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A Look Back at Restoration Shaman in Dragonflight & War Within Wishlist - Editorial
正式服
由
Theun
发表于
2024/01/23,00:07
With the sun setting on Dragonflight and The War Within on the horizon, our Restoration Shaman Writer, Theun, offers a retrospective highlighting Restoration's journey in Dragonflight and shares their hopes for the spec's next evolution with a War Within Wishlist.
Our Guide Writers have reviewed their specs throughout Dragonflight and share wishlists of what they'd like to see in the War Within. Check out all of our released editorials below.
Dragonflight Retrospectives & War Within Wishlists
Blood DKFrost DKUnholy DK
Havoc DHVengeance DH
Balance DruidFeral DruidGuardian Druid
Restoration Druid
Augmentation EvokerDevastation EvokerPreservation Evoker
BM HunterMM HunterSurvival Hunter
Arcane MageFire MageFrost Mage
Brewmaster Monk
Mistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk
Holy PaladinProtection PaladinRetribution Paladin
Discipline Priest
Holy PriestShadow Priest
Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue
Elemental ShamanEnhancement Shaman
Restoration Shaman
Affliction WarlockDemonology WarlockDestruction Warlock
Restoration Shaman's Journey Through Dragonflight
Restoration Shaman has had plenty of highs and lows in Dragonflight. This article is going to take a look at how the spec performed throughout each of the 3 seasons thus far, how the spec evolved throughout the expansion, and what are some of the key things still missing that keep Restoration Shaman from being great.
A quick disclaimer: a lot of this might sound overly-negative, but the spec has come quite a long way over the course of Dragonflight (for example, for the first time in ~7 years
治疗之泉图腾
is perfectly fine to take!), however in order to keep this as short as I can, I'm mostly looking at things that still need changing.
In Season 1
, Resto Shaman started off pretty weak in Raid, requiring multiple rounds of buffs (and a miniature "rework" if you'd like to call it that) heading into 10.0.7. In Mythic+ however, it was one of the most popular healers in high level keys. This was largely because you tried to bring
嗜血
in the healer spot, and after 10.0.7,
酸雨
was massively buffed, giving us a huge damage increase in an AoE setting like Mythic+.
In Season 2
, we were featured in the Race to World First with
Method
running a Resto Shaman for their World 3rd kill of Sarkareth! We were also quite strong in Mythic+ at the start of the season before the 10.1.5 update that introduced the "God Comp", but obviously fell out of favor after the update (as did almost every other spec not featured in the God Comp). After the introduction of Augmentation Evoker, the need for
嗜血
quickly became redundant in a lot of keys, which was one of the few unique things we brought to the group - more on this later.
Season 3
was certainly not a season for Restoration Shaman. Even though the spec has been performing quite well in Raid, it wasn't featured on Mythic Fyrakk until World 55 by
Consequence
. Currently, Restoration Druid, Discipline Priest, and Mistweaver are the 3 most dominant healers in Mythic+.
Larên
is currently the #1 rated shaman at World 56.
As we sort of saw from Season 3, numbers certainly aren't what's holding shaman back from being a sought-after spec. We still bring a lot of good utility and cooldowns to a group like
先祖护佑图腾
and
灵魂链接图腾
, and our damage isn't necessarily lagging behind either. So why is it that we struggle to find a spot in the meta?
Party/Raid Buffs + the Impact of Augmentation Evoker
It's no surprise that one of the things holding back Restoration and Elemental Shaman from being great, is the fact that we're one of very few specs that don't bring a Party or Raid buff like
真言术:韧
,
虔诚光环
,
野性印记
, or the many many others that are in the game. Unfortunately for Shamans, there's only 1 spec that brings a Party/Raid buff, and that's Enhancement with
风怒图腾
. Without this, they probably also wouldn't be brought in many cases, as we don't really offer anything else that's truly needed. Despite having some truly great cooldowns or forms of utility such as
灵魂链接图腾
and
先祖护佑图腾
(both of which are undeniably great in progression), or in Mythic+ where we bring countless AoE stops such as
撼天雷霆
and
电能图腾
, or the beloved
风剪
, it's clear none of these are strong enough to warrant wanting a shaman.
Personally, I think Raid/Party buffs make the game far too restrictive, and decrease the possibility of classes that you could use in both Raid and Mythic+, but it seems we're going down this road one way or another.
If Raid/Party buffs are here to stay, then there's no reasonRestoration and Elemental should be one of the few specs left out of the loop.
While Augmentation Evokers release didn't replace our spot in groups (we are indeed different roles), the utility that they bring to groups did make some of our utility a bit less sought after. For example, Augmentation also brings a
嗜血
-like effect in
守护巨龙之怒
, as well as brings a knock-up on a low cooldown, just like
撼天雷霆
. This isn't to say that Augmentation stole spells from Shamans, but rather that without a Raid/Party buff, there are other classes that can do exactly what we do - but they also give a Raid/Party buff.
Annoying Interactions
Resto Shaman has quite a few talents and buffs that interact with spells in an unexpected way, and has a few different cooldowns and/or buffs that are annoying to track (even with highly customized WeakAuras). Here's a quick list of all of the things that sometimes make playing the spec a little bit more annoying than fun.
We now have 3 different talents (
迅捷洪流
,
灵魂行者的潮汐图腾
, and
潮汐使者
) that reduce the cast time of
治疗链
such that the cast time is less than that of your GCD. This means if any of these buffs are stacked on top of one another (which is quite common if you have talented in at least 2 of them) the cast time reduction is wasted.
迅捷洪流
and
灵魂行者的潮汐图腾
by themselves bring the cast time of
治疗链
to less than that of the GCD, which creates many times where you're just sat waiting on your GCD to finish before you can continue, similar to how
上古之火
behaved until it was fixed.
波动
is a hard spell to track, even with WeakAuras, because you can only ever tell if you have the buff, not how close you are to the next one. This is exacerbated by the interactions with
始源之潮
(which I'll cover last in this section).
浪潮汹涌
is another buff that warrants tracking, but is incredibly difficult to track properly as the WeakAuras we use constantly change and need updating. Having some way to track this in the base UI would be an incredibly helpful change, that way you could see if you have a
浪潮汹涌
proc coming soon.
暴雨图腾
doesn't actually collect all healing that the shaman does. It collects healing from
先祖指引
but only collects the initial burst of
升腾
and not the redistributed healing. It also sometimes collects healing from things like set bonuses, but not all set bonuses - for example, it does store healing from our Season 3 set bonus, but not from our Season 2 set bonus. This actually plays a pretty big role in how good or bad the spec can be numerically.
始源之潮
has a lot of interactions, and every single one of them work differently. The general cadence that should buff the cleaved
治疗波
s generated from
始源之潮
should be:
始源之潮
> Apply Buff > cast
治疗波
. Unfortunately, here's how each of the buffs work if you wanted to try to buff the cleaved
治疗波
s.
1.
生命释放
: Cast
始源之潮
>
生命释放
> cast
治疗波
=
治疗波
s are correctly buffed.
2.
波动
: Cast
始源之潮
> make sure you're at 2/3 on your
WeakAura
> cast
治疗波
=
治疗波
s are correctly buffed.
3.
元素宗师
: Cast
始源之潮
>
熔岩爆裂
> cast
治疗波
= one of the X number of
治疗波
s are correctly buffed.
Other old buffs that are now removed, like the old version of
旋涡之流
behaved differently yet again. It'd be nice if all of these functioned as expected.
Talent Tree
There's a lot to talk about here since the Talent Tree reworks were one of the big pillars of Dragonflight. These sought to give players a lot more control of the talents they want to play in any environment, and along with Tier Bonuses, were really the only things that could help "make or break" your spec throughout the expansion. While Restoration Shaman got a few talent changes in 10.0.7, they simply got rid of 5 talent nodes that had a 0% pick rate, and added in a few others (more on this in a later section). Since then, we really haven't had any talent changes.
My opinion is that we still gain far too much power from simply selecting talents (since you need to fill out your talent tree to play anyway) but that's another topic entirely. There's a lot here, so strap in.
Top Section
We have a top-heavy tree, meaning we regularly spend 11-15 points in the top-most section of our talent tree. These 3 talents are the biggest culprits.
洪水
is a mandatory talent to take at the top of the tree and still requires 2 points.
流水图腾掌握
is a mandatory talent to take the
暴雨图腾
/
治疗之泉图腾
node, despite gaining almost nothing from taking it.
迅捷洪流
would be a fantastic Quality of Life improvement for the spec that regularly has low Haste, however it costs 2 talent points and is redundant thanks to
潮汐使者
Middle Section
The middle section of our talent tree is where things start to become lopsided. Outside of
暴雨图腾
and the
大地之墙图腾
/
先祖护佑图腾
choice node, we don't have anything we want on the right side of the talent tree. This leaves most of our points to be spent in things that buff
治疗链
, and this problem only gets exacerbated by the capstone area of the tree. It doesn't help that
治疗链
has 4 different talents that massively buff the power of the spell, while
治疗波
and
治疗之涌
get 2 much weaker talents.
The
先祖之触
/
潮汐之流
choice node is much stronger than almost any other talent choice you can make in the middle part of the tree.
The
潮汐掌控
/
翻潮者
upgrade node to
治疗之潮图腾
are seldom picked because they are simply not tuned well. Buffing an already weak cooldown by a small amount isn't something you really want.
You typically only take
法力之潮图腾
if you intend to also grab
灵魂行者的潮汐图腾
as
法力之潮图腾
is largely redundant. It gives less than half the mana that
加气法力药水
gives on a 3-minute CD. At least it does give all of your healers mana, given they're in range.
Despite multiple buffs,
洪流
is still quite weak. If the value were doubled, it'd make for a much more interesting choice between playing
洪流
vs playing
法力之潮图腾
+
灵魂行者的潮汐图腾
.
While
大地生命武器
looks like it can do a lot of healing, you have to weigh it against using
嗡鸣符文
instead, since you're unable to wear both. It is almost always better to simply run a
嗡鸣符文
and also save a talent point than it is to run
大地生命武器
, which is unfortunate.
Capstone Section
This is the section of the talent tree that you'd ideally like to change around between the types of content you're doing, or even on a boss-by-boss basis to better fit encounters, however since the introduction of
潮汐使者
in 10.0.7 (along with nerfs to multiple other talents), we've been pretty locked in on a single talent setup. I would love to see
奔涌之流
make a comeback, but the spell is both currently a little clunky and undertuned. More options that aren't
治疗链
favored would open up a 2nd viable talent setup that isn't solely reliant on tier set bonuses to make them decent, and that's what I'd aim to go for here.
始源之潮
is a "love it or hate it" talent for us. Many players feel the set-up time to spread
激流
around and then press
始源之潮
and then buff it with
生命释放
until you can finally cast your
治疗波
takes far too long for it to feel good. Instead of having
强化始源之潮
buff the power of the spell, it'd be really nice to simply offer a bit of a Quality of Life improvement to the spell instead.
始源之潮
is a fantastic addition to the spec, and helps us with healing spread out targets, it's just a shame a lot of players just dont enjoy it as much as others.
While
潮汐使者
makes
治疗链
feel good to press, I think it's done more harm to the spec than good.
潮汐使者
cuts down the cast time of the spell, and also
doubles
its jump range.
治疗链
is a true smart heal, so it will always try to do the most effective healing possible, and having a nearly infinite-range spammable smart heal be as powerful as it is makes a lot of your decision making redundant. Your problem solving button for most scenarios is simply to press
治疗链
, and while some may enjoy that, I'd love to see some power stripped away from
潮汐使者
so it doesn't feel so locked-in.
The
浪潮汹涌
/
始源之潮核心
choice node is unbelievably one-sided.
始源之潮核心
only has an ~8yd jump range, cannot apply if nearby players already have
激流
or are out of range, and unlike Shadowlands, applies on every 4th
激流
as stated, instead of every 3rd. Essentially, this means you should typically get ~2 extra
激流
s per minute.
浪潮汹涌
on the other hand, massively buffs
治疗链
on a semi-controllable cooldown (mana expenditure) that gives you 2 buffed
治疗链
s per proc. You typically expect 2-3 buffs of
浪潮汹涌
per minute, depending on the encounter. In Mythic+ you typically get at least 1 per trash pack that you do.
There isn't a choice here, it's hard to push a "no
治疗链
playstyle" when
始源之潮核心
is this weak compared to the other option.
奔涌之流
was much better when you didn't need to hit as many players as possible for it to do semi-decent healing. It's not only numerically weak, but often times feels really hard to use (even in Raid), because you simply want to hit as many players as you possibly can, every single time it's up. I realize the old "bug" was overpowerd, but if there was a way to make it do falloff healing instead of what we have now, it'd make this button feel much easier to get value out of.
倾盆大雨
is weird, because it feels pretty redundant in our kit. We have a lot of grouped up AoE healing already, so this feels like it's intended to make you press
倾盆大雨
instead of
治疗链
. The issue, is it's not better than
治疗链
when you factor in all of the other talents that buff
治疗链
while
倾盆大雨
gets none of those.
I don't know of a single Restoration Shaman that actually likes
根深蒂固的元素
, it's just something we sort of deal with because the other options aren't very good. Giving it some bad luck protection was great, but it can still proc at inopportune times, and every Restoration Shaman knows it's bound to proc right before the pull. This isn't a proc like
觉醒
used to be for Holy Paladins where you could really use the proc - most of the value of
根深蒂固的元素
is simply in the initial burst that
升腾
does.
强化大地生命武器
is simply not a good talent. We already typically don't take
大地生命武器
, and giving yourself an additional 40% value for
2 additional talent points
is horrible. The only benefit here is that it auto-procs on low HP, but that's not something we care about in PvE at all, and would simply be useful for PvP for
净化术
protection. They could bake that in as a part of the base
大地生命武器
and we still probably wouldn't play it over a
嗡鸣符文
.
Tier Bonuses
Every single one of our tier bonuses had issues - whether that be tuning or gameplay related (or both). I'll quickly talk about each of the 3 set bonuses and the problems I had with each of them. As the expansion went on, the tier sets became increasingly less-shaman. It doesn't take a whole lot to make the spec feel fun (just look at the Season 4 set bonus of Shadowlands, for example), but when the tier bonuses are convoluted, it just pushes people away from trying to get much use out of them - and that's exactly what we saw in Season 2 and Season 3.
Season 1
(2) While is active, your chance to critically strike is increased by 10%.
(4) Your critical heals have 215% effectiveness instead of the usual 200%.
The set bonuses in Season 1 are a little bit hard to criticize, as they were meant to be fairly bland and low-impact increases, and ours certainly fit that description quite well. The 2pc was actually quite strong compared to quite a few bonuses at the time, but our 4pc was very lackluster. This set bonus technically added a small amount of damage because it increased your Critical Strike at times, but it certainly wasn't enough to lean into. If this set ends up being the pick for Season 4 I expect them to buff the value of the 4pc by quite a lot, but I can't really offer much else because almost every specs bonus was just boring in Season 1.
Season 2
(2) When you cast Healing Rain, each ally with your Riptide on them is area healed by Tidewaters for (322% of Spell power).
(4) Each ally healed by Tidewaters increases your healing done by 1.0% for 8 sec and increases the healing of your next Healing Wave or Healing Surge by 10%, or your next Chain Heal by 2%.
This tier bonus took a lot of work to get right. The 2pc alone
涛流
was buffed 3 different times on live despite numerically being quite good, as it was only contributing ~2% of our overall healing. In Raid, the issue with
涛流
is that it often times did
too much
healing to the same targets every single time you dropped
治疗之雨
. This led to most of the healing being wasted, and unfortunately, none of that healing was stored in
暴雨图腾
either.
Mythic+ was an entirely different story. The top players often leaned into the heavy healing that
涛流
did which let them dps between casts of
治疗之雨
and also allowed them to stack up the 4pc (which I'll talk about in a moment). While the vast majority of players didn't actively play around the set bonus like this, it was a common strategy by Resto Shamans at the higher end.
The 4pc was, in my opinion,
nearly
good - but they never adjusted it. Basically, the idea was to slowly stack up multiple stacks of
惊涛落雨
from dropping
治疗之雨
, and then once you had a good amount of stacks you'd fire off a
始源之潮
and do a ton of healing every ~30 seconds. Alternatively, you could use a high amount of
惊涛落雨
stacks to spot heal someone with
治疗波
or
治疗之涌
. The issue here, is the 4pc also buffed
治疗链
which meant you didn't have any "filler" buttons to press if you were trying to build up the tier bonus. There were a lot of instances where you'd actively be building up to set up for a buffed
始源之潮
only for the stacks to get consumed on a
治疗链
because someone would have died otherwise. Even for good players who were actively trying to play around it, this interaction was frustrating, but despite lots of feedback, was never adjusted.
While I don't PvP much anymore, I did want to give a quick shout to the PvP players here, as they actively went
against
using this set bonus for the entirety of Season 2, and instead opted to use crafted gear in many cases instead. Ground-based healing spells simply don't often work well in PvP, and they often don't even talent into
治疗之雨
, which meant this set bonus was completely useless for them. They do have access to
祈雨舞
as a PvP talent, however the set bonus was reduced by 50% in PvP, essentially keeping it from being used.
Season 3
(2) Chain Heal, Healing Surge, and Healing Wave mark their initial target with a Tidal Reservoir, causing them to receive 15% of all Riptide healing you deal for 15 sec.
(4) Riptide's healing is increased by 25%. If Riptide is active on the same target as Tidal Reservoir, its heal over time effect has a 6% chance to create a new Riptide on a nearby ally.
Of the 3 tier bonuses, this one certainly has the most issues. The potency of the tier bonus changes drastically depending on your playstyle and talent choices, the style of healing it promotes is frustrating (more on that in a second), and more than anything, you don't feel like a Restoration Shaman if you're trying to play with it. The 2pc itself is pretty mediocre, and while the % increase to
激流
sounds really good, the best part of the bonus is actually in the small % chance to spread additional
激流
s. There's a few issues with this:
You can only apply
蓄潮
to 1 player at a time and can only realistically apply a small number of
蓄潮
in total since they only last 15 seconds.
In order to actually keep
激流
and
蓄潮
rolling, you need to constantly be healing players regardless of their current health. This means you are
often
intentionally overhealing players so that you can keep the cycle of spreading
激流
s going. If you don't do this, you will fall behind.
治疗链
is a much more expensive applicator of
蓄潮
than
治疗波
or
治疗之涌
. If your goal is to apply as many
蓄潮
s as possible, then you can really only do that with
治疗波
or
治疗之涌
.
Spreading additional
激流
s is much more beneficial in a Raid environment where there are lots of players compared to Mythic+ or PvP where you can already maintain 4-5
激流
s with ease.
All of this essentially led to most players ignoring the set bonus entirely, despite it being a numerically strong bonus (if you actively tried to play into it). Trying to spread HoTs on players and chasing those HoTs with single-target heals just simply doesn't make you feel like you're playing a Restoration Shaman, and actively deters players who have played the spec for years.
The 10.0.5 and 10.0.7 "Rework"
Restoration Shaman started off Dragonflight really weak. We didn't have a lot of great talent choices and our damage/healing was lagging behind the rest of the healers.
酸雨
was buffed by a massive 120% in 10.0.5, giving us some much needed passive damage to keep up with the rest of the healers. Along with some changes to other spells such as
闪电链
and
闪电箭
, our damage was actually
very
strong, and one of the reasons Restoration Shaman started to see a lot of success in Mythic+ after this update.
In 10.0.7 they took some talents that were redundant and made them baseline, like
水之护盾
, and outright removed multiple other talents like
自然专注
and
永恒之潮
, which was an Essence from Battle for Azeroth that we never used.
治疗之潮图腾
and
法力之潮图腾
also got some upgrades to them, despite being quite lackluster. Finally, they ended up adding
潮汐使者
as a spot to get to
浪潮汹涌
. I talked about this earlier in the talent section, but suffice to say that
潮汐使者
has been a staple of the spec since, for better or worse.
Unfortunately, a lot of the other talent tree problems like fact that our talent tree is very top-heavy, and we don't have much choice in our capstone section with the significant nerfs to
奔涌之流
(as well as other useless talents like
强化大地生命武器
being there) still leaves a lot of room for improvement.
The War Within Hero Talents
While we don't know many of the details around what The War Within is going to bring to Restoration Shaman, we at least already know the names of the 3 different Hero Specs that Shaman is able to go. They are:
Stormbringer
,
Farseer
, and
Totemic
. We don't know just yet which of these 2 Hero Specs that Restoration will have access to, but we can make some assumptions, and take a few guesses as to what these Hero Talents may be focusing on.
Farseer
If I had to take a guess, Farseer will likely be the one Hero Spec that Restoration will not have access to. Taking a look at some old
Warcraft III stuff
we can see that a Farseer Shaman had access to a few iconic Shaman spells like
视界术
and
闪电链
but also a couple of spec-specific iconic spells for both Elemental and Enhancement with
地震术
and
野性狼魂
. It wouldn't shock me to see this focus on summons with
野性狼魂
and
火元素
, or just sticking to those iconic Warcraft III spells I previously mentioned instead. Either way, if this does end up being one of Restoration's choices, there's a ton of different directions they could probably go if they wanted.
Stormbringer
My initial reaction figured that Stormbringer would likely be the Ele/Enh option, however after learning more about Farseer Shamans and taking a look at more of our kit, we have access to quite a few spells that would fit a "storm" theme.
治疗之雨
,
倾盆大雨
,
奔涌之流
, and really just about anything with the name "Tide" in it, all allude to different types of storms, and all would fit thematically with a Stormbringer Shaman. If I had to guess, having the Restoration part of the Hero Spec focus on
治疗之雨
while Elemental focused on
野性狼魂
would both fit the theme, and also fill a similar enough part in the rotation to make sense.
Totemic
Of the 3 shaman specs, Restoration certainly focuses the most on totems, so I'm fairly confident that this will likely be 1 of the 2 Hero Specs that we will have access to.
暴雨图腾
or
治疗之泉图腾
are both used often on a short-medium cooldown, while
治疗之潮图腾
,
灵魂链接图腾
, as well as things like
法力之潮图腾
and
大地之墙图腾
round up the rest of our regularly used totems. There's a lot of different ways they could go with each of these, but none of them really seem to fit well with either Elemental or Enhancement.
I do need to add a quick section here to talk about a couple of other recent totems / totem buffs we had in Shadowlands, because while I myself hated them, people do continue to bring them up. Those 2 things were
深震之石
which added an Earthquake effect to your
土元素
, and of course
暮钟图腾
which was one of our 4 Covenant abilities in Shadowlands. Players really enjoyed both of these for 1 simple reason: they did
a lot
of damage. You never ran
暮钟图腾
for healing, as both Venthyr and Necrolord were better in that department, but
暮钟图腾
did by far the most damage of the 4 options when you also equipped the legendary effect that buffed it. While this certainly is an option they could bring back, I don't think this would be very healthy for the spec and I think a lot of players are reminiscing over the overtuned damage that the effect did, rather than the gameplay of dropping a totem every time it was available just so you could do a lot of AoE damage.
暮钟图腾
was also infuriating to play with as either Elemental or Enhancement as they don't really want to be using healing effects very often, so that would be another big strike against adding it into the Hero Talent Trees for me.
About the Author
This page is maintained by Theun, Restoration Shaman for Fun Detected on Area52 (US). I've been playing the spec since Nighthold and managed to achieve up to world 4th playing for
BDG
in Shadowlands! I am also an MVP/theorycrafter in the Restoration Shaman specific
Discord Server
and Moderator in the
Shaman Class Discord
and am very active in both communities. For questions you can find me in the aforementioned discord servers or during my very rare streams on
Twitch
or babbling mindlessly on
Twitter
.
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