Enhancement Shaman Pvp Guide
Also known as
“Insert Witty Shaman Pun”
I. Intro
II. Stats
III. Spec
IV. Weapon Inbues
V. Glyphs
VI. Gemming/Enchanting/Reforgeing
VII. Macros
VIII. Comps
IX. Addons
X. Tips!
XI. To Do
I. Intro
Hey all! Tangster here! I was talking to some of my shammy friends and they were commenting on how we as a shaman forum lack and enhance pvp guide! Well I took it upon myself to compile some basic information for my totem tossing friends!
Disclaimer: This is a very basic guide for shammys, if your looking for "how do i beat xxxxx class as a enhance shammy?" look no further then http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...Strategy-Guide
Fugaur wrote a great guide on this, EVERYONE should take a look
Note: Not all of this is my original research! I simply complied it from sites like elitist jerks, the official forums and even our very own MMO-Champ forums! I have done my best to sight my sources where applicable however if you feel I have quoted you but not given you credit. Feel free to pm me and we can talk about it
With that being said i would like to throw some thanks to Redandco, Meklol, Pearroc and the rest of the Shaman Forum Admins for their info! Like i said, it's not all my research, a lot of it came from these guys. Thanks dudes!
So, who are you?
I am just a simple enhance shammy who enjoys random BGs (yes, it is possible to enjoy those). I have plenty of pvp experience, however I have (for the most part) included only facts about gearing/specing, so my qualifications are of no concern. (if you are still concerned, I have been playing wow since vanilla pvping all the way, pvping as a shammy since BC). In the future I may add a dueling section. But we’ll see.
II. Stats
Stamina – Can’t go wrong with more health! Comes on all gear, and in bigger portions on our PvP gear. Only gem for it if you HAVE to fill a blue slot for some reason. And even then use a stam/agil gem (more on this later).
Agility – This is our prime stat as always. You should always gem for this because it cannot be reforged to. Our PvP gear comes with a hefty slice as it is, stuff some more in anyway
Mastery – Some will argue that this is equal to agility, I say its slightly below (but only slightly). Reforge to this if possible, while keeping a decent amount of crit. As with any shaman spec, a good balance of stats is always better then stacking one or two.
Crit – Comes in loads on our pvp gear, can’t go wrong with it. Reforge it to mastery if you think you aren’t hitting hard enough. (personally I don’t reforge it, I like big numbers)
Resilience – This will fix it! No just kidding. Resil is king atm, stack this in any socket that isnt red.
Hit – Can’t hurt it if you can’t hit it. There is almost none of this on our PvP gear. Luckily we don’t need much of it. Aim for the 5% spell hit cap (~435 hit rating). This will cap you special attacks as well.
Expertise – Not a lot of this on our PvP gear. Not sure of a good number to have but imo the 8 you get from unleashed rage should be plenty. Someone should confirm or deny this though. I run with 11 or so expertise and have never noticed a problem. Personal preference though.
Spell Penetration – There is NONE of this on our gear, it all must be gemmed/enchanted for. Luckily we don’t need much. 195 will get you through shaman resist totems and most everything else. Two Stormy Ocean Sapphires and the spell penetration cloak enchant (Greater Spell Piercing) should be fine though.
Haste - More or less useless for enhance shaman in PvP. Haste becomes better the longer you stay on the target and there are very few situations where you are beating on someone for more then 10 or 15 seconds. Reforge this.
III. Spec
I’m not going to bore you with a in depth look at ALL of our talents. With the release of 4.0 there are very few talents I would classify as useless. But I will highlight some VERY useful ones that you should definitely pick up. (Note: I’m going to go ahead and assume that everyone reading this is rational and intelligent, and will pick up all talents that grant a ability, as well as enhance staples such as maelstrom wep and searing flames)
Ancestral Swiftness: a MUST for pvp, cata pvp is a caster world, you will NEED this to be faster then them. Do not underestimate instant ghost wolf
Earthen Power: This talent would be good if it took snares off just you, but the fact that it takes them off your whole party makes it GLORIOUS. Get it.
Frozen Power: Enhance Shaman’s only root and your main kiting tool. This is a extremely underused amazing ability we have in our arsenal, rooting healers out of range of their partner and vice versa. Learn what 15 yards looks/feels like and use this to your advantage. Ever seen Arms warriors hop back so they could charge? Its kinda like that.
After you get all your tasty talents in the Enhance tree you can choose to expand into the elemental or resto trees. I will briefly outline the benefits of both of these.
Resto
No doubt there are some great talents in here, you sacrifice some offensive power for a good amount of survivability. I highly recommend spec-ing into this tree if you don’t have a lot of pvp gear. Talents you will want to pick up include: Spark of Life, Tidal Focus (to get to the next tier) and Nature’s Guardian.
Ele
This is the tree most enhance shamans will choose for some extra offensive power. Reverberation is amazing as well, you’ll never realize how much you JUST miss an interrupt while waiting for wind shear to come off cooldown until you grab this beauty. Some other talents to pick up: Acuity, Concussion, Elemental Warding (Personally I don’t use this one, but its great if your comp is having trouble with caster teams)
Here is what I would consider all the “required” talents. (Note: PLEASE do not take this as a cookie cutter, this is MY preference for “required” talents in the enhance tree. What works for me may not be right for you)
http://wowtal.com/#k=-wwmapV.adl.shaman.
I’m reluctant to post more specs besides the basic one, mainly because its very opinionated and also because they only differ by a few talent points. Go play around with wowtal for a bit and see what looks best for you. Here is the spec I’m currently running around with in BGs
http://wowtal.com/#k=DccvUxZ8.adl.shaman.q0J2xM
Weapon Imbues
• Personally I use Windfury/Frostbrand. Windfury gives you more burst and maelstrom procs and frostbrand constantly keeps your target snared. UE elements is probably most powerful when used with this combo thanks to the extremely long range undispellable slow you get from UE FB.
• I’ve also seen people use WF/FT for more lava lash damage. You lose your slow which is a big problem imo, but this could be viable for bursty comps
• The only other one I have seen is FB/FT to keep the enemy slowed and buff your lava lash. Imo losing windfury is to big of a problem to make this very viable though
V. Glyphs
I sorted the glyphs into Required and Optional. Pretty self explanatory, if I left it off its because I either haven’t found a good pvp use for it yet, or it’s useless for pvp (I’m looking at you Glyph of Fire ele totem)
Prime
Required
Stormstrike – This one is a must, the extra 10% crit chance is amazing
Lava Lash – Also a must, since this is our highest damage ability, buff it moar
Optional
Feral Spirit – Makes your wolves much more of an “IWin” button, great for double dps comps
Windfury – Great for maelstrom procs and slightly more burst, I prefer this for BGs
Major
Required
Shammy Rage - Beastly, Removes all magic effects. AMAZING for magic stuns
Stoneclaw – This crappy little shield has saved my life more times then I can count
Optional
Lightning Shield – My personal favorite, most of the time i’m to focused on totem twisting and I don’t want to waste a global to refresh it.
Hex – Good for comps that rely on CC chains for kills, cant go wrong in BGs either
Grounding Totem - Some people like it, I don’t like the longer cooldown so I opt out.
Ghost Wolf – 5% movement speed isn’t something to shake your head at, but there are better choices
Frost Shock – If you keep FB on your wep (which you should) you won’t need this, but I figured I’d mention it.
Minor
You can pretty much take your pick of these. I would recommend using both Renewed Life and Water Walking. No use in Arena, but has some good situational use in BGs (AB comes to mind).
VI. Gemming/Enchanting/Reforgeing
Gems
Meta: Agile Shadowspirit Diamond all day, everyday.
Red: Delicate Inferno Ruby
Yellow: Adept Ember Topaz
Mystic Amberjewel
Blue: Stormy Ocean Sapphire if you haven’t hit the Spell Pen cap yet. Glinting Demonseye if you are under the hit cap. Shifting Demonseye otherwise; but only if you desperately need the socket bonus, most of the time you’re better off stuffing a red gem in there.
Enchanting
Head: Arcanum of the Ramkanhen (as of right now, there is no level 85 pvp helm enchant, this will do just fine)
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Shattered Crystal (see above)(Greater Inscription of Vicious Sententiousness will be added in 4.0.6, no word yet on who will sell it or how much it will cost. I'll try to keep us updated)
Cloak: Greater Spell Piercing, or Greater Critical Strike if you found another way to hit the spell pen cap
Chest: Peerless Stats
Bracer: Greater Critical Strike or Precision if you are under the hit cap
Gloves: Greater Mastery
Belt: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Legs: Dragonscale Leg Armor
Boots: Major Agility, or Mastery
Weapons: Landslide or Avalanche if you don’t have the cash for Landslide. You CAN put Landslide on both weapons as your weapons don’t share internal cooldowns. EDIT: as of 4.0.6 avalanche will now proc on all spell damage as well, that means in addition to having a chance to proc on auto attacks and LBs, it now has a chance to proc on all of our skills (such as lava lash) as well. I will have to wait for 4.0.6 to hit before i will know if this makes it better then landslide however. (Cuz im not on the PTR )
Reforgeing
I’m not going to stay much about reforgeing because it’s very specific to your playstyle and comp. Just go for a nice balance of crit and mastery and change as needed. However most of the time mastery > crit
Macros
(many thanks to mmo’s very own Meklol for this section!)
Mouse over hex:
This will Hex the player you're mousing over and with no mouse over it will hex your target.
Code:
/cast [target=mouseover,exists][target=focus,exists,harm,nodead][target=target] Hex
Bind elemental:
(Mage water elemental)
Code:
#showtooltip Bind Elemental
/target Water Elemental
/cast Bind Elemental
/targetlasttarget
Focus Hex:
This will hex your Focus target and call out the focus target's name in party chat. Nice to have if you're playing with no vent or skype.
Code:
/cast [target=focus] Hex
/run SendChatMessage("Hexing "..UnitName("focus"),"PARTY")
Focus wind shear:
You should def make a mouse over version too...
Code:
/cast [target=focus] Wind Shear
Focus purge:
Same as windshear make a mouse over version also.
Code:
/cast [target=focus] Wind Shear
Focus frost shock:
Nice for 2s when you want to root a warrior that's about to charge or a rogue making their way over.
Code:
/cast [target=focus] Frost Shock
Shield/off hand weapon swap:
With a pvp shield I get a huge armor increase and resilience increase. It's saved my life a couple times when I need to go defensive and line to heal or buy some time for an incoming heal.
Code:
/equipslot [noequipped:Shields] 17 Name of shield
/equipslot [equipped:Shields] 17 Name of off hand weapon
Healing Macro
A great macro for healing yourself (assuming you only heal with MSW x5 up), helps clear up a little space on your action bars as well.
Code:
/castsequence [target=] reset=combat/8 Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge, Healing Surge, Healing Surge
VIII. Comps
(These are some current popular comps for 2s and 3s. If anyone has any suggestions for comps to add, feel free to pm me with a brief description of the comp playstyle and ill put it in)
(updated by meklol with more detailed info!)
Meklol Says:
Meklol Says:
In what ever comp you play your job is to hex, ground, and windshear and purge like crazy. While slowing melee heavy opponents with earthbind and keeping tremor down.
I'll post about the ones that seem to be the most successful.
Beast cleave: Hunter/ Shaman. Is fun at lower ratings but it's gonna take some skill at higher ratings. With bloodlust being removed this comp won't be as zerg powered as before, but hunters seem to be getting a buff in the next balance patch so this set up may survive. This comp hits hard and fast. At lower ratings it goes, pop wolves>bloodlust> Win. Most games we'd focus the healer first except paladins because of bubble. So I'd put the pally on focus and hex him early to force a trinket just in case the match goes on for longer than 45 seconds ( usually they don't) and windshear his heals. If we had a double dps team we'd get on the clothies first or the hybrid class with heals. That means ele / enhancement shamans and balance/feral druids got it first. Plate dps usually gets cc'd while we kill their partner. Against priest and warlocks it's extra important to keep tremor down because you and all 3 of the pets will be feared and that's a huge lose in pressure and control of the battle. In 2s it's important for the hunter to learn how to position himself to set up optimal scatter shots>freezing traps> wryvern stings. This comp also works in 3s with a healer. However has the same limitations as it does in 2's. If something doesn't die within the first minute it's an uphill battle.
LSD: Haven't played this one yet. Did 2s with an affliction lock didn't work out too well but I'm quite sure with a resto druid this would work out just fine. Warlock tanks damage and controls the fight keeping pressure on all targets with dots and fear. The resto druid will root and cyclone and all you have to do is rape face. I also hear that this set up works well with a third dps and any healer including resto shamans.
Kanye cleave: Rogue / Enhancement shaman. Played this in 2s. Another comp that needs great chain cc to land a kill. Hardest thing is the opener trying to not get rushed down by your opponents and putting them in combat. You have to wait for your partner to get a sap off so you both can open on your kill target at the same time. I'll add that your rogue partner has to be quick with the blinds on the off target after you hex and they trinket. Most of the time the teams would go after the rogue. Works with a healer also. Either a disc priest or resto druid.
I'll add feral druids into this one too. It worked out pretty nice with the feral bleed and run style.
Frost Mage/ Enhancement: Fun comp in 2s you'll have to tank a lot of damage. Most games ended with me raping clothies and running to pillar hump to heal and purge. With the mage killing off any melee players. Occasionally they'd go after the mage but Mages have nice defensive cooldowns and I'd throw a few heals during an ice block or ice barrier. I'd have loved to try this with a healer. should work out nice with priest.
Warrior, shaman, Druid: Awesome comp. Damage heavy. Simple to play if your druid keeps the cyclones and roots coming. Also works with a death knight. You can slow and root for your warrior to set up blade storms or charges. Hex off the warrior or druid when they're taking too much damage. If your druid is cycloning the healer this leaves you free to ground and wind shear large damage spells or cc. Taking a lot of pressure off of your healer. Also a great comp to get your purge spam on. Warriors do great damage. Just pop wolves and purge. Most games we played had teams tunneling the warrior so you and your healer have to be ready in vent or skype to call out when you're going to cyclones and hex.
Unholy DK/Enhancement shaman and Holy paladin: Seems to be working out O.K. for me right now. Another damage heavy comp where we tunneled the healer. That won't work at higher ratings so I will come back to write an update.
IX. Addons
Gladius: This is a MUST have if you want to do arena. It shows important info like enemy health/mana/spec/trinket cooldown/important buffs and more. And its MUCH easier to see then the blizz frames (what isn’t :P)
Totem Timers: A must have for all shaman, PvP or PvE. Lets you know when you wep imbues fall off, when your totems get stomped, when your elemental shield falls off etc.
Afflicted: Shows important cooldowns of your enemies such as interrupts, Ice Block, Cloak of Shadows, Pain Sup, Death Grip, etc
Doom Cooldown Pulse: Makes it easier to see when you abilities come off cooldown by flashing the icon in the middle of your screen.
Bartender: Not PvP specific but a nice bar mod that lets you customize all aspects of your Action bar. My favorite part is the ability to enlarge certain bars. For instance, my totem bar is twice as big as my other bars. Makes keybinding a breeze as well.
X. Tips
(Thanks to Meklol, Redandco, and the other regular posters on the shaman forums for this!)
• Save Shammy Rage for a magic stun (deep freeze, hammer of justice, etc) it’ll pull it right off!
• Spirit walk + Spirit Walkers Grace + Sheild macro will SAVE you in arena
• Enhance shammys are less about tunneling and more about control, don’t get caught up in our fancy shmancy rotation
• Always know the location of your healer(s) and the enemy healer(s), this will ensure you don’t LoS your own healer and makes it easier to interrupt/hex/root/purge the other healers
• Duel. A lot. This is probably the single best thing you can do for yourself, it will help you learn your spec and what you are weak/strong against.
o (For instance something I’ve learned through countless duels, NEVER go toe to toe with a DK or War. Keep them snared and in their deadzone while letting wolves/searing totem eat them. After you get good at this, practice jumping in for a Lava Lash and getting back to range)
• Keybind searing totem individually, It will attack your current target unless Flame Shock is on another target. ALWAYS have this up.
• If you think a stealthy is around drop magma totem and use fire nova on CD till you find them. (also work hilariously well on Hunter snake traps)
• Learn to love totem twisting, it is the cornerstone of any good shaman pvp’er regardless of spec.
• Macro /startattack and /petattack to a few of your skills. (I have it macro’d my shocks, some people like Meklol prefer to put it on stormstrike as well)
• Don't be afraid to pop your CDs early. We don't have a CD over 3 minutes, so theres no reason to wait. The sooner you pop them, the sooner they are back up!
• Ghost Wolves will automatically bash the first cast and spirit walk the first snare put on you unless you use them first. To turn this off, summon your doggies and right click bash and spirit walk. This will let you use them on command instead of automatically. (thanks to redandco for confirming this)
• As far as your shocks go, i find earth shock almost useless in PvP. The small amount of extra damage it puts out cannot make up for a snare or a dot
• Keep flame shock on rogues (and druids) at all times. Make them pop CDs to reset.
XI. To Do
Add an Addon Section
Add links
Let me know if you guys see any corrections/mistakes! And as always, feedback is welcome! Now get out there and melt some faces!