Chain Heal
This has long been the target of most Shaman button clicks. The spell ‘jumps to 3 targets’ (or 4 with a major Glyph). Who it heals is based on who is missing the most health (by absolute value and not percentage). Each jump reduces the healing done by 50%. The range for each ‘jump’ of the spell is approximately 10-15 yards.
Chain heal can crit on any of the three jumps or all) but the healing done to the next target is based on the non-crit healing done. Crits from chain heal will proc Ancestral Fortitude and Tidal Waves.
This is a great spell for when your party/raid is taking a lot of damage and players are bunched. Useful scenarios are for AOE bosses or anytime a group needs to be bunched. Think Loken from Halls of Lightning or Sapphiron from Naxxramus.
Another point of note is that Chain Heal will proc Tidal Waves, which is a must for all healing scenarios. Whether you use Chain Heal or Riptide for its proc depends on if it is single target damage you are facing or clustered damage.
Riptide
A new addition with WoTLK, Riptide is an excellent addition to the Shamans arsenal. Riptide is a talent that gives us our only instant heal (not counting Nature’s Swiftness). It has a 6-second cooldown. If you cast Chain Heal on someone with Riptide, it consumes the remaining healing left on the Riptide and increases your Chain Heal by 25%. Only a direct Chain Heal will proc Riptide though, not the jumps. The other big plus, as I mentioned above, is that it ill proc Tidal Waves.
This spell is very useful for any fight involving movement or burst damage. Earth shield your tank and cast a riptide before the pull and keeping him up during the initial pull is a simple task with your 30% quicker Lesser Healing Waves and Healing Waves.
Healing Wave
This is our big heal, It takes 2.5 seconds to cast (3.0 seconds without talents) and is not as powerful as other classes’ big heal spells. In the past this spell was buried in many Shaman’s spell books because of its high mana cost and the greater effectiveness of other spells. However, with the Tidal Wave talents mentioned above and also the Healing Way talent it can be very useful in certain high damage situations.
Lesser Healing Wave
This is the fastest heal a shaman can cast. With a nominal amount of haste and with the Tidal Waves buff this spell is a ~1 second cast. It does not stack Healing Way, but it is relatively cheap with talents at 626 Mana. This is the staple heal for many Shamans for light to mid single target damage. A combination of Chain Heal > Lesser Healing Wave x 2, or Riptide > Lesser Healing Wave x 2 makes full use of ease Tidal Waves proc and if you have a decent amount of crit it is very mana efficient thanks to the Improved Water Shield talent. Stack enough crit and with decent raid buffs you can chain cast Riptide > Lesser Healing Wave x 2 for a very long time.
Earth Shield
This is the Shaman’s version of the Priest’s Power Word: Shield if you like. It has 6 charges (8 with talents) that heals the wearer every few seconds while taking damage.
What it heals for is based on the spellpower at the time it is cast, not when it procs. Hence, if its a tricky healing intensive pull you can drop a Flametongue totem if needed to boost its healing power.
It is important to note that it does generate aggro – 0.725 threat divided evenly among the mobs present. That is no problem for the tank to keep them off of you usually but if your tank is running into a set of mobs to round them up for an AOE tank and spank don’t be surprised if one lunges for you.
This spell is very mana efficient, in that it heals for 2-3k depending on your spell power. Given that it has 8 charges, you can see why it is a must to have it up at all times on any target taking sustained damage. 626 mana with talents is damn good for 16-24k in heals.
Water Shield
One of the hardest things to manage when playing a Shaman is your water shield. This is absolutely critical for your mana regen and ability to heal. Not only does it give you an obscene amount of MP5, but thanks to the Improved Water Shield and Improved Shields it becomes even stronger and gives you back mana on each critical heal from Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave and Riptide. It cost no mana to cast, but it does steal GCDs, which can get tricky in a very healing intensive fight. You need to time it well, if no healing is required at any given moment it is often wise to refresh your shield even if you still have a charge or to left.
Other important Support Spells
Nature’s Swiftness – Alt tabbed for a second while your tank pulled? Or need an emergency heal for an aggroing dpser? Then this is a godsent. Use this in conjunction with a Healing Wave and you can survive many mistakes.
Ancestral Awakening – There is much debate as to how useful this is in the Shammy community but I for one think its a godsent. Every little bit helps at times, and this has saved countless wipes for me already where a key DPS or healer gets damaged while i’m in the middle of a spellcast, and when it procs it saved them from certain death. No its not going to heal for a massive percent of your heals but the ~5% of your total heals that it does will often be the difference between a wipe and a clear on progression bosses/tough heroics.
Tidal Force – I use this with Nature’s Swiftness thanks to a nifty macro is part of my ‘Oh Crap’ solution. Use it with a Healing Wave since it has a large chance proc ancestral awakening if you are talented for it, for a large amount.
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