subject: The Shaman Talents To Pick For Each Build [print this page] The Shamans are a hybrid class that can do everything from dealing massive melee damage to casting destructive spells, healing buffs and weapon buffs from a distance. They also do quite well in Reincarnation, which practically leaves the lengthy corpse run to other classes. But, despite the vast pool of Shaman talents, there's still one thing that they dont possess being the best at any of their talents. For every talent they posses, other classes can do better.
But surely there are always those talents that Shamans are known for, so what are they?
{Elemental Shamans}
The DPS caster spec of the Shamans, the elemental shamans harness the elements to send their opponents to their graves. This build is for Shamans who prefer casting spells from a distance.
At tier one, you can choose any of the talents or both of them. Convection helps with mana cost reduction for lightning bolt, chain lightning and shock spells. This is recommended if you're rolling a PvE character. The talent sitting next to it is Concusion which is best for Shamans that want to go deep into the Elemental talent tree. This is the way to go if you're making a PvP character.
At tier two, you can enhance Elemental Warding instead of distributing points to either Call of Flame or Earth's Grasp. You must be warned though that the usefulness of this talent depends highly on the situation. Still, it comes in handy in warding off elemental forces.
For the succeeding tiers, Elemental Focus and the Call of Thunder are your must-have talents. Unless you have Healing Focus, you should go for the Eye of the Storm at tier 4. {Otherwise, skip it}. You can go whichever way at tier five so you can do what you want with the Storm Reach, Elemental Fury, and Unrelenting Storm. All these talents are designed to give your maximum damage a boost. From here on, your focus should be on distributing your talent points in talents that will enhance your ranged spells. After all, that's what Elemental Shamans do best.
{Enhancement Shamans}
If you're rolling a character for melee combats, the Enhancement Shaman is the way to go. No matter the tier, your talents should revolve around improving your melee attacks. A few of the most useful talents in this build are: Ancestral Knowledge for tier one, Thundering Strike and Improved Lighting Shield at tier two, and Enhancing Totems at tier three. At tier 4, you should have the Flurry never go without this and for damage mitigation, you can go the Toughness way although this requires you to spread some talent points to Anticipation. From this point on, you should focus on upgrading your weapons, in reducing the mana cast of your instant cast spells, and basically on maxing up your melee weapons and other melee damage dealers.
{Restoration Shamans}
The Restoration Shaman talents are all, by nature, designed to create a shaman with impressive healing powers. There really isnt much to say about this build expcept that although some of the talents are effective during the initial levels, most of their powers wane at the higher levels. Players looking to become healers should pick up talents like Earth Shield, Tidal Focus, Improved Chain Heal, Purification, Focused Mind, Totemic Focus, and And Healing Way.
