World of Warcraft Healers - Doomhaven's Shaman FAQ 1.20

Shaman Playstyle Questions

2.1 What are the most important statistics for a shaman?
Short answer: INT, STA, and SPI.

Long answer: it is really based on your build. If you wish to make a more melee based shaman, then strength, agility, and stamina are probably things you wish to maximize. Some shamans find a agility based build to be more to their taste (see: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=23517&p=1&tmp=1#post23517 ). Given that we are an hybrid class with decent melee, there is no really wrong answer. And given that all statistic maximizing is done with equipment, you can keep all your bases covered with a varied selection of choice equipment stored in your vault.

Iistaur made a good post here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=36420&tmp=1#post36420 with the following information:

Your level in agility will increase your chance to crit on a melee hit by about 1.03%.
Half your level in agility will increase your chance to dodge or parry by about 1.03%.

1 Strength* = 0.142 DPS so its basically 7 Strength = 1 DPS
1 Strength = 2 Melee Attack Power

Strength also increases the amount of damage you block with a shield (but not your chance to block which is based on Agility)

A standard caster build emphasizes INT, STA, and SPI.Intellect adds 15 mana per point, and 1% chance to cast a crit spell every 100 INT. Stamina adds 10 HP per point. Spirit increases mana regen by 1 mana per tick (2 seconds) every 5 SPI, and 1 health per tick every 9 spirit.

Additional threads covering this question are available at:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=23490
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=23972

2.2 How does block work?
Aryxymaraki answers that question in this thread http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=17517 which I'm quoting for posterity:

Q u o t e:
This is how block works.

Every time you get hit, you have your % chance to block. If you don't, nothing happens; if you do, continue reading.

When you block an attack, you deduct some amount of damage. This is equal to your shield's block stat + some modifier from your Str (I don't know exactly what, but higher str means more damage blocked).
This shows in your combat log as "You take x damage (y blocked)". This means that had you not blocked, you would have taken x+y damage.

The only time you will see the "block" animation and get the combat message "They attack. You block." is if your block reduces the damage you take to zero. That's how it works. I block all the time, and it's working fine.

2.3 How does mana regeneration work?
Your mana regenerates all of the time, except for a period of five seconds after you start casting a spell (thanks to Sherman for the correction here). In this five seconds, you have no regeneration. This is commonly called the five second rule. A spell here is defined as anything that costs mana to cast.

One interesting note is when spells *don't* cost mana, they will not start this timer, and you will continue to regen mana. Nature's Swiftness costs no mana, and will not invoke the five second rule. Spells casted with the clearcasting state from the Elemental Focus talent also will not start the five second timer.

Totems, on the other hand, will start the five second timer.

Mana regenerates according to how much spirit you have. Take the amount of spirit you have, and divide it by five. Then add 17 to this value. That is around how much mana you should regenerate ever tick ( 2 seconds). You do not mana regen faster if you are sitting down or standing up. You do not mana regen faster in battle or out of battle.

2.4 Which is better: one hand + shield or two hand?
Short answer: this really depends on play style and situation. There has been no good analysis that concludes with one or the other being superior.

Long answer: A good thread on this subject is here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=24784 . Gruul and Viz do a really good analysis, and ultimately, the choice is 20% increase of DPS or doubling your defense from 20% DR to 40% DR.

2.5 Which weapons should I train/use?
This is another personal preference. A shaman *can* use every melee weapon in the game except swords and polearms. The only note is that the more weapons you wish to be proficient at, the more time you will have to spend maintaining the skills in those weapons.

2.6 How do I play a shaman well?
Two big suggestions:

Learn your spells and totems. Versatility is your greatest assest and you should know in any situation which spells to use to be able to best aid yourself and your group.
Learn mana conservation. A shaman has some of the most mana-inefficient spells in the game, as well as having a lot of different spells to cast IE: healing vs damage vs totems. As well, given that shamans are a hybrid, some may choose equipment builds that lean away from the caster-favoured INT/SPI builds.

2.7 What's the basic tactics for a shaman soloing?
Verify your weapon buff and lightning shield are up. Lay out a couple totems depending on personal preference and mob pulled. Pull with lightning bolt. Follow up with an earth shock if the mobs starts to cast. Purge if necessary. You want the mob to be near your totems so that you get the benefits from the totems. If the mob runs, use earthbind or frost shock to snare him and finish him off. Use the stoneclaw totem to deal with adds.

Chukok has a much better and more detailed description here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=27572&tmp=1#post27572 .

2.8 What's the basic tactics for a shaman in an instance group being a secondary healer/tank?
In this thread http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=38967 , I give the following answer:

Q u o t e:
In BRD and BRS, I do the following:

1) Backup healing. I am always watching the main healer's mana and everyone's health.
2) Runner killer. I am keeping an eye on mobs that can run to frost-shock / earthbind / melee them. There are so many places where a runner can and will get adds and wipe your group.
3) Totem herder. I am always re-assessing the situation and the battle location to make sure totems are up, the correct totems are up, and near the fight.
4) Anti-caster. I am using earth-shock to pull in casters and grounding totems to take spells for the team. I'm learning in BRS that grounding totem can and will save your life, and I'm getting to the point where checking the grounding totem cooldown is just another part of playing smart.
5) Off-tanking. Sometimes an extra elite mob needs my special attention while the DPS squad cleans up.
6) AOE. In groups with a large amount of non-elites, I toss out magma totems and chain lightnings to help back up the cloth when they AOEs.
7) Dying well. I have to keep an eye out for where the mobs spawn and don't so if I die, I can die somewhere I can self-res without re-aggroing and dying again.
8) Bodyguard. I keep an eye open for mobs making a break for the main healer or other caster and earth shock them to pull them off the caster onto me. The real tanks should do this, but sometimes, one slips through.

And, I'm doing all of the above while I'm in the thick of the battle laying down some baseline melee DPS on whatever mob the /assist command points me at.

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?
First, warriors and druids do not get aggro management abilities into the mid-teens (Mocking Blow at level 16 for warriors) or later.
Secondly, as most players are new to grouping in the first instances, their ability to manage aggro is quite weak.
Thirdly, there are several things a good low-level shaman does while soloing that he *shouldn't* do while grouped as the group's healer:

Don't cast any self-weapon buffs, *especially* rockbiter. The more damage you do, the more aggro you get, and then rockbiter gives more aggro on top of that.
Don't cast lightning shield. When a mob is aggroed on you, it will take more damage from you from the shield, and therefore aggro on you more.
Limit earth Shock usage to spell interruption and killing runners. Earth Shock generates a lot of aggro additional to the aggro it would cause by damage alone.
Hang back from skirmishes. As main healer, it isn't your primary job to deal damage -- it is to heal. So, hang back and let everyone else fight, and jump in after everyone has got a good amount of aggro.

As you see, each of these suggestions are not something a soloing shaman would normally do. And, from that, it isn't unusual for most shamans to enter their first instance and have problems with aggro management.

2.10 What are the best professions to take as a shaman?
Here are some of my picks:

Leatherworking/Skinning. This is a good profession as you can make mail for your later levels as well as leather beforehand. As well, a lot of the later armour is designed with shamans in mind, like turtle scale armour and voodoo armour. Lastly, I think this profession generates more money than it costs, which is always a plus for the cash-strapped class.
Alchemy/Herbalism. I took this for my shaman. I consider the buffs and mana potions indispensible.
Engineering. This is good for shamans that embrace the "versatility" mentality of the class. A lot of the engineer items shore up the shaman's class deficiencies. The point against engineering is that it is an expensive profession, and most of the items created cannot be used by non-engineers which limits the marketability.

You could take smithing, but I find it isn't a good fit for shaman. There isn't much of the armour that is useful, and only a couple weapons stand out for shamans.

I'd recommend against enchanting as a shaman, because enchanting can get very expensive.

2.11 I have all of the abilities and not enough room on my quickbar! What do I do?
Most shamans use custom UIs to give them additional buttons. My personal pick is Cosmos ( http://www.cosmosui.org/ ), but a wide variety of them are available. See http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-interface-customization&t=2626&p=1&tmp=1#post2626 for more information.

2.12 Can a shaman be a primary healer for an instance?
Short answer: no. A shaman, on his own, cannot be a primary healer for an instance.

Long answer: yes. However, a shaman cannot be a primary healer without the following:

Heavily invested in restoration talent tree.
Equipment that is chosen for INT/STA/SPI.
Intelligent groupmates that understand a shaman is not as powerful a healer as druids or priests and alter their tactics accordingly.

One thing to point out is that shamans are more powerful as secondary healers and support characters, so while it may be possible to play your character as a healer, it is not an efficent usage of your spells and abilities.

The following thread discusses this: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-shaman&T=35271&P=1

Shaman Quest Questions

3.1 Where do I find everything for the Call of Fire quest?
Wulfheir made some excellent maps to show where everything is:

Here is a map of Durator showing where to find the Trail to Mountain Peak and the cave that drops the Reagent Pouch: http://www.wulfheir.com/pics/call_of_fire_1.JPG

Here is a map of The Barrens that shows where Kranal Fizz and the area where Razormane Geomancers are that drop the Fire Tar: http://www.wulfheir.com/pics/call_of_fire_2.JPG

3.2 Are there any other shaman quest guides out there?
A good source of information is Thottbot: http://www.thottbot.com/?f=q&cat=Shaman

There is this one, too: http://vnboards.ign.com/WoW_Shaman_Class/b22783/79994268/?38

Originally written by Mezzer on these boards, it was reposted by Isaccjr over there, then cleaned up and reposted by Jalayna.

It does not contain information about the orc and troll shaman quests.

Shaman Spell Questions

4.1 Why does Reincarnation have such a long ressurection sickness?
Reincarnation was implemented by Blizzard as a spell to recover a group from an wipe deep in an instance. The ressurection sickness is a way of keeping this spell limited in use so that shamans do not abuse it as a "one free life every hour" spell.

4.2 What effects does Purge purge?
Short answer: purge removes all player/mob-cast buffs and potion effects. It does NOT remove weapon buffs, paladin's divine protection (?), passive abilites, and druid's animal forms. We don't know if it removes active racial abilites like troll's Berserking and dwarf's Stoneform.

Long Answer:

NOTE: this section is incomplete, and I need help here.

Here is a class listing of what shamans can remove from other players:

Druids
Mark of the Wild
Thorns
Regrowth
Rejuvenation

Paladins
All Seals
All Blessings
Holy Shield

Priests (thanks to Darkinertia)
Abolish Disease
Elune's Grace (NE only)
Fade
Inner Fire
Levitate
Mind Control
Mind Vision
Power Word: Shield
Power Word: Fortitude
Renew
Shadow Protection

Mages
Amplify Magic
Arcane Intellect
Dampen Magic
Fire Ward
Frost Ward
Mana Shield

Shamans
Ghost Wolf
Lightning Shield
Nature's Swiftness

Warlocks (thanks to Dionysts)
Demon Skin
Demonic Sacrifice
Detect Invisible
Sacrifice
Soulstone
Spellstone
Unlimited Breath

Warriors
Battle shout

4.3 Can we have multiple totems up?
Yes. We have one totem of each element up -- one Earth totem, one Fire totem, one Air totem, and one Water totem. We cannot have two totems of the same element up -- the second totem of the element will overwrite the first.

To tell which element a totem is, read the spell description.

4.4 What does tremor totem protect against?
Quoting (with many thanks :) ) Sherman:

Q u o t e:
Tremor totem sends out a pulse every four seconds that wakes up group members within range from a sleep spell. The most well-known use is in Wailing Caverns where Druids of the Fang use sleep frequently, but it is occasionally applicable elsewhere.

Also, I've seen some people insist it wakes you from fear, the only problem being that it's easy to run out of its range between pulses and not get awakened.

I have generated a bit more thorough list of mobs that cast sleep here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=28521&tmp=1#post28521 Any time you see green Zs above a group member's head, you need to cast tremor totem to wake them up.

There has been some reports that tremor totem "cures" fear, but since the fear affect moves you out of the range of the totem between pulses, the totem is not a good prevention.

4.5 What is the difference between Astral Recall and our hearthstone?
First off, both of these abilities let a shaman hearth back to the last inn he set as his home. And, both take 10 seconds to cast. However, there are several differences between the two in how this is accomplished.

Mana cost. A hearthstone does not cost any mana. Astral Recall costs 150 mana.
Cooldown. A heartstone has an hour long cooldown. Astral Recall only has a 15 minute cooldown. NOTE: both of these cooldowns are on seperate timers.
Bag space. A hearthstone takes up one slot of bag space. Astral Recall takes none.
Combat. A hearthstone can be used while you are in combat. Astral Recall cannot.
Interruption. Hearthing with a hearthstone will be completely interrupted on attack. With Astral Recall, the interrupt is not complete. (thanks to Desy on this)

4.6 How does Stoneskin work?
Stoneskin negates damage done to you before damage reduction from your armour is determined. What this means is when you are hit, the first thing the game does is reduce the melee damage taken by the amount of the totem. Then, the game determines your damage reduction from your armour against the mob. For an equal level mob, this is around 40% damage reduction (open your Character Window, and mouse-over the Armor value to get your DR). So, 40% of the damage that gets past the stoneskin totem is absorbed by the armour, and the remaining 60% you take.

Example: a mob can do 100 damage. The Rank 6 Stoneskin totem will absorb 27 of that, leaving 73 damage to your armour. With 40% DR from armour, only 44 damage would be taken.

Because the Stoneskin totem works before damage reduction from armour is taken into account, the talent to improve this does not help as much as one would think.

4.7 Does Stoneclaw totem work?
Yes, but its taunt effect does leave a little to be desired. Ultimately, to get this totem to work its best, do *not* damage the mob or aggro the mob with healing beforehand. The totem's taunt is just better than the normal aggro generated from pulling a mob's friend.

4.8 Which is the best weapon buff?
Short answer: Use Rockbiter on faster weapons and Windfury on weapons that have a 3.0 swing delay or slower.

Long answer: due to a current thread started by Vehementi here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=42555 , this question cannot be answered with any sort of definitive answer. As it looks, there is a catch ingame to prevent a weapon proc from processing twice in three seconds. Several shamans have reported this negatively impacts the overall percentage of windfury procs.

In the early game, Rockbiter and Flametongue both have their uses.

Rockbiter is a good to use when:

fighting low armour mobs. AC is taken into account when rockbiter damage is calculated
as a main or secondary tank
fire/cold resist mobs
as the base default buff when soloing in the early game.

Flame Tongue is good to use when:

fighting high armour mobs, as the fire damage is constant despite AC
as a primary or secondary healer before windfury
against fire-vulnerable mobs

Frostband is good to use when:

fighting mobs that run. Yeah, it won't proc *all* the time, but it should save a chase or a shock spell to make it worth the while
frost-vulnerable mobs

An additional point is that the windfury totem buff apparently gives warriors more rage than one would think at first glance: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=25246

Some additional reading on this topic which does not take into account the alleged "3 second proc" rule include:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=38135
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=28216&tmp=1#post28216
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=27694

4.9 Do weapon buffs stack? Can I cast one and then have my totem give me another?
No. A weapon can only have one buff, whether it is from a self-buff, a totem, a poison, or from a smith's stones. A shaman's totems will overwrite a rogue's poison but not a blacksmith's sharpening/weighting stones. The self-only buffs will overwrite a blacksmith's weighting stones.

As well, the some totem weapon buffs will interfere with the skills of other players. The Flametongue Totem buff will prevent warriors from using Next Melee attack skils like cleave, heroic strike, and concussion blow (source: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warrior&t=49016&tmp=1#post49016 ). Windfury Totem will interfere with rogue's poisons, but only on their main hand weapon (thanks to Aryxymaraki and Joragen for the corrections here).

I'm not sure if the weapon buff would affect an undead priest's Touch of Weakness spell.

4.10 Can the extra hits from Windfury proc another Windfury proc?
The answer here is almost 100% no. This question is one of many advanced questions attempted to be answered in Vehementi's thread here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=42555

4.11 Do shaman totems stack?
For the most part, no. Any totem buffs (Stoneskin, Grace of Air, Health Stream totems, etc) or debuff totems (Earthbind) do not stack.

However, searing, magma, and fire nova totems "stack" in the way that they are both attacking and doing damage to mobs. As well, while grounding totems don't stack, two shamans can alternate casting grounding totems to intercept more spells because, after one totem dies grounding a spell, the other shaman can cast one during the first shaman's cooldown period.

Lastly, while identical totems do not stack, having a multi-shaman party means that the shamans can cast different totems of the same element (Strength of Earth and Stoneskin can both be up, for example).

4.12 How do +healing and +damage items work?
Read the official blue answer here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=785402 (thanks to Temjin for the question and the link).

Shaman Talent Questions

5.1 What are good talent builds?
Aryxymaraki has a good talent guide at http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-shaman&T=36840&P=1 . It has a good break down of all of the talents and their ups and down, along with several good talent build layouts. Definitely recommended reading.

5.2 Are there any talents that I *shouldn't* point points into?
In my opinion, there are four talents that I would recommend staying away from:

Improved Stoneskin Totem. This talent will increase damage reduction by about 2 hit points for the average shaman, because the stoneskin totem decreases damage before damage reduction from armour is calculated. See my post here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=27379&tmp=1#post27379 for a more detailed reason why this talent is not a good usage of talent points.
Combat Endurance. From my testing, HP is regened according to the following formula: regen = 9 + spirit/9. With 279 SPI, you regen 40 HP per tick (one tick is about 2 secs). Ten percent of 40 is 4. So, this talent will allow you to regen 4 HP per tick during battle.
Improved Grounding Totem. Currently, grounding totem is bugged such that any damage spell it absorbs will destory it. This bug has been around for the majority of beta, and it is pretty much been accepted by the shaman community as "broken as intended", and there is some uncertainity that this bug will even be fixed. Whatever the case, this bug makes this talent very ineffective.
Improved Healing Totem. Five points here give 20% increase on 14 HP every two seconds. Over the course of 70 seconds, this talent will give 2.8*35 or 98 more health.

There would be two more additions to this this: Eventide and Improved Mana Spring Totem. While on their own merit, these talents not recommended, they are pre-requisites for Mana Tide Totem, which may make them worth it.

5.3 What's better: Ancestral Knowledge or Shield Specialization?
Good cases can be made for either.

Offhand, I think Shield Specialization is a superior skill for any shield wearing shaman, as it seems to effectively double your blocking percentage (5% to 10%) versus giving you 5% more mana. I really found in beta, even at level 60, that 5% more mana is not noticeable -- it ws 250 mana at my 5000.

However, if you go 5% more mana, and then stack on the 5% more efficient heals or shock or 10% more efficient totem talents, you may find the talent to be quite useful.

As well, if you plan on going exclusively two-handed, Ancestral Knowledge is a better talent for you.

In thread http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=12064, more shamans recommend Ancestral Knowledge over Shield Specialization.

5.4 Do Troll Regeneration and Combat Endurance stack?
Yes.

5.5 What does Anticipation do?
Short Answer: we really do not have a full understanding on how this works. Some say it lowers your chance to get critical hits against you. Others say that adding five to defense will increase your apparent level by one in terms of chance to be hit. No-one has put together a definitive post backed with objective data on the subject.

Long Answer: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=10982&tmp=1#post10982 , or Vehementi's post here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=27429&tmp=1#post27429 . Another post on this topic is here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=39106&tmp=1#post39106

5.6 How do spec points into the Restoration Tree?
I have written a guide here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=32866&tmp=1#post32866 on how to spend 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?
Yes to both.

5.8 Are there any sites that have a talent builder I could use?
There are two really good ones:
http://www.thottbot.com/?ti=Shaman
http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Talents.View&category_select_id=9

IGN has list of submitted talent builds here http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Templates.List&class_select_id=Shaman
Wow Rankings also keeps a list of talent builds currently in use by players as well: http://www.wowrankings.com/rankings_manager.htm?class=4