Dungeon Tips for Your Shaman – Part 2

On Wednesday, I posted the first in my series to help newbie Shaman with lower level dungeons. In that post, I went over a shammy’s role and how to prepare. Today we’re going inside the instance to use totems (buffing, damage, crowd control) and deal DPS (Damage Per Second).

Link at Big Daddy Gamer, the inspiration for this series, already posted some great techniques he used in Ragefire Chasm. Hopefully, I’ll be able to offer even more tips to help you out. Maybe that way he’ll forgive me for taking two whole days to write Part 2. Heh.

Totems
For totem managment, I use Totemus which is an add-on for Shaman that helps you organize your totems by type and significantly declutters your screen. It’s also helpful to have a totem countdown add-on like Totem Timer so you can keep an eye on when you need to recast. Be sure to watch those timers and drop refreshes when necessary.

Totems are a huge reason Shaman get invited to dungeon parties. Yes, you can deal and take damage, but never forget that you are Buffmeister Extraordinaire! Buffy the Mobslayer! Buffkin Bumpkin! [ahem, sorry.] This function should be second only to healing in your party support priorities. We can buff everyone in the party and nerf enemies both at the same time. You’ll learn a lot about your totems by goofing around with them during quests, but here I’ll highlight the ones I’ve found most useful in instances and the reasons why I like them, in no particular order. Unless you consider “random” an order.

Earth Totems

• Stoneskin or Strength are your standards. I usually drop Stoneskin, but an Enhancement Shaman I know likes to drop Strength. Use one of these when you don’t need one of the other Earth totems below.
• Stoneclaw is great for pulling threat to you and away from a more fragile party member. If you see your mage getting walloped and your Frost Shock is still cooling down, drop a Stoneclaw and then pull that bully to your tank.
• Earthbind is about as close to Crowd Control as a shammy is going to get. It is awesome for places like the Razorfen instances or any dungeon with dwarves because the little buggers tend to run off on you before you get a chance to kill them till they’re dead. This totem also helps the tank and casters so their targets don’t get out of range too fast.
• Tremor is a very specialized totem that I haven’t used often in instances below level 50. Use Tremor for those times when they keep putting you to sleep (somehow it’s always me!).

Fire Totems
I mainly use fire totems when I or my party gets jumped by multiples and I need a little extra help killing things off. For example, when your hunter tries to pull one mob and instead you get five bearing down on you, a fire totem can be like having an extra slugger in the group. In general, be cautious with fire totems. They carry mucho aggro so watch yourself with them. Only use them when you must and be careful not to wipe the party by pulling too much aggro to everyone. I’ll go over these kinds of cautions in more detail in the next post of this series.

• Magma is my favorite fire totem. It’s got a small radius so it’s the safest of the fire totems. Its damage isn’t as high as Searing but it hits more than one bad guy at a time. Also, it makes a really cool fire explosion sound.
• I don’t recommend using Searing totems until you get the ability to snuff your totems with Totemic Recall. It packs a good punch but after it finishes off one mob it can then start bringing others to you if you can’t shut it down. Once you do get Totemic Recall, if you drop a Searing totem, snuff it IMMEDIATELY after you’ve killed off the intended monster. You’ll have to re-drop your other totems, but it’s worth it to avoid a party wipe.
• I tend not to use Fire Nova because even low level mobs are smart enough to bonk them before they fire. Only on rare occasions do I find it to be anything other than a waste of mana.
• More passive choices include Flametongue, which melee dealers really like and Frost Resistance which is good when you’re in an area where you’re always getting hit with ice spells.

Air Totems

• Your melee dealers will kiss your face if you drop Windfury. This buff is awesome for doubling damage.
• On the other hand, your hunters will worship you if you drop Grace of Air. Rogues like either one.
• If we’re dealing with monsters that shoot arrows, first priority is to drop Windwall over by your clothies (casters and healers) so they don’t get swiss cheesed.
• Grounding totem does the same thing but against casters. You can redirect a significant amount of damage every time you drop it. I sometimes drop this one before we even pull a mob so that their first cast goes straight into the ground.

Water Totems

• The default totems to drop are either Mana or Healing Stream. Sometimes it’s tough to choose which one. You have to gauge it by your party’s weaknesses. If you’re geared for +Health, the Healing Stream can really help out your healer — especially if that’s you. On the other hand, if you simply need to overpower your enemies the Mana Stream totem can help you and the caster squeeze out an extra spell or two. If there’s another Shaman in the party, you can both drop the same healing or mana totem and they will “stack,” or double their power.
• Two of the MOST HELPFUL totems on the WoW planet are Poison Cleansing and Disease Cleansing. You can save yourself, your healer, and your druid a ton of mana and time away from DPS if you use these when dealing with poisons and disease. For a very small amount of mana you can abolish these DoTs for everyone in the party in “set it and forget it” style.

DPS
Some of you have been very patiently waiting for the good stuff. “Tell me how to moida those bastidges!”

• This tip will be one of the single most important things you’ll learn about working in parties. It took me to level 45 to learn it. I beg you to learn it sooner than I did. Ready for it? Here it is: PULL AGGRO TO THE TANK! She’s there to take a beating so that no one else has to. If you pull aggro to yourself using the techniques below, jog your Shaman self over to the tank and drop off that bugger at the station. Don’t question this tip, just do it. You will become renowned for being a hero and a genius. Trust me.
• Weapon buffs: A good all-around buff for your weapon is Flametongue. That way if you drop Windfury, you’ll get a double whammy on your weapon. Rockbiter is also a nice choice.
• Spam Lightning Bolt. Seriously, you could just stand still and do this all day. It’s fairly mana efficient for the damage it does and can crit nicely.
• Use Frost Shock to pull aggro off of a more vulnerable party member. Frost Shock generates the most threat in your spell book so unless you’re using it on a mob that’s attacking your tank, you’re guaranteed to get the mob’s attention.
• Stop enemy casters with Earth Shock. Be careful with both Earth & Frost Shock, though. They use a lot of mana and if you use them too often they won’t be cooled down when you really need them.
• Use your specced talents. If you have them, take advantage of Elemental Precision, Clearcasting, Shamanistic Rage, etc.
• Along those same lines, use your racial talents liberally. For Tauren, War Stomp is the bomb. Draenei can add extra healing with Gift of the Naaru. Trolls and orcs? Do your thing. (Um, whatever that is.)
• If you’re not the main healer, keep an eye on your mana in case you need to backup heal.
• If you are the main healer, don’t worry about casting unless thou overfloweth with mana. Use your melee skills to do the talking for you.
• When in doubt, whack something on the head.

In Part 3 of this series, I’ll talk about healing techniques and aggro management.

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