#0 - Feb. 27, 2007, 8:23 p.m.
As always, if you have any comments or corrections, please let me know! This is very much a work in progress. Unless otherwise specified assume all information primarily pertains to PvE.
Which Weapon Imbues Should I Use?
- For Enhancement, you want a slow mainhand with Windfury and a slow offhand with Flametongue. Fast offhands are not viable since Stormstrike and Lava Lash are instant non-normalized attacks.
- Elemental uses Flametongue and Restoration uses Earthliving.
- Rockbiter should not be used at all. Frostbrand is PvP-only.
Which Glyphs Should I Use?
Glyph selection depends upon spec and gear level. Run the enhance simulator and Rawr, check out Binkenstein's spreadsheet (from the EJ article linked below) and do your own tests.
Enhancement
Prime - Lava Lash, Stormstrike, and Feral Spirit. Fire Elemental is an alternative for heroics.
Major - Lightning Shield. The other two are at your discretion. If AEing, get Chain Lightning and Fire Nova.
Elemental
Prime - Lightning, Lava Burst, and Flame Shock
Major - Thunder. The other two are at your discretion. Lightning Shield should not be used. Chain Lightning can be nice for quick AE.
Restoration
Prime - Earth Shield, Riptide, and Earthliving Weapon.
Major - Chain Heal for raiding, free if not. The rest are at your discretion.
How to AE
Elemental
Channel Earthquake.
Enhance
A simple priority.
Fire Elemental Totem > MW5 Chain Lightning > Magma Totem > Fire Nova > Chain Lightning
Enhancement Simplified Priority
Enhancement shamans don't have a set rotation as many spells have staggered cooldowns and Maelstrom Weapon stacks are random. We use a priority list instead. Use the following abilities in order of priority to maximize sustained damage. Note that this priority is simplified to the point where humans can reliably execute it. You should also use your cooldowns (trinkets, wolves, fire elemental, etc) as often as possible.
This priority is in active development and is likely to change as the enhsim evolves.
1) Lightning Bolt - With a 5 stack of maelstrom weapon. Use chain lightning only if >1 mob.
2) Lava Lash - Don't worry about searing stacks on your target, use this on cooldown.
3) Unleash Elements
4) Refresh Searing Totem, if necessary.
5) Flame Shock - Only use if the FS DoT is down.
6) Stormstrike
7) Earth Shock
Gearing Enhancement
The proper way to determine stat weights is to run the simulator with your stats plugged in.
http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t31667-enhancement_shaman_enhsim_dps_simulator/
1) First get to 17% spell hit (446 hit rating, 420 for Draenei) and 23 expertise (115 expertise rating, since we get 8 expertise from Unleashed Rage).
2) Agility > Mastery > Crit > Haste > Hit (until hard DW melee cap at 21%) > Intelligence
3) Gem Agility.
Note that hit has "soft" caps at 2% (for special melee attacks, including 6% melee hit from talents) and 17% (for spells) and a hard melee cap at 21% (covers everything, assuming 6% melee hit from Dual Wield).
Reforging Enhancement
1) Reforge to 17% spell hit and 23 expertise.
2) Reforge all your Hit (over 17% spell hit), Crit, and Haste to Mastery. In that order.
3) Reforge any remaining excess Hit and Haste to Crit.
Gearing Elemental
1) Spell hit to 17% (446 hit rating, 420 for Draenei) . Note that if you have spirit on your gear, you will get spell hit rating from it as well.
2) Intelligence > Mastery > Haste > Crit
3) Gem Intelligence.
Reforging Elemental
1) Reforge to 17% spell hit, from either hit rating or spirit.
2) Reforge all your Hit/Spirit (over 17% spell hit), Crit and Haste to Mastery. In that order.
3) Reforge any remaining excess Hit/Spirit and Crit to Haste.
Gearing Resto
1) Haste > Intelligence > Mastery > Crit > Spirit
2) Gem Haste.
Reforging Resto
1) Reforge everything into haste.
2) If the item already has haste, reforge to mastery.
3) If the item already has mastery, reforge to crit. (Does not apply at level 80.)
Unleash Elements
This new level 81 ability has different effects based upon your equipped weapon imbues. Dualwielding shamans get both.
- Unleash Wind (Windfury): http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=73684
- Unleash Flame (Flametongue): http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=73683
- Unleash Life (Earthliving): http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=73685
- Unleash Frost (Frostbrand): http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=73682
- Unleash Earth (Rockbiter): http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=73684
Windfury Weapon
- Scales with weapon DPS, attack power, haste, crit, and hit.
- Mitigated by armor and block, avoided by dodge, parry, and miss.
- Has a 5% special attack type melee miss chance.
- The best enchant for enhancement shamans on the main hand.
- The two extra attacks can proc Flurry, Unleashed Rage, and weapon on hit effects. They do not consume Flurry charges and don't glance.
- When used offhand, the two extra attacks are affected by the standard offhand 50% damage reduction. The WF proc's attack power bonus is not.
Windfury Totem
- The Windfury Totem now grants 10% melee and ranged attack speed. It stacks with the shaman-only weapon imbue. Please note that this is attack speed, not haste. It will not increase a rogue's energy regeneration.
The Windfury Cooldown
After WF procs it cannot proc again on either hand for 3 seconds. No 1H weapon in the entire game can proc WF twice in a row. This means that WF will proc less than the 20% promised on its tooltip.
- When only one weapon has WF, each hit outside of the cooldown has a 20% chance to proc. This leads to a 11-18% overall proc rate, depending on gear, weapon speed, spec, and luck. Slower is better.
- When both weapons have WF, each hit outside of the cooldown has a 36% chance to proc. This leads to a 11-14% procrate with weapons faster than 2.0s unhasted and a 14-18% procrate with weapons slower than 2.0s unhasted. Slower is better.
Flametongue Weapon and Totem
- The best mainhand enchant for elemental shamans and the best offhand enchant for enhancement shamans.
- FT should never be used mainhand by enhance shamans.
- The glyph of Flametongue Weapon stacks when dualwielding, giving 4% spell crit.
- The FT totem gives a 6% total spell power buff. This stacks with the static buff on FT weapon but does not stack with 10% spell power buffs provided by elemental shamans and demonology warlocks.
Earthliving Weapon
- Earthliving (EL) is the weapon imbue for restoration shamans.
- The EL effect has a chance to proc on each "jump" of a chain heal.
- The Heal over Time (HoT) effect ticks every second and refreshes itself when it procs frequently. It does not stack.
- When dualwielded, the healing spell power effect and procrate are both doubled, but the HoT still does not stack.
Frostbrand Weapon
- Scales with spell power, attack power (with Mental Quickness), crit, hit, melee haste.
- Mitigated by spell resist, frost resist, avoided by dodge, parry, and miss.
- Has a normal spell miss chance of 17% against level+3 bosses.
- Crits at 100% damage with the elemental talent Elemental Fury.
- Benefits from 10% of your spell power per proc.
- Procs at 9 procs per minute, which at level 80 is 79.5dps.
- With Mental Quickness, FB scales with attack power, but it scales considerably worse then FT. FB should not be used for its damage. It is situationally useful in PvP only.
- Does not proc Elemental Focus on crits.
- Does not slow bosses. Frostbrand is a PvP-only ability.
Maelstrom Weapon
- Maelstrom Weapon (MW) is a spec-defining talent. A 5-stack Lightning Bolt should always be a high priority for both sustained and burst DPS.
- MW ranks give 3/6/9 base procs per minute (PPM).
- Note that this is before dualwielding, windfury, instant attacks, and haste like flurry or WF totem. MW procs a lot more than 9 per minute. Due to instant attacks, slow weapons are better than fast.
- Unlike many PPM enchants, MW scales with haste. Haste provides additional MW procs.
- Spells cast with partial MW stacks do not reset the swing timer. They suspend it.
- Do not drop ranks of Maelstrom Weapon. Get all 3.
Unleashed Rage
- Unleashed rage is 2 talent points and also grants 4/8 expertise. It is a mandatory talent even if your raid has a hunter, paladin, or DK to provide the AP buff.
The Elemental Focus Talent
- Elemental focus procs on every offensive spell crit, giving a buff reducing the cost of the next two spells by 40%.
- This buff also works on heals. It does not stack to greater than two. Instead it refreshes itself.
- Chain lightning does give three chances to proc elemental focus.
- Elemental mastery now gives one free spell and you gain the elemental focus buff.
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