Shaman for dummies.

[Quellar]

Servers are down, I have a few minutes of spare time so I decided to let out my inner troll and type a few things.

“What can we and I do you for?”
Shamans used to be ultimate support class in game. But with the changes in the game design they can now, and often are, top healers and top dpsers and last but not least - one of the best classes to play in terms of fun factor.

So, you want to be a shaman? Sure? Why?
1. Versatility? Not sure what would you like to do in end-game? You like to be useful and help the raid?
Then yes, a shaman is an excellent choice. In pair with druids and paladins, this is one of the classes that offer a lot of options.
2. I want a shaman because they are top dpsers as elementals and top healers as resto.
Then no. There are several classes that have and will always out-dps shammies. If you want to have a heavy dps class, go for mage, hunter, warlock or rogue or deaf knight or druid...

So, if you decide to roll a shaman:
1. Do not spec into restoration before you have dual spec. You can effectively heal in elemental or enhancement spec.
2. The fastest and most fun way to level is enhancement . Due to unique connection of melee and spells and the maelstrom (at 5 stacks reduces the casting spell by 100% making them instant cast) you will be able to do some amazing things. There is practically zero downtime while questing. You will hardly ever stop. Also you will probably be best off using a two handed mace or axe while levelling until you start getting some hit rating. The windfury procs from a two handed weapon can be funny - one shotting mobs while questing is fun. Do not be afraid to use leather gear designed for rogues and druids. It always has a lot of stats shammies love - dexterity, crit, hit.
3. If you decide to have fun as elemental you will end up using a mixture of cloth, leather and mail gear, don’t be afraid of that.



The essentials.

1. Thanks to Blizzard totems can be placed using only one global cooldown. Totems should always be up except for soloing. Totem selection depends on the party/raid composition. A good shaman always uses totems that benefit group the most. The cleansing totem, tremor totem and grounding totem are just priceless in certain situations and should always be put out when needed.
2. Keep your shield (shields) up. Water shield/lightning shield and Earth Shield should always be up. No exceptions.
3. If you have problems managing the totems and reapplying the shields while performing normal tasks (dpsing/healing) - get an addon that will display notifications for that.
4. Gear.
a. Restoration shamans. Well, that’s an easy part. Ability to use mail/leather and cloth makes it extremely easy to gear up. Stats priorities vary, depending on what you are after, there is a discussion going on how much haste versus crit you need to have. You do not want spirit on any of you gear pieces. You do want to have as much mp5 as possible. Restoration shaman casts all the time with enough mp5 don’t really have to worry about overhealing and you will most likely top the . Your solemn task is to keep the raid alive, so you are free to experiment with your spec and gear. The changes in the shaman design does call for a lot of haste in the gear, though. Also ALWAYS use a shield. No matter what, you need a shield. It will save your life .
b. Elemental shamans. SP/Haste/Crit. Those are your priorities, after you are hit capped.
c. Enhancement. Are you sure you want to go this path? Well, your call. Please note that there are some extreme stats requirements and on top of that it is pretty hard to manage enhancement shaman in combat. First things first. Hit cap. You need 420 hit rating from gear/gems and enchants. This is your priority. Before you get that you can forget other gems/enchants. This is pretty much impossible to achieve prior to Naxxramas 25 gear. Now, when you got that solved there is the expertise cap of 27. When you reach that you can start adding crit/haste or haste/crit when you reach around 30+% crit unbuffed. The enhancement shaman has a lot of things to manage and is not an easy class to play so be warned. There are several problems with this spec at the moment - apart from ridiculous stat requirements.
i. Aggro - the unpredictable nature of windfury procs means you can generate a massive amount of threat in an blink of an eye.
ii. Stamina - shamans have suffered from low hp count for a long time now. This is a serious issue. Without priest and pally buff an enhancement shaman cannot survive the vortex in EOE. The special ability of 2nd boss in TOTC 5 man heroic does 16k damage. Most of enhancement shammies (even with naxx25, ulddu10 man gear) without stamina buff can’t survive this.
iii. Gear. There is a lot of competition to the gear. Viable dual wielding spec for death knights and the fact that rogues can now use axes means it is going to be even harder to get gear for a shaman. With the exception of tier gear vast majority of mail has armour penetration which is pretty much useless for us, shamans. As a result nearly all the enhancement shamans are using some rogue gear.


“Grampy-bone be doing da killin' right now.”

Now when you get past all that you get a class that can deliver massive amount of damage, provides extreme support and buffs to all the party, can toss in some instant heals when needed and basically puts a big smile on your face.


Quellar
*Wall of text hits you for 64674746454 damage. Yo die.*

[Skrufa]

Nice one ^^
Agree with you.
Love to play shaman