Enhancement Shaman DPS Mythic+ Tips — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

Totemic operates on a 1-minute burst timer, combining both Surging Totem and Doom Winds to build up an extended Hot Hand, using the new talent - Totemic Momentum. This triggers a high amount of damage through Splitstream, while also providing high priority damage to key targets throughout. It also has both Sundering and Primordial Storm to deliver AoE damage every 30 seconds added into its AoE toolkit.

Maelstrom Weapon is also much more important in Midnight, using it both to trigger Totemic Momentum and maintain access to strikes through Elemental Tempo. In addition to that, Crash Lightning paired with Ride the Lightning keep strikes relevant throughout, giving it a smooth transition between single-target and AoE playstyles.

The build linked below is the universal recommendation for Totemic, and is much more point restricted than Stormbringer. Even on the class tree, there's less flexibility on offer with some of its extra requirements. With that considered, there are still a couple of things to note:

• While Elemental Assault is weighted toward single-target, the current implementation of Lightning Strikes makes it very weak, making Thunder Capacitor a hard talent to reach. While both this and Feral Spirit can be dropped to reach it, it's not a worthwhile trade currently.
• On the class tree, we strongly recommend picking up both points in Static Charge and Totemic Surge to reduce Capacitor Totem down to 35 seconds. You also have the option of taking Swift Recall to bring it down to 30. Other crowd control options in Earthgrab Totem and Hex should be taken on a dungeon-per-dungeon basis.
• Totemic has less points due to both Totemic Projection and Totemic Focus having quality of life benefits. These can be dropped if you're in need of specific utility such as Cleanse Spirit or Purge, but only on a case-by-case basis.

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Stormbringer builds elevate the value of Maelstrom Weapon spenders, encouraging you to cycle aggressively to fish for Tempest procs. These are then used to deal massive damage, ideally when you have a large number of Lightning Rods applied via Ride the Lightning. It brings explosive 2-minute burst with Ascendance, utilizing Thorim's Invocation to rapidly cycle resources. It also brings strong priority damage at all times, with most AoE tools anchoring from a single-target ability.

There are still some management requirements, but it's a lot less involved than its War Within counterpart. Tempest can be optimized to deal extra damage when used at the right time, but there's less of a focus on pooling and overlaps to build up momentum.

While the below build is what we currently recommend, there are alternative talent packages that can be picked up to specialize further. Many of these are, however, more difficult in practice.

• Sundering through Primordial Storm - provides a very powerful 30-second burst window and follow-up cast, but point restrictions mean something major has to be sacrificed. In this case, Elemental Assault, Ascendance and Feral Spirit all need to go to fit it in. Does good burst AoE, but it's a heavy cost.
• Control options are a bit more limited in Midnight. We'd strongly recommend taking both points in Static Charge and Totemic Surge to reduce Capacitor Totem down to a 35-second cooldown though. Other dungeon specific tools like Hex and Earthgrab Totem can be slotted in as needed.
• Dungeon specific utility such as Cleanse Spirit and Poison Cleansing Totem are on a case-by-case basis, with a number of switch options possible. As examples, Earthgrab Totem, Refreshing Waters and Winds of Al'Akir are good drops if you need extra points freed up.

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Enhancement has a few tools at its disposal to stop enemy casts, though its been trimmed going into Midnight. Due to the large amount on offer, we've broken them down into single-target and AoE options.

• Wind Shear - your interrupt, and is one of the best available to any class. Being both ranged and having such a low cooldown is a huge advantage, allowing you to to disrupt targets much more often than usual. You should be the one aggressively going after enemy casts; allow other classes with longer interrupt cooldowns to handle less frequent threats, or to save them for emergencies. Coordinate this with your group before starting the dungeon.
• Hex - your hard-CC, allowing you to lock down a dangerous enemy for 1-minute before a pull starts. Bear in mind damage can break this effect, so your tank will need to pull them away. This can also be used as a last resort in combat to interrupt a cast, but the time needed often makes it hard to land properly. Also, while crowd controlled, mobs will still aggro to you and other party members, so cannot be used to skip like some other tools.

• Capacitor Totem - your AoE stun tool to lock down a pack for 3 seconds. This tends to be extra useful on larger pulls, to allow the tank to grab threat and stabilize before enemies begin casting. It also has extra ways to reduce its cooldown below the baseline 1-minute:
  • Static Charge reduces the cooldown by 10 seconds per point, for a total of 20 seconds.
  • Totemic Surge reduces the cooldown by an additional 5 seconds.
  • Totemic has Swift Recall, reducing it by 5 seconds when it successfully stuns any target.
  Always be aware though, the 2-second wind-up time requires you to be much more aware of when enemies are about to cast, as using it reactively is often too late.
• Earthbind Totem (with Earthgrab Totem) - summons a totem that roots enemies for 8 seconds, keeping them in place, and slowing them after it expires. For certain mechanics this can be extremely useful.

Due to being a hybrid class, Shaman has access to a few tools that help keep both you and your group alive. Its defensive options are much lower than many specs though, so it often takes a bit more work surviving when playing Enhancemnt. We've separated these abilities into two categories:

Staying alive is extremely important in Mythic+, and often, you may find yourself responsible for your own life if the healer is busy putting fires out elsewhere. The key tools we have to deal with bad situations are:

• Astral Shift - your personal defensive for a 40% damage reduction, always paired with Planes Traveler for cooldown reduction. Used to survive otherwise lethal mechanics.
• Earth Elemental - has a 3-minute cooldown and lasts 30 seconds, taunting nearby enemies to take some pressure off the tank. Generally though, we play with Primordial Bond, which removes the taunt effect in exchange for a 15% maximum health increase while it's active.
• Windveil - reduces all magic damage taken by 15% for 12 seconds following a successful Wind Shear interrupt. This is extremely potent considering our lack of tools elsewhere, and strongly encourages you to interrupt as often as possible.
• Spirit Wolf - stacks up while in Ghost Wolf, providing up to 20% damage reduction. This prevents you from damage, but it having no cooldown means it's always there as a backup.
• Stormbringer - also has access to Nature's Protection for 3% damage reduction via Lightning Shield, while Totemic has passive absorb shields via Wind Barrier.
• Totemic - triggers Wind Barrier every 30 seconds with an active totem, for a very small absorb shield. This gives a little more passive survival, but you won't notice it.

Enhancement is considered one of the least defensive specializations in Mythic+, so you're going to need evry single one of these to survive. The higher the key level goes, the more you need to plan defensives for dangerous mechanics, because the healer can't always save you!

While healing is not your primary role, we do have some tools to help the party in deadly situations. Spending Maelstrom Weapon triggers stacks of a different buff - Raging Maelstrom - in Midnight, which confer the same benefits to your Healing Surge and Chain Heal, which can be used to sustain yourself or spot-heal party members. In addition to that, there's a few smaller tools available:

• Healing Stream Totem is a very niche optional choice, which provides a small amount of spot healing. Elemental Resistance also grants a little bit of damage reduction, but is very unreliable.
• Earth Shield and Elemental Orbit gives us some passive healing when taking damage. It's highly recommended to pair this with Therazane's Resilience. This also allows you to apply Earth Shield to a second player (usually your tank) at the start of a run as well.
• Refreshing Waters is often taken as well to improve our self-healing with Healing Surge, though it's a little costly to reach it on the talent tree if extra utility is needed.

Being proactive with healing tools is an effective skill to learn as an Enhancement Shaman. While it's not completely your responsibility, you should be aware of when the party is unstable so you can keep at least yourself stable.

Surging Currents for Stormbringer does also provide a bit more potency to your Healing Surge, provided you're cycling Tempest efficiently. Bear in mind though, this costs the passive damage reduction from Nature's Protection when taken.

Alongside the more traditional tools for Mythic+, Shaman has some class-specific extras.

Enhancement comes with quite a few different dispel tools for different situations. These are all present on the class tree, which is also very flexible, so you can tailor your loadout to the dungeon. Options are:

• Purge — offensive dispel
• Cleanse Spirit — allied Curse dispel
• Poison Cleansing Totem — group-wise Poison dispel
• Tremor Totem — Fear dispel

Being able to switch between so many choices (or all at once) often means you have a bespoke tool available for each dungeon. Remember to swap to the appropriate picks and use them!

Skyfury - your group buff, providing bonus Mastery and granting party member melee auto-attacks a 20% chance to strike an additional time. This is one of the more potent (and universal) buffs that all specs like having, so it makes Shaman desirable.

Bloodlust / Heroism - every group wants at least one of these effects, shared with Time Warp / Fury of the Aspects / Primal Rage. Co-ordinate with your group for the best time to use it every 10 minutes.

Wind Rush Totem - party-wide movement tool, lasting up to 20 seconds with refreshes. Good for moving between pulls or avoiding mechanics, and with Jet Stream has the added benefit of being an AoE snare removal.

Reincarnation - allows you to resurrect after dying, including during combat, ignoring the battle-res counter. This is especially helpful if you get caught by a lethal mechanic without defensives available.

Earth Elemental - an emergency tool, useful if the tank either dies or is struggling to handle a pack. This only taunts if you haven't taken Primordial Bond, which isn't advised due to it being a defensive we rely on. It also rarely moves due to some problematic AI, so you may need to cancel it if it's stuck in a bad place.

Mana Spring - can help your healer with some additional Mana regeneration over the course of a dungeon, and can be picked up easily on the class tree. With its low value, paired with the utility it competes with for the same points, it can be hard to fit in Mythic+ setups.

Xalatath's Bargain: Ascendant will periodically spawn a number or orbs in waves that need to be crowd-controlled in some way, before they complete a cast. Each orb successfully stopped provides the group bonus Haste, so it is a high priority to deal with.

Enhancement only has Capacitor Totem available as an AoE stop to deal with these, which may mean it's best to hold off on using it too aggressively in these weeks.

Xalatath's Bargain: Voidbound will periodically summon a large Void Emissary that will begin to cast Dark Prayer. This enemy must be killed before the cast completes to stop it, otherwise it provides significant damage reduction to nearby enemies. If successfully stopped, the group is granted a large amount of Versatility and cooldown reduction.

This needs to be killed off quickly. Ideally, have short, bursty cooldowns like Sundering or a Tempest ready to go when it spawns to make things a lot easier on the group.

Xalatath's Bargain: Pulsar spawns an orb that orbits each player, which needs to be soaked by a separate player before they expire. Each orb will grant the party 4% Mastery and 2% Leech, stacking, with a 30-second duration. Unsoaked orbs will increase nearby enemies' damage done, and reduce their damage taken.

Enhancement has no specific utility to deal with this, instead you need to be aware of your positioning both to make sure other players can soak up the orb circling you, and so you can catch orbs from nearby players.

Xalatath's Bargain: Devour applies a debuff to each party member, that must be either dispelled or healed off (though bear in mind this does not absorb incoming heals). Each debuff dispelled provides the group with maximum health and Critical Strike, stacking, for 30 seconds. Any debuffs not cleared will heal nearby enemies a large amount.

On these weeks, I'd particularly recommend picking up Cleanse Spirit and Poison Cleansing Totem to assist your healer. Thunderous Paws and Jet Stream will also clear this in Midnight, as a small slow was added to the debuff. If you find the group struggling to clear the debuffs and these tools aren't available, Raging Maelstrom heals can be substituted to assist.