Shaman Leveling Guide 1-60 by Nicktew

Weapon: Any 2h'er with as much damage as humanly possible, the slower the better for Stormstrike and Windfury Weapon. If you're tanking you definitely want to use a shield and any good 1h'er you can find, otherwise I wouldn't use a shield+1h'er when questing imo

Nothing is remotely as important as your weapon, here are some worthwhile weapon options:

Dungeon drops

Gearing
Whatever will net you the highest AP is typically best, but almost all stats are good for enhance.
1) Strength is our best stat as it gives 2 ap per point
2) Intellect is second best since it provides 1 ap per point, spell crit, and increases your total mana pool
3) Attack Power just view ap as strength cut in half
4) Agility is obviously good, it gives you crit for both attacks and spells, but per point it's less efficient
5) Spirit isn't useless as it improves your mp5 but I wouldn't make many gearing decisions around it
6) Spell Power is unfortunately quite weak since the spell power scaling for Shaman spells is legitimately 1/2 as potent as it is for other classes, blizzard will likely change this but as it stands spell power is quite inefficient, especially because while questing the majority of your damage is via melee swings & Stormstrike

If you have leatherworking there's some pretty good gear you can craft, otherwise I'd recommend purchasing 'of the gorilla' gear as it has int+strength which is extremely good for damage. Ideally don't run around with 0 stamina though, and just use whatever good quest+dungeon rewards you happen to get along the way. If you have a good weapon, you'll do good damage regardless.

Consumables to go out of your way for: only buy if they're inexpensive
Longjaw Mud Snapper for 10 ap & 5% EXP bonus
The best available Coarse Sharpening Stone / Coarse Weightstone for your level
Health & Mana Potions
Elixir of Ogre Strength
Elixir of Wisdom
Scroll of Strength
Scroll of Intellect
Lesser Mageblood Elixir

Mana Well for mp5 (Alchemy) > Fish Bowl 8% Stats (Fishing) > Lodestone melee AP (Mining) > Sharpening Wheel strength (Blacksmithing) > Incense Candle> Camp Chair 2% crit (Skinning)

Camp Tent from leatherworking I would use on CD since it gives 5% rested xp (can't overlap with pre-existing rested xp)

Mana efficiency is crucial for uptime To maximize uptime you want to only use mana efficient spells, and take advantage of the mp5 rule, where 5s after not casting a mana consuming spell you start your mana regeneration. Ideally you want to frontload your spellcasts upon pulling a mob so the majority of the time fighting you are regenerating mana, and finish them off by auto-attacking. Once we have 2/2 Improved Stormstrike and 3/3 Mindfulness you'll have 100% regen in combat so this won't be relevant anymore.

If you want more total damage at the cost of mana efficiency, just smash all your buttons following the priority list

Weapon Imbues
Prior to unlocking Windfury Weapon at level 30, you'll use whichever rank of Rockbiter Weapon or Flametongue Weapon you trained recently. If you're NOT tanking, use Flametongue Weapon. Once you get Windfury Weapon it is significantly better than the other options.

1-10 Rotaton:
Pull with 2-3 Lightning Bolt casts
Use Earth Shock on cooldown
Keep up Lightning Shield

Open World Rotation 10-24
1) Lightning Shield pre-pull
2) Flame Shock to pull the mob - you can save your shock CD if the mob is a caster with a dangerous cast that you'd rather Earth Shock
3) Drop Searing Totem before entering melee range
4) Fire Nova if there are 3+ targets
5) Earth Shock on CD to kick or use for damage (if the target is already debuffed with Flame Shock or is going to die soon)

Open World Rotation 25-60 (now that you have Stormstrike)
1) Lightning Shield pre-pull
2) Drop Searing Totem before entering melee range
3) Stormstrike on CD
4) Fire Nova only if there are 3+ targets
5) Earth Shock on CD
Lightning Bolt is your highest priority if you have 5 Maelstrom Weapon stacks
Use Rage of the Farseer on cooldown or whenever you see fit

Dungeon Rotation:
When there are multiple targets, namely 3+ Fire Nova becomes our most mana efficient spell. If your mana recovery is low and you don't have much time to drink, you ideally pretty much only want to spend mana on Fire Nova because it is so damage efficient. If you have extra mana to play with, use it at your discretion

1) Searing Totem or Flametongue Totem (if there's more than 1 extra melee)
2) Fire Nova on CD
3) Stormstrike every 15s for mana regen buff, or on CD if you have extra mana
4) AFK and auto attack for MP5
5) Earth Shock if there is a cast that needs to be kicked aka Fear or Healing Touch etc, or for extra single target damage - if you're tanking you use Earth Shock as a psuedo taunt
If there's more than 3 mobs that will survive for 15+ seconds use Magma Totem keep in mind it's EXTREMELY mana intensive
Lightning Bolt is your highest priority if you have 5 Maelstrom Weapon stacks
Use Rage of the Farseer on cooldown or whenever you see fit
Use Windfury Totem if there's 1 other melee in the group, and you can swap your Windfury Weapon to Flametongue Weapon

Generally totems aren't worth the mana they cost outside of Searing Totem. If you constantly drop totems you'll inevitably run out of mana and have less uptime, and the totems aren't powerful enough to warrant any downtime. If you have extra mana, or are fighting mobs in a static spot for over 40 seconds, perhaps fighting an elite, hard boss encounter etc, then I would consider using them. Totemic Projection is too mana intensive to warrant placing totems regularly and moving them.

Utility & Totems
Windfury Totem great for dungeons, and potentially BiS for max damage output even when solo, since it can stack with other weapon imbues now, however it's very mana intensive. Perhaps usable once playing with Water Shield but I'll have to test this
Grace of Air Totem is also great, but again, very mana intensive
Strength of Earth Totem is pretty weak at low levels, however it doesn't cost much mana and it has a 30 yard range, so it's not a bad idea to pre-place it. It's hardly a 2% damage increase.
Utility:
Earthbind Totem & Frost Shock are great for kiting/slowing mobs or enemy players
Stoneclaw Totem is great if you pull too many mobs and need a bit more defense or an opportunity to heal
Tremor Totem is great to cleanse fear/sleep/charm effects. It ticks every 4s so if you anticipate yourself being feared drop it accordingly. Conversely if you see a teammate about to get feared, don't drop the totem pre-emptively as it ticks the moment you drop it, so it won't tick again for another 4s. Instead, wait for the fear cast to go off and make sure to not global lock yourself, and immediately drop it then to cleanse it instantly
Stoneskin Totem is good if your tank is a whimp or you need some DR fighting harder mobs
Mana Spring Totem will only give you the mana it costs back if you're near it for 20+ seconds
Healing Stream Totem is quite weak but it can help out a healer in dungeon scenarios
Cure Poison is great when fighting mobs that poison you obviously
Purge is great for griefing enemy players removing their buffs, or powerful buffs on npcs such as healing effects