PvE Restoration Shaman

Restoration Shamans are going to be a great asset to groups with their stellar ability to raid-heal when stacked up, while at the same time being no slacker when keeping tanks up. On top of their considerable throughput, they also bring to the table a bunch of utility and options like Mana Tide Totem that’ll have the other healers stealing a glance your way.

Changes in Mists of Pandaria

One of the most noticeable changes is there’s a huge overhaul to how our totems work. A lot of totems are removed outright, with most of the buffs our totems would provide collapsed into passives such as our new Burning Wrath & Grace of Air. The Fire Elemental Totem and Earth Elemental Totem will also see a halving of cooldown as well as duration to make it more viable to cast more than once during a fight for added value.

There’s also been quite a few changes to basically every one of our utility totems. Things like Earthbind Totem and Grounding Totem have had their durations shortened, and cooldowns increased. Other totems such as Elemental Resistance Totem, Mana Spring Totem, Stoneclaw Totem, and Totem of Tranquil Mind have been removed.

While a lot of low-impact utility has been removed, there are several totems being added that compensate for this. You’ll see our CC package now includes things like Capacitor Totem and Earthgrab Totem (If you choose the talent at this tier). While we have Windwalk Totem and Stormlash Totem as raid-wide utility options.

There’s also an extremely potent raid cooldown added in the form of Healing Tide Totem, that will give you some real power during its duration with the caveat that it’s a 3-minute cooldown. That said, you’ll also have the new Ascendance cooldown as well which turns you into a powerful elemental form that duplicates and evenly distributes your healing for the duration.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

• Lots of high-impact raid cooldowns
  Healing Tide Totem, Mana Tide Totem, Ascendance, and Spirit Link Totem are your heavy hitters for healing and sustain. You’ll also have Stormlash Totem for a decent DPS cooldown for the raid, as well as the ability to Heroism/Bloodlust for burst phases. If you manage your cooldowns well you should basically always have something up for any particular point during a fight.
  
• Great mobility
  You’ll have decent mobility for a caster with instant-cast Ghost Wolf for quick repositioning and Spiritwalker’s Grace for casting while on the move. If you talent into it you’ll also have Ancestral Swiftness (Tier 4 talent) for an instant-cast ability every minute and heals like Riptide that are instant-cast baseline. Combine that with your totems largely being set-and-forget and you’ll have a lot of power to keep your throughput up while also being able to move easily and quickly around the field.
  
• Fantastic utility package
  Our totems will offer slows, stuns, and movement impairment cleansing among other options. But you’ll also have something that most healers will not have access to in the form of Wind Shear. This being a ranged interrupt on a measly 12-second cooldown allows you to easily weave in crucial interrupts without sacrificing your positioning. Purge will also find its uses at times, although a bit more sparingly and with the downside of being on the GCD.

Weaknesses

• Loss of throughput when the raid/group is not stacked
  Your AoE healing is super powerful, but has the constraint of being effective within small areas. Either people need to be in your Healing Rain circle, within range to allow your Chain Heal to jump, or in range of your Spirit Link Totem, etc. A lot of your most powerful AoE heals require tight stacking to be effective.
  
• Decent complexity in rotation and upkeep
  Gone are the days of Chain Heal spamming making up the majority of what you’ll be doing. You’ll have several things to keep tabs on and want to remain kept up. Your Riptide is going to make them a preferential target for Chain Heal, you’ll need to keep Earth Shield up, the amount of utility options in your toolkit can be overwhelming, and part of your mana management is going to be fitting in Lightning Bolt.
  
  

Best Races

 Horde

For Horde there’s actually going to be a decent selection of viable picks as a Resto Shaman depending on how you want to manage your cooldowns. Orc’s Blood Fury pairs well with significant Haste buffs – allowing you to punch above your weight class. While Troll’s Berserking serves as another potential Haste buff that can be valuable when combined with Healing Tide Totem to squeeze out an extra tick. If you want value without having to worry about an extra spell then Pandaren’s Epicurean is extra free stats from food buffs. Or you can go with Goblins for a flat 1% increase to your spell Haste plus the added bonus of Rocket Jump as another movement ability.

• Orc: Blood Fury, Axe Specialization, Hardiness, Command
• Troll: Beast Slaying, Berserking, Da Voodoo Shuffle, Dead Eye, Regeneration
• Tauren: Cultivation, Endurance, Nature Resistance, War Stomp
• Goblin: Best Deals Anywhere, Better Living Through Chemistry, Pack Hobgoblin, Rocket Barrage, Rocket Jump, Time is Money
• Pandaren: Bouncy, Epicurean, Gourmand, Inner Peace, Quaking Palm

 Alliance

You only have 3 options for Alliance races for Shaman, sadly. Among those over the course of a fight the most mathematical pick is going to be Pandarens with their Epicurean racial giving a flat stat increase to food buffs. The next best option is probably Draenei with their Gift of the Naaru basically being a small single-target healing cooldown in and of itself (I use it as a defensive cooldown for myself). Last there’s Dwarves, who have Stoneform as a defensive option – which is useful mainly for the personal cleanse effect.

• Draenei: Gemcutting, Gift of the Naaru, Heroic Presence, Shadow Resistance
• Dwarf: Crack Shot, Explorer, Frost Resistance, Mace Specialization, Stoneform
• Pandaren: Bouncy, Epicurean, Gourmand, Inner Peace, Quaking Palm