Classic/Vanilla WoW Shaman Tanking Guide

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed. As far as enchants and consumables are concerned, I'd mirror a protection warrior for effective tanking

[@manspiderkgb]

Hey i just wanted to let you know you made a typo, you typed "mirror" instead of "reroll" :)

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Great video brother! It honestly made me want to try leveling a shaman! But ofc I will stick to pally 😁

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

manspiderkgb very funny

[@Deathwish777]

earth shock was your biggest aggro spell, could rip aggro off a tank quickly. when i tanked i got 2 minimum off before the rest of the group attacked.

[@J4K323]

i really dig the playstyle but it seems very forced. since there isnt a Taunt to quickly pull a mob off somebody. like somebody said below, i love how vanilla was so versatile with specs, just seems to fringe.

[@sm00ve121]

I wish Blizz pursued shammy tanking like they did with Pallys in TBC.

[@gordanmiljanovic1012]

Kyle Beesley they went the easy way and just added paladins to Horde side...

[@exmaarmaca]

They needed to make maybe shocks consume less mana, the talent ability of increased armor to give more (maybe 20 instead of 10), maybe add a totem that generates threat that transfers to the sham.

[@corbinechevarria3670]

@@exmaarmaca the armour buff is probably the biggest thing since we are lacking plate

[@garygood6804]

Best tank in tbc that I healed was a shaman tabk.

[@GabrielNeimad]

They just had to buff lightning shield. So it gives armour. I mean, it''s a shield, right? And also, instead of just damage, it would also create threat

[@montys8th]

I watched a Holy Paladin tank BRD, being healed by a Feral Druid while a Shadow Priest dps'd. They did a full clear as a 3 man. The thought of a Shaman Tank doesn't seem anywhere near as crazy now.

[@cristhianmlr]

@@mihalyspenger7617 *you.

[@pouncebaratheon4178]

I remember a shaman tanking Uldaman once. I healed him as a feral spec druid, and it went fine. Not many people were leveling on my server when I did, so we took whatever groups we could find and made it work. Have also done tankless instances, 4-mans, all rogue/druid stealth parties, etc..

[@jgalla5549]

There was a Shaman tank in TBC that I used to play with. He tanked heroics, Kara, and Gruul pretty well. It was really fun to mess around with it.

[@jakenorth4811]

dude all these Vanilla video's are getting me so pumped for Vanilla. How long will we wait!? It doesn't matter! Haha. Thank you!!

[@Transformerbrain]

what lvl are you now?

[@Hauwnted]

Thanks for this video. Been always looking for a guide.

[@enkimerlin3209]

man! So it's going to be nice to see some variation in builds again!

[@brimstonevalar6053]

I played on Rebirth for some time and raided with my resto shaman, at that time we had a shaman OT, he did a good job tanking MC...so It can be done

[@Falney]

I remember shaman tanking all the way upto Wrath of the Lichking. They completely killed the tanking capability in MoP but you could still tank in the non-heroic 5 man dungeons and even heroic if you had WotLK raid gear. I also pugged as a shaman tank in Wrath. And yes. It made a lot of people rage quit. Those that didn't were generally pleasantly surprised.

[@Reign123]

Disc priest tanking next pls

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Done!

[@jessew3047]

don't know if anyone is reading this 3+ years later lol, but orc is lowkey the best. 3% hit from just 5 weapon skill is REALLY good, if you pick tauren or troll you should grab a muggers belt and use a dagger. 3% hit + 3% hit from talents means you need very little actual hit gear and can gear more towards high agi or midigation.

[@animdalf9178]

Good summary video. I recently made shaman on the anniversary server and ended up tanking dungeons while leveling (with minimal classic experience, and no tanking experience at all, I guess I want to make things harder for myself, hah) and found this video while looking for some more tips. One, very dungeon specific tip, that I'd like to add from my own experience - be aware of resists and immunities on certain mobs, you need to approach nature immune mobs very differently (no chain lightning pull, no panic earthshock). For example recently I tanked Maraudon and you need to be extra aware of the earth elemental patrols - clearly mark them so you don't get ambushed, use frost shock to pull (generally you can at least slow them down that way if you lose aggro), use grenades (if you have engineering) on the non-elite ads. Theradras is also nature immune, so tell your group to give you a moment to let rockbiter do it's work, and to give you time to re-estabilish aggro after her AoE (and put down Tremor totem, duh). Also I swear the ghouls in RFD resist Earthshock way more then normal mobs. And Sunken Temple (that I plan to tank next) is also probably gonna have similar problem.

[@stevenbov]

Our guild in classic didn't have many warriors, so back in the day one of our shamans that played 24/7 main tanked dungeons whenever we didn't have a warrior around. It was definitely viable back then.

[@fivemillionthreehundredeig5696]

I've only done enhancement dps and healing shaman I'm honestly stoked to give tank a try

[@unclephil4112]

15:00 ".. there he was. Just standing there. Regenerating 5, health, " "per" "second." "I glared at the Troll." "The Troll glared back at me." "Silence flooded the world." ""And there's nothing you can do about it," the Troll whispered."

[@kinggrantking]

Warriors are primarily strongest because of the threat system, but that advantage is minimized the more knowledgeable and practiced the dps are. With dps who know which targets to focus, have a threat meter, and are able to adapt should they pull aggro, shaman/pally tanking can work pre BWL. If you want to shaman tank dungeons like UBRS/LBRS/BRD/DM, you can definitely do it.

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Grant King well said. Thank you

[@mcdonaldsmaniac]

@Greg Peterson IIRC they were broken as fuck. They would do top dps as the tank, and had the best dmg mitigation to boot.

[@mcdonaldsmaniac]

@Greg Peterson idk, by the end of vanilla there was enough gear o make Druid tanks preferable in some fights. Some of that gear might have been blue though, I can't remember.

[@Daedivh]

Really wish Enhance would've been a tanking spec. I love the idea of it and really enjoy seeing work put into trying it out. Always thought there should be a mail tank and this would have been an easy choice IMO.

[@AKLumps907]

I'm seriously going to go tank Shammy. I love the lore!

[@dab7465]

I am tanking in all low level dungeon right now (am 30 at the moment) it works well and i am surprising everyone with that. It helps if you are a leatherworker so you can always have a good gear

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Thanks for the update! Keep it up, brother!

[@brennonr]

Now that brings back memories! Also reminds me of the old rogue evasion tanking. Interesting look back

[@abeurakadabeura]

wow I have played wow since its release (vanilla, bc and then private servers) and it actually never even crossed my mind to have a shaman tanking. If a shaman ever asked me to tank (which never happened) I would probably laugh at him saying how ridiculous the idea is. I don't know why you have 10% dislikes on your video, but at least I will give you a like because even 10 years later, I still learned something new about vanilla :'D

[@Razgorok]

I used to tank ZG on my shaman after our main raids when we couldn't find a tank. Good times!

[@shokabull]

I think a lot of hindrance as well is the same for protection paladin. People just assume the warrior playstyle/dynamic and forget that they themselves as a dps are required to alter playstyle with minimal effort and thing will go smoothly as rather than attempt to sabatoge the run just so they can feel justified in their want to complain.

[@RyugaHidekiOrRyuzaki]

Can't upvote this enough, honestly. "Omg I got aggro and you cant taunt, literally unplayable" - every dps ever in groups with a paladin tank

[@neriaksoul]

I as raidleader asked my mage: "Why you keep shooting frost bolts, when you got agro?" Mage: "Well - i need to do as mutch dmg i can, before i die" I Miss those times and my headaches

[@patrikpass2962]

i play mostly healer and agree, dps are the spoiled children of wow

[@shokabull]

Eyyy cool to see people agree. Now that classic has hit I am leveling a shaman specifically for tanking. Only 42 as of sep 16 but things are going smooth. Keep on keeping on friends.

[@wwecollin]

Awesome video, i main a shaman on vanilla and this is really interesting.

[@Kattlarv]

On my shammy tank, I usually pulled with CL, ES, then did a war stomp, followed by another CL. Best burst threat generation of any vanilla class by miles. Bosses was pretty chill too, just LB, followed by SS, LS and ES. The LS didn't use up the SS nature boost, so you could let all 3 proc before you used the last ES. It was fun to tank tbh. Was challenging.

[@richie616]

Excellent, informative and helpful guide. One small detail I would like to add as a Priest...we can use Power Word: Shield on a Shaman tank with no backlash; unlike Warriors or bear-form Druids, for whom PW:S interferes with Rage generation.

[@Magues]

Thanks for the Plug Sir!

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Magues hey dude, no problem. I was trying to get in touch with you on KZbin to get your consent to show your video footage but had a hard time as you have no business email associated with your account. I'm glad it worked out though

[@Magues]

Btw im going to start posting again - but for BFA - just shot off a quick video of me chatting about my return. Look forward to getting back into the WoW Community even if I am on the retail side ( at least until classic releases)

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Magues great to have you back

[@theshaman415]

Rockbiter + the occasional earthshock and you won't drop aggro. Shaman tanking is fun. Also a pro tip is do not care about the haters... and there will be alot of em!

[@Magues]

the haters are real and its vicious. I'd give a lot of my props to Apone on Lightshope he always would encourage me to tank.

[@mcdonaldsmaniac]

spphh I got so much hate from moving from Healer to Enh in TBC that it was insane. I quit the game because of it. And that was TBC, and I was topping meters. Hell, one fight in Kara, I was like 2nd on DPS AND 2nd on healing!

[@maelstrom1247]

This looks like it could be really fun to play, although I'm worried I'd get backlash from people expecting me to heal instead.

[@fredrikhedlund]

I am tanking on Kronos 3 right now and did so aswell on retail back in the day. It's totaly viable in all 5 man dungeons. Elemental warding also makes you able to tank magic damage raidbosses

[@sm00ve121]

I love this what if video. You put in work to make this video. Much praise!! Shammy tank is lame tho. If someone is able to do this effectively would be a waste of talent. Is the aspect of looking like a tank, Shammy tanking would make more sense to tank than Druid, DK, Monk, or DH because they can weild shields. In actuality shields give another stat to mitigation and to me makes much more sense to be a tanking class.

[@ZemeiAutumn]

Shaman work just fine in MC as offtanks (especially wherever FR is concerned). If a server already has ZG out, then you can transition nicely from pre-raid to tanking that. It's possible to offtank through AQ40 (didn't try Naxx) as well, but past Vael is the point at which they fall off extremely hard and no longer really make any sense to bring along. What's missing from this guide is Int and Mp5, which are far more important than +def, block, or strength before raids (and even there, they're always better than block and strength). These, along with smart threat management, will help you to tank 5/10-mans very quickly and with minimal downtime. You also neglected to mention Grounding Totem, which provides invaluable spell damage mitigation when used in conjunction with downranked Earth Shocks. Stoneskin Totem is also rarely worth the amount of mana it takes to drop, as it only makes a noticeable difference when tanking the most massive of pulls due to its flat damage reduction occurring prior to reduction from armor. Lastly, R4 Earth Shock is advisable over R5 when your mana pool is lacking. Being an engineer is also really nice, but that tends to benefit non-Druid tanks universally. I've been meaning to write a guide at some point which goes into obsessive detail about the theory and application of every Shaman tool for tanking on an encounter-to-encounter basis. Your video's a pretty solid introduction to Shaman tanking though.

[@danielachterdocht7580]

Nice one! I like something alternative like this one! Keep it up guys!

[@dodgydruid]

I think the idea was the Shaman was a "light tank" in as much they handled trash or add spawns much in the same vein as light tanks were seen in other MMO's of that time like LotRO which tried hard to sell the "sub tank" genre but it really became a level of complication to a raid with AOE main tanking by warriors or pallies became the route Blizzard really went down. Mage tanks were also a thing for Gruul's lair that never really took off but I do seem to remember adds being taken up in Magtheridon's run by our guild shammy who had a dodge/resist set just for that fight.

[@TraxisOnTheLines]

I'm playing the Fresh Hardcore as an Enhancement Shaman with a Fire Mage duo, and being his tank has been the most fun I've had in a long time. Earth Shock and Rockbiter keep threat while he's in fire spec doing maximum damage, I have totems to add utility and a full on AoE taunt (totem) when we're dealing with multiple enemies. Between Stoneclaw, Earth Shock and Rockbiter, I never lose threat on multiple enemies, and despite wearing leather and a two hander, I'm quite tanky and haven't had any close calls. It's been a fantastic time, and it makes me want to try Shaman tanking in SoD where they've tried to make it a real thing. It also makes me excited to get Mail and be even tankier.

[@proadam09]

Hey Melderon, cool vid, pretty much summarizes the guide. The one issue I have is that I would like a more elaborate gear list. For example, some of the BiS are very hard to obtain or expensive BOE's. Do you know if there is a list for secondary or tertiary options for each slot, so that we can obtain those before going for the ultimate BiS?

[@kraks11]

I was in a dungeon with TotemTank lol! Think it was maradoun. I was very surprised

[@patrickcarver3607]

I tanked Mara with my Shaman. You were in my group 13 years ago

[@patrickcarver3607]

As an elemental

[@MidwestBoom]

Nice yeah I was just thinking about taking on Shaman earlier and looking at Talent points

[@lordpatrice]

Anticipation used to add up to 15 Defense rating before they changed it to dodge ! I used to tank 5 man dungeons with my shaman, and off tank in 15 man ubrs

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

lordpatrice hmm wonder why they changed it

[@core36]

While I haven’t actually tested this, but playing a paladin tank now on the classic fresh realms, it sparked a new idea. Paladin has talents that only proc when he’s hit with a critical strike. Being crit as a paladin means you gain extra attacks and increased block chance. Shaman also has a talent that only procs when being crit. Way down in the elemental tree, next to elemental devastation, there is a talent (eye of the storm, I think?) that grants you a buff so that you can cast freely without increased cast time from getting hit. With this talent, casting heals or chain lightning mid fight should be easy. I’m thinking, enhancement just until you gain the ability to parry, and then elemental. You gain extra flurry uptime, mana efficiency and the higher crit damage for spells, giving earth shock extra threat potential.

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Yeah I think this guide needs an update. I created this pre-Classic launch and I was able to tank as full elemental really well. You may have something there for sure. Definitely requires good healers and nice gear but yes should be doable and able to produce more threat per second than enh/resto with a small ding to survivability and mana efficiency.

[@MrMortadelas]

Two items I'd suggest to anyone trying this. Hand of Edward the Odd as your weapon and Black Grasp of the Destroyer for mana. Keep in mind that in a raid most likely things will look fine for a while and then Crit+Crushing blow will get you dead.

[@AENock]

Before I started raiding on retail vanilla, I ran with a shaman tank often in 5mans. My guild was pretty small so often we would just 4man. I remember vividly running 4man DM tribute runs for Barbarous Blade

[@allflats]

Cool vid, I hadn't seen anyone talk about a shaman tank before

[@Mick0Mania]

I plan on maining a Shaman tank once official classic servers are launched. I am a very casual player who played WoW on and off for a few months relatively recently. I enjoy the more rpg oriented nature of classic, and I don't think I will get into high end raiding. That said, I don't want my character to be useless to others. Are there any ways a Shaman (tank) is useful to the world around them? I heard some classes provide portals and food to others. I want to be a friendly tauren that can help people out in some game mechanic oriented way... Is this just not something a Shaman Tank can provide? I guess I could go around healing questing players.

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Good question. Remember shaman totems are a huge benefit. Even though most of your totems will help you tanking. Windfury totem can be swapped in many engagements to help melee and Mana spring is so good for healers. So you can still provide utility when tanking

[@williamcothrum9199]

I never got to play classic wow but I noticed that somw of the changes made in cata made it seem like shamans still could tank, such as one ability becoming a literal taunt if rockbiter was on your weapon. I made a set, gemmed and enchanted for health, dodge and what not, and asked a group to try an optional boss with me as tank. With only the healer and one dps, it took 3 minutes and healer went oom but was a success.

[@Raxxer1993Q8]

This is fascinating. I love the effort so much and it gave me alot of nostalgia. But still, this is what I think: Paladins and shamans can be Healers. They can also be a support melee DPS. However: they both have unique roles: Shamans can be casters (elemental) Paladins can be tanks (Protection) I know they pursued the idea of Shaman tank a little bit, but nothing comes close to Righteous Fury, Consecration, and wearing Plate armor. I played as a paladin on feenix and reached Naxxramas, paladins only shine as Healers in PvE as stated obviously as well as shamans. But PvPwise, that’s where the fun comes in I say.

[@jf4156]

This is why I love vanilla, they gave us a bunch of tools and let the players figure out everything

[@LFxLD]

In TBC I tanked quite a few low level dungeons (up to SM) with a Draenei Shaman and it was awesome! Back then I assumed that, like Pallys, Shaman could also tank, and back then people were more open to alternatives, esp when finding a tank was long af

[@Wolfxv12]

I wonder how how effective it would be to throw threat on your gloves instead of something else.

[@Polarus83]

Awesome, dude! We were talking about this in disc and then you made a video. You da bomb!

[@Uncompromising_Mode]

It feels like making a Shaman tank viable would be so easy to patch into the game, without negatively impacting anything. Maybe add taunt onto some of their spells through a talent, add in a few item drops... you know what I just REALLY want a Shaman tank, I don't even care about potential repercussions.

[@justanotherguy8296]

I shaman tanked up to level 60 in vanilla.

[@JenkTank64]

You've got to teach me a thing or two about that when I play Classic

[@MrNikomadsen]

What race did you choose? I’m loosing sleep trying to figure out which race I’ll be!!

[@hermeticascetic]

@@MrNikomadsen I did it with orc but I swapped around a lot and the axe bonus for 2h enhance was huge.

[@MrNikomadsen]

Aaron Scoggins I want to go Tauren for the health and use the stomp for control. The only thing drawing me towards orc is the axe thing, cause I’d love to be the nightfall totemdancer if I’d ever get to raid. But that’s not realistic I think, given the time it takes even to just prep for the raids. So either I go tauren and focus on the tanking-dungeon experience which is my main goal, or I roll orc in case raiding gets reachable for me...

[@lifesmythtv2608]

If I were shaman tanking, and the other player(s) in the group were complaining, I probably wouldn't want to play with them anyway

[@antonbonin5003]

I just say "Good, bitch. Keep searching another 2 hours for a tank" Then start up a group in 10 minutes and laugh at them the way into the instance.

[@Magues]

Thats pretty much how it is...

[@mcdonaldsmaniac]

@@antonbonin5003 Except respecing cost 50g. That is a TON.

[@antonbonin5003]

@@mcdonaldsmaniac Yeah but I just level Enh, so I don't respec. Horde side has a lot of difficulty in finding tanks for groups, so it's like a public service, and you find groups very easily.

[@t3chn0dr0n3]

Enhancement was meant to be viable for tanking - it's obvious just from looking at the talent tree and comparing it to a warrior/paladin Prot tree. If you pay attention to all the tools you have in your disposal, you will realise that you actually take less damage than a warrior tank during leveling due to the raw power of Stoneskin Totem, which adds so much virtual armor that you're on par with a twinked warrior tank in terms of mitigation. I remember when they added Unleash Elements on Cata and made it so the Rockbiter unleash was a taunt. Man, I was so excited that maybe, just *maybe* Blizzard would bring shaman tanking to life. I started waiting for further changes, some tank talents, tank tier gear etc. But nope... Screw Blizzard and their love for paladins, seriously. After watching this video, I have made my decision and I will play a shaman tank on the fresh realm.

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Rosen Kostov that is awesome to hear. Please let me know how it goes !

[@mcdonaldsmaniac]

Eh, it's more likely they wanted them to be viable offtanks before they knew what they were doing. I don't think we appreciate just how much Blizzard winged this shit. Blizz was still putting classes into the game with only a few months prior to release!

[@Meagreee]

Shamans had a ranged caster build, Paladins had nothing. If Shamans got to tank as well, that'd be Shaman favoritism, not the other way around. That said, I still hope both classes will become viable tanks at some point somehow in Classic.

[@omnibrain3198]

@@Meagreee Paladins were superior in all ways. Their Buffs outweight the Shaman Totems by a large margin + they had an aura. On top of that they were the #1 healers in classic because hpm was such a huge thing there. Druids could fill 4 roles as well. Saying that - neither Paladin nor Shaman was really viable at tanking high level end game content they both were mostly heal. The raidgroups used max. 1-2 dps specs with nightfall in their raids - that's it. Ranged Shamans were only viable in PvP these days.

[@dylancasey4250]

Okay so I’m not an expert on vanilla or anything, but just curious, you’re able to have different ranks of the same ability on your bar, that’s pretty cool if so

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Yes you are

[@dylancasey4250]

That's legit so useful given this scenario, and I'm sure many others like it, awesome vid!

[@Holycow94WoW]

love this video man! i remember trying this in BC. mostly because i was a noob and yet i did notice all the threat and damage mitigation. i did not go far with that tho. however i did see a guy on lightshope shamtanking!

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Thats awesome man! Glad you enjoyed!

[@bass-dc9175]

Ah the Shaman. I actually tanked a few dungons back on NOST as I leveled my shaman. Fun times. Btw: Isn't it weird, that Shamans are the ONLY class that can wear a shield but not tank? I'd give my left nut for a Shaman Tank in a future expo.

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Totally Agree!

[@Atombender]

Learn to wear plate then.

[@alexchism5192]

Learn to wear plate? Do you tell that to all the druids as well?

[@JenkTank64]

What shaman spec u tank as?

[@Atombender]

@@alexchism5192 I don't know what's worse, upvoting your own idiotic post or not knowing anything about feral Druids.

[@Randall_Kildare]

I'm gonna try this once Classic comes out. Sure wish there was a Shaman tank option on Live... Enhance is just pathetic.

[@orbusg8451]

As someone that has barely done tanking in wow (and I refuse to play modern wow) a shaman tank is something I want to try. I love shamans and their versatility and could use the experience of tanking anyhow. It'll also let me pvp with much more survivability than one of the clothie specs.

[@undiswe]

Wouldnt you be able to use the leather tanking gear made for druids to tank in raids? or is mail gear still better than tank focused leather gear?

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Mail is better because bears get a huge armor boss in bear form. That's why they can use leather. You can find +defense mail gear. It's just hard to find

[@Haeslig14]

thank god for the disclaimer haha

[@pablosaenz9107]

The guy who made the shaman class literally said it is only viable until Sunken Template. You can find the interview on the latest classic cast.

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Yep I've heard it as well but me and others have done higher no issues

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

There's even shamans doing MC. It's not easy but it's been done. Magues and totemtank have done all dungeons including UBRS

[@hermeticascetic]

He was wrong though. I tanked at 60 regularly.

[@fabianpino4910]

I hope that Blizz makes changes to the sacrosant Classic 'meta' balance when the Vanilla Servers drop, not gutting any numbers, but buffing some here and there. I love Classic as much as the next guy, but having the option to play quirky builds like this, and some other specs that were supposed to be viable (Druids Tanks or Shadow Priest) into most content would be great to get more replayability. I'm not saying that realm first raids should have these builds in the roster, but being able to do a Raid as an OT Shaman would be something amazing and refreshing . Anyways, seeing how Blizzard could mismanage this, I guess this is as good as it gets.

[@MrBramendor]

I tanked as a shaman once in vanilla BRD. I was supposed to be the group healer. BUT our warrior didn't want to tank. He stated he didnt like getting hit. I suspect he was a kid playing on his dad's account. As a result we pulled very slowly and I was able to tank, I was mostly enhancement with some in resto. I had a draconian deflector and I think a barman shanker. We downed a few bosses before we abandoned because the time sink was too much.

[@jz3488]

I have never attempted this kind of build, but I would still argue that Ancestral Healing should be a required talent as it would give you 25% more armor when you crit heal yourself. My own build would probably focus on generating threat through self healing with high crit gear

[@antoineblind5548]

that coud be a good idea against many target, other wise this is not the best way to gerenate threat

[@hermeticascetic]

I had a different shaman tank build that want down to nature's swiftness in resto. The instant big heal was a great oh shit button and helped with survivability in dungeons. Plus it was useful for early raid off tanking since you couldn't go respec and you'd be used for healing during boss fights. But I tanked all of the vanilla dungeons without much issue. Spent a lot of time with my respec cost being maxed out in vanilla. Only bad thing about having a shaman and switching things around a lot lol

[@eaberrydc]

Thanks for this. My healing main was a shaman (started in bc). When I looked at the classic talent tree, I saw all the tanking talents and I said, "I'ma make a prot shammy.". So far I've only gotten to pvl 24 so just tanking WC. With a good pull (lots of los pulls) and everyone starting with 💀, it's smooth as silk. Next up - SFK.

[@GamingPast30]

Great guide and I Love the disclaimer at the start haha! A guild mate of mine tried this during TBC and we had small success with him tanking regular dungeons(not quite up to lvl 70 content). Looking forward to the next one!

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Gaming Past 30 I'm gonna try it in Classic. Why not

[@grizzlymanverneteil4443]

I remember tanking a lot before lol 60 as a shaman

[@RaawHax]

I wish they'd leaned heavier into the elements class fantasy of Shaman, using Earth for tanks, Fire for spell dps, Water for healers and Wind for melee dps. A shield of each element instead of just lightning shield; would've been perfect for the Shaman tank to surround himself with elemental stone to boost his defense. Lightning Shield ended up just being, well, mostly worthless in the grand scheme of things.

[@nebojsazakic]

shaman is legit 5 man tank at least for early contet. i tanked SFK without a problem with shield + dagger

[@rowdyredfred]

Have you tested numbers for yourself? Or just going off the other threads?

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

rowdyredfred waiting for fresh to come out to do a follow up

[@GamingChild]

I already miss the days of Northdale, main tanking an AV premade as a shaman in the r10 pvp set. Especially on single target it's near impossible to get the aggro off you once it's started. Not a shaman tank on classic, but boy do I constantly think about respeccing... Also, PvP as a shaman tank that's stacked SP/Spell crit is fucking insane. No melee class can do damage to you, and casters still run away as soon as they see you :D , Got videos of both tanking Vann and pvping to anyone who doesnt think shams can do it

[@mcdonaldsmaniac]

Whats the pt of using rank1 ES? It's going on CD either way, so you might as well use a higher rank. Rank1 only makes sense if you are nearly OOM.

[@orcslash]

Do you have any plans to make video on melee hunter ?

[@hashsmokem2576]

I would love to see a paladin tanking video like this you did your research best classic wow guide iv seen

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

It will be coming at some point. Stay tuned

[@eman420x]

Use to shaman tank panthers on panther boss in zg and helped tank adds on Fankriss the Unyielding.

[@colinboots8694]

What do you think of using troll with Berkerking and stacking that with the Improved healing wave talent and also depending on healing focus talent ? How effective is that healing focus talent? is 70% chance not to be interrupted while healing yourself plus the 25% speed from Berserking better or worse than just stunning and healing yourself after war stomp as Tauren ?

[@colinboots8694]

I fully expect no one to support me as a tank. That's why my talents will look like this classicdb.ch/?talent#hZVbcb ...

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Purely situational IMO, war stomp has saved my ass a lot! But berzerking could do the same. I think it's up to you man

[@grumpyoldwizard]

Great look back. Thanks!

[@thisisbunnygaming8921]

I have done multiple dungeons with a shammy tank actually even a 2 handed non tank speked one And it Was very decent.. So If actually speced at a tanking role it Will be fine... Ps.. In that case we were in dire maul And the shammy Was actually both dmg dealer trying to tank And the only healer so beleve be when i say a shammy can tank

[@NeoAgent]

Hello. Now i practice tanking on Wow Classic by shaman and waana take answer on my question please. I need to know what about agro fall in raids. Some boss can do this and after it it to hard to kepp agro back. Is raid bosses fall agro from all raid or only from u. If only from u, what is the best way to get agro back?

[@Moredakkamus]

Every time I look at a Shaman tanking guide: "check out this other shaman tanking guide, link in the description"

[@skalmaa]

Good video, i be trying this out on some private servers tonight. Will be starting and trying it out on 45+ shammy.

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Great! Let me know how it works out!

[@skalmaa]

Workt out pretty well doing Uldaman so far . Questing/killing stuf aint an issue either. Sure it takes abit longer, but now i barely need to stop and drink like every other pull as a ench dps or elemental shammy. Id say shammy tanks seems to be fine, atleast for 5-10man dungeons. Great way to lvl and get easy partys for dungeons, whitout having to worry about founding a warrior tank.

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

skalmaa great to know. What spec did you level as?

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

I mean what soec did you choose

[@skalmaa]

I took the option with decrease magic cost to shock spells, all the way up to elemental focus. rest of the stats in ench tree. It seems to be pretty solid at this level :)

[@t3chn0dr0n3]

If the armor talent of shamans wasn't the same as of warriors and paladins (who wear plate), they would've had sufficient mitigation. If shamans had Unleash Weapon in vanilla, they would've had a hard taunt. If they had some sort of Shield Block-like spell, they would've had the opportunity to become uncrushable (as basically a crushing blow by a boss on a shaman tank = dead). So, buff the armor talent of shamans (because it's just not fair), give them a hard taunt (because otherwise they just can't do their job), and give them a Shield Block-like spell (because uncrushability is ultimately what differentiates a viable tank spec from a non-viable). This can be done either directly, through items such as class-specific trinkets, relics and such, or with set bonuses (which would require Blizzard to create a shaman tank set that is better than the one currently available from Scholomance, which is good but doesn't address *any* of the issues I just mentioned). So, can it be done? Can shaman tank become *truly* viable? Yes, but it will require intervention from Blizzard. And if they do that, paladin and druid tanks will surely cry out for unfair treatment, which will in turn force Blizzard to fix them too. In the end, it all depends on how lazy Blizzard are and how willing they are to break the #nochanges. "But Ross, what about balance issues?" - well, just make it so those same talents/items/set bonuses also give debuffs and that's it. Defensive Stance gives a -10% damage dealt - what's the problem with a shaman talent/item/set bonus that improves tanking but nerfs damage?

[@aonerd]

What about leveling ? Would you level with this spec in mind ?

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

You definitely could. I would do dagger and shield. You will be very tanky for PVE content but won't do great in PVP skirmishes.

[@mcdonaldsmaniac]

That enh/ele spec is perfectly suited for leveling. Maybe throw 1 pt in 2h, if you want, but you don't need to. 1h WF+shield will level about as fast as 2h Rockbiter.

[@moomeuh1342]

Great video! like+sub :) I'm wondering if I go 1Handed DD magic focused or Tank with my shaman when vanilla comes out, depends if blizzard will use old talents trees

[@LeonardGeschke]

Very cool! You got a sub. I'll be trying this for sure.

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Thanks a lot! I'm really glad you enjoyed

[@riklaunim]

still got a whisper that friend needs a tank for SFK - where as I healed WC for him before. So a Shaman with a shield went to SFK and tanked :]

[@Newbtuber]

If I remember properly, my shaman tanked all 5 mans decently in vanilla. It wasn't amazing but it was do-able. Tanking in party larger than 5 is suicide imo

[@antoineblind5548]

nope till 10 easy, i tanked drakkisat, UBRS 10 men yesterday really easy, i d love to try MC as OT !!!

[@Andrew-vt2wq]

Wat is better tank shaman or druid?

[@claing17]

Cool murloc Holmes ... i was in that guild

[@Gafdan2]

I'm planning to mix all of the specs while leveling with a buddy. It should be mana efficient and though to kill. The idea is to be able to off-tank and off-heal low-level dungeons while providing some additional support and doing some damage. So, just filling the gaps and not letting the group be overwhelmed in critical situations, making progression easier, even if a bit slower. I think it's gonna be fun if it works. :)

[@antonbonin5003]

Shaman tanking works confirmed. So fucking good. I don't even deal with the disbelief, because I keep running into groups I've tanked before, and everyone vouches for me. I make jaws drop on the reg, and make shitty healers eat their words.

[@gevura147]

i actually use to tank as a shaman before CATA got released

[@Attrazzione]

Shamans shall get a Tank guide, would be so cool

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

What type of guide are you looking for?

[@RubixNinja]

The highest dungeon I had a shaman tank was BRD in vanilla, not full clear. It went smooth.... but that was only once, didn't see any other.... I personally wouldn't mind at all if there was a shaman tank.... heck I would think it would be pretty funny seeing a shaman try MC lol, but after a couple wipes he can go to an offtank role. I had a lot of shamans tank SM and RFD/K

[@antonbonin5003]

The point is being open-minded. I remember Hunter/Warlock pet tanking that took meticulous coordination, but worked. People get so wrapped up in their calculations that they forget the people and the details. So far, nobody has been disappointed by letting me tank. In fact, most say I'm the best tank they've had in Vanilla

[@mcdonaldsmaniac]

The most I ever tanked was like wailing caverns I think. Maybe SM? idk, so long ago.

[@morningbetterlast]

Well, I guess you could tank 5-man instances with a mix of Naxx / AQ40 gear but only with undergeared allies at your side. Any DPS with the same gear level would pull aggro in a matter of a single attack. Mitigation is lacking since you don't have enough +defense on mail armor and your overall armor and parry / dodge rating are gonna be way lower than those of a warrior. And being T3 /T2.5 geared kinda ceases any point in tanking dungeons, trash and even bosses just die faster than you can approach them anyway.

[@aaronh.917]

Is it possible to dungeon grind 18ish-60 with your tank being shaman the entire time? Many people are claiming that leveling as a 5 man group in dungeons is a solid way, if not the fastest/most efficient way for all to get to 60. Does this remain true with a shaman tank?

[@antoineblind5548]

the shaman tank need to regen mana all the time but pretty sure you can grind in 5man, but dungeon lvl 55+ i don't think you can tank it without appropriat gear

[@twolluckybdk7246]

Heey melderon is There any way we can get in touch? I preffer in game.

[@DefcampMelderonTV]

Hey dude, honestly, ATM the best is discord

[@Carpatouille]

I'm gonna do this in pugs

[@Carpatouille]

Success