Race/Spec combos for PVE & PVP

[Crowley 8]

((I stole this from Nostalrius's forum from "sgtnanners" someone asked what the best race/spec combos were - I found this to be  quick and helpful))


PVE:
Restoration: Troll(berserking)(NOT SURE IF WORKING ON NOST)
Elemental: Troll(berserking)(NOT SURE IF WORKING ON NOST)
Enhancement: Orc (+5 glancing axes & blood fury)

PVP:
Restoration: orc or tauren
Elemental: orc or tauren
Enhancement: orc

It really is up in the air pvp wise between orc and tauren. I however, would not advise tauren if you simply want to play enhancement pvp because the war stomp is most suited for quick nukes or heals(need the +spellpower/healing from being resto/elemental to get the most out of it). The orc stun resistance is extremely good with all three pvp specs so if you want the most well rounded and arguably(the best shaman race for pvp) go orc.

Edited December 12, 2016 by Crowley

[Asherdoom 5]

all race/spec combination are viable. this is not cataclysm in vanilla wow you can pretty much do what you wish thout major impact in gameplay (me myself cleared up to Khel thuzad back in retail as elemental shamana / orc race)

 

btw one advice: if you wish to powerplay i suggest enh shaman ONLY orc due to BLOODFURY (5%hp is nothing compared to AP boost of orc)

[Hirag 0]

AP bonus plus hit point with axe (nightfall). Orc is the most versatile race. But tauren racial are really good for PvP. Troll for PvE (Resto).

And orc are really badass !

Edited December 16, 2016 by Hirag

[TugsTugs 0]

I've heard that Improved Fire Totems is pretty great for Elemental Tauren. It cuts 2 seconds off the fire nova activation time, that, added to your aoe stun, pretty much guarantees that you will always hit with the totem.

 

The thing is, that every other spec is just as important for Elemental sham, you can maybe take points from Storm Reach, which puts you great disadvantage against hunters and reduces your ability to stay out of the frying pan in group pvp, or Reverberation, which reduces your utility since as a shaman you want to interrupt with your Earth Shock as much as possible.

[Aethelwulf 12]

Best Shaman race is hands down Tauren. Orcs are a bad pick: Blood Fury's -50% to heals you receive is suicide for a healing class and the 25% AP bonus only counts base AP, not total AP. The #1 reason to go Orc is Hardiness, which would be good, but your Shaman trinket already breaks a stun (and a Living Action Potion can break a second stun), which is much more dependable than a 25% resist chance. Axe specialization is mostly good for PvE as Enhance where hit chance and glancing blows are much larger issues unlike PvP where glancing blows are not a thing and capping hit chance is a cinch, and seeing as enhance is not a raid-capable spec, no one cares about the PvE benefits, not to mention if you're just focusing on weapon DPS odds are you will find yourself equipping weapons that aren't axes while leveling.

So just to recap:

Blood Fury = suicide

Hardiness = unnecessary

Axe spec = irrelevant

Tauren on the other hand contributes two very valuable things. One is Endurance, a racial +5% health, which is always good, especially in PvP. And the other is a racial aoe 2sec stun which does not GCD (giving you time to cast trinket Lesser Healing Wave for instance, or lightning if you're Elemental spec) on a class that has zero crowd control. The ability to guarantee a Lesser Healing Wave (or lightning, if ele) in a pinch is extremely powerful and should not be underestimated. War Stomp is simply amazing for Shamans and it is the reason why every good Shaman should play Tauren.

 

Troll is just bad. The only thing worth mentioning is Berserking and even if you manage to get the full 30% cast speed bonus from a low health activation, you will only get 3 seconds' worth of extra casts if you are somehow casting without any interruptions for the full 10 seconds of duration without dying. If you can do that, you were probably winning the fight already anyway. So Berserking is a trap because it looks good but in reality it wont change anything, unlike War Stomp which (as long as your are in melee range) can guarantee you 2 seconds of your enemy being stunned for you to cast a clutch heal or (if ele) start a lightning burst combo and wait for that autoattack swing timer to go down. War Stomp turns around fights. Berserking and Blood Fury do not.

all race/spec combination are viable. this is not cataclysm in vanilla wow you can pretty much do what you wish thout major impact in gameplay (me myself cleared up to Khel thuzad back in retail as elemental shamana / orc race)

 

btw one advice: if you wish to powerplay i suggest enh shaman ONLY orc due to BLOODFURY (5%hp is nothing compared to AP boost of orc)

 

No, this is very, very wrong. Racials are very significant during vanilla for both PvE and PvP. The biggest example of racial disparity is on Alliance for Night Elf Priest vs Dwarf Priest. The former will typically get rejected outright by high-end raiding guilds and get told to reroll a Dwarf. The latter will get guild invites long before he ever reaches 60. For PvP, the difference between playing a Troll Mage and Undead Mage will also determine fights against Priests or Warlocks because Will of the Forsaken is just that powerful. For Shamans, the difference between having War Stomp and not having War Stomp is also immense in PvP. Sure, you can play without War Stomp, but then you're just playing with a handicap.

Edited December 22, 2016 by Aethelwulf

[Chikungunya 1]

Elemental shaman viable in PVE ? I don't think so.

[Aethelwulf 12]

Ele is mostly a PvP build. That said, with AQ40, it becomes possible to gear enough nature penetration to raid as Elemental (especially if your tanks have Thunderfury for the nature pen debuff). Shamans actually have extremely powerful spell DPS scaling on their lightning bolts and chain lightning. (You can obtain +50% DPS from the 1sec cast time reduction, +11% crit chance, +5% damage, and +3% hit chance on your lightning from your talent build.) The two main problems for Shamans are mana consumption and the presence of nature resistance on nearly everything (there is also the lack of threat reduction, but that's no different from Warlocks), but with the right gear, consumables, and maybe some friendly mana tides, it is actually possible to raid late AQ40 and Naxx as Ele and do DPS comparable to Warlocks. However, before AQ, there just isn't enough spell penetration to go around for Shamans and a lot of raids even have nature immune mobs.

It is also possible to go up and melee enemies and time your spellcasts between your autoattacks just right so you can cast and auto-attack simultaneously. If you do this right, your DPS can reach such absurd heights that you will be in serious danger of stealing aggro and dying. You might able to raid as a DPS sooner if you master this.

Edited December 25, 2016 by Aethelwulf

[telabim 0]

Lightning bolt scales extremely well with +spellpower (idk the ratio but I've been told its almost 1:1).  So being aq40 geared (conservative estimate at +500 spellpower and another few hundred in consumables) you can be putting out some work with your fast cast times.