Enhancement Shaman Guide for MoP - Patch 5.4

[Cruisette]

Great guide here! Nice little refresher and cleared up a couple of questions I had. I didn't realize using FET was something to do now along with Stormlash Totem. Doesn't feel like our priority queue has changed up too much... so I'm not sure why my numbers aren't up there. I'm still not seeing the numbers that everyone else is. (Which is really starting to bother me since I've been playing Enh since BC.)

[Aretoo]

Would really like that BiS list

It's like you're in my mind! BiS list will be released tonight, I've been working on it this past weekend but I was also crazy swamped (just moved to a new apartment) so my time has been limited. You can expect to see it tonight around 9 or 10 EST.

Great guide here! Nice little refresher and cleared up a couple of questions I had. I didn't realize using FET was something to do now along with Stormlash Totem. Doesn't feel like our priority queue has changed up too much... so I'm not sure why my numbers aren't up there. I'm still not seeing the numbers that everyone else is. (Which is really starting to bother me since I've been playing Enh since BC.)

Thanks for the kind words. For the most part our rotation hasn't changed, you'll only really see changes depending on what you take as your level 90 talent (I like how that talent tier changes our rotation slightly, choices are fun!). Feel free to PM me if you want to bounce some ideas around to improve your dps numbers.

[Dave131]

I have been away from the Enhancement world for a while so forgive my ignorance but dude, when did Haste become as good as Mastery for us? o.O

[Aretoo]

I have been away from the Enhancement world for a while so forgive my ignorance but dude, when did Haste become as good as Mastery for us? o.O

Large portion had to do with the Flurry remake. Prior to MoP changes Flurry was just an attack speed buff, but now it includes benefits from haste rating. Lightning bolts have also become a higher priority which in turn makes generating MSW stacks more important which in turn benefits haste. There's also other small changes that make haste as equally desirable as mastery such as the talent Unleashed Fury and Stormlash totem.

I'd also like to point out that while it's a good general rule of thumb to rate Mastery and Haste equal to each other, if you truly want to min/max you should sim your gear and find where your breaking points are based on the current average ilevel you're at (there will become a point in gearing when mastery will start to get ahead of haste).

[Cishir]

A word of warning to any Enhancement that is currently getting good amounts of raid gear and not simming: Crit is currently by far my second best stat, far outstripping haste at this point (although Haste is still much improved from where it was.)

So make sure to sim things for yourself as you progress otherwise you could be way off.

[Aretoo]

A word of warning to any Enhancement that is currently getting good amounts of raid gear and not simming: Crit is currently by far my second best stat, far outstripping haste at this point (although Haste is still much improved from where it was.)

So make sure to sim things for yourself as you progress otherwise you could be way off.

What average ilevel are you at and what talents are you taking in tier 4 and 6?

[Corixa]

What average ilevel are you at and what talents are you taking in tier 4 and 6?

anyone know how accurate simcraft is with enh? I'm getting the same stat weights with sim. I sim my stat weights every time I get a new piece of gear but generally it has been mastery> crit> haste
I have echo if the elements and unleashed fury currently at 485 ilevel

edit: latest sim result - crit=haste=mastery
http://ajantis-guild.com/uploads/2510.html

[psir]

Hey guys I got a few questions.

- According to elitejerks and this guide right here, Master = Haste. I've been stacking mastery, mostly because I did so in Cata. And also when you use Anscendance your autoattacks becomes pure nature damage. But when you're starting to get 489 gear, what's best? Stacking Mastery or Haste?

- What's best for the highest dps... using Searing Totem all the time, or pop Fire Elemental when it's off cooldown?

[Aretoo]

Hey guys I got a few questions.

- According to elitejerks and this guide right here, Master = Haste. I've been stacking mastery, mostly because I did so in Cata. And also when you use Anscendance your autoattacks becomes pure nature damage. But when you're starting to get 489 gear, what's best? Stacking Mastery or Haste?

- What's best for the highest dps... using Searing Totem all the time, or pop Fire Elemental when it's off cooldown?

For Mastery v Haste you don't necessarily want to stack one versus the other, you'll see the most returns by reforging out of crit and excess hit/expertise to balancing the amount of Mastery and Haste you have. There is a gear point where mastery starts to become the better stat, but it's very slight. If you go back and re-read the section about stat weights there is a link to a graph at TotemSpot that details how mastery and haste are valued as you gain gear.

As for highest dps usage of fire totems - as noted in this guide FET now is a usable CD for enh shamans to use because it continues to stack Searing Flames when it melees (in past expansions it wasn't worth it to use because it was a net dps loss in most situations). Because of this you'll be wanting to use it virtually on CD in most situations - especially if you glyph FET so that you have it up more often (but for less time). If it's unglyphed try to line it up with other CDs/Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp.

[psir]

For Mastery v Haste you don't necessarily want to stack one versus the other, you'll see the most returns by reforging out of crit and excess hit/expertise to balancing the amount of Mastery and Haste you have. There is a gear point where mastery starts to become the better stat, but it's very slight. If you go back and re-read the section about stat weights there is a link to a graph at TotemSpot that details how mastery and haste are valued as you gain gear.

As for highest dps usage of fire totems - as noted in this guide FET now is a usable CD for enh shamans to use because it continues to stack Searing Flames when it melees (in past expansions it wasn't worth it to use because it was a net dps loss in most situations). Because of this you'll be wanting to use it virtually on CD in most situations - especially if you glyph FET so that you have it up more often (but for less time). If it's unglyphed try to line it up with other CDs/Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp.

Thanks for a detailed answer, you did a great job on this guide! Kudos!
Perhaps the priority list could be alittle better looking tho Right now it looks like a wall of text

[Gargz]

For the BiS list, did you take into account Seasonal Event items like Horseman ring?

[Aretoo]

For the BiS list, did you take into account Seasonal Event items like Horseman ring?

No Seasonal are not included in the BiS list since they are on a limited basis. In general higher ilevel will be better (Brewfest trinket isn't that great though).

[Cishir]

Sorry that it took me a couple days to get back to you, was busy.

490, Echo/UF.

[Glyphtics]

My secondary stats have been changing a fair amount from gearing up also.

At around 486 ilvl I was getting Mastery > Haste > Crit, however now at 490 ilvl I am getting Haste > Mastery > Crit. This is with Echo / UF talents of course.

[aarrok]

Just curious about this but when I have to choose between "Elemental Mastery" and "Echo of the Elements", I chose Elemental Mastery for the haste bonus while wolves/blood fury/Ascendance are used. Now my Question is this: If I choose "Echo of the Elements, what constitutes as a spell with ENH? Do LL and SS? OR is it only FS, ES, and LB? I have been trying to find a solid answer but have found nothing yet.

[Aretoo]

Just curious about this but when I have to choose between "Elemental Mastery" and "Echo of the Elements", I chose Elemental Mastery for the haste bonus while wolves/blood fury/Ascendance are used. Now my Question is this: If I choose "Echo of the Elements, what constitutes as a spell with ENH? Do LL and SS? OR is it only FS, ES, and LB? I have been trying to find a solid answer but have found nothing yet.

Typically you choose between the two talents when you either want cooldown burst (EM) or more sustained damage (EotE). As for what spells are classified as spells for enhance, what I've seen listed are LB, CL, Healing Surge, Chain Heal, all of which are at 30% proc chance and Elemental Blast at 6% proc chance. I had originally thought shocks worked with it too but I could be mistaken - someone can either verify that here or I'll do some tests later tonight once I'm able to.

[Tides]

I've not read this nowhere but i'm fairly certain i've seen ES "overloading" in my combat text.

[sarasun]

I've not read this nowhere but i'm fairly certain i've seen ES "overloading" in my combat text.

I'll confirm I've had multiple double shocks while questing, and probably while raiding too. (I'm too focused in raids to notice that).

[Glyphtics]

I've not read this nowhere but i'm fairly certain i've seen ES "overloading" in my combat text.

I've had FS (Both initial cast and dot ticks) and ES echo procs.

[Aretoo]

I've not read this nowhere but i'm fairly certain i've seen ES "overloading" in my combat text.

I'll confirm I've had multiple double shocks while questing, and probably while raiding too. (I'm too focused in raids to notice that).

Thanks Tides and sarasun - I've also been able to confirm that shocks are included in EotE spell duplication.

I've had FS (Both initial cast and dot ticks) and ES echo procs.

I'm curious to see a log where the dot ticks are being duplicated by EotE - I did some testing for a bit and wasn't able to see any. All I saw was EotE procs on the application for FS.

I also tested UE:WF and UE:FT and can confirm that UE:FT does get duplicated by EotE but UE:WF does not because it's considered a Physical attack, while UE:FT is a Fire spell.

I came across a bug with FN while doing this testing, here is the situation:

3 target dummies in a line. I apply FS to the middle dummy and hit FN on CD. Without any EotE procs I will see 2 entries of FN damage in the logs. However, with EotE procs, instead of it getting correctly duplicating and providing 4 entries of FN, you get 3. After looking more closely, I found out that what is happening is that when EotE procs on FN, the duplicated FN goes off from either the left or right dummy, not the middle dummy with the FS on it (there is only one FS out during this test on the middle dummy). I'd be interested to see if anyone else can confirm this bug.