No offense to those of you who play a Shaman as your primary character, but I have to say that I found Shaman to be my least favorite World of Warcraft character class. First of all, the first 40 levels were torture! Fighting was so slow & dealing with multiple targets was really tough. Things got much better once Jeamyr reached his mid 40s. With dual wield & stormstrike, his dps increased dramatically. I’d have to say that enhancement is the best leveling build, at least from level 41 to 70. Perhaps an elemental build would have made the first 40 levels easier, but I doubt it. As far as the elemental shaman, I found it to be the most boring play style I’ve encountered in the game. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but spamming lightning bolt over & over just got too dull for me.I think the Shaman class suffers a great deal from the Jack of All Trades, Master of None mentality. You’ve got a lot a different play styles to choose from: Enhancement for Melee DPS; Elemental for Spell DPS; and Restoration for healing. However, to me the shaman did not seem that powerful in any of these rolls. For melee dps, I’d rather play a rogue or fury warrior. For Spell DPS, I’d rather play a mage or warlock. For healing, I’d rather play a priest or druid. I have to admit though that the utility factor of a shaman probably makes up for this somewhat with all of its Totems that provide nice group buffs. Please keep in mind that I never played Jeamyr in a group or raid setting, so my perspective is slanted by my experience soloing and leveling Jeamyr up to 70. However, I still feel that for a hybrid class, it is the weakest. As hybrids, the Paladin and Druid classes are much stronger than the Shaman. I don’t think I’ll play Jeamyr much in the future unless it is to group him up with my Paladin & Mage again when the expansion comes out. I’m a little disappointed because I thought the lore behind the shaman (especially Orc shamans) was so cool. I hope the Shaman class gets a nice revamp soon =)
