Ask Spooner: How to Shaman

Hejsan hoppsan i lingonskogen Spooner.

So I thought starting a shaman. Everyone keeps saying it’s fun but I wanna know what’s the best way to level for an orc shaman? It took me 2 years (yeah, unbelievable, I know) to get to 70 with my warlock, and as you have so many 70s (if I got you right there) you seem to be very good at leveling. So how do I level fast with an orc shaman?

Thank you, Maxwell

So I don’t know what the first line means but when I searched on Google I got to some teenage German (?) girl’s personal blog titled “I want to grow old with you” which has me a little concerned. Not so much that there’s a possibility that a guy named Maxwell wants to grow old with me, but more so that even European teens are so angsty.

Anyway! Let’s get to the question at hand (since I fancy myself a sort of demigod when it comes to Shaman)

To keep this reply short and straight to the point there are but a few topics I’ll touch upon and the rest I’m very sure you’ll figure out on your own as you play the class. There are some specific things to keep in mind since you are coming from a caster cloth wearing class that cannot self heal in the base sense of the term.

Leveling an Orc shaman is FUN! (it turned into a long reply so click the link to see the full article)

You’ll want to begin by spreading your points as you level in the enhancement tree. Others will argue with you that elemental is just as good a spec to level with, but it’s not. Period. Perhaps in the 60+ it is especially with the changes to come but for 1-60 enhance is your path. Here is an example “cookie cutter” build that lends a lot to leveling so don’t expect this to be raid or PVP optimized. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hZxVfzV0sVuqo That build is pretty much a straight up leveling build and will suit you really well until level 50. Afterward, you can put points into Mental Quickness and take points out of Improved Lightning Shield and put them into Enhancing Totems. The rest should go into the resto tree (assuming you hit 70 before the changes come in patch 3.0.0) for the +hit talents and easier, cheaper heals/totems.

Don’t worry so much about what weapons you get until level 30. Once there you’ll be able to train Windfury weapon which will become your best friend. Personally I kept using a shield and a 1H axe (axes are best because as an orc you get more expertise from them and what little it does give helps a lot) until I got to 40 and could dual wield two axes. You’re going to want to have a slow main hand and slow off-hand weapon for windfury reasons. I won’t go into THOSE details because it’s a cluster fuck.

Focus gear on getting stamina > strength > agility > intellect. I personally focus more on stamina as I level because when you’re by yourself, having that extra staying power to survive a few mobs makes a big difference. At the same time you’ll start to find yourself not drinking at all. You can easily go through about 10 mobs at the same level once you hit the 20-30 range before having to drink. Don’t be afraid to heal yourself with a lesser healing wave when you’re at 50% HP. It’s a good habit to practice because it’s best to keep yourself in a good place so that once random crit doesn’t knock you down if you’re already low on HP.

When you get there, Scarlet Monastery is an amazing place. It’s your one stop shop for all gear except weapons. Score yourself some quest reward axes or something off the AH and leave the rest to SM. You can rock the entire scarlet set armor + herod’s shoulder and the raging berserker helm.

I think that should be enough to get you going hit me back up with any questions through the replies to this post or once more using the contact page.