Restoration Shaman PVE Guide – Cataclysm

Welcome to the PVE Restoration Shaman Guide for World of Warcraft Cataclysm!

This guide will teach you how to play a Restoration Shaman in a raid. It covers talents, glyphs, gems, enchantments, rotation, and gameplay tips.

This talent build takes the standard Restoration Shaman talents.

Prime Glyphs

• Glyph of Earth Shield
• Glyph of Earthliving Weapon
• Glyph of Riptide

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Chain Heal
• Glyph of Healing Stream Totem
• Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Astral Recall
• Glyph of Renewed Life
• Glyph of Water Walking

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta – Burning Shadowspirit Diamond
• Red/Prismatic – Brilliant Queen’s Garnet, Brilliant Inferno Ruby, or Brilliant Chimera’s Eye (Jewelcrafting)
• Yellow – Artful Lava Coral or Artful Ember Topaz
• Blue – Purified Shadow Spinel or Purified Demonseye

• Head – Arcanum of the Hyjal
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone or Felfire Inscription (Inscription)
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect or Lightweave Embroidery (Tailoring)
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect or Draconic Embossment – Intellect (Leatherworking) with Socket Bracer (Blacksmithing)
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery with Synapse Springs (Engineering) or Socket Gloves (Blacksmithing)
• Waist – Grounded Plasma Shield (Engineering) or Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
• Legs – Powerful Ghostly Spellthread or Sanctified Spellthread (Tailoring)
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Lavawalker
• Rings – Enchant Ring – Intellect (Enchanting)
• Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Power Torrent or Enchant Weapon – Heartsong
• Off-hand – Enchant Off-Hand – Superior Intellect

Take Spirit until you’re happy with your mana regeneration. Haste is only useful up if you can hit soft caps, so don’t bother adding extra haste until you can reach the next cap.

• Intellect
• Spirit
• Haste (to soft cap of 12.5, 21.4, or 30%)
• Mastery
• Haste
• Critical Strike

Healing is reactive with Restoration Shamans, and therefore rather than a specific rotation, you’ll need to pay attention to the damage the raid is taking and respond accordingly. In addition to the cooldowns below, maintain Earth Shield on the tank, or else another player who will take damage.

Keep Water Shield up on yourself, and cast Lightning Bolt on the boss to proc Telluric Currents and regain mana. Try to cast Unleash Elements before using a high-mana direct heal.

Healing Priority

• Low/moderate damage on tank or raid
  • Use Riptide and maintain on as many players as possible (including the tank)
  • Use Healing Wave, but don’t go out of mana spamming it
• Moderate/high single-target damage
  • Use Riptide and maintain on as many players as possible (including the tank)
  • Use Healing Wave or Greater Healing Wave, depending on how much healing is required
• Moderate/high raid damage
  • Use Riptide and maintain on as many players as possible (including the tank)
  • Use Chain Heal, ideally on targets with an active Riptide close to expiring
  • Optionally, use Healing Wave or Greater Healing Wave, depending on how much healing is required
• High single-target damage
  • Use Riptide and maintain on as many players as possible (including the tank)
  • Use Greater Healing Wave
• High sustained raid damage
  • Cast Flame Shock on boss to proc Focused Insight
  • Use Healing Rain and maintain
• Life or death damage
  • Use Healing Surge, but only if you don’t believe a Greater Healing Wave will channel fast enough to save the target (the mana expenditure is significant)

Cooldowns

• Use Nature’s Swiftness with Greater Healing Wave if you need an emergency heal that isn’t so time-sensitive you need to use Healing Surge
• Your Spirit Link Totem can be used vs boss mechanics that reduce healing
• Use Spiritwalker’s Grace when you need to move and heal at the same time
• Use Mana Tide Totem as assigned
• Use Heroism as assigned