Shaman
Restoration
Playstyle
Flexible healer that excels when the group stacks together but still handles solid spot-healing duty. Mostly casts Unleash Life, Riptide, Healing Stream Totem, and Healing Rain on cooldown, filling gaps with Healing Wave or Chain Heal. Called 'perhaps the easiest healer in the game' since Midnight trimmed roughly half its active ability list.
One of the best healers for 5-man content — Spirit Link Totem's damage redistribution and Wind Shear (the only interrupt among healer specs)
Season 2 Tier Set
Ophidian Oracle's Prophecy
Healing Wave and Chain Heal have a chance to create a Healing Rain at the target's location for 10 seconds.
Every 1 second, 1 ally inside of Healing Rain gains a watery shield that absorbs X damage for 10 seconds.
"X" is an unfilled tooltip value straight from Blizzard's own post — the actual absorb amount hasn't been announced yet.
+ The Good
One of the best healers for 5-man content — Spirit Link Totem's damage redistribution and Wind Shear (the only interrupt among healer specs)
Class-wide Skyfury buff and Bloodlust
− The Bad
Main gap is sustained raid-wide AoE healing, which lags behind Restoration Druid
Leans hard on Spiritwalker's Grace to stay mobile through movement-heavy fights
Only healer without an external defensive cooldown for allies
Some throughput rides on Stormstream Totem/Deeply Rooted Elements procs rather than direct control
The straightforward kit can feel thin for players who want a deeper, more technical healer
Pick My Main ratings
Raid buffs
Utility
Hero talents
Spawns Ancestors that mirror casts like Unleash Life and boosts targeted single-target healing (better Chain Heal, easier Riptide access). Stronger spot-healing profile, but drops off more when you get punished by downtime or forced movement.
Leans on passive throughput from totems (Surging Totem, Earthsurge) rather than direct casts. More forgiving of misplays and movement, and generally the easier of the two trees to perform well on.