Best stat for enhance pvp?

[Fascinate]

So ive been doing armory searches of all the high rated enhance and they all seem to stack mastery to the hills, most leaving crit behind haste even. Im completely new to enhance so im just kinda confused here.

Does mastery increase elemental blast damage? (seeing as it is elemental damage)
From my limited experience in pvp i find myself rarely casting lightning bolt, i either use maelstrom for ele blast or healing myself, wouldnt this lower the value of mastery?
This leaves shocks, which dont do much damage as enhance in the first place.

Can someone explain why all the top rated shammies are stacking mastery to the hills?

[Tekvenge]

Haste/crit are good for your sustained damage... however to pew pew with Enhance you need lots of Mastery and Agility.

For PvP go 3%hit/Expertiese then AGIL > MASTERY > CRIT > HASTE in my opinion...

AGI is going to make every ability hit harder... MASTERY is going to make your STORMBLASTS, Lavalash, Unleashed Elements, Shocks, totems, static shocks and all magical damage hit harder... which is extremely important for enhance especially with abilities that involve bursting targets down...

So if you want massive burst...get as much mastery as you can when you cant gear / gem agil... I sit at 54% self buffed

~Tekvenge

[Fascinate]

So i found a long thread about this on a diff forum and it turns out people stack mastery exclusively for stormblast lol. If shaman had higher uptime (like ferals) haste would for sure be the go to stat for pvp was the conclusion.

But even after reading that whole thread i still cant figure out if elemental blast damage is increased by mastery, would be great if anyone knows for sure.

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One more thing, kinda off topic but id rather not start a new thread. Why do people use frostbrand?

Ok i understand that it has a slow attatched to it, but with searing flames and the passive 7% magic damage, flametongue def does more damage. With frozen power and earthbind i have no problem slowing/catching targets. Even in vanguards guide he says to use frostbrand, but i honestly cannot see the benefit here.

[Bllets]

It frees up additional GCD which you can now use for far more better options then slowing down. Combined with Unleash Elements you have a very good combination to slow a target.

Regarding Elemental Blast its rather easy to test if mastery increases it's damage or not, so test against a dummy

[Fascinate]

What are the far better options, earth shock? I dunno, if you add all the factors up flametongue makes more sense to me. Lets break it down (please add any i am forgetting).

Flametongue pros:
7% extra damage to all magic damage
Searing flames, this allows flametongue imbue itself to deal more damage than frostbrand.
Unleash elements, this increases the next elemental blast to deal 30% more damage. (i looked it up on wowhead, unleash does affect ele blast lol)

Frostbrand:
Better more consistent slow

Im just trying to gather info at this point, but at least to me if the main benefit of using frostbrand is just giving me an extra gcd once in a while for a (weak) earth shock or lightning bolt, i dunno it just dont add up for me.

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Would love to hear someones logic on using frostbrand over flametongue, as nearly every guide i have read has suggested frostbrand. Im not saying flametongue is better, because obviously im not some high rated shaman, but for me to justify using it i need solid logic!

[Makail]

Would love to hear someones logic on using frostbrand over flametongue, as nearly every guide i have read has suggested frostbrand. Im not saying flametongue is better, because obviously im not some high rated shaman, but for me to justify using it i need solid logic!

Unleashed Fury sprint, 50% passive movement speed reduction, and 70% movement speed reduction after Unleashed Elements is used.
Increased uptime on target is better than 7% magic damage & minor damage boost to Flametongue Weapon.

[Tekvenge]

What are the far better options, earth shock? I dunno, if you add all the factors up flametongue makes more sense to me. Lets break it down (please add any i am forgetting).

Flametongue pros:
7% extra damage to all magic damage
Searing flames, this allows flametongue imbue itself to deal more damage than frostbrand.
Unleash elements, this increases the next elemental blast to deal 30% more damage. (i looked it up on wowhead, unleash does affect ele blast lol)

Frostbrand:
Better more consistent slow

Im just trying to gather info at this point, but at least to me if the main benefit of using frostbrand is just giving me an extra gcd once in a while for a (weak) earth shock or lightning bolt, i dunno it just dont add up for me.

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Would love to hear someones logic on using frostbrand over flametongue, as nearly every guide i have read has suggested frostbrand. Im not saying flametongue is better, because obviously im not some high rated shaman, but for me to justify using it i need solid logic!

The only situation I switch to FT is in ARENA vs double melee DPS.... otherwise the Speed Boost is priceless both for ESCAPING/mitigating damage... as well as closing gaps... a 50% sprint every 15 seconds is a huge buff over 7% magic... plus people who are good will constantly be destroying your totems so your not gonna get stacks of ST not to mention the wind up time...

In battlegrounds I never use FT.

Elemental blast is the worst choice for Enh shamans in pvp... go with PE or UE.


The 4 piece bonus on your gladiator gear makes Frostbrand really good.

If doing it the way you describe works for you than do it... however there is something to be said if all the high ranked shamans (including myself) go FB almost exclusively - and DONT use elemental blast.


You can do all the theorycrafting in the world..but what matters is real world practice.. if you use FT and get to 2500 in arenas/RBG more power to you ! your doing something different

[Fascinate]

Unleashed Fury sprint, 50% passive movement speed reduction, and 70% movement speed reduction after Unleashed Elements is used.
Increased uptime on target is better than 7% magic damage & minor damage boost to Flametongue Weapon.

You left out unleash elements, 30% to ele blast is nothing to scoff at! If i am taking ele blast i wont be getting the unleash fury sprint.

Also tekvenge, all the high rated shamans take ele blast and i personally prefer it as well. I have absolute crap gear still (dont even have my weps yet, 13% pvp power) and ive seen ele blast crit for 70k already with unleash.

Im going to test both once i get fully geared but in my mind FT makes more sense.

[Tekvenge]

You left out unleash elements, 30% to ele blast is nothing to scoff at! If i am taking ele blast i wont be getting the unleash fury sprint.

Also tekvenge, all the high rated shamans take ele blast and i personally prefer it as well. I have absolute crap gear still (dont even have my weps yet, 13% pvp power) and ive seen ele blast crit for 70k already with unleash.

Im going to test both once i get fully geared but in my mind FT makes more sense.

It comes down to playstyle. I almost exclusively use MS procs for Hex/HS/HR, I rarely use it for DPS.

If you are going to play with EB, you'll need partners that are extremely good at peeling for you. I see it more as a gimmick than anything else (personal opinion, obviously some have done really well with it), as you lose uptime and almost never get to use it on CD.
Point being that every second you are not using EB when it's up, it becomes a wasted talent. You'll need those precious maelstroms for heals or hex, and hardcasting it is also a no-go for Enhance as you'll be in trouble if it gets interrupted. - getting locked out of nature

UF on the other hand provides good pressure + excellent utility, and will always be used on CD. As was said in that other thread, I think it's a matter of taste. Personally I fiercely dislike playing with EB and will always stick to UF (unless EB becomes an instant cast as baseline for Enhance


In 3's around 2kish I have been using primal elementalist with lots of success... on matches where they try to blow me up in the beginning I pop earth elemental and use to dmg reducing buff... when I pop fire - if it has high uptime the pet will do over 1 million damage... more than I get out of UE or EB


and no...according to wowpopular... Top 5 specs for enhance...all take UF- a more useful tool in determining what shamans are taking

[Fascinate]

I am surprised at that rating they dont instantly kill the fire ele totem, i know this is one of the reasons high rated players went ele blast.

[Tekvenge]

I am surprised at that rating they dont instantly kill the fire ele totem, i know this is one of the reasons high rated players went ele blast.

Yes, there are times when people get my totem... however what often works is to lay it in the spawn room.. or to use totemic projection and move it out of los/under bridge etc... 90% of the time i get away with that... and that's in the best battlegroup