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