Classic Restoration Shaman Healer Guide

Last updated on Dec 11, 2020 at 20:00 by Seksixeny 17 comments

Welcome to our Restoration Shaman Healer guide for WoW Classic, tailored for PvE content. Here, you will learn how all you need to know to play the Shaman class as Restoration Healer. Click the links #below to navigate the guide or read this page for a short introduction.

If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Restoration Shaman guide.

Shamans are, arguably, the best support class in WoW Classic. With their powerful and flexible totems, such as Windfury Totem Icon Windfury Totem, Tremor Totem Icon Tremor Totem and Poison Cleansing Totem Icon Poison Cleansing Totem, they keep their allies safe and increase their damage potential significantly.

While only Horde players can be Shamans, every group will benefit immensely from having at least one, and due to totems only being able to affect one group at a time, a 40 man raid will want to have at least 8 Shamans to have totems in every group.

This guide will be covering Restoration Shamans, the best area of effect healer in WoW Classic and, arguably, the most powerful role a Shaman can assume in the end game.

1.

Restoration Shaman in the Season of Mastery

Although the Season of Mastery brings with it a number of changes to how you may experience the content of WoW Classic, these tweaks do not include any adjustments to how you play Restoration Shaman. As such, this guide will cover all you need to know regardless of which version of Classic you wish to play.

However, due to certain pieces of content from later Phases now being available at an earlier date, gearing recommendations for Restoration Shaman will be different. Because of this, we have created additional pages detailing your best in slot items for both pre-raid gear and the current raids available.

2.

Restoration Shaman Strengths

  • The highest area of effect healing in the game with Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal, from Molten Core to Naxxramas.
  • Totems for every type of situation, including Windfury Totem Icon Windfury Totem, one of the greatest DPS increases a group can have in WoW Classic.
  • Great support tools even outside of totems, such as Earth Shock Icon Earth Shock and Purge Icon Purge, which contribute to the high skill cap of the class.
3.

Restoration Shaman Weaknesses

  • Weak sustained damage-dealing potential pigeon-holes most Shamans into healing in raids.
  • Mana hungry, especially while leveling, which forces you to rest or drink often.
  • Squishy and has no real escapes once focused.
4.

Best Races for Restoration Shamans

Unlike other classes, Shamans can only be played in the Horde faction, so plan accordingly and search for a Horde guild if you want to roll one.

Troll is the best race for PvE, while Orc is the best race for PvP. Tauren is slightly behind, but has its own perks, which you can read about below.

4.1.

Troll Restoration Shamans

  • Beast Slaying Icon Beast Slaying gives a 5% damage bonus against Beasts.
  • Berserking Icon Berserking is a 3-minute cooldown that gives you between 10-30% increased attack and casting speed depending on your health, with the effect being greater the more hurt you are.
  • Bow Specialization Icon Bow Specialization increases your skill with Bows by 5, which increases your chance to hit with a bow.
  • Regeneration Icon Regeneration gives +10% passive health regeneration and allows you to regenerate 10% of your total health regeneration during combat.

Trolls are the best choice if your goal is to maximize your PvE throughput, due to Berserking Icon Berserking, which makes your casts much faster every time it is up. Unfortunately, none of the other bonuses is very impactful, and Orc has some really good PvP bonuses, so pick Troll if you want to focus on PvE!

4.2.

Orc Restoration Shamans

  • Axe Specialization Icon Axe Specialization increases your skill with axes by 5, which increases your chance to land a blow on a target with axes.
  • Blood Fury Icon Blood Fury is a 2-minute cooldown that increases your base melee attack power by 25% for 15 seconds and reduces healing effects on you by 50% for 25 seconds.
  • Command Icon Command increases your pet damage by 5%.
  • Hardiness Icon Hardiness increases your chance to resist stuns by 25%.

Orc is the go-to PvP race choice for Shaman, due to Hardiness Icon Hardiness, which allows you to often ignore stun effects. This is a deal-breaker effect, especially against Rogues. While Axe Specialization Icon Axe Specialization and Blood Fury Icon Blood Fury are good bonuses to have as a melee DPS, they are not of much importance to Restoration Shamans.

4.3.

Tauren Restoration Shamans

  • Cultivation Icon Cultivation increases your Herbalism skill by 15.
  • Endurance Icon Endurance increases your total health by 5%.
  • Nature Resistance Icon Nature Resistance increases your Nature Resistance by 10.
  • War Stomp Icon War Stomp is a 2-minute cooldown that stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds, with a 0.5 second cast time.
  • Due to their large sizes, Tauren have a larger hitbox than other races, which allows you to hit, and be hit from further afar. This can be great when trying to chase a target or problematic when trying to flee from melee enemies.

War Stomp Icon War Stomp can be a great ability for PvP, allowing you to get Lesser Healing Wave Icon Lesser Healing Wave off in an emergency, and the 5% increased health from Endurance Icon Endurance is nice, but Tauren does not give any throughput increase, which makes it an all-rounder choice if you dislike the other races.

5.

Best Professions for Restoration Shamans

Restoration Shamans do not benefit as much from Engineering as DPS classes, but it is still a good profession to have if you are min-maxing. Keep in mind that, with our weak farming capabilities, it will be hard to gather materials for this profession.

Thus, we would like to recommend learning Alchemy and Tailoring, instead. Both of these professions allow you to make a lot of gold without requiring any combat, from Transmute: Arcanite IconTransmute: Arcanite and Mooncloth Icon Mooncloth, respectively. You can also make money in a peaceful manner with most other crafting professions, as long as you secure a rare recipe.

Make sure to head to our profession guides in order to learn more about professions in WoW Classic!

6.

Changelog

  • 11 Dec. 2020 (gear page): Added Scepter of the Fallen Prophet.
  • 07 Dec. 2020 (gear page): Added multiple new alternative gear options.
  • 01 Dec. 2020 (gear page): Reworked the BiS guide with Naxxramas and clarity in mind.
  • 01 Dec. 2020 (enchants page): Added Phase 6 shoulder enchants, Frozen Runes, and the Silithus world buff.
  • 11 Nov. 2020 (gear page): Added a small paragraph on swapping long cooldown trinkets between pulls.
  • 02 Nov. 2020 (gear page): Updated with Phase 6 and Frost Resistance gear.
  • 06 Aug. 2020 (gear page): Transferred the Ahn'Qiraj gear into the main guide.
  • 27 Jul. 2020 (gear page): Added a link to the Nature Resistance gear guide.
  • 14 Jul. 2020 (enchants page): Updated enchant and consumable list for Phase 5.
  • 07 Jul. 2020 (gear page): Added link to AQ BiS.
  • 19 May 2020 (enchants page): Updated with current World Buffs as of Phase 4 as well as glove enchants.
  • 12 May 2020 (gear page): Added Silithus twilight boss summonings gear.
  • 29 Apr. 2020 (gear page): Added Zulian Headdress.
  • 15 Apr. 2020 (enchants page): Added Zul'Gurub consumables and enchants.
  • 14 Apr. 2020 (gear page): Updated with Zul'Gurub gear.
  • 11 Mar. 2020 (gear page): Updated with Arathi Basin gear.
  • 28 Feb. 2020 (gear page): Added Flarecore Leggings.
  • 14 Feb. 2020 (gear page): Updated for Phase 3 and split the guide into multiple pages.
  • 24 Jan. 2020 (gear page): Added PvP reputation gear and more ranked PvP gear.
  • 11 Jan. 2020 (stats page): Reworked Spell Healing's coefficient explanation.
  • 11 Dec. 2019 (gear page): Added link to PvP BiS.
  • 12 Nov. 2019 (gear page): Guide is now Phase 2 ready.
  • 04 Nov. 2019 (gear page): Typo fixes and added some more Dire Maul gear.
  • 13 Oct. 2019 (gear page): Added Phase One Molten Core / Onyxia gear bis list, as well as Dire Maul gear.
  • 29 Sep. 2019 (enchants page): Added a shortlist with the essential consumables for Healer Shamans, ranked by price vs effectiveness.
  • 19 Sep. 2019 (gear page): Changed some gear slots due to powerful gear that was confirmed to be available in Phase 1, when it was previously not thought to be the case.
  • 27 Aug. 2019 (this page): Added a section for each race to make the guide easier to read.
  • 24 Aug. 2019 (spells page): Reworked spell structure to place the critical spells on the start and make a generic section out of the rest.
  • 24 Aug. 2019 (this page): Improved the professions section, adding more details, item links and tips.
  • 16 Aug. 2019 (gear page): Added new special gear to the list and changed the position of this list to the bottom of the guide.
  • 12 Aug. 2019 (enchants page): Added weapon and shield enchants.
  • 03 Aug. 2019 (rotation page): Added information on the Spell Damage and Healing penalty when using spells learned before Level 20, as well as further Totem Twisting insights.
  • 03 Aug. 2019 (spells page): Added additional spells and respective descriptions.
  • 02 Aug. 2019 (gear page): Page added.
  • 02 Aug. 2019 (enchants page): Page added.
  • 02 Aug. 2019 (stats page): Page added.
  • 02 Aug. 2019 (rotation page): Page added.
  • 02 Aug. 2019 (talents page): Page added.
  • 02 Aug. 2019 (spells page): Page added.
  • 02 Aug. 2019 (this page): Page added.
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