Wrath is going to be more about talents and skill and less about gear. Blizzard has already stated and estated this style of play by making instances easier and less class specific and more skill specific. Right now, I'd say Restoration is a powerful healing spec, but the problem is, it's hard to tell how powerful when all the content has been reduced to the point where fights that used to be hard can now just be muscled through.
Prince Malchezzar, already a pushover once you're in Tier 5 or better gear, died so fast on my most recent Kara run that I barely had time to cast a few Riptides. Phase 2? Oh, yeah, that already happened? This makes the effects of the downranking and potion changes on mana efficiency rather difficult to determine as we progress forward. For now, I have no mana issues whatsoever, because everything dies before I can even look crosseyed at my mana bar.
First let's talk about spec. I am running with this build, which I am not entirely happy with. I'm considering going with this spec instead, as I'm not seeing a lot of mana issues at present and the benefit of Healing Way after Tidal Waves procs seems like it would make Healing Wave worth casting a lot more. I find my current healing style is to use Earth Shield almost constantly on the tank (no more mana cost) and throw Riptide around as my 'everyone else' heal, then use Chain Heal as my primary healing spell, only casting a Healing Wave if Tidal Waves procs. I'd really like to go up the enhancement tree to get Improved Shields, an extra 15% on my ES would be lovely, but for right now I simply can't forgo the deep restoration talents for 8 points in enhance when I don't even have all I want for 61 points. I might dump Cleanse Spirit, which makes me sad, but as you guys have often pointed out a talent point in a bloated tree is worth more than an extra decurse in a raid setting that has it covered already. I'm also debating Imp Water Shield. I may take it out and see how my mana holds up, and if it turns out I'm undervaluing it I'll pick it back up.
But I really want Imp Shields, so we'll see if I can make the room. So far, I'm really liking how the tree shakes out in actual healing. Riptide is a spell I didn't even know I wanted, an instant cast heal with a heal over time component that I can just dump on a rogue or ret pally who's taking damage for whatever reason and then forget all about them. The Chain Heals I'm using on the tank will take care of any additional healing that they require.
I also really enjoy Earthliving, as it seems to proc faily reliably. Last night I ran ZA as DPS (for my upcoming Elemental post) and saw several procs of the healing shaman's Earthliving on me, enough that I actually started to find it a little annoying (change that sound please, Blizz). In general, having an instant cast heal outside of the "Oh crap oh crap oh crap" combination of Nature's Swiftness and Healing Wave appeals greatly to me, so much so that I almost lost sight of the Heal over Time aspect of the new spell. What's interesting and lovely (and which was pointed out to me by another healer on a 18 person Tempest Keep PuG that we did to get someone his VR shoulders, which of course he did not drop) is to see the synergy between Earthliving, Riptide and Chain Heal. Throwing Riptide around when it's up means that lots of people can get the benefit of the bonus to CH if they happen to need it, and on each CH I throw I see at least one Earthliving proc per cast. Shamans have an unusual but potent HoT capacity now, which still seems in the spirit of the RNG that abilities like Windfury have cemented as a shaman 'thing'.
