[Resto Shaman] AOE Grinding

[gankbait]

Ohh harro! :wave:

Sorry if this seems like a repost, I didn't find anything in the search results, just trying to contribute, yada yada yada.

ANYWAYS.

With patch 3.0.8 came a much needed change to the Magma Totem - Being that it no longer produces threat (to the totem itself).

This makes AOE grinding a little more do-able for shamans, more specifically, Resto shamans.

You won't be aoe'ing quite like a mage, but i find this easier than mage aoe, since there's no need to kite, and shamans can take more hits, especially with an earth shield healing you.

As far as doing this for XP, I don't know as I haven't tested it with a non 80.

IMPORTANT:
You do need to tag each mob you kill before they die with something other than the damage caused by the totem, or you get nothing from the kill.

If the totem damages a mob first, they will kill the totem first, then come after you. This is where you start to get kills which you get no credit for.

Your magma totem's death is a clear indication that you've picked up a mob you didn't tag.

Gathering the mobs/tagging is easy enough to do with chain lightning, provided that you switch targets between casts to hit as many as you can, or simply run-up-and-smack each mob while gathering them up.

Try not to pick up casters, they're more of an annoyance as they stay out of range of your totem.

Keeping that in mind, it's very simple.

1. Keep earth shield and flametongue weapon up, this will keep you alive and increase the dps done by your totem.

2. Gather mobs via chain lightning or what ever is convenient, making sure you've tagged them.

3. Pop magma totem and stoneskin totem (stoneskin optional to mitigate damage taken depending on how many mobs you gather)

4. Throw in a CL or two to speed up the process, switching targets before casting to make sure all mobs are tagged

5. Loot

6. Repeat


I've never needed to heal myself while doing this, I just keep earth shield up, and I usually go for about 6-8 mobs.

Lately I've been using this method to farm Mag'har rep in Nagrand by killing massive amounts of ogres.

I also like the valley in Storm Peaks near the Sons of Hodir area for farming leather, since there's a lot of mammoths and free leather laying about.

If I think of other areas, I'll post them.


And yes I know this post contains a healthy dose of common sense, but I'm seeing less of that around these days.

Enjoy.

EDIT: Thanks for your comments, Ive revised and added a few things

[shadowsturm]

All common sense, if you submit some good AoE Grinding spots I'm sure they'd be much appreciated and rep-worthy.

[BaboonX]

To make your post rep worthy you should:
-Tell us why to use those spells, not just to use them.
-give us AoE spots
-Tell us how good/bad it is compared to otehr class AoE

[amaranth]

okay there are 2 bad things about this
1. If the mob gets killed by magma totem alone you dont get any loot so this wont work on big scale.
2. you get none or verry little xp from the kill.

so ye a shaman aoe farming is kinda fail

[gankbait]

okay there are 2 bad things about this
1. If the mob gets killed by magma totem alone you dont get any loot so this wont work on big scale.
2. you get none or verry little xp from the kill.

so ye a shaman aoe farming is kinda fail

Edited the post to address this and others.

[Zeeb]

A good area is the savage ledge in Icecrown, the mobs there drop decent amounts of cloth and greens and I can pull about 15 without dying.