So with vanilla coming out, and the chance to FINALLY be 2handed again, I wanted to ask for opinions of shamans who’ve stuck with the class and maybe even the spec through the years -
What was your personal favorite version of enhancement? What patch or expansion was it, and what abilities/gameplay/state of wow made the experience the time that stood out in your eyes, where you F*ing loved logging on and playing enhancement?
I’d say that goes to Mists of Pandaira.
Their ascendance ability was absolutely insane, and looked so awesome.
I, and EVERYONE couldn’t, and still can’t comprehend who thought changing it from a thunderous lightening blast of power to gusts of wind was a good idea?
It was possibly the worst idea I’ve ever seen made in this game for class design. Period. And it still enrages, and BAFFLES the mind how anyone thought this was a good idea, and STILL IS!!
You can’t even think about it. It just angers so greatly. The person behind class design is doing a horrible job at the highest of levels. They are liken to that of a child who wants something HIS way while ignoring what everyone actually wants.
But, I digress. MOP was super strong. Wolves did damage, they healed you, stormstrike hit VERY hard, and you could heal very well.
P.S And Sham rage.
MoP and WoD. Remember that WoD gave us those amazing Glyph of Ascendance forms (that really need to come back).
I didn’t mind Legion Enh too much. It was at least better than BfA Enh.
Mists of Pandaria, specifically in Throne of Thunder.
There’s no competition with any other point in time. Damage was great, we had Fire Nova, incredible off healing potential with the Healing Storm glyph combined with Ancestral Guidance and Ascendance, strong utility, good blow-up potential in PvP.
Very fun, very thematic.
Glad it isn’t just me that hates the current Ascendance form.
MoP hands down. Ele blast, ascendance combo was nuts.
Indeed, glad to see everyone is on the same page about MoP enhancement.
tbc imo then wrath mop killed 2hd enhancement shamans.
Vanilla.
Running around with a big fat 2 hander, pressing stormstrike into a fat chain lighting, earthshock combo, while getting fat windfury procs.
The windfury animation was sexy too!
Also all the totems you had it was amazing!
Then came dualwielding and the ruin of shamans.
vanilla and tbc when they added lava lash in wotlk and the spec felt bad for the first time at least to me but you could still use 2hd weapons.
imo vanallie and tbc were the best versions of enhancement.
Throne of thunder through to the end of MoP was hands down the best time for enhance.
No other version of enhance is even close.
all you cared about was ele blast and zap?..lol.
Pmuch.
Honorable mention to fire nova simply for the trash before the first boss in SoO.
MOP 10000% WOD was good too especially in challenge modes.
Didn’t play MoP or WoD, and didn’t hit 80 as Enh in wrath, but I really liked Cata Enh, when you still had totems and spells. The AoE was a bit awkward because you had to flameshock + LL to spread the flameshock for fire novas, but it was super unique, and doing it right felt good. It might have been the only back-loaded AoE rotation at the time, and scaled directly with the length of the encounter and the number of mobs; 5-6 fire novas all going off at the same time on a 4s cd was neat. It still felt like a hybrid spec at that time.
IMO, they really missed the mark in legion by focusing too much on spec identity, and ended up losing much of what made different classes unique. I liked it better when most of what a spec did was modify the class spells/abilities and provide the major CDs.
MoP. Full stop. Sith lightning and actually having spells was great.
Mop/wod…
I would die for aoe freedom totem… Seriously one of the best things we ever had. Allowed for so much out play. Kite major CDs then go ham on yours. Easy counterplay was the enemy just had to slap it… Allowed you to see the good players from the bad ones.
Blizzard needs to focus on what matters for Enhancement Shaman and allow lava burst and lava lash to work with using 2h weapons again. I dunno why they took out the original use of it at all ?! If it was because of the insane damage enhancement Shamans use to produce using a 2h weapon, Blizz could easily rework the damage output. It is the one thing I miss most for game play on my shaman.
Cata and Wod were fun for me, made this character in cata. i wasn’t too crazy about the legion rework, doesn’t really feel like I’m enhancing anything anymore.
It was the unreliable nature of it. We were either too strong, or completely weak. I loved 2h enh, and will enjoy it again in classic, but it was a nightmare to balance, because they were trying to balance extreme burst with zero sustain.