Enhancement 4 life

So, as all of u enhancement freaks know, it's the best spec out there, of all time...if u don't like healing or pewpew lightningbolts :p

As of Wotlk, there's been few real changes to how enhancement shamans work, but the changes there were, were quite significant to how to decently play an enh shammy.

For example, in TBC, Hit rating was the last stat to take into account when getting new gear, as long as u were around 100 hit rating, u were just fine. This has changed coz of the merging of spell hit and crit and such.

So now, u want to actually hit something with ur Maelstrom weapon procs and you're level 80? The number u need to go for is 341, since this apparently is the hit cap for spells. For those among you that have done some sniffling themselves, u might say "hey, man, nab, wtf, hit cap is 367" and you would be right, except for the fact I'm talking about Alliance Shamans and only draenei, with +1% hit racial can be shamans...so njenje.

Also, there's alot of talk about wielding a faster OH beeing better than 2 slow weapons now that FT has become viable again. In few words: "it's a myth". In somewhat more words:
If u can't get ur hands on a slow OH weapon, go ahead, screw up ur dps and all that, but I imagine it won't be that hard to get a slower OH weapon. The best option still is 2 slow weapons, coz of Stormstrike and Lava Lash. This of course doesn't apply for ppl that have a slow 100 dps OH and find a 150 fast OH, the 150 dps one will still be better, but when u find urself having to choose between around the same dps weapons, choose the slower one. I've also found that going below 2.3 speed is not a good deal, just saying.

Weapon Enchants:
If u knew what u were doing before Wotlk, u'd be enchanting both ur MH and OH with WF and would've called everyone u saw running around with a FT enchant, a nab...I know I did. It might be in your best interest to not do this anymore, coz having WF on MH and FT on OH is now the way to go. This is purely coz of maelstrom weapon and such.


This is just a small post about how to get started at 80 as enh shaman, if ur anything near decent, u'll know what I've just said. I'm not putting any calculations in this post coz, frankly, I can't be bothered and if u really wanna break ur head over charts and such, u'd just go to elitist jerks, which is where I get most of my information. For any questions, u can just ask me in-game (Torruco or Tharnon).

Truefax

Dont forget that you need a cap of expertise aswell.. 5% was it i think. around 200 expertise rating

There's a cap of expertise rating, but as a mail-wearing class, there's not alot of options to get that exp cap together, besides the 80ish expertise u can get with the armor alone, haven't checked the trinkets and such yet, but I've noticed there are a few dps trinks with exp on them, will have to get back to you about the max u'll be able to get with lvl 80 items

ok, found that the actual cap is 205 or 6.25% at level 80. This could be easier to accomplish than I originally thought. Since quite a bit of expertise items are found among trinks, rings and necklaces.

So shamans, go all out and ninja that loot ^^

Torruco wrote:Also, there's alot of talk about wielding a faster OH beeing better than 2 slow weapons now that FT has become viable again. In few words: "it's a myth". In somewhat more words:
If u can't get ur hands on a slow OH weapon, go ahead, screw up ur dps and all that, but I imagine it won't be that hard to get a slower OH weapon. The best option still is 2 slow weapons, coz of Stormstrike and Lava Lash. This of course doesn't apply for ppl that have a slow 100 dps OH and find a 150 fast OH, the 150 dps one will still be better, but when u find urself having to choose between around the same dps weapons, choose the slower one. I've also found that going below 2.3 speed is not a good deal, just saying.

Both are viable.
Its true, SS and LL will both hit for more with a slower weapon, but it IS also true that FT on the offhand with a silly fast weapon is ridiculous damage too.
Im not saying one is better than the other, but you dismiss fast offhands as being disgustingly terrible, when in fact both options are perfectly acceptable.

To quote EJ:
A slow OH with FT will produce more LL and SS damage, but will do less damage from the FT proc. A fast weapon will produce the opposite effect. In the end, FT allows the use of either a slow or a fast weapon with no major difference in DPS potential

Running my own simulators, the fast weapon only needs ~15dps more than a slow weapon to provide superior dps

I'm not saying it's disgusting, just saying if u have a choice, take the slow weapon, coz 100% weapon damage of lava lash will always hurt more with a slow OH than with a fast OH, and LL still has a 6 sec CD. If it weren't for the CD and it was spammable, I'd agree with a fast OH beeing better or as good as a slow one.

I might've overstated it with "screwing up ur dps", but it's right or wrong in my world, no grey areas :p

if it was spammable it would favour a slow weapon even more than a fast one, the fact that it isnt spammable is what makes the fast acceptable.

SS and LL = slow offhand

Auto attacks = fast offhand

I'm really not convinced by the fact that a fast weapon would be equally good or only marginally worse...since FT still scales with the speed of ur weapon...although u might get higher FT dps from a faster weapon, I can't be too sure about it, but since u seem to be pretty confident of it, I'll just trust u :p

and yeh, if LL was spammable, a slower weapon would idd benefit more, my bad...reaching the 12 hour work barrier

Torruco wrote:I'm really not convinced by the fact that a fast weapon would be equally good or only marginally worse...since FT still scales with the speed of ur weapon...although u might get higher FT dps from a faster weapon, I can't be too sure about it, but since u seem to be pretty confident of it, I'll just trust u :p

and yeh, if LL was spammable, a slower weapon would idd benefit more, my bad...reaching the 12 hour work barrier

FT hits for the same amount regardless of the speed of your weapon, this would make it do essentially double damage on 1.5s compared to a theoretical 3s swing speed. Speeds not including flurry ofc.

yeh, saw that too, kinda silly, might as well just say in FT description that it doesn't matter on what speed weapon u have :p

when you have a fast OH you get more hits so a higher chance on a 5 mealstrom stack, so you can cast more more often instant LB's or CL's (if you dont have mana problems). But I would go for a slow OH if the dps is equal to the fast OH. Even, if you have specced Static shock and you have a fast OH, you have more hits so more relatively same amount of hits from lightning shield, but absolutely you have more hits from it, because you will hit more often, if you get my point

Doggysstylow wrote: when you have a fast OH you get more hits so a higher chance on a 5 mealstrom stack, so you can cast more more often instant LB's or CL's (if you dont have mana problems). But I would go for a slow OH if the dps is equal to the fast OH. Even, if you have specced Static shock and you have a fast OH, you have more hits so more relatively same amount of hits from lightning shield, but absolutely you have more hits from it, because you will hit more often, if you get my point

maelstorm is actually on a 'proc per minute' basis, which essentially means slower weapons have a higher chance to proc, and faster weapons have a lower chance, essnetially resulting in the same number of procs per minute. the difference being a slower weaponn is more likely to maelstorm proc on a stormstrike than a faster weapon is.

static shield however, is a pure chance on melee hit, thus being better on faster weapons.

Elitist Jerks wrote:Flametongue Weapon

Flametongue has become much more viable due to the merging of Hit and Crit rating into a universal rating. Flametongue is now capable of performing as well or better than Windfury on the Off Hand in most cases. Flametongue scales best on a fast weapon because of the flat 10% spell damage coefficient across weapon speeds, but fast weapons interact poorly with Lava Lash. Fast Weapons are still viable in the OH though, as long as the fast weapon will be a significant stat and DPS upgrade over your currently equipped weapon, to outweigh the loss to Lava Lash through the gains in Flametongue DPS.

You will need to pick your weapons correctly and run proper simulators to see what is better. If you drop a slow off hand for a fast one hoping that it's speed mixed with the FT DPS will compensate the lost of base damage, make sure you run the simulators or you might be disappointed.

At iLvL 213, most of the items share very similar weapon stats but the slower weapons still have better base damage output.

http://www.wowhead.com/?items=2&filter=qu=4;sl=13;ty=15:13:4;minle=213;maxle=213;cr=32;crs=1;crv=150#0-10+1

Good Luck!