The Intricate Mechanics of the Shaman Class in WoW

Ever wondered what it's like to master all four elements in the World of Warcraft? Well, our latest episode is a deep-dive into the world of Shamans! We dissect the three unique specializations this class offers - enhancement, elemental, and restoration. From the dynamics of ranged DPS and melee to the pivotal role of restoration spells in game strategies, get ready for an exhilarating exploration of this versatile class. We also discuss the nuances of totem usage and placement, which are part of the Shaman's unique class utility, and how it influences various game scenarios.

But there's more than just game mechanics. We take you on a journey into the rich lore of World of Warcraft, exploring the roleplay aspects of the Shaman class. Discover their deep-rooted connection with elements and nature, and how it shapes their character in the vast realm of Azeroth. Whether you're a tried-and-true player or a curious beginner, this episode offers a trove of insights into one of the most adaptable classes in World of Warcraft. And if you thought that was all, think again! We also discuss the pros and cons of the Shaman class, their key bindings, and how all these elements come together in PvP and PvE settings. Tune in for an enlightening experience.

Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

getting better. Hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go for a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft. I grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this midweek episode. We'll be going over the what Are series and we're going to be looking at Shaman, the totem loving class, the one that just put down little pets that are static and essentially let them do your job for you.

Speaker 1: 1:22

So Shaman has three specializations. I'm not miscounting, no, they do have three. You have enhancement, elemental and restoration, two of these being DPS specs, the other being a what is it? Healing spec. That's the one. The two DPS specs are a ranged DPS, which is elemental, and enhance, which is a melee specialization. Well, I say melee, it's kind of a mix, because there are some spells and like builds at the moment where it is a lot of your, a lot of your damage does come from, like lightning bolt and stuff like that. So kind of ranged, it's kind of a weird hybrid of the two.

Speaker 1: 2:04

Essentially, the specializations are very unique in their own way. Enhance, at the moment, utilizes two melee weapons where you're constantly doing a lot of small damage. Elemental is more, overload it's called, and what overload is essentially, if you throw out a lava burst you have a chance to mimic the lava burst, so you throw out another one and with that you have another chance to throw out another one, and vice and not vice versa, etc. Etc. So if you get really lucky it's called a lava lottery, I would call it and essentially you can get five of these lava bursts back to back, same with lightning bolts etc. But you've got to be very lucky and the chances obviously decrease as you proc more and more of these things back to back or not. The chance you always have a set chance to proc, but more of the probability of it happening is a lot lower the more that you proc.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Essentially, restoration is all about utilizing your restoration spell. So healing wave, earth shield, healing stream totem, healing tied totem it really does Well, actually all shaman specs kind of rely on your totems. You have a lot of your utility through totems. Restoration have a lot of stopping power with grounding totem. What is the other one? Urban wall totem, healing tied totem, whereas you look at sky fury totem for Enhanced and elemental, if you want to increase your critical strike damage. You look at Static fill totem to crowd control some enemies, all of their utility comes from these Totems, as it were.

Speaker 1: 3:51

I said totems way too many times. It comes from all of these things and a lot of the time it's about managing when to use them. So healing stream totem is a very useful and If you put it behind a pillar it means that the enemies can't kill it, and quite as easily, and therefore you've used it quite effectively. If you put it in the middle of the map, people just switch to it and kill it instantly and it's not useful. That's all about managing these totems and, if you like, sort of a pet class. These are kind of like the same but they don't act. They don't act as a pet, as it were. It's I don't really know how to describe it but essentially all of their utility and not all, but most of their utility and Healing does come from these totems, which is really good, really cool and a really cool class sort of niche, and that that's the way that it's been ever since Classic, when, when fury totem would give melees an extra potential swing on their weapons. You know that kind of deal PvP slash, pve I'd mainly go over PvP Elemental is a very strong class, especially if there's ever like a wizard cleave Meta. So was it cleave? Is anything? That's like spell casting, like two spellcasters, because Shamans actually have a really good matchup into Pastors. They have grounding totem, which stops certain spells. They have tremor, which stops fees. They have a very good kick, one of the most effective kicks on the shortest cooldown. They have a lot of stopping power against these clatters. If it's against any sort of melee it's a bit more difficult, but you do still have utilities such as earth grab totem and Stone skin totem, which reduces physical damage and roots Players to get caught near the earth grab totem. So there is still some utility there, but in PvP Elemental is probably one of the better ones.

Speaker 1: 5:53

Enhance is very gimmicky at the moment. It's one of the I don't know how to really put it most annoying specs to play against it because they do nothing and then they just one shot you and Anything that one shots in an arena shouldn't be in an arena. It shouldn't be in an arena setting at all, in my honest opinion, and it's just not healthy for the game. So when they get evened out and it's more consistent damage rather than just one instant burst and Everything's dead and then you do nothing for about Two minutes, two, three minutes until you get another instant one shot and then, yeah, rinse and repeat. Yeah, it's just not great at the moment for enhance. You have one or two builds. One of them is being very cheesy, two is more consistent but it's not as sort of effective. You probably need to try a lot harder to make it work.

Speaker 1: 6:52

Restoration is in a decent place. It's not in the best place. I Think a lot of its utility comes down to Whether or not you are against caster cleaves, because if you go up against a melee cleave it's so tough to actually get like effectiveness from your stuff because you just can't tank it as much Against casters. You're amazing. You have grounding totem, like I said, static field, a lot of CC kicks etc. Against melees you kind of just get run down and that's probably the Downside to shaman at the moment, that it can just get run down a little bit easier than other healers like evoker or Paladin, anything like that. Even holy priest probably is a bit tankier than it, which is saying something. But yeah, it's not great at the moment, but it's in a very solid place. I would say you could probably just add a couple more things, but it has its niche, which is against cast of cleaves. So it's cast of cleaves ever become meta shaman suddenly? Or restoration shamans, at the very least, do spring up Along with cast of cleave metas.

Speaker 1: 8:05

They don't really have pets. Totems are kind of classes pets, but not at the same time. Oh, they don't really don't. Are P wise? You are one with the land. Essentially you utilize the nature around you, the elements and all of that the fire, wind, if you're kind of the avatar almost of world of warcraft, mastering all four elements and all that stuff. And you obviously can wear two-handed weapons if you want to walk in with the hand of Ragnaros. You know sulfurous, anything like that. It's very cool. You can put down totems and be like this is my protection, I Turn to the earth for protection. You know all that shit and then put down like a stone claw, totem or whatever you know all that RP stuff. I'm absolutely awful with it, but it is what it is.

Speaker 1: 8:54

The pros of Shamans are the amount of utility that they can have. They're one of the classes that have the most buttons in the game, I think in terms of to press. Yeah, they probably have the most buttons, so you need the most key binds. But it means that they have the most sort of potential Answers to certain things. No, cast a cleave. You have grounding, totem, kick etc. But the cons are, if it isn't a cast a cleave they are very much in danger of being run down. It's too bloated. Potentially, some of the buttons in the shaman class it does need a little bit of a pruning, I think shaman Maybe just a tiny bit, because it is way too many buttons and to key bind that many things and because there might not be something that you think you need it.

Speaker 1: 9:46

Let's say We'll go with hex as an example. Hex is a very good spell and you definitely need this, but I'm using it as an example. Say, you've got a shit ton of stuff key-binded and then the one situation that you could have used hex to win you a PvP game or to time that mythic key. You didn't have a key-bounder and you had to click it and that one second click it took you over the timer or meant that you couldn't get your CC off or the person died instead in your arena team. It means that you have to then key-bind it and you've got to find something to key-bind it to. So you've got all these key-binds already 30 odds or something we'll say and you need 31.

Speaker 1: 10:31

And the last key-bind that you can think of doing is probably control P or something, and they're completely opposite sides of the keyboard. That's really awkward to press. You know that kind of deal. That's where bloating is really bad of spells. That's why some classes do need a bit of pruning every now and again when it comes to these spells, but I don't think it needs much.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Maybe a couple of spells need to be taken away, but that's not really that big of a deal. That is one of the cons, though, that there are so many spells that you need to kind of key-bind for Shaman that it's probably best that it gets a couple of key or spells taken away from it or at least put into the talent tree and stuff like that. So people have the choice still to take. But that is it for this episode. Thank you all very much for listening. As always, do check out all of the stuff down below Twitch, tiktok, youtube and support. The show is also down below. You can click that link and support the show even further. But thank you all very much for listening and go, valor Friend, goodbye all. I'll see you guys next time. I'll see you guys next time.