Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 12:06AM | Llyra Buff me?! Buff you!
Ok, so we all know how to maximize Arcane Mage DPS, but what do you, the well-meaning Shaman healer, need to maximize your output? Who do you want in your raid and/or in your group to buff you the most?
The first thing you need to look for is a Critchicken (Balance Druid). That Moonkin Aura makes a good Restosham cry tears of joy. Improved Moonkin Form gives a haste bonus to the aura, but that doesn’t stack with your Wrath of Air, so it doesn’t matter if he skips that talent.
While you’re at it, you need to get that druid to hit you with Mark or Gift of the Wild. I’m sorry, did I say Mark of the Wild? I meant Improved Mark of the Wild. Don’t leave Dalaran without it.
The next checkbox you need to hit is a Mage. Their Intellect buff satisfies one of your primary stat priorities. Intellect feeds your spellpower through Nature’s Blessing, increases your crit (a little, 0.36%), your mana pool, the mana contribution from Replenishment, and the mana contribution from Mana Tide Totem. Int is a happy thing to buff.
If you absolutely can’t get a mage, you’ll have to settle for a Warlock. His Felhunter pet can give you Fel Intelligence, which is 80% as good as Arcane Intellect. And it buffs Spirit. Which you shouldn’t /spit on. On armor, you can /spit on it. But as a buff it’s okay.
Now you want to stay close to your friendly, neighborhood Paladin. Particularly the sort sporting Improved Blessing of Wisdom and Improved Devotion Aura. Make sure they stay fat and happy. Stay polite with that other Paladin who offers you Blessing of Kings, but make sure your buddy knows your heart belongs only to her.
Somewhere along the line you are going to be called upon to raid with an Elemental Shaman. And he’ll be waving around his mighty Totem of Wrath. Which is nice to have, in a big-brotherly kind of way. Sure, the crit bonus does nothing for you, and the spellpower buff overrides your own Flametongue Totem. But he does pleasant things for your Bonus Healing bottom line. And if you didn’t get a Moonkin in step 1? Elemental Oath will serve you almost as well as the Critchicken aura.
You’ll probably have a Priest in your raid. Cross your fingers that it’s a Shadow Priest, so they can offer Replenishment to go with the Improved Power Word: Fortitude. If you’re stuck with a Discipline Priest, maybe they can put Power Infusion on you every so often. That’s probably too much to hope for, though. Don’t act offended when they buff you with Divine Spirit; they mean well.
And don’t think I’m letting Replenishment off so easy. Sure, that Shadow Priest is working hard to keep the effect ticking, but it can only select 10 raiders to operate on at a time. That might be you, but it might not! The only way to make sure is to get a bunch of people generating Replenishment procs. Instead of laying in a bunch of Shadow Priests, you should probably grab a variety of providers. Frost Mages, Retribution Paladins, Destruction Warlocks and Survival Hunters can all give you that sweet, sweet mana. No need to choose. Take one of each!
At that point, you’re done. Not so hard, huh? Sure, you could fish up some food. Flask yourself. But stacking the raid is where it’s truly at.
Llyra
I was wrong about the flavor of Warlock that can provide Replenishment. Destruction Warlocks proc it, not Demonology ones. Corrected in the article.
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments (5)
What about Elemental Oath from a Elemental Shaman?
Elemental Oath doesn't stack with the Moonkin Aura, and isn't always up when you are refreshing your Earth Shield. It's not bad, but the Moonkin Aura is superior.
Yeah, I kinda figured that it don't stack, but with the 100% crit chance of Lava Burst Elemental Oath is up pretty much all the time and that ought to give the elemental Shamans some (more) love in the post :)
Though, with me being a Warlock, I'm not sure if ELemental Oath is refreshed with every crit, maybe you could shed some light on that for me?
An Ele worth his salt has 100% crit rate on Lava Burst, and casts Lava Burst whenever it is off cooldown. Refreshing every 6 seconds on a 15 second buff should result in very nearly 100% uptime. But that figure is while in combat. Outside combat, when a restosham should be refreshing Earth Shield, isn't covered. That's really why I prefer the moonkin aura.
But you're right, I really should give the Ele brothers some love. I'll doctor the article.
What an awesome site. You are informational, entertaining, and /gasp can actually write well.
Welcome to my blog roll and keep it up. d-(^_^)z