Dwarves are the only Alliance race that can be a Shaman in Forever, and Blizzard’s Deep Dive panel showed the Dwarf racials with that pairing in mind: Mace Specialization now adds crit to spells as well as melee, and Stoneform cuts Physical damage however much armor you wear.
Racial effects are Blizzard’s, from its September 23 race article; talents come from the same beta talent data as our calculator (where it comes from); hands-on reports are named where we use them. Last reviewed: .
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Dwarf racials for a Shaman
Every Dwarf racial, what it does in Forever and how much it does for a Shaman, with the Shaman talents it works with. Hover or tap an icon for the full text.
Mace Specialization
Mace Specialization
+1% critical strike chance with all spells and abilities while a mace is equipped
Core for a Shaman
+1% critical strike chance with all spells and abilities while a mace is equipped
Blizzard’s Deep Dive panel named Shamans as a class that will now want a mace for this. The crit counts for melee, spells and heals: more Flurry procs for Enhancement, more spell crits for Elemental Fury to enlarge, and more Water Shield Mana from critical heals for Restoration. It needs a mace in your hands, so a staff, axe or fist weapon turns it off.
Works with Flurry
Flurry
Enhancement · tier 4 · max rank 5
Increases your attack speed by 5% for your next 3 swings after dealing a melee critical strike.
Rank 5: Increases your attack speed by 25% for your next 3 swings after dealing a melee critical strike.
Elemental Fury
Elemental Fury
Elemental Combat · tier 3 · max rank 5
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Searing and Magma Totems and your Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by 20%.
Rank 5: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Searing and Magma Totems and your Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by 100%.
★ Water Shield
Water Shield
Restoration · tier 3 · max rank 1
★ New in Forever
The caster is surrounded by 3 globes of water. When a spell, melee, or ranged attack hits the caster or when one of the caster's healing spells gets a critical result, 2% of maximum mana is restored to the caster, expending one water globe. Only one globe will activate every few seconds. Lasts 10 min. Only one Elemental Shield can be active on the Shaman at any one time.
Stoneform
Stoneform
Immune to Bleed, Poison and Disease effects and reduces Physical damage taken for 8 sec
Core for a Shaman
Immune to Bleed, Poison and Disease effects and reduces Physical damage taken for 8 sec
Eight seconds of immunity to Bleed, Poison and Disease, and less Physical damage taken no matter your armor, which Blizzard says was the point of the change. A melee Enhancement Shaman takes the most Physical hits; if you tank with Rockbiter Weapon and Spirit Weapons (a chance to parry, 30% more threat), it doubles as a defensive cooldown.
Works with ★ Spirit Weapons
Spirit Weapons
Enhancement · tier 5 · max rank 1
★ New in Forever
Gives a chance to parry enemy melee attacks, reduces all threat generated by your attacks by 30% while Rockbiter Weapon is not active, and increases all threat generated by 30% while Rockbiter Weapon is active.
Big Game Hunter
Big Game Hunter
+5% damage against Beasts
Situational
+5% damage against Beasts
5% more damage to Beasts, which fill many leveling zones. It does nothing against anything else.
Find Treasure
Find Treasure
Shows nearby treasure on the minimap and can stay active alongside other tracking abilities
Minor
Shows nearby treasure on the minimap and can stay active alongside other tracking abilities
Now runs alongside your other tracking. A convenience for any class, nothing Shaman-specific.
Shaman talents that pair with Dwarf racials
The talents named above, each once, with the racial it works with. Hover or tap for every rank; ★ marks a talent new in Forever.
Flurry
Flurry
Enhancement · tier 4 · max rank 5
Increases your attack speed by 5% for your next 3 swings after dealing a melee critical strike.
Rank 5: Increases your attack speed by 25% for your next 3 swings after dealing a melee critical strike.
Enhancement · pairs with Mace Specialization
Elemental Fury
Elemental Fury
Elemental Combat · tier 3 · max rank 5
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Searing and Magma Totems and your Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by 20%.
Rank 5: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Searing and Magma Totems and your Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by 100%.
Elemental Combat · pairs with Mace Specialization
★ Water Shield
Water Shield
Restoration · tier 3 · max rank 1
★ New in Forever
The caster is surrounded by 3 globes of water. When a spell, melee, or ranged attack hits the caster or when one of the caster's healing spells gets a critical result, 2% of maximum mana is restored to the caster, expending one water globe. Only one globe will activate every few seconds. Lasts 10 min. Only one Elemental Shield can be active on the Shaman at any one time.
Restoration · pairs with Mace Specialization
★ Spirit Weapons
Spirit Weapons
Enhancement · tier 5 · max rank 1
★ New in Forever
Gives a chance to parry enemy melee attacks, reduces all threat generated by your attacks by 30% while Rockbiter Weapon is not active, and increases all threat generated by 30% while Rockbiter Weapon is active.
Builds players posted for the Forever beta, checked point by point against our talent data. None of them depends on race, so each works for a Dwarf Shaman.
Elemental, with Restoration points
Restoration 11level 20
Wowhead’s Elemental guide puts no points into Elemental at level 20: Improved Healing Wave, Mindfulness to keep Mana regenerating while casting, Tidal Focus, and Water Shield for dungeons. The author suggests moving into Elemental around levels 38 to 40.
Built around (★ new in Forever):
Improved Healing Wave
Improved Healing Wave
Restoration · tier 1 · max rank 5
Reduces the casting time of your Healing Wave spell by 0.1 sec.
Rank 5: Reduces the casting time of your Healing Wave spell by 0.5 sec.
5/5
★ Mindfulness
Mindfulness
Restoration · tier 2 · max rank 3
★ New in Forever
Allows 17% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting.
Rank 3: Allows 50% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting.
3/3
Tidal Focus
Tidal Focus
Restoration · tier 2 · max rank 5
Reduces the Mana cost of your healing spells by 1% and improves your chance to hit by 1%.
Rank 5: Reduces the Mana cost of your healing spells by 5% and improves your chance to hit by 5%.
2/5
★ Water Shield
Water Shield
Restoration · tier 3 · max rank 1
★ New in Forever
The caster is surrounded by 3 globes of water. When a spell, melee, or ranged attack hits the caster or when one of the caster's healing spells gets a critical result, 2% of maximum mana is restored to the caster, expending one water globe. Only one globe will activate every few seconds. Lasts 10 min. Only one Elemental Shield can be active on the Shaman at any one time.
Concussion for Lightning Bolt and Earth Shock, Call of Flame for Flame Shock and Fire Totems, Elemental Warding against Fire, Frost and Nature damage, and Elemental Focus for Clearcasting.
Built around:
Concussion
Concussion
Elemental Combat · tier 1 · max rank 5
Increases the damage done by your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Earth Shock spells by 1%.
Rank 5: Increases the damage done by your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Earth Shock spells by 5%.
5/5
Elemental Warding
Elemental Warding
Elemental Combat · tier 2 · max rank 3
Reduces damage taken from Fire, Frost, and Nature effects by 3%.
Rank 3: Reduces damage taken from Fire, Frost, and Nature effects by 10%.
2/3
Call of Flame
Call of Flame
Elemental Combat · tier 2 · max rank 3
Increases the damage done by your Fire Totems and by your Flame Shock, Fire Nova, and Lava Burst spells by 5%.
Rank 3: Increases the damage done by your Fire Totems and by your Flame Shock, Fire Nova, and Lava Burst spells by 15%.
3/3
Elemental Focus
Elemental Focus
Elemental Combat · tier 3 · max rank 1
Gives you a 10% chance to enter a Clearcasting state after casting any Fire, Frost, or Nature damage spell. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next damage spell by 100%.
Thundering Strikes for crit, Improved Ghost Wolf for a quicker Ghost Wolf you can use indoors, Mental Dexterity, new in Forever, for Attack Power from Intellect, and Shamanistic Focus, which the guide takes to ease the Mana cost of Shocks and Lightning Shield.
Built around (★ new in Forever):
Thundering Strikes
Thundering Strikes
Enhancement · tier 1 · max rank 5
Improves your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks by 1%.
Rank 5: Improves your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks by 5%.
5/5
★ Mental Dexterity
Mental Dexterity
Enhancement · tier 2 · max rank 3
★ New in Forever
Increases your Attack Power by an amount equal to 33% of your Intellect.
Rank 3: Increases your Attack Power by an amount equal to 100% of your Intellect.
3/3
Improved Ghost Wolf
Improved Ghost Wolf
Enhancement · tier 2 · max rank 2
Reduces the cast time of your Ghost Wolf spell by 1 sec, and Ghost Wolf may be used indoors.
Rank 2: Reduces the cast time of your Ghost Wolf spell by 3 sec, and Ghost Wolf may be used indoors.
2/2
★ Shamanistic Focus
Shamanistic Focus
Enhancement · tier 3 · max rank 1
★ New in Forever
Reduces the mana cost of your Shock and Lightning Shield spells by 45%.
Dwarf Shamans get their own class quests for each element’s totem, starting in Coldridge Valley. Warcraft Tavern walked through them on the Forever beta: Earth opens at level 4, Fire at 10, Water at 20 and Air at 30. Each quest teaches your first totem of that element; the other totems of the element are then trained as usual.
Element
Quest from
Where it takes you
Totem it teaches
Earth
Level 4
Starts with the Shaman trainer in Anvilmar. Bring two pendants from the Frostmane troll whelps nearby, then drink Earth Sapta at a spirit stone at the top of a mountain path close to Anvilmar.
Stoneskin Totem
Stoneskin Totem
Rank 1 · level 4
Cost 30 Mana
Cast time instant
Summons a Stoneskin Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster. The totem protects party members within 30 yards, reducing Physical damage taken by 4. Lasts 5 min.
Fire
Level 10
Any Shaman trainer starts it. It sends you to a cave at the Loch Modan end of Dun Morogh, then to Loch Modan for reagents from Tunnel Rat Geomancers and Stonesplinter Seers (up to level 14: bring a group or come back later), and to a mountaintop where you defeat a fire elemental.
Searing Totem
Searing Totem
Water
Level 20
The long one, about two hours of travel by Warcraft Tavern’s count: from Loch Modan to a cave behind a waterfall in the Wetlands, water samples from the Wetlands, Redridge Mountains and Ashenvale, then a corrupted water elemental at a shrine in Westfall.
Healing Stream Totem
Healing Stream Totem
Rank 1 · level 20
Cost 40 Mana
Cast time instant
Summons a Healing Stream Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 5 min that heals group members within 30 yards for 5 every 2 seconds.
Air
Level 30
Opens at level 30. Warcraft Tavern hasn’t published this step yet.
Not covered yet
Summarized from Warcraft Tavern’s beta walkthrough, the only hands-on source so far; quests can still change before launch. The totem spells’ names and tooltips come from the beta client’s ability data.
Dwarf vs the other Shaman races
5 races can be a Shaman in Forever. Each row lists the racials its race page picks out for a Shaman; filter by faction to see your side’s options.
Warrior Talents
Paladin Talents
Hunter Talents
Rogue Talents
Priest Talents
Shaman Talents
Mage Talents
Warlock Talents
Druid Talents
Human
Dwarf
Night Elf
Gnome
Orc
Undead
Tauren
Troll
Mace Specialization
Flurry
Elemental Fury
Stoneform
Big Game Hunter
Find Treasure
Improved Healing WaveImproved Healing WaveRestoration · tier 1 · max rank 5
MindfulnessMindfulnessRestoration · tier 2 · max rank 3★ New in Forever
Tidal FocusTidal FocusRestoration · tier 2 · max rank 5
Water ShieldWater ShieldRestoration · tier 3 · max rank 1★ New in Forever
Concussion
Elemental Warding
Call of Flame
Elemental Focus
Thundering Strikes
Improved Ghost Wolf
