I've been doing BGs for a week now and I've got a decent amount of Honor built up so I can grab a piece or 2 of gear. So my question is, as Enhancement, should I go for the weapon first to increase my damage output or should I grab some Gladiator pieces to increase my damage mitigation?
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 3:39pm by DDragonace
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Definately the armor. Grab the shoulders first.
If you're not using 91 DPS weapons grab 2 of the mainhand axes first. This will seriously increase your damage as well as giving you some nice stam and crit.
If the weapons are an upgrade for you in PvE as well as PvP, then I would grab them first. If you're already wielding epic PvE weapons though, I would grab the armor.
Nope I'm pretty much greens all around except a few quested Blues here and there. Hence why I'm doing BG's :P.
Okay I need a few more EoTS marks before I can grab a weapon, but I'll do that first.
Okay I need a few more EoTS marks before I can grab a weapon, but I'll do that first.
Quote:
Nope I'm pretty much greens all around except a few quested Blues here and there. Hence why I'm doing BG's :P.
Just don't make the mistake of thinking BG epix will do much in heroics and especially Kara and beyond, save the weapons. For PvP? Sure. For anything else? No, you need real gear, and by real I mean none of that stam-heavy, resilience-heavy, regen-and-intellect gear.
Believe it or not, an enhance shaman can raid Kara in a full set of S1 and Vindicator's gear with no problem.
Gemming/enchanting the gear for PVE puts you over 1300 AP and 31% to crit with just BoK or MotW.
Not to mention this gear scales so much better with BoK than ANY dungeon blues you can find.
I just respecced my shaman from resto to enhance and he managed to get a few epic drops from Kara while running it as resto (shoulders, legs, Decpaitator) and I will gladly replace them with S1 gear to do heroics/Kara in in the future.
Edit: This gear will leave you a little light on mana, but using shamanistic rage at about 75% mana along with an AP boosting trinket will help you keep your mana up as you will get to use Shamanistic rage a couple more times in most boss fights.
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 3:21pm by Bigdaddyjug
Gemming/enchanting the gear for PVE puts you over 1300 AP and 31% to crit with just BoK or MotW.
Not to mention this gear scales so much better with BoK than ANY dungeon blues you can find.
I just respecced my shaman from resto to enhance and he managed to get a few epic drops from Kara while running it as resto (shoulders, legs, Decpaitator) and I will gladly replace them with S1 gear to do heroics/Kara in in the future.
Edit: This gear will leave you a little light on mana, but using shamanistic rage at about 75% mana along with an AP boosting trinket will help you keep your mana up as you will get to use Shamanistic rage a couple more times in most boss fights.
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 3:21pm by Bigdaddyjug
DDragonace, make sure you get 2 of the MAIN HAND axes, because you don't want that 1.5 spd offhand eating up your flurry charges and proccing WF more often than your 2.6 spd mh.
Bigdaddyjug wrote:
Believe it or not, an enhance shaman can raid Kara in a full set of S1 and Vindicator's gear with no problem.
I can jump out of an airplane without a parachute and make it to the ground just fine. Still doesn't make it a good idea.
The PvP gear is ok if you can't get better, but for the most part you can, and you should. Even if you're unlucky enough not to get your drops, rep gear, at least, comes much easier and quicker than honor-farmed PvP gear. Use PvP gear to patch up the equipment slots you're having a hard time upgrading. Don't plan on using it as your mainstay.
Ok Gaudion, I've already said that I don't *really* know how to gear for enhance.
Show me list of gear you would want to get ready for Kara as an enhance shaman.
Show me list of gear you would want to get ready for Kara as an enhance shaman.
http://www.warcrafter.net/sandbox/24143
No heroics save for the mainhand, it's a list I threw together for my enhance shammy that's ready to go straight into Kara with some PvP, gold investment and thoughtful farming/grinding while leveling. Weighted at [see edit]. You could get significantly better with heroics, for example the 3.5 leather shoulders and the PvP cloak. Season 3 helm and chest would be huge upgrades from what I have there, as would (once 2.4 comes out) the legs from Kazzak and the chest from Doomwalker.
EDIT: Gah, stat ratings confuse me trying to go from AP base to str base.
AP=1
Str=2
Agi=1.8
Crit=2
Hit=1.4
EDIT2: Just realized that gear's a little heavier on hit and a little lighter on crit than I'd like. Hmm...
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 5:18pm by lsfreak
No heroics save for the mainhand, it's a list I threw together for my enhance shammy that's ready to go straight into Kara with some PvP, gold investment and thoughtful farming/grinding while leveling. Weighted at [see edit]. You could get significantly better with heroics, for example the 3.5 leather shoulders and the PvP cloak. Season 3 helm and chest would be huge upgrades from what I have there, as would (once 2.4 comes out) the legs from Kazzak and the chest from Doomwalker.
EDIT: Gah, stat ratings confuse me trying to go from AP base to str base.
AP=1
Str=2
Agi=1.8
Crit=2
Hit=1.4
EDIT2: Just realized that gear's a little heavier on hit and a little lighter on crit than I'd like. Hmm...
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 5:18pm by lsfreak
http://www.warcrafter.net/sandbox/26215
That's with no buffs. Full rig of PVP gear gemmed and enchanted for PVE.
Edit: Not to mention mine has way more survivablity, higher DPS weapons, and looks badass.
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 5:38pm by Bigdaddyjug
That's with no buffs. Full rig of PVP gear gemmed and enchanted for PVE.
Edit: Not to mention mine has way more survivablity, higher DPS weapons, and looks badass.
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 5:38pm by Bigdaddyjug
Woops, forgot I still had the lvl60 weapon in there. Oh well.
Yo!'s Enhance Shammy Sim; since we're talking Kara I'll assume one Blessing (Salv), Sunder, Battle Shout, FF, LotP, and MotW for buffs. I also assumed twin S1 axes with Mongoose, so that doesn't have a huge impact, and did Abacus/Hourglass without the Abacus proc (since the calc doesn't support it and I don't feel like mathing it out).
Ten 100-hour sims (since my computer doesn't like the longer ones):
Yours - ~954dps
Mine - ~987dps
Higher damage by grinding out non-PvP stuff (well, at least for a lot of it), not to mention that - depending on battlegroup and such - the non-PvP stuff probably won't take as long. Badges gear pulls even farther ahead, on items such as the leather bracers and boots, the cloak, and the mail gloves. S1 gear, save the weapons, isn't worth it for PvE when there's better stuff available from *non-heroic 5-mans.*
Of course, this is all assuming the OP is even interested in PvE (I just thought I'd point out to be careful with PvP stuff in PvE because I've seen too many people grind it out thinking epix = good raiding gear). If he's purely in it for PvP, then get the weapons followed by the shoulders, and then upgrade further from there.
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 6:27pm by lsfreak
Yo!'s Enhance Shammy Sim; since we're talking Kara I'll assume one Blessing (Salv), Sunder, Battle Shout, FF, LotP, and MotW for buffs. I also assumed twin S1 axes with Mongoose, so that doesn't have a huge impact, and did Abacus/Hourglass without the Abacus proc (since the calc doesn't support it and I don't feel like mathing it out).
Ten 100-hour sims (since my computer doesn't like the longer ones):
Yours - ~954dps
Mine - ~987dps
Higher damage by grinding out non-PvP stuff (well, at least for a lot of it), not to mention that - depending on battlegroup and such - the non-PvP stuff probably won't take as long. Badges gear pulls even farther ahead, on items such as the leather bracers and boots, the cloak, and the mail gloves. S1 gear, save the weapons, isn't worth it for PvE when there's better stuff available from *non-heroic 5-mans.*
Of course, this is all assuming the OP is even interested in PvE (I just thought I'd point out to be careful with PvP stuff in PvE because I've seen too many people grind it out thinking epix = good raiding gear). If he's purely in it for PvP, then get the weapons followed by the shoulders, and then upgrade further from there.
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 6:27pm by lsfreak
I never said the PVP stuff would be better, I just said you could do Kara in full PVP gear as enhance without any problems.
One thing that youmay not have noticed since 2.3, it is very difficult to get groups for non-heroic instances. It's also fairly difficult to get groups for heroics as enhance.
You can always queue for BGs and get a couple thousand honor a day. Granted all the gear I was using would require a couple hundred thousand honor, but it is still guaranteed to "drop" for you (except the 2 trinkets obviously).
Also, to figure that trinket proc in, just divide the AP boost by 4 and add that to the total, since I'm fairly certain it's on a 1 PPM.
One thing that youmay not have noticed since 2.3, it is very difficult to get groups for non-heroic instances. It's also fairly difficult to get groups for heroics as enhance.
You can always queue for BGs and get a couple thousand honor a day. Granted all the gear I was using would require a couple hundred thousand honor, but it is still guaranteed to "drop" for you (except the 2 trinkets obviously).
Also, to figure that trinket proc in, just divide the AP boost by 4 and add that to the total, since I'm fairly certain it's on a 1 PPM.
Okay, sorry, I seemed to get a little off-track and thought you said something you didn't. PvP is an inferior, though still possible, alternative if you can't get gear to drop, it's just more that your time would be better spent trying to get badges or crafted gear instead. Then again, I almost never have to worry about trying to get a group either. The S3 gear is still great for raiding as well (bracers replaced by badges, belt in ZA, neck in SSC, chest in SSC, and helm in BT, for example).
And on one last note, the Abacus (I wrongly said proc) increases haste value on a use effect; didn't want to just add in the haste because of the way it interacts with the Windfury cooldown and stuff. And I was being lazy.
And on one last note, the Abacus (I wrongly said proc) increases haste value on a use effect; didn't want to just add in the haste because of the way it interacts with the Windfury cooldown and stuff. And I was being lazy.
Oh sorry, I was getting the abacus and hourglass procs confused again.
Also, if you did grind BGs for a full set of S1 gear, as you replaced the gear in Kara you could just regem it for PVP and have a nice set to start serious arena in. (lawl enhance shaman in serious arena)
Anyway, I don't usually have time to run instances, especially in PUGS where they can take twice as long as they should.
I can usually squeeze in 1 or 2 20 minute AB/WSG/EotS though.
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 9:26pm by Bigdaddyjug
Also, if you did grind BGs for a full set of S1 gear, as you replaced the gear in Kara you could just regem it for PVP and have a nice set to start serious arena in. (lawl enhance shaman in serious arena)
Anyway, I don't usually have time to run instances, especially in PUGS where they can take twice as long as they should.
I can usually squeeze in 1 or 2 20 minute AB/WSG/EotS though.
Edited, Feb 6th 2008 9:26pm by Bigdaddyjug
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I'd say weapons first. As enhancement, almost anything is going to kill you one on one unless you drop some serious damage on the target with windfury and good crits before they manage to get away (or destroy you).
the best thing for an enhance in pvp is DWing the slowest weapons possible. The slower the weapons, the more dramatic your WF procs are and your crits. It's not easy to find slow 1H weapons with the right stats, so I think you'll be hard pressed to find anything better without investing a fair amount of time in PvE.
the best thing for an enhance in pvp is DWing the slowest weapons possible. The slower the weapons, the more dramatic your WF procs are and your crits. It's not easy to find slow 1H weapons with the right stats, so I think you'll be hard pressed to find anything better without investing a fair amount of time in PvE.
Quote:
Okay, sorry, I seemed to get a little off-track and thought you said something you didn't. PvP is an inferior, though still possible, alternative if you can't get gear to drop, it's just more that your time would be better spent trying to get badges or crafted gear instead. Then again, I almost never have to worry about trying to get a group either. The S3 gear is still great for raiding as well (bracers replaced by badges, belt in ZA, neck in SSC, chest in SSC, and helm in BT, for example).
It's a catch 22... or a chicken or the egg question. You say you should have better gear before doing heroics and Kara, but honestly the normal level 70 instance blues are FAR inferior to PVP epics. I had a good deal of the level 70 blue shaman healing set, and in every case, Season 1 was an upgrade (mana, stam, int, healing... only sometimes lacking a little MP/5).
I'd definitely suggest collecting some pvp relics to start out with. They're going to be an upgrade to anything you can get from non-heroic/non-raid instances. I've been afraid to run heroics because of my gear on my shaman. I've finally broken the 1k healing mark but I still feel my mana/health is a bit low. The problem is that that won't change unless I start doing more pvp or more heroics. I'm wearing MOSTLY Season 1 and level 70 instance blues (with a few good quest blues and like 2 greens [ring and trinket]). You obviously can't run into a heroic dungeon wearing quest greens or AH'able greens.
For someone who is already running raids and heroics, it's hard to look back and see how you managed to do it. The transition is anything but easy. Honestly, S1 gear REALLY does help bridge that gap. If you don't get it, you will be really undergeared for those events IMHO.
Quote:
I had a good deal of the level 70 blue shaman healing set, and in every case, Season 1 was an upgrade (mana, stam, int, healing... only sometimes lacking a little MP/5).
That's true - for healing. We're talking enhance. Crafted items, quest rewards, and rep items combined with the S3 nonset pieces beat out full PvP gear.
Bigdaddyjug wrote:
DDragonace, make sure you get 2 of the MAIN HAND axes,
2 Main Hand weapons? I see a problem with that advice...
Raglu wrote:
Bigdaddyjug wrote:
DDragonace, make sure you get 2 of the MAIN HAND axes,
2 Main Hand weapons? I see a problem with that advice...
Actually, they're listed as "one-hand" weapons, but aside from that he's technically right. You can pick up two of the 2.60 speed one-hand weapons to dual-wield instead of one one-hand and one off-hand. And you should.
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