At a crossroads with my Shaman and feeling frustrated with the class

Classes Shaman
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So im having a hard time deciding what direction to go with my Shaman. Im pretty casual but mostly spend my time doing RBGs, some arenas and casual pvp. I dont have a ton of experience with high end arenas but have played the game off and on since release and have played alot of pvp. I rolled this expansion fully expecting to play enhance shaman and made Doom winds.

I just cant really enjoy pvp right now though. Im always the first person targeted and it can be very hard to get much accomplished. Feels like I get stunned and or CC and its pretty much over from there. The burst is just insane and popping your trinket feels like it doesnt save you from the abundance of CC.

I have dabbled with resto and elemental with similar outcomes. As resto im instantly targeted, pop defensives, usually live awhile but its hard to feel like I have much control. Just trying to survive. Honestly im just really tired of always being the first kill target.

I have enough soul ash to make a tier 4 leggo this week and had planned on making earthen harmony to give it a try and see if it would give me the survivability im searching for the be able to actually have a bit more control in pvp and not just trying to survive and or run for my life in ghost wolf.

I also have enough conquest saved to buy weapons. Could buy my enhance and or resto weapons but im having a hard time commiting because I honestly am struggling with both specs.

I went with Venthyr covenant as the plan was to go enhance.

Currently sitting at 189 ilvl and 21% vers

Do I just commit to enhance and buy all my upgrades and hope things feel better? Just having a hard time believing gear will make things feel much different.

Any input would be great, thanks.

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I can’t speak too much about PvP, since I am only the most casual of the casual PvPer. But… do you have a regular buddy or buddies you run with? Having one or two other people with strategies between you to peel enemies off you, CC them back or the like can make a huge difference.

Also, viz gear, this is just from a PvE perspective, but for me, the difference between ilvl 189 and 199 was night and day. You may partially have a gearing issue.

That said, shamans’ abilities to deal with chain CC is a legit frustration right now for a lot of players. I’ve seen lots of people calling for being able to use astral shift while CC’d for example…

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Yeah im mostly a lonewolf in pvp so its probably a large part of the problem. I just hate the idea of needing to rely on someone for peels to stay alive.

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Shaman is perhaps one of the last support classes left, in that you constantly need to rely on other people in pvp, while also offering a toolkit that helps them excel as well.

Things like purge and earthbind, cap totem, healing spring, etc. etc. all stack up.

As Enhancement, never be alone…ever. Shaman are the squishiest class in the game backed by zero burst mobility. As Enhancement, play with your other melee. In turn, they will thank you for being their with windfury, as well as off-heals.

Expect to be targeted. We have one wall as Enhance, and as mentioned are incredibly squishy. So part of Enhance is knowing when to go all in, and when to step back and kite and give some space. We have room to work with for some of our abilities. If you are with a teammate and they have a snare and you are being focused, don’t be afraid to ghost wolf out while they are snared and get off a heal out of interupt range. Save your cooldowns for when enemies are stunned. If you start peeling for healers as well, they will take note and start to heal you for saving them, which can be a nice symbiotic relationship because an Enhance backed by a healer can become a dominant force in bgs.

For Elemental, spec into Primal Elementalist. This alone makes PvP viable, in my opinion. When you think there is a rogue around, or are in arena with one, just pop Earth Elemental at the start. Harden and Pulverize are great utility and will be available to you for the first minute, which you can force the fight to start…which means when that rogue shows itself to stun you, you stun it…then wall with harden. This negates a lot of opening burst, especially if you stun after they shadow dance…do they risk trinketing it? If they do, lasso them…or be following up pulverize with a cap totem.

A lot of Elemental is also kiting, and staying alive until your go moments. You can 100-0 someone as Elemental with your burst combination, so its important that you work on staying alive, as again you will be focused first due to low defensives. But with Earth shield, ghost wolf, and frost shock spamming, you can maintain decent distance on most enemies.

If you plan to go into bgs solo, and don’t want to work alongside your teammate, Elemental is the go to as the range spec just fairs better due to being able to sit back in safe area.

Versatility is key. I’ve seen Enh players with 200+ ilvl and 20%+ vers and they are unkillable until 4+ people are on them.

Covenant choice helps as well. For Enhance PvP, Venthyr can totally swing the tide of battle because it’ll heal you while putting pressure out at the same time.

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I would say stick with enhance. It sounds like that is what you ideally want to play. You should go watch LovelessTv streaming on twitch. He plays enhance and does a lot of 2v2 with viewers. You can see the ridiculous damage he does, and the big heals as well. You can probably get some good information from him, and at the very least get psyched about playing enhance!

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Stick with enh, trust me when I say your burst is stronger than they guys your letting kill you. Drop lust/doomwinds/ascendance and proceed to wipe an entire team on your own if they don’t deal with you quickly. Your defensives are healing and killing them before they can kill you. Also ghost wolf kiting isn’t that bad. Shear and grounding used on the right things at the right times make you a menance to casters. Most melee cannot stand toe to toe with your burst. Ret bubbling is pretty much the only thing that can. Everyone else has to run or heavily lock you down (this is where you save trinket and use it wisely).

I’m usually top dmg in rbgs a enh, and am sitting around 2400cr in 3s atm. For the most part always target things that have the least mobility, use all your offensive cds early, 100% of the time if they don’t respect you popping 5 CD globals in their face, you either kill or get all their defensives and than in 1min when doomwinds is up again you win. Also never be afraid to tab target to someone else if you see the person your on walled, enh is probably the best “swap surprise” classes right now when it bursts. Your fighting an spriest and he dispersed? His teammate in the back looks non the wiser. Fighting another enh and he has the nerve to run astral form? His warrior partner isn’t gonna know what hit him.

80% of the time people think your just gonna hit into the defensives and don’t see a swap coming. You have 10sec to make those 80% of people regret their lack of awareness. (That’s the length of doomwinds)

GL

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Honestly you gotta post on the char so we can help you. I will say that I am leading in DMG and kills most maps in our rbg (or top three at a minimum) and have no problem going toe to toe with most people. We are the epitome of best defence is a strong offence - you make them pay quickly for not being defensive, and you rely on 4-5 instant heals and chain harvest to keep you going while you push. Maelstrom was designed to make you push the entire time (don’t hard cast heals; you’re better to push dps until instant cast is up) so lean into it. Counterstrike totem is a meme in higher rating but in randoms it will solo a blade storm no problem. Happy to hook up in game and help as well; let me know