Enhancement Shaman DPS Guide — The War Within (11.1.5)

12th May Update

The Corruption and Puzzling Cartel Chip recommendations have been updated to account for recent tuning and additional items being added to the pool. Make sure to check them before spending any currency if you haven't recently!

Patch 11.1.5 is light on class changes across the board, and Enhancement Shaman received no major changes with its release. Puzzling Cartel Chips will be introduced following a quest released on May 13th that requires you to defeat bosses within the Liberation of Undermine raid, and you can check our Gear Page for purchase recommendations.

In the week prior to the patch launch however, Stormbringer received a number of changes that significantly improved its damage:

• Tempest damage increased by 30% (this includes both primary and secondary target damage).
• Awakening Storms damage increased by 30%
• Stormcaller Critical Strike damage increased to 10% (up from 5%).

These changes amounted to roughly 5% in single-target and 9% in AoE, and are enough to make Stormbringer extremely competitive in both single-target and AoE when compared to Totemic. This puts them neck-and-neck with each other, with the decider comes down to the encounter type or dungeon style, and how valuable each given cooldown profile is.

Patch 11.1 is another major patch for Enhancement, with more refinements to the specialization that aims to refocus the balance between our melee strikes and Maelstrom Weapon spenders. We have broke down some of the key changes in the most recent patch notes:

• Primary Melee Strikes have been buffed, with Stormstrike being buffed by 50%, Lava Lash by 60%, and Ice Strike receiving a 100% increase. Crash Lightning's on-cast damage has also been increased by 200%.
• The Talent Tree has seen a number of changes, with the position of Elemental Blast and Flurry flipping to the right side of the tree in place of Ice Strike and supporting options. Primordial Wave and its follow-up talents have also been completely reworked. For a list of notable changes.
  
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  • Ancestral Guidance has been removed from the class tree.
  • Primordial Wave is now a direct damage cast, dealing heavy Elemental damage to any target affected by your Flame Shock instantly and generating 5 Maelstrom Weapon.
  • Splintered Elements has been moved to the 2-point follow-up for the same effect, and the capstone replaced with Primordial Storm. This is a combo follow-up to Primordial Wave, consuming Maelstrom Weapon to deal three multi-school strikes and finishing with a Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning.
  • Elemental Spirits's summoned wolves now instead increase Physical damage by 10%, and also the associated spell school of the wolf spawned by 10%, down from 20%.
  • Molten Assault now spreads to 5 targets, up from 4.
  • Hot Hand duration has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6.
  • Ice Strike now generates 1 Maelstrom Weapon baseline, and is no longer affected by Swirling Maelstrom.
  • Lashing Flames is now also applied by your Sundering effect.
  • Legacy of the Frost Witch duration increased to 8 seconds, and the first point grants 15% Physical/Frost damage increase up from 5%.
  • Deeply Rooted Elements now triggers based on the amount of Maelstrom Weapon spent, instead of a flat chance per spender cast.
• Hero Talent Trees have also had some changes, streamlining them to work with the other talent changes. Stormbringer remains focused on Maelstrom Weapon cycling, and still leans heavily into Stormstrike. Totemic now strongly focuses on Lava Lash and weapon imbues, in particular with the Reactivity effect.
  
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  • Arc Discharge now stacks up to 2 times, making it easier to avoid overwriting the effect before use.
  • Conductive Energy now applies to a secondary target if your current target is affected when using Chain Lightning, removing the need to tab-target. Primordial Wave now also applies this to all targets hit with the initial cast.
  • Surging Totem now also gets replaced with an off-GCD, 6-second cooldown ability while active that will move the totem to your current location.
  • Reactivity procs that trigger Sundering can now also proc Windfury Weapon, and cause an Earthsurge pulse.
  • Whirling Earth motes will now be consumed by Lava Lash casts that trigger Molten Assault.

Overall, the patch moves the spec into a healthier place that feels more like it belongs in melee, with much more impactful strike abilities. It also retains a lot of the power it had in Season 1, so the goal of the rework has been relatively successful. It has also given Stormbringer and Totemic much more defined core gameplay loops, with both still performing very well in a variety of situations.

Last Minute Hotfixes

In the week leading up to the raid release, Blizzard announced some fairly large changes to specifically Flowing Spirits and both our old and new tier set bonus.

These changes mean that if you read the pages prior to this releasing, you may see some different recommendations. This is due in particular to the changes to Flowing Spirits having a major impact on both our talent selections and rotational gameplay.