Contents
Overview
Restoration Shaman is the Horde’s group healer. 
Chain Heal is the strongest area heal in Classic from Molten Core to Naxxramas, and your totems feed mana and buffs to everyone in your party on top of that.
What most guides skip is that playing Resto well is mostly about which rank you cast. A max-rank Chain Heal on every bit of damage will empty your mana bar long before the boss dies. The Shamans who last whole fights cast Rank 1 for a big share of their heals and save the big ranks for the moments that need them.
Cast Rank 1 Chain Heal at least half the time. It’s your most mana-efficient group heal. Move up to Rank 3 only when heavy damage hits several people at once and you have the mana to spare.
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Chain Heal is the best area heal in the game for the whole of Classic.
Mana Tide Totem and 
Mana Spring Totem are the strongest mana regeneration Horde groups have.- Buff totems like
Windfury Totem and 
Strength of Earth Totem make you welcome in any party. 
Reincarnation gets a healer back on its feet after a wipe, which speeds up the whole raid’s recovery.
- Totems only reach your own party, so a raid needs several Shamans to cover every group.
Healing Wave is expensive. Single-target healing on a tank is not where you shine without extra talents.- Mana-hungry if you don’t downrank, and totems add to the bill.
- Squishy, with no escape once something targets you.
Talents
Hover over any talent to read its tooltip. Calculator not loading? Open the Shaman talent calculator on Wowhead.
Warcraft Tavern’s standard raid build puts 46 points in Restoration and the last 5 in Enhancement for 
Ancestral Knowledge, the one talent outside Restoration that helps a healer.
Key Choices:
Purification makes every heal 10% stronger, and 
Tidal Focus makes them 5% cheaper. Both are always worth it.- Mana Tide Totem is the capstone and your biggest mana cooldown, for you and your whole party.
- Restorative Totems makes Mana Spring Totem and
Healing Stream Totem 25% stronger. 
Totemic Focus makes all totems 25% cheaper, and 
Totemic Mastery stretches your buff totems to 30 yards so a spread-out party stays covered. 
Nature’s Swiftness turns your next Nature spell into an instant cast. Paired with a big Healing Wave, it’s your emergency button.
Ancestral Healing raises the target’s armor by 25% for 15 seconds after a crit heal, and 
Tidal Mastery adds 5% crit to make that happen more often. 
Healing Focus protects your casts from being pushed back, and 
Healing Grace cuts your healing threat.
If you’re assigned to back up the tank healers, take 2 points out of Improved Reincarnation and 1 out of Totemic Mastery and put 3 into 
Healing Way. It stacks up extra healing on a target you keep hitting with Healing Wave, but it’s a mana-heavy way to heal, so skip it unless the tank needs you.
Stat Priority
- 1
- Healing Power
makes every heal bigger, including the cheap low ranks you’ll cast most.
- 2
- Intellect
a bigger mana pool, which is the limit on how long you can heal.
- 3
- MP5
regeneration that keeps ticking while you cast, unlike Spirit.
- 4
- Spell Crit
more crit heals means more
Ancestral Healing on the tank.
- 5
- Spirit
only helps when you stop casting, which a raid healer rarely does.
You wear leather until 40 and mail after that, but Restoration Druid gear has most of the same stats. Don’t pass on a healing piece just because it’s leather.
Rotation
A healer doesn’t have a rotation, so here’s what to cast when. The short version: Chain Heal for group damage, Healing Wave for single-target damage, and Lesser Healing Wave for anyone about to die.
Healing Wave ranks matter as much as Chain Heal ranks. Rank 1 is quick and cheap, good for keeping Ancestral Healing and Healing Way rolling on a tank. Rank 5 is your efficient single-target heal. It’s the first rank that gets the full bonus from your healing gear, because Rank 4 is learned at 18 and spells learned before level 20 are penalized. Rank 10 is the big one, usually after Nature’s Swiftness.
OPENER
- 1.
your default Water totem. Swap to a cleansing totem on poison or disease fights.
- 2.
the usual Earth totem for a melee group.
- 3.
for a melee party. Use Tranquil Air Totem in a caster party.
PRIORITY
- 1.
Rank 5 for steady single-target damage, Rank 1 to refresh Ancestral Healing on the tank.
- 2.
the emergency heal for someone about to die.
- 3.
followed by Rank 10 Healing Wave when a tank is about to drop.
AOE
- 1.
Rank 1 for most group damage. Cheap, efficient, and it heals several people at once.
- 2.
Rank 3 only for heavy damage on several people at once.
- 3.
on cooldown, and move it to whichever group needs mana. It takes 12 seconds to give its full effect.
Sometimes the most efficient heal is no heal. If the raid is topped off, stop casting for a few seconds and let your Spirit regen kick in after the five-second rule. Overhealing with a big rank costs you mana you’ll want later in the fight.
Consumables
- Flask
a big boost to your maximum mana for progression fights.
Flask of Distilled Wisdom- Potion
12 mana every 5 seconds for an hour.
Mageblood Potion- Potion
drink it once you’ve spent around 2,000 mana, on a 2-minute cooldown.
- Food
8 mana every 5 seconds.
Sagefish Delight gives 6 and is cheaper.
Nightfin Soup- Weapon Oil
mana regeneration and healing on your weapon.
Brilliant Mana Oil- Rune
turns health into mana.
Dark Rune does the same job.
Gear
Healing Power and Intellect on every piece, then MP5 where you can get it. You’ll share most of your gear with Restoration Druids, and later with other healers too. Enchants matter more than usual for a healer, since several of them add Healing Power directly.
- Head & Legs
Arcanum of Focus is the other option for both slots
- Shoulders
The Zul’Gurub healing shoulder enchant
- Gloves & Weapon
Healing Power enchants
Intellect on the weapon if Healing Power is out of reach
- Bracers
Healing enchant
Greater Intellect
- Trinket
From the Shaman-only Sunken Temple quest chain. It drops a Mana Spring Totem for a short time
Tips & Tricks
Keep Ancestral Healing on the tank with a targeted heal. Chain Heal crits land on random targets, so you can’t count on it to cover the tank.
Plan your mana in steps. Drink a 
Major Mana Potion after about 2,000 mana is spent, then use a 
Demonic Rune or Dark Rune after another 2,000.
Drop 
Tremor Totem, 
Poison Cleansing Totem and 
Disease Cleansing Totem when slightly less than 5 seconds are left before the fear, poison or disease. They pulse every 5 seconds.
Totem twisting costs a huge amount of mana. Only do it when you know you won’t need that mana for healing.
Troll is the usual PvE pick for 
Berserking, which speeds up your casts more the more injured you are. On a Tauren, 
War Stomp can buy the time for a Lesser Healing Wave.
Related Guides
- Shaman Leveling Guide (1-60) — talents and totem quests from 1 to 60
- Shaman Enhancement DPS Guide (Level 60) — the melee spec and totem twisting
- Shaman Elemental DPS Guide (Level 60) — the caster damage spec
- Molten Core Raid Guide — where most Restoration Shamans start raiding
- WoW Classic Alchemy Guide (1-300) — the best profession for a healer who lives on mana potions
- WoW Classic Herbalism Guide (1-300) — gather your own potion herbs