WoW Classic Shaman Tanking Guide

Can Shamans tank in WoW? The short and to the point answer is, yes. You might be rubbing your eyes in disbelief of this answer. Perhaps conjuring a ten page manifesto about how only warriors can and should tank. Although, I can go on a long rant about how there are many other classes that can tank, today, I’ll be focusing on our totemic friend, the shaman.

About Me

I’m Caperfin. This culminates years of work. If you have questions, see my Livestream.

Intro

The topic of viable and optimal is contentious as some don’t see the difference or mix them up and levy a misguided philosophy onto it. Optimal is the most efficient and foolproof solution that eliminates as many negative variables as possible and favors an easier path. Viable or often referred to as: possible, seen as the more challenging path but to many is a greater personal triumph. Shaman Tank is labelled as viable.

Many Shaman tanks agree their motivation is from the glory of seizing a feat the rest of the realm dares not try. If this resonates with you, please continue reading. You shaman tank if you want a challenge and a refreshing perspective from a 15 year old game. If it wasn’t obvious before, shield bearing is a sizable undertaking.

When experienced players Shaman tank and put in the effort, it shines tenfold. Shamans can fully tank 5mans, 10mans, off-tank & main-tank raids. But, this is reliant on personal and guild experience. Our overall defensive statistics won’t reach a warrior’s. However, it isn’t necessary to do so, to tank.

Race

Races play a big part as we are grasping for any amount of extra efficiency possible. Unfortunately, shamans aren’t on the Alliance side, therefore, we are being relegated to spend our fighting days with the Horde. As for race, choose wisely as once the decision is made there is no going back. Some players might want to choose a certain race to assure the clearing of a specific boss or raid.

Orc
Axe Specialization             Blood Fury             Hardiness           Command
What does this mean?: Orc sadly fall short in survival & threat aspects. Akin to the troll, orc’s focal point is threat. However, they’re seen as a more riskier race option considering the -50% to healing from Blood Fury, which is a negative to non-attentive healers. In all honesty, in our strict testing, they surpass other races for dealing threat on short fights but it made the majority of healers very nervous. On the bright side, they proved more effective in the off-tank position. In conclusion, they plunge too deep into the situational category to be justified.

Tauren
Nature Resistance        War Stomp        Endurance         Cultivation
What does this mean?: Considered the most suited race for surviving long fights and ideally clearing ZG/AQ, which will be the first raids where difficulties will arise. The 5% hp is great and is inherently based on absolute hp, so it will scale with the amount of hp obtained from gear and world buffs. In regards to War Stomp, be cautious you cannot dodge, block, or parry while casting the spell. However, its overall usefulness outweigh this slight inconvenience. The 15 skill increase to Herbalism is also nothing to scoff at while leveling.

Troll
Throwing Specialization /Bow Specialization           Beast Slaying           Regeneration           Berserking
What does this mean?: The race focusing on dealing threat instead of anything else. Generally, threat is not an issue, if you glaringly foresee having threat issues, than I unquestionably advocate for troll above all other races. Their “Regeneration” racial is insignificant even with a lot of spirit. Troll will especially deal a lot of threat on “Beast” bosses, ex: Magmadar in MC, Whirlaxis and Gahz’ranka in ZG, etc…

Professions

Engineering:  Goblin Sapper Charge,  Masterwork Target Dummy,  Force Reactive Disk,  Gnomish Battle Chicken, etc… It helps if party engineers use Gnomish Battle Chicken since  Battle Squawk stacks to 25%. The other profession is to gain gold to buy consumables.

While leveling, select Herbalism & Alchemy. Herbalism provides reagents for Alchemy and a source of gold for our eventual endgame professions. The goal is to gather a large supply of gold and a bank full of potions the raid might need, for example the potion, Flask of the Titans.

After drop Herbalism and go for the late game profession, Engineering. In order to get a few tools, such as: Gnomish Battle Chicken, Goblin Sapper Charge among many other beneficial gadgets.

• Note: If you plan to raid tank, get Enchanting for Smoking Heart of the Mountain and feel free to drop Enchanting afterwards.

Finally, for secondary professions, I urge grabbing all of them as they all provide valuable assets. In terms of fishing, you can farm those elusive Stonescale Eels that are highly contested after for Flask of the Titans. First aid grants bandages for healing that don’t require any mana to use. Lastly, cooking has Dragonbreath Chili a sheer delight as it not only scales with spell damage but also with the trinket: Arcanite Dragonling and its fire increasing debuff: Flame Buffet. The debuff also scales with Goblin Sapper charge. All these items nicely combine into a decent boost in threat. Contrary to popular belief, Dragonbreath Chili does stack with another food buff.

Threat Management

Deal threat:  Earth Shock,  Stormstrike,  Rockbiter Weapon, etc. Potions deal threat, ex:  Major Rejuvenation Potion based on 50% Health & 50% Mana gained. Damage items, ex: Rough Dynamite & buffs, ex: Thorns deal 100% threat based on damage. Items, ex: Gift of Arthas deal threat on each trigger.

Because a plethora of questions surrounding aggro/threat are bound to come out of confusion. I’d like to first reference Kenco’s words about how gaining aggro on a mob and overall threat functions in World of Warcraft.

Now, let’s examine shaman threat. They’re on another tier when it comes to outputting threat, but demand a lot of dedication comparably to the more laxed tanks out there. With proper optimization, their threat is nearly equal to a pure protection warrior and in some situations just shy of a druid tank. Of course, the shorter a fight, the better, since a shaman can freely throw mana around without going out of mana as fast. Resulting in more dependable damage being dished out and correlates into predictable threat. Let’s see how to get creatures more mad at you than unusual.

• Earth Shock is first as it deal a high amount of threat because of its 2x damage threat modifier. The downside is nature damage is burdened on three fronts: no warlock curses bolster it, a spell coefficient of 40.71% of the caster’s spell damage and some raid content is somewhat resistant to nature. Lastly, downranking our spells is crucial in tanking to be cost-effective. Anything resembling an elemental (noticeable in MC) will have a high resistance to nature damage. All the Dragons of Nightmare are also immune to nature damage or tend to have the same high resistance to nature as to fire. The same applies for some creatures in: AQ, ZG and Naxx. Basically, if an environment has a disease or poison theme, expect nature damage to be hampered. Here’s a chart to better explain the notion. Don’t fret, items exist to counter this damage dampening downside, ex: Eye of Moam & the debuff from Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker helps with Earth Shock’s damage by reducing the target’s nature resistance.
• Frost Shock is used against nature immune targets. Frost Shock or referred as “FS” doesn’t consume a debuff slot on a boss impervious to movement impairing effects (most bosses). There are additional ways to circumvent the lack of threat done against nature immune targets, which will be peppered throughout the upcoming topics.
• Rockbiter Weapon at rank7, is 72 threat per second on hit. With 2.6 speed weapon, each hit is: 2.6 * 72 = ~172 threat. Weapon speed won’t matter, but haste does. Haste effects are wanted to counter nature defiant mobs & low percent chance to hit. Once at an auto attack DPS of ~140, Rockbiter isn’t optimal, instead use Windfury Weapon. Players use fast daggers because of its higher chance to trigger the effect.
• Lightning Shield or known as “LS” imposes conditions to be cost effective. Firstly, LS is on the GCD and shouldn’t be casted over other spells, such as: Earth Shock so weigh your mana and threat. Secondly, downranking LS is vital to conserve our resources and maintain productivity. Each charge of LS scales with 33% of total spell damage but can’t crit.
• Oil of Immolation might not seem like much but floats around fourth on the list. It will interrupt your swing timer but not trigger a GCD. It’s undeniably good before a boss pull or versus many mobs. Can be bought off the Auction House.
• Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning (depending on number of mobs) will be the first spells dealing threat on the target. Downranking isn’t as harsh or compulsory since these spells are only casted upon engaging a boss.
• Goblin Sapper Charge and similar bombs are great to output additional threat and a definite must against multiple mobs. The majority of bombs are made through Engineering with the exception of the last two in the list below:
  – Goblin Sapper Charge (It shares a 1 minute GCD w/other bombs)
  – Dark Iron Bomb will require you to stand still and a 1 second cast.
  – Crystal Charge this can be stacked up to 20 & used when moving.
  – Note: Not a bomb but Clutch of Foresight (shares CD with bombs) is an arcane spell, great versus fire resistant mobs.
• Major Rejuvenation Potion & similar potions are global and .5x of the amount replenished. Health and mana effects will not cause threat if at maximum capacity. Players on coherent battles will use a heal pot after Goblin Sapper Charge to deal a lot of threat. In order of threat, there is:
  – Major Rejuvenation Potion is the highest threat but can be costly.
  – Major Healthstone is next on the list and given to us by a warlock.
  – Major Mana Potion is buyable on AH. (Shares CD with the above)
  – Demonic Rune / Dark Rune (Shares a CD with the below item)
  – Night Dragon’s Breath easy to acquire so place them in the bank.
• Thorns and similar reflective effects are last. Typically, these type of buffs are great against multiple mobs and remain relevant in single target scenarios. You can only have one reflective buff on you at a time. The second highest dealing damage reflective effect is: Fire Shield from a warlock’s imp.

Threat Diminishers

Items reduce threat, ex:  Fetish of the Sand Reaver. Mage:  Burning Soul. Shaman:  Tranquil Air Totem. Rogue and Hunter wipe threat w/  Vanish &  Feign Death and so can  Flask of Petrification. Items prevent aggro:  Limited Invulnerability Potion & redirect aggro Masterwork Target Dummy. Classes at 30-40 yards compared to melee must deal more damage to aggro.

Aggro and threat from teammates is a daunting obstacle to tackle. Luckily, there are ways for classes to reduce their threat. Firstly, ranged classes are favored because any aggro they mistakenly get is likely from a 30-40yrd range, so it’s easier to supervise. Also classes standing out of the 30-40yrd range will not draw aggro until they exceed the threat level of the mob’s current target by 30% as opposed to 10% for melee classes. Here are a few examples of threat reducers or resets, in no particular order:

Classes

• Rogue deal with threat thanks to Feint and wipe threat with Vanish.
• Mage have the talent Frost Channeling and the talent Burning Soul.
• Druid in cat form can use: Cower & healing druids can get Subtlety.
• Priest reduce threat with the talent Silent Resolve & the spell: Fade.
• Shaman who heal can get Healing Grace & use: Tranquil Air Totem.

Items

• Formula: Enchant Cloak – Subtlety: Used by high threat dealers in raids.
• Limited Invulnerability Potion: Will prevent aggro gain during its effect.
• Fetish of the Sand Reaver & Eye of Diminution: Available in AQ/Naxx.

Totems

Totems can’t deal threat for you. Common totems:  Grace of Air Totem,  Stoneskin Totem &  Healing Stream Totem. AoE Tanking:  Stoneclaw Totem afterwards Fire Nova Totem.

We’ll be asking our shamanistic brothers from the restoration side to land a hand with totem utility, so be kind and compliment each others advantages in the group. keep in mind, there can only be one type of totem per shaman so having another shaman is welcomed. Also, fire totems can crit & scale with spell damage. Each totem below is in order of importance per category.

Earth

• Strength of Earth Totem: Put by a 2nd shaman w/Enhancing Totems.
• Stoneskin Totem: Dropped by us or 2nd shaman w/Guardian Totems.
• Stoneclaw Totem: For AoE tanking a mob in a pack you don’t have aggro.
• Earthbind Totem: A tool for kiting possible unbound trash in an instance.
• Tremor Totem: This totem will see some relevancy on a few boss battles.

Fire

• Frost Resistance Totem: Ideal for fights with high doses of frost damage.
• Fire Nova Totem: Usually for bursting down low HP adds on encounters.
• Searing Totem: Damage totems are costly since they don’t grant threat.
• Magma Totem: Superb for AoE damage on high HP adds in encounters.
• Flametongue Totem: A weak enchant incomparable to other enchants.

Air

• Grace of Air Totem: Optimally, put by a shaman w/Enhancing Totems.
• Nature Resistance Totem: To counteract nature damage, mainly ZG/AQ.
• Tranquil Air Totem: All raid party groups should have this, except yours.
• Grounding Totem: Sadly, this totem will rarely if ever used when tanking.
• Windwall Totem: Never used. I don’t recommend purchasing this totem.
• Windfury Totem: Our Rockbiter enchant is better. But it may help others.

Water

• Mana Spring Totem: Usually, put by a shaman w/Restorative Totems.
• Healing Stream Totem: Place if the before totem is put by a 2nd shaman.
• Poison Cleansing Totem: Good against a high poison output, ex: AQ/ZG.
• Fire Resistance Totem: Ideal versus high amounts of fire damage, ex MC.
• Disease Cleansing Totem: Unfortunately, it will rarely see the light of day.

Talents

The optimal talent setup for a Shaman Tank: (16/35/0), it has steady threat per second for raids & excels on short fights.

Additional Builds

Naturally, if you’re only doing dungeons the road ahead is much easier and there’s more freedom to move talent points. However, raid tanking follows strict guidelines to be effective. The last two talent setups assume you’re in a serious guild who confidently clear raids.

• “The Basic”- 14/37/0
  The new player starter pack in 5mans. Pick if unsure of an upcoming boss fight or are still learning about dungeon shaman tanking.

• “The AoE” – 24/27/0
  For tanking many targets at a time in raids. It mainly uses Chain Lightning alongside Eye of the Storm for threat. Against +3 mobs, see: AoE Tanking.

• “The Advanced”- 21/30/0
  For Raid Tanking. The highest threat setup & for mobs resilient or immune to nature damage. Good gear and a solid knowledge of tanking is needed.

Rotations

1. PrePull: Cast Lightning Shield. Get all Buffs the group can supply. Cast Rockbiter Weapon. Place: Stoneskin Totem, Grace of Air Totem & Healing Stream Totem. Mark the mobs in front of you by right-clicking their portrait, pick Raid Target Icon, choose from either a Skull = kill first, a red X = kill second, a blue square = Hunter trap and a moon = Polymorph.
2. Pulling: Cast  Lightning Bolt, followed by as many  Lightning Bolt possible to trigger,  Elemental Focus. Lastly,  Earth Shock.
3. Combat: For raids, use  Nat Pagle’s Broken Reel to assure the first few Earth Shocks hit. In a fight, use relevant ranks of Earth Shock that suits your mana & threat. Stormstrike can’t be downranked but is also used in similar cases. If  Lightning Shield expires, cast it. If you suddenly might die, equip a defensive weapon, ex:  Spineshatter w/ Enchant Weapon – Agility &  Rockbiter Weapon, use Masterwork Target Dummy (taunts boss), use  Juju Escape, possibly Major Healthstone & Major Rejuvenation Potion

Original Rotations

First, on the list is a simple dungeon tank rotation and we’ll be presuming the boss fight is simple.

• Pre-pull: Cast Lightning Shield and assure all possible buffs are present and max duration. Next, place the appropriate totems. Lastly, if it hasn’t been done get the addon: KTM Threat, it displays the threat of members. A scenario can turn ugly quick, so watch KTM often. At any moment, you need to be sure of the fitting Earth Shock rank to use.
• Pulling: Cast Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning and Earth Shock. If all goes smoothly, Earth Shock again and turn the boss away from the group. If the boss suddenly targets someone or drops aggro, use rank7 Earth shock to aggro them. For future threat problems, see: Threat.

Second is a complex rotation mainly for raid tanking, it has great results but requires good gear, buff, etc… Naturally, if you aren’t able to perform every single action below don’t get discouraged, its mostly to showcase the maximum potential possible.

• Pre-pull: Equip a spell damage gear set (ex: Gear Set +  Brilliant Wizard Oil), cast Rank7 Lightning Shield. Equip normal tanking gear, except the weapon & drink mana. Place Stoneclaw Totem & back up 25-30yrds. (It will later halt the boss for 0.5 seconds or the boss attack’s it) Equip 3 pieces of Stormcaller’s Garb Place Mana Spring Totem. Activate Oil of immolation. Cast Rank1 Lightning Bolt on Unconscious Dig Rat to proc the previous nature effect or try to get Flurry & Elemental Devastation instead, your choice. (a mage can polymorph the rat, until it triggers.)
• Pulling: Lightning Bolt, while it travels, equip a healing weapon (ex: Jin’do’s Hexxer) As the bolt hits, cast R6 Lesser Healing Wave on a warlock who recently Life Tap. Equip a spell damage weapon (preferably staff). Cast R4 Chain Lightning. Equip all normal tanking gear. Immediately after cast R7 Earth Shock Activate Juju Flurry and Juju Escape, if the situation is ideal. Repeat the appropriate rank Earth Shock until boss is dead.
• Situational: If mana allows it, cast a suitable rank of Lightning Shield. If mana is foreseeably a problem, use Oil of immolation often. If mana is foreseeably an issue but threat isn’t also cast R1 Frost Shock.
• Note: Versus nature immune bosses, to pull: use Magic Candle (equip spell damage weapon). After, follow the healing-threat tactic above & cast Lesser Healing Wave as much as possible until the boss is at melee range than Frost Shock. If more threat is needed: Flame Shock instead. MUST need Flame Buffet (don’t bother otherwise) & similar debuffs.

Buffs

Avoid nearing the 32 buff cap, as it may result in Buffs being mistakenly removed, the addon: Buff Cap Tracker helps. (see List of Buffs). Prioritize defensive Buffs, ex: Elixir of Fortitude before Threat Buffs, ex: Juju Might.

Prioritize obtaining Defensive buffs before acquiring Threat related buffs. Agility for example has the added byproduct of helping with defensive and threat measures. Generally, off-tanks or known as “OT”, take less damage, therefore, it’s not fully needed to aim for Defensive buffs. Also, some buffs are unobtainable due to certain patch restrictions or unable to stack with others. There is a max of 32 buffs: Talents, Set bonuses & Equip effects don’t count. But Gear enchants count with exceptions: (Crusader enchant and enchants from the profession enchanting don’t count.) Resistance enchants however need to be reconfirmed as they make it seem now like those should count. Let’s move on and explore relevant buffs to our tanking duties. The following buffs are classified into sub-groups to better highlight their usefulness and showcase different options.

Threat Increasing Buffs

• Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer:
• Gnomish Shrink Ray: (can backfire increasing group’s attack power)
• Fengus’ Ferocity: From Dire Maul.
• Trueshot Aura: +50 Attack power.
• Battle Shout: (Improved by Battlegear of Wrath (3/3) tier set bonus)
• Juju Might: +40 Attack power. (from repeatable Winterspring quest)

• Sayge’s Dark Fortune of Agility: +10% Agility. From Darkmoon Faire.
• Ground Scorpok Assay: +25 Agility.
• Elixir of the Mongoose: +25 Agility, +2% Melee Crit.
• Grace of Air Totem: +77 Agility (effect is increased through a shaman talent)
• Call of the Raptor: +12 Agility for 30min. (non-repeatable quest reward item)
• Grilled Squid: +10 Agility for 10min. (does not stack with other food buffs)
• Strength of Earth Totem: (effect is increased through a shaman talent)

• Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian: (can’t stack w/Moonkin Form)
• Slip’kik’s Savvy: From Dire Maul.
• Moonkin Form: +3% Spell Crit.

• Headmaster’s Charge: +20 Intellect.
• Arcane Intellect: +31 Intellect.

• Gnomish Battle Chicken: Upon attacking it might give party +5% Attack Speed for 4 min.
• Warchief’s Blessing:
• Fist of Shahram(Blackblade of Shahram): +25% haste to party for 8sec.
• Juju Flurry: +3% Attack Speed for 20 sec. (Others can cast it on you)
• Swift Wind: (Only receivable upon finishing the Call of Air totem quest)

• Mana Spring Totem: +10 mana every 2 sec. (Only causes threat if you cast)
• Mageblood Potion: +12 mana per 5 sec. (regen effect doesn’t cause threat)
• Innervate: Increases Mana regen by 400% for 20 sec.

• Oil of Immolation: 50 Fire dmg to target within 5yds every 3 sec for 15 sec.
• Lightning Shield: (Scales with spell damage)
• Static Barrier: From Electromagnetic Gigaflux Reactivator.
• Crystal Spire: (From a repeatable quest & anyone can cast it on you)
• Fire Shield: Deals 13 Fire dmg to melee attackers.
• Thorns: (Improved by Cenarion Raiment (3/3) tier set bonus )

• Brilliant Wizard Oil: On a swappable weapon for the pulling of a mob.
• Blessed Wizard Oil: Ideal for Scholomance, Stratholme & Naxx.

• Flask of Supreme Power: (Can’t stack w/Flask of the Titans, so choose wisely.)
• Greater Arcane Elixir: +20 dmg dealt from spells & abilities.
• Traces of Silithyst: +5% damage to melee, range and spell damage dealt.
• Power Infusion: The target receives +20% spell damage & healing for 15 sec.

• Songflower Serenade: Boost melee, ranged, or spell to crit 5%, +15 all stats.
• Mark of the Chosen: 2% chance when hit of increasing all stats by 25.
• Spirit of Zandalar: +10% move speed, +15% all stats.
• Mark of the Wild: +384 armor, +12 all attributes,+27 all resistance.

• Elixir of Greater Firepower: Bolster fire damage by up to 40 for 30 min.
• Blessing of Blackfathom: +5 intellect & spirit. +15 frost damage.
• Elixir of Frost Power: Increases spell frost damage by up to 15 for 30 min.
• Dragonbreath Chili: (scales with spell damage and fire increasing buffs)

Defensive-Buffs

•  Sayge’s Dark Fortune of Stamina: +10% Stamina (+10% Armor also exists)
•  Dirge’s Kickin’ Chimaerok Chops: (can’t stack w/other food buffs)
•  Rumsey Rum Black Label: From Booty Bay.
•  Power Word: Fortitude: +54 Stamina.
•  Mol’dar’s Moxie: +15% Stamina overall.

•  Spirit of Zanza: +50 Stamina, +50 spirit.
•  Blood Pact: +42 Stamina.

•  Flask of the Titans: +1200 Hp.
•  Elixir of Fortitude: +120 Hp.
•  Regrowth: From the (6/6) Dreamwalker Raiment tier set bonus.

•  The Lion Horn of Stormwind: (a friendly tank can activate it for you.)
•  Greater Stoneshield Potion: +2000 Armor for 2min.
•  Elixir of Superior Defense: +450 Armor.
•  Polished Armor: (AWAITING CONFIRMATION OF ITS EXISTENCE)
•  Crystal Ward: From repeatable quest in Un’Goro Crater. (allies can also cast on you)
•  Inspiration: Increases armor by 25% for 15 sec.

•  Power Word: Shield: Absorb 1105 dmg for 30 sec. While active…
•  Scarab Brooch: (Healers can trigger its effect on you before a fight)
•  Greater Heal Renew: From the (4/4) Vestments of Faith tier set bonus.

•  Bloodkelp Elixir of Dodging: +3% dodge for 30 min. (one time usable item)
•  Juju Escape: +5% Dodge for 10 sec.

•  Healing Stream Totem: Doesn’t cause threat for you.
•  Greater Heal Renew: From (8/8) Vestments of Transcendence tier set.
•  Rejuvenation: Heal for 888 over 12 sec.
•  Regrowth: Heal for 1064 over 21 sec.
•  Renew: Heal for 970 damage over 15 sec.

•  Stoneskin Totem: Reduce melee damage taken by 30.
•  Dampen Magic: Useful for magical heavy fights.
•  Amplify Magic: Useful for physically heavy fights.

Resistance Buffs

•  Greater Fire Protection Potion: Absorbs fire damage.
•  Fire Resistance Totem: +60 fire resistance.
•  Frozen Rune: Absorbs 1500 to 2500 fire damage.
•  Juju Ember: +15 fire resistance for 10 min.

•  Greater Frost Protection Potion: Absorbs frost damage.
•  Frost Resistance Totem: +60 frost resistance.
•  Juju Chill: +15 frost resistance for 10 min.

•  Greater Nature Protection Potion: Absorbs nature damage.
•  Nature Resistance Totem: +60 nature resistance.

•  Greater Shadow Protection Potion: Absorbs shadow damage.
•  Crystal Basilisk Spine: +10 Shadow resistance & Frost for 1 min.
•  Gift of Arthas: +10 Shadow resistance for 30 min.

Mind Control Buffs
It is possible for an Alliance priest to use  Mind Control or someone with engineering to use the head slot item  Gnomish Mind Control Cap versus players on the Horde. For that duration the mind controlled Horde character is now considered an Alliance player. This allows the character to receive buffs from paladins. In the many guild raids I’ve taken part, we’d have 2-3 players on their paladins and priests stationed near the raid entrance for mind control buffing. It’s also possible for a priest of any faction to Mind Control certain mobs, which can dish out buffs to all raid members.

• Greater Blessing of Sanctuary: (Will stack w/Stoneskin Totem)
• Greater Blessing of Wisdom: (Will stack w/Mana Spring Totem).
• Greater Blessing of Salvation: (can’t stack w/Tranquil Air Totem).
• Greater Blessing of Might: (can’t stack w/Strength of Earth Totem)
• Greater Blessing of Kings: +10% to all stats for 15 min.
• Improved Lay on Hands: Possible once it expires to go outside to get re-buffed then re-enter the instance & summoned back to allies.
• BONUS: You can get Fear Ward from dwarf priests and if survivability is secured Curse of Recklessness from horde warlocks.

Mind Control Buffs from mobs

•  Fury of Ragnaros: From Twilight Emissary in BRD.
•  Resist Arcane: From Scarlet Medic in Plaguelands.
•  Resist Fire: From Scarshield Spellbinder in BWL.
•  Bloodlust: From Gordok Mage-Lord in DM.
•  Bloodlust: From Hamhock in Stockades.

Special Event Buffs:
On an ending note for buffs, we can also get buffs from special events. An example, is The Midsummer Fire Festival an event celebrating the hottest season of the year. It lasts about two weeks (mid-late June to early July). The next ones are Love is in the Air, Lunar Festival, Wickerman Festival and Scourge Invasion. The following buffs are separated by their event.

• Thunder Bluff Gift Collection: +30 Intellect for 1 hour.
• Ironforge Gift Collection: +30 Intellect for 1 hour.
• Stormwind Gift Collection: +30 Intellect for 1 hour.
• Undercity Gift Collection: +30 Intellect for 1 hour.
• Orgrimmar Gift Collection: +30 Agility for 1 hour.
• Darnassus Gift Collection: +30 Agility for 1 hour.

• Fire Festival Fortitude: (stacks w/stamina buffs above)
• Midsummer Sausage: Bolsters damage from spells by up to 23.

• Fire-toasted Bun: +2% hit chance for 1 hr.
• Fire Festival Fury: +3% spell and melee crit for 1 hr.
• Elderberry Pie: +13 defense for 1 hr.

• Buttermilk Delight: +13 defense for 1 hr.
• Very Berry Cream: Bolsters damage from spells by up to 23.
• Dark Desire: +2% hit chance for 1 hr.
• Celebrate Good Times!: +10% to all stats for 30min.
• Elune’s Blessing: All stats increased by 10% for 1hr.

• Invocation of the Wickerman: +25% health & mana regen. +25% stamina.

• Soul Revival: +10% to all damage caused for 30 minutes.

Debuffs

There can be a total of 16 debuffs on a boss. Having as many debuffs on a raid boss is crucial. All debuffs on the list below benefit us in either Threat or Defensive aspects and assumed to be at their maximum rank and talent improvement. The following debuffs are placed into sub-groups to better highlight their utility and showcase different options.

• Curse of Recklessness: – 290 armor but bolsters melee attack power by 45.
• Expose Armor: (can’t stack w/Sunder Armor but it reduce more armor).
• Sunder Armor: Reduces armor by 450. Can be applied up to 5 times.
• Annihilator: Reduces an enemy’s armor by 200. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Faerie Fire: Reduces armor by 505 for 40 sec.

• Improved Shadow Bolt:
• Curse of Shadow: Reduces Shadow & Arcane resistances by 75…
• Shadow Weaving:

• Wail of the Banshee: (affected by spell hit, usually casted by healers.)
• Insect Swarm: Reduces target’s chance to hit by 2%…

• Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker: (can’t stack w/Thunder Clap)
• Thunder Clap: (can’t stack w/Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker‘s slow effect)

• Improved Scorch: To increase Flame Shock’s damage (niche scenario).
• Flame Buffet: To increase Flame Shock’s damage (niche scenario).

• Curse of the Elements: -75 resistance to Fire & Frost and increase Fire…
• Winter’s Chill: To increase Frost Shock’s damage (niche scenario).
• Stormstrike: Next 2 sources of Nature damage dealt are increased by 20%.
• Gift of Arthas: If a target strikes you, they have a 30% chance…
• Nightfall: Spell damage taken by target increased by 15% for 5 sec.

Curse of Weakness: (effect is increased through a warlock talent)

Demoralizing Shout: Reduce attack power of mobs by 140 for 30 sec.

Gear

Solidify defensive stats when gearing, threat is second. 4k HP & 5k Armor unbuffed for Molten Core. Blackwing Lair, ~4800 to 5k HP & 6500-7k Armor. For threat, 2% melee Hit for dungeons, raids 4%. See Gear List.

Enchants

There are two types of enchants, defensive, ex:  Enchant Gloves – Superior Agility. And offensive, ex:  Enchant Gloves – Threat.

Defensive Enchants

Offensive Enchants

Tank Comparison

To showcase our max potential a full BiS geared and buffed shaman will be the closest in stats to approach a Druid tank. Let’s look at the stats to see the differences. As a guideline, the Example Druid Tank below is BiS/buffed and able to clear most bosses with no issue. A shaman like other tanks tailors his gear versus the boss they’re facing. Obviously, the Example Druid Tank can reach higher numbers and has a plethora of defensive spells, but the goal is to showcase the class with the closest similarity to a shaman in stats across the board that gets the job done in high-end raids.

Druids have the luxury of having multiple categories covered and a broader safety net on top of having access to join Alliance for the added advantage of paladins spells, while shaman tanks are required to significantly maximize a specific category for a certain boss.done in high-end raids.

Now, let’s explores the threat generated by other classes to showcase where shaman tanks stand. Remember, threat depends on gear, boss, etc… But in general, the current standing of tanks that can do the most threat are:

1. Feral Druid/Warrior.
2. Paladin/Enh Shaman.
3. Dem warlock.
4. Priest tanks

AOE Tanking

Actions can solidify AoE cases, ex:  Oil of Immolation,  Force Reactive Disk, Thorns, etc… Tabbing & attacking mobs also helps. In combat, items & spells giving health or mana deal 50% threat divided by each mob.

Raid Composition

Suggest a raid comp without overstepping. In our group, Warlock:  Blood Pact, Warrior:  Battle Shout, Shadow Priest:  Vampiric Embrace, Resto Shaman: Mana Tide Totem. Range classes are preferred for damage. If melee is needed, rogue is best.

Raid composition differs with each boss but is seen as a skill that evolves over time and reflects the playstyle of a guild or raid. The following composition is an example with minor exceptions differing from the norm. By no means is it perfect since compositions change along side: patches, gear, experience, etc… With the raid leader’s permission offer your advice on an ideal comp catering to your needs without overstepping.

• In (Group 1): A fellow tank in your party can equip The Lion Horn of Stormwind, granted the trinket slot isn’t needed for anything else.
• A bear can replace a prot warrior in the tank party, if the raid is comfortable enough with the idea and could probarbly use an emergency Innervate or Rebirth Also, only bring the bare minimum of tanks. This will open a spot for either: a lock with Blood Pact, or a hunter with Trueshot Aura.
• Rogues are favored over fury warrior, they Feint, Sprint, Evasion and Vanish to manage their threat/aggro.
• Feral cat druids can offer similar utilities as a bear and can Cower and Dash to manage their threat/aggro.
• Discipline priest with experience and ease of mind may occasionally throw a Power Infusion on a shaman tank during the pull phase.
• In (Group 6): The shaman is elemental since healing is not an issue and we are relying mostly on Tranquil Air Totem. In the situation, you are taking too much damage this spot can be replaced by a restoration shaman.
• In (Group 7): A mage could be replaced by a shadow weaving healing priest.
• In (Group 8): Mages gravitate to Fire Specialization after AQ but keeping a single mage as Frost with the talent Winter’s Chill is advisable.
• A rogue can be replaced by a melee hunter on Nightfall duty.