For those that don’t know, the shaman class was only available to the horde in Vanilla WoW (as paladins were only available to the alliance). With the release of Burning Crusade, alliance gained the Draenei who could be shamans (supposedly they picked up the trade from the Orcs o.O). As Burning Crusade went on, I always felt surrounded by other shaman and just about anything but unique, but somehow I always managed to find a niche in groups.
My raiding experience has allowed me to glean much knowledge of how shamans can participate in fights in distinct ways to make encounters more successful. So here goes the first chapter of my series—Shamans, the Ancestral Guides.
General Shaman Buffs
Even now in Wrath after Blizzard has done so much consolidating of classes, there’s still some unique mechanics that Shamans bring to groups. For one thing, all Draenei provide a 1% hit buff to their party (it is not raid-wide), a very powerful group buff for every class. Shamans also provide Heroism/Bloodlust which has yet to be matched by any class. Purge is a spell that allows you to offensively remove magic effects from enemies and works similarly to Dispel Magic, Tranquilizing Shot, and Spellsteal.
Earth Shock and Wind Shock are currently spells that interrupt spell casting, but can only be done at a 20 yard range. In Patch 3.2 Earth Shock is being changed to function similarly to Thunderclap and Wind Shock is being renamed Wind Shear, but having the same effect.
Totems are widely considered the outstanding mechanic to the shaman class. Every shaman has the ability to absorb most single target spells (for some reason this doesn’t work on Kel’Thuzad when people accidentally pull aggro during Mind Control…). Shamans also have a various damaging totems to drop that by a precious few seconds of distraction after aggro dumps. Tremor Totem is also invaluable in fights with fear mechanics.
Mana Spring totem provides the same buff as the regular Blessing of Wisdom Paladin buff, except the buff provides 1 extra MP5 so the totem doesn’t overwrite the buff. In most cases, if you can afford to, Blessing of Wisdom is generally a more reliable way of achieving the MP5. Healing Stream, however, stacks and can’t be overwritten, so if you have a shaman or paladin providing either of the previous buffs, have the rest drop Healing Stream.
Shamans also have resistance totems that provide 130 resistance to Frost Damage (fire totem), Nature Damage (wind totem), and Fire Damage (water totem). These will stack with Gift of the Wild, but do not stack with Paladin Auras or Aspect of the Wild.
Elemental
Of course I have the most experience and knowledge of this spec, so I figured I would start out strong :) Elemental Shamans are caster genre dps, and, aside from the generic shaman buffs, provide 2 talented buffs. The first is Totem of Wrath. Before patch 3.0 it provided 3% spell crit and hit to party members; after 3.0 it provided 3% crit and 280 spell power to the raid. I was rather frustrated at first because it meant that I had lost another 3% hit rating and had to regem accordingly *grumble*
However 280 spell power is still a significant buff that no other class can provide, and the 3% crit rating is always nice. However, the crit buff or debuff on the boss from Totem of Wrath does not stack with the Ret Pally talent Heart of the Crusader or the Assasination Rogue talent Master Poisoner. There’s currently a glitch where when those buffs are applied to the boss, the Totem of Wrath aura gets cancelled and does not get reapplied; this is somewhat bothersome, especially if the rogue or paladin dies.
The other buff that Elemental Shamans provide is the talent Elemental Oath. Even with 0% crit rating, a shaman can maintain 100% uptime of this buff through Flame Shock + Lava Burst. However, this buff does not stack with the Balance Druid Moonkin Aura.
Elemental Shamans also have a knockback spell that can be beneficial when used at appropriate times, like knocking mobs away from healers and back towards the tanks, but please be careful when using it >.> Thunderstorm CAN stack with other knockback spells such as Typhoon and Blast Wave, so be careful not to knock mobs way too far away into other packs <.<’
Enhancement
Enhance Shamans are melee genre dps. I haven’t exactly messed around with the Enhance tree other than to dual wield Arlokk’s and Thekal’s Grasp for Halloween last year >.>’ but I have a pretty good idea what they do. The normal Strength of Earth totem buffs the raid with 155 Strength and Agility, but doesn’t stack with the Death Knight’s Horn of Winter; however, if the shaman puts points into Enhancing Totems, their Strength of Earth will override the Death Knight buff.
Another buff that Enhance Shamans provide is the Improved Windfury Totem, giving the raid 20% melee haste; however, this doesn’t stack with the Frost Death Knight talent Improved Icy Talons. I wish I knew more to say about Enhancement… but perhaps I will glean some more information from people and add it in later ^_^’
[later] Thanks to a tip from Rakhman, it was pointed out that Enhancement Shamans also provide a 10% damage buff to the melee via Unleashed Rage; however this does not stack with Trueshot Aura or Abomination’s Might. Thanks for the info :)
Restoration
The first thing that Resto Shamans, the healing spec, bring to a raid group is Improved Mana Spring Totem and Mana Tide. Improved Mana Spring Totem overrides even the Improved Blessing of Wisdom buff from Holy Paladins, and Mana Tide Totem is like a mini Innervate; although I haven’t verified this, I believe that Mana Tide and Innervate stack.
Resto Shamans can also spec into Cleanse Spirit which allows them to decurse alongside Druids and Mages. Decursing was incredibly important for Naxxaramas with the Noth and Sapphiron fights, but doesn’t seem to be all that crucial in Ulduar until you get to Yogg-saron phase 2, so some Resto Shamans don’t even pick up this talent if the group composition allows it.
Earth Shield is one of the more peculiar healing mechanics in the game, allowing a Resto Shaman to place an orbital mass to heal the tank. Aside from multiple Earth Shields not stacking on the same target, I’m not aware of any other spell that can interfere with the shield. Ancestral Healing is a talent that buffs the Shaman’s target with extra armor when their spell crits, but this does not stack with the Holy Priest talent Inspiration.
The Wrap-up
I’m sure there’s something that I’ve missed, but I think that gives a pretty good idea of what Shamans have to offer. Whether you play a shaman or are putting a group together, be sure to keep in mind all the things Shamans have to offer. Also remember that since 3.0 most totems are raidwide so bringing more than one of each type of shaman will cause you to run out of totems to drop. It’s the idea that over-synergizing your group causes you to have unutilized buffs that could be replaced with pure dps (with the exception of having two resto shamans).
Heads up! Next post should be about Paladins; I have a little knowledge under my belt, but I will have to do some research.
Tags: Elemental, Enhancement, Raid Buffs, Restoration, Shamans
Enhancement Shamans also buff melee with Unleashed Rage which provides 10% attack power buff to raid members within 45 yards. It doesn’t stack with Hunter’s Trueshot Aura or DKs Abomination’s Might. I had a 95% uptime on UR during the last raid I did.
Another talent enhancement shaman bring to a raid is Maelstrom, a 20% haste that stacks 5 times to provide instant cast heals or lightning spells. The value in this is the near constant availability of instant heals and helps alot on things like KT’s iceblock or Kologarn’s arm grip.
sorry, I should have been more specific in saying the availability of instant chain heals, as instant heals are readily available to a raid usually, but instant cast raid healing is not.