In WoW, there are a few hybrid classes and the Shaman class is one of those. For quite a while Shamans as a class were available only to the Horde while Alliance had Paladins in exchange. With the BC expansion this changed and finally the Alliance players were able to create and level up a Shaman with the new born race - the Draenei.

Shamans resemble Druids in few things such as in their ability to change spec from healing to dps caster and to melee dps as well. Their talent tree has tree branches a player can choose from – Elemental, Enhancement and Restoration. If you would like to build up a typical caster dps then the Elemental build is ideal for you. However, to achieve the best damage output you should equip gear that is rich in sp (spell power), hit rating, crit rating as well as with haste rating. Click here to watch the video: Shaman Leveling Guide

If your choice falls on a melee dps, than the right talent tree for you would definitely be the Enhancement tree. The Enhancement build will also require you to have adequate gear that has a lot of Agility, hit, crit and haste. An Enhancement Shaman will possess the ability to call upon two allies – the ghost wolves to fight by his side. This spell is very useful, especially in PvP.

The Restoration talent build belongs to the healers. He has single target heals and also his chain heal is a very useful spell since it will heal a few targets with the lowest hp. Resto Shaman also has his Earth shield, which he can put on himself or any other friendly target in order to protect them from damage. Shaman healers need a lot of mana regeneration – mp5 on their gear as well as the spell power.

A Shaman wears mail armor even though he can also equip pieces of gear made from cloth and leather. He will have wear leather as the strongest armor on lower levels, however, when he reaches a certain level he will be able to equip mail as well. Mail armor is always better for a Shaman since it’s stronger and has better stats. Similar to Hunter’s armor sets, mail armor sets made for Shamans have a lot of useful stats like intellect, which is important for a Shaman since he is a mana user. For more information on WoW class guides, read our review: Warcraft Pros Review

For easy leveling a Shaman it is suggested to put your talents in the Enhancement branch. An Enha Shammy is not a typical mana consumer so saving time on drinking to fill up your mana pool will be a time saver. Do not forget to put some points in a special ability - the ghost wolf form since it will enable you to turn into your ghost wolf instantly!.

The popularity of Shamans among other classes comes from their skills and ability of summoning different kinds of useful totems. There are four groups of totems divided into elements – Air totems, Fire totems, Water totems and Earth totems. Depending on the build a Shaman chooses their totems will give more benefit to the party members. However, as he can only use one totem from a certain element, he will be able to have a total of 4 totems active at the same time.

Overall the Shaman class is a great versatile class to play because you can easily switch between healing and damage dealing. With many options to choose from when it comes to Shamans, rest assured you will fall in love with this class and never get bored.

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