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Page 1 29 Gear Listing 39 Gear Listing 49 Gear Listing 59 Gear Listing 69 Gear Listing Glyphs, Totems, and Tactics Talent Choices Appendices

Introduction
Gear Strategy
29 Gear Listing
39 Gear Listing
49 Gear Listing
59 Gear Listing
69 Gear Listing
Glyphs
Totems
Tactics
Talent Choices
Appendix A: Comparing Peak Healing between Classes
Appendix B: Armor's Reduction of Melee Damage
Appendix C: The Arithmetic of Critical Healing and Haste



A restoration shaman's versatility empowers her to live the true meaning of "battle healer", with fast heals and powerful "offensive defense" abilities, including interrupts and slowing effects. Other classes specialize in certain roles, but resto shamans often switch between two or three roles during the heat of battle. While shamans have the lowest peak healing-per-second of any class in their bracket (see Appendix A for details), spell power bonuses from elite gear help to close the gap. Above all, a resto shaman's success on the battlefield relies on tactics, not numbers.

Restoration shamans, simply put, continually thwart enemy plans. Resto Shamans heal a teammate, slow down enemy movement, interrupt enemy spellcasts, chip away at enemy health, purge buffs and heal-over-time spells from opponents, and yet again, suddenly restore the health of a teammate who was supposed to die ten seconds ago. To play a restoration shaman is to build up enough surprises and delays so your comrades overcome your opponents. Resto shamans turn the tide, help teammates get away, and trip up enemies who thought they were free and clear of obstacles. Play to your strength -- your versatility -- and your twink restoration shaman can make a difference anywhere on the battlefield.

-- Nirise

Gear choices for PvP resto shamans hinge on two facts. First, resto shamans need to hit fast and hard with their heals, as they often don't get the chance to land more than a couple once an enemy figures out why a target is gaining health instead of dying. Second, like all casters, resto shamans need as much health and mana as they can get.

Choosing gear comes down to one simple question: how little health and mana can you get away with, to stack as much spell power as possible? As long as you don't die and don't run out of mana in most battles, you want as much of a boost to your healing (and spell damage) as possible. Therefore, resto shamans only care about optimizing stamina and intellect, and the rest of the stats (including spirit) have insignificant use. With enough health and mana, get as much spell power as you can.

This guide lists the best gear choices for each slot, often including pure spellpower, pure stats (only stamina and/or intellect), hybrid choices, and tactical alternatives. The same goes for enchantments and other augmentations. In this way, you can mix and match which combination of bonuses works best for your particular healing style. Remember that items for legs must be Bind on Equip to accept spellthreads.

Resto shamans often use very rare green BoE drops to maximize bonus spell power, which can take the longest to find, especially for legs. 29 shamans may struggle to get the [], but the rest of the instance drops are fairly easy to obtain -- just start early in your 20s. For 39 shamans, the low drop rate of [] of Healing may seem daunting at first, but is actually a simple drop to farm. If a high level party member runs into Ulda and clears the initial mobs, you can enter Ulda, run to the wall you're facing, and wait for your high-level helper to make the short walk to Revelosh without attracting any attention. Then, when your helper kills Revelosh (not too far from the wall closest to you), you're close enough to roll for the loot which drops. An experienced helper can do 5 runs in less than 15 minutes.

Twinking a resto shaman for 49 can go very easily if you choose the three-piece dragonscale set, or can involve a tremendous number of instance runs. Horde shaman have a quest chain for the all-important dagger. In contrast, almost all of the gear for a 59 resto shaman comes from BoE items, or quests (or both). 59 shamans must budget their XP accordingly. Accumulating Argent Dawn and Zandalar Tribe reputation depends on spending time and money gathering materials from the auction house, or farming materials with a very high level alternate character.

At 69, twink resto shamans take a different approach to gear. Not only does almost all gear have multiple bonuses, but gear often has gem sockets. When constructing the 69 gear section, any piece of gear that could get matched or surpassed by socket gear with appropriate gems got omitted. Finally, the importance of gear bonuses can shift significantly at 69 (see Appendix C). 69 bracket gear divides into emphases of bonus gear (spell power and/or critical strike rating), haste, hybrid, and socket gear. Like the bracket before, be sure to budget XP when gearing up for the 69 bracket.

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