Shaman Hero Talents — The War Within (Season 1)

This page is covers only the new Hero Talents available in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents and complimenting builds for Enhancement Shaman, check out our Talents page:

The Current recommendation for Hero Talents in all types of encounters is Stormbringer.

Stormbringer is tuned in such a way that it is far better no matter the type of encounter, alongside also being significantly easier to execute. Due to this, it is recommended for any raid situation.

Unfortunately, while Totemic does have some strong burst moments when dropping Surging Totem and overlapping it with some abilities, its overall tuning point is much lower. It also has more RNG and is significantly harder to pilot regardless of build, so it is not recommended.

The Current recommendation for Hero Talents in Mythic+ is Stormbringer.

The versatility found in Stormbringer's toolkit, alongside having access to a powerful AoE spender makes it far better suited to the demands of Mythic+. It scales upward very well with additional targets due to the additional Maelstrom Weapon access, and provides a small defensive benefit in Nature's Protection.

Once again, unfortunately, Totemic is tuned much lower in AoE and suffers from a much more conflicted priority, meaning it has a harder time actually leveraging its tools for AoE. It also requires a more broad talent tree loadout to support it and is not recommended.

Due to the worse tuning that Totemic suffers from, our recommendations here are heavily weighted toward Stormbringer. Each of the tabs below have a brief explanation of the build choices for both our Elementalist and Storm loadouts, and a separate section covers Totemic. You can still, however, find recommendations for it on our Talents Page.

3.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Enhancement Shaman

Stormbringer
Single-Target Stormbringer
Mythic+ Totemic
Details

3.

Best Stormbringer Single-Target Build for Enhancement Shaman

Stormbringer heavily shifts your focus toward Maelstrom Weapon generating and spending, so the most important talent for both build archetypes is Static Accumulation on the spec tree. Go to our talent page for more information about these loadouts.

As there are only two choice nodes on the tree, for single-target Storm Swell is obviously the pick for damage due to being unable to activate Arc Discharge, and Nature's Protection is far superior for defense.

3.

Best Stormbringer Mythic+ Build for Enhancement Shaman

Stormbringer in AoE puts an even bigger focus on Maelstrom Weapon spending to cycle between big Tempest casts to trigger Arc Discharge. This means both builds need to path through Static Accumulation as a core part of the build.

As there are only two choice nodes on the tree, for AoE Arc Discharge is the obvious pick due to it being very difficult to only hit one target to trigger Storm Swell. Nature's Protection is far superior for defense.

3.

Totemic Details

Totemic is a very awkward build to make work because it has so many moving parts that cause GCD clashes, alongside having to manage Surging Totem. All of these things cause it to fall behind numerically. On top of that, it is much harder to execute due to all the moving parts, so sadly, there is not enough here to justify taking it in any situation. There are supported builds covered on the Talents page, and it is supported on the Rotation page as well, if you are interested in playing it.

Both builds also take a different loadout of talents from the choice nodes:

• Elementalist takes Amplification Core, Totemic Coordination and Pulse Capacitor to leverage Lively Totems, as it cannot efficiently activate Oversurge.
• Storm instead takes Oversurge, Earthsurge and Pulse Capacitor to focus more on Surging Totem damage.

Elementalist Talent Loadout

Storm Talent Loadout

Stormbringer aims to cycle Maelstrom Weapon as quickly as possible to trigger Tempest and spend it as soon as possible to avoid wasting follow-up procs. This shifts the rotational priority so much that spending aggressively is the most important thing, no matter your build.

Totemic needs to use Surging Totem every 24 seconds as soon as it comes off cooldown, and also manage its position to keep it under targets using Totemic Projection. Most procs are just background improvements to our rotational strikes and should happen passively. Lastly, each time you cast Surging Totem three Whirling Elements motes are generated that need to be consumed in different ways depending on build:

• Elementalist needs to pool Maelstrom Weapon to make sure it can cast Elemental Blast back-to-back quickly
• Storm aims to overlap Sundering casts with Deeply Rooted Elements.