mana issues with my shamans since patch

[Moorea]

I use water shield and have 1 mana spring totem, also I have unrelenting storm, convection, etc... yet I keep running out of mana and have to wait in between fight (I don't have any water because I didn't use to need to buy any before the patch)

anything I'm missing ? maybe my rotation is too expensive (Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, LB, LB; repeat) ?


one of my toon:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Firetree&n=Twa

[sojolly]

I have had similar issues. I now buy 40 drink before i leave town for heroics and i am not just using it for speeding up death recovery.

[Zal]

Don't use chain lightning unless 3+ mobs, waste of mana.

[Poetry]

You can try casting Thunderstorm every time it's up. If the knock back is an issue you can glyph it to remove the effect.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

As a relative measure, my druid basically switched to almost all MP5 gear just before 3.1 hit. I have noticed a LOT less problem than the guys who were heavy spirit or (heaven forfend) almost no MP5/spirit at all. :P Something to consider anywho. Granted, he's mostly healy.

[Clone]

Yeh having the same problem with my shammys, Guess its time to start buying water -.-

[Ualaa]

Also, dual-specs are in the game...

Glyphs follow the spec you're currently using.
If you have elemental shammies who both pvp and pve, but have no interest in resto or enhancement specs.

You might want Thunderstorm glyph for PvE, you definitely do not want it for PvP.
Eventually the cost of two glyphs (Thunderstorm in PvE, whatever you replace it with in PvP), will exceed that of dual specs.

[Moorea]

Thanks for the tip; I forgot about thunderstom mana effect (and may glyph it to avoid having to run after my targets; though indeed I like the knockback effect in pvp and emergencies and can't quite afford dual spec) - What I just did (but haven't tried in instance yet) is I made 1 of my shammy resto - I hope Mana Tide totem will eliminate my mana issues - but we'll see about loss of dps

[Stealthy]

I'd suggest going with a spec like this:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hqI0qbdGtGfzVo0xxco:kIp0cm

With the Thunder glpyh reducing the cooldown to 30 secs, you can use Thunderstorm after each pull, and just before the next pull (so the push back isn't an issue) for a mana boost.

Also speccing further in Enhancement to get Shamanistic focus is a must IMO - shocks are far more expensive for mana than lightning bolts. And with the extra crit from Thundering Strikes, and spell damage from Elemental Weapons, you'll be dropping mobs faster (which means less casts, less mana spent).

My armory if you're interested: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Magtheridon&cn=W%C3%A2rstompz&gn=The+Zerg

Cheers,

S.

[Hor]

Mana hasn't been an issue for me, since I've been using glyphed TS whenever it's up.

Darkmoon Card: Illusion helps too, I have it on all of my casters.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42988

[Moorea]

Stealthy- thx for the suggestion; would the 45% saving on shocks (I don't use them that often, just a flame shock opener) be better than the loss of only 1 point in convection (I have 5 now, yet do get low on mana after each trash fight) ?

I did try 1 resto, but not with my regular full team but a mix of my 80 druid as a tank, my mage enchanter, and the dk and 2 shammans and I had fun 5 boxing the begining of Kara, got Mongoose there from Moroes which was my goal (maiden kicked my ass because I tried to zerg/brute force her and that didn't go too well; I did manage to brute force the opera and got Big Bad Wolf who killed everyone but my tank (because I'm not setup to run around with any toon but my main - then I left kara); and then went on to start the Shattered Offensive dailies (yes I know; never got around earlier; quiet place nowadays) and had a lot of fun doing magister terrace for the first time (I did manage to wipe on the last boss once, because I went in not reading about what would happen; and nearly wiped (all died but my 80 druid) on the big elemental like boss too) - I'm doing that to convert the void crystal into large prismatic shards.

During those I was a bit underwhelmed by mana tide totem; it doesn't bring up that much; I guess maybe I should just get used to having my mage give a stack of food to everybody and macro/key in some eat/drink - that or get better mp5/spirit gear

ps: my regular shaman was dead last in dps during those runs; my DK was #2 in dmg, my mage #2 in dps despite being 72 when the others are 73 (and my 80 obviously #1 despite being the tank) - but the 8 totems buffs/utils were nice - maybe my rotation is pretty bad though I guess the issue was I AOEd a lot with the other 3 and the shammies don't have aoe (I guess I didn't drop magma or fire nova, prefered to get wrath and flametongue up instead (benefiting the others))

[Gomotron]

I am running DK, 4x Shaman and I haven't noted a significant change.

If anything, I have fewer mana issues particularly on boss fights, but this is clearly due more to improvements in gear than due to a change in game design.

I hate drinks hotkeyed, and I'll drink when my team is less than 35% mana. Usually happens every three 3-4 mob pulls.

To me, it seems that healing sucks more mana than anything else my group does. I do tend to not cast CL when I am down to 2 mobs and just spam LB at that point. Also, I hardly ever use TS mid-fight unless the DK goes down. I will use it on occasion when running to get set up for the next pull in order to sped mana regen.

I know that this is not "optimal" from an efficiency standpoint, but it works for me and my playstyle.

[Stealthy]

Stealthy- thx for the suggestion; would the 45% saving on shocks (I don't use them that often, just a flame shock opener) be better than the loss of only 1 point in convection (I have 5 now, yet do get low on mana after each trash fight) ?


Well, it's a bit of a catch-22. The most mana efficient rotation is just to spam lightning bolt, but your DPS will be low. Since you're not lvl 75 yet, and don't have Lava Burst, shocks will be the primary way to increase DPS. The Booming Echoes Talent reduces the cool down on Flame Shock and Frost Shock by 2 seconds - so you can basically have a single target rotation that goes (assuming glyphed flame shock):

Flame Shock - Lightning Bolt - Lightning Bolt - Frost Shock - Lightning Bolt - Lightning Bolt - Frost Shock - Lightning Bolt - Lightning Bolt

It's not the most mana efficient rotation, but the increases in DPS from shocks makes it worth it. And if you're using shocks in your rotation, Shamanistic Focus becomes a much more attractive talent (especially since it only costs 1 point). Something else worth mentioning - having points in Thundering Strikes increases your chance to crit, which means increased chance to proc Elemental Focus, which means better mana efficiency.

The good news is that once you get Lava Burst at 75, your DPS will jump up (guaranteed crit with Flame Shock), and so will your mana efficiency (guaranteed crit = guaranteed proc of Elemental Focus). Make sure you get the Venture Co. Lightning Rod ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38361') as well - this will serve you well until lvl 80.

Cheers,

S.

[Duese]

Something to note is that the only real nerf to mana regen is the Out of 5 second rule mana regen. So, when you are casting, pretty much nothing changed. The reason you have to drink more is because of the out of 5 second rule slowing mana regen. My Holy pally hasn't had any change to her mana regen.

I grabbed 20 waters for all my toons before heading to Pinacle (woot 1st time beating it) and ended up using maybe 5 waters the whole time, with 4 of those being after wipes. (3 on the third boss and one on a loltrash pack that I screwed up on.)

[Marious]

While the mana regen is not that great compared to before I am pulling maybe 3-5 different packs of trash before I really need to drink, I went to do H UP but got owned by Second boss and Gauntlet run is kicking my butt but I have not read to much about it, I dont think that it has changed a whole lot, but I did replace a couple of MP5 pieces with some Crit/SP pieces so that might be my issue, I brought water now too so I dont have to worry about it much. But I have not had an issue on regen after every trash pull I can probably clear to the first boss in UP before I have to drink. I do have a priest for my healer that wands so she never really runs out of mana since I am always using JoW on the mobs.

My Macro /Castrandom [target=party1-targer] FS, LvB, CL, LB on all 3 shaman, one of them just made 80 and her gear is kind of gimpy compared to the others but she does ok, she is the only one I truly have issues with mana.