Restoration Shaman Leveling Guide from 1 to 90 — 12.0.5

As a healer, Restoration Shaman is slower than DPS or Tank specializations when solo leveling, and recommended to be played in a group through the dungeon finding queue or as part of a group farming specific enemies in the world for experience.

FAQCan I Level as Restoration?

You can, but there is really no good reasons to do so. The playstyle in any of the talent builds is the same as the specs they mimic, but with much lower damage. If you choose to still level as Restoration, make sure you try to avoid any gear with Mastery on it, and any trinkets with damage procs or on-use effects can be helpful in taking down tougher opponents.

FAQWhat is the Best Race for Restoration Shamans?

The best race for Alliance players is Dwarf ( Stoneform and Might of the Mountain), while Horde players should go Tauren for PvE ( Brawn) or Orc ( Hardiness) for PvP.

FAQWhat is the Best Loa for Zandalari Restoration Shamans?

The Critical Strike buff provided by Embrace of Pa'ku is currently the best choice available.

You should still be contributing whatever DPS you can through Acid Rain, Chain Lightning and your single target damage spells, as healing requirements while leveling are usually low.

Leveling Information

Beginner Leveling Guides

If this is your first character, or want to know more about the leveling process in Midnight, we've got you covered with these two guides!

Basic LevelingMidnight Leveling

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level, but two secondary stats on it instead of one.

When purchasing Heirloom Items for Leveling in general, we recommend picking the Heirloom items that have the highest amount of Haste possible. Having high Haste is a large DPS contribution and makes the rotation feel better to perform.

Haste is also useful for being a little bit quicker to tag mobs around you. A split second can make the difference between you getting a tag or losing it to another player.

Itemization

Leveling Heirlooms

Learn how to use Heirloom gear to level your characters as fast as possible!

Heirlooms Guide

There are several consumable items that can be purchased that will help you with your leveling speed.

• Ideally you want to have a flask buff running through the leveling process. Charged Phial of Alacrity (from level 61) needs refreshing often but gives Speed, which is is typically more useful than combat stats for leveling. If you prefer combat stats, we recommend Flask of Tempered Versatility which is usable from level 71 onwards.
• Food buffs are not quite as impactful as flasks with the exception of Exquisitely Eviscerated Muscle (requires level 75) which gives massive Speed. Otherwise, try Fried Bonefish or Bear Tartare as those will also give you Speed after killing an enemy.
• Healing potions will help minimize downtime by allowing you to play more aggressively without having to heal yourself as much. Use level-appropriate ones, such as Invigorating Healing Potion from level 71 onwards.
• The Loot-A-Rang toy can be used to retrieve loot from a nearby corpse.
• Goblin Glider Kit is very useful for covering long distances from high places.
• Gunshoes are an Engineering item that increase your movement speed by 200% for 25 seconds. These will make you almost as fast as a Flying mount. We recommend having a lot of these, and using them whenever you are traveling more than ~250 yards.

The Gunshoes will not let you stop moving as long as they are active. Using this macro twice will click the buff off and allow you to stop.

If you are just starting your journey into Midnight, we have a Level 80 import string for you. You can follow the point-by-point allocation of the below tree once you start gaining levels in Midnight.

In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Restoration Shaman-specific PvE talents.

1. Counterstrike Totem replicates and reflects damage you take for a decent duration on a short cooldown. This can be really strong when in a high damage area to deal some chip damage to targets around you and convert your health pool into additional damage.
2. Rain Dance makes Healing Rain instant, cheaper, and more effective. This has great synergy with Acid Rain and also with Counterstrike Totem, as it will provide a lot of healing for you to tank mobs with while they kill themselves.
3. Totem of Wrath significantly increases the critical effect of spells of nearby allies for a short duration whenever you use Nature's Swiftness. It is good for solo play and excellent if you are doing outdoor content with others.

Other talents have their own niches but are not as generally useful when leveling.

To keep things simple while leveling and learning the spec, use the slider to select your level, and watch as the leveling rotation grows with each level!

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Starting at Level 1, you only have one main damaging ability: Lightning Bolt. This will change at level 10 when you select Restoration as your specialization and unlock other abilities. Until then, use Lightning Bolt to kill targets and make use of Flame Shock when it unlocks at level 3, and of Lightning Shield once it unlocks at level 9.

1. Keep Lightning Shield active on yourself
2. Keep Water Shield active on yourself
3. Keep Water Shield active on yourself and Earth Shield on yourself and the tank
4. Cast Healing Rain (with Acid Rain) against 3+ enemies that will live through its duration
5. Apply Flame Shock if it is absent
6. Cast Lava Burst whenever available
7. Cast Chain Lightning against two or more targets
8. Cast Lightning Bolt as a filler on a single target

Starting at Level 15, you are able to queue for dungeons with the in-game group finder. You should aim to do this whenever possible while in Restoration specialization, as it is an efficient way to level up while learning your healing kit. In order to understand in-depth how to use this kit, especially at higher levels, check out our rotation page, but we have added a summary below:

1. Use Unleash Life on cooldown to spawn Ancestors
2. Use Unleash Life and Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown to spawn Ancestors
3. Cast Riptide and Healing Stream Totem whenever possible
4. Cast Chain Heal if multiple people in your group are hurt and close to each other
5. Cast Healing Wave on damaged allies
6. Use your DPS rotation (detailed above) if no healing is required

Class Guides

Shaman Class Guides

Finished leveling your character? Check out our max level guides!

All Shaman Guides

Seksixeny

Guide Author

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This guide has been written by Seksi, member of Cursed Gifts and healing aficionado. You can find him answering questions and discussing Restoration Shaman gameplay on the Ancestral Guidance and Earthshrine Discords.