WoW SOD Phase 2 Totem Guide - How to Play Shaman 2024

WoW SOD Phase 2 Totem Guide - How to Play Shaman 2024

3/1/2024 10:00:32 AM

Using your totems properly is a key part of playing Shaman. We'll break down the highest yield tips and give you the best WoW gold of you need specifically relevant to WoW sod phase 2. We'll include totem combos by situation at the end. Each element is going to be organized by the most important first to least important in PVP.

-Gnomer (in melee group): strength of earth + searing + mana spring + windfury
-Gnomer (in ranged group): searing + mana spring + nature resist (earth doesn't matter in this group)
-Anti rogue with prep: stoneskin + searing + poison cleanse + nature resist; drop decoy before earthbind
-Anti priest with prep: tremor + searing + disease cleansing + grounding (save for mind blast); save stoneclaw for homunculi
-General high-value pvp totems for bads and dads (no thinking required): earthbind + searing + disease cleansing + grounding (windfury when on cd)

Earth

Decoy

Our free FAP on a 20 second cd. It also eats a single melee/ranged attack which can theoretically be huge but often just results in an auto attack being eaten. Essential for kiting pallys, warriors + surviving rogues + escapes. In pve; this totem is a must take on thermaplugg as it removes all stacks of the frost debuff (helps keep tanks alive).

Earthbind

Essential totem for kiting in pvp. Make sure to reposition it to get multiple slows out of a single cd against melee. When trying to create space, drop decoy BEFORE dropping earthbind so you can repostion for multiple slows. In mage aoe spam pve this totem functions as a gimped blizzard slow effect.

Tremor

Anti fear totem that works by immediately cleansing fear from group within 30 yards when dropped, then again every 5 seconds. Ideal to drop as soon as you see a priest closing the gap or as early into the locks fear cast as possible (dont wait till right before or you will get a 5 second fear). Also removes warrior fear but our other totems are so high value against warriors i rarely drop this against them. Removes priest mind control as well, so save your team mates at lumber mill in ab

Stoneskin

Straight physical damage reduction. My default totem when defending a bases before combat starts to mitigate a rogue opening as much as possible. It functions as more of a filler totem in phase 2 when your decoy and earthbind are on cd against a melee and you have no better buttons to press. Also a good totem to drop when tanking but not as good as strength of earth when in a group with other melee.

Stoneclaw

Outside of running from mobs and solo content; this totem has 1 use. Get those damn priest homonculi the fuck off of me. If you have lightning shield on the homonci that damaged you will not be taunted by a single pulse of this totem.

Strength of earth

Default group buff in raid when in a melee group. Filler button when playing enhance pvp with nothing better ti press.

Fire

Searing

Default fire totem in most situations in pvp and pve. Good chip damage and causes spell knockback on casters. If you hear the rogue stealth noise, the fastest possible play you can do as a shaman is to drop a searing totem (which will auto target the rogue even if they walk out of range; it saves a sliver of time compared to pressing 2 buttons to cast a shock). In arathi basin, place searing at max distance from the flag so a rogue will have to sap u, run 20 yards to clear totem, then run back (saves bases from ninja caps). All around pretty much the bread and butter fire totem

Fire nova

Burst combo totem. Can be comboed with chain lighting earth shock like in oldschool classic for burst, but not as valuable as a lava burst chain lightning combo. Better for enhance than ele in pvp. In pve, provides more burst but less sustain than magma at high mana cost

Magma

Default aoe totem in aoe pve. Good for anti flag spinning in arathi basin to stall bases, especially with totamic projection. Most valuable play when defending a base that appears lost is sprinting from gy respawn to immediately totamic projection one of these onto the flag, hopefully to buy another gy respawn. If your ultra sweaty, you can die on the flag and ankh + drop a magma for some extreme base defending cheese

Frost resist

Instant drop against the rare frost mage. Helpful to drop during frost phase against thermaplugg

Flametongue

Don't even train this. Useful in wailing caverns leveling with a melee group i suppose.

Water

Disease cleansing totem

Instant drop against priests and in any group fight against priests. Cleanses 2 of their dots from all group members

Poison cleansing totem

Must drop against rogues after creating space (but ideally out before fight starts). Decent to drop against hunters. Mandatory during poison phase of thermaplugg in gnomer.

Fire resistance totem

Drop against fire mages. More of a min max sweaty play than something you need to routinely do. Drop against thermaplugg on fire phase if you are resto

Mana spring totem

Default totem to drop in a caster group in raid

Healing spring totem

Drop in pvp when no rogues mages or priests are around or after team fights to slightly speed up healing of group. Also helps stat pad as resto compared to manaspring for parsing

Mana tide

Resto only. Decent group mana restore. Use when other players and you are low on mana.

Air

Grounding

highest skill cap totem imo. Has a use against almost every class. Use to predict druids starsurge, eat priests mind blast, catch mages arcane surge/pyroblast, paladins HOJ, shamans lava burst, etc. Can completely negate the strongest abilities in game if you can time it right, which can gaurentee wins in 1v1s. Get good at grounding totem mind games and most classes will be in shambles

Windfury

Melee will suck the dick right off your pelvis if you drop this and strength of earth. Default in raid when in melee group. Drop in group fight if you're in a melee group in PVP when grounding is on cd

Nature resistance

My default base defending totem because it reduces rogue poison damage. If it's not down before the fight starts it's not worth dropping against a rogue. Also good against druids and shamans. Also used on every boss in gnomer when NOT in the melee group.

Sentry

PVP information gathering totem. Place at ab bases before leaving to quickly see flag. Slightly faster than casting a far sight for scouting and base callouts. Place at world pvp choke points. The direction you are facing when dropped is the view you will have when you enter sentry mode; position thoughtfully to avoid having to look around every time you go sentry mode.

Windwall

Same function as stoneskin but only for ranged hunters (which are no where near as common as melee hunters right now). If you see a ranged hunter approaching drop it before the fight, otherwise meh.