PvE Restoration Shaman Best Professions

Author: Nevermore
Date: June 23, 2022
Updated: September 27, 2022
Expansion: WotLK Classic

PvE Restoration Shaman

Talents, Builds & Glyphs

Stat Priority

Best Races

Gems, Enchants & Consumables

Rotation & Cooldowns

Best Professions

Best in Slot (BiS) & Pre-Raid Gear

Addons & Macros

Professions are a crucial part of your World of Warcraft character, potentially offering a large boost to your damage, healing or survivability, while also allowing you to generate some gold. This section will cover some of your best options for professions as a Restoration Shaman.

Click a profession’s bar to see detailed explanations!

Best Professions

Like with most other classes & specs in the game, Engineering will be your strongest profession. For the second profession slot, we recommend Jewelcrafting, though Blacksmithing is extremely close to it in performance.

Engineering is the king of professions for PvE content, offering a vast, vast array of different benefits. The main advantage of Engineering lies in the Hyperspeed Accelerators gloves enchant, which gives +340 haste rating for 12 seconds, on a 1-minute cooldown. This translates into a ~10% casting speed increase with a 20% uptime, which is already amazing on its own — but it becomes even bigger when you use the Accelerators when your various trinkets proc.

Additionally, as an Engineer you have access to the Nitro Boosts boots enchant, passively giving +24 crit rating and coming with an-use effect which massively increases your speed for 5 seconds, allowing you to move out of dangerous AoE effects or catch up to your target quickly.

Finally, just like in previous expansions, Engineers can use powerful explosives such as Saronite Bombs and Global Thermal Sapper Charges, however, you will not find yourself using those gadgets as a Healer.

No surprises here, Jewelcrafting is an extremely potent profession for most classes / specs and that includes Restoration Shamans. Not only do you gain access to powerful, Jewelcrafter-unique gems, but you also get to sell gems to others, giving you a modest income.

The main benefit of Jewelcrafting is the Jewelcrafter-unique gems, Dragon’s Eye, which are more powerful than regular gems, but are therefore limited to 3 equipped at a time. The main one you’ll be crafting as a Shaman is Quick Dragon’s Eye, resulting in a +42 Haste rating.

Useful Professions

The following professions are considered viable, but offer a lesser benefit compared to the best professions, so they’re not recommended. If you’re not focused on making your character 100% optimal, you can use any of these professions just fine.

Blacksmiths can add 2 extra gem sockets to their gear — 1 on wrists, and 1 on hands. Socketing 2x Quick King’s Amber into them translates into a +40 haste bonus.

Apart from the pure stat bonus that Blacksmithing grants you, you will have the ability to craft mail and plate equipment and other items valuable to other professions. Even if you will not be able to use the crafted gear, it will still aid you in generating gold by either selling it on the Auction House or trading it with other players directly.

As a Tailor, you gain access to the Lightweave Embroidery cloak enchant, a proc which gives you +295 spell power for 15 seconds with a 45-second internal cooldown. However, apart from the cloak enchantment, Tailoring does not provide you with any other viable effect.

Tailoring gives you the ability to craft useful gear throughout your journey. However, you will quickly replace the crafted gear after your first dungeons, meaning that you will often end up selling it on the Auction House instead.

As a Scribe, you gain access to the Master’s Inscription of the Storm shoulder enchant, which provides a +47 spell power increase over the standard enchant available to everyone, Greater Inscription of the Storm.

Scribes also get to make glyphs & scrolls, providing a nice source of income, but many will argue that the real benefit in Inscription comes in not having to grind The Sons of Hodir reputation for the shoulder enchants!

As an Enchanter you gain access to the Enchant Ring – Greater Spellpower enchant, which you can apply to both of your rings for a modest +46 spell power. This bonus ties Inscription, Leatherworking, and Blacksmithing bonuses.

You also get to enchant your own equipment without needing to tip another enchanter, which results in a neat amount of gold saved, on top of the gold you can generate by enchanting others.

As a Leatherworker you gain access to the Fur Lining – Spell Power bracer enchant, which proves a +46 spell power increase over the standard enchant available to everyone, Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower. This bonus ties in Inscription, Enchanting, and Blacksmithing.

With Leatherworking, you can create some nifty equipment pieces for yourself, being able to craft powerful leather and mail items that you can either use yourself or sell in the Auction House. However, Leatherworking doesn’t usually provide large amounts of gold.

As an Alchemist, you gain access to the Mixology passive effect, which increases the effectiveness of flasks and elixirs you consume, but only if you can craft them yourself. This results in a +47 Spell Power increase when using Flask of the Frost Wyrm, our preferred flask. This is sadly a smaller boost than what other professions can offer, but not by much.

On the flipside, Alchemy is one of the best professions for gold generation, as potions, flasks and elixirs are always relevant and in high demand. This makes it a great profession for your alts to have.

Sub-Par Professions

The following professions do not offer any DPS-increasing benefits and are thus not considered viable for Restoration Shamans in PvE.

Herbalists gain the Lifeblood active skill, which heals you for 3600 over 5 seconds, with a 3-minute cooldown. This can occasionally come in handy, particularly while leveling, farming or questing, but will generally never be enough to save you in a dungeon or raid.

On the flipside, Herbalism is one of the strongest professions for gold generation, as herbs are used in Alchemy and Inscription, and thus always in demand. This makes it a good profession to have on an alt, particularly a Druid, Rogue or Hunter.

Miners gain access to the Toughness passive, which offers a +60 stamina boost. This stat boost is generally useless for Restoration Shamans.

Mining is okay for gold generation, but as with Herbalism, it’s best saved for a Druid, Rogue or Hunter alt.

Skinners gain access to the Master of Anatomy passive, which offers a +40 crit rating boost. This is weaker than all the other professions mentioned in this list, but at least it’s something.

Skinning is generally not that good at gold generation either, so it’s overall not a great profession.

About the Author

Nevermore

Hey there folks, I am Nevermore and have been deeply passionate about WoW for more than a decade. Whether we talk about the hidden mysteries of Azeroth or the otherworldly Outland, my journey brought me here to share the things that I have experienced with you all.