Enhancement Shaman DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.2)

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HomepageWorld of WarcraftClassesEnhancement ShamanBuilds and Talents

Last updated on Mar 27, 2017 at 21:59 by Wordup 330 comments

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Enhancement Shamans in World of Warcraft Legion 7.2. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Enhancement Shaman guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author

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.

1. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	? Windsong	✔ Hot Hand	? Boulderfist
30	? Rainfall	? Feral Lunge	✔ Wind Rush Totem
45	✔ Lightning Surge Totem	✘ Earthgrab Totem	✘ Voodoo Totem
60	✘ Lightning Shield	✔ Ancestral Swiftness	? Hailstorm
75	✔ Tempest	✔ Overcharge	✘ Empowered Stormlash
90	✔ Crashing Storm	? Fury of Air	? Sundering
100	✘ Ascendance	✔ Landslide	✘ Earthen Spike

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind Icon Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind Icon Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Talent Cheat Sheets

Optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, as many talents offer unique strengths in the right situation. I have decided to list a "cheat sheet" of sorts below, however, to help with a quick set up that should be just fine for most encounters. If you want to fully optimize your ability to play this specialization, I recommend reading the entire talents section here to gain additional insight on when swapping your talents would be beneficial.

2.1. Raid Encounters

This build is an excellent starting point as a standard raid setup.

Level 15: Hot Hand
Level 30: Wind Rush Totem
Level 45: Lightning Surge Totem
Level 60: Ancestral Swiftness
Level 75: Tempest
Level 90: Crashing Storm
Level 100: Landslide

2.1.1. Heavy Cleave/AOE

Level 15: Boulderfist
Level 30: Wind Rush Totem
Level 45: Lightning Surge Totem
Level 60: Ancestral Swiftness
Level 75: Tempest
Level 90: Fury of Air
Level 100: Landslide

2.2. With Tier 19 4-piece Set Bonus

When you acquire the 4-piece set bonus from The Nighthold, the talent build shifts to a fixed set in virtually all circumstances, and you should change to this.

Level 15: Boulderfist
Level 30: Feral Lunge
Level 45: Lightning Surge Totem
Level 60: Ancestral Swiftness
Level 75: Tempest
Level 90: Crashing Storm
Level 100: Landslide

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

? Windsong

✔ Hot Hand

? Boulderfist

Tier 1 talents offer a variety of buffs to help increase your combat effectiveness.

Windsong provides an additional ability on a 45-second cooldown, dealing heavy Nature damage with a 10 yard range, and also increasing attack speed by 35% for 20 seconds on a 45-second cooldown.
Hot Hand provides a chance for all melee attacks whilst imbued with Flametongue to proc an empowered Lava Lash that costs no Maelstrom and deals 100% increased damage.
Boulderfist replaces Rockbiter. It has 2 charges, a 6-second recharge time, deals higher Nature damage and generates 25 Maelstrom instead of 20, whilst also empowering you with 5% increased damage for 10 seconds when cast.

Currently all 3 options on this tier are relatively viable, and can be interchangeable depending on your gear situation. All 3 have different circumstances that can shine, be it burst, sustain or AoE, so making the choice is contextual to the encounter type.

With 7.2 both Hot Hand Icon Hot Hand and Windsong Icon Windsong are good choices, but Hot Hand will generally be the best choice due to its synergy with the new golden trait Lashing Flames Icon Lashing Flames. If using the legendary Akainu's Absolute Justice Icon Akainu's Absolute Justice, Hot Hand should be your choice regardless of any other gear selections.

Boulderfist Icon Boulderfist is still a viable option if you are using the Tier 19 4-piece bonus, but otherwise should be avoided.

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

? Rainfall

? Feral Lunge

✔ Wind Rush Totem

Tier 2 talents offer an increase to raid utility and personal mobility.

Rainfall places down a Healing Rain that lasts 10 seconds, but can be increased up to 30 seconds total with successful Stormstrike and Lava Lash.
Feral Lunge is a medium range charge that also does minor Physical damage.
Wind Rush Totem summons a totem for 15 seconds that increases the speed of allies within 10 yards by 60% for 5 seconds. As long as allies remain in the area this will be refreshed, and the totem has a 2-minute cooldown.

In any situation where your group can capitalize upon Wind Rush Totem Icon Wind Rush Totem, it is the best choice by far. The refresh effect in the area is extremely powerful as it allows for unique benefits to the group to deal with mechanics. If this is not necessary however, Feral Lunge Icon Feral Lunge provides a strong amount of personal mobility to stick to targets, and is a great choice in those circumstances.

Rainfall Icon Rainfall is useful in any low movement encounter where additional healing could be useful, this is also an option to help healers out with very low impact to your damage.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

✔ Lightning Surge Totem

✘ Earthgrab Totem

✘ Voodoo Totem

Tier 3 talents offer a variety of totem choices that increase your ability to control mobs.

Lightning Surge Totem explodes after 2 seconds to stun all enemies within 8 yards for 5 seconds. This is an upgraded version of the old Capacitor Totem from previous expansions.
Earthgrab Totem pulses a root effect to all enemies within 10 yards for 5 seconds. If the roots are broken, the next pulse will instead slow the targets.
Voodoo Totem summons a totem for 10 seconds that Hexes all targets within 8 yards.

Lightning Surge Totem Icon Lightning Surge Totem is the default choice for this tier. It provides a lengthy 5-second stun with only a short charge time and has the widest variety of use out of the 3 totems. Earthgrab Totem Icon Earthgrab Totem and Voodoo Totem Icon Voodoo Totem could see very specific use on fights that require AoE roots or crowd control, but should be avoided for general usage.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

✘ Lightning Shield

✔ Ancestral Swiftness

? Hailstorm

Tier 4 talents offer a minor damage increase.

Lightning Shield lasts 1 hour and has a chance to deal low Nature damage when you deal or take melee damage.
Ancestral Swiftness increases Haste by 6%.
Hailstorm causes Frostbrand to deal additional Frost damage whilst active, in a similar way to Flametongue.

The default choice in all situations currently is Ancestral Swiftness Icon Ancestral Swiftness, as the flat additional Haste currently outscales both other options.

Lightning Shield Icon Lightning Shield is not far behind and requires no additional gameplay choices to make use of, and can be powerful in open world content.

Hailstorm Icon Hailstorm if using the legendary Akainu's Absolute Justice Icon Akainu's Absolute Justice should be your default choice as this enables the talent and item effect to work effectively.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

✔ Tempest

✔ Overcharge

✘ Empowered Stormlash

Tier 5 talents augments some of your basic abilities to grant significant bonus damage.

Tempest causes your Stormbringer effect to trigger 2 reduced cost Stormstrike charges instead of 1.
Overcharge causes Lightning Bolt to consume up to 40 Maelstrom for significantly increased damage, but causes it to have a 12-second cooldown.
Empowered Stormlash causes Stormlash to spread to an additional target for a total of 3, and deal 50% increased damage.

At base gear levels Overcharge Icon Overcharge is currently the best choice. This talent requires the most significant gameplay alterations to make use of, but it deals massive damage for the Maelstrom cost and is the most consistent option. Both this and Tempest Icon Tempest however are close enough that both are viable options.

Tempest Icon Tempest is close behind, and with Nighthold gear becomes the best option. This also becomes significantly better in AoE situations, where you will no longer be able to make use of Overcharge Icon Overcharge as it has no interactions with your Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning effect.

Empowered Stormlash Icon Empowered Stormlash is also very close, but requires group content to be useful. This has no impact on the rotation at all, so is the easiest to pick up and make use of if you're learning the spec in group play.

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

✔ Crashing Storm

? Fury of Air

? Sundering

Tier 6 talents focus on providing additional cleave and AoE damage.

Crashing Storm causes Crash Lightning to also leave an electrified zone on the ground for 6 seconds, dealing low Nature damage each second.
Fury of Air creates a vortex 8 yards around you, damaging and slowing enemies in the area. This costs 3 Maelstrom per second to maintain, and will remain as long as you have enough available to sustain it.
Sundering does massive Physical damage in a line and knocks enemies to either side, with a short 2 second mini stun, with a 40-second cooldown at the cost of 20 Maelstrom.

Crashing Storm Icon Crashing Storm is a low gain talent, but as it has no impact on your resources or rotation is preferred in most situations.

Fury of Air Icon Fury of Air is a solid choice if not using the Tier 19 4-piece bonus and you are in need of additional sustained AoE damage, converting excess Maelstrom into free damage. Once the 4-piece bonus is acquired however, this should no longer be taken as you will be using Boulderfist Icon Boulderfist, which limits your available Maelstrom.

Sundering Icon Sundering can have very strong burst AoE applications, and is a worthwhile choice due to the low value of both alternative talents now. This should only be taken however if targets are going to last for a very short duration and Crashing Storm Icon Crashing Storm will not gain value, or additional crowd control is needed such as in Mythic+ dungeons.

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

✘ Ascendance

✔ Landslide

✘ Earthen Spike

Tier 7 talents add new abilities and major damage increases to your kit.

Ascendance transforms you for 15 seconds, causing you to passively generate 12 Maelstrom per second. This changes Stormstrike into Windstrike, which alongside your auto attacks gain a 30 yard range and bypass all your targets armour.
Landslide causes Rockbiter and Boulderfist to increase Agility by 8% for 10 seconds.
Earthen Spike deals heavy Physical damage and increases the Physical and Nature damage you do to the affected target by 15% for 10 seconds, on a 20-second cooldown.

Landslide Icon Landslide is the default choice due to its consistency and high impact on our primary stat. Ascendance Icon Ascendance is too weak to consider both as an overall tool and a burst option, as it is very unreliable, causing it to often be very low impact for a 3-minute cooldown.

Earthen Spike Icon Earthen Spike has potential, but is still much too weak compared to Landslide Icon Landslide as a consistent option, and impacts the rotation too significantly so should be avoided.

⋘Spell Summary

Artifact Traits and Relics⋙