Restoration Shaman Healing Guide (Legion 7.3.5)

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Last updated Today at 16:10 by Furty 113 comments

General Information

Welcome to our Restoration Shaman healing guide for World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.5. Here, you will learn everything you need to know about playing a Restoration Shaman in a raid environment and in Mythic+ dungeons.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Seksixeny, Restoration Shaman and general healing expert. He has been raiding in Group Therapy since Cataclysm and currently creates articles for Chain Heal as well as heavily participating in Discord healing discussion at various WoW healing channels. You can find him for questions / suggestions on Earthshrine, in the Restoration Shaman lounge.

1. Class Overview

Restoration Shaman is an extremely flexible specialization that truly shines when healing groups of players that are clumped together. They have a variety of unique tools to deal with large influxes of damage, such as Spirit Link Totem Icon Spirit Link Totem and Cloudburst Totem Icon Cloudburst Totem, allowing them to trivialize many potentially lethal situations. They are also unbeatable in situations that force the party or raid to stack up and heal through constant, heavy incoming damage, due to the efficiency of their kit. Restoration is typically undeterred by high movement due to Spiritwalker's Grace Icon Spiritwalker's Grace and a variety of instant cast heals and totems. Restoration Shamans are also capable of putting out a respectable amount of damage when necessary, allowing them to assist with pushing tight damage checks and bursting down high priority adds.

In order to properly play a healing role, you will need more than just class-specific information. To better understand healing in general, we recommend that you read our healing guide.

2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes for Restoration Shaman

New legendary items added.
All damage done increased by 25%.
Wellspring Mana cost reduced by 43%.

3. Patch 7.2 Changes for Restoration Shaman

New Artifact traits added.

4. Restoration Shaman Strengths

Excels at group healing
Outstanding at dealing with incoming burst damage
Amazing life saving potential
Good mobility
Unique life saving potential with Spirit Link Totem, Ancestral Protection Totem, and Ancestral Vigor
Great non-healing utility via Wind Rush Totem
Strong sustained HPS

5. Restoration Shaman Weaknesses

Mediocre targeted healing and tank cooldowns
Mediocre in situations that force a large spread

6. Restoration Shaman Viability in the Current Patch

Restoration Shaman is currently one of the most essential healers to a raid composition. As an overall package Restoration is very attractive, bringing some of the highest possible HPS to the table alongside an abundance of raid utility. Their Mastery, Mastery: Deep Healing Icon Mastery: Deep Healing, allows for them to really take over fights like Fallen Avatar, and their ability to maintain healing on the move allows them to stay relevant even during high movement. In Mythic+ dungeon content, Restoration is not quite as dominant as it can be in raids. With the proper talent selection and playstyle, however, Restoration becomes a potent specialization for dungeon healing. Restoration shines brightest when dealing with heavy group damage, but a more surgical set of talents can allow us to be very effective in a 5-man environment. Overall, this is possibly the strongest healer in raids as an overall package, and a perfectly viable choice for grinding high levels of Mythic+.

7. Contents

To make it easy to navigate the guide, we have split it into 12 pages:

Easy Mode: TL;DR to own without reading much;
Spell Summary: see a summary of all your useful spells;
Builds and Talents: learn how to choose your talents;
Artifact Traits and Relics: discover how to level up your Artifact;
Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths: choose the right paths on your Netherlight Crucible;
Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities: master your rotation and your cooldowns;
Boss by Boss Strategies: find out how to defeat current content bosses;
Stat Priority: read up on the respective values of your statistics;
Gems, Enchants, and Consumables: choose the best gems, enchantments, etc.;
Macros and Addons: step up your game with useful macros and addons;
Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot: find the best gear you can wear;
Battle for Azeroth: learn how to play your class in Battle for Azeroth.

Easy Mode⋙

8. ChangeLog

07 Jul. 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Removed mention to Earthen Wall Totem absorbing more than its Legion incarnation due to Beta changes.
30 Jun. 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Updated Swelling Stream with the current Beta description.
24 Jun. 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Added Azerite traits and clarified Downpour's cooldown reduction mechanic.
01 Jun. 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Updated for build 26734 (Echo of the Elements swapping to level 30, Crashing Waves removed, Flash Flood added)
28 May 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Page added.
10 Feb. 2018 (bosses page): Antorus, the Burning Throne recommendations added.
05 Dec. 2017 (gear page): Added Trinket Discussion, Best in Slot, and Insignia of the Grand Army.
30 Nov. 2017 (easy mode page): Updated stats and talents.
30 Nov. 2017 (rotation page): Removed mention of feeding CBT with pre-casts as it has been fixed.
30 Nov. 2017 (talents page): Small note added about Gust of Wind.
30 Nov. 2017 (gear page): Updated legendaries and added Tier 21 section. Removed BiS for now.
30 Nov. 2017 (stats page): Updated stat priority.
30 Nov. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Updated Tier 2 & 3 hierarchy.
30 Nov. 2017 (artifact page): Updated relic priority.
12 Sep. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Added Netherlight Crucible page for Restoration Shaman.
29 Aug. 2017 (enchants page): Added a note about Healthstones in Patch 7.3 and cleaned up the "Consumables" section.
28 Aug. 2017 (easy mode page): Updated stat priority.
28 Aug. 2017 (gear page): Updated for Patch 7.3; Legendary items re-orderd and Trinket #2 changed in BiS.
28 Aug. 2017 (enchants page): Updated enchants and consumables for Patch 7.3. Added Lightforged Augment Rune and new 7.3 epic gems.
28 Aug. 2017 (artifact page): Updated 35+ path maxing priority.
28 Aug. 2017 (stats page): Updated stat priority and explanations.
28 Aug. 2017 (rotation page): Updated Cloudburst Totem section and "Core Concepts".
28 Aug. 2017 (talents page): Updated Tier 6 talents and "General Use" cheat sheet.
28 Jun. 2017 (easy mode page): Swapped Haste and Mastery in the stat priority.
28 Jun. 2017 (artifact page): Updated relic priority, added dungeon relic priority.
28 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Updated several talents and their viability/descriptions.
28 Jun. 2017 (stats page): Swapped Haste and Versatility in stat priority.
28 Jun. 2017 (spells page): Pruned mention of Mythic Archimonde to avoid confusion.
28 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Re-ordered legendary list, updated best in slot, added T20 set bonus explanation.
28 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): Improved wording throughout the page and removed the Ancestral Guidance vs. Deluge discussion.
28 Jun. 2017 (this page): Updated strengths/viability.
13 Jun. 2017 (spells page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
13 Jun. 2017 (this page): Added Patch 7.2.5 changes.
13 Jun. 2017 (artifact page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
13 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
13 Jun. 2017 (easy mode page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
13 Jun. 2017 (stats page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
13 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
13 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Added Soul of the Farseer and Fire in the Deep to the Legendary items section.
13 Jun. 2017 (enchants page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
17 May 2017 (gear page): Updated the description of Nobundo's Redemption.
05 Apr. 2017 (easy mode page): Added easy mode page.
29 Mar. 2017 (enchants page): Added Lavish Suramar Feast.
27 Mar. 2017 (stats page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
27 Mar. 2017 (rotation page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
27 Mar. 2017 (artifact page): Added a new path for Patch 7.2 traits.
27 Mar. 2017 (talents page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
27 Mar. 2017 (this page): Added a summary of Patch 7.2 changes.
27 Mar. 2017 (gear page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
25 Feb. 2017 (gear page): Added a note about Perfectly Preserved Cake.
21 Jan. 2017 (gear page): Further updated legendary descriptions and added Roots of Shaladrassil.
21 Jan. 2017 (this page): Updated the spec description and viability section.
21 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Modified several talent usage descriptions and added Undulation as a potential talent.
21 Jan. 2017 (rotation page): Made several additions and clarifications based on Keehn's suggestions.
21 Jan. 2017 (artifact page): Truncated path to be simpler and less oriented towards very early Mythic raiding.
21 Jan. 2017 (spells page): Reworded some spell descriptions.
21 Jan. 2017 (stats page): Added additional explanations to Critical Strike and Haste.
21 Jan. 2017 (addons page): Updated macros.
20 Jan. 2017 (gear page): Full update to BiS list and legendaries.
10 Jan. 2017 (rotation page): Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
10 Jan. 2017 (artifact page): Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
10 Jan. 2017 (enchants page): Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
10 Jan. 2017 (this page): Added a Patch 7.1.5 changes section.
10 Jan. 2017 (stats page): Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
10 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Slight update for Patch 7.1.5.
16 Nov. 2016 (rotation page): Updated healing spell priority for heavy raid damage and heavy single target damage. Also updated Movement Management section.
16 Nov. 2016 (talents page): Fully updated talents and descriptions with the aim of also offering more information for Mythic+ dungeons.
16 Nov. 2016 (enchants page): Updated potion choice.
16 Nov. 2016 (gear page): Updated trinket choice.
16 Nov. 2016 (spells page): Slight update to Surge's description.
25 Oct. 2016 (talents page): In Patch 7.1, Torrent provides a 30% bonus to Riptide’s initial heal (was 40% before).
11 Oct. 2016 (enchants page): Updated enchants.
29 Aug. 2016 (artifact page): Added
29 Aug. 2016 (stats page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (talents page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (rotation page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (spells page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (gear page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (this page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (enchants page): Updated for Legion's launch.
18 Jul. 2016 (enchants page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (this page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (rotation page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (gear page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (talents page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (addons page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (spells page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (stats page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.