3.3.5 Questions - - any good enhancement Shams here?

Hi,

I have a few basic questions if anyone one out there plays enhance PvP.

1. Firstly, what spell should i be using for offhand? i assume either frostbrand or firebrand would be better than off hand WF, but which is better?

2. Also, what is a good addon I can use that will notify me when my SS or LL is up, also things like maelstrom. is there something that will pop up a little picture for a brief second?

3. I assume AP is most important, but wouldn't a lot of hit rate be very handy?

4. How do i deal with so many palys or DKs in battlegrounds. Honestly, alliance is usually over 50% plate wearers in BG. How can i fight them effectively, any suggestions for fighting pallys? Wouldn't a high hit rate be very good vs them?

5. Are enhance shams even worth playing? I think they are "cool" for pvp but can they be effective in arenas eventually with wrathful gear?

thanks!

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Originally Posted by lochtide7

Hi,

I have a few basic questions if anyone one out there plays enhance PvP.

1. Firstly, what spell should i be using for offhand? i assume either frostbrand or firebrand would be better than off hand WF, but which is better?

2. Also, what is a good addon I can use that will notify me when my SS or LL is up, also things like maelstrom. is there something that will pop up a little picture for a brief second?

3. I assume AP is most important, but wouldn't a lot of hit rate be very handy?

4. How do i deal with so many palys or DKs in battlegrounds. Honestly, alliance is usually over 50% plate wearers in BG. How can i fight them effectively, any suggestions for fighting pallys? Wouldn't a high hit rate be very good vs them?

5. Are enhance shams even worth playing? I think they are "cool" for pvp but can they be effective in arenas eventually with wrathful gear?

thanks!

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1. Take wind fury on both weapons. Flametongue weapon with lava lash is bugged on molten. Frostbrand is kind of useless as you can slow your target via frost shock & earthbind totem. Even if used with the frozen power talent 10% damage increase is hardly noticeable on such an already low damage ability (lava lash), plus most maelstrom weapon procs will be used to heal yourself. Also the frostbrand debuff falls off the target and so you lose the 10% damage.
Windfury on both weapons is your best option. (You can buy an additional weapon and use frost brand weapon with it and use a macro to switch in and out if you become very skilled)

2. You can use Doom_CooldownPulse to notify you when LL, SS and all other abilities come off cooldown. However I like to use bartender to move one of my action bars (with SS, LL, a shock spell and windshear) into the center of my screen (underneath my character's feet) so I can easily see what is on cooldown & when it comes off.
Also I recommend using powa auras to track your maelstrom procs. It is quite easy to config a small animation for each stack of maelstrom on your screen.

3. Yes gem for attack power. Assuming you have taken dual wield specialization you wanna get about 100 hit rating and no more than 120.

4. When fighting a paladin you are going to want to purge the **** out of them to remove sacred shield + all their other buffs they might have. I recommend an addon called DispelBorder, this makes it very easy to see which buffs you can dispel of your enemy target and also when they cast new buffs on themselves.
Try to predict them using Hammer of justice like at the beginning of the fight (if they're noobs), if you pop any offensive cds (heroism/bloodlust?) or they pop an offensive (avenging wrath) or if you're spamming heals on yourself.
Here are some tips when in a 1v1 against a pala
-Never trinket repentance unless they are very low health and you think you can finish them and their HoJ is on CD.
-If the pala manages to catch you in a HoJ, pop shamanistic rage and sit it. --- If they pop avenging wrath while you are stunned; trinket it and kite them while purging them to remove it.
-When they cast divine shield, try to LoS them (if you can) and heal yourself to full.
-Keep stoneclaw on cool down (with glyph)
-Use maelstrom to heal yourself if you're below 50% health. Use lightning bolt if you're above 50%

Against a DK you're gunna' have a bad time. Predict deathgrip with grounding totem. keep earthbind down to remove chains of ice (however you will still be slowed by desecration). Keep cleansing totem down all the time, also try to remove diseases on yourself when unholy blight falls off (the death knights ability that stops you from dispelling diseases). Wind shear gargoyle... it's going to be a hard fight if you're evenly geared + skilled. I would use ALL my maelstroms to heal myself unless I'm at 100% hp

Aganist Warrior it's also going to be hard basically your best bet is to kite him/her. Go in to attack when you have your stoneclaw shield up and when you have shamanistic rage up. When the warr casts bladestorm pop your wolves and cast spirit walk to get away quickly. If you find yourself needing a heal, try wait for the mortal strike debuff to drop off yourself or kite the warrior so he/she can't reapply it and heal. Try to use your maelstrom procs on lightning bolt as magic damage will hurt them the most, also the mortal strike debuff will make your heals very small and its best to try force them into defensive stance by putting them under pressure of your damage. Again against an equally gear + skilled warrior you're going to have a hard time winning.

About your idea of more hit rating. It's not really the issue. Sure, theoretically you will hit them more thus procing more windfury strikes and getting more maelstrom procs, but this is not the case as they can still parry/evade/block your white hits plus you will probably be kiting them. Also your white hits are physical damage which will do very low damage against plate wearers.

5. Every class & spec is worth playing. It all depends on which class you have the most fun with. Sure, you might get beaten by dks and warrs, but when you DO beat them it will feel like a big achievement. Also as a enhancement shaman you're going to take a massive **** on priests and warlocks.
In an arena situation with wrathful gear you can do HUGE burst with heroism/bloodlust up plus trinket proc against clothies + leather. Also they have a lot of utility (hex, grounding, shield absorb, heals, slows, dispels, interrupts, pets with stun & movement speed increase). Paired with another dps burst class such as paladin or hunter you can blow the enemy team up very quickly.

Sorry for all the text, I kind of got carried away, but I hope I answered your questions and gave you a better understanding of Enh Shamans :)

wow, thanks so much for the reply, that helps a ton!

I am excited to get better with enhance now for sure!

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Originally Posted by WorganFreeman

1. Take wind fury on both weapons. Flametongue weapon with lava lash is bugged on molten. Frostbrand is kind of useless as you can slow your target via frost shock & earthbind totem. Even if used with the frozen power talent 10% damage increase is hardly noticeable on such an already low damage ability (lava lash), plus most maelstrom weapon procs will be used to heal yourself. Also the frostbrand debuff falls off the target and so you lose the 10% damage.
Windfury on both weapons is your best option. (You can buy an additional weapon and use frost brand weapon with it and use a macro to switch in and out if you become very skilled)

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Agree with everything you said except this. Frostbrand is INCREDIBLY underrated in PvP. Using WF/WF could also make you waste WF on an OH hit (which will hit for much less dmg). Frostbrand isn't useless at all. Its a 50% chance to apply, which isn't bad at all, given that Stormstrike and Lava Lash give you a free OH hit you're likely to get an application in the opener. Getting a bit of Haste from gear + Windfury Totem + Flurry + Black Magic my Fists are usually swinging at Dagger speed, making it that much more likely to apply Frostbrand. Add in Bloodlust and it gets even better.
Another advantage to using FB is that the slow it applies is a physical debuff, so its undispellable, which is invaluable. It also lets you Earth Shock (which does increased dmg from Stormstrike debuff + Frozen Power) on CD and save Frost Shock for the 15yd gap closer.
If you are in Furious/Rele gear, WF/WF is still probs your best bet. Once you get into ICC offsets (Precious' Putrid Collar, Band of the Bone Collosus, Herkumi War Token etc.) you should really try FB. I find the utility it brings outweighs maximizing WF procs.

Also I was wondering,

not that I can ever get these but is the best possible weapon set up Havocs call, blade of lordareon kings in main hand and then wrathfull on offhand? Is the best possible.

also, how would leatherworking be for a proff? would it be really useful for enhance pvp? or is JC wayy better?

thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lochtide7

Also I was wondering,

not that I can ever get these but is the best possible weapon set up Havocs call, blade of lordareon kings in main hand and then wrathfull on offhand? Is the best possible.

also, how would leatherworking be for a proff? would it be really useful for enhance pvp? or is JC wayy better?

thanks

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For PvE maybe, for PvP you should be dual-wielding Wrathful weapons. Enhancement Shamans need a decent amount of Resilience as apposed to other classes.

JC is much better than Leatherworking. Crit isn't important to us, we get plenty from gear.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UrbanJuggernaut

For PvE maybe, for PvP you should be dual-wielding Wrathful weapons. Enhancement Shamans need a decent amount of Resilience as apposed to other classes.

JC is much better than Leatherworking. Crit isn't important to us, we get plenty from gear.

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But, it seems LW can enchant bracers for 130 AP, and also do a lew one for 75 AP + 22 crit strike.

Would it still be not worth it?