Thread: *Restoration Shaman FAQ (3.3)*

This is a brief guide of FAQ found on this forum. It should help you if you are unclear on certain elements about Restoration Shamans, or planning to start one.
For more complex answers head over to elitistjerks.com. They have a very good and active shaman forum which discusses things in more depth.


What talents should I take?

The current main stream spec that most restoration shamans are using is: 0/13/58
If you are you are struggling with mana and can't use healing wave: 0/16/55
If you know you will never have spell push back problems then another spec is: 0/16/55
Just note that elemental weapons only gives you 45 spell power and nothing else. It does nothing to the hot that earth living provides. I reconmend the first spec listed here as the overall best spec.


What stats on gear should I be going after?

Since 3.2 chain heal and healing wave became viable and the tidal waves changes the stats we should be stacking have changed.
You first want to achieve a basic level of spell power, int and crit before you can stack any other stats.
Before you stack haste (or any other stat), a good balance is around 2000-2500 spell power, 30% crit, 18k mana and 250mp5 (including water shield).

Crit
Crit is very important as it is our main source of mana through Improved Water Shield. It also provides the 10% physical damage reduction, which priests can also bring and it also procs Ancestral Awakening. If you are tank healing Ancestral Awakening is a great for a boost in HPS.

Haste
Since tidal wave changes haste now affects all your spells greatly. Haste helps chain heal (you should be looking at a 1.8 chain heal with t8 set bonus). As lesser healing wave won’t be going under 1second cast, haste is allot more effective than in 3.1. It also shortens Healing Wave due to its long cast time. You should be stacking haste as far as you can until you start going oom in fights or unbalance your stats.

Haste soft cap
Now we are near the end of WOTLK many restoration shamans are nearing (or passed) the haste soft cap. The haste soft cap is 1269, this means that the GCD is at 1 second and all 1.5 second spells are now have a 1 second cast. After you have reached the haste soft cap you may want to start looking into gemming for other stats. This purely depends on how you currently heal. If you use chain heal more often than LHW it is probably worth continuing to stack haste. If you find that you are not using chain heal as often then you might wish to replace haste gems with spell power instead.

Mp5
Mp5 and improved water shield is the only source we have to regan our mana. Therefore Mp5 is a very important stat. In 3.2 it was buffed on gear so you should not have to gem for it as it comes in bucket loads from gear.

Intellect
This stat is great for shamans as we get spell power from it from Nature's blessing and Mana tide and replishment scales with intellect as well as giving additional Crit. It is not reconmended to gem for this stat unless you are really struggling with mana.But with improved water shield changes in 3.2 and buffed Mp5 you should be finding it very hard to go oom.

Spell power
There is plenty of spell power on gear so you should not be gemming this stat. In 3.1 we was mostly using instants and very short casts, therefore spell power was the best stat to max hps. As it is on every piece of gear you should be using and haste being very beneficial to our heals, it is not worth gemming.

Pre-raiding gear:
Helm - Nobundos headpiece of Conquest or Helm of the Spirit Shock (If not inerested in t9 4p)
Neck - Arcane loops of Anger
Cloak - Cloak of the Fallen Cardinal
Shoulders - Nobundos spaulders of Conquest or Nobundos shoulderpads of Conquest (If not interested in t9 4p)
Gloves - Nobundos handguards of Conquest
Bracer - Black Chitin bracers or Limb Regeneration bracers (If your not able to get the crafted bracers)
Chest - Nobundos tunic of Conquest
Waist - Blue Belt of Chaos or Girlde of the Dauntless Conqueror (if your not able to get the crafted belt) or Strip of Remorse is best, but because of the new loot system you cannot 'need' on it.
Legs - Blackended ghoul skin leggings
Boots - Mudslide boots
Ring 1 - Heartmender circle
Ring 2 - Oath of Empress Zoe
Main hand - Surgeons needle
Off hand - Protector of Frigid Souls
Trinkets Talisman of Resurgence - Ephemeral Snowflake - Nevermelting ice crystal
Totem - Totem of Calming Tides

What Enchants and Gems should I use?

Right now I am gemming haste in every slot and have found it very productive.
If you are finding that you have a good amount of haste then the gems you can use are:
20 Haste in Yellow Sockets. (if you need mana you can swap this for the +20 int gem)
12 Spell Power and 10 Haste in Red Sockets.
10 Haste and 5 MP5 in Blue Sockets.
Meta should be Insightful Earthsiege Diamond. You will see this proc all the time and it is by far the best.

Enchants:
Helm: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
Shoulders:Greater Inscription of the Storm
Cloak:Greater Speed or Lightweave Embroidery (Tailoring only)
Chest:Powerful Stats
Bracers:Superior Spellpower or Fur Lining - Spell Power (Leather workers only)
Gloves:Exceptional Spellpower or Hyperspeed Accelerators (Engineers only)
Legs:Sapphire Spellthread
Boots:Tuskarr's Vitality or Nitro Boosts (Engineers only)
Weapon:Mighty Spellpower
Shield:Greater Intellect
Rings:Greater Spellpower (Enchanters only)


What Professions should I take?

For a raiding restoration shaman there are 3 professions that are best for a restoration shaman, Jewelcrafting, Blacksmithing and Alchemy. I personally say that the best choice is Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting as this offers the largest amount of variety when changing stats.

The benefits of blacksmithing are 2 extra gem sockets. One for gloves and one for bracers. This clearly works well with Jewelcrafting. The gain of blacksmithing is 46spell power or 40 haste with epic gems.

Jewelcrafting allows you to use 3 more powerful gems. The overall gain is 48spell power or 42haste. The large benefit of BS+JC (especially JC) is if the stats we need to stack change you have the ability to simply just change gems.

Alchemy doubles the duration of flasks and elixirs. They also give you passive extra bonuses depending on what flask/elixir you need. Flask of the Frost Wyrm gives you 47 more spell power while Flask of the Pure Mojo gives you 20 extra MP5. You also have the ability to make the Alchemist stone, a trinket that gives a 40% bonus to potions, but in current content you should not need this trinket.

The other none-gathering professions are still acceptable, but will not other has much versatility as the others.

Tailoring gives you the ability to put a special enchant on your cloak. The enchants have a high proc rate with a 45-second cd. The spell power chant, Lightweave Embroidery is equal to 73.75 spellpower if it procs once per minute. The Mp5 chant, Darkglow Embroidery is equal to 44 mp5 if it procs once per minute.

Enchanting, Inscription and leatherworking all offer different enchants which give you a total of 46 spell power.

Engineering offers you Hyperspeed Accelerators which can be useful in fights where you will need to do 'burst healing'. It also gives you the option of using Nitro Boosts . The only problem with using Nitro boosts is you lose the minor run speed enchant (Tuskarr's Vitality).

The gathering professions, Herbalism, Mining and Skinning should be avoided due the lack of benefits.


What Trinkets should I use?

If you need mana use mana return/intellect Trinkets such as Je'Tze's Bell, Pandora's Plea, Meteorite Crystal and the Solaces from ToC.
If stacking pure haste it is highly reconmend to have at least one mana return trinket. Currently the Solace of the defeated/Solace of the fallen are best for this.
If you are fine on mana then go for any of the spell power trinkets found in Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader or Ice Crown Citadel.


What glyphs should I use?

Major:
Earth shield is by far the most important and best in return of HPS.

You then have three other major glyphs to choose two from.
Lesser healing Wave: If you are ever on tank healing then you should have this glyph.
Chain heal: Now you should be using chain heal more then you was in 3.1, you want this glyph if you are using chain heal alot.
Riptide: If you are never tank healing and therefore do not need the lesser healing wave glyph then you can use this.

Minor:
Water shield is the only one that will affect raiding, rest is up to you.


What relic should I use?

There are 3 different totems that are viable:
http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/47665 and http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50464/ are by far the best. The riptide totem is especially good if you find yourself tank healing as well as raid healing.
If you are a tank healer and therefore never chain heal and are still saving frost badges a good alternative is: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/42598



How should I be healing now?

Earth shield should always be on a tank. If there is no tank for that encounter then put it on a caster for interrupt protection.

Lesser healing wave should be used for tank healing and raid healing where chain heal wont be useful. Due to the high chance of it critting with tidal waves it is a great and easy way to keep up the 10% reduced physical buff.

Riptide has many uses now, it can be an instant heal if someone drops low. It also hastens Healing wave and increases your crit chance of lesser healing wave.

With alot of haste chain heal is viable agian. You should be able to land a good amount of chain heals, it is great for aoe raid healing.

Healing wave is great when you know you can land a large needed heal. You should only use it with Tidal waves up. An example of this is phase 1 Mimiron during the plasma blast. You should never be spamming this spell, unless you enjoy being out of mana.

Nature swiftness should always be kept ready to use in a needed situation, now with its shorter cooldown you can use this ability alot more. The same applies for tidal force. You should use this ability when you know a large amount of damage is incoming. Or you can macro it to nature swiftness for an even bigger heal.


What addons should I be using?

There is a huge selection of addons which you can use for many situations.
The two most important you need for shaman healing are:

Totemtimers: This addon is great for monitoring totems and shields. There is also YATA and many others. But I have found totemtimers to be the best.

Raid frames: I personally use grid. I find this addon essential. You can set it up to see who your earth shield is on, who has the riptide hot, who has the 10%physical reduction buff. There are others, but I have always found grid to be the best.


What about Player vs Player??

This guide focuses more on the PvE elements of the game and will continue to do so.
But there is a very good stickied thread over at Arena Junkies: http://www.arenajunkies.com/showthread.php?t=136077
If you are interested in starting to PvP with your restoration shaman I surgest you give it a read.



Restoration Shaman blogs:
http://lifeingroup5.com/
http://www.shieldsup.ch/
(if you have any good restoration blogs to suggest, please let me know and I will add them to this list)

Just to let anyone know who posted on this FAQ I havn't deleted your posts, was just cleaning up the thread. This wont effect your post count.

For the pre-raiding gear, http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50314 from chest in heroic HoR is a valid alternative (even though it's cloth).

Also the http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50214 is nice as head piece if you're not going for 4-set bonus or if you cant get legs to drop.

Originally Posted by Flashbomba

For the pre-raiding gear, http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50314 from chest in heroic HoR is a valid alternative (even though it's cloth).

Also the http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50214 is nice as head piece if you're not going for 4-set bonus or if you cant get legs to drop.

I have added in the altnernatives to the tier 4p. Including the better shoulders.
You are right the belt is great, but because of the new system you cannot need on it in instances.

Originally Posted by Pearroc

I have added in the altnernatives to the tier 4p. Including the better shoulders.
You are right the belt is great, but because of the new system you cannot need on it in instances.

Yeah I know - was lucky enough that a kind warrior passed the belt to me after he won the greed roll (3 others had selected DE so very lucky idd). :-) But people should just be aware of it, if it's by any means possible for them to get it on a hc HoR run they should not skip it(unless to cloth user ofc).

Originally Posted by Baron01

Hello, I have gotten Battered Hilt today on my shaman. I dont want to boast about it as it was just luck, however, I have a questions.

The mace is pretty well itemized and significant upgrade over my Surgeon Needle from POS hc. Im trying to get to casual raiding guild but it is not very probable due to my limited time. I will probably mostly pug early bosses in ICC10 for a long time to go.

I wonder if I should get the mace or sell it to get money to fund buying Primordial Saronite for some crafts. I can expect to get 5 saronites as the price is now around 1.6k a piece on my server. Secondly which one would you pick first.

1. Earthsoul Boots
2. Lightning-Infused Leggings
3. Leggings of Woven Death

If you do decide to sell it I would go for the cloth legs. Although the weapon is pretty nice to. Depends which is the bigger upgrade.

Cloth legs for less armor and 8 more haste? I must ask why?

Originally Posted by Chainbang

This is terribly outdated

Explain how so I can make changes. Last time I checked its updated for 3.3 The current patch.

Originally Posted by Denaka

Cloth legs for less armor and 8 more haste? I must ask why?

What are you referring to?

Like the poster above said, this is an entry level Shaman guide.

For more advanced info and BiS gear have a look here:

http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t24796-shaman_restoration/


Note: The above list INCLUDES Heroic ICC gear.

I just picked up my shaman from level 60 who was Enhance, what totems should i be using?

Depends on group set up.
Fire:
Flametounge - If no demo lock/ele sham.

Water:
Healing stream - Use if theres a pally doing BoW
Mana stream - Use if theres no pally doing BoW
Cleansing - Use if theres any poisens or dieases in your group

Earth:
Strength of earth - If theres no dk/enh shaman
Stonekin - If theres no pally providing armour arua

Air:
Wrath of air - Nearly always keep this down
Windfury - Use this when theres no other Enhance shaman or frost dk.

thanks

Originally Posted by Tompa

Stonekin - If theres no pally providing armour arua

The totem and the aura stacks so should always be a stoneskin up in a raid.

Didn't they hotfix this so they don't stack any more? I was only told this from a guildie, so not 100%. So I might be wrong.

Originally Posted by Pearroc

Didn't they hotfix this so they don't stack any more? I was only told this from a guildie, so not 100%. So I might be wrong.

I'm nearly 100% sure they still stack.