Restoration Shaman Healing Spec, Builds, and Talents — 12.1

In the current meta, both Hero Talent trees are viable, with Totemic being the recommended one due to being much more forgiving for movement-heavy fights. It has a larger amount of instant casts and the ability to reposition Surging Totem with Totemic Projection frequently. Totemic also gets a lot of free Chain Heal casts through Lively Totems, allowing it to do more area healing than Farseer in most situations, at the cost of having weaker spot-healing.

This is not to say that Farseer isn't also viable, especially when you're still using the full Season 1 tier set bonus, which boosts Unleash Life instead of Healing Rain, making it more favorable for Farseer. Ancestor area healing was heavily buffed for Season 2 and so was Riptide, both of which are cornerstones of Farseer gameplay, making it much stronger than it was previously, and well worth playing if you enjoy a very active playstyle.

Also, make sure to adjust these builds to include any utility needed for specific encounters or dungeons, as the Shaman class tree is full of niche talents such as Tremor Totem which are usually useless, but can occasionally be invaluable.

Quick Start Import Codes:

The builds listed above are popular recommendations, covering various different talent loadouts suited to each style of endgame content. Each Talent Build will have its own rotation, and can also be manipulated further for specific types of content and to better benefit your group.

Combat Information

Rotations and Mythic+

Want to dive deeper? These guides will teach you how to utilize our Talent Builds in endgame content!

RotationMythic+

The Omnium Folio is a new mechanic introduced in Midnight's Patch 12.0.7 which grants a handful of small boosts which are unlocked as you complete a series of quests. Some bonuses improve throughput, while others are defensive.

We recommend the following choices. You are not locked into any option and can freely swap at any time so do not worry about making a mistake and feel free to experiment!

• Node 1: Rune of Unleashed Fire
• Node 2: Rune of Self-Mending
• Node 3: Rune of Lingering
• Node 4: Rune of Critical Power
• Node 5: Rune of Overload

The idea of this build is to make your instant smart healing from Rune of Unleashed Fire as powerful as possible, as that is the most impactful healing provided by this system, and to obtain Critical Strike from Rune of Critical Power to further improve our healing and Mana sustainability through Resurgence.

The Apex talents of Restoration Shamans are Stormstream Totem, the two-pointer Stormstream Totem, and final talent Stormstream Totem. As a whole, these apex talents grants Riptide a small chance to proc a very powerful version of Healing Stream Totem which can be cast without using regular HST charges once you fully unlock the talent. Nature's Swiftness (or Ancestral Swiftness) also grant a proc when used.

The proc stays active for up to 60 seconds and stacks twice, allowing you ample time to wait for the best time to use it, although you will generally want to do so before both charges of regular Healing Stream Totem are ready to avoid wasting potential uses.

Upon reaching Level 71 on any specialization, players will gain access to one of two unique talent trees called Hero Talents. Restoration Shaman has the choice between Farseer and Totemic.

Farseer is all about spawning Ancestors, mostly through Call of the Ancestors and Ancestral Swiftness. These are friendly NPCs that heal or deal damage based on what spells you use while they are active, making this tree a solid all-rounder that amplifies your burst healing potential. Hero Talents such as Maelstrom Supremacy and Windspeaker also make Farseer's base spells stronger than those of Totemic.

Totemic is all about using Totems, and enables Surging Totem, which replaces Healing Rain with a longer duration instant cast which can be moved with Totemic Projection. This frees up a lot of casting time, especially when combined with Lively Totems, and its free Chain Heals when using throughput totems. These talents simplify gameplay greatly, at the cost of tying your throughput potential even more to the small radius of Healing Rain.

Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:

• PvP talents that can be used in the outdoor world.
• 15% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
• 15% 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.

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 replicates and reflects damage you take for a decent duration on a short 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 makes Healing Rain instant, cheaper, and more effective. This has great synergy with Acid Rain and also with Counterstrike Totem, as it will provide a lot of healing for you to tank mobs with while they kill themselves
3. Totem of Wrath significantly increases the critical effect of spells of nearby allies for a short duration whenever you use Nature's Swiftness. 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.

Seksixeny

Guide Author

Follow Seksixeny

This guide has been written by Seksi, member of Cursed Gifts and healing aficionado. You can find him answering questions and discussing Restoration Shaman gameplay on the Ancestral Guidance and Earthshrine Discords.

In The Same Category

Restoration Shaman MacrosRestoration Shaman Easy ModeRestoration Shaman Mythic+Restoration Shaman StatsRestoration Shaman RotationRestoration Shaman Gear