WoW Shaman Talent Tree
The Options that Customize a World of Warcraft Shaman
The 3 branches of the talent tree available to shamans in World of Warcraft are elemental, enhancement and restoration. Each branch of the talent tree helps a player customize his shaman to suit his playstyle. The Elemental branch improves a shamans damage totems, enhancement improves the shaman's buffing totems, and restoration boosts a shaman's healing ability.
The Restoration Branch
As noted earlier, this is the branch of the shaman talent tree that improves the healing ability of a World of Warcraft shaman. This is the most important branch of the shaman talent tree for groups and raids. Although shamans are capable of providing a high damage per second rating, they are not the most sought after class to fill this role. Shamans are viewed as healers in World of Warcraft
The Enhancement Branch
Enhancement improves the power of a shaman's totems. This branch of the shaman talent tree can raise a shaman's damage per second, but enhancement is not as reliant on a shaman's mana supply to do damage, unlike the elemental branch.
Should an enhancement shaman find himself thrust into the role of healer, the improvements to his totems and higher over all group damage reduce the need for healing spells to be cast. Enhancement shamans will have only slightly less trouble than restoration shamans in finding a group because they can still fill the role of healer well.
The Elemental Branch
The Elemental branch of the shaman talent tree focuses on improving the effectiveness of the shaman's elemental totems. Elemental shaman DPS can easily rival that or a warlock or a mage. The reduced casting times on the shocks also mean that the shaman will be able to use the spells more often.
The Elemental branch is the damage per second option in the shaman talent tree, but players who are interested in sustaining their shaman's damage output as long as possible should choose to specialize in enhancement.
Combining Shaman Talent Tree Branches
It is possible to combine branches of the shaman talent tree to cause specific effects. Players who wish to do this should use talent calculators such as the one available at IGN Vault rather than experiment with the game. Relearning known talents in World of Warcraft is possible, but the initial cost to use this option is one gold and it rises every time a character uses it.
Sources:
World of Warcraft Shaman PvP Guide
“Shaman Talent Guide. Almostgaming.”
