leveling as resto shaman

[Vekisha]

is it viable?

[Drain]

Certainly, but it's slow. This is a tree that works best piggybacking off of someone else, or healing for groups. If you're alone, you want killing speed without downtime, and Enhancement is the best tree for it.

[Guirssane]

1) grab a war
2) pull tons of pack
3) ???
4) profit

No seriously you should get a level partner, would be easier and quicker (if did well)

[Lemonfreezer]

Why would you even level as resto in the first place?

[Wraith§Reaver]

Why would you even level as resto in the first place?

I have done myself in the past, and many others players like me.
You wonder why someone could do that, well there are no simple reason other than to "have a better feeling with the resto tree/singular spells" and how to effectively "heal in many situations", especially useful in mental outlook preparing to learn well how to heal in instances/raids.
Obviously those who do it, aims to become healers for much of their time.

It's the similar thing as leveling a priest in holy/discipline or as a resto druid.
The first time I met wow, I leveled my main in this way (at the suggestion of a friend, founder of a guild, who has begin to train me as a solid resto shaman before joining his guild) and although many could argue that's pointless, it is not for sure.

If you wanna see it in a more "pratical way", just think him as an ordinary class with "tank heals" without the need for large amounts of HP, continuously healing yourself while being in auto-attack and cast occasionally, some DoT spells like Flame Shock and potentially having one Earth Elemental which takes part of the aggro; but in the long run it could be boring for someone more action-oriented.

As already pointed out Drain it's a very slow process, and would be recommended to level in the Enhancement tree.

[Trolle]

Level as Enhancement, least mana dependent leveling spec and it goes twice as fast. Keep a int gear in bank or bags when you get larger bags and just heal instances if you want to get a feeling for healing. Healing can be done in Enhancement spec with enough int on your gear

[Drain]

Or you could just spread your points out. Once you get the 2h+Flurry+Parry, you can start getting healing talents. You don't have to max a tree.

[Patience]

The good thing with vanilla is that every class that can heal can level as DPS and still heal just fine in dungeons up to almost 60.

[c_jay223]

is it viable?

It definitely is.

I have leveled both as enhancement and restoration and resto is probably going to surprise you, as it did me, in terms of leveling speed. You get reduced mana cost in heals & totems, as well as stacking more intelligence based gear.

These three factors can make completing quests and grinding a less time consuming experience and of course get you into dungeon groups quickly.

Even with these benefits, it is almost a necessity to grab up some conjured water from the nearest willing mage, so keep that in mind.

If you really want to, you can go 11 points down in the enhancement talent tree and grab up the two handed mace+axe skill for slower/greater melee damage.

My suggestion would be to spec Enhancement up until level 45ish (definitely seems to excel early on), then switch to restoration. Even as enhance from 1-45 you should be able to heal every dungeon just fine.

[Drain]

Warriors don't need to be Protection to tank either. You can do perfectly fine in Fury, might actually do better because all the damage translates into more threat. Nothing matters except your ability to hold threat. Just don't activate Deathwish. Whatever you do, do not activate Deathwish. I know you'll be tempted while looking at the picture. Don't do it.