Clearcasting

With the itemization change that led to +spell and +heal being something like the same thing (or whatever, I don't get math), I decided to shoot for a few points in the elemental tree rather than the enhancement. I figured that then I could use essentially the same gear if I got stuck DPSing for some reason, and still do a decent amount of damage. (Don't use my current spec as a guide for anything. I just stuck points in random crap until I got what I wanted in both resto and elem. I'll shell out the gold at 80 for a real spec.)

Let me just say right now, two things have made me extremely glad I did this: Lava Burst and Clearcasting.

Lava Burst is the shit, and with the points in that talent that adds to your crit and damage for Lava Burst and fire totems, I can actually burn down mobs at something resembling a normal leveling speed now. I went from 74 to 75 faster than any level since the 30s, and I'm already halfway through 76. When I put Flame Shock up first for the Lava Burst autocrit, I'm critting for 2400-2800. I think that's pretty good for a shoddily-geared resto shaman at 76, right?

And the wonderful thing about the autocrit is that it procs Clearcasting. Clearcasting is AWESOME — it basically cuts the mana cost of any two damage or healing spells by 40 percent every time it procs, meaning that in the rotation (haha, like I actually plan these things out) I am using while soloing, a good two-thirds of my spells are reduced price. I played for two hours yesterday morning and had to drink once. ONCE. And then I played for two more hours last night, a bit more intensively, and am down just four more honeymint teas.

Let me be a bit more clear: Before I got Clearcasting, I was going through 2-3 stacks of drinks every time I played and it took me ages to kill anything, but with the elem sub-spec, I'm killing things much more quickly and it's costing me much less mana.

While I do plan to go something like 13/0/58 at 80 while I relearn the battlegrounds/learn Strand of the Ancients and Wintergrasp (haven't really ventured in since WotLK hit*, though I am planning an hour or two on my death knight tomorrow, because her lack of kills is bugging me, and I might suck it up and try the 19 bracket on my mage this week, too), I do want to experiment with a resto/elem hybrid spec at some point as well. But I might wait until dual-specs are implemented, because I'm incredibly attached to Riptide. <3 Riptide.

Anyway, the point is, if you are a resto/enh shaman, you might want to give resto/elem a try — it's totally worth the loss of instant ghost wolf.

*It's my carrot, along with my hunter. I made the mistake of going into the battlegrounds on Ahami at 49 and spent two weeks doing nothing at all but PVP. And then at 59 I did the same thing, but for even longer. If I go in on her before I hit 80, I won't come out, and I'd like to get there before the New Year so poor Ideale can get some love.