Nature’s Swiftness
Posted on July 30, 2008 - Filed Under Guides, Healing, Raiding, Shaman
So it’s come up a couple of times recently that people notice that their raid shamans aren’t using Nature’s Swiftness as often as their druidic counterparts.
*raises hand*
Guilty as charged.
In an attempt to rectify this, and hopefully motivate myself to be less likely to “save it for an o-shit moment” (and therefore use it once in a 4 hour raid), I thought I’d make myself write up about how cool it is (and therefore try to shame myself into not being a restonub about it!)
Anyway - all crow eating aside - this really is a fantastic spell, both for restoration and elemental shamans (though elemental shamans will have to give up Totem of Wrath to pick up this talent, which is more likely for PVP than PVE/raiding):
Nature’s Swiftness
- Instant cast, 3 minute cooldown
- Mana Cost: None
- When activated, your next Nature spell with a casting time less than 10 seconds becomes an instant cast spell.
The basics of this spell are as follows:
- After activating this spell, you get a little buff that indicates your next spell will be instant - the buff remains until either you use it, it is stolen/dispelled, or you die. (The cooldown does not start until you consume the buff)
- It can be dispelled or spellstolen
- It does not trigger the global cooldown
- As a shaman it effects the following spells: Lesser Healing Wave, Healing Wave, Chain Heal, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and (untalented) Ghost Wolf
- It is NOT affected by spell haste. (No, even if you have a ton of spell haste, you do not get an instant-rez spell)
So as a healer, this is spell seems like something that you’ll want to save for those emergencies when two healers go down and the tank gets a string of nasty thrown at him. Poof - nature’s swiftness and rank 12 healing wave, and you’ve dropped a healbomb on your tank almost instantly (limited, of course, by your reaction time). Being able to have a panic button is really handy.
But if you are like me lately, and you save it ONLY for those occasions, you’re selling yourself short. Why? Well, this one has some other uses that add a lot to your shaman-y versatility.
- Shade of Aran? You know that he has a short-range AOE counterspell that hits anyone within a small circle around him. Healing while inside that area is a BAD IDEA for any class that doesn’t have instant cast heals. But if you’re running through there to avoid a blizzard, and you discover that someone is about to go down - nature’s swiftness gives you an instant cast heal.
- Hex-lord Malacrass? Want to get around the spell pushback? Nature’s swiftness. This is one of those fights where you’ll probably be using NS at every single cooldown - spirit bolts can be mitigated somewhat with earthshield and concentration aura, but there will always be some pushback that you can minimize with proper applications of NS.
- RUN AWAY! Ever need to get out of a situation - and FAST? Nature’s Swiftness -> Ghost Wolf Form. Instant Ghost Wolf is a fantastic talent that most enhancement shamans enjoy, but most elemental and restoration shamans don’t have the talent points to pick up. If you know you’re going to need to run away quickly, keep this combo in mind. This is also highly effective in PVP (especially if you’re flag-running, though that’s usually not the resto-shaman’s forte, since healing is usually more important).
- Any time you need to heal on the run - Rage Winterchill’s Death and Decay? Stuck in the AOE on TK Trash? Sneaking in a last minute chain heal on the melee as you hop into the water for a Lurker Spout? Hydromancer Sepethrea in heroic Mechanar? Anytime you’re going to have to be mobile, healing will be more difficult as a shaman - take advantage of Nature’s Swiftness!
I’m sure you guys can come up with some other times when NS is useful as more than just a panic button. So let’s all (and that includes me *sheepish*) try to keep an eye on this one. Rather than just having a nature’s swiftness/healing way 12 macro on you bars, see if you can squeeze in the actual ability alone.
And then remember to use it!
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5 Responses to “Nature’s Swiftness”
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I have the same problem with Divine Favor, Divine Illumination, Lay on Hands, and just about every trinket with a “Use” effect ever made. :-\
Macros are your friends.
I currently have a
/cast nature’s swiftness
/cast healing wave
macro set right next to my normal Healing Wave. I use it constantly. If my mind wanders and I look away from the tank to do a bit of spot healing and look back and he’s about to die, the macro will make me look like I was paying attention all along.
Another great use I have found for it in 5-mans is when the tank is so-so and there’s an add now beating on you. You can keep the tank alive with normal heals and when you’re about to go down instantly heal yourself.
[...] Nature’s Swiftness (for Shamans) from Anna of Too Many Annas Ever notice how all the races who can play Shamans have funny feet? Hmm. Anyway, in this article Anna explores and encourages the use of Nature’s Swiftness for Shamans. [...]
As a resto druid (and planning to use it on my resto shammy) I use it in Black morass. If I’m in a mana tight situation between two portals I activate nature’s swiftness, drink till full mana. Shift travel form and heal tank with ht. It’s a great non-cooldown way to get some extra mana when needed and no need to worry about death. Problem is: tanks always get a bit scared if you stay behind. screaming STAR! while hitting the dragon in the face or even wait for my mana at the spot (letting dragons pass).
I tend to use Nature’s Swiftness on my Resto Shamanka as much as possible. As learned with Pot cooldowns in Raids, it’s better to pop early and have a second one available mid-fight than to wait too long and be stuck on cooldown later on.
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