Shaman Raid Role in WoW: Forever — What Elemental…

Our earlier Shaman guides cover the starter basics, Elemental 10–60, Enhancement leveling, Restoration dungeon healing and level 60 gearing. This one is about raid night: what every Shaman brings, what each spec adds, how to split totem jobs when you have several Shamans, and what Blizzard's final pre-launch notes changed. Several of those changes landed after our earlier guides, so where they disagree, this post is the newer one.

Key dates (Blizzard): the game launched Nov 4, 2026. Barrow Deeps (10 players), Hyjal Summit (20 players) and Onyxia's Lair (40 players) open on Dec 9.

Read this first: the beta stopped at level 30 and had no raids. Blizzard hasn't revealed boss mechanics for Barrow Deeps or Hyjal Summit; for Onyxia it has said to expect powerful fire attacks and to build fire resistance. Numbers below come from Blizzard's Nov 2 notes and from beta client data shown on community sites. The draft builds assume 51 talent points at 60, which Blizzard hasn't confirmed, and nobody has checked yet whether Tidal Focus's 5% hit covers melee and spells. Nothing here has been tested at level 60.

What changed on Nov 2 (official)

From Blizzard's "Beta Development Notes – Updated November 2" (posted the evening of Nov 2, Pacific). Endgame Tools reports the Shaman changes reached the game files in the Nov 4 build. Blizzard says that apart from bugs and serious outliers, it doesn't plan big tuning changes before the raids open.

Totemic Projection is now Totemic Call: it teleports your totems to where you stand, on a 30-second cooldown. You no longer pick a spot.

Lightning Bolt hits harder at every rank (the top rank by 80%). Chain Lightning is a 2.5-second cast again, its first hit is about 145% of a same-rank Lightning Bolt, and it costs about 225% of the mana. Shocks are back to Classic Era damage.

Elemental: Lava Burst is removed, replaced by Call of Thunder (+5% crit on Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning). Lightning Overload goes up to a 10/20/30% chance. Elemental Mastery is renamed Lightning Mastery.

Enhancement: Stormstrike deals 150% normalized weapon damage on a 6-second cooldown (was 100%, 8 seconds), Maelstrom Weapon triggers twice as often, Mental Dexterity gives up to 150% of your Intellect as attack power, and Flurry up to 30% attack speed. Improved Ghost Wolf moves to row 4.

Restoration: Riptide costs about 40% less mana, has a 12-second cooldown (was 6) and no longer heals up front, only over time.

Every class: Salvation is gone for everyone, and Bear Form and Defensive Stance generate much more threat to make up for it. Leader of the Pack and Moonkin Aura raise every kind of crit again but don't stack with each other.

Shaman races: Orc Savage (1% crit) is removed and Blood Fury is on a 2-minute cooldown; Troll Berserking lasts 15 seconds; Tauren Endurance is now just 5% health; Dwarf Earth Fury is replaced by Artisan's Precision (1% hit with spells and attacks); Skyborne Wind Blessed drops to 2% haste.

What every Shaman brings

From the spellbook in the beta client data (wowforeverprogress), so every spec has these:

Raid-wide buff totems: since the Oct 15 build, Strength of Earth (+53 Strength), Grace of Air (+89 Agility, level 42), Windfury Totem and Flametongue Totem reach everyone within 30 yards, not just your party. Windfury and Flametongue Totem don't stack with each other and don't affect pets. Grace of Air works with both.

Raid-wide resistance totems: Fire, Frost and Nature Resistance Totem (+60 each). Fire Resistance sits in the water slot, so it replaces your Mana Spring.

Party-only totems: Mana Spring, Healing Stream, Stoneskin, Windwall, Tremor (removes Fear, Charm and Sleep), Grounding (pulls a harmful spell aimed at your party onto itself) and the Poison and Disease Cleansing Totems.

Earth Shock: your interrupt. 6-second cooldown (5 with Reverberation), locks that spell school for 2 seconds and causes high threat. Wind Shear isn't in the Forever data.

Purge removes 2 beneficial magic effects from an enemy, and Cure Poison / Cure Disease help your healers.

Chain Heal (level 40, every spec): 3 targets, each jump 50% as effective. If you cast it on a party member, it only jumps to other party members; cast on someone outside your party, it can jump further.

Reincarnation: 1-hour cooldown, needs an Ankh, brings you back with 20% health and mana. A wipe-saver for your own death, plus Ancestral Spirit out of combat.

Call of the Elements, Ancestors and Spirits (levels 20, 30 and 40) drop up to four totems from your Totem Bar in one 3-second cast, and lasting totems last 5 minutes.

Not in Forever: the beta data has no Bloodlust/Heroism, no Wrath of Air Totem and no Tranquil Air Totem, and Stormstrike's 20% Nature bonus only applies to your own next spell (in Classic it helped every Nature caster).

What each spec adds

Elemental: lightning and AoE. wowforeverprogress's draft build is 41/5/5: Call of Thunder, Lightning Overload at 30% (the copy does half damage, costs no mana and makes no threat), Elemental Fury and Lightning Mastery (for 15 seconds Lightning Bolt casts 0.5 seconds faster and Chain Lightning has no cooldown; 3-minute cooldown). Chain Lightning now costs over twice a Lightning Bolt, so mana is the limit. Magma Totem and Fire Nova handle adds. The build puts 2 points in Elemental Warding (less Fire, Frost and Nature damage taken), which may matter on Onyxia.

Enhancement: melee plus totems. The draft build is 10/36/5: Stormstrike on cooldown, Maelstrom Weapon into instant Lightning Bolts, Flurry, Elemental Devastation and Rage of the Farseer (30% attack speed for 25 seconds, 3-minute cooldown). Spirit Weapons lowers your threat by 30% while you're not using Rockbiter Weapon, which matters more without Salvation. Windfury Weapon on your main hand turns off Windfury Totem's effect for you, so the totem is for the rest of the melee.

Restoration: group healing and mana. The draft build is 0/10/41: Riptide placed ahead of damage on the tank (a 15-second HoT that makes a Chain Heal cast directly on that target 25% stronger), Chain Heal for group damage, Lesser Healing Wave as the fast emergency heal, Nature's Swiftness into Healing Wave as the panic button, Mana Tide Totem (party only, 12 seconds, 5-minute cooldown) and Ancestral Healing (25% armor on the target for 15 seconds after a heal crit). Restorative Totems makes Mana Spring 25% and Healing Stream 50% stronger.

See our gearing guide for stats. It was written before the Nov 2 changes (its builds and weights still include Lava Burst and the old Stormstrike), so expect the weights to shift.

Splitting totem jobs with several Shamans

Based on the totem data above (our suggestion, not an official rule). Raid-wide totems only need one Shaman each; party totems need one Shaman per party.

Earth: one Shaman drops Strength of Earth for the raid. The others use Stoneskin (melee and tank parties) or Tremor where fears show up.

Air: one Shaman on Windfury, another on Grace of Air. Both are air totems, so one Shaman can't do both. Spare Shamans drop Grounding or Nature Resistance for their party.

Fire: if Windfury is up, nobody needs Flametongue Totem, so the fire slot is Searing or Magma Totem (or Frost Resistance if the fight calls for it).

Water: everyone keeps Mana Spring for their own party, with Poison or Disease Cleansing swapped in where needed. On Onyxia, one Shaman drops Fire Resistance for the whole raid; the rest stay on Mana Spring.

Parties: Chain Heal, Mana Spring, Mana Tide and Tremor only reach your own party, so spread Shamans across groups. Put the Resto Shaman with the healers or casters who need the mana.

Interrupts and Purge: add Shamans to the raid's Earth Shock rotation, and pick one Shaman to Purge enemy buffs.

10-player with one Shaman: you choose Windfury or Grace of Air for the air slot. If you pick Grace of Air, Flametongue Totem works next to it.

Set up three Call presets (trash, boss, Onyxia fire). When the group moves, walk to the new spot and cast Totemic Call.

Threat without Salvation

There's no Salvation any more. Tank stances and Bear Form make more threat now, but tanks still need a few seconds. Big early Chain Heals and Chain Lightnings can pull aggro, and Earth Shock causes high threat. Let the tank get going and watch a threat meter.

Buffs to ask for

From the wowforeverprogress raid guides: a party with a Leader of the Pack Druid suits Enhancement, a party with a Moonkin Druid suits Elemental. They don't stack with each other, so split them across groups. Remember Windfury and Flametongue Totem don't count for Hunter and Warlock pets.

Before Dec 9

Get to 60, train Chain Heal, Grace of Air, Windfury Totem and every resistance totem rank, carry Ankhs, and bind Earth Shock, Purge and Totemic Call where you can hit them fast.

Re-check your talents after the Nov 2 rework: Lava Burst is gone, Riptide is a HoT on a 12-second cooldown, and Improved Ghost Wolf is on row 4.

Agree on a totem plan with your raid leader: who drops Strength of Earth, Windfury, Grace of Air and (on Onyxia) Fire Resistance.

Think about fire-resist gear for Onyxia's Lair, and get the Drakefire Amulet to enter.

In Classic, Onyxia had a fear in her third phase, so Tremor Totem was useful. Blizzard hasn't said whether Forever keeps it; Fear Ward is baseline for every Priest now.

What's still unknown: boss mechanics, which bosses have interruptible casts, whether Tidal Focus covers melee and spell hit, whether Riptide's ticks can crit, whether 51 talent points is right, how downranking works, and how the three specs compare once real logs exist. We'll update when raids open.

Sources

Blizzard: Beta Development Notes – Updated November 2, raid overview (raid sizes, Onyxia fire resistance, Drakefire Amulet)

Endgame Tools: Nov 2 launch class changes (Shaman, race and every-class changes, and which build carries them)

Beta client data and draft raid builds: wowforeverprogress Shaman overview, Elemental, Enhancement and Restoration guides (data from talentsforever.com, CC BY 4.0)

Images: header and raid utility cheat-sheet by Systematic, made for this post using the Systematic wallpaper and brand colours. Spell icons on the card © Blizzard Entertainment via Wowhead (Classic icons used as stand-ins; Forever's may differ). Card numbers from Blizzard's Nov 2 notes and beta client data (wowforeverprogress).