Shaman Guide

1 - Overview of Shaman
2 - Helpful Skills
3 - PvP
4 - PvE
5 - Talents
6 - Raiding
7 - Helpful Mods
8 - Equipment
9 - Teaming

Overview of Shaman - 1

Shamans are a hybrid class and thus have the ability to fill multiple roles in many situations. Shamans also have 3 different talent trees that help them specialize in these different roles

The shaman class is a mix of Healers, Warriors, and Mages and so have some characteristics of each of them.

As an example Priests have a fast heal (Flash heal) and a Greater Heal for more HP. Shaman have Lesser Healing wave (AKA Flash heal) and Healing Wave the slower heal. Shamans also are able to wear mail armor at level 40 allowing them to have a small amount of tanking ability.

Also Shamans have nukes (AKA damage spells) like mages in some respects such as lightning bolt-Chain Lightning-all the shocks.

Another helpful part of being a shaman are our shocks. There are 3 different shocks that each do some damage and have a secondary effect.

Flame Shock-Fire damage and a small Dot (Damage over time)
Frost Shock-Frost damage and a snare
Earth Shock-Nature damage also interrupts a spell and causes a high amount of threat

All these attributes combined make the shamans one of the most versatile classes in the game.

Helpful Skills - 2

Another way to help your shaman is to pick up a Tradeskill. There are a number of different tradeskills that all have benefits and advantages.

Crafting skills-

Engineering-Helpful in PvP and some interesting gadgets

Leatherworking-Allows you to make leather armor for yourself and then to upgrade to making mail armor at level 40

Blacksmithing-Once you are at the higher skill levels it can make some nice weapons and armor

Tailoring-Not as helpful as some of the other proffesions for your shaman but still can make some nice items that sell well and bags for your character

Alchemy-Very helpful making potions for yourself and at later levels flasks for your team/guild

Enchanting-Hard to get up and rather costly but in the end allows you to make some very nice Enchantments to armor/weapons

Gathering skills-

Skinning-A nice money maker and a great skill to pair up with Leatherworking

Mining-Another great money maker and works well with blacksmithing and engineering

Herbalism-Great skill to have if you got alchemy and some of the herbs sell for quite a bit on the Auction House

Secondary skills-

Fishing-You can fish up some nice treats and participate in the fishing contest

Cooking-Makes some nice food and other special treats

First Aid-Easy to get up and is very helpful in PvP/PvE

PvP - 3

PvP AKA Player versus player is a very large part of the game and shamans are very good class for PvP as well.

In PvP shamans have a wide range of abilitys to use. Against caster classes (Mage, Warlock, Priest, Paladin, Druid) Earth shock is very valuable for interrupting spells that they are casting and can win a fight if you interrupt a healing spell.

Against Melee Classes(Warrior, Paladin, Rogue) Frostshock is very helpful for keeping them at a range so they dont tear you apart in melee.

Against Stealth(Night elf, Druid, Rogue) Flame Shock is helpful for keeping them from stealthing and ambushing you.

Also frostshock can be used to catch up to ranged opponents such as hunters.

In Battlegrounds defending a flag can be very important which is where our totems come into play.

Our Earthbind totem is very helpful in Warsong Gulch for stopping enemys from stealing the flag.

In Arathi Basin Magma totem can reveal stealthed enemys that may try and steal the flag. Also Grounding Totem is useful so you arent totally destroyed by a opening nuke by mages.

In Alterac Valley Grounding totem is useful as you cant keep everyone from casting spells at you. Also Chain Lightning is very nice in this Battleground.

Our Sentry totem can be used for watching enemys graveyards/resource points to tell when you should strike.

All the other totems have their uses as well for different situations.

Another very useful tool is Farsight as you can scout out the enemy from afar.

PvE - 4

In PvE Shamans are a very good class. We have the heals to keep going at a fast pace, and we have the melee damage to take down monsters while staying mana efficient.

For Grinding you will want to use rank 1 earthshock to interrupt spells so as not to waste to much mana. You will also want to use lightning shield as it is your best Damage per mana spell.

In Teams shamans excel as they have a large amount of group enhancing totems.

For melee classes in your team you will want to throw down a Windfury totem, or Grace of Air. Also throw down a Strength of Earth.

For Ranged you can use your mana spring to help keep your teams mana up.

Also to prevent monsters from getting away and coming back with buddies you can use earthbind totem.

Shamans can also cure poison and disease so that helps keep your team going at a fast pace through dungeons.

Chain Heal is useful if a monster does AoE (Area of Effect) damage and is doing damage to multiple people at the same time.

Talents - 5

There are a number of talent builds for shamans that aid them in different situations.

For leveling up a Enhancement (Melee Tree) and Restoration (Healing Tree) build would be useful but in PvP a Elemental build (Shocks/Lightning spells tree) would most likely prove more useful.

Some of the easy builds are:

30 Enhancement/21 Restoration PvE build

Enhancement

Ancestral Knowledge - 5/5 points
Thundering Strikes - 5/5 points
Improved Ghost Wolf - 2/2 points
Improved Lightning Shield - 3/3 points
Two-Handed Axes and Maces - 1/1 point
Flurry - 5/5 points
Improved Rockbiter Weapon - 1/2 point
Parry - 1/1 point
Improved Windfury Weapon - 2/2 points
Toughness - 5/5 points

Restoration

Tidal Focus - 5/5 points
Totemic Focus - 5/5 points
Improved Lesser Healing Wave - 5/5 points
Tidal Mastery - 5/5 points
Nature's Swiftness - 1/1 point
A common PvP Build is the 30 Elemental/21 Restoration build
Elemental

Concussion - 5/5 points
Convection - 5/5 points
Improved Searing Totem - 1/2 point
Reverberation - 5/5 points
Call of Thunder - 5/5 points
Elemental Focus - 1/1 point
Improved Fire Nova Totem - 2/2 points
Elemental Fury - 1/1 point
Lightning Mastery - 5/5 points

Restoration

Tidal Focus - 5/5 points
Totemic Focus - 5/5 points
Improved Lesser Healing Wave - 5/5 points
Tidal Mastery - 5/5 points
Nature's Swiftness - 1/1 point

A pure PvP Build is the 33 Elemental/18 Enhancement build

Elemental Combat Talents (33 points)

Concussion - 5/5 points
Convection - 5/5 points
Improved Searing Totem - 1/2 point
Reverberation - 5/5 points
Call of Thunder - 5/5 points
Elemental Focus - 1/1 point
Improved Fire Nova Totem - 2/2 points.
Elemental Fury - 1/1 point
Lightning Mastery - 5/5 points
Improved Chain Lightning - 2/2 points
Elemental Mastery - 1/1 point

Enhancement

Ancestral Knowledge - 5/5 points
Thundering Strikes - 5/5 points
Improved Ghost Wolf - 2/2 points
Improved Lightning Shield - 3/3 points
Two-Handed Axes and Maces - 1/1 point
Flurry - 2/5 points

These are just some of the more common and easily used builds. As shamans are a hybrid you can try many different builds to find what you think is most effective.

Raiding - 6

Shamans have multiple roles in a raid group-

1. Shamans play as a back-up healer in many cases
2. Shamans help buff up the tank or DPS classes like rogues with totems
3. Shamans can play the out of combat ressurection role
4. Shamans mana spring and mana tide totem help for long fight
5. Shamans resistance totems help for some fights

As a back-up healer shaman you will want to maximize your mana pool and mana per second gear. Spirit can also help in this regard.
Shamans totems can add alot of DPS to a raid and help speed things along by a large amount.
As shamans are not quite as essential for some healing as priests generally one shaman will sit on the sidelines ressurecting fallen team members.
Shamans mana spring totem/mana tide really help on long fight like Ragnaros or Major Domo and can save a raid from wiping on some fights.
The fire resistance totem is a must for most of Molten Core and the nature resistance totem helps in Zul'Gurub.

Helpful Mods - 7

There are a number of mods (Modifications) for WoW that help shamans out quite a bit and a number that are just good for any class heres some of them:

Scrolling combat text: Shows over your head when your character is effected by something http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=222

CT Raid Assist: Very helpful for raiding
http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=694

AVG XP: Helpful monitor for XP
http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=347

Damage Watch: Easy to use DPS program
http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=40

Equipment - 8

For a shaman you can bring a couple sets of equipment and switch them off and on as the situation requires, making it helpful to collect multiple sets for healing, DPS, and tanking.

1. +Healing set
2. + damage set
3. Mana per second set
4. Melee DPS set

1. +Healing set

Weapons:
Hammer of Grace
Hammer of the Grand Crusader
Wushoolay's poker

Rare weapons:
Jin'Do's Hexxer
Staff of Rampant Growth
Will of Arlokk

Armor:
Harmonious Gauntlets
Loomguard Armbraces
Merciful Greaves
Red Dragonscale Breastplate
Royal Cap Spaulders

Rare armor:
Helm of the Lifegiver
Leggings of the Demented Mind
Earthfury Set

Rings/Trinkets:
Emerald Flame Ring
Fordrings seal
Primalist's seal
Rejuvenating Gem
Second Wind

Off hand items:
Lei of the Lifegiver
Arlokk's Hoodoo Stick
Brightly Glowing Stone

2. +Damage set

Weapons:
Rod of the Ogre Magi
Energetic Rod
Whiteout Staff
Zulian Ceremonial Staff

Rare weapons:
Staff of Dominance
Mindfang
Sorcerous Dagger
Ironbark Staff
Aurastone Hammer

Armor:
Seafury Boots
Seafury Leggings
Storm Gauntlets
Deep Earth Spaulders
Wildthorn Mail
Sash of the Windreaver

Rings/Trinkets:
Briarwood Reed
Burst of Knowledge
Royal Seal of Eldre'Thalas
Zanzil's seal
Band of the Unicorn
Maiden's Circle

3. Mana per second set

Armor:
Feralsurge Girdle
Seafury Boots
Spitfire Bracers
Spitfire Breastplate
spitfire Gauntlets

Rare armor:
Earthfury Set
Seafury Gauntlets
Defiler's Mail Pauldrons

Rings/Trinkets:
Mindtap Talisman
Shard of the Scale
Rejuvenating Gem

4. Melee DPS set

Armor:
Legging's of Destruction
Ogre Forged Hauberk
Backwood Helm
The Gladiator Set
Abyssal Mail Legguards
Bloodsoul Set
Warpwood Binding

Rare armor:
Bloodstained Coif
Bloodstained Legplates
Crown of Destruction

Weapon:
Dreadforge Retailiator
Impervious Giant
Zulian Stone Axe
Wave Slicer

Rare weapons:
Treant's Bane
The Unstoppable Force
Draconic Maul

Rings/Trinkets:
Painweaver Band
Seal of Jin
Don Julio's Band
Quick Strike Ring
Blackhand's Breath

Teaming - 9

In teams shamans are very important. You are a mix of support healer/DPS/Wipe recovery

As a shaman you have healing abilitys so if your in a team use them. For most situations LHW (Lesser healing wave) will be fine as it is a mana efficient fast heal.

Drop your mana spring for boss fights, drop a grace of air for hunters/rogues. Putting down a earthbind never hurts to stop monsters from pulling more.

You also can off-tank additional monsters that come if you have a shield. Shamans tanking might not be the best but rockbiter + earthshock really hold aggro well.

Also in the event of a wipe you have reincarnation. One of the main rules of being a shaman is do not forget your ankhs!

For teaming while a elemental build is fine a Enhancement/Restoration might find more use of there abilities.