Old player yet new

[Norferat90]

Ok hello all.

Been playing Vanilla multiple of times.

Everything from Warlock, Rogue, Warrior in different aspects.

Thinking of Shaman but what is worth to keep in mind?

Was thinking of Shaman and pvp. Am I screwed when it comes to gearing up as I wan't to focus on Enhancement as most people probably prefer healbots in dungs/raids when it comes to shamans.

Was also thinking of Mage and they maybe are easier to balance without respecs between Pve/pvp.

My last option is to go Warlock/ warrior again but bit tired to turn to this option as I've had multiple high ranked warlocks already.

[Aethershock]

Just made an account to answer this question as I obtained Warlord in classic wow on the Blizz servers many years ago.

The spec you intend to try with the Shaman and how comfortable you are winning/losing to certain classes will drastically change how much enjoyment you get out of it. I originally went the suicide spec of mostly into Enhance for Storm Strike then the leftovers into Resto for the very basic healing, you can find gear that helps a bit but it's mostly going to be hybrid gear and a lot of the damage you do will be tied up in how good a weapon you can get while getting your stamina up as high as you can (I used a mix of the AB rewards gear and Champion gear until I got parts of the General/Warlord sets.)

It can be a lot of fun especially with a good weapon, it can hit really hard and it's a caster's nightmare. You have to be a bit careful with Paladins and Warriors as they can, if good, make things annoying. Rogues will make you want to pull your hair out if they're halfway decent...but the more experience you get against them will help mitigate the frustration. Sometime to keep in mind is having to master your totem use as it can really shut some specs down and is vital against enemies like the aforementioned Rogue (poison sucks.)

Once I reached around rank 5-6, I swapped to the Elemental Mastery/Nature Swiftness build and stuck a shield on me, bit less aggressive but it becomes way way more supportive while in BGs and helping others while still being able to do respectable damage.

As for PVE, Enhance and Elemental can work in dungeons but raiding becomes quite a bit harder. It's doable, but finding a raid leader that would allow you to was my biggest roadblock. I kept a resto off set at times because most saw me as a walking resist totem. That said, as Elemental, I didn't have much problems in earlier content but the resist heavy fights like those in MC/AQ really gimp your damage output as a caster and threat can be an issue if you're geared enough as an enhance shaman.

I found both specs enjoyable and still play my shaman to this day on the live servers...but Vanilla shamans had their work cut out for them to be viable in PVE unless you're resto (or could get great gear, but that was SLOOOW), PVP was a bit more forgiving and enjoyable.