Shaman Business: Rolling...

I've been playing WoW for a year and a half. I've had two Shamans. One is a seventy and the other is getting there. One in each faction.

I know that there are many players who complain about the Shaman and the abilities that it is able to use in a manner which either a group or a pvp fiend can truly enjoy. Let me first say that I am not the end all be all of Shamans. I enjoy the class, alot, probably more than other people do but it's the versatility which I find both endearing and welcoming when playing the character.

On the Horde side Shaman race choice are a bit trickier as you have three different races to chose from, Orc, Troll or Tauren. Personally I have always been partial to Taurens for a couple of reasons.

First, Warstomp. It is without a doubt one of the best racials in the game. An additional stun, that costs no mana and has a decent cooldown. I can't even begin to tell you how many times it saved my hide when I was a low level and I was battling multiple mobs. It's something that I miss to this day because Dreanei don't get to have it.

The other thing that attracted me to a Tauren is really, that they made the most sense to be a shaman. When you look at the other two races that can be Shamans, they aren't very well known for loving and caring for the land. The Tauren MUST take care of the land as they thrive on it and realistically, they're a cow! What cow do you know what to destroy the world? None.

Taurens are great for herbalism as they get a 5 point boost to that talent just for being who they are. Course mine was always a skinner because I needed money for the way that I wanted to gear out my toons.

Still, Horde is not something that I play much anymore so I'm going to focus mainly on Alliance Shaman and leveling. I think it's important to note that while I might have good notes, the leveling increase in patch 2.3 has bascially made anything I have to impart either irrelevant or mundane, as I've had friends tell me that they are leveling faster than they can complete some of the ares.

Dreanei's are an interesting race. First looking at the fact that they crashed landed into our world, mutated everything around their vessel, they have somehow managed to create a trust with the land and have been able to go ahead and become Shamans. Their racial trait is the Gift of the Naaru. Another nifty little trick if you think about it. It's a self heal that continues to grow as you level. So it increases the healing done upon yourself in appropriate balance with the baseline health that you recieve when you level. Furthermore, it's also a trait that you can share with a party member by casting it on them. Automatically that makes you a great healer if you think about it. You're in a five man and run outta mana? Cast Gift on your tank and then drop a Mana Spring Totem and regain some mana.

One of the biggest things that I continually hear is that Shamans are broken because the totem set isn't working properly, that you have to drop totems all the time, to me that's what makes it appealing honestly. You have to think out what you want to drop, what you think is going to give you the most help. It's about stratergy and that is what appealed to me the most.

So the first thing I'm going to tell you, regardless of what spec you're going to turn into at level 10, 40, 60 or 70 is gather Intellect. You need it more than anything else in your life. We are completely mana hungry (not as bad as Belfs though) and you need to make sure you have a big enough pool. I have a 41 Warlock (Voltz) who has a 9000 mana pool. So I know we can get up there. Just remember that the other thing you need is Stamina.

There's some background/groundwork on the Shaman class. Tomorrow we'll talk about the best way to level (Spec) and the skillz you might need to help you along the way.