Enhancement Shaman DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.2.5

Last updated on Jan 15, 2024 at 15:00 by Wordup 34 comments
General Information

On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Enhancement Shaman in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.5. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.

If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Enhancement Shaman talents.

1.

Best Dragonflight Talent Builds for Enhancement Shaman

Note that these builds are popular build recommendations for various different damage profiles. For more specific recommendations for the Raid and Mythic+, check out the dedicated pages below.

2.

Enhancement Shaman Talent Cheat Sheet

In Season 3 the best option in all circumstances looks to be an Elementalist build to go alongside the tier set bonus:

  • Elementalist ST: BcQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIJJpEJgkESSSDlEAAAAAAAAAAAAAKRIJkgmAJNJpEAkkQgE
  • Elementalist AoE: BcQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIRSKRCCJhkk0QJRAAAAAAAAAAAAAKRIJkQKiCSTSKBoEkQgE
3.

Enhancement Shaman Talent Builds

This section aims to provide you with details on the most popular builds for the current patch. Enhancement in Dragonflight focuses on having every part of its build synergize together due to the number of powerful effects that link up to certain key abilities. Due to this, we have compiled options focused around two archetypes: Elementalist that centers around Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash and leveraging Shocks, and Storm builds that focus on Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike and Lightning spenders. Each has a respective single-target and AoE/Mythic+ oriented option available:

4.

Enhancement Shaman Season 3 Talent Builds

Elementalist ST Elementalist AoE Elementalist AoE (Frost) Storm ST Storm AoE
5.

"Elementalist" Single-Target

This is the ideal build for single-target situations in Season 3 thanks to the strength of the tier set bonus, and is used in any encounter that does not have extra targets present.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The biggest payoff of this build is your Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon spenders, and the numerous effects the build has to amplify them. Between Elemental Assault Icon Elemental Assault and Swirling Maelstrom Icon Swirling Maelstrom we generate a very healthy amount to cycle quickly and consistently with our rotational strikes. It also has a good amount of free cleave built into the kit with Hailstorm Icon Hailstorm and the funnel effects it takes throughout the tree. With the addition of the Season 3 set bonus we also have more control over when we burst generate, meaning that you can predict and plan around big moments within your cycle.

  • Elemental Blast Icon Elemental Blast is your big payoff moment, being spent during the large damage amplifier windows of Elemental Spirits Icon Elemental Spirits. Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave also provides a punchy instant setup hit that can leverage extra targets for Haste via Splintered Elements Icon Splintered Elements.
  • Hot Hand Icon Hot Hand forms the crux of the proc gameplay for the build, granting much higher access to your primary strike that triggers a 1-2 cycle with it and fillers when active.
6.

"Elementalist" AoE

This is currently our best AoE and Funnel build by a large margin, and is the ideal pick for Mythic+.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

While this has a lot more moving parts than other builds, it makes use of a wide suite of synergistic effects to convert most of our regular toolkit into hard-hitting AoE spenders. It functions by combining a number of packages together that have enough space to interlink, with a fluidity achieved through the additional Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon available in AoE. It is, however, hard-capped at 6 targets for the majority of its tools, which is a limitation that cannot really be avoided when playing Enhancement.

  • It has a heavy focus on Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash even in AoE, thanks to Molten Assault Icon Molten Assault and Lashing Flames Icon Lashing Flames, and can convert those targets into extra funnel with Ashen Catalyst Icon Ashen Catalyst.
  • Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning pairs with this to generate a large amount of additional Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon and add a splash effect to those activating Lava Lashes, forming the filler core.
  • The additional Maelstrom leads to Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning as a very frequent spender, that in turn leads to Hailstorm Icon Hailstorm casts that can be further amplified with Ice Strike Icon Ice Strike (that also splashes).
  • To cap it off, all of that extra generation leads to more instances of Feral Spirit Icon Feral Spirit thanks to Witch Doctor's Ancestry Icon Witch Doctor's Ancestry, and explosive finisher casts with Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave as a burst, setup and funnel tool thanks to Splintered Elements Icon Splintered Elements.

It sounds like there is a lot going on with the above, but in practice it plays intuitively with a little experience, as there is a logical progression with each cast. All of this flexibility and synergy makes for an extremely well-suited Mythic+ spec.

7.

"Elementalist" AoE - Frost

This is a sub-build of the Elementalist option listed here, foregoing the most difficult talent (Lashing Flames Icon Lashing Flames) to instead focus on Hailstorm Icon Hailstorm and amplifying it further.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

A lot of the DNA of the regular Elementalist build is here, and the same points can be echoed about how this plays. The primary difference is that, instead of filling with Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash cycling to apply Lashing Flames Icon Lashing Flames as a DoT maintenance loop, it aims to spend Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon and Hailstorm Icon Hailstorm as much as possible. The Legacy of the Frost Witch Icon Legacy of the Frost Witch effect amplifies this even further, and can consistently be triggered from spenders that also set up your Hailstorm stacks, alongside access to Elemental Blast Icon Elemental Blast to keep single-target relevant. Do note, however, that the Frost Witch effect does not apply to the cast that triggers it, meaning it needs to already be active for Elemental Blast Icon Elemental Blast casts to be amplified.

8.

"Storm" Single-Target

If you do not have access to the Season 3 set yet, this is your best option for pure single-target situations. After acquiring it, small changes can be made and it remains competitive, but slightly behind alternatives.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Note: If you are playing this without the current tier set, switch the point from Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave over to a second point in Elemental Assault Icon Elemental Assault.

Storm is a fairly skinny gameplay profile, with the central theme of the entire build being quite simple: pressing Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike as much as possible. Everything taken here is to further the goal of hitting this as much as possible, culminating in proc burst windows via Deeply Rooted Elements Icon Deeply Rooted Elements. Instead of the careful Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon of other builds, it instead uses it to trigger the Legacy of the Frost Witch Icon Legacy of the Frost Witch reset portion for, you guessed it, more Stormstrikes. This has very little baseline cleave, but it can swap out Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash to grab Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning at very little cost as well.

9.

"Storm AoE"

In Season 3 Storm AoE simply does not have the option to simplify much like it could previously in Dragonflight without leaving a lot of damage on the table. Due to this, its limitations show through and it is distinctly weaker than other options, but can still be played.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The main sticking point is not so much the Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave requirement, but all of the Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash and spread prerequisites to leverage it in AoE. This causes a huge point squeeze in the center of the tree, forcing us into the problem of having to pick between AoE and single target options, sacrificing a huge amount of the other in doing so. While it does get some extra benefits from the set like an additional Alpha Wolf Icon Alpha Wolf activator and bonus Nature damage, there are some key things to consider when specializing:

  • Tempest Strikes Icon Tempest Strikes / Storm's Wrath Icon Storm's Wrath / Stormblast Icon Stormblast - your single target center block options. These contribute a lot to bosses in Mythic+, but have little in the way of AoE conversion. This is the big sticking point in the middle.
  • Fire Nova Icon Fire Nova / Swirling Maelstrom Icon Swirling Maelstrom - allows you to lean even further into AoE (which the build already brings a lot of), but at the cost of the previous talents it really hurts when forced into single-target.
  • Pathing to Splintered Elements Icon Splintered Elements - going all the way down nets you huge extra Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave value in both single-target and especially AoE, but...
  • The Deeply Rooted Elements Icon Deeply Rooted Elements path - without access to this, the only real payoff moment for Storm is gone, but there is simply no way of comfortably fitting it all in without huge sacrifices.

The above contention makes it hard to really recommend the build, as while it can do some good things, it runs into a lot of roadblocks in terms of fluidity. While it is still playable to a degree, for now in Season 3 I would heavily encourage you to try one of the Elementalist builds instead.

9.1.

Raiding

While the above builds can be slotted into most encounters depending on what is required, some more bespoke tools may be required on some bosses. You can check out specific tips and builds for each of the Vault of the Incarnates encounters below:

9.2.

Mythic+

Mythic+ can potentially require a mix of particular AoE and Single-Target talents, depending on affixes and other variables. If you want more specific advice about the selections (especially those relating to Utility), check out the dedicated page below:

10.

Enhancement Shaman Talents Explained

Many of the Enhancement talent choices add abilities or alter how you would play due to the synergistic effects it creates with other portions of the toolkit. We recommend you look at our rotation page linked below for more details.

11.

Enhancement Shaman Talent Details

Spec Rows 1-4 Spec Rows 5-7 Spec Rows 8-10 Class Talents
10.1.

Tier 1 Talents: Rows 1-4

These talents establish the core of your playstyle and include many of your basic abilities. Key talents include:

Talent Explanation
Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike Our core generator ability strikes with both weapons, so can trigger weapon imbues and generate a high amount of Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon.
Windfury Weapon Icon Windfury Weapon Our main-hand imbue can trigger special bonus attacks on main-hand auto-attacks and ability hits.
Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash Deals moderate Fire damage, increased by 100% if Flametongue Weapon Icon Flametongue Weapon is imbued on your off-hand weapon. This has a lot of supporting talents further in the tree.
Forceful Winds Icon Forceful Winds Grants a cycling buff that increases Windfury Weapon Icon Windfury Weapon damage stacking up to 5, but does not refresh itself.
Improved Maelstrom Weapon Icon Improved Maelstrom Weapon Causes your Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon stacks to additionally increase the damage of affected spells by 10/20% per stack consumed, massively increasing the damage of spenders, and is always taken.
Molten Assault Icon Molten Assault Reduces the cooldown of your Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash ability by 3/6 seconds, and Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash casts against a target affected by your Flame Shock Icon Flame Shock reapplies the effect and spreads it to 2/4 nearby enemies. This allows you to maintain Flame Shock in single-target for free and forms the crux of multi-DoTs in AoE.
Unruly Winds Icon Unruly Winds Causes your Windfury Weapon Icon Windfury Weapon procs to trigger a third attack.
Windfury Totem Icon Windfury Totem Drops a totem at your feet for 2 minutes that grants party members a 20% chance of triggering an additional auto-attack, which can trigger any on hit effects. This is a unique raid buff provided only by Enhancement, and is a staple in raids or compositions where you have other melee present.
Raging Maelstrom Icon Raging Maelstrom Increases the maximum number of Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon stacks you can have to 10, and it increases the damage dealt by spells that consume the effect by an additional 5% per stack.
Ice Strike Icon Ice Strike Deals moderate Frost damage with your main-hand weapon and increases the damage of your next Frost Shock Icon Frost Shock by 100%.
Hailstorm Icon Hailstorm Causes Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon spending abilities to give you Hailstorm stacks that increase the damage of your next Frost Shock Icon Frost Shock cast and causes it to hit an additional target per stack. This provides powerful single-target and AoE at the same time, making it very versatile, and is almost always taken by Elementalist builds.
Fire Nova Icon Fire Nova Causes all of your active Flame Shock Icon Flame Shocks to erupt, dealing Flamestrike damage to up to 6 nearby enemies. This is very specialized for AoE and contributes little to single-target, but Storm builds will often take this to cover some of its AoE requirements. This is due to the number of Physical multipliers the build takes, which it now scales within Patch 10.1.

There are 13 points available in this section, and you need to spend at least 8 points to advance to the next part of the talent tree, so many of These abilities will be included in every build you can make. Although every talent in this section (other than Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike) is technically optional, it is strongly recommended that you have the following talents as they are both versatile and play an essential role in all builds.

  • Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash
  • Windfury Weapon Icon Windfury Weapon
  • Improved Maelstrom Weapon Icon Improved Maelstrom Weapon (2 points))
  • Raging Maelstrom Icon Raging Maelstrom
  • Molten Assault Icon Molten Assault (1 point)
  • Windfury Totem Icon Windfury Totem (raid)

From this point on, your main decision will be whether you want your build to focus more on Physical and Lightning damage effects with a focus on Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike and Windfury Weapon Icon Windfury Weapon on the left, or the varied magic schools on the right side of the side of the tree with Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash and our spell toolkit. Both of these options have single-target and AoE variants, so your choice here will often dictate how you path down the tree based on which damage profile (either sustained or burst in this case) you desire and personal preference.

10.2.

Tier 2 Talents: Rows 5-7

These talents establish the overall theme of the build and include a variety of tools to specialize in different damage delivery profiles. Key talents include:

Talent Explanation
Doom Winds Icon Doom Winds Adds a cooldown to your toolkit that significantly increases the proc chance of Windfury Weapon Icon Windfury Weapon and increases its damage dealt by 10% for 8 seconds when cast. On the GCD, and causes a small main-hand strike when cast. Storm builds take this to leverage the various Physical damage amplifiers on the tree.
Elemental Blast Icon Elemental Blast Deals massive Elemental damage to your target, and grants a buff for 10 seconds that grants either 3% Critical Strike, Haste, or 6% Mastery. This gains an additional charge if you are also talented into Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst. This is almost always taken in Elementalist builds to provide punchy single-target.
Tempest Strikes Icon Tempest Strikes Causes each of your primary strikes (Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike, Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash and Ice Strike Icon Ice Strike) to deal additional Nature damage to the target. Very simple, and leans into the strength of Storm. Also removes the need to juggle two different spenders.
Overflowing Maelstrom Icon Overflowing Maelstrom Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon spenders can now consume up to 10 stacks at once, up from 5, and is always taken to help with our Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon management.
Sundering Icon Sundering deals heavy Flamestrike damage to enemies in a line in front of you and disorients them briefly. This is a mandatory pickup if using the T30 set bonus, but is otherwise more of a utility/niche pick.
Swirling Maelstrom Icon Swirling Maelstrom Causes the surrounding talents (Hailstorm Icon Hailstorm, Fire Nova Icon Fire Nova and Ice Strike Icon Ice Strike) to generate Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon when used.
Hot Hand Icon Hot Hand Gives all your auto-attacks a 5% chance to trigger an 8 second buff that reduces the cooldown of Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash and increases its damage. This is a key reactive proc for Elementalist builds and provides a lot of throughput.
Storm's Wrath Icon Storm's Wrath Increases the gains from the Mastery stat on the proc chance for Stormbringer Icon Stormbringer and Windfury Weapon Icon Windfury Weapon by 150%, improving Mastery scaling for Storm builds.
Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning Deals Nature damage in a 120-degree cone in front of you, and if 2 or more targets are hit, you gain a buff that causes Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike, Ice Strike Icon Ice Strike, and Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash to trigger a separate Nature damage splash when cast. Initial casts can trigger the Windfury Weapon Icon Windfury Weapon imbue, and this is a core part of our rotational AoE and Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon generation when additional targets are present.
Stormflurry Icon Stormflurry Grants Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike a 25% chance to strike your target again for 40% of the damage dealt, and can chain off itself. These extra hits can also trigger any of our weapon procs and effects, including Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning.
Ashen Catalyst Icon Ashen Catalyst Causes Flame Shock Icon Flame Shock ticks to give a stacking buff that increases the damage of your next Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash by 12%, and reduce the cooldown of Lava Lash by 0.5 seconds. This significantly increases access to the ability and is important for all situations - especially funnel.
Stormblast Icon Stormblast Causes Stormbringer Icon Stormbringer empowered Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike casts to deal an additional 25% of damage dealt as Nature. This adds an extra Mastery scaling component into Storm builds for single-target.
Elemental Weapons Icon Elemental Weapons Provides 5% additional magic damage dealt per Weapon imbue active. While this can technically be activated via double Flametongue Weapon Icon Flametongue Weapon, it is never worth dropping Windfury Weapon Icon Windfury Weapon to do so.
Gathering Storms Icon Gathering Storms Causes each individual target hit by Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning to increase the damage of your next Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike cast by 25%, up to 150%.
Crashing Storms Icon Crashing Storms Increases the damage of your Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning by 40% and causes your Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning to jump to 2 additional targets. This is taken in all high-target AoE situations.
Lashing Flames Icon Lashing Flames Causes Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash to apply a debuff for 20 seconds that increases the damage the target takes from your Flame Shock Icon Flame Shock effect by 100%. This forms the core of the Flame Shock multi-dot playstyle.

This section offers the most significant number of talents, with up to 17 points available. Unfortunately, you will likely want to spend between 10-12 points above the 8-point gate and another 8-10 points below the 20-point gate, leaving you only 8-12 points to spend here. This constraint forces you to pick the type of damage delivery profile you want to specialize in at this point in the tree and forms the most significant part of the puzzle when building your character. It also dictates what you will invest in for the final rows.

Depending on your choices made above the 8-point gate, you will likely want to continue specializing along the left or right sides of the tree:

  • Storm builds will want to specialize in abilities that have extra interactions with Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike, picking up talents such as Doom Winds Icon Doom Winds, Stormflurry Icon Stormflurry and Storm's Wrath Icon Storm's Wrath. It can also specialize into single-target by grabbing Stormblast Icon Stormblast here.
  • Elementalist builds instead tend to take similar core talents regardless of target count, completing the right side of the tree with the Fire talents — Hot Hand Icon Hot Hand, Ashen Catalyst Icon Ashen Catalyst, and Lashing Flames Icon Lashing Flames.

All builds will path through the center, and can easily access any tools it wants via the links from Raging Maelstrom Icon Raging Maelstrom. Both builds will also always pick up either Elemental Blast Icon Elemental Blast or Tempest Strikes Icon Tempest Strikes to open up the left side of the tree, and pick up a core tool for each respective build. In AoE situations, we take Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning and Crashing Storms Icon Crashing Storms to add more AoE to our toolkit. Overflowing Maelstrom Icon Overflowing Maelstrom is a staple in all builds due to how busy our GCDs already are, reducing the number needed to efficiently use our resource.

10.3.

Tier 3 Talents: Rows 8-10

The final rows dictate your cooldown toolkit and round out the build you have selected and how versatile it is at various target counts. Which you select below the 20-point line is generally decided by what you choose earlier on the tree, with a few exceptions. Key talents include:

Talent Explanation
Elemental Assault Icon Elemental Assault Causes Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike, Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash and Ice Strike Icon Ice Strike to have a 50/100% chance to generate an additional Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon when cast, and increases Stormstrike's damage by 10/20%. The 10.2 addition of other strikes have made this a mandatory pickup for Elementalist builds to fix its starvation problems.
Legacy of the Frost Witch Icon Legacy of the Frost Witch Resets the cooldown on Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike whenever you spend Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon, and grants 5/25% increased Physical and Frost damage for 5 seconds whenever this triggers. The first point is the most valuable, though the second has good value with supporting builds. The stacks spent are counted internally, so you do not have to spend 10 all at once.
Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave Deals moderate Elemental damage and applies Flame Shock Icon Flame Shock to your current target, granting you a 15-second buff that causes your next Lightning Bolt Icon Lightning Bolt to echo to all targets affected by your Flame Shock for 150% of the damage. At least one point here is mandatory with the Tier 31 set bonus.
Primal Maelstrom Icon Primal Maelstrom Causes Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave to generate 5/10 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon when cast. Extremely helpful for setting up bursts.
Splintered Elements Icon Splintered Elements Consuming the Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave effect grants 20% Haste for 12 seconds, increasing by 4% for each additional Lightning Bolt Icon Lightning Bolt echo generated on secondary targets. Provides a consistent Haste amp that gets even stronger in AoE to speed up our rotation and improve funnel.
Feral Spirit Icon Feral Spirit Summons two wolves that deal damage to your target for 15 seconds and generates one stack of Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon instantly and an additional stack every 3 seconds while active. Each wolf also increases all Physical damage you deal by 15% while active.
Witch Doctor's Ancestry Icon Witch Doctor's Ancestry Grants 2/4% additional chance to trigger Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon, and causes each stack generated to reduce the cooldown of Feral Spirit Icon Feral Spirit by 1/2 seconds. Incredibly powerful for the resource alone, and converts into significantly higher uptime on our wolf buffs.
Elemental Spirits Icon Elemental Spirits Replaces the Physical damage buff from the baseline effect with a combination of Fire, Frost, or Nature damage increases, selected randomly when summoned. This is used exclusively by Elementalist builds.
Alpha Wolf Icon Alpha Wolf Causes your Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning/Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning casts with Feral Spirit Icon Feral Spirit active to cause them to pulse for Physical damage every 2 seconds for 8 seconds. This AoE damage is uncapped and provides a large amount of damage to Storm builds due to its high Feral Spirit Icon Feral Spirit uptime. This does also trigger from the wolf summoned by the Tier 31 2-piece bonus.
Ascendance Icon Ascendance A 3-minute burst cooldown that converts your auto-attacks and Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike into special attacks that ignore armor, have a 30-yard range, and reduce the cooldown of Stormstrike by 60% for 15 seconds. It provides a large on-demand burst window, but unfortunately is too weak to justify with such a long cooldown so is not taken.
Deeply Rooted Elements Icon Deeply Rooted Elements Alternative to Ascendance that gives access to the same effect, with a ramping chance to trigger for 6 seconds from each Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike cast. Much stronger than the above and provides Storm with explosive moments throughout an encounter, but extremely volatile.
Static Accumulation Icon Static Accumulation Whenever you are affected by Ascendance Icon Ascendance, you generate 1/2 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon every second. It also grants a 10/20% chance to refund all Maelstrom spent on Lightning Bolt Icon Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning. This is the most powerful source of additional resources in the tree, and causes Storm to often be overloaded with additional resources and Feral Spirit Icon Feral Spirit resets.
Thorim's Invocation Icon Thorim's Invocation Causes your Windstrike Icon Windstrike casts during Ascendance Icon Ascendance to also discharge a Lightning Bolt Icon Lightning Bolt / Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning (based on your most recent cast). This allows us to make use of the resource flood much more efficiently and completes the Ascendance leaf. Also increases Lightning Bolt Icon Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning damage by 20% at all times.

Once you reach these rows in the talent tree, you will have at most 10 points left to spend, and you will likely already have decided on a build archetype. That means your decisions are largely intuitive, as most of the abilities here lean toward one damage profile or ability school. Virtually all builds will make sure to take Feral Spirit Icon Feral Spirit and Witch Doctor's Ancestry Icon Witch Doctor's Ancestry, and Elementalist builds will select Elemental Spirits Icon Elemental Spirits while Storm builds will avoid it. Storm builds, on the other hand, will always spend 10 points here, grabbing the aforementioned wolf talents and then deciding between Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave or Deeply Rooted Elements Icon Deeply Rooted Elements tracks to completion, with 2-3 points spent between Legacy of the Frost Witch Icon Legacy of the Frost Witch and Elemental Assault Icon Elemental Assault.

There is some room to deviate from these, though, depending on the requirements of a given encounter, and there is some plug-and-play with all of the talents below this row.

10.4.

Shaman Class Talents

Enhancement Shamans are given Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning and Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon by default, and there is only a small handful of additional damage-increasing talents on the Shaman class tree should be included in every build:

  • Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst*
  • Frost Shock Icon Frost Shock
  • Flurry Icon Flurry
  • Fire and Ice Icon Fire and Ice
  • Nature's Fury Icon Nature's Fury

We would also generally recommend whenever points allow it to take Totemic Projection Icon Totemic Projection to allow you to move your Windfury Totem Icon Windfury Totem around off the Global Cooldown to avoid outranging it. This can be done using a macro with very little effort and is a big quality-of-life improvement.

*Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst is required whenever you are playing Elementalist builds, but can be skipped by Storm.

In addition to the above talents, it is generally recommended for all builds to include a variety of defensive talents. The list of defensive talents includes:

  • Astral Shift Icon Astral Shift
  • Planes Traveler Icon Planes Traveler / Astral Bulwark Icon Astral Bulwark
  • Earth Shield Icon Earth Shield
  • Earth Elemental Icon Earth Elemental
  • Brimming with Life Icon Brimming with Life
  • Elemental Warding Icon Elemental Warding
  • Ancestral Defense Icon Ancestral Defense

Finally, it is also strongly recommended that all builds include a few mobility talents:

  • Spirit Walk Icon Spirit Walk / Gust of Wind Icon Gust of Wind
  • Wind Rush Totem Icon Wind Rush Totem
  • Spirit Wolf Icon Spirit Wolf / Thunderous Paws Icon Thunderous Paws
  • Go with the Flow Icon Go with the Flow

Not all defensive or mobility talents need to be included, but you should try to incorporate an appropriate number of each into your builds, as having none is often a bad idea. The remainder of your points can be spent as you desire for specific Utility, crowd control, or pathing requirements; however, we strongly recommended that you at least consider including some of the following generally applicable utility options

  • Wind Shear Icon Wind Shear
  • Mana Spring Icon Mana Spring
  • Capacitor Totem Icon Capacitor Totem
  • Ancestral Guidance Icon Ancestral Guidance
  • Thunderstorm Icon Thunderstorm
  • Thundershock Icon Thundershock
  • Cleanse Spirit Icon Cleanse Spirit
  • Purge Icon Purge

Of note here is Mana Spring Icon Mana Spring. This can be a strong passive boost to your raid's healers, providing extra Mana, mostly for free, while you execute the rotation. Given it is very easy to access and only costs one point, it is generally recommended in most situations unless you require an excess of control tools.

For a more detailed description of each of our class talents, please refer to the Enhancement Shaman DPS Spell Summary page.

11.

PvP Talents (War Mode)

"War Mode" is an optional feature that enables open-world PvP encounters that confers some benefits when active:

  • Grants access to PvP talents in the open world.
  • 10% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
  • 10% more experience gained while leveling.
  • Earn Conquest Points which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will open yourself up to open-world PvP, so be aware of hostile enemy players who could interfere with you; this is a risk you will have to decide on your own if you want to take.

If you are interested in doing PvP as an Enhancement Shaman or want to look into how to deal with PvP encounters when playing it, please refer to our dedicated PvP guide.

11.1.

Enhancement Shaman War Mode Talents

Generally, these selections are made to optimize your ability to kill enemies faster, increasing your pace when moving through content.

  • Ride the Lightning Icon Ride the Lightning provides the largest damage increase option, adding additional effects to each Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike cast.
  • Shamanism Icon Shamanism allows for more liberal Bloodlust Icon Bloodlust / Heroism Icon Heroism usage without having to worry about the 10-minute lockout. Great for solo and duo content.
  • Skyfury Totem Icon Skyfury Totem provides a moderate boost when staying in the same area, increasing your Critical Strike damage and Healing by 20% for 15 seconds, with a 40-second cooldown that is low enough to be used liberally and boosting allies within its range on top of that.
  • Burrow Icon Burrow gives you an emergency escape if you get into trouble with a 2-minute cooldown, and also deals massive Physical damage when you emerge from the ground.
  • Counterstrike Totem Icon Counterstrike Totem copies the damage you take and repeats it onto the enemy that dealt it, allowing you to turn dangerous enemies strong attacks against them!

Seasoned Winds Icon Seasoned Winds, Static Field Totem Icon Static Field Totem, Unleash Shield Icon Unleash Shield, Traveling Storms Icon Traveling Storms and Grounding Totem Icon Grounding Totem have very limited PvE uses, being more focused on in-combat control. While these are very strong for some situations, they are much more suited to PvP engagements, and as such, are not recommended for efficient enemy killing. Stormweaver Icon Stormweaver should generally be avoided due to it locking out flexibility in when you self-heal, despite it being more efficient.

12.

Changelog

  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed and touched up for Patch 10.2.5 and mid-season updates.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, small restructuring and added Elementalist Funnel.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5 and updated Storm Cleave in recommendations.
  • 09 May 2023: Updated to include Primordial Wave in Elementalist single target.
  • 01 May 2023: Fully updated for Patch 10.1 with revised new builds. Physical builds converted to Storm.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed and updated for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed and updated 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.
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