Some of you may know that a Shaman’s Mastery is called “Deep Healing”. In the beginning, it basically increased the amount of your direct heals by 2.5% per point of Mastery you had based on the health of your target (lower health targets will get more of a bonus from your heals, higher will get less). Deep Healing has gotten such a bad rap since day one, and I, for one, absolutely refused to say that it was quite that bad. Maybe I’m horrifically wrong, maybe I was just too much of an optimist (and still am), but my dreams of making good use of our Mastery heightened ever so slightly when they upped the amount to 3.0% per point of Mastery.
Now, with the new patch notes, I’m thinking more and more that maybe, just maybe, I might have some kind of a point here and my hopes and dreams have been confirmed. My EPGP priority losses may not have been in vain, after all!
The new patch notes, and I quote, say this:
Deep Healing now benefits all heals, not just direct heals.
Wowzas! That’s kind of a big deal. That’s every single heal, people.
I will not go into detail as to how I prioritize my stats simply because that is not the nature of this post, but I will tell you right now that I will not be second guessing myself anymore on gear that has Mastery on it, such as the main hand weapon off of Nefarion, Andoros, Fist of the Dragon King, thinking to myself “Is that really better/worse than this other one I have?”. So many classes love their Mastery and make excellent use of it, so why shouldn’t Resto Shaman?
I can safely say that myself and the other resident Resto Shaman have proved every single night that we can easily keep up with other classes and their ability to heal and keep our assigned targets alive, if not more so than some.
I am a raid healer, obviously, but I am often asked to spot heal a tank here and there on various fights. This is where Mastery can really shine in a pinch. Got a low health tank with incoming heavy damage and the assigned healer needs some help? Not a problem! Throw up a GHW and end up with a 55k+ crit, practically saving their ass. Not too shabby, I say.
Fights where there is heavy raid damage, like Atramedes, Chimaeron and Nefarian, also make an excellent case for more Mastery stacking than previously suggested. The raid definitely goes below 50% health at any given time, and your heals are able to do that much more than the average to help get them up all the quicker.
Combine these beautiful bonuses with your talents and abilities, such as Soothing Rains, Nature’s Blessing, Unleash Elements, and Focused Insight to name a few, and you have found yourself some pretty powerful heals.
Based on the nature of the Resto Shaman and how good we were, and still are, at raid healing, I think this only helps to confirm that we should be stacking and using our Mastery, as well as solidify our place on the raiding roster — giving us more of a reason to be taken to a raid, instead of the stupid excuses that have been going around.
And people just wanted us for our Mana Tide Totem. /scoff
This isn’t the Wrath expansion anymore and the name of the game isn’t “How many heals can I throw out in 30 seconds?”. It’s about making your heals count for what precious mana you have, and that is exactly what our Mastery is helping us to accomplish.