Restoration Shaman Healing Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.0.5)

Welcome to our Gear and BiS Page for Restoration Shaman for The War Within Season 1. Check this page to learn everything you need to know about gearing a Restoration Shaman, including the BiS Gear from all sources, Raiding and Mythic+, information on the best Trinkets, Tier Sets, and much more.

For detailed information on gear stats and what you want to chase, check out our Stats page below.

Also, if you have a new piece of gear that you need gems and enchants advice for, you can find everything you need on our dedicated page below.

2.

BiS Gear for Restoration Shaman

Overall BiS List for Season 1 Nerub-ar Palace Gear BiS List Mythic+ Gear BiS List

3.

Overall Season 1 BiS List for Restoration Shamans

As usual, prioritize Leech / Avoidance pieces and the highest item level equipment you have, regardless of its secondary stat distribution.

The crafted items you should use depends on what loot you have out of the list below, but assuming a clean slate, you will want a crafted 1h (or 2h to save crests, at the cost of being sub-optimal later) weapon with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and a cloak item with Writhing Armor Banding on it to double its effects.

After embellishments, getting Whirring Wristwraps can be quite useful for secondary stat stacking and, while the battle ress provided by Convincingly Realistic Jumper Cables does not require a tinker slot; you can use Tinker: Heartseeking Health Injector instead for a large, free, and unlimited healing potion effect with a small damage over time component after being used.

Once / if you have a maxed-out Mythic weapon, consider swapping to double Dawnthread Lining instead, or Duskthread Lining for high Mythic+ survivability purposes.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Weapon	Sovereign's Disdain	Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Shield	Crest of the Caustic Despot	Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Helm	Noetic of the Forgotten Reservoir	Silken Court, Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Neck	Locket of Broken Memories	Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace
Shoulder	Concourse of the Forgotten Reservoir	Rasha'nan, Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Cloak	Wings of Shattered Sorrow	Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace
Chest	Vestments of the Forgotten Reservoir	Broodtwister Ovi'nax, Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Bracers	Ky'veza's Covert Clasps	Nexus Princess Ky'veza in Nerub-ar Palace
Gloves	Covenant of the Forgotten Reservoir	Sikran, Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Belt	Accelerated Ascension Coil	Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace
Legs	Liquified Defector's Leggings	Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Boots	Striders of Restless Malice	Surgeon Stitchflesh in The Necrotic Wake
Ring #1	Seal of the Poisoned Pact	Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Ring #2	Ritual Commander's Ring	Nalthor the Rimebinder in The Necrotic Wake
Trinket #1	Spymaster's Web	Silken Court in Nerub-ar Palace
Trinket #2	Unbound Changeling	Mists of Tirna Scithe, or Great Vault

4.

Nerub-ar Palace Raid Gear BiS List for Restoration Shaman

As usual, prioritize Leech / Avoidance pieces and the highest item level equipment you have, regardless of its secondary stat distribution.

Haste is bad for Chain Heal builds, which are often favored when raiding, while Mastery can often be decent when underhealing or while progression raiding, and that bias is reflected in the gear picked below.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Weapon	Sovereign's Disdain	Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Shield	Crest of the Caustic Despot	Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Helm	Noetic of the Forgotten Reservoir	Silken Court, Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Neck	Locket of Broken Memories	Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace
Shoulder	Concourse of the Forgotten Reservoir	Rasha'nan, Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Cloak	Wings of Shattered Sorrow	Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace
Chest	Vestments of the Forgotten Reservoir	Broodtwister Ovi'nax, Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Bracers	Ky'veza's Covert Clasps	Nexus Princess Ky'veza in Nerub-ar Palace
Gloves	Covenant of the Forgotten Reservoir	Sikran, Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Belt	Accelerated Ascension Coil	Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace
Legs	Liquified Defector's Leggings	Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Boots	Rasha'nan's Grotesque Talons	Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace
Ring #1	Seal of the Poisoned Pact	Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Ring #2	Writhing Ringworm	Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace
Trinket #1	Spymaster's Web	Silken Court in Nerub-ar Palace
Trinket #2	Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg	Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace

5.

Mythic+ Season 1 BiS List for Restoration Shamans

As usual, prioritize Leech / Avoidance pieces and the highest item level equipment you have, regardless of its secondary stat distribution.

Haste is also very good for Mythic+, while Mastery is often wasted to not affect our DPS, and that bias is reflected in the gear picked below.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Weapon	Modgud's Blade	Grim Batol
Shield	Old-Blood Hielaman	City of Threads
Helm	Noetic of the Forgotten Reservoir	Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Neck	Elder's Hemolymphal Periapt	City of Threads
Shoulder	Concourse of the Forgotten Reservoir	Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Cloak	Swarmcaller's Shroud	Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
Chest	Vestments of the Forgotten Reservoir	Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Bracers	Dread Captain's Irons	Siege of Boralus
Gloves	Covenant of the Forgotten Reservoir	Matrix Catalyst, or Great Vault
Belt	Anchor Chain Girdle	Siege of Boralus
Legs	Lichbone Legguards	The Necrotic Wake
Boots	Striders of Restless Malice	The Necrotic Wake
Ring #1	Band of the Ancient Dredger	Siege of Boralus
Ring #2	Ritual Commander's Ring	The Necrotic Wake
Trinket #1	Gale of Shadows	Grim Batol
Trinket #2	Ara-Kara Sacbrood	Ara-Kara, City of Echoes

There are three main paths to gear your characters in The War Within:

• World Content (crafting, reputations, quests, world bosses, world PvP);
• Instanced PvE Content (delves, dungeons, and raids);
• Instanced PvP Content (battlegrounds and arenas).

You are free to pursue any or all of these paths. The more content you do in the game, the faster your gearing up will be, but we recommend that you focus on the types of content you enjoy the most, letting gear come as a by-product of having fun!

The current Crest system works for all PvE gear, including crafted gear. Enchanting can create optional reagents such as Enchanted Gilded Harbinger Crest by using Crests looted from PvE content, with higher difficulty content rewarding crests that can be used to increase item level further.

You will also need Valorstones to upgrade your items, which can be found in different amounts when doing any PvE content. These can also be used to upgrade dropped PvE gear up to a maximum Item Level equivalent to Mythic Raid Item Level, although the exact amount of upgrades available depends on the source of the item.

The cost to upgrade depends on the slot and increases as the Item Level goes up. In order to create crafted gear in The War Within Season 1, you will need Spark of Omens, which can be obtained from weekly quests or dropped randomly from any type of content while you are under the current maximum cap, which rises every other week.

Gear obtained from PvP is upgradeable with Conquest points earned from doing Rated PvP and other PvP activities.

You should generally be using your highest item-level gear. If you have an Intellect two-hander that is of higher item level than your one-hand + shield combination, use the two-hander; otherwise, use the shield for an increase in survivability against physical damage.

You will usually want to start with upgrading your weapon, followed by trinkets, and then any leech/avoidance pieces or items you won't be replacing for a long time. These would be great choices, for example:

1. Highest item level weapon you have;
2. Highest item level trinket(s) of S-rank you have;
3. Any Leech / Avoidance pieces of high item level.

Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Restoration Shaman in The War Within. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a brief note/commentary that is italicized.

• Shaman Restoration Season 1 2pc — Tidal Waves increases the healing of affected spells by 10%. This is a simple bonus which translates into a straightforward 10% healing increase to some of your core spells such as Healing Wave, Healing Surge, and also Chain Heal, which is often easy to forget about as it used to provide, rather than consume, Tidal Waves in Classic expansions!
• Shaman Restoration Season 1 4pc — Tidal Waves is 80% more effective and reduces the Mana cost of affected spells by 8%. This is a very significant increase in Tidal Waves power, and you will want to focus heavily on generating and spending them with your gameplay once you get this bonus.

Both set bonuses are completely passive and do not have significant gameplay impact, as generating and consuming Tidal Waves is already how you should be optimally playing, even without the tier set bonuses. Doing it correctly will be much more powerful while failing to do so will be further punishing.

Besides getting Tier pieces from doing the raid, you can also turn any non-profession piece of gear into a Tier piece with the Matrix Catalyst, which will gain stacking charges every week.

Take note that a trinket's worth might vary wildly between types of content. For example, there are trinkets not listed below that are specifically created and tailored for PvP, while PvE players mostly chase stat sticks, as those improve healing (and damage) reliably, without the burst and bust characteristic of proc or on-use trinkets.

The ranking system is as follows:

1. S Tier: the strongest and most generally useful trinkets; these are always good choices;
2. A Tier: these trinkets are slightly weaker than the S Tier traits, but are still solid choices;
3. B Tier: a below-average trinket that should be picked only in the absence of an S or A Tier trinket.

• Spymaster's Web (Nerub-ar Palace);
• Unbound Changeling (Mists of Tirna Scithe);
• Gale of Shadows (Grim Batol);
• Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg (Nerub-ar Palace);
• Ara-Kara Sacbrood (Ara-Kara, City of Echoes);
• Creeping Coagulum (Nerub-ar Palace).

• Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj (The Dawnbreaker);
• Scrapsinger's Symphony (The Stonevault);
• Cirral Concoctory (City of Threads);
• Carved Blazikon Wax (Darkflame Cleft);
• Nerubian Pheromone Secreter (The Severed Threads renown vendor);
• Gruesome Syringe (Nerub-ar Palace).

• High Speaker's Accretion (The Stonevault);
• Viscous Coaglam (City of Threads);
• Unstable Power Suit Core (Delves);
• Quickwick Candlestick (Delves);
• Algari Alchemist Stone (Alchemy);
• Mereldar's Toll (The Dawnbreaker).

Embellishments are special effects that are either found on crafted pieces by default or can be added to crafted pieces during the crafting process. A character can have two embellishments equipped at any time. The following are our recommended embellishments:

• Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension can only be placed on a weapon, but is very strong if you can afford it. Darkmoon Sigil: Symbiosis is also good, especially on long fights and Delves, but since you can only use one of these, Ascension is the current general recommendation;
• Writhing Armor Banding works with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and Darkmoon Sigil: Symbiosis and doubles their positive and negative effects, making it a great way to get double the effect of embellishments you can only use one of;
• Dawnthread Lining provides a large amount of Critical Strike as long as you are above 80% Health, making it a very strong option, especially for dungeons;
• Duskthread Lining provides a large amount of Versatility as long as you are above 80% Health, making it a very strong option, especially for dungeons;
• Binding of Binding provides a large stat proc that goes on a random ally unless both of you have one of these rings bound to each other. The stat proc is strong, and in some scenarios, it can be helpful that you get a lower benefit than your ally when healing is a lesser concern than DPS maximization;
• Blessed Weapon Grip causes your damage to have a chance to increase your highest secondary stat. As this bonus fades over time and requires you to do damage for a weaker boost than most other options, it is not very appealing;
• The Embrace of the Cinderbee set, as seen in Busy Bee's Buckle, has a decent effect but takes both of your embellishment slots and requires you to notice and move to collect a fiery orb nearby every so often, making it much weaker in practice than most alternatives.

Our current recommendation is to use your first Spark to craft a one-hand weapon with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension, such as the Everforged Dagger from Blacksmithing.

Alternatively, if you want to maximize your power as quickly as possible rather than aiming for overall best in slot, you can craft a two-handed weapon such as Vagabond's Bounding Baton or Charged Invoker, instead. These will give you the power of a 1h plus off-hand for half the Enchanted Gilded Harbinger Crest investment, but without a shield, you will have much lower armor against physical attacks and not be able to use Tidecaller's Guard, both of which are not a big deal in PvE but not recommended for PvP and soloing.

Once done with your weapon, double Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension's benefit with Writhing Armor Banding. Dawnthread Lining, Duskthread Lining, and Binding of Binding are also quite strong, but their power is dependent on how much uptime you can get and how much you value the stats of your allies relative to your own, respectively.

If you know you will have access to a maxed-out Mythic level weapon early on, it is also viable to skip the weapon craft and Darkmoon Embellishment entirely and go right into the alternative Embellishments proposed above, crafted on whatever slots you have the lowest item level on, and preferably slots with lower stat budget, such as the back and wrists, or to a lesser degree the waist or feet.

Simulating your damage is mostly a thing that DPS players do, as Healers need to interweave their healing with damage, which means their damage potential is always contingent on how much healing is needed.

For the most part, all you need to think about for damage is avoiding the Mastery stat, which has no DPS value. Learn more about how to optimize your damage rotation below.

For healing, we recommend analyzing your performance in past encounters instead. Tools such as Warcraft Logs, WoW Analyzer, and QE Live are capable of giving you an accurate stat weight and tips on how to improve based on your logs.

You can find more details on how to make the most out of these tools in the specialized page below.