WotLK Classic Enhancement Shaman Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

If you have not already, please read the Spells Summary page. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will make it much easier to understand the topics discussed on this page.

We will present the skill rotation of an Enhancement Shaman as a priority list. This is not an exact sequence in which abilities should be cast. Instead what it means is that whenever you must choose between using different skills, try to use the one at the top of the list first.

Our recommendations assume you are running one of the recommended talent builds from the talents page and are playing a max level character. If you are still leveling, please refer to the leveling page for a leveling-specific rotation.

As one of the most complex specializations to perform an ideal rotation with in Wrath, there are two critical concepts to understand (coupled with Macros and WeakAuras to help you optimize them) before getting into the ability priority list.

Weapon Sync means that your main-hand and off-hand weapons are swinging simultaneously. This is important because if the swings are landing within 0.5seconds of each other, only one Flurry charge will be consumed for two melee hits, drastically increasing the 30% Haste buff uptime. You can know whether you are synced properly or not with this WeakAura, and force the sync with this WeakAura or by taking an action which resets your swing timer such as using Feral Spirit or using a Noggenfogger Elixir.

In Tier 10 level gear the critical strike levels are so high that you will be able to keep Flurry up all the time even without weapon sync, making it unnecessary.

Cast Weaving is using one or more Maelstrom Weapon stacks to cast a spell, typically Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning, in between swings of your typically slow weapons. While casting, normally, resets your swing timer, this does not happen with Maelstrom Weapon-Hasted casts, allowing you to cast spells with less than 5 stacks as long as you start the cast early enough in your swing timer that it will finish before the swing would happen. The sync timer WeakAura also has an indicator for when you need to start casting in order to avoid clipping, allowing you to know at a moment's notice if you can fit a cast in or not.

When using 4-piece Tier 10 you need to always reach 5 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon in order to proc the 20% attack power buff, making weaving irrelevant.

As Enhancement, you should always use Flametongue Weapon on your off-hand. The main-hand should have Windfury Weapon if it is a high DPS Physical weapon or a second Flametongue Weapon if it is a Spell Power caster weapon.

If you are using double Flametongue Weapon, use your best Flametongue rank on the off-hand weapon (Rank 10 at Level 80) and your second best rank on the main-hand (Rank 9 at Level 80).

This is done to maximize the amount of procs, as your off-hand hits more on average than your main-hand due to Lava Lash and Flametongue has an extremely small internal cooldown that is not shared between different ranks, meaning a simultaneous attack (Stormstrike) will only proc two Flametongue hits if you are using different ranks, and doing so is a significant damage gain which more than offsets the lower power of the lower Flametongue rank.

Fire Elemental Totem snapshots, which means the Spell Power it deals damage with and its cooldown are tied to the gear and glyphs you were using when you cast it.

Thus, by applying Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem and using Fire Elemental Totem with your best Spell Power gear before a pull, you will get a very powerful Elemental with only 5 minutes of cooldown. Make sure to swap to standard glyphs and gear before entering combat, though!

1. Place down your totems with Call of the Elements;
2. Fire Elemental Totem and Feral Spirit when available for extra DPS;
3. Chain Lightning or Lightning Bolt with one or more Maelstrom Weapon stacks, if it will not reset your swing timer;
4. Stormstrike;
5. Flame Shock (if the target will not die shortly afterwards);
6. Magma Totem;
7. Keep Lightning Shield active if specced into its related talents;
8. Earth Shock;
9. Fire Nova;
10. Lava Lash as a last resort.

1. Place down your totems with Call of the Elements;
2. Fire Elemental Totem and Feral Spirit when available for extra DPS;
3. Magma Totem;
4. Fire Nova;
5. Chain Lightning or Lightning Bolt with one or more Maelstrom Weapon stacks, if it will not reset your swing timer;
6. Stormstrike;
7. Flame Shock (if the target will not die shortly afterwards);
8. Keep Lightning Shield active if specced into its related talents;
9. Earth Shock;
10. Lava Lash as a last resort.