Ahoy hoy folks Now since the NDA is lifted I can finally reveal the juicy bits that have been added so far and details regarding Enhancement shamans in the Burning Crusade

I'd first like to thank all the shamans that assisted me in finding data and finding the few DPS mods that were working ok.
I'll split this up into several sections for easy reading. :) Oggun if you're out there you're the freaking best man.

Itemization

PRAISE THRALL the problems plaguing itemization has been mostly solved. Just leveling from 60-63 in Hellfire Peninsula and Zangamarsh I found tons of Green Mail items and even a few blues with tons of +str, +stam, +crit, and +ap all over the damn place for most every slot. Tons of solid quested and craftable items that support the dual wield playstyle. Basically imagine Items like Scaled Sand Reaver leggings and the Runed Bloodstained Hauberk for every damn slot. yeah that good :D


The talents to improve +hit are spectacular in action and with the new +crit rating system I'm currently sitting at 31.35% chance to crit unbuffed! I actually GAINED more crit as a result of the new system. Awsome sauce. :) (I've just been informed this may be as a result of a bug with the charsheet, my apologies :( )

SOCKETED ITEMS HOLY GODS!

I can't believe I forgot to mention this!!!


Socketed Items are fan-freaking tastic as well I can't belive I forgot about them! Basically there are gems for almost any kind of stat you want to slap into an item. Low on mana? Heck slap in a gem to give you more int or mp/5. Need more +ap? A gem can do that too. Socketing is going to freaking rule for shamans as it opens up a plethora of itemization abilities that we never were able to get access to previously!

This is going to be huge for elemental and enhancement shamans alike I cannot stress how many awsome gem combos are out there.

Alrighty now on to the juicy Details

Mechanics

Ok then as it was mentioned earlier, each weapon can be enchanted independently although refreshing them is currently quite a pain. Windfury during alpha WAS doing the whole "one big attack counting as 2 attacks combined thing" HOWEVER it is now changed to two extra attacks. On page 8 I lay out the gritty details as it appears this post is reaching it's limit.

Currently I'm using a claw of the Black Drake MH and a green 2.00 OH Grunt's Axe crafted from Thrallmar. Not the best combo I know, but I wanted to simulate what a fairly good high end enh shammie would have on hand at the beginning of the expansion given the piss-poor itemization for enh shammies pre TBC. Using various DPS meters that unfortunately vacilated between working not working and suddenly reporting I was doing 10,000+ dps (o.0), I was able to finally get a good chunk of testing done on bosses, trash mobs and PVP in general.

Basically after about 6 Hours of Straight testing with the aformentioned combo of weapons I found out the following. Here is my CT profiles' link for an idea of the armor I was wearing when I did this.

http://www.ctprofiles.net/302078

Talent spec at this point was the following:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...00000000000000
Basically swap out sulfuras for those two weapons and you'll see what I was using, anyway on to the numbers!


Base overall DPS (Calculated over roughly 300 Level 60-63 Mobs Killed, A quested Level 65+ elite boss near the Pools of Agonar and going up against the Level 62-63 elites in Hellfire Citadel)

Base I was able to sustain minimum roughly 285+ dps at any given time without totems.

With Totems and Improved Battleshout I was able to regularly sustain 500+ DPS with numbers exceeding 500 if the fight was able to last at least 2 minutes (I'll explain this later)

Highest burst I saw was fully buffed against the Boss near the Pools of Aggonar I mentioned. I was able to break 834.7dps (I know it was just one encounter I know I know but it bears showing anyway :D ) for about 20 seconds when I popped an earthstrike-like trinket Called Bladefist's Breadth that gives you +200ap for 30 seonds and 2% crit that you get from a quest reward.

For the most part I was Stormstriking on almost every opportunity and throwing in frostshock or earthshock when I was soloing to take advantage of stormstrike. Threw in a heal every now and again, but that was the basic strategy.



Shamanistic Rage, Flurry and Unleashed Rage

These deserve their own section and for good reason

Unleashed Rage - I had NO problem whatsoever keeping this guy up even with the fact that windfury crits do not proc it. I was critting so damn often even with my fairly slow weapons that I was surprised if did not not proc. Granted having to be within 20 yards is annoying for fellow party members to receive the buff, but it is nice plus it's 10% POST buff ap so the ap bonus it gives is hella nice :D

Shamanistic Rage - HOLY CRAP and yes I will use all caps because this damn thing is awsome. This spell should really be renamed shammervate. You pair this spell on a 2 minute cool down and manage to take advantage of the full 30 seconds it's up (Read: Use against boss mobs) you basically have a full mana bar or close to full. I was actually shocked how much mana I was generating per hit with this thing. I really think the proc-rate is 20%+ because I was regenning mana ABSURDLY fast. You pair this ability with fast daggers and you could feasibly replace your mana bar twice over at least between heals, shocks and stormstrike. Keep in mind my mana pool in my updated DPS gear sits at about roughly 4k. Each swing restored a different amount of mana since it was fluctuating between Unleashed rage and moving in and out of range of totems so it was affecting how much +AP i had, but overally I was seeing between 148 to 200 mana being restored per hit. This was the spell that allowed me to break 500+dps on boss fights because I had more mana for shocks and stormstrike, the synergistic effect cannot be underestimated.


Flurry - Heh when WASN'T this thing up? I swear with dual-weild it might as well be a permanent ability. I would finish every fight virtually with the glowy red hands of doom it was hilarious in an awsome way.



Shamans in future Groups

If anything that makes me worried about these changes is that I think so many people will become dual wielding enhancement deathbots that finding a group may become a bit tougher for an enhancement shaman. I mean, the Unleashed Rage buff DOES NOT STACK with other shamans so having more than one Shaman is redundant as far as that is concerned, however I can definitely see Shamans being a viable, versatile DPS replacement in groups as well so I guess this will all balance out.

Aggro - In spite of all the goobieness I just posted, aggro is a major major problem with this new dual wield scenario. I was critting so much that if it weren't for my Prot tank partner Psychaotic wielding a Thunderfury even after 5 Sunders if he was not spamming revenge, Heroic strike and Shield bash, I would constantly steal aggro and this was without the standard Stormstrike+Earthshock combo. The crits, once they start running are just like fury warriors. Your flurry pops, your unleashed rage pops and suddenly your swinging faster doing more dps and constantly refreshing flurry all the while critting like freaking crazy. Enhancement shamans are going to have to learn very very quickly how to hold their DPS in line just like it was with big beefy 2h, the slow sustained DPS that we thought we were going to get has (thankfully/unthankfully) not been the case.


PVP

I unfortunately did not get to try PVP much as most of the People already PVPing were at the current level 67 level cap, but the few people I did pvp and duel against I found that dual wield performed respectably, but did not match (obviously) the sheer burst capabilities of the Sulfuras. I would say dual wield based on practically anecdotal and limited testing experience, approaches 60-80% of 2h's burst potential.

And those are the big things! Let me know what you all think and I'll do my best to edit in the details and answer questions.


Now to update my Enh Gear Guide......T_T.....

Ohhh and just an FYI

HAND OF EDWARD THE ODD IS NOW MAINHAND IN BC. No sexy offhand possibilities sadly....sell em now if you have em lying around they're gonna be pretty crappy come expansion unless you're going to be dual wiedling caster maces or something....which I could suppose could suffice for a newblet's first good caster mh


And you asked for em you got em!

Here's a shot of the nice dark nasty portal
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...206_032019.jpg

Here's a shot of me again with that Axe I was talking about
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...206_032044.jpg

Here's da stats
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...206_032101.jpg

Here's My Overall Stats, note the Char sheet is now updating my stats correctly
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...206_032109.jpg

WHY HALLO THAR PIT LORD WHAT YOU DOING HAR IN FRONT OF PORTAL!
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...206_032904.jpg

Another shot of the mayhem that's running as you walk into Hellfire
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...206_032911.jpg

Sexy sexy SEXY BLADEFIST'S BREADTH TRINKET!
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...206_085405.jpg

New Feet I found kinda neet
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...206_090624.jpg


Windfury in action testing with only Claw MH weapon
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...206_113941.jpg

Thanks for the info! Glad to see that Enh Shaman will be quite a valid way to play. How is your DPS comparing to Rogues/Fury Warriors?

Alrighty folks I'm heading to bed, if you got any more questions or comments keep posting and I'll try to get to them early tomorrow morning :D

Several questions:

1) Did Frostbrand/Flametongue change at all? When you enchant it, does it matter if you enchant it on MH or OH? Does it impact both weapons or only one?

2) The threat modifier has apparently been changed on Rockbiter. Does the threat modifier apply to just the OH (implying you enchant it to OH) or MH or both?

3) From your experience just grinding, what would you say is the best enchant/enchant combo?

4) Supposedly windfury procs are "yellow attacks" now. Did you run any kind of procwatch or anything to see if glancing blows and/or the missrate from DWing applies to the additional windfury hits?

5) What caused your critrate to go up by that amount? I had read that the "rating" converts 1% into 14 crit rating. Did it go up because the 1 to 14 rating applies to 70, or did they buff the ratings on any of your specific weapons?

6) You mentioned gobs of new gear to use. Are there new weapons that you've seen so far, that would be ideal to a shaman? Are they all attainable (including the craftable armor you've seen) early on into the 60-70 leveling grind or do they require a lot of materials? (Ex: Would I be able to jew out on buying the last few pieces of enhancement gear I want and replace them rapidly with BoE craftables, or would they take a lot of farming to craft?) If I got 2 Naxx 1Hers, would I be capable of replacing them for equal gear soon or are they still good so far?

Ah ok then so I did not catch that. :(

Nerts I'm gonna miss that

Well, this is Ogunn/oggie, and I don't THINK Greatcow will mind me hijacking. Please bitch if it's unwarented, this is just stuff I think I can answer as well as you...feel free to correct.

Used to go off MH speed, now goes off the speed of whichver weapon you enchant, 10% of your +damage. Otherwise, no change.

If you're going by my post that says I think the threat modifier has changed, I want to restate I think it has, rather than know it has. It definately adds more aggro MH, which consistant to based upon damage. It's a +damage/swing buff affected by offhand penalty so I'd think it's extra threat/damage, but I have no real testing to back that up.

With enhance gear, double WF. With FT or FB, some +damage gear seemed very effective.

Procwatch is still broken atm, but I never once saw a recorded glance or 'miss' on a WF proc. Anecdotal ONLY till we get some better logging mods working.


Display bug, see my post above.

As some else said in another thread entirely, not with ya on the ethnic slur, but yes most pieces are attainable. Simple grinding/questing seems to be most of it, though naxx gear tends to be in the 65+ range, especially weapons (my highest dps 1hander is 63, a blue). So far there's nothing expcetional craftable, though there are more than a few questables and a fair share of every other sort.


I found it at about 80-85%.

<3 the way you talk, I swear...

See you in game soon (now that my friends list can REMEMBER YOU..I swear), or are you fleeing for the pvp server?

Hrm that is a very good question. I'll probably remain on PVE as my friend is also on there right now, but I dunno I'll see what happens. I suck overall at PVP and don't like getting ganked while absorbing the scenery hehe :D

Great thread.

At first I was going to suggest tranquil air for aggro problems but yeah, can't really do that in a 5 man group can you. Should be interesting to see when you can actually get salvation though.

Well, I should mention that Shamanistic Rage (which I refered to as Shamervate to greatcow, tho I think he'd already coined a similar name) gets power gain aggro. It's also such an absurd amount of mana that even if you wanted to you can't go DOWN in mana while using it, and the gain it offers basicly means that any enhance shaman you'd care to name will be at 100% mana while offhealing thier group (while spamming shocks). This power is likely to be changed.

In other words, when I gain back my 3k mana I generate 1.5k threat- I tested this, and it's hardly trivial.

We'll see if TA/Salvation actually matter. Thus far the threat is extremely high, but can't speak to raiding yet. I'm a bit of a worrier, and the -aggro talents other clases get...worry me.

Sidenote, WF totem -does- seem to have been hit with the 'autoattack only' thing they threatened us with a few months ago. Don't know if WF hits generate rage (I'veheard both ways in the same conversation), but GoA is certainly a competitor- only we don't have a new rank of it quite yet.

Thanks for the quick responses (including Greatcow). There were 2-3 enhancement pieces I was going to get + 2 Naxx weapons, but from the sound of it I'll probably just stick with my gear and get the weapons (no one else wants them anyway).

Last question before I retire from pestering the two of you for info: If you don't enchant your weapons with windfury and you drop WF totem, is there any difference with how the totem applies to the weapons? Do they still go off the MH like they do for warriors/rogues now? Curious if the nature of the totem has changed in any way.

Oh, and apologies for the slur.