I was thinking about weapons, and wanted to know your opinions on if it's better to go with a two-hander or a one-hander/shield. If it changes anything I probably won't be on a pvp server.

It's all a matter of opinion and class.  If you want to be a tank, you'll want to get a shield.  If you want to be a damage dealer you'll want to grab a 2H weapon.  I would suggest if you want to be a shaman, I'd go with a 2H weapon simply because shamans are not the best tanks, and would do better being damage dealers.

I used a variety of 2H Staves and 1H Mace/shields in OB. I like the damage the Staves dealt per swing but after awhile I seemed to take less damage with the Mace/shield combo. I went mostly solo to lvl 23 when OB ended, so taking less damage in a fight was pretty important.

Kodos

1h + shield is better if you want to head more to the warrior with mass armor (mail later)... 2h is cool if you want to solo alot if you ask me.

the thing that people forget to say is that 1 h. weapons attack much more often, so you will get many more hits in then you would if you would use a 2 h weapon.  also, the dmg per second that is under the weapon is the dmg per second if you were to hit every single time.  so basically if you attack a mob 10 times and you have a 2h weapon that does say 80 dmg on average and it has a 3.5 delay that means you will be doing 22 dmg per second.  now say you had a 1h weapon that does 42 dmg on average w/ a 2.5 delay you will be doing 16.8 dmg persecond.  now if you miss 3 times w/ the 2 h weapon you are losing out on 99 dmg to the critter, but if you miss w/ the 1h you will only miss out on 50.4 dmg and by the time that you have had 10 swings w/ the 2h weapon you will have had around 12-14 more swings in.  so you factor in all the math.  also dont forget that a shield adds a large amount of def to the user.

But also, Flametongue and Frostbite proc harder for a 2-hander than 1-hander. I'm probably going to go 2-hander for the most part, but if I find a good shield or 1-handed mace, I'll use it.

I have been training all the weapons that are available to me. I does not take that much time but does take up valuable space.

PvP : I use the 2hand because they are short and hard. 2 hand gives Inital damage and with a shaman you are trying to keep them away from you but when they come close you want that extra damage on them. Imo :)

Solo : Shield and 1hand weapons. Lately it has been daggars because of the dps it offers at my level. I was fighting at about 100+dps with the dagger and the other spells. Highest I was hitting was 160-180 on mobs level 38-40.

I am level 39 right now. 

Also some monsters react differently to blunt verses sharp weapons. I do notice the time it takes with both and that sometimes changes what I use. Elements go down better with a blunt type while raptors go down faster with sharp type weapon.

This is just my personal opinoin on what I have noticed. I do not know if it is true or not because I have not researched the topic :) Thanks for reading :)

I'll be using 2-handers a majority of the time, mostly because they look sweet, honestly. And with Flurry/Windfury a Shaman can prove to be quite dangerous in melee.

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Chi wrote:But also, Flametongue and Frostbite proc harder for a 2-hander than 1-hander. I'm probably going to go 2-hander for the most part, but if I find a good shield or 1-handed mace, I'll use it.

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Flametongue and frostbite have limits in the amount of damage that they can do, so a 2h weapon will do the damage from the 2h weapon + the extra damage from frostbite and flametongue,  they both only ad damage they dont add attack power like the other skill does.  so you will get the same exact damage bonus from frostbite and flametongue from a 1h weapon that you will get from a 2h weapon.  also in pvp Shaman are a mid range caster w/ their totums that are used for damage increase and also buffers.  the majority of your damage in pvp will be from casting spells.

I think that it is better to use  the  Wep/Shield unless u can wear some mail beacase then your armor should be good enough to take a few hits and not lose that much health but other wise i would just save up and get a decent shield and get a good wepon from a quest  

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[b]Auburnrebel wrote:
so you will get the same exact damage bonus from frostbite and flametongue from a 1h weapon that you will get from a 2h weapon.

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Sorry, but you are wrong there, unless I misunderstood what you wrote: http://thottbot.com/?k=147

Anyways, I'll be using staves a lot, as they have the better bonuses than most two-handed axes/maces, but I'll be carrying an axe/mace and a shield with me, in case I need it. I might not even get the two-handed axes/maces talent.

well i use 2h and is the best they not have any chance if you pull whith lighting then use frost and  rockbite you have alot of damge in short time .But allways use your lighting shield.

Drako

Lol, since posting this, my playstyle has gone from heavy Enhancement to more of a Elemental/Restoration split (Elemental Fury/NS), so I'll be using a 1-hander/shield, since shields almost double your armor.

I chose 1h/Shield because when I took away my shield my damage reduction reduced from 50% to 20% :/

for maximum damage 2h.For taking more damage 1h shield its pretty simple not like u have to spend points in anything but 2haxesand 2hmaces and thats just one point so if u find your self tanking for whatever reason go to 1/shield when your not tanking go to 2h for damage in pvp 2h with wundfury rawks your socks and knocks the shit out anything it hits including heavily armored warrios/pallies. no other class can really go in a fight one on one with a shammy and expect to win if its even ground they can lie but they know shammies pwn them

1her for pve usually at least when i'm grinding or may be offtanking and usually a 2her for pvp depends what class i'm fighting.  Also since i got Deathbringer off Onyxia 56.4 dps 1 handed axe its higher then any blue 2her so i have the dps of a blue 2her and i get to use my force reactive disk.