Ode to the Ankh - the Joys of Resurrection

WoW Blogs - Totem & Ankh

Last Updated on Friday, 30 July 2010 18:51 Written by Savoire Friday, 30 July 2010 13:03

I love my ankh. No matter what mistakes I make, I always get a second chance. Combine that with a set of mail armor – no cloth robes here! – and shamans get some amazing survivability. Think of it like the hunter’s ability to feign death. Only better because you’re really dead! And like the hunter who feigns death, you dump all your threat when you die.

Reincarnation is the way shamans use an ankh to return from the dead. You can learn this from a shaman trainer at level 30 for the low cost of only 70 silver! You will need to have ankhs or a special glyph, Glyph of Renewed Life, to be able to reincarnate. I always keep a stack of 10 and buy them when I repair.

The cooldown for reincarnation used to be 60 minutes, but was reduced to 30 minutes in patch 3.3.2. If you’ve used your ankh to reincarnate and want to know how much longer until you can use it again, you can check the tabs of your spellbook and find the Reincarnate spell. It will be partially grayed out if you can’t use it and will show how much time you will have to wait until you can reincarnate again. There are also a couple of handy macros which you can create for this purpose.

If you want to know the cooldown for your reincarnation, try this handy macro: #showtooltip

If you want to show the raid your cooldown on your reincarnation, try this macro:

#showtooltip Reincarnation
/run local r,t,m,n="Reincarnation","player","",SendChatMessage;local s,d=GetSpellCooldown(r);m=" > "..r.." on "..ceil((d-(GetTime()-s))/60).."min CD!";if s>0 and d>0 then if UnitInRaid(t)then n(m,"RAID")else n(m,"PARTY")end end

When should you use your ankh to reincarnate? I prefer to save my ankhs for situations in which me coming back to life will save the day or at least give a good chance of helping prevent a wipe. Because there is a cooldown, I tend to be careful when ankhing. Obviously, if a raid leader tells me to ankh and I can, I do so. Otherwise, I use my ankh rarely, but it can be a morale boost if the raid or party has wiped and the corpse run is a long one – and there is no soulstone. Because shamans can also resurrect, we can combine the two abilities to help quickly recover from a disheartening fail and turn it quickly around into a warm up for the next and more successful try.   I do use my ankh when questing or playing on my own or with another person if we’ve taken on more than we can handle or just for simple convenience. In this case, if my ankh is on cooldown, it doesn’t affect an entire raid. I have also used the ankh in battlegrounds, where it is especially amusing to be fighting someone, get him down to nearly dead only to die myself. As he turns to another target or to mount up, I use my ankh and pow – I let loose with a lightning bolt or a flame shock and lava burst. People do not expect you to reincarnate in pvp, making it a perfect surprise tactic when used judiciously. As a note of caution, don’t expect to be able to reincarnate in arenas; it's not allowed *sob*.

Most warlocks will never put a soulstone on a shaman because they have the reincarnate ability. In a party or raid with a priest or druid, this is perfectly acceptable, since their armor is less than a shaman’s and they cannot reincarnate (poor things.) If there is no other suitable target for a soulstone, a shaman will be perfectly happy to accept one rather than see it go to waste. The soulstone will take preference over the ankh, so you will use that rather than get the option to resurrect yourself. If you should die again, you can then use your ankh. It can be great for the raid to have someone who essentially needs to be killed 3 times (more if you’re battle ressed!) but that sort of thing can be a little hard on the repair bill. So, if the warlocks pop their soulstone on a squishier person who can also res if things go wrong, just smile and say, “That’s ok, I’ve got my ankh!”

Now that you appreciate and love reincarnation at least as much as I do, how can you make reincarnation even better? “It gets better than this?” you say in astonishment. Oh, yes! Yes, indeed it does.

First, there is the restoration talent, Improved Reincarnation. Obviously, there would be no need to place talent points into this until at least level 30, when you can learn the resurrection spell. Improved Reincarnation Rank 2 (you’ll need to get Improved Reincarnation Rank 1 first) will reduce the cooldown on your reincarnation spell by 15 minutes AS WELL AS giving you 20% more health and mana when you reincarnate for a total of 40% health and mana upon coming back to life. There is some discussion as to whether it’s worthwhile to use talent points for Improved Reincarnation. The benefits of using it are obvious; the negatives are you would be taking 2 talent points from another area, one that probably would improve total healing output.

Next, there is the Glyph of Renewed Life. This glyph is a minor glyph that removes the need for using the ankh reagent in order to be able to resurrect. It essentially gives you one more spot in your bag and one less thing to worry about. It’s not a bad minor glyph to take, especially if you have ever found yourself in a group without an ankh. (For shame!)

Finally, there is the Totem of Rebirth. I didn’t actually know about this little trinket until I started researching ankhs and resurrection. I thought I knew it all considering how many times I’ve resurrected! But here is a cute trick for cutting down your resurrect time by even more – another 5 minutes! Remember to equip the totem before you die. Totems can be switched in combat which can give you the benefit of a 5 minute less cooldown. If you forget to equip it before you die, you won’t be able to once you’re dead and you’ll lose the cooldown reduction.

So, where does one find this Totem of Rebirth? It is dropped by Isalien in Dire Maul. Unfortunately, you can only summon the boss if someone in the party has completed the dungeon .5 tier set quest. If they have done so, they will have a Brazier of Invocation. Even then, the drop rate for the Totem of Rebirth is not guaranteed, listed as only at 16% drop rate.

Yes, do the math – if you do Improved Reincarnation to shrink the cooldown time to 15 minutes, then you have Totem of Rebirth equipped when you die – that’s a 10 minute cooldown on reincarnation!

I hope you have enjoyed my Ode to the Ankh. I apologize for the lack of rhyming and verse and poetic symbolism. In fact, I’ve pretty much left out anything that would make it seem like an Ode other than the part where I sing the praises of my beloved ankh.

Feedback, screenshots and ideas can be sent via the contact page to savoire