Healer Rotation & Cooldowns

A general priority guide for Restoration Shaman abilities and cooldowns. Helpful for understanding the spec's fundamentals and getting comfortable with core synergies. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: Midnight (12.0.1).

Single Target

Ensure Water Shield, Earth Shield, and Earthliving Weapon are active before combat.

• Stormstream TotemView detailsUse procs immediately.
• RiptideView detailsKeep on cooldown.
• Ancestral SwiftnessView detailsUse on cooldown.
• Unleash LifeView detailsCast when available.
• Healing RainView detailsMaintain uptime.
• Healing Stream TotemView detailsKeep on cooldown.
• Healing Wave or Chain HealView detailsUse as filler based on mana and targets.

Maintain Riptide and Healing Stream Totem on cooldown while using Stormstream Totem procs. Use Healing Wave or Chain Heal as filler depending on mana and healing needs.

AoE

• Stormstream TotemView detailsUse procs immediately.
• RiptideView detailsKeep on cooldown.
• Ancestral SwiftnessView detailsUse on cooldown.
• Unleash LifeView detailsCast when available.
• Healing Stream TotemView detailsKeep on cooldown.
• Chain HealView detailsUse for AoE healing.

For AoE, prioritize Stormstream Totem and Riptide while maintaining Healing Stream Totem. Use Chain Heal for group healing.

Cooldowns

• AscendanceView detailsUse for burst healing and mana efficiency.
• Spirit Link TotemView detailsUse preemptively before heavy damage.
• Healing Tide TotemView detailsUse for high group-wide healing.
• Natures SwiftnessView detailsUse for instant, mana-free casts.
• Spiritwalkers GraceView detailsUse to heal while moving.

Use Ascendance for burst healing, Spirit Link Totem for damage reduction, and Healing Tide Totem for group-wide healing. Utilize Natures Swiftness for emergencies and Spiritwalkers Grace during movement.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

• Single-Button Assistant
• Assisted Highlight
• Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.