Talent Specs
Restoration/Enhancement (0/17/54)
I don't see low tier elemental being an option, going a little bit into enhance provides instant Ghost Wolf and a bit more healing.
I see no issue with dropping points in Elemental for more Restoration.
Resto - Max Healing (0/16/55)
Strengths:
+ max crit, all crit related talents, max (burst) healing throughput
+ all the must-have-healing-talents aboard
Weaknesses:
- not the best possible mana-efficiency and mana-reg
- not the best utility spec (no toughness, no mana tide)
This spec works best when you pick up decent crit gear. You should not aim lower than 23-25% spellcrit in your pvp gear. It suits best for fast and furious games.
Please note: 2/2 Imp Earthshield is optional. If you don't like the idea of maximizing your ES heals, you might want to max out Natures Guardian instead or pick up Guardian Totems for -2sec CD on your Grounding totems or 2/3 Elemental Weapons for more healing power.
Recommended glyphs: Lesser Healing Wave (major), Water Mastery (major), Water Shield (minor). Consider Earthliving Weapon, Healing Wave or Flame Shock glyph for your third major, choose what fits your playstyle best.
Recommended gems: yellow: resilience, red: spellpower/resilience, blue: stamina or stamina/resilience, meta: int/mana (Runspeed enchanted on Feet)
Elemental (56/15/0)
With the upcoming "love" to Elemental Shamans next patch and the upcoming burst changes I honestly believe we might be able to break out of the funk the spec has had recently. Break out of the niche so to speak we have been stuck in for so long.
I believe with the new changes that there will be very few reasons to sacrifice Thunderstorm for Nature's Swiftness. That being said I think this build will be a staple for many shamans out there for 2s, 3s and 5s
Strengths:
- High survivability with astral shift while being focused.
- Guardian totems with improved range on shocks (30 with gloves/talents) will make shutting down casters much easier to manage.
- Picking up Thunderstorm gives you a huge advantage on Blade's edge and can allow you to posture for position on other maps.
- High crit (high mana efficiency) coupled with high consistent DPS/RNG Burst.
- Ghost wolf provides much higher mobility and coupled with TS can be used very effectively
Weaknesses:
- Limited healing capability (no pushback protection)
- No Healing Grace to protect Heroism (assuming games last more than 40 seconds after the change).
- No Nature's Swiftness for instant on demand burst or heals.
Personal Modifications/Preferences:
The build can be easily modified for 5/5 Reverberation . You will lose Improved Fire Nova Totem which is marginally useful at best(against good players) and 2% hit from Elemental Precision (which can be easily made up through gear). This route is not for everyone as if you are not shocking every single time it's up it is a complete waste. That being said with 30 range Wind Shock and Guardian Totems + 4 piece arena set you can honestly lock a single caster down almost exclusively to short casts or instants.
Glyphs:
- Glyph of Lava (Major)
- Glyph of Flametongue Weapon (Major)
- Glyph of Flame Shock (Major)
- Glyph of Ghost Wolf (Minor)
- Glyph of Water Shield (Minor)
Restoration - Max Survivability (8/11/52)
Viable for all brackets, but consider another spec if you being focused is not a problem.
Imp Watershield / Healing Grace / Nature's Blessing:
Obviously you only have six points to spend on those three, choose the two that fit best for you. I consider everything else mandatory, either because it sustains a decent amount of heal power or it helps your survivability.
Strenghts:
- best survivability spec
- cheap totems (cleanse only if you want to remove curses or a poison and a desease at once, spam PCT and DCT instead)
Weaknesses:
- no HW talents (only use HW with NS or if you want to healdrink)
- 5% less crit
Recommended glyphs: Lesser Healing Wave (major), Water Mastery (major), Water Shield (minor). Consider Earthliving Weapon, Healing Wave or Flame Shock glyph for your third major, choose what fits your playstyle best.
Recommended gems: yellow: resilience, red: spellpower/resilience, blue: stamina or stamina/resilience, meta: int/mana (Runspeed enchanted on Feet)
Recommended equip: 3 mail / 2 ringmail, crit/hit offpieces, battlemaster trinket (sp, hit or crit depending on what you lack most). I'm ok with 3% hit (cloak and ring only) but you might want more. Throw in a pve 1h/shield and maybe a pve ring instead of the hateful one and you are good to go. Aim for ~950 resilience and ~23% crit with this spec at this point of the season (early February).
Recommended profession: Engineering. It provides you with some options you really don't want to miss. Nitro boots for mobility, handmounted pyro rocket + lightning generator for 4-5k free instant burst once a minute, hyperspeed accelerators for more casting speed.
Restoration v2 (0/18/53)
You have such things as Improved Grounding Totem, and Improved Water Shield, even though with the nerf it is still very viable to me; it helps with keeping mana high therefore more pressure, and it adds crit when you stack mp5 from gear. I do not like using Mana Tide, as it a waste of 6 talent points, and if the other team has a clue it won't do much good.
With the new Grounding Totem and dispel change Shamans are buffed, and I've taken Healing Grace as it helps against dispel teams to save mana and GCD.
Enhancement/Survivability (8/63/0)
Strength's:
Increased armor, increased dodge (no need to use weapon chain) and 6% reduced damage from all resources.
Weaknesses:
Not so much damage from spell crits. No increased melee crit when spell crit occur.
This spec is the enhancement spec I'm currently using. I prefer this spec when socketing defensive (will come to gem choice soon). This spec is nice in 2v2 and 3v3 bracket due to not being slowed as much. You got more armor and with a shield you should be around 19k armor or so.
Other than that it's just a bit different from the normal enhancement spec that is used in the higher brackets. Shouldn't have to explain how much earthen power and spirit wolves are a must.
Glyph's:
Glyph of Lava Lash, Glyph of Windfury Weapon and Glyph of Flametongue Weapon is the glyphs I'm using, I think they are the best for enhancement pvp, after 3.1 (if they aren't reverting the change) you will of course glyph Stoneclaw totem.
Gems and Enchants:
defensive, that is really all I can say.
Blue gems: Stamina AP or Stamina Crit
Yellow gems: Stamina Crit
Red gems: Stamina AP
I enjoy this gem choice since Shamans in general are somewhat squishy but with these gems and a shield equipped you can tank pretty well and with SR you can negate a lot of damage.
For the enchants I am using high stamina enchants (keep in mind not to gimp your ap and crit to much though) but at shoulders and head I'm using the ap resilience enchants from Wintergrasp.
