Introduction
This guide was written by Radio.
I’m Radio, and I’m a Healer for Method. I actively play all healers but focus on Priest, Shaman and Evoker. Before joining Method in Patch 11.1 during Liberation of Undermine Farm, I played for the Swedish Guild “Laget”.
Restoration Shaman Overview
Restoration Shaman is a utility and throughput-rich healer, with access to numerous crowd control spells, damage, raid damage reduction, movement buffs and protection spells. This makes Restoration Shamans an always-desirable pick for any raid composition or Mythic+.
What to expect from Restoration Shamans in Mythic+: A strong and multi-purpose reactive healer, that has the widest toolkit of spells out of all healers perhaps. Shaman brings tools such as Bloodlust / Heroism, Spirit Link Totem, Wind Rush Totem, Capacitor Totem etc. They also have the ability to deal significant damage on both single target and AoE.
What to expect from Restoration Shamans in raids: A utility or throughput machine, that has the ability to swap talents and playstyle to fit any encounter. With spells such as Ancestral Protection Totem, Healing Tide Totem, Ascendance etc. they can fill any role needed as a healer in raids. Restoration Shamans can single handedly carry the whole raid’s health for a long period of time if need be. They are also excellent spot healers due to Healing Surge and Healing Wave.
What has changed
Midnight Pre-Patch Restoration Shaman Changes
The guide has been fully updated to Midnight Pre-patch, the game got a big overhaul and so has the guide! So instead of listing every change here, read along, as almost everything has seen some sort of tweaks or changes!
Here is a small summary about Shaman changes:Restoration has undergone significant changes heading into Midnight. A number of abilities and talents have been cut, with most of their replacements being passive, always-on effects. This results in a much more streamlined and intuitive toolkit, though it may feel somewhat reduced in complexity.
Cloudburst Totem has been removed, placing much greater importance on Healing Stream Totem as a core element of the specialization across all builds.
Healing Surge is no longer available, and both Chain Heal and Healing Wave have received major adjustments. Many talents that previously enhanced Chain Heal, such as Tidebringer and High Tide, have also been removed. With very few short-term modifiers remaining, Healing Wave and Chain Heal now directly compete as filler spells. In practice, you will simply use whichever is numerically stronger, and currently Healing Wave outperforms Chain Heal while also benefiting from more talent synergies. As a result, there is little reason to cast Chain Heal at the moment.
Ascendance has been fully redesigned and now shares a choice node with Healing Tide Totem. The updated Ascendance boosts all healing done by 30%, causes Riptide to make your next Healing Wave or Chain Heal instant, and applies Riptide to the primary target of every Healing Wave or Chain Heal cast while active.
Given the strong emphasis on Healing Wave and its excellent interaction with Whispering Waves, this version of Ascendance pairs extremely well with Farseer. Meanwhile, Healing Tide Totem gains additional value when selecting Totemic, particularly due to Splitstream and Primal Catalyst.
All classes got changes removing/changing abilities, For example all healers (EXCEPT SHAMAN) lost the ability to Kick, which moves the focus a lot, Shaman still holds a lot of its Utility and being unique with being the only healer with kick left!