Restoration Shaman PvP Guide — 12.1

Patch 12.1 meaningfully buffs to Healing Rain and several throughput talents, buffs Farseer Ancestor Chain Heal, and also tunes shared Shaman control tools in PvP.

• Restoration Shaman Impacting Changes:
  • Reactive Warding increased healing by 25%.
  • Healing Rain healing increased by 20%, now has a 12-second cooldown and 18-second duration (recasting despawns the previous Rain; Totemic Surging Totem Healing Rain unaffected), and heals up to 6 targets (was 5).
  • Healing Wave healing increased by 10%. Riptide direct healing increased by 25% and periodic healing increased by 100%.
  • Unleash Life healing increased by 100%. New talent Swelling Tides: Healing Stream Totem and Stormstream Totem extend active Riptides by 3 seconds.
  • Acid Rain damage increased by 50%, but now ticks every 2 seconds (was 1 second).
  • Totemic: Pulse Capacitor and Surging Totem Healing Rain bonuses reduced (from 25% to 10%, and 20% to 10% respectively).
  • Farseer: Ancestor Chain Heal bounces to 5 targets (was 3), loses 10% per jump (was 30%), 20-yard jump range, and healing increased by 50%.
  • Earthen Accord now grants an additive +20% to the healing buff from Unleash Life (was multiplicative).
  • Current Control now also reduces the mana cost of Chain Heal by 15%.
  • Wavespeaker's Blessing has been moved up in the talent tree (to where Calm Waters was). Calm Waters has been removed.
  • Season 2 tier set: 2-set — Healing Wave and Chain Heal have a chance to create a Healing Rain at the target's location for 8 seconds. 4-set — every 1 second, 1 ally inside Healing Rain gains a watery shield (Condensation) that absorbs damage for 10 seconds (absorb amount reduced by 30%).
  • Diminishing returns reset after 20 seconds (was 16 seconds).
  • Players under Fear or Disorient are no longer affected by knockbacks.
  • Earthbind Totem slow reduced to 30% (was 50%). Thunderstorm slow reduced to 30% (was 40%) in PvP combat.
  • Arctic Snowstorm slow reduced to 20% (was 30%). Enfeeblement slow reduced to 50% (was 70%) in PvP combat.
  • Gladiator's Distinction (PvP trinket set bonus) now increases Stamina by 10% (was 15%) for healers.

Click for Previous Season 1 Hotfixes

2.2.

Midnight Season 1 Tuning

Due to the size of the changes we have broken it up into sections to make it easier to digest how Restoration Shaman was tuned throughout Season 1.

• April 29th: All damage dealt increased by approximately 12% (completing the intended Patch 12.0.5 damage correction).
• May 5th: Healing Wave healing increased by 10% in PvP, Riptide healing increased by 15% in PvP.
• May 26th: Mana cost of Chain Heal, Healing Wave, and Riptide reduced by 5%.
• June 30th: Farseer Maelstrom Supremacy healing 20% in PvP (was 15%), Hydrobubble no longer reduced in PvP, Call of the Ancestors heals increased by 30% in PvP (was 20%).
• July 21st: Riptide healing increased by 15% in PvP.

• March 31st Class Tuning:
  
  • Lightning Lasso damage increased by 450% in PvP combat.
  • Electrocute damage increased by 35% in PvP combat.
  • Farseer: All Ancestor healing increased by 20% in PvP combat.
  • Farseer: Elemental Reverb now increases Riptide healing by 25% in PvP combat (was 10%).

• March 24th Class Tuning:
  
  • All healing increased by 3%.
• For the Season 1 launch, Restoration Shaman received a few changes that leads to higher throughput of healing.
  
  • Healing Rain healing increased by 45%.
  • Chain Heal healing increased by 20%.
  • All healing done increased by 8% in PvP combat.
  • Healing Tide Totem healing increased by 75% in PvP combat.

• Additions:
  • Stormstream Totem Apex Talents increase sustained healing throughput.
  • Call of Al'Akir allows for instant casting Hex making Restoration Shaman more valuable and dangerous as a healer.
  • Totem of Wrath which is proc'd from Ancestral Swiftness / Nature's Swiftness, working well with Call of Al'Akir to add higher critical damage of team members spells by 15%.
  • Encasing Cold enabling more root crowd-control of the enemy team.
• Removals:
  • Earthen Wall Totem, Stone Bulwark Totem and Totemic Recall, Deeply Rooted Elements among others have been removed.
  • Talents removed: Deeply Rooted Elements.
• Changes:
  • Defensive options have been reduced with the removal of Stone Bulwark Totem and Totemic Recall, affecting totem reset strategies.

Important Note

Midnight also introduces Apex talents, with Restoration Shaman getting Stormstream Totem, which provides enhanced passive healing sustained healing throughput.