Healing as a shaman 101

Healing 101 as a shaman is something that I think is needed since a lot of people and certainly those who are new to healing think that there is a rotation of somesorte.
While yes there are some things you need to do but a rotation is not even close.

Breakdown of spells you need to cast as a healer:

Earth Shield:
If your tank healing this is a godgift. It's not going to keep the tank up but its wonderfull for suppliments and topping him off. mana cost vs healing this can be your best and worst spell.
If he takes little damage fast, it's going to overheal a lot, if he's getting hit big, its wonderfull. Just Keep it up all the time!

Riptide:
Instant Cast: 6 second cooldown. The spell it self is good: Heal + HOT but if you take the tidal waves talent (and its needed!) it becomes awesome! with the changes in 3.2 you get 30% cast time of your HW and 25% crit extra on your LHW for 2 charges. which means that one of those two your going to crit with LHW. (believe me at lvl80 you have 25% critchance)
IF your tank needs to get up fast, this is a nice way to do it without blowing all the CD's

LHW:
Basic spell, also the one your going to use the most, It shines because its fast and it heals decently. I would say use this as your prime healing source

HW:
It's long and cluncky but its such a big heal!
If you are tank healing and you know he will take a huge damage spike and then won't get damaged for 2seconds: hit this: it heals a good deal of his health.
Mostly I only use this in conjunction with natures swiftness: instant heal or tidal force: love to see that one critting.

CH:
Chain heal is a remarkable spell that I love to use when AOE hits the Raid/party.
Use it on the person with the most damage and see it jump.
If AOE really hits the fan this is a macro:
/cast nature's swiftness
/cast Tidal force
/cast Chain Heal (rank X)
Instant critable CH... there is nothing more

Nature's swiftness: 3min CD (2min in 3.2) next nature spell that has a cast time under 10sec is instant... enough said. (use it all the time if the tank or raid members are taking immense damage!)

Tidal Force: 3 charges: 60% - 40% -20% extra chance to crit... again enough said.

Earthliving weapon: Healing power + small hot, have it on all the time. It's great! Even the small hot will save you mana and make your life a lot easier.

Gift of the Naaru: Yes Gift of the naaru! Mana alsmot out? want to heal yourself very very fast after that aoe and want to pop everyone to full health again? Gift yourself (or another) it's fast and it's free.

Heroism: 40sec. of 30% faster casting/smashing... yes this is awesome for healing.. absolutly fantastic if you know damage is going to come in fast, and the raid really needs to get the boss down: use it and love it. Do note that it costs a lot of mana, so be sure you have enough mana to do it.

How to use them?

following examples are my personal preference, I am not responisble for any raid or party members that using these combinations of spells and/or talents. Use at your own responsabilty and risk.

Preparing:
1- Earthliving + Watershield, keep them up, always!
2- keep your earthshield up all the time!
3- know your buttons, if you are click healing or hotbar healing, know them by hart.
4- full mana before every boss.

In the fight
Single person taking damage
1- Start with Riptide - It will get you faster casting for your next two spells
2- lhw the guy (hopefully the tank) that is taking damage
3- lhw untill riptide is up
4- rinse repeat
This is the basic set up for one guy taking damage against a mob. This should heal them through the whole fight without problems.

single person takes damage + group AOE damage
1- start with riptide at the tank.
2- if group > 90% => lhw the tank
if group <90%> Chain heal on the tank so it jumps to the group.
I'm starting with CH on the tank since he needs to be topped off and is your most important target to keep alive, in a raid you should start with a healer or your highest dps or ofc, the guy with the most damage.
3- rinse repeat
Easy enough agian, do note that here, you already should start thinking, will the CH complete on time? will the guys have enough damage to make it worth it? can the tank keep up so long without putting myself in problems? etc.

group takes damage and is spread out
Spam LHW untill you are sick of it!
really nothing else spam it and try to keep everyone alive, if you see healers taking a spike, don't worry about giving them one too. most of them are so concentrated they probably don't even notice that he took damage. If its getting hard, dont be afraid to pop tidal force for some extra power.

Group takes damage and is close together
No not Spam CH ...
Here you must look and see that CH is going to be worth the mana, time and heal.
fe: 3 guys have 5K, 2K and 900 damage on them. then I will not use CH but just one lhw on the 5K damage and wait with the other two. I'm not a guy who overheals a lot (about 8%) I try to conserve mana and be a precise healer when necisary, I don't care if that lowers my hps by a 100, cause that 100hps is wasted anyway.

OH SHIT OH SHIT OH MY M<3mins>GOD!
oh yeah baby, we all have those moments: one of the best things to do is:
/cast nature's swiftness
/cast Tidal force
/cast Chain Heal (rank X)
really you'll thank me.
This is also a good alternative if you don't have 2 the time to cast them both: the nature's swiftness followed by chain heal then a tidal force and lhw/RT (riptide) like a madman!
If your not a Raidhealer change the CH to HW and do the same.

OOM i'm OOM and 50% to go at boss!
that happens if a tank pulls and your not ready. Learn to live with it.
well first thing ofc is drink a potion. second thing to do is: nature swiftness and HW. its big and buys you time. then gift of the naaru the tank or who ever needs it, tidal force and use RT. by then your mana should be almost depleted or actually back on normal lvls.
You see at end game raiding, you should never go oom, but before end game you have quite a good chance too. Especially in a pug...
Also if your oom check your watershield, there is a good change its out.
If -BIG if only comes in if there is a bad tank in a pug - I go oom, i wait 3seconds, and I can start
LHWing agian every 2 seconds again.



READ ONLY IF YOU ARE DESPERATE AND ARE A RISK TAKER (or if you want to scare the living shit out of the tank)
There is one more thing you could do but I only tried it once in a pug group and think I saved our lifes with it but still....
stand in the fire.
You'll get damage and get mana... or even more risky...
you'll die, use reincarnate and have 35% of your mana back.

So thats it for now, hope you liked it!

Grtz
Ari