Shock confusion as enhance

[Deleted]

I've seen several guides that are saying that you should use flame shock instead of earth shock whenever you have unleash flame up.
To me it seems like this would be a dps loss, because the shocks do roughly the same damage when you flame shock with unleash flame up but on the other hand, earth shock benefits from the 25% increased critical strike chance from stormstrike.
So wouldn't it be better to just keep refreshing flame shock with UF when it's about to fall off and use earth shock otherwise?

[Zixan]

I've seen several guides that are saying that you should use flame shock instead of earth shock whenever you have unleash flame up.
To me it seems like this would be a dps loss, because the shocks do roughly the same damage when you flame shock with unleash flame up but on the other hand, earth shock benefits from the 25% increased critical strike chance from stormstrike.
So wouldn't it be better to just keep refreshing flame shock with UF when it's about to fall off and use earth shock otherwise?

Well First off, Flame shock does a TON more damage than Earth Shock, with the DoT. True, the initial damage is minimal, but it is 10x more in the long run.

The deal with Unleash Elements and Flame Shock, is that Flame Shock should be re-upped every 30 seconds, and UE has a 15 second CD. Its a dps increase to have every Flame Shock buffed with a UE. This means every OTHER UE will be rolled into a Flame Shock.

So here's how it'll go.

UE
FS
--rotation for 15 seconds--
UE
--rotation for 15 seconds--
UE
FS
--repeat.

You're pretty much right in your last statement. If FS>5 seconds remaining, recast it, and try to sneak a Unleash Elements before it. If its got more than that, and nothing else to cast, use Earth Shock.

More simply put, Only use Earth Shock if you have nothing else to do. Literally.

[Thumbtacks]

It feels weird using UE and then not spending it on anything.

[Buddahpal]

You can use it sometimes for fire nova if in AOE since it does buff that also

[Thumbtacks]

Is there any harm in refreshing it early? Or should I really just not bother?

[Refridge]

The harm is that you wont be using your shock CD on an earthshock. Enhance is made up of lots of little things doing little bits of dmg, but it all adds up. In between empowered flameshocks, earth shock. It's worth, anywhere from 2.5-4 percent of our damage.
DON'T SKIP YOUR EARTHSHOCKS YOUNGIN.

[cptaylor38]

The harm is that you wont be using your shock CD on an earthshock. Enhance is made up of lots of little things doing little bits of dmg, but it all adds up. In between empowered flameshocks, earth shock. It's worth, anywhere from 2.5-4 percent of our damage.
DON'T SKIP YOUR EARTHSHOCKS YOUNGIN.

It really is. Too many little things in my opinion. It's by far not a complicated rotation or as bad as some other classes, but I miss how they used to be. Especially with the ability to swap out to a two handed and not needing to worry about not having a functioning play style or drastically suffering from a dps decrease.

I guess the fact that it's simplistic makes it enjoyable, but it's almost so simplistic that it's not fun. Kind of on the border.

[Thumbtacks]

I play an assassination rogue most of the time, so a simplistic rotation is what I'm used to.

But okay, I see your point.

[Embermoon]

It really is. Too many little things in my opinion. It's by far not a complicated rotation or as bad as some other classes, but I miss how they used to be. Especially with the ability to swap out to a two handed and not needing to worry about not having a functioning play style or drastically suffering from a dps decrease.

I guess the fact that it's simplistic makes it enjoyable, but it's almost so simplistic that it's not fun. Kind of on the border.

Of all the toons I play, enhancement's rotation seems to be the most complex. I've heard of the insanity that is fire mages having to deal with combustion + alter time, but what other dps specs do you think are more complex than enhancement?

[Felocity]

Because if you don't use FS when the debuff is still at 18 seconds, then your priority may cause you not to be able to cast a buffed FS again until after the original debuff falls off, causing you to lose at least one tic of the DoT, which is more damage than the 1k you got from casting ES.

It's not guaranteed that the DoT will fall off in that time, but there is a risk. If you think you can judge whether or not you'll be able to use FS again before the DoT falls off, then by all means go for it, many enhancement shaman use that method. I only have the less efficient method listed in the guide because it's not a huge DPS difference either way and it can be confusing to a new enhancement shaman if they have to make snap judgments about their FS casts.

Quoted from Chillbros.

Pretty much explains it.

[Aleksej89]

UE's fire buff can be used on Fire Nova - it buffs the damage of ALL Fire Nova rings that erupt, which can be huge.

On single target... yea, nothing u can use the UE for if the Flame Shock is already buffed and not expiring soon.