I can tear it up in ZA/Kara and SSC as enh. I could tear it up as elemental aswell. Ele is weaker now than I was before patch. I can keep a good 900 dps with both specs but elemental I go oom so quick. For PVP I will spec Elemental and do alright so I prefer to spec resto. I cannot spec enh and do well since I have no PVP gear.
Elemental I could get upwards of 1200 dps in 25 mans pre-patch but I needed an shadow priest and plenty of mana pots. I never got a chance to pve in 25 mans as enh.
Thats what I have so far, but I don't want it like that. There has to be a way to get all the PVP talents while still keeping UR, SR, and SWs.
Paradox Control on
\
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GrobianWhat's on sale?Pliers!Registered Userregular
edited November 2008
Why wouldn't you take the Wolves for PvP? Also, because I can't repeat it often enough: Ancestral Knowledge is weak. Take almost any talent before maxing out AK and you'll be better off.
Thats what I have so far, but I don't want it like that. There has to be a way to get all the PVP talents while still keeping UR, SR, and SWs.
Grobian speaks the truth. Feral Spirit is a must, especially for PVP. In fact, the only times I really feel competitive is when I'm out with the wolf pack. (They really need to be made permanent but that's a rant for another time.)
This is what I'd recommend for a pure enhance spec:
1. Glyph of Strength of Earth totem was stealth-changed to Glyph of Lava Lash? I scribed the former last week, and now have the latter in my Glyph slot. Thottbot and Wowhead seem to be confusing the two also.
2. Holy shit enhancement outdamages everything I've ever played post-45 (rogue, warlock, feral/balance druid). I'm routinely accounting for more than half of a group's damage, wihout really even trying. I did ST, where half the mobs are effectively immune to Earth Shock, and still broke 50% on the meters.
It's just ridiculous. I don't even know what I'll do once I max unleashed Rage and get Maelstrom Weapon.
And 3 questions:
A. Is Flametongue Weapon viable on offhand now? It seems to have a few things going for it: static +damage (as opposed to scales-with-weapon) works well when combined with Stormstrike and Lava Lash for free offhand strikes, plus you get the bonus to Lava Lash (35% now with the glyph). And then you get the spell damage bonus, which helps a little with Earth Shock (its in my damage rotation) and that'll help too with Maelstrom Weapon (once I get it). Plus you then no longer have your offhand "stealing" Windfury attacks from your mainhand, which would sort of make up for losing Windfury on offhand.
B. Right now this is my shaman, my weapons are good (near-optimal, at 2.7 speed with extra procs on attack) and I'm hoping to stretch them until 61 when I can sport a pair of these. I've been diligent about upgrading gear and focusing on raw AP over crit. I'm probably going to respec out of Ancestral Knowledge but I so rarely put up totems when soloing that the 3 points there over Enhancing Totems feels like a wash, they're junk points in that tier anyway. Anticipation really should be moved up to Tier 1, it feels like.
That wasn't really a question, more of a "how am I doing"?"
C. Is optimal weapon speed still 2.6 with the Windfury Totem change? I believe it was predicated on a 2.6 speed weapon being brought down to very nearly 2.0 with Flurry up, which is the Windfury internal cooldown, or some such nonsense. Is that still applicable? Because it seems like putting up Windfury Totem would drop your weapon speeds below 2.0 no matter what and then you're stuck swinging with Windfury on internal cooldown. Which leads to another question: how good is the new windfury Totem if you aren't in a group? And is Imp. Windfury Totem a good place to put 2 talent points?
Edit: some digging on EJ cleared a few things up. The WF ICD is 3 seconds not 2. Which has an implication: if you can get your weapon speed as close to 1.50 as possible without going under (via Flurry and WFTotem haste) you might be able to further optimize the WF proc rate.
It also appears that WF offhand is still superior to FT, for now, but that might change by the time we reach 80. I'd like to see some numbers on that that aren't from top-geared raiders. Does that hold true with sub-par gear, or at lower levels? Maelstrom weapon seems to be a key element in making FT more powerful, as does Lava Lash, so we're still talking levels 55+ anyway. Having 5/5 Elemental Fury seems important here, as it affects FT crit damage (and possibly LL crit damage?) as well as shocks and MW proc crits, making the FT passive bonus even more useful.
1. Glyph of Strength of Earth totem was stealth-changed to Glyph of Lava Lash?
Yes, because the old glyph was essentially broken. It made SoE totem provide a unique bonus that would pretty much force raids to bring along an SoE totem glyphed shaman. Same reason they changed the Trueshot Aura glyph.
Those glyphs basically defeated the purpose of Blizzard's "buff homogenization" philosophy.
1. Glyph of Strength of Earth totem was stealth-changed to Glyph of Lava Lash?
Yes, because the old glyph was essentially broken. It made SoE totem provide a unique bonus that would pretty much force raids to bring along an SoE totem glyphed shaman. Same reason they changed the Trueshot Aura glyph.
Those glyphs basically defeated the purpose of Blizzard's "buff homogenization" philosophy.
They could have at least made the Lava Lash glyph not terrible. But they didn't.
Yeah, I don't know why Blizzard seems so afraid to make the shaman fire based abilities not suck. At least the major glyphs are cheap and easy to get, so you didn't get ripped off too much.
Warlocks who paid a lot for the Glyph of Souls minor got hosed the most.
Eh, I'd rather they err on the side of "too weak" with glyphs if anything. PvE utility/tradeoff glyphs like the Arcane Missiles or Mind Flay ones are good ideas. (Hypothetical) mandatory PvP rape glyphs would just fuck things up even worse.
Gems, enchanting, tailoring/leatherworking kits, blacksmithing sockets, etc. already offer tons of ways to boost the shit out of your character by blowing a ton of gold. I'd rather not see that happen with inscription (although it probably will eventually).
forty on
Officially the unluckiest CCG player ever.
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AngryThe glory I had witnessedwas just a sleight of handRegistered Userregular
1. Glyph of Strength of Earth totem was stealth-changed to Glyph of Lava Lash? I scribed the former last week, and now have the latter in my Glyph slot. Thottbot and Wowhead seem to be confusing the two also.
2. Holy shit enhancement outdamages everything I've ever played post-45 (rogue, warlock, feral/balance druid). I'm routinely accounting for more than half of a group's damage, wihout really even trying. I did ST, where half the mobs are effectively immune to Earth Shock, and still broke 50% on the meters.
It's just ridiculous. I don't even know what I'll do once I max unleashed Rage and get Maelstrom Weapon.
And 3 questions:
A. Is Flametongue Weapon viable on offhand now? It seems to have a few things going for it: static +damage (as opposed to scales-with-weapon) works well when combined with Stormstrike and Lava Lash for free offhand strikes, plus you get the bonus to Lava Lash (35% now with the glyph). And then you get the spell damage bonus, which helps a little with Earth Shock (its in my damage rotation) and that'll help too with Maelstrom Weapon (once I get it). Plus you then no longer have your offhand "stealing" Windfury attacks from your mainhand, which would sort of make up for losing Windfury on offhand.
B. Right now this is my shaman, my weapons are good (near-optimal, at 2.7 speed with extra procs on attack) and I'm hoping to stretch them until 61 when I can sport a pair of these. I've been diligent about upgrading gear and focusing on raw AP over crit. I'm probably going to respec out of Ancestral Knowledge but I so rarely put up totems when soloing that the 3 points there over Enhancing Totems feels like a wash, they're junk points in that tier anyway. Anticipation really should be moved up to Tier 1, it feels like.
That wasn't really a question, more of a "how am I doing"?"
C. Is optimal weapon speed still 2.6 with the Windfury Totem change? I believe it was predicated on a 2.6 speed weapon being brought down to very nearly 2.0 with Flurry up, which is the Windfury internal cooldown, or some such nonsense. Is that still applicable? Because it seems like putting up Windfury Totem would drop your weapon speeds below 2.0 no matter what and then you're stuck swinging with Windfury on internal cooldown. Which leads to another question: how good is the new windfury Totem if you aren't in a group? And is Imp. Windfury Totem a good place to put 2 talent points?
Edit: some digging on EJ cleared a few things up. The WF ICD is 3 seconds not 2. Which has an implication: if you can get your weapon speed as close to 1.50 as possible without going under (via Flurry and WFTotem haste) you might be able to further optimize the WF proc rate.
It also appears that WF offhand is still superior to FT, for now, but that might change by the time we reach 80. I'd like to see some numbers on that that aren't from top-geared raiders. Does that hold true with sub-par gear, or at lower levels? Maelstrom weapon seems to be a key element in making FT more powerful, as does Lava Lash, so we're still talking levels 55+ anyway. Having 5/5 Elemental Fury seems important here, as it affects FT crit damage (and possibly LL crit damage?) as well as shocks and MW proc crits, making the FT passive bonus even more useful.
i would be surprised if elemental fury worked with flametongue weapon crits. i can't really imagine an enhance spec without it at 80 anyways though.
Angry on
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GrobianWhat's on sale?Pliers!Registered Userregular
edited November 2008
I'm pretty sure EF works for Flametongue which is the reason Flametongue get's better than WF at 80. Have to look it up at EJ, though.
Regarding the 3 questions of AresProphet:
a) Yes, Flametongue is miles better than it was before BC. Still WF is better if you use slow weapons. The reason is that "stealing procs" is not that bad a problem as even offhand WF-procs proc Maelstrom. Also the procrate of WF is just weird and is higher if you dual-enchant it (meaning you get more consistent procs). Flametongue shines on fast weapons, so if you can't get a good slow offhand it might be better even below 80. You are right in that one argument for WF is the better scaling, which is useless if your gear isn't that great. You probably just have to test that for yourself. (Or venture to EJ and try the new Simulator)
b) might look at your armory later, when not at work. I posted enhancements builds for leveling (and my reasoning behind them) some pages ago which might help you.
edit: I looked. The only real problem I can find is that you are some kind of space-goat I'd still take Enhancing Totems over Ancestral Knowledge. You have <150 int, so AK is 3 attack power per point. Why did you take the point in Anticipation? It's not needed to get further down. Otherwise you're good.
c) The perfect speed was never 2.6 it was "as slow as possible". We just had no slower weapons (I think there were one or two 2.8ers). This is still true: Slower weapons mean bigger SS, LL and WF hits also more Maelstrom procs. Faster weapons mean more Flametongue damage and more Static Shock procs (which you won't have the points for at 70). You will always swing inside the WF cooldown, that doesn't matter at all. Optimizing weapon speed for WF is useless as you can't really rely on it (lots of haste procs on gear/enchants).
Grobian on
PoGo friend code: 7835 1672 4968
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AngryThe glory I had witnessedwas just a sleight of handRegistered Userregular
edited November 2008
is there a way to make a macro to drop multiple totems?
1. Glyph of Strength of Earth totem was stealth-changed to Glyph of Lava Lash? I scribed the former last week, and now have the latter in my Glyph slot. Thottbot and Wowhead seem to be confusing the two also.
2. Holy shit enhancement outdamages everything I've ever played post-45 (rogue, warlock, feral/balance druid). I'm routinely accounting for more than half of a group's damage, wihout really even trying. I did ST, where half the mobs are effectively immune to Earth Shock, and still broke 50% on the meters.
It's just ridiculous. I don't even know what I'll do once I max unleashed Rage and get Maelstrom Weapon.
And 3 questions:
A. Is Flametongue Weapon viable on offhand now? It seems to have a few things going for it: static +damage (as opposed to scales-with-weapon) works well when combined with Stormstrike and Lava Lash for free offhand strikes, plus you get the bonus to Lava Lash (35% now with the glyph). And then you get the spell damage bonus, which helps a little with Earth Shock (its in my damage rotation) and that'll help too with Maelstrom Weapon (once I get it). Plus you then no longer have your offhand "stealing" Windfury attacks from your mainhand, which would sort of make up for losing Windfury on offhand.
B. Right now this is my shaman, my weapons are good (near-optimal, at 2.7 speed with extra procs on attack) and I'm hoping to stretch them until 61 when I can sport a pair of these. I've been diligent about upgrading gear and focusing on raw AP over crit. I'm probably going to respec out of Ancestral Knowledge but I so rarely put up totems when soloing that the 3 points there over Enhancing Totems feels like a wash, they're junk points in that tier anyway. Anticipation really should be moved up to Tier 1, it feels like.
That wasn't really a question, more of a "how am I doing"?"
C. Is optimal weapon speed still 2.6 with the Windfury Totem change? I believe it was predicated on a 2.6 speed weapon being brought down to very nearly 2.0 with Flurry up, which is the Windfury internal cooldown, or some such nonsense. Is that still applicable? Because it seems like putting up Windfury Totem would drop your weapon speeds below 2.0 no matter what and then you're stuck swinging with Windfury on internal cooldown. Which leads to another question: how good is the new windfury Totem if you aren't in a group? And is Imp. Windfury Totem a good place to put 2 talent points?
Edit: some digging on EJ cleared a few things up. The WF ICD is 3 seconds not 2. Which has an implication: if you can get your weapon speed as close to 1.50 as possible without going under (via Flurry and WFTotem haste) you might be able to further optimize the WF proc rate.
It also appears that WF offhand is still superior to FT, for now, but that might change by the time we reach 80. I'd like to see some numbers on that that aren't from top-geared raiders. Does that hold true with sub-par gear, or at lower levels? Maelstrom weapon seems to be a key element in making FT more powerful, as does Lava Lash, so we're still talking levels 55+ anyway. Having 5/5 Elemental Fury seems important here, as it affects FT crit damage (and possibly LL crit damage?) as well as shocks and MW proc crits, making the FT passive bonus even more useful.
i would be surprised if elemental fury worked with flametongue weapon crits. i can't really imagine an enhance spec without it at 80 anyways though.
I'm not sure about alliance, but horde have a quest at the alterac valley mountains for a 41 dps main-hand mace. Maybe check that out?
Beck on
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
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AngryThe glory I had witnessedwas just a sleight of handRegistered Userregular
Man, I remember when I could downrank Flametongue and get double procs on every hit. Then Blizzard found out about it and fixed it.
That was a fun six months, though. Just for shits and giggles sometimes I would break out a 1.5/1.3 dagger combo and jump casters. Anything with a cast time just got destroyed by the massive amount of pushback.
Well, my Enhancement, turned Elemental Shaman has been 70 for about a month and is basically purpled out at the Kara/T5 level, sitting at about 30% crit and 1095 spell power with Flametongue up (1234 with ToW down as well.) So I really can't complain with his progression, and I've had quite a bit of fun with it.
If the Totem mechanic wasn't so shoddy, he'd probably have higher damage in dungeons, but as it is he usually has near the highest DPS. Spending the first 4 seconds of combat buffing the party almost every time while everyone else is already going to town tends to add up over the course of a run. Normally I'd say it's a good thing because it gives the tank a chance to get some aggro before starting, and so maybe it'll even out again at 80 when DPS classes *are* going to have to let the tank work for a few, but as it stands right now, almost no one can catch tanks even starting right off the bat anyway. Except Ret Pallies that is, they're still aggro machines.
Seeing as Storm, Earth and Fire was nerfed into near uselessness, I don't feel it's been necessary for a purely PvEing Elemental Shaman to waste the points into it just to get Thunderstorm. I rarely ever have to drink in 5-mans, and in the few Kara/ZAs I've done since 3.0 we've almost always had at least 1 Ret Pally and so Replenishment has kept me topped off easily.
I figure I'll start putting my points into the Lava Burst talents on the way to 75, though I'll likely have to shift some things around at that point anyway, I do plan on having Thunderstorm at 80, but my build has worked very nicely at 70. Yes, I know the points in Improved Ghost Wolf aren't necessary, and honestly, I don't use Ghost Wolf that often, but I do love it being instant.
Some talk in this thread about Enhancement almost had me tempted... but honestly, there's no way I'm going back to Enhancement on my Shaman. I'd much rather start a Death Knight, which I definitely am going to, likely Unholy. Plate Wearing, Pet Using, Shadow and Frost DPS/tanking hybrid class with plenty of *fun* utility that can AoE grind 5 like level mobs and end up with full health? Yes please.
My first character to 60 in Vanilla was an Enhancement Shaman, in the days when The Unstoppable Force gibbed casters on the whims of Lady Luck, my main going into TBC was a Warlock. My main going into WotLK seems to be my Elemental Shaman, but I could easily see my Death Knight taking over that, the more I read up on them.
Alliance have the Gryphon Rider's Stormhammer, which I'm using. That and Ripsaw. I'd like to sport Axe of the Deep Woods x2 but I refuse to pay 250g apiece for something I'm going to replace at 61. I have better uses for that gold.
Thanks for mentioning the AV hammer, I'll try to snag that. Sub-par stats but it's a significant upgrade from Ripsaw.
If the Totem mechanic wasn't so shoddy, he'd probably have higher damage in dungeons, but as it is he usually has near the highest DPS. Spending the first 4 seconds of combat buffing the party almost every time while everyone else is already going to town tends to add up over the course of a run. Normally I'd say it's a good thing because it gives the tank a chance to get some aggro before starting, and so maybe it'll even out again at 80 when DPS classes *are* going to have to let the tank work for a few, but as it stands right now, almost no one can catch tanks even starting right off the bat anyway. Except Ret Pallies that is, they're still aggro machines.
Stop dropping totems, then.
I mean, I assume we're talking about Heroics here. At your gear level - and the general gear level of people right now - you could probably get away with not dropping totems at all on trash. Even in raid dungeons,all you really need on trash is ToW + WoA before you blow shit up.
The only time I ever have all four totems down on my Shaman is on raid bosses. Unless it's Karazhan, which is basically a 10-man heroic.
Alliance have the Gryphon Rider's Stormhammer, which I'm using. That and Ripsaw. I'd like to sport Axe of the Deep Woods x2 but I refuse to pay 250g apiece for something I'm going to replace at 61. I have better uses for that gold.
Thanks for mentioning the AV hammer, I'll try to snag that. Sub-par stats but it's a significant upgrade from Ripsaw.
I felt the same way about AotDW. I'm surprised they still go for so much, really, I don't know anyone who twinks for the fifties.
Beck on
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
If the Totem mechanic wasn't so shoddy, he'd probably have higher damage in dungeons, but as it is he usually has near the highest DPS. Spending the first 4 seconds of combat buffing the party almost every time while everyone else is already going to town tends to add up over the course of a run. Normally I'd say it's a good thing because it gives the tank a chance to get some aggro before starting, and so maybe it'll even out again at 80 when DPS classes *are* going to have to let the tank work for a few, but as it stands right now, almost no one can catch tanks even starting right off the bat anyway. Except Ret Pallies that is, they're still aggro machines.
Stop dropping totems, then.
I mean, I assume we're talking about Heroics here. At your gear level - and the general gear level of people right now - you could probably get away with not dropping totems at all on trash. Even in raid dungeons,all you really need on trash is ToW + WoA before you blow shit up.
The only time I ever have all four totems down on my Shaman is on raid bosses. Unless it's Karazhan, which is basically a 10-man heroic.
Good point, I suppose I should just shift to dropping ToW+WoA and bolting. I was messing around with the 70 training dummies in Org earlier tonight and managed about 1250 dps going full out for just over 4 minutes straight. And that wasn't counting any trinket popping or Bloodlust, and I couldn't use Chain Lightning in my rotation because the dummies are all too close together and it hits them all.
Then I let my mana fill, reset my totems and changed my Lightning Bolt to a macro that used my trinket/EM, popped Bloodlust right off the bat. Still without using Chain Lightning, I strangely pulled about 1238 dps over not quite 3 minutes before my mana was out. I can only imagine it had something to do with crit differences. Though during the duration of Bloodlust, I was pulling just over 1500 dps with my 1.2s lightning bolt spam.
Alliance have the Gryphon Rider's Stormhammer, which I'm using. That and Ripsaw. I'd like to sport Axe of the Deep Woods x2 but I refuse to pay 250g apiece for something I'm going to replace at 61. I have better uses for that gold.
Thanks for mentioning the AV hammer, I'll try to snag that. Sub-par stats but it's a significant upgrade from Ripsaw.
I felt the same way about AotDW. I'm surprised they still go for so much, really, I don't know anyone who twinks for the fifties.
It's just rare as hell, that's all. Look at the zones it drops in the most: Silithus, Scholo, Strat, BRS, WPl, EPL. 3 instances and 2 zones that nobody goes to anymore because by the time you're 58 you might as well just go to Outlands. I guess people still quest in WPL at the low 50s but I guarantee you Scholo, Strat, and BRS are ghost towns these days.
250g isn't really that much for a good, rare twinking epic.
Except nobody twinks the 50s bracket, and level 57-59 Outland greens are superior weapons anyway. AotDW is a level 52 axe with 2.70 speed, no stats, and a proc, which basically means it's good for Enhancement shamans and nobody else. <Random Green Mace/Sword of the Bandit> is better for anyone trying to twink for the 50s bracket.
I just want a pair of decent weapons to get from 52 to 61 with.
Hypothetically, would the ideal enhancement shaman pvp gear have some spell power on it? It won't improve your damage as much as attack power would (though I guess it would help more than in pve, what with people trying to kite you all the time), but I could see the bigger maelstrom weapon heals being worth that tradeoff. I suppose gems provide enough versatility to find out.
Or, would it just be better to stack crit rating, since that would effect everything?
250g isn't really that much for a good, rare twinking epic.
Except nobody twinks the 50s bracket, and level 57-59 Outland greens are superior weapons anyway. AotDW is a level 52 axe with 2.70 speed, no stats, and a proc, which basically means it's good for Enhancement shamans and nobody else. <Random Green Mace/Sword of the Bandit> is better for anyone trying to twink for the 50s bracket.
I just want a pair of decent weapons to get from 52 to 61 with.
Some people do for AV, since that's the lowest bracket. I don't know how popular it is though...my guess is not very.
End on
I wish that someway, somehow, that I could save every one of us
Bracket? You don't have to be sitting at X9 in battlegrounds to be a twink. Lots of people buy BoEs to make leveling easier/more fun.
And I'm pretty sure AotDW is good for more than enhancement shamans. Fury warriors, at least? Also, you seem to have spontaneously forgotten about the people populating the WoW servers. It doesn't matter what the axe is optimal for; other people will still buy and use it. 1H/shield paladin? Sure, why not.
And do you really need to be reminded of HUNTER WEAPON?
I healed Heroic arc as Enhancement yesterday. Threw on like 5 pieces of Resto gear and a caster dagger. Hit up both MH and OH with Earthliving. Got to ~1350 healing power with my totems down. This is without enchants on ANYTHING.
Hypothetically, would the ideal enhancement shaman pvp gear have some spell power on it? It won't improve your damage as much as attack power would (though I guess it would help more than in pve, what with people trying to kite you all the time), but I could see the bigger maelstrom weapon heals being worth that tradeoff. I suppose gems provide enough versatility to find out.
Or, would it just be better to stack crit rating, since that would effect everything?
There's a talent that converts attack power into spell damage, so no, you wouldn't want any spell damage on your gear.
reVerse on
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AngryThe glory I had witnessedwas just a sleight of handRegistered Userregular
edited November 2008
i have more spellpower in my enhance gear with that talent then i did as elemental.
Posts
Elemental I could get upwards of 1200 dps in 25 mans pre-patch but I needed an shadow priest and plenty of mana pots. I never got a chance to pve in 25 mans as enh.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/shaman/talents.html?tal=000000000000000000000000025252031055013533113120125000000000000000000000000000
Thats what I have so far, but I don't want it like that. There has to be a way to get all the PVP talents while still keeping UR, SR, and SWs.
Grobian speaks the truth. Feral Spirit is a must, especially for PVP. In fact, the only times I really feel competitive is when I'm out with the wolf pack. (They really need to be made permanent but that's a rant for another time.)
This is what I'd recommend for a pure enhance spec:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/shaman/talents.html?tal=000000000000000000000000023052031355013533113120125100000000000000000000000000
I can just NOT find it anywhere on the life server I play on
1. Glyph of Strength of Earth totem was stealth-changed to Glyph of Lava Lash? I scribed the former last week, and now have the latter in my Glyph slot. Thottbot and Wowhead seem to be confusing the two also.
2. Holy shit enhancement outdamages everything I've ever played post-45 (rogue, warlock, feral/balance druid). I'm routinely accounting for more than half of a group's damage, wihout really even trying. I did ST, where half the mobs are effectively immune to Earth Shock, and still broke 50% on the meters.
It's just ridiculous. I don't even know what I'll do once I max unleashed Rage and get Maelstrom Weapon.
And 3 questions:
A. Is Flametongue Weapon viable on offhand now? It seems to have a few things going for it: static +damage (as opposed to scales-with-weapon) works well when combined with Stormstrike and Lava Lash for free offhand strikes, plus you get the bonus to Lava Lash (35% now with the glyph). And then you get the spell damage bonus, which helps a little with Earth Shock (its in my damage rotation) and that'll help too with Maelstrom Weapon (once I get it). Plus you then no longer have your offhand "stealing" Windfury attacks from your mainhand, which would sort of make up for losing Windfury on offhand.
B. Right now this is my shaman, my weapons are good (near-optimal, at 2.7 speed with extra procs on attack) and I'm hoping to stretch them until 61 when I can sport a pair of these. I've been diligent about upgrading gear and focusing on raw AP over crit. I'm probably going to respec out of Ancestral Knowledge but I so rarely put up totems when soloing that the 3 points there over Enhancing Totems feels like a wash, they're junk points in that tier anyway. Anticipation really should be moved up to Tier 1, it feels like.
That wasn't really a question, more of a "how am I doing"?"
C. Is optimal weapon speed still 2.6 with the Windfury Totem change? I believe it was predicated on a 2.6 speed weapon being brought down to very nearly 2.0 with Flurry up, which is the Windfury internal cooldown, or some such nonsense. Is that still applicable? Because it seems like putting up Windfury Totem would drop your weapon speeds below 2.0 no matter what and then you're stuck swinging with Windfury on internal cooldown. Which leads to another question: how good is the new windfury Totem if you aren't in a group? And is Imp. Windfury Totem a good place to put 2 talent points?
Edit: some digging on EJ cleared a few things up. The WF ICD is 3 seconds not 2. Which has an implication: if you can get your weapon speed as close to 1.50 as possible without going under (via Flurry and WFTotem haste) you might be able to further optimize the WF proc rate.
It also appears that WF offhand is still superior to FT, for now, but that might change by the time we reach 80. I'd like to see some numbers on that that aren't from top-geared raiders. Does that hold true with sub-par gear, or at lower levels? Maelstrom weapon seems to be a key element in making FT more powerful, as does Lava Lash, so we're still talking levels 55+ anyway. Having 5/5 Elemental Fury seems important here, as it affects FT crit damage (and possibly LL crit damage?) as well as shocks and MW proc crits, making the FT passive bonus even more useful.
Those glyphs basically defeated the purpose of Blizzard's "buff homogenization" philosophy.
They could have at least made the Lava Lash glyph not terrible. But they didn't.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
Warlocks who paid a lot for the Glyph of Souls minor got hosed the most.
Fixed for you.
Gems, enchanting, tailoring/leatherworking kits, blacksmithing sockets, etc. already offer tons of ways to boost the shit out of your character by blowing a ton of gold. I'd rather not see that happen with inscription (although it probably will eventually).
i would be surprised if elemental fury worked with flametongue weapon crits. i can't really imagine an enhance spec without it at 80 anyways though.
Regarding the 3 questions of AresProphet:
a) Yes, Flametongue is miles better than it was before BC. Still WF is better if you use slow weapons. The reason is that "stealing procs" is not that bad a problem as even offhand WF-procs proc Maelstrom. Also the procrate of WF is just weird and is higher if you dual-enchant it (meaning you get more consistent procs). Flametongue shines on fast weapons, so if you can't get a good slow offhand it might be better even below 80. You are right in that one argument for WF is the better scaling, which is useless if your gear isn't that great. You probably just have to test that for yourself. (Or venture to EJ and try the new Simulator)
b) might look at your armory later, when not at work. I posted enhancements builds for leveling (and my reasoning behind them) some pages ago which might help you.
edit: I looked. The only real problem I can find is that you are some kind of space-goat
c) The perfect speed was never 2.6 it was "as slow as possible". We just had no slower weapons (I think there were one or two 2.8ers). This is still true: Slower weapons mean bigger SS, LL and WF hits also more Maelstrom procs. Faster weapons mean more Flametongue damage and more Static Shock procs (which you won't have the points for at 70). You will always swing inside the WF cooldown, that doesn't matter at all. Optimizing weapon speed for WF is useless as you can't really rely on it (lots of haste procs on gear/enchants).
I'm not sure about alliance, but horde have a quest at the alterac valley mountains for a 41 dps main-hand mace. Maybe check that out?
That was a fun six months, though. Just for shits and giggles sometimes I would break out a 1.5/1.3 dagger combo and jump casters. Anything with a cast time just got destroyed by the massive amount of pushback.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
AKA [PA]Ilovepandas
It's been intercepted.
Or Cheap Shotted.
Or Feral Charged.
Or Hammer of Justice'd.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
If the Totem mechanic wasn't so shoddy, he'd probably have higher damage in dungeons, but as it is he usually has near the highest DPS. Spending the first 4 seconds of combat buffing the party almost every time while everyone else is already going to town tends to add up over the course of a run. Normally I'd say it's a good thing because it gives the tank a chance to get some aggro before starting, and so maybe it'll even out again at 80 when DPS classes *are* going to have to let the tank work for a few, but as it stands right now, almost no one can catch tanks even starting right off the bat anyway. Except Ret Pallies that is, they're still aggro machines.
This is the PvE build I've been using on my dungeoning escapade:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hAc0qcdetMxoZ0xgco
Seeing as Storm, Earth and Fire was nerfed into near uselessness, I don't feel it's been necessary for a purely PvEing Elemental Shaman to waste the points into it just to get Thunderstorm. I rarely ever have to drink in 5-mans, and in the few Kara/ZAs I've done since 3.0 we've almost always had at least 1 Ret Pally and so Replenishment has kept me topped off easily.
I figure I'll start putting my points into the Lava Burst talents on the way to 75, though I'll likely have to shift some things around at that point anyway, I do plan on having Thunderstorm at 80, but my build has worked very nicely at 70. Yes, I know the points in Improved Ghost Wolf aren't necessary, and honestly, I don't use Ghost Wolf that often, but I do love it being instant.
Some talk in this thread about Enhancement almost had me tempted... but honestly, there's no way I'm going back to Enhancement on my Shaman. I'd much rather start a Death Knight, which I definitely am going to, likely Unholy. Plate Wearing, Pet Using, Shadow and Frost DPS/tanking hybrid class with plenty of *fun* utility that can AoE grind 5 like level mobs and end up with full health? Yes please.
My first character to 60 in Vanilla was an Enhancement Shaman, in the days when The Unstoppable Force gibbed casters on the whims of Lady Luck, my main going into TBC was a Warlock. My main going into WotLK seems to be my Elemental Shaman, but I could easily see my Death Knight taking over that, the more I read up on them.
Alliance have the Gryphon Rider's Stormhammer, which I'm using. That and Ripsaw. I'd like to sport Axe of the Deep Woods x2 but I refuse to pay 250g apiece for something I'm going to replace at 61. I have better uses for that gold.
Thanks for mentioning the AV hammer, I'll try to snag that. Sub-par stats but it's a significant upgrade from Ripsaw.
Stop dropping totems, then.
I mean, I assume we're talking about Heroics here. At your gear level - and the general gear level of people right now - you could probably get away with not dropping totems at all on trash. Even in raid dungeons,all you really need on trash is ToW + WoA before you blow shit up.
The only time I ever have all four totems down on my Shaman is on raid bosses. Unless it's Karazhan, which is basically a 10-man heroic.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
I felt the same way about AotDW. I'm surprised they still go for so much, really, I don't know anyone who twinks for the fifties.
Good point, I suppose I should just shift to dropping ToW+WoA and bolting. I was messing around with the 70 training dummies in Org earlier tonight and managed about 1250 dps going full out for just over 4 minutes straight. And that wasn't counting any trinket popping or Bloodlust, and I couldn't use Chain Lightning in my rotation because the dummies are all too close together and it hits them all.
Then I let my mana fill, reset my totems and changed my Lightning Bolt to a macro that used my trinket/EM, popped Bloodlust right off the bat. Still without using Chain Lightning, I strangely pulled about 1238 dps over not quite 3 minutes before my mana was out. I can only imagine it had something to do with crit differences. Though during the duration of Bloodlust, I was pulling just over 1500 dps with my 1.2s lightning bolt spam.
I love Recount.
It's just rare as hell, that's all. Look at the zones it drops in the most: Silithus, Scholo, Strat, BRS, WPl, EPL. 3 instances and 2 zones that nobody goes to anymore because by the time you're 58 you might as well just go to Outlands. I guess people still quest in WPL at the low 50s but I guarantee you Scholo, Strat, and BRS are ghost towns these days.
Except nobody twinks the 50s bracket, and level 57-59 Outland greens are superior weapons anyway. AotDW is a level 52 axe with 2.70 speed, no stats, and a proc, which basically means it's good for Enhancement shamans and nobody else. <Random Green Mace/Sword of the Bandit> is better for anyone trying to twink for the 50s bracket.
I just want a pair of decent weapons to get from 52 to 61 with.
Or, would it just be better to stack crit rating, since that would effect everything?
Some people do for AV, since that's the lowest bracket. I don't know how popular it is though...my guess is not very.
And I'm pretty sure AotDW is good for more than enhancement shamans. Fury warriors, at least? Also, you seem to have spontaneously forgotten about the people populating the WoW servers. It doesn't matter what the axe is optimal for; other people will still buy and use it. 1H/shield paladin? Sure, why not.
And do you really need to be reminded of HUNTER WEAPON?
Man, I know it's just Arc, but that felt awesome.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
There's a talent that converts attack power into spell damage, so no, you wouldn't want any spell damage on your gear.