1-40 > Ele or Enh?

[fr0hzn]

Hai guise

After I sold my shammy (miss her :'( ) I decided to level another one (lols, yeah ... call me retarded).
Since I leveld my shammy from 1-40 as enhancer and remember that it was quite painful, I decided to ask you guys ...

Should I level as Enhancer with some 2-handed Mace / Axe or as Ele?

[TheTieThatBinds]

TBH, i would lvl as resto until about 29, then switch Elemental.

[Bainz]

Elemental til 30 and then grab Windfury and a massive axe and go one shot shit in STV.

[Nighthawk]

I went from 1 - 70 as Enhance without ever regretting a moment of it (hit 60 two days prior to TBC so wasnt much of a gap)

Comes down to preference really for the lower levels, but once you get duel wielding and windfury its enhancement all the way.

[TheTieThatBinds]

I went from 1 - 70 as Enhance without ever regretting a moment of it (hit 60 two days prior to TBC so wasnt much of a gap)

Comes down to preference really for the lower levels, but once you get duel wielding and windfury its enhancement all the way.

Indeed, its preference.

Do you want to be up in the mobs face and hit'em with WF, or do you want to kill the mob at a distance before they even have a chance to touch you.

[zera]

Def go enh.

Back when I lvled my shaman in vanilla (first char aswell) I did it as ele and tbh I think I could have done it a lot faster as enh seeing as u get no sp gear from quests and the amount of instances u can do is pretty smashed after the new expansion and all.

[Sasunestra]

I leveld a shaman with Ele-spec just a couple of weeks ago to level 30, then switched to Enhancement.

Leveling as Ele wasnt much fun because of heavy Mana-problems, i recommend to level as Enhancement from the beginning on.

[Font]

the first 20 some odd levels it's all the same anyway, shock spells and autoattacks...spec really means nothing. there's nothing great in any of the trees that says ZOMG THIS IS SO MUCH EASIER in the early going.

as ele, your lightning bolts dont get beefy til ya get talents set and that's around the time ya get watershield.

peeps that played as ele and said they had mana problems are peeps that, sorry to say, are obviously playing it wrong and dont know what they're doing. so for those peeps i would definitely suggest enh. i leveled as ele and had absolutely zero mana issues the whole time. never ever ever ever did i have to stop to drink...not once. watershield is your friend, dont waste mana on totems unless you know you arent moving for a bit or you need as much buffs as ya can to take out an elite or whatever. also, you'll want the hit talent asap as that allows ya to kill stuff higher level than you without wasting mana on missed spells.

i've made the mistake of pulling too many mobs once, died, ankhed, popped watershield, gave myself a heal and kept on going, before ya know it, full mana and kicking ass again.

ele offers the most burst of any class in the game, it's absolutely brutal the amount of damage ya do in one or two cooldowns. if that doesnt spell fast leveling i dunno what does. and it only gets nastier with every level. procs for double lightning bolts and double chain lightnings...it's ridiculous. there's many tactics you can use to take out elites, stand there and let your fire totem kill em while ya mass heal yourself, frost shock and kite em around with a fire totem and lightning bolts, and some ya just sit there and own their face killing them before they kill you. i solo'ed every elite i ran into while leveling well except Durn in Nagrand(earth elemental "rocks" amirite).

also in reference to what zera said about no leather/mail gear with spellpower. lots of cloth out there and the 6% damage reduction you'd want from the tree makes up for that. that said, you'll want the shoulders and weapon, hell the chest now if ya want from the heirloom items, even a trinket...or double up on trinkets as they're not unique and do stack...whatever...but the spellpower from the shoulders and weapon are more than enough spellpower to get ya to Outlands when ya can start getting proper gear when ya actually might need it.

none of what i'm saying means you should go ele. like has been said, it really comes down to playstyle. with all the changes that WotLK brought to the ele tree, it's now a viable option and that's the beauty. there was a time when enh was the only way to level. that time is long gone and dead and buried. the biggest reason i went ele is because i knew i wanted to heal with my shammy come lvl 80 and i hate collecting multiple sets of gear as i level. but i knew i could use ele gear as heal gear come lvl 80.

either way, have fun with a shammy again! =]

[Aurile]

Enh 10-60, ele 60-80

[Biernot]

i leveled my shaman completely as ele a short while after wotlk hit. But i just like casting more than hitting, so it was personal preference.

As for a comparison between ele and enh:
(Assuming BoA items: Shoulders and/or Chest, weapon, trinkets. Rest of the gear appropriat greens or blues)
Both start slow. Elemental has a steady curve, where Enhancement has at least 2 major break points (windfury weapon, dual wield).
1-40: ele = enh
40-60: ele < enh
60+: ele = enh

between 40 and 60 enh is superior because of windfury + dual wield. But after lvl 60 ele catches up due to good itemization in outland. (better than lvl 1-57).

All in all enh might be the faster leveling spec, but it really is personal taste. If you have to heal (without dual spec), ele is a bit better and you don't have to clutter your bags with a complete healing set.

If you plan to level as ele, here some tips:
- get 2x heirloom spell trinket (the mana proc doesn't look like much, but it stacks (for a total of 4%) and reduces downtime by a great margin)
- it might be worth, to enchant the heirloom spell mace with Fiery for the first 20 levels, because you will melee a lot (LB - FlameS - melee, or even wthout LB) to conserve mana. (but only if you didn't alredy put +30 spell on it)
- your first priority on gear until outland should be INT


EDIT:
@Font (2 posts above): signed.

[fr0hzn]

Thanks for that post Font
The problem is that I currently have no lvl80 to get some heirloom stuff that sucks most.

Ele isn't just my style, I like the melee style of a shaman much ... MUCH more.
But I will give Ele a try, sounds cool ^.^

[Eyetotem]

Do you have an 80 on the same server & Faction??? If so, I would say go Enhancement. The new Venerable Mass of McGowan is a leveling Enhancement Shaman's wet dream. IMO I would use it with a shield until I hit DW then buy a 2nd one and DW them to 80. I would have a hard time going and buying a big Axe unless I knew I was going to be leveling a Pally or warrior

[Amphrodos]

well, heres the most bestest way to do it

1-10, go enh. no water shield = oom crazy, more damage from getting hit(LS)

10-20, go enh, still no watershield, added crit + insta GW + Intel = less mana downtime, faster movement between mobs, more damage.

20-30, go enh, 45% off shocks, even though u got watershield it still requires getting hit to use, thus more heals :P in ele. also, more power from flametongue weapon, and added haste. Can use LS in enh for more damage=faster downin of mobs. All ele got is +100% on crits, but ur crit is still shit cause u have no crit rating. A ability that procs on crits(same prob) lowers mana cost.

30-40, go enh, WF ftw with 2 hand, added ap, parry ability for damage mitigation, plus additional damage on weapon hits., enh got crit(finally) and some added speed of casting, with some more mp5, thank god, but enh still does equal or better damage and has less down time.

40-50, go enh, Dual Whield FTW. Ele finally got some serious damage increasing abilities, u still pay mana out the ass, downtime. enh got imp SS, never run out of mana in a general rotation again.

50-60, go enh, Mental quickness + maelstrom means more damage, stronger heals, no more cast time on heals ever. also gives an oom proof talent. Ele got another totem to drop(more mana) and more damage to LBs, but u still got downtime.

60-70, go enh, wolves ftw and make soloing group quests up to 3 man ezy. can still ftw in no downtime ever and can take groups of mobs at a time, up to a dozen with wolves on the ground. ele has downtime still, equal damage though, but cant solo big quests.

70-75, enh still, cant beat the doggies.

75-80, OMFG ELE CRIT BIG, go ele. you also finally have enough money for DW, yay, dual with enh. Wolves can still solo group quests.

There u go, the semi-perfect guide. I dont care if u agree with me, but thats the way the world works. Btw, ele makes up for its previous imperfection in questing and leveling by PVP conquest. Enh lacks pvp, so it balances. Have a great day

[Takkun]

lvled my shammie up to 65? yea... lvled enhance all the way.

[coldethyl]

i have leveled my shammy alt from level 1 as ele,it was easy. no mana problems what so ever.

Of course i should mention that I burned a ton of badges to get the 2 heirloom spell power trinkets,the spell power mace(enchanted at level 1 with a scroll of +30 spell power) and the +10%xp shoulders
(those spell power trinkets give 2% max mana per kill each ,so each kill gets you 4% mana,it was a cake walk really)

the worst part of playing this character was running from the starter area up to the closest mailbox through the gauntlet of bloodthirsty level 5 scorpions.but 4 heirloom items and 4 20 slot frostweave bags were worth it)

[Uggrukor]

Like the posters above said, definitely get both items that grant boosted experience. When I leveled my Shaman, I leveled enhance because it was easy. In my opinion, being able to melee mobs effectively is the best way to level because you can instantly look something after you kill it. Plus when you get higher into the levels you will have Maelstrom Weapon and you will be able to pull multiple mobs, heal yourself then instantly restore all your mana.

Another thing I like to mention. Make sure you always collect Cloth/Leather/Mail that has Int on it so you can heal any instances you would like to do as you level. (leveling is only fun if you can instance!).

[Amphrodos]

well.....i guess its possible to heal instances as enh, though i woudn't recommend it. enh, wether u want to believe it or not, is very good at tanking lots of mobs at once(need to be 51 at least, by 60 it nearly peaks). We once used to be tanks, a long time ago, and still have some of the relic abilities to do it(S Rage, Dogs, Elementals, Mail/shield, self heals). However, we do not have the avoidance or aoe agro anymore that most raids need for a tank, not that some cant overcome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvDLBom4bY0

As such, in enh i have been able to take on larger groups of mobs than in any other spec, or even class. Iv so far maxed out at 16 mobs in icecrown, droping wolves, 3 rounds of magma totem, S Rage, Earth elemental, self heals from maelstrom and spaming of chain lightning. Still had 5 left when wolves went, but was able to finish it. So far the max elite iv soloed was 120k, plus two adds(had to kill one), and that was on a 3 man quest(the ending of the questline for oracles/furguys), though im sure now i could go much higher, considering i was 78 at the time.

in other words, you have the ability to do things in enh that you can not do with nearly any other class/spec, especially ele, damage differences between the two is negligible, but this is what makes enh much nicer. ele is nicer for pvp, burst is good, now kiting ability is much better(earthnova ftw), and with lots of resilience stacked survival is much better.