Shamans were one of those make or break classes for guilds in BC. Bloodlust/Heroism was why. Stacking shamans in your raid, rotating them through your dps groups during a boss fight so they could have more Bloodlust up time was why blizzard has nurfed the skill every expansion since. As a shaman you have 2 real options; Enhancement and Restoration. Elemental was alright but the Totem of Wraith (3% bonus spell crit and hit) wasn't enough raid utility per DPS cost to warrant it a spot. Elemental would have been a much more viable spec if there were more fights that incorporated kiting adds, but as it turned out Lady Vashj was the only kite heavy fight in BC. Elemental suffered even more in T6 content and to make matters worse other casters in T6 gear could effortlessly reach the spell hit cap. Enhancement brought much better DPS and much more utility bringing the best mele buffs to the mele group. Rouges and warriors benefited a lot from having a Shaman in their group. Restoration Shamans could be argued to be the best healers in BC. It's certainty between them and Holy Paladins, but Restoration, in my opinion, brings more raid utility than Holy
Restoration[]
Resto Talents There's a little wiggle room in the Restoration Tree. This build has 1 point left out that you can put a few different places. Additionally you really don't have to go this deep into the Enhancement Tree if you feel like picking up some of the other healing talents in the Restoration Tree
Enhancement[]
Enhancement Talents The spell/mele hit in the Resto tree is very important because none of your gear is going to give you spell hit. It is also important to have weapons that are as close to 2.6 speed as possible.
While DPSing:
- Keep your totems up
- Windfury on both weapons (this was generally accepted as always being better, in some cases flame tongue or WF(rank 4) on off hand may be better)
- Stormstrike on cool down
- Searing Totem
- Alternate Flame shock and Earth Shock
old elitist jerks write up on enhancement
Totem Twisting[]
For Extra Credit check out this article.
Though in some cases the totem buff mechanics may not work the same and totem twisting may not work.