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Leveling Question: Enhancement vs. Elemental
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358204
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Post by
Sorrowbone
Currently levelling my shaman that I dropped when WotLK came out to reroll DK.
My DK is pretty much as good as he can get, Ulduar 10/25 geared, and I am bored of him.
My shaman is full Tier 6 in Elemental with some Sunwell stuff thrown in for good measure. I love levelling him as this spec; most mobs are 3 - 4 shotted etc. At 73 I tried Enhancement for 1 level. I am full epic geared in this spec; Karazhan up to Black Temple gear. No Tier gear. Damn, what a fail. I had asked the Enhance shammies from my guild for all the pointers, rotations, spec choices etc, and things seemed to die exceptionally slow.
My Shaman hit 75 last night. I am 2 shotting most things now (mostly in Zul Drak atm). Flame Shock -> Lava Burst is an instant 6k burst, and another Lightning Bolt crit is death for the mob.
This is probably all because of my gear, but even epic geared in Enhance it felt suckish.
Post by
Achloryn
Currently levelling my shaman that I dropped when WotLK came out to reroll DK.
My DK is pretty much as good as he can get, Ulduar 10/25 geared, and I am bored of him.
My shaman is full Tier 6 in Elemental with some Sunwell stuff thrown in for good measure. I love levelling him as this spec; most mobs are 3 - 4 shotted etc. At 73 I tried Enhancement for 1 level. I am full epic geared in this spec; Karazhan up to Black Temple gear. No Tier gear. Damn, what a fail. I had asked the Enhance shammies from my guild for all the pointers, rotations, spec choices etc, and things seemed to die exceptionally slow.
My Shaman hit 75 last night. I am 2 shotting most things now (mostly in Zul Drak atm). Flame Shock -> Lava Burst is an instant 6k burst, and another Lightning Bolt crit is death for the mob.
This is probably all because of my gear, but even epic geared in Enhance it felt suckish.
i think that's just because casters shine a lot more now at end game-ish material more than melee does. Simply because you won't have many melee hits that are critting for 7-8k, whereas when i was levelling my mage thru lich king, it happened pretty regularly as soon as i hit around 75. Itemization for casters (especially in pre-BC content) is a little more... crappy, and you won't have much spell power without some BoA gear, thus making enhancement generally a bit easier to level at the start of the game. It's also nice to be able to stand way back and pull people with a lightning bolt or two and get half of their health down before you start waylaying on them at melee range. (Especially useful for mobs that have something like thorns or molten shield that damage you when you're melee attacking them)
I'm not sure if i want to respec my shaman to ele when i get to higher levels or not, but at 42, right now, i am most definitely enjoying enhancement... and i'm dying a lot less than i did when i was playing as elemental.
Post by
321294
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Post by
Afilo
Ok, you've asked many things, so i hope i hit all your questions/uncertainties
Elemental's main damage pre lvl 65 (when we get lava burst) is Lightning Bolt and Chainlightning if you have multiple mobs and your shocks (for the effect). When mobs get close you still want to use lightning bolt unless the mob is dead after 1 hit because our melee dmg isn't that good.
As elemental mana is your friend and most mobs will be dead before they reach you, or only hit you once or twice, so the only shield of good use for us is the water shield that gives on mana. Lightning shield isn't very good for us since that won't be how mobs will die and you will loose the mana regen.
If you should use a 1 handed weapon or 2 handed i'm not sure to be honest. It all depends on the stats would be my answere. I'm using the heirbloom 2H staff myself...
If you will OOM a lot... depends on your level. The moment you get that talent to regen 12% of intelect and some spellpower/intelect gear mobs drop like flies and your mana issues are out the window...
One advantage of Elemental over Enhancement in terms of dieing... Elemental will have higher spellpower and better mana regen I would say, since the stats we're after is only needed to get spellpower, crit and mana(regen). Enhancement also wants stuff for melee. So as elemental you would be better capable of healing yourself if you pull too much.
Elemental, when properly used, is also a outlasting specc... Water totem and water shield makes sure you'll never fully go oom...
I'm currently lvl 51. Just got my totem of wrath last weekend, and i'm looving it very much! 2 lightning bolt crits and mobs are dead... and there is also lightning overload which can also crit...
So no, it doesn't take a long time for you to kill single/multiple mobs.
And if you get pvp trouble, get a little distance on the other player (frost shock or earthbind totem) and start casting lightning bolt... 3 or 4 bolts and they're dead, not to mention you've also got shocks!
(while lvling you won't be using your shocks that often since they're less mana efficient damage and you learn to only use them for the effect)
Post by
etrin
I am about to ding 79 with my enh guy. Its not as powerful as my pally or dk but he is ok
Best word is Steady he just goes and goes
like I state in the next part of this post my pally was in epics in expansion and comparing him to this shaman is not a fair comparison on leveling style or speed.
Elemental is there a lot of drinking and healing oh your chrs? Downtime that is?
I noticed a LOT of post in this and all boards that seem to start out about how great and easy it is to level as ele. THEN oh yes I am still using those old epics.
uh yea, well at least they did mention they are using raid gear that the leveling person does not have.
Are epics required to level as elemental?
Post by
321294
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Post by
Achloryn
one thing i have serious issue with.. the lack of boa weapons that are suitable for enhancement shammies.. :( there's only one mace that you can buy with badges, it's MH only, and it has SP and mp5. srsly, wtf bliz?
Post by
Arcage
My Shammy is now 78, and she rocks socks m8 as elemental.
I pwr lvled engineering and got the
BoP Googles
, and running with the 2 Engi trinkets
Gnomish Lightning Generator
and
Noise Machine
and pull about 1400-1600dps in normal instances. More then i see from some guys in Heroics sadly.
Already got some BoE purples for her, and look forward to shocking teh f**kies out of anything within range.
Not to mention Earth anbd fire ele totems, put it in focus and heal it now and again and you have a nice damaging doing tank right there.
Any grp q's that requires 3 or less I can solo fairly easily, and AoE grinding with Magma totem is realy fun, and good xp :)
I <3 ele, nvr played ench, may give it a go at some point, but not for now.
Post by
WRXhokie
I've got an enhancement shaman thats level 25 or so, and I dont have any problem taking multiple mobs, and soloing is quite easy.
As long as you follow the right guide, I recommend the enhancement 1-80 guide on wow-pro.com, you'll be fine. Elemental is too difficult at lower levels because you run oom so quickly, that the downtime is too great. Enchancement on the other hand has very little downtime, and I can take multiple mobs at a time without a problem. With water shield up, and with the occasional healing wave, i usually end every fight with 100% mana/health. Plus its a lot of fun.
Either way, pick the spec that is the most fun for you. Thats what you'll enjoy the most.
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Post by
Cordimus
I leveled 70-80 as enhancement and I found a negligible difference between my progression and elemental shaman that I knew.
My experiences leveling enhancement to 70 was before they created lower level version of water shield, so I can't speak to the current difficulty. However, people say "enhance sucks prior to 43" but the sad truth is that everything sucks until 40-44. Getting past those initial levels is less about winning spec and more about motivating yourself to just do it. I can't really see anything in the elemental talent tree that is going to provide a defining benefit over enhance, and you still are burdened by the gear issue.
Honestly, they're about equal, so pick the play style that's right for you. I really dislike the long cast times and the high mana costs that are endemic to the shaman class and doubly worse for elemental than for enhance. But that's more my play style than an objective observation.
The one thing I will say though, after having leveled several characters with BoA items, melee characters benefit more from them because weapons do not really dictate damage dealt by casters. Even though the weapon selection is sub par, an enhancement shaman would benefit far more from the heartseeker and scarlet kris than an elemental shaman would from any combination of the BoA items.
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