1. Intro
1.1. Hey everyone and welcome to our essential guide to resto shaman healing. The purpose of this guide is to provide you with the tools needed to keep your team alive in an arena game without having to rely solely on cooldowns.
2. Priority 1: Earth Shield
2.1. We'll bring by looking at your number 1 priority when it comes to outhealing damage, and that's earth shield. Starting as early as the opener, you should be applying earth shield to whoever you expect to start taking damage. It's not vital that you have it up on the correct target, but it can definitely help in keeping on top of the damage your team takes in the opener.
2.1.1. ARa
2.1.1.1. In this example, our rank 1 resto shaman, Xonika, is playing windwalker lock shaman against a warrior mage team. The best target for the enemy is team is either xonikas warlock, or xonika himself. In order to prepare for the damage in the opener, Xonika uses his earth shield on his warlock and then uses the pillar to line of sight the enemy team. The ensures that the enemy team opens on the warlock and guarantee that his earth shield target selection in the opener was correct.
2.1.1.1.1. Editing
2.2. Past the opener, every time someone on your team is swapped to, including yourself, the first thing you should do is apply earth shield to them. Earth shield actually provides the target its on with a 20% damage reduction and even heals for a small amount, so getting that damage reduction up on the target thats started to drop is much more important then just trying to heal through the damage they're taking. Resto shamans are essentially balanced around the fact that they can give someone on their team 20% damage reduction, so if you're not getting your earth shield up as soon as possible, you're completely wasting one of your classes core mechanics and you'll end up struggling to keep your team alive.
2.2.1. ARd
2.2.1.1. Here, we see that warrior mage team swapping onto Xonika. He reacts to this by immediately switching his earth shield onto himself. Leaving it on his warlock here would be terrible because not only would he be missing out on the 20% damage reduction, but the earth shield on his warlock would be going to complete waste as his warlock is no longer taking damage
2.2.1.1.1. Editing
2.3. The final aspect of earth shield that you need to be aware of is the fact that it can be offensively dispelled. Every time your earth shield gets dispelled, you have to immediately reapply it. Make sure you're always keeping an eye on your earth shield buff so that you're aware of it being gone the moment it gets removed.
2.3.1. ARg
2.3.1.1. In this example, Xonika is continuing to be targeted by the warrior mage. The enemy teams mage uses kleptomania to strip xonika of all of his buffs and not even a second later, Xonika has already reapplied his earth shield. Immediately after this, Xonika is put into a full stun, but because he got his earth shield up as soon as it got dispelled, he's completely safe and doesn't drop too low in this stun.
2.3.1.1.1. Editing
2.3.2. ARx
2.3.2.1. This time, Xonika makes the mistake of not reapplying his earth shield as soon as it's dispelled. He uses a riptide after his earth shield is dispelled and is then put into a stun. Because of this, he drops really low in the stun, and even after using his healthstone when he comes out of the stun, he's still forced to his his spirit link. If he had earth shield up throughout that stun, there's a good chance he wouldn't of dropped that low, and would of been able to survive with just his healthstone.
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3. Priority 2: Healing Totems
3.1. So, now that you know the importance of and when you should be using earth shield, the next thing to look at is how you can actually start to heal people. But before we go into your direct healing spells, your priority above that are your healing totems. As a healer, your extremely susceptible to cc, so being able to heal you teammates or even yourself while you're in cc is extremely important. Whenever you expect your team to start to take a lot of damage or if you expect to be cc'd, you should drop a healing stream totem.
3.1.1. ARc
3.1.1.1. Notice how in the opener here, Xonika places his two healing stream totems behind the pillar as the warrior and mage team rush in to start dealing damage. By placing his totems in this position, Xonika is guaranteeing two things. The first is that there's almost no way that the enemy team will kill them. And the second is that, if the enemy team decides to go for cc straight away, which Xonika is expecting, he'll be able to heal his teammates with those healing stream totems while he's in cc. Xonika actually even moves away from the pillar, giving the enemy team the opportunity to either cc him or switch onto him, while his totems are in safe place.
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4. Priority 3: Riptide and Healing Surge
4.1. Once you've applied your earth shield, and you've used your healing totems if needed, it's time to start casting some heals. Your healing rotation is pretty simple and revolves around your tidal waves buff. You get two stacks of tidal waves every time you use riptide, which buffs your next healing surge or healing wave. You want to use riptide and two healing surges or healing waves over and over again, depending on how much damage you need to heal through. Of course, you're not always going to be able to cast because you have to deal with interrupts, (we go into this in more detail in our guide on freecasting) but every time you come out of a lockout and have your aura mastery up, you'll be able to utilise that healing rotation: riptide, healing surge x2, riptide, healing surge 2 and so on.
4.1.1. ARj
4.1.1.1. Here, you can see that Xonika has just been kicked on cast. He's now got his aura mastery up and won't be able to be interrupted for around 20 seconds. He's already got 2 stacks of his tidal waves buff up, so he casts two healing surges and then uses a riptide to reapply his tidal waves buff, and then casts two more healing surges before once again using riptide to reapply his tidal waves buff.
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4.1.2. ARr
4.1.2.1. Again, this example Xonika has just been kicked on cast. Coming out of that lock out, he's going his aura mastery up for almost 20 seconds. After being stunned, he casts two healing surges with his tidal waves buff, reapplies his tidal waves buff with a riptide and then casts 2 more healing surges
4.1.2.1.1. Editing