the problem with Shaman

[The Zrogfather]

Rottenheart Wrote:

i started a shaman because they can heal and fight starting at lvl 1

if u like i will build a priest instead

The problem with shaman as healers are:

1) they like to be nukers, and generate a lot of hate with shocks
2) they have very mana-inefficient heals
3) they have limited types of healing
4) they have a relatively small mana pool compared to priests
5) shaman are generally not specced for healing until endgame instances.


EDIT June 13-05
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On the other hand, Shaman are some of the best soloers around, and are VERY hard to kill one-on-one in PVP. They are also very versatile and can serve adequately as a tank, DPS, or healer in most pre-level-45 instance groups.

Zrog / Brun

[malexandra]

/Agreed. When grouping as a shammy, remember your spec and your reason for being there. You are versatile, but don't lose focus of what you need to be doing.

It's very easy to accidentally get aggro from Earth shock, or find yourself out of mana when you need to heal because you wanted to throw down a windfury totem to help the melee.

Your spec will directly affect your ability to heal in instances. Ench shammies shouldn't be healing anymore than as backup for an OOM priest/druid, as they don't have the mana pool or the nice talents to make up for it. Elemental shammies are able to heal well, but you still don't have the nice talents for it, and you'd probably prefer to nuke, right? ;D

[firebreather]

coming from a vet shaman i can say this.
we are good at one on one and pvp but not pve, we can kill things higher than us but battles are very long.
as for groups i see the shaman as a less squishy druid with a drop in healing all about timing.

[a rotten guest]

i love shaman

in bg i try to hang out near them to enjoy the windfury totems....its like being fully arms and fury specced at the same time

some of my best games/scores have come when there are several shaman in the grp