I understand that shamans mainly healed and still do in this iteration of classic WoW. But I would find it more enjoyable to be Enhance, or if I can get enough mana regen, ele. Ele is by far my favorite spec in the game even to today, but I know I will run into problems getting mana back after 2-3 mins.
Any insight at all if people are bringing the dps shaman classes to dungeons and raids?
Thanks guys, Happy WoW-ing
You could always fish. Besides, is healing really doom? It’s arguably the most exciting and important role in progression raids.
Sorry – I can’t really answer your question except to say free your mind and play whatever class/role you most enjoy. You’ll never be on the cutting edge if you are a slave to the meta-game.
I’ve seen a few level 60 elemental shamans. I’ve only seen one on Herod with raid gear though.
You can be either elemental or enhance. Both are good at PvP, but not so good in raids. I am resto specced and actually really enjoying it. Once you get a bit of gear, you become very tanky (not paladin tanky, but still pretty tanky), and you can actually outlast most opponents. I’d say if you really don’t want to heal, don’t roll a class with healing abilities.
Elemental is good in PvE if the fight doesn’t last long (which they don’t for good guilds). The only problem with elemental is them going OOM, but if you can keep your Rag kill under 3 minutes then it’s no longer an issue.
Personally, I play enhancement and have found a guild that lets me raid as melee DPS when there’s a melee spot open. I don’t come close to topping the meters, but just because someone isn’t topping the damage meters, it doesn’t mean they’re being carried. I still do enough DPS to contribute and I love playing enhancement.
In fact, I was planning on rolling as Resto because I love shaman healing, but while leveling I found Enhancement to be so much fun and it wasn’t hard to find a guild that lets me raid as such.
The only problem I have with raiding as Enhancement is that I don’t qualify for the dope tier sets. Those are meant for healers so I don’t get priority on them. In addition to that, there’s hardly any gear from MC/Only that is good for Enhancement shamans.
Most likely, during BWL, AQ, and Naxx, I’ll respec to resto simply because my dungeon blues (that currently work fine in MC) won’t be near sufficient enough for the harder raids. I’ll need better gear and that better gear is mostly for healing shammies
Elemental is the best PvP spec if that you makes you feel better lol. PvE Resto, PvP as Ele. Enh is kinda memey but it is fun if you get good enough gear
edit: would like to add that resto shamans are in huge demand and you can basically get free ele gear once your guild has a progression tier on farm and all the main dps geared out.
unless you have connections or friends that will allow you to raid ele or enhance, be prepared to heal in raids. players have no issue with you going ele/enh in dungeons though. I’m sticking to my guns and staying ele and I’ll get my gear as time goes on because ele still is great in blues.
Nah, I’ve seen plenty of shamans in dungeons. The only thing I don’t like is how easy it is for them to pull aggro. Even in the level 60 dungeons. >.< It almost got to the point where I didn’t want to go to the dungeon if I see a shaman is in the group. But I haven’t done any dungeons in a while with a shaman, so I’d give it another shot. Maybe it was just the players, after all.
Ele is a pvp spec. Resto is pve or pvp spec. Enhancement is for meming when you just don’t care if you’re the best you can be.
What you see as a problem, I see as opportunity. Main tank should mark a skull, but main tank should not put any effort into actually putting threat on skull.
Shaman starts off with stormstrike followed by earth shock on skull. No other dps will pull off us at that point. Shaman then jams a weapon swap macro to switch to 1h + shield and tanks skull. Other DPS go nuts and it dies in seconds. Shaman doesn’t need rage, so priest is free to PW:S before the pull.
Meanwhile, the tank is putting threat on the rest of the pack and typically has 2 sunders on X by the time skull dies.
ezpz.
Of course, this is for 5 mans. In raids, I heal.
I waiting on bgs or PvP gear. Elemental shaman here.It is just too expensive to keep respecting for raids…
You are doomed to fulfil any role you allow others to force you into.
If you want to play a sub optimal spec, go for it. You may get some grief, but if you make sure you are gearing/playing it correctly, you aren’t going to be a detriment to your group/guild.
30/0/21 spec. Get a +healing set and be around for your totems and chain heal. Then play Ele with a PvP set and the same spec. FYI cast earth shock max rank directly after a chain lightening when you use Elemental Mastery. Thanks to spell batching it has potential to cause some huge back to back crits.
You get what you fight for. I have mained a Ret paladin for 14 years. In my first few years of WoW I healed simply because I couldnt raid unless I did, but would get offspec rolls to fuel ret and would respec when it isnt raid time ( it was expensive, but I wanted to play what I found fun). I hated the peer-pressure/bullying into roles that Vanilla/TBC did but it was how it is back then. People actually thought you needed all 40 people to be min-maxing to progress.
Come Classic I had another opportunity. I know Ret isnt the highest damage dealing spec, It wasnt designed to be. Blizzard already stated that support/hybrids were jack of all trades and masters of none but could fill the gaps that pure classes couldnt do. Yes, a warrior/mage will be high on the meters, but he isnt providing his group an aura, blessings, Lay on Hands, Divine Intervention and offhealing etc. So coming into WoW classic I wanted to make sure I stayed ret, raided ret and got to play the class/spec I paid monthly to do. So now I raid ret, get geared as ret and I play as Ret. BUT, Keep in mind this comes with its numerous downsides that you need to be okay with dealing. Ive been /ignored on multiple occasions asking to join groups, ive been left out of alot of group activities from elitists, you’ll be the butt of every joke regarding your spec in PUGs and in even your guild runs LOL, finding a group will be 10x harder, damage dealing will be 10x harder, your community experience will be 10x harder. You are 100% an underdog and you’ll live your WoW time proving everyone else wrong ( or right, meh ). But if you can do this and thug it out then I will 100% respect you more than someone who just chose the easiest way out.
Fun fact: You’ll enjoy all the slight hate you get because its SO SOOO satisfying when, as an underdog, someone tries to gank you and you humble them by proccing seal of command (in your case windfury) and dropping them from 100-0 real quick. :^)
Enhancement Shaman are brought to raids because (a) they can totem-twist Grace of Air and Windfury totem for melee groups (b) they can wield proc weapons like Nightfall very effectively.
Elemental Shaman generally aren’t brought to raids because they have serious mana issues and don’t bring any unique functionality like Enhancement Shaman do.
Shaman of any stripe also have significant trouble maximizing their damage. As noted above, Stormstrike isn’t useable (debuff slot limitations). Lightning Shield is rarely at full potential because Shaman aren’t taking damage often enough. Shaman also have huge issues with resists since they need both Nature and Fire damage to maximize their output - which basically means you need to wait until Naxx before you get a raid where your entire arsenal can be used.
Gearing is also difficult. Enhancement Shaman are difficult to gear because they’re in direct competition with all the other physical dps specs (who frequently get loot priority over them). Elemental Shaman are a bit easier, but you’re still force to collect all sorts of oddball pieces since Shaman tier gear is primarily oriented towards healing.
That being said, it’s relatively common for Enhancement and Elemental Shaman to raid as healers while not being primarily Resto spec’d. Most Enhancement/Elemental Shaman want to spec Resto for Nature’s Guidance anyway, so they tend to pick up enough talents to make Chain Heal a worthwhile spell. They aren’t nearly as good as full Resto, but having a few members of your raid that can swap from dps to 75% healers can be worthwhile.
In terms of dungeons, people tend to bring along whomever is available. However, dps Shaman can be problematic because they lack CC, threat management and have mana issues. Elemental Devastation builds are incredible in 5-man, but they bring nothing to a raid (they can’t effectively totem-twist or heal and gearing for both melee/spell hit is difficult).
Nope, go elemental or enhancement. Become proficient at the class and when they tell you to heal or else tell them kiss dicks seeya later.
Some people throw around Nightfall as a decent reason to bring 1 enhance shaman, even in “serious” raids: classicdb.ch/?item=19169
My raid group has 1 enhance right now. People are generally fine with it, but if we had 2-3+, I think we would start to see some saltiness (“why do I have to put in effort and respec away from my pvp/farm spec when Thrall here gets brought to raid with his 120 dps?”).
We had an enhancement tank an UBRS run last night. It was pretty epic. Heals didn’t even complain.
I play a 60 resto shaman, it is possible to go an ele / resto build that is viable for PVP and still heal 5 man’s and raids. Ele dps will not be viable in AQ because of nature resist, but can be done in MC / Ony.
Personally I love healing because I have to actually think situationally about my abilities. While mages are jabbing 1 as fast as possible to get maximum frostbolts. I have to watch raid frames, see who needs heals and what their role is to prioritize targets. I have 8 different spells bound to heal with that I choose from on the fly based off needs of the target and situation. I have to be careful to conserve Mana. I also have to choose an appropriate combination of totems for the pull and keep those down. I love healing on a resto shaman.
for raids yes i wont raid in classic wow im enhancement ill be pvping the whole time it depends on your goals.
for you want all the raids it just depends on your guild leader.