Talk:Shaman builds/Archive01

INRE the resto build
QUOTE:

Enhancement Tree - 11 points

Ancestral Knowledge - 5/5

Thundering Strikes - 5/5

Two-Handed Axes and Maces - 1/1

Restoration Tree - 40 points

Improved Healing Wave - 1/5

Tidal Focus - 5/5

Totemic Focus - 5/5

Ancestral Healing - 3/3

Nature's Guidance - 3/3

Healing Focus - 5/5

Totemic Mastery - 1/1

Tidal Mastery - 5/5

Restorative Totems - 5/5

Natures Swiftness - 1/1

Purification - 5/5

Mana Tide Totem - 1/1

Once you get to 40 points in a tree most of the possible builds suceed, at least in that tree! But going for 2-h is smart, and I like this build.

I had an 11/3/rest build that went for Elemental Focus and some offense mana savings, since it's pretty easy to have mana and +spells/heals ... but I am pre-tier 1, and I found I wasn't really doing any DPS anyway. So I respecced over to Enh and took a couple points in dodge and shield for better longevity. One of the things I did is switch from Improved Healing Wave to Tidal Focus. Tidal focus is nice, but, at least pre-tier, Improved Healing Wave is very, very superior. It combines very nicely with Tidal Mastery and Ancestral Healing - I am getting about 1 in 6+ Ancestral Healing procs and with IHW those happen faster.

Tidal Focus has all of it's bonus up front: you get the same value from it with 5 points in resto as you do in 40. But IHW scales with going top-heavy in resto. --Godsoflust 10:43, 31 July 2006 (EDT)

expansion
I've been trying to pick what shaman build I should do for the expansion. Historically, I've been an enhancement shaman but recently respecced as resto so I could do some instances without people complaining about my spec. What are viable specs post burning crusade? --Xmuskrat 11:54, 20 November 2006 (EST)


 * I play my shaman basically as a mail priest, including solo healing all 5-man instances and having been one of 2 main healers in early Karazhan. I use a 0/5/56 spec, which supports that, but if you were enhancement all the way, you might find it a little troublesome solo.
 * my spec
 * What's nice though is that you are virtually unkillable, you can fight OOM for 5 min vs. two mobs and wait for the fire elemental CD to finish, so that it clears the situation for you (already happened). --Gorash 19:00, 21 February 2007 (EST)

Regarding recent revisions
Moved a spec that was 40 deep in a tree to that tree's section. Took out first person refrences. Removed 'nametags' from builds (my own included) it's unproffesional and looks bad. Also removed tanking build as it's not useful and even says so there. We address tanking in tatics no reason to have an addimitatly bad built on the builds page. 12:31, 15 May 2007 (EDT)
 * Also took out "basic" from enchancment depending on if you like pvp or pve you will spend your points differently there is no basic. 12:34, 15 May 2007 (EDT)
 * I removed a build that was almost a carbon copy of my original one with the excption of NS and Lighting sheild. claiming to be a group build. Lighting sheild does only increases aggro gained and is not used by enhancment shamans in groups because they have enough aggro issues already. It is purely a pvp talent. NS is getting a dispute section on the talk page. 12:44, 15 May 2007 (EDT)

Shamanistic Rage Vs. Nature's Swiftness
While I and most raiding shaman I know of prefer Shamanistic Rage to Nature's Swiftness due to it's ability to regen mana and extend staying power some people prefer the instant healing ability Nature's Swiftness gives you, this is very true of shamans who do not have enough attack power to really enjoy the full benifit of Shamanistic Rage.


 * I removed the dispute. I changed the sentence to not even discuss Nature's Swiftness.  Why? Because you are not going to get NS if you spend more than 40 points in Enhancement and that build, minus Shamanistic Rage is still 41 points.
 * Also, they serve two completely different purposes. SR is to extend your mana, NS just saves your butt with an instant cast heal - provided you have mana

Why 41/20/0 is no good
I removed it because gear makes this a terrible option. You are either in meele gear and wasting 41 points in elemental or you are in elemental gear and doing meele damage that is little better than a mage's due to a complete lack of Str Agi AP and crit. Quite simply you can't have it both ways. Also if you are meeleing you aren't casting and visa versa. None instant spells and meele are at odds with one another.
 * I agree to your point about gear. Why it's IMO still feasible: strictly looking at DPS, the 20 points in Resto give 5% lighting crit chance, which may result in something like a 2.5% dps increase. That's not a lot for 20 points. When putting these points in enh, we get 2H weapons, 5% melee crit plus flurry. When we stand next to a mob and do our 2x lighting 1x earth shock routine, we do melee autoattacks whenever we cast an instant (i.e. a shock or a totem). Casting and melee attacks don't interfere in this case, if the 2H is slow enough, we really don't lose many attacks. Together with WF this may result in a higher DPS increase than the 2.5% we got from Resto. I agree that the "canonical" way to spend these 20 points is Resto (and I would personally do so all the time). Still I'm not certain that putting them in enh is a big error. --Batox 11:46, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
 * The other problem that I neglected to mention is that you gain another 20% aggro reduction for being at a range greater than 5 yards. Also casting pauses the swing timer which means that your swing speed is greatly reduced. I would be surprised if you saw a greater than 2.5% increase even with 20 points in enhance. Between these 2 things I simply can't see how this would be a viable build.

Why Enhancement isn't the best levelling build
When leveling in TBC, I at first went full Enhancement (with dualwield). At about lvl 65 I respecced to elemental. I liked elemental much better. It's true that total DPS with enh is higher than elem, and nothing is more satisfying than a mob dyeing before it had a chance to do any damage (because of a WF proc). The problem is that I found it much safer to pull and much easier to abort a wrong pull with elem. I wouldn't formulate this passage so extemely one-way, maybe we should write that Enh is the most agressive leveling build, Resto the most survivable, and Elem the compromise.--Batox 11:46, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I have never seen anyone advocate Resto as a leveling or soloing build. Though I often see people asking on the forums if they should sub spec elemental or enhance so they have some ability to solo while resto. I also don't know why elemental would be a safer build. If a pull is dicey then enhancment shamans can use a lighting bolt to pull a mob just as easily as an elemental shaman can and actually escape from a bad pull quicker if they have put points in improved ghost wolf. I would usually pull with a flame shock at max range instead of just running up and smacking a mob. This gave me time to see what would come with it. Resto is the most hardy build no question but it's simply too much surviability and not enough damage to be worth while from what I've done and heard from others. Also Tesric mentioned that enhancment was the best build for leveling on the shaman forums. I'll try to find the quote.
 * Having trouble finding the original but this should be good enough. http://blue.cardplace.com/newcache/us/102651641.htm I agree I may have been a bit heavy handed though and it could use some tweaking. It's hard to balance advice and opinion sometimes.

I fully agree on the advice/opinion point :) I met exactly one Shaman who was full Resto while levelling. His main was a deftank. I saw him walking through Zeth'Gor (in HF peninsula, a place with adds galore), completely unmindful of adds. When he had 3-5 on him, he started to drop totems and leisurely kill them one after the other. It was not a very fast method to get things done, but he simply didn't die. I wouldn't go as far and recommend this to anyone, but I'd like to mention it for completeness sake - there *are* people who just don't want to die.

I still remain convinced that NS is very important while levelling. It's the best lifesaver prior to earth elemental (and with a much shorter CD).

Concerning Elem being safer than Enh, well, I just felt that I was dyeing much less. I had NS in both builds, and in that case the equipment synergy you point out in the other topic works pro Elem/resto, and against Enh/resto. But (again in my version of the paragraph), I don't feel very strongly about it. IMO both methods have their merits, I wouldn't recommend one over the other. If you really want to give a recommendation pro Enh feel free to do so, I would like to see it a little toned-down, not to the exclusion of Elem.--Batox 17:11, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

On the ghost wolf in the recommended lvl 50 build for leveling up - why? Two seconds in reduction, no increase in speed. Would damage output (putting it into the last point of weapon mastery and one into improved weapon mastery or improved lighting shield)not be better than simply reducing the cast time of a travel spell? After all, at 40 most people will get a mount and reduction in ghost wolf cast time is pointless as it doesn't count towards mount, and the ghost wolf form is slower. Yes I understand that you can cast it in combat, but half the time if you're in close combat (enhancement is nothing but to be quite honest) and casting it and running away will get you dazed and you'll be no better off. Just a thought. Coolcat600 04:12, 26 October 2007 (UTC)