A few days ago, I was playing on my shaman and received a strange tell from a GM in-game. "Excuse me, player, but you've been reported for using an exploit in the game." WHAT?!? I've been playing since day 1, and have never used anything but approved mods. What on Earth could I have been reported for doing?? "The person reported you using an exploit to walk on water." "But, I'm a shaman," I said. "I have a spell that allows me to do it...it's called water walking...you guys put it in the game!"Needless to say, the GM and I had a good laugh at the ignorant party's expense, and (s)he only had to contact me because that was their job. I decided therein to write this article to help alleviate said ignorance of the true abilities of our totem-wielding friends, by giving a little update to the lesser known abilities.
Now, there is an ongoing debate of the potential and versatility of shamans: how much they lack, how overpowered they are, and the proper plural form of shaman. But, being a class that was lesser-played until the recent addition of their ranks to the alliance, many people were unaware of what they can truly do.
First and foremost, shamans drop totems. These are localized temporary buffs for the immediate 5-man group in a static range around the totem: 20 yards or 30 yards with talents. I'm not going to make everyone remember the names of spells, so I'll just summarize the totem options of each element.
Earth - +strength, fear/charm/sleep dispel, reducing melee damage, slowing enemy movement, taunting/stunning totem, and a summoned earth elemental medium aoe tank.
Air - +agility, extra attack weapon buff for group, absorbing one direct damage spell, +spell damage, +nature resistance, reducing ranged physical damage, reducing threat generated, and a sentry spy that lets you see through it at great distances.
Fire - weapon buff that adds fire damage for group, single target fireballs, aoe pulsing low fire damage, aoe one-shot large fire damage, and a summoned fire elemental that does large aoe damage (but is fairly squishy).
Water - periodic health regen, periodic mana regen, disease cleanse, poison cleanse, and +fire resistance.
And now on to the primary and talent abilities:
Healing potential - Shamans have a short cast lesser heal, and a longer cast bigger heal. The healing stream totem scales with +healing gear. Earth Shield is a 41 point talent in the Restoration tree which can be cast on anyone, healing them instantly when they take damage (only once every few seconds, per the tooltip). And, if they're Draenei, they get the racial heal as well (but then all Draenei get it, too.)
Melee abilities - A shamans melee abilities relies entirely on their "enhancement" talent tree. Using talents, they can equip 2-hand weapons, dual wield, and gain a chance to parry. The 41 point talent in Enhancement is called Shamanistic Rage, which allows them to gain 15% of their attack power as mana via a chance-on-hit weapon proc. Given the right +hit, high attack power, and a little luck, a shaman can go from almost no mana to almost full mana each time this ability is used.
Elemental combat - This tree has become recently popular with the content patch just before The Burning Crusade. Giving major buffs to spell damage, mana regen, and spell crit rating, this tree is very powerful though tends to be an agro hog. The 31 point talent grants an ability that when activated causes the next fire/frost/nature spell to be a guaranteed critical hit. The 41 point talent gives a new totem which gives the group an extra 3% spell critical chance using the fire totem element.
Lesser-known major abilities (the spells that many people may consider exploits, but I assure you they are NOT!):
Self-Resurrection - On a one-hour cooldown, or 40 mins with talents, shamans can resurrect upon dying. It requires an Ankh reagent. Shamans who die while the group is in combat can resurrect, however they will have very little hp/mp and they do not retain their buffs when they stand back up.
Water Breathing - Yes, shamans do have this, but it requires a Fish Scales reagent (unlike the warlock equivalent which has no reagent.)
Water Walking - The most unbelievable buff in the game, which is not as commonly used, is Water Walking. Requiring fish oil as a reagent, shamans can buff anyone to be able to walk on water as if it was solid ground. This effect is removed if the player is struck in combat, strikes another target, casts a damaging spell, shapeshifts (ghostwolf/druids/costumes), or mounts. You can, however, mount a flying mount and immediately take off as you lose the buff when you mount. You can fish while water walking, and you can sit and eat/drink on the surface of the water.
Heroism/Bloodlust - This ability is one of the most powerful in the game, which a shaman only receives at level 70. Heroism increases melee, ranged, and spell casting speed of the entire group by 30% for 40 seconds. This ability is most often used as a boss-killer, and if you have multiple shamans in the same group, you can cast another as soon as the first wears off. Unfortunately, this does not buff an entire raid (which I think it should.)
[Edit: Heroism is the Alliance version of the ability, and Bloodlust is the Horde equivalent.]
I hope this helps clear up some of the mystery of the shaman class, and brings to light some of their lesser-known abilities and skills.
[Edit #2: I have corrected a couple of my numerical errors in this post. Thank you for your comments and criticism, as I will use it in future posts.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-05-2007 @ 6:45PM
Chris Hammond said...
Unfortunately, this does not buff an entire raid (which I think it should.)
Seriously. I think rogues should be able to heal, too! Mages should get intercept and warlocks should definately have TWO pets!
Sigh.
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5-05-2007 @ 6:50PM
killakilla said...
maybe im wrong, but im pretty sure when you mention 'heriosm' you are talking actually about bloodlust
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5-05-2007 @ 6:52PM
Thallid said...
I think the "OMG EXPLOIT" comment shows how much Blizzard hates shamans and take great pride and joy to nerf them every single patch, in the same way Priests have been getting in the exact same matter.
Although, if Blizz really hated them, I wouldn't be surprised if they just banned all accounts that had shamans on them.
I saw that GM comment as an insult and less of a joke.
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5-05-2007 @ 7:19PM
Alexisonfire said...
"maybe im wrong, but im pretty sure when you mention 'heriosm' you are talking actually about bloodlust"
'Heroism' is the ability Alliance Shamans get. 'Bloodlust' is for Horde.
Also, Totem of Wrath (41-point Elemental talent) increases spell critical chance by 3%, not 5%. Although, 5% would make more sense...
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5-05-2007 @ 7:56PM
someone said...
""The person reported you using an exploit to walk on water." "But, I'm a shaman," I said. "I have a spell that allows me to do it...it's called water walking...you guys put it in the game!""
That right there is plagiarizing from the wow forums months ago, I'm not looking up the thread.
"Self-Resurrection - On a one-hour cooldown, or 45 mins with talents"
Its 40mns with talents.
"Elemental combat - This tree has become recently popular with the content patch just before The Burning Crusade. Giving major buffs to spell damage, mana regen, and spell crit rating, this tree is very powerful though tends to be an agro hog."
Have you ever even played a shaman? Go look at the shaman forums for 5mns and you'll see this is the most gimp, unviable tree we have.
"Earth Shield is a 41 point talent in the Restoration tree which can be cast on anyone, healing them instantly when they take melee damage "
NO it works on spells too...even AoE right now, however in the patch it will be changed to direct damage only.
"summoned fire elemental that does large aoe damage"
Its AoE damage is not large(~700 same as the other fire totem) and it only does it 4 times per summon, most of the time is just auto attacks a single target for ~220
It also appears from a previous comment (#4) you got the crit on ToW wrong.
You Dan Crislip have shown you know nothing of the shaman class. I really thought wowinsider.com would have higher standards.
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5-05-2007 @ 8:19PM
James Eunson said...
"Seriously. I think rogues should be able to heal, too! Mages should get intercept and warlocks should definately have TWO pets!"
I think it sounds quite reasonable. Maybe requiring an/a couple of expensive reagent(s) or a rare book drop from an instance to make the difficulty of getting it commensurate to the power and utility it brings to raids. Perhaps a nerf to 20% when used in a raid, anythings possible. No need to be such an asshole about it.
"That right there is plagiarizing from the wow forums months ago, I'm not looking up the thread."
Well feel free to have the wider reading audience not believe you. No link, no credibility.
As for the rest of your comments... some extremely minor factual errors were made that didn't really undermine the purpose of the article - to educate shaman noobs such as myself. Seems this has brought out all the angsty anal retentives from the shaman forums, go troll the warlock forums or something.
Good article, I enjoyed it.
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5-05-2007 @ 8:21PM
White Rabbit said...
Why the fuck is everybody so angry? Jesus christ everybody is just WAITING to jump down somebody's throats
all of you calm the fuck down
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5-05-2007 @ 8:42PM
freehugz said...
cuz that's what the internet is for
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5-05-2007 @ 8:47PM
someone said...
@6 "some extremely minor factual errors were made that didn't really undermine the purpose of the article - to educate shaman noobs such as myself"
Look at #1, right there proves my point, hes(op) painting a false picture which does far more damage than good. Furthermore all these "minor" errors show the OP does not know the class at all and does not care enough to even look up his information before he posts it.
"Well feel free to have the wider reading audience not believe you. No link, no credibility. "
Its their choice to believe me or not, im not wasting an hour of my time to prove something thats abundantly clear from all the OPs other mistakes.(plus it might be on the old forums, which are gone)
I doubt wowinsider.com will do anything to address these errors, just like when they wrote the false article about more kids playing horde than alliance because they read the chart wrong.
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5-05-2007 @ 8:56PM
The Destroyer said...
"Have you ever even played a shaman? Go look at the shaman forums for 5mns and you'll see this is the most gimp, unviable tree we have."
You have got to be kidding me. Elemental Shamans can compete with and in many cases beat equally geared Mages and Warlocks. The gear is out there and the ability is there most Shamans just suck. Which isn't a slight against Shaman players in general, but against every player. That is to say most players of any class do suck but they have it easier. As a Shaman you really have to work for your place. I'm not saying it's necessarily hard to do, it just takes a lot more memory and activity that any other class.
Jukeboxhero of Nathrezim FYI if you want to check my armory I'm Enhancement at the moment but have a full set of Elemental gear with gear from Kara in case you were wondering about viability.
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5-05-2007 @ 9:31PM
Areis said...
You know, wowinsider is *not* a nice place to hang out anymore. You guys (commentors, not writers) have too much anger and vitriol. Chill, relax, look past the words and at the message.
Oh, and for the "plagiarism" guy - you are wrong. Its not on the forums, not on google, not anywhere. Please come with some facts before sprouting crap like that.
Otherwise people would mistake you for a Troll....
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5-05-2007 @ 11:35PM
Savok said...
Fake but accurate?
We've become socialists all of a sudden?
I think all readers want is factual information, something I've not seen here for awhile now.
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5-05-2007 @ 11:48PM
Prauche said...
@8 -- No, the internet is for porn; I thought everyone knew that.
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5-06-2007 @ 12:09AM
Bobby Hansen said...
If you go onto the Official Shaman boards at wow.com, you'll find lots of arguments about the class.
My basic issue is that we are bandied about as a Hybrid class, but there's two problems:
1) Being Hybrid means no one wants you. If you can't heal as well as a priest, why would they want you rather then a priest.
2) We're hybrid only in that we can choose a path in game rather then at rolling time.
In order to make a Shaman an acceptable healer, melee attacker or spell slinger, you need to drop lots of points into one of our three trees (Elemental, Resto or Enhancement) and gear toward it. But doing that means we're not that flexible as it's booked to be. If you have a Shaman doing DPS damage, you do not want him to stop doing that to heal. If you have a resto shaman healing, you do not want him to stop and gain aggro by dropping Shocks on people.
In order to be as truly flexible as the Mods would have us believe, we need to go to a trainer, respec and then regear. We'd need a set of gear with Healing bonuses, a set of gear with Spell Damage bonuses, and a set of gear for melee. And of course, each respec is very expensive after a few times.
Shamans, in the end, become either a second line attacker, a second line mage, or a second line healer. Never good enough, so why bring them on a raid?
(One joke I wrote that was well received is that the tool tip for Earth Shield should read "You know, they only brought you because their priest is at her cousin's wedding.")
I love my Shaman. I will play her to 70 regardless of any nerfs because I enjoy playing the character. That said, even though I am not a deeply experienced player, but I can see the changes the newest patch make - clearcasting reduced to 60% from 100% and WF only on main hand for example - further limit a limited to start class, and the buffs we got were not helpful. Making Mana Stream sit out longer doesn't help that it doesn't replace enough Mana fast enough.
Add onto it the general disrespect many Shamans feel the Mods and Developers have toward them - the recent PTR 2.1 patch list had a Troll racial ability listed under Shamans, there is almost never a moderator post to the Shaman board, and the few times they get as response, it is statements to the effect that "Everything is all right", I think many shaman players have a right to feel frustrated (I don't include myself, I've only been playing the class a few months. Lots of people have been platying the class to 70, and lots more playing it for years. In fact, Draenei shamans like my toon are frequently called 'Blueberries' by the long-time Shamans).
And the OP here did not do his research, and published something on this site that was not accurate - not just one small fact, but multiple things that are generally fairly easy to look up, especially when his goal was to educate about Shaman abilities. The editors really should have checked this prior to posting.
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5-06-2007 @ 12:28AM
someone said...
@14 QFT, blueberries just moved up a notch in my book, that puts them at notch 1.
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5-06-2007 @ 1:03AM
Bobby Hansen said...
15: Ha. Respect, thanks. We'll aim for a few more notches. ;-)
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5-06-2007 @ 1:22AM
dcmetrocoaster said...
Walking on water?....wow, Jesus must have been shaman. I always thought that he would be a paladin.
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5-06-2007 @ 2:07AM
cheesebanana said...
Jesus AND santa-claus were rogues.
How else do they always watch you and know what you've done?
NERF STEALTH!
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5-06-2007 @ 6:31AM
oshin said...
I dont get what`s bad about having to have to respec and change gear to change your functionality completely, thats what a hybrid class is all about, your a fool if you know you are the only healer and go wearing enhancement gear. I also usualy take resto as my second tree, 20 points into it usually make me a good enough healer for most things, probably not a heroic, but the point of a heroic is to be difficult anyway.
Another point is that shamans are a support- hybrid, ever notice those godly totems that provide a massive buff to your group ? If your enhancement your not meant to beat a rogue, but you should be in the melee group giving them a crazy boost with WF and soe, and likewise for casters if your elemental/resto with MT or Totem of wrath.
If you ask me shamans need a group to really shine as a class. Oh and I wouldn't bother using the wow forums as proof that a class is gimped, every class forum is full of clueless whiners.
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5-06-2007 @ 11:24AM
Dead Parrot said...
Quick note about water walking. In the article, you say it's removed when you attack. Not the case, as it's only removed when you take damage, or mount. I've killed many allies while standing on top of the water =)
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