Restoration Shaman PvP Guide for WotLK Classic

Restoration Shamans suffer from their reliance on cast time heals in Wrath Classic's Arena. While they do get new instant healing tools in Riptide and Earthliving Weapon, on top of Earth Shield now only losing 1 stack per dispel, which makes it extremely hard to remove with Healing Grace, the bulk of their single-target healing still requires Lesser Healing Wave or Healing Wave casts.

That being said, Restoration Shamans have a huge amount of general Shaman utility they can put to good use in the Arena, such as Purge, Bloodlust, Grounding Totem, Hex, and Wind Shear, and can thus be considered the most offensive-oriented healer in the Wrath meta.

This build grabs the most important throughput talents and a lot of utility in the Enhancement tree, as well as the PvP focused talents in the Restoration tree, such as Healing Grace and Focused Mind.

What you give up for it is some Critical Strike from skipping Tidal Mastery and losing a point in Thundering Strikes, and also Improved Chain Heal, which improves a spell you should rarely cast in the Arena.

Use Glyph of Earth Shield, Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem and Glyph of Healing Wave for maximum healing and survivability.

For minor glyphs, use Glyph of Ghost Wolf, Glyph of Water Shield, and Glyph of Water Walking for their quality of life benefits.

Rather than a fixed rotation, Shaman gameplay is about treading a fine balance between healing, drinking, casting utility spells, and also damage spells, if given the chance. Here is the general idea:

• Keep yourself alive and away from enemy melee with Ghost Wolf, Earthbind Totem, and Frost Shock;
• Pressure enemies with Purge, Bloodlust, and Hex. If an opportunity arises, you can also try to Lava Burst and Chain Lightning to help land a kill, assuming no ally needs emergency healing and you can cast uninterrupted;
• Against casters and enemy healers, look for opportunities to Grounding Totem and Wind Shear their important casts;
• Keep an eye on your Mana pool, as it is possible to lose due to running out of Mana. You can try to drink if enemies are not actively focusing you, but that will often lead to falling behind on healing and letting allies die, so make sure to read the situation first!

Due to your reliance on cast times, learning and mastering fake casting is fundamental. This is the act of starting a cast, just to cancel it at some point before it finishes, hopefully baiting enemy interrupts while you were not casting and thus wasting them. The main difficulty with fake casting is timing it correctly, as canceling too late means you get interrupted, and too early means enemies see you stopped and do not waste their interrupts.

Totem stomping is no longer a big deal in Wrath, as Stoneclaw Totem protects them and Call of the Elements can instantly place up to four new totems if your current ones are destroyed, making it much harder for Hunters and Warlocks to disrupt your totems.

Tremor Totem pulses every few seconds, removing charm, fear, and sleep effects from yourself and nearby allies. This is amazing against fears especially, but be wary of using Stoneclaw Totem during Tremor's duration, as it will replace it since it is also a Earth Totem.

You can find our recommended gear, gems, and enchants for PvPing as a Restoration Shaman in the link below.

Restoration Shaman has a few good compositions, but are mostly a niche pick in 2s and 3s. 5s will always benefit a lot from having a Restoration Shaman in the group, however, especially if it is the only Shaman!

In 2v2, Shaman + Warlock, Shaman + Warrior, and Shaman + Rogue are your best compositions. The idea is to have a partner who can help crowd control enemies and peel for you, allowing you to heal and set up kills with Hex setups and damage contribution at the right times.

In 3v3, you want to pair with a Frost Mage and Shadow Priest, or Destruction Warlock and Frost Mage. These caster compositions bring a lot of crowd control and peeling ability for the Shaman and benefit greatly from Bloodlust, Flametongue Totem, Wrath of Air Totem, as well as the disruption a Shaman brings for enemy casters and healers.

In 5v5, Shaman can fit into just about any team, and does not have any specifically-favored composition. Matches tend to be quick and explosive, which makes Bloodlust a must, and Restoration has great offensive and defensive tools against the caster compositions common in this bracket.