Tips for Your Shaman in Warsong Gulch

Slig is level 59 now so instead of rushing right to 60 (which is a level that’s pretty meaningless with Burning Crusade anyway since you get to go to Outland at 58), I decided to take advantage of being at the top of the range for Warsong Gulch. I wanted to get some honor and rack up some gear before I hit 60.

Since I had to learn the hard way what I know about playing a Shaman in Warsong Gulch — with a few hints from my buddy Bubbajuju — I decided to write up some tips for playing in this battleground so that other Shaman would have it a bit easier than I did.

What I am NOT going to do is give general PvP tips. First of all, I play on an RP server so I dunno from PvP servers. In fact, the techniques I offer for Warsong Gulch may not even work in that type of dog-eat-dog world where everything attacks you but the trees.

I am also NOT going to tell you how to play Warsong Gulch in general. You can go here for tips along those lines.

What I WILL do, however, is tell you what works for me as a shammy at any level in the WSG battleground. (Note that all tips will work for both Horde and Alliance shammies except the War Stomp, which is unique to Tauren.) Since I play an Elemental spec, you’ll see some references that only apply to that talent tree.

General Tips
Use these ideas on both offense and defense.

• Put Frostbrand on your weapon - stopping an enemy is easier when he’s been slowed down.
• Use your fastest weapon - the more hits you can get with the Frostbrand, the more likely you can freeze them. Face it, you are not going to be the heavy hitter out there — leave that to your rogues and warriors. Just whack the beejeebus out of everything and try to stun it as often as possible. Don’t worry about shield vs. no shield — you’re gonna die a million times anyway.
• [Tauren only.] War Stomp often! Use it in fights as often as it cools down. If you’re a macro type (which I’m not), set up a macro to cast it or remind you to cast it. Again, stunningness is next to killingness.
• Cast Lightning Shield whenever you can remember to do it. Mana is not a problem for Shaman in the BG since you often die before you can use up all your mana anyway. Be liberal with this shield because you can at least hurt others who are trying to hurt you (and you get honor for the kill if they die).
• Cast Elemental Mastery as often as it cools down if you are specced for it. You can often 1-shot kill a wounded flag carrier — or anybody else you wanna take down. I usually cast Frost Shock with it, but if it’s a caster coming at you, feel free to go with Earth Shock to stop their sticky little fingers from blasting at you.
• Don’t use potions or scrolls. Trust me on this. Rely instead on buffs from your teammates. You will waste your pots and scrolls because I guarantee you will die over and over again. Just leave them in the bank.

Offense Tips
By all means, go after the enemy flag. Either go for it yourself, or follow the teammate who gets it.

• Purge, purge purge!! Purge like a madman! Priests, mages, rogues… other shaman… show them where they can put their buffs!
• Use Earth Shock to stop casters from hitting you or your flag bearer.
• Use Frost Shock to slow down someone stealing your flag. Heck, just spam Frost Shock everywhere when you’re not spamming Purge.
• If you get to the flag, use Ghost Wolf and run like the dickens with the flag! You can’t mount and carry the flag, but you can shapeshift (ask a druid; they know). No one can catch you… unless they have another shaman coming after you and even he must shapeshift to slow or stop you with a spell. Serpentine as you run so their casters and hunters can’t get a bead on you.
• If you don’t have the flag, follow your flag carrier and heal, heal, heal them. Frost shock or War Stomp along the way as you follow him. Also use Earthbind or Grounding totem if your flag bearer gets surrounded (see totem tips under Defense). Skip along merrily after your flag bearer and drop totems like you’re dropping rose petals at a wedding.

Defense Tips
I really like to play defense. I get a huge charge out of killing someone in my own flag room and sending them all the way back to their graveyard. I mean, this is my house! No touchy the flag, punk!! Shaman can be extremely effective on defense in the flag room. Basically, I stand right next to the flag and keep spamming 3 totems over and over again, watching the timers so there is always coverage on them. Here are the totems and the reasons I use them.

• Earthbind Totem - slows down every creep trying to touch your team’s flag either coming or going.
• Searing Totem - I call this my anti-rogue security device. When a rogue or druid tries to stealth into the flag room, even if I don’t see them, the Searing Totem will start shooting at them. And then they are MINE. Heh.
• Grounding Totem - for those annoying little mages and casters in your life. If they try to come at you with some crowd control spell, it will hit the totem instead and you can bust that little caster’s chops.
• On offense, I often cast these three totems near the enemy’s tunnel entrance, or upstairs if I am attacking from above into their flag room. These totems serve as either an early warning device that someone’s coming at me up the stairs, or in the tunnel they can slow down and aggravate anyone trying to chase you as you leave with the flag.

Challenges
Okay, so I don’t know everything. Heh. I could use your help with these challenges.

• I haven’t learned how to deal well with hunters which stinks because there’s so darn many of them. I usually use stunning techniques on the pet and then run like crazy to get away from the ranged shots. If you have better ideas, please share!
• I don’t usually use a water totem since mana, health, poison and disease are not big deals in the battleground. Does anyone have any ideas about water totem usage?
• What do you prefer to play — offense or defense — and why?

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