Restoration Shaman PvP Guide

The Restoration Shaman is currently one of the most sought after healing classes in the game. Cataclysm introduced an awesome new totem called the Sprit Link Totem. It is arguably the most useful ability in both pvp and pve at the moment.

In Arenas, the Restoration Shaman's main spells are Earth Shield, Riptide, Healing Surge, Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave. And that's not including all the totems that should be used as often as possible, such as Grounding Totem, Tremor Totem(when feared), Stoneclaw Totem etc, etc.

When your team is preparing for a kill on the enemy in the Arena, Battleground or anywhere else, make sure that you have the appropriate totems to give them a benefit in damage and anything else useful. For example, you might have Stoneclaw Totem up when your team's melee DPSers use their offensive abilities and prepare to start nuking for real, then they are left without the Strength Of Earth totem - which is a really good totem for strength DPSers. That's why it's so important to keep in mind these little things, because if you add them up, they've suddenly become alot of things.

Kiting is another area where the Restoration Shaman shines, with improved ghost wolf, the shaman can instantly transform himself into a ghost wolf while a slowing effect is active on the enemy, to then simply run away from him. That works against most classes that don't have too much movement cooldowns, such as Warriors with their Charge. It's important to not focus on kiting if you have more than one melee DPSer nuking you, because that would just prove in vain since all melee DPSers have their ways of catching up to you, and with two of them combined, you have little to no chance of actually avoiding any of their damage by kiting.

For best mana conservation, don't overuse Healing Surge. It's a powerful heal with a quick cast, at the cost of alot of mana - especially if you want to use it multiple times in a row. Instead, I can recommend using Riptide as much as possible, followed by a Greater Healing Wave if the target you're healing is on 35-60%. If your target is on 1-35%, then Healing Surge is your go-to spell until the target has reached 35% HP, whereas you make good use of Riptide followed by Greater Healing Wave. The regular Healing Wave should be used on targets with HP percentages ranging from 60 to 99, because it costs little mana and you can most likely afford "spamming" it until the target you're healing has reached maximum HP.

View the original article here