I'd like to work on my leatherworking to eventually obtain the ebon netherscale set, but I don't want to waste my time with this if leather is going to be a better option.
Ebon Netherscale is still pretty solid, but personally, I'd say the most useful profession would be Blacksmithing for Dragonstrike (and if you enjoy PvP, a Stormherald would probably make you pretty nasty.) The Ebon Netherscale stuff is all replaceable by SSC, the Blacksmithing MH isn't replaceable until BT.
Lastly, I fully understand the theoretical "valley" of weapon speeds when factoring in haste. According to posts that I have been seeing, 45-50% haste is the range to avoid. Is this range including flurry, or is the 45-50% just referring to additional haste from items, enchants, etc. I'm considering using Drakefist Hammer (2.6 speed, 212 haste rating increase) with Runic Hammer (2.4 speed) once I hit 70. With this combination, dual mongoose, and all the other typical attack speed increases for a shaman, will I still be outside of the "valley" and ok on DPS?
When your hasted, flurried weapon speed drops below 1.5, it is theoretically possible to do less damage than if it was above 1.5 due to the fact 3 swings will not be eligible for WF to proc instead of 2. However, if haste drops you below 1.4 your damage should pick back up again. As far as applying this theory to current itemization, this appears to mean that you primarily just need to be sure that passive haste + flurry + Mongoose doesn't push you under 1.5, because large haste procs like DST and Dragonstrike, and large haste use effects like Bloodlust and Haste Potions will be large enough to increase your DPS no matter where you are on the Haste curve (for example, if your weapon speed is 2.0 and Heroism pushes you down to 1.43, that's still going to be a net DPS increase even though you may lose some WF damage).
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Sadly, the totem nerf probably wasn't really about shamans, but about Arms warrior effectiveness in PvP and PvE. (Blizzard probably didn't forsee spamstring in PvP or Arms warriors passing Fury warriors in PvE DPS.) Hopefully we will get some changes to compensate us for this nerf, since I don't feel that anyone would say Enhancement Shamans were overpowered in PvP or PvE. (And of course, the Warrior/Paladin and Warlock/Druid duos go unnerfed, while I still have to respec for arenas since my team doesn't have a paladin. )
i started auto attacking from range on the first mob, then starting auto attack after i get hit 1 time on the second mob.. and back and forth each mob.
I can pretty much confirm that starting from range start the OH attack first, and starting in range start the MH attack first. WF procs are also skewed a lot more on the first swinger of each avaible swing set.
OH WF procs could only happen if the MH failed, so 20% of 80% of the eligible time, when i started auto attacking inside melee range. The variation of DPS was pretty significant, depending on wich hand i had going first.
- I didn't use heals during battle so i don't know yet if casting can de-sync or re-sync this.
- Stormstrike looked like it was processing first wichever hand is going first in auto attack.
- Didn't test shock, but since it doesn't reset swing timer i assumed it not changing anything. (i'll try throwing shocks in the mix later)
I tested it a few times in heroic mech a little bit ago, same results as you. Definitely appears to make the OH swing first if you autoattack out of melee range.
Is there any circumstances where an enhancement Shaman would use a two handed weapon instead of dual weild, like against a not purgable DS. I dont think there is but thought Id ask. By the way thanks for the great info making me rethink a lot on my gear, tactics and a minor twink to my enhance build.
Is there any circumstances where an enhancement Shaman would use a two handed weapon instead of dual weild, like against a not purgable DS. I dont think there is but thought Id ask. By the way thanks for the great info making me rethink a lot on my gear, tactics and a minor twink to my enhance build.
Lorven
Well, in pve for kael'thas you may use the legendary 2h axe but that'd probably only be for the speed buff it has.. in general, I don't think in pve you'd ever want to use 2h besides that. For pvp however, 2h can give you some quite nice burst potential and could possibly be the right choice. However you need a completely different set of gear than in pve (since all that +hit you probably have should be replaced with more stamina/resilience/str/crit etc)
Is it really advisable to heed lootzor and take mostly leather gear for a shaman and lose the extra armor? Secondly, from what I am seeing, intellect and mp/5 are generally not deciding factors on gear. How much attention do I need to pay to intel? I'd like to work on my leatherworking to eventually obtain the ebon netherscale set, but I don't want to waste my time with this if leather is going to be a better option.
For T4 loot (heroics/Kara/Gruul/Mag), the leather pieces are almost always better. If you have the choice between a leather and a mail piece from T4, the leather piece is going to have superior melee stats, and the mail piece is going to have int/mp5. Two-piece T4 is worthwhile because of the set bonus, but other than that leather is the way to go.
Past T4, the difference isn't as clear. Comparing T5 hunter gear vs T5 rogue gear, the rogue gear typically has hit and more stamina, whereas the hunter gear has int and more crit. Crit is a better use of item budget for shamans than hit, so the melee DPS loss from wearing mail over leather is minimal to nonexistant. By this gear level your mana pool also starts becoming more important, as you actually have enough AP to refill a larger mana bar.
When your hasted, flurried weapon speed drops below 1.5, it is theoretically possible to do less damage than if it was above 1.5 due to the fact 3 swings will not be eligible for WF to proc instead of 2. However, if haste drops you below 1.4 your damage should pick back up again. As far as applying this theory to current itemization, this appears to mean that you primarily just need to be sure that passive haste + flurry + Mongoose doesn't push you under 1.5, because large haste procs like DST and Dragonstrike, and large haste use effects like Bloodlust and Haste Potions will be large enough to increase your DPS no matter where you are on the Haste curve (for example, if your weapon speed is 2.0 and Heroism pushes you down to 1.43, that's still going to be a net DPS increase even though you may lose some WF damage).
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flurry+2 moongose procs + dragonstrike proc >1.51 its around 1.6~ i go under 1.51 speed only with bl on which ofc happen once every blue moon
i use dragonstrike on mh and netherzim on oh and dragonstrike tbh isnt proccing alot (less then 10%)but its the best pve mh no item can replace the haste proc unless you have dragonspine from gruul ( never drop for me )
nothing is better then 1.2 mh and 1.3 oh its just crazy dps if u leave the wf for sec if u doing over 1k dmg in 1 crit with mh and like 500+ with oh( if u have like 40% crit buffed) can cover any wf that doesnt proc
Excellent post! I learned a lot from reading it, and I'm very appreciative that you took the time to write this. I do still have a few questions. I attempted to search the forums for information, but I wasn't able to find anything...
Why do many Enhancement Shaman spec into Restoration with their extra points? I believe it was originally for the Hit Rating and possibly enhanced Ankh, but this guide reveals Hit Rating to be less important than originally thought, is that still the best way to spec? If so, why?
And I saw a lot of theory (which makes a lot of sense) on why a faster OH is a poor choice when applying Windfury to both weapons... But I am currently using the Runic Hammer with Flame Tongue in my Main and Malchazeen with Windfury in my offhand... How much of an increase would I be looking at if I slid the Runic Hammer to my offhand and got say... Fool's Bane in my main hand?
Excellent post! I learned a lot from reading it, and I'm very appreciative that you took the time to write this. I do still have a few questions. I attempted to search the forums for information, but I wasn't able to find anything...
Why do many Enhancement Shaman spec into Restoration with their extra points? I believe it was originally for the Hit Rating and possibly enhanced Ankh, but this guide reveals Hit Rating to be less important than originally thought, is that still the best way to spec? If so, why?
And I saw a lot of theory (which makes a lot of sense) on why a faster OH is a poor choice when applying Windfury to both weapons... But I am currently using the Runic Hammer with Flame Tongue in my Main and Malchazeen with Windfury in my offhand... How much of an increase would I be looking at if I slid the Runic Hammer to my offhand and got say... Fool's Bane in my main hand?
1.3% hit and spell hit are good. Hit is not the optimal way to increase DPS over Str or Crit, but it still increases dps by a good margin. In addition, improved Ankh helps as a "aggro wipe", and Healing focus allow you to actually toss out a couple of spot heals. Of course, all these might change with the new Enhancement Talents
You'll see a pretty decent chunk of DPs increase if you go with the later setup, the damage will be more spikey, however. So you need to test extensively to see accurate results
1.3% hit and spell hit are good. Hit is not the optimal way to increase DPS over Str or Crit, but it still increases dps by a good margin. In addition, improved Ankh helps as a "aggro wipe", and Healing focus allow you to actually toss out a couple of spot heals. Of course, all these might change with the new Enhancement Talents
You'll see a pretty decent chunk of DPs increase if you go with the later setup, the damage will be more spikey, however. So you need to test extensively to see accurate results
Prism of Inner Calm was buffed to -150 threat per crit somewhat recently. I still can't pull aggro on bosses even if I try though; so I can't see a reason to use it anywhere but on trash.
Do people actually use Reincarnate as a poor man's Vanish? I have never once actually overaggrod on purpose just so I can Reincarnate and start over threat-wise. There isn't really a fight in which I'm threat capped anyway, let alone enough of them to singlehandedly justify putting points into this talent.
Reincarnate is one of the huge advantages of our class. I put points into this talent because being able to Reincarnate more often and coming back with more hp and mana has been the difference between winning and losing on a lot of encounters for us over the years. I'm pretty sure all five of our shaman spec into this talent.
But I am currently using the Runic Hammer with Flame Tongue in my Main and Malchazeen with Windfury in my offhand... How much of an increase would I be looking at if I slid the Runic Hammer to my offhand and got say... Fool's Bane in my main hand?
Doing the switch for WF on both hands, with Fool's bane and Runic Hammer would give you a pretty huge boost. Specially considering you don't put WF on your main hand, i must say, i really don't see why you'd ever want to use the combo you are using, with these choices of weapon imbue..
Mind enlightening me on why you chose to wield this combo?
Do people actually use Reincarnate as a poor man's Vanish? I have never once actually overaggrod on purpose just so I can Reincarnate and start over threat-wise. There isn't really a fight in which I'm threat capped anyway, let alone enough of them to singlehandedly justify putting points into this talent.
I joke about it but haven't actually ever done it on purpose - it just helps being on a shorter cooldown to not really care too much about using it in the middle of a fight. Usually I only have to use it on multi-mob fights where one of the OTs doesn't have too good of a threat cycle.
Edit - I have updated the Pawn string and the link, the new version supports Haste Rating built-in.
I dont pull aggro and die on purpose. Its not something I set out to do, in fact I go to great lengths to avoid having to use my ankh. But its nice to have the points in the talent to allow me to ankh more often and with more health and mana.
Doing the switch for WF on both hands, with Fool's bane and Runic Hammer would give you a pretty huge boost. Specially considering you don't put WF on your main hand, i must say, i really don't see why you'd ever want to use the combo you are using, with these choices of weapon imbue..
Mind enlightening me on why you chose to wield this combo?
Well, I happened to really like the slow MH and fast OH. I had heard a while back about Windfury had a timer for when it can proc again, so I knew that Windfury on both would be a waste much of the time. Then, I decided to go for the Flametongue's dmg on the mainhand, while keeping the Windfury procs to the offhand, since it's more likely to steal the procs in any case. I hadn't done all the research as the people who typically post here had done, but then again, I've been raiding Resto for the last 6 months, so I haven't done too much research on it.
Simply put, windfury gives rouglhy 60% more damage to your weapon if you just take the procs into account (in fact it gives much more because it increases the time you stay in flurry, as well as everything that can proc : mangoose or crusader enchants, various trinkets, chamanistic rage, etc....) so just do the math and you'll see that even with very crappy gear windfury is always far better than flametongue.
This is for the mainhand, things are a bit different for the offhand because it gets only 50% of the physical damages, but flametongue -as well as frostband- being magical damage are not affected. Anyway windfury is still the best because it scales with your melee stats, while flametongue scales with spell damage, and you usualy don't have spell damage in your enhancement gear.
Even with the upcoming talents which will provide us with a fair amount of spell damage windfury will still be better if you're wearing epic gear (but it may become a good choice for leveling i guess)
08/10/07, 1:45 PM
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