This is not very significant in the realities of playing as a water mage, but the shaman is not able to use any summons except for totems. A healing from runic magic will also weaken, but not as much as other runic magic. The shaman goes well with the magic guild through a magic staff. For the Windfury ability, a magical staff is treated as a special case of a blunt weapon. Blunt weapons have a high damage ratio to WF, something like 80-90%. To get maximum scaling of damage from intelligence for a magic staff you need the 5th level of magic circle and this is only possible in the realities of a magic guild (other guilds are limited to the 3rd circle).
The water mage guild itself does not have much to offer the shaman. The usefulness of freeze is significantly reduced by totems that can draw the threat towards themselves and provide time to deal melee damage or flasking or escape. Water mages have access to a robe with a chance to avoid damage, but this is a rather late reward.Water magic can reduce the target's magical resists, which increases the damage emanating from totems, but all this will cost both mana and frames. It seems to me that dealing damage in melee in conjunction with totems will be more effective both in terms of mana and damage.
If you are suddenly interested in a very pleasant start to the game, I recommend trying a combination of a guru and a shaman. You will receive up to 150 units of free mana, a very strong belt, a small passive mana regen and a perk for replenishing mana when its level is low once per minute. The last point does not sound very convincing, but imagine your smile when your totems do not stop shooting and continue to fight. Moreover, a shaman becomes a full-fledged shaman only in the Orc city. Until then, only one solo target totem and a low level of WF will be available to you from your combat arsenal. At the same time, you can delay the transition to the second chapter and do not become a shaman right away. On the second circle of magic, the Fist of the Wind rune will be available to you, with which you can clear 97% of Khorinis and after that become a shaman and receive a penalty to runic magic.
If you are motivated in your quest by aesthetic or some other reason not related to the effectiveness of your character. Then play as you want. It seems to me that any magic guild for a shaman is a solid choice. Even if members of guild you gonna choose are poor, lonely men worshiping the most moronic of the brothers. Well, what normal god would break the sandbox if his siblings did not invite him to play together? By the way, not only do they have a temple, they don’t even have a proper camp. They live at work right at the excavations. Only Vatras has a house and only thanks to the generosity (or pity) of the author of the modification. True, their magic ore they had... was delicious. But this is a story from the past. You don't want to hang out with people like that, do you?
