World of Warcraft Shaman Guide

The Shaman class is one of the hybrid classes in the World of Warcraft. Hybrids because Shamans are able to deal melee damage and cast damage spells, and are capable healers. The Shaman was only playable by the Horde faction and only became available for the Alliance when The Burning Crusade was released. Then the Draenei, part of the Alliance, could be made by players to play with a Shaman. The Shaman is a great class to play because they can be great damage dealers and healers. What they are well known for is their ability to place totems which boost themselves and others for a specific amount of time. This is why they are welcomed with open arms in Party & Raid groups.

Some other general abilities of the Shaman include Ghost Wolf form. This form is obtained at a lower level and a Shaman can shape shift into this to run faster. At later levels they receive Heroism, or Blood lust if you play the Horde, which increased the attack speed and cast speed of the entire party or raid by 30% for 40 seconds. These abilities really help to improve a raids performance. A Shaman can also summon a Rock or Fire elemental which will fight by his side for a minute. This is great when one is soloing, is in a 5 man party or in PvP scenarios. A Shaman also has the ability to revive himself upon death by the use of an Ankh. This ability has a one hour cooldown though.

The Shaman has a big variety of spells which include healing spells, damaging spells, and spells that increases the melee damage of the Shaman.

Depending on which talent tree you choose to follow you will either become a great Dual Wielding (two weapons), Shock casting Shaman with several different melee attacks, the ability to summon two Ghost Wolves to fight by your side and restore some of your health, a Healing Shaman that can cast Small swift heals, Chain heals and an instant heal called Riptide with a heal over time effect, or a great spell casting damage dealer that uses the elements of Fire and Lightning to deal massive amounts of damage with Lightning Bolts, Chain Lightning, Lava Lash, Thunder Storm and several Shocks.

The great thing about a Shaman is that you can change your talent builds if you want a change where Rogues in example are stuck with one role, the Shaman can change from healer to caster and a melee damage dealer. With the dual talent build system that is available since recently one can pay 1000 gold to get the ability to store two talent builds. One can freely change between these builds. You can in example go soloing and PvP-ing as a melee damage dealer and switch freely between the talent builds to go to an instance as a healer.

Because of the ability to boost his party and raid members with totems and spells, and because they can be great damage dealers and healers, the Shaman is a great class to play and welcomed in every raid. One in my opinion bad point is that you are expected to drop totems all the time to boost the raid which means that you can’t focus on damage dealing as much as some would like. If you however like to be play a support class with a lot of neat abilities, the Shaman class is the right choice for you.