Enhancement Shaman DPS Easy Mode — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Foreword

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.

2. The Basics for Enhancement Shaman

Enhancement is very focused around the flow of your Maelstrom and reacting to your Stormbringer procs. There are some ancillary effects that must be maintained between your Flametongue buff and some talent effects that are used in this build to enhance your damage, but the core gameplay plays itself in many ways.

The vital aspect to understand is that making sure you fill as many Global Cooldowns as possible, alongside maintaining your primary buff in Flametongue is crucial, alongside making sure that you keep Stormstrike on cooldown. Finally, you need to always ideally have enough Maelstrom available that you will be able to react to a Stormbringer proc if and when it occurs, while trying to avoid any going to waste by reaching the cap of 100.

3. Enhancement Shaman Talent Choices

Currently, there is not a great deal of choice in the Enhancement tree, even for very performance-oriented players, but the build listed below tries to focus on talents that require the least management to make use of, while giving the most flexibility and power in the largest array of content. While you may find better results with some different talents by selecting them based on the situation, this will provide the easiest path into learning Enhancement without struggling with output:

• Level 15: Lightning Shield
• Level 30: Forceful Winds
• Level 45: Spirit Wolf
• Level 60: Searing Assault
• Level 75: Nature's Guardian
• Level 90: Crashing Storm
• Level 100: Elemental Spirits.

4. Enhancement Shaman Stat Priorities

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

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

Enhancement stats are somewhat fluid, depending on the gear you are currently wearing. Haste synergizes very well with the majority of the Enhancement kit by reducing the cooldown of your core spells, your Global Cooldown and increasing the pace it moves. Versatility and Critical Strike provide simple flat bonuses to the spec, and finally Mastery provides a solid boost with increases to your Stormbringer proc chance, alongside having a stronger impact during AoE situations.

5. Enhancement Shaman Basic Rotation

Because Enhancement is more reactionary, it operates on a priority list that you need to react to based upon your current state.

1. Cast Feral Spirit for a burst of damage.
2. Cast Crash Lightning if against 2 targets or above to maintain the buff.
3. Cast Stormstrike if available, especially with Stormbringer active.
4. Maintain Flametongue; this can refreshed with 4.5 seconds remaining.
5. Cast Crash Lightning on cooldown.
6. Cast Lava Lash at 50 Maelstrom with nothing else available.
7. Cast Rockbiter to generate Maelstrom.

This list should be a good springboard to grasp the basics of how to play Enhancement with the above build at its most fundamental level. Note that there are a lot of small optimizations that can be done with the priority list in certain situations to improve your damage and those can be found in the rotation section of the guide.

6. Changelog