Enhancement Shaman Guide

[mizernik]

Hey guys , I'll be doing an enhancement shaman guide for those who are interested how to max their performance and enjoy the class.

I know when you first reach 80 as an enhancement shaman , you are ashamed of your DPS , I felt like going elemental for the first few days 'cause my DPS as enhancement was terribly low.I decided to stay enhancement for at least for another week.I got some epics and I still did low DPS.Something was just simply wrong with my DPS.I decided to read some theorycraft to max my performance.So here it goes , the things necessary for every enhancement shaman to have:

#1 Hit cap : The hit cap for enhancement shaman is 14% or 368 in numbers , going above 368 is pretty much useless in raids due to having a Shadow Priest or Druid that will increase your hit for an extra 3%.Being hit capped will increase your DPS slightly and you need to cap it before stacking any other stats.

#2 Expertise cap : The expertise cap is 140 or 26/26 or 6.50% , expertise will prevent you from dodging/parrying bosses and mobs but nevertheless you still are to be behind them.

#3 Attack power : After getting capped at hit and expertise the only thing you'll need to socket / enchant are AP gems / enchants , some people may wonder why AP instead of Agility , well simply agility isn't that much of need to an enhancement shaman since they already got a decent amount of critical % when even naxx 25 geared.

#4 Priority : Enhancement shamans don't have a stable DPS rotation , in fact they don't even have a rotation.Enhancement shamans are played by priorities.There is a good addon to help you max your DPS , it's name is ShockAndAwe and can be found on Search Results For "shockandawe.The" - Addons - Curse priorities are Maelstrom Weapon 5 > Stormstrike > Earth Shock > Lava Lash > Magma Totem > Lightning Shield.So basicly , every time you have MW5 you are to use Lightning Bolt , if you even got MW4 you should wait for another MW to pop before casting Lava Lash / Earth Shock.

#5 Weapon enchants : It's still not sure what combo of weapon enchants provite more DPS , Windfury + Windfury or Windfury + Flametongue.It's said that if you are to wear 2 slow weapons you should use 2xWF so you can get chain WF hits.But I am rather sure that WF + FT is still better regardless of the weapon speeds 'cause FT will increase your damage done by Lightning Bolt , Earthshock and Lava Lash.

#6 Glyphs : There are alot of good glyphs for an enhancement shaman , but I think the best ones are : Glyph of Windfury , Glyph of Lightning Bolt and Glyph of Lava Lash as Major Glyphs , for the minor ones you can chose whichever you want , doesn't really make such a big differance.

#7 Enchants : I'll start from the top ^^.For your head enchant , you should buy the one from Knights of the Ebon Blade reputation.For shoulders you don't have alot of choice but to enchant them from the Sons of Hodir reputation rewards , or if you have 400 inscription there is an awesome shoulder enchant from there.As a back enchant you got 2 options : 22 agility or 23 haste , I'd prefer the agility but you can do 23 haste aswell since it's decent enough.For the chest the best enchant is 10 stats 'cause with it you gain 30 AP some hp , regeneration and mana.As a bracer enchant the best one to do is 50 Attack Power.On the gloves you should do aswell 44 Attack Power , but that depends if you are hit/expertise capped , 'cause you can enchant your gloves with 20 hit / 15 expertise.As a leg enchant you are to use 75 AP and 25 crit.On the boots you can put 32 AP or 12hit 12 crit , that depends on your hit rating aswell.The best in-game weapon enchant is berseker and if you got the gold you should enchant both your weapons with it , if not a mongoose would be still good.

#8 Talents : The best PvE talent tree for an enhancement shaman is Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft has covered every improve totem to help the raid and to max your DPS.

Well guys I think I covered the basics of an enhancement shaman please go easy on me since this is my first real guide.Hope you enjoy and hope it helps.
Kind Regards
Mizernik

[Cryde]

If you add some Colors, and Weapon enchants, I'll give you a cookie ( +REP )!

[Cally]

Thanks dude this really helped (:

[mizernik]

I added the weapon enchants , I just forgot at the first time but than I re-read my guide and added them.

[ToxicPhenom]

The best major glyphs are Windfury > Stormstrike > Feral Spirit.
Pop Feral Spirit shortly before bloodlust so they get the buff.
Also they should be used on cooldown when they are available.
And you should prefer earth shock over stormstrike if the debuff is applied.

Your guide is not very well.
It's good you dind't just copy&paste from EJ, but your
advises are to different from these math freaks.

[mizernik]

The best major glyphs are Windfury > Stormstrike > Feral Spirit.
Pop Feral Spirit shortly before bloodlust so they get the buff.
Also they should be used on cooldown when they are available.
And you should prefer earth shock over stormstrike if the debuff is applied.

Your guide is not very well.
It's good you dind't just copy&paste from EJ, but your
advises are to different from these math freaks.

Every Cooldown should be popped when ready , and as I said there are many different combinations of glyphs , so you can use whichever you feel like using.And earth shock over stormstrike is just nonsense 'cause Stormstrike gives an extra damage debuff on the mob with nature spells , so earth shock will do slightly more damage with the debuff on the mob , as well as Lightning Bolt.

[Casperx]

Another thing, if your spellpower buffed is under 1925, use chain lightning. After that lightning bolt is stronger. also use LB/CL if MW =4. There is no need to be expertise capped,
Just have it 23+ or anything similiar. Dont stack up too much haste as enhance shammy, the inner cooldown of WF is ~2.9 sec so if you were to to stack too much haste you can miss a cooldown which could lower your dps. Think thats all I got to say.
Your guide isn't bad but not too great, I prefer using EJ, I know my class inside out cause of EJ.

[ToxicPhenom]

Every Cooldown should be popped when ready , and as I said there are many different combinations of glyphs , so you can use whichever you feel like using.And earth shock over stormstrike is just nonsense 'cause Stormstrike gives an extra damage debuff on the mob with nature spells , so earth shock will do slightly more damage with the debuff on the mob , as well as Lightning Bolt.

You should re-read me post.
I said you should prefer earth shock over stormstrike IF the debuff is already applied.
And your 'guide' is more of a story how YOU like to play.
Thats not a guide.

You say you use LB glyph and not Stormstrike.
LB gives 4% more LB Damage, Stormstrike gives 8% LB + 8% to Earthsshock.

Sorry, but from my perspective its not a real guide.

And no, not every CD should be popped immediately.
In some boss fights you should save them, like XT heart phase.

[Cryde]

Well as I promised here's the cookie.

[mizernik]

You should re-read me post.
I said you should prefer earth shock over stormstrike IF the debuff is already applied.
And your 'guide' is more of a story how YOU like to play.
Thats not a guide.

You say you use LB glyph and not Stormstrike.
LB gives 4% more LB Damage, Stormstrike gives 8% LB + 8% to Earthsshock.

Sorry, but from my perspective its not a real guide.

And no, not every CD should be popped immediately.
In some boss fights you should save them, like XT heart phase.

Sorry , I musthave missjudged your post , and I'm not PERFECT at playing an enhancement shaman but I still manage to top the DPS , and if your guild got to XT , what are you doing here reading a guide with basic stuff?This is just how to get it started and EJ will surely explain stuff alot better than me , I just wanted to provide a thread to mmowned so people can just read it from here instead of seaching the EJ forums.Anyways thanks for your opinions and support
Regards
Mizernik

[Aliv3]

Your guide is not very well.
It's good you dind't just copy&paste from EJ, but your
advises are to different from these math freaks.

Agreed, still EJ's thread is the best one to read if you're serious in improving your dps.
EJ's thread: http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t20765-shaman_enhancement/

No one is saying your guide is crap mate, just it could use some minor improvements, it's not suposse to be a compendium either heh ;] People just want to make sure it's correct, i still /sigh every time i see a dagger enhance shaman.

Cheers,
Aliv3.

[koks1234]

Looking at the spec you have chosen, your mana must be 100% most of the time... Seems like you wasted a fair few points going into Sharmanistic Focus, And Improved Storm Strike. With Sharmanistic rage atm with a 1 min CD I get around 140-200+% base mana regen. Take out these talents and put them into something usful such as reverberation in the ele tree. This talent will boost DPS via ES and make Wind Shear have a lower CD making your interrupts very nice indeed. Should be able to solo interrupt lord jeraxus and Vezax fights with more comfort in any raid group with this new talent.

[koks1234]

Also your rotation is ok as in the guide if you have around 6k+ AP and less than 30% SP crit (these vary alot on other stats like melee crit, hit, etc etc and are ballpack, do your own work on the dummies), otherwise you need to change to alternate ES / FS and when everything is on CD use a LavaBurst. 100% crit LvB will be more damage than the white damage had you have waited for the CD and not used LvB; A small CD pushback wont be too bad for your dps considering you gained some with the LvB. Also new 3.2.2a changes: FS dot not being removed with LvB so tiny bit of a dps boost.

[koks1234]

Oh and last thing before i leave this post... Glyph of Feral Spirit can be veeery nice DPS boost if you have stacked AP (10k+ with procs ofc).

[Explisivia]

Sweet I like the simplicity of the guide. +rep..