Leveling Guide: The Early Shaman 1-20

Now, this is going to be an interesting article to write, seeing as I don't have any shamans above level 19. That does give me some experience, but I've mostly played for the experience as a resto-ele Twink.

When you start out, you have your lighting and you heal. Just cast lightning a couple times, and then melee them, or if you don't seem to be having any mana troubles, keep on the lightning.

You'll get a chance to quest for your first totem at level four. You don't need to drop your totems for every fight, but they can be very helpful. If you know that there will be trouble, be sure to drop your totems before the pull, because otherwise you will waste valuable time during combat.

As you level you will gain more totems, and at level twelve you can begin the quest for your fire totem. For both factions, it requires large amounts of running around, more so for the Horde than for the Alliance.

Another thing to note is that your 'Shock' spells have a shared cooldown, before level 20 you will only have Earth Shock and Flame Shock.

You will additionally get spells that enhance your weapons- you will want to keep those up at all times as well.

Finally, you will get Lightning Shield, a free spell that creates a magical presence around you (like Thorns or Retribution Aura) so that the next three melee attacks damage the attacker.

If you want to go Elemental, which is the Shaman's ranged caster spec, I would suggest starting with these talents.

If you pick Enhancement, the Shaman's melee spec, I would say that these are your best choices.

Finally, if you want to heal instances and level through the Random Dungeon finder system, I would say you should start by picking these talents.