WoW Classic Enhancement Shaman Leveling Guide 1-60
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Enhancement Shaman leveling guide for WoW Classic. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Shaman leveling guide. We also have an Elemental Shaman leveling guide and a Restoration Shaman leveling guide.
If you were looking for TBC Classic advice, please refer to our TBC Classic Enhancement Shaman leveling guide.
Enhancement Shaman Leveling Talents, Rotation, and Trainer Skills
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Talent Tree
Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.
- Levels 10 to 14 — 5 points in Shield Specialization
- Levels 15 to 19 — 5 points in Thundering Strikes
Shield Specialization is great early on, as you are likely to be using a 1H + Shield setup until you get Two-Handed Axes and Maces. It is also the best talent for tanking in dungeons, which you can do very well with Rockbiter Weapon's extra threat, or when dealing with elites / high level enemies. Thundering Strikes is a good damage increase and is required for Flurry later on.
- Level 20 — 1 point in Two-Handed Axes and Maces
- Levels 21 to 23 — 3 points in Improved Lightning Shield
- Level 24 — 1 point in Anticipation
- Levels 25 to 29 — 5 points in Flurry
Two-Handed Axes and Maces allows to use important leveling weapons such as Ravager from Scarlet Monastery: Armory. Improved Lightning Shield is a decent damage increase, Anticipation is preferable to Improved Ghost Wolf because it will reduce your damage taken during combat, thus gaining you more time in the long run than casting Ghost Wolf one second faster. Finally, Flurry is a great damage increase with synergy with Thundering Strikes.
- Level 30 — 1 point in Parry
- Levels 31 to 33 — 3 points in Elemental Weapons
- Level 34 — 1 point in Anticipation
- Levels 35 to 39 — 5 points in Weapon Mastery
Parry is an amazing survivability increase, as it will give you almost 5% parry with a single talent, and parry is a superior stat to dodge because it makes your next-auto attack faster when it happens. Elemental Weapons is a good damage increase, the second point into Anticipation improves your survivability further and maximizing Weapon Mastery provides a great damage increase with your melee attacks.
- Level 40 — 1 point in Stormstrike
- Levels 41 to 45 — 5 point in Improved Healing Wave
- Levels 46 & 47 — 2 points in Improved Reincarnation
- Levels 48 & 49 — 2 points in Totemic Focus
Stormstrike will be your main attack from here on and a nice damage increase, although it has a long 20 second cooldown. Improved Healing Wave allows you to heal faster with your efficient Healing Wave when needed, Improved Reincarnation provides a better cushion from Reincarnation for when things go terribly wrong. Finally, get two points into Totemic Focus to increase your Mana efficiency.
- Level 50 — 1 point in Totemic Focus
- Levels 51 to 53 — 3 point in Nature's Guidance
- Levels 54 & 55 — 2 points in Enhancing Totems
- Levels 56 to 58 — 3 point in Anticipation
- Levels 59 & 60 — 2 points in Improved Weapon Totems
Get one more point into Totemic Focus and proceed to the main reason why we went down the Restoration tree, Nature's Guidance. This talent is a great damage increase as it provides hit for both melee and spell attacks. Maximize Enhancing Totems, as the extra stats from Strength of Earth Totem and Grace of Air Totem will come in handy against tough mobs and while farming dungeons for end game gear. Three points into Anticipation will further improve your toughness while dungeon tanking and out in the world. Finally, get Improved Weapon Totems to make yourself the ultimate melee Shaman support just in time for a raid invite!
Your talents should roughly look like this, but keep in mind there are plenty of individual points that can be swapped around based on preference. For example, Enhancing Totems and Improved Weapon Totems will be great if you are leveling in a group, and if you never, ever intend on using a shield, you should get Ancestral Knowledge instead of Shield Specialization.
Leveling Rotation
Earthbind Totem kiting can help you avoid a lot of damage. Simply drop Earthbind Totem next to an enemy to slow it, then run out of melee range until your swing timer is ready again. Once this happens, return to melee range, hit the mob and run out of melee range again. Rinse and repeat until the enemy is dead.
Windfury Weapon is a strong weapon enchant that can allow you to one shot an enemy out of nowhere, but is generally outclassed by Rockbiter Weapon during leveling, which does more overall damage and also has less potential to waste damage when an enemy is low health.
- Make sure to always heal yourself with Healing Wave if you are low health after a pull, this will allow you to quickly get back to action with minimal downtime, as you will be able to regenerate that Mana until you next need to heal again.
- Make sure Rockbiter Weapon is active on you at all times, to maximize your potential damage output.
- Make sure both Rockbiter Weapon and Lightning Shield are active on you at all times, to maximize your potential damage output. Refresh Lightning Shield when engaging enemies or immediately after shocking, in order to mess as little as possible with your 5-second rule Mana regeneration.
- 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.
- 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.
- Drop Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem and Searing Totem as your main totems (also Windfury Totem when playing with Warriors or Rogues), when grinding in a small space for a prolonged amount of time, in dungeons, or when facing hard enemies.
- Drop Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem , Searing Totem and Grace of Air Totem ( Windfury Totem when playing with Warriors or Rogues) as your main totems, when grinding in a small space for a prolonged amount of time, in dungeons or when facing hard enemies.
- Use Lightning Bolt (rank 1 if Mana is an issue) to initiate combat against mobs placed in dangerous places to body pull.
- Use Stormstrike whenever possible, for its damage and to increase the damage of your next two Earth Shocks.
- Use Earth Shock whenever possible for extra damage.
- Auto-attack the enemy until he dies. This idle time will allow you to regenerate some Mana, as you will not be casting any more spells until you are pulling the next enemy.
List of Trainer Skills to Buy
Windfury Totem and Ancestral Spirit should always be bought if you will ever be playing in a group at all. We do not list them down below because, if you are a pure solo player, you will be able to easily do without them and get your level 40 mount and Runecloth Bags a little bit earlier.
- At Level 1, as soon as you have the copper, buy Rockbiter Weapon. It provides a significant damage boost that lasts for 5 minutes. Also, buy Healing Wave, allowing you to heal, when needed.
- At Level 4, buy Earth Shock. Earth Shock is an instant, high damage spell that also interrupts any casts the target was doing when it hits. You will be using it to interrupt enemies and activate Elemental Focus / Elemental Devastation in the process throughout all of the leveling process.
- At Level 6, buy Earthbind Totem and Rank 2 Healing Wave. Earthbind Totem slows enemies around itself, enabling kiting strategies.
- At Level 8, buy Lightning Shield, Rank 2 Lightning Bolt, Rank 2 Earth Shock and Rank 2 Rockbiter Weapon. Lightning Shield is a Mana-efficient way to damage enemies you are in melee combat with, and should always be kept up on yourself.
- At Level 10, buy Strength of Earth Totem and Searing Totem. Strength of Earth Totem increases your strength, and thus your damage. Searing Totem deals damage to enemies by itself.
- At Level 12, buy Rank 3 Healing Wave.
- At Level 14, buy Rank 3 Lightning Bolt and Rank 3 Earth Shock.
- At Level 16, buy Rank 2 Lightning Shield and Rank 3 Rockbiter Weapon.
- At Level 18, buy Rank 4 Healing Wave.
- At Level 20, buy Ghost Wolf, Rank 2 Searing Totem, Healing Stream Totem and Rank 4 Lightning Bolt. Ghost Wolf allows you to transform into a Wolf while outdoors which moves much faster than your normal run speed. Use it to speed up your leveling, especially before a mount is available. Healing Stream Totem will provide some steady healing when you are at the same place for a while.
- At Level 24, buy Rank 3 Lightning Shield, Rank 4 Rockbiter Weapon, Rank 5 Healing Wave, Rank 2 Strength of Earth Totem and Rank 4 Earth Shock.
- At Level 26, buy Rank 5 Lightning Bolt.
- At Level 30, buy Reincarnation, Rank 3 Searing Totem, Rank 2 Healing Stream Totem and Astral Recall. Reincarnation allows you to recover instantly from dying, saving time in the process. Finally, Astral Recall allows you to get a second Hearthstone, but with half the cooldown, allowing for a lot of extra mobility.
- At Level 32, buy Rank 4 Lightning Shield, Rank 6 Healing Wave and Rank 6 Lightning Bolt.
- At Level 36, buy Rank 5 Earth Shock.
- At Level 38, buy Rank 7 Lightning Bolt and Rank 3 Strength of Earth Totem.
- At Level 40, buy Rank 5 Lightning Shield, Rank 4 Searing Totem, Rank 3 Healing Stream Totem and Rank 7 Healing Wave.
- At Level 42, buy Grace of Air Totem. Grace of Air Totem increases your agility, and thus your damage. Use it when in a group or facing dangerous enemies.
- At Level 44, buy Rank 8 Lightning Bolt.
- At Level 48, buy Rank 6 Lightning Shield, Rank 8 Healing Wave and Rank 6 Earth Shock.
- At Level 50, buy Rank 9 Lightning Bolt, Rank 4 Healing Stream Totem and Rank 5 Searing Totem.
- At Level 52, buy Rank 4 Strength of Earth Totem.
- At Level 56, buy Rank 7 Lightning Shield, Rank 9 Healing Wave, Rank 2 Grace of Air Totem and Rank 10 Lightning Bolt.
- At Level 60, buy Rank 7 Earth Shock, Rank 5 Healing Stream Totem and Rank 6 Searing Totem.
Shaman Macros and Addons
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 Enhancement Shaman Macros and Addons guide in the link below for the full list.
Enhancement Shaman Quests and Weapons
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, Windfury Totem. To help you with both of those pursuits, we have made two dedicated guides.
Playing an Enhancement Shaman Beyond Level 60
Now that you are max level, we would recommend you to read our Enhancement Shaman Guide, which covers every detail of maximum level gameplay extensively.
Pay special attention to these pages, as they deal with the most pressing issues you will face at level 60:
- In our Enhancement Shaman Talent builds guide you will find multiple builds, some focused on being as offensive as possible, others focused on being as good of a support as possible, at the cost of your personal DPS;
- Inside the PvP Shaman guide, you can read on various recommended PvP builds, including an Enhancement focused one. Best of luck with your Windfury Weapon critical strikes!
- Goldmaking Guide for Enhancement Shamans has all the information you need in order to farm efficiently as an Enhancement Shaman at maximum level;
- Our Enhancement Shaman Rotation guide explains how to use your spells in order to produce maximum damage, and most importantly, how to be the best support you can be to your group at the same time, including some advanced tips on totem twisting;
- Check the Enhancement Shaman Stats guide if you require more information on Enhancement Shaman's stat priority and the reasoning behind each stat's power;
- Last but not least, our Gear guide for Enhancement Shamans has all the gear pieces you should look for, some for damage, others for better support ability, and where you can find them at.
Changelog
- 18 Nov. 2024: Page updated for Classic Anniversary.
- 28 Feb. 2021: Changed the slider starting point to maximum level.
- 25 Apr. 2020: Fixed a typo with Lightning Bolt Rank 10 being recommended to buy at the wrong level.
- 05 Jan. 2020: Added a Macros and Addons section.
- 23 Sep. 2019: Added a final section with useful links for players who just hit 60.
- 14 Sep. 2019: Guide added.
Classic Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides
Classic Race Guides
Classic Class Overviews
This guide has been written by Seksi, original vanilla player and multi-class player, currently playing on Gehennas Horde. You can find him on the Classic Warrior, Mage and Shaman Discords, as well as the Icy Veins Discord.
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