WoW Shaman Guide

Shaman are the spiritual leaders of their tribes and clans. They are masters of the elements, using spells and totems that heal or enhance their allies in battle while unleashing the fury of the elements upon their foes. Shamans can wear medium armor, and even wield massive two-handed weapons in combat. They are a versatile class that can wade into battle, restoring their allies while hurling elemental bolts of lightning at their enemies.

The Totem

Don’t forget totems while solo, either. I run Stoneskin, Healing Stream and Grace of Air with either Windfury or Rockbiter on my weapon, and then hardly cast any nukes. The mobs don’t die as fast as they would if you burned them, but against even-con nonelites you can kill mobs fairly quickly with almost zero downtime, and with the totems up you’re in good shape if you get adds. Sometimes against high dps mobs I add in a searing to kill them a bit faster, or twist in a nuke or a Lightning Shield.

Modify your totem use to fit your play style and your group. If your group is you and four armsbuild Mortal Strike warriors, then you should probably be using windfury to make their Arcanite Reapers hit more often. If you’re in a group with a druid tank and three mages, then Mana Spring is probably more useful than I made it out to be. The beauty of the totem system is that you customize buffs on the fly, so use that to your advantage and don’t be afraid to change totems mid-fight if something changes.

Shaman Abilities Guide

Shaman abilities are divided into three primary spell trees, Elemental, Enhancement, and Restoration. Each serves a purpose in gifting the shaman with the ability to support or lead in a variety of scenarios. By harnessing all three of these the shaman becomes a true hybrid class, although many times we’ll require only one specialization in situations such as raiding.

Elemental

Elemental is the ranged caster tree of the shaman, comparable to say a druid’s moonkin/balance tree, it’s just that we happen to avoid the whole turning into an oversized owlbear in the process, a definite positive.

The Elemental Combat talents are straightforward and, if not tremendously exciting, then at least useful in a utilitarian fashion. There are, of course, a number of Improved versions of spells, with a few that will let you decrease your mana cost or increase the chances of a critical hit with a spell, which are plainly useful for the distance-casting shaman.

Enhancement

Enhancement, as the name implies, is the buffing branch of the shaman’s ability tree, with most of the spells here focusing on increasing your attacking ability with weapons or increasing your defensive capabilities via Totem spells. There are a lot of great spells available here, including the useful Lightning Shield, which will punish physical attackers if you can recast it often, and the must-have Ghost Wolf, which lets you travel 40% faster when you access it at level 20.

This tree also grants us an instant attack, Stormstrike, as well as a more than a few mana efficiency increasers and temporary damage buffs such as Bloodlust/Heroism. However what really rounds this tree out is the earth elemental totem, a great summoned tank for desperate situations.

Restoration

All shamans will want to have these spells packed away close at hand. The one aspect of healing that shamans don’t have access to is a Renew-type spell that heals over time; all of their healing spells take the form of one big lump of healing, save for the Healing Spring Totem. Restoration shamans are in high demand in raiding for good reason, we bring massive amounts of utility via insane healing capabilities and totems as a side-dish.

Shaman Leveling

Shaman leveling is actually one of the more enjoyable exercises in the game, not only do you get to pick up some rather interesting abilities almost every 4-8 levels but with the increases to experience gained and the decrease in overall requirements, Shaman are leveling faster than ever.

Any good guide for leveling will focus on questing as a method to level up, so it is very probable that you’ll be playing solo all the time. In fact, it is better to solo when leveling up and the Shaman is perfect for this. With that in mind, the talent build anyone should go for is Enhancement. The other branches are Restoration, which focuses on heals, and Elemental which focuses on spells. Elemental is a good spec, but very mana depending so it is not a valid choice.

Do you enjoy following new storylines? Or would you rather reach level 80 in 10 days? According to your preference, the World of Warcraft Shaman leveling guide offers you both at once: powerleveling and story-driven guides to help you reach the level cap in a flash. Instructing you on every single location, strategy and level range, you learn how to glide through the levels with ease. Stick to the unknown and hardly visited areas mentioned in the guide, and you easily double the rate at which you gain experience. Meticulous walk-throughs of all imperative quests in the World of Warcraft Shaman Guide can make sure that your shaman will never get stuck between quests.

Zygor’s Guide is the one we use and recommend. The guide acts as an in-game addon. The install is quick and simple, just drag and drop the files into your Addons directory. When you log in, enable it the same way you would any other addon. Once you get into the game, the addon will be on your screen. From that point, it will literally walk you through every single thing you need to do to get from your current level straight to the cap.

Shaman Gear

So our most important statistic is the attack power or strength. They will increase your overall damage output, so get as many items with strength as possible. Another very important statistic is the critical strike rating, which will increase your chance to deal critical damage, and combining with Thundering Strikes talent, this will result in constant Flurry effect on you. The last very important statistic is the hit rating. You will need approximately 9% hit rating in order to avoid the negative effects of the Dual Wield Specialization. So, to sum up, stack up as much strength, attack power and critical strike rating as possible.

For better performance from your character, it’s better to get the best gear available. There’s no need to put a big emphasis on intellect as there will be not much need for it. That set of gear is perfect for a new player or someone who isn’t very reach. Thanks to the totems that the Shaman has, even with poor gear it will still be easy to level up.

Shaman PvP

The shaman is a class that is good at PvE (player versus environment) and has much to offer in PvP (player versus player) situations, but it is not necessarily the strongest class for people who enjoy the PvP aspects of World of Warcraft.

This does not mean that shamans cannot be an effective PvP class, because a player who understands how to be an effective in the arenas and battlegrounds will certainly do better than a player who does not. It merely means that the shaman’s most poweful tool is not as useful when facing opposing players.

The process used by a shaman to keep his group alive in PvP is the same as the procedures used to keep group members alive in PvE, but there is one key difference. Spells like the shaman’s stoneclaw totem have no effect on opposing players. Human opponents will attempt to take out the healers first.

Using shaman totems in PvP combat is usually a waste of mana. While each totem provides a beneficial affect, enemy players know that they are easily taken out and will not leave them up long.

Shamans can be effective at PvP and the enhancement tree is the best choice for a shaman who wants to go into the battlegrounds, but while their abilities make them desirable, their strength in PvE situations is their greatest weakness in PvP. It is not an insurmountable one. A good player can easily overcome this weakness.

Related posts:

1. WoW Druid Guide