Enhancement Shaman DPS Mythic+ Tips — The War Within (Season 1)

This build is recommended in all situations due to the huge flexibility in how it delivers its damage, coming with a variety of different profiles all mixed into one toolkit. Elementalist, in particular, has a variety of funnel tools and extremely good control over when it deals its damage, allowing it to quickly switch into dealing priority damage to a key target or focus purely on doing as much AoE as possible.

Stormbringer is the clear winner as Tempest provides a massive finisher moment that enables the rest of our toolkit. As when we AoE, we have significantly higher Maelstrom Weapon generation thanks to Crash Lightning, the benefits of the hero tree go hand in hand with extra targets being present.

While the below build is what I would currently recommend, there are some alternatives if you wish to specialize more in particular damage types. This mostly comes down to preference and if a given dungeon has a higher focus on boss/priority target damage, or mass AoE.

• Fire Nova and Sundering can be switched to Hailstorm and Ice Strike, granting roughly 5-6% additional single-target and making boss encounters much smoother to play. This does, however, come at the cost of over 10% AoE and it makes it a little harder to set up our Maelstrom Weapon burst.
• Elemental Blast is an option to switch to over Tempest Strikes for a more complex but higher payoff funnel option. This is much harder to manage and requires you to be more aware of key targets and enemy counts, so it is quite niche.
• There are a variety of control options on the tree, and while the current recommendation picks up Static Charge, Guardian's Cudgel can also be used for more up-front control. Lightning Lasso can also be picked up as a single-target stun.
• Dungeon specific utility such as Cleanse Spirit and Poison Cleansing Totem are on a case-by-case basis, and there are a number of talents taken here, such as Purge and Totemic Surge that can be switched out to access them. Similarly, Call of the Elements can be taken if you need even more access to a specific totem in a dungeon.

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Storm builds provide a much simpler playstyle that is a lot easier to pick up due to having fewer moving parts. This comes at the cost of being more difficult to predict exactly when it is going to do its damage due to the volatility of Deeply Rooted Elements, but in exchange, it has easier access to uncapped AoE tools alongside massive Maelstrom Weapon generation.

Stormbringer is the clear winner due to the heavy focus on generating as much Maelstrom Weapon as possible to cycle through Chain Lightning and Tempest casts. This also pairs well with the significantly lower Feral Spirit cooldown to help you gamble more on getting Nature wolf spawns.

While the below build is what I would currently recommend, there are alternative talent packages that can be picked up to specialize further. Many of these are, however, more difficult in practice.

• Lava Lash through Fire Nova can be picked up instead of the more single-target-oriented talents on the left side in Stormblast, Gathering Storms, and Flurry. This provides a solid AoE boost but increases the number of effects you need to manage by maintaining Flame Shock on targets.
• Alongside the above, Primordial Wave can also be picked up to have more controlled burst and Conductive Energy application instead of either the second point in Elemental Assault (which is more single-target focused, but very nice for quality of life) or Elemental Spirits.
• There are a variety of control options on the tree, and while the current recommendation picks up Static Charge, Guardian's Cudgel can also be used for more up-front control. Lightning Lasso can also be picked up as a single-target stun.
• Dungeon specific utility such as Cleanse Spirit and Poison Cleansing Totem are on a case-by-case basis, and there are a number of talents taken here, such as Purge and Totemic Surge that can be switched out to access them. Similarly, Call of the Elements can be taken if you need even more access to a specific totem in a dungeon.

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Enhancement has a wide variety of tools to stop enemy casts. Due to the large number of them, I have broken them down into single-target and AoE options.

Wind Shear is your interrupt tool and is one of the best available to any class. Being both ranged and having such a low cooldown makes for an excellent tool to disrupt targets with interruptible casts continually. You should be the one aggressively going after dangerous interrupts; allow other classes with longer interrupt cooldowns to handle less frequent casts or to be saved for emergencies if possible. Coordinate this with your group before starting the dungeon.

Lightning Lasso can be used as a single-target stun, but the damage it deals is nowhere near as much as you would be doing when not channeling. This is moreso used to interrupt a cast and then canceled.

Hex is somewhat similar to Wind Shear as it allows you to either control a dangerous enemy before combat begins or interrupt a cast in an emergency. This cooldown can be reduced by 15 seconds, and apply an additional 70% slow if you talent into Voodoo Mastery.

Sundering is an incredibly versatile tool, often able to act as a pseudo-interrupt against multiple targets that are otherwise immune and does so while also delivering a burst of damage. While it will not work on every target, be sure to pay attention to enemies that it does incapacitate so you can effectively use this feature in the future.

Capacitor Totem is your AoE stun tool to lock down mobs as you begin a pull to stabilize. This tends to be extra useful on larger pulls to allow the tank to grab aggro before enemies begin casting or to prevent key effects. This can be further enhanced with the Guardian's Cudgel or Static Charge talents. Guardian's Cudgel is extremely potent in spawning a second Capacitor Totem when the first one triggers, increasing the stun duration (at the cost of additional diminishing returns), while Static Charge will reduce its cooldown per target struck.

Thunderstorm (with Thundershock) is another powerful AoE pseudo-interrupt, being able to knock several enemies up into the air and disrupt spells that cannot be cast while moving. Be sure to practice using it to learn which enemies it works against and which are immune. For the vast majority of the time, Thundershock will be the preferred form of this ability, as keeping enemies together will make follow-up crowd control more effective and maintain DPS uptime. In niche situations, you may need to utilize Thunderstorm's knock-back effect to deal with a specific mob or group of enemies.

Earthbind Totem and Earthgrab Totem can significantly impair the movement of groups of enemies, aiding in your tank's ability to kite them should it be required. Hailstorm alongside either Arctic Snowstorm or Encasing Cold also provides a constant slow while executing the rotation if talented. Lastly, Shocking Grasp from Stormbringer brings a small, inconsistent extra slow to targets through Nature damage critical strikes.

Due to being a hybrid class, Shaman has access to a number of tools that help both you and your group stay alive. I have separated these two key sections into two categories:

Staying alive is extremely important in Mythic+, and, often, you may find yourself responsible for your own life if the healer is busy putting fires out elsewhere. The key tools we have to deal with bad situations are:

• Astral Shift is our major personal defensive for a 40% damage reduction and is always paired with Planes Traveler for cooldown reduction. Used on the most dangerous enemy casts that need to be planned around.
• Stone Bulwark Totem has a long 3-minute cooldown but provides a big absorb shield (and some small follow-up ones) that should ideally be used to block a single lethal hit, making sure to plan this to avoid wasting its lengthy recharge time.
• Earth Elemental has an even longer 5-minute cooldown that provides flat health and the Primordial Bond damage reduction effect. This lasts a full minute, so it can often cover multiple dangerous effects, but be careful it does not disrupt the tank with its taunt effect.
• Spirit Wolf can be stacked up while in Ghost Wolf for up to a 20% reduction, which, while it completely prevents you from doing damage, does not have a cooldown, so it can cover anything you need it to.

While healing is not your primary role, we can use multiple tools to help the party in deadly situations. A Maelstrom Weapon empowered Healing Surge or Chain Heal can help to stabilize you or an ally and should be used in emergencies. Healing Stream Totem can be taken and used whenever a gap in your rotation happens to help out, alongside providing a small follow-up damage reduction to some magic schools with Elemental Resistance. We can also talent into a powerful healing cooldown with Ancestral Guidance, which provides huge group healing during situations where we are dealing AoE damage.

Being proactive with healing tools is an effective skill to learn as an Enhancement Shaman, and while you should not be taking responsibility for the group's health, recognizing when you can jump in at critical moments can be the difference between life or death for the party.

Alongside the more traditional tools specs bring to Mythic+, Shaman has a number of class-specific benefits when played.

Your toolkit includes an offensive dispel in Purge, a decurse in Cleanse Spirit, a fear, charm, and sleep break with Tremor Totem, and a poison removal with Poison Cleansing Totem. These effects are specific to certain dungeons, and you will often find yourself using these to deal with certain enemies. Be sure to adjust your talent loadout per dungeon to best deal with the most dangerous aspects of each.

Skyfury is our group buff, providing bonus Mastery and granting party member's melee auto-attacks a 20% chance to strike an additional time. This is one of the more potent and universal buffs that all specs like having, so it makes Shaman relatively desirable.

Earth Elemental is a potent emergency tool if the tank either dies or is struggling to handle a pack. It can also be used as a personal defensive cooldown to grant yourself additional maximum health and damage reduction with Primordial Bond. This has a long cooldown, so use it wisely. Also, be aware that the AI can sometimes be problematic, as it will rarely move with you once it has grabbed aggro.

Mana Spring can help out your healer with some additional Mana regeneration should they be struggling to keep up in a dungeon, and is an easy point to access. However, our talent points begin to get quite tight with all of the control tools we often take, so this is an optional bonus rather than a locked-in pick.

Wind Rush Totem can help the group with additional move speed and lasts for up to 20 seconds if players consistently refresh the buff duration. This can be even further enhanced with cooldown reduction using Ascending Air, or provide an AoE snare break whenever the buff is applied using Jet Stream.

Reincarnation allows you to resurrect after dying. This can be used to get back up after a lethal ability, or more importantly, it can skip certain packs. The ability to run ahead with your group, die, self-revive, and then resurrecting them is a niche tactic that some dungeon routes opt to use.

Bloodlust and Heroism are mainstays of all group content, and providing it is almost always a benefit to your party. Be sure to coordinate with your group regarding the most effective time to use it.

Xalatath's Bargain: Ascendant will periodically spawn a number or orbs in waves that need to be crowd-controlled in some way before they complete a cast. Each orb successfully stopped grants the group bonus Haste, so it is a high priority to deal with.

Enhancement comes with a wide array of stop tools that we can sequentially use to deal with them between Thundershock, Capacitor Totem, and if taken, Sundering. There is also some consideration to pick up Guardian's Cudgel for a back-to-back clear if your group is lacking stops if you move the follow-up totem around with Totemic Projection to catch any stray orbs.

Xalatath's Bargain: Voidbound will periodically summon a large Void Emissary that will begin to cast Dark Prayer. This must be interrupted, as otherwise it will provide damage reduction to nearby enemies.

This needs to be killed off quickly, so ideally, having short, bursty cooldowns like Primordial Wave or a Tempest ready to go when it spawns makes things a lot easier on the group.

Xalatath's Bargain: Oblivion spawns a number of orbs that will begin traveling toward enemies that you and your group need to intercept to receive a stacking Mastery buff.

Enhancement has a wide array of movement tools to deal with this, and if you have nothing else, you can just slip into Ghost Wolf and catch as many as you can. Ideally, try to have Wind Rush Totem and save it for these spawns so your entire group can assist with catching them.

Xalatath's Bargain: Devour will apply a debuff that must be either dispelled or healed off (though it will not absorb any incoming heals) to the entire group periodically throughout the dungeon.

On these weeks, I'd particularly recommend picking up Cleanse Spirit and Poison Cleansing Totem to assist the healer in clearing these off. If you find the group struggling to get rid of them and these are not available, both Ancestral Guidance and Maelstrom Weapon can be substituted to assist.