Shaman

Overview

The totem master: a sturdy mail-wearing class that buffs the group and can heal, cast or fight in melee.

Shamans drop totems to buff allies, then heal, cast or fight. WoW Forever makes totems far easier: saved sets of four drop with one cast, they last longer, and many buffs now reach the whole raid. Enhancement can briefly tank small groups. Shamans are still weak at crowd control and survival.

Specs

• ElementalCaster DPS

  Spellcasting. Lightning Overload for free extra bolts, Call of Thunder in place of Lava Burst, and Lightning Mastery at 31 points.

  Full build coming after launch
• EnhancementMelee DPS

  Melee with spells. Stormstrike moves to 16 points with an 8-second cooldown, Maelstrom Weapon speeds up Lightning Bolt, and Enhancement can tank small groups.

  Full build coming after launch
• RestorationHealer

  Healing. Water Shield at 11 points and Riptide at 31 points, with Healing Stream Totem doubled by Restorative Totems.

  Full build coming after launch

What changed from Classic

• New
  Totem sets with one cast

  Call of the Elements (20), Call of the Spirits (30) and Call of the Ancestors (40) each drop a saved set of four totems after a 3-second cast. A new totem bar tracks them.

• New
  Totemic Recall (20) and Totemic Call (22)

  Recall removes your totems and refunds 25% of their mana. Totemic Call (renamed from Totemic Projection on November 2) teleports your totems to you, on a 30-second cooldown.

• Changed
  Totems last longer and reach further

  Totems use a 1-second global cooldown, buff totems last 5 minutes, and Windfury, Grace of Air, Strength of Earth, Flametongue and resistance totems now cover the raid.

• Changed
  Weapon imbues last an hour

  Rockbiter, Flametongue, Frostbrand and Windfury Weapon last 60 minutes and stack with sharpening stones and oils.

• Changed
  Fire Nova is a spell

  It now erupts at your current Fire totem instead of being a totem itself, and can be repeated. Its damage and cost were lowered on October 16.

• Changed
  Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning

  Lightning Bolt casts faster than in Classic. On November 2 its base damage rose on all ranks (up to 80% on the top rank). Chain Lightning is now a 2.5-second cast that hits its first target harder but costs more mana. Shock damage is back to Classic values.

• New
  Lightning Mastery and Call of Thunder (Elemental)

  Elemental Mastery returned on October 16 as the 31-point talent and was renamed Lightning Mastery on November 2. Lava Burst was removed on November 2 and replaced by Call of Thunder: +5% critical strike chance for Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. Lightning Overload now has a 10/20/30% chance to cast a duplicate spell.

• New
  Maelstrom Weapon (Enhancement)

  Melee hits build stacks that shorten Lightning Bolt, up to instant cast. Since November 10 each stack cuts cast time and mana cost by 20% at every rank, and it procs 6/7/8/9/10 times per minute by rank.

• Changed
  Stormstrike (Enhancement, 16 points)

  Deals 100% normalized weapon damage on an 8-second cooldown (was 20 seconds in Classic), and boosts your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Earth Shock. On November 10 it went from 150% damage and a 6-second cooldown to 100% and 8 seconds.

• Changed
  Weapon imbues and totems stack

  Since November 10 a weapon imbue and a weapon totem work at the same time, so Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem can both proc.

• New
  Rage of the Farseer (Enhancement, 31 points)

  A personal Bloodlust: 30% attack speed for 25 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown. It does not affect the group.

• New
  Water Shield and Riptide (Restoration)

  Water Shield (11 points) returns mana when hit or when you crit. Riptide (31 points) is a heal over time that boosts Chain Heal. Since November 2 it has no initial heal, costs about 40% less mana and has a 12-second cooldown.

• New
  Temporary tanking (Enhancement)

  Spirit Weapons raises threat while Rockbiter Weapon is active, and Anticipation doubles dodge, letting Enhancement tank small groups.

• Removed
  Tranquil Air Totem, Lava Burst and others

  Tranquil Air Totem, Shield Specialization and Nature's Guidance are gone. Lava Burst was removed on November 2. Call of Thunder was removed during beta, then returned on November 2 in Lava Burst's place.

Abilities