Retiring Resto shaman going dps - Enh or ele?

[Wadling]

Hi guys!

As I can't keep up 100% attendance anymore I'm not eligible nor able to take up a healing spot in our mythic raiding team.
The officers asked me if I wanted to go dps instead and it seemed like a good call. I don't want to quit raiding!
I don't want to start off with something that I cant pursue though and atm I'm jumbling about what spec to choose.

I like both Enhancement and Elemental so I'm going to make my pick out of what's best currently in NH = what will benefit guild most and what better suits my legendaries. Atm I'm sitting on Sephuz, Prydaz, Roots and PPs girdle dps wise.
The guild is not melee heavy and could take another melee dps.

Please help me! I've been reading a lot but nothing really covers my whole situation so I thought a post here might do the trick!

Thanks!
Wadling

[PraisCthulhu]

Elemental has the advantage of having the exact same stat weights as Resto, just with a lower mastery breakpoint. So you'd probably already be pretty optimally geared for Ele. As far as which is better in NH, there isn't a clear answer. Last I looked, overall, Enhance parsed higher. However, there are fights where Ele is head and shoulders above enhance, and even the fights where ele is behind, it isn't usually by much.

Overall though, they are close enough that you should go with the one that you prefer the play style of. If you like the play styles equally, go ele for stats.

[Inay]

If we are looking logs overall elemental is ahead even in 75th percentile(not much), the higher we go in percentiles the higher elemental goes. Currently in overall data for 99th percentile logs in NH elemental is at the top pack(5th) where as enhancement is dead last.

[Jazzhands]

Elemental is strong, and has the same stat priority as resto, so probably a good place to start. I also think the spec at a base level is really easy to pick up. But of courae, every spec has nuances.

[Lionor]

If we are looking logs overall elemental is ahead even in 75th percentile(not much), the higher we go in percentiles the higher elemental goes. Currently in overall data for 99th percentile logs in NH elemental is at the top pack(5th) where as enhancement is dead last.

Sorry to jump in, but what logs are you referring to? Because for NH (either HC or Mythic) Elemental beats out Enhancement on 4/10 bosses, while Enhancement comes out on top for the remaining 6/10. That's for the 75th percentile. Are you limiting your overview to a particular iLvL? Genuinely curious!

It's true that if you change over to the 99th percentile this trend is reversed with Elemental beating out Enhancement on 6/10 bosses and Enhancement coming out on top only on 4/10 (at least for heroic). But still the conclusion would be that they are fairly interchangeable; some fights favor one over the other.

Having said that, for the fights that favor Elemental it generally blasts Enhancement out of the water while the opposite isn't true.

[Deleted]

Sorry to jump in, but what logs are you referring to? Because for NH (either HC or Mythic) Elemental beats out Enhancement on 4/10 bosses, while Enhancement comes out on top for the remaining 6/10. That's for the 75th percentile. Are you limiting your overview to a particular iLvL? Genuinely curious!

It's true that if you change over to the 99th percentile this trend is reversed with Elemental beating out Enhancement on 6/10 bosses and Enhancement coming out on top only on 4/10 (at least for heroic). But still the conclusion would be that they are fairly interchangeable; some fights favor one over the other.

Having said that, for the fights that favor Elemental it generally blasts Enhancement out of the water while the opposite isn't true.

elemental averages higher on "all bosses" display.
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/11

[Lionor]

elemental averages higher on "all bosses" display.
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/11

Yeah, that's a really bad way of looking at logs as its all averaged information. Say spec A (case in point Elemental on Skorpyron) completely trashes spec B (Enhancement) but spec B is numerically superior on the majority of the remaining bosses. The "all bosses" display would just take the average and might mislead people into thinking that spec A is better than spec B throughout the whole instance, which is wrong.

You need to look at performance on a boss-by-boss basis.

Hope this helps.

[Mesoforte]

Elemental because there are too many melee already.

[Deleted]

Since your guild can take another melee DPS, I'd say go Enhancement. They perform better than Ele on the bosses that matter. If you're not going to raid Mythic, pick whatever.

[Inay]

Sorry to jump in, but what logs are you referring to? Because for NH (either HC or Mythic) Elemental beats out Enhancement on 4/10 bosses, while Enhancement comes out on top for the remaining 6/10. That's for the 75th percentile. Are you limiting your overview to a particular iLvL? Genuinely curious!

It's true that if you change over to the 99th percentile this trend is reversed with Elemental beating out Enhancement on 6/10 bosses and Enhancement coming out on top only on 4/10 (at least for heroic). But still the conclusion would be that they are fairly interchangeable; some fights favor one over the other.

Having said that, for the fights that favor Elemental it generally blasts Enhancement out of the water while the opposite isn't true.

I was referring to the overall data which I know isn't most reliable but gives surface look to the specs. If we purely look at what spec is better for NH you can say its elemental by looking the average data since the gap is so huge with the two specs in the higher percentiles.
Now you are completely right that if we want to get more accurate information we should look the logs boss by boss . Like you said enhancement has bosses where it performs better but overall elemental does better job since its going far ahead in its better fights.
I think elemental has more purpose in NH since it performs really well in preferable fights for the spec but the preferable fights for enhancement ends up enhancement being in most cases still barely mid pack.

[Deleted]

I was referring to the overall data which I know isn't most reliable but gives surface look to the specs. If we purely look at what spec is better for NH you can say its elemental by looking the average data since the gap is so huge with the two specs in the higher percentiles.

Bad methodology. Overall data is inflated by fights like Skorpyron, which is not indicative for spec performance across the hard, relevant fights in Nighthold. Don't be lazy and look at the 10 fights individually.

[emmaq]

I think you should try out both first to see which one you like.
I feel like enhance is too rng for my taste.

[Guran]

As someone who has played all specs in Nighthold Hc, I'ld say it doesn't matter as much.

If you're doing heroic raiding, having more ranged is actually better, because in NH some (random) mechanics only target ranged and having more potential targets means people have to handle mechanics less often.

Elemental also has the benefit of sharing stat prio with Resto (crit/mastery over vers/haste, with a first cap of 12178 mastery) that also means that in case you DO need to heal, you'll have a better Resto set to fall back on.
PPs Girdle is also one of the better ST legendaries, so coupled with Prydaz (swap for roots in 7.2 for the extra crit) would be a good start untill you can get the ring. It's also one of the 'mandatory' legendaries for Ascendance, so you can start out with a bit more ST build if you have enough AoE or don't like Lightning Rod.
You can find more detailed information on www.stormearthandlava.com

In the end, I think that you should just ask to do a raid as Enh and one as Ele (take LR if it's your first raid, because Ascendance requires more timing knowledge) to really get a feel of the specs and see which you think you'll enjoy playing most. Your DPS will not be optimal at the start, as you'll no doubt miss some priority spell uses, but it's more about the general playstyle that matters in these playtests. As most replies above may have indicated, both specs have their strengths and weaknesses and are overall close enough to eachother that playing the spec you're most comfortable with will most likely net you the best DPS.

[Niwes]

Elemental has the advantage of having the exact same stat weights as Resto, just with a lower mastery breakpoint. So you'd probably already be pretty optimally geared for Ele. As far as which is better in NH, there isn't a clear answer. Last I looked, overall, Enhance parsed higher. However, there are fights where Ele is head and shoulders above enhance, and even the fights where ele is behind, it isn't usually by much.

Overall though, they are close enough that you should go with the one that you prefer the play style of. If you like the play styles equally, go ele for stats.

this is a good answer. i have to add 2 things:

1)
ele shines when there are a lot of adds with an acceptable lifetime (lets say greater than 10-12 seconds). example given: first boss in NH is a wet ele dream, if ppl fail a lot (many steady incomin adds).

2)
overall enh performs a little bit better than ele, as quoted poster said. in terms of numbers i would say around 3-6% or 3-4 specs on warcraftlogs dmg list.

so, if your equip is already appropriate and you like (the most important aspect) ele, there is no reason to not play it. if you prefer melee, there is also no reason to play enh. the most important thing is: play what you can perform better and what you like more. bc you will be never good at dps if you dont like your spec or the spec acts against your natural handlings.

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PS: a lot of good and differentiated answers in this thread. you cant do it wrong if you read them, op