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Homepage/World of Warcraft/Classes/Enhancement Shaman/Spell Summary

Enhancement Shaman DPS Spell Summary in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1

Last updated on Aug 13, 2018 at 14:47 by Wordup 37 comments

Table of Contents

General Information

On this page, we list the spells that you will often use as an Enhancement Shaman.

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. Enhancement Shaman Spell Summary

If you are new to Enhancement, it is recommended you read this before proceeding! In this section, we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, and how they interact with important cooldowns. If you have played this spec before or have already achieved a level of comfort playing this spec in a practical environment, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

2. Enhancement Shaman's Main Resource

Maelstrom Power is the primary resource of Enhancement Shaman and has a cap of 100. Maelstrom is similar in design to the resource Warriors use, Rage, but is much more sporadic and requires more attention to reliably play around. It is generated by Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon and using Rockbiter Icon Rockbiter as active generation, and then converting that Maelstrom into damage via high impact spenders. Maelstrom can be generated and consumed very quickly, which speeds up the playstyle significantly. Maelstrom can also be used to help with personal survivability via Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge.

3. Enhancement Shaman's Basic Abilities

These abilities are available no matter what talents you chose, and form the core of the specialization.

Rockbiter Icon Rockbiter is your basic generator, having 2 charges and generating 25 Maelstrom when cast. This comes with a 6-second recharge and can be cast from up to 20 yards away, dealing light Nature damage to your current target. This will form the main basis of your active generation during combat.

Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike is the primary spender for Enhancement, and will usually be your highest source of damage. It costs 30 Maelstrom to cast and deals high Physical damage, so does not scale with our Mastery. It triggers any weapon buffs present (such as Flametongue Icon Flametongue) and hits with both hands. This can trigger both Stormbringer Icon Stormbringer and Windfury Icon Windfury (though Windfury has only one chance per cast, rather than from each hand). Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike has a 9-second cooldown, which can be further reduced through Haste, and should be ideally used whenever available.

Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning is your AoE Maelstrom spender, dealing low Nature damage in a 120-degree cone in front of you. It costs 20 Maelstrom and has a 6-second cooldown. If Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning hits 2 or more targets, it also empowers you for 10 seconds, causing Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike and Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash to splash additional nature damage to any targets in a similar cone in front of you as the initial cast, including your primary target. Each hit from the initial cast can also trigger Stormbringer Icon Stormbringer and Windfury Icon Windfury individually. This also increases the damage of your next Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike cast by 5% per target hit. This ability is used on cooldown above 3 targets, or to maintain the buff at 2.

Flametongue Icon Flametongue does not generate or consume any Maelstrom, has a 20-yard range, and empowers your weapon attacks to deal additional Fire damage for the next 16 seconds. This ability is used to maintain the buff to empower your melee attacks for bonus damage, and comes with a 12-second cooldown, reduced by Haste.

Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash is the filler-spender, dealing high Fire damage to your current target at the cost of 40 Maelstrom. While Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash has no cooldown, it is primarily used to siphon off extra Maelstrom when you are generating enough to risk going over the 100 Maelstrom cap, converting it into damage and preventing waste.

4. Important Procs for Enhancement Shaman

Stormbringer Icon Stormbringer is the primary proc mechanic that Enhancement revolves around, with a base 5% proc chance from all weapon attacks. When this activates, the cooldown of Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike is reset, the next cast will trigger no cooldown, deal 25% additional damage, and consume no Maelstrom. The chance for this to occur is also increased by your Mastery rating.

Note: this includes all weapon attacks — including Rockbiter Icon Rockbiter, Flametongue Icon Flametongue, Frostbrand Icon Frostbrand initial hits, and off-hand attacks such as Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash. This also extends to Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike having two chances to trigger per cast.

Windfury Icon Windfury has a base 25% chance to proc from any main hand strikes triggering two additional attacks activating Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon, any on-hit effects, and having the chance to trigger Stormbringer Icon Stormbringer. This effect cannot trigger from itself.

5. DPS Cooldowns for Enhancement Shaman

Feral Spirit Icon Feral Spirit summons two wolves to fight for you for 15 seconds. These each generate 5 Maelstrom when they attack and scale with the Shaman's current stats, and are completely immune to crowd control and movement impairing effects. This ability is mostly used on cooldown for damage and increased Maelstrom generation.

Bloodlust Icon Bloodlust and Heroism Icon Heroism increase Haste by 30% for 40 seconds for all party and raid members within 100 yards. This ability debuffs everyone with a debuff that prevents the possibility of benefiting from Time Warp Icon Time Warp, Primal Rage Icon Primal Rage, Heroism Icon Heroism, and Bloodlust Icon Bloodlust for the next 10 minutes.

6. Movement Tools for Enhancement Shaman

Spirit Walk Icon Spirit Walk grants 60% movement speed for 8 seconds on a 1-minute cooldown, and removing all movement impairing effects.

Ghost Wolf Icon Ghost Wolf is a toggle that transforms you into a wolf with 30% additional movement speed and preventing you from being slowed below 100%. While in this form you cannot cast abilities, so you should only use this when you need a quick burst of additional movement and damage is not important.

7. Additional Utility for Enhancement Shaman

Your primary defensive tool is Astral Shift Icon Astral Shift, providing 40% damage reduction for 8 seconds with a 1.5-minute cooldown. This provides a moderate cooldown tool to survive high damage situations.

Reincarnation Icon Reincarnation allows you to resurrect yourself with 20% of your maximum Health and Mana when you die, with a 30-minute cooldown. This ignores the Battle Resurrection limit and can be very useful if caught off guard by a lethal mechanic. Due to the long cooldown, however, it should not be relied upon.

Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge heals your current for target a moderate amount at the cost of 20% of your Mana. This has a 40-yard range and no cooldown. If you have 20 Maelstrom available, it will consume that to also become instant cast.

Capacitor Totem Icon Capacitor Totem places a totem up to 35 yards away that will detonate after 2 seconds, stunning any targets within 8 yards for 3 seconds, with a 1-minute cooldown.

Hex Icon Hex is a long duration crowd control Curse effect, silencing and incapacitating your target, but can break when damage is taken. This has a 1.7-second cast, a 30-second cooldown, and a 1-minute duration. It can also only target Humanoids and Beasts.

Wind Shear Icon Wind Shear is your interrupt tool, with a 12-second cooldown and a 30-yard range, locking out the target school for 3 seconds. This has the advantage of having the longest range of any melee interrupt, giving Enhancement more flexibility.

Purge Icon Purge removes one beneficial effect from your current target at the cost of 20% mana, with a 30-yard range and no cooldown.

Earthbind Totem Icon Earthbind Totem places a totem up to 35 yards away that will slow the movement speed of enemies within 10 yards of it by 50% for 5 seconds, which will refresh while they remain in range. This lasts for 20 seconds and has a 30-second cooldown.

Frostbrand Icon Frostbrand deals light Frost damage to your target and slows them by 50%, also granting a buff for 16 seconds causing melee attacks to slow the target for 3 seconds. This costs 20 Maelstrom and has a 20-yard range. This is a great tool for keeping a target slowed while you remain on it, and note that when you cast Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning with this active, it will slow all targets hit. It is not used without specific talents outside of this.

Lightning Bolt Icon Lightning Bolt deals very light Nature damage to your target within 40 yards. This is instant cast and has no cooldown. Note that this resets the swing timer, so is not used in the rotation without specific talents, and is instead relegated to being used as a pulling tool or as a source of damage when out of range.

Earth Elemental Icon Earth Elemental summons an Elemental guardian for 1 minute, on a 5-minute cooldown. This will deal very light damage, but will attempt to taunt targets around you (unless it is currently targeting a Tank specialization player), protecting you from attacks by taking them itself.

Tremor Totem Icon Tremor Totem places a totem at your feet for 10 seconds that will remove Charm, Fear and Sleep effects on you and fellow raid members within 30 yards every second. This has a 1-minute cooldown.

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8. Changelog

  • 13 Aug. 2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch.
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