Thinking outside the box: Off-spec Healing part I

Dual specs haven't arrived yet. And even if they did, I'll probably use my duel spec to have one total PVP spec and one PVE spec. Ideally, I'd have a tri-spec. One for PVP-healing, one for PVE-healing and one for PVE-soloing. I rarely feel the need to deal damage in PVP, and the few times I do I usually get kick enough from just staying the spec I am.

When levelling in Northrend, you don't want to die of boredom while levelling. The best way to do that is to level with someone else, because the conversation alone would prevent you from perishing. If you can't do that. a spec that allows you to deal relatively good dps is a another good option. Third options are stuff like soloing ten as a time as a protection paladin and other rather class-spesific ways of having fun.

Going for option 2 then, you often still want to be able to heal. But thanks to Blizz' design philosophy, that's possible! Welcome to part 1 of Off-spec Healing, Shammy and Pally version.

Shaman

Common to all shamans of any spec: Mana Spring Totem, Healing Stream Totem and Wrath of Air Totem.

Enhancement

• Thundering Weapons: +5% crit, including on healing spells.


• Elemental Weapons: +30% effect on Earthliving weapon, which then increases healing done by 195.


• Improved Shields: More mana return from Water Shield. Of course, it does require you to be hit occasionly, but that can be arranged...


• Mental Quickness: We've hit the motherlode. 6% reduced mana cost on instant casts is okay, but the real gem is 30% of your AP as spellpower. That's major... better yet, combine that with:


• Enhancing Totems: Each point of strength and agility gives us an extra point of AP, which in turn translates 3/10 spellpower. 15% more effect on Strength of Earth Totem gives 178 more strength and agility => 356 extra AP => 250 extra spellpower at lvl 80. 15% more effect on Flametongue Totem means it increases healing and damage done by 166.


• Mental Dexterity: 100% intellect as AP. Which translates to 1 int = 3/10 spellpower. No, wait! We've also got:


• Ancestral Knowledge: 10% more intellect. The synergy with Mental Dexterity which means 33/100 (about 1/3) of intellect is now added as spellpower. In addition to the extra mana and crit rate, of course. That is, fully talented. Given the choice between this and Enhancing Totems, I'd max that out and drop the remaining two points here myself.


• Dual-wield: 2xEarthliving weapon? I haven't tested if they stack, though. If they don't stack, you could always try, earthliving + flametongue weapon if you have the glyph that gives +2% spellcrit.


• Shamanistic Rage: Think of it as a interactive mana potion?


• Unleashed Rage: 10% more AP = more spellpower thanks to Mental Quickness. Though, with a 10 second duration and a crit demand, it's less likely to be useful while healing. There are a whole lot bunch of talents which helps keep it up when you're actually on the front lines, though.
  

Elemental

• Earthliving weapon: Free healing, even without the improved version.


• Totem of Wrath: Free spellpower... or is it? I'm not sure if this improves spellpower at all, or just damage done by spells. You could always fall back to the standard flametongue totem.


• Unrelenting Storm: Free mana per 5 sec? Always useful.


• Elemental Focus: 40% mana reduction on 2 healing spells after critting with an offensive spell; very circuimstancal. Casting a damaging spell in the first time is more likely to hurt your mana pool more than help it. But, combine it with Elemental Mastery, and we've got two cheaper healing spells every 3 min. Further combine with Elemental Oath for extra spellcrit. Watch the aggro, though.


• Thunderstorm: For the mana return. Longevity is also an issue in healing.
  
• Elemental Precision: If I read the tooltip properly, it says nothing about only reducing damage threat. Healing spells are nature, and it says it reduces threat from nature spells. Have anyone tested this?
  

Paladins

Common to all hybrid paladins: Blessing of Wisdom, Seal of Wisdom, Judgement of Wisdom and Judgement of Light.

Protection

Somewhere in my mind, there's a part specialized in making bad jokes. "Two protection paladins walked into an instance. Then the first one says: 'Who's healing?' The other answers: 'Not me, I want to be hit.' The first one: 'Me too!' The other: 'Well, I suppose we can just stay here and hit each other?' The first: 'Splendid idea.' The rest of the party: 'WTF?'"

Anyway:

• Improved Devotion Aura: A flat 6% more healing taken by all targets. In addition to a bunch more armor. It's veeeery likely that you picked up this talent anwyay.


• Divine Guardian: Somehow, this doesn't strike me as a talent a protection pally would usually pick up. It looks more like a talent a holy paladin would pick up for PVP healing. Anyway, if you have it, it's great for a healer. Especially so with Sacred Duty which means you can use Divine Shield more often.


• Blessing of Sanctuary: Makes it slightly easier to keep up the tank.


• Touched by the Light: Again, we've hit the motherlode! The main effect, 30% of stamina as spell power, has a nice synergy with Sacred Duty and Combat Expertise! The secondary effect will help you get big crits on Holy Light, especially so with Healing Light from Holy.

Retribution

• Benediction: 10% cheaper instants. Useful, if not groundshaking.


• Conviction: 5% more crits on healing spells. Reminds a bit of Thundering Weapons, doesn't it?


• Sanctified Seals: If I understand it correctly, another 3% crit.


• Repentance: More crowd control = less stress on the healing.


• Judgements of the Wise: Mana return every time you judge, including replenishment. With Improved Judgements, that's every 8 seconds. Wohooo!


• Sheath of Light: 30% of AP as spell power, similar to Mental Quickness. Just as good. Combined with Improved Blessing of Might for 248 free spell power. Of course, that's mutually exclusive with Blessing of Wisdom, but you're getting mana back on every judgement anyway. There's also the crit-heals-give-a-hot-effect, further discussed below.
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• Swift Retribution: 3% haste. Besides, keeping up Improved Retribution Aura makes it easier for the tank to keep aggro, and Sanctified Retribution allows the dps to hit slightly harder = faster fights = less risk of running out of mana.

Sheath of Light gives a bloody powerful HoT. 60% healed over 12 sec (in addition to the normal effect of the heal)? That's a lot! Compare that to the similar on-crit-heal talents Living Seed (resto druid version), Touched by the Light (protection pally version), Ancestral Awakening (resto shammy version) and Divine Aegis (disc priest version) which are all an additional 30% of the amount healed.

The only reason that can justify it being so high is that being a HoT, it doesn't stack, but is overwritten by new critheals (provided they are more powerful, a Holy Light crit heal HoT won't be overwritten by a Flash of Light crit heal). And of course, some of the other talents synergizes extremely well with other talents... Improved Regrowth for Living Seed, Rapture for Divine Aegis and Tidal Mastery + Blessing of the Eternals + Thundering Weapons for a total of +14% crit rate with Ancestral Awakening.

Edit: Forgot Shamanistic Rage and Unleashed Rage.