- Intro
- Your Role in Raids
- Talents
- Enchants
- Consumables
- Stat Focus
- Gear
- Totems
- Heals
- Keybindings
- Credits
I have been playing on the Kronos 1 server for the past 2.5 years raiding with <ONSLAUGHT>. Since <ONSLAUGHT> recently broke up I decided to stop playing, but first wanted to give back to the community. As of writing this, I was rated the #1 Shaman healer on Kronos by Kronos-Logs, and hopefully with this guide, you too can pump out 1000+ HPS on boss fights.
Everyone knows that Windfury Totem was too good to be true in Vanilla, and as such, your uptime on WF should be 100%. Every trash pull and every boss fight should have WF down. With few exceptions, WF should be your first global cooldown in a fight. If you are to take anything away from this guide, it is that Windfury Totem should always be up. You are a utility class first and a healer second.
In a more general sense, the primary benefit of taking a Shaman to a raid is your totems. Every healer can heal, but not every healer can cleanse 5 poisons with 1 GCD, or cleanse 5 fears instantly, or provide huge melee DPS bonuses. If you are in a melee group (which you should always be unless there isn't enough melee in your raid), Windfury and Strength of Earth should always be down, and depending on the situation, Fire Resist, Healing Stream, or Mana Spring Totem. If you are in a caster group, you'll probably only use Mana Spring and Tranquil Air totems. That covers your usual wind, earth, and water totems. I don't usually bother with fire totems, but it is always nice to see lots of numbers come up from a good Fire Nova Totem on an AOE group.
Your last role is raid healer. Once all your totems are down, you'll be casting Chain Heal with zero down-time. Chain Heal, Chain Heal, Chain Heal. Chain Heal comes with the added benefit of jumping to 2 other people that are missing health without you having to be conscious of anything. Even if no one seems to be taking damage, you should still be constantly casting. Think of healing like a Mage thinks about throwing fireballs; there should never be a time when you are standing still doing nothing. When no one seems to be taking damage, a lot of times I'll just chain heal the main tank and let the jumps heal melee. But if you want to top those healing meters, look at which parts of the raid are taking damage and throw Chain Heals at them. Even if people are only missing like 300 HP, throw a Chain Heal at them. You'll end up healing 3 people to full health with very little overhealing. Priests and Druids are much better suited for tank healing because they have bubbles and HoTs, so let them have at it. With the Healing Way talent, Shamans could be good tank healers, but for the most part, you'll be Chain Healing 24/7.
An alternate role you can play is stacking weapon debuffs for the DPS. If no one needs healing, why not hit the boss? Stacking the Annihilator debuff can improve melee dps, or you can spec into Two-Handed Axes and help casters with the Nightfall debuff. Having a healing Shaman double as a weapon debuff stacker is probably more beneficial to the overall raid than an elemental shaman.
https://www.wowhead.com/classic/talent-calc/shaman/-5-550350512553151
The most basic and straight forward spec you can go is 0/5/46. You get lots of bonuses to your healing and mana efficiency, which shamans desperately need. The last 2 points of this spec could also go in several places. I usually put them in Healing Grace, but some put them into Guardian Totems, or Improved Reincarnation. Improved Reincarnation and [Totem of Rebirth] combined is 20 minutes off Reincarnation, which can be extremely useful when your guild is progressing through new content.
https://wowhead.com/classic/talent-calc/shaman/-502500210502-05035051005014
If you're Chain Healing 90% of the time, you don't really need Improved Healing Wave or Healing Way. And with the extra sacrifice of not having Mana Tide, you can significantly improve your totems for melee. Also, this spec allows you to be a Nightfall or Annihilator bitch. In <ONSLAUGHT>, every healing shaman went this spec because of this simple philosophy: If things die quicker, there is less need for mana efficiency. However, if your guild takes 5+ minutes to kill a boss, you probably want Mana Tide Totem.
Weapon - +55 Healing
Shield - +7 Stamina
Gloves - +30 Healing (if AQ is released)
Bracers - +4 MP5, or +24 Healing
Chest - +4 Stats
Helm - +8 damage and healing, or +150 Mana*
Legs - +8 damage and healing, or +150 Mana*
Shoulders - +33 Healing (if ZG is released), or +31 Healing and +5 MP5 (if Naxx is released)
*If ZG is released, go for the shaman-specific enchant [Vodouisant's Vigilant Embrace] rather than the Libram enchants for helm and legs
[Flask of Distilled Wisdom] - +2000 mana
[Nighfin Soup] - +8 MP5
[Sagefish Delight] - +6 MP5 (This may or may not stack with [Nightfin Soup])
[Mageblood Potion] - +12 MP5 (if ZG is out)
[Cerebral Cortex Compound] - +25 Int
[Major Mana Potion]
[Demonic Rune] or [Dark Rune]
[Lesser Mana Oil] or [Brilliant Mana Oil] (if ZG is out)
I will go more into this in the theorycrafting section, but the main thing you should look for in stats is MP5, +Healing, and Intellect (generally in that order). Spirit does absolutely nothing for Shaman. Shaman don't get talents that let your mana regenerate while casting, so spirit is just a wasted stat.
The general formula I've followed is:
+11 healing = +5 int = +1 mp5
The shorter or longer a fight is obviously affects this formula, but I've used it to know which pieces of gear are more valuable than others. This formula also influences the gear recommendations I make below.
I've added alternatives to each set of gear because in some cases you may not need as much MP5, and if you're a pro, you'll switch to higher +healing gear before quick boss fights.
| Slot | Name |
|---|---|
| Weapon | [The Hammer of Grace] or [Hammer of Revitalization] or [Cold Forged Hammer] |
| Offhand | [Lei of Lifegiver] or [Gizlock's Hypertech Buckler] |
| Helm | [Sanctified Leather Helm] or [Cassandra's Grace] |
| Neck | [Tooth of Gnarr] or [Animated Chain Necklace] |
| Shoulders | [Mantle of Lost Hope] |
| Back | [Hide of the Wild] |
| Chest | [Robes of the Exalted] or [Mindsurge Robe] |
| Bracers | [Loomguard Armbraces] |
| Gloves | [Harmonious Gauntlets] |
| Belt | [Whipvine Cord] |
| Pants | [Padre's Trousers] |
| Boots | [Faith Healer's Boots] |
| Ring 1 | [Fordring's Seal] or [Band of Piety] |
| Ring 2 | [Rosewine Circle] |
| Trinket 1 | [Mindtap Talisman] or [Briarwood Reed] |
| Trinket 2 | [Mindtap Talisman] |
It is also worth noting that 8/8 Tier 1 is also a decent option. The 5/8 set bonus stacks with the 8/8 set bonus allowing your mana to last for a long time while casting down-ranked Healing Waves.
| Slot | Name |
|---|---|
| Weapon | [Aurastone Hammer] or [Jin'do's Hexxer] or [Fang of the Mystics] |
| Offhand | [Lei of Lifegiver] or [Malistar's Defender] |
| Helm | [Helm of the Lifegiver] or [Crystal Adorned Crown] |
| Neck | [Jin'do's Evil Eye] or [Wavefront Necklace] |
| Shoulders | [Wild Growth Spaulders] |
| Back | [Hide of the Wild] |
| Chest | [Robes of the Exalted] or [Mindsurge Robe] |
| Bracers | [Loomguard Armbraces] or [Flarecore Wraps] |
| Gloves | [Harmonious Gauntlets] |
| Belt | [Whipvine Cord] or [Corehound Belt] |
| Pants | [Salamander Scale Pants] |
| Boots | [Faith Healer's Boots] |
| Ring 1 | [Cauterizing Band] or [Band of Piety] |
| Ring 2 | [Cauterizing Band] |
| Trinket 1 | [Mindtap Talisman] or [Briarwood Reed] |
| Trinket 2 | [Shard of the Scale] |
You'll definitely want the 3/8 Tier 2 bonus. It adds a ton of extra healing to your Chain Heals, and your spamming the hell out of them already.
| Slot | Name |
|---|---|
| Weapon | [Claw of Cromaggus] or [Lok'amir il Romathis] |
| Offhand | [Red Dragonscale Protector] or [Malistar's Defender] |
| Helm | [Helmet of Ten Storms] |
| Neck | [Jin'do's Evil Eye] or [Wavefront Necklace] |
| Shoulders | [Wild Growth Spaulders] |
| Back | [Shroud of Pure Thought] |
| Chest | [Robes of the Exalted] or [Mindsurge Robe] |
| Bracers | [Bracers of Ten Storms] |
| Gloves | [Gauntlets of Ten Storms] |
| Belt | [Whipvine Cord] or [Corehound Belt] |
| Pants | [Salamander Scale Pants] |
| Boots | [Boots of Pure Thought] or [Shimmering Geta] |
| Ring 1 | [Ring of Blackrock] |
| Ring 2 | [Pure Elementium Band] |
| Trinket 1 | [Rejuvenating Gem] |
| Trinket 2 | [Shard of the Scale] |
| Slot | Name |
|---|---|
| Weapon | [Scepter of the False Prophet] |
| Offhand | [Wormscale Blocker] |
| Helm | [Don Rigoberto's Lost Hat] |
| Neck | [Amulet of the Fallen God] |
| Shoulders | [Wild Growth Spaulders] |
| Back | [Cloak of Clarity] |
| Chest | [Robes of the Guardian Saint] |
| Bracers | [Bracelets of Royal Redemption] |
| Gloves | [Gloves of the Messiah] or [Wasphide Gauntlets] |
| Belt | [Grasp of the Old God] |
| Pants | [Salamander Scale Pants] |
| Boots | [Boots of Pure Thought] or [Shimmering Geta] |
| Ring 1 | [Ring of the Martyr] |
| Ring 2 | [Ring of the Devoured] |
| Trinket 1 | [Rejuvenating Gem] |
| Trinket 2 | [Shard of the Scale] |
Chain Heal Set - This set is specifically for Chain Healing. The Tier 2 + Tier 2.5 sets together lets you output a ton of healing. The set bonuses are what make this set great, so unless you have 5/5 Tier 2.5 and 3/8 Tier 2, I wouldn't bother wearing the T2.5.
| Slot | Name |
|---|---|
| Weapon | [Scepter of the False Prophet] |
| Offhand | [Wormscale Blocker] |
| Helm | [Stormcaller's Diadem] |
| Neck | [Amulet of the Fallen God] |
| Shoulders | [Stormcaller's Pauldrons] |
| Back | [Cloak of Clarity] |
| Chest | [Stormcaller's Hauberk] |
| Bracers | [Bracers of Ten Storms] |
| Gloves | [Gauntlets of Ten Storms] |
| Belt | [Belt of Ten Storms] |
| Pants | [Stormcaller's Leggings] |
| Boots | [Stormcaller's Footguards] |
| Ring 1 | [Ring of the Martyr] |
| Ring 2 | [Ring of the Devoured] |
| Trinket 1 | [Rejuvenating Gem] |
| Trinket 2 | [Shard of the Scale] |
[Totem of Sustaining] is a pre-raid must. You will use it all the way until AQ40 when you switch it for [Totem of Life]. [Totem of Rebirth] is also a good option. As mentioned before, combining it with the Improved Reincarnation talent is useful when your dying a lot during raid progression.
There are several good trinkets beyond the passive ones I listed. [Scarab Brooch] from AQ40, [Zandalarian Hero Charm] from ZG, and [Natural Alignment Crystal] from BWL are good for pumping out a lot of healing quickly. Some of my highest HPS records I had were thanks to [Natural Alignment Crystal]. Just make sure to swap your trinkets when the cooldowns are running.
A decent DPS boost for the melee in your group. It is worth about half as much Attack Power as a Battle Shout, so probably not a HUGE priority. However, I keep SoE down as often as Windfury. Your typical flow should be 1st GCD: Cast WF, 2nd GCD: Cast SoE. I've always left it up to Priests and Druids to keep tanks up for the first few seconds of every boss fight. Use that time to set up all the totems you'll need.
Not many things in raids are affected by Earthbind, but the ones that are, Earthbind can be a good option. Most pulls that come with a lot of adds, it can be a good idea to lay it down. It helps tanks pick up those adds that might start chasing after casters.
Fairly useless. Unless a warrior in your group has just done Challenging Shout and has 20+ adds on him, don't bother casting it. Use Strength of Earth instead. If your in a caster group, I wouldn't bother putting down an earth totem.
One of the few advantages Horde has over the Alliance in Vanilla. If you can time your totem placement in time with a fear mechanic, the pulse will happen as soon as the fear does. The ability for a raid to immediately break all melee out of fear on a fight like Nefarian is hugely beneficial. Your ability to break fears is the easiest way for everyone to know how much you are paying attention. Everyone will see you running around feared because you forgot to Tremor, so pay attention!
As mentioned before, Windfury is the best, and it should always be down if there are melee in your group.
There are some boss mechanics that are affected by Grounding, depending on the server scripting. It is meant to redirect single target spells, so things like Lucifron's Mind Control should be able to be grounded. Often times, it may be more worth it to just have Windfury down.
The entire time I played vanilla, I didn't even have this on my bars. Don't even bother.
Only really useful in situations where people take a lot of nature damage. Bosses in AQ40 like Huhuran and Viscidous are good examples of when Nature Resistance might be a better option than Windfury
Sometimes you'll have 2 shamans in a group and one of you can use Grace while the other can do Windfury. Maybe you're in a group with all hunters. Otherwise, stick to Windfury for your air totem. If there is a rogue in your group that is asking you for Grace instead of Windfury, he is dumb and tell him so. Rogue poisons don't stack with WF, so maybe that is the reason, but they are still dumb for putting poisons on in a raid. The small amount of crit and AP from Grace is nothing compared to the overall DPS gain from Windfury.
Not all its hyped up to be. If you have the talents for it, Mana Spring provides about 360 mana in total and costs 75 mana. That's not much to be gained unless you have others in your group with mana bars. If you're struggling with mana, it is good to keep down, and unless the people in your group are reaching their buff limit, it wouldn't hurt. A full minute of Mana Spring could potentially mean enough extra mana for 1-2 extra Chain Heals.
Use it as often as you can. It provides a decent amount of extra mana, and can be pretty helpful in long fights. If you know your mana pool has to last for longer than 5 minutes, make sure to lay it down early in a fight, so you have time to cast it again. A typical rotation I like to do is start a boss fight with Mana Spring, and when it expires, switch to Mana Tide, then back to Mana Spring.
Your most efficient heal potentially doing ~1500 healing to 5 people for very little mana. "Potentially" being the keyword, however. Very few occasions will all 5 people in your group be taking damage and never will it be the reason for someone living or dying. Although, I think it does more healing per mana than having a Mana Spring totem down, so this is usually my go-to water totem. A bit I like to do to really cheese healing numbers is use a Zandalarian Hero Charm before setting down the Healing Stream. It benefits from your +healing, so you can significantly increase the amount it pulses for by using a trinket. Also, something to note, Healing Stream generates its own threat, so it can be used to force caster adds around corners for better positioning. It might also mean it gets destroyed without you realizing it.
This is an excellent choice for all of MC and BWL. There is a lot of fire damage from both the trash and bosses in the first two raids. Fire Resistance can be a better choice than Healing Stream because it could potentially save someone's life. Resisting 1500 damage from a big fire spell is much more valuable than that same amount done as healing over 60 seconds.
Great for cleansing a lot of people quickly. It is another great advantage Horde has over Alliance in Vanilla. Just make sure to not "set-and-forget". The pulse of this totem shouldn't be relied on in raids. You should be instantly recasting this totem as soon as a new poison happens. The cleansing will happen a lot quicker and result in having less damage going out to the raid.
Pretty much the same as Poison Cleansing. There are a lot fewer cases that require Disease Cleansing, but Chromaggus is one that you should be ready for.
Some boss strategies involve sheeping mind controlled people and Searing Totem has been known to break sheeps. A lot of things in MC and BWL also have high fire resistance or are outright immune to it. Because of those two reasons, don't bother with Searing Totem.
Sometimes a good option for large groups of mobs. However, if another target doesn't have threat, mobs may go after the totem before it goes off.
Much of the same strategy as Fire Nova, but it costs a lot more mana. I tend to favor Fire Nova because of the mana cost.
If for whatever reason you can't have Windfury down, you could use this instead. A good example might be if you are using Nature Resistance for your wind totem on a particular boss. I have yet to run the numbers on if using Flametongue over Windfury is a viable option on a fire vulnerability for Chromaggus. I highly doubt it though.
Not many raids have frost damage. Other than in Naxx, you probably won't use this at all.
Pulse Totems include things like Poison Cleansing, Tremor, and Windfury. Because of the pulse, they are affected by line-of-sight, so always make sure your totems are placed correctly. Another point about pulse totems is that some players "set-and-forget" things like Tremor and Cleansing totems. Get that out of your head! If you see someone feared, cast a new totem. Think of it like casting Decurse or Dispell. Mages and Priests don't rely on spells being auto-cleansed and neither should you.
Since Windfury applies a 10-second buff, there is a window of time when your group can have both Windfury and Grace of Air. The basic strategy is to cast Windfury, then immediately Grace of Air, and before WF times out, do the process over again. Totem twisting like this take a lot of time that could be spent casting heals, so it isn't for every occasion, but your melee will love you for it. The rotation I use is WF + GoA + Chain Heal + Chain Heal. You might have enough time to get a third Chain Heal in before WF expires, but I tend to stick with 2 because of latency.
As mentioned before, Chain Heal is your bread and butter in raids. No other healer can do as much AoE healing as Shamans can. Priests and Druids can out-heal a Shaman in a single-target healing scenario, but Shamans excel at AoE healing. Rank 1 Chain Heal is also a particularly efficient heal. Without chaining to anyone, it is still about as efficient as a Rank 4 Lesser Healing Wave. With the Tier 2 3/8 piece bonus, Chain Heal can be your most efficient heal. So spam the crap out of that Rank 1 Chain Heal. I make sure to have all 3 ranks of Chain Heal available and bound to different keys. It makes it much easier to switch between the different ranks as the raid is taking more or less damage than normal.
Decent single-target heal. It has a quick cast time, so you are less susceptible to your heals being 100% overhealing. The only relic available to you pre-raid [Totem of Sustaining], also improves LHW. Rank 1 LHW also has the lowest mana cost while still providing decent healing. Max Rank LWH is also the best option for keeping someone alive that is taking a lot of damage. It may not be the highest HPS, but a tank is more likely to die while you are casting a slow heal.
If you are specced into Healing Way, Rank 5 Healing Wave is the MOST efficient heal you have. You can last for a long time only casting that. Rank 1 is useful for pre-stacking Healing Way before a fight starts as well. I usually save Max Rank Healing Wave for Nature's Swiftness. I don't ever sit and cast a Max Rank. The major downside of Healing Wave is that it suffers from a long cast time. In my experience, someone else has already healed my target before I get the cast off. Because of this, I've always stuck with Chain Heal for multi-target healing and LHW for single-target healing.
You should have nearly all your totems keybound. Everything on the left side of your keyboard should be available for keybinding and be sure to make use of the Shift and Alt modifiers as well. For example, my keybindings for WF and SoE were Shift+Q and Shift+E respectively. If you have numbers on your mouse, make sure to use those too. The mouse I used has numbers from 1-12 and all of them (including Shift modifiers) were bound to a different totem spell. Your cleansing totems should be instant, and there is no way it'll be that way if you're clicking your spells.
Egregious - His Shaman Guide got me started when I first came back to Vanilla WoW.
Fei - He ran an excellent raiding guild for almost 3 years. Without him, I probably would have quit a long time ago.
<ONSLAUGHT> - This guild was awesome and I had a great time playing with everyone.
Wxn and Massivebenis - For constantly beating my healing records so that I'd have to develop new strategies.
Gametime - For giving me shit for laying down Healing Stream instead of Fire Resist Totem.
Hershal - For giving me gold for letting Gametime die ;)
Okay now I'm just digressing. Thanks for reading.