Elemental vs Enhancement

[Daagar]

For an alt, dps probably doesn't matter much. Go for playstyle. I created my shammy with the intention of being elemental at 90 (but had enh heirlooms, so leveled up that way). Switched to ele around 85 when the heirlooms gave out, and.... hated it. I was easily just as 'powerful', but the playstyle change did not agree with me. I love enh for the instant abilities almost across the board. When I was faced with actual cast times as elemental I went nuts

I'm still adjusting to melee in raid situations - I've always favored ranged, but enh playstyle > my fear of melee thus far. And I still have an ability or two that lets me 'cast' from ranged for those times when I can't be toe-to-toe, so it almost feels like a melee/ranged hybrid (no, it really isn't).

[grexly75]

Deathgoose, Elemental uses 0 of the same gear that elemental does, elemental is Mastery Haste, while resto is Spirit Crit Haste.
Either way i play ilvl 571 Ele and ilvl 565 Enh and Enhancement tends to do more overall dps compared to elemental but most of it depends on fights most fights in SoO are also melee unfriendly, so id say its easyer to play elemental

Pretty much this I have a 557 Ele Shaman and yeah there are a few fights in there that are melee unfriendly that is why I play Ele that and I like to be able to stand back and pew pew the target. And on on groups of trash and or adds Ele is awesome when you spam the heck out of chain lightning..

[Spectie]

Enhancement does more damage, has a more dynamic playstyle, and is a much harder spec to play

Ele shines in 3 target cleave, is a simple spec to learn and do pretty well at and is more forgiving for an alt that you don't want to min/max and theorycraft on.

[aggixx]

Unless there is a brand spanking new memo that I didn't get, the stronger weapon goes in your main hand.

MH DPS is weighted higher than OH DPS atm. I think it used to be the case that it was better to have the stronger weapon in your OH last expansion (Firelands at least).

[Deleted]

MH DPS is weighted higher than OH DPS atm. I think it used to be the case that it was better to have the stronger weapon in your OH last expansion (Firelands at least).

It is still best wep in OH i have been playing shaman for a loooooooooooooong time now and im always up to date because it has been my main char for over 8 years now haha nothing changed since FL its still the same in MoP

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http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...dclaw/advanced

[Deleted]

I'd say Enhance would be better for farming, better movement around mobs and such and they get down small targets a lot faster.

Raiding, then I'd say enhance again if your raid group doesn't lack elemental. The AG they bring is insanely good for the raid, especially on fights like Thok or the beginning of Malkorok. Elemental has a bit smoother AoE, especially when there aren't a lot of targets, but that only benefits Galakras and Spoils.

Ranged is usually better for the raid, they can deal with mechanics melee can't, BUT, as melee you can just tunnel the boss on like 8 of the fights in SoO without really minding mechanics much. Ranged have to watch out for mechanics a lot more, especially in 10man.

Why is a druid commenting on this?

Some people are very experienced with many classes. I myself have raided on the hardest difficulty in the current raid (heroic in Cata-MoP or 25man in TBC-WotLK) with ~15 specs in the game and normals with at least half the specs in the game. There are only ~5-8 specs that I can only play on an LFR/beginning of Flex level with and 3 of them are the 3 rogue specs, lol.

[Spectie]

It is still best wep in OH i have been playing shaman for a loooooooooooooong time now and im always up to date because it has been my main char for over 8 years now haha nothing changed since FL its still the same in MoP

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http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...dclaw/advanced

Are you kidding me? I've only been playing since cata and it has always been better weapon in mainhand, since I started playing. It was that way in t11, firelands, and dsoul and it is still now.

Your main hand auto attacks, main hand storm strike/blast, windfury procs, all of that outweighs lava lash damage.

Better wpn mainhand always.
The only exception was in firelands if you had the spellpower axe which was BiS and mainhand only, you couldn't wield it in your offhand.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ectie/advanced

[TheEaterofSouls]

Funny someone brings this up. I recently switched up my main to a shaman a days ago. Gearing up and such, not quite there yet but still. I have trouble understanding enhance. I don't like it at all. Do I have a shot at a general raid spot as elemental? Enhance feels clunky and my performance is pretty bad with it.

[Franklyn]

They are fairly even. Each with different strengths.

Any time Ele can use CL, it will generally pull ahead. Also Ele is ranged, so has an easier time in general. Enh is better single target.

You say you don't want to heal. But when you're faced with 1hr+ queues, being able to swap to resto makes LFR/LFD almost bearable.


I prefer Ele, because it feels more complete. Enh feels pieced together from the other 2 shaman specs, and has awkward rotations (especially for aoe). So people love Enh though, and i will switch to it for fun while doing dailies and whatnot.

You should play whichever you like better, because they're both solid. Any difference isn't big enough to warrant playing a spec you don't enjoy.

99% of the playerbase (myself included) isn't good enough to notice differences between different specs

Funny someone brings this up. I recently switched up my main to a shaman a days ago. Gearing up and such, not quite there yet but still. I have trouble understanding enhance. I don't like it at all. Do I have a shot at a general raid spot as elemental? Enhance feels clunky and my performance is pretty bad with it.

heck yes. Ele is middle of the meters for single target, but smashes everything else. Cleave phases like Galakras, Shamans, Garrosh, you will top the meters. You have a very short CD ranged interrupt. Solid raid healing CDs in HTT and AG.

Any raid benefits from an Ele shaman. Heck, it'd take multiple Eles, even in 10man. I raided with another good Ele a couple of weeks ago in 10man, and it was amazing how quickly stuff got cleaved down.

[Deleted]

I have 578 resto with 572 ele gear. I will say from the bottom of my heart: Elemental is trash on bosses, king on trash (trash includes Galakras) Gathering enhagear from scrap, its 560 only but doing equal singletarget already compared to ele.

[chairmanmao]

I should probably reroll from ele to enhance at this point but fuck it, progress has been over for like a month and the expansion is going to change up everything anyway.

Shamanism buff pls D:

[zoomgpally]

Isn't that more for heroic raiding though? If they're playing this as an alt, it isn't going to really matter what they choose.

I'm quite sure elemental is actually BETTER at very low itemlevel(id guess up to 510, maybe 520). It also doesn't rely as much on actually getting a weapon drop as enha.

And there is the bonus of avoiding all your loot being needed on by hunters.

[Embermoon]

It is still best wep in OH i have been playing shaman for a loooooooooooooong time now and im always up to date because it has been my main char for over 8 years now haha nothing changed since FL its still the same in MoP

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http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...dclaw/advanced

I've also been playing (enhancement as main) for 8 years. Your info is incorrect.

[Boffjan]

I have been putting sock on my hands and underwear over my pants for 20 years.

Does that mean it is correct?

[Embermoon]

I have been putting sock on my hands and underwear over my pants for 20 years.

Does that mean it is correct?

As long as you put the strongest-smelling sock on your main hand, then yes.

[Hekili]

Funny someone brings this up. I recently switched up my main to a shaman a days ago. Gearing up and such, not quite there yet but still. I have trouble understanding enhance. I don't like it at all. Do I have a shot at a general raid spot as elemental? Enhance feels clunky and my performance is pretty bad with it.

I have an addon intended to help develop proficiency with the Enhancement rotation, linked in my signature. It may help you to get in the groove of things.

It's really easy to say that Enhancement feels clunky, but I disagree. The issue I think that some people have is that they don't understand our resource system. Our resource is not mana (sure, if we're OOM, we're kinda boned), our true resource is time (or cooldowns). We're actually a lot like Death Knights in that regard, since DK runes are basically cooldown charges that you can apply to multiple abilities. Instead of generating runic power, we generate stacks of Maelstrom Weapon that we can use for damage (Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning) or healing (Chain Heal, Healing Rain R.I.P.).

We also have a great deal of our damage baked into our long cooldowns. When we're not using our major cooldowns, our DPS is pretty low. But our big cooldowns are bordering on obscene at times, so it averages out -- but only if you're actually using your long cooldowns optimally. However, you can also be left feeling like you're just waiting for your Fire Elemental to show up and do your job, and that your Stormstriking/Lava Lashing is really for naught. (I do kinda wish our burst was slightly lower, and our regular DPS were slightly higher...)

Until you get a fair amount of gear, you might not want to go for the popular EM/PE build. AS/UF lets you contribute more of your damage, and the passive haste lets you gear mostly for mastery until you have more do it in a balanced fashion. And you could get your T16 2pc relatively quickly as well, which is nice for UF.

Bear in mind, there's an early haste point around 6940 where your white attacks (with Flurry up) will happen around 1.49s or less. This can cause your damage output to drop for a little bit, because you'll often be missing your 3 second Windfury ICD (1.49 x 2 = 2.98, too soon. 1.49 x 3 = 4.47, so late!). Until you have enough haste to overcome that deficit, it's reasonable to cap yourself where your melee swings are 1.5s with Flurry up and go all out with mastery. It's not significant when you're geared up, but at lower itemlevels, you may find it noticeable.

Be hit- and exp-capped. Attack from behind. Use your cooldowns. Change your talents for each situation.

At some point, change things up and glyph for Frost Shock and use the Frozen Power talent. It's silly and fun, and gives you more buttons to push when you don't have a lot of haste generating Maelstrom Weapon stacks so you can Lightning Bolt a lot.

...and I've ranted a little long. I'll leave it at that for now.

[Daagar]

Hekili is also the best addon of its kind, and will improve your gameplay immensely. Don't be in a hurry to collapse the single-target and AoE displays into a single bar. Display both. Follow the rotation appropriate for the situation at hand - it will change during the fight!

[Ninthelora]

I've always been a great fan of melee (Rogue, feral druid, warrior, retridin). Then I started a shammy mainly as ele because I was tired of melee. But at some point you get bored with every class/spec, so I tried out enhancement. I fell in love with it, out of all classes i've played, this is the most fun as melee.

There is always something to cast! Like rogues/feral/warriors are always depended on either nrg/rage or spamming the same button. Enhancement feels very fluid, though I have to say for a beginner the rotation might be hard, but i advise to install some addons (like WeakAuras), to track Maelstrom stacks, totems, flameshock uptime and such.

We have many great CD's, like Bloodlust, Ascendance, Fire Elemental Totem, Stormlash Totem, Water Tide Totem, Spirit Wolves, etc. If timing it right we can pull crazy dps. Our AOE rotation is somewhat complex, but when you can get it off, it feels insane

For normal dungeons, heroics or other trash Elemental will pull ahead due to Chain lighting, as enhancement you don't have instant AOE and mobs die to quickly most of the time to get your fire nova off. Elemental is quite fun, but it's a little bit to simple.

[Murderdoll]

Just remember the weapon that deals the most dmg goes in your offhand as enh shaman

Wrong.

It is still best wep in OH i have been playing shaman for a loooooooooooooong time now and im always up to date because it has been my main char for over 8 years now haha nothing changed since FL its still the same in MoP

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http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...dclaw/advanced

If its been your main for 8 years, youve been doing something wrong for a lot of them.

Enhancement is slightly ahead, although they are very close and excel in different areas. I still find however, Elemental is far more sought after. Keep in mind, this tier Enhance is kind of dependent on a few key items. Being an alt though this wont be of huge concern to you, youll be doing competitive DPS regardless.

[Deanscream]

In my experience, Enhancement is generally the better dps if you're talking sheer numbers. that being said, there are a lot of situations where ele is better. Enhancement has a slight ramp up on AOE, whereas elemental has chain lightning spam/earthquake. In the time that I've been raiding enhance, I've never been out dpsed by an elemental unless it was a massive aoe fight, or they grossly outgear me. Well that's my experience anyways. >.>