Restoration Shaman Frequently Asked Questions — Shadowlands 9.0.2

Restoration Shamans are very good in Raids and PvP, due to high spot and stacked group healing and utility. They are average in Mythic+, having high utility and a ranged interrupt, but also low sustained single target healing and DPS.

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.

They are exceptional, due to powerful unique tools, such as Spirit Link Totem, Ancestral Protection Totem, and strong cooldown-oriented healing.

There are plenty of good playstyles available in our talent tree — from flexible, High Tide-powered Chain Heal bursts, to cheap Wellspring rotations replacing most would-be expensive Chain Heal casts.

Restoration Shamans can push high keys, are the only healer who can interrupt and have strong emergency healing. They are weak at sustained single target healing and area of effect damage.

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 roots, slows, strong healing output, mobility, and even a ranged interrupt, they always have a place on PvP teams.

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

The two best options for performance are Necrolord and Venthyr. Necrolords are recommended for hardcore raiders due to their great spread healing, while Venthyr is recommended for everyone else due to its raw power and simplicity of use.

Assuming full renown and a raid setting, Emeni for Necrolord, General Draven for Venthyr, Kleia for Kyrian and Dreamweaver for Night Fae. Options for all situations are detailed in our Covenants guide.

Swirling Currents is your best conduit. A Covenant-specific conduit or Heavy Rainfall should be used in your second potency slot. Thunderous Paws is the best finesse conduit. Vital Accretion or Refreshing Waters are the best endurance conduits. Conduits are explained in detail in our Covenants guide.

Primal Tide Core for raiding, Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem or Chains of Devastation for all other situations. Spiritwalker's is stronger for healing but does not work on off-specs and deals no damage. Chains of Devastation is flexible but weaker for pure healing. All legendaries are detailed in our Legendaries guide.

Cabalist's Hymnal and Soulletting Ruby for raiding, Tuft of Smoldering Plumage and Manabound Mirror for dungeons and a PvP trinket set for PvP. 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, which is linked below.

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

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

Earth Shield does not increase the whole Chain Heal by 10% 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 buff are very powerful, but you can also take one of the other talents, especially Wellspring, and perform well, as long as you can cast it on cooldown without much over-healing, as well as make good use of the Mana saved with these casts.

Also, keep in mind that Chain Heal generates Tidal Waves while doing significant healing, which warrants usage in most group healing scenarios. Finally, it is one of the ideal spells to cast while you have Innervate on yourself!

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

Wellspring will divide its tooltip healing amount by the targets hit, in order to do a maximum amount of 6 * (tooltip healing). This means that, usually, the maximum amount of healing you can get from a Wellspring cast caps at 6 injured targets. The trick to go past this hard cap is understanding it does this calculation as you finish casting it, but it still has a small travel time to actually hit other players. If only a few people are injured at the time Wellspring finishes casting, but they all become injured by the time Wellspring actually hits, all of them are hit by the uncapped amount, thus creating a huge burst of healing! Just be careful not to finish casting Wellspring when no one is injured because, at that point, its unique over-healing prevention mechanic will kick in and it will do extremely low healing on anyone hit, instead.

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