My Orc Shaman hit level 40 this week! Assuming that my warrior & druid hit level 70 first, Shaman represents the last class I'll need to level to accomplish my goal of having a level 70 character for each character class in WoW. I'm not really sure why shaman ended up being the last class in my progression. Jeamyr isn't the first shaman I've created. Over a year ago, I started a Tauren Shaman, but never stuck with him. I picked the Tauren race for its cool War Stomp racial skill. However, I just couldn't get into the character. He was soooo big and cumbersome, it made his running speed seem extremely slow compared to the other races. My Tauren didn't last too long and was eventually deleted and having a shaman went on the back burner.
Several months later, I read the excellent Warcraft novels "Rise of the Horde" and "Lord of the Clans", and I just had to create an Orc Shaman. I think from a lore perspective, having an Orc Shaman is the only way to go! I loved the story line of how the Orcs' original shamanistic way of life was corrupted by demon influence and how Thrall was able to redeem the Orc race and bring them back to their shaman ways. I was really eager to give Shaman another try. Unfortunately, leveling a Shaman to 40 has been the toughest of any of the classes I've tried!
I did a lot of research on the best spec for leveling a shaman. My conclusion was that an enhancement shaman was the way to go. The first 30 levels were really tough. An enhancement shaman is primarily a melee class, yet you only get to wear leather until level 40. Also, you do not get any special melee attacks. My usual encounter would consist of pulling with Lightning Bolt, casting flame shock and then auto-attacking until the mob was dead reapplying an appropriate shock when the cool down was up. As far as weapon choices, you can go with a one hander and shield or a 2 handed weapon. With the 1h and shield option, it just took too long to kill enemies, so I went with a 2h axe to take advantage of the Orc racial trait. Still, with no special melee attacks fighting seemed to take a long time when compared to other classes. A shaman's ability to deal with a multiple mobs is not too good either. The only option that seemed to work for me was dropping a Stoneclaw Totem, which will taunt away the add and has a chance of stunning it. You just have to hope you can kill your current target before the Stoneclaw runs out or else you'll have multiple mobs pounding on you and certain death. At level 30, things got slightly better with the skill of Windfury Weapon. Windfury adds a significant amount of dps to your attacks. The only problem is that its' proc rate with a 2h weapon seemed to be low. I found myself hoping it would proc during each fight and being disappointed if it didn't.
Then you reach your 40's and the Shaman class changes night and day. You get to wear mail armor, you get to dual wield and you get the Stormstrike melee attack. With Windfury on both of your weapons, it seems to proc multiple times during each fight. Stormstrike is a strong melee attack and having mail armor increases your survivability. I find that fights go much quicker now and I am really starting to enjoy the Shaman class! Once Jeamyr reaches his 60's, I might switch him to a restoration spec, but for now I look forward to continuing as an Enhancement Shaman.
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