Restoration Shaman Frequently Asked Questions — The War Within (11.0.5)

Restoration Shamans are fine picks in Raids and PvP due to their high healing and utility. They are also the best pick for Mythic+, with great reactive healing and great utility that includes a stun, knock and ranged interrupt, as well as decent DPS with minimal global cooldown investment from Acid Rain and Master of the Elements.

A summary of all changes for the latest patch can be found on our Restoration Shaman introduction page. Read on for a more detailed opinion on our state for Mythic+, PvP, and Raids.

Yes, as they bring powerful, unique tools, such as Spirit Link Totem, with Spouting Spirits and Ancestral Protection Totem, as well as strong cooldown-oriented healing with Ascendance, Ancestral Guidance, and Cloudburst Totem combos, among other miscellaneous utility and a new raid buff in Skyfury!

Restoration Shamans are the top healer for keys, as they have good healing, the Skyfury group buff, and the sustained damage of Acid Rain. They are also able to interweave DPS and healing with the reworked Master of the Elements and are among the few healers who can interrupt from range and have utility talents for all situations.

If you do wish to go ahead and try to complete higher keys as a Restoration Shaman, you can find more information on how to maximize your output on our Mythic+ page below.

As the most versatile healers in the game, with the Skyfury group buff, roots slows, strong healing output, mobility, and even a ranged interrupt, they always have a place on PvP teams.

If you wish to try PvP as a Restoration Shaman, you can follow the advice in our spec PvP guide below.

Totemic for ease of play and stacked area healing or Farseer for added min-maxing potential and single target or spread healing.

For Mythic+, use Gale of Shadows and Ara-Kara Sacbrood for a great mix of reliable stats and damage contribution. For Raiding, use Spymaster's Web and Unbound Changeling, which have both high stats and a powerful on-use effect that you can use along with your assigned raid cooldowns. All trinkets are detailed in our Gear guide.

There is no Haste cap. Its purpose is to make your rotation feel smoother and more responsive. The increased throughput comes at the cost of Mana, however.

We cover the stat priority and assess each stat in more detail on our dedicated stats page, linked below.

The best race for Alliance players is Dwarf ( Stoneform and Might of the Mountain), while Horde players should go Tauren for PvE ( Brawn) or Orc ( Hardiness) for PvP.

You can learn more about racial benefits and other aspects of the class on the simulations page.

Earth Shield does not increase the whole Chain Heal by 20% when cast on a target with it. Only the first hit is increased, and this applies to all other interactions with Earth Shield; only its target gets the healing increase and only while Earth Shield is active.

Chain Heal casts with the High Tide and Tidebringer buffs are very powerful, but Chain Heal still does a good amount of healing, even outside these windows, and you can use it whenever area healing is required, as long as you have Mana and the targets are stacked in close proximity.

Yes! Casts done under the effects of Innervate cost 0 Mana but are still counted towards High Tide's next activation threshold.

The Critical Strike buff provided by Embrace of Pa'ku is currently the best choice available.

Cell, VuhDo, Grid2, or ElvUI all provide strong, customizable raid frames options. Standard Blizzard frames, unfortunately, do not offer options to show the same amount of information or ways to filter out useless information.

You can, but there are no good reasons to do it. Playstyle in any of the talent builds is essentially the same as the specs they mimic but with much lower damage. If you choose to still level as Restoration, make sure you drop any gear with Mastery on it and try to use any trinkets with damage procs or on-use effects.

While using a Shield is typically better due to the armor benefits, and certainly mandatory in PvP, in PvE, you will rarely be taking damage that can be mitigated by armor, making two-handed weapons completely viable as long as they have high item level and good secondary stats or a powerful unique effect.