Shaman Specialization?

[Trivonus]

Hello all,

About to ding 30 on my shaman, and I wanted your guys' opinion on what to specialize in. Obviously, there's only two choices.

I really would much prefer to focus on solo. Yes, I want to group and will at some point, but when no one is online or my play time is short, I want to be able to solo. What spec allows me to solo the hardest possible camps? Like... frenzy?

I understand that our two highest mana cost spells that we get both of at 49 are both conjuration, and they're our major damage dealers. But, would it be better (say for example is fighting frenzy) to just melee or have pet tank and heal pet or just do one dot instead with full slow? So, maybe alteration is better even then?

Please assume I'm 50 and trying to solo camps. Spec for leveling up is irrelevant to me right now.

Thank you so much!!!!

[DMN]

There is a priest forum for this sort of thing. But specialization doesn't work ATM so don't think it's going to be super helpful. You could go conjuration and switch post-kunark.

[Vizax_Xaziv]

There is a priest forum for this sort of thing. But specialization doesn't work ATM so don't think it's going to be super helpful. You could go conjuration and switch post-kunark.

Specialization "doesn't work" in what way? It's not introduced til a later patch?

[Trivonus]

Anybody else have thoughts on the subject? Thank you much for the replies!

[Pyrocat]

Alteration. If you're fighting anything remotely challenging you'll likely have to your highest level malo and slow, usually multiple times. Those are both alteration, and both very high mana cost. It's also what you'll be doing raiding, in addition to cripple (also alteration). If you run oom trying to cast these things you can't kill the mob. And as the shaman mantra goes, if it can be slowed, it can be killed.

[Zelbor]

It’s tough for me to think of any situation in which you wouldn’t want to spec alteration as a shaman. For what it’s worth, since you asked specifically about the camp, I have soloed frenzy on Teal at level 50 (though a friend helped me break it initially). I didn’t run a parser but think it’s safe to say that a large majority of my damage on the high HP pops (frenzies and bloodthirsties) came from my pet rather than my dots, although I did use use dots to supplement the pet as mana allowed. I can’t imagine killing a mob like that any other way than slowing it and having a buffed, hasted pet tank it down; root/dotting would take ages and trying to melee/tank as a shaman would be hugely impractical at present gear levels compared with letting the pet tank and cannidancing/medding during the fight.

I could believe that if everything went exactly perfectly on a tough mob you were dotting down, meaning no slow or root resists or need to malo or heal, conjuration spec would save you more mana over the course of the fight. But in most real-world fights where there’s always the risk of needing a couple extra casts to stick a slow/root, and a couple heals to save yourself from dying after those resists, alteration is a much better choice. Remember that as long as your pet is alive, it’s a steady stream of extremely mana-efficient damage, and slows, heals, and haste (all alteration spells) are how you keep that stream going. And I know you said you’re focusing on solo, which is fine, but alteration is also obviously superior for any small or large group situation.

All that being said, specialization (assuming it’s even working, based on one comment above?) isn’t that big of a deal and is absolutely not going to be what determines whether you can hold a tough camp like frenzy solo. That comes down partly to gear, partly to luck with which spawns you get and when, and mostly to how well you know your class and how well you’re able to squeeze in as many extra cannis and med ticks as possible to maximize your mana recovery and overall efficiency.

[Tethler]

Alteration.

For every class, choose the specialize for the spell school you use most in combat.

Malo, slow, and heal are all alteration.

[Trivonus]

It’s tough for me to think of any situation in which you wouldn’t want to spec alteration as a shaman. For what it’s worth, since you asked specifically about the camp, I have soloed frenzy on Teal at level 50 (though a friend helped me break it initially). I didn’t run a parser but think it’s safe to say that a large majority of my damage on the high HP pops (frenzies and bloodthirsties) came from my pet rather than my dots, although I did use use dots to supplement the pet as mana allowed. I can’t imagine killing a mob like that any other way than slowing it and having a buffed, hasted pet tank it down; root/dotting would take ages and trying to melee/tank as a shaman would be hugely impractical at present gear levels compared with letting the pet tank and cannidancing/medding during the fight.

I could believe that if everything went exactly perfectly on a tough mob you were dotting down, meaning no slow or root resists or need to malo or heal, conjuration spec would save you more mana over the course of the fight. But in most real-world fights where there’s always the risk of needing a couple extra casts to stick a slow/root, and a couple heals to save yourself from dying after those resists, alteration is a much better choice. Remember that as long as your pet is alive, it’s a steady stream of extremely mana-efficient damage, and slows, heals, and haste (all alteration spells) are how you keep that stream going. And I know you said you’re focusing on solo, which is fine, but alteration is also obviously superior for any small or large group situation.

All that being said, specialization (assuming it’s even working, based on one comment above?) isn’t that big of a deal and is absolutely not going to be what determines whether you can hold a tough camp like frenzy solo. That comes down partly to gear, partly to luck with which spawns you get and when, and mostly to how well you know your class and how well you’re able to squeeze in as many extra cannis and med ticks as possible to maximize your mana recovery and overall efficiency.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is what I was looking for!!!!!!!!!!

[Taric]

Yup, Alteration. I was just thinking about editing the wiki post that says Conjuration is an option. It's not.

[Bigsham]

alteration is 90% of your spells conj is dots only

no brainer

[DMN]

A lot of shaman back in the day did conjuration in classic because you can stack shaman DoTs. So at 50 you could stack ebolt, venom, scourge, and plague for 4kish or whatever damage especially effective for kiting wihout rhe damage reduction nerf in.

[Tecmos Deception]

I think you guys are selling conjuration short for the solo shaman, especially for a sham trying to solo a camp like frenzy. Malosi lasts for ages, togors lasts 3 minutes, roots are cheap, you don't heal when solo, and buffs are cast in downtime. In combat, most of your mana use is on conjuration spells since wolfie takes for fucking ever to kill level 40+ stuff without dot dps too. Like one ebolt or plague costs as much mana as all the alteration spells you'll cast in a combat, but odds are you'll be casting plague and two ebolts to kill bloodthirsty or frenzied ghouls, or stuff like nox spider or even an ice giant or something.

My sham is alteration, but I was looking towards raiding and grouping. When I'm playing solo, I'm sad that I'm not conj.