How do you guys level 5 shamans ?? It would take half a year?

[yalag]

I want to 5box with 5 shamans in arena, I am willing to buy 5 accounts. The only prob is, how do you get 5 lvl 70? Just leveling one takes a month or two. I dont get how you guys can have 5 70s?

[Bergy]

Level them in instances so your leveling all 5 at once instead of one at a time 5 times.

Quests can also be done in a group aslong as thier not gathering quests which would be looooong ;p

[yalag]

hehe but how do you do instance with 5 shamans? no tank and no heals? just pewpew?

[elo]

I started with 5 shammy then moved to 1 pally 4 shammy at ~36. Currently I'm at 46 with under 6 days played time and I'm VERY inefficient (sit for long periods of time while AFK, no boosting, didn't use Quest mods, etc.). This was also done with almost no rested XP. Really leveling 5 in parallel is a LOT faster than leveling 5 in series.

Also consider that you overpower EVERY quest so you almost never die. You never have to wait for mana because you only cast 1-2 spells per mob. If you do die you have 5 self rezzes. You get ghost wolf and 20 for faster travel. You get 1.4 x experience bonus for being in a full group, etc. Then throw in the extra XP you get per quest from 20-60 with that one patch and the levels just slide by.

On your instancing question, I did the 5 shammy until SM Armory and did pretty well. I think my biggest problem was that I still tried to tank with my 'main' toon and you just can't do that with a 5 shammy setup. There are plenty of videos of the 5 shaman setup rocking regular and heroic instances so look to them for tips. Personally I think I'll stick with the Pally + 4 Shammy. The tank just makes it silly easy for the most part. Some say I'll even give up on the 4 elementals and respec 1 to resto when I hit heroics... we'll see.

[Eteocles]

2 words: Chain Lightning. 2 more words: Elemental Mastery. 1 Shaman is overpowered as it is, 5 of them can oneshot most elites then bolt/shock what's left before they ever get hit; kiting is key on some bosses, or designating one a tank with more tank-based gear than the rest use for dps, and since all 5 can heal + 5 healing stream totems you shouldn't have too big an issue; let alone when you get Earth Ele totems to temp-tank.

[-silencer-]

IMO, it takes about 20% longer to get to 70 with a group vs solo. Meaning if it takes 10 days to get to 70 solo, it'll take you 12 - 13 days in a group.

With the patch 2.3 leveling changing, quests are the way to go. You won't get crap for non-elite kill due to group penatly, so I can't stress enough how important quests are.

Took me three calender months to get 4 shammies to 70. I started with 2, then added a 3rd, then a 4th (I recommend against doing it this way.. :P Don't ask). I probably could have done it in two months if I just started with 4 from the get go.
I agree. I've been surprised how quickly I see the level bar jump, and I've been spending time doing mostly quests with some instance runs thrown in. I did all the collection quests from lvl 1-10 near Exodar, and all in Elwynn Forest, but I've stopped doing them unless the quest reward or quest chain is worth it. 20% longer with a group of 5 seems accurate, but I've been not terribly efficient in my time so far - leveling professions and such. I suspect that it may actually be slightly faster to level with 5 than solo after 2.3 since you can blow through quests so easily. Perhaps next time I create a new set of 5, I'll work strictly on playing as fast as possible and see where I end up. :)

It's taken 2 calendar weeks to get to lvl 24 on my main 5, but I can only play on about 30-40% of the evenings and usually only 1 day during the weekends. Add the fact that I've got a 5x lvl 11 group (~9 hours inefficiently played) and a 5x lvl 6 group (~2 hours played) on other servers over this timeframe, and the main group seems to have been progressing pretty quick. It's easy when you don't really need to worry about the difficulty of a quest since you'll destroy even orange (and some red) quests with 5.

[Diamndzngunz]

Its not any different then leveling 1 character. Yes mob killing is lower XP, but instance group bonus is good.

Do some quests then instance grind. It might take longer seeing you have 5 your gonna run threw a instance but whatever works. You could also just run 4 characters then just have a mage pwr lvl you.

[Boylston]

I think 3-4x Shammies can be easier early on if you already have a L70 (or have a nice friend) who can help you run through instances really quick. We call this power-leveling or "boosting" (if you're under 30, I think that's the new term). This is effective until somewhere between L37-40. I got my 3 new shammies to level 40 in about 22 hours or so, if I remember correctly.

With patch 2.3, questing is the way to go... follow a quest guide and go to town doing all the XP-rich quests in the game in a quick, logical order. L40-58 went very, very fast for my guys. Again, a high level main can help fend off gankers (if you're on PvP), assist with super-tough content way over your head, or provide teleport/summon assistance (if you have a mage/warlock main). I was pleasantly suprised by how fast L40-58 went.

Post 58/60, it's more questing in the Outlands, although running instances starts to become more useful for the gear you'll get. Outlands +SpellDmg Mail items are a wonderful thing and you can get a ton of them right at L58 off of various quests. I wouldn't worry one iota about gear pre-L58 for elemental shamans... I was accidentally still wearing Wailing Caverns' leather on one of my guys when he replaced it with a Stormstrike Vest from a Hellfire quest. =P

[Nitro]

I think it was December 22nd that I started my 5 shaman team and it is now about 5 weeks later and im 68.5 on all of them. 5 elemental shamans can blast through just about anything, mines been just about pure questing for the most part, especially in outlands.

[ilikemages]

avoid collection quests like the plague

[Boylston]

avoid collection quests like the plagueI disagree here. I think it's helpful to know whether a collection quest is going to lead to a chain (or maybe be a middle section of one) that gives you a nice chunk of XP or an item that might be helpful. It's also helpful to use a tool like wowhead.com to figure out the droprate of the item(s) you're collecting and to judge how many it may take.

I did plenty of high drop rate, low number of items, not too-far-out-of-my-way collection quests, and almost all that were a part of a good chain for nice XP. I almost always passed on isolated collection quests. More commonly, I would accept the quest, start killing in the area, and maybe complete the quest on only 1-2 of the team. I simply rotated who was looter/quester for the collection items to balance out their XP.

Also, the dungeon quests had a larger than normal boost to XP, I believe. It's well worth your while to find a way to get through instances like BRD and knock out most of the quests that can be completed inside. Again, having a high level main (or friends) that can help here is nice. I think I got an entire level off just quest XP from BRD...

[Stealthy]

hehe but how do you do instance with 5 shamans? no tank and no heals? just pewpew?
It's easy, each pull goes something like this


Make sure your guys have a shield equipped and main hand weapon buffed.
Drop 5 x healing stream totems (they stack!)
Drop buffing totems (SoE, GoA, SS, etc)
For casting groups, drop 5 x grouding (they stack!)
Pull using chain lightning (lightning bolt if you dont have CL yet) (with EM if its not on cooldown)
Drop fire totems while mobs inc
Melee and pew pew mobs down, throwing out heals as needed
The beauty of it is that with 5 shams, the agro bounces around so you dont find one sham getting beaten on for long. If any sham's HP gets too low, do a focus heal (5 x chain heal or LHW) and they will be back up to full HP.

With bosses that need to be solo tanked (e.g. Herod in SM Armory), just send one sham in first, let him get a few ES's off to build agro, then start pew pew with your other shams, focus healing when needed.

Cheers,

Stealthy

[xum]

Stealthy,

Your totems are defunct bro :P SoE? GoA? for elemental? No thanks. Healing Stream, the 101 totem if you have it yet ( or Grounding), searing totem, and then a combo of Earthbind and Stoneskin (extra slowing never hurts). I recommend pulling with Lightning Bolt (it has a travel time and takes longer to cast), followed by EM+CL or just straight CL. LB, LB, CL. LB, LB, CL.

And Eteocles,

Shamans overpowered? No dude, please don't ever say that again. Just because Shamans work well for 5-boxing and high burst damage, the class has serious flaws from a solo play perspective, including in arenas. No CC, Earth Shield is dispellable by 5 of 9 (resto), no way to close the gap (enh), easily kitable (all) etc etc. I played my shaman for three months prior to 2.3, and it was pure hell after playing a lock to 70, a hunter to 70, and an ice mage to 67.

[Ripper]

My shamans are level 60. Shamans have no CC, so yes, it basically is pew-pew. Unlike my other group where I ran them through SM, etc with a 70, I just quested. Took about a month of casual play. I've ran SM once, ZF once or twice, and ST just to complete quests. If there are enough quests to make it worthwhile, I'll do an instance. I really like questing, especially more with the 2.3 xp boost. Yes, collection quests suck butt, but some of them are not bad at all.

As for totems, I drop 1 tremor, 1 earthbind, 3 stoneclaw, 5 totem of wrath, 5 grounding, 4 healing and 1 mana spring. When I hit 64, I'll throw in wrath of air. For pvp, I use another set.

2 lightning bolts x 5 kills mostly everything. Elites might take 3, maybe more if they're higher level. I kill everything up to 6 levels above me, including elites. Kill quests are absurdly easy, practically no downtime except looking up the next set of quests to complete.

[opt]

As for totems, I drop 1 tremor, 1 earthbind, 3 stoneclaw, 5 totem of wrath, 5 grounding, 4 healing and 1 mana spring. When I hit 64, I'll throw in wrath of air. For pvp, I use another set.
Does anyone ever use Fire Nova Totem, ive been monitoring it with SWStats and using it in SM:Cathedril and if i use it every pull or every second pull its currently contributing between 10-15% on overall damage. Im quite supprised at the burst damage 1 LB + 1 Shock + 1 Fire Nova can produce. Maybe not as much as +15 to crit from totem of wrath tho

[Lokked]

5 Shaman is definitely viable.

Just go with what you like, bro. But don't give up on them until you've at least experienced the power of 5x Healing Stream Totems (lvl 20). If you still don't like it, consider leveling up a tank of some sort to go with them instead of the 5th Shaman. In order of difficulty, from easiest to hardest, Paladin -- Druid -- Warrior. Base your decision on what you would like to run around with as a 70.

Lokked

[-silencer-]

Does anyone ever use Fire Nova Totem, ive been monitoring it with SWStats and using it in SM:Cathedril and if i use it every pull or every second pull its currently contributing between 10-15% on overall damage. Im quite supprised at the burst damage 1 LB + 1 Shock + 1 Fire Nova can produce. Maybe not as much as +15 to crit from totem of wrath tho
I'm using an AoE-prot pally for tanking, but I use fire totems now. Here's my typical pull..
- Set combat formation (F1 to make alts move forward, left, right, backwards - diamond formation about 2y apart, breaking /follow with paladin)
- Throw totems - 3x healing stream, 1x mana spring, 1x stoneskin, 1x strength of earth, 2x earthbind/tremor
- Pull with pally, either judgement of crusader or 'drive-by' auto-attack pull, bring back mobs to front of closest shaman & consecrate.
- Throw 4x fire nova totems, 4x lightning bolt
- Usually the first mob is dead from the LBs, but the fire nova is there to begin the initial hit to the rest of the mobs and finish off what's left of the original.
- Throw 4x magma totems.. more steady AoE dps. :)
- Throw 4x lesser healing waves on the paladin to top him off, and 4x searing/fire nova totems as needed.

This pull is quite mana friendly, and with all the threat reduction, I've never had a problem with shamen pulling aggro off the paladin.
I typically have Retribution Aura, BoK, Righteous Fury (w/ 3/3 talents), Seal of the Crusader activated on the paladin, and Blessing of Salvation on the shamen. A high block shield with shield spike is fantastic too. :)

[Nepida]

I <3 fire nova.

As for the pulls, I will only pull with CL if the mobs are easy. If the mobs can do some damage to me I want to make sure a few of them hit the stoneclaw totems. In fact sometimes I will stop casting to make sure a mob hits the totem to get stunned before I start casting to minimize downtime from healing.

[Ripper]

I only use fire nova when multiple mobs are right on top of my group. Most of the time, I don't even bother with totems, mobs die fast anyway. When I pull big groups, or a group with 3 or more elites, then I'll bust out the totems.

[Nepida]

Oh yeah, fire nova totems are also good for nature immune mobs. I 5xFire Nova, 5x Fire Shock and I can keep up the killing speed pretty well.

[Feehza]

i leveled all 5 Shaman without any help of level 70 Chars in 12days playtime.