The talents have been reworked to provide more powerful heals with Tidal Waves and Tidal Force, better mana efficiency with Improved Water Shield, and a sort of smart healing for low health targets Ancestral Awakening. There is also a new instant cast heal from the talent: Riptide giving more options to heal while on the move.
All Totems, including the new reworked Cleansing Totem, and Bloodlust / Heroism are now also raid-wide, this is great news for the raid, but diminishes the need for multiple shamans.
If you want to know which race to play as a Restoration Shaman check out the main page for Shamans in WotLK for more detail. Most players will choose Trolls for the Berserking haste buff.
Best Talent Build For Restoration Shaman
Restoration Shamans have little variation in their talent selection. The main differences depend on if your focus is Tank Healing or Raid Healing. Here is the standard Healing Talent build with the variations explained below.
Variations
Ancestral Knowledge: 3 points can be taken out of this and placed into Enhancing Totems if your Raid does not have another Shaman with it or a Death Knight with Horn of Winter. (shown as blue highlight in image above) The Tank Healer Build focuses more on Lesser Healing Wave as a primary method of healing the tank during lots of damage. (shown as orange highlight in image above) Healing Way: 3 points can be taken out of this and placed into Elemental Weapons for greater potency of Earthliving Weapon.
Best Glyphs For Restoration Shaman
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Earth Shield and Glyph of Earthliving Weapon are standard healing improvements in all builds. Glyph of Chain Heal is used for Raid Healing whereas Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave is meant to improve Tank Healing.
Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Water Shield provides an extra charge that helps to reduce the number of times the buff needs to be refreshed. Glyph of Renewed Life removes the reagent requirement for Reincarnation, which is useful in raids to make sure you never run out of them at key moments. The remaining minor glyphs are up to your personal preference.
Stat Priority For Restoration Shamans
The biggest thing to remember for gear with Resto Shamans is item level, the higher the item level the more the stats. The stat priority below is a general guide that can change depending on the duration of the fight. Spellpower is the prime stat to increase overall healing done. Shorter fights favor Haste over Mp5 and longer fights favor the reverse to conserve mana.
Spell Power Haste Mp5 Critical Strike Intellect
Critical Strike Rating has some importance due to the talents Improved Water Shield and Ancestral Awakening benefiting from critical heals. Spirit is largely not a strong stat to have as Shamans are rarely stopping to cast for 5 seconds to benefit from it.
How To Heal As Restoration Shaman
To effectively heal as a Resto Shaman players should start by placing the totems that would benefit the group most. This will depend on what other classes are in the raid so knowledge of every totems buff and which players benefit from them is key.
Earth: Strength of Earth Totem (or Stoneskin Totem if this is covered by another shaman or Death Knight) Air: Wrath of Air Totem (or Windfury Totem if already covered by another shaman or in a melee-heavy group) Water: Healing Stream Totem or Mana Spring Totem Fire: Flametongue Totem (Any other damaging totem if covered by another class)
There are many other situational totems that are less often seen but can be extremely useful depending on the specific encounter.
Secondly, always maintain Water Shield for mana regeneration and Earthliving Weapon imbued on your main hand weapon.
Maintain Earth Shield on the target taking the majority of the damage, which is often the tank.
Cast Chain Heal for AoE healing; cast Healing Wave for big heals.
Cast Lesser Healing Wave for quick emergency healing, or if choosing the Tank Healing Spec (with the appropriate talents and glyphs) it is the primary heal for when tanks are taking a lot of damage.
Riptide is a quick and effective heal with a heal-over-time effect that can be cast while moving. Use it liberally to keep the buff on as many targets as possible to increase the effectiveness of Chain Heal.
Cooldown Usage
Nature’s Swiftness should be used with Healing Wave or Chain Heal if the situation calls for it. Tidal Force works really well with Chain Heal but can also be used with Healing Wave. Pairing it with Nature’s Swiftness can be used for big emergencies. In longer fights, Mana Tide Totem can be used before other mana users in your party run out of mana as it may become available again for multiple uses. Bloodlust/Heroism will often be used at critical moments where burst damage is needed or at the beginning of a boss fight when all players have their cooldowns ready.
Consumables For Raids
Flask: Flask of the Frost Wyrm Alternatives: Spellpower Elixir, Elixir of Mighty Thoughts, Elixir of Mighty Mageblood Food Buff: Fish Feast, Tender Shoveltusk Steak, Firecracker Salmon Alternatives: Great Feast, Dalaran Clam Chowder, Shoveltusk Steak, Smoked Salmon Potions: Runic Mana Potion Alternatives: Potion of Speed, Potion of Wild Magic Scrolls: Scroll of Intellect VIII
Best Gems For Restoration Shaman
Restoration Shamans have to balance between Mana Regeneration for long fights and throughput or healing per second for short fights. Following the stat priority previously explained choose the following gems depending on your needs.
Restoration Shamans that have Jewelcrafting (350) should use 3 Runed Dragon’s Eye when possible.
Blacksmithing (400) provides 2 extra sockets with Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves
Best Enchants For Restoration Shaman
The Enchants that require a specific profession should always take precedent over the above, they are as follows:
Best In Slot (BiS) Gear Pre-Raid For Restoration Shaman
Main Hand Slot
Off Hand Slot
Relic Slot
Head Slot
The best in slot headpiece is the one crafted from engineering, however only players with engineering can wear it. The next best option is dropped from Prince Keleseth in Utgard Keep
Remember that this armor piece will have the Socket to place the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond.
Neck Slot
Shoulder Slot
The Sunwell Plateau shoulders Erupting Epaulets are still pretty decent for this slot. If you don’t already have it or are incapable of farming for it, these options are also really good. The Tier 6 shoulders are also still respectable, especially if you can maintain set bonuses.
Back Slot
Both Tailoring back pieces are great options for either throughput or mana efficiency depending on your preference. Tattered Cape of Antonidas from Kil’jaeden still holds up in pre-raid encounters.
Chest Slot
Definitely save up your Emblems for the Tier 7 chestpiece as it provides a big chunk of stats and works towards the set bonuses. Otherwise, the reputation chest piece and Leatherworking crafted one both have a good set of stats.
Horde: Loremaster of Northrend Alliance: Loremaster of Northrend
Wrist Slot
The bracers that drop from the last boss of Heroic Drak’Tharon Keep are the best option in this slot. Maintaining the set bonus from Tier 6 with one of the 3 items that don’t overlap with Tier 7, such as Skyshatter Bracers, is also an option.
Hands Slot
Here’s where you can obtain the second piece of Tier 7 to achieve the 2-set bonus pre-raid and it is worthwhile to do so.
Waist Slot
Another spot to spend your Emblems is here with the first option. It is simply the best in slot waist due to its high stats. Maintaining the set bonus from Tier 6 with one of the 3 items that don’t overlap with Tier 7, such as Skyshatter Belt, is anpther option.
Legs Slot
Another reason to farm the last boss of Heroic Drak’Tharon Keep, the same boss that drops the best wrist slot item. Lots of great options depending on your throughput or mana regen needs.
Feet Slot
Most of these boots are very close in terms of their relative power, the Tier 6 Boots Skyshatter Boots are also still great to maintain the set bonus.
Rings
If you have the gold, the Dalaran teleport ring is a great option, it can also be upgrade later on so it’s not a total waste when better gear is available.
