Help a young Calf be a ShamanFollow

I took a break from my main, to play my Shaman. It is all by itself on a Normal sever (tired of PvP servers). It is level 20, has 10 copper to its name and a visit to the trainer shows 8-9 skills to buy. Now questing in south Barrens, and skinning what beasts I can. Still learning the class and could use any help the elders can teach the young one.

I read the FAQ and there was not much on leveling spec or otherwise. Like the playstyle, LB then beat them down and LB if they run. I know there instant casts also I use but forget the names.

I see shaman throw down 4 totem but either I do not have all schools yet or am using them wrong. Trying to do the water call now.

I know not to buy stuff from AH, thinking of dropping LW for now and pick herbs.

Thanks Gime

Kudos to Axehilt for the helpful info.

alcattle.

The reason you can't put out 4 totems is because at level 20 you will have only aquired your Earth, Fire, and Water totems. The quest for your Air totem isn't recieved until you make it to level 30. Nice thing about it is that you don't have a long quest chain to get it, unlike your other totems.

Pick up the quest for it from your class trainer when you reach 30.

In addition to what Axehilt put out, try to pick up quests that have you kill a lot of creeps to achieve your quest objective, such as quests where you have to kill a certain number of mobs, or pick up a number of a certain item dropped by a specific mob. Those are the best quests to pick up because they allow you to kill for exp and turn-in for exp when you've completed 4 or five of these quests.

As far as getting money goes, you want to have two gathering professions to help bring in a little extra cash. I find that mining is an excellent profession to have in early levels because it pairs with a lot of crafting professions very well. As a result, lower mined ores like copper and bronze are in very high demand on the auction house right now. One stack of copper ore (not even smelted copper) can get you 1 gold alone. Goldshire is a great place to mine copper to your heart's content. If you're horde, I believe Barrens and Durotar should have plenty of copper ore to be found. Yeah, it takes time to skill up mining and you have to actually go out and search for veins and deposits, but, if you're not the lazy type, it pays off. Search to your heart's desire and sell what you find on the AH. Always match Auction House prices or undercut slightly if there's a lot of that item there.

Now, for your second gathering profession, it's up to you. Skinning is excellent for you since you can often skin things while you grind mobs or do quests. They're right there waiting to be skinned, why not oblige? Of course, you already knew that since you say that you're skinning in the Barrens. :)



Edited, Apr 14th 2008 11:30pm by Amorei

Sorry - I mostly replied for the pun (I can't resist them, it's a disease)

But the greater detail here helps.

You said that the FAQ doesn't talk about leveling spec. I'll have to check it back out - maybe it just skipped what's common knowledge to shaman but not new ones. The leveling spec is Enhancement. Period. It sort of bogs down late 20's-30's. It's going to hurt. Stick with it. At 40 you'll feel like you rolled a whole new class.

But that's a ways away. You're 20. You talk about throwing 4 totems down. You can only throw 1 totem down for each element you have (Earth, Fire, Water, wind in level order). At 20 (assuming you complete the water totem quest) you have Earth, fire and water.

The best totem advice I got and that I can then re-gift is this:
If you're on the move? Totems aren't really worth it with the possible exception of searing. If you're in a spot where you can set up a "totem camp" and pull mobs to it then use your totems. Otherwise you're really just wasting mana for no good reason. I figured it this way - less than three mobs to my spot? Totem waste. 3 or more? Set up a camp with one of each I had and go to town.

edit: OH Money! I usually tend to set up comunes. But if I only had one toon 0 herb racial or no I think I'd go with mining skinning. Depends on your server but copper always sells for sick amounts so if nothing else take your mouted/wolfed self to lowbie areas, spend an hour and make 10g. 10g is crap at 70 but at 30-40 sans pet it's pretty fine.

Edited, Apr 15th 2008 12:19am by Celcio

Just to further back up the mining thing. I have mining/skinning on my new hunter alt and I'm sitting at around 30g at level 20 after having bought reasonably good bags.

UPDATE:

put points in Enhancement, including IGW. What a trip instant runs away button!
Got mining and found lots of copper. Will check AH next time in city for prices, but I think bars at first for the skillups.
Hit 21, found where a couple of the quests were that I could not find before.
Turned out an alt had 1 gold and bigger bags, so now Gime does.

Shaman Findings:

I am not a tank, 3 mobs are tough to handle.
Elite are still hard 1-2 level below me.
Searing totem twice the damage for 25 mana.
Flamecrest? Weapon hit tehm HARD!
Repair does not help the bankroll