Restoration Shaman Guide for The War Within - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

Last updated on Jun 10, 2024 at 21:10by Seksixeny46 comments

Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for Restoration Shaman.Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about theRestoration Shaman spec in the forthcoming The War Within expansion,including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the stateof the spec going into the expansion.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regularchanges expected as updates hit the War Within Beta. This is not meant to bea launch guide for Restoration Shaman, but instead serves as aresource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, andwhat you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.

While Restoration Shaman has received no core changes to its baselinekit or Talents in The War Within thus far, there is still plenty of time for changesto happen, especially as other classes such as Hunter have recently been reworked,leaving Shaman as the next logical choice, especially Restoration and Elementalwhich are the only specializations in the game currently without a raid buff.

While nothing changed for Restoration Shaman's core features,The War Within still has major implications for all specs thanks to the HeroTalent Tree system, new tier sets, and the natural reduction in secondarystats when entering a new expansion.

Restoration Shaman gets to choose between the Farseerand Totemic Hero Talent Trees. In sections below, we will talk moredeeply about the implications of these Hero Talent Trees for the spec, and somethoughts on what looks strong and weak ahead of launch.

The Farseer Hero Tree Talents are all about spawning ancestor-friendly NPCswhich can heal or deal damage based on what spells you are using. You can spawnthem with Unleash Life through Call of the Ancestors and through Ancestral Swiftness which is a slightly more powerful version of Nature's Swiftness.

Gameplay-wise, you will mostly just be playing normally as you already want touse the low-cooldown activators Unleash Life and Ancestral Swiftnessas much as possible, but there can be some extra value to delaying some of theiruses slightly in order to have as many ancestors as possible out for when bursthealing is required, as they only last 6 seconds baseline. You will also be ableto save a regular talent point in Echo of the Elements by taking Elemental Reverbinstead, as the vast majority of the power is in the first Riptide charge.

Power-wise, expect a solid all-rounder that further amplifies your burst healingpotential but as ancestor healing is not considered your healing, there is no synergywith existing talents such as Ancestral Guidance, Cloudburst Totem,and Ascendance, which is a large downside considering currentRestoration gameplay patterns.

Defensively, Farseer is extremely weak as both Natural Harmony and Earthen Communionare among the worst defensive talents present in any Hero tree currently.

The Totemic Hero Tree Talents bring a new active ability, Surging Totem,which replaces Healing Rain and automatically casts one periodically centeredon a clump of allies nearby.

Gameplay-wise, the automation of Healing Rain brings an interesting newway to play the specialization, but also leads to potential problems such as losingthe capability to manually aim rains for maximum Acid Rain benefit, whichis a huge problem for Mythic+ especially.

Power-wise, Totemic looks quite strong currently, with very strong nodes suchas our old Sepulcher of the First Ones tier set bonus, Lively Totems whichprovides free Chain Heals that benefit from most regular talents and usemost temporary bonuses. The rapid replacement of Healing Rains also slightlystrengths Overflowing Shores, which is activated on every cast from the Surging Totem.

Whirling Elements is another interesting talent which provides variousmotes with helpful effects that interact with your core kit, including a way forChain Heal to apply the Earthliving Weapon effect even if you do not haveit talented on the regular tree! It is also very possible that Cloudburst Totemwill lose its longstanding standard pick status due to the combination of Supportive Imbuements, Reactivity, and the regular tree Living Stream which highly benefitsfrom both.

Defensively, Totemic has the simple Wind Barrier, which provides a powerfulshield every 30 seconds and scales with your maximum health, making it have somesynergy with our generally high health pools due to Brimming with Life.

Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Restoration Shaman in The WarWithin. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a brief note/commentarythat is italicized.

• Shaman Restoration 11.0 Class Set 2pc — Tidal Waves increases thehealing of affected spells by 10%. This is a simple bonus which translates intoa straightforward 10% healing increase to some of your core spells such as Healing Wave, Healing Surge, and also Chain Heal, which is often easy to forgetabout as it used to provide, rather than consume, Tidal Waves in Classic expansions!
• Shaman Restoration 11.0 Class Set 4pc — Tidal Waves is 80% moreeffective and reduces the Mana cost of affected spells by 8%. This is a verysignificant increase in Tidal Waves power and you will want to focus heavily ongenerating and spending them with your gameplay once you get this bonus.

Both set bonuses are completely passive and do not have significant gameplayimpact, as generating and consuming Tidal Waves is already how you shouldbe optimally playing, even without the tier set bonuses. Doing it correctly willbe much more powerful, while failing to do so will be further punishing.

The 2pc bonus is strong but not overwhelmingly so, as much of your healing comesfrom unaffected spells such as Healing Tide Totem and Healing Rain.

The 4pc bonus is much stronger, as the 8% Mana reduction is similar in powerby itself to the 2-piece bonus, and you also get a freebie with extra CriticalStrike on Healing Surge and much faster casting of Healing Waveand Chain Heal, which is especially valuable in the first Season of theexpansion when secondary stats such as Haste are at their lowest!

Overall this is a simple yet strong tier bonus which does not change how youplay but strongly emphasizes playing correctly, so take it as a great timeto hone your Tidal Waves management skills!