Fellow Farseers and Shamans, the moment we have longed for has finally arrived. Season of Discovery has arrived, and it comes with a whole boatload of new builds, as well as Class, Role, Spec combinations!

I’m sure some people are excited about the potential for Shaman Tanks to actually become a true spec in WOW Classic variant. With this excitement comes a lot of questions about the initial ideas for builds, runes, talents and gear.

So I hope I’ve got a good handle on it and provided a lot of information for you to absorb. I’d like to start with a guide on how to Shaman Tanks first, and then we can build on that knowledge to provide subsequent guides for other aspects of the class. Without further ado, let’s get into the guide.

Runes

Runes are the new feature of this game mode, which allows you to use new abilities not found in Classic Era games. They are either from future expansions or completely new ideas that fit the essence and spirit of WOW Classic.

These new ability Runes are earned by exploring the world and its various challenges. Runes are easily interchangeable and hot swappable, and just like our talent system in retail WoW, there are many combinations and gear items that will come with it.

Here we’ll cover Runes you may want to use when tanking Shaman. Please keep in mind that circumstances may change and this guide may be out of date. But if it does happen, I’ll post updates and additional guide content to stay relevant!

Shield Mastery

First, your ideal Chest Rune for Shaman Tanks would be Shield Mastery. Each time you block, you regain 4% of your maximum mana and gain 30% of your maximum armor as armor, stacking up to 5 times.

Also, you get a 10% increase in block chance and a 15% increase in block value. This is obviously a very good mana regeneration and defense rune, as long as you’re wielding a shield.

Molten Blast

Your ideal tank Glove Rune will be Molten Blast. It explodes enemies in a cone in front of you, dealing 46-61 Fire damage. This capability creates a significant threat.

And Flame Shock periodic damage has a 10% chance to reset the cooldown of Molten Blast. With this ability, we don’t have to worry about mobs resisting our Nature spells. This will also help us maintain aggro against the teams we pull.

It will also reward players to spread their Flame Shock debuffs to get reset in Molten Blast. This sounds like a very interesting gameplay.

Way Of Earth

Our Legs slot Rune will obviously be a Way of Earth. While Rockbiter Weapon is active on your main hand weapon, you cause 100% more threat, have 30% more health, take 10% less damage, and have 6% less chance to be critically hit by melee attacks. And Earth Shock will taunt your target to attack you.

Earth Shock

Earth Shock now has a separate cooldown from your other Shock spells, but its range is now reduced to melee range. This is Rune that makes Shaman the tank they’ve always wanted to be.

With increased survivability and Earth Shock’s dedicated taunt button, the only thing we’re missing now is a separate spell for interrupting spell-casting. Since Earth Shock is also an Interrupt in WOW Classic, we can actually use it to solve the problem of interrupting spells in most cases.

Shamanistic Rage

Another rune worth trying is Shamanistic Rage. Shamanistic Rage reduces all damage taken by 20% and regenerates mana every second for 15 seconds. Mana regenerated per second is equal to 15% of your attack power, 10% of your spell power, or 6% of your healing power, whichever is greater.

If you have enough WOW Classic SOD Gold budget, you can place Rune on multiple items in the same equipment slot. Therefore, you can put Shamanistic Rage of a pair of pants to use the ability between pulls or when out of combat to benefit from the mana regeneration buff it provides.

But before entering the battle, you’ll want to switch back to your Legs slot Rune. Because if you don’t have Way of Earth equipped, you’re in danger of dying.

Also Read: Everything You Need To Know About WOW Classic SOD Phase 1!

Talents

Since the initial level cap of Season of Discovery is 25, Talents we can absorb are also very limited. It’s unclear whether certain talents will also affect Rune abilities, thereby replacing other abilities or enhancing your core spells. And it’s also possible that talents will be updated to improve or interact with your Rune abilities where it makes sense.

That being said, you have a good idea of what path you should take to get Shaman to level 25, and respec later on when you gain higher levels and more Talent points.

We’ll mostly stick with Elemental Tree to get the needed damage increase and mana conservation talents.

In Enhancement Tree, the best value at level 25 is Shield Specialization, although I expect Shaman Tanks to be deeply enhanced as they level up.

Convection helps us a lot because Earth Shock and Flame Shock are probably some of our most used spells. And reducing the mana cost of these spells would go a long way.

Concussion will obviously increase our damage, which increases the threat we generate.

Elemental Focus gives us the opportunity to enter a clear casting state, which allows us to cast the next damaging spell freely.

Shield Specialization interacts well with Shield Mastery Rune, increasing your block chance and block value. This directly affects our mana regeneration and maintains the defensive stacks generated by this rune.

Gear

Typically in WOW Classic, we want to maintain a healthy balance of Strength and Agility as a melee DPS Shaman. While you’ll be wielding a shield, Strength becomes even more important as it directly affects your chances of blocking an attack. Intellect also plays an important role as it increases the size of our mana pool and the chance of getting a critical hit with our spells.

As a spell-casting tank, Strength and Intellect will be our two most important stats. And, of course, Stamina. However, if our mana regeneration is good enough, we might escape with minimal Intellect gear.

That being said, once underrated gear types will now become in demand for Shaman Tanks, like Gorilla Gear. Gorilla Gear has both Strength and Intellect. For Shaman Tanks, these items will now be properly utilized.

Some notable items from the ancient game will drop from Wailing Caverns, including Armor of the Fang. Because it provides Strength, Intellect, Agility and Spirit on its item set, and the set bonus works very well with Shaman Tanks.

Another item of note is Seedcloud Buckler. Because it will act as a giant shield until you get Commander’s Crest from Shadowfang Keep. This set’s set bonus increases your natural damage, healing, and increases your Intellect.

Professions

For professions, I personally would probably choose Leatherworking and Skinning first. Because you can make many notable recipes, to get the advantages of your equipment.

Since there is currently only a level cap and no professions cap, we can take advantage of the many powerful items obtained from crafting professions.

Once I got the best items through Leatherworking, like Earthen Leather Shoulders, Deviate Scale Belt and Heavy Armor Kits. I’ll probably give up on Skinning and switch to Engineering to get items like Bright Eye Goggles, Training Dummies and Iron Grenades to help me tank in raids and dungeons.

In WOW Classic, you can choose any professions you want. They provide some help, but are not ultimately the be all and end all. I just mentioned which professions I think will be most helpful for your Shaman Tanks. But as mentioned before, everything is subject to change, so give it a try!