Loot Rank Forums

If you want to simply use my template, here it is. It assumes you are Level 80, wearing mostly iLvl 200-219 epic gear, Mainhand Windfury, Offhand Flametongue, and both spellhit and exp capped (see explanation below why the point values are still 2 for both hit and exp):

http://www.lootrank.com/wr.asp?Cla=64&s8=1&Max=40&s6=1&Gem=3&Str=1.1&mh=1.43&dps=5.19&mcr=1.95&odps=3.31&spd=1.04&Agi=1.84&mhit=2&ddps=5.19&Int=1.45&hdps=3.31&map=1&msp=220&Sckm=185&arp=1.28&osp=330&Exp=2&Ver=6

If you want to know how and why the template is how it is, how it is only really accurate for MY character, and generally a great amount about DPSing as an Enhancement Shaman, keep reading.

The vast majority of information and templates for Level 80 raiding Enhancement shaman are very outdated in these forums, and I will attempt to rectify this.

For an excellent source of (almost always up-to-date) information please see ElitistJerks' Theorycrafting Think Tank on Enhancement Shaman: http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t20765-shaman_enhancement/

Fast facts on Level 80 PvE Enhancement Shaman [as of WotLK 3.1, 5/5/09]:

DUAL WIELD VS 2-HAND:
Do not use a 2-hand weapon. Ever. PvP spike dmg? Maybe. Still lame.

IMBUES:
Mainhand: Windfury, Offhand: Flametongue

GLYPHS:
Stormstrike, Windfury, Feral Spriit(Lightning Shield close behind)

TOTEM(relic):
*Deadly/Furious* Gladiator's totem of Indomitability (yes it's from PvP, bummer)
Otherwise Hex, Dancing Flame, Dueling, and Splintering are your next best bet.
(NOTE: If you are wearing a totem relic, you can put your 4 Totem items into the bank (they're indestructible) and still cast totems -- note how totem relics now read "counts as air/earth/fire/water totems)

WEAPON SPEED:
Slower weapons are always better, regardless of imbue, regardless of stats or builds or delusions. Instant attacks (Stormstrike and LavaLash) make slower weapons scale better, and slower weapons mean Windfury contributes more DPS and Flametongue deals greater dmg per swing. Combined with Windfury's innate cooldown of ~3 seconds, you always want slow weapons. This can be weighted in LootRank by actually giving your "weapon speed" a value -- the value is expressed as "how many points is 1 additional second of weapon speed worth?" and is one of the most important stats on a weapon. While you CAN restrict LootRank from showing you weapons of speed less than X, I prefer to simply add a weighting to the weapon speed, as there ARE cases where a fast dagger, if sufficiently better in other stats, will increase your DPS. (You should still always PASS such things to rogues -- who really need them and have no alternative! Same goes for leather -- there is almost always a better mail alternative.)

The way to calculate weapon speed values is to find how much 1AP increases your DPS, usually calculated through the use of a simulator, and then to see how much your DPS increases by increasing your weapon speed slightly. The formula would be:

[(DPS with Slow Weap) - (DPS with Fast Weap)] / [(difference in speeds) * (DPS per AP)]

For example, lets say increasing my mainhand by 0.1 speed gives me 10 additional dps, and i know that 1 more AP give me 0.5 more DPS, given my current gear. The point weighting, assuming that 1AP = 1 point, is 10/(0.1*0.5) = 200 Effective Attack Power = 200 points in LootRank.

META GEM:
There are only two reasonable meta gems for Enhancement Shaman: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond ( http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41398 ) and Chaotic Skyflare Diamond ( http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41285 ). They are almost identical in Effective AP, but while you will generally stick to Red/Yellow/Orange gems to maximize your DPS, you will find Relentless Earthsiege Diamond will be a better value as it requires fewer blue gems, which will not help your DPS (rare exception: excellent socket bonus with a blue socket).

Using an Enhancement Shaman DPS Simulator (EnhSim, more below) I calculated a Relentless Earthstorm Diamond's Proc worth over 150 Effective AP. Add in the 21 AGI (or Crit rating) to the meta value for about 185, and you will rarely if ever find a meta-gem-less level 80 hat as an upgrade.

HIT and EXPERTISE CAPS:
Exp cap = 26 "expertise" = 140 exp rating with 3/3 Unleashed Rage

Spell Hit cap = 446 hit rating FOR SPELLS with no moonkin or Spriest in raid, 368 with the 3% spellhit buff. It is important to hit this cap, a large portion of our DPS is now spell-based. Also, sometimes you will need to reliably EarthShock for interrupts, and you might not have a moonkin next to you. Cap your spellhit.

Melee dual-wield hit cap is a massive 27% [still 21% with 3/3 Imp Dual Wield] which is not intended to be capped. Going over 446 hit rating is generally not advised, but still not a huge waste of stats as it will still continue to help your "white" melee DPS.

[Draenai have a bonus 1% to all hit, recalculate your own Hit caps accordingly. I am a superior Tauren and do not care about you and your lame knock-off race.]

ROTATION:
Your DPS "rotation" is not so much a rotation as a priority list, and for purely maximized DPS the priority is (higher on the list = use first if on cooldown / not refreshed):

Summon Spirit Wolves
Use LightningBolt if 5 stacks Maelstrom Weapon
Earthshock if still Stormstrike charges on target
Stormstrike
Earthshock
Magma Totem (if not present or not in range of target)
Lightning Shield (if all charges gone)
Lava Lash

It should be noted that Spirit Wolves CAN BE BLOODLUSTED and I often wait to use my Spirit Wolves until just before the Bloodlust phase of the fight. There are other times when you will increase your overall DPS by summoning wolves immediately so you can summon them a second time before the fight finishes, especially the case where a fight lasts ~4 minutes.

There are often times in my "rotation" where i have a spare 2-3 seconds with all abilities on cooldown, magma totem up, <5 Maelstrom charges, and Lightning Shield still up. In these idle moments I will refresh a totem (usually Magma) or refresh my Lightning Shield.

(There is an excellent WoW-addon called ShockAndAwe that will help you keep this priority list, try it out: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/shockandawe.aspx )

TALENTS:
Your talent build should be ( http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hVbhqZhbxIoxdIhusRuVo:Nfh ) or something very, very close, based on the buffs you are required to bring to your raid.

LootRank TEMPLATE:
Again, here is MY Shaman's personal LootRank weighting, which changes constantly based on my gear upgrades and expected raidbuffs. It is normalized to 1AP = 1 point:

http://www.lootrank.com/wr.asp?Cla=64&s8=1&Max=40&s6=1&Gem=3&Str=1.1&mh=1.43&dps=5.19&mcr=1.95&odps=3.31&spd=1.04&Agi=1.84&mhit=2&ddps=5.19&Int=1.45&hdps=3.31&map=1&msp=220&Sckm=185&arp=1.28&osp=330&Exp=2&Ver=6

NOTES ON TEMPLATE:
I have ignored STA, SPI, Mp5, and many other stats that will not increase your PvE DPS. If you are constantly afraid of dying, put your own personal weighting for Stamina in there. If you somehow run out of mana (really not possible) then weight Mp5.

According to all of my DPS simulation, it is more important to have a slow OFFHAND than a slow MAINHAND. Regardless, you want both as slow as possible. As my LootRank weighting is normalized to 1AP = 1 point, an increase in offhand weapon speed by 0.1 is equivalent to adding 33AP, very interesting.

1 spellpower is worth more than 1 AP for me. Even so, I do NOT want to see it on my gear, due to it using my item's total iLvL stats less efficiently (two pieces of gear with the same iLvL will distribute a certain total number of stat-points across various attributes, and spellpower is more "expensive" than AP, hence it is less efficient.)

My INT is weighted at over 1.4, because not only is 1 INT = 1AP (Mental Dexterity, 1.1 with Blessing of Kings), 30% of your AP is also added to your spellpower (Mental Quickness), and INT also contributes to spellcrit.

My AGI is weighted at over 1.8 -- it contributes to melee crit, you directly get 1.1AP per AGI if you have Kings, and 30% of your AP is added to your spellpower (Mental Quickness).

My Hit and Expertise ratings are both weighted to exactly 2. This was not from the EnhSim simulator, I manually input this. My reasoning is because I have a gem or two that raise my Hit and Expertise to their caps: if I hypothetically got a new piece of gear that Hit or Exp capped me, I would replace a Exp and Hit gems for an AP gem, and I would get 2AP per Exp or Hit.

If you are below 368 Hit rating, your Hit weighting should be more like 3.2, and if you are not Exp capped, that weighting is usually about 2.6 (values borrowed from ElitistJerks' TTT).

If you are above spellhit cap AND use no +hit gems, your Hit weighting should be about 1.4 - 1.6

DPS SIMULATION:
I upload all of my character's information into an Enhancement Shaman DPS Simulator called EnhSim which is EXCELLENT and is highly recommended, more information at: http://enhsim.wikidot.com/

Please understand that LootRank templates for someone else's character simply do not apply to all characters. Your individual character will benefit differently from a certain piece of gear than other characters will. The only appropriate way to generate a LootRank template for your character is with Simulator-style modeling.

CONCLUSION:
With all of this knowledge at your disposal, you should easily out-DPS less knowledgeable Shaman, often even if they outgear you, as is my personal experience constantly.

Disagree with me? Comments / Praises? Look me up on US-Cho'Gall or post a response.

Peace,
Hungraa - Tauren Enhancement Shaman

EDIT: added intro, info about calculating weapon speed values, and meta gem info.

I'd like to start off by saying thanks, been using EnhSim and getting crazy values (3/4 Spell Power and Intellect). Also thanks for the heads up on the totem thing, 4 more free slots for me .

In your Talent Tree you have 2 points in Ancestral Knowledge and 3 in Improved Shields. Just wondering is there a shown dps improvement over a full 5 in Ancestral Knowledge (gives bigger mana pool, better spell crit and more AP)? Or is just all down to preference.

Hey Ultrin,

You bring up a good question -- is a rank of Improved Shields better than a rank of Ancestral Knowledge for enhancement DPS? What about if you have kings?

Well, to double-check the accuracy of my initial assumption (that Improved Shields was better) I ran the simulator. In my current gear (213-219 iLvL) having 2/5 Ancestral Knowledge and 3/3 Imp Shields is 20 more DPS than 5/5 Ancestral Knowledge and 0/3 Imp Shields.

If you have Blessing of Kings, the DPS difference is only 19 (for my gear), but still favors improved shields.

Improved Shields is certainly not worth getting as Enhancement unless you have 3/3 Static Shock, so if you are going some other build for some kind of utility instead of pure raid DPS, shaving 6 points from Static Shock and Imp Shields to go elsewhere might be a reasonable option.

Considering Enhancement Shaman never have mana problems, especially now with Imp Stormstrike's ~500 mp5, even on weird mana fights like General Vezax, the extra INT from Ancestral Knowledge is really not justifiable from a pure DPS standpoint.

Other things to consider are that Lightning Shield will scale with spellpower/crit/AP(because of Mental Quickness)/INT(because of Mental Dexterity)/ and especially haste, because attacking faster will proc more charges of Lightning Shield. Also, 2-piece tier-7 will give your lightning shield 10% more dmg, which is about 15 DPS if you have Static Shock and Imp Shields.


Anyways, glad you liked the post. FYI my weights for INT and Spellpower from EnhSim are INT = 1.45 and Spellpower = 1.05. At lower gear levels spellpower probably won't be worth as much as AP, but INT should always be greater than 1.2

Hope this helps. Good luck!
-Hungraa

This is a rant about why Enhancement Shamans should be allowed to have Wraith Strike, and deserve a chance to roll on it in a raid. I was in a PuG 25-Naxx a couple weeks ago, and when I politely asked if I could roll on it, I was laughed at.

When I consistently had #1-#3 DPS in the raid, the raidleader reconsidered my right to roll on it, and when it dropped off of Maexxna, I lost the roll to a Moonkin.

Because of the dynamics of the Enhancement Shaman, and how ~50% of their DPS comes from casting, it should be noted that spellpower is an important stat for them.

As a quick rule, we look for gear with AttackPower and not SP, because we have a talent that adds SP based on our AtkP, and when combined with the fact that AtkP uses fewer "iLvl points" on gear, AtkP is certainly the preferred stat.

There is an interesting circumstance, specifically involving Caster Mainhand weapons -- which have a large amount of spellpower (rather than weapon DPS) -- where an Enhancement Shaman will actually benefit more from an obviously "caster" item, rather than the more obvious "melee" gear choice.

Take for example Wraith Strike, the very well itemized 213 iLvl caster claw from 25-man Maexxna, versus Touch of Madness, the 219 iLvl 1-handed axe from 10-man Yogg-Saron.

Ask almost any Enhancement Shaman which they would rather have in their mainhand (ignore the fact that Touch of Madness is also an excellent offhand) and you will get the response "Touch of Madness, obviously."

In a fight where your Magma Totem will consistently be in range of the boss, say Patchwerk (easy example), Wraith Strike will give you more DPS 9/10 times. Seriously. A lower iLvl CASTER weapon beats the best 10-man normal mode Ulduar weapon.

Wraith Strike is nearly as good as Calamity's Grasp for Enhancement Shaman, and perhaps better in some circumstances.

The 80 weapon DPS lost is made up by the 461 spell power, and the truly most important stat on your weapon is the swing speed in the first place, and Wraith Strike was blessed with a very slow swing speed of 2.6, automatically putting it way ahead of 90% of the one handed weapons out there. Its only competition are the other 2.6 and 2.7 swing speed epic iLvl 226+ one-handers.

There are several excellent caster weapons (Val'anyr (HA!), Aesuga, Constellus) that rank very highly in the Enhancement Shaman's top weapons list -- and they would certainly be better suited going to pure casters who have no alternative. Wraith Strike, however, with its unique slowness should not by kept from Enhancement Shaman as solely a caster weapon, as there are Many caster weapons in Naxx and Ulduar that are great for casters (and better than Wraith Strike for them) while there are very few great Enhancement weapons. For its iLvl, Wraith Strike is an EXCELLENT Enhancement weapon, and top 2 before Heroic or Hardmode Ulduar.

My intention is not to say Enhancement Shaman deserve priority on the weapon, only that raids should understand how Enhancement viable it is, and that they deserve a shot at it. In general, Enhancement weapons are very difficult to come by.

All of the common Naxx-level stereotypical Enhancement Shaman weapons (Angry Dread, Kel'thuzad's Reach, Crimson Steel, Greed, any rogue dagger) are ALL VASTLY INFERIOR TO WRAITH STRIKE FOR ENHANCEMENT DPS

/end rant

Thanks,
Hungraa

Thanks for a very nice explaining thread for the template!

What confuses me is that attack power only get 1.0. As with agility you mention that you get extra value because of the talent; mental dexterity.
Wouldn't attack power also get more value due to the same reason? Something like 1 + (1.05*0.30)?

Hey Thaug,

You bring up a tricky question. Because of the way some of the Shaman talents works, shouldn't 1 AtkPow be worth more than just 1 point? Getting 1 additional AtkP also means you get 0.3 Spellpower from 3/3 Mental Quickness, so how can AtkP be worth only 1 point?

The quick answer is that the "points" don't matter. It's all relative.

The answer really lies in how I've set up my stat weighting in the first place -- my stat weightings are NORMALIZED such that 1 point = "the DPS that 1 AtkP gives you", and all of the other stat weights are calculated relative to that.

Obviously, 1 AtkP gives you exactly 1 of "the DPS that 1 AtkP gives you", the interesting thing to see is how many "DPS of 1 AtkP"s is 1 Hit Rating worth -- for an Enhancement Shaman with not enough hit, it's about 3.2 "DPS of 1 AtkP"s.

Because of this normalized weighting, AtkP will always be 1 for any calculation I do (unless I do some stat weights for a caster, where I use Spellpower as my baseline, setting it equal to 1 point).

I have seen people post templates that look like this:

STR: 9
AGI: 3
Crit: 4.5
Haste: 3
Exp: 6
Hit: 6
AtkP: 3
ArP: 1.5

But it is important to understand that for all intents and purposes, the previous weighting is exactly equal to THIS weighting:

STR: 3
AGI: 1
Crit: 1.5
Haste: 1
Exp: 2
Hit: 2
AtkP: 1
ArP: 0.5

The numbers themselves don't matter, it is the RELATIVE weighting. In both cases you can see STR is the most heavily weighted stat (NOTE: this is a made up stat weighting for a DK, do not use this!), and all of the relative weights are identical -- they contain the same information. If you plug each of those stat weights into loot rank, it will spit out exactly the same gear in exactly the same order, but the numbers on the right will change.

Why do I normalize my weighting to 1 AtkP = 1 point? I dunno, it's pretty arbitrary. It might be more interesting to normalize the weighting such that 1 point = 1 DPS (approximately), which is possible to figure out with the use of a simulator and a handful of assumptions.

For my Enhancement Shaman, the addition of 1 AtkP currently results in a net increase of 0.42 DPS. Using this, I can weight my Enhancement stats in terms of DPS addded, like so:

STR: 0.462
AGI: 0.7728
INT: 0.609
Meta Gem Slot: 77.7
Haste Rating: 0.6006
Crit Rating: 0.819
Hit Rating: 0.84
AtkP: 0.42
ArPen: 0.5376
Expertise Rating: 0.84
SpellPower: 0.4368
MainHand DPS: 2.1798
OffHand DPS: 1.3902
MainHand Weapon Speed: 92.4
OffHand Weapon Speed: 138.6

This is pretty nifty, it means if you get a gear upg that has exactly 10 more INT on it, all of the other stats are identical, then you can expect a DPS increase of approximately 6.09. Or if your OffHand Weapon magically got 0.1 speed slower, your DPS would go up by 13.86!

Here is a LootRank link which will give you all of the same gear as in my initial template, except now the number on the right will say how much DPS that piece of gear is worth (approximately -- keep in mind it does not calculate set bonuses and some trinket procs):

http://www.lootrank.com/wr.asp?Cla=64&s8=1&Max=40&s6=1&Gem=3&n2=1&Str=0.462&mh=.6006&dps=2.178&mcr=.819&odps=1.39&spd=.4368&Agi=.7728&mhit=.84&ddps=2.178&Int=.609&hdps=1.39&map=.42&msp=92.4&Sckm=77.7&arp=.5376&osp=138.6&Exp=.84&Ver=6

Hope this is interesting and useful to you.

Good luck!
~Hungraa

This is an update to my previous post about stat weightings normalized to 1 point = 1 additional DPS.

I used my last template, with the point values normalized to "DPS added", and summed the value of all 16 pieces of my gear (Totem/Relic excluded). The resulting sum was 3848 DPS, very close to my 10-man raid buffed DPS!
[I use 10-man buffs when running EnhSim to calculate my stat weights, so this makes sense]

If you add in the values for the enchants on each piece of gear I have (approx 100-130 additional DPS) you get even closer to my 10-man raid DPS of about 4k.

I feel comfortable saying that this is a fairly accurate and convenient way to see how much your DPS can expect to increase, given a specific change in stats.

I recalculated my stat weightings, as I recently changed some of my gear. Here is the resulting template, complete with my Armory upload: Hungraa's LootRank

As you can see, getting a Golden Saronite Dragon to replace my Crimson Steel would add ~154 DPS. NIFTY!

NOTE: Gear and stats have a multiplicative, self-synergistic effect. That is, as your overall stats increase, every additional stat point will result in more added DPS than the previous stat point.

Let's say 1 more STR gives you exactly 1 more DPS now. If all of your multiplicative stats (like crit, haste, hit, exp, AGI) were increased by 10%, then 1 more STR will give you MORE than 1 DPS, because the other stats help multiply the effect of your STR. Because of this, if you look at a LootRank template and say "oh well if I had all of these 'BiS' pieces instead of my current gear, my DPS would be X" you would be incorrect by a reasonable margin -- your DPS would probably be noticably HIGHER than X.

In my current setup, upgrading to a Golden Saronite Dragon would increase my DPS by approximately 154, which is probably a reasonable estimate, but if I first upgraded every other piece of my gear to "best in slot", and then upgraded from a Crimson Steel to a Golden Saronite Dragon, I may very well see a DPS increase of 200 or more.

Just food for thought, I feel this normalization of 1 point = 1 added DPS may be the new cool way to suggest stat weightings.

~Hungraa

Some excellent information here keep up the good work i have only recently got to level 80 with my Shaman and this helps alot.

Hi Hungraa,

Frist sorry my english, but Im Brazilian and dont have a good English.
I usualy look your template to decide my upgrade, but in 09/22/09 (upgrade) the blizzard nerf armor penetration, My questions is: Do you go change your template ?

Thanks
SonicWolf

Hey sonicwolf,

Don't worry about your English -- you got your question across perfectly.

Yes, they nerfed armor penetration, and your stat weightings should reflect that accordingly. An Enhancement Shaman's DPS is about half physical and half magical, so not only does this armor pen nerf not hurt us as much as other classes, but as an Enhancement Shaman you should look more for AtkPow, Crit and Haste before ArmorPen.

My most recent reworked stat weights are below:
Nerfed Armor Pen Weighting for Hungraa

As always, note that my stat weights may very well NOT be a good estimate for your character, especially if our specs, gear or rotations differ.

Sorry for my delayed response.

Good luck!
~Hungraa

Hey Hungraa,

thanks a lot for this guide. I love it and the idea to use spellpower, too. I update my Shamanspec according to the guide.

It would be great, if you can update the topic-line (from 3.1 to 3.2.2).

Carstegear


P.S.: Sorry for my english In Germany we read your guide, too.

Hey Hungraa,

Now my lootrank is perfect, very thanks for your help.
Gratz