New Drenai Shaman (Questions)
 

Ok...

So I like the idea of leveling a shaman and having some fun with the various totem combinations, specs, and all that, and was wondering if you could help me regarding determining the absolute *MUST HAVE* addons and macros that I will need/want to use while leveling up and for end-game raiding.

I was just apprised that a shaman can have up to four totems down at once (one for each element), so any combinations to use while leveling up (solo) would be helpful, and addons and macros to help with this would be great!

Thanks in advance!

Yata for totems - gives you a button for each element with popups from there for your totems. Totemus is a Necrossis/Cryolysis type mod for shamans. And Shockolate is a new sphere-type mod, but I haven't looked at it much, personally.

Yata is a must have, i tried out totemus and it hase potential but its not user friendly imo and it basicaly does the same as Yata but Yata is the one i reccomend

Further on is Shokolate also a nice mod with potential but it hase its bugs cuz its fairly new but its definatly wearth trying out

greetz

galinn

Cool. I'll need to mess around with these.

How about macros? I know that, for my paladin, I have set up some pretty decent healing and decursing macros, as well as macros for some of the more useful blessings (such as blessing of freedom), and would like to come up with some good macros for a shaman.

I know that most casters don't like "purge" for example. :D A list of useful macros would be sweet to locate.

For healing and cleansing, my personal preference is to use Clique. I would use it together with Grid.

I've heard that Clique is a most awesome addon to use but have not had the opportunity to "mess" with it yet (though it is on my list).

So... how about UI layout? What aspects are the most important to keep "visible" and which aren't so important? I would think that having some bars that show the current totems up, their icon, and a diminishing feature as the timer runs out would be pretty handy to see. Not sure what addon would allow that sort of functionality?

Or how about different layouts? (one for DPS / "Shock powah" / Melee, and another for healing/decursing)

Anyone have a decent Shaman UI layout that I could look at?

Chronometer may have added timers for totems... Why don't you just start playing and figure out what your play style is and what works for you?

My shaman is level 17 (almost 18 now), so I thought I would start "planning ahead" for when I have "XX" totems (for each element) to contend with trying to figure out good combinations and UI placement for access as I need them.

I figured that I would ask the "shaman elite" out there these sorts of things, to figure out what they have learned by playing.

I personally use (and love) Windfury Tally.

http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/downloads/details/5694/

It adds up all the damage from the Windfury attacks and displays in SCT style on your screen.

Great for bragging about one-hitting that caster, when it was really just a 3-hit WF. :rolleyes:

Haven't been able to play my shaman too much, but plan on playing him more in the coming weeks (after my summer vacation).

He's level 30 now.

I was wondering if any shaman can kind of walk me through what they do for a typical encounter with a mob? What totems they use regularly, that sort of thing. I am currently Enhancement-specc'd.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Memories... my very very 1st WoW toon was a Shaman. I only play my Druid alt when the GF and I can play. She's an Enh Shammy.

More or less you open up with Lightning or Chain Lightning, deliver the most effective shock, then pummel enemy to death. Heal when needed or re-shock. Rinse and repeat. :)

Shaman's can be alot of fun. Biggest "need" I see is having either good bar layout for totems, or using an adequate mod. A timer for your totems is also incredibly helpful. Which totems you drop really depend on the mob. Usually don't bother with lower-level stuff. Earthbiter is awesome for runners or pvp, Searing Totem is one of the most used Fire totems. Your mileage and play style may vary...

I hadn't had much opportunity playing my shaman over the summer, as I have been busy wtih home improvement projects, a vacation, etc., and am just now getting back to leveling him up.

He's almost level 35 now, and I've discovered that a shaman's spells and totems are rather mana-intensive to cast.

Leveling in the Enhancement tree, I am glad for Wind Fury. :) Though I have a question about that: does the Wind Fury weapon buff stack with the Wind Fury totem effects or no?

Also... found a new totem addon from the folks at wowace.com -- Numen. It's pretty nice, as it does the same thing as Yata, but shows the tooltip information of each totem. Only problem I've had is that it sometimes resets its position when I log in. I think it might be a library addon issue...

Anyway... I've discovered that, for most of my leveling, I tend to only drop a totem as the situation calls for it and focus on melee DPS and shocks to drop any mobs in the way. Dropping totems for each encounter is way mana-intensive.

No - WT totem and buff does not stack
Personally I'd (for an enhancement shammy) use a layout something like this (yes, I am a keyboarder and hate to click)

1 - Stormstrike when avalible (empty or Attack earlier)
2, 3, 4 shocks (always been playing 2 flame, 3 earth, 4 frost but it really doesn't matter, just have earth and frost easily avalible)
5, 6, 7 the spells I want to have binded but not use alot (CL 5, LiB 6)

§ Healing Wave
X Lesser Healing wave
Shift-X would probably be chain heal
G Purge
Y not sure, maybe poison cleanse
J Buff WF
V Mount on all my toons
< not used for shammy... have blink, seal of crusader and stuff here.

Shift-numbers would be the most important totems for in-combat
S-1 Earthbind for example
maybe some elemental totems if you like them, personally I don't cast alot while enhancement. I use shift and alt numbers up to 5 (1-4 for the important ones, number 5 is just a spare button), the others are too far away to use easily for me.

Alt-numbers for buffing totems
A-1 Strength of Earth
A-2 Grace of Air
A-3 WF totem

An addon like Yata for the other totems, maybe bind fire and earth elementals if/when you have em, the other spells isn't that important imo. Maybe put ancestral spirit somewhere too.

That's a shame that WF weapon buff and WF totem don't stack. I guess I should pick a different totem (maybe one to add strength or to reduce damage taken).

Keybindings for the totems are important, though I don't currently use them in that fashion. I still need to adjust my layout to accommodate doing that. I am both a key pusher and mouse clicker, so I like to be able to both see the item and the keybinding until I have them down pat.

I am looking forward to picking up Dual-Wield next level, and have a couple of ok 1-h weapons already. I need to find some nice *SLOW* 1-hand weapons though -- or so I've read. Something about it helping to proc the weapon buffs better or something to that effect..

i have a lvl 66 resto shaman, and as far as macros go...castsequence is your friend.

I have my totems in a few castsequence macros then I hotkey that macro. makes for some fast totem laying in my opinion.

Well.... cough 'em up. :)

How long is the GCD affected for placing a totem anyway? Seems like it is 2-3 seconds (too long, at any rate)

Some good macros would be helpful, I would think.

i believe the GCD is 1.5 secs but i could be wrong.

my main macro is not sure on the spelling, I'm at work, but you get the idea.

That macro is bound to "a". I use s,e,d,f as my direction keys. allowing me to use q, a, z as macros and other spells.

Gennerally if I am soloing a single mob, I don't waste time with totems, I start with lightning bolt, then chain lightning, earth shock or fire shock (depending on mob) then hit until dead.

I guess I am old fasioned. I use the same standard mods with all my toons. and rely on my eyes and hotkeys for casting. as I said old fasioned. For raids I am still a big fan of CT raid and CT raid assist even with the interfaces added by bliz. Also I'm a heal bot. which for me is mainly intuition and timing. From expieriance if i screw up I screw up. and i can fix it. If the mod screws up i'm SOL

I absolutely love totemus. It is by far my favorite shaman mod.
That being said, I have not yet tried the Shockolate Seerah mentioned, but I will soon.
Don't know why, but Yata always causes problems for me. :( I love it, but it didn't do enough for me, and I ended up using totemus as well, then getting rid of yata in favor of purely totemus.

I'm actually a big fan of totem timers. I think that it works fairly well. I have one suggestion in to the author about his weapon buff button, but everything else seems to work rather well.

The reason I like it over totemus is the ability to keybind the "default" totems (That you use most often). For example, my four are bound to the Function keys. walk across them and BAM... you're rocking the casbah.