Best Raiding SpecFollow

So to shorten up your post, basically what you want to know is, which spec will make me top meters?

Edit: Most classes have been homogenized to where multiple classes can bring the same thing to the table. Blizz has made a pretty clear stance on "bring the player not the class". So, aside from bloodlust/heroism and the versatility of totems, you are pretty much right there with the rest of the DPS and healing classes.

Side note: kind of silly, but you bring to the table that your the only spell casting class that wears mail(if you go elemental or resto, if you go enhance you just ***** some hunters, no biggie). So you will bring less competition for other classes for gear rolls. That's something isn't it.

Edited, Mar 25th 2009 3:03pm by SynnTastic

Don't know what to tell you mate. Everything I have seen leans far more on player inadequacies rather than class inadequacies.

I'm not accusing you of being a poor player, so before flying off the handle let me explain.

I could see this being a concern if you were in a hardcore raiding guild, where you were min/maxxing trying to get the best possible set-up for ulduar having cleared all the content and achievements. But, you guys haven't cleared EoE 25 yet, so it shouldn't be much of a min/max case.

Which makes me suspect that, you are probably having problems with that fight. Most peoples initial reaction to a fight like that, when they can't clear it is that the DPS is too low, we need to replace DPS. I mean the fight has a hard enrage, so low DPS must be the reason why we are hitting the enrage timer right? Meanwhile, the real cause of your raid not being able to down Maly is that you aren't properly stacking sparks, which results in being in phase 1 too long. But blaming people with low DPS is much easier, since there is a visual after the fight. But in the end I am just guessing at potential issues, it could be you, it could be your gear, it could be anything, like poorly placed blame.

Only thing we can do is look at your armory, tell you where to improve. If you aren't able to pull your weight, it could very well be you or your gear, or you may be absolutely fine, and some things are just going wrong with the raid and you are the target of frustration. I've never seen a shaman(elemental or enhance) not able to pull their weight against equally skilled, equally geared players. That isn't to say I haven't seen other classes and players beat them on the meters, but I've never seen them so far out of the running for the top to make it noticeable.



Edited, Mar 25th 2009 4:55pm by SynnTastic

Absolutely right.

As elemental, you should be close to the other DPS. Maybe you won't be topping the charts but you shouldn't be more than a few hundred DPS behind the others which shouldn't make a big difference in the long run.

For resto, healer are always in high demand and resto shaman are pretty good raid healer so a raid should always have a spot for you as resto.

Can't really comment on enhancement since I never raid with that spec.


Edit to add: I've noticed a trend lately with elemental shaman. They seem to think that hit rating is a melee stats exclusively. If you are not hit cap, it might be the reason why you are far behind in DPS. We had another ele shaman in our naxx10 last week, in T7.5, way better geared than me but he was 1.5k DPS behind. His hit rating was 34.

Edited, Mar 25th 2009 4:01pm by feelz

My outdated sig states that I have the required 263 for 25 man content, but in situations where there is no spriest or boomkin to add the 3% I have trinkets so supplement the necessary hit to stay capped.

I made that mistake earlier though, went into my first 10 naxx as a pug with a friends guild and one guy whispered me what my hit was at... my response was "what’s that" I humbly admit to not knowing all and that’s why im here on the boards trying to learn more. Two days after that I learned my hit cap, trained my roommates in it and also sponsored my guild, through my Jewelcrafting, in +16 hit gems to make sure others were capped also.

Let's get back to the original topic at hand:


SynnTastic seems to be dancing all around the answer but unless I missed it he never just came right out with it and you don't quite seem to be picking up on his subtle hints, so here it is: there is no spec of Shaman, not even Resto, that is going to guarantee you a raid slot.

Blizzard's mantra since WotLK has been "bring the player, not the class". In that they've been fairly successful. There are very, very few things that any one class can bring that another can not. In fact, Shaman actually have one of those very rare things in Heroism/Bloodlust.

The bottom line is, switching specs is not going to guarantee you a raid slot. Switching classes won't either, so I don't recommend you go do that either. There is no where else you can go that is going to make you a unique and beautiful snowflake. The only things that are going to decide whether or not you attend a raid beyond your guild's commitment to you is the role that is needed (I.E. healer, DPS, or tank), and the quality of play you are capable of exhibiting within that role.

If you want to really distinguish yourself, I would recommend nothing more than polishing your skills.

Thank you for your comments. I appreciate the comments, altho it hasn't cleared up my situation. I guess I will stay pat and see what Ulduar brings. I can always feel good about having two epic sets of gear and knowing that I will own dual-spec and only improve my versatility :)