Shaman talents
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The three shaman talent trees roughly mirror the three roles a shaman can play: Elemental (ranged magical damage), Enhancement (melee damage) and Restoration (healing). In short, a shaman can act as mage, priest or rogue. The two main drawbacks of the class are low mana efficiency (in the two caster roles) and poor aggro management (in the two DPS roles). The talent selection process for a shaman is actually quite complex and has started quite a few passionate discussions.
This forum thread by Aryxymaraki might be regarded as the reference for detailed description and assessment of every single talent, combined with an overview and critique of several of the established templates.
Contents |
Talent Overview
Things to keep in mind when considering shaman builds:
- Shamans cannot main tank end game instances. They may tank regular instances up to level 70, but once the endgame starts that's over.
- Even without spending talent points, all Shamans can buff their group for many purposes (e.g. a Restoration Shaman can drop Windfury Totem just like as an Enhancement Shaman).
- By spending talent points, Shamans increase the efficiency of these group buffs, and some buffs can be gained only by spending points.
The leveling spec chosen by most shamans is Enhancement. The main advantage when leveling with this build is that it requires next to no downtime. An Enhancement Shaman relies mostly on melee damage, and spends only low amounts of mana during combat, keeping the mana pool as an emergency reserve, and to heal up between combats.
Elemental is typically the tree of choice for PvP shamans who want to deal damage. It's also chosen by many "hybrid" players, because it offers a nice equipment synergy with the Restoration tree. Shamans may consider to give up Totem of Wrath in order to get Nature's Swiftness from the Restoration tree.
Restoration is the Healing tree, turning shamans into very capable healers for PvE and PvP alike. The Resto tree is also frequently chosen to spend the remaining points of an Elemental or Enhancement build.
Elemental
The shocks are good instant cast nukes with decent damage output and useful side effects. The downside of the shocks is that they are quite mana expensive and do share a 6 second cooldown (5 second with talents). For this reason, DPS rotations are rather limited, usually shamans rely on simple Lightning Bolt spam. Other highlights include Elemental Focus and Elemental Fury.
| Talent | Ranks | Requirements | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Convection | 5 |
none | Reduces the mana cost of your Shocks, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst by X%. Standard entry talent, nearly always taken |
| Concussion | 5 |
none | Increases the damage of your Shocks, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst by X%. Another standard talent, part of every elemental build |
| Call of Flame | 3 |
5 Elemental | Increases the damage done by your Fire Totems by {5/10/15}%, and increases the damage of your Lava Burst spell by {2/4/6}%. Taking this talent is a matter of taste, the fire totems are only marginally useful |
| Elemental Warding | 3 |
5 Elemental | Reduces damage from Fire, Frost, and Nature effects by {4/7/10}%. Marginally useful, mainly a PvP talent |
| Elemental Devastation | 3 |
5 Elemental | Your offensive spell crits will increase your chance to get a critical strike with melee attacks by {3/6/9}% for 10 sec. A nice talent in theory for Elemental/Enhancement hybrids, unfortunately this talent is about the only synergy for that build type |
| Reverberation | 5 |
10 Elemental | Reduces the cooldown of your Shock spells by {0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8/1) sec. Seen in many builds, usually taken for lack of something better |
| Elemental Focus | 1 |
10 Elemental | After critting with any Fire, Frost, or Nature damage spell, clearcasting will reduce the mana cost of the next two damage spells by 40% each. One of the key talents - take always |
| Elemental Fury | 5 |
10 Elemental | Increases your critical strike damage bonus of your Searing, Magma, and Fire Nova Totems and your Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by {20/40/60/80/100}%. Makes your offensive spells do 200% damage when they crit instead of normal 150%, a must have talent. |
| Improved Fire Nova Totem | 2 |
15 Elemental | Reduces the delay before your Fire Nova Totem activates by {1/2} sec and gives your Fire Nova Totem a {50/100}% chance to reduce the movement speed of all targets damaged by the totem for 2 seconds. Rarely taken, this is of limited use. |
| Eye of the Storm | 3 |
15 Elemental | Reduces the pushback from damaging attacks while casting Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Burst, and Hex by {23/46/70}%. Very good PvP or solo PvE talent, basically useless in groups |
| Storm Reach | 2 |
20 Elemental | Increases the range of your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning spells by {3/6} yards, and increases the radius of your Thunderstorm spell by 10%. Good talent in many situations if the two points can be spared. |
| Call of Thunder | 1 |
20 Elemental | Increases the critical strike chance of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Thunderstorm by 5%. Very good talent, Lightning spells are the main nukes of elemental shamans. |
| Unrelenting Storm | 5 |
20 Elemental | Regenerate mana equal to {2/4/6/8/10}% of your Intellect every 5 sec, even while casting. Very good talent to help remedy the chronic lack of mana |
| Elemental Precision | 3 |
25 Elemental | Increases your chance to hit with Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by {1/2/3}% and reduces the threat caused by Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by {10/20/30}%. Signature talent for endgame PvE, both effects are extremely important in raids. |
| Lightning Mastery | 5 |
25 Elemental 5 Elemental Fury | Reduces the cast time of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst spells by {0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5) sec. This talent turns the lightnings into viable nukes, it should be part of any elemental build |
| Elemental Mastery | 1 |
30 Elemental | When activated, this spell gives your next Fire, Frost, or Nature damage spell a 100% critical strike chance, and reduces the mana cost by 100%. Just take this whenever possible. |
| Elemental Shields | 3 |
30 Elemental | Reduces all physical damage taken by {2/4/6}%. Not useful - Lost it's pvp usefullness in the 3.0.2 patch, but still slightly good if you're fighting melee classes. |
| Elemental Oath | 2 |
35 Elemental 1 Elemental Mastery | Your spell critical strikes grant your party or raid members within 100 yards Elemental Oath - increasing spell critical strike chance by {3/5}%. Great buff for yourself and your party members. This is a must have for raiders. |
| Lightning Overload | 5 |
35 Elemental | Gives Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning a {4/8/12/16/20}% chance to cast a second, similar spell on the same target at no additional cost that causes half damage and no additional threat. Good for raiding, not something to be depended on for solo PvE or PVP since it procs only 20% of the time. When maxed out this talent gives a 10% average damage increase to the lightning spells. |
| Astral Shift | 3 |
40 Elemental | When stunned, feared, or silenced you shift into the Astral Plane reducing all damage taken by {10/20/30}% for the duration of the stun, fear, or silence effect. This is a very good PvP talent as a lot of classes depend on stunning, fearing, or silencing you. |
| Totem of Wrath | 1 |
40 Elemental | Summons a Totem of Wrath with 5 health at the feet of the caster. The totem increases the damage done by spells and effects by 100 for all party and raid members, and increases the critical strike chance of spells and effects by 3% against all enemies within 40 yards. Lasts 300 seconds. A very good endgame PvE talent, better than the 5% crit Moonkin aura. |
| Lava Flows | 3 |
40 Elemental | Increases the range of your Flame Shock by {5/10/10} yards yards and increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Lava Burst spell by an additional {6/12/24}% |
| Storm, Earth and Fire | 5 |
45 Elemental | Reduces the cooldown of your Chain Lightning spell by {.5/1/1.5/2/2.5} sec, your Earth Shock's range is increased by {1/2/3/4/5} yards and the periodic damage done by your Flame Shock is increased by {10/20/30/40/50}%. |
| Thunderstorm | 1 |
50 Elemental 5 Storm, Earth and Fire | You call down a bolt of lightning, energizing you and damaging nearby enemies within 10 yards. Restores 5% mana to you and deals 1450 to 1656 Nature damage to all nearby enemies, knocking them back 20 yards. |
Enhancement
This tree offers the ability to dual wield, making Shamans the third highest dual-wielding class in the game in terms of damage output (when it comes to dual wielding), above hunters but below rogues and fury-spec warriors. Highlights include Thundering Strikes and Stormstrike.
| Talent | Ranks | Requirements | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enhancing Totems | 3 |
none | Increases the effect of your Strength of Earth and Flametongue totems by {5/10/15}%. Good for buffing the other raid members. |
| Earth's Grasp | 2 |
none | Increases the health of Stoneclaw Totem by {25/50}% and the radius of Earthbind Totem by {10/20}%. This talent doesn't push the usability threshold of these totems far, so it's not very advisable. |
| Ancestral Knowledge | 5 |
none | Increases your intellect by {2/4/6/8/10}%. A nice increase to your mana-pool, taken by almost every build. |
| Guardian Totems | 2 |
5 Enhancement | Increases the amount of armor given by your Stoneskin Totem by {10/20}% and reduces the cooldown of your Grounding Totem by {1/2} sec. Another talent which buffs mediocre totems, which stay mediocre after the buff. |
| Thundering Strikes | 5 |
5 Enhancement | Improves your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks by {1/2/3/4/5}%. Very good talent, almost vital for enhancement builds. |
| Improved Ghost Wolf | 2 |
5 Enhancement | Reduces the cast time of your Ghost Wolf by {1/2} sec. 2 points makes Ghost Wolf instant cast, a must have for PvP, useful for soloing. |
| Improved Shields | 3 |
5 Enhancement | Increases the damage done by your Lightning Shield orbs by {5/10/15}%, increases the amount of mana gained from your Mana Shield orbs by {5/10/15}% and increases the amount of healing done by your Earth Shield orbs by {5/10/15}%. Note: only increases effect of orb procs, not passive effects. Good for resto shamans for earth orbs, and good for soloing. |
| Elemental Weapons | 3 |
10 Enhancement | Increases the damage of your Windfury Weapon attacks by {13/27/40}%. Also increases the spell damage on your Flametongue Weapon by {10/20/30}% and increases the bonus healing on your Earthliving Weapon by 10/20/30%. Highly recommended - this should be taken whenever possible. |
| Shamanistic Focus | 1 |
10 Enhancement | Reduces the mana cost of your shock spells by 45%. A potentially huge mana saver in solo play. |
| Anticipation | 3 |
10 Enhancement | Increases your chance to dodge by an additional {1/2/3}%, also decreases the duration of disarm effects by {16/25/50}%. Generally more damage reduction than Toughness, somewhat useful in solo/PvP. |
| Flurry | 5 |
15 Enhancement | Increases your attack speed by {10/15/20/25/30}% for your next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike. One of the reasons to spend 15 points in this tree is to be able to spend these five. |
| Toughness | 5 |
15 Enhancement | Increases your armor value from items by {2/4/6/8/10}%, and reduces the effect of movement slowing effects by (6/12/18/24/30)%. Solo/PvP - Shamans will never tank, and Anticipation gives you more total damage reduction overall. |
| Improved Windfury Totem | 2 |
20 Enhancement | Increases the melee haste granted by your Windfury totem by {2/4}% . Must-have for raiding shamans that want to buff melee groups. |
| Spirit Weapons | 1 |
20 Enhancement | Gives a chance to parry enemy melee attacks and reduces the threat generated by your melee attacks by 30%. Very cheap, required for Duel Wield, and the aggro reduction is a must-have in group situations. A must have. |
| Mental Dexterity | 3 |
25 Enhancement | Increases your Attack Power by {33/66/100}% of your intellect. An attractive choice for a hybrid class like Shaman, works well with Ancestral Knowledge. |
| Unleashed Rage | 5 |
25 Enhancement | Causes your critical melee hits to increase all party or raid member's attack power by {2/4/6/8/10}% for 10 sec if within 45 yards of the Shaman. Highly useful talent. |
| Weapon Mastery | 3 |
25 Enhancement | Increases the damage you deal with all weapons by {4/7/10}%. Must-have for all melee builds. |
| Dual Wield | 1 |
30 Enhancement | Allows one-hand and off-hand weapons to be equipped in the off-hand. Large boost to dps, easy choice. |
| Dual Wield Specialization | 3 |
30 Enhancement | Increases your chance to hit while dual wielding by {2/4/6}%. Essential for dualwielders who hope to hit their targets. |
| Stormstrike | 1 |
30 Enhancement | Instantly attack with both weapons. In addition, the next 2 sources of Nature damage dealt to the target from the shaman are increased by 20%. Lasts 12 sec. Signature move of enhancement shamans - just take it. |
| Mental Quickness | 3 |
35 Enhancement | Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by {2/4/6}% and increases your spell power by {10/20/30}% of your attack power. An attractive choice for a hybrid class like Shaman. |
| Lava Lash | 1 |
35 Enhancement | You charge your off-hand weapon with lava, instantly dealing 100% off-hand Weapon damage. Damage is increased by 25% if your off-hand weapon is enchanted with Flametongue. |
| Improved Stormstrike | 2 |
35 Enhancement | Increases the amount of Stormstrike charges by {1/2}, and reduces the cooldown by {1/2} sec. |
| Static Shock | 3 |
40 Enhancement | You have a {2/4/6}% chance to hit your target with a Lightning Shield Orb charge when you do damage, and increases the number of Charges of your Lightning Shield by {2/4/6}. |
| Shamanistic Rage | 1 |
40 Enhancement | Reduces all damage taken by 30% and gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power. Lasts 15 sec. The solution to the mana problem for enhancement shamans - great talent. |
| Earthen Power | 2 |
40 Enhancement | Your Earthbind Totem has a 50/100% chance to also remove all snare effects from you and nearby friendly targets when it pulses. |
| Maelstrom Weapon | 5 |
45 Enhancement | When you deal damage with a melee weapon, you have a chance to reduce the cast time of your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Burst, Lesser Healing Wave, Chain Heal or Healing Wave spell by 20%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 30 sec. |
| Feral Spirit | 1 |
50 Enhancement | Summons 2 Spirit Wolves under the command of the Shaman, lasting 45 sec. |
Restoration
Restoration leans heavily towards turning the Shaman into a healer. Nature's Swiftness is an extremely useful talent for any build, Mana Tide is of nearly legendary fame, and Earth Shield is a very good 41 point talent. Fully talented Chain Heal is the best multi-target heal in the game.
| Talent | Ranks | Requirements | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Improved Healing Wave | 5 |
none | Reduces the casting time of your Healing Wave spell by {.1/.2/.3/.4/.5} sec. Good talent for healing builds |
| Totemic Focus | 5 |
none | Reduces the Mana cost of your totems by {5/10/15/20/25}%. Universally useful talent, but not mandatory. |
| Improved Reincarnation | 2 |
5 Restoration | Reduce cooldown of Reincarnation by {10/20} min and increase the amounts of health and mana after reincarnation by {10/20}%. Recommended for raiding builds, less useful for small groups, solo or PvP. |
| Ancestral Healing | 3 |
5 Restoration | Increases your target's armor value by {8/16/25}% for 15 sec after getting a critical effect from one of your healing spells. Nice proc for healing builds. |
| Tidal Focus | 5 |
5 Restoration | Reduces the Mana cost of your healing spells by {1/2/3/4/5}%. Essential healing talents to improve mana conservation. |
| Improved Water Shield | 3 |
10 Restoration | When you gain a critical effect from your Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave or Riptide spells, you have a 33/66/100% chance to instantly consume a Water Shield Orb. This talent restores mana for every critical heal you cast. Definitely useful. |
| Healing Focus | 3 |
10 Restoration | Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting any shaman healing spell by {23/46/70}%. Very good PvP/solo talent, marginally useful in group environments. |
| Tidal Force | 1 |
10 Restoration | Increases the critical effect chance of your Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave and Chain Heal by 60%. Each critical heal reduces the chance by 20% and lasts 20 seconds. Synergises well considering the number of "chance on crit" effects. |
| Healing Grace | 3 |
10 Restoration | Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by {5/10/15}% and reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by {10/20/30}%. Essential for all healing builds. |
| Restorative Totems | 5 |
15 Restoration | Increases the effect of your Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems by {5/10/15/20/25}%. Marginally useful, usually only taken as prerequisite for Mana Tide. |
| Tidal Mastery | 5 |
15 Restoration | Increases the critical effect chance of your healing and lightning spells by {1/2/3/4/5}%. Good talent for healers with Ancestral Healing, and for elemental DPS builds too. |
| Healing Way | 3 |
20 Restoration | Healing Wave gains a {33/66/100}% chance to increase the effect of subsequent Healing Waves on that target by 6%, effect can stack up to 3 times. Mandatory for all raid healers, although it works only for Healing Wave (not LHW). |
| Nature's Swiftness | 1 |
20 Restoration | When activated, your next Nature spell with a casting time of less than 10 sec becomes an instant cast spell. Considered by many to be the best Shaman talent overall, the universal panic button. Invaluable in PvP. |
| Focused Mind | 3 |
20 Restoration | Reduces the duration of Silence and Interruption mechanics by an additional {10/20/30}%. Good PvP talent, only marginally useful in PvE. |
| Purification | 5 |
25 Restoration | Increases the effectiveness of your healing spells by {2/4/6/8/10}%. Must-have for all healing builds. |
| Nature's Guardian | 5 |
30 Restoration | Whenever a damaging attack is taken that reduces you below 30% health, there is a {10/20/30/40/50}% chance to heal for 10% of total health and reduce your threat level on that target. 5 second cooldown. Great talent which makes PvP/solo builds very hard to kill, it also increases survivability in a raid environment to some extent. |
| Mana Tide Totem | 5 |
30 Restoration | Summon a Mana Tide Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 12 sec that restores 6% of total mana every 3 seconds to group members within 30 yards. Highly valued talent in all grouping environments, in raids in particular. |
| Cleanse Spirit | 1 |
30 restoration 5 Purification | Cleanse the spirit of a friendly target, removing 1 poison effect, 1 disease effect, and 1 curse effect. |
| Blessing of the Eternals | 2 |
35 restoration | Increases the critical effect chance of your spells by {2/4}%, and increases the chance to apply the Earthliving heal over time effect on the target by {40/80}% when they are at or under 35% total health. |
| Improved Chain Heal | 2 |
35 Restoration | Increases the amount healed by your Chain Heal spell by {10/20}%. Many believe that this turns Chain Heal into the best healing spell in the game. |
| Nature's Blessing | 3 |
35 Restoration | Increases your healing by an amount equal to {5/10/15}% of your Intellect. |
| Ancestral Awakening | 3 |
40 Restoration | When you critically heal with your Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave or Riptide you summon an Ancestral spirit to aid you, instantly healing the lowest percentage health friendly party or raid target within 40 yards for {10/20/30}% of the amount healed. |
| Earth Shield | 1 |
40 Restoration | Protects the target with an earthen shield, giving a 30% chance of ignoring spell interruption when damaged and causing melee attacks to heal the shielded target for 270, once every few seconds. 6 charges, lasts 10 min. It can only be placed on one target at a time. The healing aggro goes to the person wearing the shield, not the shaman (unless he casts it on himself). Highly useful, the most mana efficient single-target heal Shamans have. |
| Improved Earth Shield | 2 |
40 Restoration | Increases the amount of charges for your Earth Shield by {1/2}, and increasing the healing done by your Earth Shield by {5/10}%. |
| Tidal Waves | 5 |
45 Restoration | You have a {20/40/60/80/100}% chance after you cast Chain Heal to lower the cast time of your next Lesser Healing Wave or Healing Wave spell by 30%. In addition, your Healing Wave gains an additional {4/8/12/16/20}% of your bonus healing effects and your Lesser Healing Wave gains an additional {2/4/6/8/10}% of your bonus healing effects. |
| Riptide | 1 |
50 Restoration | Heals a friendly target for 1015 to 1099 and another 795 over 15 sec. Your next Chain Heal cast on that primary target within 15 sec will consume the healing over time effect and increase the amount of the Chain Heal by 25%. |
Links
- Shaman Talent Calculator at the Official site
- Shaman Talent Calculator at WorldofWar.Se
- Shaman Talent Calculator at Wowhead
- Shaman Talent Calculator at Thottbot.com
- Shaman Talent Calculator at merciless-gilde.com
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