Shaman guide

What Forever changed

• Call of the Elements (level 20) drops up to four totems from your Totem Bar in one 3-second cast. Call of the Ancestors (30) and Call of the Spirits (40) hold two more sets, Totemic Projection (22) moves the totems you have down, and Totemic Recall (20) picks them up for 25% of their mana back (the refund works).
• Most totems last 5 minutes and reach 30 yards (Classic: 2 minutes and 20 yards). Searing, Magma, Earthbind, Stoneclaw and Grounding keep short durations.
• Weapon imbues last 60 minutes. Two-handed axes and maces are baseline, not a talent. There is no dual wield in the beta.
• Fire Nova is now a spell, not a totem: an instant blast around your active Fire totem on a 10-second cooldown.
• Lightning Bolt tops out at a 2.5-second cast and Chain Lightning at 2 seconds, with less damage per rank. Shocks and heals lost base damage too; spell power and gear make it up.
• New talents: Lava Burst (Elemental 21), Maelstrom Weapon and Rage of the Farseer (Enhancement), Water Shield and Riptide (Restoration), and Mental Dexterity, which turns Intellect into attack power. Stormstrike moved down to the 15-point row, so it arrives at 25.
• No Bloodlust. Rage of the Farseer is a personal 30% attack-speed cooldown, and it doesn't speed up spellcasting.
• Totem stacking (live in beta): Grace of Air Totem is no longer exclusive with Windfury Totem or Flametongue Totem, so those can be combined. Windfury Totem and Flametongue Totem keep their exclusivity (Flametongue also doesn't stack with itself or your own Flametongue Weapon). Tranquil Air Totem is gone from the client.
• Every tree has a one-point milestone talent at 11, 16, 21 and 31 points, and each 31-point capstone needs a particular talent from the 20-point row first.

Every spell, new and changed ones marked, by spec: Elemental, Enhancement, Restoration.

Strengths

• Totems give the party Strength, physical damage reduction, mana, healing and cures, and Call of the Elements makes them one button.
• Brings the interrupt (Earth Shock), the slows (Frost Shock, Earthbind Totem) and the enemy dispel (Purge) that Paladins and many healers lack.
• Every spec can heal itself or the group in a pinch, and Reincarnation undoes one death an hour.
• Improved Ghost Wolf makes Ghost Wolf instant and usable indoors for 2 talent points: the best early travel in the beta, where no mount comes before 40.
• Raid-wide buffs (live in beta): Grace of Air, Strength of Earth, Windfury and Flametongue Totems reach the whole raid, so one Shaman of each kind covers it. Other totems still reach only your own party.

Gaps you plan around

• No tank spec at launch, and no taunt beyond Stoneclaw Totem.
• No curse removal, no friendly magic dispel and no hard crowd control. Tauren War Stomp is a racial, and Orc Shatter Curse now dispels Curses and Banes (live in beta).
• Mana-hungry, Enhancement above all, until Shamanistic Focus at 20 and Improved Stormstrike at 30.
• Elemental was weak in the level-30 beta; the rework may have helped (live in beta): Lava Burst is on the 21-point row and Elemental Mastery is back as the 31-point talent, but neither is testable at the level-30 cap and the damage is unmeasured.
• As a hybrid, the damage specs are tuned about 5% below the pure damage classes (Blizzard).
• Small reagent chores: an Ankh for each Reincarnation and four totem items kept in your bags.