Enhancement Shaman DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.2)

Each of Enhancement's hero talents have a strong build variant for single-target that focuses on their strengths. Currently, the recommended choice is Stormbringer, which heavily focuses on your Maelstrom Weapon spenders. It also comes with a powerful 2-minute burst window in Ascendance, making it well suited for Raid situations.

If you are interested in a deep dive on this or a Totemic build, check our talent page:

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

In AoE, each hero tree has a suitable build that provides different specialized burst timers. While the throughput of Stormbringer in AoE is higher, it requires a lot of additional management that can be difficult to pick up as a newer player. Instead, Totemic is recommended due to having a more static priority focus.

The gameplay loop revolves around casting Lava Lash with Hot Hand active as often as possible, while maintaining Crash Lightning. It has a strong 30-second burst window with Primordial Storm and Splintered Elements, made even stronger every minute when overlapped with Doom Winds.

If you are interested in a deep dive on this or a Stormbringer build, check our talent page:

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Before entering combat, always make sure to do the following:

• Apply Weapon Imbues - Windfury Weapon on your main-hand, and Flametongue Weapon on your off-hand. These automatically apply to the appropriate weapon when cast.
• Cast Group Buffs - Use Skyfury to buff you and your party with Mastery and auto-attack procs.
• Apply Your Shield - Stormbringer uses Lightning Shield, Totemic uses Earth Shield.

In single-target, Enhancement is heavily GCD locked as Stormbringer, and the focus is heavily based on Maelstrom Weapon. Here's a brief breakdown to get you started:

• Spend your Maelstrom - Maelstrom Weapon should be spent ideally at 8+ stacks, but never below 7. Priority is Tempest ➜ Elemental Blast ➜ Lightning Bolt. Watch out for Static Accumulation refunds.
• Use Melee Strikes and Fillers - Cast Stormstrike on cooldown. When not available, cast fillers in the following order of priority: Crash Lightning ➜ Voltaic Blaze ➜ Ice Strike ➜ Frost Shock.
• Sync Mid-range Cooldowns - Feral Spirit is cast on cooldown, roughly every 30 seconds. Overlap this with Doom Winds every minute.
• Time Your 2-minute Burst - Ascendance is used every 2 minutes. Set up mid-range cooldowns first, then start. Cast Windstrike every GCD while active.

In AoE, Totemic has a burst cooldown sequence to plan, and relies heavily on Hot Hand procs. Below we've broken it down into steps you need for success:

• Always Maintain your Totem - Surging Totem should be maintained 100% of the time, cast every 24 seconds. Relocate it if targets move with Totemic Projection.
• Apply and Spread Flame Shock - Cast Flame Shock at the start of every pull. This will apply in AoE with Whirling Earth from your Totem, or you can spread it from an anchor target with Lava Lash.
• Execute Burst Windows - Cast Feral Spirit either just before Primordial Wave - which requires Flame Shock to be applied. Cast Sundering until it does not reset. With 10 Maelstrom Weapon, follow up with Primordial Storm.
  • Use Doom Winds every minute after Primordial Wave. Cast Primordial Storm during this.
• Play around Hot Hand - When Hot Hand is active, weave Lava Lash every other GCD.
• Use Maelstrom Weapon - Used to trigger Legacy of the Frost Witch and spend Whirling Air from your Totem. Always spend at 10 on Elemental Blast, or Chain Lightning if it's on cooldown.
• Use Melee Strikes - Fillers are cast outside of these rules in the following priority:
  Crash Lightning (maintain the buff) ➜ Lava Lash (no Hot Hand) ➜ Stormstrike.

Astral Shift provides a 40% damage reduction for 12 seconds on a 1.5-minute cooldown (using Planes Traveler). This is Enhancement's strongest defensive tool, and while it has a longer cooldown than most defensives, it provides a lot of safety while active.

Earth Elemental grants 15% maximum health and 5% damage reduction for 1-minute, on a 5-minute cooldown. This is a "backup" cooldown when you cannot use Astral Shift, and can cover very long periods of time. It does, however, have a habit of getting itself killed due to its taunting, so be wary of using it if it will bother your tank.

Stone Bulwark Totem provides a 30% max health absorb shield, and an additional 3% shield every 5 seconds for 30 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. This is a decent survival tool against burst damage with some additional help against rot effects, but its long cooldown makes it inflexible, so plan accordingly.

Spirit Wolf provides up to a 20% damage reduction after remaining in Ghost Wolf for an extended period. This is a last resort defensive tool if you have nothing else available, as we cannot deal any damage while shapeshifted.

Maelstrom Weapon can be used to make Healing Surge instant, providing emergency healing to ourselves, but this comes at a very high cost of damage by spending our offensive resources to do so.

Earth Shield grants a modest amount of healing over the course of an encounter with each charge consumed, and increases the healing we do to ourselves while active. This has a high GCD requirement to maintain, but does provide some extra sustain if used pro-actively.

Seasoned Winds provides very powerful damage reduction after successfully interrupting a spell, giving us more incentive to do so if there is a lot of damage happening.

The most versatile Enhancement stat priority that will cover both builds on offer here is as follows:

1. Haste = Mastery;
2. Critical Strike;
3. Versatility;
4. Agility.

Remember that stat priorities will change based on other talents taken in different builds. In general, the above should serve you well in most content, but for for finer details regarding each stat you can look at our stat priority page linked below.

Added in Patch 11.1.7, the Rotation Assist tool curated by Blizzard has two modes: the first highlights action bar buttons with a recommended priority, while the second provides a single keybind that automatically presses the top priority ability on that same list, but with a 25% GCD penalty between casts.

This provides a good starting point when jumping into Enhancement, as it can often be overwhelming with the sheer amount of options it has. It does, however, come with a performance loss and has some issues when using it to keep in mind. The most important of these is that it currently does not use Ascendance, any racial bonuses or on-use trinkets - these all need to be cast manually while using the tool. It will also not make use of defensive, utility or crowd control tools for you.

The estimated losses compared to a standard rotation based on Hero Talent choice and content type can be found in the table below:

Hero Talent	Single-Target	AoE
Stormbringer Assist	-16%	-34%
Stormbringer One-Button	-32%	-46%
Totemic Assist	-6%	-8%
Totemic One-Button	-18%	-28%

Due to the tools poor handling of Maelstrom Weapon for Stormbringer in particular, we strongly recommend switching to Totemic whenever using this tool to avoid significant performance losses. This is especially true in AoE where, even with cooldowns inserted, it still struggles to manage its resources properly.

Due to the recommendations elsewhere on this page, we've provided a suitable Totemic single-target build if you're intending in using this feature: