Restoration Shaman Healing Spec, Builds, and Talents — Shadowlands 9.0.2
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Restoration Shaman in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.2. 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 WoW Classic content, please refer to our Classic Restoration Shaman Healer talents.
Talent Choices for Restoration Shaman
Level | Choices | ||
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15 |
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25 |
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30 |
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35 |
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40 |
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45 |
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50 |
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Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area
(such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Still Mind and
Codex of the Still Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change
talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.
Talent Cheat Sheets for Restoration Shaman
While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent builds listed below work great for specific purposes.
There are multiple talents that require a change to your rotation in order to use them optimally. You can find more information on how your rotation will look after selecting your talents on our rotation page below.
Also, while different Covenants will result in different spell priorities, they
tend to affect our talents equally and there are no Covenant-specific talent choices
to point out. For example, Necrolord will benefit more from Deluge
than other Covenants, but this equally true for the alternative talent
Echo of the Elements!
A similar situation occurs within the Level 15 row.
Raid / Large Group Talents
The talent setup below is a good starting point for raiding. It is highly recommended you read the individual talent points as this specialization, in particular, is highly situational with respect to talent choices.
- Level 15:
Unleash Life or
Torrent
- Level 25:
Echo of the Elements
- Level 30:
Spirit Wolf
- Level 35:
Earthen Wall Totem or
Ancestral Protection Totem
- Level 40:
Graceful Spirit or
Wind Rush Totem
- Level 45:
Cloudburst Totem
- Level 50:
Wellspring
The build suggested above does not account for specific fights in the current raid tier. If you wish to have a boss-by-boss breakdown of talent choices, you should check out our dedicated page below.
Dungeon / Small Group Talents
The talent setup below is a good starting point for dungeons. The optimal setup depends on both your group composition and the dungeon you are clearing.
- Level 15:
Undulation
- Level 25:
Echo of the Elements
- Level 30:
Static Charge
- Level 35:
Earthen Wall Totem or
Ancestral Vigor
- Level 40:
Graceful Spirit or
Nature's Guardian
- Level 45:
Cloudburst Totem
- Level 50:
Ascendance
Higher Mythic+ can potentially require a mix of certain AoE and Single-Target talents, depending on affixes and other variables. If you want more detailed advice specific to Mythic+, check out our page below.
Soloing / Torghast Talents
You should use the talent setup below when soloing, especially if doing Torghast.
- Level 15:
Torrent
- Level 25:
Echo of the Elements
- Level 30:
Static Charge
- Level 35:
Earthen Wall Totem
- Level 40:
Nature's Guardian or
Graceful Spirit
- Level 45:
Flash Flood
- Level 50:
Ascendance
Level 15 Talents for Restoration Shaman
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Level 15 talents offer a boost to sustained healing.
Torrent increases the initial heal from
Riptide by 20%.
Undulation causes every third
Healing Wave or
Healing Surge to heal for an additional 50%.
Unleash Life heals a friendly target for a moderate amount and increases your next direct heal's potency by 35%.
Torrent is a strong choice for all situations, as it gives your
Riptide a little more direct healing. It can be helpful for quickly
getting low health group members back up to safe levels, and given Riptide is
already one of your most efficient heals, odds are you are casting a lot of
Riptide already. While traditionally weaker than
Unleash Life for
raiding, Shadowlands Shamans have very good Mana efficiency and
Chain Heal is weaker than before, making it a competitive choice for
Necrolord players.
Undulation's performance depends on how much of your total
throughput consists of
Healing Wave /
Healing Surge
casts. If these 2 spells are your main healing sources, then this talent is a great
pick on the tier, otherwise you should probably take a different talent. It has
higher potential throughput than Unleash Life but can suffer from poor timing on
its buff effect. Use this weak aura to
track the hidden Undulation buff, made by Niseko.
Unleash Life provides an extra instant heal and strong boost to
your next direct heal. This should usually be used on
Chain Heal, as
you can reliably increase Chain Heal output by 35% with a single global cooldown
and negligible Mana cost. If the buffed Chain Heal would cause heavy overheal, you
should instead use it on
Healing Surge or
Riptide,
as it improves its healing over time component as well as its direct heal. This
talent helps you save Mana by filling your global cooldowns with cheap casts and
has amazing synergy with
High Tide and
Chain Harvest from the
Venthyr Covenant, but it still performs admirably with any other talent
and Covenant choices.
Level 25 Talents for Restoration Shaman
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Level 25 talents also offer a boost to sustained healing.
Echo of the Elements grants an additional charge to
Riptide,
Healing Stream Totem (or
Cloudburst Totem, when talented), and
Lava Burst.
Deluge causes
Chain Heal,
Healing Wave and
Healing Surge to heal for 20% more on targets that have
Riptide or are standing within your
Healing Rain.
Surge of Earth consumes 3 charges of your active
Earth Shield to heal allies near the shielded person for a small amount.
Echo of the Elements allows you to save instant spells for
movement periods without losing throughput. The extra
Lava Burst charge
makes
Lava Surge nearly always grant you an extra Lava Burst
rather than just shortening its remaining cooldown and making it instant, thus
increasing your single target DPS. It also allows you to place up to three
Cloudburst Totem in a row, although only one can be active at a given
time. This is a great all around talent that works in all situations.
Deluge empowers your main spells significantly, as long as they hit
allies inside your
Healing Rain / with
Riptide. That makes it a
decent talent for increasing your general healing, but keep in mind that you will
be losing on
Echo of the Elements's versatility and damage
increasing potential if you take it.
Surge of Earth is yet another area of effect heal for the kit. It has
relatively weak numbers and does not fill a special role. Its range is very limited
and, because it consumes
Earth Shield charges, it will force you to refresh
it sooner, making it a very weak talent in all situations.
Level 30 Talents for Restoration Shaman
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Level 30 talents offer / enhance utility tools.
Spirit Wolf causes you to gain 5% increased movement speed / damage reduction every second while transformed into
Ghost Wolf, stacking up to 20% of each.
Earthgrab Totem places a totem up to 30 yards away that lasts for 20 seconds and roots enemies within 8 yards for 8 seconds. Enemies that were previously rooted by the totem are slowed by 50% instead, while inside its effect.
Static Charge reduces the cooldown of
Capacitor Totem by 5 seconds for each enemy it stuns, up to a 20-second cooldown reduction maximum.
Spirit Wolf is a good choice whenever you need that little extra
damage reduction / speed to deal with encounter mechanics or when extra crowd
control is not required. Due to its general flexibility, it is the recommended
talent to take when you don't have a specific use for the other options.
Earthgrab Totem allows you to root enemies for a long duration.
This is very helpful against melee non-boss enemies or when dealing with
certain encounter mechanics.
Static Charge allows you to stun large groups of enemies more
often, which is typically useful in dungeons or large scale PvP.
Level 35 Talents for Restoration Shaman
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Level 35 talents are a mix of throughput and utility tools.
Ancestral Vigor causes targets healed by
Healing Wave,
Healing Surge,
Chain Heal — any bounce hit counts — and
Riptide's direct heal to grant their targets 10% increased maximum health for 10 seconds.
Earthen Wall Totem can be placed up to 30 yards away and redirects a flat amount of damage taken from nearby allies to the totem, which has the same total amount of health as you. It has a 1-minute cooldown.
Ancestral Protection Totem can also be placed up to 30 yards away, lasts 30 seconds and grants two effects to allies within 20 yards of the totem: 10% increased maximum health and the ability to reincarnate at 20% health and Mana by consuming the totem. Players who took over 200% of their maximum health in damage as the killing blow cannot reincarnate with this totem and reincarnating does not count towards the combat resurrection limit. It has a 5-minute cooldown.
Ancestral Vigor is the most flexible, and least impactful, choice of
this row and works decently 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.
Earthen Wall Totem is good for reducing frequent incoming damage
on a stacked group of allies. Since it only absorbs a small, fixed amount of
each individual 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 is 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, as its effect is extraordinarily
powerful.
Level 40 Talents for Restoration Shaman
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Level 40 talents offer / enhance utility tools.
Nature's Guardian heals you for 20% of your maximum health whenever your health falls below 35% — this happens before the hit that takes you below 35% health — with a 45-seconds cooldown between activations.
Graceful Spirit makes your
Spiritwalker's Grace a 1-minute cooldown and increases your movement speed by 20% while
Spiritwalker's Grace is active.
Wind Rush Totem summons a totem up to 30 yards away for 15 seconds that increases the speed of allies within 10 yards by 60% for 5 seconds. The speed buff is continually refreshed as long as they are within range. It has a 2-minute cooldown.
Nature's Guardian is a small, but completely passive self-healing
ability that can potentially save your life if you expect to be taking large
hits while above 35% health — keep in mind it will never save you from
hits that deal your maximum health in damage or higher due to the heal
happening before the damage event. It can also heal you when you are,
otherwise, unable to do so — due to being crowd controlled in PvP, for
example.
Graceful Spirit should be your go-to talent in situations where
you need to be able to move while healing more often than once every 2 minutes,
and if you do not require any of the other two talents to survive / deal with
group movement.
Wind Rush Totem should be your go-to talent in situations where your group
requires a group movement speed buff, typically while raiding, where it is an
exceptional talent.
Level 45 Talents for Restoration Shaman
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Level 45 talents offer a boost to burst healing.
Flash Flood reduces the casting time of your next healing spell by 20% after you consume a charge of
Tidal Waves.
Downpour heals up to 6 allies in a large targeting circle when cast. It has a variable cooldown that ranges from 5 seconds (hit nothing / no effective healing done on hits) to 35 seconds (6 hits with effective healing done).
Cloudburst Totem replaces
Healing Stream Totem when talented and places a totem beneath you that stores 30% of all spell healing and overhealing done while active. This healing is released up to 40 yards around you — not the totem — at the end of its 15-second duration, with a 30-second cooldown on the totem itself.
Flash Flood significantly increases your average casting speed as
long as you are spending your
Tidal Waves regularly. This is beneficial
for both single target and group healing, but requires you to spend more Mana to
achieve the same group healing benefits as the other two talents, making it a poor
choice.
Downpour does very strong stacked group burst healing, but due to its
high cooldown, has been out scaled by
Cloudburst Totem, which can now do
its job better with a similar cooldown. It should still be the talent of choice
in this row for Shamans who are focused on dealing damage, in which case you can
just use it every 35 seconds without needing the healing setup required for Cloudburst.
Cloudburst Totem's power depends exclusively on your ability to
grow its stored healing with your other spells. Since it splits the stored healing
evenly among hurt allies when destroyed, you want to try and destroy it manually
ahead of the 15 seconds limit when not doing so will result in heavy
overhealing. Due to replacing
Healing Stream Totem,
Echo of the Elements
causes you to have 2 charges of Cloudburst Totem, which can be used, for example,
to ensure every
Wellspring cast contributes to a Cloudburst Totem's
stored healing.
Level 50 Talents for Restoration Shaman
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Level 50 talents offer a boost to burst healing.
High Tide grants 10% extra healing and no decrease after each jump to your next two
Chain Heal casts, every time you spend 40.000 Mana. This buff lasts for 25 seconds after you reach the 40.000 Mana threshold, and can thus safely be stored for situations where it is needed.
Wellspring creates a wave of healing which hits all allies up to 30 yards in front of you, in a wide arc, with a 20-second cooldown.
Ascendance causes a healing burst split among nearby allies when activated, lasts 15 seconds and causes all of your non-totem healing to be duplicated and evenly split between allies up to 20 yards around you.
High Tide is the most flexible talent in this row, allowing you to bank
powerful
Chain Heal casts to counter incoming burst damage, or simply
passively increase your throughput. While it is not a very strong talent right
now, it can still be used on fights where Mana is not an issue or for the ease
of use.
Wellspring allows for widespread group healing, a limitation
Restoration often struggles with. With its relatively low 20-second cooldown,
Wellspring works best when the encounter's damage pattern allows you to cast it
on cooldown without heavy overhealing. As replacing
Chain Heal casts with
Wellsprings is an efficient way to extend your Mana pool, this is also a Mana
efficient talent to take.
Ascendance's duplicated healing is only spread into injured
allies, which means you can use it to rapidly heal a single target when needed,
or as a group healing cooldown when combined with your other group heals. While
Ascendance is very powerful while active, its overall uptime is very low, making
it unreliable in many situations.
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.
While War Mode can be beneficial to your character progression speed, it also brings significant risks of getting delayed by PvP combat. This means that you should only have it enabled if you do not mind being dragged into outdoor PvP occasionally.
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.
Skyfury Totem creates a totem beneath you that increases the critical effect damage and healing of your spells by 20% for 15 seconds, on a 40-second cooldown. This totem is great to both increase your healing output and damage output of your group members on a short cooldown.
Ancestral Gift allows you to cast uninterrupted for 5 seconds after using
Spiritwalker's Grace. This is critical when facing one or more opponents who can interrupt you, allowing you to land every spell cast during that window.
Counterstrike Totem creates a totem beneath you that reflects 100% of the damage caused on allies within 20 yards of the totem back to enemies for its 15 second duration. It has a 45-second cooldown. This totem allows you to contribute significant area of effect DPS when your allies pull a lot of enemies or during PvP situations.
Swelling Waves,
Voodoo Mastery,
Electrocute,
Cleansing Waters,
Grounding Totem,
Spirit Link,
Tidebringer and
Spectral Recovery have their own
niches, but are not as generally useful when leveling / doing World Quests with
a group as a Restoration Shaman. It is not recommended that you try to
solo level and / or do World Quests, as the specialization's talents and
ability to DPS is weak, slowing you down considerably.
In PvP situations, Ancestral Gift,
Tidebringer and
Grounding Totem are the default options, with
Electrocute having
a place against Druid healers and
Skyfury Totem being good in large scale
PvP or when playing with a full caster team.
Changelog
- 22 Dec. 2020: Improved the PvP talent explanations and adjusted High Tide as it has been performing poorly of late.
- 20 Dec. 2020: Adjusted the talent recommendations and explanation text.
- 05 Dec. 2020: Added a weak aura to track Undulation procs.
- 24 Nov. 2020: Page updated for Shadowlands launch.
- 18 Oct. 2020: Reworked the talent recommendations and the explaining text for the level 15 row.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Shaman Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Seksi, member of Arctic Avengers and healing aficionado. You can find him answering questions and discussing Restoration Shaman gameplay on the Ancestral Guidance and Earthshrine Discords.
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