Enhancement Shaman DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.2

1. How to Gear Before Raids in BfA

Gearing up to prepare to enter raids provides a lot of different options now that Battle for Azeroth has opened up the majority of different gear paths. You will ideally want to get yourself to a healthy item level before setting foot in either Uldir, Battle of Dazar'alor, or The Eternal Palace, and this can be done through a variety of different ways.

Remember to sim yourself a healthy amount when deciding on gear pieces to know what stats to aim for and which pieces to equip. The stats that you want to focus on will usually be decided by what build you are currently using (as defined by your Azerite), but Haste and Mastery are both safe choices for most content types.

• World Quests will provide players with a variety of gear rewards for all slots, including Azerite. This will cap out at 340. Emissaries will also appear once a day and can potentially provide either an equipment piece or an Azerite piece, which will cap at item level 385 in Season 2.
• Reputation gives out rewards based on your status with the faction. For most factions, Honored awards a 320 cloak, Revered a 335 item, and Exalted gives a 350 piece. Champions of Azeroth awards a 355 item level Azerite Chest with the Primal Primer trait. Additionally, each reputation level grants additional item level boosts to your Heart of Azeroth.
• Mythic+ rewards gear based upon the keystone level you complete:
  • 2-3: 405
  • 4: 410
  • 5-6: 415
  • 7: 420
  • 8-9: 425
  • 10: 430
• World Bosses spawn in the following areas and cycles with the following rewards:
  • Zandalar/Kul'Tiras (Weekly): 355 Item Level
  • Arathi Highlands (Warfront Patrols): 370 Item Level
  • Darkshore (Warfront Patrols): 400 Item Level
  • Nazjatar (Weekly): 415 Item Level
• Leatherworking can craft 410 item level Boots and Legs, that can be upgraded to 425 and then 440 with unlocks to the Abyssal Focus in Nazjatar. These also come with a socket baseline.
• Engineering provides a craftable Azerite helm with unique traits, and can be upgraded in the same way as Leatherworking via the Abyssal Forge.
• Warfronts can be repeated as many times as you want, each rewarding a random piece of gear. Arathi will be set at 340, and Darkshore will be 355. Each time the Warfront becomes available, a one time quest will reward a higher item level piece, with Arathi being set at 370, and Darkshore at 400. These can only be done when your faction has the siege event open for each respective warfront.

1.1. Weekly Mythic+ Chest

Along these same lines, you should be completing at least one keystone at a high item level each week to make use of the weekly chest. Each week you will receive one piece of loot and a fixed amount of Titan Residuum. The highest keystone you complete (up to a maximum of 10) will determine the final reward (current residuum values are estimates):

1.2. PvP Gearing Options

While not usually recommended, the additional route of gearing via PvP is very lucrative in Battle for Azeroth. You will gain a piece of high item level gear each week based upon your current maximum rating, dictated by the following brackets. You will also receive End of Match rewards at random, at a slightly reduced item level.

1.3. Benthic Gear Options

With the release of patch 8.2, Benthic gear is available via vendors in Nazjatar and can be purchased and upgraded using Prismatic Manapearls. These tokens can also roll sockets and tertiary stats, making them very desirable to pick up if you can acquire these bonuses before spending the resources to upgrade them. A number of pieces have additional effects active exclusively in Nazjatar and The Eternal Palace that do not impact the stat budget, and are therefore very powerful options:

• Ori's Tidal Bracers — Bracers that deal Frost damage to your target and slow them with a 1.5 (scaling with Haste) RPPM. Strong damage effect for free, and good base stats on the item.
• Azsh'ari Stormsurger Vambraces — Bracers that proc a Pufferfish that will detonate after 3 seconds to nearby enemies, dealing Physical damage with a 1.5 (scaling with Haste) RPPM. Good damage effect for free, and perfect base stats on the item.
• Akana's Reefstrider Treads — Boots that grant 3% increased Critical Strike damage bonus which is an incredibly strong effect, and have good base stats on the item.
• Poen's Deepsea Handgrips — Gloves that deal Frost damage to your target on a 3 (scaling with Haste) RPPM but with weaker base stats.
• Azsh'ari Stormsurger Links — Belt that increases all damage dealt to Aberration type enemies by 2% making it a great piece specifically for Orgozoa and Za'qul, but with average base stats.
• Vim's Scalecrusher Chain — Belt that deals Physical damage to nearby enemies on a 1.5 (scaling with Haste) RPPM with average base stats.

All of these pieces can be upgraded up to item level 425 for a total cost of 220 Manapearls from the base level. Some of these effects are powerful enough (assuming you have a socket present) to compete with even Mythic level items currently. Note, however, that these are only relevant as raid items, because they are not active when outside of Nazjatar or The Eternal Palace.

1.4. Operation: Mechagon

Patch 8.2 and the release of Season 3 has also unlocked the new mega dungeon Operation: Mechagon, which provides items with a base item level of 415. If completed on hard mode, this will also provide a 430 Azerite Helm from King Mechagon to one player in the group. Some of the unique effects within here can be potentially useful, and some items to look out for are:

• Gold-Coated Superconductors in any situation where you will reliably be taking Nature damage, these provide significantly more secondary stats through equipping these than any regular pair of bracers;
• Remote Guidance Device can be powerful as a burst damage option with some Essence choice Enhancement takes, and due to being an on-use effect can be especially helpful to prop up burst AoE concerns.

There are also a number of Rings that can be paired together to create a unique proc effect as long as you have one of each equipped. The "Logic Loop" rings will drop from the fourth boss, the HK-8 Aerial Oppression Unit. The "Bit Band" rings will drop from the seventh boss, the Machinist's Garden. Ideally, the combinations of rings you want to pair for Enhancement are:

• Logic Loop of Division or Logic Loop of Recursion;
• Shorting Bit Band or Overclocking Bit Band.

Lastly, there is also the Pocket-Sized Computation Device trinket provided from Mechagon island content, that can be filled with 3 different punchcards. Yellow provides Secondary stat combinations, Red provides unique damage procs or active abilities, and Blue provides separate utility effects. You will only be concerned with Red and Yellow for performance purposes.

The overall item level of the trinket is dictated by the combined item level of the Red and Yellow punchcards placed in the slots of the trinket. Red and Yellow punchcards come from a number of sources, including the Operation: Mechagon dungeon, some rares on the island, Reputation rewards, and the Pascal-K1N6 Junkyard Tinkering.

Ideally, you want to aim for a Yellow punchcard that provides high Haste, and low Mastery when using this trinket (namely a Performant Logic Board). For Red punchcards, currently the strongest option is Cyclotronic Blast which gives an on-use single-target damage effect, but is interrupted by other ability casts. This is easy to access as it is purchased for Gold when you reach revered with the Rustbolt Resistance. This provides a strong burst on use effect with the cast, even despite the downsides of pausing your rotation.

2. Notable Trinkets and Weapons

Trinkets and weapons are the two largest DPS increases available to any class in the game outside of Azerite pieces. Getting good pieces to fill these slots early allows you to perform incredibly well.

2.1. Weapons

There are a number of strong weapons for Enhancement Shaman, and note that they can all be used in either hand. Ideally you should be looking for Haste or Mastery weapons, such as:

• Diver's Folly — Blackwater Behemoth
• Soulrending Claw — Atal'dazar
• Soulcharmer's Bludgeon — Waycrest Manor

There is also a unique proc effect Fist Weapon, Bile-Stained Crawg Tusks from The Underrot. This effect is relatively powerful for Enhancement in single-target situations, and can be used in place of the secondary stats on other weapons if you acquire one strong enough.

2.2. Trinkets

Thanks to Bloodmallet.com, a comprehensive list of available trinkets for Enhancement are listed against each other below.

3. Azerite Gear

You can check through the Enhancement Azerite page to look through the values of different traits and target different items. With each build however, there are ideal choices that can be acquired to enable each of them. Note that this does include dungeon looted items, so it requires a very high quantity of Residuum to fully activate.

3.1. Universal Build

This build is much more flexible and can be interchanged depending on what you have available. Below is currently the easiest to access series of pieces to enable the build in as many situations as possible.

Slot	Item	Traits
Helm	Sethraliss' Fanged Helm	Natural Harmony Roiling Storm Overwhelming Power
Shoulder	Shoulderguards of Crushing Depths	Ancestral Resonance Thunderaan's Fury Elemental Whirl
Chest	Servitor's Heartguard	Natural Harmony Loyal to the End Heed My Call

3.2. Primal Primer

These pieces are ideal selections to maximise the build outlined on the talent page that requires stacking Primal Primer traits.

Slot	Item	Traits
Helm	Hood of the Dark Reaper	Primal Primer Natural Harmony Overwhelming Power
Shoulder	Abyssal Commander's Mantle	Natural Harmony Primal Primer Blood Siphon
Chest	Hauberk of Sunken Despair	Natural Harmony Primal Primer Elemental Whirl

3.3. Strength of Earth

These pieces are assuming you are using the build outlined on the talent page that requires stacking Strength of Earth traits. Unlike Primal Primer, this just needs Strength of Earth to come online and is more flexible for supporting traits. Below outlines the ideal options currently available to flesh it out.

Slot	Item	Traits
Helm	Hood of Lightless Depths	Strength of Earth Roiling Storm Overwhelming Power
Shoulder	Crashguard Spaulders	Strength of Earth Ancestral Resonance Heed My Call
Chest	Loa-Blessed Chestguard	Thunderaan's Fury Strength of Earth Elemental Whirl

4. Eternal Palace Items

4.1. Notes on Unusual Eternal Palace Effects

The Eternal Palace comes with a number of specific pieces that have very unique effects that may not be immediately clear how strong they are. This is mostly tied to trinkets and weapons, but there are also separate pieces to look out for:

• Diver's Folly has a 1 RPPM chance to trigger. For the 12 seconds this is active, 5% of all damage you do will be copied and stored as Bioelectric Charge, and when this expires will deal the same amount of damage to 3 nearby targets. This is not split, and the effect has no impact on the stat budget of the item. This makes it a very strong weapon choice, especially due to the ideal stats.
• Dribbling Inkpod has an 8 RPPM chance to trigger (scaling with your Haste). This will accumulate charges as long as the target is above 30% Health, and can stack infinitely. When they drop below the 30% threshold, these stacks will all detonate dealing Nature damage relative to the number of stacks. This can be extremely potent for any execute oriented fight, and you can potentially have a very high number of stacks before entering into these windows. Note however, the debuff does only have a 1-minute duration, so do not let the stacks fall off!
• Vision of Demise on the surface is quite simple with a 1-minute cooldown Haste buff for 10 seconds. The added effect however grants additional Haste for every 10% Health your target is missing, meaning that if you activate it on low HP adds, you can amplify this trinket's on-use effect by over 100% with clever use.
• Azshara's Font of Power does pause our rotation, which can be very detrimental due to our high uptime requirement, but on the other hand, we do consistent damage throughout the entire period. This means, if you can find a window to do a full 4-second channel for the 30 second buff, this is a big window of damage.
• Ashvane's Razor Coral is currently looking to be the ideal choice from Eternal Palace due to the double dip of damaging effect plus secondary boost. The Coral effect when applied by the on use has a 6 RPPM, so you can also rack up a sizeable Critical Strike boost by re-activating if you hold it for the right time.

Queen Azshara gear also drops 3 items that have unique effects, two of which are tied to the Storm of the Eternal trigger. This happens once every 2 minutes, and both items with this flag will go off at the same time reliably.

• Cherished Empress's Leggings provide a buff for 10 seconds to when Storm of the Eternal triggers every 2 minutes. The average bonus Haste this provides at Heroic item level is 75, meaning this is effectively free stats for your raid that makes up for the less than ideal stats.
• Vethan's Icewalkers will heal the 3 most injured Allies within 60 yards when Storm of the Eternal triggers every 2 minutes. This is not a performance enhancing effect, but additional raid healing with no downside on secondary stats means it is worth considering if possible.
• Cursed Lover's Ring provides good secondary stats, and allows you to bind to another user of the ring. When bound, every 5 seconds and within 20 yards this will check if you have more Health, and if you do you will sacrifice a small amount to heal them. This also works in reverse, allowing players to bind to you and heal you in the same way.

4.2. Recommended Eternal Palace Gear

This list does not include items that are found outside of the raid, so this may be altered based on items you have available from outside sources. Note this also does not include trinkets as they are covered in the above chart. These gear choices are made assuming you are using a Universal oriented build, so is more flexible on Azerite pieces. This can differ with different builds.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Hood of Lightless Depths	Blackwater Behemoth in The Eternal Palace
Shoulder	Shoulderguards of Crushing Depths	Lady Ashvane in The Eternal Palace
Cloak	Drape of the Hatcher	Orgozoa in The Eternal Palace
Chest	Servitor's Heartguard	Radiance of Azshara in The Eternal Palace
Wrists	Shackles of Dissonance	Za'qul, Harbinger of Ny'alotha in The Eternal Palace
Gloves	Hands of the Fanatic	The Queen's Court in The Eternal Palace
Belt	Wavespine Clutch	Abyssal Commander Sivara in The Eternal Palace
Legs	Cherished Empress's Leggings	Queen Azshara in The Eternal Palace
Boots	Vethan's Icewalkers	Queen Azshara in The Eternal Palace
Ring #1	Boralus Noble's Seal	Lady Ashvane in The Eternal Palace
Ring #2	Cursed Lover's Ring	Queen Azshara in The Eternal Palace
Weapons	Diver's Folly	Blackwater Behemoth in The Eternal Palace
Alternative	Hatchery Scraper	Orgozoa in The Eternal Palace

4.3. Ideal Bosses to Coin

You should ideally be spending your Seal of Wartorn Fate on a combination of Blackwater Behemoth, Lady Ashvane and Queen Azshara. This is due to there being strong Azerite options and weapons available, powerful trinkets and the unique item effects provided by Queen Azshara.

5. Changelog