World of Warcraft: Forever Enhancement Shaman Leveling Guide

Welcome to our Leveling guide for Enhancement Shaman in WoW: Forever! Known as the swiss army knife of classes, Shaman comes with all manner of tools to tackle challenges on your journey. Enhancement is great at getting up close and personal with enemies, dishing out huge burst and moving around the world quickly. While it's not quite as fast to level as some of the strongest options due to its current Mana concerns, it's got ample self-healing and open world movement, so it's a comfy 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!

Optional Respec at Level 25

The goal of the Enhancement tree is to reach Stormstrike and Improved Stormstrike as early as possible. Since this can't be done until Level 25, you can start with a build that gets to Mindfulness and Water Shield on the Restoration tree first, and then respec at 25 once you can reach your main strike.

The above tree is built for leveling, so many choices are made to try to reduce the pressure on your Mana pool. During the beta, it was a huge limiting factor, so along the way to 60 we've tailored the build toward prioritising resources. Key pickups available to you are:

• 20 – Shamanistic Focus reduces Shock cost by 45%.
• 30 – Improved Stormstrike finally allows for some in-combat Mana regen.
• 38 – Mindfulness allows for even more in-combat Mana regen passively.
• 42 – Water Shield restores Mana when struck or when you crit.

Enhancement's goal is to build toward Stormstrike as soon as possible, hitting a big power spike at Level 30 when Windfury Weapon unlocks. Improved Stormstrike adds Mana sustain and cooldown resets on top, making it your backbone. Spirit Weapons adds even more chances to get resets, and some extra defense by enabling Parry.

Once the core is built though, a quick pivot to Resto for Mindfulness and Water Shield's high Mana value is worth delaying other talents for. Both deep Enhancement talents, Maelstrom Weapon and Rage of the Farseer, require heavy investment without having great return while leveling, so are best saved until after.

Beyond that, there's a handful of less flashy talents that are equally important:

• Improved Ghost Wolf – makes Ghost Wolf instant and usable indoors.
• Mental Dexterity – grants AP from Intellect, allowing you to fix some of the Mana issues with gear.
• Mental Quickness – grants SP from Intellect on top of the above.

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 self-healing access.

Enhancement when leveling is fairly simple to pick up, with only a handful of buttons that deal up-front damage limited by cooldowns. Your bread and butter are Shocks (usually Earth Shock, but can switch around if another just received a new rank), and Stormstrike after level 25.

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, or Stoneskin Totem for defense.
• Fire – Flametongue Totem once unlocked, Searing Totem otherwise.
• Water – Mana Spring Totem.
• Air – Windfury Totem in groups, or Grounding Totem against spellcasters.
• Note – Use Totemic Recall off the GCD when moving to new areas.

Enhancement plays similarly in single-target and AoE when leveling. Below is a general list of priorities:

Before Combat

• Always be imbued – Windfury Weapon after 30, Rockbiter Weapon before.
• Apply Lightning Shield between pulls.
  • Switch to Water Shield once taken and maintain it in combat.
• Drop Totems before engaging.

In Combat

1. Cast Lightning Bolt (rank 1) to pull enemies out of range.
2. Cast Stormstrike on cooldown. React to Improved Stormstrike resets.
3. Cast Rage of the Farseer against dangerous foes.
4. Cast Lightning Bolt (max rank) with 5 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
5. Cast Earth Shock on cooldown.
   • Alternate Flame Shock & Earth Shock in groups.
   • Switch to Frost Shock over Earth Shock if threat is an issue.
6. Cast Fire Nova with an active Fire Totem with spare Mana.
7. Auto-attack until the enemy dies.

After each pull, remember to use Healing Wave to heal up and drink if your Mana is 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:

• Windfury Weapon grants a 20% chance each swing to hit two extra times. Lasts one hour, so always be imbued. Use Rockbiter Weapon instead before level 30.
• Stormstrike instantly strikes with your weapon, and can trigger Windfury Weapon too!
• Earth Shock deals Nature damage and interrupts your target. Great for pulling spellcasters.
• Fire Nova deals AoE Fire damage around your active Fire Totem. Strong in AoE, but costs a lot of Mana.
• Ghost Wolf increases movement speed by 40%. Has no cooldown or duration, so it's great for moving around, but you can't attack. Improved Ghost Wolf makes it instant and allows you to move indoors.
• 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.
• Windfury Totem is exclusive with your imbue, but extends a similar effect to your party.
• Flametongue Totem will stack with your Windfury Weapon imbue but not your Windfury Totem, so it's just a good Fire Totem anchor for Fire Nova due to the long duration.

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 tanky as a Paladin or as slippery as a Rogue, you'll 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'll be a boon to most parties!

Click for Utility and Crowd Control Details!

• Frost Shock – shares a cooldown with Earth Shock, but instead of 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%. 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 get your bearings.
• Cure Poison – dispels a Poison effect from you or a targeted ally. You also have Poison Cleansing Totem, 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 - Disease Cleansing Totem.
• Purge – removes up to two beneficial magic effects from your target. Good for getting rid of key buffs or heals 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!
• 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 kind citizen to save someone a death run if you cross paths with their corpse out in the world.
• Grounding Totem – Air Totem that redirects a spell cast at you or your party to itself. Only eats up one spell, 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 isn't shared.
• 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.

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. Weapon DPS
   • Improves your auto-attack damage, Stormstrike and Windfury Weapon. Always your first priority to keep up to date when leveling. Aim for a slow 2-Handed weapon, ideally around the 3.3-3.8 speed range.
2. Strength
   • Provides two Attack Power per point, increasing the damage of melee attacks. Stronger than Intellect especially at lower levels, but purely offensive.
3. Intellect
   • Each point provides one Attack Power through Mental Dexterity, 15 Mana, and increases Spell Crit chance. Since Mana is a big constraint when leveling, especially early this rivals Strength.
4. Spirit
   • Increases your passive Mana Regeneration every 5 seconds when not casting spells. Once you have either Improved Stormstrike or Mindfulness (or both!) this also works while casting spells, so becomes a great source of Mana sustain. Not as strong as offensive stats, but very comfortable.
5. Agility
   • Increases Melee Crit and Dodge chance per point. Since there's no Attack Power modifier for Shaman, it's not quite as important. Slightly better once you unlock Flurry though, so remains relevant, and is hard to avoid early on Leather gear.
6. Stamina
   • Each point increases maximum health, but has no offensive benefit. Its value comes down to how often you feel in danger - if pulls are scary, invest in a little more, if you're rarely threatened, focus on offense.

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!

• Recommended Quest Zones
  • Alliance – Loch Modan, Westfall and Darkshore Redridge Mountains and Duskwood Ashenvale, Duskwood and The Wetlands
  • Horde – The Barrens and Silverpine Forest The Barrens, Silverpine Forest and Stonetalon Mountains Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale and Hillsbrad Foothills Thousand Needles, Ashenvale and Hillsbrad Foothills
• Recommended Dungeons
  • Alliance – Hall of Thanes Hall of Thanes and The Deadmines The Deadmines and The Stockade The Stockade and Blackfathom Deeps Blackfathom Deeps and Excavation Site: Wetlands Excavation Site: Wetlands and City of Dalaran
  • Horde – Ragefire Chasm Ragefire Chasm and Ruins of Lordaeron Ruins of Lordaeron and Wailing Caverns Wailing Caverns and Shadowfang Keep Shadowfang Keep and Blackfathom Deeps City of Dalaran and Razorfen Kraul
• Milestone Quests – Call of Fire. Complete ASAP 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 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. Complete over time. Requires a Razorfen Kraul 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 are the best pickups available for you at your chosen level:

• Weapons Worth Grabbing
  • Alliance – Ironforge Greathammer from Old Ironforge Incursion Smite's Mighty Hammer from The Deadmines
  • Horde – Axe of Orgrimmar from Hidden Enemies Forsaken Greataxe from The Wrath of Rath'mael
  • Horde / Alliance – Twilight Maul from Blackfathom Deeps Corpsemaker from Razorfen Kraul Rage of the Storm from Call of Air
  • Alternative – Corpsemaker from Razorfen Kraul

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

• Alliance – nothing until level 16+
• Horde – nothing until level 18+
• Chest – 21+ Bone-studded Leather from Missing In Action
• Chest
  • 26+ – Raptorbane Armor from Ormer's Revenge
  • 26+ – Ribbed Breastplate from Humbert's Sword
• Cloak – 24+ Wildhunter Cloak from The Hunt Completed
• Gloves – 28+ Tiger Hunter Gloves from Tiger Mastery
• Belt – 18+ Screecher Belt from Bloodfury Bloodline
• Legs – 29+ Carnage Trousers from Carnage
• Boots
  • 21+ – Disjointed Shoes from WANTED: Incinerator Gar'im
  • 21+ – Stomping Boots from Elixir of Pain
  • 24+ – Tundra Boots from Grimtotem Spying
• Ring
  • 16+ – Seal of Wrynn from An Audience with the King
  • 20+ – Malignant Root from turning in Rotheap Innards to The Greenwarden
  • 20+ – Loop of Sacrifice from The Offering of Blood

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. Make sure to level it as you go to make sure you can craft things as soon as they unlock! Since we recommend Leatherworking, below are bind-on-pickup crafts available at your selected level:

Slot	Item	Skill Level
Helm	20+ Defender's Leather Hood 25+ Defender's Leather Helm	100 130
Chest	15+ Totemic Leather Armor 22+ Totemic Leather Tunic	80 110
Gloves	15+ Brawler's Leather Gloves	75
Belt	11+ Totemic Leather Belt 30+ Skirmisher's Leather Belt	60 150
Legs	20+ Totemic Leather Pants 25+ Stormrider's Leather Kilt	105 150
Boots	17+ Brawler's Leather Boots	85

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.
• 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.
• Interrupts are powerful – Earth Shock unlocks extremely early, and can interrupt enemy spell casts. It's great for dealing with pesky healers, or pull targets in when they refuse to stop casting.
• 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 don't 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.
• 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!

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
25	Stormstrike can be reached
30	Air Totem Quest
30	Windfury Weapon unlocks
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. Below we've listed good picks, ordered by how strongly we recommend them:

• Leatherworking & Skinning – can craft high strength 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 along the way, 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 – a tried and true way of making money, and supplies your Alchemy needs as well.

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, while Cooking can provide strong buff food that even boosts your experience earned!

More WoW Forever Shaman Guides

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

More WoW Forever Guides from Other Classes

Shadow Priest Ranged DPS Leveling Arms Warrior Melee DPS Leveling Holy Paladin Healer Leveling Frost Mage Ranged DPS Guide Restoration Druid Healer Guide Combat Rogue Melee DPS Leveling