Season of Discovery Enhancement Shaman DPS Stat Priority

Last updated on Jul 08, 2024 at 18:00 by Seksixeny 7 comments

On this page, you will find out the optimal PvE stat priority for your DPS Enhancement Shaman in WoW Classic - Season of Discovery. We first present the stat priority, before delving into more complex explanations.

1.

Stat Priority for Enhancement Shamans

Gear in WoW Classic tends to have useful stats mixed in with non-useful stats, making it hard to evaluate on a pure item level basis. Thus, while knowing about each stat is important, make sure to check our best in slot list as well in order to know about specific items!

  1. Hit Chance (9% is the cap for special attacks against Molten Core bosses which are treated as being your level +3);
  2. Strength (1 Str = 2 Attack Power);
  3. Raw Attack Power;
  4. Agility (1 Agi grants a small amount of crit, dodge, and armor);
  5. Critical Strike (200% on normal swings);
  6. Intellect (more Mana to DPS with).
2.

Stats Further Explained

2.1.

Hit

Hit allows your white swings, which are the majority of your damage, to land more often. Fortunately, Dual Wield Specialization Icon Dual Wield Specialization will take care of your Hit and Spell Hit caps outright.

2.2.

Strength

As an Enhancement Shaman, you get a large amount of Attack Power from Strength, making it a strong DPS increasing stat.

2.3.

Weapon Stats

Your weapon is by far the largest contributor to your damage, and you should always aim to upgrade it first, if possible. There are three types of stats you are mainly looking for in a weapon: its DPS, its damage range and its speed. Slower weapons have bigger damage ranges, which is very important for certain skills that depend only on the damage range, such as Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike.

2.4.

Weapon Skill

Weapon Skill allows you to hit enemies more often and, more importantly, for a lot more damage when you land a Glancing Blow. Glancing blows are regular hits that deal reduced damage. Molten Core bosses are counted as being your level +3, which means 40% of your attacks will be glancing blows, which deal 35% reduced damage if you have the default maxed weapon skill.

Level Difference Chance to Occur Base Damage Penalty
0 10% 5%
1 20% 5%
2 30% 15%
3 40% 35%

You can get some benefit by increasing your weapon skill further with racials such as Axe Specialization Icon Axe Specialization, Sword Specialization Icon Sword Specialization, or Mace Specialization Icon Mace Specialization, Runes such as Axe Specialization Icon Axe Specialization, or with items such as Expert Goldminer's Helmet Icon Expert Goldminer's Helmet.

Having at least +5 skill is a huge damage increase against end game bosses such as the ones in Molten Core as it massively increases your Hit chance and lowers the Glancing Blow penalty, as you can see in the table:

Defense / Weapon Skill Difference Glancing Penalty Miss Chance Hit Cap
15 (baseline vs Molten Core Bosses) 35% 8% 9%
14 31% 7.8% 8.8%
13 27% 7.6% 8.6%
12 23% 7.4% 8.4%
11 19% 7.2% 8.2%
10 (any Rune, racial, or most items) 15% 6% 6%
9 11% 5.9% 5.9%
8 7% 5.8% 5.8%
7 5% 5.7% 5.7%
6 5% 5.6% 5.6%
5 5% 5.5% 5.5%
4 5% 5.4% 5.4%
3 5% 5.3% 5.3%
2 5% 5.2% 5.2%
1 5% 5.1% 5.1%
0 5% 5% 5%
2.5.

Agility

As a Shaman, Agility increases your dodge, your armor and your critical chance. The critical strike value is what makes it a decent stat for DPSing.

2.6.

Critical Strike

Critical Strike for Enhancement Shamans increases your damage and makes you attack faster through Flurry Icon Flurry.

2.7.

Intellect

Typically a caster stat, the reason Intellect is listed at is because you will be using a lot of Mana with your spells and thus your Mana pool can be of use for DPSing more in long fights. Typically you will keep your Mana refilled with Shamanistic Rage Icon Shamanistic Rage, however.

3.

Changelog

  • 08 Jul. 2024: Updated for Phase 4 with Molten Core in mind.
  • 07 Apr. 2024: Updated for Phase 3 with Sunken Temple in mind.
  • 12 Feb. 2024: Updated for Phase 2 with Gnomeregan in mind.
  • 17 Dec. 2023: Completely reworked stats page, and added new explanations on each stat.
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