Enhancement Shaman DPS Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)

Although Patch 11.0.5 released quite recently, there have been a number of hotfixes targeted at Enhancement already to address bugs and adjust our damage output. A compiled list of changes as of the most recent hotfix on the 30th of October are as follows:

• Voltaic Blaze, Doom Winds and Stormblast have been added to our Mastery.
  • Note the first two of these are not currently implemented, while the third has always been on our Mastery so the intent of this change is unknown.
• Stormblast no longer double-dips on damage taken amplification effects from bosses.
• Arc Discharge now correctly interacts with Thorim's Invocation when Lightning Bolt is triggered by Windstrike.
• Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning damage reduced by 10%, and Tempest damage reduced by 15%.

The above are alongside a fix to leftover PTR bugs related to Thorim's Invocation buffing Tempest damage, and our spec aura being 6% lower than it should be. While we have been tuned down since the patch release, we were arguably very overtuned in a number of situations so it was to be expected.

None of the above changes strongly alter the recommendations related to hero talents, and while Stormbringer was impacted more by nerfs than Totemic, it still remains competitive in single-target and much stronger in AoE.

Disclaimer — the PTR was extremely volatile, with some announced changes being untested.

The 20th anniversary update, Patch 11.0.5, brings some massive changes to Enhancement both within the spec tree and in both Hero Talents, with Stormbringer receiving some refinement and Totemic having an almost ground up rework. While structurally, the gameplay at its core will remain similar, some changes have a significant impact on what we will be prioritizing. Below the notes is a summary of what effects these changes have. The most important changes are:

• The Stormbringer proc effect has been renamed to Stormsurge.
• 5 new talents have been added throughout the tree:
  • Flowing Spirits, a choice node with Witch Doctor's Ancestry that procs Feral Spirit with active ability casts.
  • Molten Thunder, a follow-up to Sundering which reduces its cooldown by 10 seconds, removes the incapacitate and gives Stormsurge a chance to reset its cooldown.
  • Voltaic Blaze, a follow-up to Storm's Wrath that gives Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning a chance to make your next Flame Shock deal significantly higher damage and apply the debuff to your target and 5 nearby enemies.
  • Unrelenting Storms, a choice node with Converging Storms that causes Crash Lightning to guarantee a Windfury Weapon proc and reduce its cooldown by 40% when it strikes a single target.
  • Ice Strike now has a choice node option that replaces the active ability with a proc that replaces your next Frost Shock cast when you spend Maelstrom Weapon.
• Stormblast additionally adds a second charge to Stormstrike.
• Doom Winds now also pulses for Stormstrike (Physical/Nature) damage every second to nearby enemies while active.
• Deeply Rooted Elements now instead activates from casts of Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Tempest.
• Elemental Weapons is now a 1 point talent for the same total increase.
• Thorim's Invocation also reduces the cooldown of Ascendance by 1 minute, or increases the duration of Deeply Rooted Elements procs by 2 seconds.
• Chain Lightning reduces Crash Lightning's cooldown by 0.5 seconds per target (down from 1).
• Crash Lightning range reduced to 8 yards, and Molten Assault spread ranged reduced to 10 yards.
• Flametongue Weapon damage increased by 20%.
• A variety of new animations and icons have been added, including two new Ascendance models.

Stormbringer Updates:

• Arc Discharge is now a permanent talent, and instead causes your next Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning following a Tempest cast to deal 40% extra damage and cast an additional time.
• Storm Swell has been moved to a choice node with Supercharge, and instead grants 10% Mastery for 6 seconds whenever you cast Tempest.
• Supercharge now refunds 2 Maelstrom Weapon, down from 3.
• Awakening Storms base damage reduced by 35%, but has now been added to our Mastery.
• Shocking Grasp has been removed and replaced with two choice node talents:
  • Electroshock — your Tempest casts increase your movement speed by 20% for 5 seconds.
  • Lightning Conduit — every 5 seconds there is a random chance to gain 50% movement speed for 5 seconds, increased to 100% when outdoors. Additionally, you automatically cast Thunderstorm when you use Reincarnation.
• Surging Currents instead causes your Tempest casts to increase the healing of your next Healing Surge or Chain Heal by 20%, stacking up to 5 times.
• Nature's Protection now instead causes your Lightning Shield to reduce all damage taken by 3%.

Totemic Updates:

• Totemic Rebound now triggers from Maelstrom Weapon spenders instead of Stormstrike.
• Reactivity's old effect has been merged into Lively Totems, and the talent has been reworked. It now causes Lava Lash casts with Hot Hand active to also trigger Sundering at 30% effectiveness, but these will not incapacitate targets hit.
• Whirling Elements has had each mote redesigned:
  • Whirling Air now causes your next Maelstrom Weapon spender to also launch 3 Surging Bolts at your primary target.
  • Whirling Earth increases the direct damage of your next Flame Shock cast by 300%, and also apply the debuff to 5 nearby enemies.
  • Whirling Fire causes your next Lava Lash or Fire Nova to grant Hot Hand for 8 seconds, or extend an active proc by the same amount.
• Imbuement Mastery additionally gives Flametongue Weapon hits triggered by Windfury Weapon a chance to erupt in flame, damaging nearby enemies 3 times for the damage dealt.

Impact of Changes

There is a lot that has changed here, but many of these updates are a small part of a whole that shifts the spec in a certain direction. Stormblast heavily pushes the spec toward Storm builds, as it now covers the main gaps in its rotation that it previously had. The key takeaway currently regarding builds is:

• Stormbringer and Totemic are now neck and neck in single-target.
• Stormbringer remains the dominant AoE tree.

Throughout the PTR, both Deeply Rooted Elements and Flowing Spirits were extremely powerful, but after release Deeply Rooted Elements in particular had its proc chance reduced so much it is not even a consideration. Flowing Spirits on the other hand is extremely involved in what they changed in an attempt to limit the number of overlapping dogs that can trigger. Research is still ongoing with this, but as of two weeks after launch it seems like Flowing Spirits is the winner for Totemic, while for Stormbringer it is preferable to pick Witch Doctor's Ancestry, with Flowing Spirits being an optional alternative for AoE situations. Check our Talents page for more info:

The War Within came with a number of changes to Enhancement that, while on the surface are quite small, had a massive impact on the quality of our talent tree and options available. Both new Hero Talent Trees have also been introduced:

• Stormbringer - a fast-paced Lightning themed tree that focuses on Maelstrom Weapon to unleash Tempest to devastate enemies.
• Totemic - a more methodical tree oriented around our primary weapon strikes and the return of offensive totems with Surging Totem to commune with the elements.

• Improved Maelstrom Weapon, Molten Assault, and Witch Doctor's Ancestry have had their point costs reduced to 1 at the same previous value of 2 points.
• Feral Lunge is now baseline.
• Windfury Totem has been removed and replaced with Skyfury.
• Primordial Wave cooldown has been reduced to 30 seconds.
• Doom Winds cooldown has been reduced to 1 minute.
• Crash Lightning and Flame Shock spread range via Molten Assault range has been significantly increased.

• A large number of talents have had their positioning shuffled, alongside some new additions. Most notably Spirit Walk and Gust of Wind have been moved to be accessible early, and all 2-point nodes have been condensed down to one.
• Enhanced Imbues has been added, improving the strength of our weapon imbues in place of Flurry, which has moved to the spec tree.
• Stone Bulwark Totem has been added as a new capstone, a 3-minute cooldown absorb shield defensive tool. Primordial Bond has also been added to improve the defensive benefit of Earth Elemental.

While there is a longer list of changes to the tree, most are fairly minor and do not change too much in comparison to these more major improvements.