[Archived] Enhancement Shaman 5.4

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Enhancement Shaman guide.

[Ryieahna 10]

Looking good so far! Just one correction I've noticed at this point.

Your uses of Maelstrom Weapon in your rotation page you cannot use Greater Healing Wave since it's restoration only. You will have to resort to Healing Surge for a single target heal in enhance.

[Damien 1,514]

Looking good so far! Just one correction I've noticed at this point.

Your uses of Maelstrom Weapon in your rotation page you cannot use Greater Healing Wave since it's restoration only. You will have to resort to Healing Surge for a single target heal in enhance.

Thank you for reporting this and sorry for the delay in replying. The issue is now fixed :)

[Trogdor 0]

Why would you cast lightning bolt without 5 stacks of mael?

[csphilli 0]

Just a heads up with your macro section. Before 5.0.4, the macros worked. After 5.0.4, they didn't. Most specifically regarding the modifier button. It seems that the modifier button is now cap sensitive so it needs to be Alt not alt.

[Kerosh 0]

Thanks a lot for the guide! I've found it very useful, but I'm confused about the stat priority: you place Haste last, but all other websites I've gone to (MMO Champion, Elitist Jerks) have Haste right behind Agility (and hit caps and expertise of course). What's up with that? Should I reforge for Haste or Mastery?

[Saz 0]

Stats section: Haste does more than simply "increase the speed of your melee attacks." Ascendance, our Fire Elemental, and our Feral Spirits should all now scale with haste.

Cooldown section: "Snap shotting" of our pets should no longer happen; if you pop Feral Spirits out of sync with hero/lustwarp or an AP proc, they should gain those buffs regardless. So in theory you should be able to just pop these guys on cooldown instead waiting for procs or the perfect timing with hero/lust/warp.

@Kerosh and more on stats: From what I've been hearing, all three secondary stats are roughly equal, with haste and mastery being just a hair above crit. Stacking haste or mastery at level 85 seems to be completely dependent on gear set up. At this late point in the expansion, it shouldn't matter too much what you're stacking and probably wouldn't be terribly beneficial to completely revamp your stat priorities, as the end result would be a very minimal change at best. Personally I'm just making sure my caps are as close as I can get them and leaving the rest be until MoP (by that I mean I'm sticking with mastery for now). If you really are curious about which is the absolute best stat for your gear set up, I'm afraid you'll have to run SimCraft.

Edited September 1, 2012 by Saz

[Ryieahna 10]

It should be noted that on the Enchantment page Dragonbone Leg Reinforcements are no longer the leatherworking specific enchant. I don't know about other professions. The leatherworking specific enchant for enhance shamans is now Primal Leg Reinforcements, currently at level 85 with capped leatherworking, +95 agility +55 crit, the recipe updates automatically with your leatherworking. When applied it pulls about 10 attack power ahead of Dragonscale Leg Armor, and .30% crit. Though I wonder if this is just a fluke?

I was confused when I saw they had changed earlier today xD

There names of the wrist enchants have changed too, they are now Fur Lining - (specific stat)

These are the other two new leatherworking specific leg enchants.

Draconic Leg Reinforcements - 95 Str, 55 Crit

Heavy Leg Reinforcements - 143 Stamina 55 Dodge*

*These are actually slightly less than their non leatherworking counterpart Drakehide Leg Armor, which is 145 stamina and 55 dodge.

[Damien 1,514]

Why would you cast lightning bolt without 5 stacks of mael?

You should do that when you have nothing else to do, but only when you have 3 or 4 stacks, it is more efficient than doing just melee attacks on the boss.

Just a heads up with your macro section. Before 5.0.4, the macros worked. After 5.0.4, they didn't. Most specifically regarding the modifier button. It seems that the modifier button is now cap sensitive so it needs to be Alt not alt.

I fixed the macros, but modifier:alt works just fine. The problem had to do with clearfocus and the /focus that followed. I fixed them ;

Thanks a lot for the guide! I've found it very useful, but I'm confused about the stat priority: you place Haste last, but all other websites I've gone to (MMO Champion, Elitist Jerks) have Haste right behind Agility (and hit caps and expertise of course). What's up with that? Should I reforge for Haste or Mastery?

We've been using Simulation Craft a lot with this Patch. The tools seems pretty accurate and for Tier 13 Heroic, it gives Mastery, then Haste Rating and Critical Strike Rating at approximately the same level. At level 90, Haste Rating becomes the best secondary statistics, so maybe this is why it is listed as such in other guides ;)

Stats section: Haste does more than simply "increase the speed of your melee attacks." Ascendance, our Fire Elemental, and our Feral Spirits should all now scale with haste.

Cooldown section: "Snap shotting" of our pets should no longer happen; if you pop Feral Spirits out of sync with hero/lustwarp or an AP proc, they should gain those buffs regardless. So in theory you should be able to just pop these guys on cooldown instead waiting for procs or the perfect timing with hero/lust/warp.

It should be noted that on the Enchantment page Dragonbone Leg Reinforcements are no longer the leatherworking specific enchant. I don't know about other professions. The leatherworking specific enchant for enhance shamans is now Primal Leg Reinforcements, currently at level 85 with capped leatherworking, +95 agility +55 crit, the recipe updates automatically with your leatherworking. When applied it pulls about 10 attack power ahead of Dragonscale Leg Armor, and .30% crit. Though I wonder if this is just a fluke?

I was confused when I saw they had changed earlier today xD

There names of the wrist enchants have changed too, they are now Fur Lining - (specific stat)

These are the other two new leatherworking specific leg enchants.

Draconic Leg Reinforcements - 95 Str, 55 Crit

Heavy Leg Reinforcements - 143 Stamina 55 Dodge*

*These are actually slightly less than their non leatherworking counterpart Drakehide Leg Armor, which is 145 stamina and 55 dodge.

Thank you very much for this. It took me a while, but I've updated all our guides with these new enchants :)

I don't know why they do not apply exactly the same bonus as the regular leg enchants, as it was previously the case. At least, at level 90, it is still the case. Compare Draconic Leg Reinforcements and Angerhide Leg Armor.

[Guest Ilonka]

Under Spiritwalker's Grace, should it read "If you are using Glyph of Unleashed Lightning, this ability will be USELESS to you." not useful? The glyph allows you to cast Lightning Bolt while moving, so why do you need Spiritwalker's Grace?

[Damien 1,514]

Under Spiritwalker's Grace, should it read "If you are using Glyph of Unleashed Lightning, this ability will be USELESS to you." not useful? The glyph allows you to cast Lightning Bolt while moving, so why do you need Spiritwalker's Grace?

Good catch! Thank you for reporting it, it was a mistake, as I'm sure you noticed :)

[Guest Dahlese]

Windwalker Monks will also compete with you for fist weapons. They can also use one-handed maces and axes.

[Damien 1,514]

Windwalker Monks will also compete with you for fist weapons. They can also use one-handed maces and axes.

Thanks for reporting this. I've been trying to get Vlad to update these loot competition sections to include monks where necessary, but I haven't succeeding. I'll need to get a bigger hammer the next time I raise the issue ;)

[Stoove 347]

Just a question - why does the guide tell me not to use Fire Nova? With Lava Lash spreading Flame Shock, I would imagine that the AoE damage from it can become significant.

[Ryieahna 10]

Just a question - why does the guide tell me not to use Fire Nova? With Lava Lash spreading Flame Shock, I would imagine that the AoE damage from it can become significant.

Against 3 or more enemies, replace Lightning Bolt by Chain Lightning in your rotation and start using Fire Nova on cooldown. When fighting at least 6 enemies, replace Searing Totem by Magma Totem.

It's in the multiple target section of the rotation.

[Guest Sunisa]

Add to the rings, cloaks, neck and trinket section that Monks will also be rolling.

[Guest L]

In the gearing up section, it said the BiS shoulders are available at Honored with Golden Lotus - it's actually Revered.

[Guest Yosa]

I was just wondering about 1h and 2h

what is best for pve and pvp ?

[Guest Shamphoo]

Just as the 7th tier talent point, i'd say use Elemental Blast.. With just using my rotation and no CD's, my dps increased with 2-4k. I've played both with elemental blast and unleashed fury 3mins or more to test this.

Also it would be worth adding, that elemental blast is best to replace lightning bolt, as it will have the same benefits from maelstrom weapon.

In other words: it will be an instant cast if you get 5 stacks of maelstrom weapon.

It should also increase it's dmg with your mastery. Critting sometimes for 200k +

For AoE however still use the rotation with chained lightning.

[Guest Shamphoo]

I was just wondering about 1h and 2h

what is best for pve and pvp ?

agility 1h weapons (no daggers) both for pve and pvp

[Damien 1,514]

Add to the rings, cloaks, neck and trinket section that Monks will also be rolling.

We've done that last week, sorry for the delay :)

In the gearing up section, it said the BiS shoulders are available at Honored with Golden Lotus - it's actually Revered.

That has been fixed, thanks for noticing! :)

Just as the 7th tier talent point, i'd say use Elemental Blast.. With just using my rotation and no CD's, my dps increased with 2-4k. I've played both with elemental blast and unleashed fury 3mins or more to test this.

Also it would be worth adding, that elemental blast is best to replace lightning bolt, as it will have the same benefits from maelstrom weapon.

In other words: it will be an instant cast if you get 5 stacks of maelstrom weapon.

It should also increase it's dmg with your mastery. Critting sometimes for 200k +

For AoE however still use the rotation with chained lightning.

The talents are extremely well balanced, so I don't think one is better than the other.

Also, why replace Lightning Bolt with Elemental Blast? Elemental Blast has a shorter cast time, so it benefits from Maelstrom Weapon less then Lightning Bolt. And it has a cooldown, so you want to use it on cooldown, regardless of how many stacks of Maelstrom Weapon you have.

[Stoove 347]

Also, why replace Lightning Bolt with Elemental Blast? Elemental Blast has a shorter cast time, so it benefits from Maelstrom Weapon less then Lightning Bolt. And it has a cooldown, so you want to use it on cooldown, regardless of how many stacks of Maelstrom Weapon you have.

In that case, is it actually a net gain (compared to other talents) at all? Because you must decrease your LB casting frequency if EB is consuming MW charges! That means there's a component of DPS loss on single targets. In comparison, you're using UE in your rotation anyway so you're not really inducing a big DPS loss component by changing the priority.

[Damien 1,514]

In that case, is it actually a net gain (compared to other talents) at all? Because you must decrease your LB casting frequency if EB is consuming MW charges! That means there's a component of DPS loss on single targets. In comparison, you're using UE in your rotation anyway so you're not really inducing a big DPS loss component by changing the priority.

I played a bit with SimC and the DPS is very slightly lower if you tell it to use Elemental Blast only with more than 3 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon.

[Stoove 347]

I played a bit with SimC and the DPS is very slightly lower if you tell it to use Elemental Blast only with more than 3 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon.

I actually meant using EB on cooldown - it eats MW stacks anyway since you have to cast it regardless! The effect is probably small.

[Damien 1,514]

Using Elemental Blast on cooldown is the default behaviour in the SimC profile for Enhancement Shaman. Doing that is slightly better than trying to consume stacks of Maelstrom Weapon with Elemental Blast.