Shaman PvP Guides for Cataclysm Classic

Shamans have the ability to both heal and deal damage in a PvP environment, and bring a lot of unique utility that is shared between specs, such as Bloodlust (no longer usable in Arenas), Purge, Wind Shear, and Hex.

When choosing to PvP as a Shaman, you will need to pick between three different specializations:

1. Elemental can deal high burst damage with Lava Burst and Chain Lightning, have all standard Shaman utility, and can displace the entire enemy team with Thunderstorm, but were heavily nerfed going from Wrath to Cataclysm, making them much weaker than they once were.
2. Enhancement requires melee range for Windfury Weapon, but are also difficult to stop due having multiple movement options including Feral Spirit, Earthen Power, and Ancestral Swiftness. They are flexible off-healers with Maelstrom Weapon, but lack a healing reduction effect.
3. Restoration is the top healer in Cataclysm due to their high instant healing from Earth Shield, Riptide, Healing Stream Totem, the new Unleash Life. They have a new Magic dispel with Improved Cleanse Spirit which doubles as yet another instant healing tool with Cleansing Waters! Combined with their high utility and life-saving cooldowns such as Nature's Swiftness and Spirit Link Totem, they are the most well rounded healers in the game.

Listed below are links to our guides for Restoration, Elemental, and Enhancement PvP. Inside these guides we will go over the optimal specialization, best gear, and some tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your character in PvP scenarios.

If you are interested in learning more about a variety of Arena compositions featuring a Shaman and its relative strength in PvP, please consult our PvP ranking guides below.

Macros and Addons can greatly benefit your gameplay, especially in a high-paced environment like PvP where no two arenas or battlegrounds play out equally. Macros are especially useful to make you faster at reacting to enemy plays by allowing you to combine two commands into a single button.

Addons increase the amount of information you are receiving and can also present it in a more intuitive, customizable way, in order to be able to better make a decision as to what your next move should be.

Listed below are our guides for Shaman-specific Addons and Macros. Most of these are targeted towards PvE but many can also be very useful in PvP scenarios.