I was curious about enhancement shamans for those with experience in the spec. I’ve played resto and ele respectively but never really tried enhancement. I did, however, run a class trial as enhance and found it to be quite fun. Having never played one before I don’t have the same frustration of what they lack compared to what they had, etc. That being said, are enhancement shamans really that bottom of the barrel across content? I dabble in PvP but a lot of my time is spent in PvE.
Interested to hear others opinions on them before I make a decision.
TIA
Excluding cutting edge raiding where the raid might need a more specific comp, you can play any spec. Shamans don’t bring as much utility as some other specs, so getting into pugs might be a bit harder. Just play what you like.
So long as you’re okay with literally never topping meters, Enh is great. They’re hecking fun to play, and their DPS isn’t so bad that you’ll be hindering your team. We’re receiving substantial buffs in 9.2 as well so, there’s that to look forward to.
Enhancement can be really fun in arena pvp because of your burst abilities and your off-healing. Shamans don’t do quite as much damage as some other classes, like arms warrior, but make up for it in their mobility, off-healing, and slowing abilities.
The earth elemental conduit buffs your health quite a bit, making you tankier (which if you pair with fleshcraft, it gives you a few thousand more health than regularly), and your self-healing with the earth shield and maelstrom weapon can take you from 30% health to 100% in an instant. That being said, our off-healing isn’t quite as strong as the off-healing mixed with defensives of a protection paladin. Our one defensive ability is good, but I think it should have two charges.
Our pvp talents are really strong in comps, especially Shamanism. Static field totem can be a great trap to finish off an opponent, or as a root so you can pillar and heal if you need, too.
Our burst is crazy strong, but predictable. Good comps will focus cc you if they know what they’re doing, but that can also be a good thing if you trust your partner since no CC’s will be available against them.
Know that generally, you will he focused in arena pvp because of your lower health pool, but also because of your utility.
Good compared to a DK? Maybe. But that would be about it. And DK’s can just pull everyone to them.
Compared to anything else? No not really.
Even ret has freedom, pony, plus bop/shield which is arguably a better set of mobility tools than enhance. Particularly when you also consider that they can drop an instant 6 second hammer on someone every 30 seconds to keep them from going anywhere.
And compared to most other melee its not even remotely close.
Everyone else is charging and leaping and porting and rolling and sprinting while we are loping along at 100% move speed in ghost wolf.
Enhance mobility is actually pretty garbage in comparison to most other classes.
Feral lunge should be baseline and Spirit Walk should grant 4 seconds of snare/root/grip immunity.
And then put earth grab totem or unleash shield as a talent where feral lunge is now.
Actually, make nature’s guardian AND feral spirit baseline and put earthgrab totem AND unleash shield as their replacements on the talent row.
I’ve really enjoyed playing enhance in m+ lately. You have great burst and pretty consistent damage even outside of cd windows. You’re very squishy in m+ though, which is bad when you’re in melee so be extra mindful of where you’re standing. Depending on your comp, you can still definitely top meters if you run hailstorm and your group doesn’t have a windwalker or frost mage. You’ll also surprisingly shine in single-target, almost always outperforming those big AoE casters.
TLDR: there’s definitely a niche for enhance in m+, optimal play-style will just come down to your comp.
I play enhancement pretty regularly. Shaman is my main. Around 1/3 of my M+ dungeons are as Enhancement (with the remaining 2/3 as Resto). I also play Enhancement in heroic and mythic raids for the fights that don’t need as many healers or if we’re trialing a new healer. I enjoy the fantasy of it but definitely notice less utility than when I’m playing my Fury Warrior. It currently isn’t going to be top-tier play, but it’s a lot of fun for standard 15-17 keys. Depending on how tuning lands on the PTR for 9.2, Enhancement could end up pretty strong next tier. I have noticed if you want to pug, you really have to push your M+ score and/or ilvl to get invites, so I generally use Resto to bolster those early in a season before jumping into DPSing.
Your point about feral lunge and nature’s guardian being baseline is something I whole heartily agree with. While the mobility is lacking in many areas, ghost wolf being a 100% movement speed constant and frost shock allowing for great kiting is a pretty solid combo. I would also argue that a lot of our high damage abilities are ranged (Chain Harvest, Windstrike, LB, Feral spirits) so we don’t need to be as mobile as say a warrior.
Good not great is the way I would describe Enh mobility
