Enhancement Shaman DPS Nerub-ar Palace Raid Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)
On this page, you will find tips, tricks, and strategies tailored to your Enhancement Shaman for each boss of the following raid: Nerub-ar Palace. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.0.5).
Introduction
Below, you can find class and spec-specific advice for every fight in Nerub-ar Palace. If you are looking for a general overview of the Raid that is not spec-specific, check out our dedicated Nerub-ar Palace guides.
On this page, you will find information specific to Enhancement Shaman assuming you already understand the key mechanics of each encounter, which you can find in the link above. Use this as a quick reference guide for talent builds and quick tips on how to navigate the Season 1 raid.
Following Patch 11.0.5, the general situation has pushed strongly toward Storm builds, so they will be the recommendation throughout this page. With Stormbringer and Totemic now being much closer (especially in single-target), a build will be provided for each, with a highlighted recommendation for the best overall.
All recommendations are progression-based tips and will not necessarily be the best for an overall DPS ranking.
Nerub'ar Palace Boss Guides for Enhancement Shaman
Nerub'ar Palace Raid Builds, Tips, and Tricks for Enhancement Shaman
Tips for Ulgrax the Devourer for Enhancement Shaman
Ulgrax as Enhancement is predominantly a single-target encounter as, while there are add spawns during the intermission, the entire raid has nothing else to do. Considering our builds can very efficiently pivot toward picking up some cleave without much loss however, grabbing these so we can help out is recommended with a Storm loadout, playing with Stormbringer hero talents.
Defensive Tips
- Use Astral Shift / Stone Bulwark Totem if you are targeted by Digestive Acid and need to move out to clear webs.
Cooldown Usage
- Ascendance should be used on the pull, and then ideally as soon as the boss returns from the intermission after Ready to Feed is completed. The intermission begins at 1m30 and lasts for 45 seconds, plus any extra time spent feeding the boss. Plan around these timers, do not use cooldowns in the intermission.
- In Mythic, you can consider instead using Ascendance to burst down the add spawns quickly and exit the phase. We are extremely good at this if you save up some Tempest procs to deal with them.
Fight Specific Tips
- Use Wind Rush Totem either on Carnivorous Contest to help players push against, or during the intermission to help avoid Juggernaut Charge.
- Try to save Spirit Walk for the end of the intermission so you can carry multiple Chunky Viscera to cancel Hungering Bellows. Make sure to also use Ghost Wolf as the boss takes no damage while this channel is maintained.
Best Talents
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Tips for The Bloodbound Horror for Enhancement Shaman
Dealing with The Bloodbound Horror mostly depends on how your raid wants to set up each group that is sent downstairs. As dealing with these is the make-or-break of the encounter, I would recommend picking up at least Crashing Storms as the adds have an incredibly large Chain Lightning bounce range, with Crash Lightning being optional for additional cleave.
Defensive Tips
- Use Astral Shift / Stone Bulwark Totem after Goresplatter hits to reduce the follow-up DoT. It can also be used when your group soaks the Gruesome Disgorge frontal to go downstairs, so you are more stable.
Cooldown Usage
- Ascendance should be used on the pull, and ideally only ever used when you are upstairs hitting the boss. Downstairs should not need extra cooldowns to deal with.
Fight Specific Tips
- Use Wind Rush Totem during Spewing Hemorrhage beams.
- Interrupt Black Bulwark from ranged, but still focus down the Forgotten Harbinger adds — these are more dangerous.
- Use Earthbind Totem to keep the Blood Horrors slowed. If they look like they are going to reach the boss, consider using Thunderstorm, but be careful not to knock them in different directions.
- Use Spirit Walk to get out the Goresplatter circle. Be careful when using Feral Lunge to re-engage the boss, as it sends you to a fixed position in the center of the room's entrance area, regardless of the angle you charge the boss from.
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Tips for Sikran for Enhancement Shaman
Sikran is a pure single-target boss burn encounter that also has a large amount of movement needed should you be targeted by Phase Blades. Your main goal is to keep as much uptime on the boss as possible while handling the number of mechanics that force you out, so I would recommend a pure boss damage build.
Defensive Tips
- If targeted by Phase Blades, use Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem as it is about to hit to reduce both the up-front damage and the follow-up DoT.
Cooldown Usage
- Use cooldowns as they are ready; no special considerations here.
Fight Specific Tips
- Save Spirit Walk in case you are targeted by Phase Blades, and use it to get out quickly to your position alongside the other targeted players. This gives you enough time to spread out and orient around each other.
- Use Wind Rush Totem to help the raid get out of Shattering Sweep, and then use Feral Lunge to quickly re-engage the boss.
Best Talents
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Tips for Rasha'nan for Enhancement Shaman
The key part of Rasha'nan is single-target damage to burn the boss down; however, the add spawns are dangerous, so if your raid is struggling you do have the option to grab more cleave. I would generally advise sticking to boss damage though with a Storm build. Due to the nature of Totemic, it is a strong recommendation here for dealing with adds, but Stormbringer remains the best for killing the boss.
Defensive Tips
- Try to use Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem for each Erosive Spray if the healers are struggling.
Cooldown Usage
- Use them on cooldown whenever you can guarantee full uptime on the boss. Watch out for the transition timer to avoid using it as the boss flies away.
- If you can time Tempest casts with Infested Spawn, this has huge value, but do not disrupt your cycle to try and force it — boss damage is more important.
Fight Specific Tips
- Use Wind Rush Totem as the boss moves across the platform to help the raid reposition. This should be ready for each of these if you talent into Ascending Air.
- Ancestral Guidance is best used either during Erosive Spray or when Infested Spawn is cast to stabilize the raid from your AoE damage in the event any Infested Bite casts trigger.
- Use Capacitor Totem and Earthbind Totem to lock down the add spawns to prevent them from reaching their fixate targets.
Best Talents
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Tips for Broodtwister Ovi'nax for Enhancement Shaman
Broodtwister Ovi'nax is one of the more complex encounters within Nerub'ar Palace, as it requires your raid to carefully balance dealing with a large number of adds and the boss. Due to the bounce range of Chain Lightning and our extremely efficient cleave, Stormbringer is the recommendation, though it requires good Tempest to execute to get the most out of it.
Defensive Tips
- Use Astral Shift / Stone Bulwark Totem as Experimental Dosage is expiring if you are targeted. This keeps you healthy from the eruption damage and gives healers more time to clear off the healing absorb.
Cooldown Usage
- Generally, I would recommend using your cooldowns at any point where you have full boss uptime, as adds should be killed in a steady stream without needing extra damage.
- Primordial Wave on the other hand should always be used when there are adds active. You should be able to use it once per phase on the boss, and then on cooldown with each add wave that is roughly 30 seconds apart.
- Elemental Blast is strongly recommended here as a way to help bank your Tempest procs when add spawns are coming up, without needing to pause spending/resorting to using Chain Lightning in single-target too much.
Fight Specific Tips
- Use to get to your assigned egg in case you are targeted by Experimental Dosage.
- Try to save Spirit Walk to clear Sticky Web if you are targeted. Use the slow suppression from Ghost Wolf to get out of melee before using it. For this reason, avoid taking Thunderous Paws to avoid causing a detonation in the melee camp. You can also set up a group dispel area using Wind Rush Totem with Jet Stream for players to walk in and clear off their debuff, but make sure they know not to stack in there.
- Use either the boss or Colossal Spiders as anchor targets to AoE from, as these are the priority targets with the most health.
- Whenever Voracious Worms are active, use Wind Shear to interrupt them from range even when you are not currently focusing them down.
Best Talents
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Tips for Nexus-Princess Ky'veza for Enhancement Shaman
Nexus-Princess Ky'veza is again a very single-target focused encounter with no additional targets, but a large amount of movement needed. I would recommend a pure boss damage build here with Storm.
Defensive Tips
- You need to watch your health here, and if you feel like you are not being topped use Stone Bulwark Totem to buy healers time to avoid Reaper.
- Astral Shift is best saved for when you run out with Assassination as this will often mean moving out of the raid away from healers.
Cooldown Usage
- Use cooldowns as soon as they are ready, so long as you can guarantee full uptime on the boss.
Fight Specific Tips
- Save Spirit Walk in case you are targeted by Assassination, and use it to run to your spot quickly.
- In Heroic and above, positioning is often quite tight so try to keep some ranged abilities available in case you need to stand away from the boss. Do not, under any circumstances, run back into melee until your Queensbane debuff has expired. This is to avoid launching orbs through your team as they are extremely lethal.
- Wind Rush Totem is best used for Nether Rift to help the raid push back against the drag and stay on the boss.
Best Talents
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Tips for The Silken Court for Enhancement Shaman
The Silken Court is a two-target encounter with an extremely large amount of movement. Depending on how effectively they are tanked, you should have a reasonable amount of uptime on both of them, warranting the pick of Crash Lightning and Crashing Storms to help deal with the Shattershell Scarab adds.
Defensive Tips
- Use Astral Shift / Stone Bulwark Totem on Venomous Rain.
Cooldown Usage
- Try to align Ascendance and Primordial Wave uses with the damage increase phase following Reckless Charge on Anub'arash, and the Stinging Swarm expose on Skeinspinner Takazj.
Mechanical Tips
- Use Feral Lunge following Void Step casts. Save Spirit Walk to make sure you can quickly get out of the Entropic Desolation circle.
- Use Wind Rush Totem with Jet Stream during the intermission to help players adjust around Shatter Existence cones comfortably.
Best Talents
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Tips for Queen Ansurek for Enhancement Shaman
Queen Ansurek is an extremely complex encounter that has a variety of damage profiles required depending on the current phase. Due to that, a Storm variant picking up mostly single-target options while mixing in Crash Lightning is ideal. Moreso than any other encounter, you should consider shifting talents around to suit your guild's needs if you are struggling in a particular area of the fight.
Defensive Tips
- Phase 1 — can be used freely. Particularly useful if your other melee are not comfortably spreading for Silken Tomb.
- Phase 2 — make sure to have Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem available for the Gloom Touch plus Wrest overlap.
- Phase 3 — keep one available in case you are targeted by Royal Condemnation.
Cooldown Usage
- These should ideally be used on the boss. Due to Ascendance being a 3-minute cooldown, it is awkward to fit in for the intermission absorb shield but can be used if your guild is struggling. Otherwise, in Phase 2 use it to break the shield on your side's Devoted Worshipper.
Mechanical Tips
- Spirit Walk should be used in Phase 1 to remove Silken Tomb. Make sure to be out of melee before doing this as it still leaves a patch. You can remove the first and third, and with a Time Spiral can cover all three.
- Spirit Walk, Thunderous Paws and Jet Stream all remove the slow from Web Blades in an emergency if you are hit, so you can still reach your Reactive Froth pool.
- Give yourself 3 seconds to run out during the intermission to avoid dying to Wrest. Use Ghost Wolf, Spirit Walk and Wind Rush Totem to make sure you can make it out far enough.
- Be careful of threat in Phase 2 if casting Tempest on the Caustic Skitterers, as tanks may struggle to keep threat on them with such high burst on the move.
- Aim to have a stack of Tempest ready as Ansurek casts Infest on the tank to make sure you can burst the Gloom Hatchling wave down quickly.
- Wind Rush Totem should be saved for the Abyssal Conduit portal so the raid can quickly spread out after taking it.
Best Talents
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General Defensive Usage
Enhancement Shaman has a handful of key defensive spells that you should plan out to mitigate the most dangerous moments throughout an encounter. Your active mitigation tools, in order of strength, are:
- Astral Shift (1.5-minute cooldown with Planes Traveler)
- Stone Bulwark Totem (3-minute cooldown)
- Earth Elemental (5-minute cooldown)
Ideally, you should be using these to reduce the largest incoming hits in an encounter to give your healers more breathing room when things are hectic. If you are in particular danger as something is coming up and do not have these available, make use of Maelstrom Weapon to cast strong, instant Healing Surges on yourself.
General Cooldown Usage
Enhancement Shaman has a variety of cooldowns with different use cases. Your general rule of thumb is to make sure you never miss out on a use of any of these:
- Ascendance — a big 2-minute cooldown that floods us with resources. This also makes us ranged while active, so if you can overlap this with downtime, it gains a lot of extra value.
- Doom Winds — a smaller 1-minute cooldown that provides a smaller amount of extra damage and some additional resources. Aim to only use this when you can guarantee uptime on your target.
- Feral Spirit — incredibly high uptime due to the cooldown reduction from Witch Doctor's Ancestry. Treat this more as a rotational button you need to use ASAP, ideally overlapping with the above two cooldowns.
- Primordial Wave — a 30-second burst tool that gains even more strength in AoE situations by leveraging Molten Assault. Align this with any add spawns; otherwise, use on cooldown.
If you see an opportunity to get extra value out of any of these cooldowns in an encounter, always assess whether or not it will cost you a use before the encounter ends. If it will, decide whether or not it is absolutely necessary to do extra damage at that key moment in an encounter, and if not, do not hold them. We have more details on cooldown usage on our Rotation page:
You may also find it helpful to use a time-to-die weakaura, or, if you are using Method Raid Tools, this has a built-in option to display this. If you are aware of how long is left in an encounter, you can better estimate how much you are able to hold cooldowns for key moments, Bloodlust, or your potion uses.
Changelog
- 05 Nov. 2024: Updated with appropriate Patch 11.0.5 talent builds for Stormbringer and Totemic.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5, will require future updates following release.
- 30 Sep. 2024: Updated with appropriate builds and more recent tips for all bosses.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Page added.
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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