Shaman Class Overview

Shaman are able to choose from 3 specializations: Elemental, Enhancement and Restoration. All three specializations play very differently from each other, focusing on Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, and Healing, respectively.

• Elemental is a Ranged DPS specialization with high baseline damage, causing it to be very powerful at low levels of gear. It has a very simple damage rotation which focuses on pressing short cooldown spells when available.
• Enhancement is a Melee DPS specialization with extreme area damage potential and great single-target, but its single-target in particular requires a very complex and involved rotation which can take some time to master.
• Restoration is the most flexible Healer specialization in Wrath, capable of doing good single and area healing and often mixing both due to mechanics such as Tidal Waves, which grant single-target bonuses after using Chain Heal.

Shamans are the only source of the Wrath of Air Totem buff and Bloodlust/Heroism, making the first one in your group extremely valuable independently of specialization.

As these unique buffs are now raid-wide in Wrath, the value of bringing more than one Shaman to a raid group is lessened in comparison to Wrath Classic and its powerful Shaman party buffs. But Shamans can still produce good DPS and healing, which includes some of the best area damage in the game with Fire Nova and the unique Mana Tide Totem, letting them fill any holes in your composition.

Elemental starts off strong and is one of the best DPS in the early phases, but suffers from lower scaling than competing DPS as gear improves. Thus, they will be very welcome in early raids, but are expected to become less common in PvE as time goes by. Their PvP strength is unmatched in Wrath, however, as their burst DPS and utility is welcome in the most powerful 3v3 composition in game, the Thundercleave (Warrior/Shaman/Holy Paladin) and other strong compositions.

Enhancement DPS have one of the most complex rotations in Wrath when min-maxing and are rewarded with some of the highest area damage in the game and good single-target. They can also use a mix of Attack Power and Spell Power gear, making them easier to gear than most specializations. In PvP they are less dominating but still have a few good compositions such as Turbo and Beastcleave, which is one of the easiest compositions to grind the Arena with.

Restoration is a solid healer, capable of strong area healing with Chain Heal and strong single-target healing with the new Riptide and related Tidal Waves. They also have a few great PvP compositions, making them an excellent all-round healer.

Shamans are fine levelers, with Enhancement being particularly strong due to requiring no drinking downtime and having the capability to constantly do very large pulls with Fire Nova and Shamanistic Rage. Regardless, Elemental can also get the job done with decent efficiency, as can Restoration if you are in a group.

In Wrath Classic Shamans can be Draenei if you are playing Alliance or Orc, Troll, and Tauren if you are Horde.

Shamans are one of the top support classes in Wrath. All three Shaman specializations have a raiding spot and perform well in the Arena. Bloodlust and Wrath of Air Totem are unique to Shaman, but raid-wide, which means you only need a single Shaman to cover all raid buffs, with other spots being decided based on their DPS / Healing.

For the most part, you will use Flametongue Weapon when DPSing and Earthliving Weapon when healing. There is extra nuance for Enhancement where you can use Windfury Weapon on your main-hand instead of Flametongue if using a high DPS weapon and focusing on single-target.

Spellhance refers to an unusual gearing approach for Enhancement where you could do great damage by equipping mostly Spell Power gear. Enhancement converts Attack Power into Spell Power and has multiple Physical and magical damage sources, making both stats very useful. Thus, while Enhancement can often make good use of both types of gear, specific best in slot pieces need to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

While casting normally resets your swing timer, this does not happen with Maelstrom Weapon-Hasted casts, allowing you to cast spells with less than 5 stacks as long as you start the cast early enough in your swing timer that it will finish before the swing would happen. The sync timer WeakAura also has an indicator for when you need to start casting in order to avoid clipping, allowing you to know at a moment's notice if you can fit a cast in or not.

Weapon Sync means that your main-hand and off-hand weapons are swinging simultaneously. This is important because if the swings are landing within 0.5 seconds of each other, only one Flurry charge will be consumed for two melee hits, drastically increasing the 30% Haste buff uptime. You can know whether you are synced properly or not with this WeakAura, and force the sync with this WeakAura or by taking an action which resets your swing timer, such as using Feral Spirit or using a Noggenfogger Elixir.

Even though they have a few abilities that cause extra threat and can use shields, Shamans lack a taunt ability and are not very durable against bosses, so we would not recommend you to try tanking anything higher than Normal dungeons.

If you are playing in the Alliance faction, you can only be Draenei who are a weak race for personal DPS, but do bring a valuable Hit aura racial. In the Horde, Orcs are the best for PvP and Trolls are the best for PvE.

Engineering is the best profession, as it provides you with crafted helms and the unique enchants Nitro Boosts and Hyperspeed Accelerators. Jewelcrafting also has great value due to allowing you to obtain your standard 46 Spell Power profession bonus in the form of any stat of your choice, which allows for extra versatility, especially for Restoration which values Haste highly.

While every class has some kind of class-specific questlines, Shamans need to earn their four elemental totems through questing, and cannot use any totems of an elemental they have not quested for beforehand.

Earth, Fire, Water, and Air are the elements you will pursue across Azeroth. We have every single step of the way detailed for you in our Shaman Questing guide below:

Shamans are relatively easy class to gear, especially when performing caster or healer roles, as Spell Damage or Spell Healing Mail armor is only used by Shamans and Paladins.

Enhancement Shamans might have a harder time, as their Physical damage loot is also often used by Death Knights, Hunters, Rogues, Warriors, Retribution Paladins, and Feral DPS Druids.

Shamans are able to wear Cloth and Leather, and can also learn how to use Mail armor at the class trainer after reaching Level 40.

Shamans already know, or can learn, how to use staves, daggers, one-handed and two-handed maces, one-handed and two-handed axes, and fist weapons.

You can learn more about weapons for Shamans in our specialized guide below:

Using addons and macros can simplify your life in Azeroth immensely. We have multiple recommendations for both categories in our Shaman Addons and Shaman Macros guides linked below:

If the rest of the page caught your attention, make sure to check out our in-depth guides for leveling a Shaman and how to play at Level 80!

• Shaman Leveling Guide
• Elemental Shaman Leveling Guide
• Enhancement Shaman Leveling Guide
• Restoration Shaman Leveling Guide

You might also want to check out our full class guides, which teach you how to play your class at the new Level 80 cap!

• Elemental Shaman Guide
• Enhancement Shaman Guide
• Restoration Shaman Guide