Shaman

The shaman is a spiritual guide of the Horde who calls on the elements of earth, fire, water and air. Shamans heal, throw lightning, empower their weapons and plant totems that help their whole party. In Classic (patch 1.12) shamans belonged to the Horde alone, as paladins did to the Alliance, and in raids they were valued healers whose totems shaped how Horde groups played.

Role and identity

The shaman is a hybrid that can heal, cast and fight in melee, often in the same fight. It heals with Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave and, at level 40, Chain Heal, which jumps between injured allies. It attacks with Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and three shocks that share a cooldown: Earth Shock, which also interrupts spells, Flame Shock and Frost Shock.

Its signature tool is the totem. A shaman can place one totem of each element at a time, and each helps or hinders everyone nearby: Strength of Earth Totem raises strength, Healing Stream Totem heals, Mana Spring Totem restores mana, Tremor Totem breaks fear, and Earthbind Totem slows enemies. Shamans also enchant their own weapon with imbues such as Rockbiter Weapon, Flametongue Weapon and Windfury Weapon, and travel in Ghost Wolf.

Races

Orcs, tauren and trolls could be shamans in Classic, which made the class Horde only. The Warchief Thrall himself is a shaman, and the class is tied to the orcs' return to their old ways after the demonic corruption of the past. Draenei brought shamans to the Alliance in The Burning Crusade.

Talent trees

Shamans earn 51 talent points by level 60. They can be planned with our talent calculator.

• Elemental improves lightning, shocks and fire totems. Its 31-point talent is Elemental Mastery, which makes the next spell a guaranteed critical strike that costs no mana.
• Enhancement improves melee combat, armor and totems that help allies. It has the talent that allows two-handed axes and maces, and its 31-point talent is Stormstrike, a strike that makes the target take more nature damage.
• Restoration improves healing and totems. It has Nature's Swiftness, which makes the next nature spell instant, and its top talent is Mana Tide Totem, a totem that restores mana to the party.

Leveling

Shamans level comfortably. Most use Enhancement with a slow two-handed weapon and Rockbiter or Windfury Weapon, plant Searing Totem and Stoneskin Totem, and heal themselves between fights. With mail armor, a shield option and healing, they rarely need to rest. Their greatest challenge is mana, since every totem costs some.

Key spells by level

Reincarnation lets a shaman revive itself after death once an hour, using an [Ankh].

Class quests

The totem quests are the shaman's main class quests, one for each element. Each rewards a totem item that the shaman must carry to use that element's totems.

• Call of Earth (level 4). Call of Earth or Call of Earth rewards the [Earth Totem] and Stoneskin Totem.
• Call of Fire (level 10). A long chain ending in Call of Fire has the shaman light a torch from an eternal flame, and rewards the [Fire Totem] and Searing Totem.
• Call of Water (level 20). A chain across several zones, ending in Call of Water, rewards the [Water Totem] and Healing Stream Totem.
• Call of Air (level 30). Call of Air or Call of Air rewards the [Air Totem].
• Da Voodoo (level 52). A chain that ends with Da Voodoo in the Sunken Temple rewards a choice of shaman items.
• The Darkreaver Menace (level 60). In The Darkreaver Menace, the shaman summons Death Knight Darkreaver in Scholomance with a group and is rewarded with a helm.

In raids

In Classic raids most shamans were healers, using Chain Heal on groups of injured players and Healing Wave with Nature's Swiftness in emergencies. Their totems mattered as much as their healing. Each shaman was placed in a party where its totems helped most: Windfury Totem, Strength of Earth and Grace of Air with warriors and rogues, Mana Spring and Mana Tide with healers and casters, and Tranquil Air for groups that draw too much threat. Windfury Totem in particular gave Horde melee a large damage boost, the Horde's counterpart to the Alliance paladins' blessings.

Shamans also used Purge to strip buffs from enemies, Tremor Totem against fears, and Poison Cleansing Totem or Fire, Frost and Nature Resistance totems on fights that called for them.

In PvP

Shamans were among the Horde's most dangerous PvP classes. An Enhancement shaman with a slow two-handed weapon could kill a cloth-wearer in a few hits when Windfury Weapon's extra attacks landed together with Stormstrike, and videos of such hits became popular. Earth Shock interrupts healers, Frost Shock slows, Grounding Totem absorbs a spell such as a Polymorph, and Purge removes enemy shields and buffs. Restoration shamans kept their teams alive in Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin.

Tier sets

See Tier Sets for how each set drops.

• Tier 0: The Elements, such as [Kilt of Elements].
• Tier 1: The Earthfury from Molten Core, such as [Earthfury Epaulets].
• Tier 2: The Ten Storms from Blackwing Lair, such as [Breastplate of Ten Storms].
• Tier 3: The Earthshatterer from Naxxramas, such as [[forever:item:22464]].

Trivia

• The four totem items each take a bag slot, which made shamans one of the most bag-hungry classes in the game.
• Because both the shaman and the paladin were tied to one faction, many players compared them constantly, and Blizzard balanced Horde and Alliance raiding around the pair until both factions got both classes.
• Thrall, Warchief of the Horde, learned shamanism from the elder Drek'Thar after escaping slavery.

Later history

The Burning Crusade gave the Alliance its first shamans through the draenei, while blood elves brought paladins to the Horde. It also added Bloodlust and Heroism, a raid-wide haste spell that made every raid want at least one shaman, and Earth Shield for Restoration. The totem items were removed in a later expansion, and the totems themselves were cut down over the years, so the bag-filling totem kit of Classic is now a memory. Many players still remember the totem quests, the first steps of every shaman's career, as some of the most atmospheric class quests in the game.

Sources

• Shaman (Classic) on Warcraft Wiki
• Totem on Warcraft Wiki