Mists of Pandaria Classic Restoration Shaman Spell Summary

This page will list the most relevant skills for a Restoration Shaman, and explain what they do. It is recommended that you read through this page in order to have a basis for the various topics that are discussed throughout the rest of this guide.

Stormlash Totem is a new totem which will cause allies to deal additional Nature damage with their attacks for 10 seconds. This is a good raid damage increase, especially when used in coordination with raid cooldowns and Haste increasing abilities such as Bloodlust.

Healing Tide Totem is a new healing cooldown which heals your raid group significantly over 10 seconds. As it is a totem, it does not require channeling and you can keep healing or moving as usual while it is active.

Ascendance is another new healing cooldown which duplicates your healing and divides it evenly among nearby allies for 15 seconds, similar to Ultraxion's Green Crystal back in Cataclysm. Due to its multiplier nature, it is especially powerful if you are using other multiplier abilities alongside it such as Ancestral Guidance.

Healing Rain is an area heal which you can place on the ground for 10-seconds or up to 30 with a full Conductivity (post-nerf) extension. While it can do great healing, it does require 6 injured players to stand within it for the full duration, making it more situational than most area heals.

Chain Heal is one of the best area-of-effect heals in the game due to its high healing, lack of cooldown, and smart-heal properties, which will cause it to jump to the most injured targets in range, regardless of the group they are on.

Riptide is a heal-over-time for Restoration Shamans with a strong initial heal component and overall high healing potential, especially with Glyph of Riptide. Chain Heals cast on targets with Riptide active will make the whole Chain Heal 25% stronger.

Greater Healing Wave is a strong but slow single-target heal. This makes it likely to overheal, so be prepared to stop casting at the last moment if it looks like that will be the case.

Healing Wave is an efficient but slow single-target heal. This makes it ideal to heal small amounts of damage during downtime.

Healing Surge casts very quickly and does decent healing but costs a huge amount of Mana, so make sure to only use it as an emergency heal.

Unleash Elements becomes Unleash Life when used while Earthliving Weapon is active, making your next heal or Healing Rain 30% more powerful.

Flame Shock deals damage-over-time to its target. This can contribute a small, but consistent, chunk of damage in a fight, and has the added usefulness of preventing Rogues and Druids from staying in stealth while it is active.

Lava Burst always critically strikes and does 50% more damage if Flame Shock is present on the target. While not particularly useful for Restoration, it can provide a decent amount of damage when healing is not needed.

Lightning Bolt deals damage to a single target from range. This is a decent damage spell in PvE, with a good damage to Mana ratio and no cooldown.

Chain Lightning deals damage to three targets from range. It does more damage than Lightning Bolt, even to its primary target, and has a lower cast time, but it also has a 3-second cooldown and a large Mana cost. Use it for area-=of-effect damage or when bursting down an enemy.

Earth Shock deals damage and slows the melee attack speed of its target. Useful against melee enemies if you cannot avoid their attacks.

Frost Shock deals damage and slows its target by 50% for 8 seconds. This makes it useful when chasing, or fleeing from enemies.

Fire Nova causes your Flame Shock debuffed targets to explode for damage around themselves. Since it has a very short 4-second cooldown, it can do massive area damage but Restoration will generally not be able to spread enough Flame Shocks to make it worthwhile.

A Totem is instantly placed on the ground near you when you cast it, does not move, and generally has a single digit of health unless Glyph of Totemic Vigor is used, allowing it to be destroyed by your enemies with any single-target ability. Their effects only apply to your 5-player party, even when you are in a raid group.

Every Shaman Totem has a specific niche role to fill and a distinct ability. There are four types of Totems: Air, Earth, Water, and Fire, and you can have only one Totem of each element placed at a time, which will be replaced if you cast a new Totem of the same element unless you have the Totemic Persistence talent.

Totemic Recall allows you to destroy your current totems in order to recover 25% of their Mana cost. You can use this to avoid pulling patrols with your totems, to recover some Mana when moving to a new place, and even just to recover some Mana for free when your totems are about to expire!

Spirit Link Totem — creates an area around the totem for 6 seconds where the health of allies is equalized every second. This makes it especially powerful against mechanics that hit targets inside a clump of players for deadly damage, as it will spread that damage across the whole clump evenly, making it easy to heal with area heals.

Capacitor Totem stuns enemies standing 8 yards around the totem for 5 seconds after a 5 seconds period from when it was dropped.

Grounding Totem will redirect to itself any harmful spell cast at a nearby party member which is great to handle problematic spells in PvP, such as Counterspell.

Earth Elemental Totem creates an Earth Elemental that taunts and generates threat on nearby enemies. Due to its relatively high health, it can serve as an emergency tank for you and your group.

Tremor Totem removes Fear, Charm, and Sleep effects from your group for its 6 second duration. This makes it invaluable in fights with Fear effects or in PvP.

Earthbind Totem slows nearby enemies, making it easier to flee or kite.

Mana Tide Totem regenerates the Mana of your raid members rapidly, but only lasts for 16 seconds, with a big cooldown of 3 minutes. Use it when yourself and allies have lost enough Mana that the extra regeneration will not go to waste.

Healing Stream Totem heals a single player (or two with the Rushing Streams talent) for a small amount every few seconds. Considering it also grants damage reduction when Glyph of Healing Stream Totem is used, it is a great short cooldown to use whenever damage is happening.

Fire Elemental Totem creates a Fire Elemental that dynamically scales with your Spell Power and deals significant single-target and area-of-effect damage, making it great for contributing damage to your group or while soloing.

Magma Totem deals small amounts of area-of-effect damage to nearby enemies very frequently. Since it has no cooldown, you can use it for extra damage, especially against multiple enemies.

Searing Totem deals a small amount of single-target damage to nearby enemies. It deals less single-target damage than Magma Totem but is also cheaper and available at a lower level.

Earthliving Weapon is a weapon imbue for Restoration Shamans, which increases healing done and causes the Earthliving effect occasionally on targets healed.

Wind Shear interrupts your target for 3 seconds on a 12-second cooldown with a 25-yard range, making it one of the best interrupts in the game.

Spiritwalker's Grace allows the Shaman to move while casting spells for 15 seconds.

Hex is a crowd control spell similar to Polymorph but it does not heal the target or break instantly upon any damage, while also letting the target slowly move around. It is a Curse effect, making it harder to be dispelled by some classes.

Bloodlust / Heroism grant a huge amount of Haste for 40 seconds to the Shaman's raid group and can only also be brought by Mages, making it a strong reason to bring at least one Shaman to a group.

Lightning Shield grants you a buff that causes damage to melee attackers when they hit you.

Water Shield creates a shield on yourself which provides passive Mana regeneration and extra bursts of Mana whenever you are hit. This is great in all types of content, but especially so if you are being consistently hit for the extra Mana returns, while soloing and leveling.

Ghost Wolf boosts your running speed by 30% and is instant cast, although you are prevented from using most abilities while in Ghost Wolf form. It is learned at a very early level, making this is an important movement skill for leveling Shamans.

Reincarnation allows you to return to life after dying, as long as its 30-minute cooldown is ready. You can use it to recover from mistakes.

Ancestral Spirit brings the target back to life, but can only be used while out of combat.

Ancestral Vision can be used to resurrect all nearby allies with a single spell cast.

Purge removes two buffs from its (enemy) target. You will typically be using it to remove healing-over-time, shields, and buff effects.

Flametongue Weapon is a weapon imbue that increases your Spell Damage and causes each hit to deal additional Fire damage. You can use this instead of Earthliving Weapon if you are focused on dealing damage.

Astral Recall recalls you to your set Hearthstone location, with a cooldown of 15 minutes. This is pretty handy for quickly traveling the world.

Water Walking allows you or another friendly player to move over water for 10 minutes. Taking any damage will cancel the effect, but you can still use it to quickly move through certain parts of the world.

Water Breathing allows you, or another friendly player, to have unlimited breath while underwater for 10 minutes. This is generally useless, but can save you sometimes when doing underwater quests or gathering.

Far Sight grants you vision over an area, allowing you to detect enemy players without actually putting yourself in danger.

Bind Elemental is used to crowd control elemental enemies.