Enhancement Shaman DPS Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands Pre-Patch 9.0.1

This page has not been updated for Shadowlands, but will be updated in time for the release of Mythic+ Season 1. We have opted to leave the page up, as some of the advice given is still relevant for the weeks of regular Mythic dungeons.

Enhancement in the Shadowlands Mythic+ landscape has a fairly fixed build that focuses on improving its AoE damage. You are able to leverage different tools at different target counts to deal high consistent damage in burst cycles, and can funnel damage into a single target if necessary. You also bring some good control tools for targets via Wind Shear, Capacitor Totem and Sundering to lock down dangerous enemies. Our drawback is survival, and the requirement to stick in melee to fuel our procs making it sometimes dangerous to get the most out of.

If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our dedicated Mythic+ page below.

In Mythic+ you will generally be switching between both the single-target and AoE rotations outlined on our Rotation page, depending on target count. There are some additional notes to think about due to the downtime Mythic+ creates though:

• Pay attention to your Maelstrom Weapon stacks as targets are dying, and try to make sure you can prime a cast to open a pull with either Chain Lightning or a Hailstorm empowered Frost Shock.
• Funnelling is extra useful in Mythic+ allowing you to focus on one priority target. You should anchor your damage on the most dangerous enemy in a pack when casting Stormstrike to get it down quickly.
• Sundering is flexible in that it can be used for both burst damage, or as an interrupt tool. Plan your use around different packs, and be aware when you may need to save it to stop anything dangerous if needed.
• Ascendance having the on cast burst AoE in Shadowlands means you can use it both for priority single-target (such as a boss), or as a burst AoE tool in large pulls.

Enhancement Shaman provides a number of small utility tools to help control and manage enemy groups, alongside a large number of support tools, such as offensive dispels, decurses and some crowd control options. Below is a list of these abilities, as well as their descriptions and uses.

• Windfury Totem drops a totem with a 30-yard range for 2 minutes, granting nearby party members a 10% chance to swing an additional time with auto-attacks. This only benefits other melee players, but is a solid boost with a low opportunity cost that also helps you.
• Purge allows you to dispel a single beneficial buff from enemies. This does cost a lot of Mana, but should be used on high impact effects that some dungeons have.
• Cleanse Spirit dispels all Curses from a friendly target, and should be used to help out your healer with dispelling when these effects are present in a dungeon.
• Wind Shear provides Enhancement with a ranged interrupt tool on a lower than average cooldown, which is extremely useful in all dungeons. The range also allows you to keep enemies locked out even when you are forced out of melee range.
• Capacitor Totem is Enhancement's AoE crowd control and should be used whenever a large group of enemies needs locking down to prevent any casts going through. The cooldown can also be reduced by taking Static Charge if you need more uses than the base ability allows.
• Earthbind Totem can be used to slow packs of enemies from a distance if kiting is necessary during a pull.
• Tremor Totem provides an AoE fear break for your group. This is a very niche tool, and only sees use on a very small number of mechanics but due to being a totem is only on a half Global Cooldown so can be dropped quickly to counter some effects.
• Healing Surge can be used as an off-healing tool that, while not strong can help in a pinch. Can also be made instant and empowered by consuming Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
• Chain Heal costs more mana but provides healing to multiple targets which can be useful in emergency situations. Can also be made instant and empowered by consuming Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
• Healing Stream Totem can be used as a low cooldown, low impact boost to off-healing to help your healer in a pinch. Due to only having a half Global Cooldown, dropping this in any downtime makes a difference.
• Earth Elemental is an emergency tool that can be used in situations where the tank is in extreme danger of dying, or has already died, to catch some loose enemies for a few seconds. It will likely die quickly, but relieving a small amount of pressure can be invaluable in M+.
• Sundering is a strong DPS tool and incapacitates targets hit. This secondary effect takes some effort to use as enemies will likely be broken out of this quickly. It does however interrupt targets due to the crowd control effect, and bypasses interrupt immunities in the process.
• Hex can be used as a crowd control option in the event that a target is too dangerous to engage with others, but will put you in combat if you are using this to skip enemies and get too close.
• Wind Rush Totem can be talented if additional movement speed is needed for the group.
• Bloodlust / Heroism provides a powerful burst of Haste with a 10-minute debuff that blocks repeat casts. This is great for pushing through the most dangerous pulls or bosses in a dungeon.

Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+. These talents are recommended for all groups and keys at the current time.

Level	Choices
15	✗ Lashing Flames	✓ Forceful Winds	✗ Elemental Blast
25	✓ Stormflurry	✗ Hot Hand	✗ Ice Strike
30	✓ Spirit Wolf	? Earth Shield	? Static Charge
35	✗ Elemental Assault	✓ Hailstorm	✗ Fire Nova
40	✓ Nature's Guardian	✗ Feral Lunge	? Wind Rush Totem
45	✗ Crashing Storm	✗ Stormkeeper	✓ Sundering
50	? Elemental Spirits	✗ Earthen Spike	✓ Ascendance

The goal of this build is to take the most flexible talents that also have the highest AoE impact. All of these options selected have at least some gain in both scenarios, with some that specialize heavily during each situation. The biggest picks here are both Hailstorm and Sundering, that hugely improve Enhancement's AoE toolkit. If you want more detailed information on each of the talents, or alternatives choices for certain scenarios you can look at our talents page.

For Mythic+ the only real choice for Enhancement on this row is Forceful Winds. This is the only choice that has AoE impact that does not interfere with the AoE rotation cycle. Lashing Flames can be used if the sole focus is bosses such as in Tyrannical weeks, but has no benefit to trash pulls. Elemental Blast is far too disruptive to make any use of in the majority of situations.

Stormflurry dominates this tier due to it having not only a strong single-target showing but also being the only strong increase in AoE here due to the extra Crash Lightning splash procs. Hot Hand effects disrupt the AoE cycle, and Ice Strike has no strong interactions with AoE portions of our toolkit alongside having low single-target impact.

Spirit Wolf is generally the pick here just as an extra emergency damage reduction tool and additional mobility. Earth Shield is low impact and prevents you from using Lightning Shield, and the chances of Static Charge consistently granting extra uses of Capacitor Totem when it is actually needed is low.

Hailstorm absolutely dominates this tier. It provides a huge AoE boost that also rounds out our AoE cycle, and still keeps up in single-target situations. Elemental Assault can work if you are focusing on bosses, but has nowhere near the AoE punch of Hailstorm. Fire Nova simply does not work right now and the pay off relative to the effort required is not worth it.

Nature's Guardian provides the only passive survival tool on the entire tree, which Enhancement is sorely lacking. It is relatively low impact, but helps with sustain in bad situations. Feral Lunge has niche uses in certain encounters if you need instant displacement, but is a greed pick. Wind Rush Totem can assist your group and improve your pace within dungeons, and is the selfless choice.

Sundering is the go to here. An ability that provides both high burst AoE and crowd control in one package on a medium cooldown is too nice to pass up for a spec that needs exactly that. Stormkeeper is too single-target oriented to consider even with the benefit of being able to prime it out of combat, and Crashing Storm suffers from requiring time to deal its damage and having enemies move out of the pool.

Ascendance is the most likely choice on this tier. The flexibility of having either an AoE burst or a sustained single-target window even with the longer cooldown than alternatives raises it up in Shadowlands a lot. Elemental Spirits took a hit due to reduced focus on strikes, but you can still roll Fire wolves to get a big Sundering hit. Earthen Spike is too disruptive and low impact alongside being single-target focused to get strong use.

Enhancement Mythic+ traits do not deviate from the ideal options in other content types due to the power the combination holds when tied together. You should prioritise (in descending order):

1. Natural Harmony — x3;
2. Roiling Storm — one;
3. Thunderaan's Fury — one;
4. Ancestral Resonance — one.

You can fill any slots you are unable to create these combinations with Heart of Darkness if needed.

For Mythic+ you are mostly locked into one Major option, with a small pool of Minor options that you can switch between depending on preference or group composition.

• Blood of the Enemy ( Blood of the Enemy) — The most versatile option that works both very well for AoE and single-target situations. The minor is also exceptionally strong when additional targets are present. Also lines up with both Ascendance and Elemental Spirits depending on choice.
• Essence of the Focusing Iris ( Focused Azerite Beam) — weaker option compared to Blood of the Enemy, but can provide additional burst AoE if you do not have access to that.

• The Crucible of Flame ( Ancient Flame) — This is very single target focused, but in the Shadowlands pre-patch deals such a high amount of damage that it warrants the pick in most situations due to other options being weaker.
• Essence of the Focusing Iris ( Focused Energy) — A solid option to gain extra Haste and can be stacked very quickly. Flexible but low impact choice.
• Conflict and Strife ( Strife) — This effect will fall off in between packs, but flat Versatility gains are very useful to bolster our AoE output.
• Purification Protocol ( Purification Protocol) — Provides the best on-hit AoE damage alongside providing a small amount of healing to boot. A generally strong option.
• Breath of the Dying ( Lethal Strikes) — This is a strong direct damage effect in single target, so if you need more and lack access to other options, this is a good pick.

Awakened is the seasonal affix for season 4 of Battle for Azeroth. Knowing how to manage each of the 4 bosses that spawn here is important, but largely for Enhancement you should plan your cooldowns accordingly, ideally having both Blood of the Enemy and Elemental Spirits/ Ascendance available to burn them down. If you are dealing with the lieutenants within the obelisks, aim to funnel AoE damage via Crash Lightning into the primary target to burn it down faster while keeping adds they spawn in check.

If you are in a situation where you need to handle lieutenants spawning with the end boss, then it is absolutely vital you have your cooldowns available to burst these down quickly and ease up the pressure of the final encounter. Enhancement can leverage its AoE funnelling tools to focus down each lieutenant until all are dead, and then focus on the boss. If your group is co-ordinated enough however, you can use them as a tool to keep the Crash Lightning buff active to burn the boss down faster.