Enhancement Shaman Guide - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

Level 30 Talents (0,21,0)

There are a lot of ways you can talent an Enhance Shaman while leveling up. You can go get Water Shield in the Resto Tree to never have mana issues. You can even spec into elemental for higher damage on your Lightning Bolt and Shock skills, than just supplement it with melee attacks. For this guide we're going all in on the Enhancement Tree to test it out and be a REAL Enhancement Shaman.

1. Start off with 5 points in Thundering Strikes.
2. Follow it up with 3 points in Improved Lightning Shield and 2 points in Mental Dexterity.
3. Next get 3 points into Elemental Weapons, 1 point in Shamanistic Focus and finish Mental Dexterity.
4. Pick up Improved Stormstrike, put 4 points into Flurry and your final point into Improved Stormstrike.

We unfortunately don't have enough points to pick up Spirit Weapons and get 2 points into Improved Stormstrike. It we get the Legacy System when they unlock us to level 30 we might get an extra Talent point there and be able to grab it though. 1 point into Improved Stormstrike is still likely worth the chance for it to proc off Dodge instead of putting the 5th point in Flurry.

Level 60 Talents (18/33/0)

Here's a look at what we think the level 60 Enhancement Shaman Talent Tree will look like. As mentioned above, this guide will be updated as we go through the beta and during launch to include any other Endgame Enhancement Shaman Talent Trees such, along with all the other information you need to excel in the endgame and Raids as a Shaman.

Playable Races

Alliance - Dwarf

Horde - Orc, Tauren, Troll & Skyborne

Recommended Races

Dwarf provides 3 useful abilities and is probably the best race for leveling to 30 as Alliance. Mace Specialization gives you 1% crit when using a mace. Stoneform grants you immunities and Physical Damage Reduction and Big Game Hunter increases you damage to beasts (which you'll see a lot of while leveling up).

Troll is great since you’ll be fighting a lot of beasts in the early game and they have 5% increased damage to beasts. Their Berserking buff grants you 10% casting speed for 10 seconds and they also have Rapid Regeneration which allows you to restore 50% of your health every 3 minutes.

Orc is the other competitive horde race choice. Blood Fury boosts your Spell Power by 10% for 15 seconds. Shatter Curse grants immunity to Curses, Banes and reduces Magical Damage taken. Hardiness decreases stuns by 20%

See our full racial abilities guide for every other race's bonuses.

The primary Skills you’ll use are Lightning Bolt, Frost Shock, Earth Shock, Flame Shock, Fire Nova, Stormstrike and your Totems. The most important totems to use while leveling are Strength of Earth Totem, Searing Totem & Mana Spring Totem. Along with these skills you'll be keeping up Rockbiter Weapon weapon if using a two-hander and Flametongue Weapon if you're using a one-hander and shield.

1. Always have your Rockbiter Weapon or Flametongue Weapon on and get your Totems down before you engage.
2. Open up on enemies with a Lightning Bolt or 2, Hit them with a Stormstrike and the logical Shock for your situation.
3. Your 3 Shock skills can be used for different purposes. Flame Shock is a great way to get extra damage on a mob. Frost Shock is used when you want so slow something down so you can kite away. Earth Shock is used to interrupt spell casters while also doing damage to them. Having all 3 shocks ready to use is a key part of playing your Enhancement Shaman to the fullest. They're also a great way to finish off a mob who is attacking you since they're all instant casts.
4. Keep up your Lightning Shield active at all times, this is one of the highest DPS skills you have compared to its mana cost. It's always worth having up and helps a lot with finishing off enemies who are hitting you.
5. Drop Stoneclaw Totem to have it tank for you!

Totems

Totems are the next part of gameplay that's important. There are a lot of options you can use depending on situations. Wow forever has added 2 new skills for totem management: Totemic Projection allows you to move your existing totems to a new location and Call of the Ancestors lets you cast all 4 totems on your "totem bar" by pressing 1 button.

Three essential totems for early leveling are Strength of Earth Totem, Mana Spring Totem and Searing Totem. You're going to want to keep these down basically all the time and move them with you.

There are 3 very powerful utility totems that you need to have at the ready depending on the encounter

1. Earthbind Totem will slow all enemies nearby, this is great to have when you need to escape from danger.
2. Tremor Totem breaks fear, charm and sleep. This will be more useful in dungeons where these are more of a concern but is crucial to have down when you need to prevent your allies form suffering from these ailments
3. Grounding Totem will absorb a harmful spell coming at you. This shouldn't be unlocking until level 30 unless they changed it. But it's another great totem you can toss down to soak some damage to yourself or an ally.

Visit your Class Trainer often to get your new skills, even levels are when new skills are available and level 10, 20 have many upgrades to grab.

You have the ability to Purge enemies. If an enemy has a strong magic buff purge it off of them.

There will be class quests to unlock the different totems (Air, Earth, Fire, Water) make sure to do these when they're available so you aren't missing out on the power of a new totem.

An Enhancement Shaman can benefit from every Main Stat but their favorite stats are Strength, Intellect & Agility. Strength increases you Attack power by 2 for every point of Strength and increases Block Value. Intellect increases your maximum mana pool and increases your Spell Critical Strike Chance. You're taking 3/3 Mental Dexterity in the talent tree making Intellect give you 1:1 Attack Power per point of Intellect. Agility gives you Crit Strike Chance, Dodge and Armor. Any item with Strength + Intellect or Agility is fantastic to wear.

Stamina, Spirit is also decent but not as important for this spec. Stamina increases your health, and Spirit helps your Health and Mana regenerate faster when out of Combat.

Group play & Dungeons are essentially the same for gameplay. The main difference is that you're going to be adjusting your totems more often and will likely need to use your Grounding Totem, Earthbind Totem or Tremor Totem more often.

Searing Totem + Fire Nova are essential DPS when you're fighting multiple enemies at once.

If you're feeling brave you can even try tanking with your one-hander and shield. You can build great threat with your tool kit on single target and AOE with the above mentioned fire combo. With a good healer you can tank anything as a shaman in the WoW Forever BETA.

Remember you have Lesser Healing Wave, Healing Wave and Purge. Don't hesistate to toss a heal to your tank or a ally that's in trouble, and use Purge on enemies when they have a strong buff or heal over time on them.

Figure out which damage combos work best with conserving your mana in mind. A lot of times you can just throw one Lightning Bolt at an enemy and finish them off with melee. Allowing your Spirit to kick in while swinging and have full mana back quickly. When enemies need a little more go for a Flame Shock or Searing Totem to help you out. Just get a feel for how much mana you really need to use on different encounters and try to make it so you always have some mana for a quick Frost Shock, Earthbind Totem or Lesser Healing Wave when needed.

Stop Casting / Earth Shock

#showtooltip Earth Shock
/stopcasting
/cast Earth Shock

Start Attack/Stormstrike

#showtooltip Stormstrike
/startattack
/cast Stormstrike

Focus Target / Earth Shock

#showtooltip Earth Shock
/cast [@focus] Earth Shock