Enhancing Enhancement

by Ugly Thu 4 Feb 2010 - 20:25

The Enhancement Shaman

The basic outlining of your spec should be something along the lines of this:

Basic enhancement build

which leaves 4 points free to spend on:

Third point in Call of Flame (best dps value out of the talents remaining)
Points in Improved Shields (worth more dps per talent point then Ancestral Knowledge)
Points in Reverberation (this is a good option if you don't need to spend the points on Improved Windfury Totem which in most cases you will have to anyway)
Points in Improved Stormstrike (helps with the Static Shock upkeep when you're missing either JoW or replenishment)
Points in Improved Fire Nova (dps gain when you have plenty of haste)

Current BiS talent spec with equivalent gear looks like this:

BiS spec

As you can see you're completely deprived from any mana saving/gain talents and spent them on maximizing your dps. This spec only works to its potential when you're wearing some nice gear with heaps of haste to not get screwed by the lower Fire Nova CD creating a delay on you Maelstrom Weapon discharge. Not to mention a solid raid setup with both Replenishment and JoW to back-up your manapool.

The overall best choices for glyphs (with any spec) are :
-Glyph of Stormstrike
-Glyph of Feral Spirit
-Glyph of Windfury Weapon

Hit Rating

Changes to the unified hit rating mechanic and an increased use of spell damage abilities due to Maelstrom Weapon have greatly increased the need for Hit Rating for Enhancement Shaman. While there is still no need to reach the DW hit cap for melee attacks, the spell hit cap has become very important. Recommendation is to gem/enchant to hit the Spell Hit cap, keeping in mind that you can get 3% spell hit from raid buffs (Shadow Priest - Misery). Draenei of course have another 1% hit that they do not need to gear for due to their squid aura.

Spells have a miss rate of 17% (16% for Draenei) against level 83 (Boss) targets, but this is lowered to 14% (13%) after raid buffs. Spell hit correspond to hit ratings as follows::
17% - 446
16% - 420
14% - 368
13% - 341

A common mistake is that you "have to hit before you can crit." Wrong! This only shows that you dont understand the attack table. (Note that this is in reference to white damage which uses a single roll system.)

A second misstake is that a miss is a "missed opportunity for a WF proc" and that more Hit Rating will generate more WF procs. Wrong again! Not all swings can generate WF procs. However only swings that are outside of the WF cooldown can proc WF. A good chunk of your autoattack hits will never be able to proc WF.

Haste Rating

Haste Rating will directly increase the contribution of white swings to your DPS. 1% Haste will generate 1% more auto attack DPS. Plus Maelstrom Weapon will charge up more quickly! Dont believe me? Then you're wrong (i say that a lot, i know). Maelstrom Weapon is a PPM talent that will reduce the cast time of a spell 100% at 5 stacks. At 5 points in the talent the proc has been resolved to 10 PPM. With fewer talent points invested the PPM will lower by +/- 2 PPM per point. Unlike many PPMs, Maelstrom Weapon scales with weapon haste. It can also proc from Stormstrike or Lava Lash. An enhancement shaman with raid haste buffs and using all available instant attacks will see 5 stacks A LOT.

It's like *censored for the young* for your shaman!

Intellect and Mp5

Intellect provides 1 attack power through talents, 1.1 Attack Power if 8 points are spent. In 3.0 focus shifts away from leather gear designed for rogues, (about freaking time tbh!), to what had previously only been hunter gear (q_Q moar hunters!).

Mp5 is universally agreed to be a wasted stat on enhancement shaman gear. The combination of Judgment of Wisdom, Replenishment and Shamanistic Rage (use it early, use it often) should prevent you from running out of mana even in full rogue leather gear

Expertise Rating

8.1975 Expertise Rating converts into 1 Expertise skill at level 80, and reduces the chance for your target to dodge and parry by 0.25% per point of Expertise. Don't have your calculator with you? That's fine, you'll need 6,5% dodge reduction which adds up to 214 Expertise Rating. We're not done yet, read on!

In 3.1 Unleashed Rage was changed to provide 9 expertise for 3 talent points, which made it even easier to reach the softcap. Now you will only need 140 expertise rating to reach it now. Lucky bums.

Enchants for the rest of your gear

Helm: Arcanum of Torment
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe
Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Major Agility or Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed
Tailoring Only: Swordguard Embroidery (25% proc rate, assuming 75 second cd (like the Darkglow Embroidery), average of ~58 AP)
Bracers: Enchant Bracers - Greater Assault or Enchant Bracers - Expertise
Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Crusher, Enchant Gloves - Precision or Enchant Gloves - Expertise
Legs: Icescale Leg Armor
Boots: Icewalker

Inscription Only: Master's Inscription of the Axe
Leatherworking Only: Fur Lining - Attack Power

Weapon Enchants
Mongoose
Proc for 120 agility and 2% haste. Stacks if both weapons are enchanted. Proc mechanic thought to be set to 1 PPM. Works out to approximately 40% uptime (based on WWSs, i didnt make it up). 2% haste = 65.58 haste rating. So each proc should be worth [(65.58 x haste EP) + (120 x agility EP)] x 0.40

Berzerking
Provides 400 attack power in exchange for 5% of your armor when it procs. Does stack if used on both weapons. Proc mechanic is the same as mongoose so it should have approximately a 40% uptime. (400 x 0.40). With uptime should be worth 160 EP.

Black Magic
Updated to provide 250 Haste Rating for 10 seconds with a 50% proc rate and a 35 second internal cooldown. Should have approximately a 27% uptime. The ICD is shared between both weapons making it an acceptable enchant for only a single weapon with a value of (250 x Haste EP x 0.27). Because of Windfury mechanics it is recommended that this enchant be applied to the offhand if it is going to be utilized.

Accuracy
Provides 25 hit and crit rating. It could be an acceptable enchant provided you were unable to reach the hit cap through any other means but is quickly outperformed by the other options.

Double Berzerking is generaly the best. It´s not even expensive anymore so get two, i know you want to!