I leveled this shaman to mainly play battleground/wpvps. If I want some endgame gear I’ll most likely have to get into a guild and heal in raids. The problem is I cant to these two things at the same time since I’ll need to be 31/0/20 for pvp and afaik deep restro for raid.
I simply will never be able to afford switching talents before/after each raid. Should I keep leveling my sham or reroll a pure dps that is raid + pvp compatible?
You can raid as ele/resto. It’s fine. Just put on some healing gear and gtg. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a sweaty tryhard that you wouldn’t want to be raiding with anyway.
Thanks. I asked one of my friend who is currently raiding and he told me that for the current content it will be okay. However if I want to keep up with later phases I’ll have to go full restro eventually… wonder if that is true
It’s blatantly false. Unless he means meter whoring. We had ret paladins and shadow priests healing in Naxx/AQ back in Vanilla. Meter whoring is useless for healing. The only useful metric on healing is, are people dieing when they shouldn’t be?
If the answer to that question is no, then carry on.
If the answer is yes? Then maybe its time you consider respeccing if you want to help push your raid further.
Ideally the answer to that is no. The classes have all they need built into them. But some players may not play as fast or at as high a level as others and spec could make the difference for them. You just have to know your own limitations as a player.
You can try if your guild will allow it, but keep in mind that you limit your utility for placement in raid groups such as providing mana tide to a caster group. You also will not be viable for tank heals, so you should only expect to be on raid heals and useful for wf totem on melee. Also you will be drinking more between trash pulls due to not having reduced cost on totems.
Honestly, find a guild that’s not “we have to be cutting edge downing everything in 20 minutes” and absolutely, yes. You can easily find a guild that needs minimal effort that will let you play how you like. Build some friendships. Have fun
If you’ve got some level of competence your guild is unlikely to care what spec you are, but if you’re not able to produce even average results, you may face issue. As for gold cost to respec, I’m in the same boat, I really don’t wanna sink that much gold into it when I mainly wanna PvP. I’ve found that guilds may say it’s a must that you do so, but if you’re able to do average and can compensate in other areas you’ll be given leniency. At least in my experience. I try to be nice and helpful to everyone by providing raid mats each week because I know I’m not playing an optimal spec and they really just let me do my own thing. But mind you, I’m at least putting out average performance too. No matter the game, if you can’t do that at least, you can expect to be given ****.
the only thing about elemental is that they oom in like a minute
but…
most if not all mc fights take less than a minute…
youll be fine
Depends on your guild. We have 1 ele shaman in our main raid group and we have 1 enhance shaman in our separate raid group. Shaman dps isn’t exactly sought after. Now if your planning on ele healing it’s def possible but your gonna have mana issues so on longer fights your guild is likely to notice you not healing for a good portion of the fight. This will be reflected on meters and logs so it’s not that big of a deal but still makes you less useful then other healing shamans.
There are two primary types of guilds: hardcore min/max guilds that want some kind of “first” in a 15-year-old game and more relaxed raidguilds that are happy to accept competent players with “meme” specs as long as they can prove themselves useful.
You want the latter of the two. It may take 20% longer to kill a boss but it’s still easy enough to kill, the loot distribution will be spread out better and everyone will be happier. I have played in both types myself and I find the former type to be too stressful, even toxic at times.
Don’t listen to any of these moron freshies. You will NOT be allowed into any respectable raiding guild as Elemental. You will be forced to go Restoration in raids or you will never make it past MC.
And with any luck, people will throw rotten fruit at you too. Babies will weep at your sight. And then your character will be auto deleted.
gawd i hope that is a /s to the previous reply 
How far into raiding are you looking to do?
MC and ZG will be absolutely fine as a 31 ele sec. You might have some trouble finding groups as pugs but the content is easy enough that it really won’t matter, if you’re asked to heal you can just toss on a healing set (which you should honestly have, regardless of what you try to main) and go through it.
However yes, if you’re looking to raid past these entry level instances- Particularly late-BWL and beyond- You will likely have to respec to healer for progression. Many guilds will be okay w/ you switching your spec back (though likely requiring you to keep healing for raids) once the content has been properly cleared and your group has obtained enough gear to make up for the lack of performance caused by swapping specs- After a few weeks/months.
I can’t speak for Naxrammas personally.
I just raided tonight as ele/resto (I healed in my healing set). Won those nice elemental shoulders from MC too. Just make sure your gear is up to par to make up for the lack of mana tide. I had enough mp5 to where it didn’t really matter, but if you’re lacking in gear the mana tide does help.
Thanks for the details. I am still leveling and all the info came from talking to my friends who are currently raiding.
I’ve been collecting healing gears and I do put them on for dungeons at least. Once I hit max lvl, is it better then to not participate in progression and sneak into farming groups once guild is stable with new contents (e.g. BWL)? I’d be honestly happy to skip the first few weeks for some casual bg plays and other games instead of hardcore pve.
If you find a guild that isn’t super try hard absolutely. I’m raiding with mine as 31/0/20 ele with MC on farm. You’re not going to top damage meters, but with correct consumables you can be middle of the pack dps. That being said, your main benefit to the raid is still your utility (mainly totems, but also the ability to heal if needed)
Think about going 30/0/21. I’m leveling with elemental mastery but plan to pick up natures swiftness for the instant cast at 60. I know it’s nice to spell batch a chain and shock back to back but instant cast could be the last thing you need to drop someone in pvp or hit a large heal if someone, or yourself, is about to die.
Tons of people in my guild are raiding in their pvp spec with little issue. But like others have said, when content gets harder, talents will start to matter.
Vanilla for you… rigid.