Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12)

Hey guys,
So i would like to play a shaman on Nostalrius, and i want to know if there is a way to level him as an enhance/elemental hybrid. I like the idea of unconventional builds, if they are by any means viable is the other question. I'm not really experienced with shaman so i googled alot and searched this forum for information about classes and stuff. One thing i stumbled upon is that enhancement shamans just get oom alot and gotta have to rely on the RNG windfury crits. So i thought, wouldn't it be possible to make like an on-hit elemental shaman?
By that i mean i would still go for stormstrike in the enhancement tree but i would get alot of stamina/intelligence/spirit gear to use LB/CL/shocks. I probably would go for the flametongue enhancement because windfury is out of the question since i would only have the attackpower from my weapon and it probably would be more consistent since flametongue always hits. Maybe getting a weapon which has an on-hit effect to add a little bit of spice to SS ( i don't really know if SS scales with on-hit weapon effects, correct me on that if i'm wrong)
My talents would be something like this:
https://en.nostalrius.org/talents/shaman?build=5500010503000002505230005003151000000000000000

The bad thing is that i can't go for Lightning Mastery, but i would be autohitting more than i would cast CL/LB. I would be casting CL/LB when i'm out of range for a melee attack or when i'm rooted. So the question is if it would be viable or if there is a way to make improvements on that build (probably alot ).
It's just an idea, so pls be gentle since i'm not entirely experienced with the materia of a shaman and i want to learn stuff.

Best regards,
Saruwatabi

Hello Saruwatabi,
i have leveled shaman few times as enha, but never as ele so i cant judge on that spec, however the class is hybrid in its core and until around level 50 when your stats will be heavily focused on one aspect, you would be using most of your arsenal. As enha, i still did good use of shocks, would occasionally cast lightning bolt for engage and ofcoarse heal myself. The spec you linked looks to me simply as a enha spec using ele as off tree. Imo it would be much more productive if you use resto for that purpose. There, you'll have tidal mastery to make up for the spell crit, but also apply to your heals. Healing focus will replace Eye of the Storm and i dont see other reasons to cast any spells while being hit, but to heal yourself. The mana efficiency that elemental offers can be cough up by Totemic Focus, which makes your totems so much more appealing. And ofc on the utility part, you get Nature's Guidance which almost alone brings you on the hit cap against targets same level for both spells and attacks.
Few extra points id like to add from my experience on leveling shamans. Purely measuring damage per mana, after searing totem, lightning shields comes first in place, then there is flame shock and lightning bolt, which comes on par as long as your targets takes the full dot effect. Mana spring is almost always worth to cast, the remaining of the totems work if you manage to kill 2-3 while benefiting of the effects. Stoneskin is a must against fast attack mobs like cats or dual wielding, since it will shrink their damage by far. I found out rockbitter will surpass WF DPS wise most of the time, WF will only catch up whenever you take new rank, but go behind as soon as you learn rockbitter again. Imo WF purpose is mainly for pvp during leveling and for dungeons if you have agro issues. Flametongue goes slightly behind rockbitter in higher levels, but keep in mind monsters armor and resistance when deciding which one to use. Frostband seems a fine choice for fast attack weapons, since neither its damage or proc rate seems to be affected. Stromstrike is mana efficient only when you use slow attack weapon paired with rockbitter or WF.
Maybe an elemental build would work more for a hybrid purpose.

Sylvant wrote:Hello Saruwatabi,
i have leveled shaman few times as enha, but never as ele so i cant judge on that spec, however the class is hybrid in its core and until around level 50 when your stats will be heavily focused on one aspect, you would be using most of your arsenal. As enha, i still did good use of shocks, would occasionally cast lightning bolt for engage and ofcoarse heal myself. The spec you linked looks to me simply as a enha spec using ele as off tree. Imo it would be much more productive if you use resto for that purpose. There, you'll have tidal mastery to make up for the spell crit, but also apply to your heals. Healing focus will replace Eye of the Storm and i dont see other reasons to cast any spells while being hit, but to heal yourself. The mana efficiency that elemental offers can be cough up by Totemic Focus, which makes your totems so much more appealing. And ofc on the utility part, you get Nature's Guidance which almost alone brings you on the hit cap against targets same level for both spells and attacks.
Few extra points id like to add from my experience on leveling shamans. Purely measuring damage per mana, after searing totem, lightning shields comes first in place, then there is flame shock and lightning bolt, which comes on par as long as your targets takes the full dot effect. Mana spring is almost always worth to cast, the remaining of the totems work if you manage to kill 2-3 while benefiting of the effects. Stoneskin is a must against fast attack mobs like cats or dual wielding, since it will shrink their damage by far. I found out rockbitter will surpass WF DPS wise most of the time, WF will only catch up whenever you take new rank, but go behind as soon as you learn rockbitter again. Imo WF purpose is mainly for pvp during leveling and for dungeons if you have agro issues. Flametongue goes slightly behind rockbitter in higher levels, but keep in mind monsters armor and resistance when deciding which one to use. Frostband seems a fine choice for fast attack weapons, since neither its damage or proc rate seems to be affected. Stromstrike is mana efficient only when you use slow attack weapon paired with rockbitter or WF.
Maybe an elemental build would work more for a hybrid purpose.

Thank you for the very informative reply!
Is it very hard to level as elemental? i read you get oom very fast. Is there a way to amplify my mana effeciency? because i kinda like the idea of a tanky caster who can also heal.
My talents would look something like this if i would be to choose elemental:
https://en.nostalrius.org/talents/shaman?build=5500013503021515000200000000000500053000000000
I really like the imp ghost wolf, but i don't know if NS is much more superior as an elemental shaman.

Best Regards,
Saruwatabi

Are you asking for lvl 60 specs or for leveling?

Leveling you take what you get. Whatever spec you take you while leveling you will be mostly white hitting + shocks. With staves (i advise them) or fast 1H + shield. So playstyle won't differ ALOT while leveling. Also i'm not a big fan of going out of your way to get specific items while leveling. Like repeating certain dungeons for 1 item... Unless its actually a decent endgame item.
While leveling enhance i focus more on weapondmg then on attack power; so just get a good weap than stack int and stamina.

Endgame on hit shaman isn't really a thing. If some items scale with spelldmg (axe of hakker, Skullflame shield, Storm gauntlets) they scale too little and have a very low proc to make it worth it.
If you go stormstrike and not go a big 2H + WF don't even bother. I can see your build being ok in PvP if you just stack spelldmg gear and get a big slow 2H (can switch to fast MH with flametongue + shield vs melee) . https://en.nostalrius.org/talents/shama ... 0000000000

Just get it out of your head that you will be casting bolts or chain lightning alot because they will take a long time to cast

Playstyle will still be mostly like a regular enhancement shaman but your damage will shift a bit from melee to earthshocks. It could work, damage could be more reliable. You will have bigger self heals, bigger mana pool. full enhancement are more like a lottery anyway. If you get a big WF you kill shit instantly if you don"t get it or are up vs heavy armored target, evasion rogue you will do very little. You will also go oom after 1 fight XD

If i ever get my ele shaman built i might pick up a big 2H and try it myself since it only requires the good 2H.

Killstick wrote:Are you asking for lvl 60 specs or for leveling?

Leveling you take what you get. Whatever spec you take you while leveling you will be mostly white hitting + shocks. With staves (i advise them) or fast 1H + shield. So playstyle won't differ ALOT while leveling. Also i'm not a big fan of going out of your way to get specific items while leveling. Like repeating certain dungeons for 1 item... Unless its actually a decent endgame item.
While leveling enhance i focus more on weapondmg then on attack power; so just get a good weap than stack int and stamina.

Endgame on hit shaman isn't really a thing. If some items scale with spelldmg (axe of hakker, Skullflame shield, Storm gauntlets) they scale too little and have a very low proc to make it worth it.
If you go stormstrike and not go a big 2H + WF don't even bother. I can see your build being ok in PvP if you just stack spelldmg gear and get a big slow 2H (can switch to fast MH with flametongue + shield vs melee) . https://en.nostalrius.org/talents/shama ... 0000000000

Just get it out of your head that you will be casting bolts or chain lightning alot because they will take a long time to cast

Playstyle will still be mostly like a regular enhancement shaman but your damage will shift a bit from melee to earthshocks. It could work, damage could be more reliable. You will have bigger self heals, bigger mana pool. full enhancement are more like a lottery anyway. If you get a big WF you kill shit instantly if you don"t get it or are up vs heavy armored target, evasion rogue you will do very little. You will also go oom after 1 fight XD

If i ever get my ele shaman built i might pick up a big 2H and try it myself since it only requires the good 2H.

Thank you for the reply!
Yeah, i was talking about endgame, sorry i didn't mentioned it. I already thought it wouldn't really work out, but i guess you never learn I think i'll just go with elemental and try a few different specs.

This is very viable because there is a bug on this server where Flametongue Weapon scales with spellpower, abuse this.

sanserof wrote:This is very viable because there is a bug on this server where Flametongue Weapon scales with spellpower, abuse this.

Has this been proven?

joeway wrote:

sanserof wrote:This is very viable because there is a bug on this server where Flametongue Weapon scales with spellpower, abuse this.

Has this been proven?

Well you can easily try it out yourself.

sanserof wrote:

joeway wrote:

sanserof wrote:This is very viable because there is a bug on this server where Flametongue Weapon scales with spellpower, abuse this.

Has this been proven?

Well you can easily try it out yourself.

don't have any + spellpower gear yet lol. too low.