Shaman guide for WoW Forever

The shaman is the Horde's hybrid in Classic and, in Forever, the Alliance's too thanks to the dwarves. It uses mana for everything, wears cloth or leather until level 40 and mail from then on, can carry a shield and supports the group with totems: objects it plants on the ground, one per element (earth, fire, water and air), that give buffs or deal damage while they stand. It also has Ghost Wolf for travel and Reincarnation to come back to life.

Elemental (damage)

Nature and fire damage caster, with Lightning Bolt as the main spell and Shocks for instant damage. Forever reorders its talents and gives it Call of Thunder, which raises the crit chance of its lightning spells by 5%.

Enhancement (damage)

Melee with a slow two-handed weapon and Windfury Weapon, which adds extra attacks using weapon damage. In Classic Era the shaman has no dual wield. One of its new Forever talents, Rage of the Farseer, sits on row 7.

Restoration (healing)

Healer with Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave and water totems for the group's mana. Forever gives it Riptide, which does not exist in Classic and can now crit.

On October 7 Blizzard continued its Forever class deep dives with the mage and the shaman. These are the changes you will notice most as a shaman, in our own words. Blizzard warned that abilities and talents could keep changing during the beta, and the Elemental tree did change afterwards.

• Easier totems: a 1-second global cooldown instead of 1.5, 5 minutes instead of 2 for the ones that give persistent buffs, and an interface that shows which ones are active and how long they have left. Resistance totems affect the whole raid.
• Calls and relocation: at level 20, Call of the Elements drops the four totems you set on the totem bar at once and Totemic Recall removes them all and refunds 25% of their mana. Call of the Spirits and Call of the Ancestors add two more sets, and Totemic Projection (level 22), now Totemic Call, teleports your totems to your own location with a 30-second cooldown.
• Weapon imbues: all of them, Rockbiter Weapon included, last 60 minutes instead of 5 and combine with sharpening stones, weightstones and wizard oils.
• Totems that change: Fire Nova Totem is gone and Fire Nova becomes a spell that deals Fire damage around your active Fire totem. Windfury Totem and Flametongue Totem become group buffs (raid-wide since October 15) that do not combine with each other and do nothing for you if you carry the imbue of the same name, and Tranquil Air Totem is removed.
• Lightning: Lightning Bolt casts in 2.5 seconds from rank 4 and Chain Lightning in 2, with a lower spell power coefficient.
• Elemental: the deep dive had Lava Burst arriving, but it no longer exists: Call of Thunder replaced it at launch and increases the critical strike chance of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning by 5%. Elemental Alacrity, formerly Lightning Mastery, moves far up the tree and cuts 0.5 seconds from the cast of your lightning spells (the November 2 notes call this talent Lightning Mastery); Lightning Overload can repeat your lightning spells for free at half damage, and Earthbound makes Earthbind Totem root nearby enemies for 5 seconds.
• The Elemental tree, afterwards: the October 15 notes removed Call of Thunder, brought back Elemental Mastery as the 31-point milestone and moved Earthbound to the 16-point one, as in beta build 1.60.1.70532. The November 2 notes removed Lava Burst, brought Call of Thunder back in its place and renamed Elemental Mastery as Lightning Mastery.
• Enhancement: Stormstrike moves to the 16-point milestone, with an 8-second cooldown instead of 20, and boosts your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Earth Shock by 20%. Rage of the Farseer (31-point milestone) raises your attack speed by 30% for 25 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown, and Maelstrom Weapon builds charges as you hit that shorten your next Lightning Bolt until it is instant. Mental Dexterity and Mental Quickness turn part of your intellect into attack power and spell power. Two-Handed Axes and Maces, Weapon Mastery, Enhancing Totems and Improved Weapon Totems become baseline.
• Restoration: Riptide (31-point milestone) heals over 15 seconds, on a 12-second cooldown and with no initial heal, and makes your Chain Heal 25% more effective on that target. Water Shield (11-point milestone) gives you mana when you are hit or land a spell critical, Mana Tide Totem moves to the 16-point milestone and Mindfulness lets you regenerate mana while casting.

Read our summary of the deep dive or Blizzard's official article.

Blizzard's November 2 development notes, in force at launch, rebalance the shaman. Blizzard explains that it raised damage across all classes and the health of higher level creatures to compensate, and that it does not plan big tuning changes before the raids open next month.

• Elemental: Lava Burst is removed and Call of Thunder replaces it, increasing the critical strike chance of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning by 5%. Elemental Mastery is renamed Lightning Mastery, with a new icon. Lightning Overload now has a 10/20/30% chance to trigger a duplicate spell, up from 3/7/10%.
• Lightning: the base damage of every Lightning Bolt rank increases, more on the higher ranks, and each rank is roughly 78% of its Classic Era base damage (with a lower cast time). Chain Lightning casts in 2.5 seconds, its primary target base damage is about 145% of the comparable Lightning Bolt rank and its mana cost about 225%. The base damage of all Shocks returns to Classic Era values.
• Totems: Totemic Projection becomes Totemic Call: it teleports your totems to your own location, with a 30-second cooldown. Elemental Reach no longer reduces that cooldown. Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem now animate an additional weapon swing attack.
• Enhancement: Improved Ghost Wolf moves to row 4. Maelstrom Weapon triggers twice as often. Stormstrike deals 150% normalized weapon damage, up from 100%, with a 6-second cooldown instead of 8. Mental Dexterity gives 50/100/150% of your Intellect as Attack Power, up from 33/67/100%. Flurry raises attack speed by 6/12/18/24/30%, up from 5/10/15/20/25%.
• Restoration: Riptide costs about 40% less mana, its cooldown goes up to 12 seconds from 6 and it no longer heals instantly, only over time.

The October 15 development notes, in the client since build 1.60.1.70450, bring more shaman changes. Chain Lightning costs much less mana (145 at rank 1, against 280 in Classic), and Fire Nova costs less but hits much softer: 226 to 252 damage at its last rank, against 396 to 442 for Classic's Fire Nova Totem. Stormstrike now costs 8% of base mana, Mana Tide Totem gets an extra rank at level 38 (ranks now at 25, 38, 48 and 58) and Water Shield triggers on a critical from any spell, not just heals. Windfury Totem, Flametongue Totem, Grace of Air Totem and Strength of Earth Totem now reach the whole raid, and the Elemental tree is reshuffled, as described above.

Build 1.60.1.70170, from October 1, only brings fixes for the shaman: Totemic Recall now refunds mana when you recall your totems, as its tooltip says; the Disease Cleansing Totem now lasts its intended 5 minutes, and Ghost Wolf is easier to see in well-lit areas.

In the previous build, 1.60.1.70009, the shaman had eight documented changes, and three of them are about totems. The one you notice most in a group: Tranquil Air, Windfury and Grace of Air totems no longer stack across different shamans. According to the October 7 class deep dive, a group cannot have Windfury Totem and Grace of Air Totem at the same time, even from different shamans; Tranquil Air Totem is removed, and on October 15 Grace of Air Totem became compatible with Windfury Totem again. Flametongue Totem changes too: it no longer has a duration, is replaced instantly and does not stack through recasting, with Flametongue Weapon or with Windfury Totem. Also, the Windfury and Flametongue buffs now show the totem's name instead of "Passive" or "Effect".

Ranged damage gets two changes. Lightning Bolt gets more damage on ranks 3 and 4 to smooth out progression; in Classic those are the ones you use roughly from 14 to 25. And in the talents, Elemental Fury ends up on row 6 (it is on row 5 in Classic), and Elemental Alacrity, formerly Classic's Lightning Mastery, moves up to row 3; since October 15 it sits on row 2.

Enhancement has a new row-7 talent, Rage of the Farseer, which no longer increases spell casting speed; the October 7 class deep dive explains that it is a 3-minute cooldown that increases your attack speed by 30% for 25 seconds. Restoration gets Riptide, another spell with no Classic equivalent, which can now crit.

Recommendation: Enhancement from 10 to 60, with Elemental as the alternative if you prefer ranged play. Enhancement lives off a slow two-hander, easy to keep upgraded through quest rewards and dungeons, and spends little mana, so you have some left to heal. Elemental kills each mob faster, but runs out of mana sooner. Restoration is for dungeons: a reset cost 1 silver in the beta; at launch, check what it costs at your trainer.

How the climb breaks down, broadly:

• From 1 to 10, Lightning Bolt to open and your weapon to finish. Totems arrive through class quests over the first 30 levels; do them as soon as they show up.
• From 10 to 30, the slowest two-hander you can find, with Rockbiter Weapon. Ghost Wolf at 20 saves you a lot of time.
• From 30, Windfury Weapon: every proc is extra hits with weapon damage, and weapon speed matters more than ever.
• From 40, mail. Replace your leather as soon as you can.

Talents: row 6 needs 25 points in the tree, so if you level Elemental you will not have Elemental Fury before level 35; Elemental Alacrity, on the other hand, already sits on row 2. For Enhancement, Rage of the Farseer (row 7, 31-point milestone) does not arrive before 40. Those levels assume you do not have the Legacy node Talented, which brings talent points forward. The 16-point milestone is new in Forever and there are two class presets if you would rather not decide.

Pacing in Forever:

• No level scaling: avoid orange mobs. As Enhancement you will miss too much and as Elemental you will run out of mana.
• Dungeon quests: since October 1 they give half the extra experience they used to give on top of a normal quest. Go in for the loot and the mobs, not just the quests.
• Totemic Recall at the end of every fight: since October 1 it refunds part of the mana of the totems you recall.
• Spend your Legacy Points if this is your main: Well Rested, the example perk Blizzard has shown, gives more rested experience.
• Stop at the campsite before every dungeon: repairs, vendors and up to three one-hour buffs.

Elemental wants spell power (specific nature damage is worth almost the same, since Lightning Bolt is nature), spell hit, crit and intellect, plus mana per 5 seconds because it runs dry early. Our weights give crit a high value thanks to Elemental Fury, but they are built for level 60: in Forever that talent sits on row 6, so while leveling, in our opinion, crit is worth less than the table shows.

Enhancement is a slow-weapon melee: two-hander DPS and speed above everything, because Windfury Weapon hits with weapon damage; then strength (1 strength = 2 attack power), agility, and hit and crit side by side. Intellect and spell power count for Shocks and totems, and in Forever the Mental Dexterity talent also turns part of your intellect into attack power.

Restoration looks for healing and spell power, then mana per 5 seconds, weighted more than for other healers because shaman spirit regen is poor, and intellect. Crit was already worth something through its talents; with Riptide now able to crit, our reading is that it is worth a little more.

At level 30, the beta's last cap, the shaman does not wear mail yet (it arrives at level 40), so its gear comes from Leatherworking, Tailoring and dungeons. Enhancement is the Leatherworking tree: six recipes, three of them from the brawler's set, plus the Ghostshard Talisman from the Scarlet Monastery, the Wolfclaw Gloves from Razorfen Kraul and the Viscous Hammer, a world drop, as the two-hander. Elemental combines three Leatherworking and two Tailoring recipes with the Bloodmage Mantle and Scorn's Icy Choker from the Scarlet Monastery, the Spidertank Oilrag from Gnomeregan, the Abomination Skin Leggings from Shadowfang Keep and the Mechanic's Pipehammer, a reward from an Alliance-only quest in Gnomeregan. Restoration wears three Tailoring pieces, one Leatherworking piece and an Enchanting orb, plus the Death Speaker Robes and Death Speaker Scepter from Razorfen Kraul. The trinkets, and depending on the tree a ring or the cloak, come from the battleground supply officers; our list mixes both factions' versions, so get the one for yours.

On the way, at level 20, Enhancement wore The Axe of Severing from Shadowfang Keep, the Cape of the Brotherhood from The Deadmines and the Gloves of the Fang from Wailing Caverns, and Elemental took five dungeon pieces, among them the Tree Bark Jacket and Ghamoo-ra's Bind from Blackfathom Deeps.

Higher up, the Scarlet Monastery has seven BiS-marked items for the shaman, four of them for Enhancement (Scarlet Leggings, Raging Berserker's Helm, Flintrock Shoulders and Ghostshard Talisman), and Blackrock Depths has four. Forever's new dungeons that are already playable (Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron and Excavation Site) have no BiS-marked loot for the shaman in our data yet. The list per level and slot is on the shaman BiS page.

What it can wield. In Classic the shaman uses daggers, fist weapons, one-handed axes, one-handed maces and staves, carries a shield and has no dual wield; it has no ranged weapon either, and that slot holds the totem, which our lists do not score. Two-handed axes and maces required the Enhancement talent Two-Handed Axes and Maces in Classic, and that talent is no longer in the beta's tree: in the October 7 class deep dive Blizzard confirmed it becomes a baseline ability. As in Classic, every weapon type has its own skill, which rises with use up to 5 points per character level: with a newly learned type you will miss more for a while.

What our lists score. The types our shaman lists score are one-handed axes and maces, fist weapons and daggers, and two-handed axes and maces and staves: the lists assume you can use all three kinds of two-hander. Enhancement compares a two-hander against a one-hander and shield; Elemental and Restoration a one-hander with a shield or an off-hand item against a two-hander. The weapon skill points some items carry add nothing to our score.

What changes in Forever. According to Blizzard's Deep Dive Panel Recap, weapon skill works as it always has, but items that grant it give less per piece so they are not always the obvious pick. For Elemental and Restoration another point of the same recap matters more: caster weapons now grant spell damage and healing, so the weapon becomes an upgrade you chase while leveling again. Enhancement still wants a slow two-hander, because Windfury Weapon strikes with the weapon's damage.

Racials. In Classic, weapon racials were 5 points of skill with that weapon type; in Forever they are critical strike chance while you have it equipped, and they count for spells too. Two shaman races have one:

• Dwarf, the new combination: gains Mace Specialization, 1% crit with all spells and attacks while a one- or two-handed mace is equipped. It works for an Enhancement shaman with a two-handed mace and for an Elemental or Restoration shaman with a one-handed mace alike.
• Orc: Axe Specialization gives 1% crit with all spells and abilities while a one- or two-handed axe is equipped.

Trolls lose their bow and throwing specializations, which shamans do not use, and the tauren and the Skyborne have no weapon racial. The full comparison is in the best race for a shaman.

The shaman's big news in Forever is that it is no longer Horde-only: the dwarf shaman is one of the six new combinations and the only way to play a shaman in the Alliance. The Horde keeps orcs, tauren and trolls, and adds the Horde Skyborne; Alliance Skyborne cannot be shamans. The Skyborne start on Zephras Isle with their own level 1 to 12 adventure and have two active and two passive racials, not yet detailed for the shaman.

Among the racials changed in the beta, the ones that touch the shaman are the dwarf and orc weapon racials, covered in Weapons and weapon skill, and the tauren's Cultivation, which in Forever requires a character level equal to the herb's level divided by 5 (herbs needing 300 or more, at level 60).

Skinning + Leatherworking is our recommendation for leveling: Enhancement wears five Leatherworking pieces in the level-20 BiS and six at 30, the beta cap, and Elemental and Restoration wear one to three. You do not wear mail until 40, so Blacksmithing gives you no gear of your own in that stretch. Forever adds more than 600 new recipes and a passive bonus per profession.

If you heal, Tailoring gives you Restoration's three cloth pieces, although it has no matching gathering skill. For gold, Herbalism + Alchemy sells mana potions to the whole server (with the Cultivation change if you are a tauren). First Aid saves mana and Cooking gives a small experience bonus through crafted food. Each profession's leveling path is in the profession guides.

• Dropping totems without looking at the group. Windfury Totem and Flametongue Totem do not stack with each other, even from different shamans: if there are two of you, split the totems.
• Pairing Flametongue Totem with Flametongue Weapon. They do not stack, nor with Windfury Totem. Pick just one.
• Counting on Elemental Fury at row 5, as in Classic. In Forever it sits on row 6; without the Legacy node Talented, it does not arrive before 35.
• Leveling Enhancement with a fast weapon. The slower and higher-DPS, the better.
• Looking for Lava Burst. It no longer exists: Call of Thunder replaces it.
• Staying in leather past 40. Mail gives far more armour.
• Taking Rage of the Farseer to cast faster. In Forever it no longer speeds up your spells.
• Pushing orange quests. Without level scaling, the gap is paid in mana. Move zones.