PvE Restoration Shaman Best Professions

Profession bonuses are going to be pretty important for Restoration, especially early on, as you’re going to be looking to squeeze out as much efficiency as you can to keep your group alive. Thankfully, there’s actually a lot of good options that’ll help you out and scale well between the early and lategame.

Best Professions

Sadly, if you want to min-max the bonuses from professions you’re likely going to be taking two crafting professions and skipping out on any gathering professions. Most of the bonuses are going to equal out to a +320 Intellect gain or chunk of Spirit, but there will be some professions with minor difference in how these stats are given to you.

A good combination to start with if you’re unsure would be Engineering + Tailoring. Engineering is going to offer a 1-minute CD that gives +1920 Intellect for 10 seconds when you apply Synapse Springs. For Engineering not only will having an extra massive stat boost to line up with your burst provide a bit of extra value, there’s also some decent utility options and crafted pieces for early gearing. For Tailoring you’ll get the Lightweave Embroidery / Darkglow Embroidery buff which should be easily proc’d, although it comes with an internal cooldown of 1-minute, giving a nice chunk of either Spell Power or mana regen.

• Engineering: Synapse Springs offer a +1920 Intellect buff for 10 seconds on a 1 minute CD. This lines up well with some of our CD’s and gets extra value during Bloodlust/Heroism. There’s also some extra perks with the ability to craft a Energized Retinal Armor helm as a solid early endgame piece.
• Tailoring: You’ll have the Darkglow Embroidery or Lightweave Embroidery enchantments available to be applied to your cloak with Tailoring. For the Darkglow enchantment you will miss out on some raw Intellect as these replace your normal cloak enchant, but early-on a huge Spirit buff every minute is going to be a valuable form of consistent mana regeneration. For Lightweave, this is a +2000 Intellect proc that lasts 15 seconds. On average it equals out to +500 Intellect over the course of a fight with its internal cooldown of a minute.
• Blacksmithing: Gain two extra sockets, which equals out to a bonus of +320 Intellect or +640 Spirit if you slot in gems that target what you need most at the time. At the beginning of your gearing journey the Spirit might be more useful, and as your gear progresses you can easily swap it to +Intellect without hassle.
• Leatherworking: This profession offers an enhanced bracer enchant in Fur Lining – Intellect, which is a +320 Intellect gain. There is an extra benefit of being able to make Mail gear for yourself, although this would be BoE gear that you could buy from other Leatherworkers if you choose not to become one yourself.

Useful Professions

These professions are still viable picks and will offer you the standard +320 to your main stat. But there’s no other combat value to picking these, so choose them if you’re either interested or want them to help your gold coffers stay full.

• Alchemy: You’ll gain a bonus to the time and stat increase of Elixirs and Flasks through Mixology. Always a solid option as it’s often a money-maker and fairly easy to level up.
• Jewelcrafting: Having this profession will give you the ability to craft and use Serpent’s Eye gems, which offer extra stats – totaling out to +320 Intellect.
• Inscription: This will replace the regular shoulder enchant with Secret Tiger Claw Inscription, netting you an extra +320 Intellect as well as some cost savings.
• Enchanting: Gives you a +Intellect ring enchantment, giving you +320 Intellect total. Past that this profession pairs well with another crafting profession as it’s self-sufficient, so easier to make use of on its own.

Sub-Par Professions

I wouldn’t recommend choosing these as they’re a net DPS loss comparatively, and a somewhat significant one at that.

• Herbalism: A skill called Lifeblood is on a 2 minute cooldown and grants 2880 Haste for 20 seconds. This averages out to +480 Haste, which is the best option out of the gathering professions, but still not fantastic when compared to what the other professions offer for a healer currently.
• Mining: Gain a passive, Toughness, increasing Stamina considerably. Not particularly useful for Restoration in comparison to other options.
• Skinning: Master of Anatomy is a passive for choosing Skinning that increases your Crit by +480. A rather weak bonus compared to a chunk of main stat gained from other professions.