Enhancement Shaman DPS Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.2.7
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Enhancement Shaman in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.7.
Unique Challenges of Mythic+
In Mythic+ Dungeons, in particular at higher key levels, you will be presented with some of the most challenging and competitive PvE content available in WoW alongside Mythic Raiding.
In keystones, when playing as Enhancement, your responsibility to contribute to the group's success will be higher than in most raiding groups due to the smaller size. Therefore, skill and execution of strategy are crucial. Being versatile and able to adapt to any situation is a key factor here and one of the main things that differentiate it from the more specialized builds used in raiding.
On top of damage, you will also be required to interrupt, dispel, and support the group at the same time. That means some of the abilities you otherwise would not use often can be invaluable to your group, so make sure to utilize your entire suite of tools.
In this guide, we will be discussing the finer points of Enhancement Shaman and how to get the most out of it, how to gear and set up your character, and some tips to push yourself further.
If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Dragonflight Season 4 page below.
Enhancement Shaman Mythic+ Talent Builds
Disclaimer: Due to the current Dragonflight season ending, this page is in a transitionary period and will be updated closer to the launch of The War Within with more appropriate information.
If you want more information about talent options and whether some could be useful in certain situations, you should use our dedicated Talent page.
Currently the dominant Mythic+ build for Enhancement is firmly the Elementalist archetype we have played throughout Dragonflight. It works extremely well with the current set bonus, gaining extra access to our powerful AoE setup and finisher tool. Due to it still being a popular option, I will also list an appropriate Storm build to use, but I strongly discourage it due to the amount of clashes in gameplay it currently has, and the requirement to sacrifice damage profiles to get there:
Recommended Elementalist Talent Build:- CcQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMzMzyMDGzMDzMzshlZMDAAAAAAAAAAAAAEAgAAYWmMwssYmZmxYmZ2wyMzEsMMmZAAmB
Build Deep Dives
Deep Dive: Elementalist M+
A mainstay throughout Dragonflight. Brings a very flexible damage profile, and the current set bonus synergizes with it perfectly. It provides excellent AoE and Cleave, potent funnel, high burst, and a very good amount of single target at the same time. Its shortcoming, however, is uncapped AoE situations. Unfortunately for Elementalist, there really is no way to remedy this, as its fundamental tools remain hard capped. Instead, it is better to focus on what the spec can do well, which is flexibility, priority damage and funnel. A recommended loadout is as follows:
Its gameplay centers around Flame Shock spreading to grant increased
access to
Lava Lash, allowing us to apply
Lashing Flames to
multiple targets quickly. Alongside that,
Crash Lightning significantly
increases
Maelstrom Weapon generation, raising the frequency of
Feral Spirit casts, and to cap it off, we have explosive
Primordial Wave
moments for burst.
Deep Dive: Storm M+
Thanks to the changes in the talent tree granted in The War Within, Storm is now much more able to hybridize its loadout to cover the requirements of Mythic+. While it still takes a lot of specialty talents that focus on either one or the other damage type, it no longer gets forced to drop core tools to accomodate the current set bonus or the middle of the the tree. As such, a Storm build is generally easier to pick up and play, and provides some real uncapped AoE options that other builds cannot leverage. A recommended loadout is as follows:
Talent Considerations
With the changes considered, there are still some things that can be changed
around depending on the situation. The 3 points gained were spent reaching
Fire Nova and opening up the combination of
Deeply Rooted Elements
while still keeping
Primordial Wave for the set bonus. options are
as follows:
- Single Target - the middle of the tree has a handful of spare
points to spend on single target options. In order of strength these are
Tempest Strikes,
Stormblast,
Storm's Wrath and
Flurry, and which you pick is up to preference.
- Sub-20 talent gate - here there are some options to specialize.
While the recommendation is two points in
Legacy of the Frost Witch to maximize the Physical damage sources, this can be reduced to one point to grab
Elemental Assault if needed, as can
Alpha Wolf (at a significant cost to uncapped AoE).
Tier Set Gameplay
Season 4 has brought forward the Amirdrassil Season 3 set bonus for Enhancement
Shaman, granting effects related to Primordial Wave, both adding
an extra damage window to it and significantly reducing its cooldown. For
Mythic+ this is perfect, meaning you are cycling between burst
cooldown windows roughly every 15 seconds (or less, depending on
Maelstrom Weapon
generation). This means you will be able to open on every pack with heavy burst to
get started (and if using it, take advantage of the extra Haste from
Splintered Elements).
Due the two-way cooldown reduction between the 4-piece and Primal Maelstrom with
Witch Doctor's Ancestry, it means that you will regularly be reducing
both of these. Some CDR will always be wasted between these two, but in Mythic+
it is generally preferable to prioritize
Primordial Wave here
for additional burst moments.
Lastly, a final consideration is that Alpha Wolf in Storm builds
does impact the 2-piece
Feral Spirit spawned, so provides some
extra synergy in AoE.
Affixes in Dragonflight Season 4
As your key level climbs in Mythic+, you will encounter additional affixes each week throughout the season. The first activates at level 5, adding effects that trigger during combat, and the second begins at level 10, that trigger on enemy health thresholds or death. Enhancement has some unique tools to deal with the following affixes, and those not mentioned require no change:
Dealing With Affixes as Enhancement
Afflicted
Afflicted spawns up to two Afflicted Souls throughout the
dungeon when in combat. These have a 12-second cast Afflicted Cry that,
if successful, reduces the Haste of all players by 100% for 10 seconds that
can stack.
This can be stopped through any friendly dispel effect or through
healing the souls. Enhancement brings multiple tools to deal with this, with
the strongest being Poison Cleansing Totem that will clear up both,
allowing your healer to focus on the group instead.
Cleanse Spirit
also works, alongside using
Maelstrom Weapon as a last resort to
heal them quickly.
Entangling
Entangling periodically snares all players in the group, spawning a circle around you and snaring you by 30%. If you do not snap the vine by getting out of the area within 8 seconds, you will be stunned for 3 seconds.
Enhancement has no real issues dealing with this, thanks to Ghost Wolf
which suppresses the slow, allowing it to get out easily. It also has two active
options to clear it with
Thunderous Paws and
Spirit Walk, which
are both recommended as backups when this is active.
Incorporeal
Incorporeal spawns up to two Incorporeal Beings roughly every 45
seconds. These begin a 5-second cast Destabilize that, if successful,
reduces the damage and healing done of all players by 50% for 10 seconds and can
stack.
These enemies are vulnerable to all crowd control and interrupts, therefore
Enhancement should always play Hex during these weeks, with the option
to also pick up
Voodoo Mastery for consistency.
Bursting
Bursting causes each non-boss enemy to apply a stack of Burst to all players, dealing heavy Shadow damage over 4 seconds, and can stack. If this happens, it will refresh to the full duration.
The best way to counteract this is to stagger your damage carefully with your
group, however if a large number are set off at once, then using Astral Shift
to take pressure off your healer can help. Alongside that, dropping
Healing Stream Totem
and spending excess
Maelstrom Weapon to assist in healing while the group
stabilizes is recommended.
Sanguine
Sanguine causes all non-boss enemies to leave behind a pool of Ichor, dealing 15% of players health in Shadow damage per second while inside. This also heals enemies by 5% while inside, and pools last for 12 seconds.
Managing this is largely on the group and the tank moving enemies out of the
area, while you aim to avoid them. Some will always slip through, however, so
removing Thundershock so you have access to
Thunderstorm
to knock them out can be very helpful.
Spiteful
Spiteful causes all non-boss enemies to spawn a Spiteful Shade, which fixates on a random player in the group. These slowly lose health, and deal heavy melee damage if they get close.
Due to how dangerous these are, having some form of control or escape when
each group of enemies die is advised. Earthgrab Totem can be helpful
here to buy some time quickly, but if you are forced to tank them for long
then
Astral Shift is advised.
Rotational Considerations for Enhancement Shaman in Mythic+
The main rotation will be very similar to the one outlined in our
rotation page for either single-target or AoE situations. However, unlike in
raids, the majority of pulls are much shorter than raid encounters, and there is
downtime between them that can be leveraged for extra benefits. This also means
you should consider holding high-damage tools such as Primordial Wave
and
Feral Spirit for a fresh pack if the current one is about to die.
The details below are primarily specific to the make-up of dungeons, so if you are looking for a general overview instead, then use our Rotation page:
Maelstrom Weapon Management
Starting a pull with some Maelstrom Weapon left over from the
previous pack is usually very helpful for smoothing out the opening. If a pull
is about to end and mobs are dying, avoid overspending stacks to finish them off
and instead carry them to the next group of mobs. This advice also extends to
Hailstorm stacks if you expect to chain pulls together.
Mythic+ Opener for Enhancement Shaman
While we previously offered an opener here for Mythic+, the Rotation page now comprehensively covers different scenarios for opening in both single-target and AoE. We recommend heading there to get more detailed information depending on your build and loadout.
The general rule to keep in mind for Mythic+, though, is that you want to get
your 6 Flame Shocks active as quickly as possible,
Feral Spirits
out and use
Primordial Wave. The order is generally activating Primordial
Wave first to get additional cooldown reduction to cycle back quicker. Make sure
to check the main page as mentioned for details:
Cooldown Usage and Optimizations
Planning your cooldown uses throughout a dungeon is a major part of optimization when considering Mythic+ routes. Knowing the strengths of each and how to make the most of each window is covered below:
Major Cooldowns
Primordial Wave
This is one of our strongest Mythic+ tools and, as such, is the thing you
should play around the most. Your entire opening sequence should be setting up
for as many Flame Shocks as possible and then casting this for a strong
Splintered Elements window to get yourself started. Due to its low
cooldown, this is used as often as possible to avoid wasting uses unless a
pack is about to die and the follow-up buff would be wasted.
In boss encounters, this is simply a burst tool, so if there are adds
that are going to spawn, then make sure this overlaps with them to gain additional
damage from hitting extra targets - it is almost always worth delaying it
to do so. Also, make sure that Feral Spirit is on cooldown when
you cast this to avoid wasting the cooldown reduction provided by the
Maelstrom Weapon it generates.
Doom Winds
Make sure to get as many active Crash Lightning casts inside the
window as possible. This usually caps at 2-3, so long as you have spare
Maelstrom Weapon to activate the cooldown reduction from
Chain Lightning, so have this ready as you cast it. Try to also sync it
up with
Sundering as this also triggers
Windfury Weapon in AoE.
If you are playing
Splintered Elements, aim to fit these windows in
during the buff, as it lasts 12 seconds and makes it significantly easier to
get extra
Crash Lightning casts in.
Feral Spirit
If you use the base Feral Spirit or
Alpha Wolf talents,
you will gain a multiplicative stacking buff to your physical abilities for
each active wolf. As a result, you should try to align your
Sundering
and
Doom Winds casts with these windows to capitalize on
increased burst damage from stacking cooldowns. Alpha Wolf, on the other hand,
should naturally be getting activated by your rotation.
If you have the Elemental Spirits talent instead, then the buff provided
by your wolves will depend upon the type randomly summoned, increasing
the damage done by your Fire, Frost, or Nature abilities by 20% stacking
multiplicatively per wolf of the same type.
Elemental Blast derives full
benefit from any combination of these buffs, so you should bank your
Elemental Blast charges to unleash during
Elemental Spirits
windows where possible if you have incorporated it into your build.
Additionally, all versions of Feral Spirit serve as a significant
source of
Maelstrom Weapon stacks and contribute a bit of extra
single-target damage with their attacks. This ability should be mostly used
on cooldown, especially if you are talented into
Witch Doctor's Ancestry
as this effect will rapidly refresh the cooldown of your wolves, and thus, any
time spent sitting on a
Feral Spirit cooldown is time spent, not reducing
its cooldown - resulting in a significant DPS loss over time.
Ascendance
Ascendance generates a powerful AoE Nature damage
explosion from the on-cast burst, so if you are anticipating the arrival of a
large pack of enemies, it may be worth holding off on using it right away in
order to benefit more from the explosion. If talented into
Thorim's Invocation, make sure that your
Windstrike is primed to
fire the correct
Maelstrom Weapon spender (either
Lightning Bolt
or
Chain Lightning) for the situation you are facing before you use the
cooldown - otherwise, your
Windstrike casts will not convert your
Maelstrom Weapon stacks into damage as efficiently as possible.
Enhancement Shaman Survival and Mobility in Mythic+
Having access to some strong movement and survival tools is necessary for success in Mythic+, but usually, the most important is your defense out of the two. You should only take as much mobility as you need to get through rather than what is comfortable and focus the rest on defense to survive punishing mechanics. For defense, considerations are:
Astral Shift + Follow-up Talents - Always taken, it is our strong off-GCD defensive tool and is the staple for surviving dangerous mechanics.
Stone Bulwark Totem - Always taken, and is a backup long cooldown absorb shield when we need additional methods of survival.
Totemic Recall +
Call of the Elements - if taking the above, this can also be taken as a second use when needed.
Brimming with Life - a flat 10% Health bonus is mandatory in higher keys.
Spirit Wolf - a consideration if lethal mechanics are too frequent to cover with active defensives but do cost damage to make use of.
Earth Elemental +
Primordial Bond - the flat HP boost can be used alongside damage reduction tools to survive extremely high damage events and has a long duration, but the cooldown can be restrictive depending on the dungeon being run.
Earth Shield - Provides a small amount of bonus healing at the cost of some GCDs, alongside boosting our off-healing on ourselves. Worth taking due to being a low-cost point.
Nature's Guardian +
Elemental Warding - passive damage reduction and emergency heal that work at all times for a low point cost. Over the course of a dungeon will grant a lot of additional survival, so it should always be taken.
Elemental Resistance - this can add some extra value to dropping
Healing Stream Totem in spare GCDs, assisting the group with some extra magic damage reduction to appropriate elements.
For mobility, we can usually get away with just Ghost Wolf and
Spirit Walk
to deal with most situations, but consider
Thunderous Paws if you need an additional
root break or
Gust of Wind for some displacement. After that, points
should be spent on some of our utility options.
Enhancement Shaman Utility in Mythic+
Another important aspect of Mythic+ comes in the form of utility. These are tools we come equipped with that allow us to interact with each pull (mostly) unrelated to damage, but instead pull management and control:
Utility
Single Target Crowd Control
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 than canceled to continue dealing damage
through other methods.
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.
Area of Effect Crowd Control
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 huge 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 on targets in AoE. In niche situations,
you may need to utilize
Thunderstorm's knock-back effect to deal with a
specific mob or group of mobs or to move enemies out of
Sanguine
pools.
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 is also useful as a constant
slow while executing the rotation if talented.
Offhealing
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, but points
are usually too tight to be able to take this. 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.
Offensive / Defensive Dispels
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.
Other Utility
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. 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 -
a particular problem in
Sanguine weeks.
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 when the most effective time to use it will be.
Gear and Trinket Options for Enhancement Shaman in Mythic+
There are no significant alterations to the gear choices you should be making compared to normal single-target and AoE situations. However, we heavily recommend simming your character to make sure. Having Patchwerk and then Hectic Add Cleave/Dungeon Slice profiles alongside a full 5-6 target AoE profile at varying durations to see what can be optimized are the ideal profiles to use and use all of that information to make decisions. Unfortunately, this is a time-consuming process, but due to the nature of dungeons, simulating them is slightly more awkward.
Trinkets tend to lean toward consistent proc effects that are powerful in all
situations rather than specific ones, so your mileage may vary compared to those
picked in raids. In Season 4, due to the return of all previous raid trinkets
and the weak pool of dungeon options, we recommend using Antique Bronze Bullion
to acquire strong options if you do not intend to raid. Things to consider are:
Neltharion's Call to Dominance - consistently high uptime on Agility that always overlaps with our high damage
Feral Spirit windows. It also has the added benefit of occasionally triggering extra stacks all at once for even more frontloaded burst. The ideal Season 4 trinket for us.
Ominous Chromatic Essence /
Whispering Incarnate Icon - while the bonus effects are unlikely to be fully activated in a Mythic+ group, the passive stat boosts these grant make for a solid pick to pair with the above as we have no immediate burst windows to overlap with long cooldown on-use items.
Manic Grieftorch - provides an additional priority burst on use that gains additional value if allies die. This is more of a niche pick but can work if you need to burst something down in a dungeon to deal with key mechanics.
Storm-Eater's Boon - this is here exclusively because it deals uncapped AoE which we lack. This trinket is incredibly dangerous to use due to the root when we struggle to survive a light breeze, but the payoff can be big if planned around properly in situations where our toolkit struggles to contribute.
Fyrakk's Tainted Rageheart /
Ward of Faceless Ire - at higher key levels there are often a lot of very lethal mechanics. As such, these trinket options are usually enough to cover the holes in Enhancement's defensive toolkit and have a fairly low-performance hit. Consider these if you are struggling to survive.
Additionally, three other items from previous seasons are returning that provide extra value that you should aim to pick up after sorting out your trinkets:
Seal of Filial Duty - fire damage procs an absorb shield, and extra survival is at a premium for Enhancement. We have no shortage of ways to proc this, and as such is extremely valuable in Season 4.
Seal of Diurna's Chosen - free extra single-target damage from our ample fire damage sources. While not as valuable in AoE, it is extra damage you cannot otherwise get with alternatives so should be picked up if possible.
Thorncaller Claw - while this is generally more single-target oriented, the loss of stats compared to Season 3 is less punishing. The bonus effect is more valuable and generally worth grabbing if you have spare bullion.
For more details on overall gear options and where to find them, you can check out our Gear page here:
Changelog
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
- 21 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6, added note regarding Ember of Nullification.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5, touched up some sections and added defensive trinkets as options.
- 09 Nov. 2023: Restructured and updated for Patch 10.2.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated link to Mythic+ hub.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Some restructuring for Patch 10.1.7, added in Infurious Boots of Reprieve as a crafting option.
- 20 Jul. 2023: Added note about Sporecloak to gear section for key pushing.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5 with shift to Storm Cleave for Storm builds.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1 and new Season 2 builds, alongside initial Tier set opener.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed and added small improvements for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Shaman Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can also follow him on Twitter.
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