WoW: And a shaman question, while I'm at it...
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 - 3:14am
What are people's experiences with Shaman specs post 58? I've gone enhancement up to 53 due to a complete lack of mail with +spell damage, but I remember seeing a lot more in Outland. From what I've read both enhancement and elemental are perfectly viable, but I was wondering how the GWJer shamans had found them...
*Legion* wrote:
I hate Rick Rolls. Only because they cheapen the idea of diggin' Rick Astley's awesome tunes.
Both are viable. However, elemental will be very, very painful leveling in a couple zones due to large amounts of nature resistant mobs out there. I've even had good experiences leveling resto from about 66 up due to the insane survivability you start getting at that point.
Coldstream wrote:
Indeed both Elemental and Enhancement specs are viable. I found enhancement to be quite enjoyable with a decent ratio of xp/hour to boot.
I would start thinking about what spec or role you think you would enjoy as a 70. Obviously at 70 over time your equipment will be replaced, but there are a few items trinkets and such available from quests which do have some staying power for a new 70.
If you have any questions let me know in game (Sheiana) or on here and I'll be glad to help. AnimeJ (Neviril in game) and Salire (in game) are also great resources and have a wealth of knowledge about the shaman class.
Good Luck!
Blackhand - Sheiana The Shaman.
I'm easier to find on the forums, although if you can catch me on Nev, feel free to ask a question or three.
Coldstream wrote:
I would start looking for a couple of decent green weapons on the AH.
2 level 58 green "of the Bandit" weapons will make levelling a LOT less painful. Keep looking on the AH for weapons as you level-if you can keep them up(and find them for cheap), levelling will be much quicker.
Armor isn't as important, since the quest pieces you get the first 20 or so quests in hellfire will get you at least a chest piece, some shoulders and other stuff.
WoW-Dark Iron: Cuberen(80 Druid), Spacecube(70 Shaman), Deathcube(60 Deathknight)
I had pretty much all the major slots filled by the time I was halfway done with HFP. However, I would suggest Soldier over bandit; you get more crit that way.
Coldstream wrote:
And at level 62, you unlock the Water Shield.
I looooove me some water shield. Costs nothing to cast, gives you 42 Mp5, and upon getting hit it uses 1 of 3 spheres giving you 140(ish) mana.
I am running Enhancement, with 5 points into lessening the cost of my shocks, soon to put points into increasing the damage of said shocks. My only downtime now is after fighting 4 or 5 mobs at level, in a row. If they are staggered, I just pop lesser healing wave to top up, and shamanistic rage to fill up the mana pool.
Killing 2 mobs, 1 or 2 levels higher, is very doable with enhancement. And it is a heck of a lot of fun to watch windfury proc consistently.
Here's my 62 shaman, if you are interested: Ariesmajor
Xbox Live : Aries GWJ PSN : AriesGWJ Spore : Ariesgwj
Well, since we're linking toons, I'll link mine.
Neviril
Kelgas
They're both enhance ATM, but Nev's gear is leftovers and such. Not the best in any way, shape or form. Kelgas is decent, but he's stagnated and been that way since I rerolled alliance. Kelgas isn't geared anywhere close to being able to maximize DPS, and to be honest, I don't want to. I've found that I have to hold a bit back as it is, and can't really unload even in 5 mans on bosses.
Coldstream wrote:
That's true.
Oh, I forgot to mention, make sure you only get 2.5ish speed weapons. Slower weapons are much more DPS than faster ones.
WoW-Dark Iron: Cuberen(80 Druid), Spacecube(70 Shaman), Deathcube(60 Deathknight)
One note on gearing your shaman (or any character, but esp. shaman): Forget about mail, just get good stats. If mail is available, great. If not, take leather, cloth, whatever.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Something I did with my shammy after I left my raiding guild was to split my trees, choosing either elem or enhance, but always some points in resto. Soloing isn't as hard when you get a decent heal quicker than normal. And if you're going enhance, then it is the opinion of this shaman that there's no point of going enhance without getting dual wielding. 2 maces are great for stuns.
I'm an Uncle!!! -8/20/07
Scrub wrote:
ICO: General Fancypants l Steam: Grenn[GWJ] l WoW: Goquelyrslf, Grendwar l XBLA: GWJ Grenn
Hmmm, I am intriqued by this. As a new player, I want to ask if this is a just hidden mechanic with maces, or if you can find "+chance to stun" on maces?
I have been using maces for 10 levels or so, and never noticed any stuns...
Xbox Live : Aries GWJ PSN : AriesGWJ Spore : Ariesgwj
As usual, Az speaks great truth.
You are correct in questioning this; most maces don't have a stun proc on them, and only rogues/warriors benefit from mace spec, which is what gives the stun proc Grenn is talking about.
Coldstream wrote:
Once you hit Outland mail itemization gets a bit better in terms of shammy gear. Syllanna is decently geared for being 63, but not awesome by any means. Still better than what she could have done in the old world.
For me, I leveled 10-40 as resto because I figured before 2H enhance wasn't good enough on DPS to offset the value of being damn near unkillable, and elemental was out of the question (I have a squishy caster already).
At 40 I went DW enhance, up to about 58. I rolled Syll to give me a healer, so I needed to get some gear together.
So at 58, I went elemental, and started just doing the HH quests to pick up some decent gear... figuring I'd sacrifice the rep on the quests for getting regeared as a caster faster. By 60 I had around 250 spell damage, and a few items to increase my healing up to about 300. It was a much smoother transition going from elemental to resto than it would have been to go from enhance to resto.
Anyway, the point is, decide what you want to do now. Elemental and resto aren't too far off from each other in terms of gear, so it's easy to flip between them. If you're planning to play Enhance all the way to 70, then just stay the course, and collect off-spec gear in case you need to cover another role later, or you decide to switch altogether.
It's just a matter of taste. Find what you like best, and improve your character along that course.
IronClad Online: PurEvil
Here's a link to my beloved "Bear"
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Baelgun&n=Bear
Most of his gear is either Kara, badge, rep or pvp so all of it is fairly easily obtainable. I agree with the previous posters, mail's armor is a nice bonus but there's some damn sweet leather pieces out there. I think I wore the Conniver chestpiece for almost 2 months before I got my T4.
Thanks for all the input! Have I mentioned that I love these forums?
Makes me wish I was on Blackhand, although with the time difference between Australia and the US I doubt I'd see much of you guys anyway.
Enhancement has been fun so far, and it sounds like I should stick with it. Now I just have to work out whether to chuck the rest of the points into elemental or resto... leaning towards resto given I'm assuming I'll have to heal 5 mans while I'm leveling.
*Legion* wrote:
I love my enhancement shammy, just hit 60. Both elemental and resto appear to be quite viable for the extra points. The normal enhancement builds seem to only leave around 16 points or so for elemental or resto talents, so it's not until around 54-55 that you really start putting points in either of the other trees. I've always assumed that at that point to really be a good healer in the instances I'd need to either be spec'd more significantly resto or else have a significant level edge, so I'm just hoping I can focus on melee dps in the runs I'll be involved in. Guess I'll see how it goes.
If you want to see an extremely detailed analysis of elemental vs. resto for ehancement shamans, there's a very long post over on elitistjerks. The short version is that in the end they see very little difference between the two specs inherently; it mainly boils down to how you use the skills and the role you're expecting/expected to play. For example, if you're planning on twisting, they think it's better to go resto for the cheaper totems and because twisting tends to negate the cooldown advantages of elemental. (As a disclosure, I'm going elemental, at least for now.)
BHA: Kamyndra - 77 Prot Warrior, Tyraan - 68 Enhance Shaman, Selian - 61 Warlock, Rahodius - 60 Priest
I went resto after Enhancement not for the healing, but for the extra 3% to hit rating from Natures Guidance. This ensures your specials are hit capped with no extra +hit.
1% hit = 15.77
Dual Wield Specialization + Natures Guidance = 9% hit or 141.93 +hit.
Main healing 5 mans speced in enhancement with 8-17 points in resto is almost like giving gold away. Unless you have a wicked awesome healing set.
Blackhand - Sheiana The Shaman.
I believe that for Alliance Shaman, going resto is better due to the Inspiring Presence racial-you're at 4% +spell hit rather than 3%. Plus, for certain encounters, Shaman need earthshock for interrupts rather than DPS. A full resisted shock can be a very bad thing.
Also, the fact that you're hitcapped for special attacks before gear is nice.
WoW-Dark Iron: Cuberen(80 Druid), Spacecube(70 Shaman), Deathcube(60 Deathknight)
This is why I personally recommend resto over elemental. Group utility is another good reason; ten yards of totem range is well worth it. And yes, being able to be more of an offensive healing hybrid works in there a little as well.
With that said, I've played around with both sides a fair bit at this point. Elemental is nice for a more pure DPS build; taking Concussion, Convection and Reverbation 5/5 each will give you a fair amount of extra DPS(I don't have math handy, so I can't say for sure how much), but I find that I prefer the extra spell hit for interrupt duty(which is amusing in a way; I leave that out of my resto build, and I've found there are some fights where I am on backup interrupt duty in addtion to group healing).
As to main healing 5 mans, with decent resto gear, it's very possible to do. I wouldn't recommend heroics, or even raid healing without a resto spec, but normal 5 mans short of MrT are quite doable as enhance.
Coldstream wrote:
That's one of the things that makes me wonder, but on the other hand as elemental I'll only have 5 sec between interrupt opportunities, and able to interrupt again only 3 sec after the lockout expires. It becomes a 25% reduction in the delta between the lockout ending and the cooldown ending. I have to admit I haven't seen any hard numbers on how much it really increases interrupt opportunities though.
BHA: Kamyndra - 77 Prot Warrior, Tyraan - 68 Enhance Shaman, Selian - 61 Warlock, Rahodius - 60 Priest
Hmmm, I seem to remember stunning mobs whilst leveling. However, I did use the same 1h mace for a long time, so maybe it was just that particular one.
I'm an Uncle!!! -8/20/07
Scrub wrote:
ICO: General Fancypants l Steam: Grenn[GWJ] l WoW: Goquelyrslf, Grendwar l XBLA: GWJ Grenn
Nature's Guidance caught my eye... seems like it'd be handy for further mitigating the +hit penalty on the off-hand weapon, too.
I'm sure outland gets tougher, but I've found healing 5 mans as enhance very doable so far. Breezed through ST last night using my miserable excuse for a healing set.
I love the versatility of totems!
I don't know why so many people don't like healing... I enjoy it much more than dps-ing with my lock.
*Legion* wrote:
Check Nev's armory again, and see what my true love in this game is
Coldstream wrote: