The Binary Healer

GhostCrawler: "Health pools will be much larger in Cataclysm and healing will be lower. That should help address some of the overly binary feel of PvP and PvE encounters."

There is a huge issue with healing in WotLK as it stands now... and first impressions of Ice Crown Citadel don't change that much. The problem is "binary healing." What this means is that durring a successful encounter (I.E. we win), a tank's health bar is either 100% full, or slightly over 0% full. There is rarely any inbetween. The tank is either alive, or almost dead.

So, how is that a bad thing? As it stands now, this is how a raid encounter unfolds for the tank and its healer:

Start encounter -- Health: 100%
Boss hits tank -- Health: 10%
Spam largest heal -- Health: 100%
Boss hits tank -- Health: 10%
Spam largest heal -- Health: 100%
Boss hits tank -- Health: 10%
Spam largest heal -- Health: 100%
Boss hits tank -- Health: 10%
... ... ...

Fun, right? You can quickly get the idea of what is meant by binary healing. If the healer doesn't get the big heal off quick enough, the tank is dead, and we start all over again. Additionally, as a tank healer, there's little purpose to having anything on your action bar, much less other spells, than your one large tank heal.

Coming down the road, the things we should start seeing are:

1) Larger health pools for tanks
2) Bosses landing hits on tanks more often
3) Boss hits landing on the tank do less damage
4) Smaller heals being used
5) Faster heals being used


Currently, a resto shaman dedicated to tank healing is (or should be) stacking Spell Power, Crit, and Intellect. Meanwhile, a raid healer is (or should be) stacking Haste, Spell Power, and Intellect. This discontinuity in stats for the same class and spec is something that few others have to deal with. Gearing for tank healing will hurt your raid healing, while gearing for raid healing will hurt your tank healing. The changes mentioned above are going to help bring the two closer together. Shamans on tank duty should be able to move away from the slow, large heals, to a better mixture of the heals we've got at our disposal.

3.3 is here!

I downloaded the final bits of 3.3 this morning, and servers are getting mucked around with as we speak. So what do we resto shamans have to look forward to? LOOT! These links come from the PTR (Patch Test Realm) so they'll likely die soon.

I'll finally be able to replace my crappy Naxx-25 ring with a ring from reputation (yay! Don't have to roll for that one!). The Ashen Band of Wisdom comes from the new Ashen Verdict faction. And guess what?! It appears to have haste!! The ring is also upgradeable as you gain reputation. At exalted, it is suggested that you will get an additional "chance" on the ring to increase spell power by 285 for 10 seconds. Guess it's back to the rep grind for me!

We'll also have access to some new leatherworking patterns with the Ashen Verdict reputation. First, Earthsoul Boots with two yellow sockets (woot!), and second, Lightning-Infused Leggings -- both of which are +haste items.

There will be three trinkets we'll have to choose from. The two I'm eyeballing are Althor's Abacus (quite similar to the Forethought Talisman) and the Purified Lunar Dust. Fortunately, one is a healer trinket, so that will limit my competition when it drops, and the other is purchased with emblems, so no competition at all.

This is what has been "data mined" from the PTR up to release. Now that 3.3 is here, we'll have to see what else we will have access to.

Tier 10 Animation

There's something cool and unique about the Shaman Tier 10 shoulders -- Equip: Periodically calls forth the spirits of the Shoveltusk to bolster the bearer's spirits in battle.

Well, turns out it doesn't provide any in-game buffs. But it does give us a nice visual. Fortunately, the shoulders have haste. I'm sure the shoulders will be the first T10 piece I pick up.