So I decided to try my hand at enhancement for farmed raid content (Kara mostly) and would like know get help/suggestions for spell rotations and so forth to maximize my dps. I do not currently have all of the enchants I want as some of my gear still sucks and I don't want to waste the gold. Please feel free to look at my armory and comment...i'm looking for what kind of numbers I should see for dps.
Thanks for any input.
- Forums
- World of Warcraft
- Class Discussion
- Enhancement Shaman Question
Enhancement Shaman QuestionFollow
Your gear isn't too bad. Except your wrists. Those bracers are terrible. The rings need serious improving too, but at least you understand your class by your choices.
I'd expect you could run between 400-500 dps depending on the raid build. You are not enchanted or gemmed properly at all for anything beyond Karazhan, and were I your guild leader I wouldn't let you come to any thing beyond that with that gear simply because you have no proc buffs.
One easy upgrade for you is to get the Stonecaller Totem for badges in Shattrath. 110 AP on proc is pretty easy AP. And get the +STR vendor gems. Also, put +15 STR on the T4 gloves. They are probably going to last you a while unless you Arena for the S4 ones. I'd also splurge on Mongoose for the Decapitator and move it to your MH. It'll make you hit alot harder.
Your main problem is that you have way too much INT, and too little STR. BoK = huge bonus for Enhance in raids.
I'd expect you could run between 400-500 dps depending on the raid build. You are not enchanted or gemmed properly at all for anything beyond Karazhan, and were I your guild leader I wouldn't let you come to any thing beyond that with that gear simply because you have no proc buffs.
One easy upgrade for you is to get the Stonecaller Totem for badges in Shattrath. 110 AP on proc is pretty easy AP. And get the +STR vendor gems. Also, put +15 STR on the T4 gloves. They are probably going to last you a while unless you Arena for the S4 ones. I'd also splurge on Mongoose for the Decapitator and move it to your MH. It'll make you hit alot harder.
Your main problem is that you have way too much INT, and too little STR. BoK = huge bonus for Enhance in raids.
Yeah, my epic gear is just stuff I picked up farming Kara as resto...the rest of the gear is just filler until I can complete my set from Kara. After my op I read that strength is better than attack power due to the bonus from BoK. I'll be regemming for strength and replacing my assault enchant on gloves with brawn...4 more AP in the end, and 3 more strength with BoK.
I think I just had the decapitator on OH because my skill was lower than maces and never changed it once I skilled up.
When you say "vendor gems" are you talking about the gem vendor in HP? Or is there another one I don't know about?
It's good to know the 400-500 dps mark you mentioned...I thought I was doing something wrong. I think I was running about 450 or so before enchants and gems (and no totems), and with changing those out I'll see what I hitting then...with totems included I think I see a difference. I also need a new trinket.
Thanks for the input!
I think I just had the decapitator on OH because my skill was lower than maces and never changed it once I skilled up.
When you say "vendor gems" are you talking about the gem vendor in HP? Or is there another one I don't know about?
It's good to know the 400-500 dps mark you mentioned...I thought I was doing something wrong. I think I was running about 450 or so before enchants and gems (and no totems), and with changing those out I'll see what I hitting then...with totems included I think I see a difference. I also need a new trinket.
Thanks for the input!
Elitist Jerks wrote:
Core Mechanic Changes
First major change that will affect all classes is that Spell and Melee Hit, Crit, and Haste ratings are being unified. (eg, Crit rating now affects spells and melee at the same rate) As a result we can expect that Enhancement shaman will be able to cap spell hit and gain plenty of spell crit, making Shocks a much more significant source of damage.
Second, Windfury Totem has been changed to 16% Haste (20% with talents) and made raid-wide, completely removing the need to twist totems.
And the major class change is that Strength and Agility now grant 1 Attack Power each, and Agility now grants Crit at a 40:1 ratio. This change greatly increases the value of Agility, while also greatly reducing the value of Strength.
Combined, these changes will completely alter how Enhancement Shaman gear. Focus will likely be on reaching Spell Hit cap and then stacking Attack Power and Agility enchants/gems. Mail gear becomes extremely attractive because of the Intellect -> AP talents and Agility -> AP conversion.
First major change that will affect all classes is that Spell and Melee Hit, Crit, and Haste ratings are being unified. (eg, Crit rating now affects spells and melee at the same rate) As a result we can expect that Enhancement shaman will be able to cap spell hit and gain plenty of spell crit, making Shocks a much more significant source of damage.
Second, Windfury Totem has been changed to 16% Haste (20% with talents) and made raid-wide, completely removing the need to twist totems.
And the major class change is that Strength and Agility now grant 1 Attack Power each, and Agility now grants Crit at a 40:1 ratio. This change greatly increases the value of Agility, while also greatly reducing the value of Strength.
Combined, these changes will completely alter how Enhancement Shaman gear. Focus will likely be on reaching Spell Hit cap and then stacking Attack Power and Agility enchants/gems. Mail gear becomes extremely attractive because of the Intellect -> AP talents and Agility -> AP conversion.
I was just reading this on EJ and it looks like strength will be much crappier in the expansion...agility seems like a much better option. Thoughts?
Quote:
I was just reading this on EJ and it looks like strength will be much crappier in the expansion...agility seems like a much better option. Thoughts?
Ok this is kind oof obvious YES in expansion or whenever they change this to shaman class it will be AGL>STR
basically str will give 1 ap and what shield bonus...
agl will provide 1 ap and its going to also boost armor, dodge and more importantly crit
major downfall to this new change is strength no longer gives 2 ap, agl will probably require about double the amount to provide a 1% crit like rogues and hunters.
This is still over all a huge buff it means we get to stack any gear with agl as a shaman and it is good for us, a lot of agl gear. Agl gear generally comes with more ap, stam and also int which is going to be great when change goes through.
lets have a look at these to helms and compare:
http://thottbot.com/i29040
at the moment T4 helm gives 72 ap in the expansion it will provide 90
even better lets take a look at a piece that actually is better for us when expansion hits
http://thottbot.com/i28671
at the moment this helm sucks it provides an awesome 62 ap and no meta which is what really puts it behind the T4 but the stats here in the expansion are just what we want. this will provide 132 ap in expansion so ideally we want hunter gear for enhancement in expansion.
As far as gearing up until the x-pac hits you can follow the advise already given.
For an attack/spell rotation I normally do this:
Stay behind the tank and wait until you see him make his first swing at the first target mob. Proceed to then run around behind that mob and get directly behind before turning on auto attack. This will give your tank enough time to get in some good threat just in case your first attack happens to be a uber wtfpwnz windfury triple crit followed by an offhand crit :P
Once you're behind the mob and have auto attack on you obviously wanna keep an eye on threat but to optimize when threat isn't an issue I stormstrike immediately and then fire shock, when shock is off CD I earth shock. At this point stormstrike is up again so I use it and refresh fire shock, earth shock again. Rinse and repeat on each mob.
Don't forget to use the correct fire totem for the occasion depending on CC, tank threat generation on multiples, etc.
Feel free to check my armory. I leveled 1-70 as elemental and respec'd to enhance about 2-1/2 months ago. Most of my gear is crap I picked up as elemental along the way with a few choice pieces since then. My trinkets are crap since I haven't gotten mats for alchemist stone yet and keep not having time to pick up that core trinket. Your gear gives you about the same Attack power as me, with a little more crit.
Since I am normally in the tank/melee group I drop Agil/Strength/Mana/Magma(or searing)
I expected to run around 450-500dps with the gear I had, but have been pleasantly suprised. I actually ran 700dps on our last Kara run. It's really about being on the cooldowns of your abilities and switching quickly between mobs as targets go down.
*NOTE: The group I was in while doing 700 dps in Kara consisted of a feral druid (+5% crit) a fury warrior (+300ish attack power most of the time) myself always dropping strength/agil totems, Hunter ( +3% damage most of the time) and resto druid. I was buffed with Salv, Imp MotW and Elixir of Major Agility.
For an attack/spell rotation I normally do this:
Stay behind the tank and wait until you see him make his first swing at the first target mob. Proceed to then run around behind that mob and get directly behind before turning on auto attack. This will give your tank enough time to get in some good threat just in case your first attack happens to be a uber wtfpwnz windfury triple crit followed by an offhand crit :P
Once you're behind the mob and have auto attack on you obviously wanna keep an eye on threat but to optimize when threat isn't an issue I stormstrike immediately and then fire shock, when shock is off CD I earth shock. At this point stormstrike is up again so I use it and refresh fire shock, earth shock again. Rinse and repeat on each mob.
Don't forget to use the correct fire totem for the occasion depending on CC, tank threat generation on multiples, etc.
Feel free to check my armory. I leveled 1-70 as elemental and respec'd to enhance about 2-1/2 months ago. Most of my gear is crap I picked up as elemental along the way with a few choice pieces since then. My trinkets are crap since I haven't gotten mats for alchemist stone yet and keep not having time to pick up that core trinket. Your gear gives you about the same Attack power as me, with a little more crit.
Since I am normally in the tank/melee group I drop Agil/Strength/Mana/Magma(or searing)
I expected to run around 450-500dps with the gear I had, but have been pleasantly suprised. I actually ran 700dps on our last Kara run. It's really about being on the cooldowns of your abilities and switching quickly between mobs as targets go down.
*NOTE: The group I was in while doing 700 dps in Kara consisted of a feral druid (+5% crit) a fury warrior (+300ish attack power most of the time) myself always dropping strength/agil totems, Hunter ( +3% damage most of the time) and resto druid. I was buffed with Salv, Imp MotW and Elixir of Major Agility.
So it looks like for now, I will be switching out most of my gems for +strength gems. I put mongoose on my main hand and am working on getting the mats for the offhand too. I'll also put the strength enchants on my bracers and gloves, which will boost my strength by 50 (100 AP). Once the mechanic changes, I'll switch gems to agility.
Adding the enchants I have now and switching weapons boosted my dps from ~350 to ~510, but these numbers are on regular non-elite mobs so I don't know how reliable they are. Hopefully I can spend some time in Kara and get a better picture...and hopefully get another mongoose enchant by then. Should have enough for mats by then by doing the dailies.
Anyway, thanks for all the input!
Adding the enchants I have now and switching weapons boosted my dps from ~350 to ~510, but these numbers are on regular non-elite mobs so I don't know how reliable they are. Hopefully I can spend some time in Kara and get a better picture...and hopefully get another mongoose enchant by then. Should have enough for mats by then by doing the dailies.
Anyway, thanks for all the input!
So thanks for all the advice. I replaced some items of gear (ring, chest, trinket, totem) and fixed my gems and enchants and am using a better spell rotation. At the start of this thread I was getting about 400 dps and with these changes I seeing almost 700 dps. My goal isn't to be number one on dps, just want to do the best I can while bringing up the tank and rest of the dps in my group and not pulling threat. I did some research on totems and now know which airs to drop based on what type of tank there is (windfury for warrior, grace of air for druid, wrath of air for pally).
I see many have provided insight to your questions. but hopefully I can add in some personal experience with enhc shaman dps rotations.
1) Wait for tank to engage.
2) Drop your totems where you feel the fight will take place the most. Do not assume the engage point will be static.
3) The 4 secs used to place totems should be enough for the tank to gain threat. Approach the mob, flameshock when in range.
4) Spam your StormStrike button when you are nearing melee range.
5) Use Earthshock when the CD is up.
6) Alternate between Flame and earth shock. Use SS whenever it's up. Yes, you may find the SS & shock CD in sync at some point. Give priority to SS (personally I give priority to flameshock if it's not already on mob).
7) Do not wait for healers if you are taking aoe dmg. Heal yourself first with LHW (Chain heal if there are others nearby and you have the time) - Spam it if you have to. I consider this a dps rotation because 0 HP returns 0 dps.
8) Create a macro that uses a dps trinket with Shamanistic rage. Do not "save" it, use it whenever you can. With a 2 min CD, you should be able use it at least once every pull in raids.
9) ???
10) PROFIT!
1) Wait for tank to engage.
2) Drop your totems where you feel the fight will take place the most. Do not assume the engage point will be static.
3) The 4 secs used to place totems should be enough for the tank to gain threat. Approach the mob, flameshock when in range.
4) Spam your StormStrike button when you are nearing melee range.
5) Use Earthshock when the CD is up.
6) Alternate between Flame and earth shock. Use SS whenever it's up. Yes, you may find the SS & shock CD in sync at some point. Give priority to SS (personally I give priority to flameshock if it's not already on mob).
7) Do not wait for healers if you are taking aoe dmg. Heal yourself first with LHW (Chain heal if there are others nearby and you have the time) - Spam it if you have to. I consider this a dps rotation because 0 HP returns 0 dps.
8) Create a macro that uses a dps trinket with Shamanistic rage. Do not "save" it, use it whenever you can. With a 2 min CD, you should be able use it at least once every pull in raids.
9) ???
10) PROFIT!
To the OP, I would look at respeccing a bit. I was looking at your talents and see that you did not pick up mental quickness or improved weapon totems. I see that you have a hefty amount of AP. Mental quickness will reduce the cost of your shocks and increase the amount of damage that you do. Also, as you are raiding a lot, I bet the other melee toons in your party would be happy to see an increase in their DPS from the increased AP given by your WF totem. To pick up the 5 talent points needed for MQ and Imp Weap totem, I would drop the 5 points you put in anticipation. If the tank is doing a good job and your are watching your threat, you should not need the 5% bonus to dodge that anticipation gives.
I generally start dropping totems as soon as I see the tank pull a group. This gives the tank plenty of time to build up aggro. I then open with a flame shock, then SS, ES, refresh FS when it is up, and repeat. I hope this helps.
I generally start dropping totems as soon as I see the tank pull a group. This gives the tank plenty of time to build up aggro. I then open with a flame shock, then SS, ES, refresh FS when it is up, and repeat. I hope this helps.
Recent Visitors: 132
All times are in CST
Anonymous Guests (132)
- Forums
- World of Warcraft
- Class Discussion
- Enhancement Shaman Question
© 2024 Fanbyte LLC