Enhancement Shaman DPS Castle Nathria Raid Guide — Dragonflight 10.2.5

On this page, you will find Enhancement Shaman specific information to deal with each boss in the Castle Nathria raid.

This page assumes that you already understand most of the mechanics of each encounter. These can be found on the full raid guide, so what is contained here are details specifically tailored toward Enhancement Shaman and what you can do to deal with each fight as best as possible.

During the Dragonflight Pre-Patch, Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination, and Sepulcher of the First Ones will be simultaneously featured as Fated Raids. During this time encounters within each specific raid will include an additional mechanic and items will drop at increased item levels. If you would like to learn more general information about the Fated Raids system as a whole, please see our overview below. Otherwise, continue to use this page for specialization-specific tips.

A lot has changed for Enhancement since Castle Nathria was released, and as such the selections we make is different to the original version. In the majority of situations, your Covenant selection should be Night Fae, with a few opportunities to play Necrolord.

Nathria also has quite a few instances of high value cooldown windows, which can decide your ability timings in sometimes unusual ways. It also means that, in some cases, you need to think about whether or not you can gain value from Essential Extraction, or should switch to Chilled to the Core in your Conduit selections.

Enhancement has one primary build for raids that is fairly versatile. At times, a couple of points might be shuffled around in order to perform better in heavy AoE situations.

Night Fae and Skybreaker's Fiery Demise are the main components of this setup.

This build focuses on doing as much single-target as possible, and utilizes the Skybreaker's Fiery Demise legendary in order to generate additional passive damage. Although it is focused on doing single target damage, it is also able to excel in light cleave situations by capitalizing on Hailstorm-empowered Frost Shocks and applying Lashing Flames to multiple enemies. It also brings a strong suite of personal defensives and mobility and will make for a strong baseline raiding setup.

Covenant: Night Fae

Legendaries: Witch Doctor's Wolf Bones with Seeds of Rampant Growth

Soulbind: Dreamweaver (Link)

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the following string:

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No changes to the default talent, covenant, or legendary loadouts are recommended.

Heavily single-target oriented encounter that has some unusual timers due to the intermission.

• Essential Extraction gets extremely high value here so long as you use Fae Transfusion quickly on the pull and immediately as it comes back up.
• Wind Rush Totem can be used to help your group move behind pillars during Earsplitting Shriek or readjust during the intermission.
• Save Spirit Walk to get out of the group if targeted by Echolocation, or to avoid wayward Echoing Screech rings.
• Stay in Ghost Wolf during the intermission to make use of the extra speed from Spirit Wolf, as the boss takes no damage here.
• Save Astral Shift for situations where someone makes a mistake and triggers Descent, most other damage in the fight is avoidable.

For more information, please refer to our Shriekwing guide.

Compared to the default talent loadout, we recommend removing the points in Storm's Wrath and Elemental Blast in exchange for points in Crash Lightning and Primordial Wave.

No changes to the default covenant or legendary loadouts are recommended.

• Huntsman's Bond causes Gargons to share health with the boss. This means you should keep Crash Lightning active at all times and maintain Lashing Flames on both targets if playing it.
• Shades of Bargast require high burst damage, so make sure you have Fae Transfusion or Primordial Wave ready for when your raid deals with these.
• Sinseeker is the most lethal damage in the fight, so use Astral Shift if targeted.
• Save Spirit Walk in latter portions of the fight to be able to get to the edge of the room if targeted by Petrifying Howl. It can also be used to get to the ranged soak spot if targeted by Sinseeker.

For more information, please refer to our Huntsman Altimor guide.

No changes to the default talent, covenant, or legendary loadouts are recommended.

While there is some AoE in this fight, the most important damage windows are during Kael'thas's Cloak of Flames in the intermissions, which heavily benefit from single target burst and funnel.

• Pay special attention to adds dying to avoid taking hits from Fragmentation, this is lethal if you stand in a stack.
• You can assist with healing needed on both Kael'thas and on canisters with Healing Surge.
• Earth Shield can be taken and applied to Kael'thas to improve the healing you do to the boss.
• Place Earthbind Totem at the back of the room to slow newly spawned Soul Infusers.
• If you are having issues dealing with Cloak of Flames, adjust Fae Transfusion casts to align with the cast in the intermission.
• For Mythic, pooling up 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks can be useful to instantly cast two Healing Surges to deal with the Cloak of Flames in the main phase.

For more information, please refer to our Sun King's Salvation guide.

No changes to the default talent, covenant, or legendary loadouts are recommended.

Purely single-target focused encounter, but has some downtime and heavy movement constraints.

• We have no tools to naturally avoid the Dimensional Tear effects efficiently, so you will need to use the portals.
• You should shift into Ghost Wolf if targeted by a Fleeting Spirit as you run to the Dimensional Tear, avoiding getting touched should be your number one priority.
• Try to align cooldowns with downtime between the casts in each phase, as these will often force you away from the boss.
• Wind Rush Totem can help the players having to deal with Seeds of Extinction, assist players moving between portals, or outrun the Edge of Annihilation.
• The selfish option is Feral Lunge which can slightly improve uptime, but you should not need it.
• Soulshape is useful to get to the edge of Seeds of Extinction and Edge of Annihilation without needing to dip into the Dimensional Tears in a pinch.

For more information, please refer to our Artificer Xy'Mox guide.

No changes to the default talent, covenant, or legendary loadouts are recommended.

Purely single-target encounter with some forced downtime so try to avoid casting high value abilities just before these.

• Both Expunge and Consume force you out of melee, so pay attention to these timers and hold cooldowns if these are about to happen.
• Cast Healing Surge to shrink the Expunge circle if the raid is struggling.
• Use Spirit Walk and Ghost Wolf to get to the edge of the arena with Expunge to drop your orb, and use Feral Lunge to get back to the boss.
• Save Astral Shift if you are targeted by Miasma and have to deal with either Expunge or Volatile Ejection. The combined effect of the damage and healing immunity is very dangerous.
• Wind Rush Totem can be used as an alternative to help the group during Consume, but Feral Lunge is very useful to keep your uptime on the boss. Nature's Guardian can have some uses, but will often just be absorbed by the Miasma so is not a strong pick.

For more information, please refer to our Hungering Destroyer guide.

No changes to the default talent, covenant, or legendary loadouts are recommended.

The primary focus of this fight is single-target. While there are adds, they will usually be killed very quickly so value from cleave is low here.

• Wind Shear is perfect to deal with the Condemn casts as even if we are targeted by other effects, we can still keep it under control in the interrupt cycle.
• Shift to Ghost Wolf if you have to get to your spot with Shared Suffering, faster you get there the better.
• Spirit Walk is best saved as an emergency tool to catch Bottled Anima if no-one else is nearby.
• Astral Shift works best if you are targeted by Shared Suffering as you will be moving out of the group, and potentially taking high damage. Otherwise, you can use this if you have Concentrated Anima to reduce the initial impact.

For more information, please refer to our Lady Inerva Darkvein guide.

Compared to the default talent loadout, we recommend removing the points in Storm's Wrath and Elemental Blast in exchange for points in Crash Lightning and Elemental Assault.

No changes to the default covenant or legendary loadouts are recommended.

A deceptively single-target focused fight. While you will have a high uptime of cleave opportunities for Crash Lightning.

• Builds including Ashen Catalyst can be played and used as a pure funnel tool with Necrolord, and played with either Lashing Flames or Elemental Blast. You should not maintain the Lashing debuff on multiple targets, just your focus target.
• Witch Doctor's Wolf Bones can also be played as a pure single-target burn, its only issue is Fae Transfusion will split between targets and waste some damage.
• Hailstorm is also a reasonable option here specifically if paired with Chilled to the Core, for the high Maelstrom generation from extra targets.
• Save Astral Shift for the tail end of each phase to deal with the increasing damage caused by Oppressive Atmosphere. This extends further into Mythic to deal with the Dancing Fever explosions.
• Shift to Ghost Wolf during the intermission, in case you need to cover a lot of ground to get to your spot. If necessary, use Spirit Walk here too.
• Wind Rush Totem primarily only has uses in Mythic, helping your tank to kite the Stoneguard, otherwise you should stick to Nature's Guardian to deal with the high damage intake of the encounter.

For more information, please refer to our The Council of Blood guide.

No changes to the default talent, covenant, or legendary loadouts are recommended.

This is a single-target encounter with a hyper focus on 10 second burst windows every minute.

• Ideally you should have Feral Spirit ready as the boss is about to charge, and pre-cast as he does immediately into Fae Transfusion and Elemental Blast.
• Damage intake is very high during this encounter, so use Astral Shift liberally especially during bad Colossal Roar overlaps.
• Be aware of your partners position with Chain Link and avoid sprinting away from them and breaking it. This is also why talents such as Feral Lunge or Wind Rush Totem are not advised.

For more information, please refer to our Sludgefist guide.

Compared to the default talent loadout, we recommend removing the points in Storm's Wrath and Elemental Blast in exchange for points in Crash Lightning and Elemental Assault.

No changes to the default covenant or legendary loadouts are recommended.

This has some quirks depending on whether you are in Heroic or Mythic. The former is very single-target oriented with occasional cleave, while the latter has some good opportunities for sustained AoE and funnel. Both Night Fae and Necrolord work here.

• In Mythic, Ashen Catalyst can be used to funnel to the active general, and then transition into two target cleave in the final phase.
• Hailstorm paired with Chilled to the Core generates a lot of Maelstrom throughout the fight due to the intermittent add spawns, alongside free cleave damage.
• Astral Shift is best saved for situations where the raid is unstable and you need to soak Pulverizing Meteor.
• Save Spirit Walk for the intermission to grab stray Anima orbs at the edge of the room. Most of the time here will be spent in Ghost Wolf to get them delivered as quickly as possible.
• For Mythic, Wind Rush Totem is very useful for the group when Stonegale Effigy starts to push them off the platform.

For more information, please refer to our Stone Legion Generals guide.

No changes to the default talent, covenant, or legendary loadouts are recommended.

Denathrius has a lot of moving parts, but the primary concern for us is boss damage because of how short lived adds are. We sacrifice too much to pick up AoE tools here, so a full Witch Doctor's Wolf Bones is a lock in.

• Ghost Wolf will suppress the slow from March of the Penitent if you have high stacks. You need to already be shapeshifted before this begins and you are silenced however.
• Wind Rush Totem can be considered primarily for the final phase to re-adjust around the Hand of Destruction casts while soaking the leftover seeds from Fatal Finesse.
• Soulshape and Spirit Walk can be used during Command: Massacre if you are caught in a bad spot.
• Soulshape can also be used in an emergency if you get knocked by Crescendo to stay on the platform.
• You are mostly here to just tunnel the boss or your given add, and as such there is very little that we interact with outside of just using things on cooldown.
• For Mythic, Make sure to avoid Searing Censure if you are assigned to interrupt Vengeful Wail, as this will silence you.

For more information, please refer to our Sire Denathrius guide.