Shaman Raid Class Spec Lead (Enhancement) Discussion
#1
Greetings Enhance Shammies!

Your RCSL is Logros, which is me. If you need to get ahold of me ingame, the alts I'm often around on are: Bendon, Logros, and Denul.

Sometime soon, I'll be posting some general raid-related info, and I'll be posting up some 'suggested minimums' for Kara / Gruul's Lair, as well as a bit of basic info on your role as a beatstick in those two raids. By the time you're in SSC/TK/ZA, I don't think you'll need much advice anymore Big Grin

So, please feel free to use this thread to discuss the spec, as it relates to raiding, or to ask and answer questions. As GI Joe wisely proclaimed throughout my youth - "Knowing is half the battle."
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Dromand (70 Tank/Healing Paladin), Logros (70 Enhancement Shaman), Denul (70 Shadow Priest), Bendon (70 AH-Mule Rogue)
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#2
Welcome shaman. Congratulations on your choice to become a beatstick. If you're competent and willing to learn, you can lead DPS charts in many raids while providing fantastic buffs to your group through totems and talents. Keep in mind that all advice given here is appropriate to raiding, and may not be optimal for soloing or 5-mans.

If you have any questions, comments, ideas, insults, or whatever, please feel free to reply, or catch me ingame. The information I'm posting is going to be pretty general, and I'm not going to back a lot of it up with hard numbers and such. I've done that for myself, and am passing on the conclusions, garnered from theorycrafting and experience. If you do want the hard numbers behind a decision, by all means ask, and I'll see about directing you to it. At the end of this post will be a link section, containing links to much of the theorycrafting and testing behind my conclusions.

1. Talents
2. Weapon choices
3. Armor choices
4. Totem choices
5. Profession Choices
6. Enchants + Gem Choices
7. Attack Rotations
8. Your Role in Karazhan
9. Your Role in Gruul's Lair
10. Mods + Macros
11. Links

1. Talents

0 / 45 / 16

This is the first and most fundamental step for any class. For my talent build, click here. I'll briefly explain my choices below:

Enhancement Talents:
Tier 1:
Ancestral Knowledge (5/5): AK is simply a straight up 5% mana increase. Frankly, it's a mediocre talent now that we have Water Shield, but it's still better than the alternative.
Shield Specialization (0/5): There simply is no good reason for a shaman to have a shield on, except for very, very few niche roles (such as tanking a red beam for Netherspite), and even in those roles, you're rarely the best suited for it, and this talent isn't going to help in any significant way.

Tier 2:
Guardian Totems (2/2): The primary use for this totem is to reduce your grounding totem cooldown by 2 seconds. Grounding can often have a large impact on the course of a fight, and is simply a fantastic totem. The +20% to Stoneskin is helpful occasionally as well.
Thundering Strikes (5/5): If I have to explain this, well, you're beyond my help :p
Improved Ghost Wolf (0/2): This is entirely useless in raiding, and suitable only for PvP, which is why I have it. Feel free to skip it (I'd recommend putting the points in Improved Reincarnation)
Improved Lightning Shield (0/3): Lightning Shield just isn't going to be used in raids, you'll always have water shield up.

Tier 3:
Enhancing Totems (2/2): SoE and GoA are two of your staple totems. Improving them is fantastic.
Shamanistic Focus (1/1): This is simply a massively awesome talent. Never skip this.
Anticipation (0/5): If you're getting hit, there's a problem. 0 points in this, always.

Tier 4:
Flurry (5/5): Another no brainer.
Toughness (0/5): See 'Anticipation' above.
Improved Weapon Totems (2/2): Again, two mainstay totems that you'll be using.
Spirit Weapons (1/1): This biggest 'duh' talent in the tree.
Elemental Weapons (3/3): Improves WF, which is the only weapon enhance spell you should ever be using. More on that later.

Tier 5:
Mental Quickness (3/3): This gives you a BIG chunk of spell damage without gearing for it (which you should never, ever do). Fantastic talent, and will help your DPS a great deal.
Weapon Mastery (5/5): Again, duh.

Tier 6:
Dual Wield (1/1): Duh
Dual Wield Specialization (3/3): More duh.
Stormstrike (1/1): Duh duh duh!

Tier 7:
Unleashed Rage (5/5): Even if you had other good choices, which you don't, this would always be something you'd take. +10% AP to yourself and your group is simply awesome. This will continually be up in nearly all raid situations.

Tier 8:
Shamanistic Rage (1/1): This is one of the best talents you've got, but maybe not for the reason you think. Sure, that mana regen is nice, but what's even better most of the time is the 30% damage reduction for 30 seconds. Nearly all bosses in raiding have stages where the raid as a whole takes damage, and this talent makes a HUGE dent in the amount of damage you take. That means less healing needed for you, which means less strain on healers. With Water Shield active, you'll rarely get low on mana. SR used to avoid damage, and when you're below half mana, is a fantastic synergy.


Restoration Talents

Tier 1:
Improved Healing Wave (5/5): There are few times when you'll be healing, but when you do need to, you'll most likely be using HW. Cutting a half second off the cast time is handy.
Tidal Focus (5/5): You shouldnt' be healing often enough for this to make any significant difference at all.

Tier 2:
Improved Reincarnation (2/2): This reduces your Reincarnation timer to 40 minutes, from 60. As a melee character, you're going to be one of the most likely people to die on most raids, and being able to pop back up can make all the difference in the world for a close fight. It's also handy wipe protection Wink
Ancestral Healing (0/3): Shouldn't be healing often, skip this.
Totemic Focus (5/5): A 25% reduction in totem cost is pretty big, and you'll be dropping those totems /constantly/, allowing you to save a lot of mana over time with this talent

Tier 3:
Nature's Guidance (3/3): Frankly, this is the major reason we're in this tree for talents. +3% hit is just fantastic. A must have.
Healing Focus (5/5): If you're healing /and/ getting hit, something's gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Totemic Mastery (1/1): This is the other reason we're in this tree. Sometimes your totems will be the difference between life and death for your group, and that extra 10y is massive.
Healing Grace (0/5): Healing yadda yadda.

Elemental Talents
None. Simply put, Nature's Guidance and Totemic Mastery from Resto are superior to what you can get from Elemental. Reveberation would be nice, but it's just not worth it. Elemental Devastation is complete crap for enhancement shamans, and if you don't believe me, go look at your spell crit %. 3 points in ED will increase your crit % by around 1/12th of 1% (0.08%), for 3 talent points.

Notes on Talents

There are a /few/ places where you may be able to skip talents, most notably on the Guardian Totems and Enhancing Totems. It's possible that you won't use the totems affected in your raid (although very unlikely), and if that's so, you can skip those. I don't recommend it, but it can be done.

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2. Weapon Choices

Weapon Choices for an enhancement shaman these days are actually pretty simple - two weapons, both speed 2.6 or slower. Period. If you want the theorycraft on why, take a link below.

2H Weapons: These are poor for several reasons - One, damage tends to be very streaky, and you want consistancy for raid DPS. Doing 6k damage on your first swing might sound great, until you realize you just pulled aggro and are now dead and useless. Two, and the most important reason, is that it makes it far, far less likely that you'll continually have Flurry (+30% attack speed) up, and Unleashed Rage (+10% AP). That's a *massive* hit to your DPS, and to the DPS of your group. Three, you get hosed on enchants. You're only going to get one enchant, so you will never have the same ability to stack enchant effects. Fourth, you'll get fewer clearcasts, which means your shocks will eat into your mana far, far faster.

Fast Offhand Weapons: No. Just.. no. Never. I don't care if that 1.4 speed dagger from Kara is 90dps, you will honestly do better with your green 70dps 2.6 speed mace. This has been theorycrafted to death, and is fact, not opinion. A fast weapon will reduce your WF damage by a large amount (by striking during the hidden WF cooldown, as well as having very low top-end damage), reduce your white DPS (40%+ of your dps) by a smaller margin, and simply gimp you. Daggers belong to rogues, not shaman.

So, having said that, what are your best options for entry-level raiding? In short, getting your hands on a Runic Hammer or two is a great way to start. If you can do the 18,000 honour grind, a Gladiator's Right Ripper is simply awesome, and you'll be hard-pressed to replace it for a very long time (until 25-mans or Zul'Aman).

In order of preference:

Mainhand
1) Merciless Gladiator's Right Ripper (Season2 Arena weapon)
2) Dragonmaw (Hammersmith)
3) Black Planar Edge (Axesmith) or http://Gladiator's Right Ripper (Season1 Arena Weapon, 18k Honour points)
4) Decapitator (Prince Malchezaar; Karazhan)
5) Fool's Bane (Terestian Illhoof; Karazhan)
6) Big Bad Wolf's Paw (Opera Event; Karazhan)
7) Drakefist Hammer (Hammersmith)
8) The Planar Edge (Axesmith)
9) The Bladefist (Kargath Bladefist; Heroic Shattered Halls)
10) Runic Hammer (BoE; BoE World Drop Blacksmithing Pattern)
11) Reflex Blades (Dalliah the Doomsayer; Arcatraz)
12) High Warlord's Right Ripper (Honour Points)
13) Demonblood Eviscerator (Kargath Bladefist; Shattered Halls)

There are some other 71.7 blue weapon choices, but they're all from Heroics. You're better off going for Shattered Halls if you want to do heroics, since then you've got a chance at The Bladefist (#9) as well as the Demonblood Eviscerator (#13).
A note on why some comparable DPS weapons are placed higher than others - mostly it comes down to stats. Haste from weapons like the Dragonmaw, Drakefist, and Bladefist, is more useful than other stats because haste scales better with gear than +crit/AP does. In the case of the Reflex Blades, they're 2.7 speed, which is slightly better than 2.6.

Now, if you don't have any of these weapons, all is not lost. It means your damage is certainly going to suffer, but as long as your weapon is 2.6 speed or slower, you're on your way. Going for the Reflex Blades or Demonblood Eviscerator is a good way to start, or ask around and find someone that can craft a Runic Hammer for you. I used a RH on Logros for a long, long time.

Offhand
1) Merciless Gladiator's Cleaver (Season2 Arena Weapon)
2) Fool's Bane (Terrestian Illhoof; Karazhan)
3) Decapitator (Prince Malchezaar; Karazhan)
4) Runic Hammer (BoE; BoE World Drop Blacksmithing Pattern)
5) High Warlord's Cleaver (Honour Points)
6) Boggspine Knuckles (Hungarfen; Heroic Underbog)
7) Level 70 Green, 2.6 speed or slower (65ish DPS)

Nowhere on that list is a dagger, or anything faster than 2.6 speed. Also note that I place FB higher than Decap because of the stats on FB. The FB itself will do slightly less damage, but it's better for your overall DPS. Once again, Runic Hammer is a very good option, and I used my RH in my OH for a long while, after I'd crafted my Drakefist Hammer. Once Season 4 for Arena is upon us, the Season 2 (Merciless) weapon will be purchasable for Honour points rather than Arena Points, and will be a much-easier option to obtain.

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3. Armour Choices

If you're hoping for a friendly listing of all the amour available, well, sorry, but that'd take hours upon hours. Instead, I'm going to teach you to figure out what gear is best for you. It's easier than you think, and can be done for you by using a mod called Enhancer. This will add a little bit to your tooltip that will include Enhancer Equivalent Points (EEP) to your tooltips. Basically, if the EEP is higher than your current piece of gear, it's better. Now, the system it uses for EEP are based on high-end raiding averages, and so will actually be a bit off for starting-raid gear. Fortunately, it doesn't make /that/ big a difference, and it's still an excellent way to determine the basics.

Now, if you want to do things manually, here are the numbers I use:

1 Attack Power: 1EP
1 Str: 2.1
1 Agi: 1.74
1 Crit Rating: 2
1 Hit Rating: 1.34
1 Haste Rating: 1.3
1 Armor Penetration: 0.22
1DPS on a MH 2.6 speed weapon: 9.03
1DPS on a OH 2.6 speed waepon: 3.70

Now, note that this does NOT take into account a few things:
Stamina, Intellect, mp5, expertise, gems, or set bonuses

The reason for this is that you have to use your judgement here. For raiding, you don't want to neglect stamina, but you don't want it to be too high either, since that's hurting your other stats. For the most part, you can ignore Intellect, and you can always ignore mp5. With water shield and Shamanistic Rage, mana pool size just isn't much of an issue for shamans anymore. A shaman with 0 mana still does around large chunk of his max DPS, just from autoattack and windfury procs, and will recover mana fast with Water Shield. Expertise is definitely nice to have, and don't pass it up if you can get it, as it'll help your white DPS significantly. As of yet, there just hasn't been enough theorycrafting to assign it a set value. For gems, you'll have to decide what to use, and then add those values in. I've included information on gems below, in the Enchants + Gems section.

A note about +hit: One thing that's commonly misunderstood is the importance of hit. I too once believed that "you needed to hit to crit", and it's not true. +hit will make a miss a hit, but it won't make a hit a crit. Also, it takes almost nothing for +hit to cap your Stormstrike and Windfury attacks, and +hit really only affects your white attacks. White attacks will usually be around 40% of your damage, so if a stat only affects 40% of your damage...... get it?

So, take a look at a piece of gear, plug those numbers in, and you'll get a numerical result. Then apply a bit of common sense (does it have a lot of stam? Expertise? Do I get a good set bonus from this?), and away you go.

If you want to make a dedicated plan for getting gear in 5-man instances, download Atlasloot Enhanced along with Enhancer, and browse through the instance loot tables, seeing what's available.

Below, in Profession Choices, I'll go into more detail about leatherworking. In short - it's very good for an enhancement shaman, as the Netherscale armour set is fantastic, and will serve you well right through to Tier 5 gear.

Also, be sure to check out the items you can purchase from Badges of Justice, and do NOT neglect leather armour as options! Some of the best enhancement gear is actually leather - it will very rarely have that pesky Intellect or mp5 on it, and as a raiding shaman, your armour value means next to nothing.

Ok, you go this far, so here's a few quick tips:
2 or 4 pieces of Desolation Battlegear is a great start. For trinkets, both Hourglass of the Unraveler and the Abacus of Violent Odds are great. The Felstalker and Fel Leather armor sets are good, but be warned that they'll leave you short on stamina.
[Image: 2270166Iryxy.png]
Dromand (70 Tank/Healing Paladin), Logros (70 Enhancement Shaman), Denul (70 Shadow Priest), Bendon (70 AH-Mule Rogue)
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#3
4. Totem Choices

As an enhancement shaman, you're typically either put into one of two groups - the tank group, or a physical DPS group. Your group composition should always be what determines your totem use, not your own preferences - remember that they're supporting four other people other than you!

Assuming you're not needing to use a specialty totem, such as Grounding Totem on the Maiden of Virtue fight or Nature Resistance on Hydross, your standard totems should be as below.

Tank Group:
Stoneskin (Earth)
Grace of Air (Air)
Healing Stream (Water)
Flametongue (Fire) for Warrior/Paladin tank, or Searing for Druid tank

For paladin tanks, Mana Stream is preferred to Healing Stream.

Physical DPS Group:
Strength of Earth (Earth)
Windfury (Air)
Healing Stream (Water)
Searing (Fire)

For physical DPS, WF will sometimes be swapped out for GoA, if you've got more hunters/druids than warriors/rogues, and that case drop Flametongue for the warrior (rogue will usually use poison if WF isn't available). You may occasionally use Mana Spring instead of HS, mostly due to hunters being in the group. The goal is to use your totems to maximize your contribution to the group as a whole.

Remember to tailor your totems to the current encounter you're using - using a mod like Totemus or Sphere can make your totem management much easier.

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5. Profession Choices

Personally, I recommend using two gathering professions while leveling up, and then swapping into two crafting professions at level 70. My recommendation would be Mining + Skinning for leveling, and then swapping into Leatherworking + Engineering, or LW + Blacksmithing.

A quick rundown:

Alchemy: Not really a big benefit. Makes getting consumables easier, but without herbalism it's a poor choice. And imo, herbalism/alch on an enhance shaman is a poor choice Wink
Blacksmithing: Blacksmithing gives access to the Drakefist Hammer/Dragonmaw/Dragonstrike, which is one of the best main-hands available until Tempest Keep and Mount Hyjal, or in 2.4 the Vanir's Right Fist of Brutality (105 Badge of Justice). That's about it, and frankly, it's worth it. Your MH is your key gear piece.
Enchanting: Bleh. Let hardcore raiders stick with enchanting. Without access to rare enchants, there's just no compelling reason to take it.
Engineering: Engineering provides access to the awesome goggles (which many people will never replace), and a variety of handy and occasionally-useful items. Seaforium charges, teleporters, grenades (usable while moving, great for battlegrounds), and the money-making Zapthrottle Mote Extractor.
Herbalism: A good gathering profession for cash, but inferior to mining for your own use.
Jewelcrafting: Don't. Even harder to make money at than Enchanting, and the trinket and epic gems you can get out of it aren't worth it. If you've got money to burn, however, you CAN level jewelcrafting up, make a bunch of epic gems, then dump it for another profession, and keep the gems.
Leatherworking: Leatherworking provides access to the very good Netherscale armor set (chest/belt/bracers), as well as handy items like Drums of Restoration and Drums of Battle.
Mining: Preferred gathering profession, as it helps with engineering and/or blacksmithing.
Skinning: Poorest choice for making money, but a good companion to mining or herbalism for leveling, since it can be used without having to track nodes.
Tailoring: ... no.

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6. Enchant + Gem Choices

First, let's cover the basic enchants, then we'll get to head/shoulders and the fancy stuff. When you don't have access to a preferred enchant for armor, going to a Heavy Knothide Armor Kit is a good stand-in (+10 stam, usable on hands, legs, chest, feet, and shoulders. It's never the -best- option, mind you.

Weapons:
Dual Mongoose is the best choice to start off with, and adding Executioner to your mainhand once you reach Tier5 raiding is a good way to go. If those are too costly, go with Crusader. Yes, Crusader, not Potency. As an enhancement shaman, Crusader outperforms Potency thanks to your high rate of attack, and extra attacks through WF (granting an above-average ProcPerMinute of Crusader). Those are the only three enchants you should consider.

Back:
Enchant Cloak - Agility (+12 Agility) - This is the best option, with no real competitors. Get Major Armor as a stand-in.

Chest:
Enchant Chest - Exceptional Stats (+6 All Stats) - This is by far the best option, providing gains in every aspect. Get Exceptional Health (+150 Health) as a stand-in.

Feet:
Enchant Boots - Cat's Swiftness (Minor Run Speed, +6 Agility) - The best option, but very expensive (8 Primal Air, 8 LPS). Boar's Speed (Minor Run Speed, +6 Stam) is also a good option. For any fight where there's any significant amount of movement, which is nearly all fights, then run speed is the best way to maximize your DPS. With so many raid fights requiring melee to move around a great deal, this helps a lot. Get the low-level Minor Run Speed as a fill-in.

Hands:
Enchant Gloves - Major Strength (+15 Strength). Best option, and it's cheap. No reason to use anything else.

Wrist:
Enchant Bracer - Brawn (+12 Strength). Best option, no reason to use anything else. Note: Never get AP when you can get an equivalent strength enchant (12 str or 24 AP, for example), because Blessing of Kings will increase your Strength by 10%, but not your AP.

Now, that's the basic enchants. You've also got the ability to enchant your head armor, shoulders, and leggings.

Head:
Glyph of Ferocity (+34 AP, +16 Hit Rating) Requires: Revered Cenarion Expedition. Use a HK Armor Kit as a stand-in.

Shoulders:
Scryers: Greater Inscription of the Blade
Aldor: Greater Inscription of Vengeance
Use a HKAK as a stand-in.

Leggings:
Nethercobra Leg Armor (+50AP, +12 Crit Rating)
Cobrahide Leg Armor (+40AP, +10 Crit Rating)
Use a HKAK as a stand-in.

Gems:
There are a variety of gems available from Heroic dungeons, and the usable are listed here:
Auchindoun Crypts (Enscribed Fire Opal; +5 AP, +4 Crit) (Orange) (Yes, Enscribed.)
Steamvault (Shifting Tanzanite; +5 Str, +4 Agi) (Purple)
Blood Furnace (Jagged Chrysoprase; +6 Stam, +5 Crit) (Green)
Shattered Halls (Sovereign Tanzanite; +6 Stam, +5 Str) (Purple)
Botanica (Brutal Tanzanite; +10 AP, +6 Stam) (Purple)

If you're using Rare crafted gems, then use Bold Living Ruby (+8 Str) in every socket, unless there's a socket bonus that's really worthwhile. To fit those, use Inscribed Noble Topaz (+4 Str, +4 Crit) for yellow, and Sovereign Nightseye (+4 Str, +6 Stam) for blue. The green versions are: Bold Blood Garnet, Inscribed Flame Spessarite, and Sovereign Shadow Draenite.

Never gem for +hit, always focus on +crit/AP, you'll get enough +hit through your other gear options, and it's better to have a low +hit than low AP or Crit.

For metagems, by far the best option is the Relentless Earthstorm Diamond (+12 Agi, +3% Critical Damage).

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7. Attack Rotations

This is a critical part of being an effective raider for any class. As a shaman, your global cooldown (1.5 seconds for all but feral druids, who get a 1s GCD) is going to be constantly getting in your way, and you're going to have to learn to work around it to maximize your contribution to the raid. On a pull, your first priority is to get totems down. Simply start your autoattack, and move into attack position while you're dropping totems. If you're in a tanking group, the first thing you want to get down is GoA, then Flametongue (if it's being used), then Stoneskin, then begin your attack routine, dropping Healing Stream and Searing (if no FT) when the GCD allows. If you're in a DPS group, get down WF or GoA, then SoE, then your attack rotation. You want to get your important group-buffs up first, then the weaker support totems down.

Also, because this is a good place to put this - NEVER attack stuff from the front, unless you absolutely have to. Attacking from the front means the enemy can parry you, which speeds up it's next attack. On bosses, this can often kill the tank, so DON'T DO IT.

For an attack sequence, here's the standard attack cycle:

0.0 seconds: Stormstrike (triggering GCD, until 1.5s)
1.5 - Flame Shock (Duration 12s)(CD 6s)(GCD until 3s)
3.0 - (Refresh totem, if needed)
4.5 - (Refresh totem, if needed)
6.0 - (Refresh totem, if needed)
7.5 - Earth Shock (CD 6s)(GCD until 9s)
10.0 - Stormstrike
11.5 - (Refresh totem)
13.5 - Flame Shock

and it continues from there. Essentially, to boil it down: Open with Stormstrike, then use Flame Shock as soon as you can, then use Earth shock. Repeat, weaving in totems and refreshing Water Shield as needed. Flame Shock will do more damage in total than Eearth Shock, but it's ideal to hit an enemy with ES after the first FS, since the DoT from FS will still be ticking. With proper GCD management and no surprises, you'll be using Flame Shock every 12 seconds, just when it expires. This will take some practice, but once you've got the rhythm down, your DPS will definitely increase. Shocks make up a sizable percentage of your damage, so don't neglect them!

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8. Your Role in Karazhan

Gear Requirements:
For Karazhan, you should be in entirely blues, or very close to (trinkets might be green, 1 or 2 other green pieces of gear). I'd really recommend at least 2 pieces of the Desolation Battlegear, for an easy bump in your +hit. The 4-piece bonus is fantastic as well.

Recommended Unbuffed Minimums:
AP: 1000
Crit %: 20
+Hit: 100
Health: 6000

Now, +100 hit isn't a lot, and some folks recommend much higher values. The problem with +hit is that it's very expensive as far as item budget goes, so try to avoid giving up too much crit/AP to get it. If possible, give up stam and int to get +hit.

Your role:
I'm going to just go through each area and boss, and give a quick rundown of what you'll likely be responsible for. Note that this is just a general guide, and should NOT supersede what your raid leader instructs you to do. Experience is the best teacher, and don't be afraid to try and fail gloriously. Always try to improve yourself, and constantly learn. If you see someone do something you don't understand (and it works!) - ask 'em about it, and see if it'd be advantageous to adapt the strategy yourself.

Attumen Trash: The chargers here fear, so you'll have Tremor Totem down at all times.
Attumen: Smashy.
Moroes Trash: Use magma totem for the large pulls, it'll be a good chunk of DPS, and you're not as squishy as the mages and warlocks Wink
Moroes: You're a good choice to kite the first kill target (usually the shadow priestess, Baroness Millistipe), using Frost Shock and running around the outside of the room in large loops. If you're in the tank group, keep Poison Cleansing totem down to remove the Blind from the off-tank (OT). Interrupt heals with Earth Shock. If healing is tight, and you get Garotted, ask not to be healed, and use Reincarnation after you've died.
Maiden Trash: For the caster pack, use Tremor totem. DPS the dogs summoned by Guardsman, so they don't go after healers.
Maiden of Virtue: Keep Grounding Totem down at ALL TIMES - it'll eat holy fire. Keep as far from other melee as possible, to reduce the chance of her chain lightning zapping you all. Use Healing Stream for sure here, it'll help more than usual.
Opera Trash: Smashy
Opera (Wizard of Oz): Help keep Strawman stunned by using Flame Shock on him. Hit stuff lots.
Opera (BBW): Hit him, don't get eaten.
Opera (R+J): Interrupt Julianne's heal (Eternal Affection, a 2s cast that heals ~50k health) with ES, and purge both their self-buffs (Devotion for J, Daring for R) if there isn't a mage that will be spellstealing them constantly. Remember not to attack Romulo from the back, or you'll get hit with Backwards Lunge. Attack from the side.
Curator: Attack the adds quickly, as melee DPS you'll be heavily relied on to down these fast, before they do too much damage to the group. Use Bloodlust and trinkets a few seconds before he evocates (so that your SS is ready to cast as soon as he does)
Terestian Illhoof: Hit stuff. Attack the Demon Chains as soon as they're up. Help with imps by using magma or Fire Nova totem.
Shade of Aran: You'll be responsible for interrupting one of his schools of magic. Do NOT use a shock unless you know you'll have the cooldown up before he can cast your spell next. Examples of this are when he loads up a special ability (Flame Wreath, Blizzard, Arcane Explosion), or when he just starts to cast Arcane Missiles (use FS, not ES!). You're also an ideal candidate for dealing with one of the elementals that spawn. If your group isn't killing him before he drinks, be ready to use a health potion and/or healthstone after the pyroblast!
Netherspite: You might be asked to tank a green beam. This will suck your mana down to zero eventually. Not a huge deal for you, really. Be careful of void zones, and do NOT attack in the last few seconds when he's switching forms, or you're likely to pull aggro and die on the transition. Help heal during the shadow phase if healers are having a tough time.
Nightbane: Hit stuff. Drop Stoneskin totem for the skeletons, and Fire Resistance totem for NB. Keep Tremor Totem down for NB to help with his fears. Watch for fire patches, and attack from the sides so you don't get tail swiped.
Prince Malchezaar: Don't die to enfeeble/shadow bolts. Listen closely to your abyssal caller, and be ready to move with the group. Again, don't die to enf/sb.

Overall, you're unlikely to top the DPS charts in Karazhan, but you provide a large amount of utility, and great buffs for your groups.

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9. Your Role in Gruul's Lair

For Gruul's Lair, you should be in mostly epic gear, with some blues. Gruul is comparable to the end of Karazhan, so your gear should reflect the fact you've been stomping through there for a while. There should not be any greens left in your gear. Your main-hand really should be epic, although a blue off-hand is alright at this point, it's not ideal. Gruul is a DPS race, and the raid cannot afford weak DPS.

Gear Recommendations:
AP: 1250
Crit: 23%
+Hit: 100
Health: 6.5k

"But Logros, the +hit didn't change from Kara!" No, no it didn't. If you have more +hit than that, that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you have a LOT more +hit than that, you're either well above minimums (huzzah), or you're sacrificing AP and crit to get there. Don't do that. Get hit as it comes, don't gem for it.

Your role in Gruul's Lair is very simple: Keep totems up, and do lots of DPS fast.

For the High King Maulgar fight, your kill order is:
Blindeye the Seer
Olm the Summoner
High King Maulgar

On Blindeye, INTERRUPT HIS HEALS. If you don't, you are a failure as an enhancement shaman. Use your fire elemental on Blindeye, as he'll die quickly to Maulgar's whirlwind. Use your Bloodlust as directed by the raid leader, or on HKM if the RL doesn't say anything.

On Gruul himself, you have four responsibilities:
1) Never attack from the front. Ever.
2) Don't die to Cave Ins, and don't kill others with Ground Slams
3) Keep totems down for your group
4) Do lots and lots of DPS

That's the order of importance.
[Image: 2270166Iryxy.png]
Dromand (70 Tank/Healing Paladin), Logros (70 Enhancement Shaman), Denul (70 Shadow Priest), Bendon (70 AH-Mule Rogue)
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#4
10. Mods + Macros

For general purpose mods, this thread is a good starting point.

For shaman-specific mods, here's what I use:

AnnoyingBuffReminder: This reminds me to do stuff like cast WF on weapons and toss up a shield.

Clique: An excellent click-casting mod, I use this to always have heals able to be quickly cast, as well as other utility spells.

Cooldown Count: A simple mod that keeps track of cooldowns.

Enhancer: A very useful mod. This keeps track of WF cooldown, SS cooldown, totem countdown, displays what you've Purged, and displays EEP (enhancement equivalency points) on gear. Has a few more modules too. All around, a great mod.

RatingBuster: Adds % bonuses for everything on item tooltips. How much +crit is that item with Agi? This'll tell you.

RedRange: Very simple mod, changes hotbar icons to be red if your target isn't in range.

Totemus: An efficient mod that allows access to all of your totems with just a few clicks, as well as showing totem countdowns, health/mana, lets you add a bunch of other spells/abilities to the sphere-like GUI.. just awesome. I set it so that right-click on the sphere casts Bloodlust, and left-click recalls totems. Neither of those are things you can afford to be hunting for on your hotbar Wink


Now, for macros, well, there's really not a lot to use here.

Ancestral Spirit: All this does is cast your res, and announce in Say who you're ressing.
/cast Ancestral Spirit
/s <-- Ressurecting %t -->

StartAttack: I preface my Stormstrike, Earthshock, and Flameshock (the three spells I sometimes open with) with a simple startattack macro. This starts your autoattack, even if your spell doesn't go off.

/startattack
/cast Earth Shock

3-in-1 Healthstone Macro: This will use a healthstone if you have it available. Saves some bar space Wink
/use item:22105
/use item:22104
/use item:22103

And.. that's it. We're not exactly a macro-heavy class Wink


********************************************************************************

11. Links

This'll be another short section, since one link covers most of our needs.

For advanced players, this is your ultimate Enhancement Guide: http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t13297-enhan...aft_vol_i/

If you want to expose yourself to endless whining, in order to mine the occasional bit of actual insight, the official class board:
QQMore

And this really has nothing to do with anything, but it's fully.
[Image: 2270166Iryxy.png]
Dromand (70 Tank/Healing Paladin), Logros (70 Enhancement Shaman), Denul (70 Shadow Priest), Bendon (70 AH-Mule Rogue)
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#5
Reserved
[Image: 2270166Iryxy.png]
Dromand (70 Tank/Healing Paladin), Logros (70 Enhancement Shaman), Denul (70 Shadow Priest), Bendon (70 AH-Mule Rogue)
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#6
Almost done. Will finish up tomorrow (hopefully).
[Image: 2270166Iryxy.png]
Dromand (70 Tank/Healing Paladin), Logros (70 Enhancement Shaman), Denul (70 Shadow Priest), Bendon (70 AH-Mule Rogue)
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#7
Thanks for the big post, Logros.

Your point about gear flexibility is very well-taken, though I occasionally find a big list helpful in comparing the various options. With that in mind, I took your EEP values and plugged them into a script I've written to build gear lists. I posted the result on the wowwiki at:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Enhancement_Gear_BC">http://www.wowwiki.com/Enhancement_Gear_BC</a><!-- m -->

There was a page there already but it was sadly incomplete. I hope the list is helpful to others -- the script is a little bit buggy yet and I'll keep debugging it over the coming days (i.e. many objects are missing their "source" column). It helped this Resto shaman figure out how to make the most of the gear he had, anyway!
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#8
The page that was there was actually complete crap. I was going to link it, but it would have been terrible advice.

You and that script continue to amaze. The only suggestion at all that I can make is that the preferred metagem is Relentless Earthstorm (+12 Agi, +3% crit damage). Which reminds me that I didn't mention that in my post Big Grin
[Image: 2270166Iryxy.png]
Dromand (70 Tank/Healing Paladin), Logros (70 Enhancement Shaman), Denul (70 Shadow Priest), Bendon (70 AH-Mule Rogue)
Reply
#9
Hrm, I noticed a few hiccups in the script.

Embrace of the Twisting Nether has 981 Armor, not 1022. (Might be stemming from the second hiccup)
Agi and Int values are reversed on everything.
[Image: 2270166Iryxy.png]
Dromand (70 Tank/Healing Paladin), Logros (70 Enhancement Shaman), Denul (70 Shadow Priest), Bendon (70 AH-Mule Rogue)
Reply
#10
Oh, good catch on the AGI/INT thanks! It was using the wrong values to calculate EEP too, so that was bad. Updated the page.

On the Twisting Nether - my database is using the wowhead numbers. Wowhead reports 1022 for that piece, along with a bunch of other changes from what the wowwiki reports. Hrm. Who's right?
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#11
Weird. 1022 is apparently the right number, and that's what the script shows - no idea where WoWWiki is getting their picture from, but it's apparently wrong.

The only suggestion I can make for the listing is to include leather armour. Lots of enhance shaman use mostly leather, since it more often has pure DPS stats, without 'wasting' points on Int and +mp5. I didn't notice the lack of leather until I realized that Skulker's Greaves weren't up there Big Grin

The listing doesn't take into account Armor Penetration, Set bonuses, or Stam, so folks should be careful about /just/ using the numbers to make decisions. Take a good look at the gear itself, not just a derived value. I'll definitely be adding a link to that page to the Links section when I get to it, a fantastic resource. Thanks again Oryx! Smile
[Image: 2270166Iryxy.png]
Dromand (70 Tank/Healing Paladin), Logros (70 Enhancement Shaman), Denul (70 Shadow Priest), Bendon (70 AH-Mule Rogue)
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#12
Guide done.
[Image: 2270166Iryxy.png]
Dromand (70 Tank/Healing Paladin), Logros (70 Enhancement Shaman), Denul (70 Shadow Priest), Bendon (70 AH-Mule Rogue)
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