Enhancement is it better to get clear casting &
Elemental devastation or go down resto for the Hit 3% hit and totem range/mana reduction
Level enhancement to 40. Respec to Elemental. Don’t look back.
If you insist on staying Enhancement you need to decide: Do you want better shocks (cheaper cost/better damage/lower CD) or do you want pure utility (3% hit/totem range/cheaper heals/cheaper totems). Which one is better depends on what you’re doing.
If you decide to go Elemental for your off tree, Elemental Devastation is worth picking up. You won’t crit with spells OFTEN, but you’ll notice it when you do.
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Level enhancement until about 45. Pick up the shield specialization talent and two handed weapon talent. You will find much more leather and mail with agility/Stam/strength while leveling. Plus weapons like Ravager to make your leveling experiences a breeze…
Agree. Plus by then your guild needs and playstyle should settle it in.
If you are an orc you don’t need to ever take the 3% hit in resto as long as you use an axe. When you first hit 60 and don’t have good hit gear, you must spec the 3%. Once you have enough hit gear you can go elem devestation and forget resto tree.
How much hit does axe specialization give?
…Until your Earth Shock gets resisted on a crucial interrupt and you realize “oh yeah, that resto talent gives 3% melee AND spell hit.”
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The passive is 5 weapon skill points or 3%.
Thats a bit oversimplified. The OP is leveling, not raiding.
If you have 300 skill, then you have the following miss chance:
Level 63 mob: Effective 9% miss
Level 62 mob: 6% miss
Level 61 mob: 5.5 miss
If you have 305 weapon skill then your miss chances all shift a slot.
Level 63 mob: 6% miss
Level 62 mob: 5.5% miss
Level 61 mob: 5% miss
So, when a weapon skill capped character is fighting a mob that is 3 levels higher (like a raid boss), then 5 additional weapon skill is the equivalent of 3% hit in terms of negating miss chance*. Under other circumstances, a lot of math needs to be done.
*Increased weapon skill also reduces the damage penalty on glancing blows making better than just 3% hit…and making Edgemasters cost 3000g 
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As Enhancement, you won’t rely so much on totems as you’ll be jumping from mob to mob unless you’re lucky enough to get a bunch of mobs clustered in one area where you can easily body pull back to your totems. I would totally go into Elemental for the remaining points as you generally want to follow Stormstrike with an Earth Shock (when soloing) due to the +Nature damage boost, so those talents that lower Shock mana cost and boost damage are a nice bonus to have. Now if you only took a few points into Enhancement and did not grab Stormstrike (honestly, not as strong as I’d imagine it would be), then Resto could be good since you’ll be relying on your totems a lot more.
Others have said to switch to 31 points Elemental. I’m curious about this myself as my own Shaman just reached 40 and, as above, SS seems kinda meh. But I am curious how efficient it is. I don’t mind drinking water, but if I burn through mana so fast that I am clobbering my income with all the water I buy, that would be a problem.
It’s not SS that is expensive, it’s the ES used after.
Currently, at level 40, SS costs me 205 mana whereas my current rank 5 ES costs 240. ES does better damage from the hit on its own unless SS crits, although obviously ES will do even more after landing the SS.
Is it maybe a scaling issue where SS starts costing less, relatively speaking, as you level?
SS has a 20% chance to do triple damage +20% buff to 2 ESs. Really no contest. Also, wait 1.5 seconds after auto attacking as WF gives a 1.5 second hidden buff that prevents another proc going off (the AP buff). Also SS crits for 100% damage.
Meh. 20% for Windfury or bad damage. I’d rather use Rockbiter and have a guaranteed good damage hit that possibly crits.
Eh, it’s up to you what you prefer. Obviously, SS favors WF. I’m of the opinion that one should stack spirit and strength and front load your damage so that you can regen mana uninterrupted while finishing and traveling.
Can switch to Elemental at 39, IMO. The key talent is Lightning Mastery. It’s basically a 50% dps increase.
You will burn through a lot of water. But you blow things up quick. Make a mage friend.
As a side note, one benefit to leveling Elemental that I never see mentioned is bag space. You will probably be healing as often as not in groups, unless you want to be the guy that refuses to heal while the group spends half an hour looking for a healer. Until endgame, Elemental dps and healing gear is mostly the same gear. You just stack intellect. So as Elemental, you can easily switch between roles without having to build a second set of gear.
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But again, how much are you spending on water compared to the amount of loot you get? I mean, fast leveling is cool and all, but not if you reach 60 and you’re flat broke. It’s not like my guild’s mages are water coolers on command
Literally all of this is truth. Elemental while levelling offers the versatility of never having to waste time looking for a healer. If the group comes with one, great. If it doesn’t come with one and that’s the last thing you’re after, you can go ahead and heal (use current max rank -1 to increase your mana efficiency) and get the group underway.
Also yes, Lightning Mastery is 100% what makes Elemental a functional spec as far as casting goes. Until you’re 5/5 in it you’re essentially just an Enhancement Shaman with a worse weapon (or using a 1h and Shield). It’s make or break. The real power spikes in Elemental are the last 6 points in the tree (5/5 Lightning Mastery, Elemental Mastery). Elemental Mastery is, unironically, a “This needs to be dead right now” button. EM, CL + shock RIGHT after CL cast finishes for a double crit for damage capable of killing or nearly killing any yellow con mob (or player) for zero mana. Before that the Spec simply doesn’t work as a caster.
But again, how much are you spending on water compared to the amount of loot you get? I mean, fast leveling is cool and all, but not if you reach 60 and you’re flat broke. It’s not like my guild’s mages are water coolers on command
Part of learning Elemental is learning how to be as mana efficient as you possibly can with an extremely mana inefficient toolkit. Also, until you’re just shy of being able to use your next rank of available water (the X4 levels), current level water is sufficient. Even once you get 60 and start getting the gear to put your mana pool over 4.5k, 55 water is sufficient. You won’t be blowing a ridiculous amount of money on water unless you’re going out of your way to throw caution and mana efficiency aside in favor of quicker kills.
Post 40, it’s ideal to go down elemental for clear cast then the crit talents. These are a better use of your points if you just want damage. Guidance was stupidly placed too far down the restoration page, forcing you to waste 10 other points to reach it.