World of Warcraft Shaman Tips

Shamans are the spiritual leaders of their tribes and clans. They communicate with spirits, have visions of the future, and guide their people through the darkest of times. Many mistake their wisdom and serenity for a pacifist nature. When challenged, though, shaman have a range of powers available for dealing with threats to the natural order.

The Shaman is a secondary Healing class (to the Priest) with a fun assortment of spells and options. The Shaman is especially liked by party members for its Healing and beneficial totems. The Shaman has up to four types of totems: Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. An important part of playing the Shaman is figuring out which totem is best to use in each situation.

The Shaman is similar to a Paladin without as much armor.


Available Classes
Orcs, Tauren, Trolls, Dreanei


Extended Class Information

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Shamans are the spiritual leaders of their tribes and clans. They communicate with spirits, have visions of the future, and guide their people through the darkest of times. Many mistake their wisdom and serenity for a pacifist nature. When challenged, though, shaman have a range of powers available for dealing with threats to the natural order.

The Shaman is a secondary Healing class (to the Priest) with a fun assortment of spells and options. The Shaman is especially liked by party members for its Healing and beneficial totems. The Shaman has up to three types of totems: Earth, Fire, and Water. An important part of playing the Shaman is figuring out which totem is best to use in each situation.

The Shaman is similar to a Paladin without as much armor.

Strengths
Can heal themselves and other players
Can resurrect other players
Can get Wolf Form early on allowing them to travel very fast
Can recall back to their home location with Astral Recall
Receive a spell for breathing under water


Weaknesses
Can only wear leather armor initally making them less able to absorb damage than the Paladin and Warrior



Information

Challenges
-Learning how to be a good healer
-Learning how to use Totems properly, learning all spells, and learning how to use everything in combat.
Allowable Races: Orc, Tauren, Troll
Standard Bars: Health/Mana
Allowable Equipment: Cloth, Leather, Shields, Mail (with training)
Allowable Weapons: One-Handed Maces, Staves, One-Handed Axes (with training), Daggers (with training)


Totems

The Shaman has up to three types of totems: Earth, Fire, and Water. The Shaman must earn each totem by questing. The Earth totem is the first totem that's available. Other totems are available at higher levels. You should stop by the trainer every so often as you level up to see if they have a quest for a new totem.

Totems appear in the game in two different ways: as inventory objects and as spell effects. In order to cast totem spells, the Shaman must have earned and possess in his inventory the totem for that element. When he casts a totem spell, he generates a temporary magical totem on the ground nearby that can be seen and attacked by players and monsters.
Totems remain stationary and do not move with you. You and your group must remain close to the totem to benefit from it.

Totems are Soulbound, meaning that you cannot give one to another player. Totems are required in your inventory to cast a totem of that totem type. For example, if you want to cast a Searing Totem of the Fire Totem type you must have a Fire Totem in your inventory. The good news is that the totems have unlimited usage once you get them. You don't have to continue to buy reagents to use your totems.
You can have one totem of each totem type active at a time. For example, you can cast up to three totems at once: an Earth Totem, Fire Totem, and Water Totem.
The last totem overrides the previous totem of the same type. If you cast a fire totem, then cast another fire totem the last one will cancel the first one. This is important to know because you don't want to waste your mana by casting two totems of the same totem type.
Once placed on the ground, totems can be attacked by both monsters and players. This is important to realize as enemy Shaman can cast totems as well. When you see an enemy Shaman cast a totem, attack and destroy it.



Earth Totems

Stoneskin Totem - Reduces physical damage taken.

Earthbind Totem - Slows down enemy movement speed. Cast this totem shortly before an enemy is about to run away. This will slow him down so you can kill him before he can get help from his friends.

Strength of the Earth Totem - Gives nearby party members a bonus to strength. This has the potential to increase their damage and other bonuses depending on their class. If you have a lot of melee strength based tanks, you might find this useful.

Stoneclaw Totem - Taunts nearby creatures to attack it. This is one of your most useful Totems. When the monsters are attacking this totem, they are not attacking you. This means less damage during a fight. This is also a somewhat useful escape totem. Cast it and start running after the monsters start attacking the totem. This can sometimes be enough to allow you to escape without dying.

Tremor Totem - Shakes the ground around it, waking party members from harmful status. This totem is useful for when monsters try to put you to sleep or use other "harmful status effects."

Fire Totems

Searing Totem - Summons a Searing Totem at your feet that attacks nearby enemies.

Water Totems

Healing Stream Totem - Heals nearby group members. Use this during or especially after battle.

Frost Resistance Totem - Increases party members' frost resistance. This is useful against monsters that have frost attacks.


Especially Cool Abilities!

Ghost Wolf - Research this ability as soon as it is available. This allows you to transform into a wolf and run faster! A special button will appear on your interface once you have learned Ghost Wolf. You cannot cast spells or do many other things as a Ghost Wolf. You cannot ride air mounts such as Wyverns while in Ghost Wolf form.

Astral Recall - The Shaman can use this spell to return to the Home Point. This is especially useful for many applications such as selling, turning in quests, meeting up with people, and more!

Rebirth - Resurrects players! This is an invaluable ability that is required often and is greatly appreciated in a party.


Earth Magic

Earth Shock - A direct damage spell that also disrupts spells from being cast. You can cast this while running.

Rockbiter Weapon - Adds additional damage to each hit.


Spirit Magic

Purge (Dispel) - Removes one magic effect. Use this if the enemy has some kind of buff on. Once it's removed, the enemy will be weaker and hopefully easier to kill.
Far Sight - Changes the caster's viewpoint to the targeted location. This spell is especially useful for scouting, for looking for certain NPCs, and for FUN! Far Sight rules.


Fire Magic

Flame Shock - Sears the target with fire and causes damage over time. Use this ability if you will be fighting the monster for a longer period of time. If you use it on a monster that will be killed pretty quickly, then the spell is somewhat wasted.

Flametongue Weapon - Adds possible fire damage to your weapon. This ability will put an awesome fire graphic over your weapon, which will draw attention from other players. You can cast this while running.

Molten Blast - Direct damage spell. You can use this instead of Lightning Bolt if you choose. You can even focus on fire with talents and use Molten Blast primarily.


Water Magic

Healing Wave - Heals a friendly target. This is your healing spell. It's one of your most important spells since you will need it to heal yourself and your party members.

Frostbrand Weapon - Chance of causing additional frost damage and slowing the target's movement speed. This ability is great to use in addition to the Earthbind Totem against monsters that are going to run.


Air Magic

Lightning Bolt - This is a direct damage spell useful for finishing monsters off, doing damage to them or even pulling monsters. You may want to specialize in Lightning or go for Fire and use Molten Blast.

Lightning Shield - A chance the attacker will be struck for damage. This expends X charges. This ability is useful for protection and additional damage.


Other Spells

Water Breathing - This is useful if you're fighting for extended periods of time under water or just for fun and exploration. You can cast this on other players too!

There are other cool abilities at higher levels.


Tips

You should cast Searing Totem at the start of the battle, and then cast a direct damage spell (Molten Blast or Lightning Bolt) to pull the monster. If the monsters are spell casters, you might want to start off with the spell Earth Shock to prevent them from casting spells (or healing). If you are soloing, you should cast the spell Lightning Shield, make sure your weapon damage buffs are active, and then engage in combat. At some point, you should cast the spell Stoneclaw Totem, which will taunt the monsters off of you, to allow you to attempt to heal yourself, or run away if you're in trouble. You should cast Earthbind Totem to prevent the monster from fleeing or you can try to finish off a running monster with one of the shock spells or your direct damage spell.

-You have several planning options from going heavy armor, defense, and defensive talents to focusing more heavily on caster like stats such as mana, spell specialization, and so on.


Trade Skill Options

You can pick whatever you want. You might find these more tailored to the Shaman:

Skinning and Leatherworking - The Shaman can create Leather armor for himself or sell it to others.
Herbalism and Enchanting - Shaman can enchant their equipment to make themselves more powerful.
Herbalism and Alchemy - The Shaman can create buff potions or healing potions.