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Restoration Shaman State in Shadowlands Alpha - Battle Shaman, Earth Shield, Covenant Abilities

posted 2020/06/18 at 2:07 AM by Jaydaa

IntroductionBastionRevendrethTorghast, Tower of the DamnedThe Necrotic WakeHalls of AtonementMists of Tirna ScithePlaguefallshouldNy'alotha Eternal Palacemajor

This article is written by Jaydaa a veteran healer and contributing writer to both World of Warcraft content and other Blizzard games content here on Wowhead. I've been raiding in WoW for almost 15 years at various levels of progression. I've contributed to the theorycrafting of multiple healing classes, notably Mistweaver Monks and Restoration Druids. Find me on Twitter or on the Wowhead Discord.

Ancestral GuidanceDiscord ServerShaman Class DiscordWoWAnalyzerSimulationcraftRestoration ShamanIgneous PotentialThe Crucible of FlameTwisted AppendageGushing WoundBaseline Toolkit Changes

Primal Strike, Flametongue Weapon, Frost Shock, and Lightning Shield - While it's nice to receive some additional tools for dealing damage, none of these are particularly that impactful. Primal Strike and Flametongue Weapon require you to be in melee and do very minimal damage. Lightning Shield requires you to be melee'd to provide damage which is very unlikely outside of solo content and as a Restoration Shaman you'll most likely run Water Shield for the mana regen. Frost Shock is probably the most useful of the returning damaging abilities due to the added utility of a 50% slow. While the damage of Frost Shock recently received a buff on Alpha, it's likely only going to be used when you either need the slow or when you're moving and Flame Shock is on cooldown.

Earth Shield - This talent will be nice to have baseline for the passive healing and 10% healing increase on a single target; however, all the issues that made this a rarely picked talent still remain even as a baseline ability. With BFA, Earth Shield was put on the GCD making this already low impact ability and maintenance buff feel even worse to maintain on your tank. Where before you could quickly put it up between spell casts, you're now having to expend the GCD to do so. With a 3s internal cooldown and 9 stacks, you're looking at recasting Earth Shield every 24s or so for normal play or even more often if using the new Surge of Earth. If this ability is returning baseline, please make it more impactful for the GCDs spent to maintain. Increase the stacks, give an upfront benefit, increase the healing.

NEW - The mana totem returns for Shadowlands albeit with a 15 yd range. While I don't mind the range restriction to differentiate it from Symbol of Hope, Mana Tide Totem needs a visual indicator otherwise it'll likely be completely lost during an encounter for other healers. As an interesting and possibly unintended interaction, multiple Mana Tide Totems currently stack multiplicatively with each other on Alpha. This means having multiple shamans pop Mana Tide Totem at the same time will yield higher mana returns. For one shaman that's 2x normal mana regen; two shaman 4x normal mana regen; and three shaman 8x normal mana regen and so on and so forth. For a single shaman, Mana Tide Totem is pretty weak only generating 6.4% max mana with each use compared to the 144% of max mana that you regen every 3 mins between Mana Tide Totem casts. Fairly weak overall so could use a small buff.

NEW - The mana regen elemental shield returns. As added flair of encircling watery orbs, the ability definitely encapsulates the class fantasy of a Restoration Shaman, but it does little to provide any sort of meaningful gameplay. Yes, the passive mana regen is nice but the mana gained from taking melee hits is likely to be very rare outside of solo content. It's sorta this set and forget buff that doesn't have any real player interaction.

Shadowlands Leveling Perks

NEW (Level 28) Reincarnation now revives you with an additional 20% health.

A nice addition to Reincarnation to help ensure that you're not instantly killed after reincarnating. Not huge but I'll take it.

Reworked Restoration Shaman Abilities

Tidal Waves & Tidal Waves Rank 2 (Level 27) Casting Chain Heal or Riptide reduces the cast time of your next Healing Wave by 30%20% or increases the critical effect chance of your next Healing Surge by 40%. Stacks up to 2 times.

While the nerf to the cast time reduction of a Tidal Waves buffed Healing Wave doesn't seem that huge, it seems unnecessary to do this especially for a class that already struggles to find footing in the heavy single-target healing situations of Mythic+. Perhaps this nerf is to better differentiate Healing Wave and Healing Surge, but just seems odd but not too impactful.

Flat Healing Increases and Mana Cost Changes

*Chain Heal ~25% Healing Increase & Cost changed from 25% to 30% of base mana

*Healing Wave ~33% Healing Increase & Cost changed from 9% to 14% of base mana

*Healing Surge ~8% Healing Increase & Cost changed from 18% to 23% of base mana

*Healing Rain ~20% Healing Increase

Restoration Shaman

Flat Damage Changes

Flame Shock ~37% Damage Decrease

Chain Lightning ~21% Damage Decrease

Lava Burst ~36% Damage Increase

Spirit Link TotemAncestral Protection TotemAncestral VigorWind ShearPurgeWind Rush TotemTremor TotemCapacitor TotemEarth ShieldHealing WaveHealing SurgeIgneous PotentialMastery: Deep HealingMastery: Deep HealingMastery: Deep HealingTalent Changes

High Tide Every 0 mana you spend brings a High Tide, making your next 2 Chain Heals heal for an additional 20%10% and not reduce with each jump.

As the always taken talent for raiding Restoration Shamans, it's no surprise to see this talent nerfed and some of the power directly baked into Chain Heal. This will likely mean Wellspring and Ascendance will see more play but will largely depend on final tuning.

Earth Shield

This talent isn't bad, but it's not great either. The problem is Surge of Earth as an AoE heal doesn't really do much to solve shaman issues. For reference, Surge of Earth does a little less than the upfront healing of Riptide on 6 nearby targets for the cost of 3 Earth Shield charges and a little more mana than the cost of a Riptide. This in total is a bit less than a Chain Heal worth of throughput albeit at a slightly cheaper price and limited to allies near your Earth Shield on a 20s cooldown. The only real benefit is the instant cast and lower mana cost compared to Chain Heal. Easy way to fix this talent is to just allocate all or some of the healing as a single target heal on the Earth Shield target turning the ability into a Swiftmend-like ability allowing Restoration Shamans a way to quickly recover and respond to incoming single target burst damage.

Covenant Abilities

Kyrian:
Vesper Totem - Versatile and powerful ability with a lot of control. This cheap 1 min cooldown ability comes with a ton of AoE healing and damage. The damage and healing components are separate meaning you'll get 3x healing activations and 3x damage activations. The only real downside is the small 8 yd range for the pulses, but because relocating the totem is off the GCD it makes it easy to reposition to maximize output. The damage is a little lackluster single target, but on multiple targets in Mythic+ this ability will be strong. Ideally, I'd like the activator for the damage to be healing as well since passive damage tends to be more highly valued, but others might also like the control so perhaps a way to choose whether active or passive damage would be nice. Overall a strong covenant ability that will be hard to beat.

Summon Steward - The steward offers some quality of life options like free talent changes or a vendor to sell things, but it essentially boils down to Phial of Serenity, a glorified healthstone for all intents and purposes. The healing will be nice and contribute albeit minimally to throughput, and the personal bleed, disease, and poison dispel for Restoration Shamans could come in handy as you can't normally dispel those; however, the circumstances where the phial will be invaluable will be few and far between compared to other covenant abilities which are more universally valuable.

Venthyr:
Chain Harvest - Think of this as a free dual Chain Heal plus Chain Lightning combo with a variable cooldown based on crit. With a 20yd jump range, players can be a bit more spread out with Chain Harvest compared to Chain Heal's 15yd jump range. The problem with this ability is it doesn't really have many pros in the way of throughput except for the fact that it's free. The actual healing is very similar to Chain Heal without a lot of the extra tie-ins like High Tide or building stacks of Tidal Waves. Even if all hits crits reducing the cooldown to 40s, the throughput just doesn't compare to that of Vesper Totem. The only significant benefit Chain Harvest has over Vesper Totem is allies can be significantly more spread out.

Door of Shadows - Quite possibly the star of the covenant signature abilities, it's hard to say no to a 35yd teleport with a minute cooldown even if it has a 1.5s cast time. This type of movement is almost universally valuable and it's hard to think of an occasion where it'd be useless. Full Venthyr dungeon groups can plan skips around this ability. As a Restoration Shaman, I can't turn down additional mobility.

Necrolord:
Primordial Wave - This covenant ability comes with a lot of setup. Because this healing is tied directly Riptide, you'll need to make good use of your Riptide to ensure that you're maximizing the throughput on targets that will actually need the healing. The upfront healing is significantly less than a Healing Wave to start even when factoring in the applied Riptide but also can't be buffed via Unleash Life. Only your cast of Healing Wave benefits from Unleash Life and Undulation not the copied casts. At a 45s cooldown, the healing throughput on this one is comparable with Vesper Totem especially when you take Echo of the Elements and can achieve 5 Riptide out at a time. It's also fairly cheap for the extra throughput. The problem comes when you're also not getting any damage out of the ability and only healing. It would be nice if the ability also triggered Lava Burst on our Flame Shock targets when we used Healing Wave and rewarded multitasking Riptide and Flame Shock. I think allowing the additional Healing Waves to interact with the rest of our toolkit via Undulation and Unleash Life would go a long way in rewarding an even higher skill ceiling.

Fleshcraft - This extra self survivability will be nice and as an absorb will contribute minimally to overall throughput, but where this one loses me is the 4s channel. . I would really like to see the channel time reduced or allowing this ability to channel while moving would go a long way to making this ability more palatable. Even with those changes it's a bit of a hard sell against the other movement oriented covenant signature abilities.

Night Fae:
Fae Transfusion - While this covenant ability has an interesting damage to healing mechanic, the fact that the healing throughput scales based on the number of targets means that when you're only facing significantly fewer targets the healing will be much less. Unfortunately, at fewer enemy targets, which is the norm in a lot of PvE content, the healing just can't compete with other covenants. Now throw in a 8yd radius for both the damage and the healing, a 3s channel, and a 2min cooldown and you'll begin to understand why this ability feels like a less versatile Vesper Totem.

Soulshape As someone who adored Displacer Beast, it's nice to see this come back as an option although more watered down. Blinks and teleports are universally valuable and while it might not be the Venthyr ability this is a strong second place option. You likely won't be coming up with skips for such a limited 10 yard blink, but you get 3 in the 12s duration so you may have some opportunities to blink over some particularly nasty mechanics. It should be noted that you can cast while shapeshifted and you gain the Spirit Wolf if you started out in Ghost Wolf. Comes with a cosmetic collecting minigame which is fantastic.

KyrianVesper TotemKyrianVesper TotemLackluster GCDs

Earth Shield - As I mentioned earlier this low impact ability feels more like a maintenance buff especially while on the GCD. Adding something upfront like a small heal would go a long way to making this ability feel better. Alternatively, increasing the number of stacks so fewer refreshes are necessary would limit the impact these GCDs have on your rotation.

Mana Tide Totem - The extra mana is nice, but it's sorta this set and forget type ability. The trickling of mana regen you have normally you get more of but I'm not sure you'll notice the difference. Maybe making the first cast after gaining Mana Tide Totem free at least gives players some interaction with the totem.

Mythic+ Viability - While there are a lot of factors that determine how well a spec performs in Mythic+ (utility, damage, single target throughput, etc.), I'd really appreciate if future development could be focused on helping Restoration Shamans become stronger and more relevant in dungeon content. I know it's a big ask and there isn't an exact solution, but perhaps the additional systems of Shadowlands could really offer some more tools for Restoration Shamans. For a lot of players the spec tends to let them down in dungeon content causing players to feel forced to class swap to feel more viable. Outside of spamming Healing Surge, Restoration Shamans feel like they don't have the tools to handle the incoming damage of higher Mythic+.

Spouting Spirits - This Azerite Trait for Spirit Link Totem took an already outstanding ability raised it to another level by adding a throughput component. This made timing the Spirit Link Totem an added skill component to dealing with incoming damage. I'm not sure how this functionality could fit in, but I welcome this addition to the toolkit going forward.

Comments

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Comment by Poromanialot of these healers need something for + - like holy priest and resto shamanComment by NedrudSurge of Earth could be the perfect opportunity to finally give Shamans a much needed tank/single-target CD (consume the charges to give its target, and only its target, a large heal/shield), which would greatly improve its sub-par/lackluster dungeon viability, instead of yet another "heal up to 6 clustered targets" spell which Shamans already have plenty of...
New abilities should be used to enhance class toolkits, expanding them or fixing their shortcomings: adding clones of already existing spells for the sake of it is just adding clutter, something they said they wanted to steer away from... Chain Harvest is another good example of this: a lazy clone of Chain Heal, not impactful/reliable enough to improve the spread AoE weak point of the class, with only its mana cost justifying its use over a regular Chain Heal... how thrilling...Comment by JigglypuffStrange, I thought "Lackluster GCDs" was going to appear in the title of all of these healer reviews.Comment by Sielinththat could be a tag line

"restoration shammy, not great but not terrible either"

lolComment by ColdleoNot sure the hate for Resto Shamans in M+, a guild member of mine is amazing at Resto...Comment by obaggoFor M+ we need an external defensive CD for tanks, any form of single target healing other than spamming healing surges (maybe a stronger riptide, another hot or something new to help, maybe a big instant ST healing spell on a 45s timer. something for us to catch up if we fall behind), some form of aoe damage that doesn't require you to stop healing entirely (comparison to druids hots/dots).

For raids we seriously need help with spread healing situations and an external tank defensive. We're pretty much useless in fights like Drest'agath, Il'gynoth, etc.

It's also never fun to achieve 90% on wclogs and doing 1/3 less healing than a 70% druid. Our stacked healing and our mastery don't exceed on progress situations, they barely make us viable and completely expandable on farm.

Also make Wellspring a baseline spell or just delete it and give us something else instead. This talent hasn't been viable in ages and will never be. Nerfing chain heal is NOT a solution to make wellspring viable.Comment by Ritchie07For M+ we need an external defensive CD for tanks, any form of single target healing other than spamming healing surges (maybe a stronger riptide, another hot or something new to help), some form of aoe damage that doesn't require you to stop healing entirely (comparison to druids hots/dots).

For raids we seriously need help with spread healing situations and an external tank defensive. We're pretty much useless in fights like Drest'agath, Il'gynoth, etc.

It's also never fun to achieve 90% on wclogs and doing 1/3 less healing than a 70% druid. Our stacked healing and our mastery don't exceed on progress situations, they barely make us viable and completely expandable on farm.

Also delete Wellspring or make it baseline and give us something instead. This talent hasn't been viable in ages and will never be. Nerfing chain heal is NOT a solution to make wellspring viable.Comment by obaggothe part where shaman excels is stacked AoE healing.Comment by endolex" Flametongue Weapon require you to be in melee " ..? It's a spell power bonus...Comment by OnlyPlaysMages" Flametongue Weapon require you to be in melee " ..? It's a spell power bonus...Enhancement:
Imbue your off-hand weapon with the element of Fire for 1 hour, causing each of your off-hand attacks to deal additional Fire damage.Comment by EmeraldBlueFor M+ we need an external defensive CD for tanks, any form of single target healing other than spamming healing surges (maybe a stronger riptide, another hot or something new to help, maybe a big instant ST healing spell on a 45s timer. something for us to catch up if we fall behind), some form of aoe damage that doesn't require you to stop healing entirely (comparison to druids hots/dots).
Comment by mythicowSurge of Earth could be the perfect opportunity to finally give Shamans a much needed tank/single-target CD (consume the charges to give its target, and only its target, a large heal/shield), which would greatly improve its sub-par/lackluster dungeon viability, instead of yet another "heal up to 6 clustered targets" spell which Shamans already have plenty of...
Comment by verbsarewordslot of these healers need something for + - like holy priest and resto shamanComment by DemowareNot sure the hate for Resto Shamans in M+, a guild member of mine is amazing at Resto...Comment by TaidelloAs someone who has every healing class geared and able to run raids and mythic +, Shaman is the one that needs the most love from the dev team. No matter how geared you are, no matter what corruption you have, there are affixes that are just overly punishing to the Resto Shaman. It can be done, but requires a team of players that understands your CD's, and understand they have to stand in your rains + spirit link. I can't begin to tell you how many times in a Mythic group that people actually step outside of spirit link on purpose. Mana Tide will be nice to have back in our kit, but a 15 yard range requires other players to actively utilize it and stand appropriately (very reminiscent of light well)Comment by AesyricI'm extremely excited for the Enh and Ele reworks, it's looking like Shaman is going to get its time in the sun for Shadowlands, and I'm likely going to main Shaman because of it.

It's sad to see Resto not getting the same level of love.

It's clear that Blizzard is much happier with the design state of BfA shaman compared to ele and enh, so I wouldn't expect to see Resto Shaman get any overhauls (although it would be nice to see.)

The way I see it, there are 3 main issues with Resto Shamans kit

1. Mastery - It's a nice idea, but I think it just doesn't work as well in practice as it does on paper. While it works, it's just as good as any other mastery, but the issue is as players progress, it stops working while other healer mastery does not. Players get stronger, learn fights better, and just take less damage (aside from one-shots, which can't be healed.)

Solution - Mastery Rework! I think it'd be much in the theme of Shamans to have a mastery called something like "Returning Waves" whenever the Resto Shaman does a direct heal on a target, or is the primary target of their chain heal, they receive another heal after X seconds for X% of the initial heal. Keeping in theme with the "come and go" theme of ocean waves, and increasing the strength of single target healing for resto shamans.

2. Battle Rezes - A problem for all healers that aren't resto druid. Shamans are slightly fortunate that they have the option to talent into a battle rez totem, but it's much more difficult to use, and it takes a talent row. Part of the reason Resto Druids are so powerful in M+ is because of Rebirth, it's simply become an expected addition to any comp, and it's too strong of an ability to not be present for all healers in some way (not just resto shaman)

Solution - Either take it away from resto druid (bad, I don't want this) or just give all healers the ability to battle rez! It will boost up viability of dead M+ healing specs like resto shaman or potentially even holy priest, and help even the playing field against the incredibly dominant Resto Druid.

3. Lack of strong single target support - Tank healing, Tank external, burst single target healing. All things that the Resto Shaman struggles with. If Blizzard's intent for resto shaman is to be weak at single target healing, but strong for group AoE healing, then why does the mastery design leave resto shaman so weak for AoE healing in raid? If they aren't strong for M+ healing, and they aren't strong long term in raid healing once players know the fight, where can they find their dominance?

Solution - Either a re-design of Earth Shield / Surge of Earth to give strong single target healing/shield/etc WITHOUT COSTING SHAMANS ECHOS OF THE ELEMENTS or, just make resto shaman's "astral shift" castable on any party member! This, combined with the re-designed mastery, will do wonders for resto shaman's single target support.

Resto Shaman feels like it's almost there, and I don't think it needs a major rework like the other two specs have received, I just hope Blizzard takes a bit of a look at it's drop in viability in virtually all game content aside from early progression raiding, and throws them a bone so I can be just as excited about healing on my shaman as I am about DPSing on it.Comment by tr0n1xblizz is deluding themselves that they can juggle balancing m+ and raiding with these feeble/uninspired tweaks.

just look at how the 'hybrid utility' and pvp balance played out over nearly a DECADE. if its competitive then players intrinsically want some homegenization to stay relevent (in community perception atleast). then its about not being unique enough. there's no winning

i thought blizz had an opportunity with the de-pruning to craft former iconic spells into scalpels for m+ specifically (think pvp talents), but im not seeing the light. or at least do more to revive dead talents into something obviously sculpted for 5man play. rather have blaring signs saying 'THIS IS A DUNGEON TALENT' than dubious attempts to trick players into some non-choice.

for resto shams in particular though? same core issues in both raids AND m+. maybe there is some lone shaman out there averse to a mastery overhaul or total spec evolution, but i aint ever heard of em.

dont get me started on holy priests, and priests in general for that matter. class with 2 heal specs with paltry offerings (mostly shared) between them. 'training wheels for new healers' isnt a spec identity and big surprise other healers do decent-but-not-equal dmg when m+ becomes a binary of countering insane modifiers/mechanics/pulls lest be dumpstered, and having free time to hit stuff thanks to tanks/dps having tools for raids and pvp. no wonder specs caught spamming their 'faster but costs a little more mana' direct heals with no recourse cant keep up. its a symptom of not enough depth and options.Comment by sinclairrSurge of Earth could be the perfect opportunity to finally give Shamans a much needed tank/single-target CD (consume the charges to give its target, and only its target, a large heal/shield), which would greatly improve its sub-par/lackluster dungeon viability, instead of yet another "heal up to 6 clustered targets" spell which Shamans already have plenty of...
Comment by OldburyIt's really refreshing to see a spec that needs looking at not because it's mechanically or fundamentally broken, but because the numbers aren't quite there and maybe one or two issues with a skill need tweaking (things like chain heal link range and twisting Mastery to have some benefit at high HP too).

Other than that, Resto Shaman doesn't really need to change and that's actually nice to see; it just needs the numbers.

It's just a shame that Blizzard have a history of totally leaving Shaman's numbers in the dirt expansion after expansion, so I don't fancy Resto being anything but SLT bots again.Comment by Ritchie07

Solution - Mastery Rework! I think it'd be much in the theme of Shamans to have a mastery called something like "Returning Waves" whenever the Resto Shaman does a direct heal on a target, or is the primary target of their chain heal, they receive another heal after X seconds for X% of the initial heal. Keeping in theme with the "come and go" theme of ocean waves, and increasing the strength of single target healing for resto shamans.

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