Some question about priest and shaman

[lethial]

Please forgive my newbie-ness, but here it goes.

On priest:

1. Is shadow priest that good in PvP? I have seen lots of +shadow resist stuff drop in places like BRS, strat, schol, etc. I know that the +resist stuff is kinda bugged right now, but I am wondering if it is "fixed" it will greatly reduce the effectiveness of shadow preists in pvp.

2. Any pvp tips for a 31/20 holy/disp dwarven priest? I can hold my own in group pvp and against casters, but melee tears me apart... I go by the "live and let live" standard (yes I know this is idiotic for a pvp server priest, but I just don't want to ruin someone else's fun :( ) So usually the melee class will get to me first...

Being on the alliance side, PS is not very effective, since warriors can gain immunity to fear both as skill and through the BS trinket. Of course UD has WoF... Shamans have purge and frost/earth shock and great melee dmg...

So anyway to keep the distance in these situations? I know i suck at pvp and have much to learn so please any small tip would be good (yes I do keep on moving around, and I do shield and heal and MC in desperation etc.)

Now onto shaman stuff:

I am completely new to the horde side, and so far I am enjoying it very much (I play on a different pvp server of course, as opposed to the always crashing frostwolf...sigh) but I would love any insight on soloing, grp strategies. I don't want to be a pvp-exclusive shaman, I mainly want to be good in groups and can hold my own when situation arises, anything in particular i should learn to do?

I have noticed that melee chars get a lot better through equip, so I am wondering what would be better for a shaman: focus on melee dmg and AC and hp, or int/spi/ac. I cry everytime when i see awesome melee stuff drop and I cannot use it :( (btw devout robe looks like crap on alliance male... ) If it is possible could you guys elaborate a bit on the pros/cons of a melee oriented or a spell dmg oriented or a heal oriented build of shaman?

I know I am asking many weird questions, but like i said any little bit of help would be great.

Thanks much.
Ronik - frostwolf (alliance gimp) burning blade (shammy wannabe)

[Firecrak]

For the first 40 levels of a shaman, its pretty much standard, if not optimal, to spec enhance down to parry. Improved windfury is good too. Get Imp LS, Imp GW, Ancestra/Shield (your choice, they both sorta suck), Thundering, Flurry, Parry. The rest drop in restoration till you hit NS, by which time you will be 53? and can decide if you want to go elemental/restore or stay enhance/X. Enhance is great for the first 40 levels, as your leather gear + weapons will all have str/stam/agil stas, harder to procure int gear at that level, unless you like wearing cloth. Also the enhance spec works alot better in solo and is useful in groups, until warriors begin to ramp up past plate, CC becomes more difficult and mobs begin to come at you 4 at a time. Then I would recommend dropping back to an elemental/restore spec, with stam/int build.

Either way, play it how you like it.

As for shadow priests...the one i team with outdps's the mage i team with regularly in the long run on single targets. Absolutely deadly in pvp.

[lethial]

Thanks for the awesome run through. I will try what you suggested.

But about shadow priest, I know that they are awesome. But after hitting 60 going through harder dungeons ppl tend to want me to be holy :(

Also UD priests have the awesome WoF too and nice race specific DoT (granted it can be dispelled, but only priest and pallie on the alliance side can do that, err not sure about pally though)

I am wondering if tehre is any viable way to 1v1 pvp as a holy priest

[Blacktastic]

lemental Combat Talents (9 points)

# Concussion - 5/5 points
Increases the damage done by your Shock spells by 5%.

# Convection - 4/5 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your Shock spells by 8%.



Enhancement Talents (21 points)

# Ancestral Knowledge - 5/5 points
Increases your maximum Mana by 5%.

# Thundering Strikes - 5/5 points
Improves your chance to get a critical strike with your weapon attacks by 5%.

# Improved Lightning Shield - 3/3 points
Increases the damage done by your Lightning Shield orbs by 15%.

# Improved Ghost Wolf - 1/2 point
Reduces the cast time of your Ghost Wolf spell by 1 second.

# Two-Handed Axes and Maces - 1/1 point
Allows you to use Two-Handed Axes and Two-Handed Maces.

# Flurry - 5/5 points
Increases your attack speed by 30% for your next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike.

# Parry - 1/1 point
Gives a chance to parry melee attacks.



Restoration Talents (21 points)

# Improved Healing Wave - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Healing Wave spell by 0.5 seconds.

# Tidal Focus - 5/5 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your healing spells by 5%.

# Improved Lesser Healing Wave - 4/5 points
Gives you a 60% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting Lesser Healing Wave.

# Combat Endurance - 1/1 point
Allows 10% of your Health regeneration to work while in combat.

# Tidal Mastery - 5/5 points
Increases the critical effect chance of your healing and Nature damage spells by 5%.

# Nature's Swiftness - 1/1 point
When activated, your next Nature spell with a casting time less than 10 seconds becomes an instant cast spell.


----------------------

This was pretty much my build from 1-60

spec enhancement to parry then spec restoration tree. after that you can dump the points into elemental or rest into restoration. this is pretty decent for pve but some shaman like respeccing elemental/restoration at 60. IMO elem is better for pvp, but in a pve situation, groups would prefer you to be a secondary healer.

[Afgar]

If you're enhance / rest it's probably better for you to go deeper into those trees than skimming the elemental tree. I'd take Imp windfury over ~4% shock mana cost anyday.

[lethial]

Thanks a lot guys! Now I am going to ask more questions :)

First about talents:

Is # Two-Handed Axes and Maces really necessary? I would think that towards the end, a shammy would want to have more AC and more stat mods. (I have seen some shields that not only gave lots of AC but also great stats, side note: what does "x block" on shield really mean?)

I understand that with windfury shammies can make good use of 2handers that has large max dmg. But how often does windfury proc anyway? Do I need more agi equip so that it proc more?

Also are there any high tier talents that you guys think is useful?

About stats:

What stats should I be looking for? As a melee shammy, should I go sta/agi/int/str/spi ? Or str/sta/agi/int/spi. I know that for a more healing or magic dmg oriented shammy I should put most points in int/sta/spi...

Actually, (maybe I am just over-analyzing) shammy's stat is more complicated then other classes. For one, spi is actually useful for a shammy. But to make it useful, the said shammy need to be able to with stand a fair amount of melee, which means stat like str and agi will be important too. How should I balance this all out?

About racial choice:

I have a tauren shammy right now, and I love it. War Stomp is nice, also people seem much more friendly. But I heard that with the +5 in axe that orc get, windfury proc more, so it is better to play a orc shammy? What about the troll's regen? What do you guys think?

Edit: forgot about profession

what kind of profession should I take? BS is good for the weapon. Eng is good for the neat trinkets. LW seem to be good for the money since there are so many rogues out there :roll: what do you guys think?


Finally a lvling question for shamans.

I am very unfamiliar with the horde side of things. Any tip on where I should be questing for different lvl ranges?

Thank you so much

[suisydl]

I'm currently using ravager, look that one up as it's godly for shamans and i've seen 60 shammies who could get better gear still using it.

windfury usually procs at least once per fight, but i've seen how it'll proc 2-3 times per fight sometimes, usually against mobs 1-2 lvls lower. also, if windfury procs twice, chances are the fight is now over! =)

flurry/windfury/ravager is just a synergy i'm not willling to give up. best to find the highest TOP END damage weapon(dont worry about minimums or speed) and swing away!

[lethial]

I'm currently using ravager, look that one up as it's godly for shamans and i've seen 60 shammies who could get better gear still using it.

windfury usually procs at least once per fight, but i've seen how it'll proc 2-3 times per fight sometimes, usually against mobs 1-2 lvls lower. also, if windfury procs twice, chances are the fight is now over! =)

flurry/windfury/ravager is just a synergy i'm not willling to give up. best to find the highest TOP END damage weapon(dont worry about minimums or speed) and swing away!

heh I have seen that thing drop.... I wish that I could use it :) (it is a shame that shammy can't use sword, because I really dig that sword that proc silence too :) )

Anyway do you mind share your talent? What about your profession? What stat do you meanly focus on? Oh and do I have to grind lots?(Just curious because I see ppl complain about horde side quests lacking)

[suisydl]

well, keep in mind that i'm a 39 tauren shammie who is not affilitated with nurfed and who (up until a short time ago) primarily solos, so my build might not be the 'best' build. I am, however, happy to share it.

My Build

Class: Shaman
Level: 39
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elemental Combat Talents (8 points)

Concussion - 5/5 points
Increases the damage done by your Shock spells by 5%.

Convection - 3/5 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your Shock spells by 6%.


Enhancement Talents (22 points)

Ancestral Knowledge - 5/5 points
Increases your maximum Mana by 5%.

Thundering Strikes - 5/5 points
Improves your chance to get a critical strike with your weapon attacks by 5%.

Improved Ghost Wolf - 2/2 points
Reduces the cast time of your Ghost Wolf spell by 2 second.

Improved Lightning Shield - 3/3 points
Increases the damage done by your Lightning Shield orbs by 15%.

Two-Handed Axes and Maces - 1/1 point
Allows you to use Two-Handed Axes and Two-Handed Maces.

Flurry - 5/5 points
Increases your attack speed by 30% for your next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike.

Parry - 1/1 point
Gives a chance to parry melee attacks.


Restoration Talents (0 points)

None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thats it so far, I've never seen the point in Restoration tree early, so everyone and their brother will dismiss me as a 'bad' shaman, but this build hasn't hurt me so far in my solo'ing up the levels. Since I've started grouping, I will be respec'ing real soon, but running up the enhancement tree 1st and foremost will help you greatly in getting up to around 40. @ 40 you will start grouping more and becoming more of a totem/healing spammer, when the restoration tree becomes more important.

As far as profession, I've tried most of them and I can only see myself doing Leatherworking/Skinning for a number of reasons.

1. it scales as you level, you can always turn ruined leather scraps into thick leather if you have enuf. no other profession lets you do that.
2. no time out of killing to craft, you kill then you skin, repeat. none of that, 'hey i need to go pick flowers/mine to raise my skill. At this time, I'm lvl 39 with a 300 skinning and 240 L/W just from skinning and crafting while killing.

As for grinding, I haven't seen a reason to grind yet, but then again, I'm not one of those people who just HAVE to get to 60 in a week either. I like playing the entire game and savoring all the content, not just the end game stuff.

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, feel free to post em. I'm at work and bored. :lol:

[IN-QQQQ]

I'm currently using ravager, look that one up as it's godly for shamans and i've seen 60 shammies who could get better gear still using it.

windfury usually procs at least once per fight, but i've seen how it'll proc 2-3 times per fight sometimes, usually against mobs 1-2 lvls lower. also, if windfury procs twice, chances are the fight is now over! =)

flurry/windfury/ravager is just a synergy i'm not willling to give up. best to find the highest TOP END damage weapon(dont worry about minimums or speed) and swing away!

heh I have seen that thing drop.... I wish that I could use it :) (it is a shame that shammy can't use sword, because I really dig that sword that proc silence too :) )

Anyway do you mind share your talent? What about your profession? What stat do you meanly focus on? Oh and do I have to grind lots?(Just curious because I see ppl complain about horde side quests lacking)

Errr you sure you have seen that Ravenger Drop? Are you sure your talking about the same thing here? Cause it doesn't proc a Silence.

The Ravneger is an AX. and a 2-handed Shaman spec CAN use it. As a matter of fact, I AM a SHAMAN, and I am Currently using it. =)

It's an AX!!! =)

[suisydl]

I think he means that he wishes he had a ravager to use, and, as a seperate issue, he wishes he could use a sword so he could use the sword that procs silence.

[lethial]

Lol sorry about the confusion there. I am really not THAT much of a newb :) Okay on horde side I am...

But yeah I was talking about Silent Fang which was the sword that stupid Darkmaster in schol dropped... And it proc so damn much on a blade fury rogue...

I also helped the warrior friend of mine to make his arcnite reaper... damn it needed so many arc bars...

Maybe it is time that I put my profile up on wowranking or something so people don't think I am just a joker :wink:

[eternity]

If a warrior or any melee class uses immunity to fear and gets in close as a priest, pw:s yourself then mind control them, then walk them away from you. Thats how to deal with immunity to fear.

Eternity
Tichondrius - horde

[lethial]

If a warrior or any melee class uses immunity to fear and gets in close as a priest, pw:s yourself then mind control them, then walk them away from you. Thats how to deal with immunity to fear.

Eternity
Tichondrius - horde

That is exactly what I did. But for some reason it seem that when I needed MC to work the most it always get resisted or don't last long enough...

Are you a shadow specced priest? I am wondering if shadow priests have a better sucess of using MC even without the shadow focues talent (the one that decrease the chance that shadow spell gets resisted)

Along that line of thought, what are your thoughts on shadow resistance and things like MC and fear?

thanks