Shaman Leveling Guide from 1 to 90

Welcome to our Shaman leveling guide! Here you will find all you need to about leveling a Shaman efficiently. In addition, you may wish to check out our General Leveling Guide, complete with detailed information on XP, mounts, addons, consumables, tips, and more.

Shaman can play as either a Melee or Ranged DPS while leveling, and also have a Healer specialization as well for group content. Until you unlock this feature at level 10, use either Lightning Bolt and Flame Shock to kill enemies, or if you'd prefer a melee style then mix in Primal Strike.

Shamans have three specializations to choose from. Two of these are DPS, being Elemental and Enhancement, while the third is a healer, Restoration.

Elemental is the Ranged DPS specialization for Shaman, with a focus on high burst and AoE damage spells. With a varied toolkit and access to strong cooldowns as it reaches higher levels, it's exceptionally good at dealing with enemies quickly. With instant abilities to pull things at a distance as well, it can gather things up and knock them down before getting overwhelmed. This extends to group content as well, where its strong AoE damage allows it to do well in group content, despite having slower queue times as a DPS.

Leveling Information

Elemental Shaman Leveling

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Enhancement is the Melee DPS specialization for Shaman, dealing strong sustained damage and having access to great burst as it reaches higher levels. It's uniquely placed as a battle-mage playstyle, mixing in some of the same spells Elemental uses with a variety of instant melee strikes. Its ability to instantly self-heal with Raging Maelstrom also allows it to stay healthy even when you pull large groups of enemies. Its AoE tools being available so early also makes it great for group content at all levels, though as a DPS that comes with slower queue times.

Leveling Information

Enhancement Shaman Leveling

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Restoration is the Healer specialization for Shaman, and as such is oriented less toward solo play. While it still has access to many of the abilities used by Elemental to deal damage, it's built more to assist allies than get its hands dirty dealing with enemies itself. Due to that, if you're planning to do open world content it's better to stick to one of the DPS offerings. For dungeons and group content however, it's a perfect choice, providing strong up-front healing for your allies and having significantly shorter dungeon queues.

Leveling Information

Restoration Shaman Leveling

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The best Heirloom to level with are Leather pieces with a mix of Haste, Critical Strike and / or Versatility. These will smooth out the rotation, and help with unique mechanics depending on your chosen specialization. Versatility in particular helps with some additional defense if you're pulling aggressively.

Itemization

Leveling Heirlooms

Learn how to use Heirloom gear to level your characters as fast as possible!

Heirlooms Guide

• You start off with Lightning Bolt, a short cast that deals Nature damage.
• Level 2 - Primal Strike: deals Physical damage to your target instantly. Requires melee range.
• Level 3 - Flame Shock: deals instant Volcanic damage to your target and leaves behind a DoT effect, with a short 6 second cooldown. Due to the long range this is great for pulling enemies.
• Level 4 - Healing Surge: short cast heal that restores health to you or an ally.
• Level 5 - Earthbind Totem: places a totem that slows nearby enemies by 50%, lasing for 20 seconds.
• Level 8 - Reincarnation: allows you to revive yourself on the spot should you die once every 30 minutes. Bear in mind you respawn with only 20% health.
• Level 9 - Lightning Shield: applies a shield for 1 hour that deals Nature damage to enemies that strike you with melee attacks.
• Level 10 - Ghost Wolf: instantly shapeshifts into a wolf with 30% increased movement speed. While you're transformed you also can't be slowed below 100% movement speed, making it great for getting around.
• Level 13 - Ancestral Spirit: resurrects your ally while out of combat. Has a long cast time, but useful for group content.
• Level 14 - Far Sight: shifts your camera perspective to the target area far in the distance while you maintain the channel.
• Level 16 - Skyfury: buffs you and your allies with additional Mastery, and a chance for auto-attacks to strike a second time for 1 hour.
• Level 32 - Astral Recall: returns you to your Hearthstone location after a 10-second cast, which does not share the same cooldown.
• Level 33 - Water Walking: allows you or a target ally to walk on water for 10 minutes. Taking damage will cancel this effect.
• Level 48 - Bloodlust: increases you and your allies Haste by 30% for 40 seconds. Powerful group cooldown, but applies a 10-minute debuff that prevents you from being affected by similar spells while active.

Class Guides

Shaman Class Guides

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Wordup, Stormy, and Seksixeny

Guide Authors

Follow Wordup,Stormy,Seksixeny

This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can follow him on Twitter.

This guide has been written by Stormy, Elemental main since Wrath of the Lich King and member of the Storm, Earth and Lava Elemental theorycrafting team.

This guide has been written by Seksi, member of Cursed Gifts and healing aficionado. You can find him answering questions and discussing Restoration Shaman gameplay on the Ancestral Guidance and Earthshrine Discords.