Old Enhance Shaman, shall I change to Elemental and if so why?

[Takeshiren]

Hi there!

I wondered if anyone could help me... As a recently dinged 90 shaman, I need some help on spec, I will rule out healer because I am awful. But that still comes to the point, Ele or Enhance?

I am a long lived Enhance shaman but I have heard this expansion they are very lack luster, and boring to play, so far I am kinda uncertain as I have not tried Elemental,

But if you play enhance, do you enjoy it? And if you have tried both, which do you prefer and why?

Thanks

Daniel

[Stevano]

Enhancement Shamans are still kinda the same as they used to be in Cataclysm if you ask me. Elemental tho is really fun and powerful to play with atm, so in my opinion, I would go for Elemental!

[Takeshiren]

Enhancement Shamans are still kinda the same as they used to be in Cataclysm if you ask me. Elemental tho is really fun and powerful to play with atm, so in my opinion, I would go for Elemental!

I appreciate me being your first post! The only problem with this is I have to go regear now ;D

[Raiju]

Enhancement is no less fun to play than in cata. It's not wrath style but it isn't far off.

DPS wise we were great this patch but in 5.4 we're dropping down to our usual spot at low end of the meters. If you aren't playing too hardcore this shouldn't be a problem though (I still intend to top dps in my guild). If you're in a fast progging heroic guild you will probably be holding people back by being enhance over elemental.

I enjoy enhancement, I've played both and just never got into ele. I don't enjoy enhancement as much as I did in wrath but I still find it very fun to play overall, largely because it's the spec I feel I know in and out and can do almost anything I want with. If you have expertise in a spec it naturally makes you a lot more useful to a group be it a dungeon/raid/whatever.

[Yagyu4k]

Enhancement Pro:

-25 Raid
-Arena 3v3,5v5
-RBG with a specific setup

Elemental Pro:

-10 Raid (25 too if you're geared well)
-5 Men dungeons
-RBG
-Arena


Both specs are funny, but I think the enhancement will drop very hard on the next patch. Enahancement have some very strong Patches, but 95% of the game is anti-enhance. The spec can be strong but you will see that you will get nerfs everytime. All classes get overtuned buffs, you get a nerf or nothing.

But enhance will be op on pvp 5.4 cuz of the new pvpset-boni

[kubuntu]

Enhancement is great atm(5.3) but in 5.4 get some nerfs (15% SS , 10% FET nerf and MSW glyph nerf for HR with was jsut too OP ) but alsow get AoE buff by FN 84% Buff and new 4p bonus that stack well on AoE

Overal Enh will be good in 5.4 for raiding but CD reduction Trinket wil be like must have item, i personal doubt that Enh will be on the botom of meters , on AoE fight its probably will be but on Single target DPS enh will styl be very strong, probably under rogue who get insane buffs but in my opinion better then other melee

For me Enh is more entertaining then Ele but its my opinion( just dont like play casters)

As for PvP most powerful stuff on Enh ( in my opinion) his off healing is untoutched so styl will be good , burst is lower but survi is the same

[Yagyu4k]

my mind!! thats it

[iggie]

Enhancement is great atm(5.3) but in 5.4 get some nerfs (15% SS , 10% FET nerf and MSW glyph nerf for HR with was jsut too OP ) but alsow get AoE buff by FN 84% Buff and new 4p bonus that stack well on AoE

Overal Enh will be good in 5.4 for raiding but CD reduction Trinket wil be like must have item, i personal doubt that Enh will be on the botom of meters , on AoE fight its probably will be but on Single target DPS enh will styl be very strong, probably under rogue who get insane buffs but in my opinion better then other melee

For me Enh is more entertaining then Ele but its my opinion( just dont like play casters)

As for PvP most powerful stuff on Enh ( in my opinion) his off healing is untoutched so styl will be good , burst is lower but survi is the same

Nah, we'll be well behind rogues as well on single target. In 5.4 we will be middle to lower on meters, with a steady middle showing once 4pc and cd reduction trinket is obtained.

[miffy23]

What patch are you guys playing? I'm constantly topping meters at 54x ilvl...
In any case, Enh and Ele are pretty close to each other in their respective places. It helps to have both geared and ready, both have their strong suits.

The nerfs for enh are required for single target, it's too op atm, my raiders can't even hope to compete with me currently it's depressing them. Granted they're not the best in the world nor are we a cutting edge guild, but they're not incapable either and i'm not a god on the keyboard. I'm happy with getting a light AOE buff instead, that's really our weak spot atm.

Enh will certainly not be bottom of the barrel in 5.4, and once again it will come down to the player more than anything.

[Raiju]

What patch are you guys playing? I'm constantly topping meters at 54x ilvl...
In any case, Enh and Ele are pretty close to each other in their respective places. It helps to have both geared and ready, both have their strong suits.

The nerfs for enh are required for single target, it's too op atm, my raiders can't even hope to compete with me currently it's depressing them. Granted they're not the best in the world nor are we a cutting edge guild, but they're not incapable either and i'm not a god on the keyboard. I'm happy with getting a light AOE buff instead, that's really our weak spot atm.

Enh will certainly not be bottom of the barrel in 5.4, and once again it will come down to the player more than anything.

1. rogues mages warlocks are slightly above enha this patch, if yours are below you they're worse geared or worse players. our overall dps is not OP in anyway, our burst is a bit ridiculous and our stacked healing was far too powerful.
2. enha will be reverting back to 5.2 position, basically. It's not unviable to top dps in a non cutting edge guild but if you have good players of the above classes you will never hope to keep up with them next patch.

[Alaira]

I suggest playing the spec you enjoy most, unless you're in a heroic progression guild.
In regards to meter position, no one knows for sure where any class/spec will end up; 5.4 is still on the PTR for a week, and all numbers are subject to change. You can look at Warlocks for the change to their Chaos Bolt damage a few days ago.

Enhance has been very burst-heavy in 5.3. Sustained damage was low, but the ridiculous burst was able to make up for it. In 5.4, the burst is being toned down. Blizzard is making other adjustments to compensate a bit, and other classes are also getting adjustments. People can guess, but no one knows how far down Enhance will fall - if at all.

Also: Class balance in MoP is very close. The difference between the top and the bottom of the meter, on average, is between 20 and 40k DPS. That's roughly a 20% delta. Enhance, in particular, was in the top-5 on average through 5.3.

[miffy23]

I suggest playing the spec you enjoy most, unless you're in a heroic progression guild.
In regards to meter position, no one knows for sure where any class/spec will end up; 5.4 is still on the PTR for a week, and all numbers are subject to change. You can look at Warlocks for the change to their Chaos Bolt damage a few days ago.

Enhance has been very burst-heavy in 5.3. Sustained damage was low, but the ridiculous burst was able to make up for it. In 5.4, the burst is being toned down. Blizzard is making other adjustments to compensate a bit, and other classes are also getting adjustments. People can guess, but no one knows how far down Enhance will fall - if at all.

Also: Class balance in MoP is very close. The difference between the top and the bottom of the meter, on average, is between 20 and 40k DPS. That's roughly a 20% delta. Enhance, in particular, was in the top-5 on average through 5.3.

This, been saying it all over the place. The spread has been very small, so small as to make it really irrelevant except for freshly spurting blood bleeding edge guilds. People are still stuck in the old mindsets of "i have to reroll to this class for this tier/patch". That's largely not the case anymore.

[Yagyu4k]

Enhancement never was bad, but the spec will be never a on the top dd

[Raiju]

This, been saying it all over the place. The spread has been very small, so small as to make it really irrelevant except for freshly spurting blood bleeding edge guilds. People are still stuck in the old mindsets of "i have to reroll to this class for this tier/patch". That's largely not the case anymore.

The difference is just as large as it was in wrath. Nothing has changed in that regard.

[kubuntu]

But the diffrent is not so big to say that some spec or class is death or just for casual play , most insane DPS records, are made when all raid do everything for one player like "I will solo AoE adds" or multi dot somethig that dont have to die to top meters or tunel boss who have x% increased damage but there are more important stuffs to kill (like Horridon, Tortos , Magera,Ji Kun,Durumu, Primodius, DA, IQ,Twins. Top ranks on thous fight are jsut made by that ways doing something alone or all raid is helping you to be ToP or doting stuff that dont have to die)

[Yagyu4k]

I remember, vanilla+tbc our support was so much great and now we're just a hybrid spec without any support. Our dps is okay but the spec isnt strong (just in cds)

[kubuntu]

I remember, vanilla+tbc our support was so much great and now we're just a hybrid spec without any support. Our dps is okay but the spec isnt strong (just in cds)

AoE healing is OP but its get nerfe, on some fight Enh can do more HPS the healers so its quite ridiculus

[Dblbaconator]

I can see how some might consider enhance to be boring, what with a few long CD abilities making up the majority of our button presses, the only major changeup being using Maelstrom stacks on a lightning bolt or blowing a DPS cooldown as it comes up. However, it's definitely an improvement over Cata when we didn't have any cooldowns besides wolves and lust (lust being more raid utility than personal cooldown).

I've been playing since Wrath, and I can honestly say I have more fun with enhance now than I did back in the day when you had to flail all over your keyboard just to bring mediocre DPS; it was to my knowledge impossible to get anywhere near the top of the meters even if you were doing everything right back then (if you can prove otherwise, by all means show me, I'd love to see). I find it way more fun than ele, which to me is mostly lightning bolt spam with lava bursts on proc. I'll add a caveat that I haven't played ele since the last week or so of Cata while I was trying to get one of the shaman helms out of the Theramore scenario; as far as I'm aware, it hasn't changed much beyond then. I could be wrong!

I also might be biased to melee classes, I generally find them more fun. And this is coming from someone who's played two specs of mage, boomkin, shadow priest, and ele shaman (the latter briefly) at 80+. Mostly the reason I've leveled a bunch of ranged is to try and find one that I really enjoy; out of them all, boomkin is the best to me, but not by terribly much. Might enjoy locks; I'd like to level one soon.

Honestly, pick up a set of greens from the vendor in the Dread Wastes on top of the wall for both specs and try them for yourself. If you don't intend on playing resto, you can just dual spec enh/ele and be covered for both, even. Don't worry about who's topping meters; we're shaman, we don't do that. Just find whichever plays better to you and roll with it. I recommend enh because it's more fun to me, but that's just my stance!

[miffy23]

I've started playing pretty much all classes during the long year of DS, and I gotta say I love Enhancement even more now (been playing it since TBC), it's just a way more engaging spec to me personally. I actually loved the complexity of it in TBC and Wrath, but it was indeed frustrating to get such low results for all that effort.

I wonder what game people were playing that claim the spread is the same as back in Wrath or whatever. I distinctly remember not having a chance in hell against, say Arcane mage, rogues, dks. There was such a huge discrepancy it wasn't even funny even more. Same goes for Elemental, pretty much. People still brought shamans for the utility back then, certainly not for the DPS. Nowadays you can carry the DPS as a shaman, which wasn't possible back in the day.

And before you start saying that theoretically, class X should be higher than you in same gear and on encounter X, your raiders suck - you're constantly assuming that all members of a raid team are equally capable and geared. That does not apply to the majority, so it's not what I base my assumptions on. I don't glue my eyes to the Simcraft rankings as raidleader either, when I'm picking my members. I judge the players and the team mix.

[Yagyu4k]

progress is everything atm, nobody cares fun or casual.

wow isnt a funny game, no raiding is a afterjob-job