Shaman Guide for Midnight - Patch 12.0.1

Shaman Guide for Midnight Quick Summary:

• Shamans are a multi-tool. They do great Burst damage and Healing. Their specs are fun to learn and master, but all of them also have poor defense.
• The best races for Shamans are Trolls, Dwarves, and Tauren.
• Elemental and Restoration Shamans must max out their Intellect, while Enhancement should focus on Agility. The most important secondary stats are Mastery, Haste, Crit, and Versatility.
• Best profs for Shamans are Leatherworking, Alchemy, and Enchanting.

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Shaman Changes in Midnight

Shaman underwent a ton of changes. If you read any other guides, you know that I usually provide a list of all changes, briefly describing what each talent and ability does, but for Shaman, I gotta say that if I’d do this, it’d be as long as a separate article. What I’ll do instead is make a table with the list of newly added, changed, and removed abilities. I’ll add links from Wowhead so you can hover over each spell and see what it does or did. Okay, now that we cleared that up, take a look at all Shaman changes in Midnight:

Specialization	Added	Changed	Removed
Elemental	Call of Fire, Purging Flames, Voltaic Blaze	—	Deeply Rooted Elements, Echo of the Elementals, Erupting Lava, Liquid Magma Totem, Magma Chamber, Primordial Wave, Stone Bulwark Totem, Surge of Power
Enhancement	Descending Skies, Elemental Attunement, Elemental Tempo, Instinctive Imbuements, Lightning Strikes, Natural Gift, Overcharge, Primal Catalyst, Reactive Warding, Ride the Lightning, Spiritual Awakening, Stormwell, Therazane's Resilience, Thunder Capacitor, Totemic Momentum	Ascendance, Ashen Catalyst, Awakening Storms, Chaining Storms, Crash Lightning, Doom Winds, Earth Elemental, Feral Spirit, Fire Nova, Hot Hand, Maelstrom Weapon, Mastery: Enhanced Elements, Primordial Bond, Raging Maelstrom, Rolling Thunder, Sundering, Surging Totem, Tempest, Thorim's Invocation, Voltaic Blaze	Elemental Blast, Flowing Spirits, Guardian's Cudgel, Hailstorm, Ice Strike, Legacy of the Frost Witch, Lightning Lasso, Molten Thunder, Primordial Wave, Stone Bulwark Totem, Tempest Strikes, Thundershock, Thunderstorm, Totemic Recall, Witch Doctor's Ancestry
Restoration	Ancestral Influence, Elemental Attunement, Instinctive Imbuements, Mystic Knowledge, Primal Catalyst, Stormstream Totem (Apex), Stormstream Totem (Apex), Stormstream Totem (Apex), Totemic Momentum, Windspeaker	—	Ancestral Protection Totem, Earthen Wall Totem, Healing Surge, High Tide, Mana Tide, Master of the Elements, Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem, Stone Bulwark Totem, Thunderstorm, Tidebringer, Totemic Recall, Undulation, Wellspring

These are all the important changes for all Shaman specs. Like every other class, it received a lot of changes, which were met with lukewarm response from the community. Some people say that Restoration Shaman became really bland and boring with lots of their buttons removed. Were the changes really for the worse? let’s see.

Shaman Pros & Cons

Shaman is a really strong class in Midnight, and I’m certain that despite all the tuning trying to make him less viable, it won’t happen. Shaman has three specs with various skill levels and, let’s be honest, engagement in playing it. You’ll see what I mean further. Let’s take a look at the pros & cons this class has.

Pros:

• Three specs with three unique playstyles.
• Shaman has a tool for every case and can do whatever you need.
• Visually pleasing.
• Elemental Shaman is easy to learn and hard to master. It’s very satisfying to play this spec.
• Enhancement Shaman is very mobile and has lots of strong AoE.
• Restoration Shaman is very easy with great Totem utilities.

Cons:

• Famous for having weak defense in all specs.
• Elemental Shamans have pretty poor mobility, which, combined with bad defense, makes them really squishy.
• Enhancement Shamans are super hard to learn and require extensive knowledge of encounters to work well.
• Restoration Shaman is a braindead spec that makes you basically a healbot, and if you don’t enjoy overly simple classes, it will bore you out of your mind.

Overall, I’d say Shaman’s cons aren’t that significant to make it a turnoff. I really love playing Elemental Shamans, as you may have noticed, so I might be biased, but I highly recommend trying it sometime. It’s my favorite spec in the game, but I promise I will not yap about it more than about other specs.

How to Play Shaman in Midnight

Shaman’s gameplay for each spec stands on three pillars that I’d say are true for all classes. These are so-called fundamentals that you need to learn to apply. There are some points unique to the specs, but overall, the rules for how to play Shaman in Midnight are simple:

1. ABC: It’s easy as 123. Always Be Casting. Or, well, always keep your abilities on cooldown if you’re not a caster, but this doesn’t sound as nice. Avoid wasting resources and time to miss out on valuable DPS or healing.
2. As Enhancement and Elemental Shamans, use your Maelstrom. It’s sort of an additional resource that you need to keep in mind as well, as some of your damaging abilities benefit from it.
3. Same for Enhancement and Elemental: Track your procs. These specs aren’t rotation-based and allow you to react to the procs immediately. For Enhancement, those are procs from its Apex talent.
4. Though Restoration Shaman is really simple, there’s still a possibility of failing hard. Always search for low-health allies and react to them. Resto is a good way to learn the basics of healer specs, and the understanding of general principles transfers really well.

Following these simple points will make you better than the majority of WoW’s players. The tips I provided here are equally important for raids and M+. Learning how to use your abilities properly takes some time, and the worst thing you can do is start playing on autopilot. Elemental Shaman, for instance, constantly demands you to track the situation and act accordingly. You can’t just pick a strategy or rotation and mindlessly follow it, and this rule applies to all Shamans.

WoW Midnight Best Shaman Races

Shaman is one of the few classes that have direct benefits from certain races. As Midnight shifted the focus from professions and races being important factors in your character's development, nowadays, there’s mostly no value in picking certain races over others. Here, we’re focusing on races that enhance your Raid performance, but if you’re looking for Mythic+ advice on race, pick Dwarf in 99.99% of the time. Dwarf’s Stoneform is just too good. Now, let’s talk about the best races for Shaman in Midnight.

• Elemental Shaman: Tauren/Dwarf. Both provide the highest DPS output for your class. They have Might of the Mountain/Brawn, which are two sides of the same coin that have exactly the same effect - increasing your Crit and Healing by 2%.
• Enhancement Shaman: The best decision for this Shaman in particular is Troll. Troll’s Berserking is an outstanding ability, increasing your Haste by 10% for 12 seconds. In my book, Troll is the only way to play any Shaman.
• Restoration: Once again, Troll works really well here, especially since it synergizes with one of your most powerful buttons, Ascendance, which is a potent burst heal. If you don’t want an active button that lasts for 12 seconds only, you can settle for Goblin with their Time is Money passive racial. 

Some recommend taking Mag’har Orc for Resto Shaman for their Ancestral Call and Blood Fury, but I don’t know about that. I think it’s a bit of an overkill, and you can do the same with consumables. The cd reduction is much more important when you’re a healer, especially for such a laid-back healing spec as Resto.

 

 

Shaman Stat Priority WoW Midnight

Out of the three specs that Shaman has, two utilize Intellect as a primary stat, while Enhancement Shaman, being a Melee DPS, uses Agility as a main stat. You always want to max your primary stat, duh. When it comes to secondary stats, the picture is a bit more interesting. Here are the best stats for each Shaman spec in Midnight:

• Elemental Shaman: Intellect > Mastery > Haste/Crit > Versatility.
• Enhancement Shaman: Agility > Mastery > Haste > Crit > Versatility.
• Restoration Shaman: Intellect > Crit > Haste/Mastery/Versatility.

I always recommend simming your character to see what stats you’re lacking. Above is a general recommendation. Though Versatility has the lowest priority in every spec, it doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Shamans have zero defense, so Versatility, with its damage reduction, is important to survive unexpected damage spikes. The same logic applies to every other secondary stat. Though there’s a slight priority of one over another, you shouldn’t focus on maxing one and instead develop them equally.

Best Shaman Builds for WoW Midnight

Below, I provide not only the build, but the rotation you should follow when playing this build. While rotation is too big a topic to cover in short, the rotations for each Shaman build will help you get the general picture of how to act. Let’s start going over each build.

Best Elemental Shaman Build

I was struggling with this part for like 10 minutes, trying to make it as short as possible, as Elemental Shaman has too many things to track and follow during the encounter. Here’s the best I can give you. You should maintain Flame Shock on the target and refresh it with Voltaic Blaze when it has about 6 seconds left. Then, you use Stormkeeper before Ascendance to empower your Lightning spells. Then activate Ascendance and cast Tempest during this window. Spend Maelstrom with Earth Shock or Elemental Blast and remember: don’t overcap. Usually, it caps at 10 if you take Raging Maelstrom. Cast Lava Burst whenever Flame Shock is active or when Lava Surge procs. Use Tempest when you can, especially with Master of the Elements. Spend Maelstrom charges on Lightning Bolt so that it doesn’t cap. When you have to fight multiple enemies, replace Lightning Bolt with Chain Lightning and spend Maelstrom on Earthquake instead.

Best Enhancement Shaman Build

When playing Enhancement, your goal is to ramp up and then keep the pace. You start with Feral Spirit and Surging Totem before your main damage cycle. Spam Primordial Waves once it comes online to spread Flame Shock and make your Lightning Bolt stronger. For cleave, use Crash Lightning and Stormstrike. Don’t forget that this spec also utilizes Maelstrom, so Lightning Bolt is your spender to not let it overcap. Your main burst, which this spec excels at, by the way, comes from Sundering, Doom Winds, and Ascendance.

Best Restoration Shaman Build

Restoration Shaman can suffer from mana loss during the raids, so it’s important to keep track of it. There are a few efficient fillers to help you with that. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Restoration doesn’t really have a rotation, more like a chaotic priority list. Spam your Riptide to create procs for Stormstream Totem. There’s a low chance that Riptide procs them, but you’ll get them eventually. You can also use Ancestral Swiftness, as it gives a proc for Stormstream with a 100% chance. Unleash Life increases your Riptide healing, but what’s more important, it increases the healing for Chain Heal and Healing Wave, which are your main fillers. Once you use Ascendance, you can safely spam Healing Wave, as it gives more mana than you spend on it. If you see that Healing Wave is not enough and you have some mana to spare, cast Chain Heal as it’s much stronger, but it costs 15% of your current mana, so this is something to keep in mind.

 

 

Shaman Best In Slot Gear in WoW Midnight

With Raids finally being here, I can present you with the list of BiS gear for Shaman in Midnight. Shaman is one of the classes that has to have three different sets of gear for each of the specs. You can’t just respec and keep the same gear depending on what’s currently needed in Raid, unlike, say, Priest. With all that said, here’s Best in Slot gear for Shaman in Midnight:

Slot	Elemental	Enhancement	Restoration	Source
Weapon / Main Hand	Excavating Cudgel	Clutchmates' Caress	Ceremonial Hexblade	Windrunner Spire / Vaelgor & Ezzorak / Maisara Caverns
Off Hand / Shield	Ward of the Spellbreaker	Farstrider's Chopper	Thalassian Dawnguard	Magister's Terrace / Blacksmithing / Belo'ren (Raid)
Head / Helm	Locus of the Primal Core	Locus of the Primal Core	Oblivion Guise	Raid/Vault/Catalyst / Midnight Falls (Raid)
Neck	Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn	Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn	Pendant of Aching Grief	Midnight Falls/Windrunner Spire
Shoulders	Tempests of the Primal Core	Tempests of the Primal Core	Tempests of the Primal Core	Raid/Vault/Catalyst
Cloak / Cape	Guardian of the Primal Core	Draconic Nullcape	Soulhunter's Mask	Catalyst / Vaelgor & Ezzorak / Maisara Caverns
Chest	Embrace of the Primal Core	Embrace of the Primal Core	Embrace of the Primal Core	Raid/Vault/Catalyst
Wrist / Bracers	Fallen King's Cuffs	Fallen King's Cuffs	Cuffs of the Primal Core	Fallen-King Salhadaar / Salhadaar / Catalyst
Gloves	Earthgrips of the Primal Core	Earthgrips of the Primal Core	Earthgrips of the Primal Core	Raid/Vault/Catalyst
Belt	World Tender's Barkclasp	Ceinture of the Primal Core	Azure Belt of Competition	Crafting / Catalyst / Algeth'ar Academy
Legs	Greaves of the Divine Guile	Eternal Flame Scaleguards	Leggings of the Primal Core	Nexus Point Xenas / Belo'ren / Raid/Vault/Catalyst
Boots	World Tender's Rootslippers	Whipcoil Sabatons	Sollerets of the Primal Core	Crafting / Windrunner Spire / Catalyst
Ring 1	Platinum Star Band	Eye of Midnight	Signet of the Starved Beast	Algeth'ar Academy / Midnight Falls / Vorasius
Ring 2	Sin'dorei Band of Hope	Loa Worshiper's Band	Platinum Star Band	Belo'ren / Jewelcrafting / Algeth'ar Academy
Trinket 1	Gaze of the Alnseer	Gaze of the Alnseer	Gaze of the Alnseer	Chimaerus
Trinket 2	Emberwing Feather	Algeth'ar Puzzle Box	Locus-Walker's Ribbon	Windrunner Spire / Algeth'ar Academy / Crown of the Cosmos

As you could’ve noticed, every BiS list includes Gaze of the Alnseer as the best trinket. It grants a crazy main stat boost that increases your damage or healing by a lot. It’s a huge powerspike once you get it.

Best Shaman Professions

In Midnight, professions don’t really matter this much. You can pick whatever you want on your Shaman. The all-rounder good professions are usually Alchemy and Enchanting. With Alchemy, you can create your own consumables, and with Enchanting, you can make your gear better. Specifically for Shaman, I can also recommend Leatherworking due to the type of armor this class wears. It allows you to craft powerful alternatives for BiS gear.

Best Consumables for Shaman

Elemental and Enhancement Shamans value the same consumables, as both are DPS classes, even though one of them is Agility-based and the other is Intellect-based. The situation is different for Restoration Shaman, as you will see below. Check out the best consumables that Shamans use in WoW:

• Elemental and Enhancement Shaman: Flask of the Magisters, Light’s Potential, Void-Touched Augment Rune.
• Restoration Shaman: Flask of the Shattered Sun, Lightfused Mana Potion, Potion of Recklessness, Silvermoon Health Potion, Silvermoon Parade.

I didn’t list a few important consumables on Elemental and Enhancement Shaman. For Elemental Shaman, you need to bring Blooming Feast and Thalassian Phoenix Oil with you. For Enhancement Shaman, Silvermoon Parade is the best food choice.

Consumables are basically long-lasting buffs (for the most part), and they can be quite expensive to buy. I’d suggest you learn Alchemy to not go broke.

Read our other Midnight guides:

• Leveling Guide
• Gearing Guide
• Mythic+ Guide
• Best Professions

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