Hey, in this article I will be talking about Resto Shaman talents, which ones you absolutely have to take, and the ones that can vary depending on your play style and personal preferences. I will also be talking about which glyphs you should pick as a Resto Shaman for PvP.

I’ll start with going through the key talents and glyphs and why these are so important to take to improve your performance in arena. In addition i will also go through every single talent and try make a good overview for you guys, so you get an idea why and why not to take that specific talent point. Same goes for Glyphs.

Key Restoration Shaman Talents

Tier 1

[Ancestral Resolve] – This talent looks really good, but i don’t feel it’s that good for resto shamans for several reasons. The most damage Resto shamans take is while being stunned or silenced where this talent has no effect. Also that you as a healer have to fake cast so much and then when you finally start casting, you usually don’t take that much damage while spam casting heals, because you are either behind a pillar or your team mates are peeling for you so you get a chance to heal yourself to full. And rest of the time you are healing your partners, where this talent once again has no effect. So I’ll say this isn’t a resto talent, but more likely a elemental talent where you have to spam cast to do damage.

[Tidal Focus]- A overall good talent where i put 2 points in to reduce the mana cost of your healing spells. The reason why I only put 2 out of 3 is that I’m only gonna spend 5 points in the first tier, and I’m gonna put 3 points in the last talent in this tier.

[Spark of Life] - This is one of the really important talents you definitely wanna max out. You have to put 3 points in this because not only does it increase your overall healing, but also increase the healing on yourself by 15%!

Tier 2

[Improved Water Shield] - Another really essential talent that helps keep your mana up. It’s really cause you can literally spam [Healing Wave] on your team mates without going cause a critical heal now and then will make sure that you don’t lose any mana. So if you team mates aren’t taking a ton of damage, using [Riptide] and then [Healing Wave] twice, its a really good way to conserve mana. And since shamans aren’t that good mana wise, this is a good way to deal with that problem.

[Totemic Focus]- Less mana cost is nice since most teams will kill your totems as soon as you get them up, so 2/2 in this one.

[Focused Insight] - This talent is kinda tricky in my opinion, since it takes a lot of time to get used to it, and even so, it’s not that often that you can afford a global cooldown to use a shock in between your heals, unless your glyphed with Glyph of Shockingbut this glyph isn’t that good of a restoration glyph, compared to some of the others. But using a shock before your using some of your big heals is really good, and also if your under a lot of pressure, then frost shock a melee and then use your Nature’s Swiftness heal. So this talent I’d advice to try get used to, but personal preference if you are actually able to benefit from it, else use the points differently.

[Nature's Guardian]- A really good defensive talent that should be 3/3, and what it does is it simply works as a 2nd Battlemaster trinket, which can be a life saver in tight situations.

Tier 3

[Ancestral Healing] - Another good defensive talent that provides 10% less physical damage taken after a critical heal. This is really something that will help you against zerging melee cleaves that shamans have so much trouble against as it is, so 2/2 in this.

[Nature's Swiftness]- Not much to say about this talent, other than YOU NEED TO TAKE THIS TALENT. It’s probably one of the most important talents, since this is in most cases is gonna be a lifesaver for you, either if you are getting focused or you are sitting in some kind of CC and only has 1 global to heal your team mate before he dies!

[Nature's Blessing] - A very essential talent that increase your healing by 15% if the target has Earth Shield. You definitely need to take 3/3 in this talent, and also need to make sure that Earth Shield is on your team mate who is getting focused, since not only will it the Earths shield heal him, but will also dramatically increase your healing on that target.

Tier 4

[Improved Cleanse Spirit] - This is another talent that is a “Must Have” since it grants your [Cleanse Spirit] the ability to dispell magic besides curses, which is HUGE.

[Cleansing Waters] – This talent is combined with the talent above, and heals the target when dispel and in addition reducing the mana cost of your dispel.

Tier 5

[Ancestral Awakening] – This talent is a follow-up on Ancestral Healing and provides an extra heal after you have made a critical heal, and since shamans aren’t at their best at the moment, every extra healing they can get is helpful.

[Mana Tide Totem] – The only talent and spell shamans has to get a decent amount of mana back, and sadly, it often gets stomped before it has been up for more than a few seconds. So make sure to use it as soon as you hit 60-70% mana and protect it will behind a pillar and covered with [Stoneclaw Totem] because it puts a shield on your totem if you have the [Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem]. The reason for using it when you still have a decent amount of mana is because, then when you really start to become out of mana if the game drags out, it will be off cooldown again.

Tier 6

[Tidal Waves] – This is definitely a talent you need to max out, since this is the key to your survival, mana regen through water shield procs, and able to top your team mates up when under a lot of pressure. Always make sure to have this up it u can, meaning use [Riptide] when ever it’s off Cooldown and you are using heals.

Tier 7

[Riptide] – No wonder this is the last talent point in resto, cause it is surely the most key talent there is. After you use riptide you get the Tidal Wave’s buff which is a buff that reduces the cast time on your big heals, and increases the crit chance on your small heals.

What about the last 9 points ?

Okay, now we have used the points in Restoration that we need to get all the talents we need for our spec. There is really only one way to use the last nine talent points, and they have to be used in Elemental and should be placed in:

Tier 1 in Enhancement

[Elemental Weapons] – This talent is actually really good and you need to get 2/2 in this. It increases your [Earthliving Weapon] buff and your [Unleash Elements] healing.

[Improved Shields] – This is one amazing talent for resto shamans, not only does it increase the healing on your Earth Shield, but also the mana return from your water shield orbs.

Tier 2 in Enhancement

[Ancestral Swiftness] – Defenitly want to spec 2/2 in this one to make your [Ghost Wolf] instant, and increase your general moving speed by 15% which helps you kite a bit.

[Totemic Reach] – Another decent talent, that were significant better before the Tremor Totem “nerf” since it was easier to hide it and still be in range with it, but it’s still worth getting 2/2 in.

Glyphs for Restoration

Prime Glyphs

[Glyph of Earth Shield] – Really strong glyph, since combined with [Improved Shields] it provides a lot of extra healing from your Earth Shield.

[Glyph of Water Shield] – Since shaman’s mana isn’t that good at the moment, glyphing this will help a bit on your mana regen, and make your mana last longer in those intense and long arena matches.

Optional 3rd Prime Glyph

[Glyph of Earthliving Weapon] – Increase the healing of your earthliving buff which is giving when you have Earth Living weapon buffed and it procs on a heal.

[Glyph of Shocking] – This glyph isn’t very used, but it has potential since you can get shocks off for your [Focused Insight] talent so it doesn’t feel like you lose a whole global on it.  In addition, and where this glyph shines the most, is the reduced global after use of WindShear so you can actually sacrifice canceling a heal to get a wind shear on a healer or dps. Or when trying to get a Hex on another shaman, you wind shear his cast and are able to cast hex faster afterwards.

Major Glyphs

[Glyph of Hex] – Got slightly nerfed in 4.0.6 by 5 seconds, but is still worth getting, since its a really good cc and the only cc a shaman has.

[Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem] – Not only does it protect your Mana Tide totem, but it also gives you a shield that absorbs about 15-16k damage, which is really good for shamans since they don’t have that many defensive abilities. And it can be used while silenced !

[Glyph of Healing Stream Totem] – Can be used against heavy caster teams, since it will make their spells resist more often if they aren’t hard capped with Spell Penetration, and the totem it’s self heals for a decent amount, but I wouldn’t use it over mana spring all the time, since shaman’s mana are so poor in this expansion so far.

Minor Glyphs

[Glyph of Water Breathing] – This glyph is actually really good in start of arena games, and should be used so your partners get into combat, and you buff them with Water Breathing to get into combat and not able to be sapped. So it can secure more clean openers without you being sapped in the back.

The two other minor glyphs are just purely personal preferences since they aren’t useful for arena at all.

Final spec with glyphs

Here is a link to the Restoration spec that I find to be the best atm, with glyphs included. Restoration Talent

Final words

So this was my 2nd article for Skill-Capped and where about Resto shaman Talents and Glyphs. Hope it has been a good overview so you know what to go for now. You at least have the knowledge to make up your own mind since I’ve been through roughly every one of the essential talents. If you have any questions or comments please leave them below and I’ll try answer them in the best way I can.

Cya around here on Skill-Capped

Moopower