Learning shaman

Like everyone else who usually plays Alliance I started a draenei shaman when TBC came out. She got to lvl 10 and there she hibernated for a long time.

I pulled hero ut of hibernation some weeks ago and now she has reached the mature level of 36. Shaman is a pretty interesting but rather confusing class to play so far, not like any of the other classes I have played (and as you know, I have played a few).

As I leveled her, I encountered many hmm- and wtf-situations, most of the regarding totems. Totems, totems, totems…

Having never really even played with a shaman except very recently at lvl 70 these took a while to get used to, and their special attributes took even longer.

Searing totem – fires a firebolt at the enemy. Sounds good, doesn’t it? I learned the hard way that ”the enemy” is not always the same mob you have targeted for a lightning bolt that already happen to be sizzling through the air… The last thing you want to do when trying to single-pull some orange mob is another orange mob running to you and beating your fragile but hostile totem to pulp and then turning its unwelcome attentions to you.

Even if you drop the searing totem after you have pulled it might misfire (pun intended ;P). You are sitting there peacefully by the body of a dead mob drinking your way back from low to full mana when some other mob passes in range of your totem who merrily starts firing away. Yippie!

Another interesting thing about totems is that if you prepare for a fight by placing yourself somewhere along the path of the mob you want to pull and start setting up totems – stoneskin perhaps, and a mana spring maybe - occasionally the totem itself will aggro the mob which will charge in and destroy it, and then look for the totem’s owner.

I guess the totem happened to be placed inside the mobs aggro radius, but I wonder if totems have the same aggro range as the shaman, or if maybe even different totems have different aggro ranges. Stoneskin totem at least seemed to be very affronting to mobs.

And let’s not forget that you don’t get the skill to recall the totems until level 30. Before that level, you had to leave your totems behind to die on their own. This resulted in many wtf’s as you are in a place clearly devoid of any hostile agents but still you see the red ”Entering Combat” text float up without being targeted by someone/something. Wtf? But of course, its that sweet little totem of yours far behind you that has aggroed some mob. Coincidentally, its that same mob which now is charging towards you, intent on striking you down.

Shaman must be somewhat of a master of fight planning, since totems have a limited range for their abilities. Cheap mana-saver that you are, of course you don’t want to waste mana by popping totems all over the place, or waste time when you are fighting actually popping them, so you try to stay in the general area of your totems, pulling mobs to you rather than running after them in some haphazard way. ”Ah, this looks like a great spot for taking down a few of those wandering treants. In firing range to at least 3-4 of them, which should be enough to get maximum use of my totems.”

I am a slow learner so I am still figuring out which totems to use and when, and how useful they really are. I suspect that I will be a little less uncertain about these things some months after I ding 70 ;P

Last of my hmm-thoughts about the shaman class is: what the hell is she supposed to wear? (Yes I know I ask this a lot, maybe its in the female psyche or something…I have nothing to wear! Better go out shopping then!...)

She needs intellect for her mana since she uses totems and cast spells, she needs agility and strenght since she whacks the mobs over the head when they get too close, she needs stamina to be able to withstand the mobs whacking on her, she needs bascially everything!

Maybe it will get easier as she levels up and get more specialised, but for now she looks like a hopscotch of assorted hand-me-downs…