Classic Restoration Shaman Healer Stat Priority

Before we begin, it should be said that gear in WoW Classic tends to be very unique, and as such, you will often be chasing very specific items, rather than simply following a stat priority list. Still, a more detailed explanation on each of a Shaman's relevant stats will help you understand why those pieces are so sought after.

The stat priority for Restoration Shamans is as follows:

1. Mana every 5 seconds (for Mana regeneration while you are casting, loses priority when you are finishing fights with Mana to spare);
2. Intellect (grants spell critical strike and increases your maximum Mana);
3. Spell Healing (some spells scale better with it than others, but for the most part you will be casting spells that benefit greatly from it);
4. Spell Critical Strike (chance to heal for a much larger amount than usual);
5. Spirit (Mana and health regeneration outside combat).

• Stamina (more health per point);
• Resistance (strongly reduces Magic damage taken of a specific element);
• Spell Hit Rating (you will typically need 16% to cap hit against bosses, see below for details).

Mana every 5 seconds, or simply Mp5, is a common stat found on healing gear. This is the best stat for getting more Mana during a fight because it works constantly, even if you cast something in the last 5 seconds (contrary to Spirit) and should thus be taken whenever possible, until you feel comfortable with your Mana sustainability.

Intellect is a good stat for Restoration Shamans, as it increases total Mana pool and spell critical strike. The Mana pool gain is very significant during leveling and while soloing, but not so significant during raids, where Mana regeneration and Mana consumables will typically play a bigger part in your sustainability.

Spell Healing is applied to each spell based on its casting time.

The coefficient is calculated by dividing the cast time of a spell by 3.5. This is because a 3.5 second cast benefits from 100% of your gear's Spell Healing. For example, if you have 20 additional Spell Healing from gear, then this will simply affect your spells as follows:

• Healing Increase per spell cast = n * 20
• n = spell's coefficient

Instant single-target spells typically only get around 43% of the benefit, while a cast-time spell, like Chain Heal, gets roughly 71%.

This means that 100 Spell Healing on your gear would cause Chain Heal to heal for 71 more. A table with the exact coefficients for all spells in WoW Classic can be found in this Reddit thread, by u/RobertVests.

Spell Critical Strike allows your spells to occasionally heal for more. Due to Ancestral Healing, a Restoration Shaman's critical strikes increase their target's armor significantly, which is a huge boost for tanks and focused people in PvP.

For Restoration Shamans, Spirit provides Mana regeneration, as long as you are outside the 5-second rule, which is very useful while leveling but not so much for maximum level content.

Stamina is the only stat that will help you survive all types of attacks, and as such, should always be valued highly, especially in PvP.

Resistance, while inherently niche due to different bosses dealing different magical damage types, can be very useful while progressing specific bosses. Wearing resistance gear of a type makes you take less damage or even completely avoid damage when hit by that type of magical damage.

Spell Hit allows your spells to land more often, which is a huge DPS increase, and can allow you to more reliably land interrupts with Earth Shock. Keep in mind that you will always have at least a 1% chance to miss with spells. Depending on the level of your enemy, you might need more, or less Spell Hit to reach this 1% cap:

• For an enemy of the same level as you, 3% Spell Hit is needed to cap.
• For an enemy 1 level higher than you, 4% Spell Hit is needed to cap.
• For an enemy 2 levels higher than you, 5% Spell Hit is needed to cap.
• For an enemy 3 levels higher than you, which is the case of raid bosses, 16% Spell Hit is needed to cap.