Enhancement or Elemental? - What do YOU like?

[grak]

I think shaman is a good class, but enh/ele is broken in arena.
Anyways, i love enhancement. Doing a nice 4,5k dmg when popping my cooldowns.

[Gfexgfx]

i think elemental is better for pve, ench - pvp. Why? After wotlk melee classes/spec gave boost in pve but casters in pve.

[gambit546]

I really enjoy enhancement shamans. Windfury crits are awesome when they happen in my opinion XD

[Efidol]

i thought enhanc actually has the greater burst now

[anyways]

elemental no question asked

[Reaper0294]

Here is what I've learned about the 3 shaman specs as of BC. I played shaman a variety of times being both elemental and enhancement. A friend played Resto, but I'm going to mainly be talking about elemental and enhancement.

Elemental- Very good in PVP. You have much higher survivability then Enhancement and can dish out some pretty nice damage. This was the spec I usually chose, because well I really liked to pvp as it. You can get off some nice damage with LB and CL. Mages stand almost no chance, Just dispel their shields and keep grounding up. They can't attempt to kite you.

Warriors are also fairly easy, just keep a good distance with an earthbind totem up, or if that is destroyed and maybe just in case a frost shock. Keep your distance and pelt them with Lightning, throw in a searing totem for good measure if you want.

Druids was a 50/50 basically. Sometimes I'd get a good combo on them and take them out, sometimes they'd get a good combo on me. They can shapeshift out of your stuns and heal themselves well, so it's a pretty tricky battle.

Now I'm getting sidetracked, so I'm just going to go and talk about enhancement now.

Enhancement-Well This was definitely my favorite PVE spec. I loved WF, like just seeing the damage sometimes is amazing. You have great DPS versus bosses with it, and you have time between your Flame shock then earth shock rotations to put down totems for your group and even cast heroism if needed.

I'd have loved enhancement in PVE if there was some survivability, but there really isn't. In order to have a moderate amount of survivability you need really good gear, especially compared to elemental and or resto. You can get in and deal some good damage, but the problem is really that you can be CC'd/feared/slowed/stunned and then you're almost always screwed. Yes, you could use a trinket to get out of it, but that's not always an option and they can still probably get you again.

Enemies that can kite you, will take you out, usually in a straight melee fight you'll lose against a warrior, If a warlock fears you which can happen if their smart and decide to hit you when you don't have tremor you're done. The one thing Enhancement rapes however is Priests. Dispel their shield, get tremor just in case they decide to do their little fear, and keep dispelling their buffs. You'll tear them apart.

Keep in mind that's BC (i forget which patch really). Not WOTLK. If anyone wants me to write more about those two for a BC guide, then just tell me.

[InfiniteBlue]

The way I see it is that both are absolute crap in PVP, but enhancement you stand SOME sort of a chance of burning them down, since it's melee. Both kick ass in PVE, my heroic geared elemental shaman can put out 4k just self buffed.