Shaman Leveling Guide (Level 1-30) - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

We’ll start with putting 5 points into Thundering Strikes.

Then we have 3/3 in Improved Lightning Shield to increase the damage dealt by our Lightning Shield's Orbs, 3/3 in Mental Quickness to get a lot of value out of any intellect gear pieces we find as it increases our attack power. When you reach Level 20 and learn Ghost Wolf, pick up 1 point in Improved Ghost Wolf, this will be amazing for your ability to traverse the world, especially now that Ghost Wolf can be used indoors with this talent. 

Pick up all 3 ranks in Elemental Weapons to give our weapon enhancements a boost. Our early bread and butter enhancement Rockbiter Weapon's 20% attack power increase from this talent would be a huge help.

Next, 5/5 points in Flurry will increase your attack speed by 25% for your next 3 swings after dealing a melee critical strike which is fantastic for keeping your damage output stable while your mana is low and you want to keep it for a defensive totem or a quick Healing Wave to sustain yourself. 

By Level 30 you will want to invest your point in Stormstrike, an instant 8 second cooldown, melee range ability that will instantly strike the target for normal weapon damage and increase the Nature damage you deal to the target by 20% for 12 seconds. You could choose to delay 1 point in Flurry to gain access to Stormstrike earlier but be mindful of your mana bar!

Every race has strengths for the Shaman so you can get away with picking the race that you are most interested in, especially with the changes to Racials in WoW: Forever. Alliance Shamans will have an easy time as Dwarf is the only race that can be a Shaman but for Horde it’s a lot more contentious.

Alliance

Dwarf

Dwarf has access to Stoneform which will give them immunity to Bleeds, Poisons, Diseases and reduce Physical damage taken for 8 seconds. This will be a very handy defensive to pop if things get a bit too overwhelming.

Mace Specialization’s increased spell and ability critical strike chance will be a nice little addition with any maces you find and Big Game Hunter will give you a 5% increase to beasts, which are rather commonly found all over Azeroth. While it isn’t a game changer, Find Treasure will provide a nice little bonus, especially as you can track treasure at the same time as tracking herb or mining nodes in WoW: Forever.

Horde

Orc, Tauren, Troll & Skyborne

For the Horde, all 4 options have various benefits when it comes to leveling specifically, and even more variety of benefits at max level. 

However, we would give Orc the slight edge, due to the fact that Blood Fury now increases both Attack Power and Spell Power, both of which the Shaman can utilize, alongside Axe Specialization which increases spell and ability crit chance by 1%. Alongside 20% stun duration reduction and a strong defensive active in Shatter curse, you can’t go wrong with Orcs. 

The primary Skills you’ll use are Auto Attack, Flame Shock, Earth Shock, Stormstrike, Searing Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Lightning Shield and Rockbiter Weapon.

Make sure your Lightning Shield and Rockbiter Weapon buffs are applied at all times. Before you engage in combat make sure to set down your Strength of Earth Totem.

1. Lightning Bolt - use this to pull far away mobs if you are worried about accidentally pulling roamers.
2. Flame Shock - use this early and make sure to keep Flame Shock ticking on the mob at all times. The damage over time will really add up 
3. Searing Totem - While you can place it down during your preparation phase, it’s best to use it whenever your target comes within range to keep uptime and get the most out of its 30 second duration.
4. Earth Shock - All Shock spells share a cooldown so use this when Flame Shock has at least 7+ seconds duration on the target. If you are fighting a casting mob you may want to withhold Earth Shock for when they start casting to better utilise the secondary interrupt effect. 
5. Refresh Totems - Strength of Earth Totem should last throughout a fight but make sure to refresh your Searing Totem every 30 seconds.
6. Stormstrike - Between Levels 24-30, depending on when you chose to pick it up, always make sure to use Stormstrike before you cast Earth Shock for the extra 20% Nature damage bonus.

Stormstrike has an 8 second cooldown while its Nature damage buff lasts for 12 seconds so you could easily have 100% uptime on the buff, however Stormstrike and Rank 4 Earth Shock have a rather hefty mana cost so you will burn through your mana extremely fast and cause you to have to break momentum to stop and drink after every fight. 

If mana is really starting to become a problem then you can avoid using Stormstrike and Earth Shock altogether and focus on maintaining your Flame Shock on the target and finish them off with Auto attacks. This will cause each fight to take longer but you can move from mob to mob with less downtime.

Make sure to visit your Shaman Trainer to acquire higher ranks of your key damaging spells like Earth Shock, Flame Shock and to rank up Rockbiter Weapon, Strength of Earth Totem and Lightning Shield.

Totems! Always think about your totems! Make sure that you do your class quests at levels 4, 10, 20 and 30 to acquire your totems and be sure to rank up your primary totem abilities whenever available, especially Strength of Strength of Earth Totem and Searing Totem.

You have access to healing spells so don’t be afraid to use them if things are going rough. Saving that mana for damaging spells is great but sometimes it is better to be safe than sorry, especially as dying will kill your momentum for a lot longer than taking a little sit down to drink will.

When leveling as Enhancement, upgrading your weapon will make a significant difference to your leveling speed so always be on the lookout for an upgrade.

Stats to Prioritize

1. Strength is your primary stat to focus on, to increase your overall damage. 
2. Agility grants both crit chance and dodge which are helpful combat stats to supplement Strength.
3. Spirit is handy for regenerating your resources, allowing you to go on for longer without needing to stop and rest as often
4. Intellect increases your mana pool and spell crit chance. With Mental Dexterity talent this will also provide you with bonus Attack Power.
5. Staminia increases your total health which is always nice to have.

Be sure to utilise lower rank spells from time to time to prevent “overkill” and save on mana. Once you have Stormstrike you will be able to start using lower rank Earth Shock, such as Rank 3 to still do some competent damage while not draining your mana reserves nearly as quickly.

You can use your Earthbind Totem to kite mobs. Make sure to drop Earthbind.

Totem between your mob of choice, pull with Lightning Bolt and then weave in and out of range between your weapon’s swing timer and Earthbind Totem's 3 second slow pulse to chip the mob down.

Enhancement Shaman are excellent within a dungeon environment, being able to output a decent amount of single target damage is nice but their true value lies in the utility they provide from their totems and even the ability to assist with healing if things get dire.

In fact, an Enhancement Shaman can actually make a fairly competent healer thanks to their base kit. Keep a few + Healing gear pieces in your bag just in case and make sure to keep a few stacks of water handy as you will need a lot of mana breaks however.

Stop casting to interrupt. As Enhancement you will not need this as often as you would for Elemental, but just in case the target is casting a dangerous spell while you are in the middle of casting a Healing Wave for instance, this could come in handy.

#showtooltip Earth Shock

/stopcasting

/cast Earth Shock

One button buffing. Seeing as you want to have Rockbiter Weapon and Lightning Shield at the same time, to save hotbar space you can condense applying the buff with a single hotkey. Press once for Lightning Shield and twice for Rockbiter Weapon

#showtooltip

/castsequence reset=2 Lightning Shield, Rockbiter Weapon