Enhancement Shaman

[ralusek]

Inb4 "i die too fast."

This is a question directed at FULLY PVP GEARED enhancement shamans or people who have played with them. It's extremely rare to come by, as gearing enhancement has never been a safe bet. TBC only showed us enhancement shamans in full sets near the end, and were almost always resto shamans who decided to give it a shot using surplus points.

With that in mind, I don't want to make the commitment to enhancement over resto at this point either...as it's always been a huge gamble in finding a teammate who's willing to put up with your very gear-dependent spec when your gear is terrible.

However, from what i've been noticing, enhancement has taken huge advances in the field of PvP (from a purely "patch-note perspective").

New Shamanistic Rage on a shorter cooldown (huge bonus in PvP)
Virtually unkitable with frostbrand/frozen power/ghost wolf/earthbind changes. Feral Spirit great in this regard
earthbind serves huge aoe BoF and currently avoids totem stomp macros
significant boost to self-survivability through maelstrom healing and feral spirit

maelstrom hex.
hex in general...
feral spirit stun.

these are the main talents of interest, and on paper look like they could overcome the humps i'd faced in the past with the spec. however, i haven't seen them in the limelight, and i haven't really heard too many stories of success or failure. there is bound to be a lot of skepticism from people who took the weekend to BG as enhancement...but we all know that is a terribly inaccurate report.

if i could hear any experiences of someone who has arenaed enhancement recently, it would be great to hear where their shortcomings currently lie

[fatalaeon]

i have been pvping as enhance for quite a while now. i really like it though i have not done arenas since 3.2 as my partner left the server. my partner was a tree. wich basically made me unkillable except to two retardadins or dks. if u see a dk or a rogue just drop cleanse totem = win. the biggest problem with enhance imo would have to be that one of our highest dps abilities (WF weapon) is now frostbrand. in bgs i just stick with wf since its usually big groups but in arenas i do like frostbrand but druids being able to kite us easy(pre 3.2) sucked

[IhatePvE]

As enh (geared to 868 resil, over 3k apand 28-30% crit) i can say:
1)MW+hex = gr8 tool but still cant help us count as "class with good cc" coz CD and dispel
2)frozen power+frostband are gr8 things ef you can keep eye on ALL enemys in LOS other way its useless
3)GW buff arent buff enh coz we already was "immune" to slow (earthen power)
4)earthen power arent so good as it can be coz, for example, frost mages can "shoot-n-run" us easy; and it cant be up all the time - you need swap totems rly often + dont forget about 12 (?) yd range.
5)sham rage change is great
6)feral spirit was and is great thing with 3 min CD

Overall - we cant play 5-5 well coz 3 dps need 1-2 gcd each sec to nuke enh down (i mean 3dps vs enh coz both healers got CC'ed). Enh was and is good support, but it cant be count as "roaming machine" who will lead you to win. It can just make urs way much more comfortable if he play well.


P.S. on my realm there are only 2 (TWO) enh shamy who are pvping, and im one of em :P 1st guy are 2k+ rated, me sitting at 1700 coz its extremely hard to find good team as enh.

[Ahkrael]

Enh shamans have been, and are fine. We have the tools, you just have to use them.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...orhal&n=Azrhok

This patch was definitely a good change, though the changes to the queuing system have lead my 3's to become inactive, and 2's are awful now, so my ratings are from pre-patch. 2's are just for fun now, enh rogue is a very fun comp to run.

[rany]

P.S. on my realm there are only 2 (TWO) enh shamy who are pvping, and im one of em :P 1st guy are 2k+ rated, me sitting at 1700 coz its extremely hard to find good team as enh.

theres a reason why you are sitting at 1700. not enough skill. most healers cant get rid of hex btw its a curse.

i played rogue ehn with a shaman in naxx gear who never pvped before and got 1800..... and thats before the patch.

just stop being bad and learn your class, if youve ever fought a good ehn shaman in arena you would know that ur class/spec is fine. for ehn 5v5 is probably the most easy bracket to play in. (in case you dont know its the healers that mainly affect 5v5 outcomes)

[quito]

Noob question here

You guyes go whith Lighting shield or mana shield?
Im out of mana so quick.....
Fire nova build is better? Or toughess one is the best?

[Royal Sapien]

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=112775

[IhatePvE]

theres a reason why you are sitting at 1700. not enough skill. most healers cant get rid of hex btw its a curse.

i played rogue ehn with a shaman in naxx gear who never pvped before and got 1800..... and thats before the patch.

just stop being bad and learn your class, if youve ever fought a good ehn shaman in arena you would know that ur class/spec is fine. for ehn 5v5 is probably the most easy bracket to play in. (in case you dont know its the healers that mainly affect 5v5 outcomes)

Have you read what did i post?.. No1 want to waste ther time with enh shamy when its much easyer to get high rating with warr-rog-mage-lock instead.

P.S. before blame some1 try to think a little..it will help...maybe...and BTW did i say "enh sux!".. yes? oh rly? and where?... i said "enh hard" but not "enh sux"..

P.P.S. go on, play as enh 5-5 and eat dk-war-rog / rog-ret-war burst...i will see how "easy" it will be...shamys was and are 1st in "target priority" list of any 5-5 team with 3 dps. As i have said - both healers got cc and you die in 3-5 sec even with all CD's up. Donno maybe resil change did smth with it but it will not be big deal imho.

[IhatePvE]

Noob question here

You guyes go whith Lighting shield or mana shield?
Im out of mana so quick.....
Fire nova build is better? Or toughess one is the best?

enh OOM? lol?... what heve you done with shamy rage?..

fire nova need careful use and then it can be good thing in 5-5, but in 3-3 and 2-2 its hard to hit with it coz there are much more running then in 5-5 in general.

[ralusek]

and i don't know how i forgot to mention the windshear change...finally an interrupt off the GCD AND shock cd. truly one of the greatest changes yet imo. earth shock buff is just gravy on top of it

[Rifee]

Regarding imp. fire nova totem:

The talent is really good in the hands of a seasoned shaman player, who's above average in skill.
In the hands of a bad or "OK-ish" player it's really just a waste or rng luck.

Myself as elemental shaman used to put doen fire nova every cd, which sometimes work, but I find using it more responsibly is the way to go. That's why I have yet to loose a single duel against a rogue after the patch. Both combat and assa.

As a caster it can be a good way to either prevent the incoming warrior from charging you, or getting him in a stun if he does charge (this requires some knowledge about the timer ofc)

With the new ghostwolf it's gold for escaping if you time the stun so that it hits the minute you press ghostwolf...the enemy will be so confused they sometime fuck up and do the wrong thing.

So in skilled hands or above average, at least for caster (I rearly go oom as ele mind you), take it.
As enhancement in duels you take it. in 2v2 it depends on setup, but it can be a nice thing if a rogue is in your face: Stun+hex or heal or ghostwolf or even lavaburst:P

[Shimata]

The thing with enh shamans is their limited survivability. Sure they have grounding totem, sham rage, shields, mealstrom heals and stoneclaw.

But when these are on cd/N.A. they are pretty much fucked. Sit on him for a while and he's gone. Just like with a rogue, when cd's are over they are om nom nom for any dps.
Pull off a nice switch and they are gone.


The situation is way better then in TBC though. Was in the highest enh shaman team on my battlegroup (reckoning) in s2/s3 and start of S4. Ran as enh/war/rdruid. Any team with a rogue (which was almost every team) shat all over us most of the time. After sham rage, it was over. Was basically a wf/bl whore for the warrior who could steamroll to victory with druid healing him. While I was dead/tanking.


But yea, the tools are there now in wrath. Just gotta use em properly. Might be harder then pressing bladestorm and win the game, but if you win you get the satisfaction that you won with an underrepresented spec.

[monkeysnarf]

As enhance we're solid in pvp. At least we're competitive now. We have the tools, we just need to know how to use them. The main thing for 2v2 is to get a healer that understands that he's running with an enhance and not every other melee dps. We play different than every other melee dps. (or for 2s you can run double dps)

For 3s we are solid. Enhance is not a dps spec in 3s. We're a support class that can do almost as much damage as any other melee dps. With an enhance on the team, a 3s team can switch quickly, split dps and focus fire depending on who we're fighting. Generally an enhance on a 3s team is going to want to attack a Ret, DK, or Rogue (if he's attacking you), or the healer. Purge and interrupts are game winners. Every target we attack, and espeically rets, should be purged until there is nothing left. (If they have a druid healer, understand that purge will proc lifebloom, so keep an eye on his buffs.) Warriors should be CC'd as much as possible, hex, cyclone, roots, snares, etc. In 3s, as an enhance, you pretty much want to ignore hunters and mages. It's a waste of time trying to catch them when you could be putting pressure on someone you can actually hit. Let your healer heal through it, or try and CC them.

Overall we're solid. We're not faceroll, but at least we're in the game. TBC was horrible for us.