Heroic Garaj’al the Spiritbinder 25man Resto Shaman PoV

Welcome to Mogushan Vaults Heroic mode for Garaj’al the Spiritbinder in Mists of Pandaria. In this guide, I will run you through everything you need to know about how to best utilize your Resto Shaman spells and abilities for a healing showdown.

You can bring 4 or 5 healers in a 25man raid the choice is yours depending on how high or low your dps is. However using 5 healers will mean that you are generally cutting it short  on tight enrage timer.

TIP : Enrage will hit much like Ultraxion’s enrage which will wipe all of your party instead of targeting solo players. There is simply no workaround of that mechanic.

Garaj’al’s most prominent ability is his Spirit totems which he will summon every 20 seconds. As a healer what you need to know is when is your turn to launch yourself in that circle of 6 yards along with 4 more players and be ready to cross to the spirit world for 30 seconds. While within the Spirit realm you will need to deal with Spiritual Innervation which stacks on healers and DPS. This will be analysed further below.

TIP : Remember that once you have left Spirit Realm, you cannot enter it again for the next 30 seconds or you will die instantly.

Another one of Garaj’al’s abilities healers need to be aware of is Voodoo Dolls. Voodoo Dolls effect will last for 60 sec and will be applied to 3 party members one of which will be the tank. (As soon as the Voodoo Dolls debuff expires from the tank, Garaj’al will cast the Bunisment spell on him, which will send him to the spirit world).   70%  of the damage taken by each Voodoo Doll is also dealt to the other Voodoo Dolls so tank cooldowns are advised as they are the only way of dealing with that damage. Voodoo Dolls cannot enter the Spirit World (such as through the use of Spirit Totems).

TIP : Personal cooldowns such as Astral Shift will not mitigate any damage. Such cooldowns should be saved for when you are entering the spirit world or after Garaj’al reaches 20% of his health. Also remember you cannot enter the Spirit Realm if Voodoo Dolls debuff is applied to you.

The last 2 noteworthy abilities are the Shadowy Attack that Garaj’al will unleash every 8 sec to the tank that has aggro and Frenzy. Upon reaching 20% of his health Garaj’al’s attack speed will increase by 50% and his damage will be buffed by 25% .This will last until the end of the fight.

Preparation

1.For a more in depth analysis of exactly all Garaj’al’s old abilities I suggest reading the following guides.

Garaj’al the Spiritbinder Normal And Heroic by IcyVeins

TIP : Always watch some videos beforehand to be in the know.

2.Videos for Garaj’al the Spiritbinder

Gara’Jal the Spiritbinder 25 Man Heroic  Guide – FATBOSS

Gara’Jal the Spiritbinder 25 Man Heroic  Kill video – by Pure  

Vuhdo Configuation for Voodoo Dolls 

Depending on when you decide to tackle this fight Voodoo Dolls debuff might not show on your Vuhdo. It is imperative that you know which targets are affected as you will need to heal them intensively for 60 seconds. By default Vuhdo will presume that you don’t need extra icons so first thing you need to do is open Vuhdo  ->Debuffs  -> Standard. Click on the Icon and save as demonstrated below. If you want only raid icons to show go ahead and click on the Boss icon also. I prefer it but it might not be for everyone.

The way to add any custom debuff on Vudho is by opening the interface and navigating to  Vuhdo  ->Debuffs  -> Custom, adding the exact name of the debuff you want to track under Enter new Buff or Debuff Name and saving it as shown below.

…

How to deal with Spiritual Innervation in the Spirit Realm

One of the most discussed matters between healers for this fight due to its ambiguous ingame tooltip. Vixsin from Life in Group 5, was kind enough to shed some light early on to what further testings proved to be the way to handle this buff.  Spiritual Innervation will grand a healer with stacks of spirit which will increase their mana regeneration for as long as the buff lasts which is set on 30 seconds. Mechanics around how we gain stacks are not clear ingame. However testings show that any HoT applied to the target that will add stacks will also refresh the buffs timer and any direct cast heavy hitting spell will apply at least one stack. (If you want to know more about stacks and for all classes? Dedralie over at Heliocentric wrote an excellent very detailed post about this. Trust me, you want to read it). It is important that while in the spirit realm you buff yourself and the DPS that accompany you as they are gaining Spiritual Innervation for DPS, and they are buffed depending of their class dealing increased damage for the duration of the buff. The best way to deal with this is pre HoT everyone ( Rolling Riptides to the team that is to enter the realm and yourself ) and as soon as you are in, start casting Healing Surges to top everyone up. Since mana is not an issue feel free to use as many Healing surges as needed in order to top your team because you only have 30 seconds before you escape Spirit Realm before you instantly die. As soon as any member is on full health a new action button will appear on their interface called Return Soul which will allow them to return to the normal realm. It is advised that you don’t overstay your welcome in the spirit realm and leave as soon as you have enough stacks on you and your DPS.

TIP : Healing Tide Totem and AG do not add or refresh stacks of Spiritual Innervation so if you are opting for this talent use it when your raid calls for it in the normal realm.

TIP : Use Ascendance in coordination with Healing surge  the first time you enter the Spirit realm.

TIP: Dedralie over at  Heliocentric has an excellent guide of how to track your Spiritual Innervation buff by using weak auras. You can find my own Power Auras equivalent  at Resto Power Auras for MoP

Suggested Raid Composition

2 Tanks – 4 Healers – 19 DPS or 2 Tanks – 5 Healers – 18 DPS

TIP : Run with 4 Healers if you are just hitting enrage.

Gear and Reforging Check

For this fight it is suggested that you try and rotate in the spirit realm all your healers at least once. This way you can forgo large chunk of your spirit for secondary stats without feeling the pressure of an empty mana bar.

Talents in MoP and glyphs can be rearranged before every fight so don’t hesitate to play around. For this fight there are 2 different options for sets of talents and it really depends on how comfortable you feel with either of them in correlation with  your gear.

The first set of talents utilizes Elemental Mastery and Ancestral Guidance. By forgoing your additional 5% haste rating you make yourself essentially unstoppable in the spirit realm. By combining the 30% haste of Elemental Mastery with Ancestral Guidance the first or second time you enter the spirit realm and Ascendance the second, you are guaranteed to provide the most stacks for yourself and your party with seconds to spare for when you exit spirit realm. Both of them can be used when Garaj’al is below 20% health and the fight becomes very intense healing wise.Remember for this build you will need to reforge to 3039 haste rating.

The second set utilizes Ancestral Swiftness in conjunction with Healing Tide Totem. The benefits of this set rest to the fact that it’s easier for you to reach your second haste cap at 3764 haste rating empowering this way your HTT and HST with one more tick.

TIP : Best choose Healing Tide Totem talent when you know you can reach enough haste that you will get that extra tick.

TIP : Remember that the first combination requires enough mana in order to be effective, if you are running oom you will find no use for it. The second set requires no mana in order to work.

Below is an example of how your character should look like. Gear, reforging, talent tree and glyphs included.

1. CharDev Example with 477 gear and reforge details for the first set of talents.

Haste in this example is as close to 3039 as it gets. Since you didn’t choose AS you are missing 5% haste , 3039 is the equivalent of 871 with AS. For more detailed info on Haste breakpoints refer to the Haste section of my guide on Elitist Jerks.

Mastery should be above 50% or as close to it as possible for the extra healing it will provide you and whatever is left we can safely allocate to crit.

Spirit is little below 7000 ( 6791) since the fight mechanics are such that unless you are unlucky with your rotation you will have enough mana to heal through.

2. CharDev Example with 477 gear and reforge details for the second set of talents.

Haste in this example is as close to 3764 as it gets.You need this much for the extra tick it will provide for HTT and HST. For more detailed info on Haste breakpoints refer to the Haste section of my guide on Elitist Jerks.

Mastery should be above 50% or as close to it as possible for the extra healing it will provide you and whatever is left we can safely allocate to crit.

Spirit is little below 7000 ( 6791) since the fight mechanics are such that unless you are unlucky with your rotation you will have enough mana to heal through.

3.Glyphs

You will need Glyph of Riptide for this fight as it is important that you pre HoT every member of the team that will go in the spirit realm before hand. Other than that the choice is yours.

TIP : Glyph of Water shield should not be used for this fight as there is almost no damage to proc it. 

Fight starting in 5..4..3..2..1

As always before tank pulls, make sure you have applied Earth Shield on the tank that will start the encounter and you have prehealed him enough (along with the other tank ) so their health is buffed by 10%. Drop Earth Elemental Totem and have it Empower you followed by Healing Stream Totem. Fill in these 15seconds with Healing surges and riptides to the party members that have been affected with the Voodoo Dolls debuff. As soon as HST vanishes drop Mana Tide Totem for yourself and the rest of the healers. Use the rest of the Elementals as soon as they are available and off CD but remember to keep the last Earth Elemental for the last minute of the fight for the extra 20% damage reduction it will offer you and the extra damage reduction cooldown. Drop MTT on cooldown as well but also remember to keep one for the last 40seconds of the fight when all the healers will need that extra mana. After this the rest of the fight becomes borderline rotational depending on what phase you are.

Spirit Realm. Before you enter the spirit realm make sure you roll riptides to all of the party members that will enter with you. If it’s the first time you enter , depending on what talents you chose either cast Ascendance and start casting Healing Surges to everyone (make sure you start with yourself) until everyone is topped off  so they can leave the realm whenever they want, or push for Elemental Mastery+Ancestral Guidance, thus saving Ascendance for the second time you go in. If you chose the second set of talents start with Ascendance and for the second time you get teleported if you find yourself unable of topping people off drop HTT. Its highly advisable that you don’t however since it neither adds stacks nor refreshes the Spiritual Innervation timer. Try to drop HST instead for the extra help.

Normal Realm. While you are outside there are 2 phases. First the phase that follows as soon as you have exited Spirit Realm. After that for 30seconds you will have infinite mana so cast as many Healing surges with Riptides as you can. Once your buff fades you enter a semi conservation phase, where you will heal Voodoo Dolls with Greater Healing Waves, cast Unleash Life before casting any Healing Rains, and using any cooldowns you might still have to help out with tough healing patches. Remember the more adds are still alive in the Spirit realm, the more damage they deal to random members out in the normal realm aside from the damage Voodoo Dolls will apply to specific targets.

Frenzy. When Garaj’al enters Frenzy phase, nobody will enter the spirit realm again and he will stop spawning totems. This part of the fight is very healing intensive since Garaj’al’s damage is buffed by 25% and his attack speed by 50%. Note that you will need to have all your cooldowns ready for this final part of the fight in order to keep the raid alive. Supplement with Chain Healing the tank that has aggro ( earth shield and riptide will buff your chain heal by 20% on the tank and 25% overall ), and cast buffed Healing rains on cooldown.

This concudes this guide for Garaj’al the Spiritbinder HC .Enjoy the fight and happy looting!

General Gearing, BiS 4.3 List and Tips : Where to start from and what to pick up down the Dragon Soul road.

I feel I have to make this post as much as to satisfy my slight OCD but also to put some things into perspective. Plus a little something for the reader  ,with the insatiable appetite, who went through my BiS 4.3 Resto Shaman Shopping List and at the end thought. WTF??? And was left wanting for more. In this post I m hoping to cover most of the combinations that would otherwise leave you wondering more time than what you’re willing to spend . Because some people would rather go to the movies rather than browse internetland for small pieces of info that when you bind together, final picture starts to make sense.  Although going to the movies is overrated. While on a first date. Best spend it in bed people. And no I don’t mean alone. Have the first date in bed. And blame it to being lazy.  Yeah…Moving on.

There was one thing I had to say when I first read the blue post on MMO Champion about how the not so secret stash of valor points vendors wouldn’t include tier set pieces. FINALLY!!!! How many people came into the new patch sporting 359 heads? Raise your hands don’t be shy. My finest example is my drood friend ( the one I continuously try to tarnish in this blog ) who after numerous raggy kills in the hunt for the head token and what was more than 30 Beth’Tilac kills for Cowl of the Clicking Menace ended up getting the middle finger from ingame RNG. Cant understand how people keep complaining of lack of sex while playing WoW since blizzard seems to continuously consummate its subscribers relationship. I want an annulment Blizz. Gief a better designed drop algorithm. However the more lewt on the table , the more we’re left wondering of how to distribute our VP most efficiently and even further down the road, how to take advantage of every little nook in order to maximize our healing throughput.

The Story so far down the loot path of Tier 13

This time around Blizzard made it very clear that some dps items would stay in the dps spectrum thus infusing them with Hit Rating as one of their secondary’s stats.So no confusion there, you simply cant choose to equip Opal of the Secret Order, Seal of the Grand Architect, Nanoprecise Cape .

• Back and Relic :

There are 2 items in the entire patch as of now you can safely spend your first VP on and that’s Woundlicker Cover and Lightning Spirit in a Bottle. So start from there. No boss drops any cloaks or relics for you , neither is a word out for a heroic version of them. Feel free to buy them, enchant them and epic gem them as well if you can afford it.

• Tier Pieces :

Probably you’ll be playing with Blizzards newest toy , LFR. Although somewhat iffy still when it comes to loot rules ( where an ench shaman can and will probably need on Timepiece of the Bronze Flight though if you do just know you’re being dicks ) , I’d suggest you’d try and get your 4 set pc bonus through there. Casual raiders or not, its worth it. When you get to upgrade your LFR items with normal versions and later heroic ones, keep in mind that mix and matching will still retain your 2 or 4 pc item set bonus. ( Of course at this point any upgrade you get will be good unless you re already equipped with 391 heroic versions from Firelands. )

• Wrists and Feet :

 When it comes to our own BOE  extravaganza , there are a set of bracers and a set of boots you can buy either in AH or using your alts or leeching of your friends. I wouldn’t suggest you waste your own VP for Bracers of the Spectral Wolf as they are very poorly itemised hence you’d have to change them as soon as possible. Try to get them if you desperately need the upgrade either with gold or using an alt. So either grab Grotesquely Writhing Bracers that drops from Zon’ozz or if you can afford it go for what is BiS for this slot Thundering Deathscale Wristguards from leatherworking Pattern: Thundering Deathscale Wristguards. The Sabatons of the Graceful Spirit are good for starters for you as are Mindstrainer Treads that drop from Yor’sahj.

• Waist :

For your waist slot you can certainly start from Belt of Ghostly Graces that randomly drops from trash in Dragon Soul. Another BoE , get that from the auction house if you can afford it. However you’ll want to change that as soon as possible with either Girdle of Shamanic Fury that you can buy from the VP vendor, or Girdle of Shattered Stone that drops from Morchok or what is BiS for you in this tier Belt of Shattered Elementium that drops from Spine of Deathwing.

• Neck :

Jelewry! For the neck slot I’d definitely suggest for you to wait for Morchoc to drop your BiS Petrified Fungal Heart since any pug group can one shot him even if you’re not in a raid group. If you find yourselves after weeks lacking this specific slot use your last VP to buy Threadlinked Chain.

• Rings :

Moving on to the rings. You can start from Band of Reconstruction if you feel like spending VP points there. However feel free to equip best in slot Ring of the Riven from Hagara and double BiS Signet of Suturing shared boss loot.

• Main Hand Weapon :

For your main hand there is no VP option. Simply wait for LFR drops and upgrade them as soon as possible with the Normal and Heroic versions. Definitely go for Maw of the Dragonlord from Madness of Deathwing especially for the fights were you stack its proc like it’s a gift from Santa. However Vagaries of Time is also great for you and so is Scalpel of Unrelenting Agony. I wouldn’t recommend using a staff no matter how good it may look on paper comparing to your say Ko’gun, Hammer of the Firelord.

How do those weapons fair up against each other though? The following list should provide with an easy solution for quick reference.

Weapon / Main Hand		iLvL	HEP
1	Maw of the Dragonlord HC	416	8,619.5
2	Vagaries of Time HC	410	7,679.5
3	Maw of the Dragonlord	403	7,660.0
4	Scapel of Unrelenting Agony HC	410	7,559.7
5	Vagaries of Time	397	6,809.9
6	Maw of the Dragonlord RF	390	6,796.5
7	Ko’gun, Hammer of the Firelord HC	397	6,784.8
8	Scapel of Unrelenting Agony	397	6,683.6
9	Vagaries of Time RF	384	6,046.1
10	Scapel of Unrelenting Agony RF	384	5,914.7

However be careful of how you utilize this list. Just because one weapon seems to give you more HEP than the other it doesn’t mean that you should just go and disenchant the one you already have. On my WoL logs I can clearly see that in Ultraxion lets say, where all my raid is stacked in front of me, my Maw of the Dragonlord is owning every single other weapon on this list. Its proc is simply devine. It will fair up from 10% to 15% of your healing depending which version you own so lets say you have Vagaries of Time normal versus the Maw of the Dragonlord RF , for Ultraxion you should go for the Maw even though its lower in the list , hands down. So check your WoL or healing Skada meters for specifics of what weapon to use and when. ( I’ve added in the list Ko’gun, Hammer of the Firelord HC for comparison to previous tier )

 Off Hand :

Since there is only one shield Timepiece of the Bronze Flight dropping from Warmaster Blackhorn , whenever it drops for you go for it. I m not recommending Ledger of Revolting Rituals for you , you’ll be stripped from half your armor and in Dragon soul where there is so much physical damage incoming its almost next to an absolute must have.

• Trinkets :

Lastly the trinket section. Vixsin from LiG5 has a great post explaining this Dragon Soul: The Final Trinket Showdown . All I have to add here is that there are 2 valor point trinkets you may equip also Bottled Wishes and Reflection of the Light if you absolutely need to replace some of yours. I wouldn’t suggest Reflection of the Light since you’ll have plenty of spirit to go already so opt for Bottled Wishes if you want to reach your second haste soft cap of 2005. But for the love of everything that is fluffy replace that with your BiS Heart of Unliving that drops from Spine of Deathwing and Windward Heart shared boss loot.

Final Conclusions :

As a final note. When it comes to replacing your 384 LFR tier pieces with 397 ones or 410 ones I’d suggest you go for Spiritwalker’s Faceguard, Spiritwalker’s Tunic, Spiritwalker’s Mantle and Spiritwalker’s Gloves .Yes its the elemental tier Hands. I know its weird. But our Spiritwalker’s Handwraps suck big time. Best if you go for Gloves of Ghostly Dreams that you can buy from the VP vendor. If you get a Imperfect Specimens 27 and 28 shoulder drop and you feel that you must, then go for our Resto hands. But…I wouldn’t. Use the LFR ones till you can make the change. Its just a waste of a token imo. Your 4pc bonus is worth it so use the LFR ones till you feel safe to make the change trying different combinations. (If you re missing pieces go for the VP ones although I wont personally. The Ghostworld Chestguard is so bad for both specs . But as always should you find yourselves sporting a 378 for a long long time, by all means feel free to exchange that )

This concludes the preliminary quick gearing list for resto shaman, so now we can immerge ourselves into the possibilities that lie ahead while progressing in Dragon Soul.

CharDev Table Analysis :

(Talents and glyphs included )

If you’ve followed my guide ( or dressed up on your own in a similar way ) then possibly you’re looking like this

• Shaman Combo 1 (Thats just one of possible early combinations).

What and how to reforge your resto shaman at this point.I’ve reforged down to match my first soft haste cap at 916 and further more using this priority . Haste -> Matery, Haste->Spirit, Crit-> Mastery, Crit->Spirit accordingly. My goal is to get my mastery above 18 and my haste rating as close as 916 as it gets. This way you get all your riptide, healing rain ,earthliving weapon to have one more tick and since you’ll be progressing you’ll want to be spirit efficient. ( However if you feel you can afford to have less spirit feel free to reforge away from items not already reforged to critical rating or mastery rating ). As of this moment I m rolling with :

•  Therya 1

(Probabilities are that at this point I’ve already upgraded my gear. This example was just a few weeks into patch 4.3 and with only few HC bosses down. If you need an updated view of my gear feel free to check  my Armory. Note to the wise.I might be sporting my DPS os gear. I love running dungeons as ele. )

My spirit is around 2700 I find that I don’t need more and my mastery is hovering at 16 while I ve chosen to hit my second haste cap of 2005. And crit is what is left. This might not be for everyone though. I’ll make a separate future post regarding differences in specs and stats in different raiding environments, group compositions and raiding difficulty progression. As it goes for me (I m currently raiding in a 10man environment) I’ll continue removing spirit as soon as I get my hands on Heart of Unliving and reforging it to mastery and crit depending on the incoming damage in my raid. I m well into Heroics right now and I find this reforging is more than sufficient. (Sidenote. I’, not promising my haste/mastery/spirit balance opinion wont change according to my needs. Let’s say if I find that for my  progression and team I m running out of spirit believe me I’ll reforge down to 916 haste cap, and give all I have to mastery and spirit instead.Do the same. Check your raid, check your mana efficiency, check your master efficiency, put those WOL logs in use or at least your skada logs. )

So what are general rules you should follow regarding reforging for different situations? Take a look at your raid and the incoming damage. If your raid is mostly below 70% best to put more into mastery than crit, if you find it to be above that, feel free to upgrade your crit. Also how far into progression are you? Are you out of mana when you need it even with Telluric Currents then up your spirit a little bit, take it out of crit or see what soft haste cap works for you 916 or 2005. However the more you get into Normal DS gear and HC the more you ll see its harder to reforge haste.

This is how a mid way into progression gear should look like:

•   Shaman Combo 2

This is after lets say farming Normals for 3 to 4 weeks and starting on first HC bosses. There is more mastery in this combination as you ll find your raid more often than not below 70%. Haste is still as close as it gets to 2005 soft cap with a glyphed riptide ticking once more. Its significant for 10 man raids. Since you’re wearing the Spine of Deathwing trinket your spirit regen will be eventually more than 3k but if you feel you need more, take a little out of your Mastery.

Lastly this is what you would call an endgame Best in slot for 4.3 Dragon Soul:

• Shaman Combo full HC

Full on HC gear with full epic gems and enchants. At this point you re probably over spirit regeneration requiremements and mastery so at 2005 soft haste cap your crit is boasting around 20%. Remove from this combination some of the amazing HC gear that you possibly don’t have and reforge some crit into mastery and you ll be laughing at Deathwing progression.

This concludes with my gearing guide about early epics and some examples for progression restoration shaman gearing. In the future I’ll go more into how to properly manage your stats for different raid enviroments and different progression and how to reforge correctly your spirit , haste and mastery accordingly. Good luck with the loot drops btw since it seems all the crappy players get all the luck. Just my observation.

___ A  Resto Shaman blog for the Curious or the Lazy Raider___

Me,Myself and PowerAuras. Elemental Redux.

Long story short. I have to admit this shaman used to be a shelved lvl 25ish char. My main was a mage. Arcane. I loved my one button rotation more than I loved chocolate cake. Ok that’s a lie. Major lie. OMG god of chocolate pls forgive me!! Ok he gave me a sign so now I feel all warm and fuzzy again.

 So in my search for raiding environment I stumbled upon the raid that would change my playstyle. Why?Because when I got there in that 10man raid there was already another arcane mage sitting her ass on what I thought to be my rightful spot. So what did I do? Yes of course I hated her existence ever since, yes of course I pinpointed every single one of her mistakes . However true to my nature I decided not to waste my time and move on to what the raid seemed to be actually missing. HEALZ!

And so I embarked on the journey of mainswitching to shamy healz. Now I m thinking of sending a box of chocolates to that mage because if it wasn’t for her I would still be on my mage. NO I wont. Who am I kidding. I still hate her guts. You know what I love? My shamy healz. So few months later and into the fiery pit of Ragnaros what do you think happened? Yes suddenly we were full of healers that could outheal my shaman not because I m not good enough but because firelands was a rape for shamy healers. So since I absolutely wanted to raid and when it 2 healer fights I didn’t see myself keeping my spot I turned to my os for help. First came enhancement. Soon after I realized I cant dps to save my life in melee and as much op as this spec is supposed to be I turned to elemental. And at first I sucked. Until…tah daaah. Yes.My love affair with power auras came to play. And some epic lewts. Every little bit helps and major upgrades are sure to boost your dps so don’t be scared to use the same main and off hand from your Resto spec for your Ele spec. Yes even without reforging more often than not the stats alone will be enough to up your gameplay. Because shamans are hybrids and it’s a reason we are brought along. Its one of our strengths.  If you have the luxury of being in a major 25man raiding environment then sure spec both of your trees for resto purposes. Both for progression and tailored for different bosses.But for those that are either moonlighting in their ele spec or its your main spec , as promised on my Resto PowerAuras Post here is my power auras elemental config.

This time I run around SW with my power auras full on un proc .Mostly because if I am in my ele spec it will be because I m training myself with dummies. Dummies? I meant raid dummies.Abusing puggies is my guilty pleasure but I wouldn’t go as far as to call them dummies. I have a much better more eloquent and extended vocabulary  in my artillery for that purpose. In anycase above you can see a fiery orb that is my Lava burst off cooldown. The white circle indicates there are no totems down due to my noobish ways of forgetting to put them down when there is another shaman in the raid. Feel free to deactivate it. The icons on my right are from my dominos bars I ll cover those in my UI post.

This one is not so fancy it merely indicates that the fire elemental has 5 or less seconds before disappearing. Used to be amazing before Blizzard decided to nerf Tier12 2 pc bonus. Gief back my fire elemental Bliz.

As you can see the fiery orb is replaced by a CD timer indicating when its going to be off cooldown. The arc above my head appears as soon as I cast Flame Shock and the timer indicates how much time the dot has left.  On my right side above my dominos there are 2 white dots. First one appears when my lighting charges on my shield are 7. The second appears when they reach 8. When they reach to the final 9 Blizzards automatic aura flashes above my head. Lastly the timer after the dots is indicating how much time my searing totem has left before it needs refreshing. I will just push my dominos button underneath when I feel like it, thats why its there.

A random screenshot indicating how all the auras are working together.

Last Addition to the gallery my power torrent proc ( Little swirly flowery thingy at the end of my dominos).Very very very useful for all kinds of situations.Trust me.You need this.

Configuration ScreenShots

Power Auras Export :

Lightning Shield 1st  stack :

Aura[5]=Version:4.23; g:0.9843; icon:Spell_Nature_LightningShield; buffname:Lightning Shield; r:0.9765; begin:1; x:76; stacks:7; texture:45; alpha:1; size:0.13; y:-29; texmode:1@

Lightning Shield 2nd stack :

Aura[6]=Version:4.23; b:0.9373; icon:Spell_Nature_LightningShield; buffname:Lightning Shield; r:0.9529; x:110; stacks:8; texture:45; alpha:1; size:0.13; y:-29; texmode:1@

Lava Burst :

Aura[7]=Version:4.23; b:0.8353; g:0.949; icon:Spell_Shaman_LavaBurst; buffname:Lava Burst; begin:3; x:-108; bufftype:15; texture:199; alpha:0.54; size:0.31; y:-31; texmode:1; timer.b:0; timer.g:0.851; timer.h:1.85; timer.UpdatePing:true; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:LEFT; timer.x:59; timer.UseOwnColor:true@

Flame Shock :

Aura[8]=Version:4.23; b:0.0275; g:0.451; target:true; icon:Spell_Fire_FlameShock; buffname:Flame Shock; r:0.9451; x:-4; bufftype:2; texture:7; alpha:1; mine:true; size:0.8; torsion:1.02; y:-23; texmode:1; timer.h:1.85; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.y:57@

Searing Totem :

Aura[9]=Version:4.23; b:0.0667; g:0.6078; icon:Spell_Fire_SearingTotem; buffname:Searing totem; begin:3; x:-173; bufftype:19; texture:13; alpha:0.1; size:0.02; y:-31; texmode:1; timer.b:0; timer.g:0.851; timer.h:1.57; timer.UpdatePing:true; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:LEFT; timer.x:334@

Wrath of Air :

Aura[10]=Version:4.23; anim1:4; icon:Spell_Nature_SlowingTotem; buffname:Wrath of Air; bufftype:19; texture:2; alpha:1; speed:0.74; texmode:1; inverse:true@

Fire Elemental Totem :

Aura[11]=Version:4.23; InvertAuraBelow:5; icon:Spell_Fire_Elemental_Totem; buffname:Fire Elemental; x:-146; bufftype:19; texture:218; size:0.63; texmode:1@

Power Torrent :

Version:4.23; b:0.5137; anim1:11; g:0.9216; Instance25ManHeroic:true; icon:Ability_Paladin_SacredCleansing; buffname:Power Torrent; begin:1; x:191; Instance10ManHeroic:true; texture:112; alpha:0.11; speed:0.12; Instance5Man:true; Instance25Man:true; Instance10Man:true; Instance5ManHeroic:true; size:0.25; y:-62; texmode:1; finish:3; timer.h:1.44; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:CENTER

Me, Myself and Power Auras

Sort of an exaggerated suggestion. I  make it seem like I take power auras to my bed. That I d bumb uglies with them. Screw it, yes I would. I love powerauras. I adore powerauras. My heart has always beaten faster for all things functional minimal and pretty. Power auras are the Bauhaus of addons. They are everything you need to have on your UI to guide you through the perils of the worst raiding environment. Warningwise. I m this close to making a how to guide for power auras buuuut…I wont. There are so many out there. Google is your friend. And if you have half a mind you don’t even need that. Just spend few min with the interface and you ll be laughing. I don’t even remember how I was introduced to powerauras. It just feels that we ve always been together, we click naturally. It’s a testament of how much I m attached to them that I cant dps my ele os without them. I ll make a separate post for this reason just for the curious minds out there. So , what can power auras do for the resto shaman? For me they provide with enough visual warnings that I barely need to think of anything else but my healing assignment. You remember that nasty drood friend of mine? He s always insisting that “It’s a man thing. Not to rely on crutches when you re not injured otherwise your legs will atrophy.” Yeah. Ask him who has more powerauras than me now. Yes he s converted. But he s keeping it minimal and good for him or I d have to decapitate those legs of his. But generally ppl please keep it clean. There is nothing worse than a messy UI where you cant even concentrate on the fight.

When strolling around in stormwind or anywhere in the world I have all my auras in the hiding. Or when I m on my mount even in a dungeon or raid again I have them in hiding. Other than that I keep it simple. On my resto spec I roll with 4 auras but make no mistake if I feel I need another I ll put it in my rotation respectively. I don’t use any earth shield auras and such since my VuhDo keeps tracks of those kind of stacks.

In a raid the following image bellow is how my power auras in Restoration spec look like. Left dressed in yellow is my Unleash elements. On the right dressed in green is my Riptide. And the shield indicates when my Water Shield is missing.

When Water Shield is back on but I havent used any CD ‘s

Essential for my peace of mind the necessary cooldown timers. The vibrating circle is our Tidal Waves proc . As soon as they are consumed or expired the aura vanishes.

Lastly as mentioned when mounted or chilling out all the auras go to sleep.

New Addition to the gallery is my power torrent proc (The little flowery on top of me.It also swirls.Yes I’m a girl in case you haven’t figured it out so far). More important for ele though but once I added it there I had to give it to my resto too.Useful and it doesn’t really take up so much space. 

Another new addition to the gallery is a power Aura for my Spiritwalker’s Grace proc. Now with the tier 13 bonus I found it really valuable to keep a more careful eye on that.It’s indicated by the little waves inside the Tidal waves Power Aura.

Configuration ScreenShots

Resto Shaman Power Auras  Export 

Unleash Elements  :

Aura[1]=Version:4.23; b:0.2; g:0.9608; Instance25ManHeroic:true; icon:Spell_Shaman_ImprovedStormstrike; buffname:Unleash Elements; begin:3; x:-114; bufftype:15; Instance10ManHeroic:true; texture:163; alpha:0.54; Instance5Man:true; Instance25Man:true; Instance10Man:true; Instance5ManHeroic:true; size:0.77; y:-6; texmode:1; timer.b:0; timer.g:0.851; timer.h:1.72; timer.UpdatePing:true; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:LEFT; timer.y:-3; timer.x:107; timer.UseOwnColor:true@

Riptide :

Aura[2]=Version:4.23; b:0.2196; Instance25ManHeroic:true; icon:spell_nature_riptide; buffname:Riptide; r:0.349; begin:3; x:105; bufftype:15; Instance10ManHeroic:true; texture:163; alpha:0.54; symetrie:1; Instance5Man:true; Instance25Man:true; Instance10Man:true; Instance5ManHeroic:true; size:0.76; torsion:0.96; y:-6; texmode:1; timer.a:0.79; timer.b:0.2; timer.h:1.72; timer.UpdatePing:true; timer.enabled:true; timer.r:0.3725; timer.cents:false; timer.y:-9; timer.x:117; timer.UseOwnColor:true@

Water Shield :

Aura[3]=Version:4.23; g:0.7569; Instance25ManHeroic:true; icon:Ability_Shaman_WaterShield; buffname:Water Shield; r:0.3255; begin:2; Instance10ManHeroic:true; texture:21; alpha:0.42; Instance5Man:true; Instance25Man:true; Instance10Man:true; Instance5ManHeroic:true; size:1.2; y:-11; texmode:1; inverse:true@

Tidal Waves :

Aura[4]=Version:4.23; b:0.8941; anim1:4; icon:Spell_Shaman_TidalWaves; buffname:Tidal Waves; r:0.698; begin:1; texture:28; alpha:0.49; speed:0.54; size:0.81; y:-10; texmode:1@

Power Torrent :

Version:4.23; b:0.5137; anim1:11; g:0.9216; Instance25ManHeroic:true; icon:Ability_Paladin_SacredCleansing; buffname:Power Torrent; begin:1; x:2; Instance10ManHeroic:true; texture:112; alpha:0.11; speed:0.12; Instance5Man:true; Instance25Man:true; Instance10Man:true; Instance5ManHeroic:true; size:0.25; y:74; texmode:1; finish:3; timer.h:1.44; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:CENTER

Spiritwalker’s Grace

Version:4.23; b:0.8941; icon:spell_shaman_spiritwalkersgrace; buffname:Spiritwalker’s Grace; r:0.698; begin:1; texture:33; alpha:0.49; speed:0.54; size:0.66; y:-10; texmode:1; timer.h:1.4; timer.Texture:Original; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:CENTER; timer.y:49

_

BiS 4.3 Resto Shaman Shopping List

(For a more in depth analysis and for the daring reader feel free to feast on General Gearing, BiS 4.3 List and Tips : Where to start from and what to pick up down the Dragon Soul road)

And so tier 13 hit our doors along with Santa Claus this year but unlike small people, acquiring those coveted pieces has nothing to do with whether you’ve been naughty or nice. Quite honestly I feel that the more naughty I become the easier it will be to get that damn 4set pc bonus that I ve long argued with my resto druid friend who believes its his tree form reincarnated. Yeah right. Like I stash the book of dead under my bed at nights  in the hopes I ll restore some of the glory of what resto shaman used to have back in WoLK. Yes I m bitter. I m bitter that I ve felt for the whole tier 12 of Cataclysm and especially in Firelands that I ve been working my ass off to get just a glimpse of what a druid or a paladin could achieve by just  a wave of their wands. And you only need to look at diagrams of WoL to see the heart wrenching truth. That the blue line is ALWAYS on the bottom of the list. Whether up or high its ALWAYS on the bottom of that list. So yey I get a tree form to play. Tell you what drood, I d appreciate it more if I was a freaking dog cause then I d have something to piss on. I m deviating from my point though. My point being I started this post willing to record somewhere online a BiS 4.3 shopping resto shaman list for myself. It did get to my attention that a lot of shamies out there have no idea how dress. Meaning they don’t really know whether to stack haste or mastery. There are a lot of forums out there with beautiful numbers for that and depending on my mood I might make a collection to prove my point. However for now below you can find a Haste/Mastery oriented Best in Slot 4.3 for your  Shaman. At least its what I ll be dressing myself in.Reforge at your discretion.

 BIS 4.3 RESTO SHAMAN GEAR LIST For Dragon Soul

iLVL	SLOT	LOOT	SOURCE
397 410	Head	Wolfdream Circlet (Spirit/Haste) Spiritwalker’s Faceguard(Spirit/Mastery)	Vendor Token
397 410	Neck	Petrified Fungal Heart(Spirit/Haste)	Morchoc
397 410	Shoulder	Imperfect Specimens 27 and 28(Haste/Mastery) Spiritwalker’s Mantle(Spirit/Haste)	Ultraxion Token
397	Back	Woundlicker Cover (Spirit/Haste)	Vendor
397 410	Chest	Spiritwalker’s Tunic (Spirit/Mastery)	Token
397 410	Wrist	Thundering Deathscale Wristguards(Spirit/Haste) Grotesquely Writhing Bracers(Spirit/Mastery)	LeatherWorking Pattern Zon’ozz
397 410	Hands	Gloves of Ghostly Dreams (Spirit/Haste) Spiritwalker’s Gloves ( Haste/Mastery)	Vendor Token
403 416	Waist	Belt of Shattered Elementium(Spirit/Haste)	Spine of Deathwing
397 410	Legs	Spiritwalker’s Legwraps(Spirit/Haste)	Token
397 410	Feet	Sabatons of the Graceful Spirit(Spirit/Haste) Mindstrainer Treads(Spirit/Mastery)	Vendor Yor’sahj
397 410	Finger	Band of Reconstruction (Spirit/Mastery) Signet of Suturing(Spirit/Haste) Ring of the Riven  (Haste/Mastery)	Vendor Shared Boss Loot Hagara
397 403 416	Trinket	Windward Heart (Int/Ancestral Awakening) Heart of Unliving (Int/Spirit stacking)	Shared Boss Loot Spine of Deathwing
397 403 410  416	Main Hand	Vagaries of Time  (Crit/Haste) Scalpel of Unrelenting Agony  (Spirit/Haste) Maw of the Dragonlord Dragon Soul (Frontal cone heal)	Morchok Yor’sahj Madness of Deathwing
397 410	Off Hand	Timepiece of the Bronze Flight (Spirit/Haste)	Warmaster Blackhorn
397	Relic	Lightning Spirit in a Bottle (Spirit/Mastery)	Vendor

Note : Please ,for the people out there screaming BUT BUT THESE ARE NORMAL VERSION LEWTS! Yes they are. Quite obviously when you loot HC simply go for the 410 versions.Sheesh.

___ A  Resto Shaman blog for the Curious or the Lazy Raider___