Restoration Shaman Patch 9.1 Changes Analysis

This page will go over how the Patch 9.1 changes affect Restoration Shamans, specifically how the changes impact the playstyle, best Legendaries, Covenants, etc.

If you are simply interested in what the current changes are for Restoration Shaman on 9.1, you can instead read our full list of changes to the entire Shaman class on our dedicated page below. For an additional list of content present in Patch 9.1, you can also check out our Patch 9.1 Overview page.

While Patch 9.1.5 buffs the Kyrian-specific conduit, Elysian Dirge by 50%, the overall effect on our gameplay is negligible. Regardless, because of Covenant and Conduit swapping becoming much easier to do, it is a great time to try out a new Covenant!

The only talent changes in 9.1 so far are the replacement of two PvP talents:

• Unleash Shield replaces Purifying Waters and consumes your active Elemental Shield, unleashing it on your target. Lightning Shield knocks them away, Earth Shield roots them in place for 3 seconds, and Water Shield summons a whirlpool for 6 seconds, reducing their damage and healing by 50% while they stand within it.
• Living Tide replaces Spirit Link and causes Healing Tide Totem to have half cooldown and heal for 100% more each time it pulses.

Unleash Shield adds a Mortal Strike-esque effect to Restoration Shaman which is a huge PvP buff, especially before players are used to dealing with it.

Living Tide makes HTT much stronger in PvP, with the final ticks almost fully healing targets by themselves! Make sure to be careful with its positioning in order to avoid having it die prematurely, however.

Splintered Elements, the new Necrolord Legendary, causes each hit with spells replicated by Primordial Wave to increase your Haste, stacking. While this does reward you for getting a lot of replicated spells out, it can be clunky to use and does not look to be the best Legendary in any type of content.

Elemental Conduit, the new Venthyr legendary, applies Riptide to all friendly targets hit and Flame Shock to all enemy targets hit. This is a powerful effect, but does requires a lot of hits and damaged targets to achieve its maximum potential, placing it as a burst option to the steady healing of Primal Tide Core.

Seeds of Rampant Growth, the new Night Fae legendary, causes each pulse of Fae Transfusion to reduce the cooldown on Healing Tide Totem and increase your Critical Strike chance for 15 seconds. This is a strong Legendary in fights where HTT is also strong, especially if you can get useful extra uses out of it. It combos with Living Tide in PvP to make HTT have a very short cooldown and be even more powerful, especially in the large group fights of battlegrounds.

Last but not least, Raging Vesper Vortex, the new Kyrian Legendary, makes Vesper Totem deal extra bursts of damage and healing once its healing or damage charges are spent. As long as you use all charges and hit players and enemies with the totem, this is an extremely strong Legendary, especially in pulls where Deeptremor Stone cannot be used because the Elemental would die instantly.

While there are new rows of powers to account for, they seem to be relatively balanced among Covenants and are not enough by themselves to change the preferences detailed in the Restoration Shaman Covenant guide.

Thus, our PvE preferences for now are Necrolord or Venthyr / Night Fae for raiding, Venthyr or Kyrian / Necrolord for Mythic+ and Necrolord or Venthyr / Night Fae for PvP.

If you intend on doing all of these types of content, Necrolord and Venthyr are the most versatile options, with Necrolord being more involved and Venthyr being easier to play with less versatile healing tools.