Shaman — Restoration
Restoration is a reactive healer built around repeatable Totemic ramps: keep Surging Totem working, feed it with Healing Stream Totem and Riptide, then use Downpour and Unleash Life to turn planned damage into efficient recovery.
World of Warcraft: Midnight · Season 1
Guide contents
How Restoration Shaman wins
Restoration is a reactive healer built around repeatable Totemic ramps: keep Surging Totem working, feed it with Healing Stream Totem and Riptide, then use Downpour and Unleash Life to turn planned damage into efficient recovery.
- Role
- Healer
- Stat lead
- Item Level / Intellect then Critical Strike
- Single target
- Totemic
- Cleave / AoE
- Totemic
Strong when
- Spirit Link Totem can solve lethal health-distribution mechanics
- Wind Shear gives healers a rare ranged interrupt
- Totemic delivers frequent, predictable stacked-group healing
Plan around
- Movement and spread damage can strain throughput
- Mana planning still matters in long encounters
- Totem placement is unforgiving when the group moves away from it
Stat priority and consumables
Item level and effect strength still matter. Use this ordering to break close choices, then re-check it after major gear swaps.
- 1.Item Level / Intellect
- 2.Critical Strike
- 3.Versatility
- 4.Haste
- 5.Mastery
For raid, Critical Strike leads and Versatility and Haste are close behind. In Mythic+, Crit, Versatility, and Haste are broadly interchangeable. Mastery is normally last for throughput but rises sharply in difficult progression when allies spend more time at low health. Sim or compare your own gear when pieces are close.
Flasks, food, potions, weapon oils, and runes for this build.
Opener and priority
Use these as decision priorities, not a rigid cast sequence. Re-evaluate whenever targets, resources, procs, or mechanics change.
Core principles
- Pick your targets correctly: Undercurrent, Deluge, Flow of the Tides, and Tidewaters all want as many Riptides active as possible, so put Riptide on people who do not already have it - and because of Mastery: Deep Healing and directly-targeted casts, healing the lowest-health targets increases the value of everything you do.
- Use your short cooldowns on cooldown: Unleash Life, Healing Rain, Surging Totem, Downpour, Nature's Swiftness, Ancestral Swiftness, and Healing Stream Totem with its Stormstream Totem procs are all more valuable the more casts you fit into a fight - press them early and often whenever healing is needed.
- Manage your mana: Healing Wave is very cheap but single-target and more likely to overheal; Chain Heal is much more expensive but spreads smart healing across multiple targets. Talents like Resurgence and Calm Waters help - pick the correct tool for the moment and understand your mana flow so you can keep healing as long as needed.
TotemicThe recommended default. The first list is the raid healing priority; the second is the Mythic+ healing priority, where spot healing matters more than mana.
Single-target priority
- 1.Stormstream Totem - use all of your procs
- 2.Riptide - keep on cooldown
- 3.Nature's Swiftness
- 4.Surging Totem - maintain
- 5.Downpour - use as much as possible
- 6.Healing Stream Totem - keep on cooldown
- 7.Unleash Life
- 8.Chain Heal or Healing Wave - Chain Heal as mana allows when AoE healing is needed; Healing Wave for single-target healing or to conserve mana
AoE priority
- 1.Stormstream Totem - Mythic+ priority - use all of your procs
- 2.Riptide - keep on cooldown
- 3.Nature's Swiftness
- 4.Surging Totem - maintain
- 5.Healing Stream Totem - keep on cooldown
- 6.Unleash Life
- 7.Chain Heal or Healing Wave - in Mythic+ the pick depends less on mana and more on who needs healing most right now
FarseerAncestral Swiftness replaces Nature's Swiftness and Healing Rain replaces the Surging Totem package. First list is raid, second is Mythic+.
Single-target priority
- 1.Stormstream Totem - use all of your procs
- 2.Riptide - keep on cooldown
- 3.Ancestral Swiftness
- 4.Unleash Life
- 5.Healing Rain - maintain
- 6.Healing Stream Totem - keep on cooldown
- 7.Chain Heal or Healing Wave - Chain Heal as mana allows when AoE healing is needed; Healing Wave for single-target healing or to conserve mana
AoE priority
- 1.Stormstream Totem - Mythic+ priority - use all of your procs
- 2.Riptide - keep on cooldown
- 3.Ancestral Swiftness
- 4.Unleash Life
- 5.Healing Rain - harder to get value from with fewer players, but still worth it for Deluge if the majority of the group stands inside it
- 6.Healing Stream Totem - keep on cooldown
- 7.Chain Heal or Healing Wave - in Mythic+ the pick depends less on mana and more on who needs healing most right now
Pre-combat checks
- Buff yourself: Water Shield, Earth Shield, and Earthliving Weapon should always be active on you. Instinctive Imbuements helps, and Therazane's Resilience means you only reapply hourly unless you die.
- Cast group buffs: make sure Skyfury is active on the whole group and that someone is carrying your second Earth Shield.
- Do not forget consumables: food and flasks are cheap throughput, Vantus and Augment runes are the expensive layer, and carry water so you can restore mana out of combat.
Major cooldowns
Ascendance
- Reworked in Midnight: on cast, all injured allies within 20 yards are healed by a fixed amount split evenly between them.
- While active, Healing Wave always critically strikes and heals a second ally for 50%, Chain Heal bounces up to three additional times with only 10% reduction per jump (down from 30%), and both spells cost 25% less mana.
- The same player cannot be healed twice by one Chain Heal, so in Mythic+ the extra jumps do nothing - but the jump reduction still makes the spell far better.
- Every Healing Wave and Chain Heal hit can proc Resurgence; guaranteed crits mean Healing Wave recovers more mana than it costs during Ascendance.
- Prepare before pressing it: bank two Tidal Waves stacks with Riptides, cast Unleash Life and Surging Totem right before, then cast your chosen spell twice to consume Unleash Life before using your Swiftness.
- As Totemic, dump all Healing Stream Totem and Stormstream Totem charges during it - they cast full-power Chain Heals on a lower global cooldown.
Spirit Link Totem
- A damage-reduction cooldown: everyone inside takes 10% reduced damage and health is redistributed every second to keep the group at the same percentage.
- Use it proactively right before a big shared hit; it also works as a single-target emergency save by pulling the dying player's health back up from healthier allies.
- The redistribution generates no healing - every point of health it gives someone comes from someone else - so purely reactive use wastes the damage reduction.
- Spouting Spirits raises the reduction to 15% and heals everyone inside one second after you drop it.
Healing Tide Totem
- The simplest cooldown in the kit: it pulses over 10 seconds, healing all allies within 40 yards, reduced beyond 5 targets - so it heals each target more in dungeons than raids.
- First Ascendant reduces its cooldown; Preeminence extends its duration and grants Haste.
- As Totemic it gains Splitstream, a free Lively Totems Chain Heal, and Primal Catalyst Earthliving applications, making it a much more attractive choice than for Farseer.
- Use it whenever the whole group needs heavy healing, and pre-plan casts for the most dangerous raid phases.
Nature's Swiftness / Ancestral Swiftness
- A 1-minute cooldown that makes your next cast free and instant - free Chain Heals over a fight, or an emergency instant Healing Wave.
- The most important part is the guaranteed Stormstream Totem proc on use: do not hold it too long or you lose valuable healing, and remember the cooldown only starts once you consume the buff.
- As Farseer it becomes Ancestral Swiftness: shorter cooldown, it empowers the consumed cast, and it spawns an Ancestor - you must still talent baseline Nature's Swiftness for the Ancestor to spawn. Generally consume it with Chain Heal; Healing Rain or even damage spells are options in Mythic+.
Spiritwalker's Grace
- Lets you cast while moving for a short duration - essential for forced-movement moments that still demand significant healing.
- A cast started during the buff can finish after it ends, so starting a cast on the last second effectively extends it; you can also activate it midway through a cast and start moving.
Advanced tips
Stormstream Totem
- The Apex talent: a proc that improves your next Healing Stream Totem with a high initial wave, extra targets, and increased healing - and it never costs a Healing Stream charge, because each proc instantly restores one and raises your maximum charges by one.
- Procs come reliably from Nature's Swiftness / Ancestral Swiftness (guaranteed) and from a 6% chance per hardcast Riptide - free Riptides from Primal Tide Core do not count.
- The buff lasts 60 seconds and stacks twice, so you can hold procs to line them up with damage events - but sitting on them costs Healing Stream Totem casts, so spend as soon as reasonable.
- The talent also increases all Stormstream and Healing Stream healing by 40%, and as Totemic each drop heals an extra target at 30% power via Splitstream and casts a free Lively Totems Chain Heal.
Filler spells: Chain Heal vs Healing Wave
- Chain Heal calculates Versatility, Unleash Life, and Flow of the Tides when the cast finishes, then loses 30% per bounce; Mastery, Critical Strike, Earth Shield, and Deluge increase each bounce independently, and it is a fully smart heal.
- Healing Wave is a simple, very cheap single-target heal; during Ascendance its guaranteed crit and second hit count as full casts for Resurgence and Ancestral Awakening.
- Chain Heal is considerably stronger and is the default when enough allies are injured; switch to Healing Wave for spot healing or when mana runs low - the same decision applies during Ascendance.
- As Totemic, Lively Totems casts Chain Heal completely free and instantly whenever you use Healing Stream Totem, Healing Tide Totem, or Spirit Link Totem.
Call of the Ancestors (Farseer)
- Unleash Life and Ancestral Swiftness summon Ancestors that mimic your casts on the same target: Riptide and Unleash Life produce Healing Surge, Healing Wave produces Healing Wave, and Chain Heal, Healing Stream Totem, Healing Rain, and Healing Tide Totem all produce Chain Heal.
- For damage, Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, and Lava Burst produce Lava Burst, and Chain Lightning produces Chain Lightning.
- Ancestors use their own versions of the spells, so their power is not affected by your talents - and Ancestral Awakening's 'Ancestral Spirit' line is just flavor text with no Farseer interaction.
Deeply Rooted Elements
- Gives a 7% chance per Riptide application - not cast, so free Primal Tide Core Riptides count - to activate Ascendance.
- It has bad-luck protection, so procs normalize over time even if streaks happen.
- Procced Ascendances benefit from Preeminence and still trigger the initial burst of healing.
Talents and hero trees
Use Totemic for the single-target profile below and Totemic when cleave or adds make its toolkit more valuable.
Recommended starting profiles
Single-target: Totemic
Totemic is the current default for its reliable Surging Totem coverage and repeatable totem healing.
- Totemic hero tree
- Stat priority: Item Level / Intellect > Critical Strike
- Interrupt: Wind Shear
Multi-target: Totemic
Surging Totem replaces Healing Rain; Lively Totems and Downpour reward maintaining it through stacked damage.
- Totemic hero tree
- Prioritize AoE and add-swap talents
- Interrupt: Wind Shear
Verified import strings
Start with the profile matching your content. Boss and dungeon tabs in the gear section show the exact loadout used for each ranked result.
Totemic - Raid with Downpour
The standard current raid build. It maintains Surging Totem and uses Downpour to refresh its value into recurring group damage.
CgQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgBAAAAzMzMLLbDzwYmZmZGzYB2gZsox2AyMwGjhZsNGz0stMzwMmFWMzMjZYWGAAYAzMDmZAgBDTotemic - Raid without Downpour
Use this raid variant when the encounter does not reward the Downpour point or your group needs the alternate utility path.
CgQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgBAAAAzMzMbLbDzMGzMzMzYGLwGMjFN2GQmB2MDGsNGz0stMzwMmFWMzMjZYWGAAAYmZwMDAMYATotemic - Mythic+
A dungeon build built around the same Surging Totem cadence, with points allocated for repeatable five-player recovery and utility.
CgQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYMjZbbZmZmxYmZYGzYB2gZspx2AyMwGjZMzsNzY0stMzwMmFWMzMjhlZZAAwMgZGYmBAzgBFarseer - Preference option
Farseer remains playable for players who strongly prefer its ancestor pattern, but Totemic is the recommended current default for raid and Mythic+.
CgQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgBAAAAjZmZbZbGmZmZmZGzYsYmFYATwswEYsgZGMLzMGNbLzMMjZhFjZGzYZWGAAMAzMDAmZgBDComplete talent reference
Every class, specialization, and hero-tree talent from Blizzard game data. Active and choice talents stay open; passive nodes remain searchable and expand on demand.
Shaman class tree
Shared class talents, including throughput, control, defensives, and movement.
Active and choice talents
Passive talents
Restoration specialization tree
Every Restoration talent currently exposed by Blizzard game data.
Active and choice talents
Passive talents
Totemic
Totemic hero talents, including every active, choice, and passive node exposed by Blizzard.
Active and choice talents
Passive talents
Stormbringer
Stormbringer hero talents, including every active, choice, and passive node exposed by Blizzard.
Active and choice talents
Passive talents
Farseer
Farseer hero talents, including every active, choice, and passive node exposed by Blizzard.
Active and choice talents
Passive talents
Boss and dungeon loadouts
Switch between raid and Mythic+ to inspect the top player for every available encounter: exact talents, source link, item level, enchant and socket counts, and the player's gear.
Pulling the top Warcraft Logs result, exact talents, and equipment for each boss.
Enchants
Choose enhancements after your equipment is settled. Secondary-stat enchant choices move with your current stat mix and the content you are preparing for.
Gems
Socket into the current stat priority, then re-check after major equipment swaps rather than treating a gem choice as permanent.
Embellishments
Crafted effects are capped at two equipped embellishments. Lock these in only after deciding which crafted slots survive your next raid or Mythic+ upgrades.
Utility, defensives, and movement
Your Shaman toolkit is part of the rotation whenever it prevents lost uptime, lethal damage, or an enemy cast.
Bloodlust/Heroism plus situational totems make Shaman one of the deepest utility classes.
Interrupt: Wind Shear - grab a focus-interrupt macro on the Restoration macros page.
Interface and macros
Use interface changes only when they expose a decision sooner: resources, procs, defensives, dispels, interrupts, and encounter assignments.
Mouseover Riptide
#showtooltip Riptide
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] RiptideFocus Wind Shear
#showtooltip Wind Shear
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Wind ShearCursor Capacitor Totem
#showtooltip Capacitor Totem
/cast [@cursor] Capacitor TotemMouseover Flame Shock
#showtooltip Flame Shock
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Flame ShockCursor Spirit Link Totem
#showtooltip Spirit Link Totem
/cast [@cursor] Spirit Link TotemWhat improves results
- Keep Wind Shear on an easy key; it is one of the healer's best dungeon tools
- Place Surging Totem for the next movement window, not where the group was standing
- Spirit Link is a health-redistribution cooldown, not a generic healing totem
- Earthliving Weapon occupies your weapon enchant slot, so do not use a weapon oil
Common mistakes
- Dropping Surging Totem where the group will immediately leave
- Letting Downpour miss its refresh window
- Holding Spirit Link until players are already dead
- Using Chain Heal into a spread group or wasting Unleash Life's bonus
FAQ
2 quick answersWhich hero tree should I play?
Play Totemic by default in both raid and Mythic+. Farseer is a preference alternative, but it generally trails after the current hero-tree changes.
Which race is best?
Racial throughput differences are very small. Dwarf is a strong practical Mythic+ option for Stoneform and Might of the Mountain; Tauren, Orc, Pandaren, and Goblin each offer useful situational utility. Pick the race you enjoy unless you are solving a specific encounter problem.
Talents by enemy class
Pick an opponent to see the pressure your PvP build must answer. The baseline comes from this spec's current arena build when one is published.
Grip setups, anti-caster pressure, and sustained melee uptime.
Mobility, anti-slow, and physical or magic mitigation.
Keep an answer for grip-based isolation and do not spend movement before the Death Knight commits their control chain.
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