The one who asks the elements
Mages draw power from books, priests from the Light, and shamans ask the elements: you negotiate with them, not command them. Orcs once forgot this and fell to demons; Thrall restored their shamanism. Tauren never lost it and founded the Earthen Ring.
Forever adds two more peoples. Windshapers are spiritual leaders of the Skyborne, whose island was held aloft by wind spirits until those spirits vanished. The Earthen Ring brought them into the Horde; a skycutter lands them on Stargazer Mesa in Mulgore. Alliance gains shamans for the first time in Classic, through dwarves.
Totem at your feet, shock on their cast
A shaman's fight begins before combat.
Rockbiter Weapon enchants your weapon, three charges from
Lightning Shield circle you, and
Stoneskin Totem stands at your feet. There are four elements, with one totem of each active at once: earth protects, fire burns, water heals and restores mana, and air catches enemy spells from level 30.
Then come shocks, sharing a cooldown.
Earth Shock interrupts and locks that spell school for 2 seconds;
Flame Shock burns for another 12 seconds;
Frost Shock slows from level 20. Against casters, save your shock until they begin casting. Veterans keep rank-1
Earth Shock on a separate button: the interrupt is identical and costs far less mana.
All of this spends the same mana pool. Spirit restores no mana for five seconds after each spell, so spend in a burst - totem, shield, shock - then swing your weapon for a while. Pressing everything leaves you drinking more often than fighting; learned firsthand.
Leveling 1–30: mace over lightning
Every beta guide recommends leveling with a two-handed mace before 30. Tooltips suggest
Lightning Bolt deals a third less damage than Classic from 20, leading testers to call it a wet noodle and the first 20 levels an auto-attack simulator.
The pattern is simple: Lightning Bolt on approach or
Flame Shock in melee, then weapon swings; finish fleeing mobs with
Earth Shock. You can skip
Flametongue Weapon, since Rockbiter is almost always stronger before 30.
Fire Nova arrives at 12: in Forever it explodes around your fire totem, so use it against two or three nearby mobs. Watch totem placement:
Searing Totem near another camp pulls extras.
Class quests award totem items: earth at 4, fire at 10, water at 20, air at 30. Skyborne shamans receive earth and fire on Zephris; the fire quest is a timed run carrying an eternal flame to Valanaar. Water is the Classic chain through four zones; whether Skyborne receive it remains unverified in beta. Air in Thousand Needles is simply a conversation.
Level 20 brings the best gift:
Ghost Wolf, +40% running speed. Shifting takes 3 seconds without talents; 2/2
Improved Ghost Wolf makes it instant, and Forever allows the wolf indoors. At 25, Enhancement gains
Stormstrike, although its beta tooltip says level 40.
At 30, every shaman trains
Windfury Weapon for a slow two-hander and
Reincarnation: carry an Ankh to resurrect yourself after death.
Dungeons and raids: healing or damage
Shaman is a hybrid, so groups first ask whether you can heal. In every role, they expect group totems,
Earth Shock on enemy healers, and
Purge to remove shields.
Ancestral Spirit resurrects fallen allies from 12;
Tremor Totem from 18 counters sleep from Druids of the Fang in Wailing Caverns. Avoid opening with Fire Nova: its threat now belongs to you.
Most Classic raid shamans healed, usually with
Chain Heal. It jumps to the most injured nearby allies, up to three targets, healing half as much per jump. Totems only affected the shaman's party, so raid leaders distributed shamans across groups and always assigned one to warriors for Windfury Totem.
Blizzard describes Forever shamans as totem masters and one of the toughest classes, but weak at crowd control. Windfury Totem now grants a buff instead of a weapon enchant, and since October 15, Grace of Air, Strength of Earth, Windfury, and Flametongue Totems affect the entire raid.
Mana Tide Totem, restoring group mana, is now a 16-point talent rather than 31. The first
Mana Tide Totem rank is available at 25, followed by 38, 48, and 58.
Blizzard says Enhancement can only tank temporarily in small groups. Forum requests for a full shaman tank role remain unanswered.
PvP: ground, interrupt, chase
World PvP depends on your ruleset: PvP automatically flags you in contested zones; Normal uses /pvp. Against mages, place
Grounding Totem first: it arrives at 30 with the air totem and absorbs the next
Polymorph or
Frostbolt. Against warlocks and priests, place
Tremor Totem before the first fear, because it removes fear every few seconds rather than instantly.
Purge strips shields and blessings from priests and paladins;
Frost Shock and
Earthbind Totem keep fleeing enemies in reach.
The class has its own legend. Vanilla Windfury on a slow two-hander granted two extra attacks, sending mages and priests to the graveyard in one proc until patch 1.11 halved its attack-power bonus. On October 4, Forever beta videos circulated showing an Enhancement shaman with a slow mace killing duel opponents in roughly two hits. Their level is unspecified, and it is always a lottery.
Only the new Darkspear Islands battleground is open in beta: 15 versus 15 from level 30. Guides suggest Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin will join at release. The shaman's job is familiar: chase enemy flag carriers in wolf form, interrupt healers, and protect your own carrier with
Earthbind Totem under their pursuers.
What is new in Forever, and what testers say
Totems are no longer a chore. Classic totems lasted two minutes with a 20-yard range; moving away meant replacing them. Now they last five minutes, reach 30 yards, and use a one-second global cooldown. From 20,
Call of the Elements places four at once;
Totemic Recall recalls them for a quarter of their mana cost; weapon imbues last an hour and stack with sharpening stones.
Talents were rebuilt.
Stormstrike is now a 16-point talent with an 8-second cooldown;
Mental Dexterity converts Intellect to attack power;
Shamanistic Focus reduces shock and shield costs by 45%; Restoration gains
Water Shield. October 15 restored
Elemental Mastery at 31 points: for 15 seconds it reduces Lightning Bolt and
Lava Burst cast times by 0.5 seconds and removes Chain Lightning's cooldown, with a 3-minute cooldown.
Lava Burst now costs 21 points; Earthbound costs 16. This differs from early beta previews.
Alliance receives dwarf shamans, trainers in Dun Morogh and Ironforge, and unique totem quests. Players say the water chain takes around two hours through Loch Modan, the Wetlands, Redridge, Darkshore, Ashenvale, and Westfall. The old Alliance-paladins/Horde-shamans split is over: Horde receives undead paladins in return.
Testers praise totems, then sigh. Forum posts called Enhancement almost Classic with nothing added; Elemental lacks mana, and its main new button,
Lava Burst, unlocks at 30. One popular reply to Blizzard's mage and shaman article simply says shamans got nothing.
Is this your class?
Choose shaman if you do not want to choose between damage and healing. Groups let you do both while placing totems that strengthen everyone. Solo, you heal yourself and escape trouble as a wolf; bring a shield or staff when healing.
Drawbacks remain: mana ends before the fight, the first 20 levels are auto-attacks and water, and every totem requires a class quest. The class rule is simple: totems first, combat second; against a caster, shock when they start casting, not on cooldown.
To begin, open the Skyborne Shaman 1–30 leveling guide: the journey from Tendal Grove on Zephris to Thousand Needles, with totem quests and four builds. Orcs, tauren, trolls, and dwarves can still use its talents, skills, and weapons, though their totem quests differ.
Since October 15, Grace of Air, Strength of Earth, Windfury and Flametongue Totems buff the raid. Grace of Air can coexist with either weapon buff, but Windfury and Flametongue are mutually exclusive and affect only players. Chain Lightning costs roughly 35% less. Fire Nova deals less base damage and gains 14.3% of spell power rather than 21.4%.
Water Shield triggers from critical hits by any Shaman spell.