I've recently made a shammy alt, so i have something to do in between raids with my pally (and i'm sick of healbotting >.<), i've levelled it to 17, and i have some questions about shammies, especially on gear issues. I've been looking at the mail items in end game instances, and i realise that not a single one has strength on it. Being the primary damage stat for enhancement shammies, how am i to deal with this? Does AP replace STR as the primary stat? I notice that the tier items do carry strength on them, so is it intended that shammies use quest blues and greens until they are able to get tier tokens? I'm more than a little puzzled at this, and i find it a little ridiculous that the primary stat for an entire class is basically unachievable. Perhaps there's something i don't know yet? I'm hoping someone will enlighten me on this.
Edited, Mar 23rd 2008 5:52am by iceravenVI
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Shaman Gearing issues?Follow
Enhancement Shamans gear for STR/AP, AGI/CRIT, STAM, and MP/5 to the exclusion of all else. Until you get your tier gear you'll be sharing epic mail drops with Hunters. While not quite optimal, the gear does generally have twice as much AP as comparable items would have STR in addition to every other stat we need, so the only thing you're really missing is that extra juicy bonus from Blessing of Kings.
Watch for greens too btw, There are several greens out there that rival the lvl 70 blues for enhance shammies, of the bear if i member right. Str/Stam combos.
They lack agil/int, but you will have watershield, and shamanistic rage for mana regen for your shocks, and can still attain a very decent amount of AP/stam to begin Kara with.
I had a pair of lvl 66 green gloves, that I found nothing better until I got my Cyclone gloves. Even then, they give me more STR/Stam than the cyclones.
They lack agil/int, but you will have watershield, and shamanistic rage for mana regen for your shocks, and can still attain a very decent amount of AP/stam to begin Kara with.
I had a pair of lvl 66 green gloves, that I found nothing better until I got my Cyclone gloves. Even then, they give me more STR/Stam than the cyclones.
Actually, "of the Soldier" greens are great for enhance shammies who are going to be getting Blessing of Kings. These have strength, stam, and crit rating. If you can't find these "of the Beast" (str/stam/agi) are ok, but probably not as good as blues you can get.
If you're not going to be getting kings (5-man and no pally, only 1 pally so you get Salv, soloing, or whatnot) the blues with AP will generally have more AP than the greens will give you from Str.
Also you want to watch out because a lot of the hunter blues/epics have a decent amount of hit rating on them, which enhance shammies do not need much of. It's not a bad stat to have and it won't lower your DPS, but a comparable amount of crit rating will raise your DPS more.
If you're not going to be getting kings (5-man and no pally, only 1 pally so you get Salv, soloing, or whatnot) the blues with AP will generally have more AP than the greens will give you from Str.
Also you want to watch out because a lot of the hunter blues/epics have a decent amount of hit rating on them, which enhance shammies do not need much of. It's not a bad stat to have and it won't lower your DPS, but a comparable amount of crit rating will raise your DPS more.
Basically the only things you miss out with AP instead of STR are:
A. Increased block, which is almost so useless as to not be worth mentioning, and
B. If you're with a Paladin who has Blessing of Kings, Str is increased by 10% but AP isn't.
So in general you'll be fine taking AP gear; apart from those differences, it's identical in itemization cost to Strength.
Meaning a level x item will either have y strength or y*2 attack power (which is the same amount of AP you get from y strength).
If you want an extremely (ridiculously) detailed comparison of how shaman stats compare with one another at endgame, check out this Elitist Jerks post. Look for section 3 (itemizing an enhancement shaman).
A. Increased block, which is almost so useless as to not be worth mentioning, and
B. If you're with a Paladin who has Blessing of Kings, Str is increased by 10% but AP isn't.
So in general you'll be fine taking AP gear; apart from those differences, it's identical in itemization cost to Strength.
Meaning a level x item will either have y strength or y*2 attack power (which is the same amount of AP you get from y strength).
If you want an extremely (ridiculously) detailed comparison of how shaman stats compare with one another at endgame, check out this Elitist Jerks post. Look for section 3 (itemizing an enhancement shaman).
I see... so basically AP replaces str? i was wondering caus ei always thought str was the primary stat, yet no gear bears it...
iceravenVI wrote:
I see... so basically AP replaces str? i was wondering caus ei always thought str was the primary stat, yet no gear bears it...
Strength is an attribute, of which the effect varies per class.
AP is a stat, of which the effect is consistent throughout all the classes, talents notwithstanding.
But yeah, you've got it. Shamans look for AP instead of Strength by that point, because Blizzard is seeking to make itemization to work across several class/specs, rather than a piece of gear intended for a single specialization of a single class, and hunters, the only class that shaman will share mail with, find strength useless. (Though Fury warriors may come in to take their share too.)
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