I know Mono was only interested in the Mystic tree, but I thought I would follow Asfera and Aeras's lead and post the Shaman tree too.
By maxing out crits in AGI line you get 15% bigger wards and 30% larger heals more consistently.
Fast curing speed is essential in quite a few raid fights. Some that come to mind are: Overking, last two named in Shard of Hate, Trakanon, Leviathan, and Venril Sathir. The Coagulate finality of the Stamina line is like giving your group a 1174 HP increase, so I don't think you can compare other finalities to it, it's the best one in the Shaman tree. I tried speccing the Shaman Tree with STR, AGI, and WIS like some others do (without Stamina line) and noticed a huge negative difference and won't do that again.
Wisdom line is very important since you get Ritual, Ritual of Magic, and Ritual of the Mind. When Ritual is up and my Totem of Ankexfen has proc'd and a couple of the OLH items kicks in, the heals I throw are amazingly high. Ritual is really underestimated by most shamans imo, since I see how some spec with only 4 points, or less, in EQ2 Players. My debuffs got resisted a lot before I put points into Ritual of Magic, now its hardly an issue. Makes pulls go smoother with the attack speed and DPS debuffs, and I think Defilers got quite a few debuffs to throw as well on pulls. I think the mythical clicky Spirit Tap gets resisted more if your Ordination is low, so getting it higher with Ritual of Magic might mean the difference between life and death in some situations. Reuse is important, but I think the difference between 4% and 8% reuse, approximately .3 better recast time, is insignificant compared to the tradeoff of getting your debuffs resisted on a regular basis, or your heals not being big enough to keep your group or a tank in another group up. Ritual of Alacrity is uber and there is no two ways about it. RoA helps tanks keep agro, other healers keep people alive, and dirges rez people quicker, it is a great ability unique to Shamans and is essential.
STR line has some nice features, but they don't really compare to AGI, STA, or WIS line. The AoE resistance and proc'd ward only works on group members near the dog, so any range based people in your group will most likely not get them, and if your dog dies in a tough fight, I doubt you will choose to recast it during the fight since the cast time is so long (10 seconds), and your main wards, debuffs, and heals matter more than the dog's puny ward. Plus, the effects only proc when your dog lands a hit, which always seems to be far and few between on harder content that parries and dodges the dog's attacks. The other week I tried STR line once again since they amped the dog a bit in a recent update, and sent him in behind the enemy and on every fight, but parses don't lie, the proc'd ward never was a signifigant amount of my heals. It was always less than 2% on heal parses. The finality is the only redeeming feature of STR line, but is not worth 24 points that can be spent in lines with superior effects. The attack speed and interrupt are nice, but not worth the points when you compare STR line to AGI, STA, or WIS line.
I've swapped all my points back and forth between Cure line and Rez line, and analyzed the parse when I did, and concluded that Cure line is not worth the points. The ward that is put on a person cured is very small compared to the massive damage any serious dot can do, plus the ward expires shortly after the cure is cast so by the time most AoE's are recast by the mobs the ward is long gone. I am sure there are exceptions with a couple of mobs, so it is always a good idea to have a respec mirror with cure line, but most of the time it is worthless. The best part about the Cure line is Immunization, but it takes 22 AA points to get it, so imo it is like the STR line finality Spiritual Forsight, and not worth the tradeoff.
Augmentation line is the most important line of the Mystic tree since you can greatly enhance your group buffs and even Oberon Barrier. The finality is very important since by using it you amp any proc rate by 20% when it is cast on you or someone else. That is as good as Luck of the Dirge or Blessings, too bad it's only single target though. Sow is nice to have, but not worth the points imo. If you want the run speed just get the Earring of the Solstice and save the AA points. Lunar Attendant is not that useful of a spell according to parses I have looked at, so I would skip that one too. Oberon Barrier can be useful if you get power drained or might get stunned, so either max it out, or throw a few points in it since each point increases it by 7% or about 245 HP points.
Rez line is important because there are some situations where a Mystic might be able to throw the finality Spirit Dance and rez 8 people. One example that comes to mind would be if a raid group, or two, went down because the healer in that group got stunned, mezzed, or killed, but your group is fine at the moment and completely warded, you could rez alot of people and get them up to 55% health and power in 5-6 seconds. Plus the AoE effect range on it is huge: 50 meters! That is why going Cure line instead is a bad trade off, unless you plan on not going CA line then I guess you could do both Rez and Cure line. I can remember a few situations where that spell really made a difference in the harder fights and new encounters. Another bonus to speccing rez line is you can get your raid up and powered up after a wipe way faster than other healers can, so there is less time waiting around for rez sickness and power to come back.
This has been the AA spec I keep going back to for a few months now and I think I like it more than any other scenario I have tried. My all time high average HPS was 2300 during a fight with Druusk, which for me at least is an achievement, and was done with this spec, some end content gear, and great teamwork with my guild mates. I got up to 2200+ a couple times after that on other mobs. I realize my AA spec doesn't have Tribal Rage, 100% CA Crit, and all the CAs maxed out, but when I get a chance I still can parse 2000+ DPS on trash mobs in the right group setup, with mostly healing gear on. I know that some Mystics think DPS is so important, but really guys, we got to come to terms with reality. We will never parse any where near to the real DPS people in a serious raid force. At the most maybe 4-5% of the raid's DPS comes from a Mystic, while other classes can parse three or four times as high as we can. So throw the minimum points into crit and Combat Arts, DPS when you can on trash mobs, and put the rest of your AA points into healing abilities. There is nothing worse than speccing DPS, wearing too much DPS gear, and loosing someone in your group or raid as a result. I have also heard complaints from a few hardcore raid healers in other guilds that play clerics and druids who believe mystics tend to make the mistake of DPSng, when they should be warding and healing people in the raid. As a result, Mystics are getting a bad rap. It seems to me that the mob will die just as fast if we DPS less and heal more, so stay on the ball and single target ward the people who need it in the raid so they can DPS in your place. Raids are successful because everyone plays their part, and a Mystic is a healer primarily, so lets start acting like one.
Re: Mystic aa's look dated
