Shaman PvPFollow

Ive posted a couple of times on the site, and one of the underlying things ive noticed is a lot of people say dont roll a shaman if you dont like pvp. I am not on a pvp server, and ive only dueled once.(Just as the duel started the phone rang and I crit-ed him with a lightning bolt and won under 10sec.) I was just wondering, are shamans bad at pvp and raiding? I mean I really love my shaman. I just finished a quest in under 5min that took my mage 20min. So I was just wondering about the pvp/raiding aspect of the game since it comes into play later on.

You won't have a problem raiding although it will help if you're willing to respec resto and heal. Other shaman specs have a harder time getting into raids just because there's a surplus of dps and not many healers. However, shamans are gods in PvE and with hex at 80 probably the single best class for 5-mans (ironically).

In PvP they're epic fail. If you like BGs, then don't worry, a shaman can still do plenty of damage in the chaos of BGs. It's in small-scale combat (read: Arena) that they are very weak because of their lack of defenses. That only impacts a minority of players.

Enjoy.

Actually yes, I didn't think about that. Twink shams in the 49 bracket are so OP it's not even funny (unless your the twink).

In end game raiding enh can do really well, the problem is getting the +hit you need. Requires alot of drops from random heroics, a few exalted faction rewards, and alot of badges. One you get the gear though you can break 4k DPS with ease. Other classes seem to scale a bit better then enh shams.

Ele is still pretty fail ATM. Mainly because the buffs they bring are usually brought by a resto sham already in group, plus the lack of AoE damage. However, the numbers aren't so low that people just will not bring you, unless your in a high end raiding guild, there will always be a spot if you have shown that you come prepared and know your stuff.

BTW, there are very few elemeental spec shamans these days.

I often got into raids as the ONLY shaman (invited as the Heroism bot, coz my dps is really bad still even though am mostly 10man naxx geared, barely breaking 2k.... sigh). If there were any other, it's usually a resto.

Edited, Jan 8th 2009 4:15am by waihwang

Similarly, I have long advocated the 39 bracket for shams. I have a twink at that level that I have been crafting over the past year or so, and he is unequivocally my favorite toon to play. No exceptions. At first he was resto (mmm, Nature's Swiftness... I get weak just thinking about it), then with the respec of WOTLK I thought I'd try enhance. My shammy has excelled with both, although once you get the confidence & gear to go slugging, that is the shizzle. I stand toe-to-toe with warriors & pallys -- much to their disbelief at having a target not run away -- and simply out-slug them. Great fun.

To be fair though, there are some downsides for this bracket. The big crime is loss of the speed monopoly we used to have with druids. With some +run speed on the boots, I was the fastest thing out there. Now with lvl 30's able to ride mounts, that advantage has mostly evaporated. (Good for flag carrying still.)

Also, to concur with others here, rogues are the bane of my shammy's virtual existence. I can beat them many times if I have a ready-trinket to de-stun me, but if there are two together, forget it. Good/geared locks can get me with life drain if I am not careful, but pretty much anyone else better tread carefully.