Welcome to Skill Capped’s Guide on the Best PvP Talents & Hero Talents for Restoration Shamans in The War Within 11.1

All sections for Restoration Shaman PvP have been divided into corresponding sections for the most optimal hero talents, class talents, spec talents, race, stats, gear, enchants, gems, and macros. This will help you have a good understanding of Restoration Shamans in PvP for The War Within, the strengths and weaknesses associated with this specialization, and help you conquer the arena. This section will guide you on the best Restoration Shaman PvP Talents in The War Within.

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Hero Talents: Farseer
Hero Talents: Totemic
Class Talents
Spec Talents
PvP Talents

The War Within expands our arsenal of talent options, which include our new talent hero talent trees, Farseer and Totemic. As of 11.1, we’ve noticed more representation out of Farseer thanks to healing buffs targeting both our throughput, as well as the amount of healing our Farseer ancestors can produce. However, Totemic tends to be a potential grab and can still be played as competitively.

Now, let’s go more in depth and determine how to best allocate our Hero talents in both of these Hero builds.

Hero Talents: Farseer

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Starting off we have our suggested loadout for Farseer. This Hero build supplements your throughput by the use of Ancestors, which are naturally summoned by pressing Unleash Life, Ancestral Swiftness, and occasionally Riptide.

Although Ancestors have been nerfed by a flat percentage, their healing is now affected by Mastery and now cast Healing Wave when we choose to cast one. This balances out the nerf and has made our throughput plentiful as opposed to 11.0.7. Additionally, the more Ancestors we have out, the stronger our duplicated heals or damaging spells are.

However, let’s explore more about our Hero talents located here so you can optimize your gameplay.

Spiritwalker’s Momentum increases the duration of both Spiritwalker’s Aegis and Spiritwalker’s Grace by an additional one second after casting a spell.
Ancestral Swiftness now replaces our Nature’s Swiftness, keeping its original effects while adding in some bonus modifiers. Our affected spell now deals 10% more healing and damage, and summons an Ancestor.

Hero Talents: Totemic

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Next up we have our Totemic loadout, which is comprised of heavy AoE healing primarily through our hallmark node, Surging Totem, as well as Chain Heal.

As for our hallmark node, Surging Totem, we will be placing this totem near our teammates that are suffering from heavy AoE cleave, as this spawns a Healing Rain around the totem for some minor sustain healing. This becomes more valuable from our endcap node Whirling Elements, which will be discussed soon after.

Now, there are a few talents listed here that require a bit more explanation in how to maximize their effects.

Earthsurge, which makes our healing 15% stronger to targets in Earthen Wall Totem or when Earthliving occasionally procs on a target we are healing from our core healing spells.
Totemic Rebound, and in combination with Tidebringer, we become more inclined to cast Chain Heal as they can be stored and released from any of our totems as long as Chain Heal has affected the maximum amount of targets. This also applies to Lively Totems, as Chain Heals are constantly bouncing around after placing a totem on the ground.

And lastly, we have Whirling Elements, and as mentioned earlier, we receive 3 distinct motes; Water, Air, and Earth. Each mote has their own unique effect, which will take effect after using Surging Totem.

Water heals an ally in Healing Rain after using Healing Wave or Healing Surge.
Air reduces your next casted healing spell by a large amount.
Earth makes Earthliving auto apply to all targets affected by your next Chain Heal.

Alternatively, we can select Oversurge instead of Amplification Core, and is only valuable against setup comps that deliver heavy burst in specific windows.

Shaman Class Talents

In the Shaman Class talent tree, most of your talent choices will be mandatory when advancing onto each tier. Some of the most noteworthy talents are:

Elemental Resistance reduces Fire, Frost, and Nature damage on a friendly target affected by our Healing Stream Totem.
Greater Purge to remove 2 magical buffs on enemy targets instead of one, making us a bit more efficient with our globals. The only downside is that it is now on a 12 second cooldown.
Totemic Recall, mainly to reset your Static Field Totem or Earthen Wall Totem, depending on the current circumstance.

For our first flexible choice node, we have the option to select between Spirit Walk or Gust of Wind.

Spirit Walk is our recommended default, and tends to be selected against Balance Druids. This gives you a way to escape their Entangling Roots and Solar Beam combo without having to spend your PvP medallion on it.
Gust of Wind makes our positioning a bit more forgiving, as we can use this to either kite from an oppressive team, or to reposition in respect to how your teammates are playing.

Another choice node you can alternate between is Planes Traveler and Astral Bulwark if you choose to select either of these talents. These are listed in our default loadouts, but can be picked as one of our flexible talents. This is based around your own preference or the matchup at hand.

Planes Traveler provides you more Astral Shift uptime throughout the course of a game.
Astral Bulwark makes Astral Shift a stronger defensive cooldown, and can save you when used against setup comps that include a Frost DK or Subtlety Rogue.

There will then be a few points which can be moved around depending on the composition that you are facing.

For your flexible class talents, Mana Spring as Farseer, if you are playing Solo Shuffle, and Improved Purify Spirit, if not against other Shamans or Warlocks, can be more swapped around with other talents offered to us. This is dependent on your matchup and current composition played.

Planes Traveler / Astral Bulwark
Poison Cleansing Totem to remove poison effects, and is great into Assassination Rogues, or Hunters that apply Chimaeral Sting to healers, which negates the silence effect if placed before the effect is active.
Brimming with Life, in combination with Chain Lightning, can be a more consistent defensive option if you know you will be the primary kill target. These talents are present in our default Totemic loadout, but can be selected as a flex talent in our default Farseer loadout.
Traveling Storms can be more effective when playing on maps with high Z-axis elevation, especially Blade’s Edge Arena to knock players off platforms easier.

Restoration Spec Talents

After the removal of Primordial Wave, our talent choices will be slightly different from what we are accustomed to. For our spec talents, most of these will be mandatory as you advance onto each tier.

Some of the most noteworthy talents are:

Spirit Link Totem to now reduce damage taken by 10% to all friendly targets affected, and constantly redistributes health evenly every second.
Unleash Life, giving us a nice on-demand heal, and enhances the effects of our next healing spell. Most of the buffs we commonly use from this spell are nice buffs to our core healing spells.
Whispering Waves is a new addition to 11.1, and is even better when our Farseer build is selected. Our Healing Wave becomes more impactful on targets affected by Riptide, and also works from Ancestor Healing Waves as well.
Resurgence is great to have in 3v3 non-Solo Shuffle matchups where mana may be a concerning factor.

As for our flexible talents, we can alternate between First Ascendant and Preeminence depending on our personal preference and the matchup we are up against.

Preeminence provides more burst healing coming out of Ascendance, as our Haste is dramatically increased.
First Ascendant is our consistent pick here, as we receive more uptime on Ascendance. Additionally some offensive cooldowns like Incarnation are still 2 minutes, giving you a defensive trade every time their offensive is pressed.

Restoration Shaman PvP Talents

In most matchups, you’ll have a default loadout you’ll almost always select when entering in a PvP matchup. These are Living Tide, Static Field Totem, and Grounding Totem.

Living Tide is essential to your overall healing. This talent reduces the duration of your Healing Tide Totem by 45 seconds, and makes it heal 25% more every pulse. With Healing Tide Totem receiving a massive buff in The War Within, expect to always use this talent.
Static Field Totem continues to stay relevant in the new expansion, as we can place a totem that constrains targets in the totem’s radius until the totem has been killed. Pairing this with Totemic Projection, you’ll be able to launch targets away from your team to help peel, or act as a pseudo Crowd Control against enemy healers, as long as they are in its radius to begin with.
Grounding Totem remains as a soft-locked pick due to so many classes giving you value out of it. This allows you to redirect harmful spells to the totem within 30 yards for 3 seconds, allowing to negate some heavy hitting damage before the cast finishes, or some magic Crowd Control, such as Fear or Polymorph.

Depending on what build you play as or the composition you’re facing, we advis swapping from / to Static Field Totem for any of our optional talents.

Rain Dance is a great option as Totemic as it makes your Healing Rain stronger, cost less mana, and instant cast. Additionally, this buffs your throughput from Surging Totem and makes it easier to benefit off of your water buff from Whirling Elements.
Burrow allows you to go underneath the ground for 5 seconds, giving you some additional movement speed and let’s you avoid all attacks while active. Once this spells ends it’s duration however, you can come up and deal some hefty physical damage to any nearby target.