Classic Elemental Shaman DPS Guide

Shaman is arguably the best support class in WoW Classic. With their powerful and flexible totems, such as Windfury Totem, Tremor Totem and Poison Cleansing Totem, they keep their allies safe and increase their damage potential significantly.

While only Horde players can be Shamans, every group will benefit immensely from having at least one, and due to totems only being able to affect one group at a time, a 40 man raid will want to have at least 8 Shamans to have totems in every group.

This guide will be covering Elemental Shamans, one of the flashiest ranged damage dealers in WoW Classic and, arguably, the most powerful role a Shaman can assume in PvP due to its great burst damage while keeping good healing capabilities.

Find our new guides for Shaman in WoW Classic Season of Discovery below! The new game mode will have players find and utilize Runes that can then be engraved onto their gear to provide them special bonuses that augment already existing abilities or allow the class to use entirely new spells.

With the introduction of new Runes in Season of Discovery, not only will old builds be increased in power, but Shaman now has the option of being played as a Tank.

Strengths

• The highest ranged burst damage potential in the game with Elemental Mastery or Nature's Swiftness combined with Lightning Bolt into Chain Lightning into Earth Shock.
• Ability to swap to healing at any moment as some of the most powerful Restoration talents are on the top of the tree.
• Totems for every type of situation, including Windfury Totem, one of the greatest DPS increases a group can have in WoW Classic.
• Great support tools even outside of totems, such as Earth Shock and Purge, which contribute to the high skill cap of the class.

Weaknesses

• Weak sustained damage-dealing potential due to running out of Mana very fast, which forces the usage of lower ranked damage spells in long fights.
• Squishy and has no real escapes once focused.

Unlike other classes, Shamans can only be played in the Horde faction, so plan accordingly and search for a Horde guild if you want to roll one.

Troll is the best race for PvE, while Orc is the best race for PvP. Tauren is slightly behind, but has its own perks, which you can read about below.

• Beast Slaying gives a 5% damage bonus against Beasts.
• Berserking is a 3-minute cooldown that gives you between 10-30% increased attack and casting speed depending on your health, with the effect being greater the more hurt you are.
• Bow Specialization increases your skill with Bows by 5, which increases your chance to hit with a bow.
• Regeneration gives +10% passive health regeneration and allows you to regenerate 10% of your total health regeneration during combat.

Trolls are the best choice if your goal is to maximize your PvE throughput, due to Berserking, which makes your casts much faster every time it is up. Unfortunately, none of the other bonuses is very impactful, and Orc has some really good PvP bonuses, so pick Troll if you want to focus on PvE!

• Axe Specialization increases your skill with axes by 5, which increases your chance to land a blow on a target with axes.
• Blood Fury is a 2-minute cooldown that increases your base melee attack power by 25% for 15 seconds and reduces healing effects on you by 50% for 25 seconds.
• Command increases your pet damage by 5%.
• Hardiness increases your chance to resist stuns by 25%.

Orc is the go-to PvP race choice for Shaman, due to Hardiness, which allows you to often ignore stun effects. This is a deal-breaker effect, especially against Rogues. While Axe Specialization and Blood Fury are good bonuses to have as a melee DPS, they are not of much importance to Elemental Shamans.

• Cultivation increases your Herbalism skill by 15.
• Endurance increases your total health by 5%.
• Nature Resistance increases your Nature Resistance by 10.
• War Stomp is a 2-minute cooldown that stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds, with a 0.5 second cast time.
• Due to their large sizes, Tauren have a larger hitbox than other races, which allows you to hit, and be hit from further afar. This can be great when trying to chase a target or problematic when trying to flee from melee enemies.

War Stomp can be a great ability for PvP, allowing you to get Lesser Healing Wave off in an emergency, and the 5% increased health from Endurance is nice, but Tauren does not give any throughput increase, which makes it an all-rounder choice if you dislike the other races.

Shamans of the Elemental path will require Engineering in order to be competitive in the end game. It is generally a good idea to pair it with Mining in order to harvest the ores and stones needed to make your explosive consumables.

Alternatively, you can pair Alchemy with Herbalism, allowing you to create your own liquid consumables and maybe find a Black Lotus here and there!

For information on these and the other professions, browse our profession guides, which have all the nitty-gritty details.