Let's start out here... I'm not here to see which spec is better for PvP, otherwise it would be in the PvP thread. And I'm not here to hear a bunch of "Lawl ele>enahnce pwn pwn lightningomg!!1!". I just have a simple question that I need help to answer.

Ok, so my guild (I'll say this now, I'm not the GM) has recently been getting new shaman to the guild, and they're all up for respecs. My guild now has Kara and Gruul's on farm and we're progressing into Tk and SSC. Just recently, I've heard a lot of the new shaman asking "What is better; Elemental or enhancement spec?" I've been trying to tell them that enhance is a better spec for raiding not just based on personal dps, but because they bring so much more to the raid for dps (BL, str, wf for melee group). But I seem to have a couple people that make claims such as; "Elemental has a lot more dps than enhance does. I've seen an ele shaman put out 1.1k dps in kz gear." I'm planning on posting what results I got here on my guild's forums. Now I'm here to find out which spec is truely the best for a raid spot.

For the purpose of this being in the EJ forums, let's exclude if my guild needs more melee, or more ranged dps, their personal preference, etc. I just wish to find out:
1. What spec puts out more personal dps at the T4, T5, and T6 levels (aka 1 enhance and 1 ele shaman in the same gear compared)
2. Which spec gives the most dps to the raid (I like to presume it's enhance)
3. How much dps each spec is giving to the raid
4. The total dps given (personal dps + raid dps)

I just need some help from the many (or few) raiding shaman here from each tier to determine the ultimate question: Enhancement or Elemental?

There are two extremely in depth threads for both Enhancement and Elemental specs on these forums, and they provide more than enough information to answer of all these without this thread.

However, for the sake of adding something constructive, I find that Enh is the better total DPS spec, but I play elemental for versatility. I can go in nearly any group makeup (within reason) and put my totems to use, whereas an Enh shaman requires a melee group, or in a threat capped fight, they can contribute to the tanks.

I would advise adding both to your raid given the option (assuming you aren't running 5 shaman already, or not able to put them all to use.) If you are in a leadership role, I'd advise going with Elemental, having lead raids as all three specs, it gives you a bit more mobility and visibility. Also, having an elemental shaman has its perks elsewhere as well, kiting Striders on Vashj, for example, or providing low resist rate ranged interrupts (due to the spell hit being capped.)

Agreeing with the posts so far in this thread.

Personal dps is comparable. Enhance gives a better raw dps boost to his party. Elemental makes this up with utility such as kiting and excellent interrupts. I would say both are comparable and your shaman should spec whichever they enjoy most to ensure that they keep raiding for the longest amount of time.

I've raided T4, T5 and T6 content as an elemental shaman, and a good friend of mine is Enhance (he's been through the same content with me).

I would agree that Enhancement group buffs are superior in scaling and DPS addition to the melee group versus Elemental buffs to a caster group. Both hold up through endgame, and if you can have one of each in your raids I would advise doing so.

Gear-wise, Tier 5 content is a little more sparse in terms of upgrades compared to Tier 4 and Tier 6 for elemental shamans. Tier 5 set bonuses are lackluster and overall a downgrade from Tier 4, and the set (minus the breastplate in favor of Netherstrike) is a very small upgrade in terms of spelldamage, albeit about a 3% increase in crit chance. From talking to my enhancement friend I would say Tier 6 elemental set is a bit better than Tier 6 enhancement set, in terms of both the set bonuses (elemental T6 set bonuses are godly) and the stats (my enhance friend uses a lot of rogue leather instead of mail). Enhance is also very dependent on weapons and weapon speed. Two Siphon of the Nathrezim is currently the best PvE setup iirc, and the one-handed blacksmithing crafted mace is also very good. He doesn't really like the itemization on Enhancement T6, his preferred stats are hit, AP and crit, which is more prominent on rogue leather for the most part. MP5 is kind of a wasted stat for enhancement since shamanistic rage fulfills all mana regen needs and then some.

Currently, I've been stacking as much spell haste as I can get, spell damage after that with crit as a distant third, and I have been doing 1400 to 1600 DPS on fights like Illidan and Rage Winterchill. Currently I'm doing a little better than our enhance shaman in the personal DPS category, but that could be due to any number of factors. Both of us have topped DPS charts at some point in our raiding careers.

Of course a big part of the decision should be your playstyle. Both specs are relatively simple in practice compared to other melee/caster DPS classes.

Enhancement runs a rotation of Stormstrike, Earth Shock and/or Flame Shock, all kept on cooldown. The stormstrike debuff is very synergistic with an Ele shaman, but since the flame shock cooldown comes up before it's DoT finishes ticking you may want to alternate earth shocks with flame shocks and just give one charge to the elemental shaman. The biggest part of your damage comes from Windfury procs. Compared to a rogue or even a warrior I believe it's pretty straightforward and easy to manage. You shouldn't have any mana problems at raid buffed AP levels as Shamanistic Rage will give you more than enough mana regen. My Enhance friend wears little to no Mp5 and certainly doesn't intentionally itemize for it.

Elemental is, in a way, even simpler, although requires more attention in my opinion. You have three choices in terms of spell rotation, either straight Lightning Bolt spam, Lightning Bolt with Chain Lightnings on cooldown (this can be mana intensive if you don't have a shadow priest in your group), and Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning spam with Flame Shocks added in. The third option is only really viable if you have at least one fire mage in your raid to put up the Scorch debuff. Even then, I think most ele shaman theorycrafting says it's not effective DPS. It's better to cast it either as you are moving or just before you need to recast totems to keep some kind of DPS going. Once you get 4/5 Tier 6 gear, it's straight Lightning Bolt spam.

Going further than just Melee or Ranged, each spec has other unique advantages.

Elemental has much higher +healing and can keep themselves up in a pinch easier than Enhancement. A larger mana pool helps with this as well. Lesser Healing Wave spam has saved my butt more times than I can count, keeping myself up until healers can get to me. It also helps take a little pressure off of healers in fights with high raid-wide damage like Naj'entus and Bloodboil to be able to throw yourself or someone near you a couple spot heals in a pinch. As a ranged class you also have to stop DPSing in certain situations to reposition. Although that's getting into more general ranged vs melee categories.

As enhance, for the most part, your DPS will be a little more consistent as you generally don't have to stop DPSing even when repositioning or following a mob around. Since, other than spot heals, all of your abilities are instant-cast, this also means you don't lose DPS time when recasting totems--something that takes Elementals out of the game for 4.5 or 6 seconds every 2 minutes. And it's always fun seeing big numbers when you get those double windfury crits ; )

Hope this info helps you make a decision, and sorry if it's a lot to wade through. = )

It's very simple, you need 1 of each. The elemental shaman gets buffed by the Ehancement Stormstrike Debuff.
More than 2 dps shaman in the raid? After you have 1 Enhance, and then 1 Elemental, It makes sense for subseqeuent Shaman to also be Elemental. Elemental Buffs stack, whereas Enhance ones do not.

More than 1 of each dps Shaman spec in a raid is silly imo, but not having one of each, is equally silly!

I've been wondering something my elemental shaman friend complained about the other day. Do rogue poisions eat up the Stormstrike Debuff? If they do, you'll barely ever get the advantage of the debuffs? I have no idea how rogue poisions work or what poisions they use, that's why I'm asking.

What elemental buffs are you referring to? The only unique buff an ele shaman brings is the Totem of Wrath, and you can't stack it any more than you could Unleashed Rage or Windfury Totem. If you're arguing you can stack multiple groups with it, you can do the same with enh buffs.

As others have mentioned, you should have an enh shaman due to the extremely powerful buffs they provide to physical DPS classes. An ele shaman is nice to have for a DPS caster group, but the job can be filled almost as well by a resto shaman. Thus,

One of your shaman should spec enhancement.
The other shamans' specs are somewhat inconsequential. If it were up to me, I'd have one go elemental and the rest resto.

Probably beaten to it,

But Totem of Wrath does indeed stack.

Some rogue poisons do. Instant Poison absolutely does, and I hear Wounding also does but I haven't tested it personally. Deadly Poison, however, does not, and this is the poison rogues will be using primarily in a raid environment. Deadly does more dps than instant when applied to one weapon, and they should be getting Windfury for their OH. The other thing that is notorious for eating Stormstrike charges is [Romulo's Poison Vial], which, in the presence of an enh shaman, has a nasty habit of increasing that person's personal dps at the cost of raid dps.

I asked my favorite ele shaman about your dilemma. He unhesitatingly said enhance.

1. Ele shamans are worse on fights that involve movement because their best spell, lightning bolt, is a 2.5 sec cast while enhance shamans only have to worry about totems on movement-heavy fights; their attacks are all instant.

2. Enhance shaman synergy with melee is superior to ele shaman synergy with casters.

3. Enhance shaman are regarded as underpowered in PVP while ele are regarded as overpowered. Ele is continuing to get nerfed while enhance is getting buffed. PVP buffs often translate into PVE buffs and vice versa.

4. Enhance shaman DPS is equal or superior. Ele shamans do very, very well any time they're allowed to cut loose and use chain lightning with complete impunity with lots of adds around for it to chain to. Your guildmates witnessing of 1.1k+ DPS was probably on a very short fight with lots of adds.

Enhancement is great in seperate groups (one in tank group, one in rogue is fairly common). Elemental doesn't really offer much imo. A Resto Shaman can offer almost everything an Elemental can in terms of support (+Mana Tide). In a perfect raid, I'd prefer a Mage or Lock.