Cataclysm, Enhancement or Elemental?

[Thunderx96]

So I want to make a shaman but cannot decide between enhancement or elemental. I'd like to know which you guys think is best, for 4.3.4 especially as we upgrade in the next few days. I mainly do pvp if that helps.

[Anodyne]

It is all going to come down to what you think you may enjoy more, even if only by a tiny bit. Enhancement is already fairing pretty well in both PvE and PvP, and short of some minor caveats they will have to work around, they are getting almost nothing but buffs in the coming patches. Elemental I hold little interest in, but from what I have heard they do quite well in PvP and are able to compete with most classes fairly well. In PvE I have heard they are slightly lacking, but likely not so much that you should avoid playing one if you think you would enjoy it.

It really just comes down to deciding whether you want a fast paced melee class, or one of the (in general) simpler casting classes. If necessary, watch some gameplay of both, or videos on the DPS rotation of both and see if one looks more suited to how you like to play the game. Most people have a distinct preference in what they enjoy most out of their character, you simply need to decide what yours is.

[Thunderx96]

Hmm. Are there any bugs that cripple one of the specs? Enhancement tempts me, how viable is it in arena?

[Anodyne]

I haven't been playing on Warsong, and since 4.3.4 is only a few days away for the rest of the servers, I can't really say what will be bugged by the time you get to 85 and start doing the end-game stuff. I am sure there are still plenty of bugs left in them (And all classes, really), but there is still going to be one big changelog before the rest of the servers update, and I imagine the staff will still focus on fixing any important class issues that remain after the patch as well.

The staff here have always done a good job at fixing major bugs as fast as possible, as long as enough people care enough about it to report and test, so anything that would "cripple" the spec will definitely be taken care of.

I haven't been an active arena player for quite a long time, and things may be slightly different in 4.3.4, but as far as I know Enhancement is still fully capable of handling arenas. They have so many tools that they can adapt for the fight. The drawback to them is that they tend to require you to really know what you are doing, which is true for anyone in arena, but Enhancement has a really weird spot in PvP in which you need to react very differently to different classes. They also don't have any true form of instant burst, which can be moderately annoying in situations where you just can't quite finish someone off for various reasons. That being said, between the all around utility, the constant, good damage, and just being plain awesome, I'd say they can handle themselves just fine.

[cheezytacos]

They also don't have any true form of instant burst, which can be moderately annoying in situations where you just can't quite finish someone off for various reasons. That being said, between the all around utility, the constant, good damage, and just being plain awesome, I'd say they can handle themselves just fine.

He's right. I made an enhancement shaman on warsong a couple days ago and they are extremely fun. But they don't have any burst (warriors have their cooldowns, mages have instant pyro/brain freeze proc/ fingers of frost, rogues have shadow dance, etc.) Enhancement shamans have a 5 stack lava lash that can hit hard, and wind fury that hits hard too but that's a lot of rng. Still, I suggest playing one if you are tired of other classes, this has been the most fun I have had in a while with any class in wow.

[Thunderx96]

Thanks for the replies. Forgive me, but what does rng mean? And I'm yet to find a class that I really enjoy and want to get the best gear possible, I've levelled a feral druid and a marksman hunter to 85 on Neltharion and have gotten bored of both pretty quickly. Hopefully enh shammy will be the one :D

[Anodyne]

RNG = Random Number Generator. When somebody uses it in that context, they are basically saying that something is a random chance or luck based, rather than being constant. So, moves that depend on critical hits, for example, are very "rng" dependent.

You could always upgrade early and putz around on Warsong with different classes a bit to see if one seems more enjoyable to you, but I think you will enjoy it. Granted I am biased because I think Enhancement is awesome, but it really is a fun spec when you know your abilities enough to use them properly. If you have any questions while you're learning the spec feel free to ask.

[Nucklez]

I play an Enh Shammy as my main. It really is one of the hardest classes I've played, and was actually the class I started out with when I first started WoW. I can't stay away from it. Yes, it can be down right frustrating to learn. At times you feel your squishier than a mage, and other times I feel OP towards classes that other people claim to have the most trouble with. I briefly dual specced to Ele Shammy, and decided a dual spec to Resto instead. You may like Ele Shammy, but Enh is my cup of tea. Definately level as Enh and get the hang of it. I was able to solo many of the world quest Elites without kiting, even a few levels over my own. Things I couldn't do on classes such as a rogue, though I'm sure your hunter was able to pull that off. Just have fun with it, try dual spec to both. If you want my opinion, level as Enh then try both specs in BG to figure out which spec you like best.

It's very very difficult to stay alive very long without resilience with Enh. I'm sure it is with all clasees, but Enh shammys get their a$$ handed to them by strong melee classes such as Pally, Warriors and DKs if you get too close for too long with squishy gear. You gotta know when to hit them, know when to kite them, know when to walk away, know when to ghost wolf and RUN!

[Thunderx96]

Well I have levelled an enh to 30 so far. Am enjoying it, very nice damage. One stormstrike = half health. I am interested to do pvp with this spec. I have dueled a holy priest and had no problem with him at all. Since I could take his power word shield down straight away then mash his face in with a mace lol

[Nucklez]

HAHA! Awesome! Smash his face in with two maces! See how he likes to lose his power word shield then take a 5 stack of Searing Totem's Lava Lash! Woohoo! :) I got a little too excited over that.

[Thunderx96]

Yes, just a bit :). But at that level, I didn't have the talent for stacking the searing totem, but still an extremely easy fight using purge and windshear