Perwira

I compiled some info from 20 of the best enhance shaman in the US. My sig has a link to my guide if you want to see the shamans I got the list from, and a bunch of other stuff.

- All 20 Dual wield. I didn't keep track of their weapons, but it looked like it was mostly season 2 & 3 weapons, with the occiasonal crafted or BT weapon thrown in. There was a ZA fist weapon in there too.

- 19/20 picked the resto sub-tree (except Cednar). Here's the breakdown:

42/19 ..........2
3/44/14 .......1
16/45 ......... 1
2/45/14 .......4
46/15 ..........1
47/14 ..........6
45/16 ...........2
44/17 ...........1

- 19/20 used the stonebreaker totem (Taowth was using the astral winds totem)

- 4 of them were not in pvp gear, of the remaining, here's their #2 pvp trinket (the medallion was always the #1 trinket):

Beserker's Call - 3
Battlemaster's Determination - 11
Bloodlust Brooch - 2

- Here is some average stats (of those in pvp gear):

AP - 1355
Crit % - 29
Resilience - 372

Some numbers may be slightly skewed because I didn't count buffs, but it should be really accurate. I didn't put in stam because of the varying amount of hp buffs but it looked to be about 10k on the low end and 12k on the high end.

- I looked at everyone's top team and then looked at their teammates spec. The following is what I came up with. Note that the numbers aren't even because sometimes the team had more or less active players than the designated bracket called for.

2v2

- Shadow Priest
- Demonology Warlock
- Resto Druid

3v3

- Frost Mage - 2
- Disc Priest - 2
- UA lock
- Resto Druid - 6
- Hybrid Balance/resto druid
- SL/SL lock
- Sub Rogue
- Arcane Mage
- BM Hunter - 2
- Combat Rogue
- Destruction Lock
- Marks Hunter

5v5

- Holy Pally - 3
- Destruction Lock
- MS Warrior - 3
- Frost Mage
- Ret Pally
- Feral Druid
- Marks Hunter
- Combat Rogue
- Disc Priest - 2
- Resto Druid

That was probably the hardest part of the list, and is probably the most inaccurrate due to slow armory updating and the switching of players of team to team, but it gives an idea.

My enhancement shaman PVP guide: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...47618186&sid=1

 

shelter

Perwira, you wrote a nice guide at us forums. The bad thing we dont have it here, as all of these posts aren't summed up. Anyway I will still look here for additional info. My experiece in PvP around 6 monthes, before I was a mage, but I'm jsut starting to use "focus" thing.. My last thought about EnhPvP was about to respec Elem and lost lots of time spent on EnhPvP gear... but reading you guys I have a hope thanks.

 

jlavarj

Awesome post, Perwira. Thanks for doing that research.

 

Malpractices

I have read how dual wield is better than going with a 2 hander. However, I would still like to try out a 2 hander as I gear up my shammy. I do have question. Most of the 2 handers available are 3.6 speed, wouldn't it be better to go with 2/5 flurry instead of 5/5? I know we are not going for dps over a long period so I would assume we want a chance to proc windfury on all attacks we make(assuming 3 second cooldown). With 2/5 windfury it brings your weapon speed down to 3.17. 5/5 flurry would make it 2.72. Would it be worth sacrificing 3 points in flurry for the extra chance on every swing regardless if flurry was up or not?


edit: spelling & calculations

 

thevidon

For a pure arena build, has anyone tried out something like this?

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Basically it gives up shamanistic rage and mental quickness for NS. I don't find that I run out of mana very often, and SR gets dispelled instantly most of the time. I figure NS will be a huge boost to my survivability at the beginning of a match when the rogue/druid pops me from stealth, or finishing someone with CL. If SR was non-dispellable, I wouldn't consider this but it is of very little use in arenas in its current form.

Anyone tried an arena build with NS instead of SR?

 

Perwira

I'm happy you guys liked the guide I have taken plenty of info from this thread, but does make it convienent to get all the useful stuff in one spot.

I like the list I made because there are some clear patterns in what is working and what's not. When I get some free time I want to update it with specific weapons, weapon enchants, and meta gems.

An enhancement shaman with a 2 hander is like an elemental shaman with a staff instead of a shield + 1 hand. Sure it works, but why do it when there's so much better?

Pre 2.3, Yes. Post 2.3, No.

It was fairly common to see it before, but since it was buffed I haven't seen anyone without it since...SR is just too good now. You mention rogues and druids popping you from stealth...shield + SR = lots of damage reduction. Diivide has a video pre-2.3 of him using a NS build (see sig for link), but he has since went SR as well, as well as the other top enhance shaman (see my last post a couple up). Yes, there's always the risk of it being dispelled, but it just means careful use of it.

My enhancement shaman PVP guide: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...47618186&sid=1

 

Malpractices

My shaman is an alt that has limited weapons available(being opposite faction from my main). So, the reason for using a 2 hander is because I was able to get it to drop. It will be replaced by dual wield as I get honor points. My question about flurry still stands if anyone has any insight. I want to be able to do the best I can with the gear that is available at this time.

 

jlavarj

Between dodges/blocks/misses/stuns/out of range/target must be in front of you/etc that can happen while trying to melee someone and the very limited uptime you will actually have with flurry in an arena match using a two hander, I think you'd rather go for the fastest speed you can get out of flurry than trying to theorycraft around the 3 sec WF cooldown.

2 handers are a lot of fun in BGs.

 

Rouncer

Perwira, I was looking through your guide and I saw the dynamic purge macro.

/cast [target=mouseover,harm,exists] [target=harm,exists] [target=targettarget,harm,exists] Purge

For some reason it doesn't seem to work for me. When I put the macro in, the "?" for the icon never changes and when moved to my bars does nothing at all.

Anyone else still using this macro?

 

Perwira

If I was using a 2-hander I would still max out flurry for the same reason jlavarj states. Here is the tree I think I would use if I was using a 2-hander:

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

The bottom teirs in the enhancement tree are fudge points, if you like imp GW or imp LS the option is there for them. I like the elemental tree for 2-hands since hit is less of priority and it fits the "suicide" playstyle of 2-hander combat. Hope that helps some.

I'm not great with macros myself so I'll ask the macro wizard that I know (and came up with that) and get back to you.

My enhancement shaman PVP guide: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...47618186&sid=1

 

Perwira

Pretty sure the reason why it wasn't working is because after each [ ] command I needed to tell it to do something.

/cast [target=mouseover,harm,exists] Purge; [target=targettarget,harm,exists] Purge; [target=harm,exists] Purge

That's how you want to go it. If the target you're mousing over is harmful, it'll cast purge. If not, it'll check to see if the target of your target is harmful, then cast purge. If the target of your target isn't an enemy, it'll check to see if your current target is an enemy and cast purge.

Let me know how that works for you so I can fix it

My enhancement shaman PVP guide: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...47618186&sid=1

 

Mr. Horrible

Actually, it looks like the problem is the 'target=harm'. As a side note, 'exists' is unnecessary for the bits of this macro.

This should do it:
/cast [target=mouseover,harm] [target=targettarget,harm] [] Purge

By the way, that's an excellent guide, Perwira. Thanks for compiling it.

 

Perwira

Thanks! I happy you liked the guide I made. If you think something could be improved I'm always updating it with stuff I find, so just let me know.

I was thinking something like this would work as well:

If mouseover=exists AND enemy=true then
/cast purge
elseif targetoftarget=exists AND enemy=true then
/cast purge
elseif target=enemy then
/cast purge

EDIT: Spelling

My enhancement shaman PVP guide: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...47618186&sid=1

 

Smokestomp

I am a PVP/PVE enhance shaman who recently hit 2000 rating in 5v5. Most macro/gear choices have been covered here, I can offer only this advice: Starting out enhance, gear for survivability. As your gear level progresses, rely on just the armor pieces for survivability, and gem for damage.

 

Rouncer

That seems to have fixed it. I'll know once I test it out tomorrow in some more BGs. Guess target=harm is not an acceptable command and it just prevents it from working.

I guess you could add [target=target, harm] in that last bracket but not sure it's necessary since the spell won't work unless the target is hostile anyway.

I left the semi-colons in place in the macro though, not sure if they are really necessary though or not.


Thanks for the help.

 

Taowth

In regards to the 2/5 Flurry, its not really about flurry uptime or all the dodge/miss/etc things that can happen on the regular swing. For me the whole issue is the 3 sec WF cd. You're talking like you expect WF alot on the 2h, like you see on the DW. It just wont happen. Frankly you'll want 5/5 flurry for the faster speed to actually be able to see some WFs in the first place.


And nice compilation Perwira, i'm curious how you found the top 20, something that scanned armory teams and then matched specs to class?
Nice to feel unique in my totem usage though, and no its not that I dont have a stonebreaker, I just prefer the guarenteed AP on the attacks that mean big vs 10 sec AP thats reliant on my shocks, which I may or may not want to use at any given moment.

I havnt read through your guide fully to see what it comments on but one thing I noticed was comments on trash buffs like water breathing and water walking. Water walking is dispelled when you're damanged in combat. By anything. So I dont use that really ever since theres always going to be some kind damage flying either through aoe, pets on healers, multishot, etc, and doesnt last on anyone thats actually getting spam dispelled anyways.

Water breathing is just awesome though, but really I only use it to protect my initial buffs of motw and thorns, because the offensive dispels take away 2 debuffs.
Generally when I SR I immediatly try to follow it with a refresh of water shield, 1 GCD generally doesnt hurt me there. But trying to follow an sr with 2 GCDs is pushing it heavily for cases where I actually am needing that SR, meaning I cant shock that mind blast that will finish me or a heal if thats needed or grounding a frostbolt that will slow me or recast tremor to break my healer that got feared in their burn push, etc etc.
But even if I did put up 2 GCDs for the 2 things, their dispeller is going to just dispel again and then its immediatly gone and my gcds were probably wasted. I only use water shield to prevent fel hunters, hunters arcane shot, and as something else a mage would have to random for in a spellsteal, though since in my particular case, with a druid's hots piling on the water shield helps as a buffer for if i just got a rejuv/regrowth then my water shield is the 2nd thing to dispel.

 

Taowth

I wouldnt advocate that myself, you wont see huge gains from gemming damage, where on the flip side that extra resiliance can and probably would save you alot of the time. Most of the times I die is from crit chains (shatter combo in particular i absolutly hate, frost nova should be attackable), not the sustained damage.
And though its to each person's preferances on how to gem, i'd never advocate full dps gems, the shaman gear just doesnt support the base stats in hp/resil along with class survivability traits to be able to go full dps gems like warriors can. At most i'd mix 50/50.

 

Perwira

I'm happy you liked the guide I didn't go too crazy with the top enhancement shaman list. I used the lists that sk-gaming have to start with, and will go back like once every few days or so to make sure they are still enhancement. Also I have used people posting in the guide to help as well. There's a few more than 20 now, I have been making my cutoff at s3 shoulders/2k rating. By the way, gratz on making the list

It's hard to compare the astral winds to stonebreaker in a pvp situation for straight up damage. Stonebreaker is the obvious favorite in a pve enviroment, but when you are timing shocks with heals and such the buff isn't up as much in pvp. I think the reason why it's so popular in pvp is because it gives a magical buff which is purgeable, helping protect buffs even more. It's close either way.

I agree that water walking is kinda lame. It's only good against shamans and priests that come out purge happy and be useful in 1/10 matches, but it's cheap and can save a good buff on those one of 10 matches....which can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing. I'm curious does arcane shot remove it, or does it do damage, remove water walking and then another buff? You talk a bit about the "buff" battle and really it's one we have to win to make full use of the awesomeness of SR.

As far as gemming/enchanting, 10k hp and 300 resilience are the magic numbers to hit before even thinking about upping damage. Simply you're a complete liability and comprimising your team less than that. After that I would try to come close to the AP and crit numbers I list in the top post in this page (~1350 AP, 29% crit). At that point it really depends on team make up...if you feel like you are ff first, go defensive, if you play with an UA lock he might be getting the majority of the FF so go with AP. It's pretty much up the player at that point.

My enhancement shaman PVP guide: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...47618186&sid=1

 

Taowth

What i was trying to say about the "buff battle" is that its kind of pointless to try. SR isnt going to be buried under ww/wb at the start so to use so many gcds to try to outpace a priest dispelling is kind of pointless. Water shield helps counter the single debuffs that, in the hunters case are part of dmg rotation, and for fel hunter arent on the lock's cd. The only thing you can really do to keep SR up against someone that is going to purge it off is to simply keep the pressure up so high that they cant afford that cd to cleanse it compared to healing their teammate.


On a side note, I dont recommend a mutilate rogue for 3s, lol, my rogue tried it this week and it didnt turn out that great.

 

Emaze

Does spell pen improve our chance to purge buffs? Recently I've been noticing a huge increase in resists against my purge, expecially BoPs and BoFs. I wouldn't mind trading off 12 agi for 20 spell pen if it would make a differance.

 

Taowth

No, spell penetration effectivly is -resistance, if they have resistance gear/motw/etc, however the reason you're seeing spell resists on purge against BoPs, BoFs, Druid heals, etc is because those classes have talents that dramatically reduce the chance of their things to be dispelled. Stoicism for paladins in 30%, as is Subtlety for druids, when pain suppression form a priest is active thats 65%, and Rogue poisons if 5/5 Vile Poisons is 40% resistance.

Spell Penetration wont effect those because those arent gauged by spell resistance.

 

Emaze

yeah i knew stoicism and such was the reason we couldn't buff, but I was hoping something could help deter that.

 

Suian

My 3v3 team on my enh shaman alt has started to have some success in the lower level openning brackets.
We don't rely on CC much, but more on purge spam and then spell interupts - Priest, rogue/mage and myself can really give the catsers a hard time.
Combine it with constant dps and you have a win.

Purge is great when combined with a priest, because the priest then can do other things instead of being the lone dispeller, so they can heal or mana burn etc. I can keep dpsing as I purge too. If your DPS hits a problem like iceblock or bubble, then call for mass dispell and then hit them even harder!

I still need to work on my gear, but as only our priest has more then 150resil (he has ~450ish), this team is a learning exercise in teamwork, we can only improve.

 

thevidon

Just keep in mind that for most teams your priest probably gets focused on first. By the time they realize that he is way better geared than you or your rogue, it is too late to recover from the mistake (this comment x2 if he is disc). You should be fine getting into the middle brackets though.

With that said, I would love to have a 450 resilience disc priest on my team.

 

Experiment

Someone mentioned the idea of starting out with healing weapon / shield on at the start of the fight. It seems like a somewhat useful strat. No worse then a Warlock starting with a Sac'd Voicewalker. Smart teams will have Proximo, or ignore the Warlock until the sac buff wears off.

Thank you Smokestomp for the gem progression idea and later gear. It's nice to hear from someone who has the rating to back up the idea.

I didn't see it mentioned, but does Stonebreakers buff count as a magic? If so that it might be a better trinket due to buff protection. Using the easily renewable AP bonus as a protection for your other buffs would easily make it very worthwhile.

And I have a question on the purge / resist mechanic, because I don't see a answer (Unless it's buried somewhere) regarding it...

I'm not entirely sure how to phrase this...When you try to purge someone, it attempts to remove two buffs. Are the two buffs rolled against the purge separately? Or if one buff remove resists (Say a druid buff) then the Priest buff resists as well? Sorry if that wasn't clear at all. I can't figure out how to put that question.