The Ultimate Restoration Shaman Leveling Guide

LF1M need healer! Instead of spending your time looking for a healer; be sought after for heroic content and raids. The Ultimate Shaman Leveling Guide will show you how to get there super fast so you too can be a level 80 healing Shaman. Shamans are one of the most exciting healers to play and sought after healing classes in World of Warcraft.

Instance Healing for Beginners:

Unless you are a sadomasochistic veteran player who wants to revisit low level instances, do not look for pick up groups before you are level 70-80. Most low level pick up groups are an exercise in misery for a healer because: everyone is off spec (specialization) for their class, no one is well geared and many are still learning how to play their class.

Wiping repeatedly in the Raging Chasm, Wailing Caverns or Scarlet Monastery is not going to advance you as a healer. Skip the low level instances unless you have a higher level character to run you through for the sake of getting some exp, gear and quests. The only exception to the rule is if you have found some experienced players who want to work on their low level characters. Finally, it slows down your leveling while you wait for a pick up group and even more time consuming when they go AFK (away from keys), leave early and fight over loot.

Leveling a Shaman:

Leveling a Shaman is easier than making a priest because it is a hybrid class. As a shaman you will find that it easier to complete quests, pvp and deal dps (damage per second). Shamans are one of the best classes to play multi-box because they can wear chainmail, heal and deal ridiculous amounts of damage.

When leveling as a solo shaman the best specialization is enhancement because you will deal more damage than elemental and not have to stop to regain your mana. If you are dual/multi-boxing your shaman, you will want to play elemental instead of enhancement because you can cast multiple chain lightning spells at a time and eliminate entire crowds of mobs efficiently. If you multibox five shaman, you can clear out instances easily with chain lightning.

Leveling Method 1: Recruit-A-Friend

First off, old school leveling sucks because it is slow and tedious. Leveling moves fastest if you use the (Recruit-A-Friend) program and Dual box your two characters. Recruit A Friend gives a straight up 300% or triple experience point gain for both mob kills and quest turn ins and the ability to summon the other character once an hour.

Also, if you use the Recruit A Friend program you will get a Zhevra Epic Mount and earn levels that you can grant to your Shaman. Having leveled up multiple level 80 characters the old way, including a Shaman, Recruit-A-Friend is a godsend. Level up with a DPS class or even faster if you level two DPS classes and grant levels to the new Shaman. If you can get instance runs and dual box, it is possible to get to level 60 in a couple days of game time, if not hours. If you use heirloom shoulders and chest you will receive an amazing 320% bonus from quests and killing monsters.

Leveling Method 2: Solo Enhancement Shaman

With the enhancement specialization Shamans enjoy the highest DPS of all of the talent trees and are not as dependent on mana. Because enhancement shamans are able to burn down mobs faster and regain their mana as they fight so they level faster than restoration and elemental shamans who have to constantly drink to restore mana.

Enhancement shamans use windfury weapon and flurry combined with dual wield to hack and slash through mobs with insane speed. As an enhancement shaman you will also have great survivability, the best buffs, feral spirits, stats and extra critical hit chance. The Flurry talent increases your attack speed after critical strikes, you will want a slow 2 handed, heavy hitting weapon to do the most damage until you have dual wield at level 40.

When your Shaman reaches level 30 you will be able to cast Windfury. The Windfury spell "Imbue the Shaman's weapon with wind. Each hit has a 20% chance of dealing additional damage equal to two extra attacks with 46 extra attack power. Lasts 30 minutes."

An important caveat of Windfury is that it is not two extra attacks but instead a chance to inflict extra damage equal to two extra attacks, again, you will want to have the highest damage weapons you can find to get the maximum benefit from the enhancement build.

If you do not have an heirloom or rare weapon by level 37, take your shaman into the Scarlet Monastery; try to get them a run into the Armory for Herod's shoulder and Ravager which has a chance on hit to do a whirlwind attack. Ravager makes a great enhancement shaman leveling weapon if you do not have something better.

If you already have level 80 characters consider obtaining heirloom items for your Shaman to make the leveling faster and more mana efficient. For my shaman, I selected the bloodied arcanite reaper, two discerning eyes of the beast and a prized beastmaster's shoulder. Although the Mystical Pauldrons of the Elements or Aged Pauldrons of Five Thunders are better for a shaman, I preferred the agility, stamina and attack power on the prized beastmaster's shoulder for leveling as enhancement shaman.

The Fastest Leveling Enhancement Shaman Build:

Enhancement Talents 19/52/0

Enhancement

Ancestral Knowledge 5/5, Thundering Strikes 5/5, Elemental Weapons 3/3, Shamanistic Focus 1/1, Improved Shields 3/3, Flurry 5/5, Improved Windfury Totem 2/2, Mental Dexterity 3/3, Spirit Weapon 1/1, Dual Wield 1/1, Dual Wield Specialization 3/3, Storm Strike 1/1, Unleashed Rage 3/3, Lava Lash 1/1, Improved Stormstrike 2/2, Lava Lash 1/1, Shamanistic Rage 1/1, Mental Quickness 3/3, Maelstrom Weapon 5/5, Feral Spirit 1/1

Elemental

Convection 3/5, Concussion 5/5, Call of Flame 3/3, Elemental Devastation 3/3, Elemental Fury 4/5, Elemental Focus 1/1

Horde Shaman Quests for the Orc and Troll:

The Call of the Earth

Step one of the Call of the Earth is straightforward, go to the cave near the den, kill Felhounds for their hooves. However the next part of the quest is trickier, you must find the hidden path behind the starting area and follow it to the spirit rock in the mountains. From the trainer, go the graveyard, then walk south into the hills and follow the trail to coordinates 44,76. The reward for the quest is your earth totem! If you want to, you can leap off the pathway and visit Ratchet early.

Next go to Razor Hill and pick up all the offered quests, get your trade skills, set hearthstone for Razor Hill before doing anything else. I highly recommend mining and herbalism as money making skills for all new characters. Go to Sen'jin village and complete the quests. When you are level 10 you can start the next part of your Horde Shaman quests, The Call of Fire.

The Call of Fire

The Call of Fire quest involves a lot of running around, if you have a friend with a Mechano-Hog or Tundra Traveler's Mammoth, hit them up for a ride! The first step of the Call of Fire sends you to the Barrens to the hut of Kranal Fiss who lives near the crossroads.

Next go back to Durotar, Near the river you will see a small dark obelisk in the hills near the South Fury river, follow the path up and you will find the Shrine of Flame. And talk to Telf Joolam. Next you need to get a reagent pouch from the Burning Blade Cultists, they are in the Dustwind Cave near Razor Hill. After you have the reagent pouch, make your way back to the Crossroads and attack one of the razor thorn spell casters for the fire tar.

Then go back to the Shrine of the Dormant Flame and talk to Telf Joolam again to receive the fire saptha. Go up the mountain and drink the fire Saptha, defeat the elemental and place the ember in the brazier, when finished return to Kranal Fiss and receive your reward, a fire totem. Now you are ready to do your Barrens quests and get to level 20 fast! Congratulations, after patch 3.2 you can now get a mount at level 20.

Now that you have two totems, you should set up a macro to manage your totems for you and set all of your totems out automatically, click twice and your totems will be set out and ready to go. You can change the reset value when you get more totems and use shift click to add totems directly from your spell book.

Sample Shaman Totem Macro

/castsequence reset=2 Stoneclaw Totem(Rank 1), Searing Totem(Rank 1)

Glyphs

Glyph of Stormstrike (Major Glyph)
Increases the Nature damage bonus from your Stormstrike ability by an additional 8%.

Glyph of Windfury(Major Glyph)
Use: Increases the chance per swing for Windfury Weapon to trigger by 2%.

Glyph of Flameshock (Major Glyph)
Use: Increases the duration of your Flame Shock ability by 6 sec and it is not consumed by casting Lava Burst.

Glyph of Watershield (Minor Glyph)
Use: Increases the number of charges on your Water Shield spell by 1.

Glyph of Waterbreathing(Minor Glyph)
Use: Your Water Breathing spell no longer requires a reagent.

Glyph of Waterwalking (Minor Glyph)
Use: Your Water Walking spell no longer requires a reagent.

Heirloom Gear:

Heirloom gear will scale with your new Shaman from level 1 all the way to level 80 and grant unique bonuses which will speed up your leveling. You will save money also, because your new character will not need to upgrade their gear constantly. The downside is that you have to invest time and emblems of heroism to obtain these items.

Shoulders: Aged Pauldrons of the Five Thunders, Mystic Pauldrons of the Elements have ideal stats and for casters and grant 10% additional experience point gains from killing monsters and quests. The Prized Beastmaster's Mantle is another shoulder piece you may want to consider for your shaman because it gives stamina, attack power and agility. Each shoulder pieces costs 40 Emblems of Heroism.

Chest: Mystical Vest of Elements or Champion's Deathdealer Breastplate both of these items grant an additional 10% experience points for quests and monster kills and are avaiable for 40 Emblems of Heroism following patch 3.2

Trinkets: Swift Hand of Justice or Discerning Eye of the Beast: Increases your haste and restores 2% of your maximum health or 2% mana if you use the Discerning Eye of the Beast. This item is a trinket and you can have two of them and there is no cool down on the mana or health gain benefit. Cost 50 Emblems of Heroism, each.

Weapons: Bloodied Arcanite Reaper, this item is a slow heavy hitting two handed axe that grants strength, stamina and critical hit which scales with your level is a great choice for your enhancement shaman until you can use dual wield.

Once you have the dual wield consider using two Venerable Mass of McGowan for your shaman, enchanted with +15 agility or +30 spell power to help you level. The 2.8 weapon speed on the Venerable Mass of McGowan it deals is ideal and will help you maximize damage and chances to proc Windfury within the cooldown. Using faster weapons, potentially wastes the Windfury cooldown and proc and results in less damage.

By using two weapons you will have a 36% chance to proc Windfury vs. 20% on a one-handed weapon and you will deal more melee dps (damage per second). Also, the stats on the Venerable Mass of McGowan will help your feral spirits scale up by enhancing the bonus attack power and stamina they receive from you as you level up. Refer to this forum post on enhancement shamans from elitist jerks.com for more information on how to itemize your shaman.

Normal Gear:

Always choose gear that gives attack power, critical hit chance, hit rating, spell power, strength and agility. You can use green "of the tiger" gear as filler for leveling because this will increase your most vital leveling stats. You may wish to obtain some crafted or bind on equip rare or epic items to speed the leveling process.

See Kaliban's Loot List for an in-depth guide to all the instances and quests that offer shaman gear. When you are level 57 or higher you can begin to replace your gear with Beast, Bandit, or Soldier chainmail to gain a combination of stats, attack power and critical hit that is unavailable on classic gear.

Add Ons for Leveling:

The Best addons for this method of leveling is Carbonite. Carbonite keeps track of all of your quests and shows you where to go in order to complete them in game. This addons is now free, perfectly legal to use in World of Warcraft and not to be confused with 3rd party autobot programs. When an addon is just modifying your interface or providing information and not automating the game, generally it is safe to use it with World of Warcraft. If you have any doubts about this there is an official Blizzard forum just for addons and macros that you can go to and ask questions and you can also ask a gamemaster ingame if you have any lingering doubts.

Cartographer and and MobMap are available on Curse.com MobMap is available through the developer's website at MobMap.de Both of these programs are good alternatives for Carbonite. Questhelper was once the add on of choice but was discontinued after Blizzard announced changes to it's policies about how developers can request donations.

Leveling Process:

If you don't have a friend, relative or guild member you can wrangle into running you through all instances go questing. Quest, quest and quest some more and keep your experience point bar on rested or blue bar the entire way.

Questing will take you a bit longer than being run through instances but will also yield nice gear and achievements for your new characters. I love Jame's guides because he tells you in a logical way how to plan what your doing in each zone to minimize the time you have to spend leveling and what items to pick up before you leave town. Jame keeps his guides updated and I have used his website for years.

Jame even has a new addon that you can use in game. Jame's guide is free, has a community that tests and supports it and has detailed information on how to complete the harder quests. I am so crazy about Jame's guides that I will not attempt to reinvent the wheel, just use his site if you need help with questing.

After level 70-80, you can change your specialization to restoration or acquire a dual specialization at level 40 and you will find that there is no shortage of people who need you to heal regular dungeons. While I was working on my new Shaman, I regularly got invited to heal as a fresh faced level 71 healer for BC raids, heroics and Northend instances including Drak'Tharon Keep. However the early change to a healing specialization will somewhat slow your leveling when you have to level.

Suggested Zones

1-10: Complete Quests in the starting area for your race

Horde

11-21 Barrens (After you finish the Call of Fire Quests)

21-30 Thousand Needles

30-33 Shimmering Flats

33-35 Hillsbrad/Swamp of Sorrows

35-40 Dustmallow Marsh/Stranglethorn Vale

40-45 Tanaris

45-50 Feralas

50-55 Un'Goro Crater

55-60 Eastern and Western Plague Lands

60-62 Hellfire Pennisula

62-64 Zangermarsh

64-66 Terrokar

66-68 Nagrand

68-71 Blade's Edge or Shadowmoon Valley or Netherstorm

71-72 Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord

72-74 Dragonblight

75-77 Grizzly Hills

77-78 Sholazar Bazin/Zul'Drak

78-80 Ice Crown

Alliance:

11-21 Westfall or Darkshore

21-30 Duskwood/Lakeshire or Ashenvale or Wetlands

30-33 Stonetalon Mountains/Desolace

33-35 Hillsbrad/Swamp of Sorrows

35-40 Dustmallow Marsh/Stranglethorn

40-45 Tanaris

45-50 Feralas

50-55 Un'Goro Crater

55-60 Plague Lands

60-62 Hellfire Pennisula

62-64 Zangermarsh

64-66 Terrokar

66-68 Nagrand

68-71 Blade's Edge or Shadowmoon Valley or Netherstorm

71-72 Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord

72-74 Dragonblight

75-77 Grizzly Hills

77-78 Sholazar Bazin/Zul'Drak

78-80 Ice Crown

Now you should be level 80! Change your talent tree to Restoration and gear up for end game; you're now one of the most desired commodities on the server, a level 80 healing Shaman. See my Best of the Best Healing Guide for tips on how to get started as a healer.

Also See: My other World of Warcraft Guides at http://drmmo.com