A few days ago I had a question. As a Restoration Shaman, how should I go about acquiring my Tier 10 pieces?
I only got the Tier 2 9-Piece Bonus because the 4-Piece Bonus was really bad and it paid more to choose Elemental Shaman Tier 9 pieces for the Haste bonus. But now, what I do?
Well, first let's check out the Restoration Shaman Tier 2 10-Piece bonus:
Your Riptide spell grants 20% spell haste for your next cast within 10 seconds.
It is undoubtedly a great bonus, especially if you are used to launching Tides Vivas. Riptide has a 6 second cooldown so you can have this effect active every 6 seconds. Chain Healing leaves me in 1,7 seconds, quite a reasonable time.
Not only is it good because of the increase in healing that it supposes, but also because it gives us a new tool to use. It directly affects the way you play. Rippling Tides has always been a great spell, it costs little mana, it's instant, and it's the only decent time heal we have. In addition, it has a great impact on mana regeneration thanks to the talent Improved Water Shield. Now with the Tier 2 10-Piece Bonus it's even better.
Let's see, from best to worst option, which spell to chain behind Riptide to take advantage of the effect of Fast currents.
Rising Tides + Chain Healing: It is without a doubt how best it is used. Until now, I've always used Lesser Healing Wave after a Riptide to take advantage of the critical bonus left by the effect of Tidal Waves. But now, thanks to the reduction in time, it is much more useful to launch this combination. Remember that in addition, Riptide leaves an effect that can be consumed by a Chain Healing, increasing the amount of healing received by 25%. So if the Tank receives a fast and strong hit, we throw this combo and we raise its life in just 2 seconds. To heal in a group also comes in handy, in those moments when the life of the band goes down quickly.
Rising Tides + Healing Wave: Well, it is another good option especially combined with Tidal waves. You can do a great heal to a target very quickly. The only problem is that Healing Wave drinks the mana so you have to use it carefully if you don't want to quickly find yourself out of mana.
Rising Tides + Lower Healing Wave: Until Patch 3.2, Tidal Waves reduced the cast time of Inferior Healing Wave ... now we have that combination again, but in a different way. Without a doubt, with this option we throw the greatest amount of healing possible in the shortest possible time. However, it must be taken into account that with the reduction and the equipment, this spell will be cast in less than 1 second but the global cooldown will continue to be 1 second. This implies that there will be a (short) time in which we will not be able to do anything, reducing our amount of healing per second.
So what do we do with the team?
This is where I wanted to get with the article. My recommendation is to keep 2 pieces from Tier 9 and choose another 2 from Tier 10. Surely we will be forced to replace them later, but until then, I think they leave Riptide as one of the best spells and offer (both bonuses) a good increased healing.
Helm and Shoulderpads should be our Tier 10 pieces while Chestpiece and Gloves should be Tier 9 especially if you have the Heroic mode.
Brief Analysis of the Tier 4 10-Piece Bonus
Until I can prove it, I will not speak properly but it seems to me a healing over time that is quite uncontrollable and that also benefits the critic, which is not that we are interested at all. In addition, reviewing the alternative parts that there are (at least those that have been seen in Wowhead), there are much better parts in certain gaps. To me, the bonus, it smells like uncontrolled Overhealing.
Considerations
Every time I write a class article (usually about the shaman) it tends to get messy. First of all, I want to say that all this that may seem like ramblings, they are not and are supported from behind with numbers and calculations that are not the objective of the article.
I hope it helps you if you are thinking about which pieces to choose.