by Oscar Wellington

Created on: June 23, 2009

Shamans are one of the easier classes to level up. Their ability to heal themselves, as well as the capacity to do massive damage places them head and shoulders above many other classes. As a shaman, a player has the choice to level as Elemental, Enhancement, or Restoration.

In the first ten to twenty levels, shamans can be a bit boring. Don't give up however, as their fun level only increases as their spell book and talents fatten. When starting out, use only lightning bolt in conjunction with melee to kill mobs. Cast lightning bolt three to four times to pull, and then only melee. If mana permits, cast earth shock, but otherwise avoid it as this is a large mana sink. Flame shock becomes viable as you level up because it deals damage over time while a player continues to melee the mob. Frost shock is a huge damage burst near level 20, and it should be used every so often to speed up leveling time. Wind shock should never be used while leveling.

As far as totems go, they are viable in the aid of leveling only at early levels. Searing totem, stoneskin, and mana spring are particularly helpful for those first thirty levels, but after that, shamans usually kill mobs so quickly that it is often a waste to lay them down as a player will move out of their range (unless a shaman is restoration). Now it is time to choose a talent specialization: Elemental, Enhancement, or Restoration.

Elemental follows the caster style of mages and warlocks, except instead of magic and demonic spells, shamans focus on flinging lightning and manipulating the natural elements such as frost and fire to do their bidding. Elemental allows for the shaman to kill most mobs within seconds. This is particularly useful for leveling as it reduces the amount of healing needed. What's even better is that many elemental talents improve all spell casting, so heals as an elemental shaman, while not the specialty, will be quite effective. Elemental does a lot of DPS, and while downtime can be an issue, it is usually nothing more than an annoyance, especially with water shield.

With elemental, use lightning bolt 4-5 times or until the mob is near dead, then whack it a few times with a melee weapon or simply use an elemental shock. Ignore totems unless you will be killing a lot of mobs in a small area. If so, use mana spring, stoneskin, and searing totem (Totem of wrath replaces this at later levels). Always enchant your weapon with flametongue, always keep water shield up, and remember to allow

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