Efficiency:
This is honestly the most important key to doing well as a resto shaman, the majority of shamans believe mana is a weakness for shamans but I tend to disagree. There is many ways you can heal for a long time in fights and compete with druids and paladins mana wise if you play it right.

• 1. Take full advantage of riptide, don't use it every time it comes off cooldown to instantly heal somebody. I see shamans play and this is probably the biggest thing I notice the most when it comes to being inefficient, you need to avoid using it as if it's a holy shock and make full use of Tidal Waves.
  

• 2. Recognize when to use earth shield on yourself and when to just keep water shield up. If you just earth shield yourself immediately when a warrior hamstrings you it's a huge mana sink, pay attention to when you get targeted hard or just get hit once by a random auto attack or snare. Also try to recognize when teams switch off of you immediately so you can reup water shield. Basically any time you have earth shield on yourself your mana gets depleted extremely fast and it's the quickest way to go out of mana. I play it kind of risky when it comes to swapping to water shield quick but I definitely think it's worth it.
  

• 3. Don't drop mana tide when your at 0 mana, try to use it early on when you see a good opportunity for it to be down without somebody destroying it.
  

Survivability:
This trait for resto shamans became alot easier with the release of patch 3.2, but there is still things you can fine tune to increase your durability.

• 1. More often then not the number one killer of resto shamans is stuns, so your most important cooldown when you get targeted is your PvP trinket. Try using it wisely, if you get kidney shot or HoJed try to be aware of what is on you and what kind of damage is incoming, the longer you can save your trinket the better your odds are of living.
  

• 2. Make good usage of all your cooldowns like stoneclaw totem, NS, grounding totem, and your shocks. These are pretty basic things you should be able to handle as you play more, using NS when you cleanse wound poison, using stoneclaw before you see incoming burst etc.
  

• 3. KITE! Since the ghost wolf change whenever you get targeted assuming your teammates are peeling for you. Always look to get away with ghost wolf and take yourself out of the fight until you notice the opposition switch targets out of frustration.
  

Utility/Offense:
Mostly this would be how you make use of hex, purge, when to cast damage etc. Being able to use these tools at the right times can win games and there is always room for improvement in this category.

• 1. Try chaining CC off your teammates with hex, for example; lets say your playing warlock shaman, when your warlock fears the druid go for a hex on their dps when the druid can't decurse them. Also using hex to peel when rogues stun your teammates or to interrupt a cast is always something clutch you can do.
  

• 2. Specifcally against priests and druids knowing when to purge is a big deal. Purging shields and HoTs at certain times can make a target way easier to kill and it pressures those healers to work harder to keep their teammates alive. Some priests will have a care free mindset when it comes to using shield+mending etc if you purge them instantly you can make them pay for being overly agressive. Being able to get a clutch purge can win a game and it's extremely satisfying when you pull it off.
  

• 3. The best time to cast damage if when you have CC out and the opposition is on the complete defensive. A few casts can be the difference between a kill and somebody living at 5%. Try recognizing when to be agressive with damage and when to be conservative
  

• 4. Since patch 3.2 you can use your shocks full utility with frost shock and flame shock. Use them to help your teammates kite or to keep a rogue from restealthing or just for damage in general. There isn't a risk like there was before since you can still interrupt while your shocks are on cooldown.
  

Well I hope this helps all shamans trying to improve in arena and I'll definitely be blogging more about shaman info in the future!

Getting ready for MLG Dallas:
All packed and and ready to go, we've put alot of practice in for this hopefully it pays off and we can come away with a 1st place finish. I also think it would be nice to see a team other then RMP/Cleave win a tournament, wish us luck/good RNG!