I am currently levelling my shaman as elemental. Just wondering if i should switch to enhancement instead.
I started off with a 1h and shield but it felt slow so i switched to just a staff for melee. It feels better but rotation still feels very slow (only 24)
Should I switch to enhancement? Is it any better?
Thanks
I leveled as Enhanced/Ele mixed and it worked well for me. Then at 40 I did the dual spec resto for dungeon grinding getting gear.
Enhance its easier usually to level, at 24 they’re isn’t too much of a diff in the trees, but improved ghostwolf is great until you get mount
End game is resto anyways… unless you go rank 14 then you can do elemental.
It terms of leveling enhancement is the safe bet unless you like to drink every pull with ele
Personally I found Elemental more fun to level as an Orc Shaman. I was then planning on going into healing/elemental down the line. There is something satisfying about the one handed weapon and shield/spell use on a shaman.
Enhancement is where it’s at. Much less downtime, can save mana for healing or utility instead of blowing it all on damage, and has better low level talent choices. Elemental doesn’t really come into its own until after 40, and even then doesn’t shine until you have a lot of spell damage gear, which is unlikely to happen pre-60.
I went enhancement until 46/47. Got a set of caster gear and swapped to elemental to try it out, and within a day went back to enhancement. My auto attacks as enhance do as much or more damage than lightning bolts with ele, and are resource free.
I highly recommend using a 1h/shield and rock biter when soloing. Windfury is fun but unless you have an amazing weapon for your level it isn’t reliable enough to use in most cases. Focus on agility rather than strength for your gear priority; rockbiter gives you enough ap to make up for no strength on gear, and high agility bumps your crit chance which means more flurry uptime for higher damage output.
Improved ghost wolf helps a lot before you get your mount as well.
Lastly, enhancement can tank surprisingly well for getting through leveling dungeons. You take less damage than the smooth brain 2h warrior tanks, threat from rock biter and earth shock are unmatchable, and you have a ton of group utility.
Enhancement, because levelling as a spellcaster is the most boring experience you can have.
This is so wrong lol.
Enhancement is awful after 40 and especially 45+.
At 40 you swap to ele and it’s not remotely close.
Enhance is 45 seconds to kill a single mob and use your entire mana pool to do so
You likely weren’t geared properly because ele is far better post 40.
No thanks.
dunno what youre casting to use your entire mana pool to kill a mob or taking 45sec but youre doing something wrong if thats the case
to the other guy, 1h and rockbiter would be super slow though and is also not correct. literally you just use lightning shield + searing totem and things die easily and you dont oom, and they dont take 45seconds
Level as Enh, gather gear for ele. Elemental doesnt come online until you get the cast time reductions for LB/CL.
Patently false. ESPECIALLY in Classic now. Fights are short enough that with a combination of Mana Spring, Major Manas Dark/Demonic Runes, MAYBE a Mindtap Talisman and a Nightfin Soup you can go balls out on Rag from start to finish and not run hard OOM. It isnt like SPriest where casting anything but a downranked Flay + max rank SWP makes your mana evaporate in seconds.
Even if you DO somehow OOM, you can fish for clearcasts with Rank 1 LB just about infinitely while you wait on a Major Mana or a Rune to come off CD.
I think you’re playing enhance wrong. It absolutely does not take me “45 seconds to kill a mob” and I use around 1/8-1/4 of my mana per mob, which I recover before the next. I only actually have to stop and drink about every 10-15 mobs, or if I take on several at once and have to heal.
Lightning shield is the best damage per mana we’ve got, but it also mucks up mp5 too much. Not a fan of searing totem either.
Against anything with low armor rating, I run my 2h and windfury. Against anything that’s going to take more than a few seconds to kill, I swap to the 1h/shield with rockbiter. Rockbiter Rank 6 gives 529 bonus attack power, which comes out to 38 extra DPS on your weapon (that’s more DPS than most 1handers actually have listed at that level range). Run high enough crit rating to keep flurry up as often as possible, and that goes up an additional 30%.
The guy taking “45 seconds and all his mana” to kill a mob as enhancement likely isn’t geared probably or playing smart. You need to gear for agility and use agility elixirs (or mongoose, if you can afford/make them) to bump your crit chance up as high as possible. You don’t want to use a slow weapon with rockbiter, you want a fast dagger or 1h axe, because it’s a pure DPS increase but you aren’t looking for burst, you’re looking for consistency. The faster the weapon is and the higher your crit is, the more you’ll proc flurry in a given fight, which is a straight DPS increase.
Press X for doubt.
Around the 40s shield is 240 mana and totem is 110 mana… so thats 350 mana without a single shock.
If you use any kind of shock… like flame shock thats 250 mana, so now youre at 600 mana for one mob. Have to reapply WF every 5 minutes? thats 110 mana every say 10 mobs… so 10 mana per mob. SoE totem? 125 Mana.
Pretty sure 735+ mana is more than 1/8 your mana pool lol… and not like you are stacking a ton of Spirit to regen while not casting.
Never played a shaman in my entire wow time, but i think Enh is the default rout as for hybrids physical is always more efficient than spells.
Do you even play shaman bro?
As someone who is about to hit 39 on my shaman I can assure you no matter what spec you play it’s going to be painful and slow.
The only advice I would give is go enhance and get the Wailing Caverns quest staff as soon as you can. This will carry you until you get corpsemaker which will carry you to 40. Where you can make a decision to respec or stay enhance.
I wouldn’t say it’s among the slowest classes for leveling, definitely somewhere in the middle. It’s also largely gear dependent, and it’s super helpful if you can find a guild that’s willing to help you get powerful weapons as soon as possible for each level bracket.
Like most classes, it gets significantly faster when you hit 20, 30, and 40, and in-between those it always down each level until you hit the next milestone.
Back in 04/05 it took my druid somewhere between 4-6 months to hit cap and that’s when I had more time to play. Everything is faster now because we know what’s going on and how to accelerate the process, but even then I’d say shaman levels much faster than druid still.
Not trying to be a jerk but Druid leveling is one of the fastest in classic and shaman leveling is one of the slowest. Fastest prolly Hunter Lock Mage Druid Slowest warrior paladin shaman others in the middle.
The playstyle is literally the exact same from 10 to 40 no matter your spec
Just pick the spec you plan on using after 40
I’d actually argue clearcasting and elemental fury is better pre 40 while still “playing enhance”
The amount of wrong in this. Wow.