Enhancement Shaman Leveling Guide From 1 to 70 for TBC Classic

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

• Levels 10 to 14 — 5 points in Shield Specialization
• Levels 15 to 19 — 5 points in Thundering Strikes

While both options are of minimal relevance, Shield Specialization has a minor edge, as it makes using a shield on emergencies and during early leveling more efficient. Using two-handed weapons until Dual Wield is unlocked will still be faster, regardless.

Thundering Strikes provides extra damage and is required for Flurry later on, making it a good early talent.

• Level 20 — 1 point in Shamanistic Focus
• Levels 21 & 22 — 2 points in Improved Ghost Wolf
• Levels 23 & 24 — 2 points in Enhancing Totems
• Levels 25 to 29 — 5 points in Flurry

Shamanistic Focus provides good Mana gains for a single point, while Improved Ghost Wolf makes your Ghost Wolf instant, which is especially valuable before you get your mount at Level 30.

Anticipation is just as viable as Enhancing Totems when soloing, but the extra totem power will be better against elite enemies and when in a group. Flurry is a great damage boost and well-worth the 5 points.

• Level 30 — 1 point in Spirit Weapons
• Levels 31 to 33 — 3 points in Elemental Weapons
• Level 34 — 1 point in Anticipation
• Levels 35 to 39 — 5 points in Weapon Mastery

Spirit Weapons is an amazing survivability increase as it will give you almost 5% Parry with a single point, and Parry is a superior stat to Dodge because it makes your next-auto attack faster when it happens.

The 30% threat reduction is an extra bonus to have while in a group. Elemental Weapons is a fine damage increase and Anticipation slightly increases your survivability. Weapon Mastery is a great damage increase, and preferable to Mental Quickness at this stage because of your low attack power values.

• Level 40 — 1 point in Stormstrike
• Level 41 — 1 point in Dual Wield
• Levels 42 to 44 — 3 points in Dual Wield Specialization
• Levels 45 to 49 — 5 points in Unleashed Rage

Stormstrike will be your main attack from here on and is a nice damage increase. Dual Wield allows you to use two one-handed weapons to deal damage more consistently and this playstyle is further improved by Dual Wield Specialization.

Follow up by getting Mental Quickness and starting on Unleashed Rage, which is good in solo situations and amazing in groups.

• Level 50 — 1 point in Shamanistic Rage
• Levels 51 to 53 — 3 points in Mental Quickness
• Levels 54 to 58 — 5 points in Concussion
• Level 59 — 1 point in Call of Flame

Shamanistic Rage is both a Mana regeneration tool and a defensive cooldown. Get Mental Quickness for its damage and Mana sustain benefits and proceed into the Elemental tree, which provides higher damage than the Restoration alternatives. Start with maximizing Concussion and put your first point into Call of Flame, both of which are fine damage increases.

• Levels 60 & 61 — 2 points in Call of Flame
• Levels 62 & 63 — 2 points in Earth's Grasp
• Level 64 — 1 point in Elemental Focus
• Levels 65 to 69 — 5 points in Reverberation
• Level 70 — 1 point in Improved Fire Totems

Finish maximizing Call of Flame and get Earth's Grasp, which vastly improves the ability of your Stoneclaw Totem to keep any extra enemies you pull distracted while you finish them one by one.

Elemental Focus has low impact due to Enhancement's low spell crit chance but also only requires one point. Finish your leveling tree by getting Reverberation for its damage and rotational smoothing benefits and get a point into Improved Fire Totems for the added quality of life when using Fire Nova Totem.

Your talents should roughly look like this, but keep in mind there are plenty of individual points that can be swapped around based on preference. For example, taking Enhancing Totems, Improved Weapon Totems, and going down the Restoration tree for Totemic Focus, Nature's Guidance, and Totemic Mastery is a great way to turbo-charge your support abilities when focused on group play. Feel free to take Ancestral Knowledge instead of Shield Specialization as well, or swap Anticipation with something else.

As explained in our rotation section, weapon syncing and windfury internal cooldown tracking can increase your dps significantly, especially against long lived targets. You can use our recommended weak aura and macro to track both of these in order to optimize your leveling rotation a bit!

1. Make sure Rockbiter Weapon is active on you at all times, to maximize your potential damage output.
2. Make sure both Rockbiter Weapon and Lightning Shield are active on you at all times, to maximize your potential damage output. Refresh Lightning Shield when engaging enemies or immediately after shocking, in order to mess with your 5-second-rule Mana regeneration as little as possible.
3. Make sure both Windfury Weapon and Lightning Shield are active on you at all times, to maximize your potential damage output. Refresh Lightning Shield when engaging enemies or immediately after shocking, in order to mess with your 5-second-rule Mana regeneration as little as possible.
4. Make sure Windfury Weapon is applied to both of your weapons and Lightning Shield is active on you at all times, to maximize your potential damage output. Refresh Lightning Shield when engaging enemies or immediately after shocking, in order to mess as little as possible with your 5-second rule Mana regeneration.
5. Make sure Windfury Weapon is applied to both of your weapons and Water Shield is active on you at all times, providing maximum damage and Mana sustain. Because Water Shield costs no Mana, you can refresh it at any time without affecting your natural Mana regeneration.
6. Stoneclaw Totem is vastly improved in TBC, and will frequently stun enemies who attack it. As you have almost no area of effect damage, the best strategy when you need to fight multiple enemies at once is dropping this totem and finishing them off one by one while the ones you are not attacking are busy being stunned by your totem.
7. Drop Strength of Earth Totem and Searing Totem as your main totems when grinding in a small space for a prolonged amount of time, in dungeons, or when facing hard enemies.
8. Drop Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem, and Searing Totem as your main totems when grinding in a small space for a prolonged amount of time, in dungeons, or when facing hard enemies.
9. Drop Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem, and Searing Totem as your main totems when facing difficult enemies or grinding in a small space, but also Windfury Totem if you are grouping up with Warriors or Rogues.
10. Drop Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem, Searing Totem, and Grace of Air Totem as your main totems when facing difficult enemies or grinding in a small space. Consider using Windfury Totem instead of Grace of Air if you are grouping up with Warriors or Rogues.
11. Drop Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem, Searing Totem, and Grace of Air Totem as your main totems when facing difficult enemies or grinding in a small space. Consider using Windfury Totem instead of Grace of Air if you are grouping up with Warriors or Rogues or Wrath of Air Totem if grouping up with many caster-DPS players.
12. Use Lightning Bolt — Rank 1 if Mana is an issue — to initiate combat against enemies who are in places too dangerous to body-pull.
13. Use Shamanistic Rage on cooldown to recover Mana, but remember it also reduces damage taken so you should try to have it available when fighting elites.
14. Earth Elemental Totem is an amazing defensive tool which should be used in emergencies or when facing tough elite enemies by yourself.
15. Use Stormstrike whenever possible for its damage and to increase the damage of your next two Earth Shocks.
16. Use Earth Shock whenever possible for extra damage, especially if you just activated Shamanistic Focus. You can also weave in Flame Shock for slightly more damage if the enemy will live for its full duration.
17. Auto-attack the enemy until it dies. Having some idle auto-attack time can allow you to regenerate some Mana, but it is generally preferable to finish fights quickly in order to minimize damage taken and allow you to drink if needed.

Buying everything is, essentially, the way to go, as spell costs are quite low and all of them have uses, even if small ones.

If you are doing a completely new character and want to save as much gold as you can for your first mount at Level 30, you can opt to buy only the recommended skills for the rotation in the section above.

By setting yourself up with an upgraded user interface and macros from the get-go, you will make your leveling process much easier. Check out our Enhancement Shaman Macros and Addons guides in the links below for the full list.

When leveling, stay alert for weapon upgrades you might encounter, as these will improve your experience significantly. You will also need to complete various class quests in order to be able to use your totems, with unique questlines for Earth, Fire, Water, and Air totems.

These quests are different for Horde and Alliance Shamans, and the early quests also have differences between Horde races. To help you with both weapons and quests, we have made two dedicated guides:

Now that you are max level, we would recommend you read our Enhancement Shaman Guide which covers every detail of maximum-level gameplay extensively.

Pay special attention to these pages, as they deal with the most pressing issues you will face at Level 70:

• In our Enhancement Shaman Talent builds guide you will find multiple builds. Some are focused on being as offensive as possible while others are focused on being as good of a support as possible at the cost of some of your personal DPS potential;
• Our Enhancement Shaman Rotation guide explains how to use your abilities in order to produce maximum damage, both personal and group-wide through Enhancement's numerous buffs;
• Check the Enhancement Shaman Stats guide if you require more information on Enhancement Shaman's stat priority and stat details;
• Our Gear guide for Enhancement Shamans has the gear pieces most worth looking for, before and after raid items are considered, adjusted for the current TBC Classic Phase and Season;