5.4 and beyond, Shammy spec to pick

[Deleted]

So I was wondering about working on my PvE Shaman properly before 5.4 hits so that I'm ready for new content. It's been a while since I worked on this alt of mine and would appreciate suggestions as to what spec to pick with the highest possible DPS output in mind.

[Spectral]

I don't think picking a spec for flavor of the month DPS increases is a good plan, it'll lead to a lot of disappointment. The only people that should be doing that are Heroic raiders that are gearing multiple characters to switch when needed.

I'll playing my Shaman as Ele/Resto. As much as I'd like to try Enhance, it's just much easier to gear the Ele/Resto combination, and any class that I play that has a healing spec has to have that spec available on my characters, it's just so much easier having group flexibility.

[iggie]

If you MUST play a shaman, ele is best for pve dps. Enh had their one good dps patch of the expansion already. Hopefully we are good by 6.1 again.

[Hulkovius]

A Mage or rogue . U don't play shaman for high end Dps much to he chagrin of the shaman community.

Ofc u compete at the dps as ele sham. Only useless shams says that we suck.

[Deleted]

I don't think picking a spec for flavor of the month DPS increases is a good plan, it'll lead to a lot of disappointment. The only people that should be doing that are Heroic raiders that are gearing multiple characters to switch when needed.

As I stated above, this Shaman char is an alt, so you could say I'm gearing it to switch (yet also I like to play it). Ele seems by far the most desirable seeing also as some eleshams still surprise me in their DPS output.

[Murderdoll]

Elemental. Im saying that as an Enhance Shaman for...5 years? A person who loathes Elemental.

The common trend for the past two expansions has been ranged ranged ranged. Noone wants a melee DPS in their raid if they dont have to take one. Spell haste is also a highly sought after buff. On top of that Resto and Elemental are gear interchangable which gives you more raid flexibility.

[Deleted]

Ele will be best dps, but just play what you enjoy playing. Even if it's not meta. If you have fun things are better.

[Deleted]

Elemental. Im saying that as an Enhance Shaman for...5 years? A person who loathes Elemental.

Heh. Me too..
Enhancement is going to be mediocore at best ("on paper"), but with my godly skill lvl I will be competent to top meters in LFR.

[Koreche]

Ofc u compete at the dps as ele sham. Only useless shams says that we suck.

dps shamans were pretty suck for basically all of cataclysm, hence the top guilds not using them at all. you know since they gave no extra buffs, mages had BL and they did close to last dps as both melee and ranged.

In mop? No they don't suck, but they def did in cata. and ele did pretty bad in most of Wotlk though enh was great for all of it.

and in BC they didn't do great dmg but they had good buffs. enhancement's name made sense because they enhanced people and they had BL.

[Hattai]

Wondering myself if ele is worth the switch, rerolling feels like a betrayal of my favourite character but enhance is starting to feel stale and the nerf has left a bad taste in my mouth.

[hatchetman240]

the whole game favors range right now. Until they nerf all classes casting on the move it's going to be elementals game.

[Murderdoll]

The nerf I wouldnt be worried about.

What wins out in my book is the ranged vs melee debate. Assess what your guild needs, or if you are looking for a guild and go from there.

Elemental will be 10 times easier getting a raid spot based purely on the fact theyre ranged.

[miffy23]

A Mage or rogue . U don't play shaman for high end Dps much to he chagrin of the shaman community.

Clueless post is clueless.

OT: Don't buy into the Simcraft rankings *shrug*. Pretty much any spec of any class is viable for high-end raiding, provided you'Re a good player and are geared correctly. Some of em are -slightly- better than others, maybe Fire Mage is a bit too high still. But it really balances out with raid utility usually.

People whining about their class being underpowered usually fail to understand the nuances in gear/spec/encounter relations when they compare to others or are simply not that great at playing.

That being said, Elemental and Enhancement will be pretty close to each other in 5.4, with Enh being slightly ahead just like right now. Pick the playstyle you prefer, you'll do better in the one you enjoy more.

[Geekboy]

Pretty much any spec of any class is viable for high-end raiding, provided you'Re a good player and are geared correctly.

Yeah this is why you see such a great class distribution at the top 100 list. *cough*

At high-end raiding, not every class is viable. Encounters differ very much and favor different classes and spec immensely at the start of the progression. Specially when you're killing bosses at a very fast rate, with the whole team way below the ilvl the encounters were designed around.

For the rest of us it is true that every class is viable. At high-end raiding it isn't. Not by a stretch.

I'm still gonna play enhancement in 5.4. Its not gonna make a huge difference. We're just noobs with 7 HC in ToT atm. So yeah if you're in a guild with similar progress, you don't have to worry really. If you were in a high-end guild, you wouldn't be asking this question because you'd already have 1-2 alts that you could swap out for specific fights. So don't worry too much about it.

In general though SoO looks like a very add heavy instance. I have yet to test out the Fire Nova buff for enhancement, but Elemental is gonna blast through it with Chain Lightning spam which makes them very desired on those fights.

[miffy23]

Your definition of "high end raiding" includes maybe 0.1% percent of the raiding population, let's be realistic here. As such, I never base theorycrafting answers on that extreme case, and neither should the majority. I always tell my raiders off for tunnel-visioning in on the "BiS Heroic ilvl " Simcraft charts for example, or looking at the top 100 list..which, fyi, shows the flavour of the month, not the ACTUAL highest dps...just what people prefer to play atm.

But yes, for anything besides the top guilds on each continent, meaning the few dozen or so that clear heroic in the first few weeks, it's pretty much irrelevant. Player > class.
And Enhancement is still the highest burst right now regardless of ilvl, it's silly.

[Murderdoll]

And Enhancement is still the highest burst right now regardless of ilvl, it's silly.

For a whole week more.

I would still argue that even normal/heroic raiders should look at the Elemental v Enhance decision, but based purely on a ranged v melee standpoint. Even those guilds will want to bring an Ele Shaman over an Enhance if given the choice.

[ACRL]

dps shamans were pretty suck for basically all of cataclysm, hence the top guilds not using them at all. you know since they gave no extra buffs, mages had BL and they did close to last dps as both melee and ranged.

In mop? No they don't suck, but they def did in cata. and ele did pretty bad in most of Wotlk though enh was great for all of it.

and in BC they didn't do great dmg but they had good buffs. enhancement's name made sense because they enhanced people and they had BL.

You didn't raid in Firelands did you?

[miffy23]

If you'Re raiding heroic, you usually have the time and proficiency to equip and play both specs, and should do so. I do anyway even just doing a few heroic bosses each tier.

[Barrun]

I can only speak from a 10 man perspective but all specs are viable. Highest dps spec is going to depend on the fight, enhance and ele both have their strengths and weaknesses and neither will trump the other on every fight.

Elemental/resto is a very common and strong option for a 10 man raid spot, this is common even in top 100 guilds. Elemental provides very strong dps on quite a few fights though does struggle on a number of others, regardless a raid spot can still be justified, being able to switch to resto for 3 heal fights allows them to fit into a very important and very lucrative raid spot. Resto is weak at the moment but can still get the job done even two healing on progression, being able to fill the role of a 3rd healer when it is needed is quite important and lots of guilds have a hard time finding someone who can play both specs at a high skill level, even with their current deficit using one as a 3rd healer isn't a terrible handicap and in 5.4 they'll likely be one of the stronger healing specs.

Enhancement is competitive. People saying ranged are always better than melee just want a reason to complain or are trying to justify their underperformance. In a 10 man having 1 or 2 melee dps is almost never a handicap, and sometimes beneficial, they get overlooked by a large number of mechanics so ignore the people saying the game is too unforgiving on melee. They provide solid dps and great utility, sure a rogue will pull better numbers but this is a thread about shaman and a rogue won't necessarily always be the superior choice depending upon your raid setup.

Gearing is a factor you have to consider if you want the best fit into your raid group, since spell power mail is used only by resto and elemental having one or the other is a great choice because of gear soaking. It will really come down to raid comp and drops, currently I'm running resto/ele and even though we have an enhancement shaman and a hunter in our group I could have a much better enhancement offset because of how often agility items drop for us.

Which spec you choose first come down to quick you prefer to play and secondly what fits into your raid group the best. You'll almost always perform better at a spec you enjoy player and since all specs are justifiable I wouldn't let peoples biases dissuade you from playing the spec you enjoy.

[Murderdoll]

Enhancement is competitive. People saying ranged are always better than melee just want a reason to complain or are trying to justify their underperformance. In a 10 man having 1 or 2 melee dps is almost never a handicap,

LOL, Yeah ok.

Dont even try pass off that nonsense of "trying to justify underperformance" its an accepted fact that ranged are preferred over melee. If you deny it you havent been playing WoW for the last...what 4 years?

Of course having one or two is fine. Anymore than that and you are in trouble and thats where Im coming from. If you already have two melee sitting around, you are faced with a choice, raid or warm the bench. Shaman are in a position that they can change to ranged.

You would be stupid to not atleast gear it and keep your options open. Im Enhance MS and Ele OS and Ive only been asked to play Ele maybe a dozen times. It will come down to what guild you are in/apply to.