Enhancement Shaman Raid Guide
Enhancement Shaman Raid Guide
11.0.5 - The War Within
Welcome to the Enhancement Shaman Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.0.5! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!
Overview
Enhancement Shaman
Enhancement ShamanRaid
Hero Talents
Enhancement Shaman
Stormbringer
Totemic
- Tempest
- Your Lightning Bolt turns into Tempest after either
- You spend 40 Maelstrom Weapon.
- You get 3 stacks of Awakening Storms.
- The main idea of this Hero Tree is to cycle through as much Maelstrom Weapon as possible and cast as many Tempest as possible.
- Your Lightning Bolt turns into Tempest after either
- Arc Discharge
- Tempest causes your next Chain Lightning or Lightning Bolt to be instant cast, deal 40% increased damage, and cast an additional time.
- Storm Swell or Supercharge
- Storm Swell
- Tempest grants 10% Mastery for 6 sec.
- Supercharge
- Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Tempest have a 35% chance to refund 2 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
- Storm Swell
- Rolling Thunder
- Tempest also summons a Nature Feral Spirit.
- Conductive Energy
- Casting Tempest applies Lightning Rod to your target.
- The rest of this tree are passives that do not affect your gameplay much.
- Unlimited Power
- Spending Maelstrom Weapon grants you Haste.
- Voltaic Surge
- Increases the damage of your Crash Lightning and Chain Lightning by 15%.
- Stormcaller
- Increases the critical strike chance and damage of your Nature spells by 5%.
- Unlimited Power
- Surging Totem
- Summons a totem that pulses a large amount of damage every 5 sec, reduced by Haste.
- Whirling Elements
- After summoning your Surging Totem your next:
- Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Elemental Blast unleashes 3 Surging Bolts at your Surging Totem.
- Direct damage of your next Flame Shock is increased by 300%
- Your next Lava Lash or Fire Nova grants you Hot Hand for 8 sec.
- After summoning your Surging Totem your next:
- Lively Totems
- Lava Lash has a chance to summon a Searing Totem that shoots Searing Bolts at a nearby enemy
- Frost Shock empowered by Hailstorm, Lava Lash and Fire Nova makes your Searing Totem shoot a Searing Volley at 5 nearby enemies.
- Lava Lash has a chance to summon a Searing Totem that shoots Searing Bolts at a nearby enemy
- The rest of this is passsive and doest not affect your gameplay much.
- Totemic Rebound
- Stormstrike has a chance to empower your totem and deal extra damage.
- Imbuement Mastery
- Increases the chance of Windfury Weapon to be to be triggered by 10%, and its damage by 15%.
- When Flametongue Weapon triggers from Windfury Weapon attacks, it has a chance to trigger a whirl of flame around the target, dealing damage to all nearby enemies 3 additional times.
- Amplification Core or Oversurge
- Amplification Core
- While Surging Totem is active, you deal 3% increased damage and healing.
- Oversurge
- Surging Totem deals 150% more damage during Ascendance.
- Amplification Core
- Totemic Coordination or Earthsurge.
- Totemic Coordination
- Increases your Searing Totems critical strike chance by 15%, and its critical strike damage by 30%.
- Earthsurge
- Casting Sundering causes your Surging Totem to create a tremor at 200% effectiveness.
- Totemic Coordination
- Pulse Capacitor
- Increases the damage of your Surging Totem by 25%.
- Totemic Rebound
Talents
Enhancement Shaman
Stormbringer
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Witch Doctor's Ancestry
- Increases the chance to gain a stack of Maelstrom Weapon by 4%, and whenever you gain a stack, the cooldown of Feral Spirit is reduced by 1 sec.
- Elemental Assault
- Causes Stormstrike, Lava Lash and Ice Strike to have a 100% chance to generate 1 stack of Maelstrom Weapon.
- Stormblast
- Stormstrike now has 2 charges.
- Stormsurge now also causes your next Stormstrike to deal 25% additional damage as Nature damage, stacking up 2 times.
- Static Accumulation
- 20% chance to refund any Maelstrom Weapon spent.
- Generate 2 Maelstrom Weapon every sec while in Ascendance.
- Thorim's Invocation
- Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning deals 20% increased damage.
- While Ascendance is active, Windstrike automatically consumes up to 5 Maelstrom Weapon to cast a Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning, whichever was most recently casted.
Hero Talents
- Tempest
- Your Lightning Bolt turns into Tempest after either
- You spend 40 Maelstrom Weapon
- You get 3 stacks of Awakening Storms.
- Your Lightning Bolt turns into Tempest after either
- Supercharge
- Tempest, Chain Lightning, and Lightning Bolt has a 35% chance to refund 2 Maelstrom Weapon stacks.
- Rolling Thunder
- Tempest also summons a Nature Feral Spirit.
Rotation
Enhancement Shaman
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Stormstrike, Lava Lash and Ice Strike deal 10% increased damage.
- 4-Set: Activating Feral Spirit summons 1 additional Feral Spirit.
Single-Target
Stormbringer Storm
Opener
- Your opener can vary a lot since you are fully proc-dependent.
- Your goal is to cast Windstrike whenever possible.
- If you get a Tempest and you are at 8+ Maelstrom Weapon you cast it manually.
- If you are at 5+ Maelstrom Weapon and you don't have a Windstrike, cast an Elemental Blast.
- Thanks to the reworked version of Stormblast you will be able to mainly cast Windstrike otherwise fill with other generators.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Cast Tempest at 6+ Maelstrom Weapon.
- Cast Windstrike during Ascendance.
- Cast Lightning Bolt at 5+ Maelstrom Weapon.
- Cast Stormstrike on cooldown.
- Cast Ice Strike if available.
- Cast Frost Shock.
- Cast Voltaic Blaze if available.
- Cast Flame Shock.
Multi-Target
Stormbringer Storm
Opener
- Your opener can vary a lot since you are fully proc-dependent.
- Your goal is to cast Windstrike whenever possible.
- Cast Tempest manually whenever you can.
- If you are at 5+ Maelstrom Weapon and you don't have a Windstrike, cast an Elemental Blast or Chain Lightning.
- Thanks to the reworked version of Stormblast you will be able to mainly cast Windstrike otherwise fill with other generators.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Cast Feral Spirit on cooldown.
- Cast Tempest at 8+ Maelstrom Weapon.
- Cast Chain Lightning at 8+ Maelstrom Weapon.
- Cast Doom Winds on cooldown.
- Cast Stormstrike on cooldown.
- Cast Crash Lightning to keep the buff up.
- Cast Sundering on cooldown.
- Cast Ice Strike on cooldown.
- Cast Lava Lash on cooldown.
- Cast Frost Shock on cooldown.
Deep Dive
Enhancement Shaman
Elementalist vs. Storm
- With the reworks to the spec tree, Storm is now far ahead of Elementalist. The reworked versions of Stormblast and Deeply Rooted Elements as well as the new talent, Flowing Spirits, are very much tailored to Storm and the RNG playstyle.
Tempest Strikes vs. Elemental Blast
- Due to the changes to Deeply Rooted Elements, making it trigger off of all spenders rather than generators, with the exception being Elemental Blast, it now makes Tempest Strikes the better choice for all builds that play Deeply Rooted Elements.
- If you play a build that uses Ascendance, Elemental Blast should become better.
Using Chain Lightning vs. Elemental Blast/Lightning Bolt
The way you spend Maelstrom Weapon varies based on the number of targets you are fighting, whether your priority is killing a certain target, and which build you are playing.
- If you are specced into Elemental Blast
- You use Chain Lightning if
- You are fighting 3 or more targets and you do not need to focus on killing a certain target.
- You are fighting 2 targets and Elemental Blast is on cooldown or you do not have Feral Spirit active.
- You use Elemental Blast if
- There is an important target that needs to die quickly, even if there are more than 5 targets. This results in less overall damage output but it is worth it to kill dangerous priority enemies.
- You are fighting 2 targets and Feral Spirit is active.
- You use Chain Lightning if
- If you are specced into Tempest Strikes
- You use Chain Lightning if
- You are fighting 2 or more targets and you do not need to focus on killing a certain target.
- You use Lightning Bolt if
- You are fighting 1 target.
- You have Primordial Wave active.
- You use Chain Lightning if
Flowing Spirits
- With Flowing Spirits, you will only spawn wolves from the type of spell you cast. This means if you are only using Stormstrike, Crash Lightning, Chain Lightning and Tempest on AoE, you will only be spawning Lightning wolves.
- This is why you will see crazy pulls where you have close to 10 lightning wolves up and no other type of wolf.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
Nerub-ar Palace
Enhancement Shaman
← Scroll for more Bosses →
Ulgrax
Bloodbound Horror
Sikran
Rasha'nan
Broodtwister
Nexus-Princess
Silken Court
Queen Ansurek
Boss Tips
- Use Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem if you are targetted by Digestive Acid.
- You should be using Wind Rush Totem during Carnivorous Contest to help your raid run away. You should also use Feral Lunge to get back to the boss after.
- If you are playing Spirit Walk, you can use it to break Stalker Netting, this only works on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
If you're assigned to Group 1:
If you're assigned to Group 2:
Boss Tips
- When Goresplatter is coming up, you should use Spirit Walk to get out and Feral Lunge to get back in. You can also look around for a Demonic Gateway to use.
Boss Tips
- Use Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem whenever you are targetted by Decimate.
Boss Tips
- You can use Earthbind Totem and Capacitor Totem to slow and stun the Infested Spawn before they reach players.
- Move out with Spinneret's Strands and place it to the sides.
- When the boss moves to a new position, drop Wind Rush Totem and move it with Totemic Projection if needed, in order to help your raid.
Boss Tips
- Use Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem if you are targetted by Experimental Dosage.
- You can use Thunderous Paws and Spirit Walk to cleanse Unstable Web yourself. Wind Rush Totem when specced into Jet Stream also works but watch out so you don't dispel others and cause them to root other nearby allies with Web Eruption.
- On each Experimental Dosage, some adds will spawn. Whenever Blood Parasites spawn, use Earthbind Totem to slow them, these need to be killed before they reach their fixate target.
- A Voracious Worm can also spawn which has to be interrupted. Shamans are great at this with your short CD on Wind Shear.
Boss Tips
- If you get targetted by Assassination, use a defensive just before it goes off as you will get Queensbane right after which shoots out projectiles. If you get hit by other players projectiles this can quickly become very deadly.
- Watch where the Nether Rift are placed as they pull you towards their location, if there are multiple ones on the same side, it might be a very strong pull so use Wind Rush Totem for your raid on this.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Try to use Crash Lightning whenever you can hit 2 targets. Most of the time you should either have the bosses stacked or there are some Shattershell Scarabs you can hit.
- Use Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem on Venomous Rain.
- Use Wind Rush Totem on the Web Vortex to help players break the Binding Webs quickly.
- In P1, Skeinspinner Takazj, casts Poison Bolt on the current tank. Poison Cleansing Totem is a great tool to help your healers out.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
- In P3 you use Astral Shift and Stone Bulwark Totem reactively if you get Royal Condemnation.
- Earth Elemental should be used in P3 after using your other defensive to cover you for another minute.
Boss Tips
- You can use Spirit Walk to break yourself free from Silken Tomb. Evokers can help you by giving you Time Spiral.
- Wind Rush Totem Is very useful to help your raid dodge Web Blades and Acid Explosion.
- In P3 the boss spawns Gloom Hatchlings which you need to stop before they reach the boss. Capacitor Totem with Guardian's Cudgel is a great way as they do not go on stun DR at all. Thunderstorm can also help you out.
- Make sure you interrupt Summoned Acolytes Null Detonation as soon as you can as it does more damage each time the cast goes off.
Stat Priority
Enhancement Shaman
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as a Enhancement Shaman. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
- All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing.
- Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. Makes playing certain mechanics a lot easier.
Gear
Enhancement Shaman
Best in Slot
Farmable Alternatives
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Noetic of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier |
| Neck | Sureki Zealot's Insignia | Sikran |
| Shoulder | Concourse of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier |
| Cloak | Wings of Shattered Sorrow | Rasha'Nan |
| Chest | Goresplattered Membrane | Bloodbound Horror |
| Wrist | Glyph-Etched Vambraces | Sikran |
| Gloves | Covenant of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier |
| Belt | Cinch of Lingering Influence | City of Threads |
| Legs | Sarong of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier |
| Boots | Silksteel Striders | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Ring 1 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact | Queen Ansurek |
| Ring 2 | Writhing Ringworm | Broodtwister |
| Trinket 1 | Skardyn's Grace | Grim Batol |
| Trinket 2 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Main-hand | Void Reaper's Warp Blade | Nexus-Princess |
| Off-hand | Everforged Mace | Crafting |
Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Cryptbound Headpiece | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Neck | "Emergency Stop" Keychain | The Stonevault |
| Shoulder | Wintersnap Shoulderguards | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
| Cloak | Anvilhide Cape | The Stonevault |
| Chest | Goliath's Chitinous Chainmail | City of Threads |
| Wrist | Penumbral Rimeguards | City of Threads |
| Gloves | Claws of Tainted Ichor | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Belt | Cinch of Lingering Influence | City of Threads |
| Legs | Entwined Chimeric Legguards | The Stonevault |
| Boots | Silksteel Striders | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Ring 1 | Seal of the City Watch | Siege of Boralus |
| Ring 2 | Band of the Ancient Dredger | Siege of Boralus |
| Trinket 1 | Skardyn's Grace | Grim Batol |
| Trinket 2 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Main-Hand | Eirich's Fist of Deception | The Stonevault |
| Off-Hand | Bainbridge's Blackjack | Siege of Boralus |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the raid boss.
Active Trinket alternatives
- Treacherous Transmitter
- Great on-use trinket alternative. Can be annoying to use.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Shadow-Binding Ritual Knife
- This is one of your best passive options, better than most other trinkets at the same ilvl.
- Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
- Great passive choice, almost as strong as your best options.
- Dead-Eye Spyglass
- Great passive choice, one of your most solid options.
- Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg
- Great passive choice, one of your most solid options. Can be annoying to use.
Embellishments
- Dawnthread Lining
- Duskthread Lining
- Both of these are your overall best embellishments, depending on what stats you currently need.
- The optimal slots to craft on are Wrists, Boots, or Waist depending on your available gear.
Remaining Sparks
- Crafted items are 636 item level and regular items are 636 on max item level, therefore, it's not beneficial to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Consumables
Enhancement Shaman
- Phials
- Flask of Tempered Swiftness -- maximum DPS.
- Flask of Tempered Versatility -- less DPS but more survivability.
- Food
- Feast of the Divine Day
- Combat Potion
- Tempered Potion
- Health Potion
- Algari Healing Potion -- a big burst of healing
- Weapon Oil
- Windfury Weapon
- Flametongue Weapon
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Deadly Onyx
- Culminating Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem color to enhance your Culminating Blasphemite.
- Quick Ruby
- Quick Sapphire
- Masterful Emerald
Enchantments
| Head | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Neck | Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace |
| Chest | Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Avoidance Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Waist | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Legs | Stormbound Armor Kit |
| Boots | Enchant Boots - Scout's March |
| Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Main-Hand | Enchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths |
| Off-Hand | Enchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths |
You buy Nerubian Gemweaver from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists & Waist.
Races
Enhancement Shaman
For min-maxing a Enhancement Shaman in raiding, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your character. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Stoneform -- Dwarf
- Dispels Magic and Bleed debuffs. Has been useful in the past on some bosses with Bleeds.
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
- While you're in the Rocket Jump animation you are placed on a global cooldown until your character lands.
- Berserking -- Troll
- Strong DPS racial that lines up perfectly with Ascendance.
- Reduce the duration of movement-impairing effects by 20%. This was only useful once in the recent history of progression raiding but is still worth noting.
- Blood Fury -- Orc
- Good DPS racial that lines up poorly with Ascendance.
- 20% reduced stun duration on you which can be useful in some situations.
- Ancestral Call -- Mag'har Orc
- Good DPS racial that lines up poorly with Ascendance.
- Reduces the duration of poisons, diseases and curses by 10%.
- Haymaker -- Kul'Tiran
- Stuns your target for 3 sec and knocks them back, not the coolest for raiding
- 1% Versatility which makes this race decent for DPS.
Recommendation
In general, it's safe to say that if you care about min-maxing your DPS, you should go with the highest DPS racial. That being said, the story is a bit different if it's about progression raiding. Some help out massively to speed up the progression on certain bosses. Notably, Dwarf with their Stoneform helped out on Tindral Sageswift and Fyrakk the Blazing in the latest Race to World First by having easy access to dispelling yourself at crucial points of the fights mentioned.
If there is a good use of any races utility, it's always recommended to play it, but Troll is the overall best DPS racial currently. I prefer Goblin as its a small dps loss and Rocket Jump can save you from some bad situations.
Macros
Enhancement Shaman
Discover recommended macros for Enhancement Shamans during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Cursor Macros
Totemic Projection -- Casts Totemic Projection on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Totemic ProjectionWind Rush Totem -- Casts Wind Rush Totem on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Wind Rush TotemMouseover Macros
Utility Macros
Addons
Enhancement Shaman
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Enhancement Shaman, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.
Addons
WeakAuras
Changes this Patch
Enhancement Shaman
Patch 11.0.2
Patch 11.0
FAQ
Destruction Warlock
Q: Why is Totemic never played?
Credits
Written By: Clickz
Reviewed By: Perfecto