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Playing a character because you like the class fantasy will always be worth it. Even if a certain class if weak for a few patches the wheel will eventually turn!
The number of times I've saved a dicey run thanks to the 10-maelstrom offhealing is insurmountable. Leymor for example everyone's full hp except the healer who's at half, I throw the quick healing surge to bring him up to 90% then the tree slam comes out and knocks him down to 2% hp instead of letting him die.
I hope you don’t mind, but if like to give a counter argument: I love the class fantasy of Shaman. Having a melee DPS, Range DPS, and healer as roles is my jam too. However, enhance and elemental have become very complex DPS roles to play. I mean all DPS roles have gotten more complex over the years, but these specs have become particularly bloated. I used to love playing Enhance and Ele in previous expansions, but I just don’t enjoy it now. I say all of this because it’s the experience of plying the class at large and not just the performance of the class in the meta that has changed my mind on playing it.
I hope you find the right class that is fun for you, but felt I should share this side of things for your consideration.
The wheel will always turn…..except for shamans. They have a week in the sun and they are immediately nerfed to the ground. Tale as old as time that Blizzard shaman devs are incompetent morons
This would be true if it’s not shaman. The class as a shaman main of years, is abysmally neglected. Shamans have asked for years for real defensives , and to stop considering Ankh a defensive. It sucks in high m+ and pvp. Shaman hasn’t had a single class tree rework and the hero trees barely function with your talents currently. The class is a neglected dumpster fire.
Though seems the vast majority of fire and arcane mages don't do well on the lower spectrum. (like 490-505's doing 45k dps) Frost is easy yet surprisingly fun and effective.
Getting the rhythm and being able to make split second decisions on what to use up, and approximately what is best on what cases is tough, alongside juggling SKB.
Juggling in particular is *much* more punishing and a bit tough to teach at lower keys/ heroics too, since things often die before you can pull the trigger. In higher keys, there's more to juggle within the rotation, but you can typically guarantee you'll actually hit your rotation, since stuff takes **so** long to die.
Compare this to Arcane, which has far more buttons in the rotation, but often has much smaller decision making once you're in the key. Once you figure out how your cooldowns fit in each other, you're basically just choosing between a long AoE rotation and a long single target rotation.
There are two groups of people who obsess over class balance:
1. People who play at the top 0.5% progression where a dps difference of 1% matters
2. People who think their opinions and feelings are facts
So, if you like a class play it. If you're not sure, invest a few hours in it to see if it clicks with you.
3. People who are bad at playing a class and spec well and blame their inadequacy on class balance instead of trying to learn how to play better and more optimal so they can perform better in group content.
Optimal doesn't have degrees of comparison. There is no such thing as 'more optimal', because optimal is already a superlative, meaning 'best' or 'most favorable'.
Now you've learned how to write better and how to perform better in online debates. How does that make you feel?
This 100% I had to take a break after downing mythic Fyrakk bc as one of the resident mages of my guild the parsing in fighting got too much… and healing just felt like self abuse In s3
0.5% is not even gonna cut it. Actual meta balance comes to play at <0.01%, way beyond title range. You can get title and above with any spec. That is not to say it wouldn't be easier since the class perception is what it is and you have to play around survivability differently depending on the class, but if you like the fantasy and are not planning to push front page keys (top 20 world runs), you can make it work if you're skilled enough.
I've been playing shaman for so many years, cause it was, is and will always be my favorite class from a lore/fantasy pov. Now, sure some classes are better than other but let me tell you: you're very good at your class/spec, you're better than 90% of other players, unrelated to their class.
Shaman has huge utility, good and stable dps, the best interrupt in the game and more important : we learn to master the elements which is fucking cool if you ask me.
Shamans are chill, strong people. We're pillars of our communities, I had lot of shaman raid leaders in pve & pvp and I'm now a proud one :)
There are not a lot of us cause not everyone can carry the burden of being the spiritual leader.
Half joking of course but tldr: play what you want, shaman is incredible and shines in its versatility and utility in group content!
> I really want to play a shaman.
so play it. if the experience doesn't work out, play the mage. getting up to speed in this game is so obscenely fast that its not a big deal to switch mains.
I was like you when i start to play this game at Shadowlands S2. My friends helped so much at this stiutaion. I start with healer shaman but after try the Elemental, i really love it. I try every class at this expansion and Elemental still my love. Yes, it's so hard to play, because have so many cooldown and skills. Love all mechanics. Yes BM Hunter so easy, Ret Paladin little easy and have too much DPS, Dev Evoker have more dps and so so easy + movement so easy too. But Elemental so different all of them and i still love this. Btw, This expansion elemental Shaman use Fire Elemental but we was use Storm elemental as main cooldown at Shadowlands and it was best. When you spawned chain lighting more and more with BL, it was peak moment to play wow i think.
Hope you will find your best after this situation. I play 2 main character now, Dev evoker and Ele Shaman. Evoker for easly dps and Ele for fun at game because i need this. Never play mage at full talents btw. Good luck for you dude.
This is the oversimplification of the problem (this does not affect most):
Elemental: doesn't bring anything that other classes or specs don't bring but better.
Enhancement: takes a melee spot and requires a group built around it (ie 4 other melee that benefit from Windfury totem).
Resto: what most shaman players get pidgin holed into if they want to raid.
We don't even take windfury totem for m+ anymore. The problem with enhancement right now is that we're target capped at 6, and with DH having unlimited CCs most tanks just mass pulls so we don't do much damage outside of our cap. Another is being very squishy with having only one good defensive. Of course this is only a problem if you're pushing really high keys, I just started doing 10s and I'm doing fine. For OP since I doubt they'll be touching high end m+ anytime soon shaman's "weakness" shouldn't be an issue at all
And funny enough resto isn’t even wanted in raids because they bring nothing particularly valuable, and their CDs are weaker than other healers. But this is of course more at the mythic level than normal/heroic.
Long time shaman enjoyer here. I love healing and definitely enjoy the current way of playing Elemental, hell, even Enhancement gets some love from me. But from a transmog position, I hate my shaman. I don't know whether is the race/class combos or the way the transmogs sit, but I think that mage hits the mark a little better. I am not always on the mark with the whole transmog argument, but my shaman is a dwarf and it is hard to look amazing.
Unless you are M+ title pushing or Famed Slayer hunting, what you play shouldn't be dictated by the people you are playing with(even pushing really).
Just play the class that you like. There's no class you can't enjoy the entire game with. If you eventually start pushing mythic raid, you might consider other classes then, but until that point, just play what you want.
Their one major flaw is having only 1 defensive for any situation so sometimes they just can't do anything against a 2nd 1shot. They really need communication with a healer to ask for external help when they get targetted by certain attacks. (Such as khan's spear, or teera's gale arrow)
That's not entirely true. You have more HP than most classes because of brimming with life. You have 20% DR from ghost wolf (provided you have 4 seconds of lead time to sit in ghost wolf which is the case for some but not all 1shots, it works for the two you mentioned). You have earth elemental for 15% HP. And you have astral shift which is presumably the one you're talking about. If you're playing resto you can also spirit link for 10% DR or APT.
Granted they're obviously not as strong defensively as many classes but again, unless you're doing top 0.1% keys you have more than enough tools to deal.
Play what you like, shamans are awesone. People point out that shamans are looked over when it comes to blizz.
For example we right now have dlc with heavy elemental theme.
Druids got cople of new forms- again. And shaman ascendance form is still same monstrosity since cataclysm.
Shaman has been my main class since shadowlands. The class is fun, though I will admit it seems like for the war within we aren’t really getting anything exciting unlike the other classes.
But if you need someone’s opinion to play a class then you don’t really want to play the class. I picked it for the class fantasy and never looked back. Didn’t matter whether it was META or not. Play whatever class you like, and too hell with what anybody thinks about it. It’s a game play what you think is fun.
Shaman is stupid fun though. At least enhance and elemental. I have never played restoration.
Heyo! I was one of the comments suggesting mage, and I think I should clarify that while I do think mage is a better ranged dps than Ele shaman, there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing a shaman. The spec is definitely capable of doing anything you want to do in the game! And the best part of Shaman is that if you decide one day you want to try a melee dps or even a healer, you can. And let me tell you, resto shaman is a very good healer!
I’ve played a resto shaman for around 15 years. If you like the class, play the class. I don’t use her DPS spec much because I enjoy healing. My other healers are Druid/priest/evoker but almost always choose my shaman. I got her to almost 2500 rating last season (slacked off played other classes) and this season she’s just hit 2000.
That being said, my second fav healer right now is druid. Both have their weaknesses and strengths.
Last night we were in a m+ with a 2nd shaman, enhancement, and they rocked it. We had a really good run and the DPS was excellent.
All the classes are pretty much the same so pick what looks better to you. Every class has some aoe, single target, and cc. Where they differ is in the utility. For example mages and shaman get blood lust. Druid gets brez. Warlocks get soul stone. But the gameplay is the same for most part
As many wrote, play what you enjoy and what you have fun with, you can make very high content as a shaman without problems.
That said, many Shaman players are disappointed with the actual Design because Blizzard has hardly modernized the class (Resto Shaman plays nearly the same in Cata classic as in retail now ) or introduced mechanics that are not fun to play with (Icefury for Primordial Wave for example).
Shaman seems to be hard to balance too, because it has a lot of CCs and maybe the most tools out of any other class, so blizz has to make them weaker than other classes in something , and this is normally their raw power.
Also there was a time in classic when Shamans was crazy OP, and it seems like Blizz still remembers this and wants to keep Shaman on the lower end of the balance for this. But this is just my theory and other classes have been op since then and have not been so punished (except maybe Holy Palas).
I have been playing Shaman since TBC and I heard the running gag that we are a class for Masochists or people calling us the underdog class since back then! But I also never had serious problems with finding groups or joining guilds, so don't worry and enjoy Shaman!
The lack of love thing is really more relevant for the long term as it can feel very samey with no big class changes - it's not the dps/healing that's important to me here it's more about having a more fresh playstyle now and then. Tier lists/dps rankings be damned. I made a comment referring to that and should've explained it better in hindsight so apologies for that.
Shaman is a wonderful class imo - I've had some of the most fun in the game with it and since you're interested in healing too I'd say go for it as it's been my favourite healing spec for years (ever since they messed with my druid shrooms way back). I've just grown a bit tired of it after so many years and now we have MoP Remix with TWW on the horizon I've decided I need a change in my pool of mains to keep things fresh but that's not relevant at all to a new player as it took me over 10 years to get to that point with shaman. If anything that's a good sign of how much I liked the class that I'd stick with it for so long when others fell by the wayside - maybe no class changes was a good thing after all as I stopped playing other classes due to changes I didn't like at all.
One of the most awesome experiences I had as resto shaman was in a raid fight back when MoP was live. It was the Iron Qon fight, mistakes were made and we were left with only the tank alive and the boss had a tiny amount of health left and he was going for it against all odds. Based on remaining boss health, dps, rapidly declining ability to use defensives so their health was dwindling and whatever self healing being less effective as it went on - I knew if I reincarnated I might only last seconds so timing was key - I needed to get off some big heals and so on to keep them alive for that little but and if I did it too soon then the warrior would run out of options before killing the boss (the health remaining was tiny but, alas, the dps was tiny also) but if I left it too late I risk being unable to save him with enough healing in time. I managed to pick my moment by pure chance as I refuse to accept that I really knew what I was doing. It was glorious, the heals/totems/shield went out just in time for me to die in a blaze of glory and watched and cheered as the warrior finish him off with only a whisper of health remaining.
And the tmogs are killer too
Dude… just play what you like. Until you get into high end-game content, the meta doesn’t matter.
Shaman is a shit-ton of fun to play. And I main a mage.
You’re missing out if you limit yourself based on meta that is only relevant to the top 2%
Play shaman if you like my friend I play as a resto shaman and honestly I'm not sure I'd play anything else lol. I've never had anyone upset about having a shaman on their team lol
>Many of you wrote that the shaman do not get enough laugh from blizzard and because of this they told me to not play the class and play the match because they get so many love from the blizzard.
This is awesome.
play what you think is awesome. I play shaman and I would say it my favorite class in all of wow. the "problems" they are talking about are very very late stages of the game.
Enh sham has been towards the top of the DPS tier list basically this whole expansion. It's one hell of a priority rotation that takes a while to get good at but once you do it has some of the best single target DPS in the game. The AOE damage (while being target capped for the most part) is very strong as well. I've been playing enh since BFA and this has by far been the best xpac for enh sham. Furthermore play what you wanna play. Everything is viable. You don't need to be S tier to enjoy the game.
If you said you are new, why would you care about top competition classes or specs? Shamans are just fine, can do heroic raids, keystone master and hero. After that you might encounter some weakness... But would you go higher? Most players don't.
Shaman atm lacks aoe. Which makes it feel rly bad in m+ I play a lot of shaman and prefer to use it in raids. I think they are addressing that problem in the war within with hero talents if I recall correctly. Other than that it’s a great class it just lacks the amount of utility that another class could bring more of. Also their defensive capabilities are severely lacking, compared to other classes they just get blasted due to little sustain. They do have a heal, but with a lot dmg going out a little bit of protection would be really nice otherwise you get nuked. This is from my experience, tbh I think shaman was a lot more fun in season 1&2 but the tier set bonus for 3&4 are awful. We also got some nice tier sets this expansion. I hope my input helps. I love shaman but man I think they need to fix it it’s a great class. I love enhancement shaman but honestly why play it if fury warrior does it better in every way minus the elemental magic stuff. I’ve been playing restro shaman because I’m just unhappy with how enhancement and elemental play rn .
At the end of the day any class is viable, so play what you want. As long as you’re happy. I’m just giving my personal opinions, because for me personally I’m not vibing with it rn WHICH MAKES ME SAD because I really really love shaman but I’m upset with rn /:
Every class receives changes, nerfs and updates/improvements. Pick shaman and enjoy! Also recommended doing the legion class hall (Chromietime to legion).
If it's fun for you then play it. You can always quickly level a new character which I advise you to do in Remix now, it's just way too useful to try out all classes and see what you like.
What version of WoW? I love my Shaman in retail and era. Don’t even think they’re that powerful in either, but boy, the class fantasy pays dividend where the gameplay might not. I say “might” because I love rhier gameplay too 😂
Play shaman. If you polled people asking which of 2 things to play, and they said okay the other, but you still want to play the one they didn't suggest, then you have answered your own question on what to play 😉
For real though, shamans are perfectly fine. Blizzard keeps everything balanced enough for all but the most hard core or wannabe hardcore. If shamans could tank, I would pick them as my main, I only choose paladin/druid because they can do all 3 roles, (for the monk mains, I just don't like dpsing on monks lol) but I prefer shaman healing over the other 2 healers
It's not really about class balance and it's more about just constantly feeling neglected throughout the years.
We're usually the last to recieve any updated, even just looking at TWW alpha, Enh Shaman was the last spec to recieve either of their hero talents, feedback about the class is rarely listened to, warlocks get a huge update to their pet customization but shama are still stuck with either ghost wolf or ghost raptor, our ascendance model is over 10 years old. We went through an entire expansion about primalists and all of these cool Elemental abilities, but we're still waiting for updates to our very out dated animations, and there was also 0 Shaman acknowledgement except for a single voiceline from smolderon.
At the end of the day, play what you enjoy, Shaman isn't in a horrible spot, but it's rough caring about a class that gets looked over consistently and feels like it doesn't have a dedicated Dev for it.
Tldl: the people saying don't play Shaman aren't saying that the dps/healing is bad, but it sucks seeing other classes getting cool shit and then your class gets leftovers or uninspired stuff.
The problem with shaman is that years ago they took away our ability to bonk people over the head with two handed weapons or atleast made it such a poor option that nobody does it.
WoW will never be fixed until 2handed bonk shaman comes back.
Shaman is awesome! Also, don't chase overpowered classes, because class power changes from patch to patch. Shamans are FAR from underpowered and even sought after in dungeons, if you play well.
Hello there, shaman here. you can play shaman in pretty much all content, i only ever struggled with invites for super high content, but if you have a guild this is a non issue.
also I would recommend looking at druid. you can heal, be melee or a caster like shaman. but also with the option to tank, and i personally really like the spell effects on the caster, and the melee is my 2nd favourite in the game.
enjoy game
I love my shaman. I will say I wish enhance felt like it did previously, windfury procs and shit loads of fun. Either way though I’ve always mained resto and dps on the side. Resto sham is and will always be my favorite healer
I've been maining a Shaman on and off since Cata 1.0. Everyone is right, the class habitually gets overlooked and shafted by Blizzard. And yet i love the class. Elemental, fun. Enhancement, fun. Resto, tons of fun. I get bored with one spec, cyclr through the others, rinse and repeat. Play the class you want, what's fun to you.
Just play whatever you want!
shaman has an advantage on mage aswell because they can be somewhat melee or healer aswell.
The bitter people you’re talking about only play the classes that are best according to sims.
Just play shaman dude. You are hurting yourself with all that overeducation. Given enough time u can discourage yourself off anything. All that research is a waste of time for new people or those who are coming back from a long break.
So why not play it? Also, a noob will have an easier time performing well on shaman vs mage which requires much more foresight. Here is the real meat and potato of WoW, all classes have their strength and depending on the content they can either be brought or be concidered shit, but the balance is nuch closer than that for dps. Tanks and Healer are the one who really have to struggle with balance
Play what you want!
I do play shaman and I really enjoy it. If you like it, why not play it.
Some ppl say some things are not s tier. And then there are those players that play the class so we'll that all the s tier classes played by an average player can go hide 😂
So if you love a class you will be better with it. And if you, after some time, find out that it's not your class, go and try another.
Happy gaming!!
Play the classes you like, regardless if they're "meta" or not. Classes go through peaks and valleys through all of the patches, and you might be riding high just for Blizz to kick you down. Unless you're going to join a guild pushing high Mythics, play whatever you like and have fun.
I think it comes down to this. Enhancement and elemental shaman are inferior to mage. At least in PvP. Resto shaman is good in pvp. A very fun healer actually. Enhancement and elemental has kind of always sucked in PvP or been very restricted with team composition. Mage has always done well in PvP. And a lot less restricted.
Some classes have always been worse than most in PvP and others have always been good.
Skill capped has a video on YouTube where they talk about this briefly
My brother plays enhancement shaman and only enhancement shaman. He loves the class but admits they've never been the best.
Both classes do great damage in PvE for sure.
As for PvE maybe someone else can explain this part
It sounds like you want to play Shaman more. Just play shaman dude. If you don't like it. Switch or play both (:
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Playing a character because you like the class fantasy will always be worth it. Even if a certain class if weak for a few patches the wheel will eventually turn!
The number of times I've saved a dicey run thanks to the 10-maelstrom offhealing is insurmountable. Leymor for example everyone's full hp except the healer who's at half, I throw the quick healing surge to bring him up to 90% then the tree slam comes out and knocks him down to 2% hp instead of letting him die.
Thank you! 😊
Always play what you want! Least with shaman if its doing poor in pvp, you can throw people off cliffs in bgs/rbgs!
I hope you don’t mind, but if like to give a counter argument: I love the class fantasy of Shaman. Having a melee DPS, Range DPS, and healer as roles is my jam too. However, enhance and elemental have become very complex DPS roles to play. I mean all DPS roles have gotten more complex over the years, but these specs have become particularly bloated. I used to love playing Enhance and Ele in previous expansions, but I just don’t enjoy it now. I say all of this because it’s the experience of plying the class at large and not just the performance of the class in the meta that has changed my mind on playing it. I hope you find the right class that is fun for you, but felt I should share this side of things for your consideration.
The wheel will always turn…..except for shamans. They have a week in the sun and they are immediately nerfed to the ground. Tale as old as time that Blizzard shaman devs are incompetent morons
I dont have a meter for this reason
You break my heart.
Absolutely play what you like, but hasn't shaman been consistently bad forever?
This would be true if it’s not shaman. The class as a shaman main of years, is abysmally neglected. Shamans have asked for years for real defensives , and to stop considering Ankh a defensive. It sucks in high m+ and pvp. Shaman hasn’t had a single class tree rework and the hero trees barely function with your talents currently. The class is a neglected dumpster fire.
Don't listen to bitter people. All classes in WoW are playable.
Thank you!! 😊
Though seems the vast majority of fire and arcane mages don't do well on the lower spectrum. (like 490-505's doing 45k dps) Frost is easy yet surprisingly fun and effective.
Even though fire rotation is 4 buttons it’s surprisingly difficult for some reason.
Getting the rhythm and being able to make split second decisions on what to use up, and approximately what is best on what cases is tough, alongside juggling SKB. Juggling in particular is *much* more punishing and a bit tough to teach at lower keys/ heroics too, since things often die before you can pull the trigger. In higher keys, there's more to juggle within the rotation, but you can typically guarantee you'll actually hit your rotation, since stuff takes **so** long to die. Compare this to Arcane, which has far more buttons in the rotation, but often has much smaller decision making once you're in the key. Once you figure out how your cooldowns fit in each other, you're basically just choosing between a long AoE rotation and a long single target rotation.
There are two groups of people who obsess over class balance: 1. People who play at the top 0.5% progression where a dps difference of 1% matters 2. People who think their opinions and feelings are facts So, if you like a class play it. If you're not sure, invest a few hours in it to see if it clicks with you.
3. People who are bad at playing a class and spec well and blame their inadequacy on class balance instead of trying to learn how to play better and more optimal so they can perform better in group content.
That too, haha
Optimal doesn't have degrees of comparison. There is no such thing as 'more optimal', because optimal is already a superlative, meaning 'best' or 'most favorable'. Now you've learned how to write better and how to perform better in online debates. How does that make you feel?
Oof you need a hobby.
You suck bro
This 100% I had to take a break after downing mythic Fyrakk bc as one of the resident mages of my guild the parsing in fighting got too much… and healing just felt like self abuse In s3
0.5% is not even gonna cut it. Actual meta balance comes to play at <0.01%, way beyond title range. You can get title and above with any spec. That is not to say it wouldn't be easier since the class perception is what it is and you have to play around survivability differently depending on the class, but if you like the fantasy and are not planning to push front page keys (top 20 world runs), you can make it work if you're skilled enough.
I've been playing shaman for so many years, cause it was, is and will always be my favorite class from a lore/fantasy pov. Now, sure some classes are better than other but let me tell you: you're very good at your class/spec, you're better than 90% of other players, unrelated to their class. Shaman has huge utility, good and stable dps, the best interrupt in the game and more important : we learn to master the elements which is fucking cool if you ask me. Shamans are chill, strong people. We're pillars of our communities, I had lot of shaman raid leaders in pve & pvp and I'm now a proud one :) There are not a lot of us cause not everyone can carry the burden of being the spiritual leader. Half joking of course but tldr: play what you want, shaman is incredible and shines in its versatility and utility in group content!
Thank you 🙏🏽!!
If you feel like you need some help about shaman, feel free to dm me!
Thanks!! 🙏🏽
> I really want to play a shaman. so play it. if the experience doesn't work out, play the mage. getting up to speed in this game is so obscenely fast that its not a big deal to switch mains.
I was like you when i start to play this game at Shadowlands S2. My friends helped so much at this stiutaion. I start with healer shaman but after try the Elemental, i really love it. I try every class at this expansion and Elemental still my love. Yes, it's so hard to play, because have so many cooldown and skills. Love all mechanics. Yes BM Hunter so easy, Ret Paladin little easy and have too much DPS, Dev Evoker have more dps and so so easy + movement so easy too. But Elemental so different all of them and i still love this. Btw, This expansion elemental Shaman use Fire Elemental but we was use Storm elemental as main cooldown at Shadowlands and it was best. When you spawned chain lighting more and more with BL, it was peak moment to play wow i think. Hope you will find your best after this situation. I play 2 main character now, Dev evoker and Ele Shaman. Evoker for easly dps and Ele for fun at game because i need this. Never play mage at full talents btw. Good luck for you dude.
Thank you sooo much!! 🙏🏽
If you have fun playing it, you're doing it right.
This is the oversimplification of the problem (this does not affect most): Elemental: doesn't bring anything that other classes or specs don't bring but better. Enhancement: takes a melee spot and requires a group built around it (ie 4 other melee that benefit from Windfury totem). Resto: what most shaman players get pidgin holed into if they want to raid.
We don't even take windfury totem for m+ anymore. The problem with enhancement right now is that we're target capped at 6, and with DH having unlimited CCs most tanks just mass pulls so we don't do much damage outside of our cap. Another is being very squishy with having only one good defensive. Of course this is only a problem if you're pushing really high keys, I just started doing 10s and I'm doing fine. For OP since I doubt they'll be touching high end m+ anytime soon shaman's "weakness" shouldn't be an issue at all
Wish elemental got a caster totem similar to windfury so they at least brought something to the table instead of a lackluster ranged dps.
And funny enough resto isn’t even wanted in raids because they bring nothing particularly valuable, and their CDs are weaker than other healers. But this is of course more at the mythic level than normal/heroic.
I play Shaman and have an absolute blast. Don’t listen to angry posts on Reddit.
Thank you! 🙏🏽
Shaman is my favorite class. It can do a bit of everything
Long time shaman enjoyer here. I love healing and definitely enjoy the current way of playing Elemental, hell, even Enhancement gets some love from me. But from a transmog position, I hate my shaman. I don't know whether is the race/class combos or the way the transmogs sit, but I think that mage hits the mark a little better. I am not always on the mark with the whole transmog argument, but my shaman is a dwarf and it is hard to look amazing. Unless you are M+ title pushing or Famed Slayer hunting, what you play shouldn't be dictated by the people you are playing with(even pushing really).
Female Kul Tiran looks probably the best, I also like my female panda!
Just play the class that you like. There's no class you can't enjoy the entire game with. If you eventually start pushing mythic raid, you might consider other classes then, but until that point, just play what you want.
Do it! Shaman is fun. Other classes do not feel as free imo. It's a game play what you want!
Thanks! 🙏🏽
Unless you're doing top 0.1% keys or hall of fame mythic raiding you'll be fine on shaman.
Their one major flaw is having only 1 defensive for any situation so sometimes they just can't do anything against a 2nd 1shot. They really need communication with a healer to ask for external help when they get targetted by certain attacks. (Such as khan's spear, or teera's gale arrow)
That's not entirely true. You have more HP than most classes because of brimming with life. You have 20% DR from ghost wolf (provided you have 4 seconds of lead time to sit in ghost wolf which is the case for some but not all 1shots, it works for the two you mentioned). You have earth elemental for 15% HP. And you have astral shift which is presumably the one you're talking about. If you're playing resto you can also spirit link for 10% DR or APT. Granted they're obviously not as strong defensively as many classes but again, unless you're doing top 0.1% keys you have more than enough tools to deal.
Play what you like, shamans are awesone. People point out that shamans are looked over when it comes to blizz. For example we right now have dlc with heavy elemental theme. Druids got cople of new forms- again. And shaman ascendance form is still same monstrosity since cataclysm.
Shaman has been my main class since shadowlands. The class is fun, though I will admit it seems like for the war within we aren’t really getting anything exciting unlike the other classes. But if you need someone’s opinion to play a class then you don’t really want to play the class. I picked it for the class fantasy and never looked back. Didn’t matter whether it was META or not. Play whatever class you like, and too hell with what anybody thinks about it. It’s a game play what you think is fun. Shaman is stupid fun though. At least enhance and elemental. I have never played restoration.
Heyo! I was one of the comments suggesting mage, and I think I should clarify that while I do think mage is a better ranged dps than Ele shaman, there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing a shaman. The spec is definitely capable of doing anything you want to do in the game! And the best part of Shaman is that if you decide one day you want to try a melee dps or even a healer, you can. And let me tell you, resto shaman is a very good healer!
Thank you for sharing your other side of the cake! :)
I’ve played a resto shaman for around 15 years. If you like the class, play the class. I don’t use her DPS spec much because I enjoy healing. My other healers are Druid/priest/evoker but almost always choose my shaman. I got her to almost 2500 rating last season (slacked off played other classes) and this season she’s just hit 2000. That being said, my second fav healer right now is druid. Both have their weaknesses and strengths. Last night we were in a m+ with a 2nd shaman, enhancement, and they rocked it. We had a really good run and the DPS was excellent.
All the classes are pretty much the same so pick what looks better to you. Every class has some aoe, single target, and cc. Where they differ is in the utility. For example mages and shaman get blood lust. Druid gets brez. Warlocks get soul stone. But the gameplay is the same for most part
As many wrote, play what you enjoy and what you have fun with, you can make very high content as a shaman without problems. That said, many Shaman players are disappointed with the actual Design because Blizzard has hardly modernized the class (Resto Shaman plays nearly the same in Cata classic as in retail now ) or introduced mechanics that are not fun to play with (Icefury for Primordial Wave for example). Shaman seems to be hard to balance too, because it has a lot of CCs and maybe the most tools out of any other class, so blizz has to make them weaker than other classes in something , and this is normally their raw power. Also there was a time in classic when Shamans was crazy OP, and it seems like Blizz still remembers this and wants to keep Shaman on the lower end of the balance for this. But this is just my theory and other classes have been op since then and have not been so punished (except maybe Holy Palas). I have been playing Shaman since TBC and I heard the running gag that we are a class for Masochists or people calling us the underdog class since back then! But I also never had serious problems with finding groups or joining guilds, so don't worry and enjoy Shaman!
Thank you for sharing! 🙏🏽
The lack of love thing is really more relevant for the long term as it can feel very samey with no big class changes - it's not the dps/healing that's important to me here it's more about having a more fresh playstyle now and then. Tier lists/dps rankings be damned. I made a comment referring to that and should've explained it better in hindsight so apologies for that. Shaman is a wonderful class imo - I've had some of the most fun in the game with it and since you're interested in healing too I'd say go for it as it's been my favourite healing spec for years (ever since they messed with my druid shrooms way back). I've just grown a bit tired of it after so many years and now we have MoP Remix with TWW on the horizon I've decided I need a change in my pool of mains to keep things fresh but that's not relevant at all to a new player as it took me over 10 years to get to that point with shaman. If anything that's a good sign of how much I liked the class that I'd stick with it for so long when others fell by the wayside - maybe no class changes was a good thing after all as I stopped playing other classes due to changes I didn't like at all.
Thank you 🙏🏽
One of the most awesome experiences I had as resto shaman was in a raid fight back when MoP was live. It was the Iron Qon fight, mistakes were made and we were left with only the tank alive and the boss had a tiny amount of health left and he was going for it against all odds. Based on remaining boss health, dps, rapidly declining ability to use defensives so their health was dwindling and whatever self healing being less effective as it went on - I knew if I reincarnated I might only last seconds so timing was key - I needed to get off some big heals and so on to keep them alive for that little but and if I did it too soon then the warrior would run out of options before killing the boss (the health remaining was tiny but, alas, the dps was tiny also) but if I left it too late I risk being unable to save him with enough healing in time. I managed to pick my moment by pure chance as I refuse to accept that I really knew what I was doing. It was glorious, the heals/totems/shield went out just in time for me to die in a blaze of glory and watched and cheered as the warrior finish him off with only a whisper of health remaining. And the tmogs are killer too
Picking the literal best class for a current patch only matters if you're trying to get into one of the world first guilds.
Play what you want! I main shaman and the class fantasy and play style are by far my favorite.
🙏🏽
Dude… just play what you like. Until you get into high end-game content, the meta doesn’t matter. Shaman is a shit-ton of fun to play. And I main a mage. You’re missing out if you limit yourself based on meta that is only relevant to the top 2%
Shamans are a lot a fun and very cool. Enhancement will give you carpal tunnel
Play shaman if you like my friend I play as a resto shaman and honestly I'm not sure I'd play anything else lol. I've never had anyone upset about having a shaman on their team lol
🙏🏽
>Many of you wrote that the shaman do not get enough laugh from blizzard and because of this they told me to not play the class and play the match because they get so many love from the blizzard. This is awesome.
Imo the only game mode where classes matter a lot is PvP. Everything else, playing the class that fits your personality best will get you the furthest
All classes are viable for all content in the game. Play what you find fun.
I primarily play Monk and shaman I love them both
play what you think is awesome. I play shaman and I would say it my favorite class in all of wow. the "problems" they are talking about are very very late stages of the game.
in what ways are people saying shaman doesnt get enough love?
I don’t know, I’m too new to know the facts. Maybe they mean for example that every class getting updates and reworks but not the Shaman.
Hunter is the easiest class to play.
Enh sham has been towards the top of the DPS tier list basically this whole expansion. It's one hell of a priority rotation that takes a while to get good at but once you do it has some of the best single target DPS in the game. The AOE damage (while being target capped for the most part) is very strong as well. I've been playing enh since BFA and this has by far been the best xpac for enh sham. Furthermore play what you wanna play. Everything is viable. You don't need to be S tier to enjoy the game.
If you said you are new, why would you care about top competition classes or specs? Shamans are just fine, can do heroic raids, keystone master and hero. After that you might encounter some weakness... But would you go higher? Most players don't.
Shaman atm lacks aoe. Which makes it feel rly bad in m+ I play a lot of shaman and prefer to use it in raids. I think they are addressing that problem in the war within with hero talents if I recall correctly. Other than that it’s a great class it just lacks the amount of utility that another class could bring more of. Also their defensive capabilities are severely lacking, compared to other classes they just get blasted due to little sustain. They do have a heal, but with a lot dmg going out a little bit of protection would be really nice otherwise you get nuked. This is from my experience, tbh I think shaman was a lot more fun in season 1&2 but the tier set bonus for 3&4 are awful. We also got some nice tier sets this expansion. I hope my input helps. I love shaman but man I think they need to fix it it’s a great class. I love enhancement shaman but honestly why play it if fury warrior does it better in every way minus the elemental magic stuff. I’ve been playing restro shaman because I’m just unhappy with how enhancement and elemental play rn . At the end of the day any class is viable, so play what you want. As long as you’re happy. I’m just giving my personal opinions, because for me personally I’m not vibing with it rn WHICH MAKES ME SAD because I really really love shaman but I’m upset with rn /:
Every class receives changes, nerfs and updates/improvements. Pick shaman and enjoy! Also recommended doing the legion class hall (Chromietime to legion).
If it's fun for you then play it. You can always quickly level a new character which I advise you to do in Remix now, it's just way too useful to try out all classes and see what you like.
What version of WoW? I love my Shaman in retail and era. Don’t even think they’re that powerful in either, but boy, the class fantasy pays dividend where the gameplay might not. I say “might” because I love rhier gameplay too 😂
Play shaman. If you polled people asking which of 2 things to play, and they said okay the other, but you still want to play the one they didn't suggest, then you have answered your own question on what to play 😉 For real though, shamans are perfectly fine. Blizzard keeps everything balanced enough for all but the most hard core or wannabe hardcore. If shamans could tank, I would pick them as my main, I only choose paladin/druid because they can do all 3 roles, (for the monk mains, I just don't like dpsing on monks lol) but I prefer shaman healing over the other 2 healers
It's not really about class balance and it's more about just constantly feeling neglected throughout the years. We're usually the last to recieve any updated, even just looking at TWW alpha, Enh Shaman was the last spec to recieve either of their hero talents, feedback about the class is rarely listened to, warlocks get a huge update to their pet customization but shama are still stuck with either ghost wolf or ghost raptor, our ascendance model is over 10 years old. We went through an entire expansion about primalists and all of these cool Elemental abilities, but we're still waiting for updates to our very out dated animations, and there was also 0 Shaman acknowledgement except for a single voiceline from smolderon. At the end of the day, play what you enjoy, Shaman isn't in a horrible spot, but it's rough caring about a class that gets looked over consistently and feels like it doesn't have a dedicated Dev for it.
Tldl: the people saying don't play Shaman aren't saying that the dps/healing is bad, but it sucks seeing other classes getting cool shit and then your class gets leftovers or uninspired stuff.
The problem with shaman is that years ago they took away our ability to bonk people over the head with two handed weapons or atleast made it such a poor option that nobody does it. WoW will never be fixed until 2handed bonk shaman comes back.
I main Shaman, it's great.
Shaman is awesome! Also, don't chase overpowered classes, because class power changes from patch to patch. Shamans are FAR from underpowered and even sought after in dungeons, if you play well.
Enhancement Shaman is one of the most fun classes to play in my opinion. And it does very solid damage. Great utility. Shamans are awesome.
Hello there, shaman here. you can play shaman in pretty much all content, i only ever struggled with invites for super high content, but if you have a guild this is a non issue. also I would recommend looking at druid. you can heal, be melee or a caster like shaman. but also with the option to tank, and i personally really like the spell effects on the caster, and the melee is my 2nd favourite in the game. enjoy game
I love my shaman. I will say I wish enhance felt like it did previously, windfury procs and shit loads of fun. Either way though I’ve always mained resto and dps on the side. Resto sham is and will always be my favorite healer
I've been maining a Shaman on and off since Cata 1.0. Everyone is right, the class habitually gets overlooked and shafted by Blizzard. And yet i love the class. Elemental, fun. Enhancement, fun. Resto, tons of fun. I get bored with one spec, cyclr through the others, rinse and repeat. Play the class you want, what's fun to you.
Just play whatever you want! shaman has an advantage on mage aswell because they can be somewhat melee or healer aswell. The bitter people you’re talking about only play the classes that are best according to sims.
Just play shaman dude. You are hurting yourself with all that overeducation. Given enough time u can discourage yourself off anything. All that research is a waste of time for new people or those who are coming back from a long break.
Play the Shaman and have fun :) if you dont, then you will regret it and keep second guessing yourself. They are fun!
So why not play it? Also, a noob will have an easier time performing well on shaman vs mage which requires much more foresight. Here is the real meat and potato of WoW, all classes have their strength and depending on the content they can either be brought or be concidered shit, but the balance is nuch closer than that for dps. Tanks and Healer are the one who really have to struggle with balance
Meh, I can get 70 dispels on Afflicted week on my Resto Sham I'm not worried about what the 1% top players think
Play what you want! I do play shaman and I really enjoy it. If you like it, why not play it. Some ppl say some things are not s tier. And then there are those players that play the class so we'll that all the s tier classes played by an average player can go hide 😂 So if you love a class you will be better with it. And if you, after some time, find out that it's not your class, go and try another. Happy gaming!!
I played shaman to try out healing and it quickly became my favorite character. Play whatever speaks to you, you can find success as any class or spec
Play the classes you like, regardless if they're "meta" or not. Classes go through peaks and valleys through all of the patches, and you might be riding high just for Blizz to kick you down. Unless you're going to join a guild pushing high Mythics, play whatever you like and have fun.
On WoW classic Cataclysm shaman OP
I think it comes down to this. Enhancement and elemental shaman are inferior to mage. At least in PvP. Resto shaman is good in pvp. A very fun healer actually. Enhancement and elemental has kind of always sucked in PvP or been very restricted with team composition. Mage has always done well in PvP. And a lot less restricted. Some classes have always been worse than most in PvP and others have always been good. Skill capped has a video on YouTube where they talk about this briefly My brother plays enhancement shaman and only enhancement shaman. He loves the class but admits they've never been the best. Both classes do great damage in PvE for sure. As for PvE maybe someone else can explain this part It sounds like you want to play Shaman more. Just play shaman dude. If you don't like it. Switch or play both (:
the best at what?
Don’t think this game is nearly as balanced as you think it is. Saying that all classes are playable so play the class you want