Season of Discovery Enhancement Shaman Tank Guide

Shamans are typically brought to groups for their high utility and totem related buffs, such as Strength of Earth Totem, Windfury Totem, and Tremor Totem.

Enhancement in particular has always been the melee-focused specialization for Shamans, and while doing DPS is usually in order, Season of Discovery finally introduces the ability for Shamans to properly tank!

Strengths

• High area threat generation potential with Molten Blast and Fire Nova
• Strong utility from totem buffs such as Windfury Totem and Strength of Earth Totem
• Best rune flexibility out of all tank classes due to only requiring Way of Earth for tanking

Weaknesses

• Mobility issues in PvP and very susceptible to crowd control and being kited around
• Totems need to be constantly monitored and considered, especially if you are moving around
• Mana dependent and requires multiple targets for Shield Mastery to help with sustain

Shaman tanks offer some of the strongest snap/cleave threat of any spec available in Season of Discovery with Way of Earth increasing threat generation and survivability massively on its own, and Molten Blast providing a huge area threat generator. Water Shield is also a good alternative for Mana sustain.

Shield Mastery helps with survivability, especially against multiple targets, where it also shines in its Mana sustain component. A great alternative is Dual Wield Specialization, where you drop the shield in favor of additional threat from a second weapon and a ton of free Hit and Spell Hit.

Fire Nova, Maelstrom Weapon, and Power Surge all have their use cases in the waist slot, as do Spirit of the Alpha and Decoy Totem in the feet slot.

As a new spec with entirely new abilities and runes, the rotation, gearing options, and talent decisions recommended for Shaman tanks can be found in the guides in the Table of Content at the top of this page. Within these, you will find all the information you will need to master this new game mode!

The best profession to have as a Shaman tank is Engineering. It provides powerful items that you can use in both PvE and PvP content to either deal damage and generate threat, or help you get out of a tough spot.

Leatherworking is also a great choice for Enhancement Shaman due to special bind on pickup crafts such as Glowing Gneuro-Linked Cowl and Cacophonous Chain Shoulderguards, with further BoP crafts expected down the line.

The main feature of Season of Discovery is the new Rune Discovery system, which allows you to discover and attach special abilities to your gear slots after finding them across the world. We list all of Shaman's runes and where they can be located in the guide below.