A list of Shaman tricks and tips
by Dan O'Halloran 
Oct 11th 2007 at 9:03AM
I love finding resources like this list of Shaman tricks on the EU forums. It's little tips like these that separate the good players from the great players. You know the players I'm talking about. They're the ones who make you want to roll one of their class because they're doing such a great job. Yeah, I think they all posted on this thread.The post is divided into three sections: general, PvP and PvE. The PvE section is further divided by raid zone. And it never hurts to show off how good you are at playing your class during a raid.
Some highlights after the jump.
- Earth Shield heals depending on the +heal you have when you cast it, not when it procs. This is why in important fights you should take the trouble of equipping your best +heal gear, put down Wrath of Air totem and cast it, then go back to the gear you will actually use in the fight (which might be mp5 oriented for example)
- Poison cleansing and tremor totems tick when put down. As such to break a team mates fear just drop one near them. Same with poison cleansing. It's sometimes worth spamming poison cleansing totem to remove multiple effects quickly.
- You can use Searing Totem to force opponents to enter combat, for instance when you see a warrior running up to you. He'll be forced to intercept instead.
- Fighting rogues: If you see a rogue stealthing coming for you drop the searing totem poison cleansing totem grace of air and STONECLAW totem and move away form them like 10 yards. The rogue will sap you and then go destroy the totems, the stun will give you time to go out and frostshock him.
- Select a mob/boss which can cast heals etc and type /focus. Then using the macro "/cast [Target=Focus] Earth Shock(Rank 1)", you are able to interrupt the mob immediately, without having to deselect the tank/raid members you are currently healing. (Very useful on the Fathomlord Encounter vs the Healer). Would also work with purge to allow you to remove buffs from bosses without having to select them.
EDIT: Fixed spelling mistake quoted from original post.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zumwalah Oct 11th 2007 9:34AM
oh i have quite a few shaman tricks. like dont drop grounding totem till the mage wands all your other totems down.
when healing in a raid environment, or ne place where the tank will need huge heals us rank 1 Healing wave to stack the Healing wave buff before combat so ur first healing wave gets hat full +18% bonus
davidchillier Oct 11th 2007 9:42AM
Umm when fighting rogue's magma breaks stealth thats what you use. Why grace...for the dodge? Use totems based on what they do for your group not a specific one vs one match up.
and add a /stopcast to he first line of your macro.
Aoe pulls: Earth shield the main aoe'er drop stoneskin and grace of air... the mage will love you.
Rank 4 chain heal is one of if not the best heal per mana spells out there.
Waggerz Oct 11th 2007 9:49AM
A fun little trick for elemental or resto shamans such as myself (I used mostly in kara).
Place and recall an earth bind totem in order to aggro level 1 critters in an instance. They immediately start attacking you doing 1 damage per hit and proccing your Mana shield as soon as it GCD is ready.
As long as your team mates dont kill the rat/grub/whatever with AOE (or from spite) you have the best mana regen available.
Just be careful though, it will leave you and your group stuck in combat while it chews on you so you wont be able to eat or drink till he's dead.
and it wont be as useful with the tasty mana shield changes coming in 2.3
But it sure helped my mana regen back when we were trying to clear Kara :)
Fireflash38 Oct 11th 2007 10:04AM
Use your grounding totem as an interrupt for casts, not as a prevention. Also, drop it right when you cast a heal, it will eat up the CS.
Against frost mages: Kill the elemental fast, LOSing the mage if you can.
hpavc Oct 11th 2007 10:16AM
Drop spell check totem before submitting.
"clansing posion"
blackwolf675 Oct 11th 2007 10:23AM
--#1 rule - drop totems based on the best group benefit.
--Flame-based totems seem to draw their own aggro randomly - it's not always reliable, but you can end up getting them to work like second grounding totems (worked noticably on Baron, Maiden and in BM with the casting dragon kin).
--I try to stack all my totems up against a wall in instance hallways - it keeps them out of the way for people who like to click their targets.
Gazmik Fizzwidget Oct 11th 2007 2:56PM
I don't believe the macro suggested at the end of the article will work (haven't tested, though)... since 2.2.0, macro conditionals are case-sensitive and should be all lowercase. So:
/cast [target=focus] Earth Shock(Rank 1)