Restoration Shaman Beginner's Guide

This is intended to be a simple guide to the basic rotation and dynamics of the spec that gets you up and running without requiring more advanced optimization.

Information on hero talents will be coming soon, but in general know that overall they add a minor layer on top of how each spec plays, and most of what’s here should be applicable regardless.

As a Fury Warrior you’ll use two two-handed weapons.

Talent Build #

This is a simplified talent build designed to avoid complex interactions and skip unnecessary abilities. While not optimal in all cases, it should be a great way to get started learning the spec and should work reasonably well in world content, delves, dungeons, and raids. Abilities and talents not chosen in this build are not described here, and the rotation information assumes you’ll be using the build.

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Wowhead Link

Resources #

Rage – Warrior’s main resource. You’ll gain rage whenever you auto-attack, are attacked by an enemy, or when you use certain abilities. Your rage will then drain slowly over time. You’ll mainly spend rage on Rampage. Try to use it whenever your rage is full so you don’t cap out.

Stances #

Fury warrior should be in Berserker Stance most of the time, but can use Defensive Stance to help reduce major incoming damage. Just make sure to swap back to Berserker Stance afterwards.

Core Abilities #

Raging Blow – Short cooldown attack that does minor damage but generates rage. Gains a second charge with Improved Raging Blow, and a variety of talents can make it castable immediately, so you should rarely not be able to use it.

Bloodthirst – Short cooldown attack that does minor damage, restores a small amount of health, and has a chance to give you Enrage. With Cold Steel, Hot Blood Bloodthirst crits will apply a DoT that leeches health, which notably can be applied to multiple enemies via Improved Whirlwind. With Fresh Meat is guaranteed to give you Enrage you when first used on an enemy, so helpful for starting off combat.

Rampage – Spends a large amount of rage to give you Enrage and deal substantial single-target damage. This can actually cover keeping Enrage active for much of your rotation if you’re using it frequently. Should be used whenever you’re about to lose Enrage or you’re about to fill up on rage.

Execute – Short cooldown single target damage that generates some rage. Normally only usable on enemies below 35% health but Sudden Death will occasionally let you use it on any enemy. Good to use when you can but shouldn’t take priority over other rotational goals.

Whirlwind – Small AoE damage that generates a bit of rage but, more importantly, with Improved Whirlwind will let your next 4 attacks do AoE damage as well. This lets you more or less do your single-target rotation to do AoE as long as you’re keeping that effect active.

Cooldowns #

Avatar – 1.5m cooldown. Grants a 20% damage buff for 20s. With Berserker's Torment gives you the effects of Recklessness for 8s as well. Note that this won’t “use” Recklessness’s cooldown so you’ll want to stagger the two of them to maximize the time they’re active.

Recklessness – 1.5m cooldown. Grants increased rage generation and a 20% bonus to crit chance. With Berserker's Torment gives you the effects of Avatar as described above. The same note about staggering usage applies.

Effects #

These are some of the more notable effects, interactions, and passive talents that you should be aware of. It’s not covering effects (even if they’re very strong) that provide flat bonuses or that don’t require much thought to use, and it only includes those used in our recommended build.

Mastery: Unshackled Fury – Increases the damage bonus given by Enrage as you gain more Mastery points. You shouldn’t need to think actively about this since Enrage should be active most of the time anyways.

Enrage – Grants a substantial damage boost for 4s. You’ll activate this when starting combat with Bloodthirst, then keep it active as you spend rage with Rampage, and fall back to using Bloodthirst again if the effect falls off and you can’t use Rampage yet. It’s crucial that this effect is active as much as possible since a lot of your damage comes from it.

Rotation Overview #

This is an overview of the core rotation. It’s not a strict priority order but rather an outline of how the different abilities interact and are used. It assumes you’re using the recommended talent build above.

Single Target:

• Use Bloodthirst to start combat with Enrage, to to reactivate Enrage if it’s falling off and Rampage isn’t available
• Build rage with Raging Blow
• Use Rampage to spend rage or to keep Enrage active
• Use Execute if the enemy is low on health or if it’s available via Sudden Death
• If the target is expected to live for a while
  • Use one of Avatar or Recklessness, do as much damage as you can until the effect falls off, then use the other and squeeze in more damage.

AoE:

• Use Whirlwind to keep the effect of Improved Whirlwind active.
• Proceed through the single target rotation above

Defensives #

Enraged Regeneration – 2m cooldown. Reduces damage taken by 30% and increases the health regeneration of Bloodthirst for 8s. Solid defensive effect that should be used when significant incoming damage is expected or when you’re low on health and at risk of dying.

Spell Reflection – Grants 20% magic damage reduction for 5s, and reflects the first harmful spell cast on you back to the caster. Start off by thinking about it as a basic damage reduction cooldown and then begin to think about places where the reflect aspect would be useful offensively.

Crowd Control #

Taunt Taunt – Makes the target attack you. Essential when tanking to pick up enemies you don’t have aggro on. Niche usefulness as a ranged pull when solo.

Interrupt Pummel – Interrupts the target’s cast.

Stun Shockwave – Stuns all enemies in front of you for 2s.

Snare Hamstring – Slows the target for 15s.

Mobility #

Charge – Run towards the target, dealing a small amount of damage and rooting them for 1s. Gains a second charge with Double Time.

Heroic Leap – Jump to the targeted location, doing a small amount of damage. Also grants a short movement speed increase with Bounding Stride

Utility #

Impending Victory – Does some damage but more importantly heals you for a chunk of health. Each time you kill an enemy you can use this again.

Buff Battle Shout – Grants a 5% increase to attack power to your group. Keep this up at all times.

Berserker Rage– Removes fear and incapactitate effects and makes you immune to them for 6s.

Heroic Throw – Throws your weapon at the target, useless for damage but helpful to pull enemies from a distance.

Not Used #

Slam – No rotational effect and damage small enough that it can be safely ignored.