leveling buildFollow

Hi Zarha. Playing first Shaman myself and have respecc'd already. Can offer my opinion...

Firstly, for PvP at low levels we can be a bit weak depending on build and totems used. I wont go into totem use, there's a load of info about, but here's what I did and it seems to be working out quite well...

First point I put into Shield Specialization (defensive), Ancestral Knowledge (mana), and Improved healing wave (heal speed). I built these three as a base until late level 20's while also maintaing a good shield and weapon. I'd tend to drop an Earthbind or Stoneskin totem (as they became available) during the fight as well as a searing totem for added damage (Rama's got a nice guide on totems here... http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/guides.html?guide=471 ).
Also, remember to always keep up your Lightning orbs (they do do some nice damage) and keep an enhance on your weapon. At Level 4, get the Earthshock spell - its invaluable as not only does it do damage, but it interrupts enemy casting, at which point they come into melee, which you're specc'd for.
This setup tended to give me a good grinding/PvE build for levelling. Miscellanious points were distributed randomly to support the build.

Later, at 30 theres a wealth of new enhancements available and as the environment got tougher I switched my talents. The only thing maintained from before was Ancestral knowledge at 5/5 for mana. I've put full points into Guardian Totems (improved defense), Thundering Strikes (improved crit), Lightning Orbs (defensive damage), Flurry (improve speed), and Spirit Weapons (parry) as well as 1 point into Elemental weapons (increased damage). This is, so far, quite impressive for levelling. With this build I've got a +5% crit on strike. If crit happens I get a potential free instant strike with additional damage plus I attack 30% faster. On top of those, the Elemental weapon talent gives me an additional 13% overall damage and the Spirit weapon talent gives me parry ability. With guardian totems dropped as well, you're pretty much a devestating PvE tank and you can hold your own in PvP.

I'll respec later for a more elemental/healing base, but for levelling, this has been working very well for me. Hope it may help a bit.


Edited, Nov 13th 2007 3:47pm by OzoneSSX

Read the thread in my sig, I do a level by level breakdown, obviously the 2 handed talent is no longer there since todays patch but take the new Shamanistic Focus in it's place instead.

Resto is kinda viable for leveling but it will be ridiculously slow. Elem is certainly also viable but suffers from a lack of gear pre outland, I personally would not spec elem till 58 when you can start getting good gear for it.