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[Enhancement] BiS gear and set-up discussion
Updated 17th September, 2009
Current Best-in-Slot set up for Enhancement Shaman by Vespasian of <Audacity>, Blackrock US Please consult the introductory post below before posting on this thread.
Gear List: Patch 3.2 introduced a new itemisation system for raids: 1) Faction specific items: these items can only be obtained by one faction or the other however these items always have a corresponding horde/alliance item with identical stats. It’s the same item with a different name/graphic e.g [Thrall's Faceguard of Triumph] is the horde version of the alliance’s [Nobundo's Faceguard of Triumph]. The following list is for Horde items. Alliance players will have no difficulty in finding the corresponding alliance item using Wowhead or MMO-Champion. **In 10 minute encounters, run speed enchants provide superior DPS when you are running between targets for more than 16.5 seconds ***[Totem of Quaking Earth] is the superior totem on encounters where you are casting Chain Lightning frequently. Glyph set-up
Ability priority order
Enhsim config: Code:
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EnhSim version 1.8.3.3 |
Updated 14th Sep, 2009.
If you wish to contribute to this thread, please read the following before posting. This is a discussion thread relating to the optimal gear, enchant, gem, glyph set up, talent spec and ability priority order for raiding Enhancement Shaman. Its aim is to consistently define the single highest DPS set up available to Shaman at the present time. It is not the aim of this thread to: 1) Give you an introduction to Shaman, Shaman abilities, Shaman stats or anything else. This thread assumes a high level of understanding if Shaman mechanics and gearing. If you are starting out, please visit the Enhancement Shaman Theorycrafting Think Tank authored by Malan: http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t20765-shaman_enhancement/ 2) Facilitate discussion that is not based on hard Enhsim data. If you do not have data to support your assertions, then there are likely other discussion threads you can post on that would be more suitable. How is Best-in-Slot (BiS) set-up defined? Given the volatile nature of Enhancement Shaman stats, defining a ‘best item for X slot’ is pointless. A new set of gloves that increases your haste by (X) amount and reduces your crit by (X-5) can often result in a DPS decrease due to the complex relationship between attack speed, the 3 second WF cooldown and the GCD. Similarly, evaluating gear with Armour Penetration is notoriously difficult given ArP’s exponential scaling against armour (the more ArP you have, the better it gets) measured against the fact that ArP does nothing for a Shaman’s spells. In light of these complexities, it is better for Shaman to find an ideal combination of gear, gems and enchants that provides the highest potential DPS when used in conjunction with a certain talent spec, glyph set-up and ability priority order (survivability [e.g. HP and dmg mitigation abilities] can and should not feature into this discussion since its DPS value cannot be definitively quantified). How is ‘highest potential dps’ defined? For the purposes of this exercise, ‘highest potential dps’ is defined as the maximum possible DPS achievable within the current version Enhsim DPS simulator created Turkez (EnhSim - Home and kindly updated by a number of Enh Theorycrafting luminaries). It is important to understand the limitations of simulation. Simulation offers a glimpse of character performance under perfect conditions- set latency, no human reaction delay, no system lag, a perfect rotation on a stationary target for thousands of hours. Your actual results will vary greatly from what you observe in the sim, but the sim will give you a clear indication of maximum DPS potential. Methodology In order to define the BiS set for Enhancement Shaman, we will rely on both Paperdoll sheets generated through Rawr (Rawr - Home) and the DPS output reports generated through Enhsim. Both the Paperdoll sheets and the Enhsim configs must adhere to strict guidelines so that we can arrive at ‘pure’ data sets. What are the variables? The following is a list of variables that can be manipulated in trying to define a BiS list. Gear- all gear that can currently be equipped by an Enhancement Shaman Gems- all gems that can currently be equipped by an Enhancement Shaman with the exception of the JC gems since they are currently imbalanced and will soon be corrected in 3.2. Enchants- . All enchants currently available to an enhancement shaman are permitted including the enchanting-only ring enchants as enchanting is one of the two chosen professions for use in this exercise (the other being LW- more on that below) Talents- any combination of talents currently available to an Enhancement Shaman with the exception of 'Enhancing Totems' and Improved Windfury Totem'. These talents must be maxxed out. Please read below. Glyphs- Any Glyph currently available to an Enhancement Shaman. Ability priority order- this is the order in which a Shaman prioritizes their attacks as they become available to them. Enhsim supports this function under the ‘Rotations and Misc’ tab. Any priority order currently available to the Shaman can be included in this discussion Static variables The following is a list of variables that cannot be manipulated when trying to define a BiS list. Manipulating these variables will result in inconsistent data or data that is not applicable to certain races. More below. Race: The shaman must be a Tauren. Tauren was selected as their racials provide no benefits to DPS (Troll Berserk, Orc Command etc) or to stats (Draenei hit, Orc expertise). Any benefits that other races derive as result of their racials is free DPS over and above the benchmark minimum set down by Taurens. As we go forward, there is no reason that separate BiS lists can't be generated for Draenei and Orcs if it becomes evident that a different BiS set up is possible for them. For now though, it would be best to limit as many variables as possible. Talents: 'Enhancing Totems' and 'Improved Windfury Totem' must both be maxxed out. It is fair to assume that the Enh Shaman is the only person providing these buffs to the raid. All other talents are available for use/non-use. Professions: Professions must be Leatherworking and Enchanting. Since most professions provide a generic 64 AP bonus currently (to be buffed across the board in 3.2), 2 professions were chosen in line with this- Leatherworking and Enchanting. There was no particular reason that they were selected. Obviously Skinning provides a unique bonus (32 crit rating) but it is a statistical outlier and was excluded from this test. Combat duration: Combat duration must be 10 mins. 10mins was chosen as it is the length of the best available DPS check fight in the game at the moment, Heroic XT-002 Hard Mode. Going into 3.2, it might be prudent to revise this combat duration limitation depending on the nature and duration of 3.2 encounters. Mana simulation: You must simulate mana. Latency: Lag must be set at 50-60. This is the average US ping. It does not account for the delay inherent in human reaction times, but we are interested first and foremost in potential, not actual. Simulation time: This must be set to 5000 hours. Raid buffs: The Shaman must be fully raid buffed as most raiders will run fully buffed. How do I contribute to this thread? 1) Generate a paperdoll sheet using Rawr 2) Export the data from Rawr to Enhsim (there is an option in the Rawr to do so, as well as an option in Enhsim (‘Copy from Clipboard’) 3) Ensure that settings corresponding with the above listed static variables 4) Run the sim 5-10 times and record your results. 5) If your results are more than 5 DPS over the current DPS range listed on this forum, post your results here. Please include an uploaded Rawr sheet, a copy of your config and a copy of the DPS report. Also, please note any changes you have made between the Rawr sheet and the config (e.g manually added stats for Dark Matter as it was not present in Rawr but was present in Enhsim etc) If you have suggestions for refining the methodology, please feel free to suggest them. The OP will be maintained to always show the highest known DPS sim combination at any point in time. Vespasian, <Audacity> Blackrock US |
Looking at the Belt of Dragons and its +12 ap socket bonus, you would be better off putting a [Enchanted Tear] in the blue socket - even assuming that you have access to prismatic gems. 6 to all stats comes out to 19.6-20.26 ap with kings/Ancestral Knowledge. Essentially the AP bonus is the same as having a 32 ap gem in its place, with the added benefit of additional melee and spell crit, and some extra stamina to boot. Presumably, you are less likely to upgrade that belt with initial 3.2 gear where as most people will immediately try to upgrade their class specific gear sets.
All in all, that is a very good list! Edit: Wouldn't [Solar Bindings] sim out better than [Frost-bound Chain Bracers], especially in light of the fact that you gain 3 extra 32 ap gem sockets? |
You can only equip one enchanted tear, and under this set-up the tear is present in the legs. I dont think we need to concern ourselves with how gemming choices might be influenced by future upgrades.
As for Solar Binding I am not sure. If you can demonstrate a set-up that provides superior dps using this item then I would love to see the it. |
While 32 AP boot enchant will sim the highest, it has been determined for some time that a runspeed enchant is better. See TTT.
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32 AP isn't the highest anyway since, even past the spell hit cap, Icewalker is more dps. He used 32 AP because he was trying to stay just over the spell hit cap, forgetting that hit still has a lot of value past that cap all the way up to the dual wield hit cap. My latest runs put hit past the cap at ~1.5EP which means Icewalker is worth ~41EP. |
Is there any point to assembling the same list with 10-man only available gear? I know that there are many people (including myself) who are committed, successful 10-man raiders who for various reasons don't do 25 mans.
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Since we're talking about maximum theoretical DPS, I'll share this slightly improbable ability priority. I started tinkering with this while thinking about MW procs being our most valuable commodity. The easiest way to gain more, is to spend more, thus spending less time with 5 unspent stacks of MW. I've changed nothing from the config provided in the first post but the ability priority and attained 7377-7379 DPS.
Note: In practice using MW3 on CL instead of waiting for MW4-5 costs a prohibitive amount of mana and is difficult to time effectively. Ability priority order 1) SW 2) MWx5_LB 3) SS 4) ES 5) MT 6) LS 7) MW3_CL 8) MW4_LB 9) LL Code:
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What RAWR version did you use to generate the above RAWR sheet, I can't open it in the latest version of RAWR 2.2.9 or the older 2.2.7, or even 2.2.6 RAWR errors out error message " there was an error attempting to open this character, most likely it was saved in a previous beta of Rawr and isn't upgradable to the new format". I want to look at your Rawr file as when I input all the above items above my numbers are not matching yours. Enhsim config is way off. Not sure why.
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I've searched through here and other forums that are up to snuff on enhance dps figures and almost everywhere I've looked has had AP>Haste as far as gemming. I don't know why haste is so put down when all of my tests, in game and in sims, have put haste>AP. My recommendation is to gem haste as much as possible.
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EnhSim version 1.7.0Code:
EnhSim version 1.7.0 |
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In any event, this may not be the proper thread for this discussion. If you have searched you should be aware that the theorycrafting tools used by this community are Rawr and EnhSim, so if you have a discrepancy with one of those there are dedicated threads for each that you can use to provide constructive feedback. |
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Updated
To respond to a few posts: With regards to run speed enchant, I would prefer to exclude it from our list for the simple reason that its value is not equal across all encounters, where as Icewalker/Assault are. I will however make a note on that enchant in the table directing them to the TTT, so that people can at least make an informed choice. Thank you, Rouncer, for pointing this out. Icewalker is listed as the new BiS enchant. With regards to generating a 10man list, I can certainly see the value in the project for many people, however I would not be willing to devote the time to this. If someone is willing to do so, PM me and perhaps we can find a way of reporting the findings on this thread. Hozzer, thanks for this. Your findings have been included in the latest post. I tweaked it somewhat to prioritise LL, which is more in line with general play style while still yeilding identical dps results. Crazyhammer, I am using the latest version of Rawr 2.2.9. No one else has reported this issue. Are you sure you arent doing something wrong? Skaii, these are interesting results but we need to see a paperdoll sheet and config for your results. Please post them when you get a chance. Donor, putting 1 extra point in AK results in only 3-5 more dps, which is inside the standard deviation for sim results. Furthermore, we can rightly assume that 45% cheaper shocks are typically going to be more valuable than 3-5 more DPS. |
I was simming for higher DPS with Shoulders of Misfortune and Conq Gloves instead of the setup you brought up. I'll be uploading the logs here as soon as i get home.
But that's for my actual gear, and it doesn't have neither the neck, or the algalon trinkets and ring. |
OK, I did some testing with AP and Haste versions of what I originally thought was BiS for us. The AP version is at or just below what is listed above as the current best DPS set. The Haste version is ~22 DPS above that. Also, it should be noted, that adding the Draenei racial on top of the Haste and AP sets adds another ~40 DPS. Here are the files. Also, my spec is a little bit different here, I removed the point in Shamanistic Focus because I do not have mana problems, ever, and put it into Ancestral Knowledge.
EnhSim Config File Code:
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EnhSim version 1.8.0Download bis haste xml for free at Uploading.com Quick notes on the set, a lot of it is the same. However, I am using Shoulders of Misfortune over T8 and the T8 Gloves over the pair you have listed above. I am also using the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond instead of the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond. Also, Godbane Signet over Band of Lights and Blood of the Old God over Dark Matter. In a true AP set, I could see trying to fit Dark Matter into it and I plan on spending some time on it. The only reason I even bother testing both sets is due to the fact not everyone likes to gem for Haste regardless of its current EP value because it fluctuates so much. |
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