Enhancement Shaman DPS Easy Mode — Shadowlands Pre-Patch 9.0.1

This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

Enhancement relies on you making use of your different rotational ability cooldowns to make sure you are filling as many Global Cooldowns as possible with damage events. This makes your rotation quite hectic, as you will be juggling different cooldowns all at once, alongside dealing with Stormbringer and Maelstrom Weapon procs that come in.

The core concept is to make sure that you keep Stormstrike, Lava Lash, Crash Lightning, and Frost Shock/ Flame Shock on cooldown and make use of every Global Cooldown you can. You should also be weaving in casts of Lightning Bolt/ Chain Lightning whenever your Maelstrom Weapon stacks allow (making sure not to waste any by going over 10), as they are made instant whenever you have 5 available.

If you are completely new to Enhancement, or want a run down on the new Shadowlands abilities, you can check out our Spell Summary page.

In Shadowlands, Enhancement has a few choices that are very focused on different damage types. Most of these are quite easy to incorporate in your rotation, but having the most flexible choice is usually the best when dealing with different content types. This build tries to reduce the execution requirement as much as possible, while still keeping high value talents selected:

• Level 15: Forceful Winds
• Level 25: Stormflurry
• Level 30: Spirit Wolf
• Level 35: Hailstorm
• Level 40: Nature's Guardian
• Level 45: Sundering
• Level 50: Elemental Spirits.

Some of these choices do compromise on performance for the sake of ease of use, and are focused on trying to open up the power of the spec in as many situations as possible. If you want a more in-depth breakdown of each talent and where to use them, check our dedicated talents page.

The most versatile Enhancement stat priority when using this build is as follows when using this build.

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

Enhancement stats are mostly defined by Agility in the Shadowlands pre-patch, relying heavily on its high scaling. After that, Haste provides the biggest tangible increase to your ability casts and reduces downtime caused by cooldown clashes.

In most cases, we aim to keep our Easy Mode pages aligned with our Stats pages, but in cases where there is additional nuance required for different priorities, we cover that on our full stats page.

Enhancement operates on a priority list, but, in some cases, you will be casting things based on their place in the cooldown cycle, rather than if it deals the highest damage immediately.

1. Cast Windfury Totem if not active.
2. Cast Frost Shock if you have Hailstorm stacks.
3. Cast Lightning Bolt/ Chain Lightning (AoE) if at 8 stacks or more of Maelstrom Weapon.
4. Cast Stormstrike on cooldown, reacting to Stormbringer as soon as possible.
5. Cast Feral Spirit on cooldown for Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
6. Cast Flame Shock if not active on your target.
7. Cast Frost Shock.
8. Cast Sundering.
9. Cast Lava Lash.
10. Cast Crash Lightning.
11. Cast Lightning Bolt/ Chain Lightning (AoE) if at 5 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon and nothing else is ready.

This should provide a good springboard to get to grips with the basics of how to manage your cooldowns at its most basic level. There are some small optimizations that can be made (especially with talents involved) to improve your damage, and you can find that on the rotation page.

Currently, the best trait to aim for as Enhancement that will serve best in all situations is Natural Harmony and you should stack as many as possible. After this, you want a mix of as many strong one points as you can, ideal options are:

• Roiling Storm;
• Ancestral Resonance;
• Thunderaan's Fury;
• Heart of Darkness - alternative.

Middle Ring trait to aim for is Overwhelming Power, with Unstable Flames and Elemental Whirl as alternatives.

For more detailed information on each individual Azerite trait, please visit our dedicated page.

Ideally, Enhancement should be aiming to use one the following Major Essences:

• Blood of the Enemy ( Blood of the Enemy) — unlocked via gaining Honor in Battleground content;
• Condensed Life-Force ( Guardian of Azeroth) — unlocked from The Eternal Palace raid content.

In the Minor slots that you unlock at Heart of Azeroth level 55, 65 and 75, you should be using the following Minor essences:

• The Crucible of Flame ( Ancient Flame) — unlocked via progressing your Heart of Azeroth level;
• Breath of the Dying ( Lethal Strikes) — unlocked via 8.3 assaults and the Uldum Accord;
• Essence of the Focusing Iris ( Focused Energy) — unlocked via Mythic+;
• Conflict and Strife ( Strife) — unlocked via Rated PvP.

Note that the choices above may not be the perfect choices for performance, instead opting to account for ease of use. For a full write-up on Essence choices for Enhancement, you can check out the full Essences page below.