How to solo Northrend group quests as an enhancement shaman

My long-suffering shaman alt (which I rolled at the beginning of Burning Crusade) finally hit level 68 a while back and headed for the frozen wastes of Northrend, and I have been enjoying leveling through the new continent significantly more than I enjoyed Outland. Of course, my shaman is late to the game, and is usually one of only two or three Alliance players in the Borean Tundra, unless Blood is Thicker is the fishing daily. This becomes problematic when I need to complete quests like Last Rites and The Assassination of Harold Lane, group quests that involve killing elite enemies. However, in a fit of potential madness, and inspired by my success with solo-ing The Ultimate Bloodsport, I decided to give Last Rites, the first group quest I was charged with when I came to Northrend, a try. So I went in, with only my wits and my quest-reward gear to help me, and after a very tense battle, Valanar lay dead at my feet. It didn't hit me how impressive this feat was, though, until I took a look at my quest log and saw that this quest was orange. Yep, I, a level 69 shaman in nothing but gear rewarded by quests had killed a level 72 elite, alone. This gave me a whole new respect for the shaman class, especially enhancement shamans.

Now, this success had nothing to do with my skills and everything to do with the sheer solo-ing power of the enhancement shaman. What that means is that any enhancement shaman leveling his/her way through Northrend can do what I did with the right instruction. It is that instruction which I aim to provide today.

Before we go into that, though, let's look at the key abilities that will help you while solo-ing elites as an enhancement shaman. You will want all of these abilities to be within easy reach before you try to solo any elites; if not hot-keyed, at least somewhere on your bars.

Earth Elemental Totem: This ability will change your shaman's life when you get it at level 66 and is your main asset while solo-ing a group quest. Dropping this totem releases a greater earth elemental to attack your enemies. He causes a fair amount of threat, and can take quite a beating before crumbling into gravel. The key to successfully solo-ing an elite is to let this guy take damage for you, like a tank.

However, to describe the greater earth elemental as a tank-in-a-totem (tank-in-a-bottle sounds just demeaning) would be a gross over-statement of its power. The Earth Elemental Totem isn't just a set-it-and-forget-it tank. A typical elite can kill your greater earth elemental in much less time than it will take you and him to kill the elite, Also, the amount of threat he causes is very low compared to most player tanks you run dungeons with, and you'll easily cause more threat than him if you aren't careful. However, there is one bright side to this totem that should not be overlooked: you can heal your greater earth elemental. Thus, the key to successfully using the Earth Elemental Totem is to heal him when he needs it and to watch your threat so you don't attract your target's attention. If you don't have an addon to display your threat and the threat of your greater earth elemental, activate the in-game threat display by going to the main menu (escape key), then going to Display and checking off "Show Aggro Percentages". I also recommend you set Display Aggro Warning to "Always", so you'll be able to know immediately if you pulled aggro off of your greater earth elemental.

Wind Shear: Of course, you will sometimes pull aggro from your Earth elemental, no matter how careful you are. An unlucky string of crits will do that to you, and it's when that happens that you'll want to have Wind Shear handy, since it lowers your current threat on your target. Of course, Wind Shear coupled with a ceasing of all of your attacks can only do so much, so it's still important to watch your threat.

Healing Wave: You should have this spell handy while solo-ing, anyways, since being able to heal yourself while leveling is one of the enhancement shaman's greatest strengths. You'll be using this ability to heal your greater earth elemental, and you will make great use of it for that purpose. You might also want to have Lesser Healing Wave handy, in case you space out and forget about your greater earth elemental, then realize you haven't healed him in a while, only to target him and see that his health is low.

Maelstrom Weapon: While this isn't technically an ability, and thus you can't link to it on your action bar, I wanted to bring it up anyways because it makes using Healing Wave on your greater earth elemental much easier. It also serves as a nice reminder to check on your greater earth elemental; any time you hit five stacks of Maelstrom Weapon, check to see if your greater earth elemental is in need of some healing.

Shamanistic Rage: You should keep Shamanistic Rage within easy reach while leveling anyways, but you'll especially want to keep it within reach while fighting an elite because you'll be using more mana. When you fight typical enemies, you usually spend some time out of combat, i.e. not using mana, in addition to the time you spend in combat, i.e. using mana. Thus you don't use mana very quickly while fighting regular enemies. While fighting an elite, however, you are always casting (or at least casting more time per minute than you would be otherwise), so using this ability to get your mana back is critical.

Fire Elemental Totem: The fact is, you will sometimes fight enemies that will outlast your greater earth elemental. He only has a two-minute duration, after all, and what to do when that runs out? Why, bring out this guy, of course. The Fire Elemental Totems summons a greater fire elemental to fight for you, but unlike the greater earth elemental, the greater fire elemental is focused on doing damage, not taking it. Thus, you will be the tank when you take him out, but how will you survive that onslaught of damage in just mail armor with no shield?

Feral Spirit: Why, with your wolves, of course! One of the best benefits of the ghost wolves summoned by Feral Spirit, aside from their taunt, which you will make liberal use of, is that they heal you when they do damage. The healing they do is so significant that combined with a few Maelstrom'ed Healing Waves, you can survive the onslaught of damage brought about by an elite. What could be better?

Bloodlust/Heroism: Ah, yes; this could be better. While you are alone, Bloodlust and Heroism will increase your melee haste, but also the melee haste of your spirit wolves if and only if they are out when you cast it. That means more healing done to you, more damage done by them, and a better chance of successfully killing your elite.

So, now that you have all of the necessary abilities within easy reach (as well as your normal damaging abilities like Stormstrike, Flame and Earth Shock, Lightning Shield--which is a damaging ability with the Static Shock talent--, etc.), you are ready to take down your first elite.

Get ready to fight your opponent by laying down your fire, water, and air totem of choice, leaving your earth totem slot reserved for your Earth Elemental Totem (yes, it actually counts as an earth totem, so you can't have your earth elemental totem and Strength of Earth Totem active at the same time. It sucks, I know.) I use the Flametongue, Mana Spring, and Windfury totem, respectively. I know Magma Totem would probably lead to a greater DPS output, but I personally prefer a totem I can set and forget to one I need to cast every twenty seconds. And did I mention that the one that needs to be re-cast every twenty seconds costs two and half times more mana than the one you can set and forget? Still, if you just want to cause as much damage as possible, then it's your prerogative to go with Magma Totem. I'm not here to tell you how to play, just to give you advice that you can decide whether to follow or not. If you do go with Magma totem, don't drop it until your enemy is in range, so you won't waste any mana on a blast of fire that doesn't damage your enemy.

So, you have your totems ready. Now just wait some time to regenerate your mana, and once it's back at 100%, it's time to fight. Open with a Flame Shock to bring your enemy into range, then cast Earth Elemental Totem. Your greater earth elemental should start attacking your target quickly, but be ready to heal yourself if you do take some damage before your elemental gains control. Now, you want to give your elemental some time to build up threat before you start attacking; think raiding pre-Burning Crusade. While waiting, you might do well to click on your greater earth elemental, then right-click his portrait and set him as your focus so you can always see how much health he has.

Now, once your elemental has established threat, start attacking your target. In these early stages of the fight, you'll probably shoot up from zero percent threat to almost pulling aggro rather quickly if you blow all of your short-term cooldowns, so just be careful. Since you have an effective cap on how much damage you can do (since you don't want to out-aggro your greater earth elemental), you'll want to focus on causing your damage in a way that is as mana-efficient as possible. Assuming you aren't at 95% threat (compared to your elemental), always auto-attack your target so that you can build up charges of Maelstrom weapon to allow you to quickly heal your greater earth elemental. However, don't use your damaging abilities unless you are around 80% threat or below, so that you can cease your attacks if you get a huge crit and get a lot of aggro.

If you are at that magic 80% mark, use your special abilities with the following priorities, stopping if you reach or pass 90% threat. If you have Improved Stormstrike, then use Stormstrike, since it will give you mana back. Then use Lightning Shield if you have the talent Static Shock, since it's free damage. If you don't have Improved Stormstrike, but you do have Static Shock, prioritize Lightning Shield over Stormstrike. If you don't have Static Shock, then don't bother with Lightning Shield. If you still have threat to spare, use Flame Shock, since it's more efficient than Earth Shock. You probably won't use Earth Shock much, since you should use the more efficient Flame Shock if it has run its duration, and you might cause too much threat if you use a shock more than once every 20 seconds or so. You'll probably never use Lava Lash. If you do cause too much damage, use Wind Shear and then stop attacking your target, even auto-attacking, until you greater earth elemental gets its attention again.

As you are doing all of this, you'll want to keep an eye on two things: the threat you have on your target, and your greater earth elemental's health. If your threat falls below 80%, use a damaging ability. If your elemental's health falls below 50%, heal it. Heal it sooner if you don't have many stacks of Maelstrom, and it will thus take you longer to cast the heal. When your mana starts to dip below 50%, check to make sure you aren't approaching dangerously high levels of threat, then use Shamanistic Rage while auto-attacking. I wouldn't recommend doing much else during this time unless you are sure you have threat and mana to spare, since using damaging abilities always poses the risk of out-aggro-ing your greater earth elemental, meaning you'll need to stop attacking, and you'll thus lose mana you could be gaining by attacking.

This strategy alone should be enough to help you with elites that a quest says only require two people to take down, but sometimes you'll need an extra "umph". Sometimes those two minutes won't be enough, and you'll find yourself with an angry elite looking at you and no earth elemental to help you. That's when you pull out the big guns: Feral Spirit, Fire Elemental Totem, and Heroism, in that order. The spirit wolves will heal you with their attacks, the greater fire elemental will damage your target, and Heroism will increase the damage you do, the damage your wolves do, and the healing your wolves do to you. This phase gives you about a minute to finish off your target, since your wolves only last 45 seconds, and you probably won't last longer than 15 seconds against an enemy you couldn't kill in two minutes.

So what to do in that minute? First of all, save your Shamanistic Rage cooldown unless you run desperately low on mana, since that 30% damage reduction could give you the extra time you need to finish your target off after your wolves die and aren't healing you anymore. Until then, make sure your wolves are attacking your target, make sure they use Twin Howl whenever it is off of its cooldown (to divert some damage away from you), and heal yourself if you find yourself below 50% health. Assuming you have taken care of all that, then just unload on your target with all that you have. Since you are now the tank, you don't have to watch your threat anymore. Thus, unload with Stormstrike, Flame and Earth Shock, Lightning Shield, and Lava Lash per usual.

If your wolves disappear and your target is still alive, then pop Shamanistic Rage and hope you can heal yourself and finish him off before he destroys you. Otherwise, you may have to try this whole performance again, or even worse... try to form a group. *shudder*

Of course, pulling this off method of killing an elite off by yourslef is an extremely satisfying exercise, so take what you now know and try it yourself if you are leveling a shaman through Northrend and are skipping the group quests because you can't or don't want to find anyone to help you with them. You don't need anyone to help you with them; you are a shaman.

A few Cataclysm beta predictions

In considering the news that has come out about the class changes coming in Cataclysm, I have reached a few conclusions about what may happen on the beta testing realms. I say on the beta realms because everything we know now will likely change by the time Cataclysm ships, so for the sake of realistic expectations, I am limiting the duration of these predictions to the beta. Normally I don't make predictions like these because predictions of this nature are often based largely on conjecture, something that does not come easy to me. Still, from my experiences in game, I am pretty certain about what few predictions I make bellow.

1. Mastery will be a horrible stat for Restoration Druids.
As it stands, our third mastery bonus is this:
HoT Scale Healing – HoTs will do increased healing on more wounded targets. The mechanic is similar to that of the Restoration Shaman, but with HoTs instead of direct heals.
Now, Blizzard has stated, that it is their intention to make us worry more about healing efficiently in Cataclysm than healing quickly in response to high damage, but even knowing that, I doubt that players will be at constantly low health. The healing mentality simply doesn't allow us to let players have low health for extended periods of time, except on fights like Anub'arak. All of the other healing classes will be using their direct heals to heal a target before our HoTs can tic on then, so our HoT targets won't be at low health for very long. This is problematic, for our mastery bonus will only be of any use when our targets are at low health. Sure, most of the other healing mastery bonuses are similar in that they are also only activated at low health or they cause extra healing, but while their mastery bonuses affect all of their spells, our mastery bonus will only affect our HoT spells, spells we don't depend on to save a low-health target. That's what Nourish and Regrowth's direct heal (and Healing Touch once Cataclysm launches, apparently) are for. Because of this, I predict that not only will our mastery bonus be pretty useless when the beta starts, but Mastery will also be a horrible stat for druids.

Now, there are two potential situations that could prove me wrong. A simple one would be if Blizzard changed our third mastery bonus to something with more universal appeal, such as increasing the healing of our heal over time abilities, or perhaps of our direct healing abilities (it would certainly be an interesting bonus). Another possibility is that the scaling applied to our HoTs could be so ridiculously large that a well-timed HoT tick on a low-health target could do a very large amount of healing. Even then, I feel that it would still be too random of an element for druids to favor while gearing up. We'll just have to wait and see.

2. Haste will be better for DoT- and HoT-based classes than direct damage and direct healing classes.
One of the announcements that seems to apply to all classes universally is that all HoTs and DoTs will scale with haste. However, haste will not indefinitely reduce the duration of our HoTs and DoTs; if the duration of a spell is reduced enough, then extra ticks will be added to the end of the spells as needed to keep the duration from getting too low. This means that haste will increase both the damage/healing per second and the damage/healing per mana of our over-time spells, while our direct damage/healing spells will only have their damage/healing per second increased. As such, I predict that the situation on the Cataclysm beta will be the reverse of what it is now: classes that specialize in over-time spells will pursue haste more actively than classes that specialize in direct spells.

3. Enhancement Shamans may stop using Flame Shock (and Lava Burst) once they get a certain amount of Mastery.
The Shaman's third enhancement mastery-bonus is currently set to increase their nature damage. This means that the damage of their Lightning Shield, Earth Shock, and their Maelstrom'ed Lightning Bolts will be increased as they invest more points in the Enhancement tree and get more mastery on their gear, but Flame Shock will not receive that same effect. (I mentioned Lava Burst because it will be affected by Maelstrom Weapon once Cataclysm hits, meaning Enhancement Shaman may use it.) However, it appears that Blizzard will still want Enhancement Shamans to use their fire abilities. Lava Lash doesn't show any sign of losing its Flametounge-based damage bonus, so Enhancement Shamans will probably still be applying Flametounge to their off-hand weapons. This means that when they use Unleash Weapon, (a new spell they will get at level 81), the damage of their next fire spell will be increased by 20%. This damage bonus may be designed to make up for the fact that mastery won't increase the damage of Flame Shock, but will it be enough? With Unleash Weapon on a 15-second cooldown and Flame Shock lasting 18 seconds, it might be, but at some point, I bet shamans will get enough mastery that it won't be enough of a bonus. Whether they reach that point in the beta or in tier-13 raids remains to be seen.

Tips on leveling a shaman

As I mentioned in my Discovery Channel tribute, I have a shaman alt that I have been leveling since early in the Burning Crusade era. Because of my less-than-consistent dedication to him, he is still languishing in early Burning Crusade content; he's just the character I go back to when I need a break from end-game, so I play him pretty infrequently. Still, in leveling him, I have learned quite a bit about leveling a shaman that I thought I would share here for anyone else who is doing the same.

1. Spec Enhancement
Of course, this piece of advice comes with the universal leveling-spec-advice caveat: you should level as whatever spec you like the most. No matter what you want to do with your alt, you'll likely do it better as a spec you like than as an "efficient" spec. Are you leveling for fun? Well, it's a no brainer there. Trying to get your alt to 8o quickly? You'll want to play it more if you enjoy your spec, so you'll likely get your alt to 80 faster with a spec you enjoy than with the "best" leveling spec. With that said, Enhancement is both a good leveling spec and a fun spec to play. The mix of melee and casting (especially with the inclusion of Maelstrom Weapon late in the talent tree) makes the enhancement shaman one of the only specs (probably the only, in fact) that feels like a true hybrid class. Enhancement also has good mana efficiency, especially as you level, to the point where by the time you reach 50, you'll rarely need to buy water again.

2. Weapon choices
If you level as Enhancement, the type of weapon you use will be an important decision to make. Of course, once you hit level 40 (or 41 if you took Stormstrike first), you should take the talent Dual Wield and equip the two slowest one-handed weapons you can find for your level. There's no reason to do anything else. Before then, you'll need to decide whether to use a two-handed weapon or a one-handed weapon and a shield. If you use a two-handed weapon, battles will be over faster, since you'll be taking more damage (without the shield) and causing more damage to your foes. You'll also need to get two replacement weapons once you hit level 40 (or 41). If you use a one-handed weapon and a shield, you battles will be more drawn out, giving you more time to react and making the battles less hectic. You'll also only need to get one new weapon when you get Dual Wield. Ultimately, my advice is this: if you want to rush your shaman to the level cap, use a two-hander; if you want to play him to relax, use a one-hander and a shield. Either way, it all evens out at 40: you get to wear mail, so that will make up for the loss of the shield, and dual wielding will likely increase your damage either way.

As an extra note, if you use a shield, then defense rating becomes surprisingly useful between levels 30 and 40, assuming you took Spirit Weapons. The combination of being able to parry and block means you'll be able to take advantage of all of the aspects of defense rating, so if you see a ring with it that is an upgrade for you, think about taking it.

3. Totems are mana-intensive.
Although totems can bring many benefits to your shaman in battle, they cost a lot of mana to drop. Until you get Shamanistic Rage at 50 (assuming you spec'ed enhance) you have no quick way of getting that mana back, so totems are only worth using if you'll be able to benefit from them for a while. As such, you should only drop them in a spot close to a few enemies that you are going to kill. If you are running around for a quest, never staying in one place for more than one kill, dropping totems is not a good idea; you'll burn through mana faster than classic-era balance druid. If you want to get the most out of your totems, try using Lightning Bolt to pull an enemy from afar, then run toward your totems and fight him by them. Use shocks to keep him interested in you if you have to. With all that said, if you are going to fight more than one enemy in one spot, at least drop Mana Spring Totem. The others are only worth using if you are going to be killing at least four or five enemies by the spot where you drop them, but Mana Spring Totem, when used at every opportunity, really adds up. Try to use it right before battle so that you gimp your spirit-based mana regen as little as possible.

4. Use your elemental shields intelligently
At level 8, you get a spell called Lightning Shield that causes extra damage to enemies that attack you. At level 20, you get Water Shield, which restores mana when you are attacked and also constantly restores mana. There are a few important points to remember when using these spells in order to use them well.
-Use Lightning Shield if you are finishing battles with less health than mana (percentage-wise). Use Water Shield if you are finishing battles with less mana than health.
-If you are using Water Shield, make sure you always have at least one orb left so you can benefit from the passive mana regeneration as well as the orb effect. Because Lightning Shield is on an internal cooldown, you don't need to activate it immediately after it runs out, but don't delay too long or you'll miss out on that free extra damage.
-In the heat of battle, it's easy to forget to refresh your shields when they run out. Make it a habit to refresh whatever shield you are using whenever you aren't casting anything else and won't case anything else in the next second and a half.
-If you are just riding somewhere and have no intention of fighting anything, don't leave up Lightning Shield. Water Shield is fine, but Lightning Shield will cause threat to enemies that attack you, making them chase your farther than they usually would.

5 things every druid should do at some point

There were some similar lists on WoW.com for mages and paladins, so I figured I'd write here about what all druids should do at some point.

Try out as many roles as possible.
Druids are special in that they are the only class in the game that can do every role in a party: tank, melee DPS, ranged DPS, and healer. Trying out more than one role will give you the perspective you need to be a better player in whatever role you usually do. It's a shame to level a druid to 80 and only take advantage of one of these options. This flexibility is the druid class's greatest strength. Whereas other people need to take the time to level another character if they want to try another role, as a druid, it's all available to you with just a change of gear and spec. For that reason, you should also use instance drops to build an off-set for whatever roles you may want to try; it's much better than starting from scratch.

Do the Swift Flight Form quest line.
Even if you learned Swift Flight Form from a trainer, this quest line is still worth doing. It's epic, it forces your to take advantage of most of your skills as a druid, (well, it did at level 70, at least), it gives you some insight into what is going on in the Emerald Dream, and it gives you the ability to summon Anzu, allowing you to get the Reins of the Raven Lord. Blizzard has been adverse to put in class-specific quests as of late, so it's worth doing the few they put in for us.

Go into Swift Flight Form, fly up high, dismiss it, cast some spells, and go back into it.
Ah, the simple pleasures of being a druid. You should also try flying up very high or jumping off of a high ledge and using Swift Flight Form right before you hit the ground.

Roll a Shaman.
I know, I know, here I am, a dedicated druid, telling you that you should go level another class. Why? Because Shamans are really fun, that's why. Enhancement, the Shaman's best leveling tree (and their most fun one, in my opinion) is a spec that gets more and more fun as you level, never disappointing you. Their hybrid nature also makes Shamans pretty similar to a Druid, and a while you, as a druid, are locked in one role at a time because of the need to shift into specific forms, Shamans (especially the enhancement ones) don't face such a limitation. Seriously, just try one; you won't regret it.

Go into Deadmines and kill as many enemies as possible at once.
What you do is run through the instance, picking up as many enemies as you can without killing them, then ending the whole thing in ten seconds with Swipe. What follows is the most satisfying sea of numbers flying across the screen and probable lag that you will ever see. Here are some tips to make it an even more satisfying experience.
-Dispel Thorns before doing it, so the enemies attacking you won't die as you are running.
-Get their attention with Demoralizing Roar so you don't damage them and risk killing them. This will also reduce the damage they do to you.
-Spec feral with Improved Leader of the Pack. If you health runs low, auto-attack some of the enemies following you so that you can heal yourself with it.
-There are gates that only open after each boss is defeated. You'll need to go through them with enemies in tow if you want this to be a truly grand experience. To do this, target the boss as you approach them, then use Mangle and Lacerate to bring them down so you don't kill any other enemies. Sneed presents some unique difficulties since you need to kill his shredder, then target and kill him. If you can't see him in the crowd of enemies around you, just use tab until you find him. It works for me.
Yes, this will create a massive repair bill without giving you the money to pay it off. Do it anyways. Why? Because you are a druid, and you can. Do you need any more of a reason?