PvE Enhancement Shaman

Enhancement Shaman is going to maintain a similar playstyle with a focus on maximum uptime of abilities and a priority system. Our brawly Shaman friends have taken the tragedy of the Cataclysm and learned how to better communicate with the elements and amp their power up, making them quite the force to be reckoned with.

Changes in Mists of Pandaria

One of the most noticeable changes is there’s a huge overhaul to how our totems work. A lot of totems are removed outright, including our iconic Windfury Totem. Most of the buffs our totems would provide have either been collapsed into passives such as our new Burning Wrath and Grace of Air, or are more self-focused coming from stuff like our Windfury Weapon enhancement. The Fire Elemental Totem and Earth Elemental Totem will also see a halving of cooldown as well as duration to make it more viable to cast more than once during a fight for added DPS value.

There’s also been quite a few changes to basically every one of our utility totems. Things like Earthbind Totem and Grounding Totem have had their durations shortened, and cooldowns increased. Other totems such as Elemental Resistance Totem, Manaspring Totem, Stoneclaw Totem, and Totem of Tranquil Mind have been removed.

While a lot of low-impact utility has been removed, there are several totems being added that compensate for this. You’ll see our CC package now includes things like Capacitor Totem and Earthgrab Totem (If you choose the talent at this tier). While we have Windwalk Totem, Healing Tide Totem, and Stormlash Totem as raid-wide utility options.

Our rotation is going to be similar and should feel fairly at home with a couple of adjustments. We do gain a large 3-min cooldown in Ascendance, though. Ascendance is probably the coolest addition to Enhancement Shamans this expansion as it morphs us into an unbound elemental and gives a massive DPS increase to our Stormstrikes.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

• Strong Burst Windows
  We have Ascendance, Elemental Mastery as a potential talent option, our Fire Elemental Totem, and less-so our Feral Spirits as well. If you combine these cooldowns with Lust/Hero you have quite the opener and will need to watch your aggro so you don’t skyrocket past the tank’s threat and get blown up.
  
• Good Group Utility
  Between the passives of Burning Wrath and Grace of Air for just existing in a raid you’ll be a great addition. Of course we always have Heroism/Bloodlust, but we won’t be the only ones with a haste effect. There are also several totems such as Earthgrab Totem, Stormlash Totem, and Windwalk Totem that will have their niche to become powerful tools in the hands of the right group.
  
• Powerful Off-Healing
  Not only will you be able to use Maelstrom stacks to for large Healing Surge casts in a pinch, but something like Ancestral Guidance is a large enough amount of healing to be considered a raid-cooldown for moments of heavy raid-damage. You’ll also have your Healing Stream Totem for a small amount of somewhat consistent healing over the course of a fight.

Weaknesses

• Difficult to Pick-Up at First
  Due to Enhancement not being so much a static rotation and more of a priority system it can be a bit difficult to understand at first. Add in procs, burst windows, and totem management into the equation and it could quickly get overwhelming when dealing with mechanics during a fight.
  
• Gear Dependent
  You’ll need to hit a 7.5% Hit and Expertise cap or lose out on a ton of damage. On top of that Mastery is going to affect how hard your spells hit, and Haste will not only increase your attack speed – but will also increase your proc rates and lower the GCD once it reaches a certain point. You always want to be pressing buttons and have as little downtime as possible, which is harder to do when you don’t have the haste to support this playstyle.
  
• Being Out of Melee Hurts Damage Severely
  Less melee hits, less procs, less windfury, less maelstrom, etc. Our damage is more slow and consistent outside of big cooldown burst windows, and so you want maximum uptime as every key press not being utilized is a large decrease in damage potential. Also, while we have instant Ghost Wolf and Spirit Walk as mainline skills now, there’s nothing available quite as clean as a Warrior’s charge to get back into melee if we’re forced out of it.

Best Races

 Horde

Horde has the most race options if you choose to be a Shaman. In the past Troll has been the easy choice for best DPS gains from traits with their miniature lust in the form of Berserking. While Troll is likely still a strong choice, I’d argue that Orc is now the top choice for a Horde Shaman. With Enhancement burst windows being a bit more important than in the past something like Blood Fury will monumentally increase damage by double dipping in both Attack Power and Spell Power. To add onto this Orcs will also have a bonus 1% Expertise rating to Axes, which is an easy weapon choice to work around and a large relief towards hitting the Expertise cap.

• Orc: Blood Fury, Axe Specialization, Hardiness, Command
• Troll: Berserking, Da Voodoo Shuffle, Regeneration, Beast Slaying, Bow Specialization, Throwing Specialization
• Tauren: Endurance, Cultivation, Nature Resistance, War Stomp
• Goblin: Time is Money, Rocket Barrage, Rocket Jump, Best Deals Anywhere, Better Living Through Chemistry, Pack Hobgoblin
• Pandaren: Bouncy, Epicurean, Gourmand, Inner Peace, Quaking Palm

 Alliance

Your options for an Alliance Shaman are sadly a lot more limited, but with the addition of Pandarens being a neutral race you’ll at least have one solid option for an increase to DPS. The Epicurean racial trait that Pandarens have provides an increase to your main stat derived from food buffs, giving you essentially a permanent stat boost as long as you keep it up. Both the Dwarf and Draenei racial traits offer little in the way of DPS gains with just Heroic Presence offering a bonus to Hit rating and Mace Specialization offering a 1% bonus to Expertise when using maces.

• Draenei: Gift of the Naaru, Heroic Presence, Shadow Resistance, Gemcutting
• Dwarf: Stoneform, Explorer, Mace Specialization, Gun Specialization, Frost Resistance
• Pandaren: Bouncy, Epicurean, Gourmand, Inner Peace, Quaking Palm