Shaman Tank Guide - Playing WoW as a Shaman Tank

[CaperWoW]

I’m Caperfin. Have question? see my Livestream: www.twitch.tv/caperfin


Intro: Can Shamans tank? The short and to the point answer is, yes. You might be rubbing your eyes in disbelief of this answer. Maybe 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.



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.


You’ll be staring at your character for a long time. So, consider your character’s appearance as a key factor as it may entice you to play more. All races have benefits but they’re minor compared to other aspects. In skilled hands, a Troll's Berserking can save your life and improve threat. Tauren excel at dungeons followed just behind by Orc.




Engineering for: Global Thermal Sapper Charge, Masterwork Target Dummy, Mind Amplification Dish, etc... It also helps if party engineers use Gnomish Battle Chicken since Battle Squawk stacks to 25%. Jewelcrafting for: Solid Dragon's Eye, Figurine Monarch Crab & Ruby Hare.




We can increase threat in many ways, notably: Frost Shock, Stormstrike & Lightning Shield. Install a threat tracking addon, ex: ThreatClassic2. Consumable items deal threat, ex: Powerful Rejuvenation Potion based on half of the Health & Mana gained, similarly does Totemic Recall. (see Threat List). Damage items, ex: The Decapitator's effect (usable t'ill 40yards), will deal threat equal to the damage so do reflective Buffs, ex: Thorns.


Allies can reduce their threat, through items, ex: Fetish of the Sand Reaver. Mage have: Invisibility & Burning Soul. Warlock: Soulshatter. Paladin: Hand of Salvation & Hand of Protection (prevents aggro). Hunter & Rogue redirect threat: Misdirection and Tricks of the Trade. (see More). They can wipe threat: Vanish & Feign Death. Masterwork Target Dummy can "pseudo- Taunt" up t'ill a lvl72 elite mob. Classes in the 30-40 yard range won’t get aggro t'ill they surpass the threat level of the mob’s current target by 30%, as opposed to 10% for melee classes.




Totems can't deal threat for you. Common totems: Strength of Earth Totem, Stoneskin Totem & Healing Stream Totem. AoE Tanking: Stoneclaw Totem followed by Fire Nova Totem & Earth Elemental Totem. In optimal raid situations, another shaman should put Mana Spring Totem, so we can cast high mana cost totems, ex: Fire Resistance Totem for Totemic Recall which deals threat.




1. Defensive Talent Setup: (20/51/0).
2. Defensive Talent Setup #2: (0/50/21) Fast reflexes needed to make good use of Maelstrom Weapon + Healing Wave and Nature Swiftness. Only advised for a skilled Shaman Tank.



1. PrePull: Cast Lightning Shield. Get all Buffs the group can supply. Cast Windfury Weapon. Place: Stoneskin Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem & Flametongue 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 Rank14, followed by as many Lightning Bolt Rank1 possible to trigger, Elemental Focus. At 25yards, Frost Shock.
3. Melee Range: In a fight, use Frost Shock ranks that suits mana & threat, lastly Stormstrike if need be. If Lightning Shield expires, recast. If death is imminent, use 5 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon to Healing Wave yourself, equip a defensive weapon, ex: Cloudstrider's Waraxe, use: Runic Healing Potion, Shamanistic Rage, Feral Spirit & Fel Healthstone.



Prioritize defensive Buffs, ex: Mark of the Wild before Threat Buffs, ex: Battle Shout. (see a detailed List of Buffs.)


There's defensive Debuffs: Insect Swarm & threat Debuffs: Faerie Fire among others. See List of Debuffs. With the raid leader’s consent, suggest ideal Debuffs without overstepping.




Solidify defensive stats when gearing, threat is second. The Resilience & Defense stat helps us reach the 5.6% Crit Immunity Cap, PvP gear helps, ex: Savage Gladiator. General Stat Priority: Resil/Defense (t'ill Cap) > Stamina > Armor > Parry > Dodge. See the Gear List. There's two types of enchants, defensive, ex: Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality. And offensive, ex: Enchant Gloves - Threat.

Here's a complete list of relevant Enchants.



For dungeons: Destruction Warlock, Shadow Priest, Warrior DPS (if willing to Commanding Shout) otherwise Hunter, and lastly Restoration Druid. With the raid leader’s consent, offer an ideal raid comp without overstepping. In our group, Paladin Tank: Divine Guardian + Imp Devotion Aura. Warrior Tank: Intervene, Shadow Priest: Vampiric Embrace, Feral Druid: Imp. Leader of the Pack. To learn more, see the Group/Raid Comp List. Outside of group, for damage dealing classes, we prefer ranged classes, ex: Hunters, especially those w/Tenacity Pets who have Pet Intervene & Roar of Sacrifice. If melee are required, rogues are best.

____________________________
Warden Discord: discord.gg/CJ6c893y5h
Shaman Tank Youtube: youtube.com/caperfin
Shaman Tank Gameplay: twitch.tv/caperfin

[Persivaln]

Wow. Just wow.
Sorry, but only thing shaman can tank is some classic pre-TBC dungeons (which can be tanked by any class due to bosses not being able to two-hit you). If you have to rely on others class threat reduction - you are bad tank. If you can't tag mob to attack you in critical sutiation - you are bad tank. If you don't have defensive cooldown to ensure your survival - you are bad tank.
Shammy tanking was possible only in early classic (where they were uncertain about his role) or in Cata (where he got several aggro tools). You lack armor and stamina aswel.
Arms warrior and Retri paladin at least have huge EHP and can hold aggro.
Not to mention how you've picked threat REDUCTION talents and Lava Lash (which you can't even use due to shield), but dropped your Int conversion and Static shock talents. Like, you can't even theorycraft your fever build...

[CaperWoW]

I noticed your comment and will answer it when I get home.

[Blkunxpd]

. .

[Caylara]

Always fun to see new classes trying to tank. I was criticized for tanking as a lock on TBC classic, but I did a much better job than most tanks I played with! Many players don't play their classes optimally, so sometimes you can do better even with classes that aren't natural tanks.
I looked at your stream and was disappointed that there wasn't any VODs of current-patch DGs. Do you only twink or do you also do newer content?

[CaperWoW]

@Persivaln
Feel free to point out where it says you need class threat reduction. Part of your job as a tank is letting people know they can easily reduce threat (countless hunters don't Misdirection).
I don't know what does "tag mobs" mean.
Shaman Tank has defensive cooldowns.
Correct, Spirit Weapons was picked because you can still deal great amounts of threat through Dual Wield and Lava Lash. Did you not know you can swap weapons?
You don't get Static Shock because tanking anything serious demands 100% defensive gear, which has low hit and likely a slow attacking 1hander. If your survival is fully accounted for, then I guess you could legitimise Static Shock.
If raid tanking, your elemental shield will be Earth Shield.

[SilverFlash]

Feel free to point out where it says you need class threat reduction. Part of your job as a tank is letting people know they can easily reduce threat (countless hunters don't Misdirection).

Since you haven't bothered to read your talents at all - Spirit Weapons reduces ALL threat generated by 30%. Not quite promising form the start as a tank eh.

I don't know what does "tag mobs" mean.

He means taunting. You can't taunt runaway mobs,not single target not multiple targets. Again,quite bad. Let's not even try to get to bosses that require tank swapping cause you can't do that either without a taunt. Or taunting bosses when you lose aggro.

Shaman Tank has defensive cooldowns.

I'm sorry but what? Shamanistic Rage is a joke of a defensive when we consider already lower defensive stats in the first place. This isn't pvp. People aren't tanking 10k hits,people are often tanking 40k hits with plate gear.

Spirit Weapons was picked because you can still deal great amounts of threat through Dual Wield and Lava Lash.

Leeching off of constant MD/ToT at the cost of raid dps isn't generating great amounts of threat. Even with ToT/MD a proper dps can overtake you easily.

you not know you can swap weapons?

The moment you do you get *****slapped even harder because you lose block and armor value from you shield,and you are already low on those in the first place. Also costs a gcd which... yeah...

don't get Static Shock because tanking anything serious demands 100% defensive gear, which has low hit and likely a slow attacking 1hander. If your survival is fully accounted for, then I guess you could legitimise Static Shock.
If raid tanking, your elemental shield will be Earth Shield.

You do know ES from a resto shaman stacks with your own shield as enhancement,right? And you will never get deep enough in both trees in the first place,as ES is very deep. 41 points deep in to be precise.

Tanking low lvl content as shaman is pointless,and you can't tank current content.

[Blind]

It's an interesting idea to play a shaman as a tank - but let's be honest: It's far from practical.
Like 80% of this guide is just a list of random level 1~60 items which are fun to use but are either borderline useless (Target Dummies/The Decapitator/Rejuv Potions) or entirely useless (Fetish of the Sand Reaver...).

Also there are quite a few mistakes in general - e.g. battle squawk from engineering chickens does not stack and hand of protection does not prevent aggro. It prevents the target from being attacked and attacking physically, which makes the boss ignore him while it lasts. It's just like Mirror Image, if the target can build threat it will be accounted for after the effect ends.

On a sidenote - have you ever tanked anything besides dungeons/vanilla content with this? I'm almost positive that even the "tougher" wotlk heroic dungeons like pit of saron or halls of reflection are literally unplayable with a shaman tank.

[Black2ck]

I'm almost positive that even the "tougher" wotlk heroic dungeons like pit of saron or halls of reflection are literally unplayable with a shaman tank.

I used to clean HoR hc and OS 10 as multiboxer with 4 ele shamis and rdudu so that's doable w/o a real tank.
Have to say though that all chars were full WF geared (which is pretty decent for tanking) and there was no dedicated tank so on mob packs the dmg was split between the shamis.

[Blind]

I used to clean HoR hc and OS 10 as multiboxer with 4 ele shamis and rdudu so that's doable w/o a real tank.
Have to say though that all chars were full WF geared (which is pretty decent for tanking) and there was no dedicated tank so on mob packs the dmg was split between the shamis.

I also cleared those heroics while severely outgearing them without a dedicated tank or heal. Even with less than five players.

That's far from "practical" though. If you can't clear the dungeons while actually needing gear from them, which full wf gear sort of implies, it's not really an argument.

[vsetoq]

You do know ES from a resto shaman stacks with your own shield as enhancement,right?

Are you sure about that? Cause I'm not. :KAPPA:

[CaperWoW]

Always fun to see new classes trying to tank. I was criticized for tanking as a lock on TBC classic, but I did a much better job than most tanks I played with! Many players don't play their classes optimally, so sometimes you can do better even with classes that aren't natural tanks.
I looked at your stream and was disappointed that there wasn't any VODs of current-patch DGs. Do you only twink or do you also do newer content?

I'm currently gearing my Shaman Tank for a Cataclysm guild. But you can find Raid logs, videos,etc... in the

Shaman Tank discord: https://discord.gg/aCQRtHqdCN

[CaperWoW]

Since you haven't bothered to read your talents at all - Spirit Weapons reduces ALL threat generated by 30%. Not quite promising form the start as a tank eh.

Look at the talents enabled by it.

He means taunting. You can't taunt runaway mobs,not single target not multiple targets. Again,quite bad. Let's not even try to get to bosses that require tank swapping cause you can't do that either without a taunt. Or taunting bosses when you lose aggro.

People who don't know how to circumvent not having Taunt, should not be doing fights that require Taunt.

Leeching off of constant MD/ToT at the cost of raid dps isn't generating great amounts of threat. Even with ToT/MD a proper dps can overtake you easily.

Leeching? does an undergeared warrior asking for Blood Pact leeching?

You do know ES from a resto shaman stacks with your own shield as enhancement,right? And you will never get deep enough in both trees in the first place,as ES is very deep. 41 points deep in to be precise.

Earth Shield does not stack with Lightning Shield.

[Kovachut]

OP, not all bosses follow the "tank and spank" principle. In some encounters, you have mechanics that require taunt swapping between the MT and the OT.

Examples:
- Toravon (VoA) - both tanks need to swap the boss after certain amount of stacks.
- DBS (ICC) - if a tank has Rune of Blood, the other needs to take over.
- Festergut (ICC) - this can be solo-tanked, but the MT still needs to have a taunt macro after removing the stacks with Divine Shield.
- PP (ICC) - tanks need to swap the boss in the last phase, else he will kill the MT and heal.
- Sindragosa (ICC) - again, tanks need to swap her after certain amount of stacks unless you can somehow solo her w/o having any good defensives.
- LK (ICC) - iirc, Soul Reaper requires taunt swapping.
- Baltharus (RS) - the boss splits into two @66% and 33% HP, and you need to taunt him/his clones.

Those were just some examples from the last patch - I can mention bosses from the other content phases if you want. In other boss encounters, tanks take a heavy amount of damage, and imho shaman tanks might not be able to withstand it. So, the issue is not just holding aggro, but also dealing with certain mechanics.

[Persivaln]

OP can you please show your "genius shaman -tank that was slept over for years" tanking actual content with competitive DPS classes? Because even Arms warrior can pull aggro from DK tank at start of fight, not to mention Fmage who pre-casts Pyroblast...