F2P Phron's WoD F2P RShaman Guide

Phrontistery

i was making waves u was surfing in 'em
F2P RShaman Guide
[Currently Updated] Patch 6.2.2

Contents
Introduction
Races
Professions
Talents
Gear
Macros
Roles
Matchups
Summary


Introduction
Hello~ You may or not know me, I'm Phrontistery, I've been playing F2P Shamans since the beginning of Cataclysm, though I've only mained Shaman since MoP hit. I have 7500~ battlegrounds played on 20 Shamans, the vast majority of which were as Restoration.
Restoration Shamans are almost if not certainly an essential part of any team comp in the current meta. Utility has always been the pride of the Shaman kit, with Purges on a GCD, Shear on 12 seconds, Purify on 8 seconds, a 30-38 second duration DoT, Water Shield for mana regen, the mobility from Ghost Wolf, and powerful pump-heals from Healing Surge.
Currently playing F2P Healers is tough, the lack of haste from enchants makes RShamans dangerous to play - it's easy to get caught out, or simply out-damaged through your heals, however these factors put your positioning to the test and make victories all that sweeter.

Races
Horde
Tauren - <Full Information>
Offensive/Defensive choice. This and Goblin are your two realistic choices. Depending on your playstyle you can make a decision. (Racial gives you 13 bonus stamina and an Area of Effect 2 second stun on a 2 minute CD - also slightly higher crit damage)

Goblin - <Full Information>
Very Defensive choice. BiS Mobility however may not be worth if Warstomp becomes a 3 second stun. (Racial gives you a small jump on a 2 minute CD to assist positioning - note - also gives Mobile Banking and a passive 1% haste increase)

Troll - <Full Information>
Slightly useful Haste bonus on a 2 minute cooldown, I don't recommend choosing this.

Orc - <Full Information>
Slightly useful Spell Power bonus on a 2 minute cooldown - I wouldn't choose this.

Panda - <Full Information>
Useful alternative (Racial gives highly reduced falling damage and a 4 second sleep which is broken by any damage - also 2x food buffs)

Alliance
Dwarf - <Full Information>
Very Defensive choice. This is easily the most effective choice for Alliance, however the alternatives are still playable. (Racial gives you 10% less physical damage taken for 10 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown. This - Stoneform - also removes poisons, diseases and bleeds. This includes Warrior's Rend and Rogue's Crippling Poison)

Draenei - <Full Information>
Defensive/Utility choice, (Racial gives 1% less shadow damage taken, 3 Int/Str/Agi *4 scaled* - also gives 5 second Gift of the Naaru HoT which heals 20% of the targets total health)

Panda - <Full Information>
Useful alternative (Racial gives highly reduced falling damage and a 4 second sleep which is broken by any damage - also 2x food buffs)

Recommended choices: Dwarf Alliance, Goblin/Tauren Horde.
Professions
Once finished gearing and enchanting you should have Alchemy and Herbalism for free use of Swiftness Potions. No valid alternative.

Make sure you have First Aid for Anti-Venom or Strong Anti-Venom, this greatly assists in kiting/escaping rogues, as Purify Spirit does not remove Crippling Poison - and you want to save your Insignia Trinket for removing more crucial CC.
Talents
In the current meta Nature's Guardian is the best talent in my opinion with no contest. Remember to stack your Trinket buffs with this and even your Battle Standard if needed. (note - if Draenei you can use Gift of the Naaru with your health Defensive Cooldowns to maximize the 20% heal effect)
Gear
Stat Priorities:
Gear stat priority will depend highly on situation, if FCing - your stat priority should be Stamina>Haste>Int>Crit>Spirit. If you are healing either offense or defence, or even mid, your gear stat priority should look more like Haste>Spirit>Stam>Int>Crit. Keep in mind that this is simply an opinion - and different people will use different things. This is how I like to gear.

Armory References:
Alliance Non-FC Gear
Note - Missing Bracer enchant, Serpentis' Gloves, Defending Champion, Sorcerer Cloak, and Cloak enchant.

Horde Misc/Alternate Gear Style
Note - Has P2P-linked Helm/Cloak/Legs, ignore those. This character shows a few different pieces than I would use, however are all still entirely viable.

Horde Misc Gear
Note: Missing Mindthrust Bracers or Uninsured Bracers, Gloves of the Hero, Defending Champion, Mail Chestpiece, and Weapon enchant.

More Horde Misc Gear
Note: Geared for MoP BiS, not WoD.

Offensive/Defensive/Mid healer:
Main-Hand: Blessed Hammer of Grace
Alternative: Spell Axe of the Farseer

Shield: Weathered Observer's Shield
Alternative(Alliance Only): Shield of the Stockades
Alternative(Horde Only): Shield of Talrendis Point

Head: Lucky Fishing Hat
Alternative(Alliance Only): Rifle Commander's Eyepatch
Alternative: Weather Beaten Fishing Hat

Neck: Brilliant Necklace
Alternative: Thick Bronze Necklace

Shoulders: Magician's Mantle
Alternative: Aged Paudlrons of The Five Thunders

Cloak(Horde Only): Tranquillien Champion's Cloak
Alternative: Tumultuous Cloak of the Sorcerer
Alternative: Caretaker's Cape/Battle Healer's Cloak

Chest: Mystical Vest of Elements
Alternative: Noble's Robe

Bracers: Mindthrust Bracers
Alternative: Cuffs of Black Elements
Alternative(Alliance Only): Bracers of the Ancient Grove
Alternative(Horde Only): Uninsured Bracers

Gloves(Horde Only): Gloves of the Hero
Alterntative: Serpentis Gloves

Belt: Vigorous Belt of the Vision
Alternative: Chamoo-Ra's Bind

Legs: Blackfathom Leggings

Boots: Sandals of Sacrifice

Rings: Garrosh's Pardon/Ring of Pardons/(Alliance Only)Lorekeeper's Ring/(Horde Only)Advisor's Ring/Dread Pirate Ring/(Horde Only)Stillwater's Signet

Trinkets: Inherited Insignia of the Horde/Alliance/Defending Champion/Inherited Mark of Tyranny

FC:
Main-Hand: Blessed Hammer of Grace
Alternative: Spell Axe of the Farseer

Shield: Weathered Observer's Shield
Alternative(Alliance Only): Shield of the Stockades
Alternative(Horde Only): Shield of Talrendis Point

Head: Lucky Fishing Hat
Alternative(Alliance Only): Rifle Commander's Eyepatch
Alternative: Weather Beaten Fishing Hat

Neck: Thick Bronze Necklace

Shoulders: Magician's Mantle
Alternative: Aged Paudlrons of The Five Thunders

Cloak(Horde Only): Tranquillien Champion's Cloak
Alternative: Tumultuous Cloak of Stamina
Alternative: Tumultuous Cloak of the Sorcerer
Alternative: Caretaker's Cape/Battle Healer's Cloak

Chest: Mystical Vest of Elements
Alternative: Mystic's Robe

Bracers(Alliance Only):Bracers of the Ancient Grove
Alternative: Bands of Serra'kis

Gloves: Fine Leather Gloves
Gloves(Horde Only): Gloves of the Hero
Alternative: Naga Battle Gloves
Alterntative: Serpentis Gloves

Belt: Chamoo-Ra's Bind

Legs: Blackfathom Leggings

Boots: Seers Boots
Alternative: Sandals of Sacrifice

Rings: Garrosh's Pardon/Ring of Pardons/(Alliance Only)Gloaming Band/Dread Pirate Ring/(Horde Only)Stillwater's Signet

Trinkets: Inherited Insignia of the Horde/Alliance/Defending Champion/Inherited Mark of Tyranny

Remember to enchant all possible gear:
+1 Resistances to Cloak [GF]
+1 Armor to Cloak
+6 Health to Chest
Absorption(10) to Chest
+1 Spirit to Bracer
+1 Stamina to Bracer
Armor kits (leatherworking) to Hands/Feet/Boots
+1 Weapon Damage​
Macros
Healing yourself whilst targeting another player:

#showtooltip
/cast [target=yourname] Riptide

#showtooltip
/cast [target=Yourname] Healing Surge

Mouseover healing:

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover, noharm, nodead, exists][] Healing Surge

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover, noharm, nodead, exists][] Riptide

Mouseover CC:

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover] Wind Shear

You can also add a /stopcasting line to that so you can Shear mid-cast to lower their chance of fake-casting you. This also shows another way of writing the macro.

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/target mouseover
/cast Wind Shear

If you don't already use Scroll clicking, I suggest you try it (Settings -> Keybindings -> Targeting -> Interact With Mouseover -> change Key 1 to Mouse Wheel Up and Key 2 to Mouse Wheel down) This allows you to quickly scroll over the area the flag drops rather than trying to click it.
Roles
Defensive Healing:
Focusing on keeping your Flag Carrier and the rest of the defensive players alive.
Unless the FC has enough stacks to die even through your best heals, don't stand near them - especially if you're playing on Alliance (due to Horde's powerful Area of Effect Racial abilities)
If you have low enough latency to repick well, you should attempt any possible repick (<100 ms is nice, although sometimes I still get repicks with my 414 ms)
Track the enemy teams CC, that way you know when it's safe to freecast heals on your FC. If you need help doing this you can use addons such as OmniBar or VialCooldowns.

Offensive Healing:
This is the most simple role, in this meta it's very rare to have a large Defense team, so you shouldn't really struggle keeping everybody alive. Focus on Purging, Purifying, and Shearing well.

FC:
Before and as you are picking up the flag, you should be aware of the situation the middle is in.
If you can contest mid, it's generally safe to just take it down tunnel and reach your team. If they have defense, you may need to use cooldowns to get the flag out.
If they have defense and mid is held by the enemy team - I like to take the flag above Horde(if Alliance) or Alliance(if Horde) tunnel. Going ToT (Top of Tunnel) allows you to use terrain jumps to kite the enemy team and also gives you a wonderful view of the middle.
If they have defense and mid is held by your team it's better to go down tunnel to reach your team quicker, unless of course they aren't aware of you at all - if you know this is the case, then you can go ToT.
If they have no defense, I like to go ToT unless my team has full mid control(in which case I would go tunnel). That way I can scout out a route and time to move across without putting myself at risk of wasting the few Defensive Cooldowns I have - or dying.
Now that you're through mid, you have to make a decision. You can either kite around base or kite around ToT. This will depend entirely on your team comp, their team comp, who you have defending you, and what/who the Enemy Flag Carrier is.
Example: If I was playing Horde Rsham with an agressive 29 Feral on Alliance and Alliance also had a strong FC who is unlikely to die - I would usually stay around ToT.
Explanation: Unlike a Rogue, Hunter, or Warrior, Druids are difficult to base-kite. I've found most success in taking them through terrain jumps over and over until they hopefully slip up - and because we're unlikely to get a return there is no need for me to stay around the cap

Tl;dr:
I can't go through every possible situation; overall I believe game-awareness and experience are the key factors in FCing. Practice makes perfect.​
Matchups
Note:
Obviously matchups will depend on many variables; namely gear, race, level, and skill. For the sake of simplicity I will write this under the assumption that the respective classes are of decent gear and skill.

Note:
Positioning in WoD is absolutely paramount, with mongoloid DPS coming from a wide array of classes. If possible, place the person you're healing inbetween yourself and the enemy - keeping them at a range of around 35 yards. An exception to this is if you're moving forward offensively to Shear or Purge, or the person you're healing moves forward and forces you to overextend or let them die; this decision is yours to make based on the situation.

Note:
Flame Shock will last for 30 seconds on an enemy once you first apply it to them - however if you reapply Flame Shock on the same target before the original DoT has finished, the new DoT will last 38 seconds.

Rogue: <you can kill, they can kill you>
What you do against a rogue will vary extremely based on the situation. If a P2P Blood Elf rogue is your foe, you will likely want first apply Flame Shock then get away from them quickly as they can likely kill you if they land a good kick/torrent - this is where the Anti-Venom comes in handy. The same goes for any rogue, however I find Blood Elves the most dangerous. If you absolutely need to you can use a Swiftness Potion and get away from them with Ghost Wolf. If you'd rather not waste CDs to escape, remember to fake-cast and try kiting through terrain they may get caught on, creating space between you and them.
Use Racials to save you if need be (If you're goblin you can use Rocket Jump + Anti-Venom to create space, Tauren can Warstomp + Anti-Venom, Dwarfs can simply Stoneform as it removes Crippling Poison, however you need to make sure you Ghost Wolf away in the right direction to avoid the Rogue getting a Crippling Poison reapply.

Warrior: <you can kill, 29 Arms/Fury can kill you>
Warrior slows are excrutiatingly painful, do your best to avoid them. If you can't - make sure you keep Flame Shock applied. Warriors have very high and consistent damage output if they stay in melee range, if the Warrior is 20, they aren't too dangerous as they have no interrupt (unless Blood Elf), however if a 29 gets a good Pummel off you might be in trouble. If you aren't in a position to out-jump them you may need to pop Insignia Trinket and/or Swiftness Potion. If possible time your escape with their Charge CD.

Paladin: <you can kill, P2P can kill you *can't kill Holy*>
Although it will be slow, you should have no problem killing or kiting a F2P Ret or Prot, however if possible avoid going near Paladins at all to prevent having to Insignia Trinket their stun (Hand of Justice)

Warlock: <you can kill>
Warlocks should not be of any threat. Keep Flame Shock applied. If you can't outrange a Fear you might need to Shear it. If you want to save Purify Spirit priority for another spell then Shear the Warlock when he's Fearing a teammate - of course if there is a healer around you don't want to be wasting CC on a Warlock when you could just cleanse fears.

Mage: <you can kill>
Fake-cast and keep Flame Shock ticking. Shear or outrange Polymorph, you don't want to be sitting in a triple sheep. Remember that Icy Floes are purgable, and will work as an interrupt if you purge them whilst they are casting.

Hunter: <you can kill>
Make sure to be aware if the Hunter is 20 or 29, if they are under level 22 you do not need to fake-cast whatsoever. Bring them down with Flame Shock.
Playing around Line of Sight is the easiest way to deal with a hunter - if possible, hug walls and try to force him into coming within range of Flame Shock, or even Lightning Bolt if you are surviving easily enough.

Druid: <you can kill, they can kill you *can't kill Resto or Balance*>
If they aren't Feral, you're not going to kill them.
You're likely not going to outrun any Druid either, kite back to your team if moving defensively, if moving offensively, Purge all HoTs and try to keep up with them. If they are Feral, it's going to take a long time to kill them regardless of what you do, so try to kite back to a teammate.

Priest: <can't kill eachother *can maybe kill F2P Shadow*>
Large Purge priority on bubbles and Shear on heals, it won't do much - but keep Flame Shock applied anyway for that extra little bit of pressure. You're not going to kill a decent priest by yourself - ever.

Monk: <you can't kill, they can kill you *can't kill MW*>
Chances are all three Monk specs will outheal your slow damage, and a P2P Wind Walker can kill you easily. a P2P Brewmaster is very broken and will kill you, the slow from Brewmaster is also even more annoying than Warrior slows, the only chance you have of getting away from a Brewmaster if through terrain jumps or a well timed and lucky Insignia Trinket + Swiftness Potion + Ghost Wolf combination.
Brewmasters who are not Blood Elf are not nearly as dangerous however, as they have no interrupt or stun. Mistweavers cannot kill you, just as you cannot kill them. Mistweavers are one of the easiest Healers to focus Shears on, as their main heal is a channeled spell.

Shaman: <you can kill, P2P Enhance can kill you *can't kill Resto/Ele*>
If they are Resto or Elemental, you can't kill one another, however if they are F2P Enhance you will be able to kill them very slowly. P2P Enhance at 29 is extremely overpowered, try to avoid these. Fake-cast their Shear, Purify their Frost Shocks and flee to your teammates.​
Summary
Restoration Shamans are an interesting and viable class with an enjoyable and diverse kit. I have enjoyed maining my Shaman for the past few years and I hope you also enjoy playing the class.

Personally I believe guides do not accomplish much, as you spend more time on your character you'll learn and improve much more than reading anything somebody else has written.

"rsham is an art form that can't be taught"
- Riptides of BWL, 2015
 
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Wow, really been waiting for this guide to drop, now I can play f2p rsham, thanks phron!
 
[MENTION=18087]Phrontistery[/MENTION], I dig the readable layout, and I appreciate the sheer amount of experience you bring to the guide. But as for tactics and strategies, you've got mostly WSG and 1v1, and you must know how much that leaves out. You can't go through every possible situation, but if you give all the tactics you've learned (purge Rogues to deny restealth when someone's gonna get CC? what's #showtooltip for? swiftness pot for shear and get clear?) that's the knowledge rookie RShams use to handle all those situations you couldn't cover here.
 
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