1.11 Shaman Raid/Healing Builds

[Treesh]

The question is "can manatide allow groups to win that would otherwise be close but just short of being able to defeat important encounters?" and the answer is "yes".

Yes, that is correct and I agree. However, you can also say "With another innervate, we can defeat these encounters" and now, raids do have more innervates so mana tide is less important than it used to be. This doesn't mean it's not helpful. It is still helpful and I do have the occasional moment where I say, "Damn. I wish I still had mana tide." but those moments are getting fewer and farther apart and certainly don't outnumber the times I see parry light up and save me from taking any damage whatsoever.;)

Tresh, if you look at the 3rd build I posted, its pretty close yours. Just to call it optimal, you have to take one of the 2 solid raiding talants that are availible to you - either weapon totems, or MT. You woln't really notice the lack of BOS until Golemagg and Rag, but the wepon totem talent would help make up for that. Or you could drop parry. On my server atleast, since it became clear that warriors could compete with rogues for DPS, we have been flooded with them. If you are really set on tanking things, I would flip it and go 0/30/21, but at the very least you probably want the weapon enhancment talent.

The original author never asked for optimal specs. It was "With the patch 1.11 coming this night, what will your Shaman Raid/Healing build be?" That's what I answered. I never claimed it was optimal. I never claimed anyone should spec that way. I answered the question asked. :)

And I'm not set on tanking things. I'm set on being able to help out as a hybrid. :) Yes, there are times I tank, yes there are times I healbot, yes there are times when I DPS as much as I can. That's what I built Mogo to do. I've done the full-on healer spec (she grew up that way because we had no other healers around) and it gimped me. Now that I have the freedom to do things other than heal, I do as much as I can in any role I'm placed into.