Restoration Shaman Hit Heaviest By Upcoming Balance Changes - Mists of Pandaria Classic

Posted 2025/06/14 at 9:00 AM by Woah

some balance adjustmentsAncestral GuidanceConductivityHealing RainHealing Tide Totem

Healing Rain healing lowered by 25%.

Healing Rain's maximum duration through Conductivity lowered to 30 seconds (was 40).

Ancestral Guidance's healing and damage conversion lowered to 20% (was 60% for healing and 40% for damage).

Chain Heal’s fall off per target lowered to 20% (was 0%).

Riptide mana cost raised by 15%.

significant changes which will need further testing Core Changes

The entire Totem system has been reworked to be used as reactive cooldowns by the players, instead of providing enduring buffs, which were removed in favor of having the Shaman's presence itself apply the Burning Wrath and Grace of Air buffs to all nearby raid members. The cooldown totems are mostly ones you had before, such as Tremor Totem, but Capacitor Totem will also be introduced, allowing you to stun enemies at will on a short cooldown.

Focused Insight is gone and buffing Healing Rain is now done by using Unleash Elements with the Earthliving Weapon weapon imbue before each cast, instead.

Snapshotting now mostly applies to Haste, and Healing Rain, but keep in mind the new Conductivity talent will refresh the whole Rain, causing it to recalculate with your current Haste on every extension. Spells will dynamically adjust their Spell Power as it changes for your character.

Spell Hit is no longer needed or converted from Spirit due to the introduction of Spiritual Insight, which makes your offensive spells always hit regardless of your stats.

Glyph of Unleashed Lightning (Lightning Bolt castable while moving) is now baked into the specialization.

Elemental Mastery can now be used by Restoration through a new level 60 talent.

Ghost Wolf is now instant cast by default, but also requires a glyph for its anti-slowing effect from Cataclysm to return.

Ancestral Focus, Resurgence, Tidal Waves and other Cataclysm talents are now baked into the specialization instead.

Healing Stream Totem no longer heals the whole group for a minor amount, and instead heals a single (or two with talents) target for a significant amount.

Riptide is no longer consumed by Chain Heal casts but still buffs their healing significantly.

New Cooldowns & AbilitiesHealing Tide TotemStormlash TotemBloodlustHeroismAncestral GuidanceAscendanceElemental MasteryPrimal ElementalistFire Elemental TotemEmpowerEarth Elemental TotemReinforceAstral Shift Changes to Healing PrioritiesWater ShieldEarthliving WeaponSearing TotemUnleash ElementsEarthliving WeaponHealing RainHealing Tide TotemAscendanceAncestral GuidanceHealing Stream TotemSelect a Healing Scenario TalentsAncestral GuidanceConductivityRushing StreamsConductivityAncestral GuidanceGroup Healing PrioritiesHealing RainUnleash ElementsBerserkingElemental MasteryConductivityAncestral GuidanceChain HealChain HealRiptide

Use Healing Tide Totem or Spirit Link Totem if emergency healing is needed or when assigned.

Cast Unleash Elements followed by Healing Rain on cooldown, noting that Unleash will only be available for every other Rain unless Conductivity is used to extend Rain's duration.

Keep Healing Stream Totem on cooldown, as it does a lot of healing for minimal time and Mana investment.

Use Riptide on cooldown, which is also a Mana/time efficient spell and can help boost Chain Heal.

Cast Chain Heal (on injured targets with Riptide, if possible) for area healing until cooldown spells recover.

Healing Rain

Healing Tide TotemSpirit Link TotemSingle Target Healing Priorities

Keep Healing Stream Totem on cooldown, as it does a lot of single target healing for minimal time and Mana investment.

Try to consistently cast Riptide in order to produce Tidal Waves which heavily buff your single target healing.

Cast Healing Surge on targets about to die, as it is your fastest heal, but avoid using it otherwise due to poor Mana efficiency.

Cast Greater Healing Wave on anyone heavily injured, as it heals for a substantial amount.

Cast Healing Wave on anyone with minor injuries, as it is your most efficient single target heal.

Comment by PlusTechGood. Just like Disc priest, they were overtuned with the patch 5.4 changes.Comment by IKLFaxHoly Paladins weren't 30% ahead of other healers for 1 expansion and they cried to high heavens. Well doneComment by Zewinter" to ensure that Restoration stays a core part of the meta"
It will be even with those nerfs, nextComment by stummyzThe 5th element singerComment by Nak88Let me know when they revert these changes or I will stay on the beach this summer.Comment by GuidanceI understand the buff on weak specs, like holy, to make them more even

but nerfing the strong ones? my purpose for going back to mist of pandaria is to play with Brewmaster and blood, which is better than it currently is in retail, and the challenge mode.

by nerfing these specs to match retail, you take away my purpose.

obviously i don't speak for everyone, but it's just what i think. and what my tiny circle of friends who played mist of pandaria back then think.Comment by Ekka"They were overtuned, bla, bla", but let's bring WoD changes to MoP. How does that make any sense? Why does Blizzard care for balancing at all now while they allowed warriors to be meta for the entire vanilla classic?Comment by KrohnutzThe 5th element singerComment by LemarlI understand the buff on weak specs, like holy, to make them more even

but nerfing the strong ones? my purpose for going back to mist of pandaria is to play with Brewmaster and blood, which is better than it currently is in retail, and the challenge mode.

by nerfing these specs to match retail, you take away my purpose.

obviously i don't speak for everyone, but it's just what i think. and what my tiny circle of friends who played mist of pandaria back then think.Comment by Sieghardreal"They were overtuned, bla, bla", but let's bring WoD changes to MoP. How does that make any sense? Why does Blizzard care for balancing at all now while they allowed warriors to be meta for the entire vanilla classic?Comment by needforsneed"They were overtuned, bla, bla", but let's bring WoD changes to MoP. How does that make any sense? Why does Blizzard care for balancing at all now while they allowed warriors to be meta for the entire vanilla classic?Comment by DarksummonexCould you elaborate what you mean by WoD changes?Comment by GhoulbaneThe Seal of Insight buffs to pally may be enough to shift the meta . Holy Pally has had its time to shine( 2 Expansions worth ), now is meant to be the shamans turn ... Or not after these nerfs . Personally i was not going to bother going into Mop but decided to reroll shaman. They said that some of the nerfs / changes may change later on in the expansion . However a new SoD or Wow plus will come out and the Devs attention will just shift again forgetting about us .Comment by BusinessdudePlayed resto shaman whole WOTLK and some of CATA - not coming back for sure now lolComment by hazzx"They were overtuned, bla, bla", but let's bring WoD changes to MoP. How does that make any sense? Why does Blizzard care for balancing at all now while they allowed warriors to be meta for the entire vanilla classic?Comment by PlusTech"WAHHHHH MY CLASS IS NOT OVERPOWERED ANYMORE SO I'M NOT GONNA PLAY WAHHHHH"

Good riddance.Comment by AthenamonicaSo we’re not going to get actual MoP class design? Or actual MoP content like Raid Finder? What’s the point of offering Classic anymore?

Just slap on Heroic and Mythic timewalking raid difficulties in Retail for the raider Andies, or even create a separate game module for raids only if that’s what this is all about.Comment by Ekka"They were overtuned, bla, bla", but let's bring WoD changes to MoP. How does that make any sense? Why does Blizzard care for balancing at all now while they allowed warriors to be meta for the entire vanilla classic?Comment by p00pyjoelIsn’t the point of playing classic to enjoy your OP class? How long has warrior been too dps in classic alongside tank warrior? Seems odd tbh.Comment by Nullpointer9@Darksummonex

That's a good point, regarding the motivation for these 'balance changes' (Blizzard anticipating MoP classic may attract more players than Cata). In general I feel like it's a good thing that Blizz is responsive to healers' performance this early on...but at the same time, how necessary are the changes? The whole point of wow classic is to experience the game as it was originally--including the flaws. The more they include 'future patch' changes (like WoD, as someone else mentioned), the less it'll feel like original MoP.