Become Everyone’s Best Friend With Resto Spec

Resto Shaman Build

Secondary healers like Druids and Shamans are great fun – while you’re not being everyone’s best buddy by stopping them dying, you’re able to step in and do some DPS, and not to mention level at an “ok” rate when you’re out of grouping situations.

The other good thing about being the secondary healer is that everyone doesn’t expect you to hold everything together. If your main healer drops, and the rest of the group soon follows, it was his fault… right?

With all my professions of a resto Shammy being able to do other stuff while he’s not healing groups, let me be clear – the restoration Shaman is NOT going to handle solo PvE well, and is a bit of a slouch on leveling speeds.

Because of that fact, this build is fairly specialized and doesn’t offer much in the way of options to tweak for different play styles.

Either you use this build to heal groups in PvP or in instances, or you just love the Resto Shammy and don’t care that you’re leveling a little slow.

Key tip: Resto Shamans are the king of chain heals, which means the Shaman will be in charge of healing groups of players at a time, particularly larger raid groups being hit by AoE’s.

Your healing wave spells are great and all, but Druids and obviously Priests trounce your single target heals. Chain heals are also great for PvP in battlegrounds or larger arena fights, but obviously you lose your biggest draw card in 2v2.

This build will be a good general purpose healing build for PvP or instances of any size. If you’re a raiding junkie I’d investigate optimizing your chain heals by picking up the appropriate gear and making every talent point count.

The Restoration Shaman Build

Row 1 (Improved Healing Wave, Totemic Focus)

Nothing fancy here, IHW gets maxed with 5 points to reduce your cast time half a sec. Leave totemic focus alone.

Row 2 (Improved Reincarnation, Healing Grace, Tidal Focus)

We don’t need reincarnation for PvP, and it shouldn’t be your main focus in groups to rez, so leave it be, 0/2. Healing Grace, max it with 3/3 – great for managing your threat levels, especially when you start spamming chain heals. Tidal focus also gets 5/5, especially handy again in groups where you’re doing a lot of healing – you’ll save 5% mana per cast with this maxed.

Row 3 (Improved Water Shield, Healing Focus, Tidal Force, Ancestral Healing)

I leave IWS – I know some people think the pay off is worth the chance at gobbling a water shield orb, but I’m not convinced 3 points are worthwhile here – especially when chain heal isn’t on the menu.

Healing Focus – an easy one & doesn’t really need explaining, 3/3 reduces pushback suffered from damage by 70%.

Tidal Force is another no brainer – increase the crit chance of your core healing spells including chain heal by 60% for a limited time and great as part of an “oh sh*t” macro if and when things get a little crazy.

Ancestral Healing is part b to the “oh sh*t” button I referenced above – give your target an extra 25% armor for 15 seconds after a crit heal.

Row 4 (Restorative Totems, Tidal Mastery)

One of the most commonly used totems in a raid is the mana spring totem. Your priest loves it, the mage loves it… everyone loves it because the benefits help us all out at the end of the day. Max out 3 points to get an extra 20% mana out of your spring, or if you have your healing totem out, and extra 45% healing.

Tidal Mastery, max it out at 5% to get those lovely crit heal percentages up.

Row 5 (Healing Way, Nature’s Swiftness, Focused Mind)

Healing Way gets no love on this line, I’m just not big on the Shaman’s healing wave spells and think points are best kept for other uses.

Nature’s Swiftness is another great panic button to include on a macro. 1/1 gives you an insta cast healing spell.

Focused Mind is great for PvP and reduces Silence or Interrupt effects by 30% which can be the difference between saving your friend’s skin and not. Max it with 3 points.

Row 6 (Purification)

All on its lonesome is Purification — you can’t miss its 10% bonus to all heals. Nuff said -5/5.

Row 7 (Nature’s Guardian, Mana Tide Totem, Cleans Spirit)

Nature’s Guardian is a bit of an optional one for me. If you don’t find yourself in PvP very often I can see the wisdom in dropping it in favor of some other resto lines here. If you engage in PvP its a must, max it. If you don’t, it can still be handy in tough fights and makes you just a little bit more survivable.

Mana Tide Totem, a great pick for you raiders, it can add a huge mana regeneration boost in the thick of battle, drop a point in here for sure. If you never raid, drop it.

Cleanse Spririt is handy in all sorts of situations and takes down a poison, curse and disease effect at the same time with an insta cast. 1/1 here too.

Row 8 (Blessing of the Eternals, Improved Chain Heal, Nature’s Blessing)

More critical healing love comes from BotE — 2 points gives you a 4% boost, and gives you an 80% boost to the chance of Earthliving to apply on your target when they’re under 35% health. 2/2 here, please.

Improved Chain Heal, 2 points here gives your chain heals a 20% boost, need I say more?

Also max out Nature’s Blessing with 3 points, which with Ancestral Knowledge maxed out gives you an awesome boost to every heal you do (15% of intellect added to each heal).Row 9 ()

Row 10 (Ancestral Awakening, Earth Shield, Improved Earth Shield)

AA is left alone in this build — again I’m not keen on optimizing non chaining heals, and even with riptide getting this bonus I’m not keen on it. Leave it out.

Earth Shield is awesome with just 1 point and can be good to use on your primary healer or tank. Improved Earth sheild doesn’t convince me and I leave it out to give us some points in enhancement which make a real difference to our heals.

Row 11 (Tidal Waves)

Tidal Waves is a good talent to make your single target heals more useful. Giving your next two healing wave spells after Riptide or Chain Heal a 30% faster cast with a 20% healing bonus is definately worth the 5 points. Fill it up and move on to Riptide.

Row 12 (Riptide)

Finally at row 12 we Shaman’s get a good healing over time (HoT) spell! Riptide would be great alone, but with the bonus it gives your Chain Heals to the same target, its really an invaluable and kick ass addition to the resto line.

Round out your Resto with some Enhancement thusly:

Ancestral knowledge 5/5 – great for that extra mana and crit ability.

Thundering strikes 5/5 – ditto.

Improved Shields 2 or 3 points here out of 3. If you go 2 points, place your last point into Shamanistic Focus for the cheaper shock spells (good for you PvP’ers out there to conserve mana).

There you have it, a great Resto build for Shaman’s who love PvP and raiding – its easily tweaked if you’re a raiding fanatic, but what I have here is solid even if you are.

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