I played enhancement shaman for majority of vanilla. I did my part and healed in mc, bwl, and aq. I think i got rank 11-12 for my enhc gear, never had eye drop for rag so i used unstoppable force. I always did really well in pvp back then until tbc hit, never faced to many naxx geared people in bgs though.
My question is, since vanilla is going to probably be 1.12 forever and eventually over years maybe lots of people could be full tier 3, will my enhc shaman lose his pvp potential? Stat wise tier 3 dwarfs all the other sets and i dont want my enhc shaman to become obsolete in pvp gear facing full tier 3 people over time. I could go ele but im more of a melee guy.
Tldr: Let me know your opinions if my pvp geared enhc will prob get wrecked by full tier 3 players in pvp. Thanks!
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With full T3, anyone will wreck you the Naxx power scaling is insane. The jump to BWL, no even AQ 40 to naxx is insane one in PVP gear.
If you’re full R14 geared you’ll be rockin, till naxx though, AQ 40 guy’s may give you trouble but you’ll be alright normally unless it’s like a warrior with a pally.
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I think people are seriously overblowing the amount of people who will raid AQ40 and Naxx. It will be more than the numbers from actual Vanilla but still a small minority. I’m guessing your average player will be running around with a mix of MC, ZG, and dungeon gear.
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its really hard to say if we will ever get to a point where naxx gear is common in bgs.
try to get sulfuras and your weapon will at least be roughly on par with early naxx stuff.
The rank 10 blue pvp set is roughly on par with bwl gear after its buffed late vanilla (and that is seemingly the only version of it we’re getting), and you can be at least moderately competitive from that standpoint.
Even better, your bis trinket is going to be the hand of justice trinket from brd, so that’s also quite easy to get your hands on.
What ends up being less easy is your weapon, which is why hand of rag was so popular for videos for enhancement… It was honestly the best weapon that was most realistically even found, as enhancement was overall an even worse pve spec than ret, and in competition with boomkin for the worst in the game outright. Being further limited by no swords didn’t help either, as those where the most common…
So as a ghetto guide:
The unstoppable force (rep bg pvp)
Earthshaker (first or second boss MC… No one will want it, but it’s proc is an aoe stun which can be huge)
Then it’s spinal reaper (which should honestly go to a warrior as the proc is amazing for them.
Hand of Rag.
Nightfall axe (which you should probably get it regardless, if you plan on raiding)
Beyond those bwl has 2 axes worth looking into, and AQ40 has a godly axe off cthun… Then you’re basically at naxx level gear. Where there’s severance and might of menethil. Not a whole ton of options…
Your 1h (for weapon swap) options are a bit cleaner… Lobotomizer from rep, there’s a nice axe off of Ony, another axe off Nef if your raiding mid level, and then Servo arm Boe from Naxx.
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Yea ill be healing for raiding like i did in vanilla, got a guild that says i can have eye if it drops already for hand of rag. I didnt know they buffed the pvp sets later on, is that in 1.12? So maybe i would be okay pushing rank 13 for gear and using raid maces/axes? Im not even gonna try for rank 14…
Well if you’re raiding regardless, the AQ40 set is actual pretty decent for both ele and enhancement. Certainly one of your best options available… That would be my target gear, if I end up being able to get it for my shaman, but my shaman is going to be my 2nd alt, so not super likely I’ll get much behind mc gear /rank 10 set (and even that’s a big maybe)
Add for when they buffed the sets I think it was well before 1.12 actually… Because all the HWL got boosted upwards as well, too be more on par with current (at the time) raid gear.
Finally, I’d add that HWL might not be so completely out of reach this time either… Have seen pservers people getting the top honor slot for the week off a fairly pathetic 350k honor… When I never even got to rank 12 pulling 650k/week consistently… It’ll be worth watching to be sure, but I’m holding out the slimmest of hopes that it might be possible this time… Hell, simply using a way more aggressive anti account share ai could potentially also be a modern factor that didn’t really happen back then that gives people a more fair shot at it.
People going in with the mindset of how raiding and even levelling has been for the past decade plus are going to be in for a shock. A huge number of players will ditch Classic and go back to BfA in the first 2 weeks.
Yea just checked stats for aq set looks like a better option dps wise with more str/agi but less stam than pvp set.
I mean… as someone who raided original as enhancement thru 3/4 of naxx, if you plan to raid as enhance I strongly suggest not putting all your eggs into the enhancement raider basket and stick eith it for situational purposes or pvp. After AQ40 there is virtually nothing out of naxx for an enhancement shaman, because severance will be given to warriors and MoM you’ll probably will not be getting that for the first quite a few drops. Being that your top gear is limited to AQ40 stuff, your dps falls off dramatically once the rest of your guild is in naxx dps gear. Enhancements is lower on dps naturally but everyone actually invisions the entire spec wrong in the first place. If you use one, their best use is being in the tank group to totem twist full time as you can move with the MT to keep totems on top of him. This is best used in a 6 shaman raid roster which is highly effective. If you actually gear properly as enhance you’ll have plenty of spellpower to support raid heal while twisting and have a mana pool so u don’t go oom. This really is the only practical use for enhance and this is coming from a guy who was a full time enh shaman back in the day. It can’t be a full time dps slot, it is purely for my reasons stated above for the MT min maxing and again you don’t really have any gear out of naxx unfortunately. Elemental on the other hand has a lot more ear options thruout the game and easily acquired as resto as well
I will def be healing for raids, just pvp as enhc.
In that case I would go for 14 if you can do it as it will be a full year before AQ is out, and you’ll have the axe in case the eye never drops or drops too late. Regarding getting crushed by naxx ppl in pvp, well you’re gonna be good until then in unorganized pvp. You’ll be crushed in organized pvp like prem vs prem as enhance is too easily shut down. At this point of the game elemental scales way too high over enhancement, however we all know how fun the enhance spec is either way. You’ll be fine on average, just keep your gear updated and keep a good 1h shield on you and for the love of god carry bags overflowing with FAPs and LIPs
Yea i may end up trying ele out since ill have the raid gear for it from healing pretty much. I hear eles spell power gets insane in tier 3 gear
Tier 2.5, tier 3 is just +healing. But an elemental shaman in warlords set or 2.5 with two trinkets is absurd and is done from range, which is by default a gigantic advantage with quick cast times. Elemental shamans and warriors are your front line damage dealers in premades
Yea set bonuses for 2.5 are way better for ele than tier 3 but tier 3 has a ton more int/piece
Smart guilds will prio that set to shamans for the insane chain heal bonus
Well i will be healing that raid as resto shaman. So you think increased stats from that set would still be bis for ele if i respec ele for bgs? I will always heal in raids though
your talking about a small percent of players that raid vs everyone else its like what around 8% of wow players are raiders?i wouldnt worry about it to much.
you will still be able to windfury crit some face off…i cant wait my self.
Most people see purple and fail to realize that a bulk of the T2 gear stat allocation budget is tied up on resistance stats for raiding.
It’s actually a really good design choice because it helps keep raid gear valuable while not making it ridiculous in PVP.
Unfortunately Blizzard did not stick with such a wise design choice in the later games.