Shaman Healing for 6.0.2 and WoD

With 6.0.2 patch coming out tomorrow I decided to take a quick peek at my shaman in the PTR before things go live. Our guild is going to be raiding Mythic 20 mans on and I want to be prepared.

So here are the changes for shaman, in particular to restoration shamans:

New for Restoration:

 Ascendance: The Shaman transforms into a Water Ascendant for 15 sec. While in this form, all healing done is duplicated and distributed evenly among nearby allies.

 Purification: You gain 5% more of the Mastery stat from all sources.

Changes for Restoration:

 Chain Heal: 
Now Restoration only. Now 14.2% of base mana, down from 22.5%. Heals the friendly target for 
162.5% of Spell power), then jumps to heal the most injured nearby targets
. Healing is reduced by 10% after each jump. Heals 4 total targets. - Mana cost lowered and healing has been reduced by 10% instead of 15% per jump. Overall a good thing for chain heal spamming!
 Earth Shield: 
Now 12.6% of base mana, down from 19.0%. Protects the target with an earthen shield, increasing the effectiveness of Shaman healing spells on that target by 20%, and causing attacks to heal the shielded target for 0 (+ 
63%). 9 charges. Lasts 10 min. This effect can only occur once every few seconds. Earth Shield can only be placed on one target at a time, 
and only one of your Elemental Shields can be active on you at once. - Mana cost has been lowered, which is always good. The big change here, and I'm certain all resto shamans are as excited about this as I am, more than one shield can be placed on a target!!! NO MORE SHIELD OVERRIDES!
 Healing Stream Totem: Summons a Water Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster that heals 
an injured party or raid member within 40 yards for [((Spell power * 
0.2571) * 1)] every 2 sec. Lasts 15 sec. - Mana cost has been reduced and so has the amount it heals for by 50%. Def not happy about that :(
 Healing Wave: 
Now 10.4% of base mana, down from 19.5%. Heals a friendly target for (
412.5% of Spell power). - Mana cost reduced. This is our Greater Healing Wave renamed. We are now forced to use this spell, and if you are like me I always used Healing Wave for single target and I could spam it all day with how mana efficient it is. Now it's either this or Healing Surge. UGH...
 Restorative Waves: 
Your heals increase allies' maximum health by 10% of the amount healed, up to a maximum of 10% of their health.
 Resurgence: Values have changed and this is no longer affected by Greater Healing Wave. 
Your direct heal criticals refund you mana: (812 * 100 / 100) mana from 
Healing Wave, (812 * 0.6 * 100 / 100) mana from Healing Surge, Riptide, or Unleash Life
, and (812 * 0.333 * 100 / 100) mana from 
Chain Heal. - This hasn't been changed other than having the heals they removed taken off the tool tip.
 Riptide: 
Now 9.0% of base mana, down from 12.0%. Heals a friendly target for 
138% of Spell power) and another 
180% of Spell power) over 18 sec. Your Chain Heal spell is 25% more effective when the primary target is affected by your Riptide. - Mana reduced here as well and the initial heal has been increased by 70% and heal-over-time has been reduced by 20%. I can deal with that, especial when it's glyphed.
 Spiritual Insight: Increases your mana pool by 400%. - Unchanged really since hit will no longer be in the game that part of the tooltip has been removed.
 Spiritwalker's Grace: 
Now Elemental and Restoration only. - Same as always, exept that enhancement shamans can't use it.
 Telluric Currents: Your attunement to natural energies causes your Lightning Bolt spell to 
cost no mana. - This is sexy and about damn time!
 Tidal Waves: When you cast Chain Heal or Riptide, you gain the Tidal Waves effect, which reduces the cast time of your
nextHealing Wave by 
20%
or increases the critical effect chance of your 
next Healing Surge spell by 30%. 2 charges. - Reduced from 30% to 20%.

Changed Talents: Not going over the new level 100 talents yet because there is so much to cover for the current patch.

 Ancestral Guidance: For the next 10 sec, 
20% your direct damage and healing is converted to healing on up to 3 nearby injured party or raid members. - Down from 40% and 60%. I use Rushing Streams here for the most part, so I'm not too concerned about this change.
 Ancestral Swiftness: ncreases haste by 5% and attack speed by 5% at all times. When activated, your next Nature spell with a base casting time less than 10 sec. becomes instant. - Same as before just included attack speed with the new consolidations.
 Conductivity: When
 Your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Earth Shock and Stormstrike increase the duration of your Healing Rain by 4.00 sec, up to a maximum increase of 30 sec. - Can't use pew pew spells to make this last longer... suckage.
 Echo of the Elements: 
Your spells and abilities have a chance to 
trigger Echo of the Elements. 
Echo of the Elements causes your next short cooldown spell or ability (Lava Burst, Frost Shock, or Earthquake for Elemental; Lava Lash, Stormstrike, or Fire Nova for Enhancement; Riptide, Unleash Life, Purify Spirit for Restoration) to not incur its cooldown. - No longer duplicates your spell, instead it removed a CD. I may try this out, although the haste increase from ancestral swiftness is prob still better. Could work nicely on a fight like Thok with Purify Spirit.
 Elemental Mastery: 
2 min cooldown, up from 1.5 min.
 Elemental Blast: Harness the raw power of the elements, dealing (
145% of Spell power) Elemental damage and increasing your Specialization [Agility (Enhancement only)] Critical Strike, Haste, 
Multistrike or Mastery by 137 for 8 sec. 
Restoration: Also increases your Spirit by 257 for 8 sec. - Hasn't changed, only the tooltip and the addition of a spirit buff for resto shamans.

Unleashed Fury now has three spell IDs, one for each specialization, instead of one lengthy tooltip for all:

 Unleashed Fury, Restoration: Empowers your Unleash Life, increasing the healing from you next single-target heal on that ally by 50%. - Only the tooltip has changed.

New Glyphs: Only one worth mentioning for resto, or any shaman really, is:

 Glyph of Ghostly Speed: Ghost Wolf grants an additional 60% movement speed, but can no longer be used while in combat.This effect is disabled in battlegrounds and arenas and cannot be combined with other temporary speed bonuses. - Yes, please! I'd like to get to Thok fast after a wipe! TYVM lol

Changed Glyphs:

 Glyph of Chaining: Increases the jump distance of your Chain Heal spell by 100%. Now Restoration Only - OH YEAH! 
 Glyph of Cleansing Waters: When you dispel a harmful Magic or Curse effect from an ally, you also heal the target for 4% of your maximum health. - Down from 5%.
 Glyph of Totemic Recall: Causes your Totemic Recall ability to return 25% additional mana when recalling a totem. - Down from 100%.
 Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace: Now Elemental and Restoration Only - No change, but only used by resto.
 Glyph of Totemic Vigor: Increases the health of your totems by 2% of your maximum health. - Down from 5%.

Class Abilities: Class ability changes.

 Ancestral Spirit: Now costs 4.0% of base mana, down from 84.3%. - 
 About damn time!

 Grace of Air: Empowering winds swirl around the Shaman, granting all nearby party and raid members 141 Mastery and 5% haste. - Added haste!
 Healing Rain: Healing rains blanket the area targeted by the Shaman, restoring [((16.3882% of Spell power) + (16.3882% of Spell power)) * 2.5] health to up to 6 allies in the area over 10 sec. - A bit of a nerf to healing rain, but we'll live ;)

 Healing Stream Totem: Now 8.6% of base mana, down from 23.5%.
 Healing Surge: Now 20.7% of base mana, down from 34.3%. Heals a friendly target for 412.5% of Spell power) - Slight mana reduction.
 Hex: Now 1.7 sec cast, up from 1.5

 Wind Shear: Disrupts the target's concentration with a burst of wind, interrupting spellcasting and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 3 sec. - Threat reduction was removed.

This pretty much covers all the changes that apply primarily to restoration shamans for 6.0.2. For the most part, it seems that shaman healing is the same as far as the mechanics are concerned. We'll have to make a few modifications to our healing style due to the lack of smart healing, but since we didn't get any instant heals affected by the new cast times, "yanet "S" keys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" <---- Izzy :D lozlwafflesncheese, it won't be as big of an adjustment as other healers. This ^ is what I have to deal with on a daily basis from my husband lol.

Tomorrow night Izzy and I will be raiding with the guild 20 man Mythic. Izzy may be Twitching it at 11:30 pm server time (Bleeding Hollow) which is 8:30 pm PST. Here is the link for his TwitchTV in case you want to drop by to check it out: http://www.twitch.tv/drdopepeddles

The guild is currently 12/14H, so we should be able to down a few bosses on heroic even with the new changes and the extra people being added to the current group.

I can't wait for all the bag space I will have tomorrow and once again being able to experience the pre-expansion event. Good luck to all of you starting your Mythic raiding tomorrow, feel free to drop by and let me know how it goes!