Want to burn through 5 man heroics?

[Losbullitt]

Agree with Shaman + hex.

When I run Nexus, my healer is in paradise with the shaman hex and, most of the time, mage sheep... errr penguin. Then when that lady boss that splits comes up, BAM! Holler at yer shammy for some quick fix CC.

When I think about draenei women, I touch myself.

[Threatco]

Shamans are my favorite class have in a group. And sure all that stuff is great. But what realy makes them best is....

ANTI-FEAR TOTEMS

I hate being feared. Ever since slave pens shamans have been my bff.

[Pallypete]

Poison cleansing totem's my best friend now, so much crappy poison in wrath.

[Mishdorf]

tanks need calories.

Yeah I've been trying to fatten up my belf for a while but it's like she has worms.

PUT ON SOME WEIGHT YOU UGLY BAG OF BONES.

[Mishdorf]

Shamans are my favorite class have in a group. And sure all that stuff is great. But what realy makes them best is....

ANTI-FEAR TOTEMS

I hate being feared. Ever since slave pens shamans have been my bff.

For this reason and many others I have long maintained that Shaman healers are the best healers in the game (for 5 mans).

They bring:

Anti fear totems
AOE heals
Strong single target heals WITH armour buffs
Totem buffs second only to paladin buffs (I used to love the spellpower totem in TBC)
earth shield
mail = slightly more survivability when things go to hell
hex

Their weaknesses:

Lesser healing wave sucks
.
.
.
nope, that's it

[Veilan]

I find dr00ds better as healers than shamans, but an elemental shaman... is just an awesome addition to your party. Due to not being distracted by having to heal - skipping DPSing for a few ticks is less critical than skipping to heal, eh - he makes the most of his abilities.

The flexibility of the totems, to drop in an off heal, hex, dispel, purge, res, wipe-stop ankh... you name it. Their awesomeness saddens me, because you can't really justify taking a mage along anymore . While being obsolete has always defined the mage class (remember those encounters blizz specifically designed so you had to take a mage?), but WotlK pushes it to extremes. Mages have Strudel and portals, both of which they can hand you outside the instance...

Cover all the three hybrids - preferably paladin tank, elemental shaman DD, druid healer - and hardly anything can go wrong. Slap on a retri, since paladins are the hybrids with massive synergy, and you can breeze through what you want.

[2ndNin]

If you actually want to burn through heroics, the best group I have found so far is:

Tankadin
Retadin
Furry Warrior
Mage / DK / Boooomkin
Shaman Healer

Basically, Shaman drops windfury, Tanakdin, Retadin, Furry all benefit, take a DK or Boomkin for the +13% magic damage and innervate / battle res if its there. With a setup like this I haven't seen a group dps below 8k (and I have seen 10 man raids with less group dps on bosses!).

[Holyhomer]

Their weaknesses:

Lesser healing wave sucks

It's pretty good actually.


Healing wave sucks, but it's good in conjunction with nature's swiftness.

[Flex]

It's pretty good actually.


Healing wave sucks, but it's good in conjunction with nature's swiftness.

Aye. Shaman small group healing is based around chain heal and LHW now.

[mavfin]

but an elemental shaman... is just an awesome addition to your party. Due to not being distracted by having to heal - skipping DPSing for a few ticks is less critical than skipping to heal, eh - he makes the most of his abilities.

You pretty much covered why I love playing my elemental shaman when I'm not tanking. In small groups they simply rock. I can do all those things you listed, to help the group succeed, and still put out useful DPS. (Glyph of Flame Shock rules!) The new spellpower rules have only made this better, too. Heal-gear sized heals in DPS gear! Druid healer in Heroic AK the other night gave me much love for my poison totem, too.

[Kelarik]

Been burning through Heroics most of the night with an elemental Shaman, but I think I've found the group that works best for me.

Me (prot pally, woot!)
BM Hunter
Ele Shaman
Boomkin (used a Destro Warlock for a while since the Boomkin had to go to work for a few hours)
Resto Druid

Why? Simple. No melee (except the hunter's pet) minimised damage on whirlwinding bosses, AoEing bosses, and all round melee-nasty boses if which there are a few. Hunter DPS is rather high at the moment which means that even if there are AoE silences, they can still keep the numbers going out.

Also, nobody had to drink. Between the mana totem, druid's mana regen, hunter's viper aspect, and warlock life tapping, we never had to stop. Ever. I had BoK up on myself and the casters, BoM on the hunter and pet, and we just ran from mob to mob, blowing over them, and never popping any CC.

My idea was simple: AoE damage. Hunter's Misdirect + Volley is an insanely powerful tool for big pulls, combined with Hurricane, or Seed of Corruption, and spammed Chain Lightning, leads to much AoE damage, which is nice ^_^

Finally, Tremor Totem... not really required that often, but when it's needed... <3

[Anubisknight]

ran heroic pinnacle with a shammy yesterday... it is fun watching the frog jump around taking damage from consecration.. lol

[Inukshuk]

Instead of "like fear without running around", I see it as a stun with a long albeit random duration. There's just no reason not to drop this on a pull, heck, I don't even complain if the skull gets it (once the pull's done).

Shamans - the better mages...

The difference is that stuns cannot be broken by damage. Hex/fear just aren't usually broken by small ticks of periodic damage, but both CAN break on damage. That's why Hex behaves more like Fear. It's not likely to break from consecrate ticks, but if there's massive AoE going on, it might not hold up for you.

[Discus]

If so OP how come Shaman's are so rare? I think we have about 120 in our guild now and just one Shaman.

[mavfin]

Well, shamans suck to level till about 30, and elementals can't find mail spellpower gear till HFP, so, they have a few issues.

Link that with enhancement's 'cool, big numbers!' factor, and that they're not kings of the hill anymore. (i.e. a lot of enhancement shamans rerolled DK for the 'big hits' factor) and you see why there's not as many around.

Enhancement shamans were the ones (in my experience) most likely to not drop totems for the group in a 5-man, as those GCDs cut into their personal DPS, not to mention the totems' support might put someone over them on the meters! Oh noes!

Elementals are usually a bit better about it, and restos are healers anyway. Just my opinions, of course, about why you don't see as many. And, of course, too many read the WoW class forums and take that as gospel and think that elemental shamans are no fun....

After all, there are some that still think Prot Pallies are *only* AoE tanks. Doh!