Elemental Shaman Leveling Guide From 1 to 70 for TBC Classic

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

• Levels 10 to 14 — 5 points in Convection
• Levels 15 to 19 — 5 points in Concussion

Convection increases your Mana efficiency, which is of great value while leveling by allowing you to pull more before having to drink. Concussion is a straightforward damage boost.

• Level 20 — 1 point in Elemental Focus
• Levels 21 to 25 — 5 points in Call of Thunder
• Levels 26 to 28 — 3 points in Eye of the Storm
• Level 29 — 1 point in Elemental Warding

Elemental Focus improves your Mana efficiency by tying your critical strikes to a Mana reduction effect. Track this effect and use your most expensive spells when it procs to take advantage of its effect.

Call of Thunder is a direct damage increase and Eye of the Storm is taken to allow you to cast uninterrupted when you need it the most, especially when fighting multiple enemies. Elemental Warding is a personal preference point that can go anywhere.

• Level 30 — 1 point in Elemental Fury
• Levels 31 & 32 — 2 points in Storm Reach
• Levels 33 & 34 — 2 points in Unrelenting Storm
• Levels 35 to 39 — 5 points in Lightning Mastery

Elemental Fury increases your Critical Strike damage substantially, which has great synergy with your Critical Strike-increasing talents. Storm Reach, meanwhile, increases your range, allowing you to get more casts in before starting to take damage against melee opponents.

Finally, Unrelenting Storm provides scaling Mana regeneration and Lightning Mastery speeds up your rotation significantly, providing a large damage increase per point invested.

• Level 40 — 1 point in Elemental Mastery
• Levels 41 to 43 — 3 points in Elemental Precision
• Level 44 — 1 point in Unrelenting Storm
• Levels 45 to 49 — 5 points in Lightning Overload

Elemental Mastery is great with Chain Lightning as it guarantees a critical strike and also removes its Mana cost. Elemental Precision provides a lot of Spell Hit from a modest talent point investment and Lightning Overload averages out to a strong damage increase which is delivered in an interesting way.

You might not need Elemental Precision at all, if you already have 4% or more Spell Hit from your gear, as fighting enemies at your level or lower requires very little Spell Hit. In that case, feel free to finish maximizing Unrelenting Storm, Elemental Warding or any other talent of your choice.

• Level 50 — 1 point in Totem of Wrath
• Levels 51 to 55 — 5 points in Tidal Focus
• Levels 56 & 57 — 2 points in Improved Reincarnation
• Levels 58 & 59 — 2 points in Totemic Focus

Totem of Wrath is an incredible group buff and well-worth picking up before heading into the Restoration tree. Start by putting points into Tidal Focus, Improved Reincarnation and Totemic Mastery to improve your Mana costs and ability to recover from untimely deaths.

• Level 60 — 1 point in Totemic Focus
• Level 61 — 1 point in Totemic Mastery
• Levels 62 to 64 — 3 points in Nature's Guidance
• Level 65 — 1 point in Totemic Focus
• Levels 66 to 70 — 5 points in Tidal Mastery

Get Nature's Guidance to make your life easier against high-level enemies, Totemic Mastery and Totemic Focus for the extra totem support, and finish your talent build with the solid damage increase of Tidal Mastery.

Good usage of Earthbind Totem can help you avoid a lot of damage. Place it between yourself and your enemies to slow them and give yourself extra Lightning Bolt casts before taking any damage.

1. Make sure Rockbiter Weapon is active on you at all times, to maximize your potential damage output whenever an enemy makes it to your melee range.
2. Make sure both Rockbiter Weapon and Lightning Shield are active on you at all times to maximize your potential damage output whenever an enemy makes it to your melee range.
3. Make sure both Windfury Weapon and Lightning Shield are active on you at all times to maximize your potential damage output whenever an enemy makes it to your melee range.
4. Make sure both Windfury Weapon and Water Shield are active on you at all times as these buffs will come in handy whenever an enemy makes it into melee range — especially the Mana return of Water Shield.
5. Stoneclaw Totem is vastly improved in TBC, and will frequently stun enemies who attack it. As you have almost no area of effect damage, the best strategy when you need to fight multiple enemies at once is dropping this totem and finishing them off one by one while the ones you are not attacking are busy being stunned by your totem.
6. Drop Strength of Earth Totem and Searing Totem as your main totems when grinding in a small space for a prolonged amount of time, in dungeons, or when facing hard enemies.
7. Drop Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem, and Searing Totem as your main totems when grinding in a small space for a prolonged amount of time, in dungeons, or when facing hard enemies.
8. Drop Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem, and Searing Totem as your main totems when facing difficult enemies or grinding in a small space, but also Windfury Totem if you are grouping up with Warriors or Rogues.
9. Drop Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem, and Totem of Wrath as your main totems when facing difficult enemies or grinding in a small space. Remember to use Windfury Totem or Grace of Air Totem when in a party with physical damage dealers.
10. Drop Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem, Totem of Wrath, and Wrath of Air Totem as your main totems when facing difficult enemies or grinding in a small space. Consider using Windfury Totem instead of Wrath of Air if you are grouping up with Warriors or Rogues.
11. Elemental Mastery causes your next damage spell to deal a guaranteed critical strike and be free. Use it on Chain Lightning whenever possible.
12. Use Chain Lightning on cooldown when facing multiple enemies simultaneously or when Elemental Focus is active.
13. Use Lightning Bolt to kill single enemies, as it is your most Mana-efficient damage spell.
14. Use Lightning Bolt to initiate combat. Keep casting it until the enemy is close enough that you will not have time to cast another one before you get hit in melee range.
15. Auto-attack the enemy until he dies. The idle time you get here will allow you to regenerate some Mana, as you will not be casting any more spells until you are pulling the next enemy.

Buying everything is, essentially, the way to go, as spell costs are quite low and all of them have uses, even if small ones.

If you are doing a completely new character and want to save as much gold as you can for your first mount at Level 30, you can opt to buy only the recommended skills for the rotation in the section above.

By setting yourself up with an upgraded user interface and macros from the get-go, you will make your leveling process much easier. Check out our Elemental Shaman Macros and Addons guides in the links below for the full list.

When leveling, stay alert for weapon upgrades you might encounter, as these will improve your experience significantly. You will also need to complete various class quests in order to be able to use your totems, with unique questlines for Earth, Fire, Water, and Air totems.

These quests are different for Horde and Alliance Shamans, and the early quests also have differences between Horde races. To help you with both weapons and quests, we have made two dedicated guides:

Once you reach maximum level, we recommend you dive into our Elemental Shaman Guide, which covers everything you need to know about playing Elemental in the end game.

We especially recommend reading through these pages:

• Our Elemental Shaman Talent builds guide contains the PvE-oriented builds for Elemental Shamans;
• Elemental Shaman Rotation guide contains details on how to play in a variety of situations, including some advanced totem management tips;
• Browse the Elemental Shaman Stats guide to learn about your stat priority as an Elemental Shaman and how they contribute to your performance at maximum level;
• The Gear guide for Elemental Shamans contains the best gear pieces to look for at Level 70 in order to maximize your damage;