WoW Forever Shaman Guide: Races, Specs, Talents, Totems & Leveling

Short version: Blizzard has published two Shaman facts in its own words and one promise. The facts: Dwarf Shaman is one of six new race and class combos, and Horde Skyborne can be Shaman while Alliance Skyborne cannot. The promise: every spec was updated and more class articles are planned. The Deep Dive also named Enhancement as a spec getting itemization help, because bonus healing now carries a third as much bonus damage and caster weapons grant spell damage.

Everything about the kit itself comes from the Icy Veins readout of the BlizzCon playable build, which is press, not Blizzard prose, and can change in beta. That readout lists Lava Burst as the Elemental 31-point talent, Rage of the Farseer as the Enhancement 31-point talent, Riptide, Totemic Projection and Totemic Recall, Call of the Elements on a 3-second cast, Fire Nova no longer a totem, Lightning Overload, and Lightning Bolt at 2.5 seconds at max rank. Each is labelled that way below.

Playing Dwarf? The race guide is here. The full nine-class changelist is in every class change, and our provisional placements are on the tier list.

Five races can roll a Shaman. Dwarf is the new Alliance combo, free with the base game and listed by Blizzard alongside Human Hunter, Gnome Priest, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock and Undead Paladin. Skyborne Shaman is Horde-side only: the neutral race picks a faction at creation, and Shaman is the Horde class while Mage is the Alliance one. Skyborne requires a purchased pack; the racials below come from Wowhead's readout of the demo and the 14 September race guide.

Our pick: Dwarf for an Alliance Shaman, because a crit racial that works on spells and abilities alike suits all three specs, and Stoneform's Physical damage cut is a leveling tool. Horde-side, Skyborne's haste and run speed are the only reworked racials Blizzard's partners have printed in full; the Orc, Troll and Tauren tables are in Icy Veins' demo readout and we will not quote numbers Blizzard has not published. Every race's 2 active + 2 passive set is compared in our racials guide.

Lava Burst is the Elemental 31-point talent in the BlizzCon build, per the Icy Veins readout. In Classic, Elemental had no capstone nuke; a 31-point spell that fits between Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning changes the whole rotation, and it arrives around level 40 if you go straight down the tree. Lightning Overload is also in the readout, so extra bolts are a talent again rather than a wish.

Two more readout lines: Lightning Bolt casts in 2.5 seconds at max rank (Classic 1.12 was 3.0), and Fire Nova is no longer a totem, which removes the placement delay that made it a dead button in groups. Blizzard has not published any Elemental note in its own words; the merged hit and crit stats and caster weapons granting spell damage are official and help every caster equally.

What is not announced: mana costs, ranks, whether Elemental Mastery or Elemental Focus changed, and the new hit cap. Plan your tree on either public talent calculator and expect numbers to move during beta.

Not announced. As of September 16, Blizzard has not said whether Forever Enhancement dual-wields, stays two-handed, or gets both. The Reddit threads arguing for dual-wield are players reading talent names, not a Blizzard statement, and the Icy Veins readout does not list a Dual Wield ability or talent. Anyone presenting it as settled either way is guessing. When the Shaman class article lands we will update this line first.

What is announced: the Deep Dive named Enhancement as a spec getting itemization help. Bonus healing on gear now includes a third as much bonus damage, caster weapons grant spell damage, and hit and crit are merged across melee and spells, so the shocks and the swings scale off the same gear. That is Blizzard prose. The Icy Veins readout adds Rage of the Farseer as the 31-point capstone; its effect is not described in any admissible source, so we do not describe it.

Classic precedent, labelled as such: Enhancement levelled with a slow two-hander and Windfury Weapon. If that holds, the new capstone lands around level 40; if dual-wield arrives, weapon choice flips and so does the leveling spec below. Either way, Windfury Totem and Strength of Earth are the group tools that made Enhancement welcome in Classic dungeons, and nothing announced removes them.

Riptide is in the BlizzCon build, per the Icy Veins readout. Classic Restoration had Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave and Chain Heal and nothing instant; an instant heal-over-time changes what a Shaman healer does while moving. The readout also lists Call of the Elements, a 3-second cast that drops a set of totems together, and Totemic Projection and Totemic Recall, which move your totems or pull them back for mana. All three are press from the demo; Blizzard has not published a Restoration note.

Official lines that help a healer anyway: bonus healing now includes a third as much bonus damage, so healing gear is no longer useless when you solo, and Divine Spirit is baseline, so a Priest's Spirit buff reaches every Shaman in the raid without a talent. The Restoration 31-point capstone is not named in any source we accept, and Mana Tide's status is not announced.

Classic precedent: Chain Heal made Restoration Shaman the strongest raid healer on stacked melee. Whether that survives depends on what the new talents do, which is why this section stays open until Blizzard's article.

The trees keep the Classic shape. Blizzard's Deep Dive recap says the one-point milestone talents sit at 11, 21 and 31 points, plus a new one at 16. The 51-point total at level 60 is Kris Zierhut's figure via Icy Veins, not Blizzard prose. Some talents are unchanged from 1.12; the Shaman-specific list is not published.

The baseline buff rule matters for hybrids: Blessing of Kings, Divine Spirit and Improved Mark of the Wild are now baseline, so a Paladin or Druid does not spend points to buff you and you do not need to court them for it. Both public calculators load a Shaman tree, but they are community builds of the demo data and disagree in places; treat them as scratch paper. Which one to trust and why is in the calculator comparison.

Level Enhancement, dip Elemental for the shock talents, and switch to Elemental at 40 if Lava Burst holds up. That is the Classic precedent adjusted for the one capstone we can see. A two-hander with Windfury Weapon plus Flame Shock and Earth Shock kills a mob fast enough to keep moving, and Ghost Wolf at 20 covers the travel. If Blizzard announces dual-wield for Enhancement, the weapon plan changes and this section will say so.

Blizzard has said over a thousand new quests were added across 1 to 60, and that a solo player should kill an ordinary mob quickly without the class losing its Classic feel. The full route, with the new zones placed on it, is in the 1-60 leveling guide.

Totems are why groups want a Shaman, and two readout lines change how you use them. Call of the Elements drops a set on one 3-second cast, and Totemic Projection and Totemic Recall let you move them or pull them back for mana. Both are Icy Veins press from the demo; neither has a Blizzard sentence yet. Fire Nova is no longer a totem, per the same readout.

Assume the Classic list until Blizzard's Shaman article says otherwise, and read the two new totem tools as the real quality-of-life change. Purge, Earth Shock as an interrupt and Ghost Wolf are unchanged in every source; Reincarnation and Ankh are not mentioned anywhere, so we do not speculate.

Dungeons 13-60: Windfury Totem and Strength of Earth for a melee group, Mana Spring for casters, Tremor against fears, and off-heals. That was Classic and nothing announced removes it. Blizzard's nine-dungeon list and the new brackets are in our dungeon guide.

Raids: Forever opens with the 10-player Barrow Deeps and the 20-player Hyjal Summit; Restoration is the safe raid seat on Classic precedent, Elemental gets a real case if Lava Burst ships as read, and Enhancement's value rides on the itemization help Blizzard named for it. The raid unlock schedule and both raids are in our raid guide. No PvP class notes exist, so we do not rank Shaman there.

The honest read: Shaman is the class with the most visible kit change after Paladin and the least Blizzard prose behind it. That is exactly why it sits high but provisional on our list, and why every line here says whether Blizzard or a readout is speaking.