Basic Shaman Facts

The first thing people should know, is that we aren't as all powerful as one would imagine. Instead of being good at one thing as most classes are, we are passable at just about everything. This makes it easy for an intelligent Shaman to exploit the 'crack in the armor' of every other class.

I think I'll move on to our key spells next...

Shocks and General DPS Spells *Not Totems*


These are where a good part of the Shaman's DPS is going to come from. There are three available, all instants with 6 second recast timers (5 with talents) and a medium-ish mana cost.

Earth Shock.

Does a sizeable amount of damage, sort of a mini nuke, but what it is used most for is the added effects. When used on a casting mob/player it interrupts their spell and prevents them from casting any spell from that class for two seconds. Real good for making the magic classes fumble, it can be even more brutal when used with other stunning/spell interrupting skills (note that Shaman themselves have no other skills that do this, however things such as dynamite or the Tauren racial ability Warstomp can be used to accomplish this). It also draws a large amount of aggro, beware this when using it in instance groups.

Flame Shock.

I'm finding myself not using this as much right now, but I have a feeling that will change once I get the next rank of the spell. Flame Shock is our 'dot sampling'. Just as Shamans have one or two spells that do a specific thing from another class or play style, they have a dot (or damage over time) spell. Flame shock does an okay amount of damage at once, usually about half of an equal level Earth Shock/Frost Shock, and then the rest of the damage over a period of 12 seconds.
This shock isn't as useful in PvP generally, as you want to front load as much damage as possible. I tend to use it more to keep Rogues from vanishing on me, although you may choose to Frost Shock them instead.

Frost Shock.

Ahhh yes, the spell that has many classes crying nerf.
Frost Shock by itself is a very good nuke, comparable with Earth Shock. But, it also has the added effect of slowing the target's movement speed by 50% for 8 seconds (and with a 6 second recast, you could keep them slowed for as long as your mana pool allows). This is generally used to kite melee classes such as Rogue and Warrior. It works quite efficiently, I might add.



This next spell isn't a Shock per se, but I consider it our 'Wind Shock' since we are lacking one.


Lightning Bolt.

You won't be seeing this much in PvP, unless in an opener. It does a pretty pathetic amount of damage for its cast time, it would probably be better to even melee then cast this. Note however that as I am not high enough level, I can't speak for the better counterpart of this, Chain Lightning.

However it does make a fairly good puller, but I doubt a standard group would have a Shaman puller :P



Weapon Buffs

Shamans have four weapon buffs (One of which I will refrain from commenting on until I get it). Are they nice? Yeah. Do they make up for having no melee skills to speak of? Not really. You'll want to melee with just about every 'squishy' class (aka cloth wearers) and druids to boot. The rest can out-melee you, so kiting is generally a good idea until you are forced to melee.

Rockbiter.

Rockbiter is to weapon buffs as Earth Shock is to shocks. Except for the spell interrupting, that is. It simply adds a certain amount of damage to your normal attack, and increases aggro gained when meleeing by a lot. Once again, not something you want to use in a party with a Warrior/pet tank.

Flametounge.

Flametounge is an okay weapon buff. Good if you prefer lots of little bits of damage over large numbers. It basically gives you a fire proc on your weapon that procs every swing, for a reasonable amount of damage (The damage per swing increases for slower weapons).


Frostbrand.

Frostbrand is a nice weapon buff, but a little risky to use at times. It gives you a chance, like Flametounge, to proc damage every swing (In this case frost damage). However, the proc % for Frostbrand isn't 100%. I don't know the actual number, but I would say it procs about every three to four hits. HOWEVER, when it does proc it also slows the target's movement speed by 75%. Very nice for mobs/people that might try to escape when the battle gets rough.

Windfury.

Unfortunately I don't have this weapon buff yet, so I can only share what I have read about it (Although I should have it soon, and when I do I will come back and edit this post with more info).
Windfury is a speed buff. It gives you a 20% chance after every hit, that you could do two more hits instantly. In other words, like extra attacks with no delay. If you're VERY lucky, the Windfury proc-ed hits could proc it AGAIN giving you a string of several attacks. Hence why it is so coveted by Shamans and why it has everyone else screaming overpowered.


Totems

I'm not going to go over EVERY totem as that would take forever, but I will brush over the ones that you should know about the most.

Earth Totems

There are, I believe, five earth totem spells.

Strength of Earth is a nice sized strength buff to all your party members within 20 yards of the totem.

Stoneskin is a damage reduction to the amount of melee damage you take per hit, this affects all party members within 20 yards as well.

Tremor is a VERY handy totem that wakes party members within 20 yards from sleep. Good to cast this at the beginning of battles where you know the mobs have sleep spells.

Stoneclaw is an aggro totem, it taunts all enemies within 8 yards to attack it. Good for managing adds or escaping battles.

And finally, Earthbind slows all enemies within 10 yards much like frost shock. This spell used to be instant with no recast timer, but Blizzard discovered the spamming of it that was going on was too much, and nerfed it to a 15 second timer. Which really, makes it not THAT useful anymore. But that's okay. We have frostshock.

Note that all totems here except Stoneclaw have 5 health. Meaning if anything so much as breathes on them, they go down. That's something many people seem to forget in PvP.

Fire Totems

While Earth was more buff oriented, Fire is all about the damage.

Flame Nova is an interesting totem. Place one down and four seconds later it releases a wave that damages all enemies within ten yards (damage is just a little less then an equal level shock). However, it only has 5 health, and draws the TINIEST bit of aggro when put down. Meaning...

If you're facing a mob and accidentally wander into another mob's 'aggro circle', and then place this down, the new mob, which hasn't yet been hit by you, only sight aggroed, will attack the totem. Meaning don't put this down until EVERY mob has been hit once and has some kind of established aggro on you.

Searing is a DOT totem. It releases a small fireball that hits a target within 20 yards every few seconds. It gains aggro with each fireball, so be careful or it might get destroyed. Good for some often ignored damage in PvP as well. Remember, every bit helps.

Magma is a very handy totem, in that, as far as I can see, it draws NO aggro EVER. Infact, it doesn't even exist according to enemies. This is great when fighting swarms. It does a good amount of damage every two seconds to ALL mobs within 8 yards.

Water Totems

Water totems focus on the healing side of things, and are, for the most part, not that handy.

Healing Stream restores a small bit of health every few seconds to all party members within 20 yards. It heals such a petty amount that it really doesn't make much of a difference. I usually don't bother putting one down.

Mana Stream is the same thing but with mana. Because of mana restored vs mana cost to cast, the Shaman gains no mana back. Only good if your party REALLY needs a mana boost. But once again... Petty returns for all.

Poison Cleansing is the one totem I bother to cast.. Acts sort of like the Tremor Totem, cleansing all party members within 20 yards of poison every few seconds. Good against mobs that poison a lot.

Wind Totems

I have yet to get my wind totem (Three more levels!) so I will refrain from commenting on these until I have it. To be edited later.


Healing And General Other Spells I Haven't Mentioned Yet

The Shaman has three types of healing spells, I only have two, so until I get the other I will refrain from commenting on it.

Healing Wave

Slow casting time, lots of health healed. Good for out of battle recovery mostly, as the long casting time is no good in parties.

Lesser Healing Wave

Fast casting time, a medium amount of health restored. This is the one to use while healing in parties usually.

Lightning Shield

I just kind of threw this in here... A good spell if you're getting into a large fight. Basically causes X amount of nature damage to the target when said target attacks you. Does the damage three times before needing to be recast. It's an instant.

We also have Purge, a handy skill that removes an enemy's buffs (higher ranks remove more buffs per cast). Basically acts like a preist's dispell.

We have Cure Disease and Cure Poison as well, both of which are self explanitory I think. They're instants and take a piddly amount of mana, so it's pretty easy to cure the whole party of said effects.

The shaman's main strenght come from his versatility. We have many tool that can handle many situation and by playing to our opponent's weakness, we can pretty much beat anybody. The general idea is to out-melee Casters (Warlock, Priest, Mage, Druid) and to out magic Melees. Paladin we just outlast. Heh.

The 2nd strenght of the shaman is ignorance. We have so many abilities that can be used in so many different that most Shaman don't even know how to use them all - so you can imagine how 'non-shaman' must feel. Most know we can shock and have totems, very little actually know what we can or can't do. It makes it easier to exploit their weaknesses.

The main weakenss of the shaman are is mana pool (we have many mana enefficient spells) and the fact that it can be quite challenging to make the split second decision of which power to use.


Shocks:
The Shock spells are all essentially the same spell but with different effects. They are all on the same timer (6 second, can be lowered to 5 with Talent).

They main strenght is that they are instant cast and all have a nice 'side-effect'. Their main weakness is that they just don't do really good damage for their mana cost (compared to other nukes). Shocks spells are the main reason why the Shaman's mana pool is a problem. Our pool isn't really smaller, it's just that we need to spend more mana to do damage. Shocks also only have a 20 yard range, which is pretty short.

I agree with my fellow's Riale description of Earth Shock and Frost shock, however...

Fire Shock: It deals some instant damage and then slaps on a DoT. The less popular for the Shock line actually has two things going for it. First, it is the most efficient spell from a Mana:Damage ratio. Second, it's the only DoT we have and can be used to effectively counter Stealth.

It's the spell to use for the mana conscious Shaman, especially in pve.


Lightning

Lightning Bolt: Not a bad mana:damage ratio. The main problem with it his it's cast time. 3 seconds, making it all but unusable in combat. I believe however that the previous Shaman does it a great diservice in pushing it aside.

Lightning Bolt is not on the same timer as Shock, meaning one can open up with Lightning Bolt and follow with a Shock immediatly after, this is a very good way to start a fight, deals a great deal of damage and a lot of people will start running after such an opening (which is why casting frost shock is a good idea).

It also has a range of 30 yard, 10 more yard then shock.

In pvp, If given the luxury, always open up with Lightning Bolt.

Chain Lightning: Chain Lightning hits up to 3 target, doing full damage on the first and losing 30% of it's power per jump. It has a good Mana:Damage ratio if you hit 3 target with, it's a huge waste of mana if you don't.

It's thus rarely used in pve or even instances. However, in raids, you can see it being spammed consistently. This one is going to be VERY popular in Battleground, you can tell.

Lightning Shield: While not technically a lightning spell (it's not affect by any of the 'lightning' talent), I'll include it here.

I was a bit shocked at the description my shaman collegue gave it, LS isn't just a 'good spell in large fight', it's one of our greatest spell in any given situation.

It does awesome damage. at level 39, my LS does 80 damage per ball (total of 260 damage), and my highest damage shock does 235-245! Not only that, but LS is much cheaper then my shocks!

It also has a 10 minute duration, so you can cast it long before the fight and have your mana back up before it's duration is over. To put it bluntly, you should ALWAYS have lightning shield on. Yes, it only works when people hit you, but chances are if you get a fight, that's going to happen.

LS is a good exemple of the 'ignorance' that surround shaman. Few shaman and alliance realise just how powerful it is. People ignore it, don't dispell it - and they don't realise it's doing more damage to them then anything I'm throwing at them.


Travel Spells:

Ghost wolf: This spell is awesome. It increase movement speed by 40%. With Talent, it's casting cost can be lowered to 1 second, which turn shaman into master escape artist (frost shock/earthbind, run away, GW, I'm out of here!), which invaluable for both pvp and pve.

It also make it all but impossible to escape from a shaman unless you also have a movement power. Even if you are out frost shock range, the GW shaman WILL catch up to you.

It can be cast in combat (unlike mount) AND you can loot/harvest while in GW. I'm an herbalism, so this is a blessing.

A life saver and a time saver, there's just nothing to not love about it. If anything, at level 20, it might be to low level for it's power.

Astral Recall: This teleport you to your Home. Same casting time then Hearth Stone but with a 15 minutes timer. Another time saver. It can't be used in combat (unlike the Stone), so aside from being able to hearthstone 5 time per hour now, there's not all that much to it.

Water Based Ability: We can water walk and breath underwater. Both spell require component. Under water breath is awesome for quest and under water pvp. Water Walking is just a fancy way to cross water, the fact that it cancels out when you get hit makes it good for little else.


Totems

Biggest drawback of thse is that you can only 1 per element out at a time.

Riale has it pretty much spot on except for a few things and 'wind totem' obviously, since he doesn't have them yet. Here's what I have to add:

Earth Totems:

Earthbind: Despite the the nerf, it is still an extremely powerful totem, especially in group pvp. Having a whole group of ennemy slowed down gives you a huge edge.

Fire Totem:

Fire Nova: Awesome in pvp. It create aggro in pve and is often destroyed before it can go off, but most player simply ignore it. It packs quite a punch and goes very well with an opening of Lightning/Shock. If it hits more then one target, it's Mana:Damage ratio go through the roof.

Searing Totem: Not worth using in pvp when you can put down Fire Nova. This totem become useless very quick once you get the other fire totem.

Magma Totem: It does better damage then searing is is AE, short duration tho. Very good for instance, but I wouldn't bother with it in pvp - go Nova.

Flame Tongue totem: This totem give the flametongue weapon buff to anybody within it's range. Good in group (instance) until you get windfury totem or if your wind totem is already otherwise occupied.

Water totem:

Those totems are such a disapointment, especially considering the effort it takes to get it.

Healing Stream: Here's where I disagree tho. While it heals very slowly, HS is our best Mana:Health healing spell. Even more so when you're grouped. It's very cheap and there's really no reason not to slap it down (weither in pvp or pve). Unless you're fighting an ennemy with heavy poison powers.

Wind Totem

Grounding Totem: This spell is hot. It absorbs incoming spells, 1 per 10 second per party member. It is destroyed if it absorbs a damage spell. Our best counter against fear and polymorph and a nice way to make caster waste their mana. Big cooldown, but you'll use that one a lot once you get it.

Windfury Totem: give windfurry to the whole party. Our best weapon buff to everybody? Awesome for instance. Doesn't get used that much tho because it share the same slot as grounding totem. A shame really.

Grace of Air: Don't have that one yet. :( I somehow doubt it's going to more useful then grounding tho.

Sentry Totem: Allows you to switch your sight to it, so you can spy from it. It also warns you if it gets destroyed. Didn't find much use for that. It's fun to mess around with, but the odd that you'll 'toggle' to it in time to actually see something useful are scarce. It can be useful if you want to cover more ground when you're hunting down a specific mob tho.

A word on 'resistance' totem: We also have fire, ice and nature resistance. Extremely situational and rarely used. Might see more use in large pvp to lower the effect of spell like Blizzard and the like.

Weapon Buff

Again, Riale got it pretty much right.

Except that IMO, frostbite isn't worth it. Snaring down an opponent you are meleeing isn't that great, especially considering frost shock and earthbind. A waste really.

Windfury Weapon: Our best buff I believe, not only does it gives us extra attack (20% chance), but it also increase the power of said attack. I believe it was mathematically proven to be better then Rockbiter, making it the buff of choice unless you want to tank.


Healing :

We are nowhere as good healer as priests and druid. But we can pump out quite a nice amount of healing with our powers.

We have a 'group' healing, that I haven't gotten yet. :( Level 40, you keep taunting me >_<.

We also can raise, but again, our raise are weaker then druid's and shaman.

A nice aspect is Reincarnation, a spell that allows us to 'raise' right where we die. You need a reagant and you have raise sickness for 10 minutes - not good for pvp, but great to save from a full wipe in an instance.


Farisght

A spell in its own category, it allows us to 'see' at a distance. It's a channeling spell. I find it a lot more useful then sentry ward and use it a lot. Fun to know what's over the next hill sometimes.