Depends on your playstyle before, Have you played Warriors, particularly Fury? Or have you been avid on ranged classes? Enhancement shares similar feeling to Fury Warrior but their abilities are clearly different yet I dub both of them as “Spammy whammies”
Elemental have been pretty powerful and can hold their own as well, sadly I can’t say more because I don’t have personal experience asides from witnessing being outclassed sometimes while I’m enhancement but that’s mainly due to both specs having quite a bit of RNG in their playstyle.
As advice when it comes to Enhancement, they will feel bad until you gain Crash Lightning and Maelstrom Weapon because you’ll be very heavily stuck single-targeting until like… level 40? So focus on single-target only talents until you have the ability to effectively multi-target.
I don’t think that frantic gameplay in context of Enh necessarily equates to a higher skill cap, but I get what you’re trying to say.
Thanks for clarifying.
You got me there, lol. What I was trying to get at is that most players in that split second decision would cast the available LvB to get mote running and to rid themselves of an LvB charge, when with everything else on CD you could spend the single GCD to LB to 51+ mael and then use the available LvB to MOTE your ES.
If a player were to have used the LvB, they’d hit 53+, but not enough to overload to ES range. Then they’re stuck waiting for a surge or the second charge of LvB to come off before they overcap, and that’s if nothing else comes off CD that would then cause them to potentially overcap with it’s use. Extremely specific and minor optimization, but it’s there.
Final word because I’m interested but lose what exactly? Despite never directly mentioning or boasting about it on here I am quite beyond the average player in a PvE sense, unless that’s not what you mean? Idk.
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Haha, I knew what the correct and incorrect answers were that you were looking for, but come on, even an idiot will just go look it up if they didn’t know. Glad you enjoyed my dodge 
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Thx for staying respectful, apologies I didn’t with the peeing match comment. In raiding you’ve got me beat with the 10/10 mythic - I don’t raid.
I think i’ll exit now, the OP has gotten more than enough info about what to lvl as, lol. Have a good day.
Edit - @Nawat - while the average APM is usually around 10-20% difference (which isn’t insignificant at all), the biggest difference is during CD’s. On Enhance, during Ascendance, Doom Winds and hero it is very fast paced. And if you mess that window up, your dps suffers hugely.
Think of fire mage. Is it a high APM spec 90% of the time? No, especially on AOE, it just hardcasts flamestrike. But you better have very quick fingers during combust, or your dps will be trash tier.
Enhance is similar in that it plays very quickly, but then has “gaps” where there’s nothing to press for a couple of seconds. This drags the overall APM way down. But during burst windows it’s extremely demanding to play optimally (compared to many specs at least).
The only scenario Ele gets even close to being that fast paced is by playing storm ele, and then the end of storm ele (with 20 haste buffs) and also with hero up. But with that build we’re basically just spamming lightning bolt 8x in a row and then using a spender. With certain builds even flame shock and lava burst drop off the priority lists in that scenario, so it’s still quite hard to mess up.
That specific scenario is written anywhere, and actually goes against the priority list on most sites - that’s why it’s the scenario I asked about.
I did lol
(It’s less so 10/10 and more the ranking per-spec on WCL. Blauturtle is the only guy around higher that I’ve seen post recently, which is fine.) And I don’t do keys, I think if you check my IO you’ll see February dates in the “last 5 completed” area lol. You’ve just now given me a reason to start doing them again though
Same, gl.
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I main a Hunter and a Mage. I played a Paladin, way back in Wrath and then again in WoD but…meh, really. I just don’t really know what my role is supposed to be as a Elemental shaman (since I just picked that to do the WoD starter stuff for). Am I just supposed to stay at range?
Not really sure if that interests me, since that’s what all my other characters do. Was looking to mix it up a little.
Elemental is strictly range, sure, it has melee abilities but that’s only there if mana runs dry or because you got Interrupted during a channel. Never have I taken what Exile’s Reach by heart because it tells you to use melee abilities when a enemy is close but you just won’t be doing as much for going with that logic.
Its why I like Enhancement, it completely changes up the formula of how to play a shaman while still fitting the fantasy because like I said before since its just a Fury Warrior. You are nearly impossible to be interrupted since the only things that can get you is during Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning majority of the time, Healing Surges too but rarely will that happen. The only gripe I can say about Enhancement is the initial awkwardness of their abilities because nearly every ability has a cooldown, and two of your major spells are sharing a cooldown which is Frost Shock or Fire Shock but generally that isn’t a big issue if you can decide when to use Multi Target or single target.
Since I have played Enhancement, since Cataclysm, since MoP, and even into WoD as well as up to this point throughout Legion and BFA. The only difference Enhancement truly has is how they accumilate Maelstrom as a resource and additional abilities to utilize it and enhance your offensive abilities more as well as continuing the rotation.
Ultimately, I would just suggest making a Shaman, try a little bit, try to get to level 40 at least if you’re planning to try Enhancement and see how it feels then.
Leveling as melee made me feel much more sturdy. My UHDK was a breeze. That being said, I leveled my resto shaman as elemental and had a blast. The animations and sounds are easily my favorite of any class.
Curious what melee spec you think works this way tbh.
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You and Nevok, the druid that doesn’t raid, have got to be two of the worst people to give advice on the topic I’ve ever seen lol
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Luckily I just went elemental and didn’t really listen to anything they said.
If it calls to you enhancement is the way to go and we welcome you. But its going to feel strange like you are missing something or not playing correctly until you get to aroudn 190 ilevel and your haste catches up.
The most important thing to remember that, as an enhancement shaman, whenever you have a dead global you have to take a drink.
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I found levelling Elemental with Necrolord to be easier than as Enhancement. Primordial Waye, Frost Shock, Echoing Shock, and Lava Burst and the mob usually dies from the 3 Lava Bursts hitting it before it can make it to me.
Enhance for leveling, elemental all the way for end game content.
Elemental is so much fun. I moonlight there when my healer isn’t needed
It is higher but definitely not significantly. Just browsing through warcraft logs and comparing Ele shamans to Enhance on a ST fight, Enhance on average has ~5 CPM higher then Ele. ~50-55 for Enhance, ~45-50 for Ele.
I wont speak for Enhance as I don’t main it or raid with it. Elemental isn’t the hardest class to play but it’s not a trivial one either. Properly spending Maelstrom without capping and making sure that you have a LavaBurst ready so ES can take advantage of Master of The Elements takes some finesse. As does proper Flame Shock uptime when there is multiple targets.
I would argue that Elemental is easier to play on Single Target but more difficult on add cleave and long multi target fights. Relying on FlameShock on multiple targets for maximizing damage ontop of Earthquake and CL casts is difficult at times without going over the Maelstrom cap or letting FS drop off. Not to mention you ideally want to get in a Lavaburst before dropping Earthquake so it buffs it with MoTE.