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Shaman PvE guide

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Classes: Death knight Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior
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Contents

Things Shamans want Non-Shamans to know

Shamans and groups

Elemental and/or Enhancement shamans typically come in guns blazing at the beginning of a fight.

Shamans are capable healers for large groups of people taking damage in raids. This is thanks to Chain Heal. Chain Heal is extremely mana efficient, and arguably the Resto shaman's most powerful spell.

Shamans can make capable off-tanks at lower levels.

Enhancement shamans will greatly increase your group's melee DPS, because of Unleashed Rage.

Much like Druids, shamans should bring multiple gear sets, and use mods such as ItemRack to quickly toggle between them. A versatile shaman should not hesitate to go between roles if he wishes the best for the group.

If a shaman drops totems, whether in combat or just outside aggro range of the next group to kill in an instance, it's probably a pretty good idea to do what you can to fight within the limited range of those totems rather than outside of them. They do cost mana, so waiting for a shaman to drop their last totem then charging after the next group rather than pulling them to the totems or running around outside their range can be fairly frustrating.

If you want a shaman to drop a specific totem such as Windfury Totem or Wrath of Air, just ask politely. Also, Tremor Totem doesn't cancel all fears, so don't yell at us if we don't have one down.

Things Non-Shamans want Shamans to know

Be wary of Crowd Control when casting Chain Lightning or AoE totems.

Squishies (Mages, Priests, and to a lesser extent Warlocks) might like a Frost Shock to get their mob's attention if they get aggro. This is especially true when Crowd Control breaks and a mob as it will run right at them when the CC wears off. Frost shock is best for this, because it is instant, doesn't have a DoT, it slows target and generates extra threat towards the higher-armour player to boot.

When you're in an instancing group, watch the puller's target and get ready to Wind Shear. There are times where the puller aggros a caster, who starts casting and ruining the pull.

When in doubt, use Grounding Totem in boss encounters.

General tips

Rogue

Warrior

  • Strength of Earth and Windfury Totem are great for warriors as they help then give/take more damage. When you are in a group with 1 or more protection warriors, you might want to use Stoneskin Totem to reduce their damage taken.

Priest

Warlock

  • When in a group with a mage, the best totems to use are Wrath of Air Totem, Flametongue Totem and Totem of Wrath if you have it.
  • A warlock will usually use Life Tap immediately after combat to regain mana. This will cost them their health and while you do not have to worry that they are getting hit by an invisible enemy, they will be thankful if you heal them up. A Riptide is the most efficient ay to deal with Life Tap.
  • If you see a mob on a Warlock (or any caster), Frost Shock will likely get them to attack you instead - better that they're attacking the Mail-user than the Cloth-user. Then find a way to get the tank's attention.
  • When healing, try to keep their pet alive as well. They are like an extra, minor party member.

Mage

Druid

  • When in a group with a restoration druid or a balance druid, the best totems to use are Wrath of Air Totem, Mana Spring Totem and if you have them Totem of Wrath and Mana Tide Totem.
  • Healing druids can only lose aggro with Cower, and that stops them from healing. Help protect them from adds like any other healer.
  • Druid tanks have high armor but no block or parry. When healing one, expect a steadier stream of damage and be charging up Healing Wave instead of reacting with Lesser Healing Wave.
  • Druids gain a large amount of dodge per points of agility, so putting down your Strength of Earth totem while a druid is tanking in bear form will make a good impact on his ability to mitigate damage. Druids in cat form also gain attack power from agility as rogues do and will also benefit from Strength of Earth.

Hunter

  • Remember, with a Hunter, there's another member of your party you need to keep track of, their pet! If you are the healer, throw a heal on their pet every now and then. They will be grateful for it.
  • Strength of Earth Totem helps Hunters greatly.

Shaman

  • Organize with them beforehand to make sure you're not dropping the same totems they are, since most effects don't stack.
  • With 2 shamans in a group, you could have Strength of Earth and Stoneskin, Wrath of Air and Windfury Totem, Healing Spring and Mana Spring, etc. Your party will be MUCH harder to kill.

Paladin

Healers

The Raiding Shaman

Elemental

As with all PvE casters, it's expected that a raiding Elemental Shaman be spell hit capped against raid bosses.

Spell hit required for raid bosses: 17% (446 hit rating at 80).

Spell hit required for raid bosses, with Elemental Precision: 14% (368 hit rating at 80).

Spell hit required for raid bosses, with Elemental Precision and Draenei Heroic Presence: 13% (341 hit rating at 80).

Enhancement

Current convention dictates that a raiding enhancement shaman needs to be spell hit capped. Therefore they require the same amount of hit as an elemental shaman for raiding. However, in addition to this, an enhancement shaman needs to consider Expertise, and unlike the elemental talent tree, enhancement has no talents to increase spell hit.

Below, there are three milestones that each enhancement shaman needs to hit to excel in a PvE raid environment. While these are in a somewhat chronological order as to when an enhancement shaman will hit each of these milestones, keep in mind that it's most effective to work on gaining hit in tandem with expertise instead of completely capping one, then the other.

First hit milestone for reaching the hit "soft-cap" for special attacks like Stormstrike and Windfury Weapon hits:

Melee hit required for raid bosses: 8% (263 hit rating at 80).

Melee hit required for raid bosses, with Dual Wield Specialization: 2% (66 hit rating at 80).

Melee hit required for raid bosses, with Dual Wield Specialization and Draenei Heroic Presence: 1% (33 hit rating at 80).

Second hit milestone for reaching the expertise cap to reduce/eliminate the chance all melee attacks are dodged from behind bosses:

Expertise required for raid bosses when attaching from behind: 26 (214 rating at 80).

Expertise required for raid bosses when attaching from behind, with Unleashed Rage (in 3.1): 17 (140 rating at 80).

Expertise required for raid bosses when attaching from behind, with Unleashed Rage (in 3.1) and Axe Specialization (for Orcs using axes in both hands): 12 (99 rating at 80).

Third hit milestone for reaching the hit cap for spells like Earth Shock and Lightning Bolt hits:

Spell hit required for raid bosses: 17% (446 hit rating at 80).

Spell hit required for raid bosses, with Draenei Heroic Presence: 16% (420 hit rating at 80).

Thoughts on obtaining more hit than the spell hit cap:

Once an enhancement shaman caps their spell hit, additional hit is not nearly as useful. This is because most of a shaman's damage comes from their special melee attacks (like Stormstrike and Windfury) and their spell attacks (like Earth Shock and Lightning Bolt). It would be more important to focus on obtaining enough critical strike chance to to proc more Flurry and Elemental Devastation, or to focus on Agility or Attack Power so that attacks do more damage.

Summary:

An alliance enhancement shaman requires 420 hit rating and 140 expertise rating against raid bosses.

A horde enhancement shaman requires 446 hit rating and 140 expertise rating against raid bosses.

A Orc enhancement shaman with an axe in both hands requires 446 hit rating and 99 expertise rating against raid bosses.

Disclaimer: The above section is largely a generalization. The mechanics behind the enhancement shaman is very complex, and no single formula works for every shaman. If possible, it's recommended each shaman use simulation programs to determine with stat will give the best benefit at any given time. However, it should be considered that whichever path a shaman takes with respect to stats, in a raiding PvE environment, the above numbers (as well as satisfactory critical strike chance and attack power) will likely be expected from raid leaders looking for well-geared players who can do competitive DPS in boss encounters.

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