TBC Classic Restoration Shaman Guide

Shamans are the best support class in TBC Classic, and one of the top healers. They are the only source of Bloodlust or Heroism and totems, such as Windfury Totem and the new Wrath of Air Totem, which provide unique buffs for the Shaman's group.

TBC introduces Shamans to the Alliance side through the new Draenei race, which can be leveled from the pre-patch onwards.

This guide will focus on Restoration Shamans, one of the best area of effect healers in the game, who also sport strong single target healing and the massive utility only a Shaman can bring.

In order to properly play a healing role, you will need more than just class-specific information. To better understand healing in general, we recommend that you read our Healing guide.

If you would like to see where Restoration Shamans fall in the overall rankings among healer specs for both PvE and PvP in TBC Classic, we have created pages dedicated to explaining what classes and specializations are the best of the best through multiple factors. However, ultimately, you should not let these lists dissuade you from playing what you enjoy.

Strengths

• Great multi-target healing with Chain Heal;
• Totems for every type of situation, from buffs to CC removal;
• Strong non-totem support spells, such as Bloodlust, Earth Shock and Purge.

Weaknesses

• Vulnerable to curses and interrupts in PvP;
• Low survivability and no defensive cooldown;
• Not the best single target healing or Mana efficiency.

Healing Grace will now also have dispel protection baked in, making it a useful talent to have for PvP as well as PvE.

Mana Tide Totem regenerates 6% Mana per 3 seconds instead of its old fixed values per rank, making it valuable all the way through TBC Classic.

Earth Shield is a new talent that creates an elemental shield on its target which heals when hit and provides a small spell pushback reduction. This is a minor healing increase in PvE and a must-have talent in PvP, where it will often be the only heal you can land while being pressured.

Water Shield is a new baseline spell that creates a shield on yourself which provides passive Mana regeneration and extra bursts of Mana whenever you are hit. This is great in all types of content, but especially so if you are being consistently hit for the extra Mana returns, so expect to get a ton of Mana back while soloing and leveling!

Bloodlust / Heroism are new meta-defining spells, which grant a huge amount of Haste for 40 seconds to the Shaman's party. By rotating Shamans into your DPS partie for this cast, you can ensure near-permanent uptime on the buff in any given fight, drastically increasing raid DPS.

Wrath of Air Totem is a new support totem that increases spell power for the Shaman's party, making it a must-have in any caster party.

Totemic Call is a new spell that allows you to destroy your current totems in order to recover 25% of their Mana cost. You can use this to avoid pulling patrols with your totems, to recover some Mana when moving to a new place and even just to recover some Mana for free when your totems are about to expire!

Earth Elemental Totem creates an Earth Elemental that taunts and generates threat on nearby enemies. Due to its relatively high health, it can serve as an emergency tank for you and your group.

Fire Elemental Totem creates a Fire Elemental that deals significant single and area of effect damage, making it great for contributing damage to your group or while soloing.

The overall result of all of these changes and additions is a much stronger Restoration Shaman, mostly courtesy of Bloodlust, but Wrath of Air Totem is a PvE powerhouse and Earth Shield is a very welcome new tool as well!

Draenei is the only race available. While it is not one of the most impactful Shaman races, it does provide useful benefits, especially to caster groups with its 1% Spell Hit aura effect!

• Gemcutting increases your Jewelcrafting skill by 5.
• Gift of the Naaru is a short cast with a 3-minute cooldown that heals over time. Because it is free, it can be occasionally useful, and being on the Holy school allows you to cast it in PvP even while interrupted on Nature.
• Inspiring Presence increases your party's chance to hit with spells by 1%.
• Shadow Resistance increases your Shadow Resistance by 10.

Troll is the best race for PvE, Orc is the best race for PvP and second best for PvE and Tauren is a close second for PvP.

• Beast Slaying gives a 5% damage bonus against Beasts.
• Berserking is a 3-minute cooldown that gives you between 10-30% increased attack and casting speed depending on your health, with the effect being greater the more hurt you are.
• Bow Specialization increases your Critical Strike chance by 1% when using a Bow.
• Throwing Specialization increases your Critical Strike chance by 1% when using a thrown weapon.
• Regeneration gives +10% passive health regeneration and allows you to regenerate 10% of your total health regeneration during combat.

Trolls are the best choice if your goal is to maximize your PvE throughput, due to Berserking, which quickens your casts, especially if activated at low health. This ability is also powerful in PvP, but so are the ones from the alternative races.

• Axe Specialization increases your expertise by 5 while wielding an Axe.
• Blood Fury is a 2-minute cooldown that increases your Attack Power by 282 (at level 70) for 15 seconds, but also reduces healing effects on you by 50% during that time.
• Command increases your pet damage dealt by 5%.
• Hardiness increases your chance to resist stuns by 15%.

Orc is the go-to PvP race, due to Hardiness, which allows you to occasionally resist stun effects. This is especially useful against Rogues. They also have Blood Fury, which is a powerful throughput cooldown, but does come with a significant penalty which leads to it not being usable in every situation.

• Cultivation increases your Herbalism skill by 15.
• Endurance increases your total health by 5%.
• Nature Resistance increases your Nature Resistance by 10.
• War Stomp is a 2-minute cooldown that stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds, with a 0.5 second cast time.

War Stomp is quite reliable in PvP, often allowing for an emergency Lesser Healing Wave cast, but has few PvE uses. The 5% increased health from Endurance is minor. Finally, Taurens have a larger hitbox (especially males), which grants them a slightly increased casting range, but also makes them more likely to be hit by enemy abilities.

While all professions have their unique benefits, we would recommend PvE-focused players to level Leatherworking, for the Windhawk Armor set, which doubles as a very strong Elemental Shaman set. You will also get Drums of Battle, which are an important consumable only brought by Leatherworkers.

Enchanting also has significant personal benefits due to exclusive ring enchants which will increase your throughput for all of TBC.

Tailoring is also good, but only very early on, as the Whitemend Wisdom and Primal Mooncloth crafted gear is available right away in Phase 1 and has strong healing stats, but lacks Stamina and will be replaced by Tier 4 quality gear. Tailoring is also a solid gold maker with its periodic cloth transmutes.

Finally, Alchemy is a good passive goldmaking profession due to the transmute recipes and the new elixir, potion and transmute masteries, making it a strong profession on an alt that you do not want to min-max your throughput on.

If you would like to learn more about how your profession of choice can be used to supplement your goldmaking, along with a variety of other means to bolster your income, see our full goldmaking guide linked below:

Using macros and addons makes your life significantly easier when playing TBC Classic, and they can improve your experience a lot, depending on how skilled you are at customizing them.

If you are interested in learning more about addons and macros suited to Restoration Shamans, check out our guides below: