Enhancement Shaman DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within (11.0.5)

While Patch 11.0.5 tuning is mostly up in the air, currently it is expected that a slight alteration to the old recommended Storm Build will remain strong in Raid situations:

Patch 11.0.5 added a lot of things to Totemic, and as such it is extremely competitive - if not superior - in pure single-target. This does rely on some talents that may see potential changes, so bear that in mind:

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The Storm playstyle while using Stormbringer is extremely simple and has two primary goals: spend Maelstrom Weapon as aggressively as possible and use Stormstrike or other fillers whenever you cannot do that. In patch 11.0.5 this stays largely the same, reaping the benefits of Stormblast granting two charges of Stormstrike, and the reduced 2-minute cooldown of Ascendance. It also picks up Voltaic Blaze, but this is still used as a filler. Witch Doctor's Ancestry remains the go-to single-target pick due to it more consistently overlapping at key moments, and allowing for very strong Elemental Blast overlap openers when combined with Ascendance.

In single-target, Storm with Totemic is fairly simple, aiming to cast as many Sundering casts as possible with Surging Totem active, and reaching to Molten Thunder resets as they occur. Ascendance paired with Oversurge greatly amplifies this window too for huge burst damage. Alongside that, it spends Maelstrom Weapon as often as possible to stack up Totemic Rebound and fills primarily with Stormstrike. It also picks up Voltaic Blaze for the synergy with Whirling Elements' Earth Mote. While Lava Lash is picked up for a single point, this is used as a last resort filler to get out of the first 8 point gate, and ignores the Fire Mote entirely. It always picks up Flowing Spirits, but avoids Elemental Spirits, as the Physical damage amplifier is far stronger and more consistent to empower Surging Totem.

• Elemental Blast is the stronger option as it pairs well with Elemental Spirits, but comes at a higher burden of execution. There is the option to simply drop this for Tempest Strikes for a simpler build, and a small performance loss.
• During Doom Winds spending still takes priority due to the strength of Tempest, so treat it as a resource window rather than one that shifts your priority significantly.
• Ascendance windows tend to flood resources so much that you may end up in a cycle of Windstrike into spending Maelstrom Weapon immediately after.
• Sundering is your number one priority with Surging Totem active to trigger Earthsurge, and react to Molten Thunder. Ideally, you also want to overlap these casts with your Ascendance windows.
• Surging Totem needs to be dropped on cooldown, so plan your other ability uses around this moment in advance to avoid big clashes during shorter Doom Winds windows and Ascendance casts.
• The Whirling Earth mote is ideally only consumed with Voltaic Blaze to amplify the damage dealt to your primary target.
• Maelstrom Weapon spending is still important, taking the top priority outside of procs to trigger and stack Totemic Rebound as high as possible with each totem spawn.

In AoE situations Storm performs extremely similarly to Elementalist, and since it is simpler to execute especially in Patch 11.0.5 at no real throughput loss, it is currently the recommended AoE option:

Assessing Totemic in Patch 11.0.5 is difficult due to it relying on a number of new, potentially bugged effects. It may potentially be very strong, but it is currently to early to tell. A best guess at the ideal build is as follows:

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In AoE the goal of Storm is extremely simple with Stormbringer: spend as much Maelstrom Weapon as possible on Chain Lightning. Everything you do is in service of spending as much as possible to cycle to your next Tempest, so maintaining Crash Lightning and using Feral Spirit on cooldown leads to more of that. Any spare globals are spent on maintaining Crash Lightning and triggering it with Stormstrike to feed into that goal. Voltaic Blaze is a secondary high priority filler to both deal high up-front damage and maintain Flame Shock. Molten Assault is still needed to reliably set up Primordial Wave however, as Voltaic Blaze is much too inconsistent.

While playing Totemic as Storm, the most important aspect is keeping Surging Totem on cooldown. After this, you need to cast Sundering on whenever it is active to trigger Earthsurge, and react to Molten Thunder procs. Following that, it is simply a game of spending Maelstrom Weapon efficiently on Chain Lightning, maintaining the Crash Lightning buff and consuming Voltaic Blaze procs.

• All Maelstrom Weapon should be spent as aggressively as possible to fish for Static Accumulation refunds. Try to make use of Arc Discharge on Chain Lightning before Tempest if you have back-to-back procs, as it does not trigger the free cast.
• Maintain Crash Lightning as much as possible, and be aware of its duration if you hit a streak of Maelstrom Weapon refunds so you know to re-apply it quickly afterward.
• Although Doom Winds does provide uncapped AoE via the Crash Lightning procs of Windfury Weapon, your priority is still cycling Maelstrom Weapon even while active.
• Tab-targeting between enemies for each Chain Lightning cast to apply Conductive Energy is a gain, but only do it if you are comfortable with tab-target gameplay.
• Flowing Spirits is currently taken because it has a higher volume of Nature spawns due to the heavy amount of spenders. Witch Doctor's Ancestry if played around correctly is roughly competitive as it will always consistently overlap with Primordial Wave, but is easier to make mistakes with.
• Make sure to maintain Surging Totem at all times, being aware of its short 24-second cooldown.
• Cast Sundering on cooldown, and whenever a Molten Thunder proc occurs. Make absolutely sure that Surging Totem is active when you do so.
• Maelstrom Weapon cycling is still very important both for the damage and to stack up Totemic Rebound, empowering your Surging Totem further.

In Patch 11.0.5 Elementalist saw no major tree changes, so is slightly behind Storm equivalents, but still competitive:

For single-target, an Elementalist loadout paired with Totemic is weaker than the Storm variant alongside being significantly harder to execute. While it tries to make use of the new Reactivity effect, it struggles with enough GCDs to get the most out of different talents:

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Elementalist while playing a Stormbringer loadout is focused on one primary goal: generate as much Maelstrom Weapon as possible and spend it as aggressively as you can to cycle Tempest. For this reason it picks up Static Accumulation to gamble on refunds from it and Supercharge, playing very aggressively. Due to the power of Stormblast in Patch 11.0.5, it also picks up a good amount of Stormstrike support talents to give it access to as many generation tools as possible to assist in cycling. This means it has a bit less of a focus on weaving elements like before in service of the hero tree. It has a small 30-second burst moment in Primordial Wave and a larger surge of resources every 2 minutes with Ascendance.

Elementalist while playing a Totemic loadout has a large amount of priorities to juggle, without enough GCDs to do it all. Making sure Surging Totem is always active is your number one priority, but after that things get more complex. With Hot Hand up, you need to make sure to weave Lava Lash to trigger Reactivity every other GCD, while also spending Maelstrom Weapon efficiently - ideally on Elemental Blast when possible. On top of this, you need to cast Sundering as aggressively as possible to avoid wasting any Molten Thunder resets. All of this together mostly just causes the build to trip over itself trying to keep up, meaning that Storm is generally preferred.

• Currently, the difference between Elemental Blast and Tempest Strikes is much smaller in Patch 11.0.5 due to the reduction in Maelstrom Weapon generation overall. This is still an option, though the execution requirements are much stricter than before.
• All of your rotational goals feed into generating and spending Maelstrom Weapon, as Tempest deals significant damage and triggers Rolling Thunder.
• During Ascendance we still make use of Windstrike due to the cycling from Thorim's Invocation. This makes the cooldown window very busy, as we are also flooded with resources, but can lead to multiple Feral Spirit casts, thanks to the cooldown reduction.
• Hot Hand is still a high-priority proc (but still less important than spenders) when it happens, triggering a 1-2 cycle between it and other abilities when active.
• Flowing Spirits should be avoided as Elementalist, as the number of Fire casts that do not scale with the hero tree if they trigger a wolf is too high.
• Your Surging Totem casts are very important and the top priority every 24 seconds due to both its damage and the number of effects tied to it. Whirling Earth is ideally only ever consumed using Voltaic Blaze procs.
• Sundering is your top priority to avoid wasting any Molten Thunder procs, so you can capitalize on Earthsurge.
• Lava Lash should be cast on cooldown in a 1-2 cycle during Hot Hand both for the damage and to trigger Reactivity.
• Totemic builds also need to make sure they have Totemic Projection and Totemic Surge to help manage Surging Totem's position.

In Patch 11.0.5 Elementalist is looking to be slightly behind Storm equivalents, but still usable if you find it more comfortable:

Unfortunately in AoE the complications of executing Totemic for Elementalist is a bit too great, and it is generally recommended to avoid this combination currently. A best guess at talents that use this are:

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Elementalist in AoE while playing Stormbringer is still all about your Maelstrom Weapon spenders, cycling as quickly as possible to each Tempest. Due to the hugely inflated generation provided by Crash Lightning, it can lead to a very high number of Lightning Elemental Spirits due to Rolling Thunder, providing a massive Nature damage multiplier. Arc Discharge also provides a big damage follow-up to each cast, and provides the bulk of your damage breakdown. Due to how busy its GCDs are, Fire Nova is a desirable AoE option to provide burst Maelstrom Weapon generation. Stormblast is also taken to fill up any other empty GCDs.

Elementalist while playing Totemic is extremely hectic with a lot of things going on that need to be managed. Most importantly, Surging Totem needs to be used every 24 seconds to make use of the pulsing Flamestrike damage, and kept near targets with Totemic Projection. Sundering is cast on cooldown to avoid wasting any Molten Thunder procs, and Crash Lightning should be maintained at all times. In between that, making sure to weave Lava Lash during Hot Hand to trigger Reactivity while spending your Maelstrom Weapon on Chain Lightning.

• Your Primordial Wave windows provide a large burst window every 30 seconds, as each Lightning Bolt will also apply Conductive Energy to targets. Lining this up with Tempest for a double Arc Discharge follow-up can be devastating.
• Cycling both Lava Lash for Lashing Flames and Chain Lightning for Conductive Energy is a damage increase, but they add in a lot of complexity relative to the damage gained. You should only really consider playing around Lightning Rod if you are very comfortable.
• Feral Spirit cycles extremely quickly, so be aware of its cooldown and make sure to keep it used.
• During Ascendance it is still worthwhile to Windstrike due to Thorim's Invocation. The huge surge of Maelstrom Weapon floods you with resources, so the priority can get quite hectic. Ideally, before this window, having a Tempest ready to go while primed to Chain Lightning will produce the best results.
• Surging Totem is still used on cooldown but is slightly less potent in AoE situations and does cause the priority to get very hectic.
• Sundering is used on cooldown to trigger Earthsurge, making sure to have Surging Totem active before doing so. Molten Thunder procs can come at any time, so be ready to react to them.
• Lashing Flames is optional here, and you can switch between either it or Voltaic Blaze depending on preference.

For Delves, despite the wind-up time Stormbringer needs to get Tempest active, it still remains far more suited to the content due to its more flexible damage profile. We would recommend an Storm loadout to pair with this as it has a good degree of control over when its damage happens.

Moreso than in other content, I would strongly advise against Totemic in Delves due to it exploiting many of the tree's weaknesses more than usual. That said, if you really want to try it here, I would recommend a Storm loadout that has access to more on-demand cooldowns in its toolkit.

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