[Shaman] Raiding: Enhance or Elemental? - Page 3

Kasi · 02/26/08, 7:34 PM

Which is why possibly an enhancement shaman with subpar performance might be worth bringing but an elemental with subpar performance is not. What an elemental can do is too easily replaced by a resto. Their raid buffs just aren't strong enough. Same issue with boomkins.

• Embar · 02/27/08, 2:45 AM

If I read the OP right you have shaman you want to bring as DPS, but are not certain which spec to ask them to go, i.e. Enhancement vs. Elemental, and restoration spec is not in the running. (DPS vs. restoration is a whole other kettle of fish, even though a lot of posters are comparing the two.)

I know you said not to consider if your guild needs more melee or ranged DPS, but that is a factor you do have to think about in terms of how you want to set up your groups. If you consistently have 2 ranged groups, and only enough melee to fill 1 group, then you would benefit by having say 2 elemental and 1 enhancement shaman if they do enough DPS to justify their spot. If for some strange reason you have no melee DPSers, then it's unlikely that an enhancement shaman would benefit you more than a couple of elementals. So on and so forth.

Incidentally I'd like to point out that Shamans buff the group. Not the raid. With the exception of the stormstrike debuff, which is sort of negligible anyway unless you run with elemental shaman. It's a personal bugbear, but it's why you can't, say, declare you will bring 3 enhancement shaman but not any kind of shaman because they 'benefit the raid more'. There's diminishing returns of a sort for each one that isn't in a separate melee DPS group.

While the ele shaman is handy, he only moderately buffs his group with Totem of Wrath and mana spring, with an additional bloodlust.

This is another grouse of mine. People like to compare WF + SoE + unleashed rage and the whole shebang to... just Totem of Wrath for an elemental shaman, in effect comparing the benefits of 'enh shaman vs no shaman' with 'ele shaman vs resto shaman'.
Just to clear things up, a resto (in fact any shaman) can still Heroism/Bloodlust, and can still drop WF and SoE. Any shaman can also drop mana spring + Wrath of Air. What makes the enh and elem shaman really different are respectively, Unleashed Rage and Totem of Wrath, of which the former scales better. 10% AP vs 3% crit/hit (4% hit if draenei). There are improved totem talents as well, but a resto shaman could also work that into a spec if needed.

Beyond 1 shaman in each DPS group for buffs, you'd probably want to look at what gear they already have (since respecs are the consideration here), how much DPS they do individually and how comfortable they are in the spec. I wouldn't, for example, bring an enhancement shaman with sub-500dps and not enough crit to keep unleashed rage up (true story) if I did have a resto shaman or another competent shaman I could slot in there. Personally, I've also been elemental in the melee group as the lone shaman in the raid for the group buffs alone (because I did have the elemental gear but not the enh, and could still do as much DPS as our other casters back in Gruul/early SSC) but it's not an ideal situation by far.

There isn't really a clear-cut answer for your own raid without considering those issues. And there's definitely not really an answer for most of your questions on DPS/raid DPS benefit either without bringing those into the picture. Sims might give you an answer, but as always YMMV based on skill, etc.

Out of curiosity, why not compare restoration shaman as well? I know my guild often runs with 0 (but 2-4 dps shaman) as we have a surplus of Druid/Priest/Paladin healers, but I can't imagine that this is in any way mainstream.

Additional comments:

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.

Make that 2sec. I haven't really seen a fight that requires enough movement to heavily affect my DPS as elemental more so than any other ranged caster (except perhaps an afflict lock) would be affected. In fact, I find myself moving more as enhancement to get out of things like whirlwinds on Leotheras, whereas as elemental I can just stand there and nuke for a great part of the whole fight.

Enhancement shamans can be used as ranged interrupters more easily than elementals as they don't have to stop what they're doing to cast earth shock

Never ever rely on shamans to earth shock anything critical. You're just asking for a heal on council or a wrath slipping through if you depend on this. They are way short of being capped with spell hit and can not be relied on to interrupt.

However, your enhancement shaman on say, FLK, suffers from the same problem your melee interrupter does. Which is he's not DPSing if he's not in range, and if he's DPSing he might get caught in things like nova. But at least he can still interrupt after running out, which is what matters I would guess.
My personal experience is that it's actually easiest interrupting as resto, even on council. All too often as elemental I find myself stuck in a GCD (with 1.5/2sec cast-time spells) unless I stop and wait for the spell to interrupt, even though an elem shaman does have the hit to make it almost a sure thing.

The nice thing about enh shaman for interrupts is they use earth shock in thier normal dps rotation while ele shaman do not.

Actually, that's more of a neutral thing since you don't want to be stuck in your 6sec cooldown because you shocked for more DPS instead of an interrupt. Either way it's only a very minor DPS or healing time loss for whichever spec is concerned.

tufy · 02/27/08, 3:55 AM

A few missconceptions in this thread

I'm a member of Deus Ex Machina guild (Grim Batol, Alliance side, EU). We've cleaned out the entire existing raid content and regularly raid with resto, enhancement and elemental shamans. From personal experience, burst-wise, enhancement can deal roughly same damage as raiding elemental (41/0/20), but fails miserably at giving the same prolonged dps. Now this of course may be the result of elemental shaman "stealing" stormstrike charges, fights being less favourable for melee (such as Illidan), etc. Whatever the reasons, I personally tend to end up in the very top of damage meters, only really surpassed by warlocks in my support group and an occasional rogue (plus mages on AoE trash, of course).

In turn, enhancement provides superior raid support. While both a resto shaman or an elemental one can offer Windfury, Agility and/or Strenght of Earth, none of them has Unleashed Rage. In turn, only Resto Shamans have Mana Tide and only Elemental ones have Totem of Wrath.

There is one repeating line I keep hearing just about everywhere. The line is "Resto shaman can do all that an Elemental Shaman can do, replacing Totem of Wrath with Mana Tide". Simply put - he can't. Why? Because a resto shaman is a healer. A regular raid will consist of two primary tanks, 6-7 healers (8 on some fights) and the rest of dps. Now let's say you want 5 tremor totems, 5 heroisms, or whatever for your team. You get one enhancement shaman, then what? 4 shamans? This leaves you with 2-3 other class healers, meaning you'll have excellent raid healing, but nothing to keep your tanks up. This is where Elemental Shaman jumps in, providing support to your caster dps, while at the same time offering nearly all the party buffs of a resto shaman, coupled with the single-target dps of a mage/warlock AND semi-AoE in form of Chain Lightning + totems. That's a hole a Resto Shaman simply can't fill up, he has no tools to do so.

Enhancement shamans can be used as ranged interrupters more easily than elementals as they don't have to stop what they're doing to cast earth shock

This is another interesting example of a missconception. He can't. Provided he gained Nature's Guidance, the Enhancement Shaman has 86% chance to hit with spells. At that kind of miss chance, even two mages on interrupt duty are a better idea. The same goes for Resto Shamans. You simply can't afford to let, say, a heal go off at council, much less more than one. As Embar said it above, the only real problem is GCD, but I personally haven't found it that much of an issue, just set up a macro with /stopcasting, works like a charm once you get used to the fight.

The nice thing about enh shaman for interrupts is they use earth shock in thier normal dps rotation while ele shaman do not.

I personally see this an advantage of elemental really, as it means my shock will always be ready, as opposed to enhancement one. In any case, on all Council kills to date, we used elemental shaman for interrupts, because we can not only interrupt at range, but also switch targets and dps without moving much. Since our paladin and healer are tanked quite a bit apart, that would mean an enhancement shaman would need to run a distance to get in shock range, whereas I can simply stand in between. Then there's the spell hit mentioned above and other advantages.

I hope this small example shows you just how distinct the three specs are. Ideally, you'll want all three in raid. Enhancement boosts melee and elemental shaman (though stormstrike), who in turn boosts casters, allowing shadow priests to deal more damage and thus regenerate more mana. Resto will serve as raid healer (and best one in game at that), while holy paladins will be put on main tanks. A retri paladin will be boosted by enhancement shaman and in turn will buff the raid with extra damage and so on. It's all a really nice cycle of cooperation between classes - but it's up to your own raid to find your cycle.

So, to sum it up:
- Resto: raid healer, good support
- Enhancement: best melee support, good dps
- Elemental: best caster support (less than enhancement's melee), best dps

Now it's up to you to see which you'll take and which you won't.

Console · 02/27/08, 4:41 AM

Originally Posted by Unaz

While ele does have a larger mana pool which helps, I have usually as much if not more spell damage/healing as an elemental shaman as enhancement while raid buffed. With a bit over 500 spell damage unbuffed, and over 1000 while buffed.

Not a huge issue, but just wanted to clear that up.

I'm a little curious as to how (and mainly why) you are gaining +500 Spell Damage from Raid buffs? As an Elemental Shaman myself, I sit at around 850 unbuffed and usually raid buff to about 1200. This is including Flasks, Oil and Food of which I highly doubt you are using to buff your Spell Damage?

Regardless, why do you assume you usually have just as much if not more spell damage that an Ele Shaman? Seems very odd to me

Abakus · 02/27/08, 5:53 AM

@Console:

As an Enhancer, you get Spell Damage from:

-imp. Battle Shout with Solarian Trinket
-Blessing of Kings
-(imp?)Blessing of Might
-Flask of Relentless Assault
-imp. Mark of the Wild
-imp. Strength of Earth-Totem
-Unleashed Rage
-20 Strength Bufffood

The Battle Shout alone surpasses the Spelldamge of any Caster-Flask.
While at least UR is not present when you need to heal (you are not really likely to have two Enhancer in one group), these numbers seem to be okay.

Edit: possible imp. BoM

TheSorcerer · 02/27/08, 7:38 AM

Just to put it out: I absolutely agreee with tufy.

I'm a raidleader myself. We are 5/5 MH and 8/9 BT but currently struggling at starting on Illidan. However, I like bringing 4-5 shamans to most fights. Shamans really give strong buffs to their groups, nomather what spec and what the group consists of (as long as you can keep your groups homogen with eiher physical dps or magical dps / heal). If you have contsantly one or more melee groups in your raid, you really should bring an enhancement shaman. If you have an enhancement shaman I really believe you should also bring an elemental shaman. Not only does he free up a healer slot for another healer class (propably druid or priest), but he also benefits from the stormstrike debuff applied by your enhancement shaman.

My general advice would be: bring 4-5 shamans alltogether. Do not bring more than 5, two shamans in one group will not provide enough extra benefits. Bring an enhancemen shaman for each melee group you have. Bring one elemental shaman and group him with your mages and / or warlocks. Fill up the rest with restoration shamans.

ZRaids · 02/27/08, 8:56 AM

To the OP:

I only have one sampling of WWS Data for an enhance versus elemental spec both present in SSC: Wow Web Stats
BUT I offer this link to prove a point: that it doesn't prove anything. I will certainly say that the enhancement shaman (Melph) increased the DPS of the elemental shaman (Avandiya). But as far as overall contribution, or even raid DPS contribution, it is impossible to discern from that data with any degree of certainty. Avandiya healed more than Melph. The rogue certainly benefitted from Melph's totems, but we don't know how long the rogue was under the benefits of shamanistic rage or those totems. The tanks certainly had improved threat from Melph's totems, but we can't tell how this ultimately impacts DPS. As far as personal DPS, Avandiya took top instant DPS, but that certainly doesn't mean she was "more useful" to the raid. Several classes/specs can contend for #1 DPS on any given day, given raid composition and the type of encounter. There are too many considerations.

From a strict DPS point of view, let's go ahead for the sake of argument and say that enhancement shaman increase the average DPS output of the raid more so than elemental (something you've been trying to prove numerically all along). But therein lies the rub: by how much, exactly? We haven't seen anyone here conduct a side-by-side/head-to-head study titled, "The definitive superiority of an Enhancement Shaman in raids versus Elemental shaman." We've seen some entertaining DPS charts and graphs for specific classes, but nothing that proves what we didn't know already -- just useful for reference.

I'd love to help you on your quest if people amassed more links to more WWS reports. I'm not looking for proof that enhancement or elemental shamans are better, I just want to see factual information like yourself. Simple statements like "Enhance is better DPS" just falls a bit short of convincing for me and many others.

But mind you, there is the inevitable trump card. As far as "total utility" or "what class is better", the discussion is academic. Shamans - enhance or elemental - are not even truly essential for a raid. The debate is therefore like apples and oranges; either way, you're still a fruity snack who wants to be the bread and butter.

Console · 02/27/08, 9:54 AM

Originally Posted by Abakus

@Console:
As an Enhancer, you get Spell Damage from...

Ok, I've just done the maths, it all seems to make sense. Clearly I underestimated the effectiveness of "Mental Quickness". Still in-order to achieve an unbuffed state of 500 spell damage you'd need around 1700 AP and in order to reach 1000 spell damage you'd need to buff to ~3400 AP.

I just wanted to make it clear that an Enh shaman should not have anywhere close to the spell damage of an Elemental Shaman (assuming both players have an approximate similarity in iLevel gear).

Lucitron · 02/27/08, 10:07 AM

My guild now has Kara and Gruul's on farm and we're progressing into Tk and SSC.

SSC

Hydross
Favours: Enhancement
Nature Immune 50% of the time really cuts the dps of the Elemental Shaman. It is an AoE-friendly fight overall, so buff-wise, Elemental Shaman brings a tiny little bit more.
Lurker
Favours: Elemental
Melee has to dodge the whirl ability, and with adds appearing on the outer platforms, ranged classes have a natural advantage.
Morogrim
Favours: Tie
It is an AoE fight, so in that regard Elemental has an advantage in the buff-department, but overall both Elemental and Enhancement are equally good.
Karathress
Favours: Tie
Enhancement is a better heal interupter on the priest, while Elemental Shamans have an edge with destroying the spitfire totems, but this is very marginal.
Leotheras
Favours: Tie
Leotheras' whirlwind ability favours ranged classes, but since Leotheras has quite low armour, melee will still stand for a big deal of the damage done.
Vashj
Favours: Elemental
Elemental Shamans are better strider kiters, and the fight overall favours ranged classes ahead of melee.

TK

Al'ar
Favours: Elemental
The fight favours ranged classes overall
Void Reaver
Favours: Enhancement
Ranged classes have to constantly dodge lightning balls tossed their way, while melee can just dps away.
Solarian
Favours: Tie
It is an AoE fight, which give Elemental Shamans a slight buff-advantage, but you need to also interupt some healers, which is where Enhancement Shamans shine.
Kael'thas
Favours: ?

Daidalos · 02/27/08, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by tufy

A few missconceptions in this thread

So, to sum it up:
- Resto: raid healer, good support
- Enhancement: best melee support, good dps
- Elemental: best caster support (less than enhancement's melee), best dps

Now it's up to you to see which you'll take and which you won't.

I think many people are posting anectdotes of the sort "Well in my guild I'm ele and I out dps our enh shaman therefore ele is higher dps."
Here is a breakdown of the top shaman for boss fights in BT + Hyjal:
WWS Scoreboard

This really seems to indicate to me it varys from boss to boss and clearly both can do very well. I don't think a clear superior dps between the two emerges.

One thing to note is that ele are great dps on trash. Being able to CL multiple mobs will mean that ele dps on trash will always be higher than an enh shaman. If this matters alot or not is debatable some argue that only bosses really matter while some point out that faster trash clearing means more attempts or less total time raiding.

I do think the assertion that ele is better dps is false regardless of what happens in your guild.

kiyea · 02/27/08, 10:49 AM

Which would be perferable is entirely dependent on the make up of your raid.

If the top dps'ers you have are mostly casters. Then elemental would be preferable.

If your top dps'ers are largely melee. Then an enhancement is preferable.

If your raid is threat capped by your tanks then an enhance would be preferrable.

Looking back at my experience when I first moved into T5 content. Our top dps were casters by a mile. Yet threat was a serious issue. Crafted caster stuff is just absurd at this stage. Add to this improvements in arena gear. And I can easily see it being even harder for a new T5 tank to generate enough threat to put all the dps to use.

I would suspect an enhancement shaman would be the way to go, if you can only have one.

Kasi · 02/27/08, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by Daidalos

I think many people are posting anectdotes of the sort "Well in my guild I'm ele and I out dps our enh shaman therefore ele is higher dps."
Here is a breakdown of the top shaman for boss fights in BT + Hyjal:
WWS Scoreboard

This really seems to indicate to me it varys from boss to boss and clearly both can do very well. I don't think a clear superior dps between the two emerges.

One thing to note is that ele are great dps on trash. Being able to CL multiple mobs will mean that ele dps on trash will always be higher than an enh shaman. If this matters alot or not is debatable some argue that only bosses really matter while some point out that faster trash clearing means more attempts or less total time raiding.

I do think the assertion that ele is better dps is false regardless of what happens in your guild.

WWS scoreboard is a useless utility that favors parses done with over raid stacking or using buffs like Unholy Frenzy from MH. Really not much useful information can be taken from that site because of how people have abused game mechanics to get high scores. Like the enh shaman there with 3k on Anetheron. It's just useless epeen stroking.

I do agree with Daidalos that neither of them are better. While yes there are more fights in the game that favor casters over melee, this is counterbalanced by the fact that enhancement shamans give a stronger group buff. Also right that Ele will easily win on trash. For bosses though it is much closer. And again right that anecdotal evidence is kinda silly. What generally works is that the better player will do better because there really is not that much difference between the specs.

The list given here earlier was about right for SSC/TK. Kael would favor elemental because of the aoe in p2 plus fast switching to eggs and different advisors.

For T6 I'd put it at this:

Rage: Elemental - Rage is a nice target to beat the crap out of for melee, but DnD means you're too vulnerable and can lose a lot of damage while moving.
Anatheron: Enhancement - Well actually both are good, it is just enhancement will have higher numbers because they likely won't target switch while elemental will have to switch to infernals.
Kazrogal: Probably a push here, as long as the elemental is with a SP. Maybe slight favor to enhancement.
Azgalor : Elemental easily, RoF sucks for melee here.
Archimonde: Both are very useful, but enhancement is best here for both high damage and for being in the melee group to give them tremor. Really you just want a lot of shamans on this fight for tremor.

Naj: Enhancement - Pushback hurts elemental
Supremus: Elemental - Can damage Supremus well in both phases without taking damage from the melee stuff.
Akama: Who cares?
Teron: Enhancement - Fight favors classes who don't have pushback affecting them.
Gurtogg: Even, maybe slight push to elemental. Enhancement won't be in BB groups, but will likely be threat capped.
RoS: Even again I think. Don't think it favors either. Pushback in p2 hurts elemental plus enhancement can keep dps'ing after mana is gone, but less agro in p3 helps elemental there. Maybe slight favorite to enhancement
Mother: Hard to say here. Pretty even. It is a nice fight for melee, but as long as you don't get screwed with spell phases elemental can do very well on this fight as well.
Council: Fight favors ranged overall: Elemental
Illidan: Again fight favors ranged, plus CL destroys both Parasites and Demons.

Unaz · 02/27/08, 11:27 AM

Originally Posted by Console

I'm a little curious as to how (and mainly why) you are gaining +500 Spell Damage from Raid buffs? As an Elemental Shaman myself, I sit at around 850 unbuffed and usually raid buff to about 1200. This is including Flasks, Oil and Food of which I highly doubt you are using to buff your Spell Damage?

Regardless, why do you assume you usually have just as much if not more spell damage that an Ele Shaman? Seems very odd to me

Well in my specific case, I have 1694 AP unbuffed (no totems or other buffs). Which would be 508 spell damage.

+ SoE totem = 200 ap
+ Might = 220 ap
+ MotW = 28 ap
+ Relentless assault = 120 ap
+ Battle Shout = 305 ap
+ Roasted Clefthoof = 40 ap
+ UR = +10% ap

== 2607 *1.1 = 2867 ap = 860 spell damage (Minimum from static buffs, with things like UR being essecntially 100% with 10 second windows to do whatever)

When procs and rarer buffs are up:

Stonebreaker's totem = 110 ap
Ashtongue Talisman = 275 ap
Bloodlust Brooch = 278 ap
Blood Fury = 282 ap
Kings = +10% str (I forget how much str I have in pve gear, assume 300) = 60 ap

== 3612 * 1.1 = 3973 ap => 1191 spell damage

And of course there's imp might/mark/better gear/etc that will make this higher.

So while high end ele shamans will certainly be higher (I hope), it's not as drastic a difference spell damage wise as you may think.

As a caveat, I will say I usually hover around 3k in my current gear. Which is 1k even on spell damage.

Originally Posted by tufy

A few missconceptions in this thread

I'm a member of Deus Ex Machina guild (Grim Batol, Alliance side, EU). We've cleaned out the entire existing raid content and regularly raid with resto, enhancement and elemental shamans. From personal experience, burst-wise, enhancement can deal roughly same damage as raiding elemental (41/0/20), but fails miserably at giving the same prolonged dps.

I'm glad you're from a guild!

Although I'm wondering what you mean by enhance lacking prolonged dps. I think you must be raiding with 2 hander enhancement shamans or something, because if properly geared enhancement can do one thing it's prolonged DPS. We don't run out of steam/mana ever, unless a boss is specifically draining us, and even then it's hard to go OOM.

Typically an enhancement shaman will start his dps cycle and be running at full steam with 2 minute spikes on trinket cooldowns. And then another burst with bloodlust of course, but there's nothing that would make sustained dps fall off. As opposed to elemental where running out of mana was/is a very real issue on prolonged fights. Although avoidable with proper gearing and consumables/group setup of course.

Edit: Woops, forgot bshout
Edit*2: This isn't in regard to healing, I rarely heal, was more clearing up spell damage misconceptions

Kasi · 02/27/08, 11:38 AM

Lets really not bring enhancement shamans healing into this. It just doesn't compare. If you are forced to heal in a fight you'll have SOE, Might, MotW, Relentless Assault plus gear AP. You won't have UR because that is based on you critting on melee. If you are forced to heal, you won't be melee'ing. Thus you won't have Stonebreaker, won't have AT, won't have BB, etc. You'll have roughly 700 healing. Really the best thing you can do at this point is weapon switch to a healing weapon/shield and get up to around 1k healing. An elemental shaman in a situation when he has to heal will have a lot more healing power. Unbuffed I have more than 1078 spell damage. With group buffs and raid buffs I have well over 1350 spell damage, more if I switch to a healing weapon or pop any trinkets.

Yes enhancement shamans can emergency heal far better than they used to, but in a healing situation an elemental shaman will have twice as much healing as an enhancement shaman which makes a big difference. Add in the fact that an elemental will have 30% spell crit with healing spells while an enhancement shaman will have very little further increases the gap. This is why it is wise for elemental shaman who is in a raid with a SP to take inspiration. It synergizes very well with their spell crit in fights where it can be useful to toss out a heal like on Fel Rage targets or on Archimonde if your group is stuck as the only group in range of the MT.

Edit: Also agreed that enhancement shamans are very strong for sustained dps. Shamanistic Rage is ridiculous for mana gains. The other night in SSC I was getting 499 mana back per melee hit during SR. If my gear was a bit better or I popped that along with a trinket it would be even scarier. Elemental shamans either need a SP on long fights or with good enough gear work like mages now in that they can sustain themselves on sub 5-6 minute fights with top gear.

Daidalos · 02/27/08, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by Kasi

WWS scoreboard is a useless utility that favors parses done with over raid stacking or using buffs like Unholy Frenzy from MH. Really not much useful information can be taken from that site because of how people have abused game mechanics to get high scores. Like the enh shaman there with 3k on Anetheron. It's just useless epeen stroking.

I do agree with Daidalos that neither of them are better. While yes there are more fights in the game that favor casters over melee, this is counterbalanced by the fact that enhancement shamans give a stronger group buff. Also right that Ele will easily win on trash. For bosses though it is much closer. And again right that anecdotal evidence is kinda silly. What generally works is that the better player will do better because there really is not that much difference between the specs.

The list given here earlier was about right for SSC/TK. Kael would favor elemental because of the aoe in p2 plus fast switching to eggs and different advisors.

For T6 I'd put it at this:

Rage: Elemental - Rage is a nice target to beat the crap out of for melee, but DnD means you're too vulnerable and can lose a lot of damage while moving.
Anatheron: Enhancement - Well actually both are good, it is just enhancement will have higher numbers because they likely won't target switch while elemental will have to switch to infernals.
Kazrogal: Probably a push here, as long as the elemental is with a SP. Maybe slight favor to enhancement.
Azgalor : Elemental easily, RoF sucks for melee here.
Archimonde: Both are very useful, but enhancement is best here for both high damage and for being in the melee group to give them tremor. Really you just want a lot of shamans on this fight for tremor.

Naj: Enhancement - Pushback hurts elemental
Supremus: Elemental - Can damage Supremus well in both phases without taking damage from the melee stuff.
Akama: Who cares?
Teron: Enhancement - Fight favors classes who don't have pushback affecting them.
Gurtogg: Even, maybe slight push to elemental. Enhancement won't be in BB groups, but will likely be threat capped.
RoS: Even again I think. Don't think it favors either. Pushback in p2 hurts elemental plus enhancement can keep dps'ing after mana is gone, but less agro in p3 helps elemental there. Maybe slight favorite to enhancement
Mother: Hard to say here. Pretty even. It is a nice fight for melee, but as long as you don't get screwed with spell phases elemental can do very well on this fight as well.
Council: Fight favors ranged overall: Elemental
Illidan: Again fight favors ranged, plus CL destroys both Parasites and Demons.

I def agree the unholy frenzy stacking is not an accurate representaion of typical dps but you can easily ignore the first 4 bosses from hyjal when comparing and still reach the same conclusion of fairly even dps. With the top dps switching from boss to boss.

I pretty much agree with your listing we have melee stay in on DoD on rage and I just chain heal the melee through it but its certainly a draw back with the melee all being clustered. The RoF on azgalor can be handled with a little FR gear and some chain heals as well but that they have to wear some (~100) FR gear lowers dps slightly.