Hello all! This thread is made to discuss Enhancement Shaman tree - talents, changes that could be made, improvements and even possible new talents addition into it.
To start, Enhancement talent tree is quite decent. It has braches of mainly ST Wind / Lightning (left part), AoE / pet branch (middle part) and Fire / Frost mainly cleave branch (right part). However, some talents seem out of their place or unreliable and could use changes or boosts to make them better. Here are the suggested changes* (you can see them visualized in the link below, remove space before com and to make things clear - red arrow is position change, yellow square means changes / tweaks to existing talent, green square means a new separate / choice node talent and green slash means addition of existing / passive talent as a choice node to other talent).
imgur .com/a/sCFckcP
*Do not search for Chain Harvest here - I already suggested to put it into general Shaman tree as a right side end talent in corresponding topic, so that people who enjoyed it can still pick it no matter what spec they play.
Here is also short TLDR if needed:
Left tree is suggested to be kept as mostly ST damage tree with Rockbiter addition (to give Shamans a short CD Earth based attack), Doom Wind changed back to guaranteed proc and Ascendance talents moved into it with possibility to choose between Thorim’s Invocation and Improved Ascendance (that makes it 2 min CD) to make it more customizable and give possibility to synergize it better with some trinkets and other CDs.
Right tree is suggested to be kept as mostly cleave damage tree with new paths addition and Primordial Wave moved into it and altered to also affect either next Lightning Bolt or Lava Burst usage to provide possibility to create Fire themed builds.
Full list of suggestions:
Row 4:
Shaman currently lacks a short CD Earth based attack. It has Sundering, but it is a CC ability and has 40s CD, so is not very fitting. Solution: I suggest to return Rockbiter as a talent and put it into 4th row right above Sundering and connect it with Windfury Weapon and Sundering. It should be a 10-20 yds range Earth based instant cast attack with 6-15s CD and decent damage. It could be used as a filler when all other elemental hits are on CD or to deal some short-mid range distant damage.
Row 5:
It is good to see Doom Winds again, but the chance change is confusing. Why did it become 75% chance to proc Windfury (as tooltip states that chance is increased to 75%, not by 75%)? This just adds unnecessary RNG to this CD that it doesn’t need. Solution: Revert it to 100% proc chance and if needed reduce the damage bonus it provides to Windfury procs to compensate.
Row 6:
Stormflurry position in the middle of Fire / Ice right part of the tree seems misplaced. Solution: Move it to row 2 and make it accessible from Stormstrike as a middle talent between Windfury Weapon and Lava Lash. This will put it to the corresponding place and make it just an upgrade talent for Stormstrike. I also suggest to connect Fire Nova choice node with Hot Hand and Swirling Maelstrom directly, so that there is a clear Flame Shock / Lava Lash based branch in the right tree (from Lava Lash to Hot Hand) and Swirling Maelstrom is accessible from both Ice Strike and Fire Nova choice node for people, who would want to pick only one of them.
Windfury Totem lost part of its power and that is not a good change - 20% chance for additional auto attacks is much better than 10% and the nerf provides an unnecessary reduction to the Enhancement Shaman party support capabilities. Solution: Create a talent called Improved Windfury Totem that would increase proc chance back to 20%, compensated by additional talent point investment. Put it into 6th row right under the Windfury Totem itself - this will make it easily accessible. It could also be connected with Hot Hand to provide a supportive path to it and potentially create more build variety.
Row 8:
Ascendance with its upgrades and Primordial Wave with its upgrades should switch places. Ascendance is mainly a single target ability with bonus AoE burst attached and has relation to the Wind element, so it should be in the left side of tree, which is both mainly single target and Air / Lightning based. This would also make it connected to Elemental Assault and they should be so, as they are synergizing talents. Also, Primordial Wave, a mainly cleave / AoE situation talent would get put into mostly cleave based right tree and get connected with Legacy of the Frost Witch talent, which with the 10 Maelstrom Weapon stack generation upgrade taken into account would make them synergize quite well too.
Primordial Wave and its upgrades for Enhancement should affect both Lava Burst and Lightning Bolt (but be consumed if either is used, so that is a choice and not a charge addition, also with smaller damage bonus for Lava Burst to compensate for its guaranteed crit). This would allow Enhancement Shamans to use it with Lava Burst MSW procs and allow to create a mostly Fire based build if they want to. It would also then better fit the theme of right side of the tree that contains mainly Fire / Ice talents.
Row 10:
Thorim’s Invocation is a conditional upgrade (for example, PVP builds will often not take it to preserve MSW stacks for healing) and Ascendance 3 min CD is desynchronized with other CDs and many trinkets. Solution: I suggest to add a choice node between Thorim’s Invocation and Improved Ascendance, which would reduce CD of Ascendance by 60 seconds. This would allow people to pick between passive Lightning Bolts during Ascendance and possibility to make it a 2 min CD and synchronize better with many other CDs / trinkets.
This sums up the list of my suggestions. Feel free to add your own ideas and feedback about what could be changed or added to Enhancement Shaman talent tree. Thank you for reading!
I understand wanting the choice but I disagree with the reasoning
you shouldn’t be in a situation where you wanna spend the healing during your ascendance
the globals are so important and it such a long cd you’re better off either sending it better or worst case trading something else to keep you offensive
though overcapping maelstrom during doomwinds ascendance has always felt so bad but the lightning bolt global is so rarely worth it unless you’re having awful rng
this talent alleviates that and adds a ridiculous amount of damage to an already (we don’t know pacing) insane burst window
I can agree with that, so wrote often, not always) And there are exceptions, like if Ret pops both Divine Shield and Avenging Wrath at the same time, additional burst from Lightning Bolts will not be helpful, but healing from MSW to survive the bubble uptime might help. As a result, choice node could still be useful there. People who want maximum burst can take Thorim’s Invocation, people who want to be more careful can take Improved Ascendance.
I stated this on another thread however I will repost it in case you missed it.
Elemental and Enhancement Holy crapbaskets things that should be on the elemental tree are on the enhancement and some things that should be on the enhancement tree are on the elemental tree. Not to mention how much overlap can we have between the elemental shaman and enhancement shaman. Blizzard could have easily just given elemental shaman the lightning if that is one of the paths the devs wanted to go. In exchange, the Devs could have added the Earth path instead for enhancement. Instead, the devs choose to overlap lightning talents/spells.
I am sure that everything will work out and provide more diversity and all yet it just seems to me like a complete and utter flippin mess. I am just baffled at how messed up these talent trees look currently. It seriously does look like blizzard devs just failed to listen to us the players over the last few years and gave us the biggest middle finger ever, especially the Enhancement shamans.
I know what I know and if you don’t see what I am talking about shows you have no idea what many of us shamans have been talking about and demanding from blizzard for the last 4 expansions.
Whatever, it is what it is and this is what I should expect when someone has a different opinion on the forums. Attack me if you choose. I don’t give two crapbaskets anymore. I said my opinion. I stand by it and if people don’t see what I am seeing. then someone on the forums should not allow any more posts suggesting changes for the shaman class then because it means absolutely nothing then.
Why because I voiced a different view I am being inflammatory and showing like I am throwing a tantrum? So by your logic, I am what to just say “oh yes blizzard, you did such a wonderful job listening to us players over the last few years. You really do show that you care about our class and our opinions. Man sure glad blizzard you gave us so much choice.” and slob all over the knob of Blizzard devs? No, If I see something blatantly wrong I will say something.
My bad for thinking that the forums, especially in the Shaman class forums where I could voice my opinion whether for or against, and be ok with voicing that opinion even if that was the only shaman to have that viewpoint.
Thank you Demon Hunter for showing me that I need to be silent and not speak my mind whatsoever. I guess you really do embody the spirit of a Demon hunter which is that of being a complete and utter dick.
I personally LOVE the enhancement tree and the shaman tree in general
there’s a TON of cool utility enhance is gaining either back or for the first time ever
I think when you say “blizzard isn’t listening to the players” you’re thinking about feedback from the wrong players
you can voice whatever opinion you want but your wording implies you think your opinions are the majority and blizzard is slighting the entire community by not listening to your niche unrealistic dream-craft garbage
at best you value your own opinion WAY too much
at worse you’re delusional