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Totem Talk: Restoration and the Throne of Thunder, Part 4
by
Joe Perez
on May 21st 2013 (8 days ago)
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how
Turtles and Hyrdas have a special place in the sewers of the Isle of Thunder. Their existence does sort of answer the question about what happens when turtles and snakes find their ways into the refuse of an empire full of magic and chemical experimentation. I mean, I know that was a burning question for me before this raid tier started. But now that you've stomped shells and knocked out a few one eyed monsters tentacle things, I'm sure you think you've done it all. Well, there's more to do still.
As you dive deeper into the sewers looking for a way back into the main castle, there is still a great number of horrors that await you. Well, rather, they're waiting for you so that they can try to eat you whole. The good news at least is that they mark the midpoint on the way to the final encounter with the Thunder King himself.
This will not be a comprehensive boss guide, instead this will be a quick run down on things that you, as a resto shaman, should be aware of or tips to help make your healing of the encounter easier.
Turtles and Hyrdas have a special place in the sewers of the Isle of Thunder. Their existence does sort of answer the question about what happens when turtles and snakes find their ways into the refuse of an empire full of magic and chemical experimentation. I mean, I know that was a burning question for me before this raid tier started. But now that you've stomped shells and knocked out a few one eyed monsters tentacle things, I'm sure you think you've done it all. Well, there's more to do still.
As you dive deeper into the sewers looking for a way back into the main castle, there is still a great number of horrors that await you. Well, rather, they're waiting for you so that they can try to eat you whole. The good news at least is that they mark the midpoint on the way to the final encounter with the Thunder King himself.
This will not be a comprehensive boss guide, instead this will be a quick run down on things that you, as a resto shaman, should be aware of or tips to help make your healing of the encounter easier.
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Totem Talk: Restoration and the Throne of Thunder, Part 3
by
Joe Perez
on May 7th 2013 (22 days ago)
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how.
With the Zandalari on the run, you've now moved on to trying to break into the inner reaches of the Thunder King himself. Well, rather, you would if he didn't blow up the bridge you were on and all of your flying mounts happened to go mysteriously missing. Instead, you get to play the part of Jack Burton while you crawl your way through the forgotten depths of the island to face your very own David Lo Pan.
Seriously though, the next leg of the journey through Throne of Thunder will have you playing adventurer under ground facing many of the things that go bump in the night. This is where all the failed experiments and the creatures long forgotten have taken up residence over the many years since their master and creator first ruled the land.
With the Zandalari on the run, you've now moved on to trying to break into the inner reaches of the Thunder King himself. Well, rather, you would if he didn't blow up the bridge you were on and all of your flying mounts happened to go mysteriously missing. Instead, you get to play the part of Jack Burton while you crawl your way through the forgotten depths of the island to face your very own David Lo Pan.
Seriously though, the next leg of the journey through Throne of Thunder will have you playing adventurer under ground facing many of the things that go bump in the night. This is where all the failed experiments and the creatures long forgotten have taken up residence over the many years since their master and creator first ruled the land.
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Totem Talk: Resto shaman wish list
by
Joe Perez
on Apr 23rd 2013 (1 month ago)
Last time we spoke about the recent changes to shaman healing. We received a nice little buff in a hot patch to our Healing Rain, Chain Heal and Earthliving. The 20% increase was a quality of life improvement that did actually go a decent ways towards improving our overall healing. While I enjoy pretty much any buff we get, I still can't help but sometimes just sit down and take a look at where we are in regards to other healers.
Basically, I like to sit down and pose the question to other restoration shaman and myself. What is the one thing that you would like to see shaman healers get? What is it that you wish you could do as a shaman healer that you can't currently do? It's a great exercise in creative thinking, or even just taking a look at your own class, and can lead to some very interesting conversations and ideas when shared with other healers like I enjoy on Twitter.
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Totem Talk: Restoration life post healing buff
by
Joe Perez
on Apr 10th 2013 (1 month ago)
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how.
Shaman healing always seems tenuous whenever the second tier of raiding hits in an expansion. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we suck by any stretch of the imagination, but any tier that has a lot of movement mechanics and a lot less stationary heals we generally have to work that much harder. Now, things have definitely gotten easier over the years for us, but they could always get better right?
So that was when Greg Street, otherwise known as your friendly neighborhood Ghostcrawler and lead systems designer for Blizzard Entertainment, made a tweet that had restoration shaman around the globe cheering, despite them being perhaps a bit confused as to where this came from. So what lead up to this buff? What impact has it had on our healing in the Throne of Thunder? Has it improved our quality of healing life since the hot fix went live?
Shaman healing always seems tenuous whenever the second tier of raiding hits in an expansion. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we suck by any stretch of the imagination, but any tier that has a lot of movement mechanics and a lot less stationary heals we generally have to work that much harder. Now, things have definitely gotten easier over the years for us, but they could always get better right?
So that was when Greg Street, otherwise known as your friendly neighborhood Ghostcrawler and lead systems designer for Blizzard Entertainment, made a tweet that had restoration shaman around the globe cheering, despite them being perhaps a bit confused as to where this came from. So what lead up to this buff? What impact has it had on our healing in the Throne of Thunder? Has it improved our quality of healing life since the hot fix went live?
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Throne of Thunder easter egg
by
Joe Perez
on Apr 3rd 2013 (1 month ago)
Finding easter eggs in video games is always fun, and Blizzard Entertainment has always had some very good ones. This year it would seem though they took the Noble Garden Festival to quite the literal extreme. If you find yourself in the Throne of Thunder, specifically in the lair of Ji-Kun, you will find that all of the eggs surrounding the hatching eggs have been replaced with Noble Garden counterparts in all their bright and vibrant colors. I personally never pegged the Mogu as ones to celebrate the holiday, but maybe, just maybe we've misjudged them a little bit.
Little things like this that are always fun to find, and it's amusing how many little details can sneak their way in to what some folks consider the normal routine of their daily wow life. Whether it is noble garden eggs in a raid zone, or Winter Veil Lights in dungeons, little touches like this are welcome surprises. Makes me wonder if anything else has been altered, even slightly, in Pandaria for our Noble Garden festivities. Are there other little changes like this for this year?
Little things like this that are always fun to find, and it's amusing how many little details can sneak their way in to what some folks consider the normal routine of their daily wow life. Whether it is noble garden eggs in a raid zone, or Winter Veil Lights in dungeons, little touches like this are welcome surprises. Makes me wonder if anything else has been altered, even slightly, in Pandaria for our Noble Garden festivities. Are there other little changes like this for this year?
Filed under: News items
Totem Talk: Restoration and the Throne of Thunder, Part 2
by
Joe Perez
on Mar 27th 2013 (2 months ago)
The first foray into the Throne of Thunder being over, it's time to dive deeper into the realm of the resurrected Mogu emperor. There is, however, a few more obstacles that lay before us as we take out the last of the Zandalari standing in our way. Once those pesky Zandalari are gone we can go further. The problem is those pesky trolls never stay gone for good or for long, but we can at least give them a few punches, kicks and some lightning to the face to remind them of their past follies.
This will not be a comprehensive boss guide, instead this will be a quick run down on things that you, as a resto shaman, should be aware of or tips to help make your healing of the encounter easier.
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Totem Talk: Restoration and the Throne of Thunder, Part 1
by
Joe Perez
on Mar 12th 2013 (2 months ago)
By now I'm sure you're already knee deep into the patch, working through new and exciting dailies, taking on Dinomancers hunting down itty-bitty Toenibblers and Footslashers. There's also this whole new raid thing that people are talking about, the Throne of Thunder, that you may or may not have stepped foot in yet. By the time you're reading this, the Looking For Raid version of Throne of Thunder will just become available, and will grant you access to the first three bosses of the zone. If you haven't been able to get in a normal raid, I would highly recommend queuing up and giving it a shot.
Whether you are already a seasoned vet heading back into ToT, or just queuing for the LFR for the first time, I can tell you that for me, this raid zone is amazing fun. It combines some of my favorite aspects of raids like Ulduar and Karazhan, with modern raid building ideas. The story is awesome if you're into that type of thing, and the bosses are more about the mechanics than anything else. That said, resto shaman do have a few things we can do to help make these bosses go down that much quicker and easier for our raid group.
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Totem Talk: Resto Gear in Throne of Thunder
by
Joe Perez
on Feb 26th 2013 (3 months ago)
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how.
Today, we are one step closer to the release of new content in patch 5.2 and a brand new tier of content to entertain ourselves with. We'll have everything from a loot grabbing scenario, new profession crafted gear, and a new raid to play with complete with new bosses and loot rewards. I mean, we play the game to have fun, sure, but part of that fun is definitely the rewards we obtain.
The period of time when a new tier is in testing on the PTR, it can sometimes be a bit of a tease since early items tend to be based off of data mined items. Add to that the fact that since it's a PTR, things can change. I think though, that we're close enough to a release that we can safely start taking a bit of a look at the gear that you can expect to see in the next tier. This is not a best in slot list, nor a gearing guide for 5.2, this is simply a list of what will be available to us when the patch goes live. Also bear in mind that even though we are close to release on the patch, stats, drop locations and other variables may change between now and then.
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
My first week as Horde
by
Joe Perez
on Feb 14th 2013 (3 months ago)
Off to Zul'jin we went, and with moving servers and factions in a time before server transfers or faction swaps were around, came a new toon. Abigail, the night elf hunter was born. She's traveled servers, and been race changed multiple times since she was born. I finished Classic WoW on her raiding with friends all the way through the original Naxxramas. I still gave a lot of love to Rum though, and even found time to run him through Ahn'Qiraj 40. When Burning Crusade released, though, Rum fell to the wayside as Lodur was born over with my Alliance family. I hadn't returned to horde except for a brief tour with the Choose My Adventure here on the site, that was until this past week when I server and faction changed my long time hunter over to play Horde side again with friends.
Totem Talk: Finishing out tier 14 on your resto shaman
by
Joe Perez
on Feb 12th 2013 (3 months ago)
I've been getting a lot of email, and pings on twitter, about finishing out tier 14 raiding. While patch 5.2 is coming and the new tier with it, a lot of folks are still working on finishing out tier 14, be it normal or heroic. It's a fair point, the patch is still at least a few weeks away, so focus on the current one while it is still relevant. That doesn't mean though that you can't prepare a little bit for the future while handling the here and now.
Getting through the content that is current will net you decent gear and experience that will be valuable going into the next tier of content, especially if you are getting some time in on heroic bosses of tier 14.
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
