Shammies ?

Pitbull

Pitbull

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Damn this section is quiet :eek:

Anyway. I started lvl'ng a Shaman yesterday. I have to say I have tried to lvl casters since I started playing WoW just could not get a liking in it. I'm a Melee guy and will prob quit wow one day as a melee guy.

I have to admit, playing a Melee class that has casting and healing is just the sweet spot I was looking for. I'm in love with this char.

Any tips would be appreciated ;)
 
Get lots of space. You lose 4 bag slots to the totems you need to lug around. If you don't have those totems on you, you cannot cast that particular element.

Also remember that you can only have 1 totem of each element active at any one time, so max 4 totems on the ground. If you cast a new totem of the same element, it will replace the existing totem.

The 3 talents trees, Elemental, Enhancement, Restoration... essentially, Caster, Melee or Healer. Each one has its own benefits. I've respecced many times. While I was levelling, I was specced at whatever took my fancy. Just before hitting 70, I respecced mainly as an EnRes, did some nice melee damage.. was doing around 400-600dps. When I hit 70, I respecced fully resto. Was awesome in an instance, could pull a 4000 chain heal no problems, but very very squishy in PVP. I respecced to Ele, and I'm loving it. Can do some awesome damage. I'm considering respeccing to Resto again, but it will have to be the last one as respeccing is getting a tad expensive now.
 
thisgeek said:
Get lots of space. You lose 4 bag slots to the totems you need to lug around. If you don't have those totems on you, you cannot cast that particular element.

Also remember that you can only have 1 totem of each element active at any one time, so max 4 totems on the ground. If you cast a new totem of the same element, it will replace the existing totem.

The 3 talents trees, Elemental, Enhancement, Restoration... essentially, Caster, Melee or Healer. Each one has its own benefits. I've respecced many times. While I was levelling, I was specced at whatever took my fancy. Just before hitting 70, I respecced mainly as an EnRes, did some nice melee damage.. was doing around 400-600dps. When I hit 70, I respecced fully resto. Was awesome in an instance, could pull a 4000 chain heal no problems, but very very squishy in PVP. I respecced to Ele, and I'm loving it. Can do some awesome damage. I'm considering respeccing to Resto again, but it will have to be the last one as respeccing is getting a tad expensive now.
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Thanx some nice tips ;)

Currently only lvl 9 but my fight goes as follow:

Cast, cast, Totem, Instant cast, Donner :D

I love it to bits :o
 
I actually prefer Enhance to Elemental, but thats just me

Watching the huge WF crits is always fun :) (at 38, i could solo those elite Ogres in Alterac)
 
I have to admit, playing a Melee class that has casting and healing is just the sweet spot I was looking for.
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Quick, switch to a pally before it's too late!
 
Pleochism said:
Quick, switch to a pally before it's too late!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately a pala has one problem.

They are either a Tank or a Healer at end game. Nothing else but that. Shammies are still melee DPS or the odd healer. I have a Warrior that is enough. But I get what ur saying ;)
 
Quick, switch to a pally before it's too late!
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This. QFT.

Trust me, if pvp is even slightly important to you, shamans are fail. I say this as a die hard resto shaman. Frankly, a druid is a better bet if you want both pve and pvp versatility as well as ezmode levelling. Theyre a little overpopped though. Feral and resto droods everywhere these days.
Palas may be somewhat slower to level but at 70, once again, are great at pvp as holy or ret, and great at pve as prot or holy. Some guilds even take the token ret for mad rade buffz, and properly raidbuffed and stacked, *can* do ok dps ,esp with a enhance sham in their group dropping WF.

All that said if you decide to stick it out, shamans are great fun for pve. Resto is the craziest raidhealing in the game, and both enhance and elemental are desireable for raid dps due to their strong individual dps and very strong group buffing. Certain abilities that they have like grounding totem are completely unique and useful for raiding, and more bloodlusts really help burn down bosses faster.

But yeah still frustrating as hell at 70, even as resto. Don't say we didnt warn ya.

I'm holding out hoping for some major WotLK buffs. Perhaps the expansion will bring back the glory days of enhance being godlike for pvp. But as the least played class in the game i fully expect Blizzard to focus their attention elsewhere. It's very obvious shams have received little to no love in the past year, I don't really expect that to change. Keeping all the Rogues and Warriors happy pays the bills.

Just some levelling tips : it's faster to spec Elemental until you can pick up Duel Wield and Stormstrike in Enhance (around level 40), at which point you go enhance until Outland. From 60-70 either Elemental or Enhance will do ok for levelling.
 
I can understand why u guys are saying Pala ;)

Problem is they lack that HUGE Burts damage that Enchance shammies have :eek: We have a Shammy in our guild. No one and I mean no one want's to tank if he's playing. There is no way they can keep aggro :eek:

Damn I love my new little project :o
 
Maybe in pve, but ret in pvp? Geared correctly? I've seen ret's burst like MS warriors. Crusader Strike is no joke, not anymore anyway.

I'll tell ya one thing, levelling as enhance was incredibly fun. Windfury is the biznis, I will not deny that. But at 70 you're essentially a rogue with none of the survivability. Fine for pve since you're buffing the hell out of your group, but on the other hand no cc at all means you get sidelined for a lot of heroics if you arent a healer.

Not really trying to discourage you, lord knows we all need more shammies for raiding. (well, resto anyway ;) they make progression ezmode, get 3 good restos and you'll be going from kz to bt in a couple months)
Just preparing you for the inevitable disappointment and frustration you will feel should you ever ding 70 with it.
 
Shaman is fun, but if you enjoy PvP at all you will be sadly dissapointed at 70.

Enhance: Insane burst if the procs go your way (nothing quite as nice as a double white proc and a right hand wf proc right after each other.) Main problem is mobility. In PvP you will hardly ever be able to close to your target unless they are complete noobs or you are in a BG.

Elemental: Nice sustained DPS in PvE, and insane burst in PvP if you pop your CD's. Main role after hitting your CD's in Arena is spamming purge.

Resto: 70 Spec of choice for most Shaman's out there tbh. On my server at least 80% of all 70 shamans is resto... Great survivability against most classes. Have some escape aility if you spec into enhance to get instant ghostwolf. Have decent damage with the recent gear changes (adding +damage to healing gear) if specced into elemental. Awesome healers in instances/raids.

TBH I loved my shaman to bits, until 70. Still an insane farmer as enhance, but my lock now gets more playtime, and enjoying the pala I created on Sunday (level 36 atm thanks to freedom day!).

In ending I guess I would if you want the shaman for PvE, then go ahead, it rocks. For PvP I would say stay away right now.
 
Ok here's some Enhance tips that I learnt the hard way.

Hint#1 Always use the slowest weapons you can in both hands. Never even think about that sexy dagger with more DPS because in the end it will nerf you.

Hint#2 Always use WF as your weapon enchant on both hands. They share a cooldown but the proc chance is increased (hidden increase) to 36% if you use it on both hands.

Hint#3 Hit is nice but pushing your Crit and AP is more important

Hint#4 Don't be afraid to wear leather. You'll often have to and the Rogues can go QQ to hell if they want that WF totem.

Hint#5 Enhance/Resto is the best build as u'll get a flat 9% Hit from it and several other kinky Talents. (Greater Totem Range, etc)

Hint#6 Int and Mp5 is useless to you. Especially as your Crit increases.

Hint#7 The best Shock Rotation is FS rotated with ES. Weaving in SS to try sync with your ES.

Hint#8 Prepare to suck in PvP as Enhance and prepare to be an Aggro-Whore in PvE.
 
I've done most of the BC instances as Enhancement and never had a problem with aggro (although on bosses the tank needs to get an aggro lead). I've always played with the same tank who knows what he's doing!

Oh and we almost completed Black Morass (got last boss to 30%) with 3 lvl 68's in the group, resto druid, lvl 70 Elemental shammy and lvl 70 mage... was pretty chuffed considering its a lvl 70 instance! Just shows... if you know what you're doing, it makes a huge diff.
 
I've recently started leveling a shammy. I must say it's alot of fun.


The stuff i absolutely love for leveling

a] 15 minute Hearth [astral recall] ! [and you still have your regular hearth stone with a seperate cooldown]
b] Ghostwolf at lvl 20 [identical to Druid's Travelform which they only get lvl 30....]
c] Water walking [i actually prefer this to druid's sealform ]
d] Water breathing [also better than druid's sealform as i can actually fight under water]
e] Stoneclaw Totem [fighting multiple mobs this is still pretty awesome]
f] Windfury + Duel Wield + StormStrike + Earth Shock [interupting spells + damage] = the shizzle!
g] Being able to wear mail, would be nice to have gotten plate too so Shammies could be semi decent at tanking [maybe in Wotlk?]


Anyhow i'm about lvl 50 now with my Shaman, compared to my Druid i'm kicking arse all over..including stupid rogues and warlocks underestimating a duel wielding windfury + grounding totem dropping shaman. So leveling is great great fun.

However most experienced shaman are telling me at lvl 50 i should probably just stop and leave it there as it goes downhill from there. I can already spot the signs:

a] Totems that reduce/increase [stuff] with a FIXED amount instead of a % of x . <--- those totems will NEVER EVER scale late game = great when you get them, but soon becomes pointless.

b] Having no CC/Stun abilities. You got like one "50% chance" totem [which again doesn't scale] which will be one-shotted late game i'm sure.
-> Even a druid who's not known as CC class in PvE got ALOT more CC ability [hibernate/root/cyclone/cat-maim/bear-stun/feral charge.....] . Shaman got ...errr...stoneclaw totem ??

c] No real "oh **** buttons" . Mage can iceblock,Druid can go bear,Hunter can feign death,Pallie can bubble,Warlock/Priests can fear,Warriors well i'm sure they got something like spell reflect ;). Shaman got....? Up to now [lvl 50] all i have is instant ghostwolf and earthbind totem , which is very situational to use.

d] I don't know if it's just me, but look at the talent trees and you might notice ALOT of skills does not give -you- [the shaman] ANYTHING. It gives stuff "to your party" . I kinda
expected that if i take the trouble to enchant my weapons with something [using an entirely different shaman spell] -AND- drop a totem doing the same, that somewhere i should get a benefit? (especially if use talent points for it...) I just sense a heap of redundancy there.

-> I'm specifically talking about Windfury [TOTEM] vs Windfury [WEAPON] . The shaman will always use Windfury [WEAPON] , as it's just a weapon enchant you cast on both weapons...if you drop the Totem you get zilch from it. Catch is you need to improve the totem [which you as shaman will never use on self] with a totally different talent than the spell you cast on yourself??! Am i missing something?

-> I compare this say the druid talent buffs [i.e. 5% crit], the druid ALSO gets it, it's not like the druid gets ANOTHER spell to give him 5% crit -and- then need to spend more talents to give the same buff to the rest of the party....huh?
 
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some points

-astrall recall and ghostwolf are nice, yeah. makes questing downtime due to travelling less of a hassle

-waterwalking and breathing, again handy, but carrying around reagents can be a pain in the butt. It would've been nice to remove the reagent cost. I don't really see why it's there. For raidwide buffs like priests and paladins greater blessings, and for abilities like brez and reincarnate sure, but for menial junk like ww and wb? Eh...

-shammies have some 'uh oh' ability, generally it's the 21-point resto talent, Nature's Swiftness. Although it's no divine shield. It's highly limiting for pvp enhance and elemental shamans to thus spec this route without gimping their primary role. Resto also has Earthsield and Nature's Guardian, elemental has Eye of the Storm, but they're all somewhat pathetic compared to what other classes can get (cheat death, iceblock, void sac etc). the real problem is that being really good at playing shaman in pvp means playing PROactively rather than REactively. You have to constantly be aware of what the enemy is casting and ready to Earthshock it or Grounding Totem it - throwing a E-shock or Ground *after* the enemy offensive spell has been cast means exactly squat. You have to also be aware of what buffs the opponent has cast and recast and know to purge them. Other classes can get hit and then react to it, the challenge with shamans is trying to prevent getting hit at all. With bad ping and the fog of war inherent in rated pvp, this is incredibly challenging, and is why only certain shamans can reach high ratings (them being incredibly talented at quickly reacting to a cast and preventing it). Shaman pvp regardless of spec is all about expertly timing your earthshocks and trying to shut down opposing casters with your anti-caster toolset (grounding, eshock, tremor, resistance totems). I dont pretend to be any good at this though, i just know WHAT i have to do, dont really have the twitch-reflexes to actually *do* it though.

-yes, shamans are probably the best buffers in this game and their talents, totems and spells reflect this. If you pve, you should spec for this as it's the main reason you'll be brought along. For pve it's less of an issue and you need to focus on whatever talents can somehow increase your own survival, as non-resto shamans are incredibly squishy.

-re WF totem vs Weapon buffs, yeah, generally you should only take the WF totem talent if you raid a lot as enhance with sword rogues and fury warriors. If not, the strength of earth and grace of air totem talent will better serve both yourelf and any feral druids, dagger rogues, and hunters in your raid. AS you observe, though it's an indication of how much of a mess some shaman talents are. Generally no other class has a talent that benefits themselves in no way whatsoever. Shamans are pretty unique in this regard.
 
virgo_ct said:
I've done most of the BC instances as Enhancement and never had a problem with aggro (although on bosses the tank needs to get an aggro lead). I've always played with the same tank who knows what he's doing!

Oh and we almost completed Black Morass (got last boss to 30%) with 3 lvl 68's in the group, resto druid, lvl 70 Elemental shammy and lvl 70 mage... was pretty chuffed considering its a lvl 70 instance! Just shows... if you know what you're doing, it makes a huge diff.
Click to expand...

Was that pre or post 2.3? Because pre-2.3 Threat was a much bigger issue. Even earlier when the Downrank WF bug was still in effect it was even worse.
 
kHayne said:
-re WF totem vs Weapon buffs, yeah, generally you should only take the WF totem talent if you raid a lot as enhance with sword rogues and fury warriors. If not, the strength of earth and grace of air totem talent will better serve both yourelf and any feral druids, dagger rogues, and hunters in your raid. AS you observe, though it's an indication of how much of a mess some shaman talents are. Generally no other class has a talent that benefits themselves in no way whatsoever. Shamans are pretty unique in this regard.
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If you Raid as Enhance you should be Talenting both. It won't take Talents away from a good DPS build

0/45/16 - Enhancement
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hZxVbdVMsAuqoxbez
 
TheShogun said:
Post 2.3 Threat isn't an issue if your tank is good.

Pre it was nightmarish. I received the title Aggro-Queen from my favourite Feral.
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Lol. Well, elemental shammies can pull aggro VERY easily, just like a mage if they don't wait for the tank to make some threat. I never have a problem with enhancement, but then I'm probably doing much less dmg than an elem spec :<
 
Please don't under-estimate restoration shaman in raids, we simply rock at healing. Chain heal FTW.
 
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