Now that you mention it, there is an Engi shield that has a chance to AoE everything in front of it. Force Reactive Disk. That might actually help a Shaman tank out at 60 if theyre actually going for it, but it uses durability every time it goes off so people typically have 2, and only use them in certain situations
That too. I’ve read about horde tanking and only recall ‘even a shaman with a shield could tank low level dungeons!’ which suggested tanking was a pinch-hitting afterthought for shaman. We’ve had hunters pet-tank low level dungeons when the warrior dc’d or whatever.
I’m an elemental shaman myself, but was thinking of switching to restoration at level 60. People always whispering to ask if I’m a healer, but nobody ever asking if ?I’m a dps or a tank.
Dps probably common enough, and maybe tanking not expected of shaman.
Put a thorium spike on that reactive disk too. Edit: Oh yeah, and that buff that ups your stats and makes you spikey too - I think druids or someone cast that on me sometimes. Wild vines or something.
By your standards, I could tank any dungeon up to ZF as 2 hand ret paladin, or Mara with consecrate and a shield as ret paladin. Does that make ret paladin tank now? And ret pally can generate more single target threat than proct pally lol
shamans are hot garbage for tanks past level 20 JUST because like I said, no aoe threat or taunt. Like the damage reduction is there, the mobs just wont stay, they bounce back and forth and you can’t control 3 or 4 of them.
I didn’t expect shaman to be good tanks as they are, just tossing out some ideas for whoever was trying. I’m elemental and just crammed a couple enhance talents in to toughen me up in the world a little, but I’m not expecting to tank anyone’s raid. Guildie told me shaman make really nice AOE healers and easiest resto shaman strategy was let the main healer keep the tank(s) alive, and resto shaman do their big aoe heal stuff to counter big damage boss throws at party. And keep up a manastream totem (I think that’s the one at the end of resto talent tree) to give the group more kick otherwise. I only ever tanked raids as warrior and demon hunter over in retail. Only helped a hunter pet-tank as shaman in WC on classic and only because our warrior dc’d halfway in.
(The hunter was topnotch with the freeze traps, kiting, and marking targets, the healer was topnotch, and me and the warlock were kind enough to attack whoever had the skull icon and not break freezetraps.)
To be fair, it always felt like a penalty while leveling to the point where the multi-class actually became powerful and the synergies kicked in.
It was ok, you you had other multi’s but if you were the only one in an otherwise pure class group, yea it felt like it took forever for you.
Anecdotal, but a disc priest in my guild had a pleasant time healing a shaman tank in Strath. I think it was UD side. The only downside was having to wait on tank mana.
In terms of gear, I swear I read a blue post about how tier sets were designed back on how players played their classes creating a vicious cycle for classes with heals.
Say you want to tank -> But the raid needs healers -> You spec for heals -> Blizzard sees all the healers -> Next tier is healer gear for all these healing raiders -> Blizzard sees no tanks from the hybrid classes -> Blizzard assumes no desire for hybrid tanks.
Busting my butt to find a citation though : \
Bear druids with MCP would like to have a word with you on that claim.
Your taunt is earth shock 8 sec cd. Stoneclaw totem is an aoe taunt 30 sec cd, once the totem dies aggro is transfered to you. Rockbiter on a dagger raises your overall threat with melee damage. Shamans are better tanks than paladins.
I think it would’ve been cool if shaman’s had a non-gimmick tank spec, but alas it was never meant to be.
earth shock isnt a taunt, it just deals high threat. Meaning even if you earth shock something it might not bring it back to you if the dps it’s chasing is doing enough damage, when a taunt on the other hand gets them to aggro you automatically.
Because not every class needs to have every ability… the homogenization of classes is what contributed to the death of retail and what makes Classic special
Warriors need a taunt because they need mobs to be attacking them to generate more rage and to be able to use Revenge.
I haven’t listened to these in a while, so I don’t know if he answers your specific question exactly, but there’s a really good series of class-specific interviews with Vanilla’s lead class designer Kevin Jordan from the Countdown to Classic podcast.
Here’s a YouTube link to the Shaman discussion:
Shadow priests say hey ![]()
#doinitwrong.
Take a 3 mob pack, Chain lightning into earth shock they’re heading your way now, Drop fire nova totem alittle bit behind you then target the second mob, Earthshock again then focus on the third. If you’re desperate for extra threat pre-drop earthgrab infront of you or get a nova from a mage and bean out another chain lightning.
I rarely see people using their full toolkit as any class, this is an example of expending a little more effort for alot more results.
Taunt is not necessary to tank, especially for a shaman tank. If you’re interested in learning more about shaman tanking, I suggest searching for a shaman tank guide to help you on your journey.
Indeed. Shaman tank is very much effort based.