Enhancement Shaman DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.1.0)

Last updated on Mar 16, 2025 at 06:00 by Wordup 48 comments
General Information

On this page, we explain how to easily play Enhancement Shaman in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.1.0), using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.

1.

Foreword

This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

1.

The Basics of Enhancement Shaman

Enhancement relies on using your different rotational ability cooldowns to ensure you are filling as many Global Cooldowns as possible. This makes your rotation quite hectic, as you will be juggling multiple things at once, alongside dealing with various procs and managing Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon.

One rule comes before anything else though, and that is to always be pressing something. While knowing the priority leads to the most damage, the single biggest factor in lost damage is time spent idle. If in doubt, at least commit to something. If you are completely new to Enhancement and need more information on the abilities available to you, you can check out our Spell Summary page.

Currently, both of our hero talents are extremely strong in any type of encounter with a suitable build, each with key advantages and weaknesses. For the purposes of this page, we will be recommending Stormbringer in single-target due to its simplicity and stronger burst, and Totemic in AoE due to its more frequent cooldown windows and burst potential.

2.

Beginner's Guide to Enhancement Shaman in The War Within

Totemic
Single-Target Talents
Totemic
Mythic+ / AoE Talents
Basic Enhancement
Rotation
Enhancement Shaman
Defensive Spells
Enhancement Shaman
Stat Priority
3.

Beginner Single-Target Talents for Enhancement Shaman

Each of Enhancement's hero talents has a strong build variant for single-target that focuses on their strengths. Currently, the recommended choice is Totemic in all situations as it brings extremely flexible burst cooldowns via Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave and Primordial Storm Icon Primordial Storm, while having lots of free built-in cleave via Reactivity Icon Reactivity.

If you are interested in a deep dive on this or a Stormbringer build, check our talent page.:

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Enhancement Single Target - Totemic
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3.

Beginner AoE and Mythic+ Talents for Enhancement Shaman

In AoE, both hero trees have different cooldown timers and specialties, and have suitable builds depending on what you are looking for. Currently, the recommended choice is Totemic due to both having more uncapped AoE, and a very frequent 30-second/1-minute burst cooldown cycle. It also sacrifices very little single-target to get there, making it very well suited to a general Mythic+ environment.

The gameplay loop revolves around casting Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash with Hot Hand Icon Hot Hand active as often as possible, while maintaining Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning. It also hinges on as many Sundering Icon Sundering plus Primordial Storm Icon Primordial Storm triggers as possible during Doom Winds Icon Doom Winds to trigger Imbuement Mastery Icon Imbuement Mastery.

If you are interested in a deep dive on this or a Stormbringer build, check our talent page.:

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Enhancement AoE - Totemic
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3.

Beginner Enhancement Shaman DPS Rotation

Always make sure to have both Windfury Weapon Icon Windfury Weapon and Flametongue Weapon Icon Flametongue Weapon imbued on your weapons. Also buff your group with Skyfury Icon Skyfury, and apply Earth Shield Icon Earth Shield before combat. As both Single Target and AoE differ quite a lot in priority due to playing different hero talents, they have been split into two sections below.

2.1.

Single Target

  • Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash is your top priority during Hot Hand Icon Hot Hand, and should be cast on cooldown whenever this is active. Otherwise, it is your top strike filler.
  • Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon should be spent on Elemental Blast Icon Elemental Blast whenever you reach 10 stacks. If it's on cooldown, use Lightning Bolt Icon Lightning Bolt instead.
  • All other GCDs should be spent on regular Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash or Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike.
  • Surging Totem Icon Surging Totem should be cast on cooldown and kept near the boss using the self-cast relocate.
  • Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave should be used on cooldown every 30 seconds, and before Doom Winds Icon Doom Winds every minute. Primordial Storm Icon Primordial Storm should be used at 10 Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon to follow up either of these casts.
  • Feral Spirit Icon Feral Spirit casts should be used to line up with each Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave cast.
2.1.

AoE

  • Cast Surging Totem Icon Surging Totem on cooldown, and re-cast it to move it to your position if enemies move away.
  • Make sure to apply Flame Shock Icon Flame Shock to all enemies at the start of each pull using Whirling Earth Icon Whirling Earth. After this, cast Lava Lash Icon Lava Lash as your top priority during Hot Hand Icon Hot Hand procs.
  • Cast Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning whenever available otherwise, making sure to always maintain the buff.
  • Cast Feral Spirit Icon Feral Spirit followed by Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave, Primordial Storm Icon Primordial Storm and chain Sundering Icon Sundering until it does not reset every 30 seconds. Every minute, cast Doom Winds Icon Doom Winds after Primordial Wave Icon Primordial Wave, repeating this cycle.
  • Spend Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon on Elemental Blast Icon Elemental Blast at 10 stacks outside of these conditions. If it's on cooldown, use Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning instead.
  • Use Stormstrike Icon Stormstrike as your backup filler when nothing else is available to trigger Crash Lightning Icon Crash Lightning.
3.

Defensive Spells for Enhancement Shaman

Astral Shift Icon Astral Shift provides a 40% damage reduction for 12 seconds on a 1.5-minute cooldown (using Planes Traveler Icon Planes Traveler). This is Enhancement's strongest defensive tool, and while it has a longer cooldown than most defensives provides a lot of safety while active.

Earth Elemental Icon Earth Elemental grants 15% maximum health and 5% damage reduction for 1-minute, on a 5-minute cooldown. This is a "backup" cooldown when you cannot use Astral Shift Icon Astral Shift, and can cover very long periods of time. It does, however, have a habit of getting itself killed due to its taunting, so be wary of using it if it will bother your tank.

Stone Bulwark Totem Icon Stone Bulwark Totem provides a 30% max health absorb shield, and an additional 3% shield every 5 seconds for 30 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. This is a decent survival tool against burst damage with some additional help against rot effects, but its long cooldown makes it inflexible, so plan accordingly.

Spirit Wolf Icon Spirit Wolf provides up to a 20% damage reduction after remaining in Ghost Wolf Icon Ghost Wolf for an extended period. This is a last resort defensive tool if you have nothing else available, as we cannot deal any damage in this state.

Maelstrom Weapon Icon Maelstrom Weapon can be used to make Healing Surge Icon Healing Surge instant, providing strong burst healing to ourselves, but this comes at a very high cost of damage by spending our offensive resources to do so.

Earth Shield Icon Earth Shield grants a modest amount of healing over the course of an encounter with each charge consumed, and increases the healing we do to ourselves while active. This has a high GCD requirement to maintain, but does provide some extra sustain if used pro-actively.

Seasoned Winds Icon Seasoned Winds provides very powerful damage reduction after successfully interrupting a spell, giving us more incentive to do so if there is a lot of damage happening.

4.

Enhancement Shaman Stat Priorities

The most versatile Enhancement stat priority that will cover both builds on offer here is as follows:

  1. Haste = Mastery;
  2. Critical Strike;
  3. Versatility;
  4. Agility.

Stat priorities will change based on other talents taken in different builds, but, in general, this should serve you well. For finer details regarding each stat and the reason behind why they are picked can be found on our full stat page linked below.

5.

Changelog

  • 16 Mar. 2025: Changed single target recommendation to Totemic.
  • 04 Mar. 2025: Updated to account for March 4th Flowing Spirits hotfix.
  • 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.0.
  • 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7 with significantly condensed rotation section.
  • 05 Nov. 2024: Updated with more recent Patch 11.0.5 information.
  • 21 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5, will need future updates following patch release.
  • 23 Sep. 2024: Updated for most recent hotfixes and Storm build switch.
  • 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for Elemental Blast and Tempest hotfixes.
  • 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
  • 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
  • 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
  • 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
  • 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6, switched recommended build to standard Elementalist.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5, build remains the same.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, no changes necessary.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 10 May 2023: Updated to add an even simpler build for beginners that remains competitive.
  • 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1 with a more beginner friendly build, and revised starter rotation.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed and Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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