Resto Shaman How-To (Updated)

I've updated my Resto Shaman How-To. Enjoy!

The Shaman Split
Before the last talent change, resto shamans actually had two talent builds -- one for raid healers and one for tank healers. The trees were then merged. We end up now with a single "cookie cutter" spec. Gearing, however, may be slightly different.


Talent Selection
The basic tree looks something like this: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hZ0xxhZx0euIeoxkrIRt

There's not a lot of wiggle room here.


Glyph Selection
There are a number of glyphs available for use.

The major glyphs I use:
Glyph of Water Mastery
Glyph of Water Tide Totem
Glyph of Chain Heal

The minor glyph I would recommend:
Glyph of Water Shield

Glyph of Earth Shield is still popular and widely used. I dropped it for the Glyph of Water Tide Totem only just recently.


Stats
In most cases, the K.I.S.S. rules have not changed much.

1) Work on Intellect until you don't go OOM
2) Work on Haste until soft cap -- 1269 haste rating
3) After Haste cap, dump everything into Spell Power

Spirit should be avoided like a smooch-happy barfly with festering herpes.

In almost all cases, you will want to stack haste until your nose bleeds. That means picking up haste gear and gemming pure haste (ignoring socket bonuses) all they way.


The Spells
Raid healing as a resto shaman will hit you in your RL pocketbook as you'll be hitting Chain Heal excessively until the buttons on your mouse no longer work. Mouse replacement cycle is rather short for us resto shamans.

For the single-target "OMG THEY'RE GONNA DIE!!!" heal, a macro with Nature's Swiftness + Tidal Force + Healing Wave is amazing. Otherwise, Riptide when off cooldown, and Lesser Healing Wave when needed.

If you are primarily tank healing, your best throughput will be with a (yes, I'm going to say it) rotation. Keep in mind, this is for tank heal spamming. Do not use it to heal entire raids! -- Riptide -> Healing Wave x2 -> Lesser Healing Wave until Riptide is available again. Of course, to pull it off, you need to be up to your eyeballs in Crit and MP5.


Tier-10
I completely skipped Tier-9... I thought it was a little underwhelming.

Tier-10, on the other hand, looks quite promising. So what pieces should you get? Start with helm and shoulders, those are the best stat allocation. Then pick up the chestpiece and gloves. As for pants, try the Lightning-Infused Leggings (though quite expensive).

If you're cheap like me, get the helm, shoulders, chestpiece, and pants. You'll then be able to get the frost emblem gloves and save yourself about 20k gold in mats from the pants.