Enhancement Shaman PvP Rotation and Playstyle (Shadowlands / 9.2)
PvP requires you to perform various actions in the course of a duel, match, or battleground: interrupting/silencing enemies, damaging them, bursting them down, defending yourself, keeping yourself alive, etc.. It is a game mode that fully utilizes your kit, especially spells that are rarely used in PvE. On this page, we go through all the spells you need to use in PvP as an Enhancement Shaman, how you should use them, and we explain what your playstyle should be.
This page is part of our Enhancement Shaman PvP Guide.
Playstyle for Enhancement Shaman
The Enhancement Shaman should focus on maximizing their damage as much as
they can. Maximizing damage and using instant utility like Wind Shear,
and
Capacitor Totem will give windows where your team can do
devastating damaging bursts.
Before Gates Open
Have a plan for who you will be mainly using your crowd control on.
Although Enhancement Shaman do lack crowd control, they still have
Hex and
Capacitor Totem if someone stands near it.
If you are playing against a team that has the ability to fear your healer,
you can use Tremor Totem. This is a great utility spell.
Set your focus target to the main enemy team member who will be likely
using crowd control like Polymorph or
Fear.This will allow
you to know when to use
Wind Shear and
Grounding Totem to stop
the crowd control.
Use Earth Shield on your teammate who will be focused, which is
usually the Enhancemenet Shaman.
Use Windfury Weapon and
Flametongue on your weapons before the
gates open.
Offensive Playstyle
Sustained Damage
Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.
- Use and maintain
Flame Shock on the enemy as you approach.
- Use
Earthen Spike as soon as you can (if talented).
- Use
Stormstrike.
- Use
Stormstrike when you get a
Stormbringer proc.
- Use
Elemental Blast when having over 5
Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
- Use
- Use
Frost Shock on cooldown for generating
Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
- Use
Lava Lash and
Crash Lightning as filler abilities.
- Use
Lightning Bolt if you have 5 or more
Maelstrom Weapon stacks available, as the last option.
- Often store your
Maelstrom Weapon stacks to save for later use with
Healing Surge.
- Keep
Windfury Totem's buff active.
- Often store your
- If you cannot connect to your target use,
Frost Shock,
Flame Shock, or
Lightning Bolt.
- Use utility like
Healing Stream Totem,
Windfury Totem,
Earthbind Totem or
Earth Shield.
- Use your burst rotation.
Burst Damage
When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill
an enemy, you use your burst damage. If you can, stun the kill target with
Capacitor Totem or have your team stun the target so they cannot move or
use defensives.
- Once at 10 stacks of
Maelstrom Weapon.
- Use
Feral Spirit.
- Use
Static Field Totem on the kill target.
- Use
Ascendance or
Earthen Spike.
- Use
Chain Harvest.
- Use
Elemental Blast.
- Use
Heroism/
Bloodlust on your DPS teammate, if talented.
- Use
Stormstrike, or
Windstrike while the
Ascendance buff is active.
- Use
Stormstrike as soon as you get a
Stormbringer proc.
- Use
Sundering if you are using this talent.
- Use
Crash Lightning which will proc
Windfury Weapon.
- Use
Lava Lash and
Frost Shock as filler abilities.
- Use
Lightning Bolt if you have 5 or more
Maelstrom Weapon stacks available.
- Often store your Maelstrom Weapon stacks to save for later use with
Healing Surge.
- Often store your Maelstrom Weapon stacks to save for later use with
Defensive Techniques
Astral Shift is the main and only defensive cooldown on a
Enhancement Shaman. This cannot be used while stunned, and reduces damage taken
by 40% for 12 seconds.
Healing Stream Totem is a passive healing totem with 10% of the
health of the Enhancement Shaman. It heals about 20% of the maximum health of
the Enhancement Shaman over 15 seconds, on a 30 second cooldown.
Healing Surge should only be used with 5 or more
Maelstrom Weapon
stacks to gain the benefit of the increased throughput. Try to only use Healing
Surge on teammates with your
Earth Shield, and after pressing
Healing Stream Totem with the
Swirling Currents buff active.
Spirit Walk will mostly be used to break root effects to keep on a target
or to move to safety.
Ethereal Form is your main defensive cooldown if the enemy team are
classes with only physical damage available: Subtlety Rogue, Marksmanship
Hunter, Windwalker Monk, Arms Warrior, and Outlaw Rogue. This is a very
powerful defensive. Use this when you are being focused and your healer is
having trouble healing you or is stuck in crowd control. It is also good to
note that this cannot be used while stunned.
Macros
It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.
Changelog
- 27 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2 of Shadowlands.
- 17 Nov. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.5 of Shadowlands.
- 04 Jul. 2021: Updated based on Patch 9.1 of Shadowlands.
- 19 Mar. 2021: Updated based on Patch 9.0.5 for Shadowlands.
- 02 Dec. 2020: Updated in preparation for first PvP season of Shadowlands.
- 18 Oct. 2020: Updated based on the 9.0.1 Pre-Patch for Shadowlands, and new author.
- 12 Jul. 2020: Updated Burst and Sustained damage rotations.
- 09 Mar. 2020: Updated Burst and Sustained Damage rotations.
- 20 Jan. 2020: This page was checked for Patch 8.3 and no update was deemed necessary.
- 05 Jan. 2020: Page added.
This guide has been written by Tiqqle, a PvP enthusiast who has repeatedly achieved 2400 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.
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