Leveling with a tank partner.

[Anthilia 0]

I am looking for a bit of advice on leveling as a shaman.  I never played Shaman back in Classic WoW, the earliest I played a shaman was in cataclysm when dwarf was able to become a shaman.  With that said I am looking for a little bit of advice on the best way to level my shaman.  I will be constantly grouped with my girlfriend who is rolling a warrior.  We like to do dungeons, and I like to heal so we will have tank/heals covered making grouping very easy for us.  With that said I have a few questions that I would love if others could answer.

 

1.)  I know people generally advice against leveling in dungeons unless you do it just the 1 time to complete quests, but I feel having a tank AND healer already will make this method of leveling a bit more viable than usual since the time to fill the group will be negligible since all we have to do is find DPS for the instance.  Will this be a plausible leveling option?  I am okay with it not being perfectly optimal and taking a bit longer but if it is say 3-5x longer than I will forego doing it and stick to just running dungeons a few times with quests.

 

2.) From my reading of several private server forums I have read that one of the fastest ways to level would be fast dagger + shield + flametongue for decent dps and being fairly sturdy with the shield.  Since I will be leveling with a warrior I don't need to worry about being the sturdy one, nor do I need to be in melee at all.  Does anyone have recommendations on what I should spec?  Do I want to go elemental and chuck lightning bolts and throw a heal or two on the warrior to reduce downtime?  Do I want to go resto and play heal bot to completely remove downtime all together?  Should enhance still be a consideration?  I do plan on healing dungeons so feel enhance is the worst choice I can make for spec but I am open to suggestions.

 

3.)  If I do go elemental to help speed up kills at what level should is it recommended that I respec to Resto and start running dungeons full-time? mid-40's when ZF and ST become spammable? Upper 50s for BRD and similar dungeons?  58 for Scholo/Strat? Just quest all the way up and respec at 60?

 

4.)  Not really a question but I know shaman is very different in classic than in cataclysm which is when I first got one above level 15 so if anyone has any pointers I am all ears!  I have already read the stickies here and am itching to get into it!

 

Also, we will be rolling on the PVE server so world pvp does not need to factor into the decision making process on spec.

[Drain 19]

If you're always grouped with a Warrior, DPS is not a concern for you. Consider going Restoration, to simply keep that Warrior swinging, and she will do all of the damage for you. A Warrior with heals has no reason to stop fighting. She will not run out of rage anytime soon. Her health (or your mana) running out is the only reason to stop. Heals are more mana efficient than damage.

[vanillalord 0]

personally I'm going to do the same with my brother(warrior/druid) as I've done it before. spamming dungeons is fine(you get good gold on top of it). I'd recommend speccing resto and let the warrior go arms for sweeping strikes. you could simply grind mobs with almost 0 downtime(and alot of mobs because of warrior aoe). very solid choice to go warrior/shaman , you shouldn't worry really. if you somehow get a warlock to level with you, that would be absolutely perfect because you could summon people to the dungeons and it would be just as group finder in retail

[Undertanker 88]

As I posted in your other tread in warrior forums, I'd recommend your "tank" go fury til 40 then arms til 60.  

 

"You won't spam instances, only do them when you both have the quest.   Only about 5-8% of your time would be invested in 5 mans while leveling, no reason to go heal/tank specs and gimp yourselves 92%+ of the time in the open world."

 

A good leveling path if you have a partner (talents involve the warrior taking majority of damage)

 

By level 20:

 

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hZxV0z  -  this allows you to be an effective partner with melee combat rather than spamming spells, save your mana for totems, spot healing, and occasional shock.

 

By level 30:

 

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hZxV0zZV0x - hit the talents in the restro tree to further reduce mana cost of yoru totems and spot healing to decrease down time for you and your partner.

 

By level 40:

 

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hZxV0zZVzez0x - increase hit of melee and spells = more damage per second, more chance for successful interrupts.   Increase your healing and spell damage of lightning spells as well. 

 

By level 50:

 

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hZxi0dVZVzez0xo - get Nature's Swiftness in restro tree to give you a burst heal OR burst damage while playing together.  You'll have enough talents to heal the 5 mans until the end game 5 mans.    Now go back into Enhancement tree, upgrade your totems to move down the tree and get Flurry for more mana-free DPS.

 

Finish at 60:

 

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hZxi0dVMhxVzez0xo - the last 10 talents will increase you and your partner's dps.  No brainer.

 

You can then both respec as prot / restoration at this point.

 

*note, take advantage of the 5 second in combat mana back mechanic* your spirit mana regen kicks in if you don't use mana for 5+ seconds.  So feel free to OPEN a fight while grinding with a nuke + Shock, drop a totem, and then only melee.   Top off your partner with a heal at the end if needed, run to the next mob.  Only top them off if they are low hp, if they are mid HP, their out of combat HP regen should get them to a more comfortable level by the time you run to the next mob and pull it.    This way your mana regen continues and doesn't pause for an additional 5 seconds.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Undertanker

[Undertanker 88]

I feel having a tank AND healer already will make this method of leveling a bit more viable than usual since the time to fill the group will be negligible since all we have to do is find DPS for the instance.  Will this be a plausible leveling option?

 

No.   Even solo as a warrior in green gear, I can grind a level mid 30s in 2 hours.  I could spam the same instance and take 4-5 hours.  (only counting the time clearing the instance)  Add travel time and even though you only have to find DPS, you'll still be waiting for them to cross the world on foot to get to you.

 

The comment about dagger/shield is for somebody soloing.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Undertanker

[Lmn75 6]

Along the lines of what OP said, but not as complex, me and me wife plan to play Shaman (me) and Mage (her). We saw around the Interwebz that it is a good combination. Any quick thought on that, please? Things like specs, rotations, professions etc.

Further details (if needed): we plan on playing on the PVE, doing dungeons only for the quests (unless there be some items worth to do other runs) and mostly quests, exploration, and last but not least, socializing leading up to landing in a nice guild to go on raids (this is the "scariest" part when reading all the shaman articles: ending up as a raid heal bot or experimenting and getting left out of raids )

 

Thanks in advance.

 

P.S: sorry if this is considered intruding on OPs post

Edited December 5, 2016 by Lmn75

[eukal 1]

Leveling with a mage sounds like fun.

 

I guess I would go with something like this:

 

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hZxVfzV0utVoezV

 

Which is not far from my standard 0/31/20 raiding build:

 

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hZxVbdVMhtVoezV

 

With this you will have most of the important Enhancer talents, except melee support, and you got imp Lightning Shield, which could come in handy holding threat.

And you got better offheal/totem uptime thanks to restroration, plus Totemic Mastery which is always nice.

Restorative Totems is quite nice too while grinding, especially with other mana classes in the group.

And you obviously got 3% hit + spell hit.

 

In theory I would aoe the trash most of the time with a frost skilled mage.

If needed you can tank the mobs easily (with a shield and Flametongue), but it should be more mana efficient to just kite them.

You can kite everything with blizzard/frostnova/earthbind and ofc use fire Totems.

 

If you dont mind going completely without WF for the leveling, you could use something like this:

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hZxVf0V0uZVoezV

Or even without Elemental Weapons.

Using the left points in for example Shield Specialization (never rly tested it, but should be better than dodge or %armor while leveling) or 5/5 Convection + Call of Flame 2/3 for even more clear. Be aware that you are missing Weapon Mastery, you might wanna stick with this, 10% more damage with all weapon is quite good.

 

Professions...

If  you wanna do PvP go with engi and mining.

If you wanna get rich take herbalism/alchemy/enchanting/leatherworking, something like this.

 

You can easily offheal dungeons while leveling with some off gear, especially if you already got the resto points.

 

After you get 60 you should play resto.

If you want to stick to enhancement go with this:

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hZxVbdVMhtVoezV

And start to get pre raid BiS gear and Nightfall as fast as possible, most of the guilds won't take you without.

Some guilds are going with one enhancer, some even with two.

But be aware that most of them won't use any.

 

Good luck

 

Eukal

Edited December 5, 2016 by eukal

[Lmn75 6]

Leveling with a mage sounds like fun.

 

...

 

Good luck

 

Eukal

 

Thanks a lot, my good man! We will experiment as much as possible with this.

 

Edit: But I don't see anything about elemental shaman, even though when I first googled good combinations in vanilla it said Elemental Shaman + Mage (can't recall which spec though). What can ya tell me about Ele Shammie?

Edited December 6, 2016 by Lmn75

[Undertanker 88]

Thanks a lot, my good man! We will experiment as much as possible with this.

 

Edit: But I don't see anything about elemental shaman, even though when I first googled good combinations in vanilla it said Elemental Shaman + Mage (can't recall which spec though). What can ya tell me about Ele Shammie?

 

You'll go OOM a lot, you already have a mage partner doing that.  You should stay the enhance/restro spec like a couple of us mentioned above so you can begin fighting the next mob while the mage drinks from time to time.   Both of you sitting is gonna slow you down.   You can still open up with elemental abilities but you'll want to finish the second 50% of the mobs HP with not casting spells and relying on your auto attacks so your mana regens at the same time.

 

At 60 when doing PVP, then by all means go deep into the elemental tree when partnered with a mage.

[Lmn75 6]

 

 

Thanks!

[Undertanker 88]

No prob. The mage spec will actually be the one that changes, they can level as fire since you have frost shock when needed.

[Lmn75 6]

No prob. The mage spec will actually be the one that changes, they can level as fire since you have frost shock when needed.

 

You mean if I go elemental at 60 for pvp? Because if I understood everything correctly so far up until 60 I should go enh+resto and she should go mainly frost for optimum efficiency, right?

[Undertanker 88]

The mage can level as fire if always with you. Since they will not need the survivability that comes with frost spec, might as well do more damage. Mage solo leveling relies on shatter spec, (+50% chance to crit frozen targets) you will be breaking these freezes with your damage, gimping the mages damage. So they can just go fire to avoid that.

The mage should put first few points in frost tree to lower resistance (increase hit with frost and fire), then go up the fire tree.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Undertanker

[Undertanker 88]

Level 20: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#oZeZ0h

Level 30: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#oZE0GzbZ0h

Level 40: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#oZExGzbzuZ0h

Level 51: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#oZExGubcut0h

Do as you will with the rest, 9 levels. Can put them in arcane for reduce resist on your sheep's, and work on clear casting until 60, then respec POM pyro for PvP or Arcane/frost or deep frost for PvE.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Undertanker

[Lmn75 6]

Oh wow, you took the time to do the specs for my wife! Thanks a lot, Undertanker. So many nice people, this is getting me even more hyped for the upcoming launch!

[Undertanker 88]

No prob. Don't let the toxic loud people cloud your view of people that are willing to help.

[Lmn75 6]

Never