Enhancement Shaman DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.1.0)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Beginner's Guide to Enhancement Shaman in The War Within
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 and
Primordial Storm, while having lots of free
built-in cleave via
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!
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 with
Hot Hand active as often as possible, while maintaining
Crash Lightning.
It also hinges on as many
Sundering plus
Primordial Storm triggers
as possible during
Doom Winds to trigger
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!
Beginner Enhancement Shaman DPS Rotation
Always make sure to have both Windfury Weapon and
Flametongue Weapon
imbued on your weapons. Also buff your group with
Skyfury, and apply
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.
Single Target
Lava Lash is your top priority during
Hot Hand, and should be cast on cooldown whenever this is active. Otherwise, it is your top strike filler.
Maelstrom Weapon should be spent on
Elemental Blast whenever you reach 10 stacks. If it's on cooldown, use
Lightning Bolt instead.
- All other GCDs should be spent on regular
Lava Lash or
Stormstrike.
Surging Totem should be cast on cooldown and kept near the boss using the self-cast relocate.
Primordial Wave should be used on cooldown every 30 seconds, and before
Doom Winds every minute.
Primordial Storm should be used at 10
Maelstrom Weapon to follow up either of these casts.
Feral Spirit casts should be used to line up with each
Primordial Wave cast.
AoE
- Cast
Surging Totem on cooldown, and re-cast it to move it to your position if enemies move away.
- Make sure to apply
Flame Shock to all enemies at the start of each pull using
Whirling Earth. After this, cast
Lava Lash as your top priority during
Hot Hand procs.
- Cast
Crash Lightning whenever available otherwise, making sure to always maintain the buff.
- Cast
Feral Spirit followed by
Primordial Wave,
Primordial Storm and chain
Sundering until it does not reset every 30 seconds. Every minute, cast
Doom Winds after
Primordial Wave, repeating this cycle.
- Spend
Maelstrom Weapon on
Elemental Blast at 10 stacks outside of these conditions. If it's on cooldown, use
Chain Lightning instead.
- Use
Stormstrike as your backup filler when nothing else is available to trigger
Crash Lightning.
Defensive Spells for Enhancement Shaman
Astral Shift provides a 40% damage reduction for 12 seconds on a
1.5-minute cooldown (using
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 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, 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 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 provides up to a 20% damage reduction after remaining in
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 can be used to make
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 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 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.
Enhancement Shaman Stat Priorities
The most versatile Enhancement stat priority that will cover both builds on offer here is as follows:
- Haste = Mastery;
- Critical Strike;
- Versatility;
- 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.
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.
More Shaman Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can also follow him on Twitter.
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