Stormstruck

My site had more views in one day thanks to Rip’s little shoutout than it’s ever had previously.

So for all those folks that cruised on by, I’d like to extend both my gratitude and my apologies–for not having anything nearly as witty, entertaining, or informative as you’ll find over at good ole’ Critical QQ.

Much love to you and your readers, Rip, for reinvigorating my interest in this crummy little project of mine!

So like, for the longest time, I’ve been neglecting both this blog and my shaman.  I’m sorry to both of my regualar readers for this.  So, some updates are due.

At some point soon after my original posts I decided, partly on a personal whim, partly on some (not much, but some) urging from my GM, to spec Elemental and be Anathema’s caster helper in raids.  So, in about a day’s time, I spent about 500g on the respec, and mats for the (relatively) cheapo Leatherworking stuff and mats for some enchants.  I was rockin about 475 spell damage in that gear, but I had the really low spell hit cap for Shaman covered thanks to that Scryer rep trinket and that one dagger from heroic Slave Pens.  Yay.

So I raided as that spec for a little while.  I was present for Anathema’s first ever kills of Leotheras and Tidewalker.  Due to my relatively low numbers on spell damage and crit, I wasn’t tearing up the damage meters, but I was certainly learning my fair share of raid know-how.  A little while later, I found myself in Kara, downing Prince yet again, but this time holding the Nathrezim Mindblade over his smoldering corpse.

Stick with me here.  This has a point.

But something bad happened.  By winning the aforementioned blade, I managed to piss off some guildies.  I felt incredibly bad about it so I kind of withdrew from our raids as a result.   This was a personal decision on my part and the relationships that were strained by the Mindblade incident are now mending very well.  But at the time, I decided to kind of make myself scarce.  So then I got enamored yet again with one of my alts–the paladin, Soleia.  I leveled her up from 45 to 65 in about a month, playing very casually and trying out each spec (Protection is definitely my favorite, btw).

About a week ago, Anathema’s resident enhancement Shaman, Hexisu, transferred off the server.  Completely ignorant of this knowledge at the time, I specced Oliveta back to Enhancement just to see if I could rekindle my interest in my most beloved character.  That night, at raid time, my GM told me Hex transferred and I offered to fill in.

So there I was, back in Serpentshrine Cavern after a nearly six week hiatus from raiding, acting as Melee Battery.  It was a productive night–we two-shotted Leotheras and Fathom Lord Karathress, some folks got their tier 5 gloves or leggings and everyone took off feeling well.  My DPS wasn’t great.  Actually, it was pretty damn dismal.  I was bound and determined to fix that.

Thus, I got off my ass and got back to leveling my skill in blacksmithing.  I spent some time grinding primals, I spent a lot of money in the Auction House, and I made my Drakefist Hammer.  I gathered mats for Mongoose.  I was ready for action.  Off to Shadowmoon Valley to test this bad boy out.

I was a bit scared at first since I lost a fair amount of attack power, some crit chance, and a little hit rating to don this new piece of equipment.  But, I gained quite a bit of weapon DPS and that sexy haste proc.  My fears were blown completely away the first time I saw both mongooses as well as the Drakefist’s haste stack with Flurry.  I saw my base attack speed move from 2.7/2.4 to 1.6/1.4 with just a few lucky procs. 

“But wait” you say, “don’t you wanna have the slowest weapon speed possible as a shaman???!!!?”

Yes indeed you do.  And thank you for paying so much attention to how my beloved class works!  Without getting too much into how Windfury works (which I promise I’ll cover at some point), let’s just remember that all Windfury attacks are non-normalized damage.  This means the slower your weapon, the harder they’ll hit every time.  It also means that damage is calculated BEFORE any haste effects are factored in.  Thus, my Windfury damage is as high as it’s ever been while my white damage has been exponentially increased.

Thus, about once a minute when everything’s clicking, I turn into Oliveta, the Beef Blender.

Lately I’ve been soloing elites in Netherstorm with Bloodlust and Drums of Battle up.  You know, cuz regular mobs can’t stand up to the onslaught.

At the illustrious level of 4, you get your quest to receive your first totem, Earth.  The quest is nothing really–go find the big stone, drink the sapta, and talk to the Earth Elemental.  As the big fella tells you, Earth is the basis for the other elements and in many ways, your Earth totems are your bread and butter from the time you get them.  You find some great ones, some so-so ones, and some highly situational ones–and this is essentially the symptom of all your totems. 

First, some totem basics.  Most importantly, be sure to keep the actual totem in your inventory at all times.  You can’t drop the buffing totem without the physical item in one of your equipped bags, so keep it in your backpack with your hearthstone and don’t move it.  Also, keep in mind that you can only have one totem of each element active at any given time.  This means that you can’t drop both Stoneskin and Earthbind, for example.  Also, remember that multiple Shaman in a party can drop different totems so that everyone gets more buffs.  Have one drop Stoneskin and another drop Strength of Earth and not only is your melee taking less damage but also dealing more damage through the increase of  attack power.  One more thing, most totems have a base range of 20 yards, unless you grab the Totemic Mastery talent in the Resto tree–which is highly recommended.

That just about covers that, now let’s take a look at Earth totems specifically:

Stoneskin Totem–Reduces melee damage taken by all party members.  In the early game, this totem can be pretty useful.  However, it doesn’t scale all that well and even by the mid-levels, this totem becomes kind of weak.  Really it is just highly situational–when your group is taking a lot of annoying damage from multiple targets, drop this and let the AoE classes go nuts.  Some examples of this include the skeleton packs in Stratholme, and Auchenai Crypts, and like all of Gnomeregan.

Earthbind Totem–Slows the movement speed of enemies within 10 yards.  I love this totem.  It’s incredibly useful for stopping runners in instances (its use in Scarlet Monastery, for example, is godly) as well as an immensely effective AoE snare in PvP.  Sure, most classes can do something to get away from it but this thing has no cooldown and costs practically nothing to cast.  Always have it somewhere with easy access on your action bars.

Stoneclaw Totem–Taunts creatures within 8 yards to attack it.  Attacks against the totem have a 50% chance to stun the attacker for 3 seconds.  This one’s another situational totem.  Usually only pulled out when something goes wrong in solo PvE to distract an add or two while you burn down your primary target.  In instances, it’s too weak to stand up for long enough against enemies.  In PvP it’s not at all useful since players don’t respond to taunt effects.  However, you can drop it if some rogue is constantly attacking all your totems to maybe get a quick stun in on him.

Strength of Earth Totem–Increases the Strength of all party members.  In most situations, this will be your totem of choice, especially when specced Enhancement.  For Shamans, Paladins, Warriors, and Druids, each point of Strength translates into two Attack Power so it’s most useful for those classes.  The Enhancement talent Enhancing Totems increases the effectiveness of this totem.

Tremor Totem–Shakes the ground, dispelling Fear, Charm, and Sleep effects on all party members within 40 yards.  This is another great totem, but only useful in those situations where the above effects are prominent.  This makes Tremor a required totem for most PvP situations and a few select boss and trash fights in instances.  One thing to point out is that Tremor works on a five second pulse and therefore won’t immediately dispel the effects.

Earth Elemental Totem–Summons an Earth Elemental to protect the caster and her allies.  Lasts 2 minutes.  Think of this as Stoneclaw to the Nth degree.  On speed.  This one is incredible for when things go REALLY wrong.  I’ve personally used my Earth Elemental to tank bosses in regular mode instances, a Fel Reaver, and multiple targets in really bad PvE pulls.  All you gotta do is keep the big guy healed and you’re golden.  His damage isn’t great but he’s a beast at holding aggro on single or multiple targets.

And that does it for your Earth totems.  As you can see, they’re pretty much defensive in nature and are mostly quite useful given the proper situation.  In the next issue we’ll cover the Fire totems, our most active damage dealing totems.

Alright so you started your Shaman.  You picked a race and sex that look cool to you and feel right.  You did all the annoying crap you have to do in the opening zone and you’ve probably made it to at least one major city by now.  You did the earth totem quest and you’re starting to work on your fire totem.  Congratulations!

BUT!  “Where do I put my talent points?!!??” you ask!  Good question, let’s talk about this for a bit.

First, we gotta throw out one tree altogether–Restoration.  Unless you really like healing and good groups are easy to come by on your server, leveling Resto is, in two words, le suck.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some really useful talents in there early on:  Improved Healing Wave, Totemic Focus, and Healing Focus are all incredibly benificial and have saved my poor ass on many occasions.  However, the payoff in the early game isn’t all that impressive–it’s much more efficient to spec one of the DPS trees and build a modest set of healing gear for when the need arises.

That leaves us with two trees to choose from–Elemental and Enhancement.  Taking a quick look at the talents within you can ascertain that Elemental is a casting/PvP tree and Enhancement is more along the lines of melee/support.  So basically it comes down to a simple choice–do you like hanging back and hurling bolts of lightning?  Or are you more the type to get in close and mix it up?  If you’re like me and really either suits your fancy, allow me to make a few points to help you decide:

1)  All Shaman, if they stay geared and use their totems properly, have a GREAT deal of power in the early game.  Up to level 40 or 50, you and your Druid buddies are essentially Gods amongst mortals.  You can literally do it all and make it look hot while doing it.  Expect to really lay down damage in instances and heal with the best of em if you build the proper gear for that as well.  My point?  Ultimately neither spec when geared properly and at equal levels will outperform the other.

2)  The early Elemental talents really outweigh the early Enhancement talents.  Some recent changes have helped to even this out a little, but really things like Shamanistic Focus, Thundering Strikes, and Flurry don’t compare to Concussion, Convection, and Call of Thunder.  Think about it–your lightning spells will hit harder, cost less mana and have additional chance to crit above your normal spell crit chance–compare that to swinging a big 2her a little faster after a crit and clearcasting a shock spell that doesn’t really hit all that hard.

3)  It might actually be easier to find good gear for Enhancement in the early levels.  You’re essentially going to be grabbing rogue/hunter leather (of which there is a TON out there) until you get mail at 40.  The problem is finding a good weapon.  1h and shield is pretty lame in the damage department yet solid 2H axes and maces can be hard to come by.  Just get something nice and slow, preferably slower than 3.0 with a lot of Strength or Agility on it.  Leveling Elemental early on, however, you’ll probably end up wearing a lot of cloth–get used to it, it’s the best caster stuff you can get. 

4)  Elemental shamans have an easier time main healing instances than Enhancement shamans due to the fact that they rarely have to gear swap in order to do it.  You’ll need to heal at some point and if your intention is to go Resto eventually then it’s good to get some practice in.  As Elemental, you’ll already be sporting some good +Intellect gear and your mana pool will be respectable enough to main heal any instance, prolly up to Zul’Farrak.  If you’re Enhance, well, you’ll just have to carry another set of gear…which can be wasteful and expensive, as well as not being your primary focus so it’s probably gonna suck as well.

I personally leveled as a weird Elemental/Enhancement hybrid.  It worked out okay but really no more than that.  I’m leveling my baby Shaman as Elemental right now and yeah, he’s sporting a ton of cloth.  Ultimately the decision comes down to you and your playstyle but if you can afford the gold, it’s worth it to actually try out both specs and see what both are really about.  Up to level 40 it really doesn’t matter much, as gearing choices are pretty limited.  After that however, it really starts to get fun.

Next post we’ll talk about totems and how to impress your groupmates with your command of the elements.

Alright, you’ve decided to start a shaman–good for you, and welcome to the smallest class community WoW-wide.  We’re an eclectic and cynical bunch…so, fair warning.  Anyway, you might be wondering if there’s a “best” race for the shaman class and if so, what that might be.  Well, in this post we’ll take a look at each race and compare and contrast abilities and starting stats.

ORC

Blood Fury–When active, increases base attack power and spell damage and healing while decreasing all healing spells and effects on you by 50%.  Lasts 15 seconds.

A pretty cool racial ability and one that’s been adjusted as the game has evolved.  Way back when, Blood Fury only applied to attack power, thus making it only beneficial for melee-oriented characters (or Hunters).  Now however, it benefits your spell damage and healing as well, making it useful for all Shamans, regardless of spec.  The great thing about this ability is that it scales with your level and thus, the higher your base stats, the more benefit you’ll get from Blood Fury.

Hardiness–Increases your chance to resist stun effects by 15%.

Not a bad ability but not a game changing one either.  Can help out quite a bit in PvP where stuns are commonplace but in daily grinding you won’t notice it too much.

Command–Increases the damage dealt by controlled pets by 5%.

Only useful for Hunters and Warlocks, which we’re neither. 

Axe Specialization–Increases your expertise with axes by 5.

Another ability that really is only useful to Enhancement shamans.  Expertise increases your chance to hit and critically hit slightly so generally an axe should be your weapon of choice as an Orc Shaman.  Again, if you’re Elemental or Restoration spec, this ability doesn’t mean anything to you as melee isn’t going to be your area of interest.

TAUREN

Cultivation–Increases your Herbalism skill by 15.

Great ability if you take Herbalism as one of your professions as it allows you to pick herbs at a slightly higher skill base than your level.  Without the profession, you get no benefit from this whatsoever.

Endurance–Increases your total health by 5%.

Not a bad ability as it helps you stay alive and kicking slightly longer than the other races.  Beneficial to all specs, but really only slightly so.

Nature Resistance–Increases your nature resistance by 10.

This isn’t that great an ability either.  But then again ten is better than nothing.

War Stomp–Stuns up to five enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds.

This ability is where the Tauren racials truly shine.  War Stomp gives you a stun which the Shaman class generally lacks (except for the lawlproc on Stoneclaw totem).  This can help in PvP or PvE as it gives you a couple seconds to get a heal off while someone is hammering on you.  Use it wisely, use it often.

TROLL

Beast Slaying–Damage dealt versus beasts increased by 5%.

Not a bad ability.  Helps a bit when out in PvE, certainly.  Useful to all specs at all levels.

Berserking–Increases your casting and attack speed by 10% to 30% depending on your health level when activated.  Lasts ten seconds.

This is kind of a cool ability but one that isn’t nearly as useful as it sounds.  The increased speed can certainly help in tight situations but the fact that the effect only lasts for ten seconds makes it less than game changing.  Useful for all specs however and it can turn the tide of a battle in your favor.

Bow and Throwing Specialization–Increases chance to critically hit with bows and thrown weapons by 1%.

Shaman can equip neither bows nor thrown weapons so this ability is useless to us.

Regeneration–Health regeneration rate increased by 10%.  Up to 10% of health regeneration continues during combat.

Another cool ability as it helps trolls recover more quickly in and out of combat.  You probably won’t notice it that much but it is kind of nice to have.

DRAENEI

Gemcutting–Increases Jewelcrafting skill by 5.

If you’re gonna take Jewelcrafting as a profession then this ability helps a great deal, giving you access to patterns slightly above your normal level.

Gift of the Naaru–Heals a target over 15 seconds.

Talk about overpowered.  This very well may be the most useful racial ability in the game.  This adds a heal over time to your arsenal of healing spells that scales very well with level.  Useful to all specs, however Restoration Shamans perhaps have the most to gain from it.

Inspiring Presence–Increases chance to hit with spells by 1% for all party members within 30 yards.

Another great ability, especially if you’re Elemental spec.  All casters in your groups are going to love you even more for this ability however.

Shadow Resistance–Increases shadow resistance by 10.

Just like the Nature Resistance ability for Tauren, this isn’t much but ten is better than nothing.

And that covers all the racial abilities.  As you can see there’s nothing too incredible in there that will really set any race above another.  I mean, Orcs might have an edge as long as you spec Enhancement whereas Draenei are clearly more tuned to the caster builds.  Trolls and Tauren fall somewhere in between.  Really it comes down to which race feels best to you–pick something you don’t mind looking at and adapt to the racial abilities you get.  Keep in mind however that if you pick Draenei you’re stuck with the Alliance (really a shame, imo!).

I’ve personally played every race of Shaman up to at least level 12 or so.  For some reason the Tauren just stuck with me though I found the look of Draenei females to be pretty appealing–I just love those blue hips, I guess.

In the next post we’ll talk a little about leveling up and then start diving right into all the Shaman’s abilities, including spells and totems.