[WOW] Shaman leveling spec

[La Maupin]

I want to get out of the 50s as quickly as possible. I had been set up as a resto, but that's slowed my leveling significantly; what would be a good suggested build for a shaman between level 52 and 58?

[GremFarlim]

I thought I'd heard Enhancement was the speed leveling build. I'm only up to 22 though so I have no good suggestions close to 50.

[Copernicus]

Enhancement. Like, the 49 obvious points in Enhancement plus 2 in Improved Ghostwolf. After that, work down Restoration until you get to the +hit% talent.

Elemental doesn't become itemized until 58 (Outlands gear). I'm not a fan of the spec- but it's not bad if you gear for it and can pull mobs in a way that they'll run to you and your totem stack while still not hitting you. It's also the best option for a DPS spec that can still heal in instances.

[Morrius]

That's the path I'm taking too. 2H Axes feels so good.

How far down the enhancement tree should you go? (Keep in mind, I don't yet have BC, so I'm topping out at 60.) Are Stormstrike, Dual Wield, Unleased Rage, and Shamanistic Rage worth it? Because Nature's Guidance and Totemic Mastery over in the Restoration tree are looking pretty sweet.


And why does everyone tell me that Improved Lightning Shield is better than Anticipation? I'm still stuck wearing leather here.

[Dorchadas]

How far down the enhancement tree should you go? (Keep in mind, I don't yet have BC, so I'm topping out at 60.) Are Stormstrike, Dual Wield, Unleased Rage, and Shamanistic Rage worth it? Because Nature's Guidance and Totemic Mastery over in the Restoration tree are looking pretty sweet.

That depends. Do you like a larger totem radius, or do you like only having to drink once every 10 minutes, if that?

More seriously, with dual wield, unleashed rage and spamming shamanistic rage every time you can, drinking is almost totally unnecessary.

[Copernicus]

Lightning Shield is better than anticipation because you do more damage. You have heal spells, bandaging, etc. As long as the fight doesn't kill you, dealing more damage is always the better option.

[Morrius]

Lightning Shield is better than anticipation because you do more damage. You have heal spells, bandaging, etc. As long as the fight doesn't kill you, dealing more damage is always the better option.

This right here is the sticky wicket. I'm not as vigilant about having Lightning Shield up as I could be, and as a shaman with no shield, i have to be careful that I don't get overwhelmed. Hence my desire to reduce damage.


So far, I've never found myself needing to drink while in an instance, and I'm kind of meh on Unleased Rage anyway. If it affects me and not just the rest of the party, I might be more interested. So this is my tenative game plan for solo PvE, which is what I find I spend the most time doing. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=uZxVfzV0sVuRZxbIz

[Copernicus]

By refilling your mana pool every 2 minutes, you can make sure you are healed up before any fight by using Lesser Healing Wave. In addition, you can always have Lightning Shield up and use Stormstrike a lot. Also, Unleashed Rage works on yourself.

The basic point is this - living longer is nice, but killing stuff faster kind of acts the same. Plus you kill stuff faster and level/grind quicker, etc etc.

[AusJeb]

This right here is the sticky wicket. I'm not as vigilant about having Lightning Shield up as I could be, and as a shaman with no shield, i have to be careful that I don't get overwhelmed. Hence my desire to reduce damage.

This is one of your bread-and-butter abilities. Put it on a hot key on your main bar, and put points into Imp. Lightning Shield. Check before each combat to confirm it is still up. If you get into a fight with two or more mobs, look for when it goes down and then put it back up. I know that it is all too easy when you are moving and on the attack to forget this, but, it's never good to get into a tight fight and realize you don't have Lighning Shield up.

My shammy alternates between a 2H weapon and a weapon and shield. Sometimes, the extra defense from a shield can make all the difference.

[Morrius]

Okay. How about dual wielding? What's the verdict on that? (I'm hoping I can use it to get lots of crits to power the Flurry ability.)

And assuming I go all the way to Shamanistic Rage, what should I do with the remaining 10 points?

[JoS]

Unless you are really tied to big numbers from crits...I found Duel wield to be very nice and an overall increase in dps over a two hander. It also compliments Shamanistic rage well. Leveling from 60 to 70 I almost never had to drink because of shamanistic rage. With no breaks for drinking and with that kind of Dps = very fast leveling.

[La Maupin]

Unless you are really tied to big numbers from crits...I found Duel wield to be very nice and an overall increase in dps over a two hander. It also compliments Shamanistic rage well. Leveling from 60 to 70 I almost never had to drink because of shamanistic rage. With no breaks for drinking and with that kind of Dps = very fast leveling.
How does this build (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=uZEifdVMohuMo) look, then?

[AusJeb]

It looks pretty good. I'm not a fan of the totem talents, Shield Specialization, or Imp. Ghost Wolf. If I've counted right, though, you will still need 7 of those 13 points in order to get Shamanistic Rage. I would then recommend reallocating the remaining six points as follows:

Convection 3
Concussion 2
Elemental Warding 1

or

Convection 2
Concussion 2
Imp. Healing Wave 2

[Arawaen]

How does this build (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=uZEifdVMohuMo) look, then?

Akhana uses the following build: Akhana's build (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=GZxV0bE0sVuqoV0et)

1. Improved Ghost Wolf is a PvP talent, if you don't PvP I would drop it.
2. Improved Guardian Totems has some use with the 2 second reduction on Grounding Totem, but Stoneskin and Windwall are lackluster and it is rare that you won't have a better totem to drop in their stead, especially while leveling. Strength of Earth and Grace of Air are far more valuable in pretty much every situation (only exception is AoE events that have lots of tiny adds, but the regular Stoneskin has proven fine for me in those situations).
3. Two-handed Weapons when you have dual-wield is a PvP talent, dual wield will do more sustained damage and provide better results with Unleashed Rage and Shamantic Rage. Only reason to use a 2-hander is for burst damage.
4. Shield Specialization is not going to be used much for leveling, you want to do damage which means dual wielding.
5. Improved Weapon Totems are nice for your group, but most leveling is done solo and you won't be using them as you have better weapon buffs applied to your weapons already.
6. You will want to do lots of damage, Elemental Weapons, Stormstrike and Weapon Mastery will greatly improve your damage output.
7. Lightning Shield is fine, it does good damage for the mana investment, but I found I had some durability issues so I put the points in Anticipation instead.
8. I wish I had chosen Improved Healing Wave over Tidal Focus, but am waiting to see the fate of the Windfury nerf that is on test.

Possible incoming Windfury fix: At present, put Windfury (highest rank) on main hand and Windfury (one rank lower) on offhand, they proc independently of one another and I frequently get both to proc at the same time. There is some coding that prevents the same rank from proccing too close to one of the same rank, however by downranking one you can avoid this. Blizzard has said this is unintended and plans to make it so that Windfury (any rank) cannot proc within 3 seconds of another Windfury proc (how this is 20% per swing on weapons slower than 3 seconds I don't know). For all I know this was in today's patch, but its not listed so I keep my fingers crossed.

[Random Nerd]

How does this build (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=uZEifdVMohuMo) look, then?

No Stormstrike, no elemental weapons, no weapon mastery?

Those talents are far better than stuff like improved weapon totems, mental swiftness, and guardian totems.

[Bradford C. Walker]

While we're on the subject, I'd like a little feedback and build suggest for my shaman. (Armory page here (http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Kirin+Tor&n=Kudron)) He's 18 now, and I'm looking at a levelling spec that I can take at least to 40 (where I can think about respeccing towards Outland and endgame) into a BG on occasion and not suck.

[Arawaen]

While we're on the subject, I'd like a little feedback and build suggest for my shaman. (Armory page here (http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Kirin+Tor&n=Kudron)) He's 18 now, and I'm looking at a levelling spec that I can take at least to 40 (where I can think about respeccing towards Outland and endgame) into a BG on occasion and not suck.

Since you have PvP in mind, I would say:

19: Thundering Strikes
20: Two-Handed Axes/Maces
21-22: Improved Ghost Wolf
23-24: Improved Lightning Shield
25-29: Flurry
30: Spirit Weapons
31-33: Elemental Weapons
34: Improved Lightning Shield
35-39: Weapon Mastery
40: Stormstrike

Though I would consider dropping Shield Specialization for Ancestral Knowledge after 20.

[Copernicus]

Just my opinion, but while leveling, Improved Lightning Shield and Improved Ghostwolf are more useful than Enhancing Totems and Anticipation. I often use Ghost Wolf as an escape (Stoneclaw -> Ghostwolf) and I've found that more damage = faster killing, as opposed to less damage going to me. After dual-wielding, you can easily ditch 2-handed Maces/Axes unless you plan on PvPing at all (so I still have 2-handers :p ). Also, Improved Healing Wave is a better Tier 1 Restoration talent than Tidal Focus.

Aside from Healing Wave vs Tidal Focus though, that's pretty much personal preference and Arawaen's build is the most basic Enhancement build out there. Hi build is also better at 70 where there's more group situations (less chance to use Lightning Shield and Ghost Wold with totems being more powerful). There's really not that much wiggle room outside of the main line of talents though.

[Robot Fury]

While lightning shield does add some damage, while leveling I found it to be simply too much of a mana sink to keep up and maintain. The link Arawaen linked is exactly the same as mine at 70, and I find it to be great.

[Motorskills]

I've pretty much swapped much out Lightning Shield for Water Shield whilst grinding PVE as Enhancement.

[AwAkEnD]

Okay. How about dual wielding? What's the verdict on that? (I'm hoping I can use it to get lots of crits to power the Flurry ability.)

And assuming I go all the way to Shamanistic Rage, what should I do with the remaining 10 points?
PvE damage wise dual wield > 2-handers. With enough hit gear(and you can get 9% from talents alone) dual wield scales at 1.5x per point of AP, while 2-handers still scale at 1x(this is also the reason fury is better for (PvE)dps warriors dual wielding). PvP is another question. One I won't bother to go into since I never PvPed with my Shaman yet.

[Azulthar]

How does this build (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=uZEifdVMohuMo) look, then?
Perhaps I'm mistaking, but judging by what you said and by this build, it seems like you're pretty focussed on playing a support role.

Now that's all fine, but a Shaman is no Paladin. A lot of his worth to the group doesn't come from buffs/totems, but from what he adds personally in damage.

I'd really suggest picking up Elemental Weapons and Weapon Mastery. Unleashed Rage is also pretty decent if you're into party buffing.

Talents you can let go off are the Shield Specialization (useless once you get two-handers and/or dual-wielding), Guardian Totems and Enhancing Totems. Improved Weapon Totems is useful though. Windfury Totem makes quite a difference and is often asked for in parties.

[AusJeb]

While lightning shield does add some damage, while leveling I found it to be simply too much of a mana sink to keep up and maintain.

Hunh? I put LS up before combat and usually I'm at full mana again before the fight starts.

[Robot Fury]

Perhaps I'm mistaking, but judging by what you said and by this build, it seems like you're pretty focussed on playing a support role.

Now that's all fine, but a Shaman is no Paladin. A lot of his worth to the group doesn't come from buffs/totems, but from what he adds personally in damage.

I'd really suggest picking up Elemental Weapons and Weapon Mastery. Unleashed Rage is also pretty decent if you're into party buffing.

Talents you can let go off are the Shield Specialization (useless once you get two-handers and/or dual-wielding), Guardian Totems and Enhancing Totems. Improved Weapon Totems is useful though. Windfury Totem makes quite a difference and is often asked for in parties.

While I'm no slouch as far as dps goes, I've found in groups that my buffs make much more of a difference than what I personally contribute. I also get much more mileage out of Grace of Air than Windfury totem (in raids we put together murder groups when possible, and the combined effects of a feral druid's leader of the pack combined with my grace of air totem, strength of earth totem, unleashed rage, a beast mastery hunter's ferocious inspiration, and a dps warrior's battle shout are a terrible sight to behold).

Hunh? I put LS up before combat and usually I'm at full mana again before the fight starts.

Heh, you are a more patient man than I, but I'm also referring to the costs of keeping the shield up during combat. It runs out very quickly, and I prefer to conserve my mana for shocks and healing. The extra reflective dps is nice, yes, but after picking up dual wield and dual wield specialization it's just not needed more often than not.