Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how. Brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast.

Three years ago if you had mentioned to anyone you were going to level as a healing spec, they would have scoffed at you and called you ambitious or question your sanity. It was not a very common occurrence and if someone mentioned that was how they leveled, it was often asked how long it took. Two years ago it was slightly more common to see people leveling as a healing spec. With the amount of quests and gear available for each dungeon in Burning Crusade, healers were in hot demand to go forth with a heroic party and clear these zones out. Leveling was still slow going when compared to DPS, but you could do it. When Wrath of the Lich King came out things were a lot easier for healers than in previous content if they decided to level in their healing spec, but it was still slower than if you were a DPS spec. Instances still were healer friendly, but while questing there were several NPC that you just couldn't kill without being DPS. Now things have changed and it is easier than ever to level as a healer!

At the end of Burning Crusade, we saw magical damage and healing evolve into spell power. At the time a lot of healers were upset at the change, but when WotLK was released, we began to understand why. Hybrids especially felt the ease of going into Northrend when you get your first kill quests and just pulling out the damage spells without ever changing specs. The mobs died, quests were completed and you were able to carry on at a relatively healthy pace. While you might not have kept pace with pure DPS classes, but you did not have to ask for help with quests and elites as often as you did in BC. With wrath came even more dungeons and more quests to go along with those dungeons, as a healer it was very possible to sit in trade chat in a city, or outside of any instance you wanted to run and advertise your services. Getting a dungeon group became even easier than before.

There are some things you need to know if you plan on leveling as a restoration shaman.

Questing

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