Sheckle
New Member
I was on my way to test my dps out in my enhance gear when a passing shammy commented on the gems in my gear. I knew I had not been putting in the exact correct ones, but what i had i knew wouldnt hurt. I haven't read up on enhance shamans in a long time so I began speaking with this person about how enhance shamans are gemming now. After our talk I decided to go research and find out. I found a very indepth thread about them that I will post. If you are interested in an enhance shaman read this!
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16473975656&sid=1&pageNo=1
I'll copy and paste what it says here as well. I've highlighted the important categories so you can just scroll through and read whats in read to know what follows is talking about whats in read.
Totem Eclipse of The Heart:
Enhancement PVE DPS Post 3.3
Months behind.
A). Statement of Intent:
The intent of this write-up is to be a guide for Enhancement Shaman in a PVE setting post patch 3.3.3. It’s not explicitly restricted to Crusaders Coliseum- my general aim is to provide information about mechanics and choices that are relevant among all gear levels, not simply Icecrown Citadel.
It is to be noted that, while I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the topic (it admittedly takes a certain amount of ego to consider writing a guide on how other people should play), I am not infallible, and information is always changing. What I cover should deal with most of the relevant issues and questions and the commonly accepted responses to them, but there will always be dissenting opinions. I encourage anyone who has such an opinion to post, and encourage everyone reading this for the first time to question it. I post what has been proven to be mathematical fact. ]
This is not to say that we can’t be wrong, but that if you have a dissenting opinion you have to do the work to prove your point. Saying “I used Flame Shock on Toravon the Ice Watcher, and did a straight Earth Shock rotation on Koralon the Ice Watcher. I did more DPS on Koralon than Toravon, so obviously Flame Shock is worse dps.” Anecdotal evidence comparing one fight to other fights is not a convincing argument.
Also, I'm always willing to answer questions and am open to answer whispers/mail on Elam/Darwinism (H) on Black Dragonflight or Notferal on Uldum Alliance. (If I don't respond to whispers, I might be afk or concentrating on a boss fight or something- I'm not purposely ignoring you. Try again in a few moments or send me a mail, and I'll do my best to answer it.)
I shouldn't have to add this in, but I just want to throw out there that I do realize I'm logged out ele/resto right now. I'm gearing up my ele pvp set/spec and that requires quick queues for Pit of Saron and daily randoms, so my enhance spec is sitting tight for the next few days.
B). Introduction to Enhancement:
Enhancement Shaman are truly interesting because we embody the concept of “hybrid;” at least in the way our damage is done. If it is your intent to run around with a giant axe, or your primary source of thrills on a Friday night is playing with daggers, Enhancement is not for you. We are a melee class- we stand behind big bad guys at a really, really, scarily close range and hit them with claw-like contraptions- our damage is split semi-equally between spell damage and melee. The largest amount of your damage will be simple melee (or white) damage, another 10-15% will be windfury damage, and another 5% will be Stormstrike (so, about 50% of your damage is physical damage.) The rest of your damage is spell damage: Lightning Bolts, Magma Totem, Lightning Shield, Flametongue Weapon, and Earth Shock are all included in this. This leaves Enhancement Shaman in a particularly fun-yet-strange place, as we benefit from every buff/debuff currently in the game.
What this means to you is that your damage (like every other class) will be at it’s highest potential in a 25-man Raid Setting, when there’s a large likelihood of these buffs being present. Our damage, however, is competitive in both heroic and ten-man settings. Beyond brining competitive dps, we also are the strongest melee-buff class in the game: It would take two separate death knights (or a frost dk and a marksman hunter) and another shaman to bring the same buffs that enhance fills in one spec, offering 10%AP, 179 Agi/Str/20% melee haste, and Bloodlust/Heroism. Playing an Enhancement PVE shaman is better now than it ever has been before, even with how desired we were in Burning Crusade!
C). Tips And Tricks:
Before getting into the real meat of the article, here are a few tips for raiding as enhancement/melee:
1) Stand Behind the Boss:
Standing in front of bosses is for tanks. Your job is to hide behind them and stab your heart out. On a more mechanics-related note, bosses have a high {15ish%} chance to parry your attacks, which means A)You hit with melee attacks 15% less, and B) the bosses swing timer is hastened, resulting in a sad Shaman, a sad Tank, a sad Tank Healer, and a DKP loss. Don’t do it. However, no boss is flexible enough to parry attacks from behind, meaning no parry-hasted attacks from the boss and no parrying your melee swings! There’s nothing dishonorable about a not-quite-so-fair-fight!
Beyond that, most bosses have these fun abilities called “cleaves” “breathe weapons” or “abilities designed with killing bad melee in mind.” In order to avoid these abilities which only work when standing in front of bosses, you stand behind them. The result is you not dying, and when you don’t die, you can dps more. Funny how that works?
2) Don’t Stand in the Bad:
Bosses have these crazy ideas in their mind that the raid wants to kill them, and to deal with this, they make the bad. The bad is comprised of: Blizzards, Void Zones, GIANT RUNES OF DEATH, Balls of Blue Fire, Waves of Lava, and a variety of other fun abilities that do their best to murder your raid group. Don’t stand in them, even if it means you have to run away from the boss. Less dps for a few seconds > dying.
3) Do Stand in the Good:
It’s like not standing in the bad, except opposite. Bosses can be sadomasochists at time and will do strange abilities that help you hurt them WHILE they’re attempting to kill you. When these GIANT RUNES OF POWER, Sparks of Power, cones of light of power, and other things of power show up, it is your job to stand in them and hurt things till your heart’s content (or until more bad shows up. Or the boss moves out of melee range.)
4) Make Sure You’re Ready to Raid:
If you’re raiding progression, know and have on you the best consumables for the job. If you stand in a fire while the rest of the raid survives, it’s not their job to drop a fish feast for you. It’s your job to come prepared with backup food, with flasks, and with potions of speed. Additionally, make sure you’re gemmed/enchanted to your maximum potential. Don’t show up Thursday night with the chest you got the night before without gems/enchants on it.
5) Learn Your Cooldowns:
Understand how your raid does the fight. For example, if your raid always bloodlusts on Sindragosa at 35%, pop your cooldowns early and as much as possible in the fight, but make sure you have an idea of when 30% will be. Feral Spirits is at its best when you pop it immediately prior to Bloodlust, as they benefit from the haste buff. Make sure to be paying attention and not popping it when you know bloodlust is coming up, but don’t wait the entire fight because you’re afraid of missing the bloodlust.
As an added note about Feral Spirits: Since Wolves despawn after their short 45 second lives, the exhausted debuff the rest of your raid is plagued with despawns with them. It is in your best interest on fights that lust is popped early that last longer than 3 minutes to have a raid leader call out for bloodlust, pop your wolves, and then let a resto or elemental shaman pop bloodlust/heroism. That way you can use Spirit Wolves (and, as Ontop notes, have your moonkin pop Treants and your Priests use Shadowfiend) again at the three minute mark, and be able to use your own bloodlust to haste all those summons. (Alternatively, as long as it is understood by your raid, you can pop the first lust and have a resto/ele pop the second- just make sure you talk to your raid and have them understand why this is done.) This has the added benefit of giving a second bloodlust to anyone who has died in the first 3 minutes.
Also, Fire Elemental totem is a gigantic DPS boost, often putting out 1kish dps itself while it’s up single target- and more as AoE! However, Fire Elemental is also our longest cooldown ability- 10minutes long, as of patch 3.3. This means that you really need to be smart about when you’re popping it to make the most of its two minute long duration. Remember- while the Fire Elemental might move, its totem does not, so bosses will move out of Fire Nova range if you pop it during a high movement phase. Unlike previous patches, where you had to worry about which boss to pop FE on, you now can worry about “when” to pop Fire Elemental. Some great times for FE would be p3 Sindragosa (since she no longer flies), any time during Festergut, p2 of Lady Deathwhisper, and more.
D). Talent Choices:
The generally accepted spec for Enhancement is: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hVbhVbZhbxsoxdIhusouVo
As you’ll notice looking at this, you’ll have 3 talent points left over with this spec. These three talent points are “filler” talent points, and you use them to go for different talents depending on what you’re most in need of. If you’re running 5/10man content without access to a Judgment of Wisdom/Replenishment/Blessing of Wisdom and are having mana problems, consider putting those three points into improved stormstrike/elemental focus.
If you’re running 25man content and you’re intelligent about using Shamanistic Rage so you never run out of mana, you can use those talent points to fill out pure dps talents, going 3/3 Call of Flame/3/3 Improved Shields. My personal preferred talent spec (since I run a mix of 5/10s/25s), is to forego Elemental Focus in favor of 3/3 Call of Flames, but pick up 2/2 Improved Stormstrike rather than 3/3 Improved Shields.
A large number of these are kind of self-describing, and I decided it wasn’t needed to go talent-by-talent. The talent’s I’ll talk about are the ones that are debated/not taken the most.
1.) Enhancing Totem Vs. Ancestral Knowlege Cage Match:
Some people are inclined to forgo Enhancing Totems over Ancestral Knowledge, as “Ancestral Knowledge gives more AP and spell crit.” However, an Enhancement Shaman unbuffed have around 500 Intellect, so the extra 3 talent points only give you about 30 extra attack power, and a minimal amount of spell crit. 3/3 Enhancing Totems gives you an extra 23 Strength (23 AP) and 23 Agility (23 AP and some melee crit) AND extends that bonus to every other member of the raid, so all your melee and some hunters get to enjoy a nice AP and Crit bonus. There is no reason to go beyond two points in Ancestral Knowledge.
2.) Static Shock and Improved Shields
There has been some debate over whether these two talents are worth going into, as they are “minimal dps increases.” Even if it’s only a 6% chance on hit, every time an orb does proc it’s free damage, which is magnified by your spell power and improved shields. There’s no reason to not take this talent. To quote Levva in another thread:
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Q u o t e:
to be clear Static Shock gives you an EXTRA melee damage ability. With Static Shock your lightning shield can now do damage just because you hit the target. Without this talent you need to be hit for it to go off. Typically on boss fights you shouldn't be getting hit so this is pure extra damage and quite a bit of it. There is nothing to dislike about this talent take all 3 points. Its around 75dps+ per talent point there is nothing better to spend the 3 points on at this stage in the tree.
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Improved Shield is mostly a “filler” talent; you take if when you need a point higher in the tree to unlock better talents farther down. It‘s the least dps talent point-by-point, but it‘s still worthwhile if you consistently raid without mana issues.
3.) Mental Quickness:
It’s strange to put this under “debated”; talents, but I see it not being taken by an alarmingly large number of fresh-80 Shaman. Mental Quickness gives 30% of your attack power as spell power. Due to the high amount of spell damage we do, the 1,000+ spell damage we get from this talent is excellent.
4.) Unleashed Rage:
Expertise will be covered later, but for now I’ll say this talent is worth taking, even with a Blood Death Knight or Marksman Hunter in your raid.
5.) Improved Windfury Totem:
Personally, even with a Frost Death Knight with Improved Icy Talons in the raid, I would always take this, as you never know when someone keeping a buff up will die.
6.) Improved Stormstrike:
This talent (which I personally originally demeaned as a pvp talent) is excellent for pve mana regeneration. The math has been done, and it beats out other mana-related talents like Elemental Focus. 2/2 Imp. SS is the way to go.
7.) Call of Flame:
15% damage on your magma totem is very nice. The only reason not to fill this out is to grab Elemental Focus if you’re having extreme mana issues, in which you’d go 2/3 in call of flame.
8.) Elemental Fury:
Spell Critical Hits currently hit for 150% of the spell’s damage. This talent makes it 200%. This means our lightning bolt, magma totem, earth shock, flame shock initial damage (and most likely crit ticks as well-needs testing), fire nova, and flametongue weapon procs all do more damage. It’s excellent.
9. Improved Fire Nova:
The change to Fire Nova will be gone over in detail later, but this is a talent you want to invest in.
E) The Priority System
Enhancement Shaman work on a priority system, not a rotation. What this means is that you dps based on abilities becoming active, rather than following a set combination of buttons. (For example, FS+LvB+LBX3 or whatever Smellemental Shaman do.)
For you visual learners, the priority system looks something like: http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p275/Skye-Line/EnhanceFlowchart3.jpg
(Ty Eklo.)
The Priority System, taken from the Elitist Jerks BiS thread is as follows:
1)Maelstrom Weapon x 5 stacks - Lightning Bolt
2)Lightning Shield if not active
3)Spirit Wolves
4)Shamanistic Rage
5)Flame Shock
6)Stormstrike if debuff not active
7)Fire Elemental
8)Magma Totem if not active
9)Earthshock
10)Stormstrike
11)Lava Lash
12)Fire Nova
13)Magma Totem
14)Lightning Shield
This means in more plain terms:
1) Whenever you hit a stack of 5 maelstrom weapon charges, you fire off a lightning bolt. Immediately. You do not wait for Stormstrike to get off cooldown, you don’t refresh an expiring totem, you hit Lightning Bolt and go about your business. The longer you wait between firing your 5stack, the more you miss out on other possible MW charges. If there is more than one target present and it is not being CCed, you may want to throw off a chain lightning. (If there is more than one target present and it is being CCed, you still might want to throw off a chain lightning, but than your healers will hurt you with their wimpy healing weapons. :/) However, Lightning Bolt scales better, so use it when fighting one person.
2) Refresh your Lightning Shield. This is only second priority IF your lightning shield is totally off- that means that if you have one or more charges left on your shield, you skip to 3.
3) Spirit Wolves: The reason this is put third on Priority is to show that if you have either a 5 stack of MW OR your lightning shield is off, it is a dps decrease to pop wolves rather than using those abilities. Feral Spirit still follows the guidelines from earlier of “be intelligent about using your cool downs.” This priority spot is ONLY to be used as a guideline for making the decision of “should I instant cast LB OR use my puppies,” and does not mean “every third GCD I spend should be wolves.” That’s what a priority system inherently is- if the ability is active and it’s the right time to use it, you use it.
4) Shamanistic Rage: This is for those who have the two piece tier 10 bonus that gives you a 12% damage bonus while SR is active. For those who do not have said bonus, skip to 5.
5) Flame Shock: I will get more into why we use Flame Shock and how exactly it fits into the priority system later, in the “what changed in 3.3” part of the thread.
6) Stormstrike if Debuff not active: Stormstrike is not an incredibly strong ability on it’s own, but it’s debuff (which buffs lightning bolt damage, earth shock damage, static shock damage) makes it amazing. If the debuff is not active on the target, you want to use storm strike at this time. If it is active, skip Storm Strike and go toooooo…
7) FIRE ELEMENTAL: Your Fire Elemental (codenamed Sparky, at least if you’re me) has become a valuable asset to your dps since patch 3.1 made it not suck. In 3.3, a change or two has made if even more attractive. (Explained later!) Once again, Fire Elemental follows the same “don’t be a dumb butt” rules as Feral Spirit- for example, if you know the next two minutes of the fight involves the boss moving, dropping Fire Elemental is a worse idea than Jar-Jar-Binks. He/she is not very smart and likes to leash back to his totem, AND you lose dps by not being able to Fire Nova if the totem is out of the way. Again, bad idea.
8) Magma Totem if not active: What this really means is “Magma Totem if not active OR if Fire Elemental isn’t active.” If you have no fire totem out that contributes to your Dps (and the choices are either magma or Fire Elemental- searing is for ele shaman who can’t sit in melee range and drop magma), and Fire Elemental is not an option, drop Magma Totem. If a fire totem is already down, skip to
9) Earth Shock: Solid Damage, not as good as Flame Shock (or it would be higher priority lulul.) This spot in the priority system assumes that A) the Stormstrike Debuff is up, or B) Stormstrike is on cool down. There’s not much else to say about Earth Shock. It’s solid.
10) Stormstrike: Remember how SS was prioritized earlier, but only if the debuff was not present on the target? Stormstrike is still somewhat solid damage, can proc two maelstrom charges, flametongue weapon proc, a static shock proc, a wind fury proc, a flurry proc…etc. If everything above this point is unavailable, Stormstrike is your friend. Like Earth Shock, it’s a very solid ability.
11) Lava Lash: An offhand attack, deals minor damage, ignores armor, can proc a lot of the stuff that Stormstrike can proc (except for windfury.) Is it amazing? No, that‘s why it‘s this low on priority. Is it a welcome tool in an Enhance Shaman’s arsenal? Yes. There’s no arguing that point.
12) Fire Nova: Fire Nova is respectable single target damage. In fact, it hits HARDER than Lava Lash does in some situations. However, it does not proc the fun things Lava Lash procs, which is why it’s slightly under Lava Lash in priority. On multiple-person pulls, Fire Nova’s priority skyrockets.
13) Magma Totem: If Magma Totem is still out, and all of the above abilities are on CD or not useable, redrop Magma Totem. It’s a minimal dps gain (in that you have 20 more seconds of DPSing without magma totem running out.
14) Refresh Lightning Shield: Just like the above, this is refreshing Lightning Shield if it hasn’t run out yet. Just like Magma Totem, this generally falls into the realm of “I have a free global cool down, I’ll do this now so I don’t have to later.”
PRIORITY SUM UP:
The Enhancement Shaman priority system is daunting. Fourteen abilities, incuding one dot that scales with haste, one dot that doesn’t (also, this dot doesn’t move and emanates another ability!) one debuff (that gets eaten faster than it can be put on, it seems!), one buff with a limited amount of charges, one stacking proc…and more.
But slow it down. Think about the Priority System realistically: Maelstrom Weapon, Shocks, Stormstrike, Lava Lash, Fire Nova, and Magma Totem are what you have to worry about the majority of the time. Fire Elemental, Shamanistic Rage (as a dps cooldown), and Spirit Wolves all have minute or longer cooldowns, meaning that they can be shelved in your mind for opportune moments. Lightning Shield is really only worth worrying yourself with if it falls off, and it’s such a high priority that you can just fire and forget it for another 45 seconds. Practice a lot, and the priority will become second nature.
And, failing that, download Shock And Awe. It has everything you need to be a smart shaman dpser at your fingertips.
F. 3.3 Changes: Buffing Shaman AoE a patch after Onyxia meters mattered.
A). Orc and troll shamans now have their own unique totem art.
What the 3.3 patch notes don’t tell you is that Dwarf shaman got their own totem art too.
B). Earth Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
Fire Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
Lets be honest: The only thing Earth Elemental has ever been good for is annoying pug tanks in heroics. That change is technically a buff, but it’s not really worth mentioning. The second part, however, is godly.
You see, Shaman suffered in Ulduar due to this little thing known as “Fire Elemental CD lasting longer than trash.” More importantly, we suffered from another thing known as “It does not take 20 minutes to rebuff after a wipe.” This meant that Shaman had to time their Sparky incredibly well- using it on fights like XT Decon, Ignis, Hodir, General Vex, etc, while ignoring it on the bosses in between. What’s more, for any boss that was a harsh dps race, Fire Elemental was required for max dps. That was a problem, because if we wiped after using Fire Elemental, we then had 20 minutes of below-optimal dps before we could use Fire Elemental again.
With 3.3, Blizzard changed this. Fire Elemental is now useable nearly every fight, almost definitely if it is used early on in the fight. (Beyond making it a 10minute CD, they also made a glyph that reduces it’s CD by 5 minutes. However, this requires a fight that is at least 7 minutes long and has two minute long burn phases…no fight in ICC I can think of fits this requirement.) Two thumbs up were given to this change.
C) Fire Nova Totem: This totem has been replaced with a new spell, Fire Nova, which is available at the same ranks as the old Fire Nova Totem. Existing characters will automatically learn this new spell in place of the totem. With a Fire Totem active, shamans will be able to use Fire Nova (fire magic) to emit the same area-of-effect damage as the old Fire Nova Totem from the active Fire Totem, not consuming the totem in the process. Fire Nova will activate a 1.5-second global cooldown when used and has a 10-second spell cooldown. The caster must be within 30 yards of the totem to use this ability, but does not need to be within line of sight of the totem.
Wait. So let me get this straight. You took out an ability that totally sucked (Fire Nova), and replaced it with an actual AoE ability that emanates from our other actual AoE ability AND can be fit into the rotation as added single target DPS within GCD gaps? ******oops*******oops*******oops*******oops* you Blizzard, for giving me exactly what I wanted.
D) Reincarnation: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 30 minutes.
For those shaman like me, dubbed “survivability challenged.”
Patch 3.3.3 Change: (Not changes, change.)
A) Flame Shock: The damage-over-time component of this ability can now produce critical strikes and is affected by spell haste.
This change adds more complexity into a priority system that…doesn’t really need more complexity! That said, with more complexity comes more dps. Haste Scaling for dots is something that Blizzard is moving all classes towards, and is a buff to Enhancement DPS. Enhancement runs around with a lot of haste to begin with, and through procs and buffs that increase haste it is theoretically possible to go from using a Flame Shock-Earth Shock-Earth Shock shock rotation to FS-ES-FS-ES, at least until Bloodlust wears off.
That said, this change does require a lot of thought to make work. For instance, it’s not unlikely that you’ll have a Flame Shock dot that lasts just longer than 12 seconds, where holding off shocking for the dot to run it’s course and reapplying Flame Shock would be a dps increase. You have to do your own research on those haste levels.
G. Glyph Choices:
No minor glyphs currently contribute to our dps that much, and are largely a matter of personal preference. Glyph of Renewed Life allows you to reincarnate without carrying ankhs- more importantly, this means that if you die after accidentally running out of Ankhs, you won't be lying dead on the floor being useless to your raid for the remainder of the boss fight. Other commonly used glyphs are glyphs of water walking and water breathing, giving you more bag space and the ability to kill you comrades in zones with water pits.
However, these are the best Majors:
A) Glyph of Feral Spirit. If you’re intelligent and making the most of your wolves, this glyph will be an excellent dps upgrade. 30% of your attack power, fully raid buffed and in-fight (so with Unleashed Rage up), you should be hitting around 5-6k Attack Power minimum, which means another 1600-2000ap for your wolves. It’s excellent.
B) Glyph of Stormstrike: The majority of your damage is nature based. 8% more to your Earth Shocks, Lightning Bolts, and Static Shock procs is excellent. There’s no debate about it. Get this glyph.
C) Glyph of Flameshock/Glyph of Windfury/Glyph of Lightning Shield: Glyph of Flameshock has edged out of Glyph of Windfury by about 40/50dps, at least in ICC10 and above gear or any time you're using stacking haste over attackpower. I’m hesitant to discount Glyph of Windfury as a contender since I don’t have enough data from lower gear levels and because it scales better with shaman who stack ap gems than shaman who stack haste gems, so it's worth considering. Glyph of Lightning Shield is a possible choice with either 2pct7 or 2pct9, or on fights that proc your lightning shield due to raid damage.
H. Weapon Buffs/Speed:[/b]
A) Weapon Imbues: are Windfury on the main hand and Flametongue on the offhand. Considering the Flametongue damage proc (which scales with SP and talents) and the spell damage that Flametongue gives us, AND the fact that Frozen Power does not work on bosses, Flametongue is the clear winner for your offhand.
B) Weapon Speed: Due to changes in 3.1, the damage off Flametongue procs scales with weapon speed. Fast weapons get shoddy coefficients, where as slow (2.6 and slower) speed weapons get the original 10% coefficient. A slower weapon also increases lava lash damage. So, for offhand, you want a 2.6 speed weapon, and a slow weapon of a lower iLevel is worth taking over a fast, higher-tier, weapon. (There is some debate about this, though. I won’t cover it in a general “cookie-cutter” guide, but you should know that it’s out there, and worth researching.)
There is no longer any debate about slow weapons for mainhand. Pre 3.1, a caster weapon with flametongue could do exceedingly nice damage. This is not the case anymore, and while it is argued that Wraith Strike (a 2.6 main hand caster weapon) could be a worthwhile weapon, it is generally believed to not beat out slow iLevel 219 and higher weapons.
Some nice, slow, pre-raid one handed weapons are accessible through the Argent Tournament or are craftable by Blacksmiths. Greed also drops from Heroic Stratholme, and Pride is purchasable with 50 Emblems of Heroism. Heroic Forge of souls drops the iLevel 232 Nighttime, and Heroic Halls of Reflection drops the 232 Black Icicle. Both are worthwhile Enh weapons.
I. Stat Weights, and What Not To Gear For:
A) The basics- Attack Power: As a melee class, Attack Power is the bread and butter of our class. Beyond simply modifying our melee damage, every three points of attack power also gives us one point of spell power, which makes our spells hit harder.
We get this attack power through a variety of ways: first, a lot of gear just comes loaded with it. Beyond that, every point of strength, agility, and intelligence gives us one point of attack power. Because of the latter two, mail gear is generally considered best for us, since it provides us with loads of agility, intellect, and attack power.
B) But first, missing is bad!: Before we consider gemming/enchanting for attack power, there are two caps we need to worry about, named Hit and Expertise.
1. Hit: Hit is prioritized by dps classes across the board, as it is generally considered a bad thing when your superawesomeattackofdoom sails over the bosses head. Shaman are in a peculiar position with hit, as we don’t gem exclusively for the melee special hit cap, as we did in Burning Crusade. However, hitting this 8% hit cap for specials should be your first priority, as missing windfuries and storm strikes make a grown tauren cry.
2. Expertise: Expertise is a fun stat, as it reduces the bosses chance to dodge/parry your attacks. Level 83 bosses have a dodge chance of 6.5 (needz moar agility imo), and a chance to parry of something like 15%. We eliminate the parry by being intelligent and not standing in front of them. We eliminate the dodge by getting to 26 expertise, which is 140 rating with 3/3 Unleashed Rage (which you need to have.) Once you get there none of your attacks should be dodged.
It’s possible to stack enough hit to get rid of white damage misses while dual-wielding, but the amount required is so large that it’s not advisable, as you’d lose out on other stats. These two stats are the first in priority for gear. Once you reach the 368/341 hit cap and the 140rating (26) expertise cap, you can start following the next directions.
3. Spell Hit CapActually, we got to that cap through talents. No gemming required.) We instead gem to hit the Spell Hit cap, which is 17%. However, when gemming, it is generally suggested that it is assumed there is a Balance Druid or Shadow Priest in the raid, as both of them provide a 3% spell hit debuff. Thus, Horde Shaman need to gem/enchant to get 368 hit, and Squidfaces need to hit 341 hit rating (as their aura provides 1% hit.)
C) Gemming: Haste Vs. Attack Power: They are both the right answer, depending on your current gear. I cannot stress this enough: Gemming Attack Power blindly is a bad idea. Gemming Haste blindly is a bad idea. Gemming Haste blindly is a WORSE idea, because it’s very much the shaman version of Armor Penetration- a vogue stat that every bad kid in Dalaran has decided to do because he inspected some kingslayer shaman somewhere. Haste scales incredibly well with our 4PC t10. It does not scale well with our 4PC t9. If you are wearing full t10, it is most likely the stat you want to gem, but again that is not definite. You will achieve your maximum dps by downloading the Enhancement DPS Simulator and finding an accurate haste EP value for your gear, not by making gearing decisions based on popularity.
(As an aside, random bads who insult shaman in heroics for not gemming haste: The kid you just insulted probably knows more than you do, and I hope they direct you here so you can feel bad about being shown up. No lie. <3 you Koios.)
Also, you need at least one blue gem to activate your meta. This gem should almost always be the “Nightmare Tear,” or +10 to stats. 10 Str=10 Ap, 10 Agi=10AP+Melee Critical Hit, 10 Intellect=10 AP+Spell Crit, and 10 Stamina is just nice so that you die less. Plus, the gem scales with kings. It’s pretty qt. This Nightmare Tear should be added into the blue socket that gives the highest stat bonus- these are normally found on your legs or chestpiece. For example, the t10 chest has one red socket/one blue socket, with a 12AP socket bonus. The shoulders have one blue socket, with an 8 ap bonus. You would want your nightmare tear in the 12AP piece (assuming you're putting an AP or AP/Haste gem in the red.) Nightmare tears should never, ever, be put in Prismatic sockets, such as an eternal belt buckle
Armor Penetration got a buff in 3.1 as well, so that we get 25% more Armor Pen from ArP rating. However, since less than 50% of our damage is melee-based, Armor Penetration is no where near as desirable for us as it is for other melee classes. That said, if you have the choice between an iLevel 245 item with ArP on it and an iLevel 200 with no ArP, the shear bonus in stats from the higher iLevel item should outweigh the less-than-stellar Armor Pen.
As for Meta Gems, Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41398) and Chaotic Skyflare Diamon (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41285) are the two best choices. Their usefullness differs on your own EP values- whether or not Agility or Critical Strike EP higher for you when you sim it. (RED has the added benefit of only needing one blue gem, which is the BiS nightmare tear.
J. Enchants (Professions not Included, see Store for Details):
1.)Head: Arcanum of Torment http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44879, which is also why Ebon Blade reputation is the first to go for. If you’re sorely lacking in hit, the Arcanum of Ferocity from Outland Cenarion Expedition rep can be used as a replacement. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29192
2.)Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44133, from Sons of Hodir rep. (And if you’re not willing to farm Hodir rep/Level Inscription, you need to not be raiding.)
3.)Cape: This one is EP dependent. Starting out raiding, Major Agility is better. http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60663 However, if your haste is EPing to the point that you’re gemming for it, http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47898 should over take it.
4.)Chest: Super Stats http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44623 is nice for disposable gear. On BiS pieces, http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60692 (Powerful Stats) is superior. Both the stats pieces are very nice, as they give AP, Spell Crit, and Melee crit, though in small amounts.
5.)Bracers: Expertise http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44598 is nice for gearing to Exp cap. Once there, Greater Assault is better. http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44575
6.)Gloves: Precision http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44488 is excellent for getting to hit cap, and is advisable over the +15 expertise one. After that, Crusher http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60668 becomes better.
7.)Pants: Icescale Leg Armor. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38374 75 AP and Melee/Spell crit? Yesplz.
8.)Feet: Until hit capped, Icewalker. http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60623. Once hit capped, go old world for Cat’s Swiftness http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=34007. 6 Agility is nice, and the run speed is highly wanted for Ulduar. Tuskarr's Vitality http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47#@*#@@*ments loses the agility from Cat's Swiftness, but the stamina bonus is a definite boon for the boss aoefest of Ulduar.
9.)Weapons: Berserking, http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=59621, is undoubtedly Best in Slot for weapon enchants, and any weapons you expect to have for a long time should be enchanted with it. However, for non-BiS items, Mongoose is an acceptable alternative. http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=27984 Black Magic, http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=59625, is considered by many enhance shaman to be good due to our liking of haste. This is a myth. DW berserking is almost always better.
L. Mods, Addons, and Links:
1.) EnhSim: Every Enhancement Shaman should download and familiarize themselves with the Enhancement DPS Simulator, especially the function that allows it to calculate EP values. It truly is a vital addon for any raiding enhance shaman, and while we can’t take everything it says as absolute truth, it is a very, very nice tool.
http://enhsim.codeplex.com/ (Note, you need winzip or a similar program to extract it.)
2.) Totem Addon: I personally fully endorse Totem Timers, as I’ve been using it for over a year and love it. That said, there are a variety of totem managing addons that are worth looking at.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/totemtimers.aspx
3.) Rotation/Cooldown timer:
Due to her awesome contributions to the Shaman community, my first endorsement for cooldown timer bars is Zasi’s Full Moon addon. (http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/fullmoon.aspx) It’s lightweight, it’s compact, and it’s nice to look at!
However, I also endorse ShockAndAwe (http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/shockandawe.aspx), as it provides a few features Full Moon does not. Namely, it provides a priority frame that is indispensable for dps, and it offers a slash command that allows you to export data from the game to your Enh Sim. Both are worth getting, in my opinion.
4.) Rawr:
Rawr is an awesome program that allows you to see exactly how different pieces of gear help your dps, and shows possible upgrades/differences in gems/enchanting that will increase your dps. And, it comes with a youtube guide!
http://rawr.codeplex.com/
5.) Helpful Links:
The Enhancement Theorycraft Bible:
http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t20765-shaman_enhancement/
The folks at Elitist Jerks have been pioneering Shaman theorycraft since before I started visiting these forums, which was over a year and a half ago. They go beyond just extrapolating the information into easily digestible nougats of knowledge and do what every math teacher you've ever had while growing up wished you would do- they show their math.
Levva’s Awesome Post of Awesomeness: MMO-Champion WoTLK Enhance FAQ.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=28143.0
To be honest, I’m the messenger who takes the information I read and regurgitates it into fun-to-read morsels fit for the combined intellect of the shaman community. Levva is one of the EJ theorycrafters who delves deep into the math and mechanics of how shaman work, and as such their post as MO-champion should definitely be looked into. (Thanks Marashka for brining it to my attention!)
Shaman On Ramen!:
Shamanonramen.wordpress.com
It’s my baby blog. It’s about enhancement. You should check it out. And subscribe. And comment. All elam, all the time.
M. Conclusion:
I’m sure I missed things. I’m sure I gave information someone, somewhere, might find wrong. However, I encourage anyone with issues to post them, and I’ll do my best to respond to them, and possibly edit. I hope this helped!
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16473975656&sid=1&pageNo=1
I'll copy and paste what it says here as well. I've highlighted the important categories so you can just scroll through and read whats in read to know what follows is talking about whats in read.
Totem Eclipse of The Heart:
Enhancement PVE DPS Post 3.3
Months behind.
A). Statement of Intent:
The intent of this write-up is to be a guide for Enhancement Shaman in a PVE setting post patch 3.3.3. It’s not explicitly restricted to Crusaders Coliseum- my general aim is to provide information about mechanics and choices that are relevant among all gear levels, not simply Icecrown Citadel.
It is to be noted that, while I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the topic (it admittedly takes a certain amount of ego to consider writing a guide on how other people should play), I am not infallible, and information is always changing. What I cover should deal with most of the relevant issues and questions and the commonly accepted responses to them, but there will always be dissenting opinions. I encourage anyone who has such an opinion to post, and encourage everyone reading this for the first time to question it. I post what has been proven to be mathematical fact. ]
This is not to say that we can’t be wrong, but that if you have a dissenting opinion you have to do the work to prove your point. Saying “I used Flame Shock on Toravon the Ice Watcher, and did a straight Earth Shock rotation on Koralon the Ice Watcher. I did more DPS on Koralon than Toravon, so obviously Flame Shock is worse dps.” Anecdotal evidence comparing one fight to other fights is not a convincing argument.
Also, I'm always willing to answer questions and am open to answer whispers/mail on Elam/Darwinism (H) on Black Dragonflight or Notferal on Uldum Alliance. (If I don't respond to whispers, I might be afk or concentrating on a boss fight or something- I'm not purposely ignoring you. Try again in a few moments or send me a mail, and I'll do my best to answer it.)
I shouldn't have to add this in, but I just want to throw out there that I do realize I'm logged out ele/resto right now. I'm gearing up my ele pvp set/spec and that requires quick queues for Pit of Saron and daily randoms, so my enhance spec is sitting tight for the next few days.
B). Introduction to Enhancement:
Enhancement Shaman are truly interesting because we embody the concept of “hybrid;” at least in the way our damage is done. If it is your intent to run around with a giant axe, or your primary source of thrills on a Friday night is playing with daggers, Enhancement is not for you. We are a melee class- we stand behind big bad guys at a really, really, scarily close range and hit them with claw-like contraptions- our damage is split semi-equally between spell damage and melee. The largest amount of your damage will be simple melee (or white) damage, another 10-15% will be windfury damage, and another 5% will be Stormstrike (so, about 50% of your damage is physical damage.) The rest of your damage is spell damage: Lightning Bolts, Magma Totem, Lightning Shield, Flametongue Weapon, and Earth Shock are all included in this. This leaves Enhancement Shaman in a particularly fun-yet-strange place, as we benefit from every buff/debuff currently in the game.
What this means to you is that your damage (like every other class) will be at it’s highest potential in a 25-man Raid Setting, when there’s a large likelihood of these buffs being present. Our damage, however, is competitive in both heroic and ten-man settings. Beyond brining competitive dps, we also are the strongest melee-buff class in the game: It would take two separate death knights (or a frost dk and a marksman hunter) and another shaman to bring the same buffs that enhance fills in one spec, offering 10%AP, 179 Agi/Str/20% melee haste, and Bloodlust/Heroism. Playing an Enhancement PVE shaman is better now than it ever has been before, even with how desired we were in Burning Crusade!
C). Tips And Tricks:
Before getting into the real meat of the article, here are a few tips for raiding as enhancement/melee:
1) Stand Behind the Boss:
Standing in front of bosses is for tanks. Your job is to hide behind them and stab your heart out. On a more mechanics-related note, bosses have a high {15ish%} chance to parry your attacks, which means A)You hit with melee attacks 15% less, and B) the bosses swing timer is hastened, resulting in a sad Shaman, a sad Tank, a sad Tank Healer, and a DKP loss. Don’t do it. However, no boss is flexible enough to parry attacks from behind, meaning no parry-hasted attacks from the boss and no parrying your melee swings! There’s nothing dishonorable about a not-quite-so-fair-fight!
Beyond that, most bosses have these fun abilities called “cleaves” “breathe weapons” or “abilities designed with killing bad melee in mind.” In order to avoid these abilities which only work when standing in front of bosses, you stand behind them. The result is you not dying, and when you don’t die, you can dps more. Funny how that works?
2) Don’t Stand in the Bad:
Bosses have these crazy ideas in their mind that the raid wants to kill them, and to deal with this, they make the bad. The bad is comprised of: Blizzards, Void Zones, GIANT RUNES OF DEATH, Balls of Blue Fire, Waves of Lava, and a variety of other fun abilities that do their best to murder your raid group. Don’t stand in them, even if it means you have to run away from the boss. Less dps for a few seconds > dying.
3) Do Stand in the Good:
It’s like not standing in the bad, except opposite. Bosses can be sadomasochists at time and will do strange abilities that help you hurt them WHILE they’re attempting to kill you. When these GIANT RUNES OF POWER, Sparks of Power, cones of light of power, and other things of power show up, it is your job to stand in them and hurt things till your heart’s content (or until more bad shows up. Or the boss moves out of melee range.)
4) Make Sure You’re Ready to Raid:
If you’re raiding progression, know and have on you the best consumables for the job. If you stand in a fire while the rest of the raid survives, it’s not their job to drop a fish feast for you. It’s your job to come prepared with backup food, with flasks, and with potions of speed. Additionally, make sure you’re gemmed/enchanted to your maximum potential. Don’t show up Thursday night with the chest you got the night before without gems/enchants on it.
5) Learn Your Cooldowns:
Understand how your raid does the fight. For example, if your raid always bloodlusts on Sindragosa at 35%, pop your cooldowns early and as much as possible in the fight, but make sure you have an idea of when 30% will be. Feral Spirits is at its best when you pop it immediately prior to Bloodlust, as they benefit from the haste buff. Make sure to be paying attention and not popping it when you know bloodlust is coming up, but don’t wait the entire fight because you’re afraid of missing the bloodlust.
As an added note about Feral Spirits: Since Wolves despawn after their short 45 second lives, the exhausted debuff the rest of your raid is plagued with despawns with them. It is in your best interest on fights that lust is popped early that last longer than 3 minutes to have a raid leader call out for bloodlust, pop your wolves, and then let a resto or elemental shaman pop bloodlust/heroism. That way you can use Spirit Wolves (and, as Ontop notes, have your moonkin pop Treants and your Priests use Shadowfiend) again at the three minute mark, and be able to use your own bloodlust to haste all those summons. (Alternatively, as long as it is understood by your raid, you can pop the first lust and have a resto/ele pop the second- just make sure you talk to your raid and have them understand why this is done.) This has the added benefit of giving a second bloodlust to anyone who has died in the first 3 minutes.
Also, Fire Elemental totem is a gigantic DPS boost, often putting out 1kish dps itself while it’s up single target- and more as AoE! However, Fire Elemental is also our longest cooldown ability- 10minutes long, as of patch 3.3. This means that you really need to be smart about when you’re popping it to make the most of its two minute long duration. Remember- while the Fire Elemental might move, its totem does not, so bosses will move out of Fire Nova range if you pop it during a high movement phase. Unlike previous patches, where you had to worry about which boss to pop FE on, you now can worry about “when” to pop Fire Elemental. Some great times for FE would be p3 Sindragosa (since she no longer flies), any time during Festergut, p2 of Lady Deathwhisper, and more.
D). Talent Choices:
The generally accepted spec for Enhancement is: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hVbhVbZhbxsoxdIhusouVo
As you’ll notice looking at this, you’ll have 3 talent points left over with this spec. These three talent points are “filler” talent points, and you use them to go for different talents depending on what you’re most in need of. If you’re running 5/10man content without access to a Judgment of Wisdom/Replenishment/Blessing of Wisdom and are having mana problems, consider putting those three points into improved stormstrike/elemental focus.
If you’re running 25man content and you’re intelligent about using Shamanistic Rage so you never run out of mana, you can use those talent points to fill out pure dps talents, going 3/3 Call of Flame/3/3 Improved Shields. My personal preferred talent spec (since I run a mix of 5/10s/25s), is to forego Elemental Focus in favor of 3/3 Call of Flames, but pick up 2/2 Improved Stormstrike rather than 3/3 Improved Shields.
A large number of these are kind of self-describing, and I decided it wasn’t needed to go talent-by-talent. The talent’s I’ll talk about are the ones that are debated/not taken the most.
1.) Enhancing Totem Vs. Ancestral Knowlege Cage Match:
Some people are inclined to forgo Enhancing Totems over Ancestral Knowledge, as “Ancestral Knowledge gives more AP and spell crit.” However, an Enhancement Shaman unbuffed have around 500 Intellect, so the extra 3 talent points only give you about 30 extra attack power, and a minimal amount of spell crit. 3/3 Enhancing Totems gives you an extra 23 Strength (23 AP) and 23 Agility (23 AP and some melee crit) AND extends that bonus to every other member of the raid, so all your melee and some hunters get to enjoy a nice AP and Crit bonus. There is no reason to go beyond two points in Ancestral Knowledge.
2.) Static Shock and Improved Shields
There has been some debate over whether these two talents are worth going into, as they are “minimal dps increases.” Even if it’s only a 6% chance on hit, every time an orb does proc it’s free damage, which is magnified by your spell power and improved shields. There’s no reason to not take this talent. To quote Levva in another thread:
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Q u o t e:
to be clear Static Shock gives you an EXTRA melee damage ability. With Static Shock your lightning shield can now do damage just because you hit the target. Without this talent you need to be hit for it to go off. Typically on boss fights you shouldn't be getting hit so this is pure extra damage and quite a bit of it. There is nothing to dislike about this talent take all 3 points. Its around 75dps+ per talent point there is nothing better to spend the 3 points on at this stage in the tree.
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Improved Shield is mostly a “filler” talent; you take if when you need a point higher in the tree to unlock better talents farther down. It‘s the least dps talent point-by-point, but it‘s still worthwhile if you consistently raid without mana issues.
3.) Mental Quickness:
It’s strange to put this under “debated”; talents, but I see it not being taken by an alarmingly large number of fresh-80 Shaman. Mental Quickness gives 30% of your attack power as spell power. Due to the high amount of spell damage we do, the 1,000+ spell damage we get from this talent is excellent.
4.) Unleashed Rage:
Expertise will be covered later, but for now I’ll say this talent is worth taking, even with a Blood Death Knight or Marksman Hunter in your raid.
5.) Improved Windfury Totem:
Personally, even with a Frost Death Knight with Improved Icy Talons in the raid, I would always take this, as you never know when someone keeping a buff up will die.
6.) Improved Stormstrike:
This talent (which I personally originally demeaned as a pvp talent) is excellent for pve mana regeneration. The math has been done, and it beats out other mana-related talents like Elemental Focus. 2/2 Imp. SS is the way to go.
7.) Call of Flame:
15% damage on your magma totem is very nice. The only reason not to fill this out is to grab Elemental Focus if you’re having extreme mana issues, in which you’d go 2/3 in call of flame.
8.) Elemental Fury:
Spell Critical Hits currently hit for 150% of the spell’s damage. This talent makes it 200%. This means our lightning bolt, magma totem, earth shock, flame shock initial damage (and most likely crit ticks as well-needs testing), fire nova, and flametongue weapon procs all do more damage. It’s excellent.
9. Improved Fire Nova:
The change to Fire Nova will be gone over in detail later, but this is a talent you want to invest in.
E) The Priority System
Enhancement Shaman work on a priority system, not a rotation. What this means is that you dps based on abilities becoming active, rather than following a set combination of buttons. (For example, FS+LvB+LBX3 or whatever Smellemental Shaman do.)
For you visual learners, the priority system looks something like: http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p275/Skye-Line/EnhanceFlowchart3.jpg
(Ty Eklo.)
The Priority System, taken from the Elitist Jerks BiS thread is as follows:
1)Maelstrom Weapon x 5 stacks - Lightning Bolt
2)Lightning Shield if not active
3)Spirit Wolves
4)Shamanistic Rage
5)Flame Shock
6)Stormstrike if debuff not active
7)Fire Elemental
8)Magma Totem if not active
9)Earthshock
10)Stormstrike
11)Lava Lash
12)Fire Nova
13)Magma Totem
14)Lightning Shield
This means in more plain terms:
1) Whenever you hit a stack of 5 maelstrom weapon charges, you fire off a lightning bolt. Immediately. You do not wait for Stormstrike to get off cooldown, you don’t refresh an expiring totem, you hit Lightning Bolt and go about your business. The longer you wait between firing your 5stack, the more you miss out on other possible MW charges. If there is more than one target present and it is not being CCed, you may want to throw off a chain lightning. (If there is more than one target present and it is being CCed, you still might want to throw off a chain lightning, but than your healers will hurt you with their wimpy healing weapons. :/) However, Lightning Bolt scales better, so use it when fighting one person.
2) Refresh your Lightning Shield. This is only second priority IF your lightning shield is totally off- that means that if you have one or more charges left on your shield, you skip to 3.
3) Spirit Wolves: The reason this is put third on Priority is to show that if you have either a 5 stack of MW OR your lightning shield is off, it is a dps decrease to pop wolves rather than using those abilities. Feral Spirit still follows the guidelines from earlier of “be intelligent about using your cool downs.” This priority spot is ONLY to be used as a guideline for making the decision of “should I instant cast LB OR use my puppies,” and does not mean “every third GCD I spend should be wolves.” That’s what a priority system inherently is- if the ability is active and it’s the right time to use it, you use it.
4) Shamanistic Rage: This is for those who have the two piece tier 10 bonus that gives you a 12% damage bonus while SR is active. For those who do not have said bonus, skip to 5.
5) Flame Shock: I will get more into why we use Flame Shock and how exactly it fits into the priority system later, in the “what changed in 3.3” part of the thread.
6) Stormstrike if Debuff not active: Stormstrike is not an incredibly strong ability on it’s own, but it’s debuff (which buffs lightning bolt damage, earth shock damage, static shock damage) makes it amazing. If the debuff is not active on the target, you want to use storm strike at this time. If it is active, skip Storm Strike and go toooooo…
7) FIRE ELEMENTAL: Your Fire Elemental (codenamed Sparky, at least if you’re me) has become a valuable asset to your dps since patch 3.1 made it not suck. In 3.3, a change or two has made if even more attractive. (Explained later!) Once again, Fire Elemental follows the same “don’t be a dumb butt” rules as Feral Spirit- for example, if you know the next two minutes of the fight involves the boss moving, dropping Fire Elemental is a worse idea than Jar-Jar-Binks. He/she is not very smart and likes to leash back to his totem, AND you lose dps by not being able to Fire Nova if the totem is out of the way. Again, bad idea.
8) Magma Totem if not active: What this really means is “Magma Totem if not active OR if Fire Elemental isn’t active.” If you have no fire totem out that contributes to your Dps (and the choices are either magma or Fire Elemental- searing is for ele shaman who can’t sit in melee range and drop magma), and Fire Elemental is not an option, drop Magma Totem. If a fire totem is already down, skip to
9) Earth Shock: Solid Damage, not as good as Flame Shock (or it would be higher priority lulul.) This spot in the priority system assumes that A) the Stormstrike Debuff is up, or B) Stormstrike is on cool down. There’s not much else to say about Earth Shock. It’s solid.
10) Stormstrike: Remember how SS was prioritized earlier, but only if the debuff was not present on the target? Stormstrike is still somewhat solid damage, can proc two maelstrom charges, flametongue weapon proc, a static shock proc, a wind fury proc, a flurry proc…etc. If everything above this point is unavailable, Stormstrike is your friend. Like Earth Shock, it’s a very solid ability.
11) Lava Lash: An offhand attack, deals minor damage, ignores armor, can proc a lot of the stuff that Stormstrike can proc (except for windfury.) Is it amazing? No, that‘s why it‘s this low on priority. Is it a welcome tool in an Enhance Shaman’s arsenal? Yes. There’s no arguing that point.
12) Fire Nova: Fire Nova is respectable single target damage. In fact, it hits HARDER than Lava Lash does in some situations. However, it does not proc the fun things Lava Lash procs, which is why it’s slightly under Lava Lash in priority. On multiple-person pulls, Fire Nova’s priority skyrockets.
13) Magma Totem: If Magma Totem is still out, and all of the above abilities are on CD or not useable, redrop Magma Totem. It’s a minimal dps gain (in that you have 20 more seconds of DPSing without magma totem running out.
14) Refresh Lightning Shield: Just like the above, this is refreshing Lightning Shield if it hasn’t run out yet. Just like Magma Totem, this generally falls into the realm of “I have a free global cool down, I’ll do this now so I don’t have to later.”
PRIORITY SUM UP:
The Enhancement Shaman priority system is daunting. Fourteen abilities, incuding one dot that scales with haste, one dot that doesn’t (also, this dot doesn’t move and emanates another ability!) one debuff (that gets eaten faster than it can be put on, it seems!), one buff with a limited amount of charges, one stacking proc…and more.
But slow it down. Think about the Priority System realistically: Maelstrom Weapon, Shocks, Stormstrike, Lava Lash, Fire Nova, and Magma Totem are what you have to worry about the majority of the time. Fire Elemental, Shamanistic Rage (as a dps cooldown), and Spirit Wolves all have minute or longer cooldowns, meaning that they can be shelved in your mind for opportune moments. Lightning Shield is really only worth worrying yourself with if it falls off, and it’s such a high priority that you can just fire and forget it for another 45 seconds. Practice a lot, and the priority will become second nature.
And, failing that, download Shock And Awe. It has everything you need to be a smart shaman dpser at your fingertips.
F. 3.3 Changes: Buffing Shaman AoE a patch after Onyxia meters mattered.
A). Orc and troll shamans now have their own unique totem art.
What the 3.3 patch notes don’t tell you is that Dwarf shaman got their own totem art too.
B). Earth Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
Fire Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
Lets be honest: The only thing Earth Elemental has ever been good for is annoying pug tanks in heroics. That change is technically a buff, but it’s not really worth mentioning. The second part, however, is godly.
You see, Shaman suffered in Ulduar due to this little thing known as “Fire Elemental CD lasting longer than trash.” More importantly, we suffered from another thing known as “It does not take 20 minutes to rebuff after a wipe.” This meant that Shaman had to time their Sparky incredibly well- using it on fights like XT Decon, Ignis, Hodir, General Vex, etc, while ignoring it on the bosses in between. What’s more, for any boss that was a harsh dps race, Fire Elemental was required for max dps. That was a problem, because if we wiped after using Fire Elemental, we then had 20 minutes of below-optimal dps before we could use Fire Elemental again.
With 3.3, Blizzard changed this. Fire Elemental is now useable nearly every fight, almost definitely if it is used early on in the fight. (Beyond making it a 10minute CD, they also made a glyph that reduces it’s CD by 5 minutes. However, this requires a fight that is at least 7 minutes long and has two minute long burn phases…no fight in ICC I can think of fits this requirement.) Two thumbs up were given to this change.
C) Fire Nova Totem: This totem has been replaced with a new spell, Fire Nova, which is available at the same ranks as the old Fire Nova Totem. Existing characters will automatically learn this new spell in place of the totem. With a Fire Totem active, shamans will be able to use Fire Nova (fire magic) to emit the same area-of-effect damage as the old Fire Nova Totem from the active Fire Totem, not consuming the totem in the process. Fire Nova will activate a 1.5-second global cooldown when used and has a 10-second spell cooldown. The caster must be within 30 yards of the totem to use this ability, but does not need to be within line of sight of the totem.
Wait. So let me get this straight. You took out an ability that totally sucked (Fire Nova), and replaced it with an actual AoE ability that emanates from our other actual AoE ability AND can be fit into the rotation as added single target DPS within GCD gaps? ******oops*******oops*******oops*******oops* you Blizzard, for giving me exactly what I wanted.
D) Reincarnation: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 30 minutes.
For those shaman like me, dubbed “survivability challenged.”
Patch 3.3.3 Change: (Not changes, change.)
A) Flame Shock: The damage-over-time component of this ability can now produce critical strikes and is affected by spell haste.
This change adds more complexity into a priority system that…doesn’t really need more complexity! That said, with more complexity comes more dps. Haste Scaling for dots is something that Blizzard is moving all classes towards, and is a buff to Enhancement DPS. Enhancement runs around with a lot of haste to begin with, and through procs and buffs that increase haste it is theoretically possible to go from using a Flame Shock-Earth Shock-Earth Shock shock rotation to FS-ES-FS-ES, at least until Bloodlust wears off.
That said, this change does require a lot of thought to make work. For instance, it’s not unlikely that you’ll have a Flame Shock dot that lasts just longer than 12 seconds, where holding off shocking for the dot to run it’s course and reapplying Flame Shock would be a dps increase. You have to do your own research on those haste levels.
G. Glyph Choices:
No minor glyphs currently contribute to our dps that much, and are largely a matter of personal preference. Glyph of Renewed Life allows you to reincarnate without carrying ankhs- more importantly, this means that if you die after accidentally running out of Ankhs, you won't be lying dead on the floor being useless to your raid for the remainder of the boss fight.
Other commonly used glyphs are glyphs of water walking and water breathing, giving you more bag space and the ability to kill you comrades in zones with water pits. However, these are the best Majors:
A) Glyph of Feral Spirit. If you’re intelligent and making the most of your wolves, this glyph will be an excellent dps upgrade. 30% of your attack power, fully raid buffed and in-fight (so with Unleashed Rage up), you should be hitting around 5-6k Attack Power minimum, which means another 1600-2000ap for your wolves. It’s excellent.
B) Glyph of Stormstrike: The majority of your damage is nature based. 8% more to your Earth Shocks, Lightning Bolts, and Static Shock procs is excellent. There’s no debate about it. Get this glyph.
C) Glyph of Flameshock/Glyph of Windfury/Glyph of Lightning Shield: Glyph of Flameshock has edged out of Glyph of Windfury by about 40/50dps, at least in ICC10 and above gear or any time you're using stacking haste over attackpower. I’m hesitant to discount Glyph of Windfury as a contender since I don’t have enough data from lower gear levels and because it scales better with shaman who stack ap gems than shaman who stack haste gems, so it's worth considering. Glyph of Lightning Shield is a possible choice with either 2pct7 or 2pct9, or on fights that proc your lightning shield due to raid damage.
H. Weapon Buffs/Speed:[/b]
A) Weapon Imbues: are Windfury on the main hand and Flametongue on the offhand. Considering the Flametongue damage proc (which scales with SP and talents) and the spell damage that Flametongue gives us, AND the fact that Frozen Power does not work on bosses, Flametongue is the clear winner for your offhand.
B) Weapon Speed: Due to changes in 3.1, the damage off Flametongue procs scales with weapon speed. Fast weapons get shoddy coefficients, where as slow (2.6 and slower) speed weapons get the original 10% coefficient. A slower weapon also increases lava lash damage. So, for offhand, you want a 2.6 speed weapon, and a slow weapon of a lower iLevel is worth taking over a fast, higher-tier, weapon. (There is some debate about this, though. I won’t cover it in a general “cookie-cutter” guide, but you should know that it’s out there, and worth researching.)
There is no longer any debate about slow weapons for mainhand. Pre 3.1, a caster weapon with flametongue could do exceedingly nice damage. This is not the case anymore, and while it is argued that Wraith Strike (a 2.6 main hand caster weapon) could be a worthwhile weapon, it is generally believed to not beat out slow iLevel 219 and higher weapons.
Some nice, slow, pre-raid one handed weapons are accessible through the Argent Tournament or are craftable by Blacksmiths. Greed also drops from Heroic Stratholme, and Pride is purchasable with 50 Emblems of Heroism. Heroic Forge of souls drops the iLevel 232 Nighttime, and Heroic Halls of Reflection drops the 232 Black Icicle. Both are worthwhile Enh weapons.
I. Stat Weights, and What Not To Gear For:
A) The basics- Attack Power: As a melee class, Attack Power is the bread and butter of our class. Beyond simply modifying our melee damage, every three points of attack power also gives us one point of spell power, which makes our spells hit harder.
We get this attack power through a variety of ways: first, a lot of gear just comes loaded with it. Beyond that, every point of strength, agility, and intelligence gives us one point of attack power. Because of the latter two, mail gear is generally considered best for us, since it provides us with loads of agility, intellect, and attack power.
B) But first, missing is bad!: Before we consider gemming/enchanting for attack power, there are two caps we need to worry about, named Hit and Expertise.
1. Hit: Hit is prioritized by dps classes across the board, as it is generally considered a bad thing when your superawesomeattackofdoom sails over the bosses head. Shaman are in a peculiar position with hit, as we don’t gem exclusively for the melee special hit cap, as we did in Burning Crusade. However, hitting this 8% hit cap for specials should be your first priority, as missing windfuries and storm strikes make a grown tauren cry.
2. Expertise: Expertise is a fun stat, as it reduces the bosses chance to dodge/parry your attacks. Level 83 bosses have a dodge chance of 6.5 (needz moar agility imo), and a chance to parry of something like 15%. We eliminate the parry by being intelligent and not standing in front of them. We eliminate the dodge by getting to 26 expertise, which is 140 rating with 3/3 Unleashed Rage (which you need to have.) Once you get there none of your attacks should be dodged.
It’s possible to stack enough hit to get rid of white damage misses while dual-wielding, but the amount required is so large that it’s not advisable, as you’d lose out on other stats. These two stats are the first in priority for gear. Once you reach the 368/341 hit cap and the 140rating (26) expertise cap, you can start following the next directions.
3. Spell Hit Cap
Actually, we got to that cap through talents. No gemming required.) We instead gem to hit the Spell Hit cap, which is 17%. However, when gemming, it is generally suggested that it is assumed there is a Balance Druid or Shadow Priest in the raid, as both of them provide a 3% spell hit debuff. Thus, Horde Shaman need to gem/enchant to get 368 hit, and Squidfaces need to hit 341 hit rating (as their aura provides 1% hit.) C) Gemming: Haste Vs. Attack Power: They are both the right answer, depending on your current gear. I cannot stress this enough: Gemming Attack Power blindly is a bad idea. Gemming Haste blindly is a bad idea. Gemming Haste blindly is a WORSE idea, because it’s very much the shaman version of Armor Penetration- a vogue stat that every bad kid in Dalaran has decided to do because he inspected some kingslayer shaman somewhere. Haste scales incredibly well with our 4PC t10. It does not scale well with our 4PC t9. If you are wearing full t10, it is most likely the stat you want to gem, but again that is not definite. You will achieve your maximum dps by downloading the Enhancement DPS Simulator and finding an accurate haste EP value for your gear, not by making gearing decisions based on popularity.
(As an aside, random bads who insult shaman in heroics for not gemming haste: The kid you just insulted probably knows more than you do, and I hope they direct you here so you can feel bad about being shown up. No lie. <3 you Koios.)
Also, you need at least one blue gem to activate your meta. This gem should almost always be the “Nightmare Tear,” or +10 to stats. 10 Str=10 Ap, 10 Agi=10AP+Melee Critical Hit, 10 Intellect=10 AP+Spell Crit, and 10 Stamina is just nice so that you die less. Plus, the gem scales with kings. It’s pretty qt. This Nightmare Tear should be added into the blue socket that gives the highest stat bonus- these are normally found on your legs or chestpiece. For example, the t10 chest has one red socket/one blue socket, with a 12AP socket bonus. The shoulders have one blue socket, with an 8 ap bonus. You would want your nightmare tear in the 12AP piece (assuming you're putting an AP or AP/Haste gem in the red.) Nightmare tears should never, ever, be put in Prismatic sockets, such as an eternal belt buckle
Armor Penetration got a buff in 3.1 as well, so that we get 25% more Armor Pen from ArP rating. However, since less than 50% of our damage is melee-based, Armor Penetration is no where near as desirable for us as it is for other melee classes. That said, if you have the choice between an iLevel 245 item with ArP on it and an iLevel 200 with no ArP, the shear bonus in stats from the higher iLevel item should outweigh the less-than-stellar Armor Pen.
As for Meta Gems, Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41398) and Chaotic Skyflare Diamon (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41285) are the two best choices. Their usefullness differs on your own EP values- whether or not Agility or Critical Strike EP higher for you when you sim it. (RED has the added benefit of only needing one blue gem, which is the BiS nightmare tear.
J. Enchants (Professions not Included, see Store for Details):
1.)Head: Arcanum of Torment http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44879, which is also why Ebon Blade reputation is the first to go for. If you’re sorely lacking in hit, the Arcanum of Ferocity from Outland Cenarion Expedition rep can be used as a replacement. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29192
2.)Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44133, from Sons of Hodir rep. (And if you’re not willing to farm Hodir rep/Level Inscription, you need to not be raiding.)
3.)Cape: This one is EP dependent. Starting out raiding, Major Agility is better. http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60663 However, if your haste is EPing to the point that you’re gemming for it, http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47898 should over take it.
4.)Chest: Super Stats http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44623 is nice for disposable gear. On BiS pieces, http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60692 (Powerful Stats) is superior. Both the stats pieces are very nice, as they give AP, Spell Crit, and Melee crit, though in small amounts.
5.)Bracers: Expertise http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44598 is nice for gearing to Exp cap. Once there, Greater Assault is better. http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44575
6.)Gloves: Precision http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44488 is excellent for getting to hit cap, and is advisable over the +15 expertise one. After that, Crusher http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60668 becomes better.
7.)Pants: Icescale Leg Armor. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38374 75 AP and Melee/Spell crit? Yesplz.
8.)Feet: Until hit capped, Icewalker. http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60623. Once hit capped, go old world for Cat’s Swiftness http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=34007. 6 Agility is nice, and the run speed is highly wanted for Ulduar. Tuskarr's Vitality http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47#@*#@@*ments loses the agility from Cat's Swiftness, but the stamina bonus is a definite boon for the boss aoefest of Ulduar.
9.)Weapons: Berserking, http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=59621, is undoubtedly Best in Slot for weapon enchants, and any weapons you expect to have for a long time should be enchanted with it. However, for non-BiS items, Mongoose is an acceptable alternative. http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=27984 Black Magic, http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=59625, is considered by many enhance shaman to be good due to our liking of haste. This is a myth. DW berserking is almost always better.
L. Mods, Addons, and Links:
1.) EnhSim: Every Enhancement Shaman should download and familiarize themselves with the Enhancement DPS Simulator, especially the function that allows it to calculate EP values. It truly is a vital addon for any raiding enhance shaman, and while we can’t take everything it says as absolute truth, it is a very, very nice tool.
http://enhsim.codeplex.com/ (Note, you need winzip or a similar program to extract it.)
2.) Totem Addon: I personally fully endorse Totem Timers, as I’ve been using it for over a year and love it. That said, there are a variety of totem managing addons that are worth looking at.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/totemtimers.aspx
3.) Rotation/Cooldown timer:
Due to her awesome contributions to the Shaman community, my first endorsement for cooldown timer bars is Zasi’s Full Moon addon. (http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/fullmoon.aspx) It’s lightweight, it’s compact, and it’s nice to look at!
However, I also endorse ShockAndAwe (http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/shockandawe.aspx), as it provides a few features Full Moon does not. Namely, it provides a priority frame that is indispensable for dps, and it offers a slash command that allows you to export data from the game to your Enh Sim. Both are worth getting, in my opinion.
4.) Rawr:
Rawr is an awesome program that allows you to see exactly how different pieces of gear help your dps, and shows possible upgrades/differences in gems/enchanting that will increase your dps. And, it comes with a youtube guide!
http://rawr.codeplex.com/
5.) Helpful Links:
The Enhancement Theorycraft Bible:
http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t20765-shaman_enhancement/
The folks at Elitist Jerks have been pioneering Shaman theorycraft since before I started visiting these forums, which was over a year and a half ago. They go beyond just extrapolating the information into easily digestible nougats of knowledge and do what every math teacher you've ever had while growing up wished you would do- they show their math.
Levva’s Awesome Post of Awesomeness: MMO-Champion WoTLK Enhance FAQ.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=28143.0
To be honest, I’m the messenger who takes the information I read and regurgitates it into fun-to-read morsels fit for the combined intellect of the shaman community. Levva is one of the EJ theorycrafters who delves deep into the math and mechanics of how shaman work, and as such their post as MO-champion should definitely be looked into. (Thanks Marashka for brining it to my attention!
) Shaman On Ramen!:
Shamanonramen.wordpress.com
It’s my baby blog. It’s about enhancement. You should check it out. And subscribe. And comment. All elam, all the time.
M. Conclusion:
I’m sure I missed things. I’m sure I gave information someone, somewhere, might find wrong. However, I encourage anyone with issues to post them, and I’ll do my best to respond to them, and possibly edit. I hope this helped!
