Leveling an elemental shaman, I did a lot of world PvP and wanted to discuss matchups. Please chime in if you are an ele shammy, or you have played against one!

I sorted them from easy to hard, and assumed the opponent is playing a cookie cutter PvP spec.

Paladin
Shouldn't be a problem if they're Retribution. Holy paladins may be a stalemate if they are smart about baiting an earth shock.
1. Drop a grounding totem as soon as you can to eat HoJ.
2. Purge buffs.
3. Slow. Use FS and if he uses BoF, Purge again and drop a grounding totem.
4. DPS and save ES to interrupt heals. Your goal is to get them to 50% and then surprise them with Elemental Mastery / NS burst.
5. Low health or bubble? -> Grounding totem and heal yourself

Druid
A druid is going to try and powershift to either stay on you like glue, or to run away. Flash bombs really make this matchup an auto win, but even without them it's an easy fight.
1. If they try to go feral on you, treat them like a rogue.
2. If they try to go resto, Purge, ES heals and DPS.
3. If they try to run away and you don't have flash bombs, you're in for a tough chase. If you use FS to slow them, they can heal up, and if you use ES to interrupt, they can run away. Unless you can get in Earthbind range they're in the wind.

Priest
They take a while to defeat, but you have all the tools to directly counter them.
1. Drop a tremor totem. If they take time to kill it, get out of range until you can drop it again.
2. Purge shield, buffs and hots.
3. If they're in shadow form, earth shock Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mana Burn.
4. If they're not, earth shock heals and use Grounding totem for Mind Blast.
5. DPS and heal up freely when necessary.

Mage
Polymorph is hard to deal with, so this could go both ways depending on the Mage's experience with this matchup. If you can prepare the fight, equip Skull of Impending Doom to damage yourself. Get a Spider Belt to break out of the occasional frost nova. Both are very useful, but they have quite a long cooldown. If you don't have either of these...

1. Save grounding totem for Polymorph and hope they don't cast it twice. Earth shock is unreliable if they know how to outrange you.
2. Purge their buffs.
3. Try to earth shock frost spells. Grounding totem to save your life, especially if you are frozen in place. But remember, you're giving them a free reset with Blink > Polymorph.
4. Drop a frost resistance totem and try to burst them down.
5. Fake cast heals to bait Counterspell.

Hunter
Hunters have many options and most of them do not use them all. If they do, it can be hard. Flash bombs really help here to get rid of the pet for a little while.

1. Your first priority is to get in shock range. If you are in shock range, they will likely lose because your burst is stronger and you're in their dead zone. If you are far away, and you lose due to spells being pushed back.
2. Put a slow on them with Frost Shock, get closer and Earthbind.
3. Drop a poison cleansing totem.
4. Heal up and burst them down as they try to run away.
5. Be ready with your mouse to target them again when they feign death. You can also try a /targetlasttarget macro, though I haven't confirmed this.

Warlock
Tough matchup if the warlock is good, because there are plenty of options for them with the various pets and specs. Unfortunately, I haven't fought any good warlocks but this is the jest of it.

1. Tremor totem takes care of both fear and seduction. You'll want this up at all times, because...
2. Death coil is coming. Try to place a Grounding totem early on and hope they waste it. This really is guesswork so most likely, they'll kill the totem or the totem will eat another spell.
3. If you get death coiled, you will get feared. The tremor totem saves you and you immediately heal up.
4. Purge their buffs and DPS. You have more burst than the warlock so finishing them fast is the name of the game.
5. You may die from dots after the fight due to mana drain. Reincarnation is especially strong against Warlocks because you don't need time to reapply dots.

Shaman
Mirror match, only for duels. This is a burst fest, and enhancement takes the edge because they can interrupt you and you can't interrupt Windfury.

1. Use a grounding totem to eat shocks. If the totem is on cooldown, try to bait earth shock with a rank 1 spell or hearthstone.
2. If they're enhancement, try to use Frost Shock to keep range between you two. He will reach you eventually, but not quickly.
3. If they're elemental, put down a nature resistance totem and purge elemental mastery as soon as you see it.
4. Use rank 1 lightning bolt to clear their grounding totem and Earth Shock any spell they cast.
5. Burst them down asap, even if they are in melee range. Running away doesn't really work because you can both slow each other.

Rogue
One of the hardest matchups. They usually get the opener and that means that we have to get out of range. It helps if you are an orc.

1. Put down a poison cleansing totem. This gets rid of both slows and blind. If the rogue is smart and uses a thrown weapon to take out the totems, place them back as soon as you can.
2. Put down a fire nova totem when you think they are close, to try and catch them out of stealth. If you didn't, use a magma totem and drink slightly in front of it with your back turned to the totem.
3. Wait out their opener. When you get out of the stun, immediately drop an earthbind totem and run away.
4. They might chase you with sprint. If they do, throw in a flame shock (for the DoT) and try to get a heal by fake casting rank 1 heal or hearthstone.
5. When sprint is on cooldown, frost shock them and get more range. Drop a fire nova totem because this is where they would typically use vanish.
6. Burst them down.

Warrior
This one is very tough because they will try to land a charge+hamstring on you. If they do, it's trouble. If they can interrupt a spell, it's even more trouble. Try to get away from them and kite them with grenades, free action potions, swiftness potions, Spider Belt or Tidal Charm if you happen to have it.

1. Frost shock and try to get away.
2. If they land Intercept, drop an Earthbind immediately and jump away.
3. Bait Shield Bash and Pummel with a rank 1 spell. It may cause them to react quickly and miss. If this fails, you're basically dead.
4. Put down a tremor totem, if you do make it out on top they may try to fear you.
5. Whether they're in melee range or not, try to burst them down before they kill you.

Counterplay
If you're on the other side of this fight, you'll want to find out which totems are effective against you and clear them quickly.

1. Use a target macro with a thrown weapon or quick/instant cast spell.
2. CC the shaman. Outside totems, we can't really break CC spells.
3. Survive the burst. If you see elemental mastery, dispel it if you can. Otherwise, pop defensive cooldowns.
4. If you're under 70% HP, bait out an earth shock and heal up ASAP.
5. Make it a long fight. Shamans are prone to going OOM because they have weak mana regeneration in their talents and skills.
6. If you have good long-range options, try to stay out of shock range (20yds). A shaman has considerably fewer options at long range, and it makes them very predictable.

Resto druid hybrids are really hard to beat if they know how to play properly. They can heal in bearform (dont think you can purge frenzied regen). They got a long stun, nice heals, ranged spell interrupt (charge). You have to be careful with your mana.

Inb4 Caperfin comes

Awesome post, keep up the good work - great to have some first hand experience here.

Erik wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Resto druid hybrids are really hard to beat if they know how to play properly. They can heal in bearform (dont think you can purge frenzied regen). They got a long stun, nice heals, ranged spell interrupt (charge). You have to be careful with your mana.

Inb4 Caperfin comes

I haven't played against one yet, so it's a tough call. You may be right. Personally, I'd try flash bombing them after a charge and running away to reset the fight. Bears are hard to kill so we might go out of mana, but so will they if they want to stay in range. Frenzied regeneration heals for about 200HP every 3 minutes, so it's not a huge issue.
I think a good druid with that ind of spec is a pretty even fight, but I'd still give the shaman a slight edge with slows and Purge.

Are you planning to do World PvP, Premade PvP or random BG pvp?

Caperfin wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Are you planning to do World PvP, Premade PvP or random BG pvp?

All of the above! :) I guess what you're meaning to say is, organized PvP is more about group play and less about individual matchups?

jodiug wrote: ↑

4 years ago

All of the above! :) I guess what you're meaning to say is, organized PvP is more about group play and less about individual matchups?

yes.
This is such a massive subject with many intertwining factors (gear, phase, faction, BG). But, if you're not planning to do Premade pvp pretty much anything will float.

Caperfin wrote: ↑

4 years ago

jodiug wrote: ↑

4 years ago

All of the above! :) I guess what you're meaning to say is, organized PvP is more about group play and less about individual matchups?

yes.
This is such a massive subject with many intertwining factors (gear, phase, faction, BG). But, if you're not planning to do Premade pvp pretty much anything will float.

Agreed that group play is different. If we're talking min-max, I'd say a full support build is a better fit. But I think we can agree that in Classic there's a case to be made for choosing a spec that works in multiple areas of the game (PvP, PvE, solo play).

Assuming the spec is elemental, we still have many considerations about gear, professions (engineering), consumables, BG layout, etc. But many of these things affect all players equally. That means that a good matchup against someone with blue gear turns into a bad matchup if they wear Naxx gear, or a bad matchup turns into a good matchup if you have engineering and they don't.

Despite all the variables, there's still a constant factor in playing PvP, and that is that each class has its own toolbox. Mastering our toolbox and knowing how to counter the toolboxes of other classes, will make us better players both in solo play and in group play. Even if it's maybe only 10% of the whole picture.

jodiug wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Despite all the variables, there's still a constant factor in playing PvP, and that is that each class has its own toolbox. Mastering our toolbox and knowing how to counter the toolboxes of other classes, will make us better players both in solo play and in group play. Even if it's maybe only 10% of the whole picture.

aaah ok. I understand know.

Very good list! I agree with pretty much everything here.

It's actually kind of sad, my experience with shaman in PvP is kind of what made me not roll a shaman. It's not shock that warriors are the most played class, and every encounter i've ever had with a warrior was absolutely dreadful. Their ability to lockdown a shaman and train them hard was the deciding factor for me not to play a shaman. I love totems, I love chain heal, I love the lore. But my god do I hate fighting warriors as a shaman. The second they charge you and hit you with a hamstring it's pretty much game over for you as a shaman.

Justbe wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Very good list! I agree with pretty much everything here.

It's actually kind of sad, my experience with shaman in PvP is kind of what made me not roll a shaman. It's not shock that warriors are the most played class, and every encounter i've ever had with a warrior was absolutely dreadful. Their ability to lockdown a shaman and train them hard was the deciding factor for me not to play a shaman. I love totems, I love chain heal, I love the lore. But my god do I hate fighting warriors as a shaman. The second they charge you and hit you with a hamstring it's pretty much game over for you as a shaman.

You could go enhancement and get lucky with the RNG. Two procs of windfury and that warrior is toast.

Frenzied regeneration heals for about 200HP every 3 mins

You are in for a big surprise if you think it heals for only 200HP. No druid would ever waste the mana to get into bear form just to pop regen if it heals for only 200hp. I'm level 42 at the moment, and I have frenzied regen rank 1/3. It heals considerably more than 200hp. I'm not sure if +healing gear on resto/balance hybrids increase this amount but I have no +healing and it certainly heal for more.