I know raiding is a big part of vanilla but I want to play an enhancement shaman. Can you get by with just 5 man gear and PvP gear (rank 10, exalted BG gear, etc)?
Do you mean:
Can I PvP exclusively and avoid raid content while staying competitive?
I was never super into high end PvP, but as I recall players in Tier 3 (Naxx) basically obliterated other players in PvP.
The PvP gear didn’t scale nearly as high as high end raiding gear, and as a result the power gap only continued to grow. Eventually you hit a point where players in Tier 3 were essentially war machines (good players with at least a competent understanding of PvP).
Naxx is the only “required” thing once people start getting fully geared. The difference in T2.5 and T3 is fairly large.
Up until then you can survive on the PvP blues or if you manage Rank 13/14 stuff
Your best players are usually the ones who play both sides. PVE and PVP.
It’s entirely possible to do that, and the rank 10 set +a pvp rep weapon tends to be what most people who don’t raid end up settling on, and /or the ceiling most alts achieve.
That being said, there is a significant performance gap using weapons that weak, and you might want to try finding at least mc runs as a shaman for eventually getting hand of rag.
Thanks for the replies