Resto Shaman Glyphs: What Works for You?

Glyphing is a very interesting method of character improvement. Gear, Enchanting, and Gems are all designed to improve your stats (tier bonuses notwithstanding), which in turn benefit every spell in your arsenal by a small amount per point. Glyphs, on the other hand, are designed to improve a single spell by a significant amount. They are the only enhancements you can choose from that work this way. Since you only get three major glyphs to choose from at any given time, it's important to choose the right ones that work for you.

CHEAP TO MAKE, EXPENSIVE TO BUY
Glyphs never cease to amaze me in the Auction House. As an Inscriptionist, I know that making glyphs is easy and cheap. For the cost of one to two inks (It doesn't matter which, Jessica Sellers will trade you any of the lesser inks for one Ink of the Sea) and the cost of the parchment, you can have your choice of just about any glyph you want. Yet, there are glyphs selling on the Auction House for far more than the cost of a few inks and some parchment.

The best thing to do if you're looking for some glyphs is to find a scribe and have them make it for you. You know a scribe. They won't mind making you a glyph. Why pay exorbitant amounts when you don't have to?

WHAT GLYPHS DO YOU WANT?
As you may know, I condone individual play style 100%. There is no single way to successfully play your character. As long as the raid doesn't die, you probably did your job. That being said, there really isn't a single glyph that all Resto Shamans need. Since glyphs enhance a single spell, it all depends on what spells you feel would be best enhanced for your how you play.

I am not here to tell you what glyphs to choose. Rather, I am here to provide a simple, math-free reference guide to what each Restoration-oriented glyph does, and how they can be utilized.

There are nine possible choices for Restoration glyphs:

Glyph of Chain Heal: Chain Heal heals one additional person per cast. You get to heal four party/raid members instead of three. Shamans may no longer be the be-all and end-all of group healing, but Chain Heal is still a staple of Shaman raid healing, and it's still what we are best known for.

Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave: Your LHW will heal for 20% more if your target has Earth Shield on them. That includes ES's from other Resto Shamans. It's a great glyph for 5-man and tank healing.

Glyph of Healing Wave: Whenever you heal someone other than yourself with Healing Wave, you heal yourself for 20% of that value. It's a great glyph if you use Healing Wave extensively, and you are taking a lot of damage. Unfortunately, Healing Wave is too expensive to use very often and, as a healer, you probably won't be taking enough damage to warrent using glyph space for this self-heal. A better alternative is the Glyph of Healing Stream Totem, mentioned below.

Glyph of Riptide: 6 more seconds of Riptide's HoT. If you're a Riptide juggler, popping the spell on a different target every time the cooldown is up, this glyph will allow you to keep an extra riptide up. If you want some extra buffer time to cast an empowered Chain Heal, this is also a good glyph.

Glyph of Water Mastery: Boosts Water Shield's mp5 by 30%. With a max rank shield, that's an additional 30 mp5 that stacks with any other mp5 buff you may have. That's a lot of mp5, but no bonus to healing. If you need or want that extra mana regen, this is a great glyph. Otherwise, a glyph that increases your healing would be a better option.

Glyph of Earth Shield: Your Earth Shield heals heal for 20% more. A lot of Shamans may not be tank healers, but every single one that specs into Resto should have a 100% uptime for Earth Shield. It's 8 free heals per application. No matter how you heal, you will always get the benefit from this glyph.

Glyph of Earthliving Weapon: This will make your Earthliving Weapon 5% more likely to proc, giving it a 25% chance to HoT your healed target. Your EL HoT won't make up a large portion of your healing, and an extra 5% proc chance won't improve it much.
An anonymous tipper has notified me that the 5% extra proc chance on this glyph is currently 5% of the 20% the spell usually gives, which means that if you choose this glyph, you will have a 21% chance for Earthliving to proc. Apparently this is a bug in the glyph (or a misleading tooltip), but it hasn't been changed yet either way.

Glyph of Healing Stream Totem: This gives your Healing Stream Totem 20% more healability. Tack on the Restorative Totems talent, and you have a totem with some serious heals. A Restoration shaman will generally use either Healing Stream or Cleansing Totem for their water totem. If the enemy doesn't give a destructive poison, the choice is obvious. It's like a 5-minute hot for any party member within 30 yards of it. It may not heal the entire raid, but it should keep yourself and the rest of your party topped off throughout most of the fight, making raid healing much easier for everybody.

Glyph of Mana Tide Totem: Every tick of your Mana Tide refunds an additional 1% of your mana pool with every tick of your Mana Tide, from 6% every 3 seconds to 7% every 3 seconds. In total, it will refund 28% of your mana pool instead of 24%. 4% more mana is certainly nothing to blow off, but in the big picture, that's only an extra 4% every 5 minutes, assuming you pop it as soon as it's off cooldown. If you're having mana issues, Glyph of Water Mastery is the better glyph to take.

MINOR GLYPHS:

Minor glyphs are aptly named, especially for a Resto Shaman. They are helpful, but not necessarily useful. You'll want them, but more often than not it's convenience over enhancement.

There are seven choices for minor glyphs:

Glyph of Water Shield: Adds an orb to your Water Shield. This is the only minor glyph that I would suggest over any other. It's not going to improve your healing or mana regen, but it will save you a GCD every time you need to refresh your shield.

Glyph of Astral Recall: Reduces the cooldown of Astral Recall by 7.5 minutes. You can hearth twice as often.

Glyph of Ghost Wolf: Whenever in Ghost Wolf form, you will regenerate 1% health every 5 seconds. It's...well, it's a glyph alright. I guess it'd be better than the others in PvP, but who cares about PvP?

Glyph of Renewed Life: You no longer need a reagent to Reincarnate. It'll save a few coins and free up a space in your inventory. If you're like me and consistently forget to buy Ankhs, you'll definitely benefit from this glyph.

Glyph of Thunderstorm: Thunderstorm? Lolwut?

Glyph of Water Breathing You no longer need those damn Fish Scales you hate to farm, but hate paying the 36 copper per stack for.

Glyph of Water Walking: You no longer need that damn Fish Oil you hate to farm, but hate paying the 2 silver per stack for.

Changing Gears, And Improving Gear Without Changing Gear

The past few days have been pretty light for me on the WoW front. A new work schedule makes playing the game very difficult, as I only have an hour or two to play most nights. What little time I do have to play has been, for the most part, spent dicking around with Nimank, my Dorf Warrior in Single Abstract Noun (note to self: Victory Rush = OP at level 6).

There are a few reasons I've not played Nimala for more than a heroic or two plus dailies. Firstly, whereas I do have a WoWable computer, it is by no means a good computer. Dalaran lags me out and I rock a steady 6-7 fps throughout my entire playtime (9 if I put out first). Nim not make 4 gud heelz under these conditions. On top of this, Nimala is still unguilded. Who cares, right? Well...I do. I'm a very social person in WoW. I like to talk to people while I play. It makes the menial chores much more tolerable. Without it, I have very little desire to do anything on Nimala.

Queue Single Abstract Noun. There hasn't been a time while I was online where there were less than 15 people on, all blog readers and/or writers, all talking. It's much more fun to grind an alt in the company of others than my former option. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. It's truly a lot of fun.

In any case, the former problem should be fixed very soon, assuming my glorious tax return money comes in on time. When it does, I want to be ready. I am, for a currently non-raider, well geared as a Resto Shaman. I am not, however, properly gemmed or enchanted, and I need to re-evaluate my glyphs. My I'm-lazy-so-I'll-just-use-the-devault-UI-addons need to be upgraded as well. I want to be ready when I apply for a guild.

RE-GEMMING
I am currently rocking full blue gems. At first, this was a money issue. Purple gems are expensive if you don't know a Jewelcrafter. Now, though, with almost 2000 gold saved up, I have no excuse. That's not my only gemming problem, though. I am a big fan of haste. It is my stat of choice to a fault. No, I'm not over the haste cap (My sweet, unreachable goal), but I am choosing haste at a detriment to my other stats.

I'm going to need to find a healthy balance between Runed Cardinal Ruby and Quick King's Amber, as well as the best blue/purple/green gem to use to complete the meta for Insightful Earthsiege Diamond. Royal Dreadstone is probably my best bet, giving me spellpower with a touch of mp5. I was thinking about Int gemming, but Wow.com's Joe Perez (Lodur of World of Matticus) says not to, as your gear should cover you plenty in the intellect department. I figure he probably knows better than I do, so I'm going to try it his way. Looks like I need a belt buckle, too, for that extra gem.

RE-ENCHANTING
I have been very lax with enchanting my gear. Some gear has a lower-level enchant, while others don't have an enchant at all! I'm going to blame this on money, too. Enchantments are either very expensive via scrolls, or very time-consuming via finding an enchanter to enchant your shit. A lot of gear enchants are pretty obvious, but some are more difficult to decide on.

Helm: My helm is...currently unenchanted. Whoops. I used to use Arcanum of Burning Mysteries under the (apparently false) impression that crit was more important to a Resto Shaman than mp5. Again, I'm taking Lodur's advice on the subject to see where it gets me. I will be going with Arcanum of Blissful Mending this time around.

Shoulder: Being an Inscriptionist, I get the bestest of the bestest in shoulder enchants. Once again, I am currently using Master's Inscription of the Storm for crit, but will be changing that to Master's Inscription of the Crag.

Cloak: Clear choice: Greater Speed.

Chest: I have the choice between Greater Mana Restoration and Powerful Stats. Neither option really screams "I'm your man" to me. I'm always reluctant to choose an enchantment that improves all stats. Sure, it gives a bonus to everything you want (and don't), but the bonus is marginal for them all. On the other hand, though, I rarely have mana issues, so the mp5 enchant might not be the best choice for me. This decision will largely depend on whether or not I'll actually benefit from the extra mp5. Since I'm opting for mp5 buffs in both my helm and shoulders, I don't think I will.

Legs: Another clear choice: Sapphire Spellthread.

Boots: I'm in a similar aquatic flotation device here as I am with my chest enchant. I can take Greater Vitality if I need the mp5, but I feel I'll benefit more from the stam given to me by Tuskarr's Vitality. Plus, you know, run speed increase.

Bracers: Gimme Superior Spellpower.

Weapon: Only choice: Mighty Spellpower.

Shield: Greater Intellect.

RE-GLYPHING:
There are quite a few major glyphs that can really benefit a Restoration Shaman. Unfortunately, you can only pick three. I'm having a very hard time deciding which three I want to use. Fortunately, as an Inscriptionist, it's cheap and easy for me to test glyphs out to see which ones are the best for me.

I'm currently using Glyph of Chain Heal, Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave, and Glyph of Water Mastry. As you can see, I'm trying to get the best of both raid healing and single-target healing right now. It's a pretty safe assumption that I'll usually be on raid healing when I raid, so the CH glyph is staying. The LHW glyph is great for instances, but not nearly as useful for raid healing. I could say it'll help for "All heals on the tank" situations, though. I want to replace the Water Shield glyph if I don't need the extra mp5 (I'm not looking to end a battle with 100% mana; as long as I have enough mana to cover the entire fight, I'll be happy).

I'm looking at Glyph of Healing Stream Totem and Glyph of Earth Shield as well. The first is good for giving a HoT-esque heal every 2 seconds to everybody in my party, assuming they're within 30 yards of the totem and I don't need to do excessive cleansing. The other will make tank healing easier, even if I'm not designated to tank healing. I should be keeping ES up on him anyway, right?

I'm thinking the best choice for me would be the Chain Heal, Healing Stream, and Earth Shield glyphs for raid healing. If I'm lacking for mana at that point, I'll replace Earth Shield with Water Mastery.

Minor glyphs are much easier to decide on. Glyph of Water Shield is the only glyph here that really sticks out, as it gives and extra water orb. Glyph of Renewed Life is great for me since I'm always having bagspace issues, and this clears up a space (I know, I know. This is Ankh = Life, and I don't even carry Ankhs! What is wrong with me?). I opted for Glyph of Water Walking as well for the additional bagspace.

ADDONS:
Since Vanilla WoW, I've been using the default UI. Recently, I upgraded to XPerl, though for completely aesthetic purposes. Everything was still positioned where the default UI was. I'm used to it, I'm comfortable with it. I'm not effective with it. It's time for a change.

With that in mind, I am not addon-savvy, or addon-patient. I know next to nothing about UI addons, and I truly don't enjoy spending 20 minutes setting up a new addon, so this'll certainly be a "fun" experience trying different addons that would best suit my style. I'm going to need to do a lot of research (another thing I "love" doing) to find some good potential addons for me.

Self-Titled Post: Reincarnation

As a Restoration Shaman, there is one spell in your arsenal that is both extremely useful and completely useless at the same time. If everything goes as planned, there will be no need for it and you probably won't even remember that you have it. If something goes wrong, this spell could save the raid. This spell, of course, is Reincarnation.

As one of few healers in a raid, it is very important that you stay alive. Nothing is worse than a healer going down when the boss is at 25% and the remaining healers can't pick up the slack. Wipes happen and you hear a resounding BAWWWWWWWWW from everybody in Vent. Then you start over. If it's a Shaman healer that goes down, though, they can eat up an Ankh and keep on truckin'.

WHEN SHOULD I REINCARNATE?

There is a very fine line between using this spell effectively and wasting a cooldown. There are many things to consider before hitting the red "Reincarnate" button that rests right next to "Release Spirit". You will never see a bright neon sign that blinks with "ANKH NOW TO SAVE A RAID" on your screen. Alternately, there will never be a "DON'T DO IT!" voice that screams at you when it would be a bad time to resurrect yourself (unless, of course, the voice came from the lips of your raid leader). What you do (should) have that can help you determine whether or not to Ankh is the status of the battle when you died. There are several questions you should always answer before popping that reagent.

Did the raid leader tell you to ankh? Listen to the leader. They usually know what they're doing, even if you feel differently. If you are told to ankh, but don't, everybody will blame you if the raid wipes. If you ankh when told and the raid still wipes, you can CYA by saying the raid lead told you to. Healers get blamed for wiping enough as it is.

Are the tanks still alive? If there is nobody up that can effectively hold aggro against the enemy, there's no point in ankhing. It's a wipe.

How many healers are still up? If, after you ankh, there is one healer alive to heal, consider the cooldown ill-spent.

How many DPS are still alive? There are a lot of DPS in any given raid. One or two dead rogues does not necessarily mean the raid is a wipe. Six or seven dead rogues, however, might.

How is the raid doing against the enemy? How much health does this big baddy have left? Does he have an enrage timer? How close is he to enraging? How many raidmembers are dead?

How will I fare if I ankh right now? Untalented, ankhing will bring you back with 20% health and mana. That is not a lot. If you died in a fire, you will continue to burn if you ankh right away. Do you have a Mana Potion off cooldown? How about your Mana Tide Totem? Is any of your equipment broken?

What is my gut telling me to do? Shit just hit the fan. The offtank is forced to maintank, the only healer that's alive is out of mana and running around with bandages, every single rogue in the raid is dead, and the boss is at 5% health with a minute to go before enraging. What do you do? Sometimes logic doesn't work and you have to go with your gut. Can you heal the OT until the boss goes down? Can the DPS shave off that last 5% from the boss before he enrages? Did you really hang out with Voltaire before his show or was it just a dream? Should you Ankh or not? There's really no way to know how this battle will end, so the best thing you can do is follow your gut and act accordingly.

IMPROVED REINCARNATION

Improved Reincarnation is an interesting talent to consider investing points in. The reduced cooldown it offers means that, if you're like me and find yourself on a bed of roses more often than you probably should be, you'll be able to resurrect yourself twice as often. The increased life and mana it offers means you'll have more juice once you ankh - potentially very helpful if you wind up deadded early in the battle. Is it worth it, though, to invest two points in a talent for a spell you don't often use? Wouldn't it be better to place those points in a talent that will help more often? Potentially. If you look at my current build, you'll notice that I only put one point into Elemental Weapons, which gave me my two points for Improved Ankh. If I did the math correctly (and I'd be surprised if I did), I opted out of 30 healing power in favor of the benefits of Improved Reincarnation. Personal preference and play style told me that this was the best route to take.



TL;DNR: Reincarnation is awesome when you use it correctly. It's easy to use it wrong. Don't use it wrong. Take Improved Reincarnation if you want to. Nobody will make fun of you. I promise.

WTB Effective Healing

Well then. It finally happened. I took part in my very first ToC-25 run. And it was glorious. I was Pugg’d for the task, though, so I can’t imagine getting my healing hands back in there anytime soon. That part, not so glorious. We couldn’t down Anub’Arak, but I got a souvenir from the ordeal, which is certainly nice.

I noticed, though, when I checked the healing meters, that I was on the bottom of the list among the 4 healers. Now before you club me to death like a baby seal for comparing heals in Recount, let me assure you that I am not a healwhore, and am not looking to top the charts in heals. What I am looking to do, though, is improve my game. That being said, being at the bottom of heals reinforced the fact that I am not using Nimala to her full Shamany-healy potential. That in itself was not news to me, but it did give me a sort of wake-up call. I’ve been overgeared for most heroics for as long as I can remember (pretty much since I respecced into Resto), and since those were all I had to run, those are all I ran. This not only made me a lazy healer, but it made me a healer who thought that that was the norm.

Bellwether over at 4Haelz has a post about Being Extraordinary. It's an excellent article, both on giving a new healer some basic information, as well as how to be "Extraordinary". There are four base rules, according to Bell, that every healer needs to understand before they can even consider raid healing, The first rule she mentions is something that I've never really done. "You must understand your spells. If you don't understand the mechanics upon which your healing operates, you cannot heal." She elaborates later on with "...don't just read the text and go "Oh, huh. Neat-o." Actually attempt to understand what you're reading. Look at how the puzzles pieces fit together." And nothing is more of a puzzle for Shamans than Tidal Waves.

Tidal Waves, a Resto Shaman's 11-tier talent, takes the cake (it's a lie!) for me on this point. I first looked at it and thought "Huh, nifty", and didn't put a second thought into it. Upon actually reading it, I realized just how good this talent was. It's a lot of words, but it basically works like this: After casting Riptide or Chain Heal, You get 2 charges of this buff. If you cast Healing Wave or Lesser Healing Wave, it eats up 1 charge. While the buff is active, it gives your Lesser Healing Wave an extra 25% crit chance and your Healing Wave's cast time is reduced by 30%. It also gives a bonus to healing from your Healing Wave and Lesser Healing Wave. To me, this screams diversity. Not only do two of your spells trigger the ability, but you have two spells the ability affects. The talent is good if you use is passively, but it can be great if you actively make use of it. If you know when it's up, when you want it to be up, and plan your spells accordingly, you can make great use for it. Problem is, it's difficult to consider these things in the middle of battle. I don't always think "I am casting Riptide and getting Tidal Waves. I am going to cast LHW on the tank, then on the DPS who just took damage. I will then cast Chain Heal to get my Tidal Waves back." Generally, my mindset is geared more toward "Shit shit heal shit don't die shit shit shit".

I do use Tidal Waves to my advantage on two occasions. Firstly, if my Nature's Swiftness is on cooldown and I need to get in some big heals fast, I will cast Riptide and follow it up with a Healing Wave or two. It's no instant cast, but a 1.4 second Healing Wave is nothing to gawk at, especially if cast twice. I also use Tidal Waves when I need to 'force' a crit onto a tank in order to give them Ancestral Healing.

Obviously, effective healing is more than just how to manage Tidal Waves, though. Shamans have four different heals, all of which are excellent in certain situations, and pretty much useless in others. You need to keep tabs on Riptide's cooldown, especially since it's your only instant-cast healing spell, as well as your only HOT (Earthliving Weapon notwithstanding). It's a lot to keep track up in the middle of battle (See paragraph 4, starting with the word "Shit"). I'm working on it.