Of all the classes I’ve gone up against with my own twinks, nothing worried me more than a Shaman! Beating them one on one was a bear with the massive amounts of damage they can deal fast, but beating them when they have any kind of help is nearly impossible – so why not make one? I’ve decided to start working on a build for the Shaman I am leveling to twink out. For those of you who’ve decided to do the same – I’ll share my secrets if you’ll do me the favor of dropping a comment if you find a better piece of equipment than I cover in my guide.
Twinks in World of Warcraft are not cheap or fast to make and the Shaman won’t be an exception by any stretch of the imagination. I’m going to use PvP rewards where possible but this shouldn’t be mistaken for a poor man’s build. Be prepared to shell out some gold for this one. For an Elemental Shaman, Spell Power is king, stamina is critical and intellect is on your mind. You need that mana and spell critical strike chance high and your health and bonus spell damage higher. Let’s get to work!
Head Slot: [Green Lens of Nature's Wrath] (+34 to 36 Nature Spell Damage)
Enchantment: [Lesser Arcanum of Rumination]
How to acquire: This is BOE item that is commonly available on the AH. Alternatively, you can also create this item yourself – you first need to level Engineering up to 245.
Neck Slot: [Pulsating Crystalline Shard]
Enchantment: N/A
How to acquire: This is a quest reward for the chain [Summoning the Princess] that begins at the Shards of Myzrael in the Arathi Highlands.
Shoulder Slot: [Kentic Amice]
Enchantment: N/A
How to acquire: This is a drop off of High Interrogator Gerstahn in Black Rock Depths. The drop rate on this item is 22%.
Back Slot: [Featherskin Cape]
Enchantment: +20 Spell Penetration
How to acquire: This is a drop in the Sunken Temple from either a Shade of Hakkar (36% chance) or an Avatar of Hakkar (35% chance). Either mob presents a high drop rate, this should be an easy item to find.
Chest Slot: [Wildthorn Mail]
Enchantment: +150 Health Recommended / +6 All Stats is a good alternative
How to acquire: This is a blacksmith crafted item, commonly available on the AH. If you want to try to save yourself a few coins you can collect the reagants yourself. If you go that route, you’ll need 40 Thorium bars, 2 Enchanted Thorium bars, 4 Living Essence, 4 Wild Vines and a Huge Emerald.
Wrist Slot: [Dryad's Wrist Bindings]
Enchantment: +15 Spellpower
How to acquire: This is your one freebie, well almost – you still have to pay for the enchantment. This is a PvP reward item from Warsong Gulch. You’ll need to acquire 422 honor and 20 Warsong Gulch Marks of Honor. Once you have the requirements, go see Illiyana Moonblaze in Ashenvale if you are Alliance or Kelm Hargunth in The Barrens for the Horde.
Hand Slot: [Ogreseer Fists]
Enchantment: +20 Spellpower
How to acquire: This is another drop out of Blackrock Depths – this time off of Ok’thor the Breaker with a 30% drop rate, so there is a good chance you’ll get this one with minimal repeat runs.
Waist Slot: [Ban'thok Sash]
Enchantment: N/A
How to acquire: Well, there is a pretty good chance (27%) that you’ll get this one while you are trying to get your hand slot item – both drop off of Ok’thor the Breaker. Trying to keep this easy folks!
Leg Slot: [Crusader's Leggings of Healing] (26 to 27 Spell Power)
Enchantment: [Runic Spellthread]
How to acquire: This is a BOE item that you will be able to find on the AH easy enough. I know it’s only a green, but it’s the best BOE let slot item that you’ll be able to find. You need it to be BOE (Bind on Equip) to be able to get it enchanted with your spellthread.
Foot Slot: [Greaves of Withering Despair]
Enchantment: Boar’s Speed – 9 Stamina and Minor Speed Increase
How to acquire: Like I said, trying to make this easy on you. This is another Black Rock Depths drop off of a mob you are already going to be hitting up for your shoulder slot – High Interrogator Gerstahn and has a 20% chance of dropping.
Ring Slot 1: [Freezing Band]
Ring Slot 2: [Gem Studded Band]
How to acquire: Both of these rings can be found pretty commonly on the AH. The Freezing Band will give you a nice boost to your Spell Power while adding a handy proc effect of freezing your opponents occasionally. The Gem Studded Band only sacrifices 2 Spell Power that another Freezing Band would provide but in place of that lost Spell Power you’ll get 6 Stamina. Not a bad trade.
Trinket(s) 1: [Figurine - Ruby Serpent] with an off timer of [Rune of Perfection]
Trinket(s) 2: [Talisman of Arathor] (Alliance) / [Defiler's Talisman] (Horde) with an off timer of Insignia of the Horde or Insignia of the Alliance.
How to Use: To be really effective, you should have two trinkets for each slot to use while the other is on it’s cool down. An easy way to swap between trinkets is just to put them in your action bar and click when you want to equip it. The Figurine of the Ruby Serpent is a great way to quickly boost your Spell Power by 100 and while you are waiting the 5 minutes for it to cool down the Rune of Perfection allows for good spell penetration. The Talismans and Insignias can go either way – just ask yourself what is more important to you, having an extra few hundred health on hand in the form of a Talisman or being able to break crowd control with the Insignia? Either way, when one is on it’s cool down – equip the other.
Weapon: [Hammer of the Northern Wind]
Enchantment: +40 Spell Power
How to acquire: This is a BOE item you’ll be able to find on the AH. The reason I like this item is simple – high DPS. It also has a nice proc effect of some bonus damage and a 50% slow effect on your target. Bonus.
Shield: [Wall of the Dead]
Enchantment: +18 Stamina
How to acquire: Another AH item that should be pretty common (though not cheap). Great armor combined with substantial stamina.
Check back often for updates – coming soon we’ll be posting the talent build for this twink along with a list of recommended Glyphs.
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5 comments so far
Thank you for this new guide! I’m leveling a shaman and I will do all said on this guide.
March 6th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Green Dragonscale leggings much better now leg ench’s have been nerfed.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Their are leggings that drop off Avatar of Hakkar that are best now for 49 Ele sham twinks now that leg enchants are out of the Question. They are called Windscale Sarong, and they look pretty sick as well
June 20th, 2009 at 4:18 am
The WoW guides are in desperate need of updating. I have moved on to other MMO’s but I’ll see if our WoW correspondent can get back into the twink mindset and get it updated. In the meantime, keep info like this coming in and I’ll update it where I can.
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:17 am
Armory Khoras – Mal’ganis for 3.1 itemization/spec.
[wowarmory char="Khoras" realm="Mal'ganis" talents="0" profs="1" linkback="0" top="1" gear="1" achievs="1" apoints="0" model="1"]
July 19th, 2009 at 3:10 am
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