i like the shaman but i dont want to be whacking stuff to death but due to the mana issue i understand. i am wondering is it viable especially for someone who is just starting? meaning i got no gold or nothing to really fund constant drinking.
After level 40, I found elemental to be faster than Enhance.
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what about say from lvl 10-40? i mean i really dont care for whacking stuff i can but im more of a ranged/caster player but yea the mana issue might be hard so just wanted to ask.
i don’t want to play a mage/lock either mage i find boring especially since i mained one for a long time in retail and lock idc for much in general. Hunter is kinda dime a dozen for me to really like played um so many times in classic same results i always end up quitting and feeling like it is too easy to level one.
I leveled as Resto until about 50. It wasn’t great.
Honestly, Enhance is the way to go until 40, and then you can finish it off with Elemental. Hitting things gets a bit more fun when your hits actually do some damage
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Ele damage is fine, but it doesn’t have the ability to sustain mana so you’re going to be drinking regularly. It shouldn’t be so bad that you can’t fund your own drinks from the vendor though.as
If you’re gonna play a caster and it’s not gonna be a mage or warlock you’re gonna be drinking constantly.
alright thanks for the advice. i think maybe i just go enhance and play the class not the spec.
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leveling ele before 40 sucks because the talents that make it useful are deep in the tree
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Remember that before maybe the last two tiers of points, the difference is negligible. 5% here, 2 seconds off there. You’re not an elemental shaman, you’re a shaman with very slightly better damage casting.
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Enh is more efficient (multiple mobs at once) until you get the auto crit ability.
It’s going to be super slow with having to drink
But as soon as you hit 40 - elemental becomes the way to go.
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Enhance is much better for leveling, no mana issues and you hit hard with 2h once you get that talent.
Elemental is too slow and inefficient.
Ele leveling is probably faster even with all the water you have to chug
Its not only viable, its optimal.
Just stack as much spellpower you can find. SP increases your total DPS, reduced number of casts to kill a target, and overall mana/damage efficiency.
You can spec ele at level 38 when you get a new rank of lightning bolt and 4/5 reduced cast speed to lightning spells talent.
Prior to that, just use a 2h staff with rockbiter from levels 1-29, then get the Corpsemaker at 29 and any other 2h axe/mace with Windfury after that until you can spec elemental.
From 1-10, with a staff and rockbiter, you literally one shot wombo combo most mobs with earth shock. Fastest and easiest class to play from 1-20, especially with the crescent staff from WC at ~17.
At level 40, aim for ~100 spellpower. At level 50, ~150.
Only from level 1-38.
I think no matter the spec, you will be drinking a TON. I leveled enhance and later on, maybe lvl 40+ was just drinking after every 2 or 3 mobs.
For any pre-40 Shaman there’s no reason NOT to go Enhance. For practically nothing, you can respec one time at your trainer and enjoy Elemental, but it can wait until 40.
Truthfully, it can wait until level 33! If I were going to run Elemental, I’d wait until 33. I can reasonably fill out the tree at that point and can either run down Resto or complete Elemental.
Curious Post Script–I could even make a case for spending your first 14 points in RESTO if going down Elemental. You get 3% melee and spell hit out of it plus Totem Mastery. Then head down Elemental, maybe? Coming from a PALADIN, though, I love to head over for a +hit talent…so maybe my opinion is wrong. (And even as a Paladin, I rush to Consecration first lol)
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They have okay burst. You can learn how to manage mana. Yeah, you’ll have to drink… Fortunately water’s not too expensive. Water elementals in Ashenvale and STC drop a lot of water that you can use. Farm them for a while when you get there.
Don’t you go oom if you do elemental? With axe you just kill over and over, non stop.
You go oom way faster as enh, because you still need to use shocks and melee is AWFUL.
Aside the fact you need to spend a lot of time constantly upgrading your weapons, you’re dealing with a lot of miss, parry, dodge ,miss, parry , dodge.
Ele blows things up so much faster that even with (less) drinking compared to enh, you’re still getting far more XP.
Soon as you add significant amount of spellpower, from nature’s wrath or gnereal good cloth SP items, its not even a comparison.
TBC enh reworks somewhat closes the gap, but still not really. Still bound by how good your weapons are rather than by default having a skill you learn from a trainer.
After lvl 40 ele is better than enhancement unless you plan on twinking your kit out which is a waste of gold
If you use shocks as enhancement to speed up killing you are gonna go oom pretty quickly, and if you just auto attack you will end up needing to heal, which makes you go oom
In practice you can usually kill more mobs in less time just blasting as elemental, either way you are going to be drinking all the time
Also if you focus on elemental at 40+ you can very viably switch to healing when needed without needing multiple sets of gear
you will run out of mana every lightning bolt cast
i’m leveling right now as enhance, i rarely drink. no shocks, just occasional storm strike. i dont go crazy with totems either (otherwise yeah it gets expensive). almost no downtime.
i tried elemental, was oom most of the time.