Shaman Enhancement Talents Builds
Comments on the Tree in General
Enhancement is the most powerful solo PVE tree; just about any shaman in solo PVE will be meleeing, or at least, in melee.Enhancement increases your mana-free damage output, which is very very useful. If you are deep in the tree for powerful group talents like dual-wield and Unleashed Rage, you are also a useful melee'er in raids for the combination of your personal damage output and the buffs you grant to your group members.
For PVP, Enhancement is debateable in its usefulness; at the top end, with equal levels of gear, Elemental is more powerful, but many people enjoy the playstyle of Enhancement. You will not be competitive without at least 30 points in Enhancement; to be a strong melee'er, you cannot dabble in Enhancement.
No Prerequisites
Ancestral Knowledge
Increases your maximum mana by 5%.
Not a particularly powerful talent, but it will always benefit you no matter what you are doing.
Shield Specialization
Increases your chance to block attacks with a shield by 5% and increases the amount blocked by 25%.
In situations where you are wearing a shield and taking a lot of melee damage, this is a strong talent. However, those situations are not particularly common; thus, this is a more specialized talent than Ancestral Knowledge. Take whichever you prefer; if you use a shield a lot, Shield Specialization may be better, but Ancestral Knowledge helps no matter what you are doing.
Requires 5 points in Enhancement Talents
Guardian Totems
Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your Stoneskin Totem and Windwall Totem by 20% and reduces the cooldown of your Grounding Totem by 2 seconds.
A weak talent. The increase in Stoneskin and Windwall is marginal at best, and a two second reduction on the cooldown of Grounding Totem, while powerful, is probably not a good use of two talent points.
Thundering Strikes
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with melee attacks by 5%.
A strong talent, and the prerequisite for the even stronger Flurry. Without exception, every build with a real investment in Enhancement should have this talent.
Improved Ghost Wolf
Reduces the casting time of your Ghost Wolf spell by 2 seconds.
A strong talent, especially if you use Ghost Wolf often. In addition to being useful, it can save you quite a lot of hassle while leveling up, before you have your mount.
Improved Lightning Shield
Increases the damage dealt by your Lightning Shield spell by 15%.
Another strong talent; Lightning Shield is one of our most efficient spells, and passively increasing the damage it does is a very good thing to have.
Requires 10 points in Enhancement Talents
Enhancing Totems
Increases the effect of your Strength of Earth and Grace of Air totems by 15%.
This is a strong grouping talent, as these totems are very good in groups, and for only two points it's a good investment. However, if you only rarely group, then this talent is probably not worth the investment.
Two-Handed Axes and Maces
Allows you to use Two-Handed Axes and Maces.
This talent is a trademark of Enhancement. Two-handed axes and maces tend to be strong, melee-focused weapons. A dual-wield focused build may choose to skip this talent, but having the option to wield two-handed axes and maces can be very useful.
Anticipation
Increases your dodge chance by an additional 5%.
A good talent, effectively reducing melee damage taken by 5%. If you find that you have points to put into it, it is a good place for them; unfortunately, many shamans find themselves without the points to put into it, due to putting them into other nearby strong talents.
Requires 15 Points in Enhancement Talents
Flurry
Requires 5 Points in Thundering Strikes
Increases your attack by 30% for your next three swings after dealing a critical strike.
A great talent. A mainstay of all Enhancement builds. Flurry is basically a flat increase in melee DPS, especially since you took the +5% crit talent before it.
Toughness
Increases your armor value by items by 10%.
This is a reasonably good talent. It will increase your physical damage mitigation by 2.3% (for all armor values between 2000 and 8000). However, it provides less return per point than Anticipation does, and so very few people put points into this; it is not worth taking unless you already have 5/5 Anticipation and want to take even less damage.
Requires 20 points in Enhancement Talents
Improved Weapon Totems
Increases the melee attack power bonus of your Windfury Totem by 30% and the damage of your Flametongue Totem by 12%.
If you have a lot of warrior friends, this talent is a good investment - Windfury Totem is a very powerful buff for warriors. For most people, however, this talent is weak; your weapon totems are only useful in groups, and many rogues as well as all hunters would prefer Grace of Air Totem to Windfury Totem, while many things in end-game are highly resistant or immune to fire.
Elemental Weapons
Increases the melee attack power bonus of your Rockbiter Weapon by 20%, your Windfury Weapon effect by 40%, and increases the damage caused by your Flametongue Weapon and Frostbrand Weapon by 15%.
A workhorse of Enhancement. Every Enhancement build that goes this deep takes Elemental Weapons - it affects all four of our elemental weapon buffs, increasing our damage by a significant amount. It particularly affects Windfury Weapon, increasing the total damage done on each Windfury proc by 40%, rather than simply increasing the attack power bonus by 40%.
Spirit Weapons
Gives a chance to parry enemy melee attacks and reduces the threat generated by your melee attacks by 15%.
By default, your parry chance is 5%. Therefore, putting a single point in Spirit Weapons reduces damage taken as much as putting five points into Anticipation. Further, the threat reduction on melee damage is vital for PVE enhancement shamans. Nearly everyone who meets the prerequisites takes Spirit Weapons, due to its strength for only a single point.
(Note: It is currently thought that this talent is bugged and does not provide the threat reduction. It should always be taken for the parry chance regardless.)
Requires 25 points in Enhancement Talents
Weapon Mastery
Increases the damage you deal with all weapons by 10%.
A free, totally passive, +10% damage talent. You must take this. This talent is as important to Enhancement as Lightning Mastery is to Elemental. Your 26th to 30th points in Enhancement (assuming you are putting that many points into the tree) should be Weapon Mastery.
Mental Quickness
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 6%.
This talent is often underrated. Shocks, Lightning/Water Shield, Stormstrike, and all totems have their cost reduced by this talent. While it can be difficult (or impossible) to find points to put into this talent due to it competing with Weapon Mastery, this talent is a good place to put any extra points you may have.
Requires 30 points in Enhancement Talents
Stormstrike
10% of base mana (roughly 150 at 60)
10 second cooldown
Instantly attacks with all equipped weapons. In addition, the next two sources of Nature damage dealt to the target are increased by 20%. Lasts 12 sec.
An excellent talent for increasing your melee damage output. Stormstrike has a reasonably short cooldown and provides a bonus to the damage of Earth Shock, Lightning Shield, or the nature spells of a friendly Elemental shaman or Balance druid. It is another of the workhorses of Enhancement that makes an Enhancement build what it is.
Dual-Wield
Allows one-hand and off-hand weapons to be equipped in the off-hand.
A phenomenal talent. Dual-wielding increases average DPS output by a great amount. It takes a significant level of gear for the burst of dual-wield to exceed that of two-hand, but it is possible.
Dual-Wield Specialization
Requires 1 point in Dual-Wield
Increases your chance to hit when dual-wielding by 6%.
Another utterly phenomenal talent. If you have taken Dual-Wield, you absolutely must take this talent. It provides roughly a 9% melee DPS increase for three points. I can't say it any clearer - if you have taken Dual-Wield, you must take this talent.
Requires 35 points in Enhancement talents
Unleashed Rage
Causes your critical hits with melee weapons to increase all party member's attack power by 10% if within 20 yards of the shaman. Lasts 10 sec.
Another excellent talent. More excellent for PVE than for PVP, but for PVP, it is still very powerful - a 10% AP buff is nothing to sneeze at, especially not for your entire group. This talent is one of the reasons why an Enhancement shaman is a powerful PVE melee'er, both for the AP increase it gives you yourself and for the increase to your party.
Requires 40 points in Enhancement talents
Shamanistic Rage
Instant 2 min cooldown
Gives your successful melee attacks a chance to restore mana equal to 15% of your attack power. Lasts 30 seconds.
This talent leaves a bit to be desired in PVP - it is difficult to remain in melee for a long length of time, and if you are out of or low on mana for that long, you've probably died anyway.
But for PVE, this talent has been nicknamed 'Shammervate', and it is not far from the truth. With a bit of luck and good gear, it is not irregular to regenerate two to three thousand mana during its duration (at level 60). With such a short cooldown, and a bit of common sense in mana expenditure, you can continue to Stormstrike and Shock indefinitely, regardless of how long the fight lasts.
