This person might simply be seeing effects form the +int on the items he is equipping.

I'm struggling a bit with the "slow is better" concept although I understand the basic idea.

My quandary is that I recently killed Kovork on an alt and his Rattle dropped (38-72 dam, 3.00 speed, OH, 18.3 dps +2 str +5agi).

I'm level 55 and have Mass of McGowan banked for lvl 57 for MH but does the 0.2 slower speed of Kovork's make it better than Smashing Star of the Monkey (62-115, 2.8 speed, OH, 31.6 dps, 6 agi & stam)

I've just tried working through the maths for the OH and it says my damage (using max damage number) would be 258 with Kovork and 212 with Smashing Star. WF damage would be 340 with Kovork and 392 with Smashing Star.

Do these seem reasonable? Roughly 320 AP atm unbuffed/self buffed (yes, my gear sucks - bloody hunter mail)

Are my maths right? Is Kovork's a better OH than a lvl 48 mace that's only 0.2 seconds slower?

Thanks for any responses, I did try :-)

To be honest, i prefer 2 points in Guardian totems as it's really usefull to have faster grounding cooldown in duels and battleground fun.

2% extra dodge won't save you, i mean, all experienced people know that you dodge certain times in a pve raid, you are not a target of a mob all the time. In these certain times, 20 or 22% dodge will have the same effect. To actualy see a difference in the dodges, means that you will get targeted and hit from mobs alot, which for our class and spec never happens.

Look at the DPS. The Star is almost a 2x upgrade in damage. When in doubt, take the higher DPS if the speeds are roughly the same.

Hello, I greatly enjoyed reading this guide, it includes some awesome and well backed-up analysis that I used to maximize my enhancement shaman's DPS output. Just a tip: you may like to add epic BT/Hyjal gems to the gem itemization section, e.g. [Bold Crimson Spinel] instead of [Bold Living Ruby], [Inscribed Pyrestone] instead of [Inscribed Noble Topaz], [Sovereign Shadowsong Amethyst] instead of [Sovereign Nightseye]. These are currently the best non-BoP options around for anyone that has reached T6 level. I noticed this was suggested earlier in the thread and I would like to support it. If the guide is to include T6-level weapons, it would be logical to include T6-level gems as well, as the best top-end choice. I hope this post have been of use to you Keep up the good work!

Err, no, there are definitely times going from 20 to 22% will save you. Just because you don't actively see those 2 talent points doing anything doesn't mean they're not.

Don't forget dodging a Hamstring, Mortal Strike, or possible mace stun is pretty cool too, you just don't notice that 2% of the time when it was a result of your talent points.

The gems are left out because hopefully someone in T6 content(although sometimes I wonder) can piece together prefixes and realize that Bold = pure strength, Inscribed = str/crit, Sovereign = str/stam and apply that knowledge to the oh so difficult blue -> epic gem conversions of Ruby to Spinel, Topaz to Pyrestone, and Nightseye to Amethyst.

I have recently started low level raids (Kara) at the beginning of November and am currently doing Gruul / some ZA now too. I have been following the principles set forth thread to properly gear my Shaman and I am producing amazing DPS as well as dying more often than I would like. I have been designing my character based on EP values which is pointing me in the direction of leather armor. Leather "Rogue" gear as you know has no int, less armor but generally has higher stam as well as overall EP. I thought the higher stam would offset the loss in armor from mail. I am not sure if I should stay with leather (minus the T4 shaman set which I will be wearing) or go with a mix or full mail?

Strength: 206
Agility: 364
Stamina: 428
Intellect: 165
Spirit: 128
Armor: 4146
Health: 7259

Damage: 478 - 639
Speed: 2.55
Power: 1444
Hit Rating: 130
Crit Chance: 27.67%
Expertise: 3

The World of Warcraft Armory

I know that I need to replace the helm (including meta gem but I didn't want to do this till I have a new helm), chest, waist, trinkets, etc. I just wanted to make sure before I spend a lot a badges in the direction that I am going that it's not wrong.

Second, since I started switching to some leather pieces I have changed my pawn value of stam to .25 so I can have a health increase. Why is there no Pawn value for stam or armor (depends on the answer to the above)? It would seem to me as armor decreases that the value of stam would increase.

I am not asking for gear choices as I can choose those from this amazingly informative thread but just to understand why that some top shaman wear just mail, some a mix and some leather. I want to be productive in my progression without having to backtrack and rebuild.

Thank you and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

You should not worry about possibly backtracking in your gear selections. I have seen this a few times in posts here but it is an imagined problem. It is true that stats change in value as your gear improves but the changes are minor.

I know that looking at the difference between Karazhan values and T6 values seems dramatic, but keep in mind that there are 3 dozen or so gear upgrades made in that span. If you have access to a piece of loot that is a clear upgrade now then go for it, you will not regret it.

I guess what I am asking is leather with a much higher EP and stam or mail with the lower EP value and higher armor? I have seen Beowolf's wonderful spreadsheet with the highest gear being leather, keiji wears a mix and other wear all mail. Is there a value or calcuation that can be applied to the armor value and stam to help evaluate pieces for us when we have this choice? What is the crossover point between armor and stam?

Example: It looks to me based on my armor that 1 point of armor equals .0068% reduction in damage.

The question you're asking doesn't apply to stat evaluation very well, since the evalution is based on damage out, not damage in. The question I have is really why are you dying? If it's not an agro issue, and you're just dying on fights like Aran, Illhoof, Nightbane, etc., then adding armor won't help much, if at all. If it is an agro issue, then obviously correcting that will solve the problem itself.

You might want to consider continuing to use the spreadsheet for your regular gear kit, then selectively swapping into higher stamina pieces for the fights you're having difficulty with.

Armor doesn't matter. If you take a hit from a boss you can't manage your aggro, your tank sucks, or the raid is wiping. If you pull aggro on trash you have the new SR, the ability to equip a shield, and two snares to use to escape.

Stamina is only as useful as any given encounter allows it to be. If an encounter has an ability that deals heavy damage you want more HP than that damage. If an encounter has two abilities that do moderate damage you want to have enough HP to survive both abilities because chances are they can be used in succession.

Stamina and armor really shouldn't play a role in your gear selections, although I am guilty of it myself, because you can always swap in items to help you meet the HP thresholds of any given fight.

Thanks for the responses.

No, I am not pulling aggo. If I do, yes, I deserve to die, final answer. We have a rule, you pull it you tank it.... doesn't work very well for Shaman, lol. You wipe the party by pulling aggro... you pay the bill.

Just died early on Gruul with other Rogues from the cave ins and what not.. but you all have answered my questions and I can continue on my course to Shaman glory.

Thank you.

P.S. I just wanted to thank everyone for your contributions to this thread. The theorycrafting article, mods (Pawn, Disco Dice), Yo's Sim..... it really helps alot of people. (Ok, I will disappear again. I am sure I will have a question in a few months).

Hi
I'm following this thread quite long, but now i have to ask something.

1)High Raid (T6) EP Values

Attack Power = 1 EP
Strength = 2.2 EP
Agility = 1.69 EP
Crit Rating = 1.74 EP
Hit Rating = 1.69
Haste Rating = 1.82
Armor Penetration = 0.35 EP
Expertise Rating = 3.18

How is it possible that without Kings Strenght has the Value 2.2 and Ap 1 ?
1.1 -> 2.2
OR
1.0 ->2.0


2) Is Kings not adding effectively 11% strength cause of UR ?

I think someone has a new year's eve hang over Shammy and Shaman are both the same length, the only difference being the last two letters.

And to add some content at least to this post a tip on how to avoid those Cave Ins for Bladefire. While having somewhat higher health and armor makes them easier to survive, the best thing you can do is install SCT and move whenever you see the Cave In debuff pop up on it. That way you should take perhaps a rare few ticks during the fight. Don't be afraid to move out of dps range for a while while doing that.

That is with kings Death_phobos cause your right with 1 str being 2 ap.
As for your second question, this would also make 1 ap worth 1.1 ep. which pretty much screws it up as a baseline. so yes kings adds an effective 11% and not 10 but as 1 ap = 1ep this is pretty much ignored

Kings adds 10% of your base stats. AP is not affected by this, which means that 1 AP without kings is 1 AP with kings.
Strength goes from 2 to 2.2 AP because with kings you'll have 1.1 str for every point you have without it (thus, with kings it's AP value is 2.2).

Looking through the gem choices I've made in the past I'm suddenly wondering how AP can be so important a stat. Currently I have a 24.73% chance to crit, and 941 AP. If I was to switch out all my full yellow +8 crit rating gems for +4 crit rating and 4 str, I'd lose about .5%, while gaining only 24 AP. Would this truly be a boon to my DPS? That just seems horribly off.

Or is it that there is a cutoff point, where once you get so much crit when raid buffed, the AP overtakes as the important stat(because of temporary buff uptime)?

Have you considered reading the first post completely and then using Yo's sim abit?

I believe he means that there is a typo because it says WITHOUT kings str is 2.2 instead of WITH kings.

Yes the T6 values do include Kings, sorry. Sebudai posted that he had used kings and I had missed it and forgot to update the post.

Didn't think to use the Calc. I've been reading this thread daily(and referencing the main post nearly as often to guildies/friends) for awhile. <3