Enhancement 4.0 Summary

[myrddinde]

Since I get asked a lot about coming enhancement changes I did a quick summary of things to do coming 4.0. It is still work in progress as I am adding the example video and correcting typos and stuff, but how do you like it? Did I forget anything the average level 80 Shaman needs to know? Have some suggestions?

Here is the link to the Enhancement Shaman 4.0 Summary.

Thanks for looking into it.

[brad3pts]

Solid read. Looking forward to video

[scintilliaSD]

Solid read. The only thing I have against it is the inclusion of Improved Fire Nova. In a raid setting, at least, it doesn't offer much tangible bonus on anything but trash pulls compared to Acuity or something of the like in the Elemental tree.

[Gargz]

good read, however, I would personally make small adjustments to the spec you have first listed. Like Scint said above me, Imp Fire Nova would only be viable in a trash type setting or where magma totem would be > Searing. I would most likely put those two talents into Imp Shields just as a filler talent. Its at least better than totemic reach..../shudder. I agree with your relic swap choice as well.

[Bottosai]

good read but i saw a few errors(that might just be typos or misunderstandings)

the first one is glyph of lighting shield. it state's "Your Lightning Shield can no longer drop below 3 charges from dealing damage to attackers"

the wording here imply's that you must be hit.

someone hitting you is an attacker, not you hitting them, in which case you are the attacker. unless it is a typo, or im misinformed this glyph is going to be a pvp one for the purpose of not having to renew your shield unless dispelled.

the second thing is the haste becoming a less desireable stat. while i agree with the statements and thoughts portraid abit like the stat is useless.

1. the reason haste become so importaint is not due to its haste to skills or abilities, it is due to your white swings.

more whites = more crits more crits = more MS5 stacks more whites = more Lighting shield procs

2. this being stated means that with the loss of our totem, FS will drop on priority, but will still be maintained in the rotation due to its buff from haste. meaning the duration is no longer getting cut, but there will be more ticks withen the duration(as to opposed to how it is on live now) which will bring back the 2 ES to 1 FS rotation compaired to the 1:1 ratio we have now(or somewhat close to it).

[myrddinde]

Totemic reach is a valid point, the idea behind my choice was that thrash is part of raiding and there are also multi target fights where aoe and fire nova is kind of nice.
From what I have seen we will have enough mana to place totems and our buffs spread to even more classes there is no real beneft to totemic reach atm.
Totemic reach doesn't increase range on searing totem, (or am i mistaken?) just on passive totems. I think I'll skip totemic reach for level 80 but my level 85 spec will probably have it included.

Also I have improved shields 3/3, now that they can crit and can't run out its nice spent points (had crits for up to 6k on beta).

I'll add your suggestion, thanks for the input.

[LyskaWF]

The talent keeps us at 3 in PvE except for when we're being hit. I am a bit buzzed and just skimmed your site, but it looked fairly PvE oriented. LS glyph will be next to worthless.
Other than that, again still buzzed, it looks fairly informative=]

[M4d2m0A]

Also I read in another post, on the official forums that slightly differs from yours. He states that we should be reforging to expertise cap, reforging hit to mastery if we're over 17% (16% for draeni) and gemming pure agil except for our best socket bonuses. Also we'll be reforging crit to mastery, and haste to mastery if there's no crit.

Here's the exact wording:
Basic runthrough of 4.0.1reforging:

1.)Reforge Crit/Haste/Excess Hit (only if spell hit capped) into Expertise, until capped at 147.
2.) Reforge Crit/Haste into Hit to the 447 Spell Hit Cap. (Remember, 3% hit debuff is gone, so you need all your hit from gear now.)
3.)After these two caps are reached, reforge Crit/Haste into Mastery.

Basic Gemming:
1.)21 Agility/3% Increased Crit Damage meta. (Relentless Earthsiege Diamond.) It requires only one blue gem, and it's agility. Profit!
2.)If you have blue sockets on your gear and need hit rating, gem hit here to gain socket bonuses. (Hit is now a blue gem.) If you are hit capped through gear, you should gem a Nightmare Tear in one blue socket to gain use of your meta.
3.)Red Sockets/Blue Sockets with bad socket bonuses/blue sockets when hit capped/yellow sockets with bad socket bonuses get +20 agility. You should get all your expertise through reforging.
4.)Good yellow socket bonuses get +10 agility/10Mastery.

Also about Flame shock, if you count it's initial damage + full duration it should still be doing more damage then earth shock. I'm still going to be working on Heroic LK until we kill him or cata is released so I still need to get the best out of my toon as I can.

Edit: here's the post I was talking about. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...Id=27026379015

[myrddinde]

the first one is glyph of lighting shield. it state's "Your Lightning Shield can no longer drop below 3 charges from dealing damage to attackers"

Thanks for the hint, my english is rather horrible and I am not native english speaking. This is the exact quote from the blizzard tooltip though. look here: http://cata.wowhead.com/item=41537

Right now on live Lightning Shield can run out from dealing damage on attackers that hit you and from static shock - you hitting others. I think that is why they gave it that wording.

I don't think there are many other major glyphs that actually increase dps, so it is a good choice.

I'll have a look at the haste wording. Of course haste is no longer useless, but it is also no longer the dominant stat for us, more in line with all other secondary stats.

MSW procs from white hits, no matter if they crit or not, I am not sure why you mentioned crits. Lightnign shield will no longer proc from autoattacks, only from stormstrike and lava lash.

I'd like to have some input on flame shock thoughts. with the +25% spellcrit to lightning bolt, earth shock, lgihtning shield it jsut seems a more relaible source to keep ED running. don't forget we lose a whole lot spellcrit from abilities, intelligence, raid buffs, crit that we convert to mastery.

Thanks for the input!

---------- Post added 2010-10-09 at 08:14 AM ----------

Also I read in another post, on the official forums that slightly differs from yours. He states that we should be reforging to expertise cap, reforging hit to mastery if we're over 17% (16% for draeni) and gemming pure agil except for our best socket bonuses. Also we'll be reforging crit to mastery, and haste to mastery if there's no crit.

The reason I would not reforge for expertise is that there are NO mastery gems (they are all level 81+ ), while there are gems for anything else. I will aim to get the highest mastery rating and thus can't afford to reforge items to something else. I am pretty certain the outcome will be good.

I do not claim to be 100% correct, it is just a general guideline for shamans, that haven't bothered with 4.0, yet at all.

Here is a link to all mastery gems: http://cata.wowhead.com/items=3?filt...70;crs=1;crv=1

Thanks for the input

[Bottosai]

Thanks for the hint, my english is rather horrible and I am not native english speaking. This is the exact quote from the blizzard tooltip though. look here: http://cata.wowhead.com/item=41537

Right now on live Lightning Shield can run out from dealing damage on attackers that hit you and from static shock - you hitting others. I think that is why they gave it that wording.

I don't think there are many other major glyphs that actually increase dps, so it is a good choice.

I'll have a look at the haste wording. Of course haste is no longer useless, but it is also no longer the dominant stat for us, more in line with all other secondary stats.

MSW procs from white hits, no matter if they crit or not, I am not sure why you mentioned crits. Lightnign shield will no longer proc from autoattacks, only from stormstrike and lava lash.

I'd like to have some input on flame shock thoughts. with the +25% spellcrit to lightning bolt, earth shock, lgihtning shield it jsut seems a more relaible source to keep ED running. don't forget we lose a whole lot spellcrit from abilities, intelligence, raid buffs, crit that we convert to mastery.

Thanks for the input!

after going back and re reading the talent changes(i missed part of the wording in the talent) it states "when you use primal strike stormstrike or lava lash you have a chance to do damnage equal to one hit of your lighting shield without loseing a charge" this fixes the need for the glyph that you recommended, and clarified what you were talking about it procing off of the skills.

as for the haste i was confused becuase i missed the change to the talents so it effectivly means that haste is getting a major boost in effectiveness for MS5 Proc's Compared to how it works on live(i am not in the beta so im just theory crafting with just the baseline text i can find)

as for the flame shock, there wont be as many procs boosting its damnage, however due to the way haste is meant to change dots, it is getting an outright buff to haste stacking(i agree agil is our best stat at this point, just pointing out that there will be a minimm haste target as well)

now LL, this skills priority is going to get thrown out the window. it is dropping to the bottom(let me explain)

LL will now only be desireable after Searing Totem gets 5 stacks. this is due to the bigger nuke possibility. though i could be wrong, once the "pro's" from elitistjerks break it down it could be we aim to use it at 3 stack(though i dont see this happening becuase of how haste is meant to effect dot's)

EDIT: what about the talent spark of life in the resto tree for raiding, it could help with both lessening the healers strain, and increasing survivability

[Gargz]

In the upcoming patch, unless I'm interpreting this wrong, Static shock will no longer proc a LS orb which would lead me to question the need for LS at all. Do you have to have it up to proc it? Yeah it sounds like a really f'ing stupid question but has anyone actually tested it.

[Omanley]

as for the haste i was confused becuase i missed the change to the talents so it effectivly means that haste is getting a major boost in effectiveness for MS5 Proc's Compared to how it works on live(i am not in the beta so im just theory crafting with just the baseline text i can find)

as for the flame shock, there wont be as many procs boosting its damnage, however due to the way haste is meant to change dots, it is getting an outright buff to haste stacking(i agree agil is our best stat at this point, just pointing out that there will be a minimm haste target as well)

now LL, this skills priority is going to get thrown out the window. it is dropping to the bottom(let me explain)

LL will now only be desireable after Searing Totem gets 5 stacks. this is due to the bigger nuke possibility. though i could be wrong, once the "pro's" from elitistjerks break it down it could be we aim to use it at 3 stack(though i dont see this happening becuase of how haste is meant to effect dot's

why do you think haste gets a boost? we lose 3% haste raid buff, 10% from our windfury totem and ~20% of our haste from haste rating. with all this haste lost, haste wont be good enough to warrant gemming it so we will lose this haste as well, devalueing it even more. all of that being said, static shock does not scale with haste anymore, because it now procs of ll/ss, not all melee hits. ll gets 4 seconds extra cooldown, adding to the nerfed number of static shock procs. also i´ve yet to see blizzards promise of us being able to profit of other melee classes recource generating bonus from haste being kept.

the only buff to haste is a ~3 second duration haste buff from unleash elements (as we will consume those charges really fast)

from how i see it, haste will be the lowest of stats in value in cataclysm, rivaling current arp.

as for flame shock, it's dots is already affected by haste, but it will scale with unleash elements, unless lava lash works with it.

what are you talking about in regards of lava lash? it does the most of our damage on 4.0/beta after white hits! and since it´s new cooldown is 10 seconds, and searing totem firing every 2, why would we use it at 3 stacks?

[myrddinde]

after going back and re reading the talent changes(i missed part of the wording in the talent) it states "when you use primal strike stormstrike or lava lash you have a chance to do damnage equal to one hit of your lighting shield without loseing a charge" this fixes the need for the glyph that you recommended, and clarified what you were talking about it procing off of the skills.

You are totally right there! I completely overlooked that. Since there aren't many other Glyphs to choose, I'll probably stick to it anyhow. You for sure noticed before that some boss abilities proc our lightning shield and its just too good to miss it Using this Glyph will remove the need to care about it at all and you can focus more on the fight. It is a real nice utility glyph. I'll correct the guide.

as for the haste i was confused becuase i missed the change to the talents so it effectivly means that haste is getting a major boost in effectiveness for MS5 Proc's Compared to how it works on live(i am not in the beta so im just theory crafting with just the baseline text i can find)

Hmh, it is only MSW and Flame Tongue, Flame Shock (if you even use it) that benefit from Haste, no more Static Shock. Instead we will get a lot of 20% haste at 81+ from Unleash Wind (6 autoattacks per 15 sec).

I think we will be fine with haste we get from gear, at least at 80 since all our items will have 2 out of haste/hit/crit.

now LL, this skills priority is going to get thrown out the window. it is dropping to the bottom(let me explain)

LL will now only be desireable after Searing Totem gets 5 stacks. this is due to the bigger nuke possibility. though i could be wrong, once the "pro's" from elitistjerks break it down it could be we aim to use it at 3 stack(though i dont see this happening becuase of how haste is meant to effect dot's)

As far as I have seen it, Lava Lash is about 300% + 40% offhand damage + 20% per Searing Totem charge. It has 10 seconds cooldown and Searing Totem shoots once per 2 Seconds.
This means you will always have 5 Charges on your Target, if not on the first then on each following cast. Also I am not sure if the difference of 4 or 5 charges is worth delaying Lava Lash for. 300% base damage + 40% Flame Tongue Bonus + 80% (4 stacks) = 420% offhand damage or 440% with 5 stacks.

EDIT: what about the talent spark of life in the resto tree for raiding, it could help with both lessening the healers strain, and increasing survivability

I do not know how hard healing will be in Cataclysm. I have 840 days played but never once was a healer I do not mind to throw out a ehal here or there, for example a healing rain in lich king endless winter phase on melee will help to easen the bursty moments, but other than comparable situations we are primary there as dps. If I can get more damage in Elemental tree then I'll prefer to go for that and let the healers shine at what they can do best

But yep, it might be an option for some heavy damage fights. Just like Elemental warding now, but who really took it for raiding?

---------- Post added 2010-10-09 at 10:54 AM ----------

In the upcoming patch, unless I'm interpreting this wrong, Static shock will no longer proc a LS orb which would lead me to question the need for LS at all. Do you have to have it up to proc it? Yeah it sounds like a really f'ing stupid question but has anyone actually tested it.

Yep I overlooked that, thanks for the info! Major glyphs are mostly for utility, so its really up to the shaman to choose. I'll use it anyhow since I no longer need to pay attention to it and I can focus my old brain cells on other stuff

And yes, you need to have Lightning shield running to proc it. But with only 3 charges and mobs hitting you it is very bothersome to keep up hence my <3 for the Glyph

[Deleted]

Hmmm. Hmmmm.

Really good to see someone pulling together the info but a lot of stuff in this thread (not necessarily the article) is way off base. BTW number one thing make it crystal clear at the top of the article you are talking about lvl 80 patch 4.0.1 ONLY and NOT level 85.

Talents: Imp.Shields - one of our lowest dps talents - probably worthless for Enhance in patch 4.0.1+
Acuity - well worth taking 3/3 here and 2/3 Concussion
Imp.Fire Nova - highly situational there are a lot better dps options for standard damage (debatable of course when talking about AoE to death Wrath content).

Skills:
Lava Lash - Bottosai you could not be more wrong with Lava Lash it jumps up to almost the top of our priorities it DOES NOT fall off the bottom. Testing results posted at EJ forum suggests using it immediately off CD NOT waiting for Searing Flame stacks.

Primal Wisdom - not sure when you wrote this but it isn't clear from your post that Primal Wisdom is a passive ability you get at level 10 from choosing Enhancement.

Stats:
Haste : again you are closer to the mark and Bottosai is just plain WRONG. Haste drops to become a meh stat nice to have but certainly don't gem/reforge for it much.

Expertise cap at 107??? We LOSE 1 expertise from unleashed rage so need MORE expertise to cap. Have I missed something that you think expertise cap is LESS?

Mastery wording is confusing. Better speaking about mastery RATING as that is what people see on gear. At lvl 80 you need 45.906 mastery rating to get 1 mastery or 2.5% extra elemental damage.

Again good to see someone pulling info together as something will need to replace the sticky FAQ. Thanks for the effort.

[myrddinde]

Oh on a side note, I just found out that the Stormstrike Glyph gives 33% Spellcrit. So it is probably not a bad choice



Lava Lash one seems, to be pretty nice aswell ... Does it mean we are dropping Windfury or Feral Spirit one?

[Gargz]

Ahh, cool sauce. Then yes the Glyph would be worth it imho. It would make LS a put on and forget about spell unless you start talking PvP.

Levva - I agree with you about most of what you replied with. Yes we lose expertise in this upcoming patch so we'll need around 117-120 now, just guessing ballpark numbers. However, the deal with Imp shields is well, frankly it's the BEST filler talent that's worthwhile.

http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#hZfcG0s0hR

This above is what I'm talking about. Sure you can most likely get imp fire nova, but when would that really be utilized to the fullest? Trash?? That's about the only time I would see that as even remotely viable. In saying that, I'm not a beta tester and I believe you are so you would be better suited to comment. My thoughts are only derived from watching vids from Totalbiscuit aka Cynical Brit and from what I've seen alot of the 5m boss fights require little to no aoe what so ever.

So making that suggestion, you're left with either totemic reach, or imp shields. We all know totemic reach is garbage. Anyway, I'm rambling. In terms of stats/gems, it looks like mastery/agi. @85 it takes far more mastery rating to make a % correct??

---------- Post added 2010-10-09 at 12:30 PM ----------

Oh on a side note, I just found out that the Stormstrike Glyph gives 33% Spellcrit. So it is probably not a bad choice



Lava Lash one seems, to be pretty nice aswell ... Does it mean we are dropping Windfury or Feral Spirit one?

confused, Lava lash is no different glyphed or am I reading that wrong.

[Omanley]

Talents: Imp.Shields - one of our lowest dps talents - probably worthless for Enhance in patch 4.0.1+

we´re mainly talking about 4.0 here, right? still, why bother speccing into imp fire nova? is imp ls so bad that speccing into trash fights is more rewarding?

Expertise cap at 107??? We LOSE 1 expertise from unleashed rage so need MORE expertise to cap. Have I missed something that you think expertise cap is LESS?

from what i heard, enh is still expertise capped despite the ur change. that would indicate they altered the amount of expertise we get from rating. still, the cap requires 140 rating, i believe.

Ahh, cool sauce. Then yes the Glyph would be worth it imho. It would make LS a put on and forget about spell unless you start talking PvP.

is it about aoe attacks from pve fights which would consume ls charges? most of the the time you shouldn´t be hit, so i dont think it would worth it using. or did they change ls glyph again? from what i know it prevent charges being consumed when being hit. with our prio list being cleared up, i think we have all of the time in the world to refresh a ls shield occasionally.

[Foxhoundn]

I am not quite sure if I want to believe that Stormstrike will be a prio to Lava Lash. Also MWB5 below Stormstrike on your prio list? With the mastery bonus etc? Why?

[myrddinde]

Hmmm. Hmmmm.

Really good to see someone pulling together the info but a lot of stuff in this thread (not necessarily the article) is way off base. BTW number one thing make it crystal clear at the top of the article you are talking about lvl 80 patch 4.0.1 ONLY and NOT level 85.

Yep, I am making sure to mention that the classes are designed for level 85. If you played on Beta you will know that Enhancement without Unleash Weapon jsut doesn't feel complete at all. The haste we lost from haste rating, windfury, etc is just a big step down to what we are used to play with.
I am quite sure there weill be an outcry when 4.0.1 goes live from many classes, because they get importal stuff at 81. Ret for example with inquisition, etc.

Talents: Imp.Shields - one of our lowest dps talents - probably worthless for Enhance in patch 4.0.1+

You would not write this if you hadn't simmed it out I guess. It just feels that Acuity with ICC gear and +33% bonus spellcrit from stormstrike is not very strong. But you are right, we have only 2 times a 40% chance per 10 sec (roughly) to proc lightning shield. On the other hand I have my LS crit for 6k damage.

Primal Wisdom - not sure when you wrote this but it isn't clear from your post that Primal Wisdom is a passive ability you get at level 10 from choosing Enhancement.

Actually I mentioned Primal Wisdom right at the start of the talent section

[...] Here are the Talents you get right away.

Enhancement

A totemic warrior who strikes foes with weapons imbued with elemental power.

* Lava Lash
* Mental Quickness
* Dual Wield
* Primal Wisdom
* Mastery: Enhanced Elements

Expertise cap at 107??? We LOSE 1 expertise from unleashed rage so need MORE expertise to cap. Have I missed something that you think expertise cap is LESS?

Mastery wording is confusing. Better speaking about mastery RATING as that is what people see on gear. At lvl 80 you need 45.906 mastery rating to get 1 mastery or 2.5% extra elemental damage.

Again good to see someone pulling info together as something will need to replace the sticky FAQ. Thanks for the effort.

I took it from another thread here haven't checked expertise rating. It was justified by saying the rating conversion changed I think. Seems like we need 18 expertise now = 138,39642 rating.

[Omanley]

I am not quite sure if I want to believe that Stormstrike will be a prio to Lava Lash. Also MWB5 below Stormstrike on your prio list? With the mastery bonus etc? Why?

20% mastery directly from rating, but we lost it before from stormstrike debuff changes.
with icc gear, we wont have much mastery on gear either
we get 25% spellcrit but lose 50% bonus spell crit dmg.
stormstrike will do 25% more weapon damage and profit from a *1.4 modifier with talents.
stormstrike's new debuff will keep up elemental dev
haste nerf so msw5x will stack muuuuch slower, means we wont waste as many procs using stormstrike in a situation where both are avaiable

all of that together => ss >> msw5x lb

btw: will my taiaj ilvl 277 still be the best at level 80? it will most likely get weaker because of the big haste and ap losses.
dbw 277 will have crit instead of arp and the agi proc will be delicious.
halion 284 ilvl trinket will be static crit +ap proc, like whispering skull trinket from 10man
badge trinket is like not that good with 4.0, since the static haste will not be as good as it used to be.
badge trinket wont be worth that much either, haste will drop and with agi becoming that good, stacking raw atp wont be that good anymore either.

anyone bothered to test lvl80 trinkets on ptr? i'm willing to go as far and claim:
284 twillight scale > 277 dbw > 271 twillight scale > 264 dbw > 277 taiaj > 264 wfs > 258 dc > 245 dc > badge trinket with 4.0