A Bit about Heroism and Bloodlust
Posted on May 14, 2008 - Filed Under Shaman
This is Heroism - it increases melee, ranged, and spell casting speed by 30% for all party members and lasts 40 seconds.
This is Bloodlust - it increases melee, ranged, and spell casting speed by 30% for all party members and lasts 40 seconds.
What is the difference, you ask?
Simply put, if you are a Troll, Tauren, or Orc shaman, you learn Bloodlust. If you are a Draenei shaman, you learn Heroism.
The Horde shamans have probably noticed that I frequently just mention Heroism instead of calling the spell by both names. Simply put, I have only one Shaman with the level capacity (level 70) to learn this spell, and she is a Draenei shaman. Soooo… the thingy on my bars says Heroism, and not Bloodlust. *sheepish grin*
As for a Blizzard given rationale behind why there are two different spells, it seems that originally they were going to be different. When BC launched, they were made the same, but retained the different names. (That’s why Bloodlust is rank1, and Heroism doesn’t have a rank)
Now - why is Heroism so great?
Essentially, it’s 30% haste for 40 seconds, and it reduces the global cooldown from 1.5s to 1.15s (approximately). Now, add this to a fight where a boss takes extra damage at some point during the fight (see Terestian Illhoof), or a group of people that do extra damage/spells at a percentage of boss health (see Fire mages, Paladins, Warriors), and you can really inflate the DPS of a group temporarily. It is also possible, if your raid has a bunch of shamans, to rotate them through groups on a particularly rough fight, and make one group have almost constant bloodlust/heroism for a sustained period of time.
The buff is also really nice if you hit a damage spike with a bunch of dead healers - especially if you have the mana to sustain it. I’ve used heroism on trash pulls in Void Reaver’s room, when a bad few happenings put us down all of our priests right off the bat.
Unfortunately Heroism/Bloodlust does not stack with other Heroism/Bloodlust spells. It *does* however, stack with all the other haste and speed increasing abilities, procs, and racial abilities (making any trinket-happy, icy-veins mage into an aggro-happy, fire-breathing machine gun). Back when the ghostwolves in Dustwallow Marsh were tameable, this kind of stacking was the only way to have your tame-pet spell short enough to snag one of these spectral wolves.
In short, heroism is part of any shaman’s bread and butter arsenal of buffs that can add DPS, survivability, extra threat (in a tank group), faster heals, and just plain old good times. So, shamans (yes, even you resto types), remember to use it on boss fights! With a 10 minute cooldown, you don’t want to use it lightly, but 10 minutes goes by fast in a raid, so don’t be overly sparing with it either!
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2 Responses to “A Bit about Heroism and Bloodlust”
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Good post!
It amuses me that Bloodlust and Heroism are essentially the same spell, but have very different images and sounds associated with them. I don’t have any high level Alliance toons, but if I did I would probably be giggling a lot during raids. Ding ding ding! Heroism!
I didn’t realize that Bloodlust stacks with other haste modifiers until somewhat recently. Now I always use it together with Drums of Battle and Berserking, which is an amazingly powerful combination. Casting a Chain Heal in (much) less than two seconds? Even without having any haste rating whatsoever on my gear? Yes please!
been reading alot of your stuf about resto shamans. I started playin wow bout 4 months ago and have a lvl 70 resto shammy. I like to think i have picked up alot of the skills and techniques quite quickly. I try and bring alot more to a party than just my healing and heroism is part of that. I havent done any highend raiding, i have done a kara run and some heroics.
when we get half way through a boss fight i typicaly use heroism, and drums of war…this gives a few nice bonuses to the party and can make a difference imo.