Casting Riptide grants 2 stacks of Tidal Waves. Tidal Waves reduces the cast time of your next Healing Wave or Chain Heal by 20%, or increases the critical effect chance of your next Healing Surge by 30%.
Cast time of next Healing Wave or Chain Heal reduced by 20%. Critical effect chance of next Healing Surge increased by 30%.
Duration: 15 seconds
Tidal Waves is a Restoration shaman talent. It causes your [Riptide] to grant a buff that reduces the cast time of [Healing Wave] and [Chain Heal], and increase the critical strike chance of [Healing Surge]. This effect stacks up to 2 times.
Tidal Waves is a staple of restoration healing, and allows you to significantly reduce the otherwise fairly long casting times of Healing Wave, while also providing a bonus to Healing Surge. The Healing Surge bonus is very rarely useful, however, as the main benefit of the spell is its short casting time; something that is only relevant when you don't have Tidal Waves active. The casting time reduction can be used to mitigate the main drawback of Healing Wave, namely it's low healing per second. Managing the buff and knowing when you'll be able to refresh it next can be tricky, but is necessary for getting the most out of your healing spells.
Tips and tactics[]
When using Chain Heal to heal a raid group, Tidal Waves allows you to cast a quick Healing Wave on a target that needs immediate healing. The reduced casting time of the heals not only means that a potentially life-saving heal can land faster, but also that you can get back to casting Chain Heal sooner.
The reverse of the above is also true: if you are chain-casting Healing Wave on a target, using Chain Heal will increase the casting time of your next two heals, allowing you to "sneak in" an occasional Chain Heal without losing much time on your main target. This can be useful if a tank is taking heavy damage while other players nearby also need healing.
Patch changes[]
Patch 10.0.0 (2022-10-25): Now a row 3 Restoration talent (was a level 20 Restoration ability).
Patch 9.0.1 (2020-10-13): Now learned at level 20 (was 34).
Patch 7.1.0 (2016-10-25): Now learned at level 34 (was 50).
Hotfix (2016-07-22):Casting [Riptide] directly after a [Chain Heal] will now award two stacks of Tidal Waves.
Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19): Now reduces the cast time of [Healing Wave] by 30% (up from 20%) and increases critical strike chance of [Healing Surge] by 40% (up from 30%).
Patch 6.0.2 (2014-10-14): Now reduces the cast time of Healing Wave by 20% (down from 30%).
Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Now a level 50 Restoration ability (was a tier 6 Restoration talent).
Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): Redesigned as a 3-rank tier 6 talent (was a 5-rank tier 10 talent): When you cast Chain Heal or Riptide, you gain the Tidal Waves effect, which reduces the cast time of your [Healing Wave] and [Greater Healing Wave] spells by 10/20/30% and increases the critical effect chance of your Healing Surge spell by 10/20/30%. 2 charges.
Old: When you cast Chain Heal or Riptide, you have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to lower the cast time of your Healing Wave spell by 30% and increase the critical effect chance of your [Lesser Healing Wave] spell by 25%, until two such spells have been cast. In addition, your Healing Wave gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus healing effects and your Lesser Healing Wave gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% of your bonus healing effects.
Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): No longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It instead now provides +25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave, along with the previous 30% cast time benefit to Healing Wave.
Patch 3.0.3 (2008-11-04): Will now also proc from Riptide. Number of charges increased from 1 to 2.
[Healing Stream Totem]
[Riptide]
[Flash Flood], 
[Water Totem Mastery]
[Healing Wave] and 
[Chain Heal], and increase the critical strike chance of 
[Healing Surge]. This effect stacks up to 2 times.
Patch 10.0.0 (2022-10-25): Now a row 3 Restoration talent (was a level 20 Restoration ability). 
