Talk to me about vanilla Shamans...

[Aquane]

There are two ways to be a good dps in PvE as a shaman and only two

the first way is to be an enhancement shaman using nightfall, and use searing totem on pulls longer than ~25 seconds

below is the second way

step 1: use searing totem on pulls longer than ~25 seconds

step 2: get a tank who makes a metric asston of threat consistently

step 3: wear as much mail gear as possible

step 4: depending on your playstyle, use the linked spec, or take the typical enhance spec, or take the typical elemental spec with 3/3 Elemental Devastation

http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=1122 ... 021050001r
use caster/hybrid gear in this spec, and keep in mind its only good when everyones in blues, you may also swap parry for the 31 point elem talent and swap eye of the storm for whatever else you'd like
EDIT: thanks for pointing that out Hatson

step 5: Ideally, you'll want to find a 2.00(not 2.1) speed 1 hander for the elem spec, doesn't need to have + spell damage, and for the enhance spec, you'll want to find a weapon thats as close to 3.9 speed as possible, if its The Nicker use an iron counterweight
but as the spec that I linked to, you'll want to find a 2.6 speed 2 handed weapon(but you'd replace with 1h at BWL/AQ20, caster weapon or not; don't get a 2.7 speed weapon until Dire Maul is released, and when it is use an iron counterweight on it and get 1 haste libram if you get a 2.7 speed weapon; if one hander, do not get a 2.7 speed weapon

examples of 3.9 speed weapons include Slavedriver's cane, Gri'lek's Carver(ZG), and Crystal Spiked Maul from Abyssal Signet(or scepter?) turnins; 3.8/3.7 speed weapons should work as well

examples of 2.6 speed weapons include the ZG trash mob staff, and Angerforge's Battle Axe(if you're a new 60), and thats about it outside of crafted items which don't go above lvl 52; 2.7 speed weapons include Treant's bane from DM tribute, Rod of the Ogre Magi from the same chest, and Hammer of the Grand Crusader from strat live; once you get a 1-hander that hits harder than a 52 blue 2h and is 2.6 speed you'll use a 1h+ shield instead

examples of 2.00 speed weapons: Masterwork Stormhammer(its expensive), Iceblade Hacker, Ancient Hakkari Manslayer, Rank 14 Daggers, Barman Shanker(good luck getting that one); 1.9 speed weapons should work as well, but they won't work as good as 2.00 speed weapons of similar dps

it is not a bad thing if you get a 1.9, 2.5, or 3.8, or even 3.7 speed weapon and use it

notably, and as is obvious, the spec that I linked to is only good until BWL, when you find a better weapon there, and the entire spec pales in comparison to the enhance spec
at the end, the elem spec is the best, and heres why

how to: play these three specs to do good dps

step 6: get in melee range and stay there as long as possible
step 7: if elem spec, spam lightning bolt in melee range; if either of the other two specs, hit the opponent wait .6-.9 seconds(depending on weapon and spec), then cast lightning bolt while still in melee range, and hope the opponent stays in melee range

you will quickly notice that your swing timer is running down while you're casting lightning bolt because of the way you're timing it

do not interrupt lightning bolt casts to stay in melee range; only interrupt it if the healers suck or you aggro or you're standing in the fire

on some fights you'll just spam lightning bolt from afar, unless you're the straight up enhance spec; in which case you just do the standard enhance routine that the guy with nightfall does

this is made possible by the same mechanics that marksmanship hunters rely on for their normal dps rotation with aimed shot, and iirc this(with hunters) is seen in some retail videos

if you have auto-attack activated, and then you begin to cast a projectile-throwing spell without deactivating auto-attack immediately after hitting the opponent, and the cast time is finished when your swing timer would otherwise finish, then your swing timer will go down while you're casting if the opponent is in melee range at the end of the cast and swing timers

this means that as elem spec, if you're in melee range and spam lightning bolt, every 2 seconds you will both hit them with a bolt of lightning and slap them with your one-hander at the same time, which can easily make 100-200 or more dps worth of difference depending on your gear choices

if you are either of the other two specs, if you have good timing you can attack, wait .6 or .9 seconds, then cast lightning bolt then at the end of the cast you'll land both a lightning bolt and a melee hit at the same time, but if you have flurry up, you can just spam lightning bolt until flurry is used up

as elem spec, you will wear spell damage gear(except the 1h weapon), and may want to pick up Storm Gauntlets, Heart of Wyrmthalak(or HoJ), and DMC: Malestrom, and a fiery enchant and the necklace from kazzak, but only if they scale with + spell damage on this server(it is implied that such items did on retail by wowhead and still did in wrath and possibly later); however with the other 2 specs this isn't so necessary

lategame you'll wanna use flametongue as elem spec because that scales with spell damage
also the spec that I linked isn't very useful outside of early 60

pros: high damage
cons: you oom fast(but so does ranged elem), you can't move from melee range, and spell pushback hurts dps; downranking lightning bolt is viable, you die from aggro even without rockbiter

this spec is hard, and in many boss fights it sucks, but when you can stand still, especially as elem, your damage goes out the fucking wazooand then you pull aggro and die

feel free to improvise with the playstyle

now, concerning resto shamans, you're always wanted just because you can heal and give the warriors windfury and you'll perform well in raids, but if you get 8/8 T1, you'll be using it until naxx
you should also use searing totem on pulls longer than ~25 seconds unless you have big mana problems as resto

[Hatson]

Ah, yes. The SP Melee. Aquane summed it up pretty good there.
It is indeed a rare sight, but I've seen and made it work before. It's quite demanding of circumstances to be juuust right to really bloom. It's a much more technical playstyle, but it can be very rewarding with the right gear and circumstances.

By the way, Aquane. Your wowprovider link doesn't seem to be working correctly. I think you need to drop the "www." part of it.

[drabus]

Great replies folks! Thanks for the input.

[Germinou]

Resto: Raids: Chain heal is amazing, keeps people that forget they have WASD keys alive during a fight.

Elemental: Raids: You can be pretty decent dps in ZG, after that you become increasingly less useful


Enhance: Raids: useless really, the 2nd you start doing good dps (which is possible with the right gear... think crit>all) you will instantly die from aggro as the dmg you do is ALL burst. (we had a shaman with the hand of rag, he wouldnt be on the dps meter... then he would... then hed be dead.)

I Can't agree.


Chain Healing is very expensive, and the rank 1 is not that useful is you don't have a decent gear, but I agree that it starts to be overpowered when you have 3/8T2 & Many +Healing & a few MP5 left.
Until then, you're more focused on deranked GH & FH.


Elemental Is complicated to play, requires a lot of consumables, a way much more than the 2 others specs.
If you can manage to always have Runes/manapots/Elixir/Flask/food/Oil/ then it's really not that bad.

Having 1 or 2 druid friends is also pretty useful in raid that your guild does without any problems, it saves a lot of gold.

Funny fact: Searing totem is 10/15% of your DPS. Which means you'll suck in MC & BWL. (Not even a joke )

You take a better advantage of spellpower than the other caster, but your spells are basically much worst.
You'll roll on cloth, making the mages & warlocks cry.
Dealing with mana is very problematic.
Expensive consumables.
Gearing is a pain in the ass. (you don't need that much crit on your gear, but having a little is fine, focus on spellpower, but you also need some +Hit, Do I have enough spelldamage to make deranking useful on my lightning bolt ? ....)


It's not a useless spec, but it's too complicated to play. In "normal" guilds, an excellent player playing elem spec would be great, and would probably be able to reach top 5 in recounts.

But the same excellent player would deal more damage if he was playing a mage or a warlock.



I won't talk about Enh, I don't know about it.

[venven]

We need someone to give mail crap to ! Hence the enhance shaman

I thought this was the reason why we usually take on board a few hunters?

[Envy]

Well no, we actually need those for a few fights, as hard as it is for me to say such a thing

[Hatson]

Tranqulizing shot is a real deal breaker.

[venven]

[Envy]

Unfortunately yes, I think it's one of blizzard's ruses to keep those silly dudes in raids though.

[Hatson]

That's actually factor of game design that I like about old WoW. It was also present in BC here and there, maybe not as obviously as in Vanilla. Every class has their own use and is special in their own unique ways and everyone brings something different to the table. Even though you can argue which ones are better and ignore some other ones.

A lot of people don't like it, so WoW naturally became more streamlined and classes homogenized with each other, for whatever reason. - As an avid D&D player since I was a kid, and RPG lover. I hate it when the characters you play become more and less the same, that's a really bad design for a RPG imo, and especially bad for a MMO if you're trying to immerse yourself properly and gain a proper identification and reputation relevant to what you decided to play race or class wise. When everyone is the same, doing the same thing, over and over, the reason to personally care for your character, or the game itself, fades out rapidly.

This is not a good design choice or philosophy.

I pick a Shaman because I love Shamans. Not because they're the best, in fact that couldn't be more from the truth. And I'm pretty sure people in Vanilla / BC play a Hunter because they enjoy playing their Hunter.
If you don't like doing less dps than the other guy, you can always reroll. If dps is all you care about.