Restoration Shaman Healing Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.1.5

Welcome to our Gearing Page for Restoration Shaman, where we will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly.

If you have a new piece of gear that you need gems and enchants advice for, you can find everything you need on our dedicated page below.

There are three main paths to gear your characters in Shadowlands:

• World Content (crafting, reputations, quests, world bosses, world PvP)
• Instanced PvE Content (dungeons and raids)
• Instanced PvP Content (battlegrounds and arenas)

You are free to pursue any, or all, of these paths. The more content you do in the game, the faster your gearing up will be, but we recommend that you focus on the types of content you enjoy the most, letting gear come as a by-product of having fun!

Also, keep in mind that you should generally be using your highest item level gear. If you have an Intellect two-hander that is of higher item level than your one-hand + shield combination, use the two-hander, otherwise use the shield for an increase in survivability against physical damage.

While Legendaries are, technically, gear pieces, they are important enough to have their own dedicated page, which you can consult below!

We will not be listing any Legendaries on the best in slot lists down below, as you are expected to be using one, but the slot where you use it in depends on whether that gear slot can have a Domination Socket or not. You want to eventually use the maximum 5 Shards of Domination possible, so avoid the Head, Shoulder, Chest, Waist, and Feet slots for your Legendaries.

Below are the recommended Sanctum of Domination items. As usual, higher item level drops of different items are preferable to the listed items. Also, feel free to mix and match this gear with the dungeon best in slot gear listed further down.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Shadowsteel Facecage	Painsmith Raznal in Sanctum of Domination
Neck	Interplanar Keystone	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
Shoulders	Epaulettes of the Master Ranger	Sylvanas Windrunner in Sanctum of Domination
Cloak	Cloak of Scarred Honor	Soulrender Dormazain in Sanctum of Domination
Chest	Conjunction-Forged Chainmail	Fatescribe Roh-Kalo in Sanctum of Domination
Wrists	Bands of the Fallen House	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
Gloves	Demigaunts of Predestination	Fatescribe Roh-Kalo in Sanctum of Domination
Belt	Ceremonial Construct Clasp	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
Legs	Hyperdense Greaves	Guardian of the First Ones in Sanctum of Domination
Boots	Ragebound Leg Irons	Soulrender Dormazain in Sanctum of Domination
Ring #1	Oscillating Ouroboros	Fatescribe Roh-Kalo in Sanctum of Domination
Ring #2	Tarnished Insignia of Quel'Thalas	Sylvanas Windrunner in Sanctum of Domination
2H Weapon	Maledict Opus	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
1H Weapon	Torch of Eternal Knowledge	Guardian of the First Ones in Sanctum of Domination
Shield	Infinity's Last Bulwark	Sylvanas Windrunner in Sanctum of Domination

In Shadowlands, only Helms, Necks, Bracers, Belts and Rings can have sockets. These are guaranteed when crafting a Legendary on those slots in Patch 9.1, can show up randomly on an item when it drops, and can also be placed into an item by using the rare Alloy-Warping Facetor. The Facetor can be obtained in Korthia and the Adamant Vaults.

The Head, Shoulder, Chest, Waist, and Feet slots for Restoration Shamans can have a special Domination Socket in Patch 9.1, which appears mostly in Sanctum of Domination gear.

This socket can have fit one of 9 new Domination Shards: 3 Blood Shards, 3 Frost Shards and 3 Unholy Shards. If you have three of the same Shard type, you will enable a unique set bonus while you are in the Sanctum of Domination, Korthia, The Maw, and Torghast.

You can upgrade these shards at Bonesmith Heirmir in Korthia with Stygian Embers. These are mostly obtained through Sanctum of Domination boss kills and have multiple ranks, with increasing costs. The gem set bonuses also have ranks, based on the lowest-ranked gem of their type you are using, and gain a massive 50% extra additive power per rank. This means it is best to prioritize upgrading your set bonus gems evenly in order to rank the set effect up as quickly as possible when focusing on content where it is active.

Chaos Bane, the Unholy Shard set bonus, is the most powerful for Restoration Shamans due to its high primary stat gain, with Blood's set bonus of Blood Link also being decent and Frost's Winds of Winter being much weaker.

This means your first priority for raiding and Torghast should be the three Unholy Shards Shard of Zed, Shard of Dyz, and Shard of Oth alongside Shadowsteel Facecage, which is required to activate their set bonus. The specific pieces of domination gear where you socket the Shards are irrelevant. The remaining two slots should be filled with the best Shards out of the Frost and Blood sets. We recommend using the Shard of Tel and Shard of Kyr, for their extra throughput benefits.

For Mythic+ and PvP, where the set bonuses do not work, you will want to use Shards based on their individual performance, and also value their DPS benefits more. We recommend using Shard of Zed and Shard of Dyz from the Unholy set, Shard of Rev from the Blood set, and Shard of Tel and Shard of Kyr from the Frost set, respectively.

If you would like to know more about the remaining Domination Shards' effects, their set bonuses, or how to upgrade their effects into even more potent forms, please see our official guide detailing everything about this new system of Patch 9.1:

Take note that a trinket's worth might vary wildly between types of content. For example, in PvP a PvP trinket set should almost always be the best due to the powerful set bonus. Mythic+ damage patterns encourage the use of single-target healing trinkets, while Raiding is great for area healing trinkets.

When in doubt, stat increasing trinkets tend to always be valuable, no matter the situation. Also, some trinkets are much easier to get at a higher item level than others, meaning, Castle Nathria trinkets (for example), are ranked lower now that we are in the Sanctum of Domination patch.

The ranking system is as follows:

1. S Tier: the strongest and most generally useful trinkets; these are always good choices.
2. A Tier: these trinkets are slightly weaker than the S Tier traits, but are still solid choices.
3. B Tier: a below-average trinket that should be picked only in the absence of an S or A Tier trinket.
4. C Tier: a weak trinket that provides very little healing output or other utility and should be avoided if possible.

• Soulletting Ruby (Kul'tharok in Theater of Pain)
• Carved Ivory Keepsake (Fatescribe Roh-Kalo in Sanctum of Domination)
• Unbound Changeling (Ingra Maloch in Mists of Tirna Scithe)
• Shadowed Orb of Torment (Remnant of Ner'zhul in Sanctum of Domination)
• Resonant Silver Bell (Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination)
• Titanic Ocular Gland (The Eye of the Jailer in Sanctum of Domination)
• Inscrutable Quantum Device (Dealer Xy'exa in De Other Side)
• Spiritual Alchemy Stone (Alchemy)
• Unchained Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity (Conquest Vendor)

• Cabalist's Hymnal (Sire Denathrius in Castle Nathria)
• Manabound Mirror (Sire Denathrius in Castle Nathria)
• Tuft of Smoldering Plumage (Sun King's Salvation in Castle Nathria)
• Forbidden Necromantic Tome (Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination)
• First Class Healing Distributor (P.O.S.T. Master in Tazavesh, the Veiled Market
• Empyreal Ordnance (Oryphrion in Spires of Ascension)
• Boon of the Archon (Devos in Spires of Ascension)
• Tome of Insight (Assorted Korthia activities
• Siphoning Phylactery Shard (Nalthor the Rimebinder in The Necrotic Wake)

• Soul Cage Fragment (Mor'geth the World Boss)
• Consumptive Infusion (Hungering Destroyer in Castle Nathria)
• Macabre Sheet Music (The Council of Blood in Castle Nathria)
• Lingering Sunmote (Grand Proctor Beryllia in Sanguine Depths)
• Overflowing Anima Cage (Executor Tarvold in Sanguine Depths)
• Sunblood Amethyst (High Adjudicator Aleez in Halls of Atonement)
• Ebonsoul Vise (Painsmith Raznal in Sanctum of Domination)
• Vial of Spectral Essence (Dessia the Decapitator in Theater of Pain)
• Scrawled Word of Recall (The Nine in Sanctum of Domination)

None! All of the Shadowlands healer trinkets so far are actually usable, if not at an equal power level or equally easy to use optimally.

Some notes on specific trinkets:

Unbound Changeling changes the stat buff it gives based on the food you recently ate, and can change once per day. Eat Critical Strike food ( Spinefin Souffle and Fries) once per day until you make it change into the all-stat buff. Since we value all of our stats closely, and this version provides the largest overall amount of stats, that is how you can maximize the value you get from your trinket. You can eat feast food only from that point on to avoid the stat buff changing again. The value of the trinket is similar if you use the Critical Strike version, regardless.

Inscrutable Quantum Device has various effects depending on when you activate it:

• Ally health under 30% nearby = it heals;
• Healer nearby under 20% Mana = grants Mana;
• You are crowd controlled = removes it;
• You have aggro from something nearby = spawns a taunting NPC;
• Your target is under 20% health = deals huge damage to it;
• None of the previous is true = huge secondary stat buff.

We are assuming you will be getting the stat buff effect here, but the other effects can also be valuable, depending on the situation.

Cabalist's Hymnal gains power as more people in your group are using it, which is reflected in the ranking. Make sure to use it if there are other people in your group doing the same! Even at its baseline it is very strong.

Finally, DPS trinkets like Dreadfire Vessel are not listed but can be very valuable as you can use them to contribute significant damage, even as a healer spec.

All Legion Timewalking Trinkets can be upgraded to item level 246 for Valor Points, as long as you loot them from the dungeon first. So far we are not expecting any of these trinkets to be much better than what is already available.

PvP gear is special for us in Shadowlands: you buy it from the PvP vendor in Oribos and it will always have Versatility as one of its two stats. You can buy blue gear for Honor, which is quite easy to get and upgrade, and epic gear for Conquest, which is obtained more slowly but can is also upgradeable with Honor up to a maximum item level depending on your rated PvP rating. This gear also increases in item level during PvP combat, making it the best gear for PvP.

Even in PvE, PvP gear is a great way to deterministically fill slots where you did not get upgrades from Mythic+ and Raiding. This ensures you can never get unlucky with a particular gear slot, as long as you are the PvP type. We decidedly recommend giving it a try, as it has been great fun for us so far in Shadowlands!

Below are the recommended dungeon items in Shadowlands. As usual, higher item level drops of different items are preferable to the listed items. Also, feel free to mix and match this gear with the raid best in slot gear from the next section of the guide.

Using the Valor system, you can upgrade these items significantly, which makes them competitive with raid and PvP gear.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Rattling Deadeye Hood	Bonefang in The Necrotic Wake
Neck	Azure-Venom Choker	Kin-Tara in Spires of Ascension
Shoulders	Plagueborne Shoulderguards	Margrave Stradama in Plaguefall
Cloak	Drape of Twisted Loyalties	Devos in Spires of Ascension
Chest	Forsworn Stalker's Hauberk	Kin-Tara in Spires of Ascension
Wrists	Shackles of Alluring Vitality	Kryxis the Voracious in Sanguine Depths
Gloves	Iron Spiked Handgrips	Grand Proctor Beryllia in Sanguine Depths
Belt	Belt of Wretched Manipulations	Domina Venomblade in Plaguefall
Legs	Blightborne Chain Legguards	Globgrog in Plaguefall
Boots	Striders of Restless Malice	Surgeon Stitchflesh in The Necrotic Wake
Ring #1	Arachnid Cipher Ring	Domina Venomblade in Plaguefall
Ring #2	Entwined Gorger Tendril	Kryxis the Voracious in Sanguine Depths
Weapon	Surgical Pustule Extractor	Globgrog in Plaguefall
Shield	Encrusted Canopic Lid	Surgeon Stitchflesh in The Necrotic Wake

While this is mostly applicable to DPS classes, Restoration Shamans do have a DPS simulation profile, which you can use in order to optimize your gear for DPS. Learn more about how to optimize your damage rotation below.

For Healing, we recommend analyzing your performance in past encounters, instead. Tools such as WoW Analyzer are capable of giving you an accurate stat weight and tips on how to improve based on your logs.

You can find more details on how to make the most out of these tools in the specialized page below.