In this article, we explain what the best statistics are for Enhancement Shamans (WoW MoP 5.3), how the class benefits from each of them, and what your reforging strategy should be. We also detail what the various caps are and why they should be attained. The statistics priority is important as it influences reforging strategies as well as itemisation choices (gear, enchants, and gems).

Make sure to check our Gear Optimisation Guide, which serves as a support guide for this article.

The other articles of our Enhancement Shaman guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Purge, one of the best Enhancement Shamans in the world, who often contributes to the Enhancement Shaman section of Totem Spot.

1. Basics↑top

The stat priority for an Enhancement Shaman is:

1. Agility;
2. Hit Rating and Expertise Rating (until 7.5% caps);
3. Mastery Rating;
4. Haste Rating;
5. Critical Strike Rating.

With Tier 15 gear, Haste Rating is pulling ahead of Mastery Rating. This mostly comes from the RPPM trinkets introduced with Patch 5.2 (the more Haste you have, the more they proc).

These statistics have been obtained by combining common sense, in-game testing, and simulations using Simulation Craft.

If you are unsure what the optimal reforging strategy is for the above priority, you can Ask Mr. Robot for a personalised optimisation of your character's gear, by filling the form below.

2. Getting a Better Understanding↑top

Agility provides you with Attack Power, which increases the damage if your melee attacks, and Spell Power (through Mental Quickness), which increases the damage of your spells. Agility also increases your critical strike chance.

Hit Rating decreases the chance that your melee attacks will miss their target (7.5% against a raid boss). Therefore, your goal is to reach the 7.5% hit cap (see section below), which will ensure that your attacks never miss.

If you are dual-wielding, reaching the 7.5% hit cap will only prevent your special melee attacks (yellow attacks) from missing. Your normal melee attacks (white attacks) will still miss because, when dual-wielding, they have a 26.5% chance to miss by default. Even in this case, it is unnecessary to keep stacking Hit Rating after the 7.5% hit cap.

Expertise Rating decreases the chance that your melee attacks will be dodged (7.5% against a raid boss). Therefore, your goal is to reach the 7.5% expertise cap (see section below), which will ensure that your attacks are never dodged. Note that you should always be attacking bosses from behind, which prevents them from parrying your attacks. Therefore, it is usually unnecessary (unless the boss cannot be attacked from behind) to decrease the chance that your attacks will be parried (something that you can do by stacking Expertise Rating after reaching the 7.5% cap).

Note that both Hit Rating and Expertise Rating reduce your chance to miss with spells, which is 15% against raid bosses. This means that when you reach the 7.5% melee hit cap and the 7.5% expertise cap, you also reach the 15% spell hit cap.

Mastery Rating, through Mastery: Enhanced Elements, increases all of your Fire, Frost, and Nature damage (i.e., not just the damage from spells, but also the damage from abilities that deal magic damage, like Lava Lash or Stormblast).

Haste Rating increases the speed of your melee autoattacks, enabling you to get more procs on Windfury Weapon. With the introduction of RPPM trinkets, Haste also increases the proc chance of these trinkets.

Critical Strike Rating increases the damage of your attacks and spells, and grants you more uptime on Flurry.

2.1. Hit Cap

At level 90, most races require 2,550 Hit Rating to reach the melee hit cap. Draenei, thanks to Heroic Presence, only need 2,210 Hit Rating.

2.2. Expertise Cap

At level 90, most races require 2,550 Expertise Rating to reach the expertise cap. Some races, in some cases, only need 2,210 Expertise Rating, thanks to passive racial skills:

• Dwarves when dual-wielding Maces ( Mace Specialization);
• Orcs when dual-wielding Axes/Fist Weapons ( Axe Specialization).

3. Changelog↑top

• 19 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: nothing to change.
• 04 Apr. 2013: Improved explanations regarding Haste Rating pulling ahead of Mastery Rating. Improved description of Mastery: Enhanced Elements. Added RPPM trinkets to the Haste Rating discussion.
• 09 Mar. 2013: Added a note regarding Haste Rating pulling ahead of Mastery Rating with Tier 15 gear.