Shaman in Classic?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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I started in Wrath and my two favorite toons were this Shaman and a Paladin (I like to heal). I’m wondering how differently shaman played in Classic b/c it’s been a train wreck in recent expansions. Will I be able to enjoy spreading some green (or was it blue) streams of healing goodness and some tasty chain lightening? I want to make sure it’s a desired healer and solid leveler.

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Shamans are the best, and really only, AoE Healers in the game during Classic.

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I didn’t play a shaman till BC but absolutely loved it.

Specifically the utility I brought to the table with totems.

You won’t lead any dps meters if you dps but I gladly would run with a competent shaman that’s ele or enhance.

When it comes to healer, you’ll aways be welcomed.

I’ll have an orc shaman alt, also their teir sets look amazing IMO.

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Elemental and restoration shamans played very similarly from Classic - Wrath.

Of course new spells added in BC/Wrath changed the details, but overall, you’ll find it pretty recognizable if you were used to the Wrath version.

(Enhancement played pretty differently in Vanilla, with no DW, no Lava Lash, Stormstrike on a much longer cooldown, etc, but ele/resto stayed fairly similar.)

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Shamans are OP as hell, purge is so good. And there healing is amazing. Ele and Enhance kinda suck tho. Your really gonna be forced into healing end game if you want to progress threw some of the harder content.

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Shamans, the OG hero class

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I have not played the class. However, I do know that being really good with totems matters in Classic. If that is something you enjoy about your class you will have fun because a well played Shaman > Paladin. imo of course :slight_smile:

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I plan to run as enhancement when I run up my shaman alt. Druid is my main though. But im looking forward to attempting tanking for as far as I can get in 5 man content on the shaman.

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Enhancement for leveling, Elemental for PvP, and Resto for raiding. It’s a fun class; only downside is the lack of 1vX potential in WPvP without relying on engineering or gear advantages.

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You could look up vanilla shaman guides/videos. There’s a lot of vanilla stuff out there for every class.

Chain heal was yellow! Healing waves are green. Water totems have blue.

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I definitely don’t remember yellow chain heals. I recall green, then it turned blue when blizz made water the theme for resto shaman.

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You’ll run out of 5-man content before you stop being able to tank it.

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Well I prefer bc element shaman to wotlk shaman the whole lava burst lost me.

Tasy chain lightnings should be back.

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Don’t forget priest…

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15

Who? (kidding)

Shaman were an amazing class with a lot of burst throughput, whether heals or dps. They had better sustain as a healer than dps though.

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Shaman is fun in vanilla! BUT beware, if you started in wrath, you got to play during a time when mana was hard to run out of. Vanilla shaman is all about resource management: you oom FAST. Resto gets much better once you can stack mp5 and +heal and can downrank. Ele is a ton of fun and deals fantastic damage but you last a minute before being empty - and aside from having a thunderfury tank or getting spell pen gear in AQ, has no debuffs to help them fully land their spells in raids

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Priest AoE heals weren’t really efficient. They cost a lot of mana for a class that was already pretty mana hungry, and they weren’t “smart” AoE heals like the Shaman had. You bring a Priest for their direct heals, if you try to make a Priest AoE heal by spamming Prayer of Healing and Holy Nova, they’ll oom quickly and then be entirely useless.

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I seem to recall Shaman heals not being “smart” in Vanilla, as in they wouldn’t automatically seek out low HP allies when bouncing about. Was that not introduced in a later expansion? Could certainly be wrong about this…

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Inner focus + prayer of healing will get you a long, long ways on aoe healing if you need to use it when it is up. Although getting to a point where inner focus + prayer of healing isn’t massive overhealing is probably an interesting story. Usually, you inner focus and wait until a giant heal on the tank is needed (via cancel casting).

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I did not play a Shammy in Van, mainly a mage and hunter. I did roll a Shammy in BC and look forward to rolling a orc enhance shammy.

Mainly I am looking forwards to 2h Windfury Procs.

Will be fun times.