WoW Wrath Classic: Enhancement Shaman PvE Guide (WotLK)

Table of Contents

Shaman PvE Specialization Guides

Enhancement Shaman Basics

The Enhancement Shaman is a fierce competitor on the battlefield, harnessing the power of the elements. In WoW: Wrath Classic they provide a wide range of utility with their skills and totems, and they can dish out some serious damage when needed. They fair pretty well in terms of Damage potential and in some cases are top-tier.

This guide is primarily focused on level 80 end-game content and will be updated with more information for the duration of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Enh Shamans are physical and spell damage dealers in melee range, but can also do well in encounters that require some ranged spell damage too. They have fairly decent Area of Effect damage now with Fire Nova and Chain Lightning with Maelstrom Weapon procs.

While they do have the ability to heal, it's not going to be a priority as they are not well-equipped for that in the long run.

As far as which race you should choose, we discuss it in more detail in our Shaman Class Guide. Many Horde players choose Orc for the Expertise rating from Axe Specialization, but the Troll Haste buff racial, Berserking, is also a good choice. For the Alliance, Draenei is the only option.

Talents For Enhancement Shaman WotLK

These are the talents that most players choose for Enhancement Shamans in terms of maximum damage output, the glyphs have a higher focus on Area of Effect damage. We've highlighted a commonly seen variation that depends on your raid composition.

Talent Tree Tool provided by wowhead.com/wotlk/talent-calc/shaman

Variation

• Improved Windfury Totem: Increases the melee haste buff from 16% to 20%. Frost Death Knights will have Improved Icy Talons to provide this (Sometimes Blood Death Knights do too). If your raid does not have this buff then remove points from Shamanistic Focus and Improved Stormstrike. These only provide mana efficiency and your raid would be better equipped with the 4% melee buff than the reduced damage from being Out of Mana sometimes.

Best Enhancement Shaman Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Stormstrike is a flat damage boost. Glyph of Flametongue Weapon provides more spell damage, which is crucial for AoE as it is imbued to both weapons. Glyph of Fire Nova reduces the cooldown of Fire Nova.

Changes to the Glyphs in the AoE build above to make it a strictly Single-Target focus it would be worthwhile to make these changes:

1. Glyph of Flametongue Weapon changes to Glyph of Windfury Weapon, and
2. Glyph of Fire Nova changes to Glyph of Feral Spirit.

Minor Glyphs

Minor Glyphs don't have any significant impact on Enhancement Shaman's performance.

• Glyph of Renewed Life has some implications for raids, as it makes sure you never run out of Ankhs to cast Reincarnation during a battle.
• Glyph of Ghost Wolf is nice to have for downtime between fights.
• Glyph of Astral Recall is a quality of life improvement if you need to often get back to the hearthstone location, say to look for another party member.
• The remaining choices not shown above are between Glyph of Water Walking and Glyph of Water Breathing which both removes the reagent requirement for the respective skills.

Stat Priority For Enhancement Shaman in Wrath

Enhancement Shamans have a hybrid of damage consisting of physical melee and spells; largely nature. They benefit greatly from Hit Rating due to selecting the talent Dual Wield. It's not important to reach the 24% cap for Off-Hand hits, but at the very least they should have 8% and aim for 13-14%. The Spell Hit Rating cap is 17%.

Enh should always maintain an Expertise rating of 26.

Both Melee and Spell damage scale with Attack Power. Haste is also important to generate more stacks of Maelstrom Weapon, aim for anything above 16% Haste Rating. Armor Penetration is less important as it will only benefit the physical damage.

Finally, Agility improves Crit Rating and Attack Power but is less important than the others listed here

Skill Rotation For Enhancement Shaman in Wrath Classic

Before the fight begins make sure that you have Windfury Weapon imbued on the Main Hand and Flametongue Weapon imbued on the Off-Hand. (For Multi-Target imbue both weapons with Flametongue Weapon) Lightning Shield has 3 stacks, and that the correct Totems for your group are placed. Make sure to refresh these throughout the fight if they have ended or the group has moved away from your totems.

Totems

• Strength of Earth Totem
• Mana Spring Totem
• Windfury Totem (or Wrath of Air Totem if there is a Death Knight with Improved Icy Talons)
• Fire Totem: Use once in melee range
  • Fire Elemental Totem, Magma Totem, or Searing Totem (Single-Target)

There isn't a static rotation that Enhancement Shamans use, instead, it is a priority of skills to use whenever they are off cooldown. The caveat to this is using Lightning Bolt upon acquiring 5 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon or Chain Lightning if in a Muli-Target scenarios. If you have 4 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon and Stormstrike is available it would be wise to consume the stacks as you don't want to miss out on extra stacks potentially generated from using Stormstrike.

Single-Target

1. Flame Shock (and maintain the debuff on the target)
2. Feral Spirit
3. Fire Elemental Totem
4. Stormstrike
5. Earth Shock
6. Lava Lash
7. Fire Nova*

Multi-Target

In Multi-Target scenarios Fire Nova takes precedent over Stormstrike in the skill prioritization. Note that AoE damage comes entirely from Spell Power, if you swap your Main Hand Weapon to one with Spell Power it will provide a significant damage boost.

Consumables For Raids

• Flask:
  1. Flask of Endless Rage for Single-Target or Flask of the Frost Wyrm for Mult-Target
  2. Alternatives: Wrath Elixir, Elixir of Mighty Agility, or Elixir of Accuracy

• Food Buff:
  1. Fish Feast
  2. Alternatives: Great Feast, Mega Mammoth Meal, or Dalaran Clam Chowder

• Potions:
  1. Potion of Speed
  2. Alternative: Potion of Wild Magic

• Scrolls: Scroll of Agility VIII

Best Gems For Enhancement Shaman

As far as gems are concerned, follow the stat priority explained previously. Attack Power should always go in a Red Slot. Hit Rating or Haste for Yellow Slots. And in order to activate the Meta Gem use a Prismatic Gem or Balanced prefix Gem for the Blue Slot

Enhancement Shamans that have Jewelcrafting (350) should use 3 Bright Dragon's Eye when possible.

Blacksmithing (400) provides two additional sockets with Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves as well.

Best Enchants For Enhancement Shaman

The Enchants that require a specific profession should always take precedent over the above, they are as follows:

*The buff from the Tailoring cloak enchant stacks with the buff from the Berserking weapon enchant.

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Best In Slot (BiS) Gear Pre-Raid For Enhancement Shaman in WotLK

Main-Hand Slot

*These are BiS options to swap to AoE encounters as the majority of your damage comes from spell damage.

Off-Hand Slot

Relic Slot

Head Slot

Neck Slot

Shoulders Slot

Cloak

Chest

Bracers

Gloves

Waist

Legs

Boots

Rings

Trinkets