Benefit to leveling enh prior to level 40?

[Slonah]

So, it doesn't seem like there's much to look forward to as an enh shaman until level 40, even though I always hear that leveling enh is the way to go. What makes leveling ele bad? Just the time you need to take to regen mana? Because so far shocks + melee = me wanting to scratch my eyes out. Is there no way to make this fun until level 40?

[yaij9841]

windfury 8)

[zizfizziks]

Just level as a caster before 40. You can even heal through instances on some of the more boring questing phases. My ENH spec has JUST NOW picked up pace and I'm 45.

[Krafte]

Stick with it, Once you hit 40-41 (Dual wield + SS) It's insanely OP and fun.

But before 40 make sure you're using your fire totems + Fire nova to increase damage since all you have is ES and Auto Attack.

Gets better ^_^

[Myte342]

Benefit to leveling Enhancement? Isn't that an oxymoron?

Seriously though, Shamans of any spec are terribad to level until 40 atm. After that you roflpwn everything with ease, after level 60 as Enhance you can solo any group quest you run into. Just gotta tough it out till level 40. In the long run, ele vs enh leveling is about equal... equally painful and slow, so it's up to you. I would suggest that if you plan on going Enh just level Enh, so it won't seem like such a huge transition in strategy at 40.

With patch 4.0 and Cataclysm, shamans are getting new skills available early in to ease that level 1-40 grind.

[Marilina]

Benefit to leveling Enhancement? Isn't that an oxymoron?

Seriously though, Shamans of any spec are terribad to level until 40 atm. After that you roflpwn everything with ease, after level 60 as Enhance you can solo any group quest you run into. Just gotta tough it out till level 40. In the long run, ele vs enh leveling is about equal... equally painful and slow, so it's up to you. I would suggest that if you plan on going Enh just level Enh, so it won't seem like such a huge transition in strategy at 40.

With patch 4.0 and Cataclysm, shamans are getting new skills available early in to ease that level 1-40 grind.

not only that, wep skill wont be a problem

[Primaryjane]

not only that, wep skill wont be a problem

that and you won't have to worry about changing all your gear out from caster to melee. if you go enhance from the start though, go with 2h maces until DW, instead of 1h and shield for more damage.

[Chronicle]

I really, seriously, do not get any of you ENHANCEMENT IS FAST FO SHIZZLE people.

Elemental is (I'll add the IN MY OPINION tag) really, far faster than enhancement in leveling.
Go grab that Glyph of Fire Nova and the Improved Fire Nova talent.

Walk towards various mobs and agro them all. Place your Magma Totem. Cast Fire Nova. (Medium level, cast elemental mastery) Cast Chain Lightning. Cast Fire Nova. (Heal if needed). Cast Fire Nova.
You just killed 8 mobs.

Rince and repeat. Mana? Just use a water shield before the fight and possibly the Minor Glyph for water shield.

[Myte342]

I really, seriously, do not get any of you ENHANCEMENT IS FAST FO SHIZZLE people.

Elemental is (I'll add the IN MY OPINION tag) really, far faster than enhancement in leveling.
Go grab that Glyph of Fire Nova and the Improved Fire Nova talent.

Walk towards various mobs and agro them all. Place your Magma Totem. Cast Fire Nova. (Medium level, cast elemental mastery) Cast Chain Lightning. Cast Fire Nova. (Heal if needed). Cast Fire Nova.
You just killed 8 mobs.

Rince and repeat. Mana? Just use a water shield before the fight and possibly the Minor Glyph for water shield.

This is in part due to the temperament of caster vs. melee attitudes of players. For people who trend melee, watching your 2.5 cast time turn to 3.5 cast time just cause your fighting something, is disheartening. Vice versa, for people who tend towards caster (other than spriest) the tendency of fighting only 2-3 mobs at a time as melee, rather than 5-6 as caster feels slow. Even though- the actual time fighting vs. mobs fought at once- evens it all out.

Also, most of us leveled long before water shield was available to all three specs, and certainly long before it was available pre-level 60. In this, fire nova did not exist when we leveled, neither did any BOA items to help ease the leveling process and make us more powerful per level with little effort.

As to what your proposed Ele strategy was, how is this terribly different than Enh? Observe:

Step 1: Run to various mobs, drop totems, go to step 2.


Step 2: JOHN F-ING MADDEN!
Which incurs Magma totem and Fire Nova's with instant cast CL's while bashing their face in with SS and LL with ES and watching the glory of huge WF crits. And with proper usage of Instant cast Healing Wave using MW5 procs and Shamanistic rage, all enemies dead in 15-20 secs with full HP and Mana. Now, move on to the next group and rinse-repeat.

You can also put a /petattack macro and get your spirit wolves to run farther/faster than you to pick up even more mobs.

To add to that, with what I posted in my first response, Enhancement can solo ANY group quest of his/her own level up to and including level 80 ones. No more waiting for someone to be nice and help you out.

[Fornaw]

So, it doesn't seem like there's much to look forward to as an enh shaman until level 40, even though I always hear that leveling enh is the way to go. What makes leveling ele bad? Just the time you need to take to regen mana? Because so far shocks + melee = me wanting to scratch my eyes out. Is there no way to make this fun until level 40?

Here's the deal, what is before 40 anyway? 0-10 you don't have any talent points, you need to be about 20 before your talent points actually have noticeable effect (5% more damage 10% less mana for your first 10 points). Then it's just 10 more levels to windfury. Elemental Fury seems like an awesome talent given it's place in the tree, but remember until level 30 you will have ~7% chance to crit with standard vanilla gear.

You're going to have to explain what elemental would do differently from enhance until 40, aside from gearing (lol caster gear in vanilla). You pull with 2x LB and searing, you shock, now it's in melee so you either eat pushback or you finish off with shocks and melee. Once you hit 30 you get WF, which means "finishing" with melee moves is often quite fast. If you are talking about a toon in heirlooms, then you have a point, but either spec should level extraordinarily easy in heirloom gear, it's just that good. In my experience using your melee attacks to go oofsr and with sham focus enhance is a slightly more efficient build.

[raca]

I really, seriously, do not get any of you ENHANCEMENT IS FAST FO SHIZZLE people.

Elemental is (I'll add the IN MY OPINION tag) really, far faster than enhancement in leveling.
Go grab that Glyph of Fire Nova and the Improved Fire Nova talent.

Walk towards various mobs and agro them all. Place your Magma Totem. Cast Fire Nova. (Medium level, cast elemental mastery) Cast Chain Lightning. Cast Fire Nova. (Heal if needed). Cast Fire Nova.
You just killed 8 mobs.

Rince and repeat. Mana? Just use a water shield before the fight and possibly the Minor Glyph for water shield.

You get water shield at like 63? Til then enjoy drinking every 3 mobs while the enhance shaman runs around 2 shotting everything with a full mana bar.

[pcx226]

u dont have to respec at 40...
pretty much it lawls

[Deleted]

You get water shield at like 63? Til then enjoy drinking every 3 mobs while the enhance shaman runs around 2 shotting everything with a full mana bar.

are you still living in TBC? http://www.wowhead.com/spell=52127, learnable at 20.

once you get spirit wolves, you want to use them on CD and aggressive, so they help you kill 3-4 mobs at once.