Definitely want to try her out again and see what’s changed in Patch 3.2. I know the Shamans in my guild are thrilled with the single GCD totem drop.

As far as I’m concerned they needed all the buffs they got.

Riptide: It’s an ok splash heal / HoT; but it’s great for Tidal Waves! I currently heal up front for 5-6k on the splash heal, I have no clue how much the HoT really does, but I typically don’t leave it up long enough to find out. What Riptide is valuable for is that it gives you Tidal Waves, which significantly reduces the cast time of Healing Wave. For me this is the difference in a 2.1s cast time down to 1.4s. I can get a Healing Wave off in the amount of time LHW casts now that Tidal Waves effects LHW’s crit vs cast speed, but LHW’s that do more is also great especially since it’s still a fast heal without the haste effect from Tidal Waves. The other thing Riptide is useful for, is it makes your chain heal more effective if you cast Chain Heal on someone that has Riptide on them, the only difference is that it consumes Riptide, so I try to time Chain Heal to hit with just a second or two before Riptide wears off. I forget the number but I want to say it’s like 20% to 25% more effective. With glyph of chain heal hitting 4 people and my totem (range item) reducing the mana cost of Chain Heal, I use this if I’ve hit someone with Riptide even if a group heal isn’t needed because at that point it’s SUPER efficient for what you get out of it.

Tidal Force is simply a higher crit chance for the next 3 or 4 casts. I typically macro this into my Emergency button to use Tidal Force, then Nature’s Swiftness followed by Healing Wave, thus a HUGE Instant Healing Wave for that tank that is about to bite the dust, then the next spell or two you cast will be at a higher crit percentage too. Nature’s swiftness simply makes your next nature spell I think instant cast as long as the cast time is under a certain number, I forget what it is, but all of your heal spells are covered under Nature’s Swiftness.

With the new totem interface, dropping your totems closer to battle should be easier without consuming four GCDs. The Strength of Earth thing is a pain, I always forget when a DK is around to not use it. I hear you with the Mana Spring totem, but if you get Blessing of Wisdom from a non-Holy paladin it’s something like 50MP5, a Holy Paladin will get you up to like 95MP5 I think, but my totem is 109MP5; that’s quite a substantial difference, I just make sure mana totem is the first I drop to make sure I’m getting as much as I can from it. With the new MP5 changes we should be better off for sure.

I too love how big Lava Burst is for elemental with it’s flame shock; but I’ve recently gotten more into enhancement especially for PvP and I have to tell you the amount of instant abilities you have at your disposal makes you pretty valuable to an arena team or BG group, especially since the shocks have been separated from Wind Shear, formerly Wind Shock. Maelstrom will also apply to heals, so I keep my healing addon up even when I’m in enhancement in case I need to dump an instant HW or CHeal on myself or someone nearby.

Look forward to reading about your future shaman adventures!

-Minitonka