Enhancement Shaman DPS Stat Priority — 12.1.5

Welcome to our Stat Priority page for Enhancement Shaman in Midnight! Here we'll quickly be going over the stats you should aim for on gear, alongside any special considerations depending on your build.

Enhancement has two different Hero Talents, each with a slightly different preference for each stat. Generally, you can get away with using the same gearset for both of them without losing much, but optimizing each gearset does follow different rules:

Currently, when playing in either single-target or AoE, Stormbringer builds have the following stat priority:

In Midnight, Agility is much more valuable following the stat squish. This means that most of your gearing decisions are driven by item level, and this trend continues in Season 2.

Following Season 2 release changes, Stormbringer has converged on three stats competing with each other. Ideally, you want to aim for Critical Strike as the highest stat on your character sheet to power up Overcharge.

Both Mastery and Haste are right behind it, and your goal is to keep all three extremely close to each other as you optimize your gearset. Haste increases the pace of the rotation significantly, and Mastery compounds the scaling on your Nature damage spells, so all three are important.

Versatility is generally something to avoid, but it's not the end of the world if some pieces have it on.

Currently, when playing in either single-target or AoE, Totemic builds have the following stat priority:

In Midnight, Agility is much more valuable following the stat squish. This means that most of your gearing decisions are driven by item level, and this trend continues in Season 2.

Due to Totemic sourcing a large amount of damage from Windfury Weapon and magic abilities, Mastery is consistently the strongest stat available, and is preferred to stack. You also always want this to be your highest stat to make sure Potion of Recklessness triggers Mastery.

Haste is right behind it, so usually you keep these two in balance, as it increases Maelstrom Weapon generation to fuel Totemic Momentum. Critical Strike falls to third, but still keeps close thanks to the added scaling of both Supportive Imbuements and Overcharge, though it doesn't gain quite as much from it as Stormbringer does.

Versatility is ideally avoided as it's firmly weaker than the other three, but its fine if you have no alternatives in your current gear setup.

In optimized gearsets, Potion of Recklessness is the chosen combat pot – when using this you need to ensure it triggers Mastery. It's far less complicated than the Stormbringer gearing puzzle, but if you can't consistently achieve this, then instead use a different potion.

Optimization

Simulations and Tools

While a generalized stat priority will assist new players, there really is no substitute for simming your character. Learn more with this guide!

Go to Guide

As an Enhancement Shaman, Agility is your primary stat, which should be present on all Mail gear you wear, alongside your weapons. Individual stats provide the following benefits:

• Agility provides you with Attack Power, which increases the damage of all of your melee abilities. Enhancement also converts this to Spell Power, increasing both spell damage and healing power.
• Critical Strike increases the chance for your attacks and abilities to critically strike, dealing double damage.
  • Certain talents (e.g. Overcharge) increase this bonus damage above the base 200% multiplier.
  • Also increases the chance to trigger the Flurry effect from abilities.
• Haste increases the speed of your melee auto-attacks, increasing the frequency of Imbue procs and Maelstrom Weapon stack generation. Additionally:
  • Increases the tick rate of both Flame Shock and Surging Totem.
  • Reduces your Global Cooldown to a minimum of 0.75 seconds.
  • Reduces the cooldown of your Stormstrike, Lava Lash, and Crash Lightning abilities.
• Mastery ( Mastery: Enhanced Elements) increases all Fire, Frost, and Nature damage dealt. Additionally:
  • Increases the chance to proc Stormsurge and Windfury Weapon, scaling at a much smaller rate. The converted chance can be increased by 150% via the Storm's Wrath talent.
• Versatility increases all damage and healing you do (including trinkets and proc effects) by a flat amount. Additionally, reduces all damage you take by half of that amount.

Every stat has a limit where it will begin to offer less increase per point gained, known as the points of diminishing return. Once you have reached these amounts, stats will become progressively less valuable and may fall behind other options. The current breakpoints are:

Itemization

Gearing and Enchants

Your stat priority extends to enchants, consumables, and gear. Take what you learned on this page and apply it to your gameplay with these two guides!

GearEnchants

Wordup

Guide Author

Follow Wordup

This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can follow him on Twitter.

In The Same Category

Enhancement Shaman Spell List and Glossary Enhancement Shaman Macros Enhancement Shaman Rotation Enhancement Shaman Easy Mode Enhancement Shaman Enchants Enhancement Shaman Talents