#0 - Aug. 25, 2006, 12:48 a.m.
This FAQ is set up to help players both new and old with some of the more common questions asked about this class.
This FAQ is divided into several sections. The first section deals with basic questions for players new to the shaman class. The second section deals with more advanced questions about playing shamans. The third section deals with shaman spells. The fourth section deals with shaman talents, and the fifth deals with the quests for this class.
Another Shaman FAQ, independent of mine, is available at http://www.peopleofgaheris.com/shaman-faq.html . As well, Thottbot has a good set of information about shamans here: http://www.thottbot.com/?c=Shaman .
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section 1 -- Introductory Questions About Shamans
1.1 What are shamans?
1.2 What is the role of a shaman in groups?
1.3 What are a shaman's strengths?
1.4 What are a shaman's weaknesses?
1.5 What race is the best race to be a shaman?
1.6 Are shamans overpowered and deserving of a nerf?
1.7 What is the best class to duo with a shaman?
1.8 What is the plural of shaman?
1.9 Are there any current issues with the shaman class?
Section 2 -- Shaman Playstyle Questions
2.1 What are the most important statistics for a shaman?
2.2 How does block work?
2.3 How does mana regeneration work?
2.4 Which is better: one hand + shield or two hand?
2.5 Which weapons should I train/use?
2.6 How do I play a shaman well?
2.7 What's the basic tactics for a shaman soloing?
2.8 What's the basic tactics for a shaman in an instance group being a secondary healer/tank?
2.9 Hi! I'm a new shaman that has mainly been soloing. I got into my first instance (Ragefire or Wailing Caverns) as a healer and kept getting aggro and dying. What am I doing wrong?
2.10 What are the best professions to take as a shaman?
2.11 I have all of the abilities and not enough room on my quickbar! What do I do?
2.12 Can a shaman be a primary healer for an instance?
Section 3 -- Shaman Quest Questions
3.1 Where do I find everything for the Call of Fire quest?
3.2 Are there any other shaman quest guides out there?
Section 4 -- Shaman Spell Questions
4.1 Why does Reincarnation have such a long ressurection sickness?
4.2 What effects does Purge purge?
4.3 Can we have multiple totems up?
4.4 What does tremor totem protect against?
4.5 What is the difference between Astral Recall and our hearthstone?
4.6 How does Stoneskin work?
4.7 Does Stoneclaw totem work?
4.8 Which is the best weapon buff?
4.9 Do weapon buffs stack? Can I cast one and then have my totem give me another?
4.10 Can the extra hits from Windfury proc another Windfury proc?
4.11 Do shaman totems stack?
4.12 How do +healing and +damage items work?
Section 5 -- Shaman Talent Questions
5.1 What are good talent builds?
5.2 Are there any talents that I *shouldn't* point points into?
5.3 What's better: Ancestral Knowledge or Shield Specialization?
5.4 Do Troll Regeneration and Combat Endurance stack?
5.5 What does Anticipation do?
5.6 How do spec points into the Restoration Tree?
5.7 If I untrain my talents, will I lose my skill levels in my two-hand weapon skills and my extra ranks of Mana Tide Totem?
5.8 Are there any sites that have a talent builder I could use?
Introductory Questions About Shamans
1.1 What are shamans?
Shamans are the Horde-only class, designed to be healer/warrior/mage hybrids. Generally, we have spells and abilities taken from those base classes combined into one class. We also have totems which add a variety of effects, from group buffs to debuffs and attacks.
The class itself is a complex class that has one of the more varied amount of spells and effects present. Shamans are the most versatile class in WoW.
The official page describing shamans is here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/shaman.html
1.2 What is the role of a shaman in groups?
In the earlier levels, shamans can fulfill primary tank and healer roles. However, by late to end game, shamans are mainly expected to be secondary tanks and healers, and to offer support via totems and the variety of spells.
1.3 What are a shaman's strengths?
Shamans have the following strengths:
* Versatility. With the amount of spells available, a shaman can adapt to pretty much any situation.
* Melee. With mail armour and shields, shamans have third highest AC in the Horde, behind warriors and druids in bear-form. With weapons buffs and this AC, a shaman can hold his own in most melee situations.
* Healing. While shamans are one of the worst healers in the game (better than paladins, but worse than druids and priests), they *can* heal. WoW does seem to be biased toward healing.
* Shocks. Shamans have three "shocks" -- insta-cast spells on the same timer that have a variety of effects. One shock has a DoT, one has spell interruption, and one has a snare effect.
1.4 What are a shaman's weaknesses?
* No Crowd Control. A shaman has no crowd control or the ability to temporarily remove enemy mobs or players from combat.
* Hybrid healing. While a shaman can heal, the class does not have the level of heals that a druid or priest has access to. Unlike a priest, a shaman has no insta-cast heals or shields and has no aggro-minimizing spells or talents.
* Mana usage. Shaman are one of the worst class for mana efficiency. A shaman's heals are less efficient than other healers' and the damage spells burn more mana per damage than other casters. As well, shaman generally have smaller mana pools than casters at the same level. Therefore, mana conservation is a key to playing a shaman well.
* Totems. Totems, while the source of the shaman's uniqueness and strength, is also a weakness. Totems are easy for mobs and players to kill. Totems left behind can aggro mobs which will attack the totem's creator. Totems will also indirectly increase the aggro radius of a shaman because each totem has its own aggro radius.
* Cost. A fully trained shaman at level 60 has spent 226g20s10c according to the numbers on Thottbot. That's higher than a druid (215g2s71c), who has three forms worth of training to purchase. (I don't know if this is different now after a few patches ago, but I don't feel like checking).
1.5 What race is the best race to be a shaman?
Short answer: personal preference is the dominating factor for race choice. Create a tauren, orc, and troll shaman, and play around with them. Level them up to 5 or 6, and check out the racial abilites, /dance, /flirt, and /silly emotes.
Long answer: it is generally considered that Tauren have the best racial abilites of any shaman race. The warstomp ability especially complements the shaman class which has no inherent stun and several important spells which can be fit into the 2 sec window such as improved ghost wolf and lesser healing wave.
Tauren have three set backs as largest race in the game, however:
* Hard to see around. Tauren are big and this sometimes causes problems when you are trying to see the battle in front of you. This is especially notable in confined spaces.
* Frame is big. The tauren character model is big and sometimes causes problems when moving in confined spaces.
* Big target in PvP. The tauren model is the largest and therefore easiest model to manually target in PvP.
I do not think those drawbacks balance the better racial abilities. But, I'm a tauren, and may be biased. NOTE: I did take a troll shaman to 60 in beta. I prefer tauren over troll, but mainly due to stylistic reasons.
1.6 Are shamans overpowered and deserving of a nerf?
Short answer: No. Even if we were, do you think we'd admit it? :P
Long answer: the basis for the "overpowered shaman" myth is that, in earlier levels, shamans have an edge in 1v1 PvP situations given our large amount of useful abilities. However, as the game progresses, shamans lose this early game lead as the rest of the classes mature. As well, there are several misunderstandings about what exactly shamans can and cannot do.
1.7 What is the best class to duo with a shaman?
Short Answer: As a hybrid, more or less any class can be paired with a shaman and have the group work for non-instanced questing and leveling.
Here are a couple of my recommendations:
Warlock/Mage/Hunter: The main reason for these are the same -- they offer some crowrd-control abilities (pets, poly/frost) and DPS to a shamans tanking/healer strengths.
