Season of Discovery Restoration Shaman Healer Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Restoration Shaman Healer, depending on the type of damage your group is receiving while doing PvE content in WoW Classic - Season of Discovery. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, and others in order to minmax your healing output and your mana efficiency.
Introduction
While they are extraordinarily powerful, explosives such as Heavy Dynamite will not be detailed in the rotation. Usually, you will want to use them as soon as the tank has solid threat on the target. The main exception is when you are facing multiple or particularly dangerous (such as enraged) enemies at some point in the fight. Saving explosives to carry you and your group through these moments (and possibly do a ton of AoE damage in the process) is probably worth it.
Healers do not have a formal rotation. As such we will display a priority list instead:
Spell Priority
- Use Riptide (followed by Lesser Healing Wave or Healing Wave if needed) as an emergency heal for players about to die;
- Keep your group-buffing Totems active and in range of group members at all times;
- Remove dangerous debuffs from group members as soon as possible. This includes preparing for Fear effects with Tremor Totem;
- Keep Water Shield active on yourself and Earth Shield on the tank;
- If runed, cast Healing Rain if two or more people in your group are hurt and standing close together;
- Use Chain Heal if two or more people in your group are still hurt and standing close together;
- Cast Riptide (to activate Tidal Waves) and various ranks of Healing Wave to spot heal injured players or use your DPS spells according to the Elemental rotation, as the situation calls for.
Remember to use Shamanistic Rage whenever you will not waste its Mana regeneration as doing so is the key to keeping a strong Mana pool through long fights.
Advanced Totem Usage
Tremor Totem and Poison Cleansing Totem should be dropped when slightly less than 5 seconds remains until the Fear or Poison application. As they remove effects every 5 seconds, this will ensure that these harmful effects are removed as soon they are applied, which is of particular importance for Fears, so that allies do not have time to run out of the Totem's radius.
Downranking as a Restoration Shaman
In order to keep healing throughout a long fight, and to avoid overhealing in general, it is a good idea to downrank your spells when heavy healing is not necessary.
Spells that can be learned before Level 20 gain a smaller benefit from Spell Damage and Healing, making them less efficient to downrank. Chain Heal and Healing Wave are both great downranking options if you need more Mana, but with the added Mana sources in Season of Discovery this should rarely be needed.
Changelog
- 08 Jul. 2024: Updated rotation for Phase 4.
- 07 Apr. 2024: Updated rotation for Phase 3.
- 03 Mar. 2024: Adjusted Shamanistic Rage explanation after its rework.
- 19 Feb. 2024: Further Phase 2 specific rotation updates.
- 12 Feb. 2024: Updated rotation for Phase 2.
- 17 Dec. 2023: Completely reworked rotation, removing unavailable spells and adding in new tips such as Rockbiter + Shamanistic Rage.
More Classic Shaman Guides
More Season of Discovery Class Guides
Classic Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides
Classic Reputation Guides
This guide has been written by Seksi, original vanilla player and multi-class player, currently playing on Gehennas Horde. You can find him on the Classic Warrior, Mage and Shaman Discords, as well as the Icy Veins Discord.
- Patch 1.15.5 Notes: Season of Discovery Phase 6 & WoW Classic Anniversary Realm Details
- Changes Coming to PvP Layering on Anniversary Classic Realms
- Anniversary Realms to Introduce Dual Spec, Instant Mail, and More
- Mists of Pandaria Classic Reveal Trailer
- WoW Classic Relaunch and Fresh Start LFG Tool, Rules and Realm Sizes Announced
- WoW Classic Roadmap for 2025: Mists of Pandaria Classic, New Endgame Content in SoD, and New Classic Cycle
- New WoW Classic Cycle Begins November 21 with Fresh Vanilla Start and Hardcore Servers!
- Is Mists of Pandaria Classic Coming? New Mount Icons in Patch 11.0.7 Fuel Speculation for Warcraft Direct Announcement