Restoration Shaman Healing Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within (Season 1)

Last updated on Oct 06, 2024 at 22:00 by Seksixeny 52 comments
General Information

On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Restoration Shaman in World of Warcraft — The War Within (Season 1). We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.

If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Restoration Shaman talents.

1.

The War Within Talents for Restoration Shaman

This page will go over the best talents, explaining them in detail. For Restoration Shaman, specifically, talents mostly change the amount of spells you want to press on cooldown or utility options to deal with specific scenarios. Our Rotation guide will have more specific information on how all of these talents combine with the baseline kit to create our gameplay loop:

Restoration has many situational talents, and many perform better in Mythic+, Raiding, or PvP. We have guides for content-specific talent builds below:

2.

Quick Talents for Restoration Shaman

For a quick, easy-to-use, all-purpose build, we recommend using the Chain Heal Raid talents, which focus on maximizing your healing abilities while minimizing the number of buttons you need to press, and thus allow you to fulfill your main role well with minimal effort. Use the Mythic+ talents if you want a more damage-focused approach to your Restoration Shaman and the Riptide Icon Riptide talents for encounters that emphasize heavy spreading or having the raid split into small groups.

Flow of the Tides Icon Flow of the Tides is strong in a vacuum for a Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal build, but can also be hard to use optimally, as you need to avoid consuming Riptide Icon Riptide too early in order for it to be better than Ancestral Reach Icon Ancestral Reach, and it also limits your target choice; therefore, we would only recommend it to advanced players looking for extra challenge.

Also, make sure to adjust these builds to include any utility needed for specific encounters. We will recommend different talent builds on a boss-by-boss basis on our raid tip pages, so make sure to check those out!

3.

Best Talents for Restoration Shaman

Totemic Raid Chain Heal Farseer Raid Chain Heal Farseer Raid Riptide Totemic Mythic+ Farseer Mythic+ Farseer Delve Soloing Talent Details
4.

Totemic Chain Heal Raid Talent Build for Restoration Shaman

While these are the baseline recommended talents, feel free to swap to different utility talents to suit your raid setup and boss-by-boss needs.

Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal can be supported by very good talents such as High Tide Icon High Tide, Tidebringer Icon Tidebringer, Ancestral Reach Icon Ancestral Reach / Flow of the Tides Icon Flow of the Tides, and Unleash Life Icon Unleash Life, making it one of the hardest hitting heals and well worth building around. The Totemic Hero Talents further improve upon the Chain Heal playstyle by granting you free instant casts through Lively Totems Icon Lively Totems, which also helps with Mana.

Consistent Riptide Icon Riptide usage is also key to this build to make the most out of Primal Tide Core Icon Primal Tide Core and Tidewaters Icon Tidewaters, and you will also want to have as much burst healing as possible when raiding, usually with the triple raid cooldowns Ascendance Icon Ascendance (plus Ancestral Guidance Icon Ancestral Guidance), Healing Tide Totem Icon Healing Tide Totem, and Spirit Link Totem Icon Spirit Link Totem.

While the listed build currently goes for First Ascendant Icon First Ascendant and Current Control Icon Current Control to lower their cooldown, some fights where incoming damage is spaced by 3 minutes (such as Broodtwister Ovi'nax) benefit from having a more powerful Ascendance with Preeminence Icon Preeminence instead, typically combined with Deeply Rooted Elements Icon Deeply Rooted Elements for higher uptime.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!

5.

Farseer Chain Heal Raid Talent Build for Restoration Shaman

While these are the baseline recommended talents, feel free to swap to different utility talents to suit your raid setup and boss-by-boss needs.

Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal is supported by very good talents such as High Tide Icon High Tide, Tidebringer Icon Tidebringer, Ancestral Reach Icon Ancestral Reach / Flow of the Tides Icon Flow of the Tides, and Unleash Life Icon Unleash Life, making it one of the hardest hitting heals and well worth building around. While less synergistic than Totemic Hero Talents, Farseer can also be used with Chain Heal builds with good results.

Consistent Riptide Icon Riptide usage is key to this build to make the most out of Primal Tide Core Icon Primal Tide Core, Tidewaters Icon Tidewaters, Routine Communication Icon Routine Communication, and the cooldown reduction of Offering from Beyond Icon Offering from Beyond and you will also want to have as much burst healing as possible when raiding, including frequent cooldown usage with First Ascendant Icon First Ascendant and Current Control Icon Current Control.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!

6.

Farseer Riptide Raid Talent Build for Restoration Shaman

While these are the baseline recommended talents, feel free to swap to different utility talents to suit your raid setup and boss-by-boss needs.

If Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal is not your thing, or for fights that emphasize heavy spread, it is preferable to use the Farseer Hero Talents and have most of your area healing come from the Ancestors, Healing Rain Icon Healing Rain, Downpour Icon Downpour, Wellspring Icon Wellspring, Tidewaters Icon Tidewaters, and Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave, instead.

Without Deeply Rooted Elements Icon Deeply Rooted Elements it is typically better to lower Ascendance Icon Ascendance's cooldown to 2-minutes with First Ascendant Icon First Ascendant instead, and always lining it up with Ancestral Guidance Icon Ancestral Guidance. You will also have very strong healing over time with all the Riptide Icon Riptide support talents and strong single-target healing with Ancestors and Undulation Icon Undulation, making you quite flexible!

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!

7.

Totemic Mythic+ Talent Build for Restoration Shaman

While these are the baseline recommended talents, feel free to swap to different utility talents to suit your group composition, target dungeon, and active weekly affixes.

The idea behind these talents is to give you high baseline healing and utility, including many DPS talents, such as Acid Rain Icon Acid Rain and the reworked Master of the Elements Icon Master of the Elements, which allows you to seamlessly alternate between healing and DPS with Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge and Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst, while skipping on casting Flame Shock Icon Flame Shock altogether.

Undulation Icon Undulation works well in small group settings, where single target heals are much more used than in raids, but Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal and its support talents can also be useful in a Totemic shell as you will be able to have a very strong Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem with Lively Totems Icon Lively Totems, Reactivity Icon Reactivity, Supportive Imbuements Icon Supportive Imbuements, Living Stream Icon Living Stream, and Elemental Resistance Icon Elemental Resistance to carry your healing on most pulls.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!

8.

Farseer Chain Heal Talent Build for Restoration Shaman

While these are the baseline recommended talents, feel free to swap to different utility talents to suit your group composition, target dungeon, and active weekly affixes.

The idea behind these talents is to give you high baseline healing and utility, including many DPS talents, such as Acid Rain Icon Acid Rain and the reworked Master of the Elements Icon Master of the Elements, which allows you to seamlessly alternate between healing and DPS with Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge and Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst, while skipping on casting Flame Shock Icon Flame Shock altogether.

Unleash Life Icon Unleash Life allows for permanent uptime of one Ancestor, which is more reliable than having to cycle through Undulation Icon Undulation, and having the full Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal package allows for easy area healing, even in spread out situation where Totemic struggles.

Finally, First Ascendant Icon First Ascendant and Current Control Icon Current Control are taken to further increase the reliability of your cooldowns, while Spouting Spirits Icon Spouting Spirits is skipped because just the presence of Spirit Link Totem Icon Spirit Link Totem is generally enough to stabilize the group.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!

9.

Farseer Delve Soloing Talent Build for Restoration Shaman

While these are the baseline recommended talents, feel free to swap to different utility talents to suit the kind of Delve you are entering and its specific challenges.

While Restoration is not particularly fast at clearing Delves in general, it has the advantage of being able to do it while keeping itself healthy without much effort through beefy self-healing with Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge and multiple cooldowns that work surprisingly well when healing only yourself, and perhaps also a handful of allies.

If you are fully soloing with just Brann we recommend using Amorphous Relic Icon Amorphous Relic and Rage-Filled Idol Icon Rage-Filled Idol, as those will help your damage the most for the small cost of having to heal Brann occasionally through your run.

Acid Rain Icon Acid Rain increases your DPS potential and Master of the Elements Icon Master of the Elements allows you to seamlessly alternate between self-healing and DPS with Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge and Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst, while skipping on casting Flame Shock Icon Flame Shock altogether. Unleash Life Icon Unleash Life is picked to guarantee near-permanent Ancestor help for the Delve with the Farseer talents picked.

Tide Turner Icon Tide Turner finally finds its purpose for boosting Healing Tide Totem Icon Healing Tide Totem's output on yourself, and Reactive Warding Icon Reactive Warding is actually quite nice when you know you will be the main target of enemy attacks constantly, and thus be able to get a lot of value from low count shield refreshes.

The build also includes many ways to kite, such as Frost Shock Icon Frost Shock with Arctic Snowstorm Icon Arctic Snowstorm, which has the benefit of being an efficient way to get Ancestors to cast their Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst, especially when you are kiting!

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!

10.

Talent details for Restoration Shaman

We will not discuss every talent on this page, as this is done in the dedicated spell summary guide, instead:

11.

Hero Talents for Restoration Shaman

11.1.

Farseer

Ability Abbreviation Description/Effect
Call of the Ancestors Icon Call of the Ancestors CA Allows you to summon Ancestor-friendly NPCs with Undulation Icon Undulation or Unleash Life Icon Unleash Life which help you heal by casting damage spells, single target heals, or area heals depending on the spells you cast while they are active.
Latent Wisdom Icon Latent Wisdom LW Causes your Ancestor spells to be 20% more powerful.
Ancient Fellowship Icon Ancient Fellowship AF Ancestors will call a new Ancestor to aid you 20% of the time when despawning.
Offering from Beyond Icon Offering from Beyond OfB Whenever you summon an Ancestor, you will also reduce Riptide Icon Riptide's cooldown by 2 seconds. This has good synergy with Riptide Icon Riptide talents.
Natural Harmony Icon Natural Harmony NH Reduces the cooldown of Nature's Guardian Icon Nature's Guardian by 15 seconds and causes it to heal you for an additional 10% of your maximum Health.
Earthen Communion Icon Earthen Communion EC Increases the maximum charges of Earth Shield Icon Earth Shield to 12 and makes it heal you for 25% more. This has good synergy with Reactive Warding Icon Reactive Warding.
Heed My Call Icon Heed My Call HMC Makes Ancestors last 4 seconds more.
Routine Communication Icon Routine Communication RC Causes Riptide Icon Riptide to have a 15% chance to summon an Ancestor. This has good synergy with Riptide Icon Riptide talents.
Primordial Capacity Icon Primordial Capacity PC Increases your maximum Mana by 5% and allows for 4 Tidal Waves Icon Tidal Waves to be stored instead of 2.
Maelstrom Supremacy Icon Maelstrom Supremacy MSup Increases the healing done by Healing Wave Icon Healing Wave, Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge, Wellspring Icon Wellspring, Downpour Icon Downpour, and Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal by 8%.
Elemental Reverb Icon Elemental Reverb ER Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst and Riptide Icon Riptide are 5% more effective and gain an extra charge. This makes Echo of the Elements Icon Echo of the Elements mostly redundant, saving one specialization talent point.
Spiritwalker's Momentum Icon Spiritwalker's Momentum SwM Using spells with a cast time increases the duration of Spiritwalker's Grace Icon Spiritwalker's Grace and Spiritwalker's Aegis Icon Spiritwalker's Aegis by 1 second, up to a maximum of 4 seconds.
Final Calling Icon Final Calling FC When an Ancestor expires, it will cast a small absorb shield on a nearby injured ally that lasts for 10 seconds and steadily decays over its duration.
Ancestral Swiftness Icon Ancestral Swiftness AS Replaces Nature's Swiftness Icon Nature's Swiftness and causes your next healing or damage spell to have a 10% increased effect, on top of being free and instant cast. If you also know Nature's Swiftness it will also summon an Ancestor for 6 seconds when used.
11.2.

Totemic

Ability Abbreviation Description/Effect
Surging Totem Icon Surging Totem ST A longer duration, higher impact Healing Rain Icon Healing Rain replacement.
Totemic Rebound Icon Totemic Rebound ST A passive Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal boost that makes your Totems do an additional, less powerful Chain Heal of their own.
Oversized Totems Icon Oversized Totems OToT Makes your totems larger in both size and radius and increases their Health.
Swift Recall Icon Swift Recall SR Causes some of your support totems, such as Poison Cleansing Totem Icon Poison Cleansing Totem, to have a reduced cooldown after performing their duties.
Imbuement Mastery Icon Imbuement Mastery IM Increases the duration of Earthliving Weapon Icon Earthliving Weapon's heal over time proc by 3-seconds.
Amplification Core Icon Amplification Core AC Increases your damage and healing by 3% while Surging Totem Icon Surging Totem is active.
Oversurge Icon Oversurge OS Makes Surging Totem Icon Surging Totem 150% more effective while Ascendance Icon Ascendance is active. Good synergy with Deeply Rooted Elements Icon Deeply Rooted Elements.
Wind Barrier Icon Wind Barrier WB Grants a large absorb shield every 30 seconds if you have any totem active.
Pulse Capacitor Icon Pulse Capacitor PC Increases the healing of Surging Totem Icon Surging Totem by 25%.
Supportive Imbuements Icon Supportive Imbuements SI Allows you to imbue your shield to increase your healing by 2% and increase the duration of Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem and Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem by 3 seconds. Good synergy with Living Stream Icon Living Stream.
Lively Totems Icon Lively Totems LT Causes your Healing Tide Totem Icon Healing Tide Totem, Mana Tide Totem Icon Mana Tide Totem, Spirit Link Totem Icon Spirit Link Totem, Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem, and Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem to cast an instant free Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal that benefits from all of your Chain Heal talents and procs such as High Tide Icon High Tide. Massive synergy with Chain Heal talents.
Reactivity Icon Reactivity Reac Makes your Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem heal a second target at 50% effectiveness and increases the healing stored by Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem by 25%. Good synergy with Living Stream Icon Living Stream, as the Cloudburst bonus is much weaker.
Earthsurge Icon Earthsurge ESurge Increases your healing by 10% on allies affected by Earthen Wall Totem Icon Earthen Wall Totem, Ancestral Protection Totem Icon Ancestral Protection Totem, or your Earthliving Weapon Icon Earthliving Weapon heal over time proc.
Totemic Coordination Icon Totemic Coordination TC Causes the Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal effects cast by totems to be 25% more effective. Good synergy with Chain Heal talents.
Whirling Elements Icon Whirling Elements WE Using Surging Totem Icon Surging Totem grants you 3 motes with special effects: the Water mote causes your next Healing Wave Icon Healing Wave or Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge to also heal a different ally within the Rain; the Air mote reduces the cast time of your next heal by 40%, and the Earth mote causes your next Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal to apply a 150% effect Earthliving Weapon Icon Earthliving Weapon proc effect on all targets hit.
12.

Key Class Tree Talents for Restoration Shaman

12.1.

Rows 1 to 4

Ability Description/Effect
Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal One of the few no-cooldown multi-target heals in the game, and its healing jumps prioritize the most injured players in range, making it a very powerful spell. As one of the core spells of a Restoration Shaman, there are many talents that can interact with it, such as Unleash Life Icon Unleash Life, Nature's Swiftness Icon Nature's Swiftness, Flow of the Tides Icon Flow of the Tides, and High Tide Icon High Tide.
Astral Shift Icon Astral Shift Your main defensive cooldown and an important talent that provides a a lot of defensive power, especially in the hands of an experienced player.
Wind Shear Icon Wind Shear Your interrupt, and a good one as it has the lowest cooldown among ranged interrupts, although it compensates by having a lower range and lower lockout time. In Mythic+ or whenever you are planning to fight enemies with interruptible casts, you should take this.
Planes Traveler Icon Planes Traveler An excellent way to increase your Astral Shift Icon Astral Shift uptime, and generally the most valuable talent in this choice node.
Astral Bulwark Icon Astral Bulwark A good alternative to Planes Traveler Icon Planes Traveler if you cannot get good value from a lower cooldown, as it will make you much harder to kill while active.
Static Charge Icon Static Charge Allows you to use Capacitor Totem Icon Capacitor Totem more often, which can be valuable if you are able to use it on cooldown effectively. This is mostly the case in Mythic+.
Earth Shield Icon Earth Shield Provides a lot of healing for the single global it takes to cast, and also increases your healing on the target by 20% and reduces damage taken by 5% when used alongside Earthen Harmony Icon Earthen Harmony, making it a great pick whenever you will be casting heals on the target regularly.
Elemental Orbit Icon Elemental Orbit Allows you to have Earth Shield Icon Earth Shield on yourself at the same time it is on another target of your choice. This can be great when used alongside Earthen Harmony Icon Earthen Harmony.
Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem Must-have, as it contributes significant healing, especially when transformed into Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem.
Brimming with Life Icon Brimming with Life Excellent talent which increases your health significantly in most situations, and allows you to use Reincarnation Icon Reincarnation more often if you are dying often, which is exactly when you would want to reduce its cooldown.
Spirit Walk Icon Spirit Walk Excellent mobility tool that allows you to cover large distances quickly with its effect and avoids the landing position issues Gust of Wind Icon Gust of Wind can have. While it does not help you against knockback mechanics or against long falls, it will remove roots and movement-impairing effects, which can occasionally be required for encounter mechanics.
Gust of Wind Icon Gust of Wind Low cooldown mobility tool that allows you to quickly reposition at a fixed distance in front of your character. While the added mobility is nice, what really makes it stand out is that it allows you to break knockback effects, cross gaps, and avoid fall damage, making it a powerful situational spell.
12.2.

Rows 5 to 7

Ability Description/Effect
Elemental Resistance Icon Elemental Resistance Reduces Fire, Frost, and Nature damage taken by players healed by Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem or Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem by a slight amount and a short duration. While it is not very impactful, it will usually be taken for pathing reasons.
Wind Rush Totem Icon Wind Rush Totem Great for raiding, and you should take it whenever your group's strategy involves getting a speed boost to go from point A to point B unless someone else is already providing this effect.
Ascending Air Icon Ascending Air Making Wind Rush Totem Icon Wind Rush Totem lower cooldown can be excellent for specific encounters, as can the added duration.
Jet Stream Icon Jet Stream Becoming even faster and having Wind Rush Totem Icon Wind Rush Totem remove snares can also be great, making this the most generally useful of the two Wind Rush Totem nodes.
Thunderstorm Icon Thunderstorm Fantastic for solo play and PvP when you are being trained by melee enemies. You might want to use Thundershock Icon Thundershock along with it if you only want the CC aspect, but not the knockback.
Totemic Focus Icon Totemic Focus Increases your totem duration and radius. As you rely on multiple totems for both healing and utility; this is a great talent for Restoration Shamans.
Ancestral Guidance Icon Ancestral Guidance A decent healing cooldown that you will almost always want to get in all types of content. Fortunately, the talents leading into it are also very powerful for Restoration, so there is a natural path to it. It combos particularly well with Ascendance Icon Ascendance and First Ascendant Icon First Ascendant, which will cause both abilities to have the same cooldown, allowing them to always be used together as Ascendance's doubled healing is propagated by Guidance.
12.3.

Rows 8 to 10

Ability Description/Effect
Totemic Projection Icon Totemic Projection Great when used alongside Spirit Link Totem Icon Spirit Link Totem and the upcoming Surging Totem Icon Surging Totem, in order to make sure the right targets are hit by these support totems.
Totemic Surge Icon Totemic Surge Great for Restoration, as you rely heavily on multiple totems, from the short cooldown Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem to the long cooldown Spirit Link Totem Icon Spirit Link Totem.
Thundershock Icon Thundershock Allows you to use Thunderstorm Icon Thunderstorm to CC enemies in place in PvE and reduces its cooldown, making it useful when you do not want to knock enemies away.
Traveling Storms Icon Traveling Storms This talent allows you to cast Thunderstorm Icon Thunderstorm on an ally within healing range, which is often extremely valuable in encounters requiring enemy repositioning.
Mana Spring Icon Mana Spring Decent Mana generator for a large raid group with multiple healers.
Totemic Recall Icon Totemic Recall has the niche effect of resetting the cooldown of your most recently used totem with a baseline cooldown under 3 minutes, making it mostly useful with Earthen Wall Totem Icon Earthen Wall Totem and Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem.
Creation Core Icon Creation Core Allows you to reset the cooldown on Earthen Wall Totem Icon Earthen Wall Totem and Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem at the same time, and is a decent option when you are using both in close proximity.
Stone Bulwark Totem Icon Stone Bulwark Totem Long cooldown totem, which grants you a personal absorb shield that is reinforced every 5 seconds it stays up. While the shield is not huge, this is a decent extra defensive at your disposal.
13.

Key Restoration Tree Talents for Restoration Shaman

13.1.

Rows 1 to 4

Ability Description/Effect
Riptide Icon Riptide Core ability that is Mana efficient and provides high healing on a short cooldown.
Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem Must-have talent that contributes significant healing, especially when transformed into Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem or with Totemic hero talents and Living Stream Icon Living Stream. If you took the talent with the same name in the general tree, you would have two charges of this spell.
Healing Rain Icon Healing Rain Low cooldown, high-efficiency spell, with multiple modifiers that allow it to also contribute significant damage (Acid Rain Icon Acid Rain) and do instant healing (Overflowing Shores Icon Overflowing Shores).
Tidal Waves Icon Tidal Waves Causes Riptide Icon Riptide casts to give you two charges that reduce Healing Wave Icon Healing Wave and Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal cast time and increase Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge critical strike chance. This is a fantastic talent that ties your kit together and boosts many of your core spells significantly.
Acid Rain Icon Acid Rain Turns your Healing Rain Icon Healing Rain into a heal that also deals significant damage. This is a must-use talent for DPS purposes and works especially well against multiple targets that stand inside the Rain for its whole duration.
Ancestral Vigor Icon Ancestral Vigor Good talent that works well in any situation. Your highest priority with this talent is to ensure it is running on the tanks and other priority targets at all times to grant them additional survivability.
Resurgence Icon Resurgence Significant Mana sustain talent, which will return a huge amount of Mana to you throughout a fight. Logically, if Mana is not an issue, then this talent loses some value, but it is a very important talent whenever extra Mana is valuable.
13.2.

Rows 5 to 7

Ability Description/Effect
Spirit Link Totem Icon Spirit Link Totem Iconic Restoration Shaman ability, which has excellent life-saving potential due to instantly restoring the life of whoever is most injured inside a player grouping.
Spouting Spirits Icon Spouting Spirits Excellent talent which increases the damage reduction of Spirit Link Totem Icon Spirit Link Totem and causes it to massively heal everyone inside its effect after a small delay, making it a much stronger ability than it has been in the past few years.
Master of the Elements Icon Master of the Elements Increases the healing of your next Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge by 30% after a Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst cast, stacking twice. This empowered Healing Surge will also cast Flame Shock Icon Flame Shock at a nearby target, improving your rotational flow, especially in small-group content such as Mythic+.
Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem Stores some of the healing you do while it is active and releases it all at once evenly among nearby friendly targets. This is a very powerful talent, which acts as a multiplier on your healing, especially during cooldown-boosted periods.
Living Stream Icon Living Stream Causes Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem to heal for 100% more, decaying over its duration. This allows Healing Stream to pack a much bigger punch when it is dropped, making it a strong reactive healing tool. It also has strong synergy with the Totemic hero talent Reactivity Icon Reactivity.
Healing Tide Totem Icon Healing Tide Totem Provides high healing over a period of time and can be used while moving, which allows you to use it while doing fight mechanics or casting other healing spells. It will do its maximum healing at 5 targets or above, making it good for Mythic+ and small group content as well!
Ancestral Reach Icon Ancestral Reach Increases the healing of Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal slightly and causes it to bounce one extra time. Its unconditional nature makes it attractive to newer players, or when maintaining Riptide Icon Riptide uptime is of critical importance.
Flow of the Tides Icon Flow of the Tides Also causes Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal to bounce one extra time but has a higher 30% healing increase, which is conditional on casting on a target with Riptide Icon Riptide. While the extra healing is very welcomed, it requires jumping through extra hoops and it can be a healing loss if used on the wrong Riptide Icon Riptides, so use it with care.
Unleash Life Icon Unleash Life An extra instant heal and a strong boost to your next heal. The boost depends on the spell, but you will generally use this on Downpour Icon Downpour or High Tide Icon High Tide-buffed Chain Heal Icon Chain Heals, as those present the highest potential healing gains.
Undulation Icon Undulation Great if you cast a lot of Healing Wave Icon Healing Wave and Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge. If these 2 spells are your main healing sources, such as in Mythic+, then this talent is a great pick. Otherwise, you should probably take a different talent.
Echo of the Elements Icon Echo of the Elements Provides an extra Riptide Icon Riptide and Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst charge. While the Lava Burst charge is only a small damage increase, the extra Riptide charge allows you to perform your rotation without needing to constantly worry about losing potential Riptide casts, and as Riptide is the centerpiece of all Shaman healing, it also makes this talent next to mandatory unless you already have the Farseer Elemental Reverb Icon Elemental Reverb talent.
Mana Tide Totem Icon Mana Tide Totem Grants your group a weak Mana regeneration boost, which is only worthwhile in fights where Mana is an issue, or when taken alongside Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem Icon Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem.
Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem Icon Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem This talent causes your Mana Tide Totem Icon Mana Tide Totem to significantly reduce the cost and cast time of your 3 next Healing Surge Icon Healing Surges. This effect is unfortunately rarely worth the talent point under current tuning.
Earthen Wall Totem Icon Earthen Wall Totem Good for reducing frequent incoming damage on a stacked group of allies. Since it only absorbs a small, fixed amount of each attack, it is not recommended to use against enemies that deal slow, powerful attacks, but is great in almost all other situations.
Ancestral Protection Totem Icon Ancestral Protection Totem The best choice whenever you plan to intentionally have one ally die to bypass encounter mechanics; just be mindful of the 200% maximum Health killing blow limit. It should also be picked whenever your group is consistently struggling to keep everyone alive through a short, specific part of an encounter.
Earthliving Weapon Icon Earthliving Weapon A 1 hour imbue for your weapon that causes some of your healing spells to have a 20% chance to activate a small heal over time on the target. While Riptide Icon Riptide ticks can proc it, Healing Rain Icon Healing Rain ticks will not. While each heal is weak, the overall effect is a decent healing increase.
13.3.

Rows 8 to 10

Ability Description/Effect
Primal Tide Core Icon Primal Tide Core Provides extra free Riptide Icon Riptides that have the same initial burst healing of hard-casted ones. While it will not create an additional Riptide if your 4th cast target has no allies nearby, the effect will try to proc in every following cast until it works. This talent has good synergy with Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave.
Tidewaters Icon Tidewaters Causes Healing Rain Icon Healing Rain to also do massive healing to players with Riptide Icon Riptide active. While this healing does not count towards Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem, Ascendance Icon Ascendance or Ancestral Guidance Icon Ancestral Guidance at the time of writing, it is very significant and well worth the talent point. When used with Totemic Surging Totem Icon Surging Totem it will do double healing to account for the extra cooldown of the totem when compared to regular Rain.
Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave A cheap instant heal that applies Riptide Icon Riptide and makes your next Healing Wave Icon Healing Wave hit all targets with your Riptide active. This effect has no range limit, and thus provides an excellent way to heal targets that are spread out from the rest of the group. It also provides extra Riptides for Flow of the Tides Icon Flow of the Tides.
Undercurrent Icon Undercurrent This talent can be a decent healing increase, especially in periods where you have a high amount of Riptide Icon Riptides active but requires 2 talent points, which could otherwise be better applied at the bottom of the talent tree.
Ascendance Icon Ascendance Causes a healing burst when used and massively increases your healing while active. Provided you save your strongest healing spells and have multiple heals over time running when used, it can do a huge amount of healing. Its healing will also be counted towards Ancestral Guidance Icon Ancestral Guidance and Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem, making them even more powerful.
First Ascendant Icon First Ascendant Reduces the cooldown of Ascendance Icon Ascendance by 1-minute making it exactly the same as Ancestral Guidance Icon Ancestral Guidance and thus making their combo much more powerful.
Preeminence Icon Preeminence Increases your Haste during Ascendance Icon Ascendance and its duration, making it an even stronger cooldown. Great in fights where you cannot get value from a shorter Ascendance cooldown.
Downpour Icon Downpour Post rework, it is a great ability that you can activate after using Healing Rain Icon Healing Rain to do massive healing to targets inside it and increase their Health by 10%, stacking with Ancestral Vigor Icon Ancestral Vigor. When used with Totemic Surging Totem Icon Surging Totem it will do double healing to account for the extra cooldown of the totem when compared to regular Rain.
Tidebringer Icon Tidebringer This powerful talent drastically increases the cast speed and jump range of your Chain Heal Icon Chain Heals while its buff is active. This buff is automatically obtained every 8 seconds and can stack twice, allowing for back-to-back buffed Chain Heal Icon Chain Heals and lining up perfectly with High Tide Icon High Tide.
High Tide Icon High Tide Allows you to bank powerful Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal casts to counter incoming burst damage, or simply passively increase your throughput. It is the strongest Chain Heal Icon Chain Heal talent in the tree, especially in the context of the other support talents, which increase the amount of targets hit and jump distance, and should always be taken if you are planning to use Chain Heal at all.
Ancestral Awakening Icon Ancestral Awakening Causes your single target heals to have a chance (doubled if you critically hit) to heal another nearby ally for a portion of their effect. Not a very impactful talent on a point-by-point basis but occasionally required for pathing purposes.
Earthen Harmony Icon Earthen Harmony Causes your Earth Shield Icon Earth Shield to reduce incoming damage and restore additional health the lower its target is. These are fantastic bonuses to have on a tank, and you can also have it on yourself with Elemental Orbit Icon Elemental Orbit!
Reactive Warding Icon Reactive Warding This talent will heal your Earth Shield Icon Earth Shield target when you refresh the shield, with the heal being higher the more stacks your target is missing when refreshed. The heal does not count towards Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem, but you will also gain Mana when refreshing Water Shield Icon Water Shield with the amount being higher if you refresh it at low stacks.
Wellspring Icon Wellspring Post buffs, it is now a strong healing ability that you can use for added area healing in between Healing Rain Icon Healing Rain and High Tide Icon High Tide-buffed Chain Heal Icon Chain Heals.
Deeply Rooted Elements Icon Deeply Rooted Elements This talent can make a large difference in your healing if you get Ascendance Icon Ascendance procs at the correct times during a fight. This makes it a strong choice in fights where damage is constant, and healing is almost always valuable, and a weak talent in fights where you only care about healing within very narrow periods. Taking Preeminence Icon Preeminence along with it will grant you the extra Haste on procs, but not the extra duration.
Improved Earthliving Weapon Icon Improved Earthliving Weapon Increases the healing benefit to Earthliving Weapon Icon Earthliving Weapon from our Mastery and causes Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge to always proc it on the target. While it will often be used for cheap pathing towards Wellspring Icon Wellspring / Deeply Rooted Elements Icon Deeply Rooted Elements, its benefit is not very strong on most encounters.
14.

PvP Talents (War Mode)

Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:

  • PvP talents that can be used in the outdoor world.
  • 10% to 30% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
  • 10% to 30% more experience gained while leveling.
  • Ability to earn Conquest Points in the outdoor world, which can reward powerful gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself available for open-world PvP, and the possibility to be "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists. If you need advice on how to fight against other players, visit the link below.

14.1.

Restoration Shaman War Mode Talents

In this section, we will explain the PvP talents and rank them on their leveling and solo / small group PvE content usefulness.

  1. Counterstrike Totem Icon Counterstrike Totem replicates and reflects damage you take for 15 seconds on a 45-second cooldown. This can be really strong when in a high damage area to deal some chip damage to targets around you and convert your health pool into additional damage;
  2. Rain Dance Icon Rain Dance makes Healing Rain Icon Healing Rain instant, 45% cheaper, and 30% more effective. This has great synergy with Acid Rain Icon Acid Rain and also with Counterstrike Totem Icon Counterstrike Totem, as it will provide a lot of healing for you to tank mobs with while they kill themselves;
  3. Totem of Wrath Icon Totem of Wrath increases the critical effect of spells of allies within 40 yards by 20% for 15 seconds whenever you use Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave. It is good for solo play and excellent if you are doing outdoor content with others.

The remaining talents have their own niches but are not as generally useful in PvE situations with War Mode active.

15.

Changelog

  • 06 Oct. 2024: Raid talent adjustments and typo fixes in talent details section.
  • 15 Sep. 2024: Added Farseer Chain Heal raid build and revamped Delve build.
  • 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
  • 24 Aug. 2024: Added a recommended Delves build.
  • 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within launch.
  • 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch and new Tier Set bonuses.
  • 11 May 2024: Updated recommended talents.
  • 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
  • 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
  • 18 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated with new talent builds for Patch 10.2 and Ascendance nerfs on talent descriptions.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Updated with tab-based formatting.
  • 31 Jul. 2023: Reworked how multiple talent trees are shown in the guide.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 13 Jun. 2023: Changed recommended raiding talents to use Deeply Rooted Elements and various text updates.
  • 01 May 2023: Talent updates for Season 2 and the new Tier Set gameplay changes.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Updated talents for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 10 Mar. 2023: Further updates before patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 13 Dec. 2022: Adjusted talents further for both Mythic+ and Raid.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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