Enhancement Shaman DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

Previously the strongest in The War Within, Stormbringer falls a little behind in pure single-target. While it's still able to put out good numbers and provides ample cleave for free, it's a little far behind without access to key effects coming in Midnight:

Totemic saw a massive improvement in Midnight, and gained access to some significant new toys - in particular Totemic Momentum. It provides strong priority damage while doing excellent cleave for free, and as such is the recommended choice:

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Stormbringer focuses heavily on Maelstrom Weapon generation and cycling for Tempest, so all talents that serve that purpose are taken. Since there's a fairly limited amount of choices on the tree, it runs out of good points to spend. It makes sure to always pick up Thunder Capacitor and Elemental Assault at the bottom, while also pathing to Ascendance to make use of Descending Skies. Some additional notes are:

In the Midnight Pre-patch, Totemic is slightly limited by the point restrictions, but that doesn't stop it from forming a strong build. It focuses heavily on Lava Lash, so all talents relating to it (in particular Hot Hand) are taken. It also needs Sundering to trigger all 3 Whirling Elements motes, and since Ascendance isn't as valuable, it opts to stick with a 1-minute Doom Winds burst window.

• On the Hero Tree, Stormbringer always plays Supercharge. With the limited number of Hero Talent points in the Pre-patch, it invests in the three new talents - Stormwell, Natural Gift and Descending Skies, allowing it to avoid some utility pickups.
• Stormstrike is the strike of choice, so naturally all related talents are taken. Most importantly, Stormblast and Stormflurry in the centre of the tree.
• Stormbringer runs out of valuable points to pick up, so the last few are spent on fairly low impact options. Fire Nova, Flurry and Chaining Storms are all similar - with the preference being Chaining Storms for the additional cleave.
• With the new Hero Tree additions, Totemic immediately switches over to the new options. Totemic Momentum is critical to making the build work, and completing the path to Primal Catalyst is worth the points. Imbuement Mastery is sacrificed for Amplification Core in single-target.
• In the Pre-patch, the lack of extra spec points means something has to be sacrificed at the bottom. With Lightning Strikes only triggering at 10 stacks spent at once, this means sacrificing both that and Thunder Capacitor in exchange for Primordial Storm and Feral Spirit performs best.
• While not strictly for performance, Totem related talents on the class tree make managing Surging Totem easier. In particular, Totemic Focus for the additional range and Totemic Projection for easier repositioning when needed.

In AoE, Stormbringer closes the gap a bit with Totemic, but it's still held back by some tuning problems. Some problems with reliability paired with no access to the Apex Talents leaves it lacking, especially in Mythic+ where flexibility is king:

In Midnight, Totemic saw some extremely welcome updates to its design across the board, and this extends to AoE as well. While it has to make some sacrifices due to point limitations, the tuning gap it has over Stormbringer (in particular in single-target) means that it's much better suited to the Mythic+ landscape, and so is our recommended choice:

In AoE the goal of Stormbringer is to generate and spend as much Maelstrom Weapon as possible to fish for Tempest. This hasn't changed in Midnight, though it's slightly less reliable. The only major change from the single-target build here is locking in Chaining Storms to further improve Chain Lightning and Ride the Lightning damage. While Primordial Storm is appealing, it's very costly to pick up, so instead it sticks with both Ascendance, Feral Spirit and Elemental Assault.

Totemic still feels the talent point squeeze in the Pre-patch when it comes to AoE, but Primordial Storm pulls even more weight here. Its goals remain the same - empower Lava Lash through Hot Hand as much as possible. It also fits in Chaining Storms at all times, further improving Chain Lightning and Ride the Lightning. At the bottom, it has to sacrifice Thunder Capacitor which limits the ceiling for buff extensions, but the trade off is worth the extra burst.

• On the Hero Tree, Stormbringer always plays Supercharge. It also switches over to the three new talents to reach Descending Skies, foregoing the central line to avoid spending points on utility options in the Pre-patch.
• There's very little choice on the rest of the spec tree, with little in the way of points that can be switched around. While 1-minute playstyles with Doom Winds are possible, it performs worse in the Pre-patch landscape.
• The class tree allows for full investment into Capacitor Totem for up to a 25 second cooldown reduction, giving some amount of extra CC potential in Mythic+. Other utility like Cleanse Spirit and Earthgrab Totem can be slotted in on a dungeon-per-dungeon basis.
• It can optionally maintain access to Elemental Assault in dungeons with a larger amount of single-target present. In this case, Lightning Strikes and Thunder Capacitor are dropped, exchanged for Elemental Assault and Feral Spirit.
• Totemic has three floating points in the middle of the tree that can be moved around. Generally, Overcharge is best here, with the other two landing on Fire Nova or Lashing Flames. An alternate pick for more single-target though is Stormflurry, at a small cost to AoE throughput.
• The class tree allows for full investment into Capacitor Totem for up to a 30 second cooldown reduction, giving some amount of extra CC potential in Mythic+. Other utility like Cleanse Spirit and Earthgrab Totem can be slotted in on a dungeon-per-dungeon basis.

Stormbringer is well suited to Delves, with the ability to pool damage around key moments. It has some incredibly powerful burst moments, but its unpredictability can sometimes cause issues. Its massive Maelstrom Weapon generation can fuel Raging Maelstrom stacks for additional free healing, so is still capable of doing well:

Totemic is extremely well suited to Delves, being able to deploy huge AoE burst whenever needed due to its short cooldowns. While it can't bring its full AoE toolkit in order to hybridize, what it does have allows it to prioritize dangerous enemies down while cleaving everything else. As such, it's the recommended choice:

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This tree grants access to Tempest, a powerful proc that empowers your next Lightning Bolt. This can happen randomly when spending Maelstrom Weapon, converting it into a huge AoE burst tool. Additionally:

• Supercharge provides an additional method of refunding Maelstrom Weapon, causing it to cycle resources much faster.
• Conductive Energy applies a debuff to targets hit with your spenders, converting a portion of damage dealt into extra damage. This allows it to deal additional funnel to key targets when active.

This orients Stormbringer strongly around our resource gameplay, rewarding good management and cycling with explosive burst. It's able to leverage a variety of tools to cleave without any single-target loss, but can be prone to bad RNG streaks.

Conversely, Totemic focuses strongly on Lava Lash through the Hot Hand effect, while also granting access to a new cooldown - Surging Totem. This pulses AoE damage while active, and also links into a number of different abilities for bonus effects:

• Splitstream causes Lava Lash to also trigger Sundering while Hot Hand is active, which through Earthsurge also causes your Surging Totem to pulse.
• Totemic Rebound also causes your Surging Totem to deal additional damage whenever you cast a Maelstrom Weapon spender, amplifying future damage it deals until it expires.

This adds an extra cooldown that aligns with Doom Winds into the Enhancement toolkit. When paired with other options on the tree, it gives it some potent options to deal with 30-second and 1-minute burst timers, while dealing strong priority damage without any sacrifices to cleave or AoE.