The issues with resto shaman going into cata have slowly been eating at me as each build is pushed. As it stands, shaman are functionally fine as a healing class, steaming from their solid position in WotLK. However, looking at the restoration tree one word comes to mind in order to describe it: uninspired. The tree has many passive talents shaman are obligated to pick up in order to be fully effective healers. This leads to the tree being very bland and uninteresting, although perfectly fine in an end game healing environment. I have great hope that a resto push will becoming soon and remove many of these bloated talents, but I wish to address these issues now because in-action is the worst possible choice for the improvement of a class/

Talents: The point of this is to address each talent in a functional sense, while keeping a general oversight into whether a talent is interesting or not.

Ancestral Resolve- This is an interesting talent, but leads to an issue of balance. In PvP and to a lesser extent PvE, is this talent assumed to be a total "passive" damage reduction and will the class be balanced around the assumption this talent will be picked up? In PvE, this becomes a concern later down the road with "free" points left over from the necessary talents, and could cause issues by shaman feeling forced to pick up the talent. These issues are theoretical since the end game healing scenarios are currently untested, but could easily become a major concern.

Tidal Focus- A complete passive talent into mana reduction which many shaman will feel obligated to take due to mana conservation returning as a major mechanic in Cata healing. This issue is of course lessened by the fact it is a tier 1 talent, but the fact remains it is a near mandatory point dump.

Spark of Life- A passive talent, but it adds survivability and healing into one package. This is an excellent talent for tier 1, however it clashes with Tidal Focus in the fact both are 3 points. This adds bloat to the tree, and one of these talents would greatly benefit from a 1 point reduction to add more fluidity into the tree.

Improved Water Shield- A talent that adds active mana restoration and makes the base Water Shield more than a passive mana restore. An excellent talent from WotLK that fits the new image of talent trees.

Totemic Focus- A passive mana reduction to totems and an increase to their time. This is a poor talent due to the simple fact that talents buffing or improving totems are a bad mechanic. Going into Cata with buff homogenization, totems feel like a punishment to the class when in order to make them closer to other classes' buffs, shaman are forced to invest talent points.

Focused Insight- The best new addition to the resto tree, and a very nice active buff which shaman have the option of using to boost heals. This coupled with unleashed weapon feels like a way of setting up a combo chain of heal, much like Healing Waves. Adding a skill component to the healing toolbox is without a doubt wonderful.

Cleansing Waters- Not a bad talent, but it remains to be seen how it works scaling wise. If it is a pitiful amount, it won't be worth getting due to the far more effective talent point investments existing in the tree. As it currently stands, it will have to be a relatively significant amount to even garner consideration.

Ancestral Awakening- A good talent that provides flavor and additional healing utilizing the smart heal tech in place. The only concern with this talent is on any fight that could resembles ToGC's Anub'arak it is a detriment due to being uncontrollable. Ultimately this issue is so minor in a grand scale that it can be ignored.

Nature's Swiftness- An iconic "oh sh*t" button which every shaman should pick up for added utility.

Ancestral Healing- A good buff that every target of a shaman's critical healing spell gains. A legacy talent which adds flavor.

Improved Chain Heal- A passive talent which is necessary in order to buff chain heal to be more competitive. Bland and uninteresting, this could be added into another talent or into the talent tree specialization that comes with speccing into resto.

Restorative Totems- Another poor talent that buffs totem usage. It is currently an outlier when compared to Blessing of Wisdom due to making a buff more effective than its counterpart. Hopefully scheduled to be scrapped, it will be very disappointing if it remains in any shape.

Blessing of the Eternal's- Potentially very valuable with the new triage system and the Mastery bonus of restoration. Depends heavily on the final form of healing, and point investment will reflect that.

Nature's Guardian- A heavily pvp oriented talent which seems to be ineffective for the high point investment it requires. I do not pvp much, but it seems near worthless due to being reliant on getting healed before the next attack.

Improved Cleanse Spirit- A mandatory talent which every healer currently is required to get. Could very well be added to the talent specialization bonuses to reduce talent bloat in all healer trees.

Mana Tide- Being forced to invest points into Restorative Totems in order to pick it up is an albatross around its neck. Otherwise completely fine.

Nature's Blessing- A mostly passive buff to tank healing based on earthshield. Could possibly be added into Earthshield's base functionality, or have Improved Chain Heal added on.

Tidal Waves- The pinnacle of the restoration tree, it adds interaction between shaman heals and is an excellent mechanic.

Telluric Currents- A talent added in to offer another active mana regen for damage dealt. This talent feels borderline mandatory, again due to the proposed mana conservation mechanic being returned.

Riptide- Another heal for the resto shaman toolbox, no issues with it.

While many of the talents individually are fine, the tree feels bloated due to talents being mandatory in order to be an effective healer. In the grand scheme of things, passive mana reduction talents should be removed or added into mastery/specializations. They are purely passive talents which healers feel are needed in order to operate at full capacity. This is counter to the design goals of the redone talent trees, and hopefully will be addressed.

Totems: While I regret bring in a totem oriented argument about the class's mechanics, I feel it is needed because we have talents which affect them. Since the buff homogenization, totems feel inferior to their cast-able counter parts. However, a major gain is from the fact if a player is ressed in combat, they immediately gain the buffs. Totems are fine mechanic wise with regards to the opportunity cost they bring. What is glaring about totems are talents which buff them as a whole to make them equal to other buffs. Being forced to invest talent points to improve buffs is something that the devs have stated is being removed, but remains with totems. All talents which offer quality of life gains to totems and do not make them superior to other buffs (the active oriented totems excluded) need to be removed for equality among classes. All buffs should be made equal in today's WoW.

Healing Rain: I would like to address our newest healing spell in regards to the fit in the restoration tree. Currently, it gets no buffs in regards to scaling or effectiveness from talents. The concern for this is outside of the global mana reduction talents, it is equal across all shaman specs. The glaring issue is it can easily become too good for the other specs, and be reduced in effectiveness for resto shaman. Adding it into talents would ensure it was not over powered for other specs, yet remains more than a glorified healing stream in the resto toolbox. I look forward to using this spell, and would be greatly disappointed if it was unused from these issues.

Conclusion: The restoration tree remains perfectly functional with the current build. However, it lacks the zest and vibe many other healing trees have gained in the past few months. Mechanic wise, the only new talent is Focused Insight, leading the tree to feel ultimately the same as it is today. The tree doesn't need a total overhaul, just the removal and addition of active and mechanic oriented talents to spice up the tree. Totems remain an iconic part of the class, but are now outliers with the buff homogenization.

It should be noted that this post is very opinion oriented, and addresses concerns from a PvE stand point. I would also like to reiterate that the class is completely fine functionally, but seems uninspired with many of the talents.
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