Questions on Enhancement Shaman's weapon imbues and 1h+shield

desparks

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Hi, couple questions:



At what moments is it optimal to use a 1h+shield defensively? Outside of flag running obviously.



Also, what weapon imbues do people run around with, windfury MH and flametongue oh? Is there really any moment when frostbrand would be of any use, and if so on which weapon or does it not matter? I assume most kiting is done through either earthbind or frost shock, so I didn't think it was worth using frostbrand and losing out on the burst of windfury or the boost to Lava Lash from flametongue. Thoughts?
 
desparks said:
Hi, couple questions:



At what moments is it optimal to use a 1h+shield defensively? Outside of flag running obviously.



Also, what weapon imbues do people run around with, windfury MH and flametongue oh? Is there really any moment when frostbrand would be of any use, and if so on which weapon or does it not matter? I assume most kiting is done through either earthbind or frost shock, so I didn't think it was worth using frostbrand and losing out on the burst of windfury or the boost to Lava Lash from flametongue. Thoughts?







You will never see an enhancement shaman que up with a 1-h/shield for DPS unless there is absolutely no FCs and he/she is trying to FC as enhancement(which is viable if there are no other FCs). You should dual wield most of the time.



iirc, you should go WF 4 MH and FT 4 OH. But I've heard that double WF works for some people. You'd just have to ask one of the enhancement shamans ingame.



Frostbrand is useful but unnecessary for 39s. Frostshock / Earthbind is all you'll need. If your chasing/focus firing on a single target, use Frost shock on them. If your trying to CC a group of people then just use Earthbind. But you shouldn't "need" to use Frostbrand for PvP.
 
Yeah, I figured as much on the weapon imbues.



I thought I remember someone talking about tossing on a 1h+shield if you were about to be hit by something big (IE ambush+evisc, paladin's TV, etc) to absorb as much as you could, and then switch back. I don't remember though, it was a while back.



I was also kind of curious on spell penetration. Most enhancement's seem to go 12 agi or stealth to cloak, and have 0 spell penetration. But they still use shocks whenever they are off cooldown, perhaps spell penetration isn't as worth it for them to sacrifice agi?
 
A shaman should always put spell penetration on cloak.



An enhancement shaman's survival sucks. When they don't have a pocket healer with them then is basically a DPS race between you and the other person. Don't go 1-h/shield it's not going to benefit you as much as you'd like to hope so. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an idiot. You will NOT see an DPS enhancement shaman running around with a shield.



The best way to get around the enhancement shaman's survival is by sticking in a team. Just an fyi, the 4 man D that usually always works is Disc Priest, Hunter, Enhancement Shaman, and FC. The hunter/enhancement shaman D is incredibly hard to get past. So if your worried about your survival then just do what everyone else "should/does" and stick with your team.



Fyi, enhancement shamans are arguably considered a support class by some people. Basically it means "they are only good when they are with other people". But others would argue that they can 1v1 pretty well. It's totally questionable.



Sum it up, stick together and dont go 1-h/shield.
 
Ok, thank you for the feedback! I have no problem playing a support class, I love support, I'm not good 1v1 anyway :p



I also figure that an enhance shaman's (or elemental too?) role is whatever is needed at the moment, but generally most shaman's assist the FC/heals across field and play D from the sounds of it, eh?



I've been playing around with a few classes, trying to decide what to play, and I think I might just go with a Shaman this time. It's one of the only classes I've never extensively played, so it's all new figuring out the play style and my role in WSG, but it sounds pretty fun.
 
desparks said:
Ok, thank you for the feedback! I have no problem playing a support class, I love support, I'm not good 1v1 anyway :p



I also figure that an enhance shaman's (or elemental too?) role is whatever is needed at the moment, but generally most shaman's assist the FC/heals across field and play D from the sounds of it, eh?



I've been playing around with a few classes, trying to decide what to play, and I think I might just go with a Shaman this time. It's one of the only classes I've never extensively played, so it's all new figuring out the play style and my role in WSG, but it sounds pretty fun.



If I were you, I'd go Enhancement/Resto. There will be a lot of times when you'll have no heals and you might be needed more as Resto than Enhancement. However if there's a hunter in your team and at least 1 heals then I'd probably stay Enhancement. Hunter/Enhancement/1Healer can hold Choke against a lot of people.



There are two good reasons for this. Hunter's have Flare and a Shaman has Magma Totem. So there should be no reason any stealther gets by you two. Another reason is because of the fact your a shaman. You have a short CD on silencing casters/healers while you have a hunter freecasting on your targets, the two of you can easily down a healer/caster without fail. On top of that you have a Earthbind totem, so if they try to "rush" past Choke, the enhancement shaman can easily AoE CC all of them at once. On top of all that, you have a hunter who can call INCs just by looking at their map with "track humanoids".





There's a laundry list. Anyone who's anyone that is an experienced player in the 39 bracket knows that Hunter/Enhancement/Healer Comps on D is a toughie to get by.
 
Double windfury is the best. Lava lash already hits for nearly nothing, so no point in putting FT on just to buff it.



enhance makes for a decent FC in a pinch but doesn't have enough armor to survive against melee very long.
 

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