Unofficial Shaman FAQ - Original Credit to Doomhaven

This FAQ is set up to help players both new and old with some of the more common questions asked about this class.

This FAQ is divided into several sections. The first section deals with basic questions for players new to the shaman class. The second section deals with more advanced questions about playing shamans. The third section deals with shaman spells. The fourth section deals with shaman talents, and the fifth deals with the quests for this class.

Another Shaman FAQ, independent of mine, is available at http://www.peopleofgaheris.com/shaman-faq.html . As well, Thottbot has a good set of information about shamans here: http://www.thottbot.com/?c=Shaman .

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section 1 -- Introductory Questions About Shamans
1.1 What are shamans?
1.2 What is the role of a shaman in groups?
1.3 What are a shaman's strengths?
1.4 What are a shaman's weaknesses?
1.5 What race is the best race to be a shaman?
1.6 Are shamans overpowered and deserving of a nerf?
1.7 What is the best class to duo with a shaman?
1.8 What is the plural of shaman?
1.9 Are there any current issues with the shaman class?

Section 2 -- Shaman Playstyle Questions
2.1 What are the most important statistics for a shaman?
2.2 How does block work?
2.3 How does mana regeneration work?
2.4 Which is better: one hand + shield or two hand?
2.5 Which weapons should I train/use?
2.6 How do I play a shaman well?
2.7 What's the basic tactics for a shaman soloing?
2.8 What's the basic tactics for a shaman in an instance group being a secondary healer/tank?
2.9 Hi! I'm a new shaman that has mainly been soloing. I got into my first instance (Ragefire or Wailing Caverns) as a healer and kept getting aggro and dying. What am I doing wrong?
2.10 What are the best professions to take as a shaman?
2.11 I have all of the abilities and not enough room on my quickbar! What do I do?
2.12 Can a shaman be a primary healer for an instance?

Section 3 -- Shaman Quest Questions
3.1 Where do I find everything for the Call of Fire quest?
3.2 Are there any other shaman quest guides out there?

Section 4 -- Shaman Spell Questions
4.1 Why does Reincarnation have such a long ressurection sickness?
4.2 What effects does Purge purge?
4.3 Can we have multiple totems up?
4.4 What does tremor totem protect against?
4.5 What is the difference between Astral Recall and our hearthstone?
4.6 How does Stoneskin work?
4.7 Does Stoneclaw totem work?
4.8 Which is the best weapon buff?
4.9 Do weapon buffs stack? Can I cast one and then have my totem give me another?
4.10 Can the extra hits from Windfury proc another Windfury proc?
4.11 Do shaman totems stack?
4.12 How do +healing and +damage items work?

Section 5 -- Shaman Talent Questions
5.1 What are good talent builds?
5.2 Are there any talents that I *shouldn't* point points into?
5.3 What's better: Ancestral Knowledge or Shield Specialization?
5.4 Do Troll Regeneration and Combat Endurance stack?
5.5 What does Anticipation do?
5.6 How do spec points into the Restoration Tree?
5.7 If I untrain my talents, will I lose my skill levels in my two-hand weapon skills and my extra ranks of Mana Tide Totem?
5.8 Are there any sites that have a talent builder I could use?


Introductory Questions About Shamans


1.1 What are shamans?
Shamans are the Horde-only class, designed to be healer/warrior/mage hybrids. Generally, we have spells and abilities taken from those base classes combined into one class. We also have totems which add a variety of effects, from group buffs to debuffs and attacks.

The class itself is a complex class that has one of the more varied amount of spells and effects present. Shamans are the most versatile class in WoW.

The official page describing shamans is here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/shaman.html


1.2 What is the role of a shaman in groups?
In the earlier levels, shamans can fulfill primary tank and healer roles. However, by late to end game, shamans are mainly expected to be secondary tanks and healers, and to offer support via totems and the variety of spells.


1.3 What are a shaman's strengths?
Shamans have the following strengths:

* Versatility. With the amount of spells available, a shaman can adapt to pretty much any situation.

* Melee. With mail armour and shields, shamans have third highest AC in the Horde, behind warriors and druids in bear-form. With weapons buffs and this AC, a shaman can hold his own in most melee situations.

* Healing. While shamans are one of the worst healers in the game (better than paladins, but worse than druids and priests), they *can* heal. WoW does seem to be biased toward healing.

* Shocks. Shamans have three "shocks" -- insta-cast spells on the same timer that have a variety of effects. One shock has a DoT, one has spell interruption, and one has a snare effect.



1.4 What are a shaman's weaknesses?

* No Crowd Control. A shaman has no crowd control or the ability to temporarily remove enemy mobs or players from combat.

* Hybrid healing. While a shaman can heal, the class does not have the level of heals that a druid or priest has access to. Unlike a priest, a shaman has no insta-cast heals or shields and has no aggro-minimizing spells or talents.

* Mana usage. Shaman are one of the worst class for mana efficiency. A shaman's heals are less efficient than other healers' and the damage spells burn more mana per damage than other casters. As well, shaman generally have smaller mana pools than casters at the same level. Therefore, mana conservation is a key to playing a shaman well.

* Totems. Totems, while the source of the shaman's uniqueness and strength, is also a weakness. Totems are easy for mobs and players to kill. Totems left behind can aggro mobs which will attack the totem's creator. Totems will also indirectly increase the aggro radius of a shaman because each totem has its own aggro radius.

* Cost. A fully trained shaman at level 60 has spent 226g20s10c according to the numbers on Thottbot. That's higher than a druid (215g2s71c), who has three forms worth of training to purchase. (I don't know if this is different now after a few patches ago, but I don't feel like checking).



1.5 What race is the best race to be a shaman?
Short answer: personal preference is the dominating factor for race choice. Create a tauren, orc, and troll shaman, and play around with them. Level them up to 5 or 6, and check out the racial abilites, /dance, /flirt, and /silly emotes.

Long answer: it is generally considered that Tauren have the best racial abilites of any shaman race. The warstomp ability especially complements the shaman class which has no inherent stun and several important spells which can be fit into the 2 sec window such as improved ghost wolf and lesser healing wave.

Tauren have three set backs as largest race in the game, however:

* Hard to see around. Tauren are big and this sometimes causes problems when you are trying to see the battle in front of you. This is especially notable in confined spaces.

* Frame is big. The tauren character model is big and sometimes causes problems when moving in confined spaces.

* Big target in PvP. The tauren model is the largest and therefore easiest model to manually target in PvP.


I do not think those drawbacks balance the better racial abilities. But, I'm a tauren, and may be biased. NOTE: I did take a troll shaman to 60 in beta. I prefer tauren over troll, but mainly due to stylistic reasons.


1.6 Are shamans overpowered and deserving of a nerf?
Short answer: No. Even if we were, do you think we'd admit it? :P

Long answer: the basis for the "overpowered shaman" myth is that, in earlier levels, shamans have an edge in 1v1 PvP situations given our large amount of useful abilities. However, as the game progresses, shamans lose this early game lead as the rest of the classes mature. As well, there are several misunderstandings about what exactly shamans can and cannot do.


1.7 What is the best class to duo with a shaman?
Short Answer: As a hybrid, more or less any class can be paired with a shaman and have the group work for non-instanced questing and leveling.

Here are a couple of my recommendations:

Warlock/Mage/Hunter: The main reason for these are the same -- they offer some crowrd-control abilities (pets, poly/frost) and DPS to a shamans tanking/healer strengths.

Shaman Playstyle Questions

2.1 What are the most important statistics for a shaman?
Short answer: INT, STA, and SPI.

Long answer: it is really based on your build. If you wish to make a more melee based shaman, then strength, agility, and stamina are probably things you wish to maximize. Some shamans find a agility based build to be more to their taste. Given that we are an hybrid class with decent melee, there is no really wrong answer. And given that all statistic maximizing is done with equipment, you can keep all your bases covered with a varied selection of choice equipment stored in your vault.

Crit/Dodge chance calculation at 60: Shaman [AGI / 19.7]

Atk Power: (Character Level * 2) + (Strength * 2) - 20

Strength also increases the amount of damage you block with a shield.

A standard caster build emphasizes INT, STA, and SPI. Intellect adds 15 mana per point, and 1% chance to cast a crit spell every 100 INT. Stamina adds 10 HP per point. Spirit increases mana regen by 1 mana per tick (2 seconds) every 5 SPI, and 1 health per tick every 9 spirit, but for Shaman it's pointless due to our horrible returns from Spirit and no in-combat spirit regen talent.


2.2 How does block work?
Aryxymaraki answers that question in (some thread that's gone):

Q u o t e:
This is how block works.

Every time you get hit, you have your % chance to block. If you don't, nothing happens; if you do, continue reading.

When you block an attack, you deduct some amount of damage. This is equal to your shield's block stat + some modifier from your Str (I don't know exactly what, but higher str means more damage blocked).
This shows in your combat log as "You take x damage (y blocked)". This means that had you not blocked, you would have taken x+y damage.

The only time you will see the "block" animation and get the combat message "They attack. You block." is if your block reduces the damage you take to zero. That's how it works. I block all the time, and it's working fine.



2.3 How does mana regeneration work?
Your mana regenerates all of the time, except for a period of five seconds after you start casting a spell (thanks to Sherman for the correction here). In this five seconds, you have no regeneration. This is commonly called the five second rule. A spell here is defined as anything that costs mana to cast.

One interesting note is when spells *don't* cost mana, they will not start this timer, and you will continue to regen mana. Nature's Swiftness costs no mana, and will not invoke the five second rule. Spells casted with the clearcasting state from the Elemental Focus talent also will not start the five second timer.

Totems, on the other hand, will start the five second timer.

Mana regenerates according to how much spirit you have. Take the amount of spirit you have, and divide it by five. Then add 17 to this value. That is around how much mana you should regenerate ever tick ( 2 seconds). You do not mana regen faster if you are sitting down or standing up. You do not mana regen faster in battle or out of battle.

(However, Spirit for Shaman isn't really that good. Mana/5 is much better, and a good amount of our gear uses it. When looking for Enchants, go Mana/5 over Spirit.)


2.4 Which is better: one hand + shield or two hand?
Short answer: this really depends on play style and situation. There has been no good analysis that concludes with one or the other being superior.

Gruul and Viz do a really good analysis (but the thread's lost), and ultimately, the choice is 20% increase of DPS or doubling your defense from 20% DR to 40% DR.


2.5 Which weapons should I train/use?
This is another personal preference. A shaman *can* use every melee weapon in the game except swords and polearms. The only note is that the more weapons you wish to be proficient at, the more time you will have to spend maintaining the skills in those weapons.


2.6 How do I play a shaman well?
Two big suggestions:

* Learn your spells and totems. Versatility is your greatest assest and you should know in any situation which spells to use to be able to best aid yourself and your group.

* Learn mana conservation. A shaman has some of the most mana-inefficient spells in the game, as well as having a lot of different spells to cast IE: healing vs damage vs totems. As well, given that shamans are a hybrid, some may choose equipment builds that lean away from the caster-favoured INT/SPI builds.



2.7 What's the basic tactics for a shaman soloing?
Verify your weapon buff and lightning shield are up. Lay out a couple totems depending on personal preference and mob pulled. Pull with lightning bolt. Follow up with an earth shock if the mobs starts to cast. Purge if necessary. You want the mob to be near your totems so that you get the benefits from the totems. If the mob runs, use earthbind or frost shock to snare him and finish him off. Use the stoneclaw totem to deal with adds.


2.8 What's the basic tactics for a shaman in an instance group being a secondary healer/tank?
In (some thread), I give the following answer:

Q u o t e:
In BRD and BRS, I do the following:

1) Backup healing. I am always watching the main healer's mana and everyone's health.
2) Runner killer. I am keeping an eye on mobs that can run to frost-shock / earthbind / melee them. There are so many places where a runner can and will get adds and wipe your group.
3) Totem herder. I am always re-assessing the situation and the battle location to make sure totems are up, the correct totems are up, and near the fight.
4) Anti-caster. I am using earth-shock to pull in casters and grounding totems to take spells for the team. I'm learning in BRS that grounding totem can and will save your life, and I'm getting to the point where checking the grounding totem cooldown is just another part of playing smart.
5) Off-tanking. Sometimes an extra elite mob needs my special attention while the DPS squad cleans up.
6) AOE. In groups with a large amount of non-elites, I toss out magma totems and chain lightnings to help back up the cloth when they AOEs.
7) Dying well. I have to keep an eye out for where the mobs spawn and don't so if I die, I can die somewhere I can self-res without re-aggroing and dying again.
8) Bodyguard. I keep an eye open for mobs making a break for the main healer or other caster and earth shock them to pull them off the caster onto me. The real tanks should do this, but sometimes, one slips through.

And, I'm doing all of the above while I'm in the thick of the battle laying down some baseline melee DPS on whatever mob the /assist command points me at.



2.9 Hi! I'm a new shaman that has mainly been soloing. I got into my first instance (Ragefire or Wailing Caverns) as a healer and kept getting aggro and dying. What am I doing wrong?
First, warriors and druids do not get aggro management abilities into the mid-teens (Mocking Blow at level 16 for warriors) or later.

Secondly, as most players are new to grouping in the first instances, their ability to manage aggro is quite weak.

Thirdly, there are several things a good low-level shaman does while soloing that he *shouldn't* do while grouped as the group's healer:

* Don't cast any self-weapon buffs, *especially* rockbiter. The more damage you do, the more aggro you get, and then rockbiter gives more aggro on top of that.
* Don't cast lightning shield. When a mob is aggroed on you, it will take more damage from you from the shield, and therefore aggro on you more.
* Limit earth Shock usage to spell interruption and killing runners. Earth Shock generates a lot of aggro additional to the aggro it would cause by damage alone.
* Hang back from skirmishes. As main healer, it isn't your primary job to deal damage -- it is to heal. So, hang back and let everyone else fight, and jump in after everyone has got a good amount of aggro.


As you see, each of these suggestions are not something a soloing shaman would normally do. And, from that, it isn't unusual for most shamans to enter their first instance and have problems with aggro management.


2.10 What are the best professions to take as a shaman?
Here are some of my picks:

* Leatherworking/Skinning. This is a good profession as you can make mail for your later levels as well as leather beforehand. As well, a lot of the later armour is designed with shamans in mind, like turtle scale armour and voodoo armour. Lastly, I think this profession generates more money than it costs, which is always a plus for the cash-strapped class. ((LW costs a lot till you get to the end and can actually sell stuff))
* Alchemy/Herbalism. I took this for my shaman. I consider the buffs and mana potions indispensible.
* Engineering. This is good for shamans that embrace the "versatility" mentality of the class. A lot of the engineer items shore up the shaman's class deficiencies. The point against engineering is that it is an expensive profession, and most of the items created cannot be used by non-engineers which limits the marketability. ((Gnomish Engineering pwns-Vec))


You could take smithing, but I find it isn't a good fit for shaman. There isn't much of the armour that is useful, and only a couple weapons stand out for shamans.

I'd recommend against enchanting as a shaman, because enchanting can get very expensive.


2.11 I have all of the abilities and not enough room on my quickbar! What do I do?
Most shamans use custom UIs to give them additional buttons. My personal pick is Cosmos ( http://www.cosmosui.org/ ), but a wide variety of them are available.
((There's plenty of room on the 5 bars you can have up at once just from the built in bars. UIs are mostly just to organize them on the screen to your liking))

2.12 Can a shaman be a primary healer for an instance?

Post BC, it is possible. Due to the increase in HP and the changes made to Chain Heal, a Shaman is fairly effective main healing. However, when most people tout their stories of main healing everything, they fail to add in the part where they had to use consumables on top of their talents and skills, while the other healers don't usually have to.


Shaman Quest Questions

3.1 Where do I find everything for the Call of Fire quest?
Wulfheir made some excellent maps to show where everything is:

Here is a map of Durotar showing where to find the Trail to Mountain Peak and the cave that drops the Reagent Pouch: http://www.wulfheir.com/pics/call_of_fire_1.JPG

Here is a map of The Barrens that shows where Kranal Fizz and the area where Razormane Geomancers are that drop the Fire Tar: http://www.wulfheir.com/pics/call_of_fire_2.JPG

3.2 Are there any other shaman quest guides out there?
A good source of information is Thottbot: http://www.thottbot.com/?f=q&cat=Shaman

There is this one, too: http://vnboards.ign.com/WoW_Shaman_Class/b22783/79994268/?38

Originally written by Mezzer on these boards, it was reposted by Isaccjr over there, then cleaned up and reposted by Jalayna.

It does not contain information about the orc and troll shaman quests. ((No idea on the validity of this. Don't feel like checking))

Shaman Spell Questions

4.1 Why does Reincarnation have such a long ressurection sickness?
((The Res sickness was removed a few patches ago.))


4.2 What effects does Purge get rid of?
Short answer: purge removes all player/mob-cast magic buffs and potion effects. It does NOT remove weapon buffs, paladin's divine shield, mage's ice block, passive abilites, or druid's animal forms.

Long Answer:

Here is a class listing of what shamans can remove from other players:

Druids
Mark of the Wild
Thorns
Regrowth
Rejuvenation
Nature's Swiftness
Omen of Clarity

Paladins
All Seals
All Blessings
Holy Shield
Divine Favor

Priests (thanks to Darkinertia)
Abolish Disease
Elune's Grace (NE only)
Fade
Inner Fire
Levitate
Mind Control
Mind Vision
Power Word: Shield
Power Word: Fortitude
Renew
Shadow Protection

Mages
Amplify Magic
Arcane Intellect
Dampen Magic
Fire Ward
Frost Ward
Mana Shield
Frost Armor
Ice Armor
Ice Barrier
Presence of Mind
Arcane Power

Shamans
Ghost Wolf
Lightning Shield
Nature's Swiftness
Water Walking
Underwater Breathing

Warlocks (thanks to Dionysts)
Demon Skin
Demonic Sacrifice ((No idea))
Detect Invisible
Sacrifice
Soulstone ((Don't think so))
Spellstone
Unlimited Breath

Warriors
Battle shout


4.3 Can we have multiple totems up?
Yes. We have one totem of each element up -- one Earth totem, one Fire totem, one Air totem, and one Water totem. We cannot have two totems of the same element up -- the second totem of the element will overwrite the first.

To tell which element a totem is, read the spell description.


4.4 What does tremor totem protect against?

Tremor totem sends out a pulse every five seconds that wakes up group members within range from a sleep, charm, or fear.

This includes -

Any non-boss induced sleep effects.
Mob fear effects
Mob charm effects
Warlock Fear
Warlock Howl of Terror
Priest Psychic Scream
Warrior Intimidating Shout
Succubus Seduce
Magmadar's Fear
Onyxia's Fear
Nefarion's Fear

However, Fears commonly remove you from the area of effect of the pulse. So..there's a lot of argument.

4.5 What is the difference between Astral Recall and our hearthstone?
First off, both of these abilities let a shaman hearth back to the last inn he set as his home. And, both take 10 seconds to cast. However, there are several differences between the two in how this is accomplished.

* Mana cost. A hearthstone does not cost any mana. Astral Recall costs 150 mana.
* Cooldown. A heartstone has an hour long cooldown. Astral Recall only has a 15 minute cooldown. NOTE: both of these cooldowns are on seperate timers.
* Bag space. A hearthstone takes up one slot of bag space. Astral Recall takes none.
* Combat. A hearthstone can be used while you are in combat. Astral Recall cannot.
* Interruption. Hearthing with a hearthstone will be completely interrupted on attack. With Astral Recall, the interrupt is not complete.


4.6 How does Stoneskin work?
Stoneskin negates damage done to you before damage reduction from your armour is determined. What this means is when you are hit, the first thing the game does is reduce the melee damage taken by the amount of the totem. Then, the game determines your damage reduction from your armour against the mob. For an equal level mob, this is around 40% damage reduction (open your Character Window, and mouse-over the Armor value to get your DR). So, 40% of the damage that gets past the stoneskin totem is absorbed by the armour, and the remaining 60% you take.

Example: a mob can do 100 damage. The Rank 6 Stoneskin totem will absorb 27 of that, leaving 73 damage to your armour. With 40% DR from armour, only 44 damage would be taken.

Because the Stoneskin totem works before damage reduction from armour is taken into account, the talent to improve this does not help as much as one would think.


4.7 Does Stoneclaw totem work?
Yes, but its taunt effect does leave a little to be desired. Ultimately, to get this totem to work its best, do *not* damage the mob or aggro the mob with healing beforehand. The totem's taunt is just better than the normal aggro generated from pulling a mob's friend.


4.8 Which is the best weapon buff?
Short answer: There is none.

Long answer:

In the early game, Rockbiter and Flametongue both have their uses.

Rockbiter is a good to use when:

* fighting low armour mobs. AC is taken into account when rockbiter damage is calculated
* as a main or secondary tank
* fire/cold resist mobs
* as the base default buff when soloing in the early game.


Flame Tongue is good to use when:

* fighting high armour mobs, as the fire damage is constant despite AC
* against fire-vulnerable mobs
* if you have +spell damage equipment


Frostband is good to use when:

* fighting mobs that run. Yeah, it won't proc *all* the time, but it should save a chase or a shock spell to make it worth the while
* frost-vulnerable mobs


4.9 Do weapon buffs stack? Can I cast one and then have my totem give me another?
No. A weapon can only have one buff, whether it is from a self-buff, a totem, a poison, or from a smith's stones. A shaman's totems will overwrite a rogue's poison but not a blacksmith's sharpening/weighting stones. The self-only buffs will overwrite a blacksmith's weighting stones. ((They aren't supposed to anymore, but I'm not certain))

As well, the some totem weapon buffs will interfere with the skills of other players. The Flametongue Totem buff will prevent warriors from using Next Melee attack skills like cleave, heroic strike, and concussion blow ((No idea on this. Probably fixed)). Windfury Totem will interfere with rogue's poisons, but only on their main hand weapon (thanks to Aryxymaraki and Joragen for the corrections here).((They aren't supposed to anymore, but I'm not certain))


4.10 Can the extra hits from Windfury proc another Windfury proc?
They're not supposed to anymore. They used to be able to a few patches ago.


4.11 Do shaman totems stack?
For the most part, no. Any totem buffs (Stoneskin, Grace of Air, Health Stream totems, etc) or debuff totems (Earthbind) do not stack.

However, searing, magma, and fire nova totems "stack" in the way that they are both attacking and doing damage to mobs. As well, while grounding totems don't stack, two shamans can alternate casting grounding totems to intercept more spells because, after one totem dies grounding a spell, the other shaman can cast one during the first shaman's cooldown period.

Lastly, while identical totems do not stack, having a multi-shaman party means that the shamans can cast different totems of the same element (Strength of Earth and Stoneskin can both be up, for example).


4.12 How do +healing and +damage items work?
The number they give is the "up to" number. Different amounts of that are given depending on the casting speed of the spell. Anything under 3 seconds (I think) doesn't recieve the full amount. DoTs do recieve the whole amount, spread over the whole thing.

Shaman Talent Questions

5.1 What are good talent builds?
Aryxymaraki has a good talent guide ((that someone'll repost later)). It has a good break down of all of the talents and their ups and down, along with several good talent build layouts. Definitely recommended reading.


5.2 Are there any talents that I *shouldn't* point points into?

Your personal preference.


5.3 What's better: Ancestral Knowledge or Shield Specialization?
Good cases can be made for either.

Offhand, I think Shield Specialization is a superior skill for any shield wearing shaman, as it seems to effectively double your blocking percentage (5% to 10%) versus giving you 5% more mana. I really found in beta, even at level 60, that 5% more mana is not noticeable -- it ws 250 mana at my 5000.

However, if you go 5% more mana, and then stack on the 5% more efficient heals or shock or 10% more efficient totem talents, you may find the talent to be quite useful.

As well, if you plan on going exclusively two-handed, Ancestral Knowledge is a better talent for you.

In a broken thread, more shaman recommend Ancestral Knowledge over Shield Specialization.


5.4 Do Troll Regeneration and Combat Endurance stack?
Combat Endurance doesn't exist anymore.


5.5 What does Anticipation do?
It now gives +% to dodge.


5.6 How do I spec points into the Restoration Tree?

Your personal preference. The Talent guide will be updated here eventually.

5.7 If I untrain my talents, will I lose my skill levels in my two-hand weapon skills and my extra ranks of Mana Tide Totem?

You will not lose 2-h skill anymore. You will still lose Mana Tide.


5.8 Are there any sites that have a talent builder I could use?
There are two really good ones:
http://www.thottbot.com/?ti=Shaman
http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Talents.View&category_select_id=9

IGN has list of submitted talent builds here http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Templates.List&class_select_id=Shaman
Wow Rankings also keeps a list of talent builds currently in use by players as well: http://www.wowrankings.com/rankings_manager.htm?class=4

BC Updates and Info Compilation


I don't have space to post everything, so instead. Links.

10/25 Update on Shaman Talents - http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=B23352C2B6A8B5F501FD1BCE5D7D936F?topicId=39274560&sid=1

Nert's Post on Totem of Wrath - http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=37185281&sid=1

Alxander's Post on Elemental Totems - http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=38174256&postId=391312661&sid=1#2

Greatcow's Enhancement Thread - http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=34154460&sid=1&pageNo=1

Reposted Compilation of Shaman Concerns - http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=37803859&postId=376904868&sid=1#6

Bop's Post on Searing Totem > Totem of Wrath - http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=32160094&sid=1&pageNo=1

Just used the report button to request that this be stickied. Hopefully they do.

1st

Thanks for reposting this; two notes.

1) Battle Shout is no longer purgeable.

2) As you suspected, the bug with Flametongue Totem and "on next hit" melee attacks has been fixed.


Also, it says that Windfury Totem will interfere with a rogue's posions; it won't really do that anymore. The rogue simply won't get the WF (or FT) totem buff if their main-hand is poisoned, exactly like if anyone is using a sharpening stone or weighstone on their main-hand.

The +healing +damage modifiers are applied from a base 3.5 sec. cast. Casting time is always BEFORE talents. a 3 sec cast time spell recieves a .86 bonus, a 1.5 sec spell recieves a .43 bonus.

some other quibbles but I applaud your effort

Add innervate to the purgable spell list

Nerf shamans please They dont need dual wield

cool.

Great guide, thank you. I've been trying out a lot of different classes but put off making a Shaman since they seemed strange and confusing with all their abilities. I finally did make one and found I started liking it a lot, so now I feel much more confident about playing it well.

Good guide....but I was wondering if someone could post a strategy to the level 58+ shaman quest, The Darkreaver Menace. This is the quest for Skyfury Helm, a very nice helm to help out until you can replace it with tier 1 or better gear, or in my case, help out a great deal since I don't have time to be part of a raiding guild. Any information pretaining to completing this quest would be greatly appreciated.

Good guide, but I have a couple questions. I'm finally to the point where some +damage gear won't gimp my stats too bad, so...

Do fire totems recieve the bonus from +damage gear? If so, does that include the buff others get from the flametongue totem?

[Stamp]ed and approved!