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First of all, you need to choose a race.
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Choosing a race
Horde or
Alliance:
Alliance:
-
Dwarf [Stone Form - Reducing Damage taken by 10 per cent] (This is can be useful, but it is not that great)
-
Draenei [1% Increased Hit Chance, quite useful. Gift of the Naaru - Heals 20% of your maximum health on your current target]
Draenei is by far the best in the Alliance.
Horde:
-
Orc [Blood Fury - Increase Spell Power by 585. Reduced Stun Effects by 15%]
-
Tauren [War Stomp - Stun up to 5 enemies in 8 yards for 2 seconds. Base health increased by 5%]
-
Troll [Berserking - Increase casting speed by 20%. Reduced Movement Impairing Effects by 15%. 10% of
total Health regeneration continues during combat]
-
Goblin [Rocket Barrage - Launch Rockets at your enemy (damage depends on your spellpower power).
Rocket Jump - Jumps forward, can be used in Ghost Wolf. 1% Haste Increase]
Many of these races are good for
Shamans. I play
Tauren for the stun.
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Setting up your Character
Talent Tree
(Ignore the Spirit Link Totem - That is from the latest retail patch, not in 4.0.6.)
http://i1250.photobucket.com/albums/...talenttree.png
Here is the
Link.
Gear
Set:
-
Restoration: Chest, Hands, Shoulders
-
Elemental: Head, Legs.
In this patch, the 4 Set Bonus decreases the cooldown of
Grounding Totem by 1.5 seconds, I don't find it to be that good. The extra +400 Resilience is better.
Offsets:
- All
Restoration (spirit gear).
- Rings: Spirit Ring and Hit Ring.
Trinkets:
- Medallion of the Alliance/Insignia of the Horde.
-
Blood of Isiset (IMO the best Rare Trinket) /
Darkmoon Card:Tsunami (Amazing if you can get it)
Weapons:
- Main-Hand: PvP Spirit /
Elementium Hammer
- Off-Hand: PvP Spirit Shield /
Crepuscular Shield
Gems
Red/
Prismatic:
-
Brilliant [+40 Intellect]
-
Brilliant [+67 Intellect, maximum of 3] (Jewelcrafting Profession)
Yellow:
-
Artful [+20 Intellect, +20 Mastery] /
Reckless [20 Intellect, +20 Haste]
Blue:
-
Veiled [+20 Intellect, +20 Hit Rating] /
Timeless [+20 Intellect, +30 Stamina]
Meta:
-
Ember Shadowspirit Diamond [+54 Intellect, 2% Maximum Mana] /
Revitalizing Shadowspirit Diamond [+54 Spirit, 3% Increased Critical Healing Effect
Professions
Any of the following combinations will give you an extra 160 Intellect:
- Blacksmithing (Socket in Bracer and Glove)
- Leatherworking (Wrist enchat)
- Enchanting (Ring enchants)
- Jewelcrafting (Not advisable, getting the recipes are a mission)
- Inscription (Shoulder Inscription)
- Alchemy (Flask of Enhancement)
I use
Enchanting and
Leatherworking.
Enchants
Weapons:
- Main-Hand: Power Torrent [+500 Intellect Proc for 12 seconds. It has an Internal CD of 45 seconds and the average proc rate is 33%]
- Off-Hand: Superior Intellect [+40 Intellect]
Bracer:
- Might Intellect / Draconic Embossment - Intellect [+130 Intellect] (If you have Leatherworking)
Chest:
- Peerless Stats [+20 All Stats] / Might Resilience [+40 Resilience] (I prefer Peerless Stats)
Cloak:
- Superior Intellect [+50 Intellect]
Shoulder:
- Greater Inscription of Vicious Intellect [+50 Intellect, +25 Resilience]
- Felfire Inscription (Inscription Profession) [+130 Intellect, +25 Haste]
Head:
- Arcanum of Vicious Intellect [+65 Intellect, +35 Resilience]
Hands:
- Greater Mastery [+65 Mastery]
Belt:
- Ebonsteel Belt Buckle [Socket: +40 Intellect]
Legs:
- Powerful Enchanted Spellthread [+95 Intellect. +80 Stamina]
Boots:
- Lavawalker [+35 Mastery, Minor Run Speed Increase (8%)]
Rings:
- Intellect (Enchanting Profession) [+40 Intellect x2]
Reforging
You need alot of
Mastery, for powerful heals when your target is at low health.
Reforge:
-
Mastery>Spirit>Crit>Haste>Hit
(Basically just mastery).
OR
-
Mastery>Crit>Spirit>Haste>Hit
(Also effective as when you target is at low health and you have high mastery, you can crit heal insane
ammounts)
Mastery is explained in depth further down.
Glyphs
Prime:
-
Glyph of Earth Shield
-
Glyph of Riptide
-
Glyph of Earthliving Weapon
Major:
-
Glyph of Hex (For Arena) /
Glyph of Chain Heal (for Battlegrounds)
-
Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem (Essential for PvP)
-
Glyph of Healing Wave /
Glyph of Grounding Totem (I prefer not to use this Glyph as it
increases the cooldown of
Grounding Totem by 45 seconds.
Minor:
-
Glyph of Water Walking (For Arena, so these buffs will be dispell/purged/stolen instead of more
useful ones.
-
Glyph of Water Breathing (For Arena, so these buffs will be dispell/purged/stolen instead of more
useful ones.
-
Glyph of Renewed Life /
Glyph of the Arctic Wolf (I prefer the wolf, looks awesome).
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Second, you need to understand the basics.
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Restoration Shamans work on a system of keeping up Shields and Totems and using the most
efficient spell depending on the situation.
Spells
Earth Shield
- Undoubtedly Shamans best and most useful spell
- Nine Stacks of a shield which heals the target when they take damage.
- Should be kept on the target which is taking the most damage
- While this spell is on another target, keep up
Water Shield on yourself.
Riptide
- Useful, long lasting HoT with low instant healing.
- Keep it up on multiple targets.
- Use it before you get into combat, and keep it on all targets.
- Essential as it gives the
Tidal Waves proc,
Healing Wave / Greater Healing Wave
- Low mana cost
- Only use when your target is at 75% HP
- Long casting time, so try to use it after casting
Chain Heal for the
Tidal Waves proc
Tidal Waves
- Reduces the cast time of
Healing Wave and
Greater Healing Wave and increases critical heal chance on
Healing Surge.
- Instantly applies two stacks when you cast Riptide.
Healing Surge
- Fast, high mana costing, effective heal
- Generally use when your target is at or below 50% HP, as it heals alot with high Mastery.
- With
Mastery, this spell is more effective the lower your targets HP
Unleash Elements (Earthliving)
- This spell heals for a small ammount, but increases the next healing spells
effectiveness you cast by 30%.
Mastery
- Increases the potency of your direct healing spells by (x)%, bases on the current health level of your
target. Each point in mastery increase the potency by 3%.
- Lower health targets get healed for more, so it's good to have alot of
Mastery.
Chain Heal
- Also procs
Tidal Waves.
- Better to use for Battleground's where you need to mass heal.
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Thirdly, here is some useful things to do in Arenas.
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Rotations
Preparing
- Imbue your weapon with
Earthliving Weapon , cast Earth Shield onto a target which is most likely
to take the most damage and cast Water Shield on yourself
- Cast
Water Walking and
Water Breathing on all team mates.
Kiting
Shamans are good at kiting because of
Ghost Wolf,
Earthbind Totem,
Spirit Walkers Grace,
Frost Shock and
Frostbrand Weapon's
Unleash Elements effect.
- To kite effectively in
Arenas you need to run around an object (in
Ghost Wolf form as much as possible), such as a pillar in the Nagrand Arena, while keeping up
Earthbind Totem and if possible
Frost Shock on the enemy (also good to use
Frostbrand Weapon and
Unleash elements, but make sure you reapply
Earthliving Weapon after).
- When using LoS to avoid CC's, if the CC is a spell which has a cast time , such as
Cyclone or
Polymorph (or
Mana Burn), you don't need to get behind that object instantly, you can first use
Wind Shear to interrupt the spell, then on the second cast use
Grounding Totem, which absorbs the spell (or reflects the spellwith the
Glyph of Grounding Totem).
Make sure
Riptide and
Earth Shield are constantly up on your team mate(s) when you LoS to avoid CC and Mana Burn.
-
Ghostwolf doesn't make you immune to
Polymorph, it only makes you immune to
Mind Control and
Track Humanoids.
Totems
You need different Totems, depending on the classes you play with:
Casters:
Stoneskin Totem (Increased Armor),
Flametongue Totem (Increased Spellpower),
Elemental Resistance Totem (Increased Resistance) and
Wrath of Air Totem (5% Increased Spell Haste)
Melee:
Strength of Earth Totem (Increased Strength and Agility),
Flametongue Totem (Increased Spellpower, for you),
Elemental Resistance Totem (Increased Resistance) and
Windfury Totem (5% Increased Melee Haste)
Set
Call of the Ancestors to
Casters and
Call of the Elements to
Melee. Use the
Call of the Elements setup for yourself.
- Use
Mana Tide Totem when you are out of your targets LoS.
- Use
Earthbind Totem for kiting and keeping enemies away from you team mates
- Make sure to keep Totems up as much as possible, don't make sure you don't over use Totems and OOM.
Shaman CC and Interrupts
- This is a useful macro:
#showtooltip
/cast wind shear
/cast purge
If possible, you will
Purge an useful effect from the target you
Wind Shear
-
Wind Shear is the most OP silence in the game, because of its short CD, so make sure to bind it to a simple key.
- Try to save
Wind Shear for
Mana Burn and other CC's.
-
Hex is a quite effective CC. It can be used in conjunction with
Natures Swiftness for quick CC in certain situations.
-
Purge is an awesome ability, which removes one useful effect from an enemy. It is very OP versus Restoration Druids that need to stack
Lifebloom. It is also good for,
Avenging Wrath versus
Paladins and many instant cast abilities on other classes.
Trinket
- Use your Insignia of the Horde/Medallion of the Alliance when you or your team mate is on Low
Health and does not have
Earth Shield up. If
Earth Shield is up, and you think he will survive
the damage he is taking before you can heal again, don't Trinket the first CC. Wait for another CC then
use your Trinket and heal up. If you are being attack by two Damage Classes and are getting
stun/silenced locked, use your Trinket on the
second abillity used.
Survival
- You need to know how to
fake cast.
- When you know you are about to receive a large ammount of damage, or have just received a
large ammount of damage, cast
Stoneclaw Totem. This will only be effective with the
Glyph of
Stoneclaw Totem which gives you a damage absorbing shield. Make sure to put up another Totem
such as
Earthbind Totem once the shield has been depleted.
- Fake casting is really useful as a shaman, because while casting you take 10% less damage.
- The only spell to fake cast with is
Healing Surge.
- The more you practice this the better you will get.
Mana
- If you are going OOM and you are being attacked, put on
Water Shield and reapply it a few times after each stack has gone. You will be taking more damage because of this. You can then use
Stoneclaw Totem and reapply
Earth Shield when you are taking too much damage.
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Lastly, you just need to get out there and practice the Rotations and get a feel for the class.
Practice in Arenas, Battlegrounds and Duels.
Enjoy
Restoration Shaman!
Thanks for reading, I hope this guide helped you
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