World of Warcraft: Forever Elemental Shaman Leveling Guide

Welcome to our Leveling guide for Elemental Shaman in WoW Forever. Shaman is the swiss army knife of classes, and comes with all manner of tools to tackle challenges on your journey. Elemental is a ranged DPS caster class, and while it is not quite as good of a specialization to level with as some of the strongest options due to its current Mana and low damage concerns, it has great self-healing and good burst damage, making it a decent experience once you have your build set up.

This page has been built to update based on the level you set on the sliders below. That means if you're looking for tailored recommendations for your talents, gear, or even what areas and dungeons to tackle based on where you're at right now, we've got you covered. Remember though, if you ever feel like striding out choosing a different path, we recommend doing so, it's your own journey to 60 after all!

The above tree is built for leveling, so Improved Reincarnation and Earthbound are both taken for quality of life while leveling outdoors, as well as most Mana talents, to increase your sustain capabilities. Key pickups available to you are:

• 15 – Elemental Alacrity reduces the cast time of most of your damaging spells significantly.
• 25 – Earthbound allows you to root enemies in place with Earthbind Totem which improves your survivability significantly.
• 30 – Lava Burst is one of your main rotational damaging abilities.
• 31 – Lightning Overload allows your spells to deal 50% more damage randomly, a sort of Spell Windfury.
• 40 – Elemental Mastery is a 3-minute cooldown which causes your damage output to spike when used, great for elites or large pulls!
• 41 – Tidal Focus grants a large amount of Spell Hit and unlocks Mindfulness and Water Shield for massively improved Mana management.
• 52 – Thundering Strikes grants a large amount of Crit and unlocks Improved Ghost Wolf for massively improved mobility.

There's some flexibility in your choices on the tree depending on how comfortable you are with resource management, so it's not set in stone. For now, we've erred on the side of maximizing resources for both offensive ability use and healing usage.

Elemental when leveling is fairly simple to pick up, with most damage being done by Lightning Bolt and Lava Burst once unlocked at Level 30, as well as Fire Nova at Level 12 and Chain Lightning at Level 32 for area damage scenarios.

Totems are at the core of Shaman identity, providing buffs and unique effects. These are stationary, so you'll often need to drop a fresh set if you move around a lot. Totems you should be using for each element are:

• Earth – Strength of Earth Totem for damage when playing with melee party members, Stoneskin Totem for added defense, or Earthbind Totem (especially with Earthbound) to delay enemies from reaching you or escaping if something goes wrong.
• Fire – Flametongue Totem once unlocked when playing with melee party members, Searing Totem otherwise in single target, Magma Totem against multiple targets.
• Water – Mana Spring Totem for added Mana regeneration, Healing Stream Totem if your group already has Blessing of Wisdom.
• Air – Windfury Totem in melee groups, Grace of Air Totem if with other Shamans or Grounding Totem against spellcasters.
• Note – Use Totemic Recall off the global cooldown when moving to new areas where your Totems cannot reach your group.

Elemental uses different spell priorities in single-target and multi-target when leveling. Below is a general list of priorities:

Before Combat

• Apply Lightning Shield between pulls.
  • Switch to Water Shield once taken and maintain it in combat.
• Drop Totems (singular or all 4 with Call of the Elements) before engaging.
• Open from maximum range with Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning depending on the amount of targets.

In Combat

1. Use Elemental Mastery whenever burst damage is needed for elites or large packs of enemies, or on cooldown otherwise for efficiency.
2. Cast Fire Nova and Chain Lightning on cooldown when fighting 3+ enemies.
3. Keep Flame Shock active on your main target.
4. Cast Lava Burst on cooldown on the target with Flame Shock.
5. Lightning Bolt for single target damage, otherwise.

Remember to drink and heal in between pulls if your health/Mana are low!

Shaman have a wealth of tools at their disposal, and not all of them are purely offensive. The beauty of the class is in its flexibility, so below is a list of things you should always keep close to hand:

• Elemental Mastery is a 3-minute cooldown which causes your damage output to spike when used by reducing single-target spell cast times and removing Chain Lightning's cooldown, great for elites or large pulls!
• Lava Burst is one of your main rotational damaging abilities and deals 20% more damage on targets with Flame Shock.
• Flame Shock is a core damaging ability that increases the damage of Lava Burst and should always be up on your main target.
• Fire Nova deals AoE Fire damage around your active Fire Totem. Strong in AoE, but costs a lot of Mana.
• Earth Shock deals Nature damage and interrupts your target. Great for pulling spellcasters nearby so you can deal area damage to them with Chain Lightning and Fire Nova.
• Ghost Wolf increases movement speed by 40%. Has no cooldown or duration, so it's great for moving around. Improved Ghost Wolf makes it instant and allows you to move indoors, but you can't cast while shapeshifted.
• Windfury Totem grants the powerful Windfury imbue to everyone near the totem in your (raid) group. Invaluable in group content, like the other stat support totems ( Strength of Earth Totem/ Grace of Air Totem). Does not stack with Flametongue Totem!
• Searing Totem provides extra single target damage and is a Fire Totem anchor for Fire Nova. Use Magma Totem instead against multiple targets, especially after unlocking Trial by Fire!
• Healing Wave heals your target for a large amount. Extremely efficient, and great for topping up when needed. In combat, Lesser Healing Wave is less efficient but faster, so suffers less from pushback against multiple enemies.

On top of its offense and healing capabilities, Shaman comes with a lot of extra utility options to deal with specific problems. While you may not be as tough as a Paladin or as crafty as a Rogue, you will often find that you have something up your sleeve for most things you come across out in the world. This extends further to group content, where you bring many stat buffs and other benefits to most parties!

Click for Utility and Crowd Control Details!

• Frost Shock – shares a cooldown with Flame Shock and Earth Shock, but instead of dealing damage or interrupting, it slows your target for 8 seconds. Great for kiting, and also doesn't generate higher threat if you're struggling in dungeons.
• Earthbind Totem – Earth Totem that slows nearby enemies by 50% or roots them in place for 5 seconds with Earthbound. Excellent for getting out of bad situations and kiting enemies.
• Stoneclaw Totem – Earth Totem taunts nearby creatures. While this can struggle to pull threat off you, if an extra enemy gets pulled this can tank for a moment (until it dies!) taking the pressure off while you finish off the first enemy or prepare an escape plan.
• Cure Poison – dispels a Poison effect from you or a targeted ally. You also get Poison Cleansing Totem later, a Water Totem that pulses the same effect onto your party every 5 seconds.
• Cure Disease – same as above, but for Disease effects instead. Also has a Water Totem equivalent, the Disease Cleansing Totem.
• Purge – removes up to two beneficial magic effects from your target. Good for getting rid of key buffs and healing over time effects applied by enemies.
• Tremor Totem – Earth Totem that pulses every two seconds, removing Charm, Sleep and Fear effects from you and your party.
• Reincarnation – allows you to resurrect yourself upon death with 20% Health and Mana. Has a 1-hour cooldown and requires an Ankh to use, but extremely useful to save death runs if you're caught unaware. Careful though, you stand right back up, so might pull whatever just killed you and die instantly again! Much stronger and more frequently able to be used with Improved Reincarnation.
• Ancestral Spirit – resurrects a dead ally after a 10-second cast. Helpful to recover from bad pulls in dungeons, or if you want to be a helpful player when used on randomly dead people you find during your adventures in Azeroth.
• Grounding Totem – Air Totem that redirects a spell cast at you or your party to itself. Only eats up one spell per totem placed, but great for reducing damage taken against spellcasters.
• Astral Recall – acts as a second Hearthstone, returning you to the same location with a 15-minute cooldown that is not shared with Hearthstone's.
• Water Walking – allows you to walk on water for 10 minutes. Requires one Fish Oil to cast, and breaks on damage taken, casting Ghost Wolf or mounting. Very helpful for quickly crossing bodies of water instead of taking the long way round.
• Water Breathing – allows you to breathe underwater for 10 minutes. Requires one Shiny Fish Scales to cast, great for any quests that send you into the depths since Shamans cannot be Undead and thus always have short breath timers.

While leveling, you don't always have a great deal of choice in the stats on your gear. Below, we've gone through important stats to look out for and why. This is slightly different for leveling when compared to endgame content, so if you're looking for a more robust breakdown you can hop over to our main Stats page.

1. Spell Damage
   • This stat increases the potency of your damage spells and is the main way new gear allows you to deal more damage, making it your main stat to chase.
2. Critical Strike
   • Getting more critical strike chance increases the odds your spells will randomly deal much more damage when you hit a critical strike. Elemental Shamans can also increase their regular critical damage bonus further with Elemental Fury.
3. Hit
   • While you do not need a lot of extra Hit Chance to maximize your chance of hitting enemies of your level, or lower, with spells, the amount of Hit needed for higher level enemies rises rapidly, and in the end game you will need a lot of Hit in order to be optimized.
4. Intellect
   • Each Intellect point provides 15 Mana and slightly increases Spell Crit chance. This makes Intellect a primarily Mana sustain stat with slight throughput benefits. You will naturally get a lot of Intellect as it comes on most Spell Damage gear, allowing your Mana pool to naturally grow as your gear improves.
5. MP5
   • Points of MP5 provide constant Mana Regeneration, regardless of whether you are inside the 5-second rule or not. This makes it a decent stat when you want to constantly cast, in which case it is superior to Spirit.
6. Spirit
   • Provides Mana Regeneration every 5 seconds when not casting spells, but since you should always be casting, it is mostly active when outside of combat or in between enemies, making it rather weak.
7. Stamina
   • Each point increases your maximum health, making you harder to kill. Because it is a stat without throughput benefits, it is generally better to invest into killing enemies faster, making it the weakest stat, overall.

In Forever, as you progress through your journey it can be overwhelming to keep up with things to do and items to seek out. Below, we've created a section for each faction that walks you through milestones worth doing as they unlock. While you can approach your adventure in whatever way you choose to, if you're feeling lost, we'll get you back on track!

Alliance quest hubs can dry up quickly, so expect to bounce between areas while mixing in dungeons.

• Quest Zones – Alliance will quest in Loch Modan, Westfall and Darkshore. Alliance will quest in Redridge Mountains and Duskwood. Alliance will quest in Ashenvale, Duskwood and The Wetlands. Horde will quest in The Barrens and Silverpine Forest. Horde will quest in The Barrens, Silverpine Forest and Stonetalon Mountains. Horde will quest in Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale and Hillsbrad Foothills. Horde will quest in Thousand Needles, Ashenvale and Hillsbrad Foothills.
• Dungeons – Hall of Thanes
  • Hall of Thanes Gear Quests – Old Ironforge Incursion
• Dungeons – Hall of Thanes and The Deadmines
  • Hall of Thanes Gear Quests – Old Ironforge Incursion
  • Deadmines Gear Quests – The Defias Brotherhood
• Dungeons – The Deadmines and The Stockade
  • Deadmines Gear Quests – The Defias Brotherhood
  • The Stockade Gear Quests – What Comes Around...
• Dungeons – The Stockade and Blackfathom Deeps
  • The Stockade Gear Quests – What Comes Around...
  • Blackfathom Deeps Gear Quests – Blackfathom Villainy
• Dungeons – Blackfathom Deeps and Excavation Site: Wetlands
  • Blackfathom Deeps Gear Quests – Blackfathom Villainy
  • Excavation Site: Wetlands Gear Quests – Horrors in the Highland
• Dungeons – Excavation Site: Wetlands and City of Dalaran
  • Excavation Site: Wetlands Gear Quests – Horrors in the Highland
  • City of Dalaran Gear Quests – An Alarming Request
• Dungeons – Ragefire Chasm
  • Ragefire Chasm Gear Quests – Hidden Enemies
• Dungeons – Ruins of Lordaeron
  • Ruins of Lordaeron Gear Quests – The Wrath of Rath'mael
• Dungeons – Ruins of Lordaeron and Wailing Caverns
  • Ruins of Lordaeron Gear Quests – The Wrath of Rath'mael
  • Wailing Caverns Gear Quests – Leaders of the Fang
• Dungeons – Wailing Caverns and Shadowfang Keep
  • Wailing Caverns Gear Quests – Leaders of the Fang
  • Shadowfang Keep Gear Quests – Arugal Must Die
• Dungeons – Shadowfang Keep and Blackfathom Deeps
  • Shadowfang Keep Gear Quests – Arugal Must Die
  • Blackfathom Deeps Gear Quests – Baron Aquanis
• Dungeons – City of Dalaran and Razorfen Kraul
  • City of Dalaran Gear Quests – Heart of Disruption
  • Razorfen Kraul Gear Quests – An Unholy Alliance
• Milestone Quests – Call of Fire. Complete as soon as possible for your Fire Totem.
  • Call of Earth should already be completed.
• Milestone Quests – Next: Call of Water unlocks at Level 20.
  • Call of Fire & Call of Earth should already be completed.
• Milestone Quests – Call of Water. Complete slowly over time for your Water Totem due to the amount of travel.
  • Call of Earth & Call of Fire should already be completed.
• Milestone Quests – Call of Air. Also complete slowly over time. Requires a Razorfen Kraul dungeon run and multiple zones to complete.
  • Call of Earth, Call of Fire & Call of Water should already be completed.

On your journey, the piece of gear you should care about the most is your weapon. Below is a table adjusted to your level slider with some options:

Best	Strong	Fallback
Fang of Magmatus Fallen Dragon's Scepter Lightning's Grasp	Staff of the Purifier Rod of the Sleepwalker Swinetusk Shank	Apprentice's Spellstaff Royal Dagger Madman's Blade
Hall of Thanes Stopping the Cycle Call of Air	The Tower of Althalaxx Blackfathom Deeps Razorfen Kraul	Rare Books A Friend of the Family Colonel Kurzen

Alongside weapons, below are quests with upgrades worth the time. When quests lose experience value, they're removed from the list:

• Below level 16 as Alliance, there's nothing major worth chasing yet - just keep questing!
• 16+: Seal of Wrynn Ring – An Audience with the King
• 17+: Minor Channeling Ring Ring – WANTED: Chok'sul
• 20+: Malignant Root Ring – Rotheap Innards to The Greenwarden
• 21+: Disjointed Shoes Boots – WANTED: Incinerator Gar'im
• 26+: Raptorclaw Shoulders Shoulders – Ormer's Revenge
• 29+: Carnage Trousers Legs – Carnage

On your journey, the piece of gear you should care about the most is your weapon. Below is a table adjusted to your level slider with some options:

Best	Strong	Fallback
Crescent Staff Pathfinder's Clearway Lightning's Grasp	Wind Rider Staff Rod of the Sleepwalker Swinetusk Shank	Cauldron Stirrer Solid Iron Maul Skullbreaker
Leaders of the Fang Wrongly Blamed, Justly Corrected Call of Air	Cry of the Thunderhawk Wailing Caverns Razorfen Kraul	Apothecary Zamah Blacksmithing (BoE) An Unholy Alliance

Alongside weapons, below are quests with upgrades worth the time. When quests lose experience value, they're removed from the list:

• Below level 18 as Horde, there's nothing major worth chasing yet - just keep questing!
• 18+: Screecher Belt Belt – Bloodfury Bloodline
• 20+: Loop of Sacrifice Ring – The Offering of Blood
• 21+: Firewalker Boots Boots – Elixir of Pain
• 23+: Oilrag Handwraps Gloves – The Lost Pages
• 24+: Desert Shoulders Shoulders – Grimtotem Spying
• 26+: Ethereal Mantle Shoulders – Humbert's Sword

We can't offer gear or leveling suggestions beyond the WoW Forever beta level cap of 30. Check back after launch for updated guidance!

Profession gear is extremely powerful in Forever. Provided you keep your skill up to date, taking the time to craft is worth it. We recommend Leatherworking, but your first craft doesn't become available until Level 11. Since we recommend Leatherworking, below are bind-on-pickup crafts available at your selected level:

Slot	Item	Leatherworking Skill
Helm	Totemic Leather Hood Totemic Leather Helm	100 130
Chest	Stormrider's Leather Armor Stormrider's Leather Tunic	80 110
Gloves	Stormrider's Leather Gloves	75
Belt	Stormrider's Leather Belt Skycaller's Leather Belt	60 150
Legs	Stormrider's Leather Pants Totemic Leather Leggings	105 150
Boots	Stormrider's Leather Boots	85

With the WoW Forever Beta only reaching Level 30, we unfortunately are unable to provide more specific advice on which zones or gear to tackle beyond Level 30. Make sure to check back once WoW Forever has launched, as we will be updating this section of our Subtlety Rogue leveling guide soon after!

Not everything is about optimizing your character and rotation, especially when leveling. Below are some tips to keep in mind when you're adventuring:

• Remember Spell Ranks & Weapon Skills – every two levels spell ranks are unlocked, so remember to return to class trainers regularly to unlock new tools. You'll also want to make sure to visit a weapon trainer in Orgrimmar or Ironforge to unlock 2-handed Maces and Axes as early as possible as many have strong caster stats in WoW Forever!
• Always carry food and especially water – You will run out of Mana on longer trips, so always have some with you so you don't have to wait for passive regen, which massively slows your leveling speed. Eating most crafted food also gives you a small experience boost which is nice to have.
• Interrupts are powerful – Earth Shock unlocks very early, and can interrupt enemy spell casts. It's great for dealing with caster enemies standing too far away to be hit by your AoE spells, or to pull targets in when enemy patrols are nearby.
• Keep up with profession levels – crafted gear is very powerful in Forever, so try to gather enough level appropriate materials in a zone to keep it up to date. You do not want to have to backtrack if you can avoid it.
• Look out for campfires – in Forever, other players can set up buff stations around these to give you hour long enhancements if you take a minute to slow down. Big ones to look out for are Mana Wells from Alchemists, and Camp Tent from Leatherworkers, but all professions have their special buffs available.
• Log out in rested areas – when you're taking a break or logging out for the night, remember to head to an Inn to build up rested XP. While it might not seem like much in the moment, it definitely builds up over time on the long journey to 60! Obtaining the Sleeping Bag is also recommended, although its questline is long and will likely take a while to get through.

While you unlock things at every level, there are some key unlocks at certain milestones:

Level	Milestone Unlock
4	Earth Totem Quest
10	Fire Totem Quest
20	Water Totem Quest
20	Ghost Wolf unlocks
30	Air Totem Quest
32	Windfury Totem unlocks

There's a lot of good options for professions in Forever, with many having access to strong bind-on-pickup items worth crafting along the way. For Shaman, Leatherworking is especially good, and Skinning is a natural pairing so you can gather your own resources.

Alchemy and Enchanting can also be strong in order to create your own stat consumables and to enchant your own gear. Below we list some good options, ordered by how strongly we recommend them:

• Leatherworking plus Skinning – can craft strong gear at every step of the way to 60, provided you keep it leveled. Also lets you provide your own Camp Tent for campfires.
• Enchanting – lets you keep your gear enchanted as you go, and can craft the powerful Polished Driftwood Icon after level 20.
• Alchemy – can craft consumables to give you the edge all the way to 60, provided you gather the herbs to make them. Also lets you drop your own Mana Wells for campfires.
• Herbalism – herbs are a classic way of making gold in WoW, and if you pair with Alchemy you will need to buy a lot less herbs as you rise through the levels.

It's also always worth grabbing secondary skills and keeping them up to date too. First Aid allows you to craft your own health potions for emergencies and bandages for emergencies / Mana free healing, while Cooking can provide strong buff food that slightly boosts your experience earned while it lasts in WoW Forever!

More WoW Forever Shaman Guides

Restoration Shaman Healer Guide Restoration Shaman Healer Leveling Elemental Shaman Ranged DPS Guide Enhancement Shaman Melee DPS Leveling Enhancement Shaman Melee DPS Guide

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