Enhancement vs Elemental

[Balance]

I recently rerolled shaman for my guild, and my shaman just reached level 80.

My guild leader (and myself) would like to know at lower, average, and higher level tiers of gear is enhance or elemental higher dps?

When you answer please take into account that I am an orc shaman (via Faction change) and I have no problem following a rotation or priority list.

Any spreadsheets or other threads you could link me to would be amazing.

[Kalaan]

I believe that enhance is higher DPS, but not by much. Go with whatever spec suits you best.

[Keltai/Spiritwolf]

From what I've seen elementals pull high amounts of dps but ench (if played right) can dish out some numbers as well. I personally like ench better then ele (Mostly because I despise casters.) I dont know the ele rotation but I can tell you the ench one I use.

I usually do Stormstrike > Lava Lash > Earth Shock > Lightning Bolt at 4-5 maelstorm wep procs. And keep up magma totem at ALL times.


Dont know squat bout ele one though :P

[Azyoulike]

As orc your racials are a bigger plus to enhance, but a lot depends on your raid comp really - the biggest difference will be due to the supplied buffs.

The intrinsic dps differences between the two specs is no longer that substantial.

[Balance]

Does either spec require more skill or have a higher cap as far as skill is involved?

Is either spec harder to gear?

[myeviltwin]

I usually do Stormstrike > Lava Lash > Earth Shock > Lightning Bolt at 4-5 maelstorm wep procs. And keep up magma totem at ALL times.

no wonder you think Ele is more dps....

read the Enhancement faq here on mmo-champ and the thread on EJ, understand it, love it, profit!

You should also take into account what your usual raidgroup looks like. Since you say you had to reroll a shaman for guild purpose it sounds like youre in a 10man raiding guild. Do you have a majority of casters or physical dps? Since when played right the dps difference isn't to big pick the spec that would benefit the rest of the raid the most.
Also check what buffs you've already got in the raid? A frost DK can bring most of the buffs a Enhance can, a demolocks SP buff get better than our totem when their gear is good enough etc.

[ilialilov]

Gearing up ele shaman is quite shitty. Overall ench is more dps at every lvl of gear but not by far. Ele is piss easy to play... so easy that i might say quite boring. Both bring nice buffs to the raid so its basicly your choice. With toc around it is a bit easyer to gear a shammy ... it was hell in ulduar days. And if you clear heroic versions of 10 and 25 man (atleast till faction champions) you will gear quite easy (still you need to craft bracer or go hodir 25 HM )

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...eppes&n=Ontamu

[Munch]

Both are fairly close, depends on the boss fight.

Enhance requires alot more attention as u got maelstron procs and this and that, its just alot more effort watching all those cooldowns, dont know the specifics as im elemental.

but as elemental its simply Keep flame shock up, Use CL and Lava burst when its off cooldown, and fill in the gaps with lightning bolt spam.

as for stats Hit Cap(17% / 14% with talents / 11% with talents and boomkin/spriest) > SP > Haste > Crit

aim for 11% as you should have a boomking or sp in 25 mans

Ppl saying this is better dps than that is BS, its all dependant on fights im beating our way better geared enhance shaman on most fights in toc just cause he has to run around (ie beasts, switching worms, icehowl knockback etc)

Ele is pretty crap to gear though, unless ur guild allows u to go for cloth along with the casters, most of the mail offset crap has mp5 which is useless, Ive got tons of mp5 on my gear :/

[Fbl]

i have more dmg as elemental. not because ele has more dmg than enh but because it's simpler and easier to use
rotations is : keep flame shock up all the time, use lava burst when ever off cd, use lightning bolts and or chain lightning as filler

one of advantages as ele is that you can swap to resto easier if needed...
ele shaman is really nice in 25 men raids... he has some really nice raid buffs and ppl always like to have atleast one... however enh shaman has nice buffs too... adapt to your guild's rooster

[ilialilov]

If the guild allows you to go for cloth?!? ... How can a reasonable guild doesn't allow you? The only thing made for ele shamans is the boots from fraction champions 25. There is no mail belt without mana per 5, there is no mail bracer without mana per 5 (expect the one from naxx 25 instructor and hodir 25 HM, though the craftable is BIS and cloth) If you go with t9.25 ele pieces you will be with hit over the roof you need to switch either gloves with cloth from anub 25 or leather pants from there too (or the craftable cloth chest)

[kilssii]

ele dmg depends on having a demonology lock.
without 1, good enha should over dps you.
of course it depends on fight.

[Munch]

If the guild allows you to go for cloth?!? ... How can a reasonable guild doesn't allow you? The only thing made for ele shamans is the boots from fraction champions 25. There is no mail belt without mana per 5, there is no mail bracer without mana per 5 (expect the one from naxx 25 instructor and hodir 25 HM, though the craftable is BIS and cloth) If you go with t9.25 ele pieces you will be with hit over the roof you need to switch either gloves with cloth from anub 25 or leather pants from there too (or the craftable cloth chest)

I've had this argument with my group multiple times, they all like clothies can only wear cloth u can wear leather mail and cloth, im like errr it doesnt make a difference if the mail and leather isnt itemized for me ffs... the end :/

[MGA]

Enhancement is the best.

In my guild I was always pulling top DPS from Naxx through current content (except on AoE fights). Granted no one else in my guild min/maxes and puts so much time into their character like I do which is probably why I'm able to top charts. If I joined one of the top guilds on my server I'm sure my DPS spot would drop a few places.

But yeah, Enhancement is the shit.

You better be fucking good if you go Enh though, I hate bad Enh shamans.

[Munch]

Enhancement is the best.

In my guild I was always pulling top DPS from Naxx through current content (except on AoE fights). Granted no one else in my guild min/maxes and puts so much time into their character like I do which is probably why I'm able to top charts. If I joined one of the top guilds on my server I'm sure my DPS spot would drop a few places.

But yeah, Enhancement is the shit.

You better be fucking good if you go Enh though, I hate bad Enh shamans.

enh takes so much more effort for such a little amount of dmg :P but yea i went ele cause we already got an enh and i pref being range and slacking all those procs O_o

[MGA]

enh takes so much more effort for such a little amount of dmg :P but yea i went ele cause we already got an enh and i pref being range and slacking all those procs O_o

It's not really a 'little' amount of damage. I wasn't raiding with the best players/guild on my server (I am the best Enhancement on the server though) but I tore everything up and got complemented on it all the time. All the work is pretty much second nature to me now, once you get used to it it's really easy.

[ilialilov]

I play ele personally ( here is my armoury http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...eppes&n=Ontamu ) and the real good thing is that its extremely slack friendly. With that gear i usually stand around 6500-7k. If i stop casting lava burst right when it comes off cd i will go down to around 6k ... if i stop casting lava bursts at all and spam lighting bolt (full slack mode) i will be around 5000-5500 .... some wont even notice because we dont show up in the first 10 in dmg done usually

[Carbunkle]

If you are ready to die very very veeeery much, go enhancement, if you like to be slacky, go elemental

[MGA]

If you are ready to die very very veeeery much, go enhancement

100% Wrong.

[Deleted]

For most fights melee tend to be above ranged on the dps meters, just because they need to move less. So if you are only interested in pure dps, then i would say enh will give you a higher position on most fights.

[Munch]

It's not really a 'little' amount of damage. I wasn't raiding with the best players/guild on my server (I am the best Enhancement on the server though) but I tore everything up and got complemented on it all the time. All the work is pretty much second nature to me now, once you get used to it it's really easy.

Talking from personal experience here, flame me if u want, but the difference between an ele that knows wtf hes doing and an enh that knows wtf hes doing is very minimal.
If they are similarly geared ofcourse, yes enhancement pulls away a little but at high end gear level but yeah its minimal imo