Enhancement Shaman Guide for MoP - Patch 5.4

[Deleted]

Sitting at 497 item level (so quite low gear comparatively), on a Patchwerk fight, EotE / AS still sims out a good 1.5 - 2k higher than the 2nd highest combo (AS / UF). This is still with a mastery reforge, no RPPM based items (meta/trinket) and the 4p which provides good synergy with both the talents, so it's not doing the others any favours. That being said, you're still probably going to see the haste heavy builds with accompanying haste boosting and friendly (PE) talents paying off at the higher gear levels

[Aviators]

Glyph of flame shock is pretty useful on Horridon, a lot of self healing on that.

[Aretoo]

Glyph of flame shock is pretty useful on Horridon, a lot of self healing on that.

That's how I expected. My initial thoughts where that Flame Shock and Feral Spirits are now the go to self healing glyphs as Healing Storm is a dps loss and Healing Stream Totem is just resistances. What takes the cake is that on fights with adds that you're spreading Flame Shock on (note, adds have to last a decent chunk of time too, like Horridon adds) you'll get some nice healing returns. On top of that, fights like Jin'rokh where you have damage amplified it will also be a good idea to run Flame Shock. Honestly, even with the shift of FS glyph from duration to a healing glyph I still think this might be mandatory, having passive self heals is so valuable, and you still have two other slots to work with. I'll need to run closer numbers on it to delve further, have a big weekend ahead of me with chardev and simcraft.

[Glyphtics]

That's how I expected. My initial thoughts where that Flame Shock and Feral Spirits are now the go to self healing glyphs as Healing Storm is a dps loss and Healing Stream Totem is just resistances. What takes the cake is that on fights with adds that you're spreading Flame Shock on (note, adds have to last a decent chunk of time too, like Horridon adds) you'll get some nice healing returns. On top of that, fights like Jin'rokh where you have damage amplified it will also be a good idea to run Flame Shock. Honestly, even with the shift of FS glyph from duration to a healing glyph I still think this might be mandatory, having passive self heals is so valuable, and you still have two other slots to work with. I'll need to run closer numbers on it to delve further, have a big weekend ahead of me with chardev and simcraft.

The viability of Healing Storm is going to largely depend on your raid size and what difficulty you're doing content on. Healing Storm, despite it being a DPS loss (one MSW 5 Lightning Bolt during heavy damage periods), is more or less a mandatory talent for 25 Heroic Progression. During the final phase of Horridon, War-God Jalak does major raid wide damage, which can be alleviated with Healing Storm (Healing rain) and Ancestral Guidance. During progression when you're undergeared relative to the encounter, any extra healing cooldowns you can get are extremely useful, especially where on 25 Heroic, War-God Jalak's Bestial Cry will start hitting for upwards of 300k damage un-mitigated.

[psir]

During progression, enhancement shamans are totally awesome! In a 25man raid... Myself and the other enhancement shaman do around 25-30k HPS. We place our Healing Stream Totems as often as we can (Glyphed on some encounters) and do Ancestral Guidance and put Healing Rains down on heavy AoE phases. This has helped the raid alot!

Conclusion: Glyph of Healing Storm is mandatory during raid progression (if you take it seriously). Not on all fights, but on those fights where the boss deals heavy aoe damage on some phases of the fight. If you want to win WoL, you should wait untill your guild has it on farm

But this tier isn't going to be great for enhancement shamans. I've done 6\12 bosses now, and most of the fights are aoe\cleave heavy! Which basically will put every dot class ahead, including Elemental shamans. That doesn't mean we'll be useless... far from it. But if you want to max the meters, you're gonna have to be smart with your cooldowns and be good at AoE'ing.

[Drkblade]

I just got 2 piece t15 last night and I'm wondering if the general idea is to hard cast lightning bolt before every stormstrike/stormblast as long as MS>1? I haven't had much time to do any testing with it but just playing around on dummies a bit I get a lot of lightning bolts in. On a few 3:40 minute testing period I managed to get in an average of 48 lightning bolts, 20 or so of which were hard casted with >1MSW stack. Lightning bolt was 9-10% of my damage.

[Aretoo]

I just got 2 piece t15 last night and I'm wondering if the general idea is to hard cast lightning bolt before every stormstrike/stormblast as long as MS>1? I haven't had much time to do any testing with it but just playing around on dummies a bit I get a lot of lightning bolts in. On a few 3:40 minute testing period I managed to get in an average of 48 lightning bolts, 20 or so of which were hard casted with >1MSW stack. Lightning bolt was 9-10% of my damage.

I don't think that set bonus would make you cast LB that often, maybe on MSWx3+ prior to SS and still as long as you aren't delaying other higher priority spells, it still comes down to following the priority list. Personally, I enjoy using UF even though it's not as optimal because I like the added gameplay it brings with trying to cast multiple lightning bolts during the Unleash Flame buff duration on the target, so I believe (haven't done testing yet) that if you use UF you'd be more apt to hard cast LB around MSWx1 or MSWx2 prior to a SS, however as I stated before, it all comes down to the priority list. The trick is that the t15 2-piece bonus isn't a straight up damage increase, it's not like LB hits harder or something, causing LB to be a higher priority spell, it's simply that we're trying to not waste MSW stacks and thus dps, however due to the priority list being what it is, I think typically it will be more likely that you'd rather waste MSW stacks than delay SS/LL or even UE to hardcast MSW<5+LB.

[Drkblade]

I don't think that set bonus would make you cast LB that often, maybe on MSWx3+ prior to SS and still as long as you aren't delaying other higher priority spells, it still comes down to following the priority list. Personally, I enjoy using UF even though it's not as optimal because I like the added gameplay it brings with trying to cast multiple lightning bolts during the Unleash Flame buff duration on the target, so I believe (haven't done testing yet) that if you use UF you'd be more apt to hard cast LB around MSWx1 or MSWx2 prior to a SS, however as I stated before, it all comes down to the priority list. The trick is that the t15 2-piece bonus isn't a straight up damage increase, it's not like LB hits harder or something, causing LB to be a higher priority spell, it's simply that we're trying to not waste MSW stacks and thus dps, however due to the priority list being what it is, I think typically it will be more likely that you'd rather waste MSW stacks than delay SS/LL or even UE to hardcast MSW<5+LB.

Ok, I wasn't really sure how to benefit most from the new tier. I had read a lot about hardcasting LB always before ss because it happens quite often that ss gives 4 stacks. I use EM/PE on mosts fights because where there is lots of AoE the guild let's me stay stationary ala horridon so I can get the most out of my rotation. Im not struggling in any manner to keep up I just wanted to check how to best use the bonus. Suppose I'll have to test in raid what's best for me.

[Ryethe]

Check out the current sin craft rotation and where it slots in mw3 + 4 usage. It feels pretty good to me on live.

[Corixa]

Item - Shaman T15 Enhancement 4P Bonus - great 4-set bonus, overall I'm happy with how our set bonuses work this tier, and lowering CDs on wolves is a neat set bonus. I think once you obtain this bonus it might be hands down the best choice to use EM as I'm thinking you might be able to always pair EM with wolves if you get enough WF procs - will need to look over some logs to actually see if this is possible.

For me, it normally comes up again after a min, can't really hold off for EM to be up again, i doubt it would be a dps increase to wait 30s for EM, not sure how good they scale with haste really.

From logs last night

Durumu

[20:11:16.724] Corixa casts Feral Spirit
[20:12:22.769] Corixa casts Feral Spirit  (1:06)
[20:13:28.931] Corixa casts Feral Spirit  (1:06)
[20:15:04.044] Corixa casts Feral Spirit  (1:36)
[20:16:04.900] Corixa casts Feral Spirit  (1:00)
[20:17:20.859] Corixa casts Feral Spirit  (1:16)

JiKun
[19:40:14.588] Corixa casts Feral Spirit
[19:41:28.421] Corixa casts Feral Spirit (1:14)
[19:42:26.178] Corixa casts Feral Spirit (0:58)
[19:45:08.619] Corixa casts Feral Spirit (2:42) - logger went out of range
[19:46:21.385] Corixa casts Feral Spirit (1:13)

[Aretoo]

For me, it normally comes up again after a min, can't really hold off for EM to be up again, i doubt it would be a dps increase to wait 30s for EM, not sure how good they scale with haste really.

From logs last night

Durumu

[20:11:16.724] Corixa casts Feral Spirit
[20:12:22.769] Corixa casts Feral Spirit  (1:06)
[20:13:28.931] Corixa casts Feral Spirit  (1:06)
[20:15:04.044] Corixa casts Feral Spirit  (1:36)
[20:16:04.900] Corixa casts Feral Spirit  (1:00)
[20:17:20.859] Corixa casts Feral Spirit  (1:16)

JiKun
[19:40:14.588] Corixa casts Feral Spirit
[19:41:28.421] Corixa casts Feral Spirit (1:14)
[19:42:26.178] Corixa casts Feral Spirit (0:58)
[19:45:08.619] Corixa casts Feral Spirit (2:42) - logger went out of range
[19:46:21.385] Corixa casts Feral Spirit (1:13)

You're right in that it probably won't be a dps increase to hold EM or Wolves for each other since they are such short CDs already, you won't want to delay them long. Haste is quite a good stat for pets though, since majority of pets simply autoattack, so for feral spirits agility procs and haste procs are great to have running for them to optimize their damage output. Thanks for the log information on feral spirits timing with the 4-piece, do you have more logs where you're rocking it? I'd like to take a further look at the logs if possible, feel free to PM me them.

[Corixa]

i've pm you the logs, not sure if it went through not showing up in my sent folder.

[Aretoo]

i've pm you the logs, not sure if it went through not showing up in my sent folder.

Yup I got them, thanks a lot.

[albirieo]

I've been playing as enhance for awhile and I've recently learned to love the glyph healing storm. Is it natural to have such high hps while still doing great dps? I'm a bit confused and worried one of these aspects will get nerfed. On horridon which we managed to one shot, I did 103k dps with 48k hps. On council I was on sul duty and was still pulling out some impressive numbers. IS this a fine playstyle or should I not get accustomed to it as it will be toned down later on. My guild loves it since it's like having a 4th healer on ten man.

[Aretoo]

I've been playing as enhance for awhile and I've recently learned to love the glyph healing storm. Is it natural to have such high hps while still doing great dps? I'm a bit confused and worried one of these aspects will get nerfed. On horridon which we managed to one shot, I did 103k dps with 48k hps. On council I was on sul duty and was still pulling out some impressive numbers. IS this a fine playstyle or should I not get accustomed to it as it will be toned down later on. My guild loves it since it's like having a 4th healer on ten man.

That's currently the recommended way to play, the offhealing we can do (feral spirits, flame shock, and healing storm) from glyphs is great, then coupled with Healing Tide Totem or Ancestral Guidance is incredible. I've actually out healed one of our designated healers in 25man on Ji'Kun from popping CDs and placing a healing rain for each quills. It's even stronger now since blizzard just buffed healing rain by 20% (and chain heal), however there is still the tradeoff from doing damage or healing, however dead dps can't do any dps, so you just need to find that right balance.

[sarasun]

It's good for a fight on which you couldn't quite two-heal with "traditional" DPS. With enhance, often, you can drop a healer and get the extra DPS, even though it's a little lower because you sacrifice LBs for healing.

[Kegfu]

Great guide, Aretoo!

That's currently the recommended way to play, the offhealing we can do (feral spirits, flame shock, and healing storm) from glyphs is great, then coupled with Healing Tide Totem or Ancestral Guidance is incredible. I've actually out healed one of our designated healers in 25man on Ji'Kun from popping CDs and placing a healing rain for each quills. It's even stronger now since blizzard just buffed healing rain by 20% (and chain heal), however there is still the tradeoff from doing damage or healing, however dead dps can't do any dps, so you just need to find that right balance.

I'll just assume this means I can count you as a DPS and a heal from now on. No pressure.

[Aretoo]

Great guide, Aretoo!



I'll just assume this means I can count you as a DPS and a heal from now on. No pressure.

Only if I can get double EP for the two roles I fill.

It's good for a fight on which you couldn't quite two-heal with "traditional" DPS. With enhance, often, you can drop a healer and get the extra DPS, even though it's a little lower because you sacrifice LBs for healing.

Personally I've found that there aren't that many fights which have super tight dps timers (only about halfway through ToT though, so who's to know) and that the extra heals using Healing Rain + Ancestral Guidance properly outweights the loss of dps from a single LB in almost every occasion.

[Grimbold21]

Just got back to the game after a 2 month break to find out that the old "main" spec (EotE + UF) isn't top anymore, to be replaced by EM+PE.

Thing is, i've never touched PE so i have no idea what to do with that elemental. You use it and then what, let it dmg on it owns or spam the buff it gives to the user?

That and it seems haste has a higher prior as well now ?

[Deleted]

When picking between the Primal Elementalist and the Unleash Fury, i got a hard time figuring out what deals the most damage. And if Primal Elementalist only seems rather good during AoE packs and alike.

The cooldown of the elemental seems rather long also, if you compare it to the amount of times you can use your Unleashed Fury.
Unleashed Fury seems like the best to pick, or is the other better, if I use it more percisely?