GFd 29 enhance shaman refresh

[necroaqua]

Hey all,

I've got a 29 shaman from vanilla that has a hodgepodge of random GFd gear that probably lends itself to going enhance.

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/character/bloodscalp/Laghater

Looking for what I can easily get to bring it up to date a little bit. General suggestions would be great, as well as a stat priority for secondaries. Some GFd things I have that might be useful are...

• Pathfinder hat of the aurora (9agi/13stam/8haste/verse) - 45 HP enchant
• Parachute cloak - 12 agility
• Raptor Hunter Tunic (ilvl 43)(5agi/17stam) - 42HP (would likely update to stats for a FC set?)
• Tiger Hunter Gloves (ilvl 37)(10agi/11stam) - 15 str (pretty sure the enchant is GFd, but obviously str no longer is any bit useful...)
  
• Gallan Cuffs (ilvl 36)(9int/8stam) - in case I decide to go resto/ele?

So...

1. Whats the stat priority? agi > verse > haste > crit is what I would lean towards, not sure if crit is desired is for bursting.
2. What of my random GFd gear is worth wearing? I assume Hat/Cloak and maybe gloves?
   
3. Whats a good offhand (assume ele force)? Going to run cudgel w/ landslide mainhand.
   
4. What rares are worth farming from the frog?
5. What slots should be replaced by AH ilvl 34 greens?
6. Are AB belt/boots preferred?
7. Any notable right options with agi? or should I go straight secondaries with dungeon rings?
8. Is flashing steel talisman worth it? What other trinket options are there besides rune and heirlooms? RIP 5/12 arena masters sitting in the bank from vanilla.
9. Any armories? I haven't found an up-to-date one that is still enhance from the armory threads.

Thanks

 

[Tweakedirl]

third wind pots........lots of them

and 2 dedicated healers

 

[Roadwarrior]

Most of that stuff is just not good for enhance (since enhance is so bad at the moment). I would even go as far to say something like the parachute cloak even with the oldenchant is bad (the same thing that people keep trying to make work on WWs... the cloak looks cool, but it's just not good when you are not a real glass cannon). You are 1000000000000% not going to be doing any game breaking damage regardless of how much agility/attack power you stack. And going glass cannon will just not be fun after you get popped 1000 times in a row.

Your job is off heals, slows, harassment and wind shearing healers... period. You should go for all versatility items and go into pure survival mode. You can still do ok damage when you need to, but basically you are going to be playing a terrible version of a Ret paladin that can run a little faster.

All that stuff is pretty, but as I said if you try to agility/attack power stack you are just going to get two shot. Enhancement is just in the wrong XPAC right now... put all that stuff away, get vers gear and wait for better days to bust out the glass cannon gear.

+8 agility trinket is just wrong in this XPAC for you - again you are not DPS you are support. Versatility > Effective HP so Raptor hunters tunic is just not that great anymore. Tiger hunter gloves are also "meh"... you can just get better and the strength enchant is worthless. I would just go with the Deep Fathom Ring and the Electrocutioners Lugnut. I would personally not use any gear that does not have secondary stats either... Versatility/Crit.

Haste is just not going to do much of anything unless you go for broke at around 30% because then you can heal super fast and are generally more useful on the support role.

Pure Agility gear is only good on Hunters and Glass Cannon Rogues because they can do enough damage to offset the loss of the secondaries... you cant.

Right now elemental force is probably still BIS, after the nerf I would do Landslide.

The only thing I would not be sure about is putting Cudgel on the offhand worth it or not.

 

[Yayo]

Most of that stuff is just not good for enhance (since enhance is so bad at the moment). I would even go as far to say something like the parachute cloak even with the oldenchant is bad (the same thing that people keep trying to make work on WWs... the cloak looks cool, but it's just not good when you are not a real glass cannon). You are 1000000000000% not going to be doing any game breaking damage regardless of how much agility/attack power you stack. And going glass cannon will just not be fun after you get popped 1000 times in a row.

.

You don't need to go glasscannon to use parachute cloak. Its a trade-off between 13agi and a couple stam/vers, although i do agree glass isnt worth especially as enh. I'd cut your losses this xpac and use those gallan cuffs as ele/resto personally.

Ab gear is generally preferred due to the high amount of vers. If you're dead set on enh I would use lagnut ring and a bg crate ring of the quickblade, then just quickblade shoulders, chest, bracers and legs. Switch to vers boa neck with satyr if possible and then just try for bg axe oh.

 

[Chops]

Don't listen to these naysayers. You'll do just fine as enhance if you build fairly balanced and play smart.

Outside of your helm and (situationally) your cloak, sadly none of that gear will help you.

From what I've gathered from some Enhance folks, you'll want a bit of haste. The burst is infrequent but it's there with or without a heavy crit build. Best to keep the cooldowns low and the rotation moving.

I've seen more than a few enhance do quite well with a very basic and straightforward dungeons/BG crates build. So you'll do fine.

 

[necroaqua]

You don't need to go glasscannon to use parachute cloak. Its a trade-off between 13agi and a couple stam/vers, although i do agree glass isnt worth especially as enh. I'd cut your losses this xpac and use those gallan cuffs as ele/resto personally.

Ab gear is generally preferred due to the high amount of vers. If you're dead set on enh I would use lagnut ring and a bg crate ring of the quickblade, then just quickblade shoulders, chest, bracers and legs. Switch to vers boa neck with satyr if possible and then just try for bg axe oh.

I wouldn't necessarily be going glass cannon with the cloak. But 20agi on one piece is worth keeping. If need be, the chest makes up for it. While ele/resto would be better - I'm not really looking to play them. I've been "enhance" (or at least, melee shaman) since vanilla.

Mail AB gear has no verse unfortunately.

Don't listen to these naysayers. You'll do just fine as enhance if you build fairly balanced and play smart.

Outside of your helm and (situationally) your cloak, sadly none of that gear will help you.

From what I've gathered from some Enhance folks, you'll want a bit of haste. The burst is infrequent but it's there with or without a heavy crit build. Best to keep the cooldowns low and the rotation moving.

I've seen more than a few enhance do quite well with a very basic and straightforward dungeons/BG crates build. So you'll do fine.

Heard. Still not sure what the stat priority should be, but I'll look at dungeon gear and get something started.

 

[Tweakedirl]

lol a haste stacked enh would burst in to flames and die just by targetting warriors/druids and hunters let alone getting into fights with them

 

[Yayo]

I wouldn't necessarily be going glass cannon with the cloak. But 20agi on one piece is worth keeping. If need be, the chest makes up for it. While ele/resto would be better - I'm not really looking to play them. I've been "enhance" (or at least, melee shaman) since vanilla.

Mail AB gear has no verse unfortunately.



Heard. Still not sure what the stat priority should be, but I'll look at dungeon gear and get something started.

Ah overlooked that, used to rogue. I'd just use quickblade/adaptable pieces from bgs and ah then in just about every slot other than gnomer vers ring.

 

[Roadwarrior]

I think you just need to play more in game and see what actually happens (I promise you that you will eventually take off the cloak and go for survival mode). Enhance is just really hurting, even a badly geared ret can probably 2 rotation you. I would really not try to play glass cannon. The parachute cloak is only good on classes that can abuse it... too many people are attached to it because they play rogue or hunter where it matters... I would get the Soul Render's Great Cloak as all the versatility will add up... you get to around 20% vers and you will do enough damage with out hurting your overall game with a glass cannon piece.

Master Engineers Goggles and Alch Flask are where you should direct your efforts.

Again... Versatility >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> effective health. Rolling in with 2000 or 2300 is not going to matter if you don't have the vers to not just get smoked.

Enhance is also one of the few classes where I would actually suggest using a vibro-blade, since you are at least helping out the team then... because your DPS will just not be tier 1. Full support role.

If the xpac changes or next expansion goes back to where enhance can do bonkers damage.. then glass cannon will work and I would roll out most of that gear you have on.

 

[Tweakedirl]

i tihnk enh can stiol be fun, but only with support, otherwise the apex predators of the melee world will eat you up and half of your bg time will be trying to fake out heals whilst being concerned overly about how outrageous the cd on earthbind is and how any reasonable person would not object to it not even having a cd at all.

I just think enh lacks to many key components of what makes it great at higher levels (check out the recent level 70 dueling tournament) and this is takes haste off the table in exchange for vital damage reducing versatility and haste is a big part of the enhance engine an engine afforded by instant heals bought with maelstrom is a great way to prevent death by fury warrior. outside the obviously solid shammy utility package is a ghetto fury warrior. There also the stupid place shammies are in where the healing spec is the clear best damage spec outside a few specific scenarios which is an absurd scenario. probs the strongest melee aoe output though, for those rare occasions that 2 or more healers ignore the well being of everyone else while you rack up a huge total damage whilst not killing any one person. This BFA and this meta Ghost wolf apparently lacking the problem solving intellect of its druid form cousins and being unable to remove snares if switching in and out is also annoying to me, perhaps wrongly so


As a result of my ontoxicated state i have decided I cannot be fucked going back and fixing the huge amount of spelling errors and general structural problems in the previous paragraphs and hit post before eating pizza

farewell

 

[Swoops]

@necroaqua imo you're on the right track mostly. Right now BoE greens will be solid upgrades for Chest/Bracers/Gloves/Boots at least, but dungeon gear will have the same stats in 8.1.5 - no need to break the bank for them. Enchanted parachute cloak is too good to pass up in most situations.

I'm not gonna weigh in too much on secondary stats since I don't play Enhance. Aurora gear is usually a safe choice for specs that don't have a ton of burst and rely on offheals/utility though. Don't need to stack a stat to make it good.

100% keep that strength enchant. There are better options than those gloves, so it's def worth keeping a cool GFed enchant on them. Doubt it'll ever be good for enhance again, but you never know.

Again... Versatility >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> effective health. Rolling in with 2000 or 2300 is not going to matter if you don't have the vers to not just get smoked.

Any interest in backing up this statement?

 

[necroaqua]

@necroaqua imo you're on the right track mostly. Right now BoE greens will be solid upgrades for Chest/Bracers/Gloves/Boots at least, but dungeon gear will have the same stats in 8.1.5 - no need to break the bank for them. Enchanted parachute cloak is too good to pass up in most situations.

I'm not gonna weigh in too much on secondary stats since I don't play Enhance. Aurora gear is usually a safe choice for specs that don't have a ton of burst and rely on offheals/utility though. Don't need to stack a stat to make it good.

100% keep that strength enchant. There are better options than those gloves, so it's def worth keeping a cool GFed enchant on them. Doubt it'll ever be good for enhance again, but you never know.

Yeah, you've got it. I'm mostly looking to take a old GFd toon and turn it into something I can actually queue with occasionally for fun - not necessarily top tier or BiS or anything crazy. Not looking to break the bank or spend hundreds of hours farming (though a little frog farming isn't out of the question). Most likely going to use Hat/Cloak/Chest/Gloves (w/ str enchant) even though they might not be BiS. Thinking verse/haste for the rest of the gear - probably from dungeons or reasonable AH options (yay not being on bleeding hollow). Heirloom verse neck. Verse on rings. Trinket I'll use defending champion and play around with agi/haste/stam heirlooms.

* Shoulders - Forest Tracker or Enchanted Heirloom? (not doing exploited enchant)
* Offhand - Ideally BG crate, is there anything notable until then that would be better than heirloom? Either dungeon (assuming 8.1.5 values) or BoE greens/blues that aren't stupidly rare/expensive?
* Not sure how useful ghostwolf is and if its worth using minor speed. AB boots are tempting if I don't need minor speed, but dungeon boots/greens would also work (for minor speed or hybrid speed).


Not sure someone knows what effective health means...
Effective health = HP * mitigation

So verse factors into effective health, it can't really be compared as one is a function of the other.

For easy numbers (1000HP, ignoring armor)
1000 HP * 1.05 (5% reduction from 10% verse) = 1050 Effective Health
1050 HP * 1.00 (0% verse) = 1050 Effective Health

So while verse is great, it works with your health to create effective health. The more health you have, the more verse is worth in terms of effective health. In 29 terms...

2200 HP w/ 0 verse == ~2000 * 10% reduction from 20% verse

 

[Tweakedirl]

1hp verse maxxed super twinks are the future

 

[Chops]

Given the dearth of really essential glove enchants I fully support rocking the +15 str for swag factor

 

[Yayo]

@necroaqua

100% keep that strength enchant. There are better options than those gloves, so it's def worth keeping a cool GFed enchant on them. Doubt it'll ever be good for enhance again, but you never know.



Any interest in backing up this statement?

Yeah, you've got it. I'm mostly looking to take a old GFd toon and turn it into something I can actually queue with occasionally for fun - not necessarily top tier or BiS or anything crazy. Not looking to break the bank or spend hundreds of hours farming (though a little frog farming isn't out of the question). Most likely going to use Hat/Cloak/Chest/Gloves (w/ str enchant) even though they might not be BiS. Thinking verse/haste for the rest of the gear - probably from dungeons or reasonable AH options (yay not being on bleeding hollow). Heirloom verse neck. Verse on rings. Trinket I'll use defending champion and play around with agi/haste/stam heirlooms.

* Shoulders - Forest Tracker or Enchanted Heirloom? (not doing exploited enchant)
* Offhand - Ideally BG crate, is there anything notable until then that would be better than heirloom? Either dungeon (assuming 8.1.5 values) or BoE greens/blues that aren't stupidly rare/expensive?
* Not sure how useful ghostwolf is and if its worth using minor speed. AB boots are tempting if I don't need minor speed, but dungeon boots/greens would also work (for minor speed or hybrid speed).


Not sure someone knows what effective health means...
Effective health = HP * mitigation

So verse factors into effective health, it can't really be compared as one is a function of the other.

For easy numbers (1000HP, ignoring armor)
1000 HP * 1.05 (5% reduction from 10% verse) = 1050 Effective Health
1050 HP * 1.00 (0% verse) = 1050 Effective Health

So while verse is great, it works with your health to create effective health. The more health you have, the more verse is worth in terms of effective health. In 29 terms...

2200 HP w/ 0 verse == ~2000 * 10% reduction from 20% verse

Enchanted heirloom over forest trackers, Hillborne's axe or butcher cleaver from sfk (after patch) are good offhands, not sure how offhand wep dmg works for enh as its irrelevant for rogues. Minor speed stacks with ghost wolf which is why I tend to use it on sham, but I play resto/ele so I use slitherscale.

 

[necroaqua]

Enchanted heirloom over forest trackers, Hillborne's axe or butcher cleaver from sfk (after patch) are good offhands, not sure how offhand wep dmg works for enh as its irrelevant for rogues. Minor speed stacks with ghost wolf which is why I tend to use it on sham, but I play resto/ele so I use slitherscale.

Perfect. Last time I tested, offhand damage in instanced pvp is calculated use 1/2 mainhand damage - so the damage itself isn't a big deal - more the stats (works same as rogues IIRC).

And yeah - the ghost wolf and minor speed interaction is why I'm trying to see if I should use AB boots. They don't stack with ghost wolf, so silly to use them AND put minor speed on (like I currently have) rather than getting some other boots with better balanced stats.

 

[Roadwarrior]

I was using the wrong term I meant don't enchant for stamina.

It just sounds like you are expecting something happen that is not going to happen. You can stack agility all day and stormstrike does not get much better, neither does lava lash. You will get almost identical results glass cannon style if you just go to 30% haste... you will have the same versatility, the same hp, and you will just do more, rather than just have some agility hanging around. Your "burst" is just not going to be anything that you are imagining.

Haste Enhancement is really good (as far as it can be) because it makes your rotation not completely retarded IF you want to go the DPS route... which you apparently do. I suggest that you try it in comparison to stacking agility... they will be the same... and haste also will do more.

 

[Tweakedirl]

Given the dearth of really essential glove enchants I fully support rocking the +15 str for swag factor

I feel you bro. I once bought a pair of adidas 3 stripes in glorious brown leather that were 1.5 sizes to small and the pain I endured during the next few years wearing those shoes only served to remind me how special they were.

 

[Roadwarrior]

for the highest entertainment value, I think you should just go hard/glass cannon agility/crit and use a 2 hander and hope for Windfury procs... it will be the most fun... and honestly will probably net you the same overall dps/kills and occasionaly you just get to truck somebody (that you will never do if you use lavalash/hothand).

Just keep a Cudgle/Hillborne swap ready for when you have stormstrike up.

The problem with the entire spec is the rotation and more importantly the bad maelstrom generation, you are often just choosing between lava-lash and storm-strike (even with hothand) and usually just burn your maelstrom on lava-lash because it is up more often (even tho its not the right thing to do).