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  1. #1

    Enhancement shammy in a good place....refreshing.

    Our 10 man is doing well this xpac sitting 138 in the world as i type this and we had the 19th kill of HCFeng (49th) overall. Obviously strong play from all members is the most critical for success. However I'm elated to say that enhance seems to be bringing excellent utility to a 10 man, more than i expected. The things i see as being valuable so far: Glyphed HR (Gar), capacitor totem (HcFeng/trash), stormlash totem, increased mobility (most bosses), ranged interrupt (spirit kings/trash), and solid dps with burst cd's.

    This isn't a pat myself on the back post, it just seems like the spec is the most viable it's ever been in terms of versatility. But most importantly, I'm having the most fun I've ever had playing enhancement. First week roles i played: HR on cd for stone guard, Feng, and Gar normals. Solo dps'd protectors with burst cd's on Elegon, 'tanked' Strength adds on WotE (rockbiter wasn't necessary). Gar numbers with no spirit trips (to keep HR's down) on normal was 58-64k dps and 20-25k hps on virtually all attemps and 61k/22k on the kill.

    The best part is it feels like we're flying under the radar atm. I don't feel OP, but I feel hugely effective and valuable. Any other fellow enhancers feeling the same way?

  2. #2
    I played Enhance main off spec for a lot of Cata, unfortunately he's still 85. But my good friend plays enhance still main spec. It brings a lot that my main spec, rogue, doesn't bring. It has just as good burst, good mobility, similar to rogues do and on top of that it has raid healing CDs. The only thing that I feel vastly superior to an enhance shaman on is straight cleaving, which so far is only Stone Guard and a little bit on Will of Emperor.

  3. #3
    Herald of the Titans Kuniku's Avatar
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    better than the awesomeness at the end of tbc with totem twisting etc? =D

  4. #4
    I haven't personally had too much experience so far in the normal raid scene in MoP (joined a more casual guild and we're slowly getting people ready for raiding). I've done the first part of LFR which was a joke so that doesn't really speak much, however I did work with this other guild on downing Stone Guard and a bunch of attempts on Feng and a few things jumped out at me.

    1) In a 10 man raid, two applications of Stormlash totem did between 0.7% to 1.7% of our dps' total dmg for the fight, and I'd say that's not bad for a nice raid wide CD - probably pretty valuable in 25 mans.
    2) During large AoE phases, if you lined up your burst with Anscentral Guidance it really helped get people topped off (world of logs show me peaking high on the healing meters during use of it at 59k, 72k, and 80k HPS) - this coupled with Glyphed Feral Spirit, Glyphed HST, and the occasional Healing Rain (hopefully glyphed) I had an overall of 30k HPS on the fight - felt very useful on that front.
    3) Having amazing on command burst has been a great asset to our toolkit - being able to blow all our CDs and crank above 100k DPS (with 463 ilevel gear) is great - and our sustain isn't terrible either.

    I've always enjoyed playing Enh purely based on the playstyle - but now this is my first time I can really really really really be excited since we're being able to contribute so much to a group. Hope things scale well for us and continue to go this way!

  5. #5
    Keyboard Turner
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    I had leveled my warrior to 90 first because I became addicted to cleaving groups down, but I just dinged 90 on my enh shaman last night and I have to say I am so much more stoked to play my shaman than my warrior (obviously this is more for PvE reasons). The way that I feel like I can single handedly decide a 5man's outcome is great. I can't wait to see raids on him.

    So glad I decided to reroll to provide Bloodlust. Didn't realize just how much MORE I would be providing.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by hoodrogue View Post
    I played Enhance main off spec for a lot of Cata, unfortunately he's still 85. But my good friend plays enhance still main spec. It brings a lot that my main spec, rogue, doesn't bring. It has just as good burst, good mobility, similar to rogues do and on top of that it has raid healing CDs. The only thing that I feel vastly superior to an enhance shaman on is straight cleaving, which so far is only Stone Guard and a little bit on Will of Emperor.
    cleaving is weaker however CL/FS spread are better than nothing. If I had a wish about a cleave is to just make Fire Nova spread flameshock itself with a 10 sec cd on the spread. It does the same thing and you don't have to hold LL if you need to spread to adds. Much less clunky as they say.

    ---------- Post added 2012-10-16 at 10:20 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by streetlightout View Post
    I haven't personally had too much experience so far in the normal raid scene in MoP (joined a more casual guild and we're slowly getting people ready for raiding). I've done the first part of LFR which was a joke so that doesn't really speak much, however I did work with this other guild on downing Stone Guard and a bunch of attempts on Feng and a few things jumped out at me.

    1) In a 10 man raid, two applications of Stormlash totem did between 0.7% to 1.7% of our dps' total dmg for the fight, and I'd say that's not bad for a nice raid wide CD - probably pretty valuable in 25 mans.
    2) During large AoE phases, if you lined up your burst with Anscentral Guidance it really helped get people topped off (world of logs show me peaking high on the healing meters during use of it at 59k, 72k, and 80k HPS) - this coupled with Glyphed Feral Spirit, Glyphed HST, and the occasional Healing Rain (hopefully glyphed) I had an overall of 30k HPS on the fight - felt very useful on that front.
    3) Having amazing on command burst has been a great asset to our toolkit - being able to blow all our CDs and crank above 100k DPS (with 463 ilevel gear) is great - and our sustain isn't terrible either.

    I've always enjoyed playing Enh purely based on the playstyle - but now this is my first time I can really really really really be excited since we're being able to contribute so much to a group. Hope things scale well for us and continue to go this way!
    ^^yes. And you reminded me of additional off-heals flexiblity, the choice of AG vs. Conductivity depending on the dmg flow.

  7. #7
    Herald of the Titans Aoyi's Avatar
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    I've been very happy with how enhance is doing as well. I joined a new guild that's much farther behind in progression this expansion to stay with friends, but in the raiding I have experienced this tier, we provide a lot of utility as ENH. I topped the dps meter in Feng last night's kill with an additional 11k+ done in healing. Dropping a glyphed healing stream totem just before the AoE starts (on a nice 30 second cooldown that just happens to line up perfectly in phase 1), dropping HTT when healers need a little extra help, or tossing an instant 120k heal (glyphed MW) on a raid member who's about to die makes me feel good when we down a boss. I'm raiding again tonight and hoping to get more progress this week. It feels weird being 3 weeks in and not working on heroics, but hopefully I'll get to experience them again soon.

  8. #8
    Stood in the Fire Roboctopus's Avatar
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    Can't agree more! So much fun, good numbers, stomping people while healing. I can't remember the last time I have had this much fun!

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by BigLeague View Post
    cleaving is weaker however CL/FS spread are better than nothing. If I had a wish about a cleave is to just make Fire Nova spread flameshock itself with a 10 sec cd on the spread. It does the same thing and you don't have to hold LL if you need to spread to adds. Much less clunky as they say.

    I agree, the AoE mechanics are annoying and clunky....very poorly designed imo and not very practical or easy to use. Having FN itself spread FLS was an idea I have suggested in the past as well and it makes alot more sense then LL, you wouldn't even need the minor glyph to prevent unintended aoe. Even relying on FLS annoys me, esp in PVP where you don't use it much and if stuck with shocks on cd have to wait up to 6 sec plus require a target to aoe at all.


    Regarding Enhance in general, they have improved in many ways but I think their mobility is gimped and in a worse position then before....atleast relative to other classes, and I still think some adjustments could be made to certain talents, glyphs, and abilities to be more suitable for Enh. I hate the T3 totem talents as they are very lame, GW glyph should be baseline and Enh could use an actual reliable gap closer, and I wish they did something for imbues cause it feels a little odd and esp the way SF buffs only FT and our PVP set bonus.....and also wind shear IMO should have a 4 sec lockout to match the 33% lockout some classes have and also match the superior lockout time our WS had in the past during Cata where it was 2/5 sec or 40% lockout.

  10. #10
    Went Enhance as soon as I hit 90 (didn't have any Enhance gear from Cata so I levelled Elemental and collected gear on the way) and haven't looked back. Aside from one boss in the Theramore Scenario (the Gatecrasher or whatever it's called) to try and get the achievement (which favours ranged dps) I've been Enhance the whole way - from dailies to heroics, putting out competitive DPS in Mogu'shan vaults and blowing people up with a Ret Pally in 2s - so far it's all been enjoyable. Long may it continue!

  11. #11
    I'm all on board with the sentiments in this thread. We, enhancement shamans, are at a prime point in terms of survivability and utility to the raid, plus our mobility is not too bad with instagw and sw as a separate cd. We can finally switch targets too now that sf is a buff and doesn't go on our target . The main thing lacking currently is a more efficient aoe spread. With everything else we're very competitive currently and I'm loving it.

    If I had one complaint about Enhance st now as compared to before the expansion it would be that they've shifted a lot of our dps over to burst comparatively. Now we have great burst dps and then fall back off to a reasonable # for a while til cd's come off or line up. Before we were doing fairly steady high dps throughout the entirety of the fight, regardless of phase, as long as you had sf stacks, you knew enh st was putting out, now we're a lot more cd dependent by far and should be saving sl for the raid. Not necessarily a bad thing, it just forces us to be less effective in certain phases of certain fights, even if overall we're doing more damage. Not to mention, mess up your cd rotation now and it has a far greaterer detrimental effect. Overall, however, I'm quite pleased with the current state of enhancement.
    Last edited by seventothese; 2012-10-17 at 02:51 PM.

  12. #12
    Bloodsail Admiral kosajk's Avatar
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    some buff to mobility, it may be better than in cata but compared to warrior, druid, rogue or monk its just not good enough, and major overhaul in aoe departement and i would be perfectly fine with everything else :P
    Last edited by kosajk; 2012-10-17 at 05:00 PM.

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  13. #13
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    I wouldn't wanna get my hopes up. The history of shamans is a history of a class that was never more than mediocre (dps) at best. At the begining of new xpacs we often start out okayish, but we have never scaled well, which has often left us behind other dps- (and hybrid) classes. Imo the shaman community has grown accustomed to being happy with being mediocre/ middle of the pack. Dont get me wrong - Im genuine happy for you guys, ist great that you feel you'r in a good spot atm, and I would love to see shamans compete for 1-3 place on recount but.... Looking at raidbots.com I'll say history is repeating it self...

  14. #14
    I'll say history is repeating it self...
    I thought they fixed the way we scale? wasnt that our biggest downfall as expansions progressed?

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by rdaccord View Post
    I thought they fixed the way we scale? wasnt that our biggest downfall as expansions progressed?
    Enhance will continue to 'fall' each expansion. It's by far the clunkiest-messedup-makesnosensewtfdoihavethisforwhythis-class I've ever played... And yet I can't get away from it.

    Let shocks have seperate CD's. It's not like it's THAT much of a difference, and would mainly just effect enhance. Ele would still be spamming LB. But it would free up our rotation and I wouldn't have four seconds of "wtf there's nothing to pressnow"... Also fix haste and crit, make them somewhat useful. I think they've gone in the right direction with haste but.. Still doesn't feel right.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by rdaccord View Post
    I thought they fixed the way we scale? wasnt that our biggest downfall as expansions progressed?
    Yes in theory they did fix how we scaled - however they said that going into cata as well. Only time will tell at this point.

  17. #17
    Mechagnome Xanda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by streetlightout View Post
    Yes in theory they did fix how we scaled - however they said that going into cata as well. Only time will tell at this point.
    Never saw that before cataclysm, because we scaled well with haste in wrath.
    "Man knows - he knows that nothing will begin unless he speaks. And nothing will change, unless he knows."


  18. #18
    damage, burst and utility is very good.

    The gameplay is just too boring with all these long gaps. They made us scale better, but without secondary stats and the loss of passive hit and flurry change, MW's stack so slowly and I fall asleep and loose focus. I play elemental now, might go back to enhance (which i played 3y as MS) next tier or the tier after that when the secondary stats are there and make the priority/rotation a bit more exciting. Atm I only find enhance fun to play when speccing EM, that's how MW stacks should build. But outside that cd, I really don't find the priority fun. Sometimes I wonder how damage can be that good while I have the impression I'm not doing anything except waiting for spells come off cd.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Xanda View Post
    Never saw that before cataclysm, because we scaled well with haste in wrath.
    Enh scaled well with haste well back then, but badly with Arp. Still, scaling in wotlk was MUCH better than it was for most of cata, since crit was decent a stat (all the way up to the crit cap (yes, we had that at some point, good times )).

    Blizz then replaced bad Arp with awesome mastery and buffed Agi(though raw ap was removed), but completely ruined haste and crit, so scaling got worse.
    Quote Originally Posted by Angoth
    I'm sorry that Blizzard won't just gift wrap awesome in a cup and let you drink your fill.

  20. #20
    Yeah.. Shaman is in a good place..and then you enter Arena.

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