Before TBC came out for World of Warcraft, the Shaman class was very limited in its spec when it came to the scene of battlegrounds. Most specced enhancement, and just went around swinging their big two-handed weapons hoping for wind-fury procs, then screaming out “Oh my god, that wind-fury crit was insane” after walking up to a mage and dropping them in one swing. The few other shamans were specced restoration for pvp, and that was only because they had to be restoration if they wanted to raid at all. And Elemental shamans were few to be found, simply because mail gear did not add enough spell damage to make them effective. The shaman class was very limited and because of this, it became less popular.

Since TBC however, shamans have been able to choose from several valuable specs for both pvp and pve. Restoration brought some very nice pvp talents such as Nature’s Guardian and Enhancement introduced the use of duel-wielding on shamans and made it useful for pve raiding as well with talents such as Unleashed Rage. The third tree however, Elemental, was given the largest upgrade out the three, and as weeks passed since the release of TBC, more and more shamans began to realize this.

The Elemental tree was given such talents as Elemental Focus and Lightning Overload, along with a very good pvp talent in Elemental Shields, and of course mail gear was highly buffed in spell damage for even casual players since TBC. Elemental shamans are now seen on some of the top arena teams in the world because of their true hybrid skills they bring with the usefulness of spot healing when needed and of course the insane burst damage they can put out, probably some of the biggest burst out of any class in the game. This guide will take an in-depth look into the world of the shaman in the arena pvp scene with all three specs; restoration, enhancement and elemental.

Although it was nothing special before BC, the enhancement tree was probably the most played spec for shamans who pvp’d, simply because of the pure damage they could put out on clothies. Especially with a good 2h weapon, a triple wind-fury crit was probably one of the most awesome animations to watch from any class in the game. Survivability was a problem though for most, despite the fact that they could heal, the heals were just so weak. The basic strategy of an enhancement shaman was to kill the other before they kill you scenario, with the occasional help from totems and maybe a heal or two. Post BC however, enhancement shamans received a big nerf with the introduction of one stat, resilience. According to geekboys.org, enhancement shamans don’t even exist in the top 99% of arena teams in the world for 5v5, 3v3 and 2v2. There is a very good reason for this stat, and that is simply that because of the coordination that is involved in arena and the teamwork, enhancement shamans just cannot bring enough to the team to successfully accomplish a victory in most, if not all states. There are several other reasons why enhancement shamans are so rare in not only top teams, but in most in general. One other reason is the fact that especially in the arena scene, crowd-control or CC, take place everywhere in most matches, and an enhancement shaman who gets slowed the least bit or cc’d becomes flat out useless to the team because all there damage is produced in melee range. Some may bring up the point that warriors are for the most part at the same disadvantage of enhancement shamans, but there are several abilities that warriors have which make up for the constant CC on them. Warriors can intercept when being kited, they can break out of most fears on their own at any given time, and of course they have that all important Mortal Strike debuff which is almost a necessity in 5v5 arena teams, if not all arena teams.

Ok, so enhancement shamans can be CC’d pretty easily and can be kited to an extent which makes them useless, but that still doesn’t change the fact that they do have abilities that could help the team even if they aren’t putting out any damage. Enhancement shamans, although not being the best at it, are still able to spot heal for a couple of heals if need be, they have all of the totems any specced shaman would have except of course for mana tide or totem of wrath, and they still have that all important skill of bloodlust. Bloodlust, which increases the spell and melee speed by 30%, is one of the most useful support spells any class could bring. So why if still able to do all of this, are they so rarely found in the arena scene. Simply put, both restoration and elemental provide what an enhancement shaman provides, and more. When it is all said and done however, there are some teams who do make it happen, so the dream of being an enhancement shaman on a successful arena team still exists.

Tags: Shaman · Articles

4 Responses to “Shamans in Arena, The True Hybrid Part 1”

1. Cele Says:
   July 25th, 2007 at 1:45 pm

   You state that you are going to look into the arena pvp scene for all three specs of shaman, but you only mention enhancement. You don’t even mention the words restoration or elemental after said statement. Am I missing something or does this article seem… incomplete? I was kinda hoping you would touch up on the resto shaman (my spec). We all know enhancement is garbage for arena.

   Don’t worry, part 2 and 3 will cover Elemental and Restoration.

2. Melaaf Says:
   July 26th, 2007 at 5:32 am

   Nice article, keep it up!

   Thanks!

3. Skel Says:
   September 20th, 2007 at 12:48 pm

   My 3vs3 has an enchancement shaman, shadow priest, and my a lock. Basicaly we suck because of him but hes my boy so what you gonna do, kick him? nah “shrug”

4. sam Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 1:32 am

   i have a lock main and playing that in arenas is fun but with over 11k health and caped resil all arena gear i want it gets boring doing bg’s u dont see crits u fear and dot then my enh shammy i leveled alliance i have one button mainly Storm strike i played shaman all specs pre bc into naxx and lookin at it now elem shamans have 3 buttons totem of wrath cl and lb not much to dps’n shamans but still one of the funnest classes ive played hey i have 1 60 horde in t3 and 1 70 in merc glad and i still love it

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