Shaman • Restoration • PVE
Restoration Shaman (PVE)
Totem-based healer with strong group healing and cooldowns.
Talents
There are two primary PvE talent specializations for Restoration Shamans in The Burning Crusade. Both builds invest deeply into the Restoration tree to maximize Chain Heal throughput, Mana Tide Totem value, and Earth Shield utility. The key decision is whether you prioritize personal survivability through Elemental Warding or raid DPS support through Enhancing Totems. In most raid environments, the Elemental Warding build is recommended due to its defensive value and minimal opportunity cost. The Enhancing Totems variant is a strong alternative when your raid lacks an Enhancement Shaman and you are consistently assigned to a melee or Hunter group.
Which Build Should You Run?
Elemental Warding — Default Recommendation
Best for most raids and most players. You keep maximum Restoration throughput while gaining meaningful passive damage reduction from Elemental Warding. This is especially valuable during progression and in raid environments with frequent elemental damage.
Enhancing Totems — Physical Group Support
Best when your raid lacks an Enhancement Shaman and you are consistently assigned to a melee or Hunter group. Enhancing Totems provides a real raid DPS gain through stronger physical support totems, at the cost of losing Elemental Warding and some Healing Wave support.
Restoration Shaman (PvE) — Enhancing Totems
This build sacrifices Improved Reincarnation and Healing Way to go deeper into Enhancement, picking up Improved Ghost Wolf and Enhancing Totems. The primary purpose is to increase raid DPS when you are assigned to a melee or Hunter group and your raid does not have an Enhancement Shaman. Enhancing Totems increases the effectiveness of Windfury Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, and Grace of Air Totem, which is a direct physical group throughput gain. Optional swaps: • Swap Guardian Totems into Improved Lightning Shield for solo farming. • If you want more safety for progression, you can re-route points to recover Improved Reincarnation. • If you truly never cast Healing Wave in your content, you can reduce Healing Wave support, but it remains one of your most efficient single-target heals in dungeons and small groups.
Restoration Shaman (PvE) — Elemental Warding
This is the recommended default PvE Restoration build. It maximizes healing throughput while picking up Elemental Warding for significant passive damage reduction. In most PvE environments, this defensive value is more impactful than the raid DPS gained from Enhancing Totems. Ancestral Knowledge is skipped due to poor value for a 5-point investment. Healing Wave talents are kept because Healing Wave remains one of Restoration’s most efficient single-target heals, especially in dungeons and smaller raid groups. Optional swaps: • If threat is never an issue, you can move points from Healing Grace into Improved Reincarnation for extra recovery during progression. • You can also move points between Totemic Focus / Healing Grace depending on how aggressive your raid is with Mana management and positioning.
Healing Wave Talent Note
If you never cast Healing Wave (or its downranks), you can reduce its supporting talents — but Healing Wave remains one of your most efficient single-target tools. In small group content and tank-heavy damage profiles, mastering Healing Wave usage will usually outperform dropping it entirely.