WoW Forever Shaman Guide

Shamans in WoW: Forever are no longer Horde-only. Dwarves get the class as one of the new race and class combinations, and Horde-aligned Skyborne can be Shamans as well. The class itself gets one of the biggest quality-of-life passes in Forever: a totem bar, totems that last 5 minutes, hour-long weapon imbues and a reworked Fire Nova. This page summarizes Blizzard’s official class deep dive.

Plan your build: the WoW Forever Shaman talent calculator uses the full talent trees from the game client’s own data, with every rank, row requirement and tooltip.

Because both factions now have Shamans, Blizzard also lowered Warrior Battle Shout, since both sides get Paladin and Shaman buffs.

Totem changes

• All totems have a 1.0-second global cooldown (was 1.5).
• Totems that give a lasting buff now last 5 minutes instead of 2.
• A new tracking UI shows active totems and their remaining time; right-click to dismiss one.
• Resistance totems now buff the entire raid group.
• Call of the Elements (level 20) unlocks the totem bar: preset 4 totems, one per element, and summon them all with a 3-second cast. Call of the Spirits (level 30) and Call of the Ancestors (level 40) add a second and third preset.
• Totemic Recall (new, level 20) destroys your totems and refunds 25% of their mana. Blizzard noted a beta bug where the refund was missing.
• Totemic Projection (new, level 22) teleports all your totems up to 30 yards, on a 1-minute cooldown.
• Windfury Totem and Flametongue Totem are now party-wide buffs rather than weapon enchants. A Shaman with the matching weapon imbue cannot benefit from them, and Windfury does not stack with Grace of Air or Flametongue Totem.
• Fire Nova Totem is removed. The new Fire Nova spell erupts at your current Fire totem, so you can trigger it repeatedly.
• Tranquil Air Totem is removed.

Other baseline changes

• Weapon imbues last 60 minutes (was 5) and stack with temporary enchants such as sharpening stones, weightstones and wizard oil.
• Lightning Bolt ranks 4 and up cast in 2.5 seconds (was 3). Chain Lightning casts in 2 seconds (was 2.5). Both have lower spell power scaling to match.

Talent structure

Talents start at level 10 with gold medal talents at 11, 16 (new), 21 and 31 points. Respec at a class trainer in a major city; Dual Specialization unlocks at level 40.

Elemental Combat

• Lava Burst (new 31-point gold medal): 2.5-second cast, 20% more damage if the target has your Flame Shock, 10-second cooldown.
• Elemental Mastery is removed. Blizzard said it held the spec back: Elemental damage could not be raised in PvE without the talent being too strong in PvP.
• Lightning Overload (new): Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning can cast a free half-damage copy.
• Call of Thunder becomes the 16-point gold medal; Earthbound (new 21-point gold medal) makes Earthbind Totem root nearby enemies for 5 seconds.
• Elemental Alacrity (formerly Lightning Mastery) moves much earlier but is weaker, and also speeds up Lava Burst.
• Eye of the Storm now protects Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst from pushback at all times.

Enhancement

• Stormstrike moves to the 16-point gold medal with an 8-second cooldown. It now boosts your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Earth Shock by 20%.
• Maelstrom Weapon (new): melee attacks build charges that shorten Lightning Bolt, up to an instant cast.
• Rage of the Farseer (new 31-point gold medal): 30% attack speed for 25 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown. Blizzard made it a personal cooldown inspired by Heroism and Bloodlust.
• Shamanistic Focus (new 11-point gold medal): much cheaper Shocks and Lightning Shield.
• Spirit Weapons (formerly Parry, 21 points) lowers threat normally and raises it with Rockbiter Weapon, keeping the Shaman’s ability to off-tank small groups.
• Mental Dexterity and Mental Quickness (new) turn Intellect into Attack Power and spell power. Improved Stormstrike (new) adds mana regeneration and cooldown resets.
• Improved Ghost Wolf: rank 1 works indoors and casts faster; rank 2 makes it instant.
• Enhancing Totems, Two-Handed Axes and Maces, Weapon Mastery and Improved Weapon Totems are now baseline. Shield Specialization is removed.

Restoration

• Riptide (new 31-point gold medal): an instant heal plus a heal over time for 15 seconds that makes Chain Heal 25% stronger on that target; 6-second cooldown.
• Water Shield (new 11-point gold medal): a shield that returns mana when you are hit or land a critical heal.
• Mana Tide Totem moves to the 16-point gold medal.
• Mindfulness (new, regeneration while casting) and Natural Grace (lower threat from all spells) sit early in the tree so Elemental Shamans can reach them.
• Healing Way now increases Healing Wave’s healing by a percentage. Restorative Totems doubles the Healing Stream Totem bonus. Nature’s Guidance is removed.

Strengths and weaknesses, according to Blizzard

Shamans are masters of totems that buff, heal and solve problems for groups, and totem choice and placement still separate experienced players. They can be melee or spell damage dealers and healers, and they are among the sturdiest classes with mail armor and a shield. Their weakness is the lack of effective crowd control.

What is not confirmed yet

• Whether the Totemic Recall refund bug was fixed before launch.
• Exact per-level damage and healing numbers in some talent tooltips; these scale with your character, so our Shaman talent calculator shows them as formulas or dashes.
• Dwarf and Skyborne Shaman starting quests and trainers in Forever; we will add them once confirmed in game.

Related guides

• Shaman talent calculator
• All WoW Forever classes
• Race and class combinations
• Skyborne race guide
• Class picker tool