How are ENH shamans nowadays? Are they viable for PVE content
Absolutely.
They aren’t top DPS, but played well they are one of the higher specs.
I can’t say about 120 because im still levelling mine, but once you get stormstrike you start getting pretty damn potent. When im in dungeons and RNG is kind I feel like a thermonuclear bomb, but it is RNG dependent.
err, Stormbringer not Stormstrike sorry
Cleaving monsters.
Single target can be hit or miss depending on procs and mobility of fight.
Mine does real well even though I don’t play optimally. I really like the fury of air/lucid dreams build, it has better self healing and does really good damage. Plus it procs my twilight dev like crazy
They are very viable in PvE. Look up Waves enhancement Guide on youtube.
I will answer your question by saying: it depends.
What are your raid goals? Are you pushing top end Mythic raids or are you going for 20+ keys? if so, then no Shaman as a whole is not really viable.
Warcraft Logs, which tracks all the rankings, has Ele & Enhance as the 4th and 5th worse DPS spec in the game.
You are playing a complex class that does 20% less dmg than 3 button classes and brings no raid utility outside of Anhk.
If you are taking a much more midcore or casual approach to this game then Shaman is more than viable and actually fun to play.
Source: Am Enhance Shaman main.
Anyone asking about enh shaman being viable, this late in a patch…are not pushing top end mythic raiding or 20+ keys.
Depends on what you consider PVE content. Me, I do…okay in raids, but I have to work twice as hard on shaman as I do on my hunter main.
Luckily for me, I love the fantasy of wielding thunder and lightning in a pair of hammers.
I highly encourage people to at least try it. I raid. I’m not cutting edge (yet) but I have managed to get aotc every raid except for dazalor because work got in the way for that one. Though we are a spec where if you don’t stick close to a specific build you will probably fall behind dps wise.
I’m pretty sure there’s an enhancement shaman who regularly dies +20 keys and over
The top enhancement shaman on my server has a 3413 io rating. Timed +21 on almost everything. Granted it stops at +21.
So it’s possible. Just not remotely as common as the dominant specs like Havoc, Assassination and Beast Mastery.
From your stats I think it shows enhancements doing good too! 
It truly is gear dependent until you can get the weapons from NY your DPS is going to be stuck in the 50s and 60s maybe 70s on bosses you can dish out some damn good damage in mythic‘s when the stars align it’s a love-hate relationship for sure you got to play around with a couple talents. essence stay pretty much stay the same. The one thing about enhancement is you really got a focus on playing the spec same with Eli enhancement is just fun. I’m truly more impressed on classes that are challenged doing hi Keys I am classes that are typical doing hi Keys not taking anything away from those classes for being a bastard class of DPS
My biggest issue w/enhance in M+ is survivability. As a melee we have a poor defensive/mobility toolkit which can make high M+ pretty punishing.
In high M+ there are alot of mechanics you are exposed to in melee that can do enormous damage and/or 1 shot you.
A number of melee specs have mobility tools to quickly get into/out of these that allows them to maintain dps better and react later w/o getting wrecked. Shaman has to hoof it in and out w/ghost wolf.
Some classes also have immunities so they can even choose to eat a mechanic in the event they react late. No immunites for shaman.
A number of DPS can also either heal through damage or have 1 global heals that heal for alot. Shaman has to spam healing surge.
Poor survivability/mobility causes two issues:
-
easier to get killed/more stressful to stay alive
-
hurts dps if you use globals on healing or take more time than other melee to move in and out of mechanics (or if you die).
100 percent we are softer then cloth which makes no since.
I’ve never understood why enh is so squishy. It’s one of the feels things that keeps me away from shammy
For a relatively poor mobility melee class, our survivability seems unjustifiably low.
Maelstrom weapon takes away healing surge spam which is fine, but I would have thought that just clears the way for better defensive CDs.
Yet so far there is no sign of any boost to our defensives on alpha.
This is despite the fact that in every version of the game when we used maelstrom weapon we had better defensives (sham rage in every version, plus healing wolves in many versions, plus other defensives such as healing tide totem and talented astral shift in some, plus boosts to healing/damage from maelstrom weapon charges). The legion rework removed most of our defensive toolkit in exchange for a 40% hot on astral shift and instant cast healing surge spam.
BFA took away the 40% HOT and left us with one long CD short duration medicore defensive. Leaving us with mainly just healing surge spam. Then they took that away in BFA with PvP nerfs and dramatic inflation of stamina relative to spell power. Alpha now kills healing surge spam with a return to maelstrom weapon.
Where are the buffs to our defensive toolkit to compensate for the removal of the astral shift HOT and healing surge spam that were presumably the reason for the neutering of our defensive toolkit in the legion rework? Where is sham rage? Or healing wolves? Or the HOT we used to have on astral shift? Or, at the very least, a 10% buff to healing/damage per maelstrom charge like we used to have?
The neutering of our defensive tookit reminds me of the neutering of feral spirit. Death by a thousand cuts. Relentlessly chopped away at xpac after xpac until there’s nothing left.
I don’t get it. Enhance is more of a glass window then a glass cannon at this point. Particularly now that our entire toolkit is on the global CD.
this makes me sad. warrior is my main and I want DK or Sham to be my comain and I have glaring things about both that I dont like