Enh Without a Caster MH

[Meijnrr]

Once 4.0.6 goes live, I'm assuming that the changes will make a 2.6 speed agility MH optimal again. However, this got me thinking that based on EJ's estimates that switching to a caster MH can currently yield a 1000-1500 DPS increase, Enhancement (for people that took advantage of the caster MH trick) will lose about that much DPS bringing it from the middle of the pack DPS to very close to the bottom of the bucket. I'm wondering if anyone else is thinking about playing less of their Enh shaman after 4.0.6 or just hoping for buffs to compensate?

[Thafisker]

Huh?
I'm pretty sure they knew it was coming, so ofcourse they have a Agi MH in the bank or bag. I'm not going to play less, just going to feel less awesome in PvP I guess.

[Wraith]

i am currently not using a caster MH and i still come in top5 dps in 25man BH. As far as i can see our class is already strong when done properly, i dont see this change as a reduction in dmg output. In our guild 10mans myself, our rogue and hunter are all very close in numbers.
There is a buff to WF to proc 3 melee swings. They are also buffing the unheeded warning trinket which will be awesome for enh. I can't wait for this patch. FT/FT using a caster weapon is just plain wrong and i can't wait to see the results.

[taek]

I don't think ENH was 100% reliant on the caster MH configuration to achieve strong DPS.
The notes do not match up w/ what's actually on PTR, so we'll see what actually happens.

[M4d2m0A]

Too hard to say, want to know for sure? Copy a toon over to the PTR realm and do some testing.

With windfury being buffed, and flametounge being nerfed, It might be a dps increase.

I stuck it out through ICC and the horrible "balanced at 85" 4.0 patch. If you stop playing enhance because of a change that is actually fixing the mechanics, then I pity your need to play the flavor of the month class. Enhance is fine, currently the best interrupter, and also still able to bring plenty of unique things to a raid. How many other melee dps can keep down an AoE heal for the entire fight?

[PaintOnASign]

It's still way too early to tell. I think we need to see how FT does with AP scaling, not to mention the Windfury change. Either way, I've been WF/FT main for a while. I have a caster weapon just because one dropped and no one needed it. I noticed my sustained DPS definitely increases, so I tend to use it in raids, but I was in no way reliant on FT/FT. I do fine either way.

[pionock]

Shamans are by far my favorite and best class in the game. I'm actually very surprised that we do as well as do on the meters in fights, considering how many buffs and utility we bring to the game. Being able to solo interrupt Halfus Wyrmbreaker, not need a single heal from anyone else on Chimareron, and just being able to throw down free AoE heals to assist the raid. Even if you use the full 10k mana on Healing Rain, you'll get all that mana back in like 4 seconds anyway.

OT: I'm glad to see this change. I never picked up a caster weapon because it felt stupid and wrong. That being said, we have a fury warrior and mage in our 10 man, and I consistently beat them on dps still. That may be because they're not playing their class to the fullest, but I digress. WF being able to proc 3 attacks is very interesting and I'm wondering how that will affect Haste in our stat weights now.

[drbutcher]

Facts:

1) Enha shamans are ok in single target dps.Be ok we mean in the same level as most of the classes (higher than retris than need fix and lower than a lot of classes that are higher than they should be).Noone cares if you are 1st or 2nd in your guild.Thats why we have sites like worldoflogs.If in your guild you are 1st as enha shaman you are either better geared than the others or better player.Simple as that.

2) Enha shamans are NOT a buffing class anymore.Every buff can be brought to the raid by multi classes.I am still waiting for the day that we will be able to top the charts in a single fight like every other hybrid (except retris) have done in the past or in the present.

3) It still seems that we get little to no attention by blizzard .Why you may ask? Just take a look in our 4set bonus.It's also unacceptable to have as BiS offhand a BoE weapon or to have such low values in crit/haste that tia's grace heroic is better than both raid heroic trinkets.

4) Noone can say yet how good or bad we will be when ptr goes live .

5) We have way too many talent points.In our best single target dps build we can't get improved fire nova and we can't get any of the "fun"/pvp talents like many other classes (just check the destro lock pve talent build-random example.).

6) Our real problem is the one we have for YEARS now.We don't have any cleave/aoe ability.Magma/fire nova in theory might be an aoe attack but the damage is laughable.The root of the problem is that they can't buff it any further because it will cause them 2 problems:
a)Enha might put in back in their single target rotation if it does high damage b) Elemental shamans might start using it.So they need/must find something else.The problem is... they don't.Gl finding a spot in maloriak hard mode as enha.You will need it.

[Wraith]

a good elemental shaman should be using magma and fire nova anys. I play enh now, but played ele through icc. Best aoe rotation was magma, firenova, earthquake,firenova,earthquake,magma, etc etc

[PaintOnASign]

6) Our real problem is the one we have for YEARS now.We don't have any cleave/aoe ability.Magma/fire nova in theory might be an aoe attack but the damage is laughable.The root of the problem is that they can't buff it any further because it will cause them 2 problems:
a)Enha might put in back in their single target rotation if it does high damage b) Elemental shamans might start using it.So they need/must find something else.The problem is... they don't.Gl finding a spot in maloriak hard mode as enha.You will need it.

Is CL not considered a cleave? I've found it to be great to use instead of LB if there are at least 3 targets up.

[drbutcher]

Is CL not considered a cleave? I've found it to be great to use instead of LB if there are at least 3 targets up.

If you can consider as cleave something that:

a) Procs
b) Procs very rare in cataclysm with the low haste we have
c) Does pathetic damage
then... ok..we have a cleave .Just check all the fights that have more than one targets.Enha shamans are always last in damage.Ofcourse you should use CL in 3 targets.It's better than LB.But it's not enough to bring us anywhere close to any other class/spec.Not above them.Not even close to them.