Shaman Hero Talents — The War Within (11.2.5)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Restoration Shaman, check out our Talents page:

Farseer has no special synergies with Chain Heal or Healing Rain, making it well suited for Riptide and single-target-focused talent builds, including ones that focus exclusively on Riptide and Healing Wave with the Whispering Waves talent. Your spawned Ancestors with Call of the Ancestors and Ancestral Swiftness will help with whatever type of healing you are doing and feed Ascendance and Cloudburst Totem, making them very versatile.

The new Season 3 tier bonus is extremely powerful and you should swap to Farseer if you are not already using it once you obtain the 2-piece bonus!

Totemic is all about Surging Totem (which replaces Healing Rain) and Chain Heal being cast by your totems through Lively Totems. It also especially boosts Healing Stream Totem due to Reactivity and Supportive Imbuements being stronger for it than they are for Cloudburst Totem and Healing Stream having a much lower cooldown than Cloudburst, enabling more free Chain Heals!

The lower amount of hard casting needed for Healing Rain and Chain Heal, while also not needing to use Cloudburst Totem, makes Totemic much easier to play than Farseer, but its power is expected to be lower for the majority of players once the Season 3 tier 2-piece set bonus is obtained.

Ancestors also deal damage when you do, making Farseer even more flexible for the requirements of Mythic+, and its increased single-target healing is also very welcomed for solo healing.

The main downside of Farseer is having lower burst area healing potential than Totemic when Totemic is played well with the new tier set. The lack of Healing Rain casts will also lead to no Acid Rain, which is usually the best source of passive damage for Restoration Shaman, but in compensation you will also gain much more priority damage on demand through the Ancestors. Its defensive options are also weaker than the ones on the Totemic tree.

Totemic makes Healing Rain very easy to maintain, and thus gains great value from the Acid Rain caused by Surging Totem, which deals 30% more damage than the regular one. Wind Barrier is also a strong defensive, and Swift Recall enables more frequent usage of your support totems.

Totemic's Healing Stream Totem is also a fantastic reactive tool due to the free Chain Heal from Lively Totems and great synergy between Reactivity, Supportive Imbuements, and spec talent Living Stream.

The main downside of Totemic is that so much of your throughput potential is tied to Surging Totem and Chain Heal that it can be hard to heal party members that stand far away from the enemies you are currently fighting, especially given the lack of single-target healing support given by the tree. Its burst healing min maxing is also much harder to perform with the new Season 3 tier set.

2.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Restoration Shaman

Farseer Group Build Farseer Leveling and Solo Build Totemic Raid Build Totemic Mythic+ Build

3.

Best Farseer Raid Build for Restoration Shaman

You can play Farseer in two ways: go all in on randomness with Ancient Fellowship and Routine Communication, or invest into predictable healing boosts with Latent Wisdom and Heed My Call.

We recommend the predictable route, as it will make your healing more consistent and allow you to have similar performance in every pull. The final choice node, between Earthen Communion and Natural Harmony, is unfortunately mostly inconsequential due to the weak power of both options. We opted for Earthen simply to have to refresh Earth Shield less often.

3.

Best Farseer Mythic+ Build for Restoration Shaman

You can play Farseer in two ways: go all in on randomness with Ancient Fellowship and Routine Communication, or invest into predictable healing boosts with Latent Wisdom and Heed My Call.

We recommend the predictable route, as it will make your healing more consistent and allow you to have similar performance in every pull. The final choice node, between Earthen Communion and Natural Harmony, is unfortunately mostly inconsequential due to the weak power of both options. We opted for Harmony in order to provide a larger buffer against missed interrupts and other large burst damage events.

3.

Best Totemic Raid Build for Restoration Shaman

The main decision in Totemic for Raiding is between Amplification Core for more damage and general healing and Oversurge for more burst healing. Usually Oversurge will be better as it provides more burst for dangerous moments, but you can also use Amplification on easier bosses.

Also, while Supportive Imbuements is generally favored, Pulse Capacitor is close in power and is a fine replacement if you are not using a shield or when using Cloudburst Totem, depending on the fight and ideal CBT explosion timers.

3.

Best Totemic Mythic+ Build for Restoration Shaman

The main decision in Totemic for Mythic+ is between Amplification Core for more damage and general healing and Oversurge for more burst healing. Amplification is good for lower keys, while Oversurge can be great for higher keys with more burst damage to heal through.

Also, while Supportive Imbuements is generally favored, Pulse Capacitor is close in power and is a fine replacement if you are not using a shield.

Farseer does not impact your gameplay significantly, as the spawned Ancestors simply follow your lead and will cast appropriate spells depending on what you are already doing, but it will be even more important than usual to ensure Ancestral Swiftness (which replaces Nature's Swiftness) is being used on cooldown.

Due to the lack of interaction with the Farseer benefits, Healing Rain is generally not casted while playing Farseer.

Totemic has an easier rotation than usual because Surging Totem is instant and lasts over twice as long as a regular Healing Rain. You will also have many of your Chain Heals being cast automatically by some of your totems with Lively Totems, saving you a huge amount of time and Mana.