Water Totems

This section looks on our water totems for primarily elemental but also restoration.

Mana Spring Totem

This totem restores mana to ourselves and our party or raid.

When To Use It:-

1/ When there is no paladin providing Blessing of Wisdom. (Paladin’s can talent their blessing to be superior to our mana spring)
2/ When there is no restoration shaman using Mana Spring Totem. (Restoration shamans’ can talent their totem to be superior to ours)

Things to Note:-

1/ If you are grouped with just one other paladin, encourage him to use Blessing of Kings instead and drop Mana Spring Totem
2/ This totem only has 30 yards range so even if you have another elemental shaman in a raid it may still be worth using Mana Spring to ensure the entire raid is covered with this form of mana regeneration – particularly in fights where your raid is considerable spread out. (This naturally only applies if no paladin is blessing wisdom. If they are, it is better to switch to healing stream totem)
3/ This totem has a raid wide effect

Healing Stream Totem

This is probably the totem you will find yourself using the most as elemental purely due to the overlap between the buffs we can provide through water totems and the buffs other classes can bring to a raid or a party.

When To Use This Totem:-

1/ If there is a paladin in the raid or party using Blessing of Wisdom. If you are in a group with just one paladin, ask him to use Blessing of Kings instead and switch to Mana Spring Totem.
2/ If there is another elemental shaman in the party already using Mana Spring Totem. (Do note what I mentioned above however, if you have more than one elemental shaman using Mana Stream totem, it may still be worth using it in situations where your raid are spread considerably as the range is only 30 yards)

Cleansing Totem

This totem is amazing and often under appreciated

When to Use It:-

1/ In any fight that requires poisons and diseases which need cleansing.
2/ In PvP situations. (Note, this can also include the Faction Champions encounter in Trial of the Crusader)

Things to Note:-

1/ It has a 30 yard range
2/ This totem is NOT raid wide. It will only effect members of your own party. Therefore in a raid situation where cleansing totem is being used, split up your shamans and remember to all use it.
3/ This totem works similarly to Tremor Totem in that is has a pulse effect. That is to say, every three seconds it will attempt to remove one poison and disease effect from yourself and your party members.

Restoration Shamans

Again, for the benefit of those of us who also dabble into the restoration side of shamanistic play. For the most part, the water totems are the same as for elemental. Restoration shamans can talent for superior Healing Stream and Mana Spring totems. Equally, some choose to even glyph their Healing Stream totem for an additional boost. (This will be covered in a later section on glyphs). Healing stream can indeed, do a respectable amount of party healing, particularly in a heroic group situation.
In addition to the totems mentioned above, restoration shamans also have:-

Mana Tide Totem

This is a talented totem in the restoration tree and most resto shamans will take it without question. It restores 6% of total mana every 3 seconds to all party members within a 30 yard radius

When to Use It:-

1/ This can often depend upon the individual encounter. Many shamans will use it as soon as they have lost enough mana to justify it (i.e. enough so that the mana regained from this totem will not be wasted on a full mana bar)

Things to Note:-

1/ This totem is NOT raid wide. It will ONLY affect members of your own party. Due to this, ensure you are placing your restoration shaman either with other healers or with casters that suffer from mana issues.
2/ This totem now stacks with other mana tide effects. This means if you have two restoration shamans in one group, dropping your totems at the same time won’t result in one totem being “wasted” (assuming you need that much mana restored of course)
3/ This totem is on a 5 minute cooldown.
4/ It’s range isn’t huge so don’t use this just before you have to move a great deal and remember to recast your default water totem once the Mana Tide has expired.