Enhancement Shaman Guide for WoW Forever: Talents, Rotation and Leveling

Enhancement is a two-handed melee and spell hybrid in Forever. Since the 12 November tuning Stormstrike hits for 100% weapon damage every 8 seconds, Strength is your most important stat again, and Windfury Weapon works together with Windfury Totem. At five stacks of Maelstrom Weapon your Lightning Bolt is instant. Enhancement now rates B for raids; it is still the recommended leveling spec, and every melee group wants a shaman for Windfury Totem.

Talents and builds

The links open the talent calculator with the finished build, including why the points go where they go.

• Leveling: Enhancement leveling (points 18/25/8). Goes early into Enhancement for enough solo power and takes Improved Ghost Wolf as soon as it can, since an instant Ghost Wolf that works indoors helps a lot while leveling.
• Raid: Enhancement raid (points 17/34/0). Goes far into Elemental for more spell damage, leaning into Enhancement's hybrid role; thanks to Elemental Focus and Improved Stormstrike you should have few mana issues.
• Dungeons: Enhancement dungeons (points 18/25/8). Skips Maelstrom Weapon and Rage of the Farseer, which see little use in fast dungeon pulls, to finish the hit talent in Restoration and take Mindfulness.
• PvP: Enhancement PvP (control) (points 18/26/7). The 'Control' variant goes deeper into Elemental for more spell damage and crowd control.

Where it ranks

• PvE DPS (raid): Drops from A to B: since 12 November Stormstrike hits for 100% instead of 150% weapon damage every 8 instead of 6 seconds, Mental Dexterity converts only 33/66/100% of Intellect, and Maelstrom Weapon procs less often. The newest simulation says B after that.
• PvE tanks: Not a full tank spec: good threat from Rockbiter Weapon and Earth Shock, but mail armor and no real taunt. Fine for dungeons, not recommended for raids.
• PvP (battleground/open world): Mostly B: Maelstrom Weapon for burst, but no gap closer and no slow besides Frost Shock. Since 12 November Stormstrike hits for less.
• Leveling: Two lists say A, one B: Windfury Weapon, healing in between and mail from 40. Since 12 November Strength is the best stat, so collect Strength gear while leveling.

The tiers combine several tier lists and level-60 simulations. Raid logs only exist from 9 December, so treat this as a snapshot. Every spec side by side: rankings.

Before the pull

Windfury Weapon on your two-hander, totems through Call of the Elements (Strength of Earth, Magma or Searing when mana is short, Mana Spring, Windfury) and Lightning Shield. Since 12 November weapon imbues and weapon totems work at the same time, so Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem can both proc. The Windfury and Flametongue totems still exclude each other.

Rotation

1. Magma Totem, Searing Totem when mana is short.
2. Keep Flame Shock up.
3. Rage of the Farseer with trinkets and racial: 30% more attack speed for 25 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown.
4. Stormstrike on cooldown, now every 8 seconds. It boosts your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Earth Shock by 20% for 12 seconds.
5. Lightning Bolt at five stacks of Maelstrom Weapon. Each stack cuts cast time and cost by 20% at every talent rank, so at five it is instant. Stacks come less often than at launch: about ten per minute at 5/5, which is a 60% chance per swing with a 3.6-speed two-hander. With fewer stacks the cast resets your swing, and sitting on five wastes procs.
6. Earth Shock. Shocks share a 6-second cooldown, which Reverberation cuts by up to 1 second.
7. Fire Nova as filler with a Fire Totem down.

Improved Stormstrike keeps half your mana regeneration running while casting for 15 seconds after every Stormstrike and resets Stormstrike on a dodge or parry, which is why you always press it on cooldown. Flurry and Elemental Devastation feed each other: spell crits give 9% melee crit for 10 seconds, melee crits give 30% attack speed for three swings.

On packs: Magma Totem, Fire Nova on cooldown, Flame Shock on as many targets as you can, then the normal rotation. It eats a lot of mana.

Stats

Weapon damage on a slow two-hander first. Hit to 8% (80 rating) and expertise to 6.5% are mandatory. Agility gives shamans no attack power. At launch Intellect was ahead of Strength, because Mental Dexterity turned 150% of your Intellect into attack power. Since 12 November it is only 33/66/100%, and Strength is your best stat. The ideal item has Strength and attack power plus some Intellect and spell power; Mental Quickness still turns 30% of your Intellect into spell power. You no longer need cloth or leather pieces for Intellect. The quest reward Rage of the Storm now has 16 Strength instead of Intellect and 3.6 speed.

The linked raid and dungeon builds still date from before the tuning and go deep into Elemental for spell damage. There is no verified new standard build for Strength Enhancement yet, so expect changes.

Common mistakes

• Lightning Bolt with fewer than five Maelstrom stacks.
• Spending too much mana per pull instead of leaning on white hits.
• Pulling aggro with Fire Nova or Earth Shock before the tank is set.
• Keeping a fast or weak two-hander for too long.
• Dropping Flametongue Totem when a Windfury Totem is available.

Leveling

Enhancement is the recommended leveling spec: imbues carry the early damage, every stat helps, and you heal yourself. It really gets going with Stormstrike around level 25. Take Improved Ghost Wolf early; at 2/2 it is instant and works indoors. Weak spots are mana, more than one or two mobs at once, and high threat. Earthbind Totem lets you kite.

Dungeon tanking

Enhancement can tank low-level dungeons, not raids, and you have no real taunt. Rockbiter Weapon for threat, Spirit Weapons then adds 30% threat and parry, Anticipation 6% dodge. Earth Shock for threat, Lightning Shield up, Stoneskin Totem. The rankings rate this C.

In raids

Windfury Totem is the most important melee buff, and in Forever it reaches the whole raid. On top: Strength of Earth Totem, Purge and Earth Shock as an interrupt.

Further reading

• Shaman class guide: races, new abilities and every build of the class
• The other specs: Elemental Shaman, Restoration Shaman
• Raid comp planner: put your raid together and see which buffs are still missing
• Shaman talent calculator: plan your own build and share it as a link