Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12)

Inspired by killerduki's relentless faith in protection paladins being raid main tanks, I decided to go ahead and be the shaman tank I always wanted to be.

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hxcdZVic0Exut

Could I have some feedback on it please? I would basically rely on rockbiter speed + crit as well as Earth shock near-spam for threat. Have picked every dmg reduction/avoidance talent I could.

Feedback is welcomed.

I hope you are having fun, that's important. Did you tested it in raid/dungeon? Always dreamed about shaman tank

Nordius wrote:I hope you are having fun, that's important. Did you tested it in raid/dungeon? Always dreamed about shaman tank

I just started today, reached level 10, picking my first shield talent.

Dr. Doom wrote:

Nordius wrote:I hope you are having fun, that's important. Did you tested it in raid/dungeon? Always dreamed about shaman tank

I just started today, reached level 10, picking my first shield talent.

Have a fun...and please update this topic whenever you achive something intresting.

Nordius wrote:

Dr. Doom wrote:

Nordius wrote:I hope you are having fun, that's important. Did you tested it in raid/dungeon? Always dreamed about shaman tank

I just started today, reached level 10, picking my first shield talent.

Have a fun...and please update this topic whenever you achive something intresting.

Will certainly do that

I've been leveling my Shaman as a tank all the way to 60, although the latest dungeon I tanked was Zul Farak at level 43 and that was pretty doable. I rushed from 45 to 60 and didn't try tanking at that point. I have to say that it was a lot of fun to constantly run Scarlet Monastery without a warrior in the team, being able to get fast groups and collect all mail gear without competition sure was great.

This is the build that I went for: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hE0zxcZVVb0Exuz
While I filled in most talents to 60, I don't think this is a good build for a lvl 60 to use. With good gear you can completely change your tanking playstyle, but that's for later.

Here are a few tips:

- A Shaman tank can't go all out on all his spells because it costs too much mana. A Shaman tank will mostly be using Rockbiter weapon + ES during fights.

- Always team up with a Mage. Their CC through Frost Nova and Polymorph is irreplaceable. Not to mention that free water is a nice bonus as well.

- You pull every pack with Chain Lightning, even if a targets has to be sleeped / feared / sheeped. The initial threat it generates makes clearing packs great.

- Imp Lightning Shield is very good for PvP but terrible for dungeon tanking. The upkeep costs way too much mana which makes you go oom during fights. You don't want to be 'that guy' that the group has to constantly wait for. Using Lightning Shield often will make you into 'that guy'.

- Gaurdian totems is trash compared to Imp Ghost Wolf. Never skip out on Imp Ghost Wolf if the option is available. The only earth totem you will use is Strength Totem because it helps with threat and blocking. The -2 seconds on Grounding isn't worth it either.

- Call of Flame is another garbage talent because Concussion has priority over it. Increasing the damage done by Earth Shock directly increases your threat. Any damage your fire totems will do helps nothing with threat at all.

- Reverbation can't be replaced if you go the ele-enh path. Because your main threat comes from Rockbiter and Earth shock it is important that you keep these 2 up as much as possible.

- Eye of the Storm is a must for the ele-enh path. When you're tanking you will get crit a lot. Being able to cast Chain Lightning without being interrupted between ES shocks gives you the ability to AoE tank much better. Chain Lightning also doesn't reset your swing timer. It's good to understand that using a weapon that's slower than 2.5 seconds means you're missing out on Rockbiter swings.

Thatoneguy wrote:I've been leveling my Shaman as a tank all the way to 60, although the latest dungeon I tanked was Zul Farak at level 43 and that was pretty doable. I rushed from 45 to 60 and didn't try tanking at that point. I have to say that it was a lot of fun to constantly run Scarlet Monastery without a warrior in the team, being able to get fast groups and collect all mail gear without competition sure was great.

This is the build that I went for: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hE0zxcZVVb0Exuz
While I filled in most talents to 60, I don't think this is a good build for a lvl 60 to use. With good gear you can completely change your tanking playstyle, but that's for later.

Here are a few tips:

- A Shaman tank can't go all out on all his spells because it costs too much mana. A Shaman tank will mostly be using Rockbiter weapon + ES during fights.

- Always team up with a Mage. Their CC through Frost Nova and Polymorph is irreplaceable. Not to mention that free water is a nice bonus as well.

- You pull every pack with Chain Lightning, even if a targets has to be sleeped / feared / sheeped. The initial threat it generates makes clearing packs great.

- Imp Lightning Shield is very good for PvP but terrible for dungeon tanking. The upkeep costs way too much mana which makes you go oom during fights. You don't want to be 'that guy' that the group has to constantly wait for. Using Lightning Shield often will make you into 'that guy'.

- Gaurdian totems is trash compared to Imp Ghost Wolf. Never skip out on Imp Ghost Wolf if the option is available. The only earth totem you will use is Strength Totem because it helps with threat and blocking. The -2 seconds on Grounding isn't worth it either.

- Call of Flame is another garbage talent because Concussion has priority over it. Increasing the damage done by Earth Shock directly increases your threat. Any damage your fire totems will do helps nothing with threat at all.

- Reverbation can't be replaced if you go the ele-enh path. Because your main threat comes from Rockbiter and Earth shock it is important that you keep these 2 up as much as possible.

- Eye of the Storm is a must for the ele-enh path. When you're tanking you will get crit a lot. Being able to cast Chain Lightning without being interrupted between ES shocks gives you the ability to AoE tank much better. Chain Lightning also doesn't reset your swing timer. It's good to understand that using a weapon that's slower than 2.5 seconds means you're missing out on Rockbiter swings.

Great post, will take all points into account.
Just 2 questions: Why is Imp Ghost wolf important? and second, isn't Stoneskin totem a good option for tanking due to the dmg reduction?

Did Ragefire Chasm today, level 16. 5/5 shields and 2/5 Thundering Strikes as talents. Single threat target is never an issue. Mitigation seems to be also not that big of a deal unless too many mobs are pulled.

However multitarget management can be a bit of an issue. It is more or less akin to a paladin without consecrate. You rely on autoattack (with threat modifier, whether SoR or Rockbiter) + the low cd move (Earth Shock or JoR). CC is therefore a really good friend of yours.
Always remember to refresh Rockbiter whenever possible as the 5 min duration runs fast.

RFC specifically has earth elementals who are immune to all nature damage. Lightning Shield will not give you thorn damage, and Earth Shock won't work on them. You're down to rockbiter speed (fortunately I used a 1.5 dagger for this), and Flame Shocking to at least increase the damage done. Surprisingly, Druid thorns, a nature based effect does work on them. DPS has to go slow for these.

Totem wise I decided to use Strength of Earth for trash packs, making my rockbiter dps increase so that auto attacking different mobs keeps them on me while ES is on cd. For bosses I did use Stoneskin II. Since single target threat doesn't appear to be an issue, I figured helping my healer by having damage reduction would work best.

It did take me about 10-15 mins to become used to rotating spells and targets without having to be thinking about "what next here? what next there?", but it went generally fine. One of my dps ended up saying "I'm surprised this is going as smooth as it is" considering I was a shaman tank.

I'll continue working and testing, but for now, I can agree it is great fun, and it is quite challenging. Worth a shot if you like the shaman class and you want your enhancement tree to do something other than PvP.

Question about rockbiter: Is the additional threat a flat addition to each swing, or is it a multiplicative addition depending on AA dmg?

In other words, is it better to use fast weapons that while doing less dmg per individual swing would utilize the bonus threat more often; or is it better to get slower weapons that by doing higher dmg, also get a higher bonus threat added to them?

I used a mace until I realized I had trouble holding aggro. I switched over to using a dagger (I have flurry so when it procs, it brings me almost down to 1.00 weapon swing) and have noticed a dramatic difference. Rockbiter works off how many times you hit the opponent to add threat. So slower weapons would endanger that pathetic mage pewpewing frostbolts in the corner while something really quick (dagger) keeps the focus on you. I also use stoneclaw for multiple targets to distract them while I tab all of them to get my rockbiter swings in as well as earthshock as a form of taunt to get them to focus on me. If all else fails, I use warstomp to buy me some extra time to gain back aggro. I just recently gained stormstrike so I don't have a lot of experience with it. I mainly use it to add a boost in damage, but since it adds an extra swing it probably helps with aggro.