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it (read more Enhancement Shaman DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Enhancement Shamans in World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth 8.0.1. 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 for Enhancement Shaman
| Level | Choices | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 |
✘
Boulderfist
|
✘
Hot Hand
|
✔
Lightning Shield
|
| 30 |
✔
Landslide
|
✔
Forceful Winds
|
✘
Totem Mastery
|
| 45 |
?
Spirit Wolf
|
?
Earth Shield
|
?
Static Charge
|
| 60 |
✔
Searing Assault
|
✘
Hailstorm
|
✘
Overcharge
|
| 75 |
?
Nature's Guardian
|
?
Feral Lunge
|
?
Wind Rush Totem
|
| 90 |
✘
Crashing Storm
|
✘
Fury of Air
|
✔
Sundering
|
| 100 |
✔
Elemental Spirits
|
✔
Earthen Spike
|
✔
Ascendance
|
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
and 
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. Enhancement Shaman Talent Cheat Sheet
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. We have provided 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, we recommend reading the entire talents section here to gain additional insight on when swapping your talents would be beneficial.
2.1. Raid Encounter: Single Target Oriented
This build is an excellent starting point as a standard raid setup, focusing on single target which is Enhancement's strongest niche currently. Player choice tiers are reserved for Utility options, which have no strict answer.
- Level 15:
Lightning Shield - Level 30:
Landslide - Level 45: Player's Choice
- Level 60:
Searing Assault - Level 75: Player's Choice
- Level 90:
Sundering - Level 100:
Ascendance
2.2. Mythic+: AoE Oriented
This build focuses more on versatility and flexibility, allowing you to pick and choose things that will complement your tools in a Mythic+ or Dungeon environment.
- Level 15: Lightning Shield
- Level 30:
Forceful Winds - Level 45:
Static Charge - Level 60: Searing Assault
- Level 75: Player's Choice
- Level 90: Sundering
- Level 100:
Elemental Spirits
3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Enhancement Shaman
|
✘
Boulderfist
|
✘
Hot Hand
|
✔
Lightning Shield
|
Tier 1 talents offer additional ways of dealing additional damage alongside increased Maelstrom generation.
Boulderfist reduces 
Rockbiters recharge time by 15%,
and causing it to deal 20% increased damage.
Hot Hand provides a chance for all melee attacks while imbued
with 
Flametongue to proc an empowered 
Lava Lash that
costs no Maelstrom and deals 100% increased damage.- Lightning Shield applies a 1 hour buff to you that
- reflects a small amount of Nature damage to melee attackers;
- generates 2 charges per
Stormstrike cast; - at 20 charges, consumes them and resets to 1, generating 100 Maelstrom over 10 seconds and causing each melee attack to deal additional Nature damage.
Currently, Lightning Shield outperforms both other options by a
large margin, alongside providing the most flexible interactions with your
abilities, having the lowest impact on your rotation. This is highly
recommended and currently, neither other option are worth considering based on
the current tuning.
Hot Hand is entirely single-target, and while it does provide
additional Maelstrom by allowing for a free 
Lava Lash cast, the
procs are very sporadic and can sometimes lead to waste. The damage increase is
solid.
Boulderfist requires additional Global Cooldowns to be spent
purely on generation, which the rotation currently cannot support as well as
free generation provided by Lightning Shield, and 
Rockbiter does
not deal enough damage to alleviate this.
4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Enhancement Shaman
|
✔
Landslide
|
✔
Forceful Winds
|
✘
Totem Mastery
|
Tier 2 talents provide a mixture of raw additional damage, and some Maelstrom generation options.
- Landslide grants your Rockbiter casts a 20% chance
to increase the damage of your next Stormstrike cast by 100%.
- Forceful Winds causes each successive Windfury Attack
within 15 seconds to increase all Windfury damage by 100%, and Maelstrom
generated by 1 (per swing), stacking up to 5 times. This effect does not
refresh itself.
Totem Mastery summons 4 totems at your feet for 2
minutes with no cooldown, granting the following effects:- Resonance Totem — generates 1 Maelstrom every second.
- Storm Totem — 5% increased Stormstrike damage
- Ember Totem — 10% increased Lava Lash damage.
- Tailwind Totem — 2% increased chance to trigger
Windfury.
Depending on the encounter you are doing, your choice will usually be
between either Landslide or Forceful Winds.
Landslide is single target-oriented, adding an additional proc
to your rotation that can provide extremely heavy bursts of
Stormstrike damage through the effect, but has very little
additional gain during AoE.
Forceful Winds, on the other hand, provides a solid single target
increase and a large gain in AoE situations due to the additional speed it can
be stacked up via 
Crash Lightning. Do note that the swing that
triggers the effect gains the benefit (so for example, if 3 are triggered by a
Crash Lightning cast, all 3 will gain 300% increased damage and generate a
total of 6 extra Maelstrom).
Totem Mastery is very versatile, but it is just a
little too weak right now compared to the other two to consider, and has
limitations based on needing to use up a Global Cooldown to place them before
each encounter or during movement. Due to that, it is not currently
recommended.
5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Enhancement Shaman
|
?
Spirit Wolf
|
?
Earth Shield
|
?
Static Charge
|
Tier 3 talents provide various utility tools that are useful in different situations.
Spirit Wolf causes 
Ghost Wolf to grant an additional
5% Movement Speed and 5% damage reduction each second while active, stacking
up to 4 times. These stacks are all lost when leaving Ghost Wolf.
Earth Shield applies a shield to your target with 9
charges, increasing all healing you do to them by 10%. If the target takes
damage, a charge will be consumed and heal them a small amount. This can only
be active on one target at a time.- Static Charge reduces the cooldown of your
Capacitor Totem by 5 seconds per target hit, up to a maximum of 20
seconds.
All 3 of these options have their place depending on the current content you are doing, and a lot of your choice will be decided by that and personal preference, as none are significantly stronger than the alternatives.
Spirit Wolf provides a more consistent way of reducing damage if
it is needed frequently during an encounter alongside improving your
Ghost Wolf movement speed bonus, but has a significant opportunity
cost as you cannot deal damage while taking advantage of it, and need the buff
to ramp up.
Earth Shield grants a small amount of additional self
sustain when doing solo content, or in encounters where there is constant but
low ticking damage. It is otherwise relatively underwhelming and will not keep
you alive in emergencies.
Static Charge provides additional AoE crowd control in particular
in Mythic+ where it shines, and in encounters were more frequent stuns are
needed. This has no impact on survival or movement, however, so make sure the
situation calls for it before selecting.
6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Enhancement Shaman
|
✔
Searing Assault
|
✘
Hailstorm
|
✘
Overcharge
|
Tier 4 talents offer single target damage increase options.
- Searing Assault causes your direct Flametongue casts
to deal additional Fire damage over 6 seconds to the target.
Hailstorm makes 
Frostbrand cause your melee attacks
to also deal additional Frost damage while the buff is active.
Overcharge causes 
Lightning Bolt to
consume up to 40 Maelstrom for significantly increased damage, but at the cost
of a 12-second cooldown.
Currently, Searing Assault is by far the superior choice due to it
having little to no direct impact on the rotation while still providing more
damage than the alternatives. Note that this DoT only applies from the initial
cast of Flametongue, and not the on hit effects.
Hailstorm damage is very low, and the additional maintenance and
resource required to sustain it makes it a very weak option.
Similarly, Overcharge requires significantly more management and
resource allocation to make use of, and the damage gain over a simple
Lava Lash does not warrant the pick.
7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Enhancement Shaman
|
?
Nature's Guardian
|
?
Feral Lunge
|
?
Wind Rush Totem
|
Tier 5 talents provide additional movement and healing options.
Nature's Guardian causes you to heal for 20% of your maximum
health when you drop below 35% health. This effect has a 45-second
cooldown.
Feral Lunge is an 8-25 yard range charge that also does minor
Physical damage. This is on a 30-second cooldown and a 0.5-second Global
Cooldown.
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. This has a 2-minute cooldown and can be
placed up to 40 yards away.
In any situation where your group can capitalize upon
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
provides a good amount of additional personal mobility and sticking power, so is
a great choice in those circumstances.
Nature's Guardian, on the other hand, gives you a modest amount of
additional self-sustain that will also automatically activate, keeping you
healthy in situations where you are brought low. This is a solid choice for
Raids and Dungeons, especially in the event that you are not in need of extra
mobility.
8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Enhancement Shaman
|
✘
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 active as long as you have enough resources to sustain it.- Sundering deals massive FlameStrike (Fire/Physical) damage in a
line and incapacitates targets hit for 2 seconds. This has a 40-second cooldown
and costs 20 Maelstrom.
Sundering is by far the best, and most flexible choice on the
tier. It shores up the biggest problem Enhancement suffers from which is burst
AoE, alongside being the only solid increase in single target.
Crashing Storm is a less impactful talent, but as it has no impact
on your resources or rotation during AoE is the easiest talent to make use of.
This does also bring Crash Lightning back into the rotation as a low
cost filler in single target if selected.
Fury of Air causes too much disruption within the rotation, adding
additional strain on your Maelstrom balance for little to no gain, so both of
these choices are not ideal.
9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Enhancement Shaman
|
✔
Elemental Spirits
|
✔
Earthen Spike
|
✔
Ascendance
|
Tier 7 talents enhance existing or grant additional burst windows.
- Elemental Spirits reduces the cooldown of Feral Spirit
by 30 seconds, and and causes you to spawn two wolves in any combination from a
pool of 3 Elements that provide the following buffs to you for the 15-second
duration:
- Fire —
Molten Weapon increases your Fire damage
by 20% and causes Lava Lash to burn the target for an additional 35%
of the damage dealt over 4 seconds. This effect accumulates much like
Ignite for Fire Mages. - Frost —
Icy Edge causes all of your attacks to deal
a fixed amount of additional Frost damage and slow the target by 30% for 3
seconds. - Lightning — Crackling Surge increases the damage of
Stormstrike and Windfury Attack by 35%.
- Fire —
Earthen Spike deals heavy Physical damage and increases the
Physical and Nature damage you do to the affected target by 20% for 10 seconds.
Has a 20-second cooldown and costs 20 Maelstrom.- Ascendance provides a 15 second buff that for the
duration converts Stormstrike to
Windstrike with a 66%
reduced cooldown, and your auto attacks into 
Windlash. These both
ignore armour and have an additional 30-yard range.
All three of these options fit into the kit and the choice you pick largely depends on the content or encounter type you are doing.
Ascendance provides the highest reliable burst window,
but comes alongside the longest cooldown. It effectively limits RNG when active
and has the greatest benefit in situations where additional single target burst
is needed that match up with 3-minute cooldown window.
Elemental Spirits, on the other hand, increases the frequency of
your Feral Spirits, and the buffs are versatile, both increasing your
single target and AoE damage significantly (in particular pairing Fire with
Sundering, or Lightning with Forceful Winds), but has
RNG included.
Earthen Spike is ideal for frequent priority damage requirements,
and making use of AoE damage funneling into a single target. It has the lowest
burst of the 3 options, but it also relies the least on having fights line up
with the cooldown timer, so is one of the least punishing as long as it can be
used on cooldown.
10. PvP Talents (War Mode)
In Battle for Azeroth, there will be the option to go into "War Mode". Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:
- PvP talents that can be used in the outdoor world.
- 10% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
- 10% more experience gained while leveling.
- Ability to earn Conquest Points in the outdoor world, which can reward powerful gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling 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 make yourself available for open world PvP, and the possibility to be "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
10.1. Enhancement Shaman War Mode Talents
In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing open world PvE gameplay.
10.1.1. General PvP Talents
Adaptation is likely your most passive choice since it will
automatically remove loss of control effects over 5 seconds. It is recommended
for leveling to take this PvP talent.
Relentless is also a passive ability but it does not
automatically remove crowd control abilities, but instead reduces the
duration.
Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all
movement impairing effects and all loss of control effects.
10.1.2. Enhancement Shaman PvP Talents
Generally the selections are made to optimize your ability to kill enemies faster, increasing your pace when moving through content.
Ride the Lightning is by far the best option, adding damage to
your Stormstrike and augmenting it with additional cleave.
Forked Lightning is similar to Ride the Lightning, adding some
long range cleave to your Stormstrike hits.
Shamanism allows for more liberal 
Bloodlust /
Heroism usage without having to worry about the 10-minute
lockout. Great for solo and duo content.
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.
Static Cling increases sustained damage against high health
targets. Its use on multiple targets is limited due to two Stormstrikes usually
killing a target before you gain any benefit.- Counterstrike Totem replicates and reflects damage you take for
15 seconds, on a 45-second cooldown. This can be really strong when in a high
damage area to deal some chip damage to targets around you, and convert your
health pool into additional damage.
Other options that are useful include 
Swelling Waves and
Spectral Recovery as healing tools, increasing your sustain either
while in combat or moving between encounters. 
Thundercharge can
have some limited uses, increasing the recovery rate of your cooldowns between
areas, but Enhancement does not have a lot of impactful tools to make use of
this effect.
Ethereal Form, 
Purifying Waters, and
Grounding Totem, on the other hand, have very limited PvE uses,
being more focused on in-combat control more suited to a PvP engagement, and as
such are not really recommended for large groups of low health enemies.
11. ChangeLog
- 13 Aug. 2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch.
CONTENTS
FROM THE SHAMAN FORUMS
- Your experience with resto shamans in mythic +
- Thinking of going with Enhance Shaman
- Macro Helps...
- Help with Enhancement
- Stat confusion
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- Transmog Shaman Models
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