Azeroth Survivors Shaman Build: Lightning Bolt to Totems

Azeroth Survivors Shaman build: how the class plays

An Azeroth Survivors Shaman build plays at range: all eight class skills carry a 20 to 24 unit reach, and only Lightning Shield works as a 4 radius around you. The pool carries no heal and nothing that absorbs damage, so a run is about staying outside the pack while bolts, chains and totems do the killing.

What the game's own class text says

The game describes the Shaman as a storm-calling sage attuned to the four elements, planting searing totems to seal off passageways and shocking enemies across the screen with surging chains of lightning. The ability pool backs that text up point by point: the searing totem is Searing Totem, the chains are Chain Lightning, and the shocks are Earth Shock, Flame Shock and Frost Shock.

Lightning Bolt is the whole first minute

Lightning Bolt is the only skill you own at level one: a bolt that picks one target at 24 range for 15 damage on a 1.3 second cooldown. That is enough while enemies arrive in a thin line, and it stops being enough the moment they come from two directions, which is the point where your second and third picks decide the run.

Nothing in the pool needs a button press

Every skill casts itself at the targets its kind picks, on its own cooldown, so the class is movement and card picks rather than combos. Whatever you take early keeps firing for the rest of the run, which is why the pick order below matters more than reflexes.

Azeroth Survivors Shaman build order, step by step

Take Lightning Bolt to level three or four first, then Chain Lightning, then Earth Shock, then a totem, and stop at six skills instead of filling every slot. Eight is the level cap on each skill, so two or three finished skills carry a run further than six that never leave level one.

1. Click the game window once after the run starts, because otherwise your movement keys go to the page instead of the hero and the first wave catches you standing still.
2. Level Lightning Bolt before anything else, because it is the only skill you own at level one and 15 damage every 1.3 seconds is what keeps the opening wave off you.
3. Walk in wide circles rather than back and forth on one line, because the bolt reaches 24 units and you want enemies dying outside their own reach, not inside it.
4. Take Chain Lightning as the second skill, because it is the only chain in the pool and 18 damage on three targets every 3 seconds is what stops a row from arriving together.
5. Add Earth Shock third, because 22 damage on a 2.5 second cooldown at 20 range is the heaviest single hit the class owns and it finishes what your bolt leaves walking.
6. Take Searing Totem fourth, because 9 damage every 14 seconds from a spot you do not have to stand on covers a lane you have already left.
7. Stop at six skills and push two or three of them to level eight, because a sixth level-one skill leaves the wave alive while a finished one does not.

Two finished damage skills carry most of a run, and the totem slot is where an Azeroth Survivors Shaman build fixes the coverage it is missing: a totem covers a doorway or a corner that a bolt aimed at the nearest enemy never touches. Every slot after that goes to coverage, not to taking one of everything the level-up offer shows you.

Which skills are in the Azeroth Survivors Shaman pool?

An Azeroth Survivors Shaman build draws on eight skills: one starting pick and seven more that only arrive as level-up offers. Below is what the game data stores for each of them, the kind that decides its targeting, base damage, cooldown, the range it reaches, the radius it covers, and the targets one cast touches.

Read the cooldown column and the pool splits in two. Lightning Bolt at 1.3 seconds and Lightning Shield at 0.9 keep the wave down while you walk, the three shocks and Chain Lightning land every 2.5 to 3 seconds and decide single fights, and the two totems sit on 14 and 16 second cooldowns spent on a doorway rather than on the enemy in front of you.

The targets column is the table's own count for one cast: 3 for Chain Lightning's jumps, 2 for Flame Shock, 1 for everything that hits a single enemy or covers a radius. Two entries also carry an effect the numbers do not show: Frost Shock slows at half speed for 4 seconds, and a totem lands at 20 range and keeps firing from where it landed for 14 seconds.

What are the two Shaman skill routes?

Two routes come out of the same eight skills. The single-target route stacks Lightning Bolt, Earth Shock and Chain Lightning and adds Lightning Shield once enemies start touching you; the area route swaps in Magma Totem and Flame Shock and leans on the chain to cover ground. Both routes open on Lightning Bolt.

The single-target route: Lightning Bolt into Earth Shock

Lightning Bolt carries the opening on its 1.3 second cooldown, Chain Lightning adds 18 damage to three targets every 3 seconds, and Earth Shock puts 22 damage on one target every 2.5 seconds. Searing Totem is the fourth pick and Lightning Shield closes the route at 12 damage every 0.9 seconds to anything that reaches you. This route wants the wave in front of you.

The area route: Chain Lightning into Magma Totem and Flame Shock

Magma Totem drops an 8 damage area with 7 radius every 16 seconds and stays for 14 seconds, Flame Shock puts 10 damage plus 4 over 9 seconds on 2 targets every 3 seconds, and Chain Lightning jumps to 3 targets across a 9 radius. Frost Shock is the flex pick on this route: 16 damage at half speed for 4 seconds is the only slow in the pool and it holds a pack inside the next totem tick.

Both of those are one Azeroth Survivors Shaman build with a different second half, not two builds. A run that keeps Earth Shock and Searing Totem kills single targets faster and covers less ground; a run that swaps to Magma Totem kills slower on the bosses that arrive through the run. Decide which of the two you are giving up at the third pick, because switching after level 12 leaves both the dropped skill and its replacement at level one.

Which passive cards fit a Shaman build?

Passive cards for an Azeroth Survivors Shaman build are not class-only: all ten come from one pool every class uses, and you hold six of them at up to five levels each. Amplify Magic raises area size, which every radius in the pool leans on, and Arcane Intellect shortens every cooldown.

The last column is the fraction the data file stores for each level: 0.1 on Amplify Magic, 0.4 on Detect Lesser Invisibility, 1 on Mark of the Wild. Six slots against ten cards means four of them never make the run, so the choice is a cut, not a collection.

For an Azeroth Survivors Shaman build the three that change the most are Amplify Magic, Arcane Intellect and Blessing of Might. The first grows the 9 radius on Chain Lightning, the 7 radius on Magma Totem and the 4 radius on Lightning Shield; the second speeds up every cooldown in the pool; the third lifts all eight skills at once, because every one of them is a damage skill.

When to take a passive instead of a skill

Take a passive when your damage already clears the current wave and the problem is space, health or cooldown speed. Take a skill while the wave still outlasts your casts, because a new skill adds a damage source and a passive only multiplies the ones you own. With six passive slots at five levels, two or three stats taken deep beat one level of every card.

What mistakes end a Shaman run early?

Most Azeroth Survivors Shaman build failures trace back to a decision made in the first two minutes rather than to the size of the wave. The six mistakes below cost the most, and every one of them has a number from the ability pool behind it.

• Filling all six skill slots early. A skill you never level stays at level one, and a skill levels to eight, so a sixth slot is usually worth less than a level in Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning.
• Dropping a totem and standing on it. A totem is stationary for 14 seconds, so the enemies that walk around it arrive at you, not at the totem.
• Taking Frost Shock for its damage. It stores 16, less than Earth Shock's 22 on a shorter cooldown; the slow is the reason to take it.
• Leaving Lightning Shield until last out of habit. At 12 damage every 0.9 seconds it is the fastest skill in the pool and the one that saves a run where enemies close in.
• Skipping Arcane Intellect and Blessing of Might for a defensive stat first. Without them every cooldown stays the same length and every hit stays the same size.
• Judging the build by survival time. Survival time mostly measures positioning, so compare your last run's skill levels rather than its timer.

One fix covers most of an Azeroth Survivors Shaman build's problems: decide at the start which two or three skills reach level eight, then treat every other card as support. None of the eight skills is a trap on its own; runs end because a card was taken for the wrong reason.

Azeroth Survivors Shaman build FAQ