 3on3 ranking made a team including an Enchancement Shaman! I did some research and was able to find his specc. It looks a little bit wierd, but I also found several sources confirming that grabbing Toughness is not a wise choice! Happy PvP!

Link to Enhancement PvP Specc

Patch 3.2 Restoration Raiding Specc

Some readers pointed out that there has never been a recent update on the raiding speccs for people who want to do hardmodes and generally play high end content. Well here it is complete with gemming hints and all 6 Glyphs!

Note that this specc already has selected all of the six glyphs. I do not recommend changing any of them unless you are on very special occasion.

Restoration PvE 25 Raid Spec 3.2
Advantages: Maximized healing throughput and versatility.
Disadvantages: Still we are not suited for mass group healing and even this specc won’t change anything about it.
What do you need: Gear featuring a balanced amount of crit and haste. Gem your gear for haste, sp/haste and haste/mp5.
Group requirements: Replenishment and AoE-Group Healers (Priests and/or Druids)
Summary: You can beat every encounter in WotLK that has been released so far with this specc. I personally did -every- one of them including Alone in the Darkness.

Patch 3.2 Best-in-Slot Restoration Gear

Since I had a chance to proof my worth as a main tank healer I did some research to come up with a Best-In-Slot gear list for tank healing. Since not all loot is available yet (e.g. on Wowhead.com) and I didn’t like the idea of improvising so the slots for ‘Finger’ and ‘Weapon’ will be empty. Source of this list is mainly my personal experience although I found a list on Elitist Jerks that is quite similar so I guess my assumptions based on experience rather than proofen math (which is always a tricky thing with healing) are not so far off the mainland.

This gear list is mainly for tank purposes, but should do well in all other situations. Since Shamans have become very adaptive healers the trick is to keep all important healing stats: +crit, +haste, +sp and +mp5 balanced throughout your whole gear. The new items are also buckling with +int and loads of +mp5 so I think it is quite stupid to grab as much +int as humanly possible (e.g. through (JC) gems). Also note that the four-pieces-bonus of T9 is not worth having (imho) especially not for healing a tank. That’s why I heavily recommend wearing two pieces of each set in order to get a greatly improved Riptide.

As for the relic slot: The new Totem of Calming Tides exceeds the Steamcaller’s Totem easily if the buff has an uptime of 50% or higher (which is easily accomplished after what I heard from early test on live and ptr). An exact calculation for the uptime and comparison to other totems may be found on the Elitist Jerks Shaman Forums. The totem may be bought for 25 Emblems of Triumph right in front of the instance portal.

UPDATE: Recent EJ theory crafting have come up with a new resto-haste-bis list! See this elitist jerks thread for more information. Here the alliance version of the bis-gear-list:

Weapon: [Misery's End] Anub’arak-25-Heroic
[Blade of Tarasque] Beasts-25-Heroic

Off-Hand: [Bastion of Purity] Faction Champs-25-Heroic

Head: [Nobundo's Helm of Triumph] (Elemental) [Regalia of the Grand Protector]

Neck: [Wail of the Val'kyr] Twins-25-Heroic

Shoulder: [Nobundo's Shoulderpads of Triumph] (Elemental) [Regalia of the Grand Protector]

Back: [Jaina's Radiance] Toc-25H-Tribute to Insanity-50 attempts left
[Drape of Bitter Incantation] ToC-10 (50 attempts left)
[Cloak of Displacement] (hit) Faction Champs-25-Heroic
[Maiden's Favor] Anub’arak-25-Heroic

Chest: [Nobundo's Tunic of Triumph] [Regalia of the Grand Protector]

Hands: [Gloves of the Lifeless Touch] (Cloth) Anub’arak-25-Heroic
[Nobundo's Handguards of Triumph] [Regalia of the Grand Protector]

Wrist: [Bracers of the Autumn Willow](Leather) Jaraxxus-25-Heroic

Waist: [Cord of Pale Thorns](Leather) Twins-25-Heroic
[Belt of the Ice Burrower] Beasts-25-Heroic
Leather=Haste, Mail=Crit

Feet: [Boots of Tremoring Earth] Faction Champs-25-Heroic

Legs: [Leggings of the Awakening](Leather) Anub’arak-25-Heroic
[Legguards of Concealed Hatred] Faction Champs-25-Heroic
Mail legs have mp5. Leather crit +haste

Rings: [Ring of the Darkmender] Jaraxxus-25-Heroic
[Ring of the Darkmender] Jaraxxus-25
alternative: badges ring

Relic: [Totem of Calming Tides] 25 Badges

Trinkets: [Solace of the Defeated] Jarraxus-25-Heroic
Alternative [Show of Faith].

If you want to find your nearest upgrade to this new EJ-BiS-List just hit this link for newest HEP values via wowhead: Click me!

The old Best-in-Slot list featuring a balanced gear and the best way to achieve the t9 and t8 setbonus for maximum riptide action:

Head: Conqueror’s Worldbreaker Headpiece
Armorclass: Mail
Source: Drop – Thorim 25
Notes: These are the tier 8.5 shoulders from Ulduar. Recommended gems and enchants: Insightful Earthsiege Diamond, Energzied Eye of Zul and Arcanum of Blissful Mending.

Neck: Cry of the Valkyr
Armorclass: n/a
Source: Drop – Twin Valkyrs 25 normal

Shoulder: Thrall’s Spaulders of Triumph
Armorclass: Mail
Source: Drop – Token from ToGC 25
Notes: This is the Horde version of the item (Alliance Version). Recommended gems and enchants: Energzied Eye of Zul and Greater Inscription of the Crag.

Back: Aethas’ Intensity
Armorclass: Cloth
Source: Drop – Tribute Chest from ToGC 25
Notes: It will probably take a while to get your hands on one of these, but this is dfntly the f*cking best cloak in the game with an incredible sum of stats from 272 itemlevels. Enchant haste on this one :-)

Chest: Thrall’s Tunic of Triumph
Armorclass: Mail
Source: Drop – Token from ToGC 25
Notes: This is the Horde version of the item (Alliance Version). Recommended gems and enchants: Reckless Ametrine, Energzied Eye of Zul and Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats.

Wrist: Bejeweled Wizard’s Bracers
Armorclass: Cloth
Source: Crafted – Tailoring Recipe from ToC
Notes: You will need 4xCrusader Orb to craft this. Recommended gems and enchants: Energzied Eye of Zul and the best spellpower enchant.

Hands: Conqueror’s Worldbreaker Handguards
Armorclass: Mail
Source: Drop – Mimiron 25
Notes: Your second Tier8.5 piece to retain the Worlbreaker’s first set bonus. Recommended gems and enchants: Quick King’s Amber and a spellpower enchant.

Belt: Binding of the Ice Burrower
Armorclass: Mail
Source: Drop – Northrend Beasts 25 normal
Notes: This is the Horde version of the item (Alliance version). Recommended gems and enchants: Quick King’s Amber and Energzied Eye of Zul.

Legs: Leggings of Concealed Hatred
Armorclass: Mail
Source: Drop – Faction Champions 25 hardmode
Notes: Recommended gems and enchants: Quick King’s Amber, Energzied Eye of Zul, Reckless Ametrine and Saphire Spellthread.

Feet: Boots of Tremoring Earth
Armorclass: Mail
Source: Drop – Faction Champions 25 hardmode
Notes: Recommended gems and enchants: Quick King’s Amber, Energzied Eye of Zul and Tuskarr’s Vitality.

Trinket 1: Show of Faith
Armorclass: n/a
Source: Drop – Yogg-Saron hardmode
Notes: This is just an awesome trinket! Enough said.

Trinket 1: Solace of the Defeated
Armorclass: n/a
Source: Drop – Lord Jaraxxus
Notes: This is the Alliance Version (Horde version). Dropping all your four totems at once will grant you immediatly 5 stacks of the buff! Really enough said.

Patch 3.1 Shaman Talent Calculator

MMO-Champion has once more updated the talent calculators to the newest changes! Feel free to experiment with the Updated 3.1 Shaman Talent Calculator.

Source

Best Gear for Enhancement and Elemental DPS (Patch 3.1)

Choosing the perfect gear is one of the key questions in World of Warcraft. The following links represent near optimum patchwerk fight lootrankings for elemental (T8: 57/14/00) and enhancement (T8: 16/55/00) speccs for the current standings in the upcoming 3.1 patch. Enjoy!

Enhancement Gear List:
@ Loot Rank
@ Wowhead

Elemental Gear List:
@ Loot Rank
@ Wowhead

Source

Restoration 25man Raid Build for Patch 3.1 (with glyphs)

This post is the ultimate result of beta, ptr and live testing over months now. I guess most of you will have their leveling speccs already. The following specc represents one of the best speccs for healing easy to medium difficulty content.

Note that this specc already has some mandatory glyphs attached. Feel free to add the Glyph of Earth Shield or a situational one to the set, e.g. Glyph of Healing Stream Totem.

Restoration PvE 25 Raid Spec 3.1
Advantages: Maximized healing throughput
Disadvantages: Only moderate mana regeneration and single target healing capabilities. lacks devensive talents, too.
What do you need: Gear featuring lots of crit, haste and +spower
Group requirements: Healers for the main tanks and replenishment
Summary: This will most likely be the best pve restoration specc for large raiding groups in easy to medium difficulty content.

*UPDATE* As some readers have mentioned: This specc is NOT suitable for raiding Ulduar hard mode encounters! The use of a slightly adjusted glyph set and adding survival talents such as Nature’s Guardian is highly recommended!