This guide shouldn't take us very long unlike the past two weeks' unexpectedly lengthy detour into all manner of backstabbery and ambushness because, as we all very well know, shamans don't PvP. Alright fine, that's not true. But we just don't see them around much. Historically, shamans have always been underrepresented in Arenas and Battlegrounds although not necessarily because the class has serious failings but also because fewer players play shamans than any other class in the game if census numbers are to be believed. Rogue and warlock numbers dropped over the years, too, but shamans have always been in last place for most of the game's existence.

Shamans are great, but have never really been established as a threat in PvP and very few players really quake at the sight of a shaman entering the battlefield. Undeserved reputations aside (or lack thereof), shamans are a very versatile class and any player underestimating them could easily be on the receiving end of a fatal shock spell. After the jump, let's quickly go through the shaman's commonly used abilities in PvP before moving to the different specs and what to expect.

Ghost Wolf

Because mobility is key in PvP, and shamans have very few options when it comes to this, Ghost Wolf is an important ability that affords them faster movement across the battlefield. Almost all shaman PvP builds will have points in Improved Ghost Wolf, making it instant cast. A few funny things to remember: Ghost Wolf is a magical buff and not a form, so it can be dispelled with abilities like Dispel Magic and Purge; it does not remove movement-impairing abilities in the same way druid forms can shake off snares and roots; shamans in Ghost Wolf form can still be Polymorphed; the shaman becomes classified as a beast, making her susceptible to Scare Beast and Sap. Ghost Wolf has plenty of drawbacks. Pick one and abuse it.

Purge

This is my favorite shaman ability and is arguably the best PvP ability they have. While shamans are pretty limited in self-dispels -- they can't do jack against Magic effects, the most common type of debuff -- they are extremely effective offensive dispellers. Expect a shaman to begin their assault with a barrage of Purges in order to strip you off buffs and shields. Even restoration shamans are in the habit of using Purge often as it helps their teammates greatly. There isn't much you can do about this other than to pay attention and be prepared to recast important buffs such as Power Word: Shield at strategic moments.

Bloodlust / Heroism

Although this is on a relatively long, 5-minute cooldown, Bloodlust or Heroism can give the shaman an edge in the battle. Here's a simple tip: it's a magical buff. It can be dispelled just like any buff, or even better, stolen. If you don't possess offensive dispels, you'll be in a slight pickle considering it lasts 40 seconds. One quick note to remember against offensive-minded shamans (elemental or enhancement) is that the buff adds nothing to their defensive capabilities. Counter Bloodlust or Heroism with an all-out offensive yourself. Things change in team scenarios, obviously, as a whole bunch of enemies with the buff easily spells a quick death.

Grounding Totem

One of the shaman's best defensive spells, a Grounding Totem can eat a powerful, long-cast spell or crowd control ability. It's considerably weaker now than it used to be, as it dies even when 'eating' non-damage harmful spells, but always be mindful of its presence. Have a cheap, instant-cast spell at the ready to finish it off so as not to waste more expensive, longer cast spells. Use a /stopcasting macro, if you need to. Make sure the totem isn't around when you blow a cooldown spell like Hammer of Justice.

The Earth Totem Trio

Shamans have three fun earth totems that provide utility in PvP. Earthbind Totems are the most obvious, providing a snare effect (and more, depending on the shaman's spec) but there's also the little understood Stoneclaw Totem, which shamans put down to protect their other totems. Its real value to shamans, however, is because of the Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem, which is the single best PvP glyph for a shaman. Unfortunately, destroying the totem will not remove the damage absorption, so don't bother. It won't be worth risking proccing the 3-second stun. Shamans can put down a Stoneclaw Totem to proc the shield and immediately replace it with an Earthbind Totem. Destroy that, instead. Tremor Totem is an anti-crowd control spell that shamans put down against warlocks and priests, so if you're counting on a fear, charm, or sleep effect, make sure that Tremor Totem is destroyed before casting anything.

Wind Shear

Wind Shear replaced Earth Shock as the shaman's interrupting spell and is off the global cooldown, so always watch for it if you're a caster. It has a very short 6 second cooldown, so time your spells accordingly. It creates a 2 second school lockout, so try to bait the shaman into interrupting spells from another school if you have something important you need to cast. This along with Purge makes shamans quite a handful for casters.

Hex

Finally, shamans can turn you into a frog. Hex is a 1.5 second cast spell that has a relatively long 45-second cooldown and being the only crowd control spell shamans have, is a great candidate for a cc-break. It can break on damage, so removing it is purely discretionary.

Earth Elemental and Fire Elemental

These totems never see play in Arenas, which is precisely one reason Battlegrounds and world PvP are so much fun! You get to see Earth Elementals and Fire Elementals run amuck, and shamans don't hesitate to blow these long cooldown spells to unleash them upon a crowd. Fire Elementals are the preferred elemental because of their high damage, but Earth Elementals come out when the shaman's Fire Elemental Totem is on cooldown. There's no one solution to these spells because the totems themselves have considerable health and focusing on them leaves you open to attack. Warlocks can cast Banish, though, which should lock up the elemental.

Frost Shock

This is old, but it really explains it all. I mean, Frost Shock! While all three shock spells share the same cooldown, Frost Shock is a phenomenal ability because it applies a snare that is not affected by diminishing returns. Theoretically, if you have no means of removing it, you'll be slowed 100% of the time should the shaman elect to use Frost Shock over her other shock spells. We're not even talking about Frozen Power yet. The debuff is magic, and if hampered mobility gets in the way of your play, remove it with abilities like Cleanse but never waste a trinket on it.


Elemental

After a series of guides featuring 'pure' classes, especially the past weeks' pure DPS rogue, it should be noted that shamans are an exciting hybrid class from a purely PvP perspective even though they only fill two of the three archetypal roles. This is because the three specs fight considerably differently. Elemental shamans are casters in mail armor, and always prefer to fight at long range. Even though they have access to instant cast shocks, their repertoire will consist mostly of Lightning Bolts, Chain Lightnings, and Lava Burst, all of which have cast times and directional facing. Get in their faces, get out of line of sight, and generally try to interrupt their rhythm. An elemental shaman will always apply Flame Shock before casting Lava Burst, as it guarantees a crit. If you can remove magical effects, such as with Cleanse or Dispel Magic, be very attentive to Flame Shock and remove it as soon as it's applied. It will be easy to identify an elemental shaman because she'll be carrying a one-hander and shield with Water Shield up.

Elemental shaman are excellent kiters and have some cool tools that allow them to create some distance between themselves and their opponents. Earthbind Totem is a powerful spell that roots opponents for 5 seconds, thanks to Storm, Earth, and Fire. With Earth's Grasp, the totem can be cast every 10 seconds, allowing root about 50% of the time, subject to diminishing returns. The drawback? Elemental shamans have very little by way of snare removal themselves, so they can be slowed and rooted as normal. Physical and magical crowd control works best, as elemental shamans have no way of removing this aside from the PvP trinket.

They also have an excellent peeling spell Thunderstorm and you should always be wary of fighting them in elevated areas such as the lumber mill in Arathi Basin or on the Dun Baldar bridge. Aside from this spell, which has a 45-second cooldown, the general idea is to get up close to an elemental shaman and disrupt her spellcasting. Even though they wear mail armor, they have few mitigation abilities and can succumb rather quickly to various forms of damage.

Aside from shocks and Thunderstorm, elemental shamans won't have anything instant to worry about, so just keep on disrupting their spells. Their heals all require cast times and their damaging abilities require them to face you, so managing to position behind them will ruin their momentum. Note that stunning, fearing, or silencing them will only proc Astral Shift, so unless you can unleash major damage, it sometimes isn't worth the bother.

Enhancement

Enhancement shaman are the easiest type of shaman to spot: they're dual-wielding weapons. The odd enhancement shaman will be carrying a 2-hander, but most will have two weapons. As opposed to elemental shamans, however, who have basically one playing style and a rather narrow choice of PvP talents, enhancement play styles differ -- some go for faster shock and Wind Shear cooldowns to harass casters even more, others dip into restoration for faster heals. Overall, the strategy against an enhancement shaman is opposite that of an elemental shaman -- kite her.

This will be a tall order because enhancement has Earthen Power, which turns Earthbind Totems into snare removers. Here's a tip: it only removes slowing effects, not roots. This means that abilities such as Entangling Roots and freeze effects won't be removed. Don't bother slowing an enhancement shaman. Root him if you're able. Barring that, make sure to quickly target the Earthbind Totem and quickly reapply a slowing effect, although Earth's Grasp will allow the shaman to put down another one relatively quickly.

An enhancement shaman can become truly dangerous when her wolves are out with Feral Spirit. My advice? Stay clear of them. Unless you have some means of crowd controlling them, such as with a mass fear or even a Hibernate on one, enhancement shamans with Spirit Wolves out can deal a whole lot of damage while being harder to kill at the same time. The wolves have fairly high health and it would be a waste of time to focus your attention on them. Unless you're confident about your crowd control and/or ability to take some damage, it's easier to avoid them at this point. If they manage to stun you and keep you in place, and blow cooldowns like Bloodlust or Heroism, they can take down pretty much most opponents with a flurry of magical and physical damage.

There is no strict counter to an enhancement shaman with Feral Spirit active, other than perhaps to crowd control the shaman herself and attempt to take down the Spirit Wolves before she breaks free. Enhancement shaman are fairly susceptible to crowd control and have no natural means to remove it other than with a trinket or the right totem (so make sure to kill it). Keeping the shaman out of play is your best bet, and if you're unable to do that, it might be wiser to run away for a while.

Smart enhancement shamans will keep stacks of Maelstrom Weapon ready for instant self-heals instead of going overzealous with damage (although they can certainly do that, and it will hurt). If you have offensive dispels, use them on the shaman to prevent the stack from reaching 5. Most shamans aren't in the habit of consuming the buff if it hasn't reached 5 stacks because casting, however fast, resets their swing timers. Most play it safe and use the stacks for a heal at around 50% health or lower. Disarm effects work well against enhancement shamans, although they still have access to damaging spells and a few will have a weapon chain on their off-hand weapon to counter such an occurrence.

Restoration

Restoration shamans are identical to elemental shamans in that they will be sporting a one-hander and a shield. A tell-tale sign would be if they have Earth Shield around them, although most healers will throw this at another player instead of themselves. When under fire, they'll apply the Earth Shield on themselves, and keeping it off will be key to beating them. It's not a cheap spell, and it will cost them heavy mana to keep on re-applying it. If you don't have offensive dispels, you'll have your work cut out for you because Earth Shield will consume a large chunk of your damage.

Because of their support role, restoration shamans are masters of Purge. They learn how to use it more effectively than either of the other two specs because restoration shamans look to strip opponents bare for their teammates. Restoration shamans with a bit of Arena experience are well aware of enemy buffs and watch for openings. By the same token, restoration shamans often learn to /focus with Wind Shears by way of supporting their teammates, so always be wary of casting anything against them even if they're healers. As with any healer, they are fairly difficult to kill, especially with abilities such as Nature's Swiftness to give them instant recovery.

General strategy

Whatever the spec, shamans have a common weakness in that they are fairly easy to crowd control and cannot remove magical effects on themselves (although restoration can remove Curses). Aside from restoration, shamans generally have casting times on their heals, so they can be interrupted, locked out of the Nature school, and slowed down or prevented from healing themselves. Sometimes, these encounters come down to a mana battle and running the shaman out of mana will usually result in a win. They have various means of recovering mana, but the only one that can truly be countered is the restoration shaman's Mana Tide Totem. Kill it. No, seriously, don't even let it tick more than once or twice. Thunderstorm and Improved Stormstrike can't be stopped (and return just a little mana), so don't bother.

For all the danger that shaman burst poses -- and they can kill just about anything if they pour it all on -- again remember that they are completely vulnerable to crowd control. Make sure that you eliminate any of their defensive totems and control the match with any crowd control ability you have, however limited. Defensive totems are preventive and they can't cast them when they're already cc'd. Fears, stuns, charm effects, sleep... you name it. The only thing shamans can handle with relative ease are snares.

Anyhow, that's it for shamans, I think. I might have I missed something, but you guys will set me straight in the comments, anyway, so I'll sit back and let you toss your own strategies against shamans. That's always the fun part. Start hitting those battles now, because it's going to get a lot more fun with Patch 3.3.3.