Shaman Tank guide - Tanking Shaman Classic WoW

[Caperfin]

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

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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.

Caperfin's Shaman Tank

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.

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Video: Tank Races - Video Explanation
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. There is no wrong race. See Video to learn more about race options.

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Video: Professions - Youtube
Engineering for: Goblin Sapper Charge, Masterwork Target Dummy, Force Reactive Disk, Gnomish Battle Chicken, etc… It also helps if party engineers use Gnomish Battle Chicken since Battle Squawk stacks to 25%. As a second profession, pick an easy or high gold generating one, this helps you buy powerful potions.

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Video: Tank Threat
We can increase threat in many ways, notably: Earth Shock, Stormstrike, Rockbiter Weapon & Lightning Shield. Install a threat tracking addon, ex: ThreatClassic2. Consumable items deal threat, ex: Major Rejuvenation Potion based on half of the Health & Mana gained. Damage items, ex: Goblin Sapper Charge deals threat equal to the damage so do reflective Buffs, ex: Thorns. Lastly, certain items ex: Gift of Arthas deal threat each time their Debuff is triggered (see the Threat List).


Video: Ally Threat
Allies can reduce their threat, through items, ex: Fetish of the Sand Reaver. Mage have: Burning Soul. Shaman: Tranquil Air Totem. Rogue and Hunter wipe threat with Vanish & Feign Death and so can Flask of Petrification. Items prevent aggro: Limited Invulnerability Potion & redirect aggro Masterwork Target Dummy (taunts the 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. (See More)

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Video: Totems
Totems can't deal threat for you. Common totems: Grace of Air Totem, Stoneskin Totem & Healing Stream Totem. Totems can also help versus a pack of mobs: Stoneclaw Totem followed by Fire Nova Totem. To learn more about totems, see the Video.

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Video: Tank Talents - Youtube
The talent setup: (16/35/0), has steady threat per second for raids & excels on short fights.

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Video: Rotation
1. PrePull: Cast Lightning Shield. Get all Buffs the group can supply. Cast Rockbiter Weapon. Place: Stoneskin Totem, Grace of Air Totem & Healing Stream 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, followed by as many Lightning Bolt possible to trigger, Elemental Focus. Lastly, Earth Shock.
3. Combat: For raids, use Nat Pagle's Broken Reel to assure the first few Earth Shocks hit. In a fight, use relevant ranks of Earth Shock that suits your mana & threat. Stormstrike can’t be downranked but is also used in similar cases. If Lightning Shield expires, cast it. If you suddenly might die, equip a defensive weapon, ex: Spineshatter w/ Enchant Weapon - Agility & Rockbiter Weapon, use Masterwork Target Dummy (taunts boss), use Juju Escape, possibly Major Healthstone & Major Rejuvenation Potion . To learn more, see the Video.

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Video: Tank Buffs
There's a max of 32 Buffs, avoid nearing the max as it may result in Buffs getting mistakenly removed, the addon: Buff Cap Tracker helps. Prioritize getting defensive Buffs, ex: Elixir of Fortitude before getting Threat Buffs, ex: Juju Might. (here's a detailed List of Buffs). To learn more, see the Video.


Video: Debuffs - Video
A max of 16 Debuffs can be on a mob. Reaching the max is major in raids. There's defensive Debuffs: Insect Swarm & threat Debuffs: Faerie Fire among others. With the raid leader’s consent, suggest ideal Debuffs without overstepping. We can apply Gift of Arthas & Stormstrike.

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Video: Gear - YouTube
Solidify defensive stats when gearing, threat is secondary. It’s advised to have 4k HP & 5k Armor unbuffed for Molten Core. Blackwing Lair, ~4800 to 5k HP and 6500-7k Armor. For reliable threat, 3% melee Hit is advised for dungeons. For Raid tanking, 4% Melee Hit. See the Gear List. You can't equip gear in combat, except for a weapon & shield, enabling the equipping of a defensive weapon, ex: Spineshatter, if survival seems grim. See Video to learn more about gearing.


Video: Enchants
There are two types of enchants, defensive, ex: Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility. And offensive, ex: Enchant Gloves - Threat. See a full list of relevant Enchants.

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Video: AoE Tanking
Many actions can further solidify AoE cases, ex: Oil of Immolation, Force Reactive Disk, Thorns , etc... (see a detailed Threat List) It’s crucial to switch and attack another target ever so often. In combat, items & spells giving health or mana deal 50% threat divided by each mob. Items also help until a decent amount of threat is gained on all mobs, ex: Masterwork Target Dummy. See Video to learn more about gearing.

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Video: Raid Comp
With the raid leader’s consent, offer an ideal raid comp without overstepping. In our group, Warlock: Blood Pact, Warrior: Battle Shout, Shadow Priest: Vampiric Embrace, Resto Shaman: Mana Tide Totem. To learn more, see the Group/Raid Comp List. For damage dealing classes, we prefer ranged classes over melee. If melee are needed, rogues are best.

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

Burning Crusade Shaman Tank

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Melee Hunter DPS only:

[chrisnumbers]

I've heard of the concept but never seen one. Do you know of any videos that showcase the Shaman Tank in action?

[Grimbolt]

I've heard of the concept but never seen one. Do you know of any videos that showcase the Shaman Tank in action?

Its possible to do while leveling or grinding pre raid bis but doing it in any sort of content that requires more than 5 players is honestly too tedious to get into. I tanked all dungeons on my shaman in classic and tried on one raid boss and while it was killed I spikes so hard and raid members had to constantly look at the aggro meters.

[StillMcfuu]

Shaman tanking up to Pre-Raid isn't all that bad, but it becomes unsustainable once TBC hits, and honestly even pre-outlands because of talent changes the Shaman tank is killed off. Rockbiter no longer generates extra threat, earthshock loses it's threat and it's put on frostshock which is less than ideal, and the talent for parry is lost to tanks because it also comes with a built in threat reduction.

Where in classic the Shaman tank was a clearly thought out path while never being fully implemented, enough was left over in the tool kit to make it work, even at higher levels if you were dedicated enough; in TBC the Shaman tank is killed off completely. Outside of odd choices like moving the threat from ES to FS instead of just removing it completely (probably more to do with fleeing mob aggro tables and the behavior they have when they finish fleeing), Blizz makes it clear Shaman tank is not a thing.

[Prag]

I've heard of the concept but never seen one. Do you know of any videos that showcase the Shaman Tank in action?

I wish I had recorded the run I was in earlier this week. Full Naxx geared Warden Sham running UBRS. It was fun and they did a ton of damage (naturally), but definitely got smacked hard by Drakk.

[Varaben]

Classic could have been so much better if a few things had gotten completed like this spec (or Ret), gear issues (spirit on warrior/rogue gear??), etc. Cool to see someone actually making it work though.

[arkanon]

Just looks like another example of "yeah, its possible, but my god will it make things harder for yourself, and everyone in the group". I tanked plenty of random content on my shaman, but I also tanked a bunch on my warlock, and on my hunter.

[StillMcfuu]

Classic could have been so much better if a few things had gotten completed like this spec (or Ret), gear issues (spirit on warrior/rogue gear??), etc. Cool to see someone actually making it work though.

Spirit is OD for warriors (it's ok for Rogues) while leveling. Definitely an overly slept on stat.

[Felrane]

Ive been doing it in 5 mans while leveling. Its pretty fun but aoe tanking is rough. As long as I dont pull more then 3 mobs at a time ive yet to have a problem. I do wish blizzard would have made it into a full spec in BC instead of removing it. Earthwarder tanking could have been something special.

[Ave07]

My group had a Shaman tank solo tank UBRS and it looks fun.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Oh, the good ole' days of tanking level 15 to around level 25 dungeons on my Shaman back in the day.


I did it a bunch in Classic. It was so much easier to just form my own group and find a healer + 3 DPS... and then I would get the, "so who is tanking?" question.

[Nebster]

Nice work OP, keep it up.

[Facefive]

Oh boy... all this effort...

Let me tl;dr this for you guys:
Shaman can tank everything. But so can Priests, Mages, Hunter, Warlocks, Paladins and Rogues. They are not the optimal choice, but they can tank.

In Basketball: Nah, we can win this without Lebron.
In Baseball: Why would we need a 1B man, when we can also run to the bag?
In NHL: Hey guys, let's try to win this game without sticks for once.
In Football: We should try a field goal with 1st and 10.

You get the point.

[Ihazpaws]

I tanked years ago in vanilla like private server as a shaman tank. Did all dungeons without any problems and main tanked MC + BWL couple times. This quide is great for making ideal shaman tank but it's possible to tank MC and BWL with somewhat random gear too. As long as your raid understands that you will need dedicated healer (prfr paladin).

Only thing I found annoying as a shaman tank was mana controlling. And for those who says that having no taunt is problem, shaman tanks do most threat in game if they want to. When other tank is tanking you have to use lower lvl skills and sometimes even stop dmg totally to not aggro randomly. When it's time to swap use stormstrike and highest level earthshock. you most likely jump quite far in threat above other tank. Important thing is to keep your threat as a second in list with lower lvl skill and controlling autoattacks.

[INVASMANIXOXOXO]

I tanked years ago in vanilla like private server as a shaman tank. Did all dungeons without any problems and main tanked MC + BWL couple times. This quide is great for making ideal shaman tank but it's possible to tank MC and BWL with somewhat random gear too. As long as your raid understands that you will need dedicated healer (prfr paladin).

Only thing I found annoying as a shaman tank was mana controlling. And for those who says that having no taunt is problem, shaman tanks do most threat in game if they want to. When other tank is tanking you have to use lower lvl skills and sometimes even stop dmg totally to not aggro randomly. When it's time to swap use stormstrike and highest level earthshock. you most likely jump quite far in threat above other tank. Important thing is to keep your threat as a second in list with lower lvl skill and controlling autoattacks.

Bringing a paladin healer is going to be tough lmao.

[czarek]

For dungeons yes. As aoe raid off tanker probably. As raid main tank? Not really.

[Ragedaug]

Bringing a paladin healer is going to be tough lmao.

What??? You don't say...you think it will be tough to find a Paladin healer to heal a Shaman in Vanilla raids?
/end_sarcasm

You just have some priests chain mind control the Shaman. easy. Tough part is figuring out how to get that Shaman in your raid instance.

[Ihazpaws]

Bringing a paladin healer is going to be tough lmao.

That's true, my main in classic is paladin atm so always get confused with priest and paladin x) I probably should level new character to get away from this paladin lifestyle.

[Huzzaa]

Classic could have been so much better if a few things had gotten completed like this spec (or Ret), gear issues (spirit on warrior/rogue gear??), etc. Cool to see someone actually making it work though.

Classic is completed. By Burning Crusade.

[Varaben]

Did I miss it in the OP, or is there no actual gameplay showing this? It's a lot of good theory, and is obviously well put-together. But I still haven't seen any actual Shaman tanking. I did look it up on Youtube and found a Shaman tanking Onyxia which was pretty cool (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMz_URXGki4).