They have zero buttons that are derived off of weapon damage unless you invest 40 points into a lackluster tree for an extra autoattack every 20 seconds.
They have an obscene amount of abilities that are support or magic nukes.
Staffs are largely on par with 2h axes and maces for weapon damage and dps till raid quality gear, making the talent pretty weak till then.
no innate parry so they are missing a third of their melee defense table without significant talent investment.
Has access to 200% spell crit and +11% critchance while still retaining strong windfury autos without needing the awful enhancement tree, can also heal effectively since the gear is close enough.
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Because it’s better for leveling. Pretty obvious.
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The crit chance is still woefully low compared to windfuries chance to proc.
As enhance you choose +5% block
+10% Armor
+5% dodge
+5% stam
And then you play as if you’re specced ele
Screw healing, just don’t take damage in the first place
#OPEleTanks
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Itemization for hybrid class casters is generally pretty bad. My paladin was confused for a holy priest on several occasions. There is also the Mana dependency issue while leveling. Hybrids don’t get wands.
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Has access to 200% spell crit and +11% critchance while still retaining strong windfury autos without needing the awful enhancement tree, can also heal effectively since the gear is close enough.
Until level 39, Elemental isn’t really a viable dps option - the key talents in the tree come very late. Even then, Elemental dps has serious sustain issues until you’ve got piles of spellpower and can downrank Lightning Bolt for efficiency.
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Ele is mana hungry get ready to drink constantly. No nature damage until 40ish. Limited CC, basically running and kiting after ur second LB. Speaking of LB you’ll be spamming it, a lot. It’s one of your two abilities besides shock. CL is even more mana hungry. Lightning shield will never proc if you don’t get hit.
Enhance has little downtime assuming you can manage mana. More survivability and higher melee dps. With WF you’re going to trigger flurry off of crits quite a bit. Usually every pull it will proc despite low crit chance. Improved ghost wolf!
Not saying ele is bad, I can’t wait to respec to ele. As for leveling, I’d rather have the ability to do decent white damage. It’s simply more efficient. L shield, Flame shock, searing, white damage. Can’t be beat early on.
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Why does OP seem angry at shamans lol, let people play how that want
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Orcs plus 5 to axes is a big boost. They have great burst damage but not sustained. Totems are a huge boost for groups, windfury alone or agility totem.
Did you check any shaman leveling guides before making this thread? Any decent one will say to go enhance
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“Stop liking things I don’t like”
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“I’ve clearly never played a shaman but i know they’re all doing it wrong” -OP
/thread
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They…
Don’t know
Don’t care
Don’t know or care
Know but dont care
Care but not enough for it to matter
Are having fun
Like enhancement for leveling
Think it makes thier characters look cool
All about the windfury
Think combat tables are where you eat lunch while playing the WAR card game with friends.
Can be any one of or a combination of the above. Im sure i missed a few other reasons.
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Enhance shamans are like Ret Paladins, masters of the autoattack. No, they don’t have a lot of melee attack buttons to press. They can’t efficiently level by spamming lightning bolt for a variety of reasons though, so they’ve just got to auto and wait for windfury procs.
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Well I believe I can answer op.
Even though elemental is overwhelmingly so the better option, there are some caveats why people stick with enhancment.
The first is because its the only spec that works for level under level 40. That’s a pretty huge chunk of time. So naturally shamans have really only enhancement gear and see that 41st point talent and want to stick with their current build without having to get all new gear.
The second is that there is this preconceived notion that enhance is the only spec for leveling . while true to a point, once 38/40 rolls around and melee damage ttk starts to slow down, does elemental become the better option when combined with new so gear options and late tree talents.
The last real reason shamans don’t covert to elemental is simply they don’t want to be a caster that can melee. They want to be a (terrible) melee class that has spells. No amount of convincing or stats can change their minds. They are chasing that WF dream and need to realize on their own how much better elemental is before they can go down that path. Its the same exact logic with ret paladins.
Or maybe… They just like the class and don’t care what everyone tells them to do. Some people really and truly don’t care what the “meta” is. They just want to have fun.
Yes I know the next answers:
Good luck getting a group
You’re stupid if you are willing to accept less than optimal class and build.
Go ahead and roll a meme but you’ll never get loot in MY group.
Only an idiot doesn’t understand Shaman must be healers.
Shamen aren’t “Viable”
Shamen aren’t “Optimal”
Did I miss any?
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Cast time reduction for LB doesn’t come until level 34-39, which effectively increases your elemental spec DPS by 33%. On top of that, ele is an extremely mana-inefficient spec, so while questing/dungeoning you need to stop and drink every few kills. At lower levels, enh has similar (or sometimes better) DPS, and takes very little mana. That being said, enhance isn’t really the “terrible” spec people make it out to be. It’s more difficult to play due to being more kiteable than ele, but it can be good in the hands of a skilled player.
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You can easily tank 5 mans as an enhance shaman.
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