Critical Strike Rating for Resto Shamans (patch 2.4.3)

Many resto shamans do not see the importance of critical strike ratings for healing. Since this is a raid healing guide for resto shamans, I'm going to discuss about chain heals as chain healing is used 90% of the time in raids. There is a chance to crit on each jump of the chain heals which totals to a chance to have 3 crits in a row with ONE cast of chain healing. Also, assuming you have 3/3 talent points on Ancestral Healing (Increases your target's armor value by 25% for 15 sec after getting a critical effect from one of your healing spells.), I can't stress enough how important critical strike rating is. With higher chance to crit, you should be healing more than another resto shaman who has a little bit higher healing bonus but less chance to crit than you.

Even though spell crit is important, around 15% spell crit is all you really need (assuming you have 5/5 Tidal Mastery, you will have 15% spell crit on heals even though it shows 10% on your character stats). As your guild progresses into T6 contents, you need more focus on spell haste gems than crit gems.

Edit: As a resto shaman, you are usually designated to be a raid healer. Main tank healers are usually designated to paladins and priests. Most bosses deal non-physical damage to the raid, which makes Ancestral Healing useless to heal the casters and other healers. I am a raid healer in guild so my job is to top everyone off from AoE damage. Also, Ancestral Healing does not stack with Inspiration (priest's talent). I'm not telling you not to get Ancestral Healing because it is personal preference. The raid is not always perfect because main tank healers can die, and you would need to top up the main tank.