Cool guide. My shaman just hit 60 a couple days ago and yesterday I also made the decision to try out the 0.5 questline that I never attempted in vanilla/2019 classic/SoM. So far I obtained 3 pieces and will either stop after the next part or see if I can get the final helm/chest in the next week or so (going to try to get the pieces from the instances so I can use the real tokens towards gold making for my epic mount). I'm going to play around with a 21/30/0 build first in dungeons and see how it goes. I plan on healing in raids though, but may try to tank in ZG and/or AQ20 when those come out.
I've really only seen shaman players on the Classic Shaman discord talk about Ele Tanking, but I'm honestly thinking it's better in most cases than enhance. They both have more or less the same level of mitigation, but the Ele version of tank just massively out performs it in damage.
Great guide man, you covered all the important stuff. Congrats on having your full tier set too, that is awesome. I am so glad they decided to explore new roles and finally allowed Shaman to tank. I think your alternative talent tree setup is interesting, the one that goes in elem for a more spellcaster spellhance style gameplay.... it makes sense with all the new spells like molten blast that we have. I have one question tho.... what is your opiniion on the "Way of Earth" rune making Earth Shock our taunt spell and reducing its range to melee. I think this is a BS change.... I know for these huge role changing runes they will often convert or add abilities and utility to existing spells, but they can also add new abilities/spells and I think we should have a seperate spell for taunting. There are a few signature shaman abilities that define the class/spec.... stufff like shocks, totems, purge. A ranged interrupt is one of those big things.... be it earth shock or wind shear. Earth shock is already the main damage shock u spam since it gets buffed nature damage from stormstrike, but if u need to interrupt you have to hold off on any shocks so u can save ES just for the interrupt...... it was annoying but still, a short cd ranged interrupt is clutch and always helpful, for all shaman specs including a new tank spec. Technically, it was Frost Shock that had the "generates more threat" modifier, so they could have made that the spell they added taunt to, but still would have been a bad idea because that should be a threat generator spell and not a taunt. Plus shocks should be ranged spells, it is part of their core design. Taunt will also reset the threat meters so having it tied to earth shock which you use in a normal rotation makes no sense. Other newer tank roles like warlock have their taunt tied to their curses which are situational and not used all the time. Plus, what about taunt immunities and stuff too (which I don't think apply in classic but eventually taunt gets diminishing returns or mobs become immune, which would happen often if ur taunt is tied to a main rotational ability). Really I just wanna hear opinions from other Shaman tanks on how this new Earth Shock feels to play with..... does it suck losing the range and it being melee range only? Is it annoying that ES keeps taunting when used, or that you can't taunt or interrupt a target from range like a caster off to the side? Unlike some other lazy dps, my Enhancer was always top of the meters for interrupts and I used it often to help group casters or stop heals or big dmg spells. Earth shock/wind shear ranged interrupt is crucial and to see it be lazily designed to also taunt and only melee range is just stupid to me. Why not just add a new spell, a simple taunt that doesn't do any damage, preferably with some range like 15 yds. Other tanks have this, so why not Shaman? If it is just a simple taunt then there should be no problems with adding it in as it doesn't effect balance by doing damage or make you OP or anything..... just basic standard utility spell. They could add a defensive bonus, like Taunt will also cause the next attack to miss you, it could debuff the enemy to do less dmg/atkspeed, could prevent the enemy target from running or fleeing, or buff your defense a bit so you can take more damage... some small buff for a short duration like 5 sec. I kinda liked the warlock version of taunt in their tanks rune, (which may have changed by now), but it was tied to Curse of Reckleness..... so a curse which lowers the armor of the enemy and keeps them from fleeing or running.... makes sense that a taunt could be tied to it, you would taunt or try to stop an enemy mob runner with a root or some CC anyways. A curse that makes the enemy weaker and can be used if they start to run away to also taunt them back to you makes sense.... even tho I think they also gimped this curse for the metamorphosis rune so that it is melee range instead of long ranged. I loved the "Unleash Weapon/Elements" ability that Shaman used to have. It was like the Shaman version of Pally's Judgement+Seal, but Unleash Elements+Elemental imbue for our weapon. It had a 40yd range which was amazing for pulls.... and useful for all specs. Enhance could double dip with 2 different weapon imbues like WF/FT or WF/FB for 2 different unleash effects, with each elemental imbue having some small short but useful buff. And Unleash Rockbiter had the effect of taunting the enemy.... for those rare situations where the shaman might need to kite or offtank an enemy. I think this is already the perfect ability to include for a Shaman tank taunt...... just add the spell into the game baseline for all shaman, or even just "Unleash Rockbiter" as a new spell under the "Way of Earth" rune.... and leave the shocks alone, the 3 together have their own internal balance system and until we get wind shear it makes no sense to take away our ranged interrupt just for a taunt. I also don't get why they add a taunt in the tank runes but for some classes will reduce the range to melee range..... again for shaman who use spells and known for ranged abilities... not just damage but purge cleanse hex and stuff, it doesn't make sense to make it melee range only for our taunt. Plenty of other classes have ranged taunts..... DK's had deaath grip but then changed to add a new spell "Dark Command" which is a ranged 20yd taunt. Even in SoD, feral Bear druids have their Growl taunt which was originally melee range but changed to 30yds like most taunts eventually (plus they have skull bash for a ranged interrupt+charge, and challenging roar for an aoe taunt). So why can't Shaman have a new spell that is just a simple taunt with like a 15-20 yd range atleast. Just add Unleash Rockbiter for Enhance shaman tanks (baseline ofcourse or tied into the tank rune way of earth).... they removed unleash elements but still Resto has Unleash Life as a spell. I just think making Earth shock our main instant damage shock (tied to a shared cd with our other shocks), plus the very important role of being our ranged interrupt, but then adding a tertiary effect of a taunt but nerfing the spell to be melee range. Like I said, its stupid and lazy design and should be developed better instead of trying to cram 3 different uses into one spell. I will take a ranged interrupt over a melee taunt everytime..... tanks need a taunt for tank swaps, but not at the cost of our class defining ranged interrupt.
Hey these are some valid points. I think the greatest weakness of earth shock being a taunt is that it is a spell, requiring 16% spell hit to cap out on. It's actually incredibly hard to gain hit with the tank gear out there right now, and even much harder when wearing fire resist gear. I think that is the biggest flaw for sure. I've even changed my build and lost a lot of dps just to get the 3% hit from resto, wasting a ton of talents to get it. The interrupt being tied to taunt is annoying in PVE, but mostly the boss fight in MC where you have to assign interrupts to kick the four healers. And if I am a designated kicker I really have be mindful of when I can taunt. Luckily shamans are probably the bis aoe tanks in the game, exluding paladins because I don't know much about them. I think it being melee is pretty fair as every tank's taunt in SoD is melee range. I think we actually have it really good considering how strong the Burn rune is, my flame shock hits 5 targets with a 100% dmg bonus and with how much damage it does, causes fairly good threat. Followed by molten blast which has actually decent range. And I also get insta-cast chain lightnings. The ranged interrupt really isn't a big deal in sod pve due to how overpowered everyone is outside of raid content, healers can heal through it and tanks can just eat it. I think there are two different fights you're taking, either aoe trash or raid boss. If it is aoe trash, i really only use earth shock to interrupt as I rarely lose threat from my aoe abilities. Which using earth shock in the rotation for aoe dps is actually really rare. There are so many aoe abilites shaman have right now that its mostly a last resort spell if you're using it for dps, so its really just saved for interrupt, unless its a mob/boss that drops threat consistently. And everyone in SoD is so damn overpowered you just pummel through content so fast. Even if my earthshock is on CD and i need to taunt, I can earthbind totem rooting everyone in place so my team can be safe can be safe, or just molten blast or flame shock and ill most likely get threat. Or if i need an interrupt and its on CD i'll use grounding totem. If it's a raid boss, you definitely shouldnt be in charge of interrupts as you're rogues/warriors/enh/ele should be on top of that. And i think shaman tanks do have mana problems on some 1v1 bosses, so I actually save my earth shocks for only taunting, and sometimes even only use rank 1. But I also am not trying to parse as a tank, I just care about mechanics. And I've tried the stormstrike build for tanking, its really not that good or I havent fully figured it out. I just dont see getting it just for mental dexterity worth it when you have burn + way more talents to use. you can always just get another enh or a boomkin to gain the 20% nature damage, which in mc you want both for fire resist totem and decursing. I think in PVP it is actually super broken to get two shocks, and I think thats why they improved flame shock so much. Because using earth shock and frost shock back to back, and being able to get to any person with decoy totem (which is pretty much a blessing of freedom) and being able to project your eartbhind at them, is just insane. Earthshock being melee is really not that big of a deal in pvp because you will almost always get to your target and you can grounding totem on the way to them. Also other ele/enh dps shamans will most likely be using spirit of the alpha, reducing their threat by 30%, while me as tank have way of earth on and spirit of the alpha giving me 60% and 45% threat increase for a total of 105%, other shamans can use earthshock freely and never rip threat off me. In pve I can see earth shock as a taunt to be really flawed due to how hard it is to get hit%. But outside of that you kind of just get used to it and it doesn't feel that bad. I think shaman is in a great place as far as tanking goes right now. I haven't seen a tank ever get higher HP than me unless a druid uses Survival Instincts, but even outside of that druids have less hp than me. Last MC I did i was around 12k-13k hp and sometimes it shot up to 16k when a warrior used some ability. And the off-tank warrior in our group had 6k hp, and i also had around 300 fire res when he had around 150. I also get 20% fire damage reduction for MC/Ony, 10% from ele talents and 10% from way of earth. And if i get 6/8 of my T1 set i get another 5% physical and magic damage reduction. We also bring fire totem, which practically guarantees 60 extra fire resist as a tank. We can also provide WF to the melee group where druid tanks have to swap that rune out for Survival of the Fittest in raid. The only thing I hate tanking though are the skeletons in scholo, they are immune to magic. Both shamans and warlocks cant hold aggro on them at all, and it actually is a really big problem. Also fire elementals in BRD since they are immune to fire, which is a huge amount of our dps/threat.
@@gamerpawsitive Hey thanks for the detailed reply. You make some good points.... I have not played the more recent updates to SoD, keep saying I will but I just end up watching gameplay or guide vids like yours lol. But I forget that we have alot more spells and abilities to use now in rotation. I still remember when all we had was basically melee, SS, shocks, and totem twisting..... maybe LL and LB once we got MW5 in later xpacs, but for a while we only had like 2-3 abilities, so if I ever had to hold back shocks for interrupts it sucked and felt like I was only doing half my normal damage. Prob one of my biggest gripes with classic vanilla is how screwed hybrid dps were, esp if u were like a melee/spell sword type such as enhance shaman or ret pally. Gear itemization was awful..... you had seperate stats for melee and ranged hit, or crit, and also either +spell dmg or +heals but rarely both. I think maybe by wotlk or cata they finally merged melee/ranged/caster into just hit, crit, AP, and SP. So hybrid dps didn't have to try and stack 2 different types of hit or crit to get caps.... altho we still had to get that spell hit cap which was always higher then the melee hit cap, as u mention with taunt. I guess ur point about it being mostly melee is true, it wasn't until later xpacs thats all taunts were ranged and hit capped automaticallly.... another great change. I think those talents like Mental Dexterity are basically mandatory or baseline worthy for hybrid dps like Enhancers. That whole AP to SP conversion, or bonus to hit so u could hit the higher spell hit cap, were needed to make your class work properly. But yea, back to your point about how enhance shaman tanks have alot more abilities or spells now and so earth shock being saved just for taunt or interrupt is true. I guess its more about flame shock now right? Molten Blast is great..... glad we have it for tanking. From what I have seen and read, it does seem like Shaman tanks are in a good place overall, or have their op moments. Which is so weird to think about now..... Shaman tank just seemed like a dream to me at one point. Just one more reason why this experimental type season server like SoD is great for trying and testing new ideas. Relying too much on spell damage, or even one school is a good point. Melee/Physical damage cleave or aoe would be good. That another thing about vanilla that was hit or miss when it came to needing to stack resists for certain raids..... fire for MC, nature for AQ, and frost for Naxx..... but alot mob/boss immunities to certain spell schools. From an RPG perspective it makes sense and is cool.... but from a gameplay pov it can really suck if most your damage is all in one school. Atleast shaman tend to have a spell variety (atleast in later xpacs) while still a few physical abilities like sundering for example. Makes me wonder if nature enemies are immune to earth shock taunt or interrupts. I wouldnt mind a good phsyical weapon dmg based cleave attack to help balance things out..... or like after using molten blast, if u hit 2+ targets then your next stormstrike cleaves to hit 5 enemies. Doesn't even need to hit hard, but just some aoe/cleave physical dmg will help for those mobs who are immune to magic. But thanks for the reply and answering some of my questions. Makes me feel a bit better about how they lazily crammed taunt into Earth shock..... but I still hate it, only cause a ranged interrupt is something I consider a core part of the Shaman class, just like DK's got their grip or warrior charge.... we never got mobility or CC so we got a ranged interrupt. A retail shaman tank would have wind shear so it wouldn't be an issue... its just the vanilla design that limits things, even tho they can technically just add "unleash rockbiter" as a taunt spell if they wanted. But hey, if shaman can hold aoe threat and do good damage or have some defensives then I can't really complain... its a good spot to be in. I really gotta stop being lazy and just get back in the game and play Sod to see the upgraded shaman tank myself..... not to mention mop remix which only has a few weeks left and i havent even taken advantage of that yet either lol.
@@Rohan_Trishan Ya i havent played mop remix, but I am currently getting back into retail to try tww expansion. I'm leveling a brand new enh shaman because I'm just so rusty with retail. I feel like if i jump on a level 70 it will be overwhelming, where even a new character feels like that alrdy. I think it took me 2.5 hours just to figure out how retail worked before I could even start leveling. It is very little socializing in retail, but killing mobs feels absolutely fun. It does however feel more like a single player game though.
@@gamerpawsitive True, I haven't played retail or mop remix (but I thik today is the day I will finally start mop remix lol, only like 3 weeks left on that). But it can certainly feel like a different game, so I get why starting fresh from the start with your class/spec might be preferable and just take things slowly over time as u get new abilities or talents..... most classes/specs feel and play very different now in retail so fresh start is good way to get introduced to a new playstyle with less pressure or overwhelmed by extra crap to do other then level quest dungeons and get gear. .....and the community has def changed too. Alot less talk, socializing, and random friendly interactions. It happens, just not very often. And for pugs like lfd/lfr it is very rare that people actually talk or discuss things, or even joke around and be social. You gotta have a guild or friend group for that.... or u find the occasional cool player who is friendly and likes to team up, and you gotta make an effort to stay friends with them. It does suck to see such quiet dungeon runs where everyone just wants to rush and no talking or silly stuff..... when at one point u were forced to talk to each other or plan pulls and CC and all that. But yea, Blizz has moved towards making WoW feel less like an mmo and give more ways to play solo single player or rely less on others. I think in TWW they are even adding bots/npcs so you can do dungeon runs in a party with 4 bots basically who just have AI tech and programmed to play their class/spec/role. Even in the new delves its like a main feature, you got a companion who might have a whole skillset so it can dps and help with heals and buffs for you or CC/stuns and debuffs for the enemies. Its weird.... on one side, it could make finding a party group for random or less popular dungeons much easier, and even with npc bots who are programmed to do stuff like not just dps but tank or heal is pretty wild if they pull it off and the bots AI and actions are actually smart. It could result in people having a preference over bots to real people, just for convenience...... or to do the whole solo single player style. I could see it being a popular choice for like easy normal content, including normal dungeons/raids.... but i assume the bots won't be heroic/mythic level good (but who knows they very well could be). Not sure I like the idea of that overall..... some bots to help fill in spots for a group mebbe, but a whole party with you and 4 bots is weird. Takes the whole social mmo aspect out of the mmorpg. But I guess the player always has a choice. I was never too social myself, but always added great players who stood out... plus i was a prot warr or enhance shaman so lots of people would friend me in case they might need me for something.
@@Rohan_Trishan Yea it really is a huge turn off for retail compared to classic. I think a lot of it has to do with the leveling process as well. I made a video I'll post at the end of this comment going over what to do when getting back into retail. But I think because you can pick any expansion to level in, everyone is so spread out. Whereas in classic, almost everyone on horde gfunnels to barrens levels 10-24 ish, unless you were herbalism you would go silverpine. But I think things like that where everyone is forced in the same zones for extended times really gets people to interact. Also on alliance side you have tons of elite quests like redridge mountain, darkshore, duskwood, loch modan. And then the infamous STV, where world pvp starts to become a thing and people call for aid. World PVP is completely dead in retail as far as leveling, due to everyone being such varying levels when you run into them. Either you one shot them or they one shot u. And the absolute funnest leveling I've ever had was in sod on my enh shaman leveling with my friend who was spriest. We made a deal to pvp EVERY alliance we came across. It made the journey so much more fun. I really do miss that about classic. th-cam.com/video/STQgHrsZHxI/w-d-xo.html This vid will also show probably the fastest leveling in wow tww prepatch right now, I think I can do 10-70 in just a few hours and have a full ilvl 480 set of gear when i hit 70. Max gear in the game is 525-530, which doesnt sound like a big difference but ppl with that gear are like 2x or 3x my hp and dmg. But at least your not hitting with an actual wet noodle and you're going into the expansion with something.
th-cam.com/video/sIVHL4uUBgc/w-d-xo.html I made this video in Phase 2 as an enhance shaman, it's a little out dated, and the weakauras are all individual imports. I'm not that experienced at making weakauras, but know enough to make what suits me. I will try to make a new updated video dedicated to shaman tank in phase 4. But this video can get you in the right direction in the meantime. The description has links to the weakauras I made so you can import them.
I think if you want to level as ele, you would want a friend to help you get lava burst in hillsbrad. You will need atleast level 8 though because it requires 8 to enter RFC. And you need to stand in lava to unlock the rune, and RFC is the only reasonable place to do that.
th-cam.com/video/BDNe7PZ3tFE/w-d-xo.html this is an older video from phase 2 but i think the runes it displays is fairly good, its more for enhance, but it does include the tanking runes. for tank you will want shield mastery, molten blast, and way of earth (level 12)
Fire totems are their own threat table, not your threat. How would fire nova totem give you threat? Isn't that kind of the point of the fire nova rune? It becomes a spell instead of a totem so it counts as your threat.
@@gamerpawsitive you're welcome. Most people don't know that. Thats the point of the reduced threat for magma totem in the improved fire totems talent. It makes it so mobs are less likely to aggro your magma totem and destroy it. You've probably seen that happen. It creates a lot of threat on itself. They should make a rune to transfer magma totem threat to you instead. I use oil of immolation for aoe because its basically a magma totem for your own threat. I use magma totem just for the damage, but mainy use it to ignite fire nova. I literally always use fire nova rune on trash when its more than 3 mobs and my aoe tanking is insane. That rune stays on unless it's a boss fight and then I use maelstrom.
@@vluxlifestyle1 I usually use powersurge + burn on aoe pulls for the CL or CH. But I might do that nova build instead, that sounds fat. And oil of immolation + chilli breath, totally forgot about those, gonna have to pick them up! Thanks for the tips man!
@@gamerpawsitive there's no comparison between chain lightning and fire nova on big pulls. Fire nova is a 360 degree blast radius that hits everything. You can use it for snap aggro right when you need to. Power surge just procs when it procs or not and CL is only 3 targets in front of you. There's no comparison.
I honestly dont use maelstrom that much, I did end up getting the rune after the video. I actually use it when im solo farming BRD against the fire elementals. I do end up switching a ton of runes around for those guys. But for the most part I like power surge a lot, I feel the proc rate is almost the same in single target, where power surge is a little less frequent against raid bosses, but the aoe proc is insanely high. And im too lazy to switch runes. If my guild were doing heat level 3 i probably would go maelstrom.
I'm usually very lazy in dungeons and dont totem, but if i need to ill totem first and project them into combat after pulling. I usually start with getting threat on every mob first, so i start with flame shock to pull, into molten blast, use earth shock for taunting and interrupting (keeping another rank 1 earth shock on my hotbar if i have mana issues) once i feel like every mob is tagged i use fire nova on cooldown, and it usually goes fire nova into flame shock or molten blast into magma totem, i just need 1 gcd for the nova to go off before using magma, if its a raid boss ill use earth shock first into molten blast for very high threat and then flame shock into magma. Also using power surge procs when i can. Once all threat is accomplished, my aoe prio list is fire nova > flame shock > magma > CL > molten blast. That is just my preference and it changes depending on how big the pull is.
@@unaddan Ya it honestly feels like that, I think in phase 1 the pvp was fairly even. But in phase 2 we won just about every BG, shaman difference honestly. I'll link my phase 2 pvp vid at the end of this and you can see how broken they were. Phase 3 I did end up not playing at all. But in phase 4 I feel like we win 90% of AV even while alliance have the bridge choke point upper hand on us. th-cam.com/video/iAEb8lnaWRY/w-d-xo.html
375 stam 185 int and 424 def. When I was tanking ony though I had 14k HP + 243 Fire Resist. I prioritize life and defense more than anything. And after doing ony last night I learned that hit is very important as she resisted quite a bit. Since we are entirely based on spell damage, we need very high hit, I believe spell hit cap is 16% iirc.
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Cool guide. My shaman just hit 60 a couple days ago and yesterday I also made the decision to try out the 0.5 questline that I never attempted in vanilla/2019 classic/SoM. So far I obtained 3 pieces and will either stop after the next part or see if I can get the final helm/chest in the next week or so (going to try to get the pieces from the instances so I can use the real tokens towards gold making for my epic mount). I'm going to play around with a 21/30/0 build first in dungeons and see how it goes. I plan on healing in raids though, but may try to tank in ZG and/or AQ20 when those come out.
Nice man great to hear!!
This is exactly what I was looking for thank you loved the guide keep the content coming tank shaman is so fun to watch!
@@Molandon1996 thanks brother!
Really good take on a tank Aoe Dungeon farming build. Def gonna use that to farm my HOJ 💪
Thanks really appreciate it!!
I've really only seen shaman players on the Classic Shaman discord talk about Ele Tanking, but I'm honestly thinking it's better in most cases than enhance.
They both have more or less the same level of mitigation, but the Ele version of tank just massively out performs it in damage.
Great guide man, you covered all the important stuff. Congrats on having your full tier set too, that is awesome. I am so glad they decided to explore new roles and finally allowed Shaman to tank. I think your alternative talent tree setup is interesting, the one that goes in elem for a more spellcaster spellhance style gameplay.... it makes sense with all the new spells like molten blast that we have.
I have one question tho.... what is your opiniion on the "Way of Earth" rune making Earth Shock our taunt spell and reducing its range to melee. I think this is a BS change.... I know for these huge role changing runes they will often convert or add abilities and utility to existing spells, but they can also add new abilities/spells and I think we should have a seperate spell for taunting. There are a few signature shaman abilities that define the class/spec.... stufff like shocks, totems, purge. A ranged interrupt is one of those big things.... be it earth shock or wind shear.
Earth shock is already the main damage shock u spam since it gets buffed nature damage from stormstrike, but if u need to interrupt you have to hold off on any shocks so u can save ES just for the interrupt...... it was annoying but still, a short cd ranged interrupt is clutch and always helpful, for all shaman specs including a new tank spec. Technically, it was Frost Shock that had the "generates more threat" modifier, so they could have made that the spell they added taunt to, but still would have been a bad idea because that should be a threat generator spell and not a taunt. Plus shocks should be ranged spells, it is part of their core design. Taunt will also reset the threat meters so having it tied to earth shock which you use in a normal rotation makes no sense. Other newer tank roles like warlock have their taunt tied to their curses which are situational and not used all the time. Plus, what about taunt immunities and stuff too (which I don't think apply in classic but eventually taunt gets diminishing returns or mobs become immune, which would happen often if ur taunt is tied to a main rotational ability).
Really I just wanna hear opinions from other Shaman tanks on how this new Earth Shock feels to play with..... does it suck losing the range and it being melee range only? Is it annoying that ES keeps taunting when used, or that you can't taunt or interrupt a target from range like a caster off to the side? Unlike some other lazy dps, my Enhancer was always top of the meters for interrupts and I used it often to help group casters or stop heals or big dmg spells. Earth shock/wind shear ranged interrupt is crucial and to see it be lazily designed to also taunt and only melee range is just stupid to me.
Why not just add a new spell, a simple taunt that doesn't do any damage, preferably with some range like 15 yds. Other tanks have this, so why not Shaman? If it is just a simple taunt then there should be no problems with adding it in as it doesn't effect balance by doing damage or make you OP or anything..... just basic standard utility spell. They could add a defensive bonus, like Taunt will also cause the next attack to miss you, it could debuff the enemy to do less dmg/atkspeed, could prevent the enemy target from running or fleeing, or buff your defense a bit so you can take more damage... some small buff for a short duration like 5 sec. I kinda liked the warlock version of taunt in their tanks rune, (which may have changed by now), but it was tied to Curse of Reckleness..... so a curse which lowers the armor of the enemy and keeps them from fleeing or running.... makes sense that a taunt could be tied to it, you would taunt or try to stop an enemy mob runner with a root or some CC anyways. A curse that makes the enemy weaker and can be used if they start to run away to also taunt them back to you makes sense.... even tho I think they also gimped this curse for the metamorphosis rune so that it is melee range instead of long ranged.
I loved the "Unleash Weapon/Elements" ability that Shaman used to have. It was like the Shaman version of Pally's Judgement+Seal, but Unleash Elements+Elemental imbue for our weapon. It had a 40yd range which was amazing for pulls.... and useful for all specs. Enhance could double dip with 2 different weapon imbues like WF/FT or WF/FB for 2 different unleash effects, with each elemental imbue having some small short but useful buff. And Unleash Rockbiter had the effect of taunting the enemy.... for those rare situations where the shaman might need to kite or offtank an enemy. I think this is already the perfect ability to include for a Shaman tank taunt...... just add the spell into the game baseline for all shaman, or even just "Unleash Rockbiter" as a new spell under the "Way of Earth" rune.... and leave the shocks alone, the 3 together have their own internal balance system and until we get wind shear it makes no sense to take away our ranged interrupt just for a taunt.
I also don't get why they add a taunt in the tank runes but for some classes will reduce the range to melee range..... again for shaman who use spells and known for ranged abilities... not just damage but purge cleanse hex and stuff, it doesn't make sense to make it melee range only for our taunt. Plenty of other classes have ranged taunts..... DK's had deaath grip but then changed to add a new spell "Dark Command" which is a ranged 20yd taunt. Even in SoD, feral Bear druids have their Growl taunt which was originally melee range but changed to 30yds like most taunts eventually (plus they have skull bash for a ranged interrupt+charge, and challenging roar for an aoe taunt). So why can't Shaman have a new spell that is just a simple taunt with like a 15-20 yd range atleast. Just add Unleash Rockbiter for Enhance shaman tanks (baseline ofcourse or tied into the tank rune way of earth).... they removed unleash elements but still Resto has Unleash Life as a spell. I just think making Earth shock our main instant damage shock (tied to a shared cd with our other shocks), plus the very important role of being our ranged interrupt, but then adding a tertiary effect of a taunt but nerfing the spell to be melee range. Like I said, its stupid and lazy design and should be developed better instead of trying to cram 3 different uses into one spell. I will take a ranged interrupt over a melee taunt everytime..... tanks need a taunt for tank swaps, but not at the cost of our class defining ranged interrupt.
Hey these are some valid points. I think the greatest weakness of earth shock being a taunt is that it is a spell, requiring 16% spell hit to cap out on. It's actually incredibly hard to gain hit with the tank gear out there right now, and even much harder when wearing fire resist gear. I think that is the biggest flaw for sure. I've even changed my build and lost a lot of dps just to get the 3% hit from resto, wasting a ton of talents to get it. The interrupt being tied to taunt is annoying in PVE, but mostly the boss fight in MC where you have to assign interrupts to kick the four healers. And if I am a designated kicker I really have be mindful of when I can taunt. Luckily shamans are probably the bis aoe tanks in the game, exluding paladins because I don't know much about them. I think it being melee is pretty fair as every tank's taunt in SoD is melee range. I think we actually have it really good considering how strong the Burn rune is, my flame shock hits 5 targets with a 100% dmg bonus and with how much damage it does, causes fairly good threat. Followed by molten blast which has actually decent range. And I also get insta-cast chain lightnings. The ranged interrupt really isn't a big deal in sod pve due to how overpowered everyone is outside of raid content, healers can heal through it and tanks can just eat it.
I think there are two different fights you're taking, either aoe trash or raid boss. If it is aoe trash, i really only use earth shock to interrupt as I rarely lose threat from my aoe abilities. Which using earth shock in the rotation for aoe dps is actually really rare. There are so many aoe abilites shaman have right now that its mostly a last resort spell if you're using it for dps, so its really just saved for interrupt, unless its a mob/boss that drops threat consistently. And everyone in SoD is so damn overpowered you just pummel through content so fast. Even if my earthshock is on CD and i need to taunt, I can earthbind totem rooting everyone in place so my team can be safe can be safe, or just molten blast or flame shock and ill most likely get threat. Or if i need an interrupt and its on CD i'll use grounding totem. If it's a raid boss, you definitely shouldnt be in charge of interrupts as you're rogues/warriors/enh/ele should be on top of that. And i think shaman tanks do have mana problems on some 1v1 bosses, so I actually save my earth shocks for only taunting, and sometimes even only use rank 1. But I also am not trying to parse as a tank, I just care about mechanics. And I've tried the stormstrike build for tanking, its really not that good or I havent fully figured it out. I just dont see getting it just for mental dexterity worth it when you have burn + way more talents to use. you can always just get another enh or a boomkin to gain the 20% nature damage, which in mc you want both for fire resist totem and decursing.
I think in PVP it is actually super broken to get two shocks, and I think thats why they improved flame shock so much. Because using earth shock and frost shock back to back, and being able to get to any person with decoy totem (which is pretty much a blessing of freedom) and being able to project your eartbhind at them, is just insane. Earthshock being melee is really not that big of a deal in pvp because you will almost always get to your target and you can grounding totem on the way to them.
Also other ele/enh dps shamans will most likely be using spirit of the alpha, reducing their threat by 30%, while me as tank have way of earth on and spirit of the alpha giving me 60% and 45% threat increase for a total of 105%, other shamans can use earthshock freely and never rip threat off me.
In pve I can see earth shock as a taunt to be really flawed due to how hard it is to get hit%. But outside of that you kind of just get used to it and it doesn't feel that bad. I think shaman is in a great place as far as tanking goes right now. I haven't seen a tank ever get higher HP than me unless a druid uses Survival Instincts, but even outside of that druids have less hp than me. Last MC I did i was around 12k-13k hp and sometimes it shot up to 16k when a warrior used some ability. And the off-tank warrior in our group had 6k hp, and i also had around 300 fire res when he had around 150. I also get 20% fire damage reduction for MC/Ony, 10% from ele talents and 10% from way of earth. And if i get 6/8 of my T1 set i get another 5% physical and magic damage reduction. We also bring fire totem, which practically guarantees 60 extra fire resist as a tank. We can also provide WF to the melee group where druid tanks have to swap that rune out for Survival of the Fittest in raid. The only thing I hate tanking though are the skeletons in scholo, they are immune to magic. Both shamans and warlocks cant hold aggro on them at all, and it actually is a really big problem. Also fire elementals in BRD since they are immune to fire, which is a huge amount of our dps/threat.
@@gamerpawsitive Hey thanks for the detailed reply. You make some good points.... I have not played the more recent updates to SoD, keep saying I will but I just end up watching gameplay or guide vids like yours lol.
But I forget that we have alot more spells and abilities to use now in rotation. I still remember when all we had was basically melee, SS, shocks, and totem twisting..... maybe LL and LB once we got MW5 in later xpacs, but for a while we only had like 2-3 abilities, so if I ever had to hold back shocks for interrupts it sucked and felt like I was only doing half my normal damage.
Prob one of my biggest gripes with classic vanilla is how screwed hybrid dps were, esp if u were like a melee/spell sword type such as enhance shaman or ret pally. Gear itemization was awful..... you had seperate stats for melee and ranged hit, or crit, and also either +spell dmg or +heals but rarely both. I think maybe by wotlk or cata they finally merged melee/ranged/caster into just hit, crit, AP, and SP. So hybrid dps didn't have to try and stack 2 different types of hit or crit to get caps.... altho we still had to get that spell hit cap which was always higher then the melee hit cap, as u mention with taunt. I guess ur point about it being mostly melee is true, it wasn't until later xpacs thats all taunts were ranged and hit capped automaticallly.... another great change.
I think those talents like Mental Dexterity are basically mandatory or baseline worthy for hybrid dps like Enhancers. That whole AP to SP conversion, or bonus to hit so u could hit the higher spell hit cap, were needed to make your class work properly.
But yea, back to your point about how enhance shaman tanks have alot more abilities or spells now and so earth shock being saved just for taunt or interrupt is true. I guess its more about flame shock now right? Molten Blast is great..... glad we have it for tanking. From what I have seen and read, it does seem like Shaman tanks are in a good place overall, or have their op moments. Which is so weird to think about now..... Shaman tank just seemed like a dream to me at one point. Just one more reason why this experimental type season server like SoD is great for trying and testing new ideas.
Relying too much on spell damage, or even one school is a good point. Melee/Physical damage cleave or aoe would be good. That another thing about vanilla that was hit or miss when it came to needing to stack resists for certain raids..... fire for MC, nature for AQ, and frost for Naxx..... but alot mob/boss immunities to certain spell schools. From an RPG perspective it makes sense and is cool.... but from a gameplay pov it can really suck if most your damage is all in one school. Atleast shaman tend to have a spell variety (atleast in later xpacs) while still a few physical abilities like sundering for example. Makes me wonder if nature enemies are immune to earth shock taunt or interrupts. I wouldnt mind a good phsyical weapon dmg based cleave attack to help balance things out..... or like after using molten blast, if u hit 2+ targets then your next stormstrike cleaves to hit 5 enemies. Doesn't even need to hit hard, but just some aoe/cleave physical dmg will help for those mobs who are immune to magic.
But thanks for the reply and answering some of my questions. Makes me feel a bit better about how they lazily crammed taunt into Earth shock..... but I still hate it, only cause a ranged interrupt is something I consider a core part of the Shaman class, just like DK's got their grip or warrior charge.... we never got mobility or CC so we got a ranged interrupt. A retail shaman tank would have wind shear so it wouldn't be an issue... its just the vanilla design that limits things, even tho they can technically just add "unleash rockbiter" as a taunt spell if they wanted. But hey, if shaman can hold aoe threat and do good damage or have some defensives then I can't really complain... its a good spot to be in. I really gotta stop being lazy and just get back in the game and play Sod to see the upgraded shaman tank myself..... not to mention mop remix which only has a few weeks left and i havent even taken advantage of that yet either lol.
@@Rohan_Trishan Ya i havent played mop remix, but I am currently getting back into retail to try tww expansion. I'm leveling a brand new enh shaman because I'm just so rusty with retail. I feel like if i jump on a level 70 it will be overwhelming, where even a new character feels like that alrdy. I think it took me 2.5 hours just to figure out how retail worked before I could even start leveling. It is very little socializing in retail, but killing mobs feels absolutely fun. It does however feel more like a single player game though.
@@gamerpawsitive True, I haven't played retail or mop remix (but I thik today is the day I will finally start mop remix lol, only like 3 weeks left on that). But it can certainly feel like a different game, so I get why starting fresh from the start with your class/spec might be preferable and just take things slowly over time as u get new abilities or talents..... most classes/specs feel and play very different now in retail so fresh start is good way to get introduced to a new playstyle with less pressure or overwhelmed by extra crap to do other then level quest dungeons and get gear.
.....and the community has def changed too. Alot less talk, socializing, and random friendly interactions. It happens, just not very often. And for pugs like lfd/lfr it is very rare that people actually talk or discuss things, or even joke around and be social. You gotta have a guild or friend group for that.... or u find the occasional cool player who is friendly and likes to team up, and you gotta make an effort to stay friends with them. It does suck to see such quiet dungeon runs where everyone just wants to rush and no talking or silly stuff..... when at one point u were forced to talk to each other or plan pulls and CC and all that.
But yea, Blizz has moved towards making WoW feel less like an mmo and give more ways to play solo single player or rely less on others. I think in TWW they are even adding bots/npcs so you can do dungeon runs in a party with 4 bots basically who just have AI tech and programmed to play their class/spec/role. Even in the new delves its like a main feature, you got a companion who might have a whole skillset so it can dps and help with heals and buffs for you or CC/stuns and debuffs for the enemies.
Its weird.... on one side, it could make finding a party group for random or less popular dungeons much easier, and even with npc bots who are programmed to do stuff like not just dps but tank or heal is pretty wild if they pull it off and the bots AI and actions are actually smart. It could result in people having a preference over bots to real people, just for convenience...... or to do the whole solo single player style. I could see it being a popular choice for like easy normal content, including normal dungeons/raids.... but i assume the bots won't be heroic/mythic level good (but who knows they very well could be).
Not sure I like the idea of that overall..... some bots to help fill in spots for a group mebbe, but a whole party with you and 4 bots is weird. Takes the whole social mmo aspect out of the mmorpg. But I guess the player always has a choice. I was never too social myself, but always added great players who stood out... plus i was a prot warr or enhance shaman so lots of people would friend me in case they might need me for something.
@@Rohan_Trishan Yea it really is a huge turn off for retail compared to classic. I think a lot of it has to do with the leveling process as well. I made a video I'll post at the end of this comment going over what to do when getting back into retail. But I think because you can pick any expansion to level in, everyone is so spread out. Whereas in classic, almost everyone on horde gfunnels to barrens levels 10-24 ish, unless you were herbalism you would go silverpine. But I think things like that where everyone is forced in the same zones for extended times really gets people to interact. Also on alliance side you have tons of elite quests like redridge mountain, darkshore, duskwood, loch modan. And then the infamous STV, where world pvp starts to become a thing and people call for aid. World PVP is completely dead in retail as far as leveling, due to everyone being such varying levels when you run into them. Either you one shot them or they one shot u. And the absolute funnest leveling I've ever had was in sod on my enh shaman leveling with my friend who was spriest. We made a deal to pvp EVERY alliance we came across. It made the journey so much more fun. I really do miss that about classic.
th-cam.com/video/STQgHrsZHxI/w-d-xo.html
This vid will also show probably the fastest leveling in wow tww prepatch right now, I think I can do 10-70 in just a few hours and have a full ilvl 480 set of gear when i hit 70. Max gear in the game is 525-530, which doesnt sound like a big difference but ppl with that gear are like 2x or 3x my hp and dmg. But at least your not hitting with an actual wet noodle and you're going into the expansion with something.
This is really well done!
Ty Brother!!
Holy shit that was Deep. Thx alot for Ure work
Nice video mate! 2 questions . U doing an part 2 with bis list and so on? And is crusader the weapon enchant go for here or do u think its 30 SP?
hey fantastic guide thank you. will you make your weakauras available?
th-cam.com/video/sIVHL4uUBgc/w-d-xo.html
I made this video in Phase 2 as an enhance shaman, it's a little out dated, and the weakauras are all individual imports. I'm not that experienced at making weakauras, but know enough to make what suits me. I will try to make a new updated video dedicated to shaman tank in phase 4. But this video can get you in the right direction in the meantime. The description has links to the weakauras I made so you can import them.
Hi, what is the best way to level as a Tank in Dungeons? Would you start with Ele?
I think if you want to level as ele, you would want a friend to help you get lava burst in hillsbrad. You will need atleast level 8 though because it requires 8 to enter RFC. And you need to stand in lava to unlock the rune, and RFC is the only reasonable place to do that.
th-cam.com/video/BDNe7PZ3tFE/w-d-xo.html this is an older video from phase 2 but i think the runes it displays is fairly good, its more for enhance, but it does include the tanking runes. for tank you will want shield mastery, molten blast, and way of earth (level 12)
Where did you get the improve duration for the weapon enhances? lol
@@SerpiWild the last rank of each one is 60 minutes
Ty!
What weak auras are you using to get the animations around you on ur procs?
@@danielbaker4457 I usually make about 90% of the weak auras I use. I'll check when I get home and upload the ones I'm using
Awesome...those looked really sweet!
how do you have a 60 minute rockbiter?
When you learn the very last rank of it from your trainer, it will be 60 minutes instead of 5. I wish they did this for every rank.
@@gamerpawsitive it's funny how much googling I do, this doesn't come up
Fire totems are their own threat table, not your threat. How would fire nova totem give you threat? Isn't that kind of the point of the fire nova rune? It becomes a spell instead of a totem so it counts as your threat.
Ah ok thanks didnt know that.
@@gamerpawsitive you're welcome. Most people don't know that. Thats the point of the reduced threat for magma totem in the improved fire totems talent. It makes it so mobs are less likely to aggro your magma totem and destroy it. You've probably seen that happen. It creates a lot of threat on itself. They should make a rune to transfer magma totem threat to you instead. I use oil of immolation for aoe because its basically a magma totem for your own threat. I use magma totem just for the damage, but mainy use it to ignite fire nova. I literally always use fire nova rune on trash when its more than 3 mobs and my aoe tanking is insane. That rune stays on unless it's a boss fight and then I use maelstrom.
@@vluxlifestyle1 I usually use powersurge + burn on aoe pulls for the CL or CH. But I might do that nova build instead, that sounds fat. And oil of immolation + chilli breath, totally forgot about those, gonna have to pick them up! Thanks for the tips man!
@@gamerpawsitive there's no comparison between chain lightning and fire nova on big pulls. Fire nova is a 360 degree blast radius that hits everything. You can use it for snap aggro right when you need to. Power surge just procs when it procs or not and CL is only 3 targets in front of you. There's no comparison.
How do you do on raid bosses without flurry and stormstrike?
Should be running fist of the damned/wraith scyte
What is this?
What about Maelstroom Weapon on waist ? :O
I honestly dont use maelstrom that much, I did end up getting the rune after the video. I actually use it when im solo farming BRD against the fire elementals. I do end up switching a ton of runes around for those guys. But for the most part I like power surge a lot, I feel the proc rate is almost the same in single target, where power surge is a little less frequent against raid bosses, but the aoe proc is insanely high. And im too lazy to switch runes. If my guild were doing heat level 3 i probably would go maelstrom.
Can go riptide for the self heals for reliability
Ya I'm thinking for raid bosses I'll probably do that as it also triggers power surge too
It does trigger PS. I even have be testing the cloak rune that bugfs chain lightning and chain heal rune
Can you share a little bit more details about your rota or prio list?
I'm usually very lazy in dungeons and dont totem, but if i need to ill totem first and project them into combat after pulling. I usually start with getting threat on every mob first, so i start with flame shock to pull, into molten blast, use earth shock for taunting and interrupting (keeping another rank 1 earth shock on my hotbar if i have mana issues) once i feel like every mob is tagged i use fire nova on cooldown, and it usually goes fire nova into flame shock or molten blast into magma totem, i just need 1 gcd for the nova to go off before using magma, if its a raid boss ill use earth shock first into molten blast for very high threat and then flame shock into magma. Also using power surge procs when i can. Once all threat is accomplished, my aoe prio list is fire nova > flame shock > magma > CL > molten blast. That is just my preference and it changes depending on how big the pull is.
nobody told me that alliance is shit. I supposed to pick horde instead in this game.
@@unaddan ya from what I've heard horde do more DPS in raids but alliance have much better healing
@@gamerpawsitive it's not only about raiding. horde seems to be better in every aspect.
@@unaddan Ya it honestly feels like that, I think in phase 1 the pvp was fairly even. But in phase 2 we won just about every BG, shaman difference honestly. I'll link my phase 2 pvp vid at the end of this and you can see how broken they were. Phase 3 I did end up not playing at all. But in phase 4 I feel like we win 90% of AV even while alliance have the bridge choke point upper hand on us.
th-cam.com/video/iAEb8lnaWRY/w-d-xo.html
stats on gear u get some int or pure defense?
375 stam 185 int and 424 def. When I was tanking ony though I had 14k HP + 243 Fire Resist. I prioritize life and defense more than anything. And after doing ony last night I learned that hit is very important as she resisted quite a bit. Since we are entirely based on spell damage, we need very high hit, I believe spell hit cap is 16% iirc.