World of Warcraft

I recently returned to WoW and have decided to give the shammy class (alliance) a try.

Ive been told that resto shammys are now considered the premier healers in the game. A few of my ex guildmates have told me that priests are all respeccing to shadow because they arent likely to attend raids as Holy. I cant see how this is true as shammy's remain the least chosen class to play.

Unless Im mistaken, are Shammy's still the least played class (mostly because they werent added until recently) ? When I last played 4ish months ago, a guild was lucky if it had one shammy for a 25-man raid. I think only one guild ever had two (one enhanced and one resto). So it would shock me if guilds were taking 5-6 shammys to replace the 5-6 priests they normally take to cover heals

I have seen several enhancement shammys as indicated by their dual maces and gear. Is this spec equal to rogues and dps warriors as far as damage output ?

Final question...I have yet to see a single elemental shammy around. Is elemental spec not viable for groups and raids ? I think I saw a elemental shammy once months ago, he apparently summoned a fire elemental pet...am i mistaken cause I dont see any spells for elemental pets or talents that allow that.

Personally Im leaning toward resto as I suspect I will have no problem finding myself sought after by raiding guilds once I reach 70 (currently 42). I hate healing though so Im hoping enhanced or elemental are options as well considering the class seems light on players.

opinions are most appreciated

shadow council - alliance

ok - considering the different shammie specs:

Resto: Resto shamans scale very well with gear, and are the best raid healers in the game. For the earlier raid content, this isn't so important, so a resto shaman could easily be replaced by another healer (particularly a priest). However tier 6 raids,  in BT and the new Sunwell instance, incorporate a lot of raid damage, and hence resto shamen are highly desirable, with some guilds bringing as many as 3 to 25 man raids. At low gear levels, in 5 and 10 man instances, resto shaman can struggle for mana efficiency compared to other healers, so be prepared to drink a lot of potions before you gear up.

Enhancement: These will generally not DPS as well as skilled and well geared rogues or warriors. However they are taken along for the buffs and utility they provide. Most high end 25 man raids will bring one enhancement shaman, but no more. It may be hard to get a spot in an established guild as enhancement, since in many guilds this position will already be occupied.

Elemental: These provide nice buffs to casters, but have problems with both mana efficiency and aggro management.  At Tier 4, elemental shamen offer very competitive DPS, but at higher gear levels they tend to fall behind other ranged DPS such as warlocks, hunters and mages. Some guilds bring a single elemental shamen to high end raids, others don't make space for them at all.

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Shamen are still the least popular class alliance side. This is partly because the class was introduced late, and also because many see it as being comparatively weak in pvp, particularly in smaller formats such as 2v2 (although warrior/resto shaman is still seen by mana as a competitive team).

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As for me - I play a resto shaman in a casual Tier 5 raiding guild. I regularly top healing meters against trash mobs, and am normally in the top 4 healers on any boss fight. My total healing over the course of a raid is consistently higher than any other non-shaman. I am also popular due to the buffs I provide, since I can boost the mana regen and effectiveness of other healers. Sometimes, when no enhancement shaman is available, I will be placed into the melee group in order to provide windfury buffs. I am always one of the first people invited to a raid when I am available, and am also completely at home in most heroics (although there are a couple of bosses that are hard due to the immobile nature of shaman healing).

Ive a level 50 shaman (deleted)... From what ive see  most players will go for enh ( dps build)  till they hit the max level and re-spec to restro for group. But a shaman can never output the same or higher dps hit rate than a rouge or fury warrior due to their mana inefficiency....

Trust me when i say that shaman in WoW is a pain to level up......

Oh - and one of the main reasons you don't see many elemental shamen is that they aren't very popular for end game 5 mans, particularly heroics. Most people will want to take a character with crowd control instead. This causes a lot of elemental shaman to get  frustrated at low gear levels and respec.

Enhancement shamen have it slightly better, since they find it easier to make friends with tanks.

Originally posted by admriker4

A few of my ex guildmates have told me that priests are all respeccing to shadow because they arent likely to attend raids as Holy.

This is utter nonsense.  I can't speak for the rest of your questions, but Priests are extremely good healers.  They may not be better than Shaman, but they are certainly viable healers and since Shaman are not always available as has already been pointed out, Holy Priests are very much in demand.  Anyone who tells you differently has a specific axe to grind.

While i can't speak to end game very much, (quit a while ago, but i'm bored so i'm here) I know i used to be able to dps with the best of them as long as long as there wasn't too much CC going on using the aoe fire totem and chain lightnings, and a 2 hander.  Shammys get a Fire elemental and an earth elemental totem near 70.  I would HIGHLY recommend going enhancement as you level up so that you can kill creeps fast and not have to worry about mana.  Lastly as far as Shammy's being hard to level up, I can't even comprehend that comment because shammys are so easy.  They can heal, they can do at the minimum "good" dps, and they can basically get away from almost any mobs by using tremor totem and ghostwolfing away.  They don't have any form  of cc (at least they didn't) so you have to take down groups fast or run but that shouldn't be much of a problem.  - Completely off topic but anyone else remember fondly the days when Windfury would proc off itself?  Nothing like meleeing down a warrior 3 levels higher than you.  Fun times.

You will be able to find a raid guild as Resto at 70 not because Resto Shamans are so good but because raid healing is so boring people often quit.

I have a tier 5 Resto Shaman and I will quit if my guild progresses to Hyjal and BT. I target random people and Chain Heal. During some bosses I use Healing Wave.

Elemental is very good raid DPS but you NEED gear. You need a ton of crit and a ton of hit. We had a tier 4 Ele and he would destroy all on the damage charts. However, he quit because Ele raiding is even more boring than Resto raiding. Doing 3 LBs 1 CL then repeat for 10 minutes is not terribly exciting.

Enh raiding I don't know. They top damage charts easily enough and they buff the other melee to God status but super high threat and low survivability means you die a lot.

Originally posted by admriker4

Unless Im mistaken, are Shammy's still the least played class

Yes, especially if you're alliance.

I leveled all the way up to 69 as Resto spec.  It was pure torture, but i did it anyway.  My advice is to respec to Enhancement while leveling.

Then at around 60, if you want, you can spec to Resto and start doing group dungeons for healing.  Or at 70 respec to Resto.  It's up to you really.

As for raiding, unless you're in a good guild, it will be very hard to get in a far progressed guild at this stage in the game.  You'll most likely have to start out in Kara first, or do Arenas for the gear.

Once you start getting the phat loot, Resto shaman healing is amazing!

Resto levelling is fine.

I levelled 60-70 as resto, and never had any problems.

So - you kill a bit slower - but still fast enough. Just keep doing the quests. And since you will be far more welcome in instances than other specs, you will generally outgear other shaman.

With the water shield changes a few patches ago, you will never have to stop and  drink

As resto you have immense survivability. You will be able to solo elite mobs that many others cannot even contemplate.