Here's my best advice on shaman build, as lvl 41 Shaman. You may choose to build yours differently based on how you would like to customize your character, which is as it should be, but here's how I rolled mine:
If you choose to build your character as I did, then your primary attack skills would be:
1. Fireball lvl 5. Single-Target spell. This is the first skill you can take and it's the best one you've got. With only a 0.6 sec cooldown time, FB spammage is clearly at hand. Use it, don't regret it, use it and use it often. In between cooldowns you'll have the chance to take a swing at the mob, so do it, but only one swing, then back to another fireball, swing, fireball, swing. Better yet, alternate FB, Fire Arrow, FB, Soul Expl, FB for 1000 pts of instant cast spammage damage when you absolutely, desperately need something dead in about 2.5 seconds and when you care nothing for MP efficiency. FB starts strong and remains your primary attack throughout the game largely due to instant cast and superfast cooldown time.
2. Fire Totem lvl 5. An outstanding skill offering serious damage output. And you get it fairly early on. At lvl 5 it does 330 DMG per target, up to 8 targets, with an additional base continuous DMG of 13/2 per target of burning damage for 10 secs. The first DOT of fire totem, the 330 DMG, is not modified by INT. The second part, the continous burning DMG, increases as your INT increases, as is true with fireball, most spells in general, and all elemental DOT that I have seen. Since DNA cannot be used to increase DOT aspects of Shaman skills, this is another reason why INT is so important for increasing your damage per second.
3. Burning Hell. Max it out. Mine was lvl 2 at the time of CB end, with lvl 2 DNA. I can't say enough good stuff about this spell. It has it's drawbacks, so let's get those out of the way now. It has a 1.5 sec casttime, which is actually the fastest cast time I found of a spell not instant cast, but a fairly long cast animation, however it is cancelled by any type of movement at all. Even after the 1.5 secs cast time has elapsed, if you move your character at all during the ensuing cast animation, the spell will fail to fire off. Also, if you attempt to cue up the next spell you wish to cast, at any point before burning hell actually fires off, the spell will fail to cast and you will instead cast the other spell. Also, you have to be facing your target, within about 60 degrees either to the left or right of your intended target, otherwise the spell will fail to cast. Oh yeah, and I think it has a 17.6 second cooldown time. Hmmmm. Okay, that being said, this is my favorite spell until I eventually get Hellfire. Holy friggin' damage. At level 1, with no DNA, Burning Hell beats a lvl 5 Flame Arrow with lvl 5 Flame Arrow DNA. My lvl 2 Burning Hell with lvl 2 DNA did 246 normal DMG per target, up to 8 targets, with all of them receiving the full force of that DMG. It also did an additional 21/2 per target of continuous burning DMG per target for 10 secs, which like the secondary DOT of Fire Totem, was modified upwards with INT. This 13/2, 21/2 stuff is just what the skill description says for that level. Actual DOT burning DMG will be higher. None of the DNAs for shaman increase the DOT aspect of any of these spells, but increasing skill levels will increase elemental DOT, as will increasing your INT stat.
4. Healing Totem max it out. Continuous supportive party heal out to great distance. Mine was lvl 4 at end of CB, with lvl 5 becoming available at lvl 42. No DNA is available for non-setting-stuff-on-fire skills for shaman. Ha. Duration of spell goes up with each successive skill lvl purchased, with only marginal increases in per tick healing. Major downside is the 2.5 sec casttime, which means that you better throw them before combat starts b/c in 2.5 secs you can do a lot more DMG than one more healing totem is going to be worth in terms of healing in during that time. Still, they stack, you can have up to three out at a time, and at lvl 5 each one lasts for 30 secs, healing for 15/2 any party members within 9 or 10 meters from it for that whole time. Cast one or more before a battle, if needed, to heal up from damage you will take in the next 15 or 20 seconds or so. Get it, max it, even though it doesn't kill stuff. Healing totem is no replacement for a skilled Templar or Radiant healer.
5. Soul explosion. Instant cast. Long cooldown time. Up to eight targets at a time. No continuous DMG. Most mobs typically close to melee range, making Soul Explosion useful in spamming with other instant cast spells for fast DMG.
6. Flame Shield. Get it. Max it. One of the few % - based DMG mitigation buffs in the game. If the mob scores a critical hit, and you get a successful reflect DMG roll on this skill, then the DMG reflected back at the mob is correspondingly increased too. DNA is available to increase the amount of DMG reflected back at the mob, but not to allow you to increase its success rate. Past lvl 3 this skill really opens up and changes your gameplay if you let it. Get this skill at the very first opportunity it becomes available, and max it out quickly, the DNA as well.
7. Mana Amulet. Get the skill. Max the skill. Do not bother to get the DNA for this skill. There is enough MP regen opportunity through reinforcement slots on gear, and through the gear itself (i.e. Lament Cloth and later Nella Set) to allow you concentrate your five DNA slots solely on skills that do DMG. Save the precious DNA slot for something that enhances your damage output, or Flame Shield.
Favorite Stat to increase with gear/slots: INT, followed closely by MP regen. I will risk destroying amplio gear to revamp the piece if it does not have either very high INT or MP regen, provided I have a backup of course. My INT at lvl 41 was 276, which increased most of my skills' DMG.
Equipment Choices Clear winner in my book is wand and shield, though I understand others feel strongly that staff is better. The shield gives you a 30% chance to block normal melee attacks, which are plentiful in-game, and receive some slight DMG reduction with a successful block. It's worth it for that alone perhaps. If not, then consider 6 reinforcement slots versus 3, or 8 instead of 4, depending on the level of the gear we're talking about. Having a second piece of gear to reinforce twice as many slots for twice as many bonuses is worth it. Also, your combined INT bonus will be higher, and that's where DMG comes from. The only thing that will suffer is MIND, and only by about 30% of the bonus you would have gotten had you gone with a staff instead of wand/shield. Mind is good for helping MP and HP regen, slightly, but I think use of reinforcment xeons of HP recovery and MP recovery is a viable, even more effective, alternative to the higher MIND bonus that a staff would impart.
DNA choices:
1. After getting Flame Shield DNA at highest level currently available, get whatever DNA increases the DMG output of your current spells, and that includes swift fire totem. Although the times listed in the DNA descriptions for this skill are incorrect, each lvl drops about 0.2 secs off casting time, which seems like it might be useless. I would disagree. Swift Fire Totem lvl 4 or 5 can drop the 1.5 sec cast time in half or better, which gives you time to throw an additional Fireball in the same amount of time that you would otherwise just use to cast Fire Totem. It's worth it to get, but plan to replace later with DNA for Soul Explosion, or Strengthened Burning Hell, or other later lvl even higher DMG skill.
2. At earliest opportunity, despite the expense, take the first level of each destructive skill's DNA that you can, because the greatest marginal increase in DMG, is typically afforded by the very first level of DNA; lvl 2, 3, and so on will add to the DMG, but less so than lvl 1 did compared to having no DNA at all. DNA will not increase continuous DOT for the shaman; However, INT will, as will levelling those skills with skill points.
Skill Choices:
When offered the chance to take flame arrow or fire rain, you really must choose one, as your other choices are lamer. Choose Flame Arrow, which is outstanding to use until you get Burning Hell. Along with fireball, and after having first thrown a fire totem, flame arrow and fireball will be your main attacks until you get burning hell, and they're both instant cast. Along the way in choosing skills at level up, you will have the choice of very poor healing spells, extremely poor attack spells like burning slash and fighting will and stuff like that, and also two lame but relatively worthwhile passive melee skills. The first one is Vindictive Mind, take it to lvl 1 only for a +5 increase in all melee DMG. The second one is Magic Weapon Mastery, take that to level 1 for another +9 increase in melee DMG, but it's of dubious value by my estimation beyond level one or level two, and as with Vindictive Mind, you are only taking it because the skills you want to buy at those times are still restricted due to insufficient number of skill masteries, and because the other options at those times are even less desireable.
Combat Advice: If given the choice, always initiate combat with the longest cast time or strongest Damage Over Time spell that you've got, if they're not one and the same spell, unless you are pulling a particular mob in which case you just Fireball him from up to 30m away to cull him from his mobby bretheren and bring him in range of your other skills, Fireballing him the whole way in, assuming you have the mana to burn. Healing totems do not draw aggro, so huck a couple out in front before the fight begins if you need to do so.
Party Advice: Please keep in mind that I intend no offense to any other class; this is just what I have learned: Consider teaming at times with a Defender with Taunting Cry, or, if not available, then a Templar with Sleep, for crowd control solutions to the aggro you will otherwise draw from all mobs you are fighting. A well-designed Warrior of similar level can potentially dish out enough per hit DMG to draw aggro from one mob fairly effectively as well. High level rogues have stun that works well, also one mob at a time, but you may find that you need a multiple target crowd control skill in the mix if you want to maximize your killing efficiency by taking on many mobs at once. Be prepared for the fact that, unless effective crowd control is implemented by another character you will very likely end up taking all aggro from all mobs until the end of each fight.
Again, the above is based on the choices I made based on my goals and judgments, and you should make whatever choices you are happiest with in customizing and building your unique character. If you decide to roll a Shaman, I hope this post is of help to you.
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