Restoration Contents Restoration Shaman Talents Glyphs Resto Stats Rotations Gems Enchants Consumables Professions Races Leveling Quickly

This Restoration Shaman guide is primarily intended for Raid/PvE healing at level 90 and to some extent in PvP. However, if you’re looking for advice on leveling your Shaman, check out our Shaman Leveling Guide. Other Shaman Guides:  PvE: Enhancement DPS, Elemental DPS PvP: Restoration Other: Shaman overview, Shaman leveling If you want the same in-game step by step leveling guide that we use to get to level 90 as fast as possible, take a look at our favorite in-game leveling guide.

 

If you want the same in-game step by step leveling guide that we use to get to level 90 as fast as possible, take a look at our favorite in-game leveling guide.

 

Restoration Shaman Talents

1. Nature’s Guardian is useful if you anticipate dropping to low levels of health on a frequent basis.
2. Stone Bulwark Totem is not recommended.
3. Astral Shift is a useful damage mitigation tool, pick either this or Nature’s Guardian although personally I’m partial to Astral Shift.

1. Frozen Power is the least potentially useful of the three talents in this tier, only effective on a single target.
2. Earthgrab Totem is an AoE root/slow.
3. Windwalk Totem gives you and your raid immunity to movement impairing effects for a short time, quite useful under the right circumstances.

1. Call of the Elements is the most useful choice of this tier.
2. Totemic Projection is useful for movement heavy fights, not much else.
3. Totem Restoration is unimpressive at this time.

1. Elemental Mastery provides a haste increase for healing, one of two recommended choices.
2. Ancestral Swiftness is another viable choice as it allows for an instant emergency heal.
3. Echo of the Elements is too random to be as helpful as the other two options.

1. Healing Tide Totem is a powerful raid healing cooldown and my recommended choice.
2. Ancestral Guidance is also beneficial, but less so than Healing Tide Totem.
3. Conductivity has very limited value the vast majority of the time, avoid it.

1. Your best options are either Unleashed Fury or Primal Elementalist.
2. Elemental Blast is lacking due to the random factor of the buff.

 

Restoration Glyphs

Some of the more useful glyphs. Swap as necessary.

1. Glyph of Healing Stream Totem
2. Glyph of Riptide
3. Glyph of Water Shield
4. Glyph of Spiritwalker’s Grace - great for fights with lots of movement
5. Glyph of Chaining - mostly for 5 mans and 10 man raids
6. Glyph of Healing Wave - Will likely lose value in heroic raids.

Minor Glyphs are simply cosmetic, grab any that you like the look of. Such as these:

1. Glyph of the Lakestrider: Gain water walking
2. Glyph of Astral Recall: reduces CD by 5 min.
3. Glyph of Deluge: chain heal now has a watery appearance.

 

Restoration Stat Priorities

1. Primary Stat: Intellect – Your most important stat, determines Spellpower and a bit of crit. Does not dermine mana pool or assist with mana regen. Your mail specialization also adds to your Int from all sources.
2. Secondary: Spirit > Haste = Mastery = Critical
3. Weak to useless: Hit and Expertise.

The above is a quick and dirty stats guide. The value of the secondary stats depends a lot on exactly how you play the healing game. For example, your Mastery stat becomes increasingly valuable as your targets are lower in health. If your team is constantly topped off then points in Mastery will have a significantly lower value than if they’re constantly at 10% of full health. At higher health levels Crit actually appears to be more valuable, due to Resurgence.

If you can become a master of reading your healing logs you’ll be able to more accurately determine exactly what you need. A

Int is your Spellpower and is your most important stat, but it’s not the only one you need. Pump everything you can into Int and you’ll have powerful heals, but you’ll run out of mana quickly. Pump it all into Spirit and your heals will be weaker, but you will last longer.

Spirit is your mana regen. Stack it until you’re happy with your mana usage. Note that this will vary greatly with exactly what you’re fighting, your gear level, your team, and so on. In long fights with lots of damage you will need more than otherwise.

Haste: Restoration has a somewhat complex Haste Soft Cap system, make certain to research it further before finalizing. Start by checking the Haste breakpoint card on Totemspot (you’ll have to scroll down a bit.)

Crit:  Resurgence returns a pretty nice amount of mana and crits do 200% healing, so what’s not to like? The randomness. It’s great when it happens, but you can’t count on it. It will certainly add the amount of healing you do and help keep your mana up, or at least it’ll help keep it from running out as fast.

You can find a detailed discussion of stat on ElitistJerks.

 

Restoration Shaman In-Depth Ability Guide

Keep it Up

1. Water Shield and Earth Living Weapon should always be active.
2. Maintain Earth Shield on the tank at all times. Earthshield has nine charges and heals the shielded player every time they take damage. Earth Shield does not stack and if you have multiple shaman in a raid you should coordinate to make best use of the effect.

Your Abilities

Unleash Elements should be used to boost the effectiveness of your healing.

Riptide is important to maintain on as many targets as possible to benefit from the 25% increase in healing done by Chain Heal on targets already affected by Riptide. Additionally, using Riptide triggers the Tidal Waves buff which reduces the cast time of Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave by 30% and increases the critical effect chance of your Healing Surge spell.

Healing Wave should be used as often as possible for healing due to its low mana cost.

Greater Healing Wave is more suitable for periods of heavy damage and should be swapped to if Healing Wave simply isn’t enough to keep people alive or in advance of an anticipated damage spike.

If the raid is taking AoE damage or at the very least multiple players are taking damage at the same time, use Chain Heal. As mentioned above, Chain Heal will benefit from a 25% increase in healing done if the target is already affected by Riptide.

Use Healing Rain to cope with periods of heavy raid damage in addition to using Riptide on as many targets as possible before spamming Chain Heal.

Healing Surge is your emergency heal for situations where you don’t have enough time to cast Greater Healing Wave on someone. Making frequent use of Healing Surge will very shortly leave you with no mana so it’s recommended to avoid using it if at all possible.

Spiritwalker’s Grace will allow you to move and still heal when necessary.

Mana Tide Totem contributes to raid wide mana regeneration and so its use should be coordinated with your entire raid.

Healing Stream Totem should be used as often as possible. It lasts for 15 seconds with a 30 second cooldown and heals the most injured players within 40 yards every 2 seconds.

Spirit Link Totem reduces all damage taken by players within range by 10% for 6 seconds. Each second the health of all players effected by the totem is shifted such that they have an equal percentage of life remaining.

Tier 4 Talented Abilities:

Elemental Mastery provides a significant haste buff and is ideal for healing through periods of heavy damage.

Ancestral Swiftness provides you with an instant cast heal every minute, this is best used to instantly use Greater Healing Wave in an emergency.

Tier 5 Talented Abilities:

Both Ancestral Guidance and Healing Tide Totem are potent healing cooldowns that are best saved for AoE healing the raid.

 

Gems for the Restoration Shaman

Unless a socket bonus offers a solid Int or Spirit bonus, it’s generally more effective to gem for pure intellect and ignore the bonus. But, note that gems with secondary stats have twice the value of gems with primary stats, so your Haste gems are 320 points and your Int gems are 160. This does give some reason to match those socket bonuses, though we recommend only doing it if it’s for a nice Int bonus. See the stats section above and also check your healing logs and gem accordingly.

Orange gems can be used in yellow sockets, purples can go into blues. Either can go into red sockets.

Your mail bonus adds to any Int gem bonuses, making them worth 5% more Int. That bonus does not add to the other stats.

Gems for Resto
Meta		Burning Primal Diamond: +216 Int & 3% Increased Crit Effect Revitalizing Primal Diamond: +432 Spirit & 3% Increased Crit Effect
Red		Brilliant Serpent’s Eye: 320 Int, self-only Jewelcrafting gem Brilliant Primordial Ruby: 160 Int
Yellow		Quick Sun’s Radiance: +320 Haste Fractured Sun’s Radiance: +320 Mastery Smooth Sun’s Radiance: +320 Crit
Blue		Sparkling River’s Heart: +320 Spirit
Orange		Potent Vermilion Onyx: +80 Int & +160 Crit Reckless Vermilion Onyx: 80 Int, 160 Haste Artful Vermilion Onyx: +80 Int & +160 Mastery
Green		Energized Wild Jade: +160 Haste, +160 Spirit Zen Wild Jade: +160 Mastery, +160 Spirit
Purple		Purified Imperial Amethyst: +80 Int, +160 Spirit
Prismatic		Brilliant Primordial Ruby: 160 Int
Cogwheel		Sparkling Tinker’s Gear: 600 Spirit – requires an engie helm, such as this. Quick Tinker’s Gear: 600 Haste Smooth Tinker’s Gear: 600 Crit Fractured Tinker’s Gear: 600 Mastery

 

Restoration Shaman Enchantments

Short on gold? If you want to buy the best enchants, fund all of your alts, donate to the guild, etc., but don’t have the cash, then see what the Tycoon Addon can do about about fixing your poverty.

Helm enchants are gone in Mists of Pandaria, shoulder enchants all come from the Inscription profession.

Resto Enchantments
Weapon	Enchant Weapon – Jade Spirit: Sometimes increases Int by 1650, might increase Spirit by 750 if mana is low.
Shoulders	Secret Crane Wing Inscription: 520 Int and 100 Crit rating, Requires Inscription 550. Greater Crane Wing Inscription: +200 Int and 100 Crit
Cloak	Enchant Cloak – Superior Intellect: +180 Int Lightweave Embroidery – attacks can give 2k Int for 15 sec, requires tailoring
Chest	Enchant Chest – Glorious Stats: +80 to all stats Enchant Chest – Mighty Spirit: +200 Spirit
Bracers	Enchant Bracer – Super Intellect: +170 Int Fur Lining increases Int by 500, requires leatherworking. Socket Bracer – Pop in a gem, requires Blacksmithing 400
Gloves	Enchant Gloves – Greater Haste: +170-Haste Socket Gloves – Pop in a gem, requires Blacksmithing 400
Belt	Livingsteel Belt Buckle: Gem slot for a nice Int gem
Leggings	Greater Pearlescent Spellthread: +285 Int and +165 Spirit
Boots	Enchant Boots – Greater Precison: +175 Hit rating Enchant Boots – Pandaren’s Step: +140 Mastery, slight run speed increase. Enchant Boots – Greater Haste: +170 Haste
Rings	Enchant Ring – Greater Intellect: +160 Int, Requires Enchanting 550

 

Restoration Shaman Professions

This is for those who need every last bit of burning power. All of the regular professions offer a self-only buff of some sort. None of these buffs will make or break your healing capability. Leveling any of the crafting professions will be expensive. Check out Tycoon if you are short on gold.

If you’re looking for more Spirit, or any secondary stat, consider Blacksmithing. You will be able to slot two gems for 640 points in a secondary stat Vs. 320 points of Int.

• Blacksmithing – Add gems slots to gloves and bracers, for the best Int gems you can get your hands on. You can also make keys to pick locks when a Rogue isn’t handy.
• Enchanting – Enchant each your rings for 160 int each.
• Inscription – Best shoulder enchant is 520 Int and 100 Crit.
• Leatherworking – Bracer enchant for 500 Int. Can also make your own mail armor if you’re leveling.
• Alchemy – Better effects from your own potions – more stats and longer lasting. Put stacks of various potions on your action bars.
• Engineering – Synapse Springs can increase your best stat by 1,920 for 10 seconds. Also has other useful gadgets, but beware of backfires and defects which could be annoying in a dungeon or raid.
• Jewelcrafting – Make better gems for your own use. The M of P gems will add 320 total int or other stat and require 550 skill.
• Tailoring – Can embroider cloak for more power (sometimes procs for 2k Int) and can make a flying carpet.
• Mining – 480 Stam is hardly useful for healing.
• Herbalism – Small heal and 2,880 Haste for 20 seconds. Haste is a pretty decent stat for you, so this is a nice buff.
• Skinning – 480 Crit rating Vs 320 Int or so from the other professions.

 

Comsumables for Resto Shams

Note that Pandarens get twice the food buff. All food buffs last one hour. Alchemists get about 30% more effect and an extra hour from Flasks and Elixirs.
Foods

• Mogu Fish Stew: 300 Int
• Steamed Crab Surprise: 300 Spirit
• Braised Turtle: 275 Int
• Fire Spirit Salmon: 275 Spirit

Flasks

• Flask of the Warm Sun: 1,000 Int for an hour.
• Flask of Falling Leaves: 1,000 Spirit for an hour.

Potions

• Potion of the Jade Serpent: 4k Int for 25 seconds. If you pop one immediately before combat you will be able to pop another during combat.
• Master Healing Potion: Heals 60k HP
• Master Mana Potion: About 30k Mana

 

Race Choice for the Restoration Shaman

As a healer your race doesn’t matter all that much. If being big and furry or short and annoying is more important than every last iota of healing power then go for it.

Pandaren

• Can choose to be either Horse or Alliance upon leaving their starting area.
• Take less falling damage, though this has very little PvE use.
• If you’re leveling then your rest XP lasts twice as long.
• If you eat then you get increased benefits from food buffs.
• Can stun melee opponents for four seconds, which might have occasional use.
• Good with cooking.

Draenei

• Self-Heal: You have plenty of heals, but this one is free and there are times when that’s a nice thing to have.
• +1% Chance to Hit – Self-Only: Hit is a pretty useless stat for you. Nice if you’re dual building to Enhancement of Elemental, though.
• Jewelcrafting skill increase.

Dwarf

• Stone Form washes away bleeds and other effects, but this is of value mainly in PvP.
• Mace and Ranged weapon expertise are pretty useless for you, as Resto.
• Good with Archeology.

Orc

• Blood Fury increases Spell Power for 10 seconds, which is a good thing in all cases.
• Resistance to Stuns has PvP value and is occasionally useful in PvE, but will only reduce a 6 second stun by about 1 second.

Tauren

• War Stomp is strictly melee range so has very infrequent use in PvE, but has definite use in PvP when melee types get in your face.
• Health Increase is nice, but hardly important for you.
• Good with Herbalism, and this skill provides a pretty nice Haste buff.

Troll

• Berserk increases casting speed, once every three minutes, which can be rather nice.
• Ranged Weapon Expertise is a pretty useless stat for you.
• Damage Increased Vs Beasts: Pretty useless.
• Da Voodoo Shuffle is always useful in PvP (though not nearly as good as an escape ability or trinket.) Occasional value in PvE. It reduces a six second root to about 5 seconds.

Goblin

• Rocket Jump is a nice little escape from, or entry into, combat. Kinda like a cheap Blink spell.
• Increased Haste (1%) is always useful.
• Increased Alchemy skillis nice if you have that skill. Keeping a pile of mana potions on your bar is a good idea anyway.

 

 

 

 

Shaman Leveling Guide for FASTER Leveling

The best way to get to level to the level cap fast is to do it with a pre-written, automated, in-game leveling guide. WoW has thousands of quests and a few million mobs to grind and it’s easy to get lost (in terms of what to do or where to go next ) or just bored. A full-blown guide will make your blast to the top much smoother.

Dugi’s Guide is what you want: constantly showing you where to go and what to do, without ever having to leave the game to look something up:

Assuming you stay focused on leveling (as opposed to shopping, PvP sessions, and RPing) you should be able to hit 85, 90, or whatever (from 1) in well under 10 days, and maybe even less. If you’re brand new or have full heirlooms and Recruit a Friend you’ll find yourself leveling even faster with Dugi’s.

Dugi’s is always quickly updated for new patches and expansions (such as Mists of Pandaria) and so will never be obsolete. You can snag your copy of Dugi’s Guide here and cruise through the levels.

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