Addicted to Heals

First, an addition to the totem changes I talked about earlier:

There will be a new totem task bar, like the warrior stances/paladin auras/druid forms bars. Shamans will be able to customize it with four totems of their choice, and a new ability, Call of Fire, will drop those four totems at the same time. Plus we will be able to change those totems and still drop totems individually for situational use. HOT.

Okay, resto changes. My favorites are the changes to Earth Shield and Ancestral Healing:

Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
…
Earth Shield: Dispel effects will now remove charges of Earth Shield rather than the entire aura.

The Ancestral Healing changes will make that talent a bit more useful. And I am so sick of my Earth Shield being dispelled all the time in PVP! So I’m excited that it will take a bit more effort (if I have to spam Purge on druids, everyone else should have to spam Dispel on me, darnit).

Water Shield charges are no longer consumed by Improved Water Shield proccing, meaning there’s finally a reason to have it. (I hate maintaining my shields. Anything that makes my shields go away faster is something I avoid.)

Oh, and you know those times where someone LOOKS like they’re close enough to a crowd to use Chain Heal, but they aren’t, and it doesn’t jump, meaning you underhealed your target for nothing?

Chain Heal: Jump distance increased to 10 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.

Nice.

That’s about all I have for OMG SO EXCITED analysis today. I think the battlegrounds wore me out.

Here are all the shaman changes, so you don’t have to clicky:

A customizable totem bar will now be available for shaman allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems.
All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards.
Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.
Chain Heal: Jump distance increased to 10 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.
Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed.
Talents
Enhancement
Shamanistic Rage: Cooldown is now 1 minute, down from 2 minutes. Successful melee attacks now have a chance to generate mana equal to 15% of the shaman’s attack power, down from 30%.
Restoration
Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
Cure Poison and Cure Disease: Combined into a single spell, Cure Toxins.
Earth Shield: Dispel effects will now remove charges of Earth Shield rather than the entire aura.
Healing Way: Redesigned. Rather than providing a chance of increasing Healing Wave spells on a friendly target, this talent now innately increases the effectiveness of the shaman’s Healing Wave by 8/16/25%.
Mana Tide Totem: Totem health now equal to 10% of the shaman’s health.
Nature’s Guardian: Redesigned. Now has a fixed 100% proc rate, has a 30 second internal cooldown, and increases the shaman’s maximum health by 3/6/9/12/15% for 10 seconds.
Nature’s Swiftness: Cooldown is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
Tidal Waves: No longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It instead now provides +25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave, along with the previous 30% cast time benefit to Healing Wave.
Improved Water Shield: This talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent.

I’m not formatting that text wall. For other, non-shaman healer changes, mount and profession changes, and info about the new battleground and raids, check out MMO-Champion. Oh, I guess they have stuff on those other classes, too.