1 prot pal + 4 elem shaman - respec one resto?

[Perrigrin]

I have 1 prot pal in kz and slightly above gear, level 72 prot spec
With him 4 elemental shaman in a mix of BC & early LK greens and blues, level 71 now

I did Nexus once, but only killed 2 of the bosses.

A very generic question here is:
Would respeccing one of the shaman to resto to increase heal capacity make life easier for doing instances from here on? I do want to be able to run the instances leveling up as that's the main reason i multi-box.
My thinking so far is no, and that the main reason I wipe is lack of skills, not healing -- but the low gear on the shaman sure don't help and I was thinking that that might be offset a bit with better heals.

Any thoughts? Is it worth respeccing one of the elementals to resto to offset poor gear?

[Ken]

The problem with having a dedicated healer is that you do considerable less DPS ... but having a dedicated healer is very hand as the mana regen is very high. This means that if your DPS characters are out of mana(which is bound to happen in some fights), they can just stop casting spells while the tank and healer do their thing.
If you go out of mana with 4 ele shamans, you are pretty much going to wipe, because your tank is going to die.

I personally prefer a priest(or a druid?) before another shaman, because:
- more buffs
- more resistances
- more dispels
- more fun (more complex to manage = more fun imo)
- you get to pick up useful gear more often(cloth, yeay!) and thus you get geared quicker (1 shaman less to gear)
- 3 shamans is enough to put down all the totems you need
- fear
- fear resistance
- AoE healing (+ damage)
- healing over time

[Perrigrin]

I can see that another healer would be a better option for a dedicated healer, but don't have one and don't want to level from scratch before I'm 80 :P

I'll stick to elemental x4 for now I think.

[pengwynman]

i've been stuck in a similar situation since LK came out-- i have 5 boomkin, but 5 dps hasn't been working so well in wotlk dungeons, so i decided to start building my main a feral set. i thought about making one a dedicated healer as well, but decided against it because, honestly, 4x rejuv + lifebloom = godmode
shamans don't really have HoTs though, other than healing stream, so it's a little different. if you're having trouble with 4 dps, a dedicated healer might help, but if you don't really have one on hand and can make do without, more power to ya :P

[Kicksome]

I use a 4dps and 1 dedicated healer setup. I just have the healer spam a chain heal on the focustargettarget.

i.e. when I press my lightning bolt, my healer casts chain heal on the target's target.

/cast [target=focustargettarget] chain heal

This probably isn't the most efficient way to do it, but I've been able to clear the first 4 instances with it.

[puppychow]

I run a prot pally + mage + 3 shaman (ran 4 shaman pre WOTLK but wanted to level my mage first) and have cleared UtK, Nexus, and both Azjols. First, if you have problems, just go outside and quest until you ding, the instance gets a lot easier at higher levels.

Second, 5 DPSers have to rush to down the boss before it kills them. When you have a tank, its not as much as a rush. Its always better to "overheal" and make the fight last 1 minute longer than let the tank die. I tend to work out rhythms for the fight -- for example, on the last boss in UtK, if you try to rush it you will take a lot of damage and die. If you stay cool and calm its an incredibly easy fight and you will never drop below 80% hp. The key there is moving out of smashes with the tank (keeping the boss "parallel" to your DPS team, everyone jumping when he starts casting Roar so nobody is casting and gets silenced, and keeping the tank always topped off. Similar strats for Nexus bosses and further on.

I thought about specing a shaman for resto but wanted to run the instances before I did that, I've found so far there is no need. I basically toss 1-3 rounds of DPS spells, one round of lesser healing waves, rinse and repeat. With 2-3 mana totems down and earth shield, it takes a long, long, long time for my shammies to go OOM. The key is not to get flustered or try and "race" it, just slowly DPS and heal, always keeping your tank at > 70% hp. I chain heal on any fights that have AoE dmg, every shaman chain heals -- lots of overhealing, but everyone is sure to be topped off.

[Quix]

In 99% of situations you'll be fine healing with your Ele specced shammies. For the Other 1% just Pot/flask/pray. If you are really having trouble consider it, but go into it knowing you are losing about 30% of your dps.

I tried it & switched back. I wouldn't recommend it, but it probably depends a lot on your play style & gear level.

IMO its mostly not worth the loss of DPS.

[BobGnarly]

I had a similar experience to Quix. I leveled almost all the way up at 4x ele, then as I got close to 70 and was running instances more, I spec'd one over.

I hated it.

If it had been a more efficient healer, I could maybe have dealt with the issues involved (mainly just more to think about since they aren't all doing the same thing now), but I seemed to be having a lot of trouble keeping the resto shaman from oom. In the end, I just spec'd back and it was much better.

So I recommend just running 4x ele, at least until you're max level.

[Meeo]

I currently run a 1 prot paladin, 3 shaman(2 ele(1 tow 1 eo), 1 resto), and 1 boomkin.

I cleared half of Nexus and half of UK, loosing on the end bosses with my setup, but then again im doing them with fresh 71s and no good gear, i just recently got a full cobalt tank set, workingon getting more hp. I find shamans are great healers, the totems are invaluable, i have been pondering doing a priest, but i would have to level 1 up from 61, which i could possible do with a dk.

Having a resto makes it easier, she rarely does dps, but is specifically there to heal and only heal. I find 2 shamans and a boomkin doing 800 to 1K dps in 5 mans is good enough. though i still lack some gear and levels to full evaluate there abilities.