Historically? Dks and Monks are new classes and much more heavily represented. Why would people play one spec less than any other? Simple, because they assess it as weaker. Feral and Ret are hybrids, just like us, but more heavily represented. There's no justification other than enh not being popular, and the reason behind that is inferior pvp arsenal.
Worst stun, worst gap closing, easy to cc and kite, easy to drain, weak totems and predictable dmg output
Resto and ele are well represented, so shamans aparently aren't unpopular as a class. Enlighten me though how even ele, which was so weak in cata, happens to be so popular again, while enh, which was better off in cata and (according to you) is in a good state now, is low in represantion since forever, even in wotlk?Not to mention that ele is really good now that this might influence the enh representation.
Enhancement has awesome flavor. You shoot lightning, shock your enemies with fire and frost, slash them with lava, summon spirit wolves and healing rains, conjure healing water and what not. It brings the whole shaman flavor that pulls people in. There's no reason it wouldn't be popular if it were as good as you said. Hell, ele shares much of it's flavor with enh and is well represented in 5s and, to a lesser degree, in 3s.
So when rets were so overpowered from 3.0 onwards, we weren't swarmed by new paladins suddenly? Yeah, totally didn't happen.Point being, even if enhance would have god status, it would still not be the most represented spec.
WW are brand new and shiny, but are hardly better represented, and just so happen (at least from what I've gathered) to also not have an instant gap closer nor a freedom-sprint. Surely they aren't as represented as other melees because, historically ww isn't played by the masses.
Because dps is not everything. Ascendence is worth shit when cced. Enh is easy to toy with. Pve is 90% single target numbers, 5% aoe numbers and 5% is that utility stuff and selfhealing that makes classes stand out in pvp.Look at pve, enhance was/is one of the top dps specs, yet far away being the most played spec.
Hex: okay in pve, inferior in pvp (target retains control, lower duration makes the longer cd/cast time hurt, wether compared to instant casts with cd, or no cd casted ccs)
Cpt: okay in pve, inferior in pvp (gets stomped, player gets silenced, enemies move away)
Totems in general: (mostly) okay in pve, inferior in pvp
Elementals: okay if tp in pve, inferior in pvp/if not tp (outranged or destroyed totem)
Notice a pattern? Shaman stuff is designed with flaws for pvp. Would they make those for pve as well, they would get in the way of raiding, and that would piss off everyone in the raid. Like this, only shamans rage and people simply arena/rbg with others.
Ele is popular because of ridiculous pvp dps now (your words). It's the same as in wotlk. Shaman pvp utility has always been sub par.