Will enhance be viable?

[bateman]

Right now their only viable comp in arena is beastcleave which even I admit is a cheese comp that takes little skill.I got to 2k rating in full furious gear early this season running beastcleave.Now that beastcleave is essentially gone(BM are now susceptible to CC), what comp is there for enhance to run? The enhance tree is arguable the least changed out of all the trees.We have no new pvp talents unless you count that horrible searing totem lava lash crap.Lava lash is crap and will be crap in cata and is only used to generate a maelstrom stack.

They seem to be gay for ele atm, enhance isnt getting any love.

Do you see them adding new stuff to the enhance tree to make it more pvp viable?

[escobar]

Run with a ret pally its also an easy 2k team. I will admit there isnt too many viable options for enhance, maybe try a shadowpriest it works better with ele but u still have bloodlust and wolves so i think it could still work

[Deleted]

BM will still work, you can also let the hunter go MM. Encha Shamans are viable and still will be unless purge gets nerfed in cata.

[Macgaiver]

BM will still work, you can also let the hunter go MM. Encha Shamans are viable and still will be unless purge gets nerfed in cata.

Again, something smart said by bleed. If you look at new enhancement moves, they are beautiful including maelstrom giving you LAVA burst. QQ more enhance. Run with sub rogue ad Holy pally. Screw the huntard.

[uka]

They seem to be gay for ele atm, enhance isnt getting any love.

Do you see them adding new stuff to the enhance tree to make it more pvp viable?

since astral shift ist getting removed, enhancement shamans are the only shamans with a real defensive ability.
totemic vigor will be huge. not getting tremor wanded/meleed instantly by priests/warlocks can be gamebreaking (i whish they move it to tier 1).

primal wisdom might let enhance shamans use static shock.
if searing flames stay as it is, we can go into the elemental tree deeper than now. if it will be usefull, we still can get important ele talents.

as far as i see, enhancement will be the strongest shaman pvp damaging specc, because of survivalbility.
elemental will not only be a 24/7 turret (ok, every 2 min it will be a silenced/stunned, but potentional moving caster), but also a glass cannon losing astral shift.

restoration will be quite solid because of less burst (good earthshield swaps should be good enough to survive switches), strong heals and an interesting mana regeneration (hello dmg -> mana).

PS: didnt they say, that hunter and enhancement shamans will be using focus at blizzcon?
PPS: beta is for testing and whining, so no "its just beta!" bs pls

[restoftw]

Enhancement should become more about melee again was way more fun that way

[Pab]

Ok, maybe it will be hard for enh to find new comps, but...as there is a lot of changes going on in cata, im sure enh will change, Maybe even healer + enh will work, and enh+ rogue works pretty well :P

[Deleted]

I still don't get it. If we're not getting any mana at all from gear. Then even one burn or selfheal is doing its job to get us dry. EX-shammyrage granted my mana up to max in around 3 secs but with that new ability it might need some love. Oh well. nevermind. Going warr or hunter in cata anyways. Too long we have waited

[Macgaiver]

Gonna have to laugh at you QQ'ers for shamans, I rolled a shaman just a month ago to get ready for cata, and if you think they are going to be terrible in any spec, think again.

[cynical]

Gonna have to laugh at you QQ'ers for shamans, I rolled a shaman just a month ago to get ready for cata, and if you think they are going to be terrible in any spec, think again.

That's incredibly naive. Shamans have problems that you probably aren't even aware of; Despite that, I do think enhance will be ready for cataclysm if we get a few changes. (I've been 2200+ as enhance, without beastcleave)

If you look at the changes we're getting for the expansion so far:
15% movement speed increase
6% better self healing and 15% increased healing effectiveness on ourselves
Bigger focus on primary abilities rather than auto attacks (not sure what you mean about lava lash being crap, it will hit a lot harder in cata)
Dispel resistance being removed, taking the rng out of purging
Increasing cds on our abilities, giving us more time to think rather than button mash
10% of our health going to our totems (godly change for the likes of tremor)
Our health being raised to a similar level as that of plate wearers, while retaining our 10% stamina increase talent

This is a solid start that addresses quite a few problems we've had in Wotlk pvp. Unfortunately there are not as many enhance specific changes as I would have liked but the beta isn't over so I won't complain too much until then.

The biggest change we need is a way to keep our SoE buff while using our utility earth totems in pvp (windfury would be nice too). Right now this is a huge damage loss and will make enhance not worth playing in the expansion. I would also like to see hex be made instant cast through a talent, leaving maelstrom weapon for heals/damage alone. The unleash weapon effect for the windfury enchant is currently terrible. It doesn't make sense for a ranged attack to grant 20% haste for 6 seconds, it will probably take that long just to get in melee range, wasting the proc. Rouncer of Elitist Jerks had a great suggestion on the forums; Make unleash wind should give the shaman a 20% increased chance to proc windfury for something like the next 10-12 seconds. This will solve a few problems by making it a useful ranged attack and making our pvp damage less dependent on rng. Another solution would be adding extra nature damage on the next use of a particular ability like stormstrike.

I also think we could use another major cooldown to go with feral spirits (3 minute) and shamanistic rage (1 minute). The majority of our pvp utility comes from 30 second or less cooldowns, which makes us fairly predictable in pvp. I think taking spirit walk out of feral spirits and making it a 2 minute cooldown usable by the shaman at any time would give us more variety in pvp encounters, and provide us with a perfect gap closer. We would also be able to use it slightly more often. Currently your choice is either use it once to break a root and catch up to opponents or use it at the very beginning of feral spirits as a sprint and then once more towards the end right before the spirits run out.

I can't remember the other changes I wanted but I'll try to post again if I remember them. Either way assuming the devs take just a small amount of time away from revamping paladins again and turn their eyes to enhance once more before the expansion comes out, we will be fine in pvp. If not then I will play ele or reroll and I suggest you do too


Oh I forgot, as far as comps go I have a few ideas for things I would like to try in cataclysm. (most of them work today) A big thing you will likely see is the return of Enhance/Disc now that we can peel properly.

2s
Enhance/Mage
Enhance/Spriest
Enhance/Hunter
Enhance/Rogue
Enhance/Disc

3s
Enhance/Rogue/Druid (insane mobility and good cc with ms, and extra healing on both dps through talents)
Enhance/War/Paladin
Enhance/Hunter/Paladin (beast cleave of course )
Enhance/Mage/Priest
Enhance/Affliction Lock/Druid
Enhance/DK/Pally or Druid

[Chomag7]

Enh shaman was the very 1st faceroller back in vanilla. They were insanely OP in pvp but gradually got nerfed to crap nowadays.

[cynical]

primal wisdom might let enhance shamans use static shock.

Static shock is a really bad talent in pvp. The damage increase is pitiful, the proc chance is very low, and you will have to waste globals refreshing lightning shield (remember it will be three charges now, not nine)

if searing flames stay as it is, we can go into the elemental tree deeper than now

No we will be forced to pick it up for the extra 30% damage on lava lash. I do think it would be great if the two were unlinked or merged though.

but also a glass cannon losing astral shift.

Who knows it may come back, enhance had the same thing happen with frozen power.

[Direpanda]

Frozen Power was a silly talent. Honestly the entire PVP Enhance tree was held up by three ridiculously awesome talents (Frozen Power, Earthen Power, Feral Spirit) and BLust. It's really not a fun way to play, IMO—with or against. I've been on both sides of it.

Sometimes playing an Enhance Shaman can feel like playing the cooldown-heavy Rogue—with similar results (IWIN if they're up, I get murdered horribly if they're down). But instead of a half-dozen cooldowns, I have two.

I'm hoping some of these talents get spread around. In place of Earthen Power, a talent that lets Ghost Wolf break snares and roots, like a Druid's shifting. Removing the heals from Feral Spirit and putting it somewhere else. Etc.

[cynical]

Sometimes playing an Enhance Shaman can feel like playing the cooldown-heavy Rogue—with similar results (IWIN if they're up, I get murdered horribly if they're down). But instead of a half-dozen cooldowns, I have two.

I agree, most of the stuff we do preemptively just because it is better to use them that way. We don't have many situational cooldowns to really turn the tide of battle. Maybe we'll feel less pressure to use feral spirits at the beginning of a fight due to the other changes to our spec in cataclysm. Who knows :\