Healing Wave

Healing Wave is the first healing spell that a Shaman starts with. It is a shaman's most powerful single-target heal, and in most cases, it is also the most mana efficient.

Healing

 * Healing Way increases the amount healed by 25%.
 * Purification increases the amount healed by 10%.
 * Nature's Blessing increases the amount healed by up to 15% of your Intellect.
 * Tidal Waves increases the amount healed by up to 20% of your spell power.

Casting Time

 * Improved Healing Wave reduces the casting time by up to 0.5 sec.
 * When activated, Nature's Swiftness turns it into an instant cast spell.

Critical Strike Chance

 * When activated, Tidal Force increases its critical strike chance by 60%, which is reduced by 20% each time you get a critical strike.
 * Tidal Mastery increases the critical strike chance by up to 5%.
 * Blessing of the Eternals increases the critical strike chance by up to 4%.
 * Thundering Strikes from the Enhancement tree increases the critical strike chance by up to 5%.

Interruption

 * Healing Focus reduces interruption caused by damage by up to 70%.

Mana Cost

 * Tidal Focus reduces the mana cost by up to 5%.
 * Improved Water Shield returns mana up to 100% of the time when it critically strikes.
 * Elemental Focus from the Enhancement tree reduces the mana cost by 40% after getting a critical strike with any Fire, Frost, or Nature spell.

Threat

 * Healing Grace reduces the threat caused by up to 15%.

Glyphs

 * heals the caster for 20% of the amount healed when casting it on someone else.

Miscellaneous

 * Ancestral Healing causes it to temporarily increase the target's armor when it critically strikes.
 * Ancestral Awakening heals a second target for 30% of the amount healed when it critically strikes.

Tips and tactics

 * Combine with Nature's Swiftness for a powerful instant heal.
 * The large amount healed and the relatively slow casting time means that it is often useful to begin casting Healing Wave on a target that is taking damage before the target needs the full amount of healing done as the target will continue to take damage while you cast the spell. It can even be situationally useful to begin casting the spell on a target that has not yet taken any damage if you expect them to take a lot of damage during the next few seconds. If the heal turns out to be unnecessary, you can simply stopcast the spell before it finishes.