Enhancement Shaman DPS Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.0.5

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 these when playing as Enhancement, your responsibility to contribute to the groups success will be higher than in most raiding groups due to the lower group size, therefore skill and execution of strategy is crucial. The importance of 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 Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 1 page below.

If you want more information about all of the talent options and whether some could be useful in certain situations, you should use our dedicated Talent page.

Recommended talent choices for Enhancement in Mythic+ are as follows:

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

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. It is also mandatory to pick this talent when using Doom Winds, which we recommend. Elemental Blast may see some play in Tyrannical weeks with different talent builds, but is much more niche.

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.

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

Hailstorm is the go to AoE talent on this tier that can flex into single-target for some gains. Elemental Assault on the other hand is more single-target oriented, but the gap between these talents in their given situations is enough that both could see play depending on the dungeon and the weekly affixes, so this choice will come down to preference. Fire Nova is just too susceptible to issues with enemies dying before you get any payoff to be considered right now.

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 talent 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 provides very little gains and is heavily target-limited to 3, while Crashing Storm suffers from requiring time to deal its damage and the issue of enemies moving 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 a longer cooldown than alternatives, raises it up in Shadowlands a lot. Elemental Spirits can be used with some Legendary Powers, but on its own does not improve our kit enough to compete. Earthen Spike is extremely single-target focused to its detriment, and makes it the least desirable here.

Doom Winds is almost always going to be your best choice. The flexibility and added burst windows this provides both in single-target and AoE scenarios is simply too much to pass up on, especially as other options are much more specialized in their damage profile.

For more information about different Enhancement Shaman legendaries, you can look at our dedicated Legendary page.

The best Covenant for Enhancement Shaman in Mythic+ is Venthyr.

Kyrian is also a consideration, but the overall package is slightly weaker. Both Night Fae and Necrolord are more single-target oriented, and therefore less flexible options.

• For Venthyr, you should be using Nadjia the Mistblade's Soulbind. This is due to the frequent cycling of Thrill Seeker caused by enemy deaths. Here is an example tree.
• For Kyrian, you should choose Forgelite Prime Mikanikos to make use of Hammer of Genesis. Here is an example tree.
• For Night Fae, you can use either Niya or Korayn. Your choice depends on whether you want more burst windows and single-target with Grove Invigoration and Niya's Tools: Burrs, or additional opening burst via First Strike. Here are two sample builds: Niya, Korayn.
• When playing Necrolord you should generally be using Bonesmith Heirmir due to the consistent gains and burst with Heirmir's Arsenal: Marrowed Gemstone, but Emeni is an alternative due to Gnashing Chompers. Here are two sample builds: Bonesmith Heirmir, Emeni.

For Conduit choices you will always be picking Unruly Winds for your first Potency slot. Ideally you should also aim to get two Endurance choices for both Vital Accretion and Refreshing Waters, while dodging Finesse if possible as there are no appealing choices.

Covenant and Soulbind selections have a lot of different factors, so we recommend looking at our page discussing them for more information.

This season's new affix active at key levels 10 and above is Prideful. Every 20% of the enemy forces counter, a large enemy will spawn that when defeated will give you a damage boost for one minute. Ideally, you should use single-target tools such as Feral Spirit and Doom Winds to burst this down before the group dies to the pulsing AoE, as Doom Winds will be ready again before the buff expires. Save your big AoE tools like Ascendance for the damage boost. When this enemy is defeated, you will usually rush ahead and pull extra to gain back the time, so having tools ready to sync up with this is extremely important.

The main rotation is going to 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.

The details below are mostly specific to the make-up of dungeons, so if you are looking for a general overview instead then use our Rotation page:

1. Pre-cast Vesper Totem if Kyrian — move it to the pack as it is pulled.
2. Cast Feral Spirit on the way to the pack.
3. Cast Ascendance to hit as many targets as possible.
4. Drop Windfury Totem if using Doom Winds to activate the effect.
5. Cast Crash Lightning — this should grant a large amount of Maelstrom Weapon.
6. Cast Windstrike / Stormstrike
7. Cast Sundering
8. Cast Chain Harvest if Venthyr and have 5 Maelstrom Weapon charges.
9. Cast Chain Lightning if not Venthyr to trigger Hailstorm.
10. Cast Frost Shock to consume Hailstorm charges.
11. Continue with the normal AoE cycle.

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 it to finish them off and carry it to the next. This also extends to Hailstorm stacks if you know another pull is coming up soon.

You have access to two cooldowns (not including Legendaries) in Feral Spirit and Ascendance. The first is generally used to stabilize your early Maelstrom Weapon generation in a pull, or alternatively for single-target portions of a dungeon such as bosses. The second is much more weighted to the on-cast effect for a burst of uncapped AoE. Try to get the most out of this but do not hold it for too long, it can be flexed into a very strong single-target boost as well if your route needs that.

If you are playing with Doom Winds, that means that you should not be pre-casting Windfury Totem before each pull to make sure you get full benefit from the buff. Make sure to get as many active Crash Lightning casts inside the window as possible. This usually caps at 3 so long as you have spare Maelstrom Weapon to activate the cooldown reduction from Chain Lightning, so have this ready as you drop it. Try to also sync it up with Sundering as this also triggers Windfury Weapon in AoE.

Due to its low cooldown make sure to use this as much as possible, this is a huge burst tool in all situations and is the main reason this legendary is such a strong pick.

Sundering is an incredibly versatile tool that, despite being a talent is hugely useful. This can interrupt targets that are otherwise immune and do a huge burst of damage. Making use of this depends on each dungeon, and you can gain value from both effects throughout each run so use this often and early.

Hex is somewhat similar in its role allowing you to either control a dangerous enemy or emergency interrupt a cast. This can also be paired with the Crippling Hex Conduit for a little extra defense.

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 give the tank a chance to grab aggro before enemies begin casting, or to prevent key effects.

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 you excellent for locking down targets with interruptible casts. You should be the one aggressively grabbing these and allowing those with longer cooldowns to handle less frequent casts if possible. Coordinate this with your group before starting the dungeon.

Earth Elemental is an extremely powerful emergency tool if the tank either dies or is struggling to handle a pack. This has a long cooldown, so use it in emergencies.

Reincarnation allows you to resurrect after dying. This can be used to get back up after a lethal ability, or more importantly can be used to skip certain packs. The ability to run ahead with your group, die and then resurrect them is often key to a lot of routes.

Dispels: your toolkit includes an offensive dispel in Purge, a decurse in Cleanse Spirit and a fear break with Tremor Totem. These effects are frequent in many dungeons and you will often find yourself using these to deal with certain mobs, and should be used as much as possible.

Off-Healing: while healing is not your primary role, we can use multiple tools to assist in dangerous situations. A Maelstrom Weapon empowered Healing Surge will often stabilize yourself or an ally, and should be used in emergencies. Healing Stream Totem should also be used whenever a gap in your rotation happens to help out. Lastly, three of the four Covenant options all come with off-healing benefits with Vesper Totem, Chain Harvest, and Fae Transfusion.

We also bring both Windfury Totem for other melee in your group and Bloodlust. With the reduction in strength of the consumable drums, this is even more valuable now if your group has no other access to this effect.

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 own character to make sure. Having Patchwerk, and then Hectic Add Cleave/Dungeon Slice profiles to see what can be optimized are the ideal profiles to use.

Trinkets tend to lean toward on use or proc effects that are powerful in all situations rather than specific ones, so your mileage may vary compared to those that are picked in raids. If you want to know more about gear to aim for, you can look at our gear page.