So you've a level 70 resto shaman, good for you. On my server at least, good resto shaman are always needed. There are plenty of terrible resto shaman out there, so the few who distinguish themselves as excellent shaman healers can really go far. My goal with this post is to help any potential resto shams reading this be a part of the latter group rather than the former. For resto shamans who are already well-established and well-geared, you probably don't need to read this, so I don't need a hundred replies to the effect of "lolz i already know this!!1". Just take this post for what it is.
Additionally, I'm only really concerning myself with PvE (5-mans/raiding) here. If you're a resto shaman who sticks mostly to PvP and arena, you might be able to find some useful tips here, but for the most part this post won't be of much use to you either.
<<GENERAL>>
There is lots of general knowledge about healing that every shaman should know, resto or not. If you don't know how to play your class and heal well then you're not going to get very far in the game. My tips included here are very minimal. If you want a more definitive guide to healing, see Murderbot's post:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=89539090&sid=1
1.
Use your totems, and use the right totems. If I had a nickel for everytime I've been in a pug leveling an alt and have seen a shaman either neglect totems entirely or throw down completely useless ones, I'd have enough money to pay myself through college. Alright, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point. If you're in a 5-man group, pay attention to what other classes and specs are playing with you.
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AIR: This is by far the type of totem that will be most variable depending on your group. If you're in a group with a tank and 3 other casters, you damn well better have a wrath of air totem down. If you're in a group with a tank, a rogue, a hunter, and a caster grace of air is the natural choice. If for some odd reason you've got couple dps warriors in your group, give 'em windfury. About 95% of the time one of these three air totems will be the type you have down.
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EARTH: If you have a tank or at least one melee class in your group, throw strength of earth. If you are fightting mobs that can fear, make sure you have a tremor totem down instead. These will be your two most used earth totems. If you're in a group with nothing but casters, feel free to throw stoneskin, but it's pretty much a waste of mana since chances are your casters will die in 1 hit anyway. Earthbind and your rock elemental can have their uses in certain situatons, too, but very rarely.
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FIRE: For raiding purposes, your fire totems have very limited usefulness. I often don't have any fire totem down at all. The major exception to this is for boss fights, your fire elemental can be a nice addition to help with dps (if the cooldown isn't up). Outside of boss fights, If you just LOVE to see all four of your totems down, go ahead and throw down flametongue if there's any melee in your group (just remember that you can't have both flametongue and windfury working at the same time, so never throw it if windfury is already down) to add a tiny bit of dps to melee. Searing totem can also be a good choice for some increased dps, but I rarely use this because it can break crowd control. Magma or fire nova is good for aoe packs, but again be careful since they can also break CC.
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WATER: Let's face it, as shamans we aren't exactly rolling in mana regen. That's why you will want to have your mana spring totem down 95% of the time. This is especiailly true when you have any other mana user in the group with you. When you and your group needs mana back fast, bust out the ol' mana tide. Just remember that mana tide is gone quick, so be sure to throw a mana spring back out when it's done. Healing stream can also be useful if you're the only mana user in your group and aren't too worried about running out anytime soon. Of course, throw your cleansing totems down instead whenever they are called for.
2.
Keep earth shield up at all times. I know it's a pain, but be ready to keep casting earth shield whenever it runs out of charges or gets dispelled. Most of the time you're going to want to have earth shield on your tank. For some fights where the healers are more important than the tank (Shade of Aran), you'll want earth shield on yourself or one of the other healers. Try to have as much +healing as possible whenever you put earth shield on your target. I like to drop wrath of air totem, pop both my healing trinkets (which usually puts me at about +2400ish healing). That way earth shield will tick for a pretty hefty amount on your target.
3.
Lesser Healing Wave. This is your least mana-efficient heal, so don't rely too much on it unless mana is not an issue. It's generally your "OH $@*#!" heal. If your nature's swiftness isn't up and you need a quick heal on someone, this is your best bet. If someone needs just a little bit healed and they aren't anywhere close to any other friendly player, this is also another good use for lesser heal. Otherwise, stick mainly to your other two heals. In general, you shouldn't use this heal on your tank. With the amount of damage tanks tend to get hit for, your lesser heal will often be too little too late.
4.
Healing Wave. This is your most mana-efficient heal, especially with talents in healing way (which you better have as a resto shaman). Great for single-target healing on tanks in particular. Great for healing anyone in the raid up to nearly full (as long as you are not worried that they will take another hit and die while you are casting it). I can't remember the last time I used lesser healing wave on a tank. If the tank only has a small amount of damage taken already, start casting a healing wave and by the time its done chances are your tank has taken another hit and could use the bigger heal. You can always cancel your heal before it goes off and start to cast again (and repeat!) until your tank takes some more damage. and this is a great technique for healing a main tank on a long fight with multiple healers. You should use this heal in combination with nature's swiftness 100% of the time. It can be a lifesaver and a raidsaver.
5. Chain Heal. Great for spam-healing the rest of the raid/party, especially the melee. If you have multiple melee classes on the same target, this heal can go a long way. I also like to use it on casters, so long as they are standing close enough together which they often are. I usually stand near the casters when I'm healing so my chain heals will also hit me and vice versa. The mana cost for this heal is only slightly more than lesser heal. So even if you can't see whether or not your target is close to another friendly player, if you have enough time to cast it without your target dying, it's almost always a better choice than lesser heal.
6. Don't DPS much. You're a resto shaman, so don't kid yourself and think you can really help a lot with dps. Don't put points in elemental, there are plenty of good talent points in the resto tree. If you take your attention off of healing and try to help with DPS, it will usually end up biting you in the ass. It will also eat your mana up pretty fast. I've seen shaman with great gear who are terrible healers because they are busy trying to dps as well. Keep your finger away from that chain lightning button! The better you get at healing the more you can realize when it is and isn't appropriate to help with DPS. A rank 1 earthshock is a great thing to have on your toolbar for the sole purpose of interrupting, especially on certain bossfights. It can be difficult to try to shock while healing your raid, though, so if you are having difficulty, just stick to healing.
7.
Bloodlust/Heroism. It's a poorly-kept secret that the only reason the other classes keep us around is for this ability and our totems. That's a slight exaggeration, but not by far. This ability can really make a huge difference in a fight. In general, save it for boss fights. Most bosses even in 5-mans are at least 10 min apart so you should be able to use it on almost all the boss fights. Don't blow your cooldown on trash and not have it available for a boss.
8.
Dispelling. If there's a poison or disease on anyone in the raid, you better be on top of dispelling it. We really have "E-Z mode" for dispelling with our cleansing totems. Stick those down if the debuffs are constantly happening. If it's more of an occasional thing, use your cure poison/cure disease spells. This is where the smartdebuff mod really comes in handy. I'd absolutely recommend it.
<<GEAR>>
This is a huge factor in your ability to heal well on certain fights. This can also make the difference between a good shaman and a great shaman. I know plenty of shaman out there who have a lot of good gear from Kara, Gruul, etc. but ignore all of the rare-quality healing gear and use epic elemental shaman gear instead (which isn't quite as good). Since most resto shaman are well-aware of the epic quality healing gear that drops from Kara, Gruul, and the other end-game raiding instances, I'm only including gear you can get outside of raiding instances that any shaman can get fairly easily. You'd be surprised how much +healing and mana regen you can get out of just blues. You're going to want gear that has good +healing, mana per 5, stamina, and intellect. Spirit is fairly worthless for us, so don't worry too much about that.
