Before asking "is my build good" read this. (Shaman edition)Follow

Alright.

We don't really have a lot of advice on builds going around in the Shaman forums, and I made one of these posts in the Rogue forums, and a lot of people have said that it really helped, and I'm bored enough that I'll write one for us Shamans as well.

I'd also like to preface this post with a disclaimer. I do not have a level 60 Shaman. I've played PTR Shamans since patch 1.10, and my own Shaman on Draka. I will be taking input for builds, but where others make take a verbal lashing about knowledge, I will not. I am a veteran MMO player, and I research things quite thoroughly when I am interested in them. As I am very much interested in talent builds, you can rest assured that I have done my homework. It also keeps me from dying of boredom when I'm in classes or at work.

Breakdown of the post:

1) Level 60 builds: this will be a section regarding the 41 point talent trees which are currently in use. I will go through each spec that I'm aware of and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each, along with the general play-style of that build.

2) Level 70 builds: obviously nothing is set in stone yet, but none the less, I can still make some sweeping generalizations, as well as debate on the raid viability of some of the more interesting builds. I will need help for this section, so feel free to submit some info.

Anyway, on to the level 60 builds.

First, we have the Elemental tree. This is the tree that focuses on offensive magic. Builds that are derived from this tree are Elemental Mastery and Totem of Wrath.

Elemental Builds:
Elemental Mastery is a build that plays much like a Mage; you're going to be basically spamming Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning from the back of your PvP group. As far as I know (Ele Shamans feel free to chime in), it doesn't have a whole heck of a lot of raid viability; this could of course change once Paladins are introduced and Shamans can get Blessing of Wisdom (30 m/5). It's indredibly powerful in PvP, and not very gear-reliant. That being said, it's not a leveling build. You need to stop to drink often with this build.

Totem of Wrath is not a build I'm familiar with; everything I've heard about it, though, is bad. It's basically a stationary Moonkin aura with 5 HP. Not very useful at all in PvP, and as said before, I'm not very confident in Elemental Shaman's raid viability.

Second, we have the Enhancement tree. This tree focuses on DPS and melee buffs. This is also my favorite of all the Shaman trees, and the best tree for leveling. This tree will have a heavy reliance on your weapons: either 1h and shield, dual wield, or 2h. There is some pretty heated debate as to whether Enh Shamans will be raid-viable in BC, and I have the opinion that yes, they will be. Taking a look at the talent and some of the gear that will be available just makes it seem like common sense to me.

Enhancement Builds:
Shamanistic Rage is a build with versatility in it's melee damage; you can switch between those hard-hitting 2h weapons or DW for maximum DPS. This is my own personal preference in terms of build, and it does very well in PvP.

5/36/10 is a build that is reliant on shocks--Frost, Earth, and Fire--to deal additional damage. Stormstriking and them Earth Shocking will deal some heavy damage, and will destroy casters in PvP.

You can also spec without DW, without 2h weapons, etc. These are just the two I prefer.

The third and final tree is Resto. This was the raid tree pre-2.0.1, but now is just one of them. Resto Shamans in PvP will be incredibly hard to kill, dish out much less damage than Enh and Ele Shamans, but survive longer, all things equal. For raids, this is still a very much specced-into tree.

Resto Builds:
Earth Shield is an incredibly powerful talent, both in PvP and in raids. with Earth Shield up, even Paladins will think twice about taking you on, as it's very, very hard to outlast a Shaman with Earth Shield up. Raid usefulness is very high with this build too, though I'm not much for being a healbot, so I choose not to spec into this tree. Keep in mind that regardless of spec, if you go more than 30 points into Resto, you will be expected to heal in raids.

Mana Tide is a spec that was very popular before the 41 point trees were introduced, though it's rare to see now after 2.0.1. It's basically a healer that has more offensive capability than a full Resto Shaman, at the cost of some survivability.

Nature's Swiftness is a build that many, many Shamans were fans of before the introduction of DW to the Enhancement tree, as they didn't like Stormstrike too much. This is pretty much the hybrid build; a build that will be able to heal pretty well and melee pretty well. Of course you won't be good at either, but that's what you sacrifice to have both. I don't recommend it for anyone that wants to raid.

41-point talent builds will be coming along shortly, though if you want to build one and submit it to me via PM with a write-up, I'll take a look at it for sure, and probably post it.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and please give me feedback to make this better! This could save our regular posters and new posters alike time when they're looking for help with builds!

Edited, Dec 20th 2006 10:30pm by Theophany

Thanks for the additions. I'll work on adding them in to my OP.

You are, of course, entitled to your opinions, but without presenting proof, please don't present your opinion as fact in a thread that many new players will be reading.

Shaman's main role in end-game raids is to heal and get rid of disease/poison.
Shaman cast a few lightning bolts here and there, but not often enough to warrent speccing full Elemental, and Shaman won't be Dual Wielding in raids, so it's silly to spec Enhancement.

If you're raiding, your guild will expect you to spec Resto (at least up to Nature's Swiftness, and most will want Mana Tide Totem also).

The Restoration tree is set up specifically for Raiding, everything in the Resto tree helps you with what you'll be doing the most of in raids, and that's heal and support.

IMO.

I also think This is a better Earth Shield build. But that's also my opinion.


Edited, Dec 21st 2006 2:37pm by Galanda

Edited, Dec 21st 2006 2:39pm by Galanda

You may be absolutely correct, Shamans may still be forced into only a healing role in the end, but you dont need to be resto to be a healer, I do it fine better then most and atm i am 0 points resto. Enh shamans may still be good enough for atleast better SoE, GoA, and WF. I am sure tho that in a raid an Enh Shaman can still atleast DPS on trash which we will help alot there. Same goes with Ele shaman, using totems to better caster groups and helping down trash, using thier superior mana regen deffinately will help during boss fights even if they have to be a healer.

We will have to wait untill the expansion, resto makes being a healer easiest and offers some nice abilities, but any shaman can heal alittle know how. NS was one of my favorite talents, but i only ever used it in raids if i pulled hate, in which case i would still die. Mana Tide sounds like a nice totem, but from what i understand a good guild dont really need them, but i am sure it still helps. Earthen shield sounds amazing and would be the only reason I would ever consider resto.

Edited, Dec 22nd 2006 1:34am by jmfmb

I'm not trying to pigeonhole Shammy into a healing role.
All i'm saying is that Shammy just end up healing in end-game raids.
And i'm not saying that Resto is the ONLY spec you can take to raid, i'm simply stating that (IMO) it is the best possible spec for you to take in a raid because it helps improve your role in the raid, thus helping the raid overall.

And Theo, Healing Way is overrated IMO.
It only effects Healing Wave, not Lesser Healing or Chain Heal.
I use Chain Heal and Lesser Healing more often in raids than Healing Wave.
And it only effects the one target.
So if it procs, it will only work for the person you last targetted.
And the proc ends up getting wasted (wears off) if you heal someone else (Because the targetted person doesnt need any more healing for example).
It's a situational bonus, and the times it would truly be effective are rare.

Well, thanks for the post Teophany, I hope it'll help me with my shaman alt (as I am quite a newb shaman player :P).

Now I am quite surprised at the thought of resto shamans being really useful in pvp, is it true they can stand their ground 1vs1 ?

Also, about the enhancement-shock shaman, what do you think about dropping the 10 resto points and some off enhancement to make a (18/33/0) build ? to get elemental devastation, something similar to this:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/shaman/talents.html?5500014000300000000050052301050013250010000000000000000000000

Here's my stab at an Unrelenting Storm/Nature's Swiftness Raid build. Keep in mind my Shaman is only 35 right now but similar to the original poster, I do have a brain and have been playing MMOs and skill-build based RPGs and action RPGs for a good ten years now, (Fallout!) so my opinion isn't totally invalid.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/shaman/talents.html?5500015500001530000000000000000000000000005204001305010000000

The build focuses on a few things, namely getting mp/5 via Unrelenting Storm, reducing the casting cost and threat of every spell you could possibly cast, and having something to do with your mana pool if you have a lot (which for a shaman, if you want a lot of mana all the time instead of a 3 minute refresh as per Mana Tide Totem, this is pretty much how you'd go about it) since mana, being an infinitely renewable resource, is going to waste if it's full and when you're not actively healing you're dropping totems and have the option to also nuke for some better than average damage. It also has nature's swiftness onboard which is IMO a life saver. 5 points can be taken from somewhere and put into Ancestral Knowledge but I think that would weaken the utility of the build somewhat.

The build more or less assumes that the shaman won't be generating that much threat via spellcasting due to all talents in place that affect threat gain, and is strictly PVE oriented so isn't concerned with the safety of the shaman per se, since any situation in which this build does what it's supposed to has a tank involved.

for healing purposes you will prolly get more benefit just going deeper into resto tree, and for nuking deeper into the element tree. But atleast as a resto shaman you can still have some of a healing edge, once we are 70 an elmental shaman can heal pretty well as a http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/bc-shaman/talents.html?5500010513001535105100000000000000000000005034300005000000000 makeing this shaman still a good pvp dps and possibly a trash dps in raids. This will give him 9%hit 14% crit just from talents aswell as cheaper nukes and heals, and when this shaman crit heals with its 8% extra crits to heals from talents he can increase armor wich will happen often.

About clearcasting Teophany I think of it as a way to cast some shocks for free, at least in the (18/33/0) type of build.

I was also thinking about a build similar to Infares for raiding, but then of course I don't know much about raiding shamans, however I think it is a pretty nice hybrid build that'll help you do a little Dps and heal away as usually expected.


I don't know much about elementalist shaman's, apart from partying with one yesterday and going to ZF, he had Totem of Wrath but seemed to think he was an enhancement shaman as he would never, ever, stop to cast a lightning bolt, except to make a pull. On top of that he, the warrior and the mage (all from the same guild btw) stopped to SLOWLY read the description of "the hand of Antu'Sul" letting the basilisk mobs eat away happily at out priest (I was able to SP two off him but... :S) at which point he got pissed and somewhat logically left the party, I did not trust the melee fighting elementalist shaman at healing in the least yet I stayed a bit more, sure enough, he sucked and kept charging into melee, I was already feeling staying in the party would be an utter waste of my time so I soon decided to leave on the pretext of having dinner waiting for me, sighs.

Some people have yet to understand how specialization helps determine their role in a group, when that person is a Hybrid class, as in a shaman, I find it to be quite a mispurpose. The stupid shaman should've rolled a warrior.

Ah, I like the look of that one Vitos :D

I think mana management will come into the forefront now that blizzard has nerfed Downranking healing and attack spells. This is the concept of getting enough +heal gear to cast lower ranked healing spells than the maximum and still healing efficiently for the mana spent. As of now, it's going to become difficult to keep your mana in longer raids and instances and will result in a lot more downtime, in addition the healer running out of mana can be fatal in longer fights, and you can't drink water while in combat.

Assuming 300+ Intellect at level 60, Unrelenting Storm gives you 15 mana every 2.5 seconds, which could lead you to equip more intellect gear in the first place and by extension increase your total mana pool while generating even more mana/5. While going more deeply into resto makes you a better healer, it doesn't necessarily make you a longer healer.

[Edit: Blah signature ><]

Edited, Dec 26th 2006 10:09pm by Infares

Yah, I just saw the gear for all 3 specs, some pretty good stuff, although I think adding Unrelenting Storm to the vast INT bonus and mp/5 found in the Resto spec build would be a great thing, and even if you just go 25 deep into Elemental just for Unrelenting Storm, you can still go 36 into Resto by level 70, while you are missing out on the 41 point talent in the resto tree you're still gaining a bunch of mana in return for the sacrifice even if you're otherwise full resto, Unrelenting Storm is actually better for resto than it is for enhancement or even elemental.