Preface: Not going to waste anybody’s time restating tooltips and explaining every ability, what follows is intended to cover the most common questions asked on these forums. Guides are always subject to personal opinions and this one is no different, if you have a difference of opinion please feel free to discuss it. This is written from the perspective of someone primarily interested in Mythic raiding and should not necessarily be considered for other types of content, especially PvP. If you want anything added or explained in more detail please send me a PM or post below and I'll respond directly as well as modify this post with more detail if requested. If you disagree with something in the guide please provide a constructive response in this thread with meaningful discussion so that readers can get multiple perspectives, simply stating one talent/gylph/stat/etc is better than another without any rationale is meaningless so please provide a thorough and well thought out response.
Talents
Level 15 Talents: Astral Shift is my default choice of this tier, the benefit of having a potentially life-saving 40% damage reduction outweighs the damage absorption of Stone Bulwark Totem, while Nature’s Guardian offers comparatively little benefit in PVE. Astral Shift can and should be used preemptively for large damage spikes and in a raiding environment its usage can usually be planned in advanced.
Level 30 Talents: This tier is very situational and really depends upon the encounter, Windwalk Totem is very useful on encounters which have movement impairing effects and should be taken for any encounter where it can be put to use.
Level 45 Talents: Totemic Projection is my default choice of this tier largely out of convenience, it makes using Capacitor Totem and Spirit Link Totem much easier to use as you can simply move them to where they need to be, it also effectively allows you to heal targets greater than 40 yards away by projecting healing totems away from oneself. Totemic Persistence has its time and place and is very situational, I use it on a number of fights where I know I won’t need projection. Call of the Elements is again very situational, with regards to using it for an extra HST the absolute most you can get out of it is an extra HST every 6 minutes, underwhelming at best. If there’s a situation where you need back to back usage of utility totems it’s a great choice but I’ve yet to find an encounter in 6.0 where it’s worth taking over Projection or Persistence.
Level 60 Talents: Ancestral Swiftness and Elemental Mastery are both great choices each offering a total throughput gain not offered by Echo the Elements. Elemental Mastery offers the shaman an additional throughput cooldown that works as a mini Bloodlust; to get the most out of EM pair it with Healing Tide Totem to get a nice 30% boost to our already greatest utility. While if used properly EM can allow for the shaman to gain more overall throughput than with AS but you lose out on the utility of an instant spell cast every 90 seconds, ultimately this tier comes down to personal preference and should vary by encounter depending upon the damage pattern and if having a 30% boosted HTT is more beneficial than what AS offers. EotE is very niche talent in that it allows for back to back Spirit Link Totems and some flexibility with Riptide and Unleash Life usage, it offers no direct throughput gain like EM and AS so it should only be taken in situations where your raid group needs the extra SLT. This talent tier has been discussed more thoroughly here.
Level 75 Talents: Rushing Streams is my default choice of this tier. All three talents are viable and really depends on the fight, I haven’t seen a fight this tier that I prefer AG over the other two but that doesn’t mean it won’t possibly have its uses at some point. Conductivity is great on encounters where you won’t need to reposition Healing Rain very often as it prevents you from having to recast Healing Rain as often, saving mana and allowing for the usage of other spells in that time, but Rushing Streams is generally more reliable and easier to use.
Level 90 Talents: Elemental Blast is my default choice of this tier. The spirit provided by EB is huge, currently mana is the limiting factor on our throughput so while the direct throughput buff provided by EB isn’t as good as Primal Elementalist, the total throughput gained from the mana provided by EB more than makes up for it. PE is a good choice only if you aren’t limited by mana which at current gear levels should rarely be the case in a raiding environment (CMs are a different story), Unleashed Fury is generally underwhelming simply because EB is so powerful, and the greater on-demand throughput and damage reduction utility granted by PE generally outweighs the benefits of UF.
Level 100 Talents: High Tide is my default choice of this tier, Chain Heal should in most encounters be our number one heal, it’s already a powerhouse of a spell and High Tide just makes it that much better. Cloudburst Totem is clunky and generally underwhelming, it has a few niche uses, particularly in circumstances where you won’t be casting many Chain Heals (CMs) but High Tide will almost always far outperform Cloudburst. Storm Elemental Totem is currently complete trash for PVE and should be avoided.
Glyphs
Resto shaman have many great situational but self-explanatory glyphs, the two glyphs that seem to cause the most controversy and most people are unsure of are Glyph of Chaining and Glyph of Riptide. Other particularly useful glyphs that find common play are Glyph of Healing Stream Totem, Glyph of Spiritwalker's Focus, and Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace.
Glyph of Chaining – This is one of my default glyphs as it generally increases the throughput of Chain Heal. The increased jump range allows it more choice in who it will bounce to, causing it to choose lower health targets that would likely be out of range of the un-glyphed counterpart, by having more choice of targets overhealing is minimized and throughput gains from our mastery are maximized. While the cooldown the glyph incurs is inconvenient, mana is generally the limiting factor on the amount of Chain Heals we can cast so unless you need to spam Chain Heal the cooldown turns out to be pretty inconsequential.
Glyph of Riptide – I feel like this glyph is essential for a raiding environment, this glyph allows flexibility in being able to cast what you want, when you want to. It provides something to do while moving, but most importantly it allows for “frontloading” of Riptides. Chain Heal should generally always be cast off of a target with Riptide on it, this glyph allows you to preemptively place Riptide on a handful of people you know will be good candidates to cast Chain Heal off of so that when the big damage comes and you need to be casting Chain Heal you have a number of options of who to cast if off of. If reaching anywhere near your shaman’s maximum potential the total contribution to your overall healing from Riptide’s initial heal will be ~5%, while the glyph causes a loss in efficiency of Riptide, the flexibility it provides in how you heal should ultimately increase your overall healing by virtue of allowing you to get more out of our mastery as you won’t be tied to using GCDs on Riptide while people are low on health. Note that the intent behind this glyph is not to blanket the raid in Riptide, rather to preemptively Riptide people to Chain Heal off of during high damage moments. For a more thorough discussion of this glyph refer to here.
Glyph of Spiritwalker's Focus - This glyph allows for more frequent use of Spiritwalker's Grace which can help a lot on fights with frequent movement, the majority of encounters you won't be needing the full 15 seconds provided by unglyphed Spiritwalker's for movement so having the ability available more frequently is very useful.
Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace - Some encounters require less frequent movement but for a longer duration, if you need to be moving for longer than 15 seconds at a time this glyph can help out tremendously.
Glyph of Healing Stream Totem - While the 10% damage reduction provided by this glyph may seem underwhelming many bosses have very hard hitting Fire/Frost/Nature damage abilities. Compared to our other glyph options the damage mitigation provided by this glyph is quite significant and should be considered on fights with the appropriate damage type, when trying decide between this glyph or the commonly used alternative Glyph of Healing Wave the damage reduced by this glyph will generally far exceed any healing gained by Glyph of Healing Wave.
Stats
Stat priorities are subjective as some of it comes down to personal preference but there are some things to keep in mind when choosing a stat priority.
Mastery – Throughput gains from mastery are highly variable and changes dynamically with the targets health, because of this it’s hard to quantify its value relative to other stats without making lots of assumptions and doing some hand-waving, in general however the communities general consensus is that mastery is our most effective secondary stat.
Crit and Multistrike – These two stats provide the exact same amount of throughput per stat point, multistrike however is more reliable as the chance to multistrike per stat point is greater than that to crit. Crit comes with the added benefit of providing mana from Resurgence, these two stats really come down to personal preference and whether you want slightly more reliability or the extra mana. *Critical multistrikes do not trigger Resurgence.
Haste – Haste provides greater throughput than crit or multistrike because it allows for more casts within a given window of time, haste also provides a straight boost to Riptide and healing totems. The downside of haste that must be considered is the increased mana expenditures necessary to meet the throughput provided by crit or multistrike, while the throughput potential from haste is greater than that of crit or multistrike it only boosts the efficiency of Riptide and healing totems while the other stats increase all of our abilities.
Spirit – With current gear levels our throughput is restricted by our mana, because of this I always prioritize spirit over other secondary stats.
Taking all things into consideration the stat priority I prescribe to is Intellect > Spirit > Mastery > Haste > Multistrike => Crit > Versatility.
Macros
Mouseovers – Mouseover macros are handy as it allows you to hover your mouse over a unit frame and cast the spell without targeting the player. Below is an example of a common one I use, you can replace the spell name with whichever spell you want it to cast. There are many variations to the general mouse over macro, below is the one I use.
“#showtooltip Chain Heal
/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Chain Heal
/cast Chain Heal”
Friendly/Offensive – Heres a macro I use to put Healing Wave and Lightning Bolt on the same key, while targeting a friendly target it casts Healing Wave and while targeting a hostile target it casts Lightning Bolt.
“#showtooltip Healing Wave
/cast [harm, nodead] Lightning Bolt; [help, nodead] [@player] Healing Wave”
Wind Shear – This macro will set the target as your focus, stop whatever you’re casting, and cast Wind Shear instead, if another target is already set as the focus this macro will not work.
“#showtooltip Wind Shear
/focus [@focus,noexists]
/stopcastingg
/cast [@focus] Wind Shear”
Primal Elementalist – I use these macros for Fire Elemental and Earth Elemental Totems so when I’m spec’d into Primal Elementalist I can hit the key twice and have them channel their respective buff on me.
“#showtooltip
/cast Earth Elemental Totem
/cast Reinforce”
And
“#showtooltip
/cast Fire Elemental Totem
/cast Empower”
Primal Elementalist (One Button) – Here's an alternative Primal Elementalist macro if you want both elementals bound to the same key.
"#showtooltip Fire Elemental Totem
/cancelaura Empower
/cancelaura Reinforce
/cast [@pet,exists] Empower
/cast [@pet,exists] Reinforce
/castsequence reset=300/combat Fire Elemental Totem, Earth Elemental totem"
Elemental Blast 1 - This macro casts Elemental Blast on your focus target, if you don't have a focus then it casts on your current target.
"#showtooltip
/cast [target=focus, exists] Elemental Blast; Elemental Blast"
Elemental Blast 2 - Another very handy EB macro, "this will blast your current target if it's an enemy (then switch back to your last healing target) or auto select an enemy to blast without changing your target. Cast this targeted when you want to make sure it won't break CC." -HeartOfZen
"#showtooltip Elemental Blast
/targetenemy [noharm]
/cast Elemental Blast
/targetlasttarget"
Trinket Macro – This will cast an on use trinket before casting the ability used in the macro, /use 13 and /use 14 are what activates trinkets.
“#showtooltip Healing Tide Totem
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/use 13
cast Healing Tide Totem
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()”
Suggested Addons
Vuhdo - My unit frames of choice, by far the most customizable of the available options out there, it's a bit of a doozy to learn, but taking the time will pay off. The basic look it starts with is not very attractive but you can customize it to look like any other addon out there, only better.
Clique - Allows for click-casting and hover-casting keybinds, I love this addon for doing dispels. It's simple and easy to use, and Vuhdo even has an option to sync with it.
Hermes - Allows you to track raid cooldowns, lots of different display options, can really help with maximizing your raids cooldown usage.
Bartender4 - One of my all time favorites, allows you to customize the look and arrangement of your ability bars. Easy to use and really cleans up the UI.
Tidy Plates - Customizes the look and functionality of nameplates, I use it to see enemy cast bars over the mobs head which can really help with interrupting random targets.
Deadly Boss Mods - Pretty essential addon for anyone wanting to raid, provides timers and alerts for boss abilities and all the fundamentals one can expect from a boss mod.
WeakAuras 2 - By far the most powerful and versatile addon currently out there, it allows for custom made on screen alerts for anything you can dream of, the possibilities with weak auras are limitless, from tracking raid debuffs to ability cooldowns it can do anything and you can make it look like whatever you want. I use it primarily to track the durations of my totems and Healing Rain, and the cooldown of my dispel. I also get a lot of use out of it for specific boss ability alerts which aren't covered by DBM or BigWigs. If new to using it I'd suggest finding a quick tutorial on YouTube to get you started, it can be a bit intimidating when first learning how to make a weak aura.
mack2887 made some great Weak Auras available to everyone in his thread here. I haven't tried them personally but they look great and might be a good starting place for someone new to Weak Auras just looking for a nice resto shaman package.
Encounter Advice
Gruul - Glyph of Chaining can help alleviate some of the range issues on this fight, by using this glyph and chaining off of the tanks you can often reach people on the opposite side of the room greatly increasing your effective healing range. Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace is also very nice on this fight during his Overhead Smash phase as the majority of the fight is pretty low movement otherwise. Watch Gruul's cast bar and try to time your Chain Heals so that they land directly after he finishes casting Inferno Slice.
Oregorger - Try to time Chain Heal to land immediately after Acid Torrent hits the group, watching his cast bar can help with getting the timing right. Spirit Link Totem can be a life-saver on this fight as Acid Torrent will occasionally land very shortly after a Retched Blackrook pool goes out, dropping a Spirit Link as people are moving away from the pool can help level out the health bars of people that were slow to move and prevent them from dying to the Acid Torrent. Don't forget you can help interrupt his Blackrock Barrage using Wind Shear.
Beastlord Darmac - While it's tempting to pad the meters early on this fight the last 10-20% are really what matters, don't fall into the trap of healing people up quickly and waste your mana, this is an endurance fight and mana should be spent sparingly early on in the encounter. Glyph of Chaining helps with the spread out nature of this fight and is essential to increasing your efficiency. Capacitor Totem can be used to stun the pack beasts if they are staying alive for too long, don't stun without your raid leaders permission however. Windwalk Totem can be used to prevent/remove the slow from Faultline's "Unsteady" and can help people get out of Cannonball Barrage and Superheated Shrapnel when they do line up.
Hans'gar & Franzok - I like to take Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace for this encounter for use during the Smart Stamper phases, SWG paired with Ascendance can carry the raid during the heavy damage/heavy movement periods, try and preemptively place get several Riptides out going into Smart Stampers so you can focus entirely on Chain Heal while SWG is active. If you don't have SWG available time Chain Heal such that it goes off right as they land a Body Slam. SLT should be used with caution on this fight, if a player is hit with a stamping press and standing in SLT it can cause the raid to take a large chunk of damage they otherwise wouldn't take, because of this I prefer to save it for Smart Stampers where people can spike very low from Skullcracker damage on top of the already high raid damage.
Flamebender Ka'graz - Make sure your raid frames tracks the time left on Molten Torrent and cast Chain Heal at the appropriate time so that you it hits right as Molten Torrent lands, prioritize melee as your targets for Riptide as they'll likely be the ones soaking the damage from Molten Torrent and needing the most healing. The healing requirement on this fight is fairly low so EotE may be worth taking especially if your raid decides to stack the wolves on top of each other and have people tank them, placing a SLT on top of the people tanking them can make doing this strategy much more manageable and since you shouldn't get more than two sets of wolves you can have a SLT for each set.
Operator Thogar - Glyph of Riptide can help fill in some of the blank space in this encounter, a lot of the fight is very low damage so being able to blanket people with Riptide during this time can allow you spam Chain Heal without worrying about Riptide while Man-at-Arms are active. Timing HTT on this fight is very important for getting the most out of it, the first Iron Bellow from a Man-at-Arms shouldn't be lethal to your raid group, wait till after the second one to drop HTT while everybody is low and you can get more healing out of it. Windwalk Totem mitigates the slow from Prototype Pulse Grenade.
Iron Maidens - Since there isn't much to heal the first 80% of this fight Primal Elementalist and Elemental Mastery are both very strong choices as they allow for large burst healing needed towards the end of the fight. Shaman are strong candidates for healing the boat with Battle Medic Rogg as you can help interrupt his casts. If you have to go up on the boat with Iron Eviscerators don't forget about your crowd control abilities, Earthbind Totem, Earthgrab Totem, Capacitor Totem, and Frost Shock can all help you kite their fixate preventing a lot of damage on yourself and other players. If your raid is really struggling towards the end of the fight and you don't have enough paladins to afford you a Blessing of Protection it's worth considering letting your raid ignore Penetrating Shot if you get targeted by it as you can simply Reincarnate after being killed, saving your raid a battle res.
Blackhand - Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace helps a lot during phase 1, Demolition deals very high raid damage and requires a lot of mobility, pairing SWG and Ascendance can help keep the raid alive and having the additional 5 seconds of movement afforded by the glyph can really help. Elemental Mastery is considering worth taking as pairing it with HTT during a Demolition can give it the extra boost it needs to keep everyone alive. Right as phase 1 ends don't forget about SLT, right before the floor breaks the raid takes a large chunk of damage from the falling Iron Star and this is a perfect time to use it. Glyph of Chaining can help alleviate some of the pains of phase 2, I'd strongly suggest this glyph as phase 2 is the most demanding part of the fight. Since we don't have any form of blink or high burst movement for getting into position if we get Marked for Death in phase 2 try and position yourself ahead of the Siege Maker as its easier to get to safety if you don't have to chase it.
Brackenspore - Positioning is very predictable on this fight and it doesn't change very often so Conductivity is one of my favorite talents here. Since Rejuvenating Mushrooms can provide a lot of mana Elemental Blast may not be necessary, on Mythic its still a really mana intensive fight so EB may be preferred by some but I personally opt for Unleashed Fury because I'm assigned to green mushroom duty. Because I spend the majority of the fight healing green mushrooms I very rarely cast Chain Heal so I take Cloudburst over High Tide, if you aren't assigned to green mushroom healing and find yourself primarily healing the raid during Infesting Spores then High Tide should be the talent of choice. Ancestral Swiftness can also be a very handy talent for topping off mushrooms quickly, I personally choose Elemental Mastery for the extra haste while spamming Healing Surge on Rejuvenating Mushrooms but both are good choices and it comes down to your personally duties on this fight. If you're having trouble healing mushrooms you can place Earth Shield on them for the additional 20% healing.
Tectus - The majority of the damage on this fight (Mythic) comes at two specific points in the encounter so talents and glyphs should be chosen to get the necessary burst healing to survive. Since the fight is very short I opt out of Elemental Blast and take Unleashed Fury instead since most of the encounter is spent healing only the tanks and having the additional single target burst after moving from an earthen pillar can be nice, if your raid is having a hard time surviving Tectonic Upheaval then Primal Elementalist should be your talent of choice here. For tier 5 talents AG can be very powerful as it provides additional burst healing for Tectonic Upheaval which is the majority of the damage in this fight, I personally opt for Rushing Streams as I find the tank healing more troublesome than the Upheavals but it will really come down to what your raid group is struggling with, both are very solid choices.
The Butcher - Conductivity is a staple for this fight, a large number of players are stacked in melee and taking continuous damage while the boss barely moves, this is quintessential type of fight for this talent. The fight is short enough that Primal Elementalist is a strong choice as raid damage really spikes sub-30%. My approach to healing this fight is maintaining Riptide on both tanks and 1 person in each soak group as 1 of them will almost always be low enough to cast Chain Heal off of without overhealing.
Imperator Mar'gok - Glyph of Chain Heal is tremendously helpful on this fight, since the primary challenge of healing this fight comes in Phase 3, and healing conservatively to get to phase 3 with enough mana to survive, the efficiency perks (less overhealing) provided by this glyph help substantially, and the majority of the raid is spread out during phase 3 so getting a full Chain Heal off without the glyph can be tricky. Because this fight is such a test of endurance some people choose EotE over the other options to avoid the loss in efficiency caused by Glyph of Riptide, I however prefer EM as HTT is such a substantial contribution to our overall healing on this encounter and if used properly the 30% boost to it should offer more overall healing than that provided by a stronger initial heal on Riptide. Phase 4 requires very little healing so managing mana to make it through phase 3 with everybody alive is the most important part of mastering this fight. During transitions using Wind Shear to interrupt the adds can help mitigate a lot of damage, if you aren't assigned as part of a cooldown rotation throw out interrupts outside of the assigned interrupt cycles.