Cataclysm Enhancement Shaman Guide
Introduction
the following thread is meant to be a beginners guide to enhancement shamans with intelligent discussion between players. Please do your research well before posting any theory crafting as to not confuse others with incorrect information, and keep the thread as civil as possible.
I will be updating this thread with my UI, and encounter specific tactics in the very near future.
Credit where credit is due
Cataclysm Shaman FAQ by Slant
Crit Cap Info
Cochice, and everyone who discusses enhancement over at EJ
Specializations
This is what you get for specing enhance.
Duel Wield
Lava Lash
Mental Quickness
Primal Wisdom
Enhanced Elements
Primary abilities in no particular order
Lava Lash
Flame Shock
Lightning Bolt
Unleash Elements - Look at weapon imbues to see what each one gives.
Stormstrike
Earth Shock
Feral Spirit
Weapon Imbues
I'm going to only cover the 2 you will be using while dpsing. The usefulness of each individual can be discussed in the thread on a per boss basis.
Windfury Weapon - Unleash elements effect: Unleash Wind
Flametongue Weapon - Unleash elements effect:
Unleash Flame
The rotation (or priority.. whatever)
1. Searing totem ( 0 ticks left)
2. StormStrike
3. Lava Lash
4. Lightning Bolt (Maelstrom weapon x5)
5. Flame Shock (with Unleash weapon buff)
6. Unleash Elements
7. Earth Shock
8. Spirt wolfs
9. Searing totem
please.. this is not a rotation, its a priority. treat it as such.
note - This is a best in slot rotation. it asumes you have the 4 set t12 bonus. please use the old 4.1 roation if you dont.
nots - I will not cover spell caster weapons untill further testing is done to see just how good it is. I personaly have no plans on picking up the caster axe.
Old 4.1 priority (tier 11). Thanks Ion.
1 ST_0 Searing Totem with 0 ticks remaining 2 LL Lava Lash 3 FS_UEF Flame Shock if the Unleash Flame buff is present 4 MW5_LB Maelstrom Weapon x5 stacks + Lightning Bolt 5 UE Unleash Elements 6 SS Stormstrike 7 ES Earth Shock 8 SW Spirit Wolves 9 ST Searing Totem (with x ticks remaining)
Attributes in order of importance
Agility>hit(under spell cap)>expertise(under 26)>mastery>crit>more hit(up to duel wild cap)>>>>haste
Agility - Because the only way to get more agility than what is on your gear is to gem, gem for it as much as you can. you should be using reforging to get to hit/expertise caps.
Hit - Get your hit to the spell cap, or 1742 hit rating (1639 for draneis) asap
"the spell cap!? i thought i was melee!"
You are, but enhance shamans use a lot of spells in their rotation. Its very important that you get to spell cap.
Expertise - The cap for expertise is 26 (or 541 expertise rating). It has ZERO use after this, so try and get the cap spot on if at all possible, however, its always better to go slightly over than slightly under if you have to.
Mastery - Mastery increases the damage done by all fire, frost, and nature damage dealing spells by 2.5% per point of mastery
Crit - A lot of our crit is from agility, making crit rating feel very "meh"
Crit caps will be discussed further down the page
Haste - Because the 30% haste buff was taken away, and also because of the unleash wind effect, haste is a very poor stat for enhance now.
Intellect - Will give spell crit and spell power. don't gear for this... ever
Strength - Gives 1 AP per point. its not worth gearing for. there is only one exception to this when you are gearing up in heroics.
Glyphing And Specing Your Enhance Shaman
A talent calculator can be found here http://www.wowhead.com/talent#h
Recommended spec -10/31/0
Disclaimer - I realize that there are many ways to spec your enhance shaman. different specs will help with different fights. please read over all talents to see what will suit you best.
The talents (look at the talent calculator for individual ranks)
Enhance Tree
Tier 1
Elemental Weapons - Increases damage from imbues and UE buffs.
Focused Strikes - Increases stormstrike damage.
Improved Shields - Increases damage done by static shock.
Tier 2
Elemental Devastation - I hear you like to crit so i gave you some crit with your crit.
Flurry - Increases attack speed=more white swings=more maelstrom weapon/windfury weapon procs.
Ancestral Swiftness - Very good talent. Allows us to enchant our boots with something other than run speed.
Totemic Reach - Increases the range on all totems, good for some fights (nef/cho'gall) use as needed.
Tier 3
Toughness - Useless for PvE. There are already plenty of ways we can get out of movement slowing effects, and the stamina boost isn't needed.
Stormstrike - Stormstrike is a core ability, get this.
Static Shock - Gives lightning shield a reason to be. get this talent.
Tier 4
Frozen Power - Mainly a pvp talent
Seasoned Winds - "Meh" is an order here. in almost every case, if you can interrupt a cast.. you should be interrupting it every time. there's no need for this talent in PvE
Searing Flames - Will boost the damage of lava lash. Get this.
Tier 5
Earthen Power - This is a good PvP talent. But isn't very useful in PvE
Shamanistic Rage - While this looks like a PvP talent, any damage you can get rid of is a plus. help your healers out and use this when you know big damage is incoming.
Unleashed Rage - Gives a large amount of expertise, and AP, you need this in your life.
Tier 6
Maelstrom Weapon - Allows us to instant cast Lightning bolt and Chain lightning. You need this talent. Do not cast lightning bolt without having 5 stacks unless your at range.
Improved Lava Lash - Increases the damage done by lava lash by a total of 90%. get this!
Feral Spirit - Feral spirits are a blessing from god. They are our main dps CD and provide good utility. They are able to stun, taunt, and can clear snares.
Elemental Tree
Tier 1
Acuity - Gives crit, but its important to get. spell crit is hard to come by.
Convection - Pretty much worthless. Mana is never an issue.
Concussion - Increases the damage done by lightning bolt, and chain lightning. A good talent to get.
Tier 2
Call of Flame - Increases the damage done by searing flames tick and fire nova. Good for AoE fights, alright for single target fights.
Elemental Warding - Will help on some fights, but youre hard pressed to find room for it without sacrificing major dps.
Reverberation - Reduces the cool down on shocks and wind shear. get this.
Elemental Precision - Pretty much mastery that costs talent points. Its very "meh" tho. as the spirit counterpart is worthless.
Glyphs
Individual preference is a major factor with glyphing. Enhancement shamans have a large number of "useful" glyphs, but a small amount of glyphs that increase DPS
Prime Glyphs
Glyph of Lava Lash - This is a must have. the rest are yours to choose
Glyph of Stormstrike
Glyph of Feral Spirit
Glyph of Windfury Weapon
Major Glyphs
Many major glyphs are situational. Use your own judgment to choose what you want.
Glyph of Chain Lightning
Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem
Glyph of Lightning Shield - This is a must have.
Glyph of Ghost Wolf
Glyph of Healing Stream Totem
Glyph of Shamanistic Rage
Glyph of Grounding Totem
Gemming
Meta Gem
Agile Shadowspirit Diamond - The only one you should be using.
Gem sockets and their bonuses.
Most socket bonuses are huge now, especially the socket bonus in helmet. You will want to obtain socket bonuses that give 10 agi, or in some cases, if the item has both a blue and a red socket and gives 10 mastery.
Red Gem - Delicate Inferno Ruby Note - Do not use expertise gems in red/yellow sockets!
Yellow Gem- Adept Ember topaz
Blue Gem - Glinting Demonseye, if you arnt hit capped, use Rigid Ocean Sapphire
Enchanting
Head - Arcanum of the Ramkahn
Shoulders - Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal
Cloak - Enchant Cloak - Major Agility
Chest - Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats, if your poor 15 stats is fine
Bracer - If under hit cap use Enchant Bracer - Precision. If your under the expertise cap use Enchant Bracer - Greater Expertise. Otherwise use Enchant Bracer - Agility
Gloves - Enchant Gloves - Greater Mastery
Belt - Ebonsteel Belt Buckle gotta get that extra agi gem!
Legs - Dragonscale Leg Armor
Boots - Enchant Boots - Major Agility
Weapons - Enchant Weapon - Landslide. Use Enchant Weapon - Avalanche Avalanche scales with mastery, spell hit applies, and it can crit. Do not use hurricane, its horrible
Do not use run speed enchants, they dont stack with Ancestral Swiftness.
Weapon Selection
There are only a handful of weapons in game right now that are good for enhance, You want to look for weapons with Agi, and slow speed (including your off hand), because flametongue weapon scales upwards with slow weapons.
DONT USE DAGGERS.
Reforging and the Crit Cap
Reforging
This is the priority to use for reforging in order of what to get rid of first
Extra Expertise>Haste>Extra Hit(over the spell cap)>Crit>>>>>>>>>Mastery
Get your expertise and hit capped by getting rid of as much haste and crit as you can. Get rid of mastery only if you have to in order to get hit/expertise capped.
Crit Cap
First things first. There are two kinds of attacks in WoW, Special attacks, and White auto attacks. The crit cap applies to white attacks only.
You can find the crit cap with this formula
Maximum Critical Chance = (100% - (Glancing blows chance) – (Chance to be Dodged) - (Chance to be Parried) – (Chance to Miss))+4.8%
Ill break it down a bit to help everyone understand.
Glancing blow chance=24%
Chance to dodge can be found under expertise on your character sheet
Chance to be parried shouldn't matter here. set this to 0%
Chance to miss can be found on your character sheet.
the 4.8% represents crit suppression on boss level mobs.
This formula basically adds your chance to miss white swings, and the glancing blow chance (24%) and subtracts them from 100% to find your maximum white crit.
Consumables
Flask - Flask of the Winds
Potion - Potion of the Tol'vir
Food - Skewered Eel
Professions
In the end this is your choice. however some professions give better bonuses than others, namely Jewlcrafting.
When using professions that give on use effects (such as engineering) be sure that you set up your macros correctly (see more info in the macro section)
Simulators
Iv never been a huge fan of combat simulators. But i feel obligated to mention them here.
http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t82621-e...pdated_thread/ - The preferred tool for enhance.
http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t45421-e...nhance_thread/ - I don't like Rawr much. But its also here if you want it.
http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t81455-s...craft_shamans/
Interface
"what do i need to have for enhance?!"
I would recommend some sort of a threat meter, and a way to see totem timers easily, mainly for searing totem. Other than that you don't need anything.
Yet Another Totem Addon
If you are having a hard time with the rotation, for whatever reason, ovale spell priority can help you get use to it.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-a...ils/ovale.aspx
i will be keeping an updated script for this mod in the post below this.
If you dont want to use this, but are still having issues with using abilities smartly, perhaps a cooldown line life ForteXorcist will help. it will display cool down durations from left to right on a timeline.
Macros
I find it useful to make a macro for lava lash and spell casts (shocks and lightning bolt) to start auto attacking on use. This is helpful because, as you probably notice, ranged spells don't start auto attacking on casts, so if lava lash is on CD and you want to start with unleash elements or a shock, you will be standing there looking dumb until you use storm strike or lava lash, or remember to right click the target.
#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast (spell name)
One button weapon imbues. Because im strapped for buttons on my UI.
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=5 Windfury Weapon, Flametongue Weapon;
/castsequence reset=5 16, 17;
On use trinket/profession macros - When using a on use effect in a macro, be sure to put /use blah blah blah, BEFORE the spell your using. example
This is bad, it will cast lava lash before using your synaps springs (or whatever), then it will start attacking.Code:#showtooltip
/cast lava lash
/use (glove name)
/startattack
This is good. it will use your gloves, then start attacking the closest mob, then use lava lash.Code:#showtooltip Lava Lash
/use (gloves name)
/startattack
/cast lava lash
These are currently the only ones i use. Please feel free to add suggestions and i will put them here and credit the originator.
Race Choices, for those of us who care to much about maxing dps.
AllianceDwarfHorde
- Mace Specialization Pretty crappy, you will normally find yourself using either fist weapons, or axes. But if you are a pvper, go for it.
Draenei
- Heroic Presence. This is the best way to go as alliance, this way you are able to get to hit cap just a bit faster, and reforge out of some more hit on BiS gear for other stats.
Goblin
- Rocket Barrage - This does crap for damage and is on the GCD, its okay for filler when you have nothing to do.. but that's all.
- Time is Money. This to be quite honest.. sucks. Haste isn't good for us.
Orc
- Axe Specialization - Because we reforge a lot of our hit, haste, or crit, into expertise, this is very valuable. Even if it is only 3 expertise.
- Blood Fury - 1196 attack power is great, no explanation needed.
- Command - Increased damage done by feral spirits.
Troll
- - Berserking - Haste, again, isnt all that great anymore.
TaurenAdvanced tactics
- Nothing!
Ever get tired of bosses flying away from you, or doing some stupid ability that forces you out of range? Well here is an idea, keep your elemental abilities on your bar and use them!
A dead shaman does no damage, heal yourself (Or use healing raid to help everyone else) if your going to die, use shamanistic rage if you know you're going to take a lot of damage (Nef anyone?), and get the glyph of stoneclaw totem for single targeted damage (it doesn't work on AoE).
Bloodlust/Heroism Useage
Long story short, on most fights that dont have an enrage mechanic, you will want to use heroism/blood lust at the start of the fight. Mainly because all of your internal CDs will be up and you will ge a greater dps boost out of it.
On fights that do have a soft enrage or points where healing is very difficult, use bloodlust/heroism at that time, for obvious reasons.
Ending comment(s)
I realize that there may be some mistakes here. any questions, concerns, or corrections may be debated here. Again, keep flaming to a minimum. You don't want kaz to land the banhammer on your face.
