Classic Elemental Shaman DPS Guide

Shaman is arguably the best support class in WoW Classic. With their powerful and flexible totems, such as Windfury Totem, Tremor Totem and Poison Cleansing Totem, they keep their allies safe and increase their damage potential significantly.

While only Horde players can be Shamans, every group will benefit immensely from having at least one, and due to totems only being able to affect one group at a time, a 40 man raid will want to have at least 8 Shamans to have totems in every group.

This guide will be covering Elemental Shamans, one of the flashiest ranged damage dealers in WoW Classic and, arguably, the most powerful role a Shaman can assume in PvP due to its great burst damage while keeping good healing capabilities.

Strengths

• The highest ranged burst damage potential in the game with Elemental Mastery or Nature's Swiftness combined with Lightning Bolt into Chain Lightning into Earth Shock.
• Ability to swap to healing at any moment as some of the most powerful Restoration talents are on the top of the tree.
• Totems for every type of situation, including Windfury Totem, one of the greatest DPS increases a group can have in WoW Classic.
• Great support tools even outside of totems, such as Earth Shock and Purge, which contribute to the high skill cap of the class.

Weaknesses

• Weak sustained damage-dealing potential due to running out of Mana very fast, which forces the usage of lower ranked damage spells in long fights.
• Squishy and has no real escapes once focused.

Elemental Shamans are unfortunately one of the weakest damage dealers, especially in long fights that tax their Mana heavily, or some of the fights in WoW Classic that have high Nature Resistance, as there are no real alternative damage sources for an Elemental Shaman.

Thus, they are unlikely to be brought for most fights, although their totems have high value as they are party-only, making them have significant party support potential for most Horde raids, especially if Restoration Shamans are not plentiful.

Mana is an Elemental Shaman's main resource. Since you lack talents which interact with the Spirit stat, you will generally avoid it and thus not be able to regenerate a lot during a fight. You will cast often through a fight in order to deal damage, which makes Mana one of the most problematic issues with Elemental Shamans in WoW Classic, especially when dealing with long fights.

Totems are an unique Shaman mechanic which allows you to place an immobile and low health totem on the ground which grants buffs or special effects while active around itself. These typically provide powerful effects which are balanced in PvP by the ease of destroying the totem, and essential in PvE for Horde players.

Shamans of the Elemental path will require Engineering in order to be competitive in the end game. It is generally a good idea to pair it with Mining in order to harvest the ores and stones needed to make your explosive consumables.

Alternatively, you can pair Alchemy with Herbalism, allowing you to create your own liquid consumables and maybe find a Black Lotus here and there!

For information on these and the other professions, browse our profession guides, which have all the nitty-gritty details.

Find our new guides for Shaman in WoW Classic Season of Discovery below! The new game mode will have players find and utilize Runes that can then be engraved onto their gear to provide them special bonuses that augment already existing abilities or allow the class to use entirely new spells.

With the introduction of new Runes in Season of Discovery, not only will old builds be increased in power, but Shaman now has the option of being played as a Tank.