Enhancement Shaman DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.2)

Enhancement Shaman operates on a priority list, focusing on cycling your melee strikes to generate Maelstrom Weapon, and spending it on powerful spells. Enhancement takes some time to build up muscle memory, rewarding careful planning around resources.

1. Cast Surging Totem - Click for Notes

   • Use all Whirling Elements motes before recasting with a Totemic Recall refresh.
2. Cast Flame Shock if it's not active.
3. Cast Feral Spirit.
4. Cast Primordial Wave to trigger Splintered Elements.
5. Cast Maelstrom Weapon spenders with Whirling Air active - Click for Notes

   • Try to cast with 10 stacks. Use on Elemental Blast / Lightning Bolt.
6. Cast Lightning Bolt with 5+ Maelstrom Weapon and Whirling Air active.
7. Cast Doom Winds - Click for Notes

   • Have Legacy of the Frost Witch up beforehand, and refresh during.
8. Cast Primordial Storm with 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks - Click for Notes

   • Make sure Legacy of the Frost Witch is active, or will activate from the cast.
9. Cast Lava Lash with Hot Hand or Whirling Fire active.
10. Cast Totemic Recall immediately following a Surging Totem cast Click for Notes

    • This can be done regardless of Whirling Elements motes, just hold the Totem recast.
11. Cast Windstrike on cooldown during Ascendance.
12. Cast Ascendance.
13. Cast Windstrike on cooldown during Ascendance.
14. Cast Maelstrom Weapon spenders with 10 stacks - Click for Spend Rules

    • Cast Elemental Blast if available;
    • Cast Lightning Bolt otherwise.
15. Cast Lightning Bolt with 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
16. Cast Stormstrike with Doom Winds active.
17. Cast Sundering.
18. Cast Lava Lash / Stormstrike.
19. Cast Stormstrike.
20. Cast Voltaic Blaze.
21. Cast Ice Strike.
22. Cast Crash Lightning.
23. Cast Lightning Bolt with 5+ Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
24. Cast Crash Lightning.
25. Cast Flame Shock or Frost Shock to fill.
26. Cast Flame Shock if it's not active.
27. Cast Feral Spirit.
28. Cast Primordial Wave to trigger Splintered Elements.
29. Cast Windstrike on cooldown during Ascendance.
30. Cast Doom Winds.
31. Cast Primordial Storm with 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
32. Cast Windstrike on cooldown during Ascendance.
33. Cast Ascendance.
34. Cast Maelstrom Weapon spenders with 8+ stacks - Click for Spend Rules

    • Treat Elemental Blast and Tempest the same way - if either are at 2 charges it's at the top.
    • priority: Tempest ➜ Elemental Blast ➜ Lightning Bolt.
    • priority: Tempest if available ➜ Lightning Bolt.
35. Cast Primordial Wave if at 3 or less Maelstrom Weapon.
36. Cast Stormstrike with Stormblast active, or at 2 charges.
37. Cast Crash Lightning.
38. Cast Ice Strike.
39. Cast Voltaic Blaze.
40. Cast Stormstrike.
41. Cast Lava Lash.
42. Cast Crash Lightning.
43. Cast Sundering.
44. Cast Crash Lightning.
45. Cast Lightning Bolt with 5+ Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
46. Cast Flame Shock or Frost Shock to fill.

Enhancement has an ebb and flow that you will slowly get used to, as the "feel" of Maelstrom Weapon alongside ability cooldowns tends to follow a pattern. Reacting to key procs is also important, mixing up your rotation. Stormbringer needs to pay close attention to Stormsurge and Static Accumulation refunds, making sure to spend a second time if one happens. Totemic requires you to be especially aware of Hot Hand procs, as they drive the entire rotation. Below are some quick notes, populated based off the rotation tool:

• Stormbringer aggressively cycles Maelstrom Weapon for Tempest. Spend charges first, otherwise cast at 8+ stacks. Spend priority is Tempest ➜ Elemental Blast ➜ Lightning Bolt. Any excess is spent on Lightning Bolt.
• Primordial Wave is cast on cooldown to activate Splintered Elements in single-target. Align other cooldowns (in particular Doom Winds) for the follow-up Primordial Storm.
• Always be primed to Lightning Bolt with Thorim's Invocation before pressing Ascendance. While active, or during Season 3 Tier Set procs, cast Windstrike on cooldown, no matter what.
• Always be primed to Lightning Bolt for Thorim's Invocation at all times, in case of Deeply Rooted Elements procs. While active, or during any Tier Set procs, cast Windstrike on cooldown.
• With previous Season 2 set, Stormbringer still takes Crash Lightning for single-target. This is used as a priority filler, just below Stormstrike.
• With the Season 3 Tier Set, it's crucial to avoid wasting Tempest. Never be at 2 stacks on entry, and watch your Awakening Storms counter - Tier Set procs generate 2 Tempest charges.
• In between spenders, Stormbringer has a filler priority. Simplified rules are Stormstrike ➜ Ice Strike ➜ Voltaic Blaze ➜ Lava Lash, but this changes with some talent options.
• With Witch Doctor's Ancestry, overlap every Doom Winds with Feral Spirit. During Ascendance, the cooldown will likely refresh - cast it as soon as it's ready.
• As Totemic, Surging Totem should always be active. Place near targets with Totemic Projection. Make sure to consume Whirling Air with a Maelstrom Weapon spender ASAP each cast.
• With the Season 3 Tier Set, Totemic Recall is now a cooldown. This can be cast immediately after Surging Totem, but don't refresh a new Totem until all Whirling Elements motes are consumed.
• Hot Hand procs are your number 1 priority at all times. Weave Lava Lash every other GCD when active. Try to have setup done before consuming Whirling Fire.
• Your burst cooldowns are every 30-seconds and 1-minute, with Primordial Wave and Doom Winds. Always Overlap these, making sure to have Legacy of the Frost Witch active before each Doom Winds.
• With Witch Doctor's Ancestry taken, overlap every Primordial Wave and follow-up Primordial Storm casts with Feral Spirit using the CDR. Avoid desyncing from these cooldowns.

Enhancement AoE can be a little overwhelming, due to both the pace and the number of tools available. While each Hero Talent adds a lot, the core focus is built around Crash Lightning, and Chain Lightning becomes the Maelstrom Weapon spender of choice.

1. Cast Surging Totem - Click for Notes

   • Use all Whirling Elements motes before recasting with a Totemic Recall refresh.
2. Cast Flame Shock if it's not active on any targets.
   • Cast Lava Lash to spread after.
3. Cast Feral Spirit.
4. Cast Primordial Wave with Flame Shock spread to all nearby targets.
5. Cast Maelstrom Weapon spenders with Whirling Air active - Click for Notes

   • Try to cast with 10 stacks. Use on Elemental Blast / Chain Lightning.
6. Cast Chain Lightning with 5+ Maelstrom Weapon and Whirling Air active.
7. Cast Doom Winds - Click for Notes

   • Always have Legacy of the Frost Witch active before casting.
8. Cast Primordial Storm with 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
9. Cast Lava Lash with Hot Hand or Whirling Fire active.
10. Cast Sundering - Click for Notes

    • Have Legacy of the Frost Witch when casting.
11. Cast Totemic Recall immediately following a Surging Totem cast Click for Notes

    • This can be done regardless of Whirling Elements motes, just hold the Totem recast.
12. Cast Windstrike on cooldown during Ascendance.
13. Cast Ascendance.
14. Cast Windstrike on cooldown during Ascendance.
15. Cast Maelstrom Weapon spenders with 10 stacks - Click for Spend Rules

    • Cast Elemental Blast;
    • Cast Chain Lightning otherwise.
16. Cast Chain Lightning with 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
17. Cast Crash Lightning.
18. Cast Voltaic Blaze.
19. Cast Lava Lash.
20. Cast Stormstrike.
21. Cast Ice Strike.
22. Cast Chain Lightning with 5 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
23. Cast Flame Shock or Frost Shock to fill.
24. Cast Flame Shock if it's not active, and follow with Lava Lash - Click for Notes

    • Only needs to be up when Primordial Wave is available, don't worry otherwise.
25. Cast Feral Spirit.
26. Cast Primordial Wave with Flame Shock spread to all nearby targets.
27. Cast Windstrike on cooldown during Ascendance - Click for Notes

    • If you proc Tempest back-to-back, weave in a Maelstrom Weapon generator.
      Priority: Voltaic Blaze ➜ Crash Lightning.
    • If you proc Tempest back-to-back, Crash Lightning in between.
28. Cast Windstrike on cooldown during Ascendance - Click for Notes

    • If you proc Tempest back-to-back but do not trigger a Static Accumulation refund, weave in a Maelstrom Weapon filler between.
      Priority: Voltaic Blaze ➜ Crash Lightning.
    • If you proc Tempest back-to-back but do not trigger a Static Accumulation refund, Crash Lightning in between.
29. Cast Doom Winds.
30. Cast Primordial Storm with 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
31. Cast Ascendance.
32. Cast Maelstrom Weapon spenders with 7+ Maelstrom Weapon - Click for Spend Rules

    • Tempest - pool to 10 Maelstrom Weapon if possible;
    • Elemental Blast against 2 targets;
    • Chain Lightning.
33. Cast Crash Lightning.
34. Cast Voltaic Blaze.
35. Cast Sundering.
36. Cast Chain Lightning with 5+ Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
37. Cast Stormstrike.
38. Cast Ice Strike.
39. Cast Lava Lash.
40. Cast Flame Shock or Frost Shock to fill.

Our AoE priority often has a lot of extra tools that need to be juggled. This can often be boiled down to maintaining Flame Shock to activate Primordial Wave, and using Crash Lightning for additional Maelstrom Weapon. The influence of Hero Talents are just as strong here, so notes below are based on your selection:

• Stormbringer cycles Maelstrom Weapon aggressively. This is spent as a priority on Tempest, and otherwise Chain Lightning. Aim to spend at 7+ stacks.
• Primordial Wave requires you to set up spread Flame Shock every 30 seconds with Lava Lash. Aim to pool up Tempest charges to cast during Conductive Energy.
• Doom Winds provides extra damage and Maelstrom Weapon generation through procs. This can be activated in AoE, so Crash Lightning , Sundering and Primordial Storm should be overlapped with this.
• Crash Lightning is your top filler whenever you need Maelstrom Weapon. Following this, cast Voltaic Blaze ➜ Stormstrike ➜ Ice Strike ➜ Lava Lash , in that priority.
• Ascendance is your 2-minute cooldown, and Windstrike should be cast every GCD due to Thorim's Invocation. If you trigger Tempest back-to-back but drop to 0 Maelstrom Weapon, use Crash Lightning or Voltaic Blaze to generate. Aim to overlap with other cooldowns.
• When Deeply Rooted Elements procs occur, Windstrike should be cast every GCD due to Thorim's Invocation. If you trigger Tempest back-to-back but drop to 0 Maelstrom Weapon, use Crash Lightning or Voltaic Blaze to generate. Aim to overlap with other cooldowns.
• Totemic needs keep Surging Totem active at all times, dropping before the start of each pull. Whirling Earth should be used to set up your opening Flame Shock to set up Primordial Wave.
• Whenever Hot Hand is active, Lava Lash is your top priority. Weave these in between the rest of your priority. Try to consume Whirling Fire after all other setup is done.
• With the Season 3 Tier Set, Totemic Recall is now a cooldown. This can be cast immediately after Surging Totem, but don't refresh a new Totem until all Whirling Elements motes are consumed.
• Maelstrom Weapon is spent as a priority whenever Whirling Air is active, and always on Elemental Blast ➜ Chain Lightning. Chain Lightning. Outside of this, spenders are much less important.
• Doom Winds is your primary cooldown, use every minute, and sync with other buffs. While active, fit as many Hot Hand Lava Lash, Sundering, and Crash Lightning casts as possible.

Our opener changes quite a lot depending on build and target count. Use the tool below to adjust the display based on the fight style, and it will populate depending on your choices in the rotation tool.

Due to Totemic having a lot of opener flexibility, the tool above has options for both a standard simpler sequence, and a more advanced one in single target.

In AoE, Stormbringer's opener is massively influenced by you having any Tempests pooled or not. The tool above has options to switch between a standard non-pooled opener, and one that should be used if you have charges available.

Opener Style
Standard	Tempest stacks

1. Pre-cast Elemental Blast 2 seconds before the pull.
2. Cast Flame Shock on the way into melee.
3. Cast Stormstrike - Click for Notes

   • This is to build Maelstrom Weapon for the Tier Set Tempest.
   • This is to generate to 5 Maelstrom Weapon cast Elemental Blast before Ascendance.
   • This is to build Maelstrom Weapon for your first Thorim's Invocation proc.
4. Cast Ice Strike.
5. Cast Elemental Blast with 5+ Maelstrom Weapon.
6. Cast Primordial Wave.
7. Cast Feral Spirit.
8. Cast Lightning Bolt - Click for Notes

   • This activates Legacy of the Frost Witch
9. Cast Doom Winds.
10. Cast Ascendance.
11. Cast Windstrike on cooldown - Click for Notes

    • This guarantees Legacy of the Frost Witch.
    • This spends Tempest and guarantees Legacy of the Frost Witch.
12. Cast Lava Lash to spread Flame Shock.
13. Cast Feral Spirit.
14. Cast Primordial Wave.
15. Cast Doom Winds.
16. Cast Crash Lightning.
17. Cast Lightning Bolt - Click for Notes

    • This activates Legacy of the Frost Witch
18. Cast Ascendance.
19. Cast Windstrike on cooldown.
20. Cast Crash Lightning if below 5 Maelstrom Weapon.
21. Cast Feral Spirit.
22. Cast Primordial Wave.
23. Cast Tempest.
24. Cast Ascendance.
25. Cast Windstrike - Click for Notes

    • This immediately consumes the Tier Set Tempest charge.
    • This either consumes excess Tempest, or Arc Discharge.
26. Cast Doom Winds.
27. Cast Windstrike on cooldown.
28. Cast Primordial Storm once you reach 10 Maelstrom Weapon.
29. Cast Primordial Storm just before Doom Winds expires - Click for Notes

    • Delay to build up Rolling Thunder. Try to have 10 Maelstrom Weapon.
    • Try to have 10 Maelstrom Weapon.
30. Cast Surging Totem 1 second before the pull.
31. Cast Surging Totem 5+ seconds before the pull.
32. Cast Surging Totem 1 second before the pull.
33. Cast Totemic Recall to reset Surging Totem.
34. Pre-cast Lightning Bolt 2 seconds before the pull.
35. Cast Flame Shock on the way into melee.
    • Use Totemic Projection to move Surging Totem under your target.
36. Cast Feral Spirit.
37. Cast Stormstrike.
38. Cast Primordial Wave.
39. Cast Lava Lash to trigger Hot Hand.
40. Cast Surging Totem to refresh for new Whirling Elements motes.
41. Cast Lava Lash - Click for Notes

    • This extends the initial Hot Hand and guarantees a double Sundering activation.
42. Cast Elemental Blast with your opening Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
43. Cast Lightning Bolt with your opening Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
44. Cast Lava Lash ➜ Doom Winds ➜ Lava Lash ➜ Stormstrike ➜ Lava Lash in that order.
45. Cast Primordial Storm with 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
46. Cast Elemental Blast once you reach 10 Maelstrom Weapon.
    • Cast Stormstrike if not at 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
47. Cast Lightning Bolt once you reach 10 Maelstrom Weapon.
    • Cast Stormstrike to generate instead if you are not at 10.
48. Cast Sundering until it doesn't reset.
49. Cast Doom Winds - Click for Notes

    • Have Legacy of the Frost Witch active when this is used.
50. Cast Lava Lash to trigger Hot Hand. Weave while active.
51. Cast Feral Spirit.
52. Cast Crash Lightning.
53. Cast Primordial Wave.
54. Cast Chain Lightning at 10 Maelstrom Weapon.
55. Cast Elemental Blast at 10 Maelstrom Weapon.
56. Cast Doom Winds - Click for Notes

    • Aim to have Legacy of the Frost Witch active when this is used.
57. Cast Sundering until it does not reset.
58. Cast Lava Lash to trigger Whirling Fire. Repeat every other GCD until Hot Hand expires.
59. Cast Primordial Storm once you reach 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks - Click for Notes

    • Weave between Lava Lash casts to refresh Legacy of the Frost Witch.
60. Cast Primordial Storm once you reach 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks - Click for Notes

    • Weave between Lava Lash casts to refresh Legacy of the Frost Witch.
61. Continue with normal ability priority.

Depending on your build and fight type, Enhancement has a few things to set up once it enters combat. Once its major cooldowns are rolling however, you can transition smoothly into the regular priority list. Key notes based on your selections are:

• Stormbringer's opener in single-target is incredibly simple. A small amount of setup is needed, building some Maelstrom Weapon, and once ready, begins Ascendance.
• Pre-cast Elemental Blast for the buff. Quickly build up to 5 Maelstrom Weapon but don't spend, you need it to buff the Tier Set Tempest proc. and cast the second charge of Elemental Blast. This avoids overcapping during Ascendance.
• Once set up, cast Feral Spirit ➜ Doom Winds ➜ Ascendance.
• Stormbringer's AoE setup is quite involved. Begin by spreading Flame Shock to set up Primordial Wave, then follow with Feral Spirit ➜ Doom Winds ➜ Crash Lightning ➜ Ascendance.
• Primordial Storm should always be cast with 10 Maelstrom Weapon, and during Doom Winds. Hold until the last GCD to maximize Rolling Thunder spawns.
• With Tempest charges pooled, spend one following Primordial Wave to avoid waste from the tier set. All extra charges you generate should be consumed with Windstrike.
• The Totemic opener needs to generate 10 Maelstrom Weapon early to consume Whirling Air, before using Whirling Fire. Your first spender should be Elemental Blast. Lightning Bolt.
• Cast Primordial Wave early to help. Follow with Feral Spirit, and once Legacy of the Frost Witch is active, begin Doom Winds and Hot Hand.
• Cast Primordial Storm during Doom Winds at 10 Maelstrom Weapon. Use this to refresh Legacy of the Frost Witch.
• The advanced Totemic opener makes use of Totemic Recall to double Surging Totem. This requires you to pre-cast Elemental Blast Lightning Bolt to consume Whirling Air.
• Once done, follow-up with Lava Lash to consume Whirling Fire, re-cast Surging Totem and cast again. This should build enough Maelstrom Weapon for a spender - granting Legacy of the Frost Witch.
• Once active, begin Doom Winds, weaving Lava Lash every other GCD. Cast Primordial Storm at 10 Maelstrom Weapon when Legacy of the Frost Witch expires.
• The AoE Totemic opener is simple, using higher Maelstrom Weapon generation. Cast Surging Totem before the pull, open with AoE Flame Shock, and cast Primordial Wave.
• Follow immediately with Crash Lightning, which should grant 10 Maelstrom Weapon for a spender. Once Legacy of the Frost Witch is active, begin Doom Winds.
• Cast Sundering, repeating until it doesn't reset. Follow with Lava Lash to begin Hot Hand. Weave every other GCD, casting Primordial Storm at 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks to refresh Legacy of the Frost Witch.

Feral Spirit summons two wolves to fight with you for 15 seconds, with a 90-second cooldown. When this is cast, you instantly generate one stack of Maelstrom Weapon, and an additional Maelstrom Weapon stack every 3 seconds for their duration. Each individual active wolf also increases the Physical damage of your abilities (not including auto-attacks) by 15%, stacking multiplicatively - this means the baseline cast of two wolves is a 32.25% increase.

With Alpha Wolf taken, any Feral Spirit you spawn will also pulse for additional Physical damage following a Crash Lightning or Chain Lightning cast, lasting for 8 seconds. This damage is uncapped, and will apply to new wolves that spawn after activating the 8-second window.

The follow-up choice node significantly affects the access to Feral Spirit, and are both very strong:

• Witch Doctor's Ancestry - provides a flat 4% increased chance to all Maelstrom Weapon triggers. Each Maelstrom Weapon stack generated reduces the cooldown of Feral Spirit by 1 second. This generally averages out to a 20-30 second cooldown, but can even reach below 10 during burst periods. This allows us to overlap casts and stack multipliers.
• Flowing Spirits - grants a 6% chance on any active ability to spawn one Feral Spirit wolf for 8 seconds, but you can no longer cast the baseline ability. This includes all special attacks, including procs such as Windfury Weapon. While this is listed as a flat chance, it is actually a "deck of cards" system - there are 50 cards, with 3 containing a Feral Spirit spawn. Each time an ability is cast, it draws one card and cycles, until all cards are drawn, reshuffling a new deck. This therefore means that the functional cap is 6, as you cannot cycle more than that every 8 seconds before previous wolves despawn.

Elemental Spirits alters all wolves spawned via Feral Spirit, causing them to spawn randomly as either a Fire, Frost or Lightning wolf. These increase your Physical damage by 10%, and also the increase the magic damage you deal with the wolf's corresponding spell school. Which element is spawned is completely random, and this applies to both Witch Doctor's Ancestry and Flowing Spirits spawns.

Ascendance has two methods of activation — either with the active ability on a 3-minute cooldown for 15 seconds, or through spending Maelstrom Weapon to proc it for 6 seconds. When activated, this deals heavy Nature damage to nearby enemies. For the duration your Stormstrike and auto-attacks are replaced by the following:

• Stormstrike is replaced by Windstrike. This has a significantly reduced cooldown, a 30-yard range, and ignores the target's armor.
• Auto-attacks are replaced by Windlash. These have a 30-yard range, ignore the target's armor, and are now considered special attacks.

While this is active, the general rule is that you want to be casting Windstrike every single GCD, so long as you have charges available. The talent strongly relies on the follow-up talents on the spec tree, otherwise it's relatively weak.

Deeply Rooted Elements is the passive proc alternative to the on-use Ascendance. This is advertised as a 0.6% chance to trigger for each Maelstrom Weapon stack consumed, but is in fact another deck of cards system. There are 2 procs, and 330 cards, with each stack of Maelstrom Weapon consumed drawing 1 card. Procs are always at least 10 cards apart (to prevent one spender triggering it twice), and after cycling through the deck, it will reshuffle a new one. This generally averages out to around 1 proc per minute with current cycling rates, though with some luck you can squeeze a little more out of it.

While this may seem like you can plan around it, there are simply so many cards and configurations that the only thing you can do is use this information to justify feeling bad after a bad RNG streak.

Whenever playing these nodes, it is highly recommended to complete the entire follow-up row. This is especially true when playing Stormbringer, as Static Accumulation provides extremely potent synergy.

• Static Accumulation — each point generates one Maelstrom Weapon per second while Ascendance is active. Additionally, spending Maelstrom Weapon on Lightning Bolt , Tempest or Chain Lightning has a 10% chance per point to fully refund the amount spent. This is an enormous source of resource generation, and requires you to play around it. With Stormbringer taken, this shifts Maelstrom Weapon spending firmly toward lightning spells, due to the dual chance to refund with this and Supercharge.
• Thorim's Invocation — reduces the cooldown of Ascendance by 1 minute, extends the duration of Deeply Rooted Elements procs by 2 seconds, and increases the damage of Lightning Bolt , Tempest and Chain Lightning by 20%. Most importantly, it causes Windstrike to also spend up to 5 Maelstrom Weapon, discharging either to discharge either Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning depending on your most recent cast. As Stormbringer, this will always consume Tempest if available, and also consume up to 10 stacks, instead of the usual limit of 5. When taken, it means no matter your build you will want to cast Windstrike on cooldown.

There is a lot of complex parts of Thorim's Invocation when it comes to how it interacts with other specific talents, and what changes its priming state between Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. Below are key details to bear in mind, in particular for AoE scenarios:

• Any Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, regardless of Maelstrom Weapon spent, will set Thorim's Invocation manually to the respective spell.
• Make sure before each Ascendance cast you are primed to the correct spell:
  • Single Target - Lightning Bolt
  • AoE - Chain Lightning
• Tempest is dynamic, meaning the number of targets hit dictates what you are primed to. If it hits only one target, it will be set to Lightning Bolt, while if it hits two or more it will change to Chain Lightning
  • Thorim's Invocation will always consume Tempest if possible, regardless of priming.
• Primordial Storm is dynamic, and will prime you to whichever of the two spells it casts at the end of its sequence. This is decided by the number of targets hit by the initial 3 strikes.

Primordial Wave is a 30-second cooldown burst tool, dealing heavy Elemental damage to all targets affected by your Flame Shock effect. This requires at least one Flame Shock to use, and when cast generates 5 Maelstrom Weapon. Each target hit will also have Lightning Rod applied via Stormbringer's Conductive Energy effect.

Splintered Elements provides 5/10% Haste for 12 seconds when you cast Primordial Wave, plus an additional 2/4% for each extra target hit beyond the first - effectively giving it a cap of 15/30% at 6 targets. This is regularly taken in AoE builds, and is used to overlap our other burst cooldown effects for a surge of Haste.

Primordial Storm is a combo skill follow-up available after casting Primordial Wave. When cast, this triggers a 4 step attack that always happens in the same order: Fire strike ➜ Frost strike ➜ Lightning strike ➜ empowered Lightning Bolt / Chain Lightning, based on targets hit by the 3 strikes. The first 3 strikes are considered main-hand strikes, and hit in AoE, meaning they each individually trigger weapon imbues such as Windfury Weapon on targets hit. Lastly, this also consumes Maelstrom Weapon to amplify the damage of all hits.

Stormbringer uses Primordial Wave as a way to snap generate Maelstrom Weapon, and also to quickly apply Conductive Energy to multiple targets. This is usually followed up with Tempest, and is a key part of its burst AoE sequence. Splintered Elements is used to blanket Ascendance, and every second Primordial Storm should align with your Doom Winds.

Totemic treats this as a primary damage cooldown, using Splintered Elements to speed up its Hot Hand windows. Due to the higher imbuement damage, it wants to always align Primordial Storm with Doom Winds, placing it on a strict 30-second cooldown cycle.

Doom Winds lasts for 8 seconds, tripling your chance to trigger Windfury Weapon while active. Additionally, also deals Stormstrike (Nature/Physical, not the ability) damage every second to nearby enemies, with a 1-minute cooldown. Some key notes are:

• While Doom Winds is up, the value of main-hand strikes rises as these can trigger Windfury Weapon. Attacks that fall into this category are Stormstrike / Windstrike, Ice Strike, Crash Lightning, Sundering / Reactivity, and all 3 Primordial Storm strikes.
• Each enemy hit by the initial cast of Crash Lightning, or any target hit by Sundering / Reactivity counts as a main-hand strike, and will trigger an "AoE Windfury" hit that is truly uncapped.
• When playing with with Primordial Storm, you ideally want to overlap Doom Winds with every other cast. This provides 3 very quick AoE triggers, leading to a huge number of hits and Maelstrom Weapon generation.

Stormbringer casts this strictly on cooldown, aiming to align it with Ascendance, to capitalize on the extra Maelstrom Weapon and Stormsurge procs. That means every other cast will be used in tandem with Ascendance. If also playing with Primordial Storm, every second cast should be used inside your Doom Winds window.

Totemic treats this as its big cooldown moment, and aims to cast it strictly on cooldown every minute. Ideally, you want to have Hot Hand active (though this isn't always reliable), and fill every single attack with either Lava Lash or Stormstrike. You should also be overlapping these casts with both Feral Spirit and Legacy of the Frost Witch. Primordial Storm should always be one of your GCDs during this, and is often used to refresh Legacy of the Frost Witch part way through.

Maelstrom Weapon management is crucial if you intend to play Enhancement at a competitive level. This has a 20% chance to trigger from any melee hit, and stacks up to 5 times (or up to 10 with Raging Maelstrom). Each stack reduces the cast time of your next Lightning Bolt / Chain Lightning cast by 20%, and also increases the damage of affected spells by 25% (due to Improved Maelstrom Weapon and Raging Maelstrom). At 5 stacks, ability casts that consume this become instant, and only 5 stacks can be consumed at once. When talenting into Overflowing Maelstrom, this is increased to 10 stacks, increasing the maximum possible multiplier.

While it is tempting to cast these spells as soon as you hit 5 stacks, you should train yourself to make use of the 10-stack limit granted by Raging Maelstrom. If you are not at risk of overcapping your Maelstrom Weapon stacks, then it makes more sense to focus on keeping your other abilities on cooldown. Spending rules are as follows:

• Stormbringer builds aim to spend at 8+, but can often find themselves spending lower depending on the situation, often to fish for Static Accumulation and Supercharge triggers if they run out of generators.
• During Ascendance, Windstrike will naturally spend at least 5 every Windstrike to siphon some away. This is almost always more valuable than spending with higher stacks.
• Tempest should ideally be cast with as much Maelstrom Weapon as possible, ideally at 10. During Ascendance, your Windstrike casts will automatically consume an available charge and consume up to 10 stacks, breaking the 5 stack spend limit from Thorim's Invocation.
• Totemic aims to spend at 10 stacks despite Totemic Rebound, due to how busy its GCDs are.
• It aims to follow each Surging Totem with a Maelstrom Weapon spender as soon as possible, to trigger Whirling Air and amplify the rest of the totem.
• With Elemental Blast taken, this becomes the priority Maelstrom Weapon. This includes in AoE situations, and you should only default to Lightning Bolt / Chain Lightning if you have no charges available.

Due to the passive refund proc on Static Accumulation, the value of spending on Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning is elevated, though not enough to stop Elemental Blast from being worth casting. Even at 5 stacks, it can sometimes be worth spending due to the chance of a refund on average being higher than your base generation.

Crash Lightning looks simple on the surface, but has many moving parts. It's an essential aspect of Enhancement gameplay in AoE, and there are some core components to understand:

• The Crash Lightning buff is triggered for 12 seconds whenever it strikes two targets or more, and should be maintained in any multi-target situation.
• While active, Stormstrike, Lava Lash and Ice Strike will trigger a separate damage splash event, also called Crash Lightning.
• All Crash Lightning damage, both the active and splash component, can trigger Maelstrom Weapon individually. Only only the active cast hits can proc Stormsurge.
• The initial cast of Crash Lightning can trigger individual Windfury Weapon events on targets hit.

The above means that any time we can get more than one target together, we want this to be active to boost to our primary strikes, which also leads to additional resources. In AoE situations, this causes a flood of extra Maelstrom Weapon, which confers a number of benefits to both builds: extra cooldown access, AoE damage and funnel. Windfury Weapon can also trigger on each target hit by the initial cast, giving it even stronger AoE synergy. We also ideally want to cast it as much as possible during Doom Winds in AoE.

Chain Lightning also has two direct interactions with Crash Lightning:

• Each target hit by Chain Lightning reduces the cooldown of Crash Lightning by 0.5 seconds (up to a maximum of 2.5 with Crashing Storms)
• Each target hit by Chain Lightning increases the damage of your next active cast of Crash Lightning by 10% per target hit (up to 50% with Crashing Storms).

This creates a generate-spend relationship between the two, leading to extra access, the resources to activate it, and increased frontloaded power of the ability. This encourages us to spend at least once in between each Crash Lightning cast.

Converging Storms is a choice node, causing each target hit by the initial Crash Lightning cast to increase the damage of your next Stormstrike cast by 25% per target hit, stacking up to 6 (for a maximum of 150%). This activates even on a single-target, and is a modest boost to funnel for builds centered around Stormstrike.

Unrelenting Storms allows us to use Crash Lightning as a primary single-target strike, so long as no other targets are nearby. This causes Crash Lightning to have a reduced cooldown when it only hits a single target, and guaranteeably procs Windfury Weapon on your target. This is considered an independent proc, so your cast can technically trigger it twice. When played, this raises the priority of Crash Lightning, and allows us to hybridize cleave builds for a single talent point.

"Funnel" is often considered one of the most valuable niches, and Enhancement has a handful of mechanics that work in this way. This uses nearby enemies as fuel to amplify damage into priority targets. Effects on the tree that fall into this category are:

Crash Lightning is the most common, due to the additional Maelstrom Weapon mentioned in the Crash Lightning section. This often leads to much higher access to spenders, and also funels talents built off generation such as Witch Doctor's Ancestry. This effect comes online as soon as a second target is present, and only gets better as the count increases, so is a staple in multi-target scenarios.

Alongside this, Ashen Catalyst significantly increases its stack rate in AoE due to the additional Flame Shocks from spreading. This allows for more frequent, empowered Lava Lash casts, which some builds benefit greatly from. In builds that do, your "anchor" target often takes significantly more damage than those nearby, as Lava Lash is used as an AoE enabler that deals significant direct damage.

With Stormbringer, there is also the added benefit of Conductive Energy. This applies a seperate debuff via spenders and Primordial Wave, converting the total AoE damage dealt by follow-up spenders into additional Nature damage to all targets affected. Especially with how much AoE damage Tempest can deal, this often leads to targets affected taking a significantly larger hit when you cast AoE spenders.

Your Weapon Imbues should always be active, as they confer a strong benefit. Some notes on each are:

• Windfury Weapon - only applied to the main-hand, these additional strikes are considered special attacks and, as such, can generate Maelstrom Weapon and trigger procs such as Stormsurge.
• Flametongue Weapon - only applied to the off-hand, this causes all weapon attacks to trigger an additional hit of fire damage, and doubles the damage your Lava Lash deals while active.

For Totemic, there is additional synergy with Imbuement Mastery which links the two procs together. This grants Flametongue Weapon attacks triggered by Windfury Weapon a chance to deal an additional AoE pulse, dealing AoE damage to all nearby targets. The value of Flametongue is also significantly increased when taking Supportive Imbuements, which most builds do.

While Weapon Imbues do block you from using temporary weapon buffs such as Ironclaw Whetstone, the extra mechanical effects these provide to the Enhancement toolkit make them significantly more valuable, and as such we always use them. This is made even more mandatory by the locked-in talent Elemental Weapons, and you should never use double Flametongue Weapon - this confers no benefit.

Lightning Shield should always be kept active in solo content thanks to the additional Maelstrom Weapon it generates, but has little value in group contentand also provides damage reduction for Stormbringer with Nature's Protection taken. Generally, Earth Shield is played and maintained for the minor additional sustain it provides, so pick up Elemental Orbit to use both.

Enhancement also brings a small package of effects that help your party or raid group:

Skyfury, granted by any Shaman, provides a flat increase to Mastery rating to all Party and Raid members. It also has additional benefits for melee characters, providing a 20% chance to proc an additional auto-attack each swing, with a 0.5-second internal cooldown per player. This does not trigger from missed attacks, and can miss itself. These extra attacks count as regular auto-attacks, meaning they proc all on-hit effects, but they do not affect Hunter auto-shots, pets, or guardians.

Mana Spring allows us to convert Stormstrike casts into Mana for healers. This is more potent if you are playing a Stormstrike heavy build, but the overall value is fairly limited even in a raid setting. Since points are not very tight on our class tree in raids however, this is an option.

Flame Shock is more of a secondary component of your tree in The War Within (and the degree of its importance depends on talent selections). It plays as a passive, low-maintenance damage source in single-target, while in AoE it's more of an enabler. This means it's a part of your rotation in almost every situation with most builds. There are some additional details to note when using it that are less inuitive at first glance:

In single-target situations, you should aim to keep Flame Shock active, especially with Lashing Flames taken. This can be refreshed based on the pandemic timer, meaning any time remaining under 5.4 seconds will be added onto the new application. With Molten Assault taken, Lava Lash will also reapply Flame Shock so long as it's already active on your target, meaning that it often maintains itself with regular gameplay.

Molten Assault allows you to spread your current Flame Shock debuff on your target to nearby enemies using Lava Lash. There are a number of effects that benefit from having Flame Shock applied to target, such as Fire Nova, Ashen Catalyst, and most importantly Primordial Wave. When you cast Lava Lash, it doesn't just apply a copy of the DoT to other targets; rather, it casts an extra additional Flame Shock on them, dealing the direct damage at the same time.

Voltaic Blaze also grants an extra way to apply it in AoE, though being an RPPM chance to trigger from spenders, it's not reliable enough to be your sole method of supporting talents that rely on spread. Totemic also has the benefit of the Whirling Earth mote, which causes Flame Shock casts that consume it to apply the debuff to 5 additional enemies near your target. This makes setting up for abilities such as Primordial Wave much easier following each Surging Totem cast.