Enhancement Shaman PvP!Follow

So...you think you want to steamroll clothies with a 2h weapon and rock insane windfury crits? Think again, enhancement is one of the hardest specs to PvP with, but if you're stubborn like me and refuse to spec resto or ele, maybe this will help you out. This is a basic guide, I'm not getting into gear/enchants and the like, just an overall strategy for BG pvp.


What spec should you use?
First of all, if you plan to PvP enhance, This is the spec I think works the best. Totemic mastery is nice to have for the extra range on Tremor/grounding totems. Guardian totems are necessary for the reduced cooldown on grounding totem. Wait a minute Taurrus, you took Ancestral shields, that talent sucks! Yes, but I'd rather have that than 500~600 mana for PvP, which leads me to my next point.


Enhancment shaman should PvP with a shield
What? A shield are you nuts? You need to use a shield if you want to have any hope of survival. This does not mean you have your shield on all the time! What you want to do, is use a macro to equip and un-equip your shield The following Macro works well for switching between DW and shield useage.

/equipslot [noequipped:Shields] 17 shield name here; [equipped:Shields] 17 weapon name here

Why do you want to use a shield?
Because, against Warriors, rogues, hunters kiting, and feral druids, quite frankly it's the only way to survive. You want to be wearing your shield at all times, until you quickly switch to DW stance against the squishy classes!


DW + shield macro, or 2H weapon for PvP?
Resilience has all but killed the 2h strategy for PvP...you want to DW. You also want to DW with two slow weapons, 2.6 speed is ideal. There is a fantastic thread on elitist jerks to confirm DW and slow weapon speeds are the best.


Totems! What ones should I use?
You need to be using macros to drop your totems in PvP. Hunting and pecking with a mouse, or dropping each totem from an actionbar is too dam slow. Set up 4~5 totem macros so that you can drop the appropriate totem depending on the situation. Use the macro below on several buttons to set up a string of totems you want to drop in PvP. To change the totem you want to cast, simply type in the name of the desired totem you want to drop.

/castsequence reset=10 Wrath of Air Totem, Mana Spring Totem, Flametongue Totem, Tremor Totem


Simple PvP strategies against specific classes.

Rogue
These bastards are the bane of any enhancement shaman. Until you get a lot of resilience, be prepared to die to rogues, a lot. You should have your shield equipped against a rogue. Drop Stoneskin totem, GOA, Searing totem (or rank 1 magma), poison cleansing totem. You need to have your shield on to weather the initial stunlock. Trinket the BLIND. Try not to let the rogue restealth, keep flameshock on him.

Priest
My #1 favorite target, I love purging all their buffs. You initially want Tremor down to counter the psychic scream. Purge everything they do, time your earthshocks. You should be in thier face and hacking away with DW. Once they have used psychic scream, you can drop SOE, GOA for more DPS since their fear is on a long cooldown.

Mages
Another of my favorites! Get grounding and earthbind down and beat on them with DW! Purge molten armor, AI, save your earthshock for the big spells they cast. Most mages drop pretty easy, but frost can be a problem since they root you.

Hunters
Earthbind, rank 1 magma against snaketrap, GOA. Get in thier face and stay there, and swap out of shield stance once you get in range. Use frostshock and earthbind liberally, a hunter that can't kite will lose.

Warriors
A tough fight, you need to have your shield on to survive most MS warriors. They will spamstirng you, sometimes if you need to get away you can frostshock, run THROUGH the warrior, drop earthbind and GW to get away. If you have to fight, stoneskin, searing totem, goa should be down, use flameshock in close, frostshock to kite. Be prepared to trinket the shout fear they will use on you if it's not on cooldown. Try to run through the warrior, hit him with stormstrike as you do so, then frostshock and try to kite a bit.

Warlocks
Best to err on the side of caution against a warlock. Yuu need to have tremor down at all times! DW and try to stay in their face. The good ones will use skillcoil, wand your tremor totem, then fear spam you. Be prepared, hopefully your trinket will be up so you can get out of fear.

Paladins
Depends on the spec if you want to DW or equip your shield. Purge is your friend against paladins, apply liberally! Have grounding totem down to absorb the HoJ stuns. Agaisnt lolrets, use your shield, against other specs its best to do as much damage as you can. When they bubble, heal yourself, or run away if you have to. Earthbind, searing are also good to have down if you can.

Druids
Another tough class for an enhancement shaman to beat. Feral druids will tear you apart, resto druds will spamheal and shapeshift your snares. Treat ferals like you would a warrior use your shield, against resto, well...good luck killing one.

Shaman
Elemental shamans can be TOTALLY dominated by an enhancent shaman. DW, have grounding down for the initial EM+NS chain lightning. Strength of earth, searing, get up in their face, your DW attacks will slow their LB casts. Time your earthshocks. Against an enhancement shaman, I sometimes use a shield to whittle them down, then switch to DW. Resto shammies can be tough to kill, but keep purging earthshield, interrupt the big heals. They take a while to kill but it can be done.



Edited, May 19th 2008 1:09am by Taurrus

Wow, your strategies need work. I saw maybe one reference to the #1 totem in shaman PvP: Grounding.

Against a rogue, you should be using Earthbind if you're Flame Shocking, there's no question about that. If the rogue uses evasion or ghostly strike, switch to using frost shock to kite them, and redropping poison cleansing frequently.

Use GW to kite on evasion; it does no good to stand there while the rogue beats the **** out of you.

Rework your strategies, please. They're not very good at all.

nice edit, saved yourself a world of pain there.

Says Theo, who has never contributed anything meaningful to the shaman forums to date.

Too bad it's purge-able. Against a rogue maybe, but even in GW... if they have crippling poison, a GW isn't going to get away. Oh, and then a rogue can use deadly throw or the intercept move thing they have... oh or sprint.

Yeah!!! Use GW! You'll be fine *sarcasm*