ELE Shaman: 1H vs. 2H weapon (4 replies to this topic)

I am new to running an ELE Shaman. Everywhere I look refers me to Main Hand/Off Hand setup. But nowhere have I seen a article on advantages of one over the other. I am sure that someone here can help me understand the perceived disadvantage of holding a staff/

Thanks!

To understand why people most often use a combination of a main-hand weapon and an off-hand frill and not a staff, let's look at the statistics provided by both possibilities (both item level 509).

• Jin'ya, Orb of the Waterspeaker: 1,380 Intellect, Sha-touched gem socket, 7,907 Spell Power, 961 Haste Rating, and 852 Critical Strike Rating (so 1813 points in secondary stats)
  
• Kri'tak, Imperial Scepter of the Swarm + Tornado-Summoning Censer: 1,361 Intellect, 7,907 Spell Power 390 Hit rating, 406 Spirit, 960 Critical Strike Rating (so 1756 points in secondary stats)

As you can see, the staff brings, by itself, slightly more stats than the main-hand/off-hand combination. The only reason why people go for a main-hand/off-hand combination is because you can enchant your off-hand item with Enchant Off-Hand - Major Intellect.

Even so, the difference is minimal and if you have a staff that has an item level higher than the average item level of your main-hand and off-hand items, than you should go for the staff

#UP

And a important fact is about upgrade system, to turn your staff in 2/2 you will spend 1,5k valor, but the main+off you will spend 3k, thats a "dps lost" because u could spend this 1,5k on other item or upgrade

Another interesting fact to use shields is that if you are on a normal raid group, the only ones rolling for a caster shield will be Elemental and Resto Shamans and Holy Paladins, there will be less competition.

Rabooda, on 11 January 2013 - 07:51 PM, said:

On the flipside, caster shields are usually horribly hard to get hold of. I cleared T13 every week for the best part of three months and didn't see a single shield drop. Not one. =]