How do I make my Elemental Shaman more efficient?

[rk47]

i've been playing this guy for 2 months.
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#character-sheet.xml?r=Kilrogg&n=Vegmund

Trying to get a better trinket from Arcatraz. Maybe a little cloak upgrade from Mechanar.
The chest is being worked on, I just need one more primal nether to complete my netherstrike set.
I'm toying with idea of making Spellstrike set to replace the Tidefury kilt (No sockets  ) and also make Spellstrike Helm for the set bonus, hence the 353 Tailoring.

I think there are 3 ways to improve it:
1. Spell Crit = Clearcasting
Recent planned 2.1 Nerf is gonna hurt. But this is the path that I'm on. I'm slotting all the basic yellow crit gems so far and is quite happy with my 30%+ with Talents. I can hit around 39% when fully buffed.

2. MP5
How much MP5 is enough though? I'm sitting on a 40 MP / 5 right now. Maybe it's too low for me to feel it. Mana totem gives 12 MP5.

3. INT
Relentless storm gives 2/4/6/8/10% of INT as MP5. So maybe I should go INT Heavy as a solution? This will in turn improve SpellCrit % however small and bigger pool of mana reserve to pop blue potions early.

Talent changes ideas:
Sub out LO & Totem of Wrath for 5 points on Relentless Storm to bump it from 6% to 10%
Then toss remainder of the points to Improved Mana totem? +20% of 12 is around 2.4 MP5 ...not a lot I feel. so maybe throw the remainding 4 points onto Lightning Overload.

Lightning Overload can proc off a resisted spell, so it's not a really bad talent I feel.

Comments?

[Merusk]

From my days as a priest, there is no such thing as 'enough' mp/5.  That shit is pure  .   Focus on Int and MP/5, imo.  Shaman have no "OH SHIT" button if they get aggro, so crits aren't the way you'd want to go unless you're PvPing more than PvEing.  Then you don't give a fuck about MP/5 or mana pool, it's all crits and spell dam.

[Modern Angel]

Ignore Merusk :)

Crit, crit, crit. Crit IS mana efficiency. You went up 1% to crit? You just got 1% more free spells. That's why Totem of Wrath went from suck to awesome after the change: it's another 3% mana efficiency. mp5 is swell but there's only so much budget to go around. Given a choice between mp5 and crit as an elemental I (and I understand the people who know what they're doing) would choose crit every time.

[Lum]

You just got 1% more free spells.

Someone hasn't heard about the Clearcasting nerf in 2.1.... 

[MrHat]

Yup, it's back to mp5 for you!

Edit: I meant for us.  If I ever get these last few pieces to switch to elemental.

[Modern Angel]

Yep. Posted that before I saw just how big it was. Ah, well... I'm of the "if I can only bring one shaman on a raid it's enhancement" school. That enhancement shaman being me, of course. That blows hard for the elemental raiders though.

[Lum]

Enhancement shamans still get love post 70 for raids? I pretty much assumed I'd have to respec to resto once I was done levelling.

[Fordel]

I think it depends on the guilds raid setup. A enhance shaman seems like a large boost to all the Melee DPS around it.

But yea, you are probably right in that most shamans end up resto for raiding.

[Nonentity]

Lum plays a shaman too? Be still my beating heart.

Lum - Enhancement Shaman still have a place on raids, they're just less desirable then an Elemental/Resto one, because there's not a lot of gear crossover (stam/int/mp5) in the Enhancement to Elemental/Resto gear. I know for a fact I can be wearing my elemental gear, and still do some decent healing.

As for the spec question, I go for a hybrid spec - Elemental down to Elemental Mastery, and Resto down to Nature's Swiftness. I do this mainly for PvP reasons.

If you do that, though, you can put a full 5 points into Unrelenting Storm, which helps a lot. Pull the points out of Lightning Overload and Totem of Wrath. If you PvP more then you PvE, I'd say pull the points out of Elemental Warding and put them into Eye of the Storm. I also do raiding when I'm elemental spec, so I don't get Improved Rebirth, or improved totems on the resto tree. I dump the 5 points into imp healing wave, 3/3 ancestral healing, and put the rest into healing focus (also a pvp necessary talent). I only put 1 out of 3 points into Nature's Guidance.

Here's the Elemental gear I use - http://www.rupture.com/character/gear/185340?tab=gear&gearset_id=12155

I know there are some pieces I can upgrade, but I've been leveling my Hunter and Warrior, so mainly I've just been bringing my shaman as a Healer on raids (hence my better healing gear - http://www.rupture.com/character/gear/185340?gearset_id=12154&tab=gear ).

[MrHat]

Cool website, does that pull off of armory, then cross link everything?

[caladein]

Cool website, does that pull off of armory, then cross link everything?

Rupture? No, it runs a data collection add-on with a messenger for auto-updates and such.

On the Shaman stuff: Shamans are great support for whatever they decide to spec into and can do insane damage as Enchace/Elemental if they can manage their threat (or get Salvation). If you get into raids as a non-Resto Shaman it probably depends on however your raids wind up being stacked as (we have a whole lot of physical DPS and not a lot of casters, so our Enhancement Shammy makes a great person to stick in a DPS slot).

That and... "the Enhancement Shaman pulls aggro again!" is a source of a lot of laughs in raids.

[MrHat]

Ya, many a guild vent channel has heard my 'ahhhh, ahhhh' screeching when I pull aggro.

Then I run around in circles!

[Modern Angel]

Play your enhancement shaman like you it's a support class. Improve your weapon totems and your strength/GoA totems. I'm rolling like this:

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Kul+Tiras&n=Troxartus

Gear sort of blows right now since I got the mage to 70 at release first. 10% more AP before totems is huge and Unleashed Rage is up all the time. All of it.

There's also tons of stuff that doesn't show up on the meters that I can do. Curator? Custom made for me. So's Aran. I have enough healing oomph even in shit gear (and it is shit gear) that I can help save a mage in an AE situation. A fight like Maiden I throw on all my healing gear and I'm every bit as good as an elemental at it.

[MrHat]

Anyone know a L70 warlock that doesn't want to play anymore? I'm tired of my horde shaman, rogue, and mage. (uh, pst?)

[Nonentity]

I would say that the price of a Warlock is higher then the price of a Shaman on the open trade market.

Just my two cents.

[Calantus]

Which faction?

[MrHat]

Which faction?

Horde.

[Calantus]

Then no. :(

[MrHat]

I am sad.

[Furiously]

i've been playing this guy for 2 months.
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#character-sheet.xml?r=Kilrogg&n=Vegmund
...
Comments?

I don't know if anyone else has said it, but reroll as a warlock.

[MrHat]

I'm trying to reroll w/out the bordem!

[Merusk]

All this talk of rolling a 'lock has me pondering restarting my latest reroll.   I've about given up on Alliance, with all the stupidity I've referenced here over the last 4 months.   I'll pop on over there for some L70 action on the Priest or Hunter if I'm bored and to do tradeskill cooldowns, but other than that I think I'm done.

The wife and I rolled Horde Elves on Elder'Thalas where we had some old EQ friends. She's a lock and I'm a Mage.  We're only 19 and 20 right now, so it would make the most sense to do it now before things get too far along.  I'm questioning if a dual-warlock combo worth it. Lord knows we'd never get to do instances together with that combo, but we'd pwn things mightily on the long trek to 70.

[MrHat]

Dual locks is fun.  If one of you can stomach a shadow priest, that's a pretty great combo too.

[Jayce]

All this talk of rolling a 'lock has me pondering restarting my latest reroll.   I've about given up on Alliance, with all the stupidity I've referenced here over the last 4 months.   I'll pop on over there for some L70 action on the Priest or Hunter if I'm bored and to do tradeskill cooldowns, but other than that I think I'm done.

The wife and I rolled Horde Elves on Elder'Thalas where we had some old EQ friends. She's a lock and I'm a Mage.  We're only 19 and 20 right now, so it would make the most sense to do it now before things get too far along.  I'm questioning if a dual-warlock combo worth it. Lord knows we'd never get to do instances together with that combo, but we'd pwn things mightily on the long trek to 70.

I rerolled Horde on Tichondrius.  I highly recommend it :)

[Merusk]

Yeah, the reroll thing's a done-deal, it's just a question of classes, now.  PvP servers are right-out, though.  She doesn't like PVP at all, and I'm not a big fan of "grind + untouchable gank ability." (Hell I can't even poly high levels.)

I initially tried as a priest, but had forgotten just how much low-level priest play SUCKS.  Dropped it at about 11 when I watched a mage pwning mobs I was struggling with.  And now I'm rethinking again since y'know.. 14k health and excellent damage as a 'lock vs "ow crap, the mob touched me I'm dead" as a mage is very attractive.

[MrHat]

I rolled a warlock last night, she's level 6 but I doubt I'll stick it out past 19.

[Merusk]

When you hit 13 start using the Barrens leveling guide at wow-pro, then switch to Jame's at 21.  I used Jame's alliance guide for my shaman, and I went from 30-45 in about a week's normal playtime. Fantastic guides.   

[rk47]

I don't know why people hate their shammy so much. I realize enhance spec not for me and went Resto. And then finally elemental for ranged dps because I hate being a healer. I've done some Kz run and pretty satisfied with what I've done. I didn't get any drops but there's a sense of progression instead of revisiting the same 5 mans over and over in alts. That's why I've decided this toon would be my final character, since he has three options to be effective in PVE: melee dps, heal and ranged dps.

PVP? I don't PVP much, I only wanted the shoulder, got it and forget about it. It's a weak class in TBC to PVP with. Even on my hunter, I felt WoW PVP felt hollow with the constant repetition and half blind crapshoot.

I've played:
Hunter to 62: Bored of autoshot and pet attacks
Paladin to 42: I don't wanna heal. This is way back in 2005, getting owned repeatedly in STV was the suck too lol
Lock to 44: It's great class yeah, but I don't have the inclination to level up in PVP Server, I was just there to accompany a friend, when he quit so did the lock toon.
Shaman till now: I'm very satisfied. Most of the promised roles work just fine. Gear dependency is expected through the 3 specs. People nitpick about it so much because they can't be 'no.1' or they get 'owned in PvP'. I don't see it that way. When I play a hybrid, I accept I can't be number 1 in everything. As long I stick to it, and buff up with potions on bosses, I doubt the Shaman will let his group down. If the problem is with 'guild's non-acceptance of non-resto build' then try to reason, if it doesn't work /gquit, no point hanging around waiting for a slot that you probably will not perform well for the first time (1st time runs are never 100%) and being told your spec suck cause the leader's being over-critical.

[MrHat]

To each their own.

Me? I'm bored of my shaman.  1000+ Healing gear, best enhancement gear without any epics, and 500+ elemental gear that nets me nearly 8k hp.  The one I'm enjoying most at the moment is elemental because the gear actually lets you be hybrid, I could only drop 2-3 LHW while enhancement before OOM.

The problem for me is I enjoy PVP (not even PVP, just playing versus other people that I can't beat 100% by following a guide I found on the internet), and in PVP, I'm honor-meat.  I warlock fear-dot'd me last night for 6k hp (after dropping a shadowbolt on me, I turned to him and he got his fear off after his felhunter ate my grounding).  He literally feared me, dropped his dot's and ran away.

[Merusk]

Warlocks do that to everyone, it's why they're so fucking despised.  They can kill you without having to think about you.

[Trouble]

As a raid leader I still haven't been able to justify bringing an enhancement shaman to a raid. We do however run with two elemental shamans. Since we run with 2-3 shadow priests the clearcasting nerf won't have too large of an impact for us.

But yes, as far as making your elemental shaman more efficient, I'm not sure. I haven't seen the numbers on crit versus mp5 after the nerf. As far as int versus mp5 I'm going to guess your greater bang for the itemization buck is mp5. The return on int is just not high enough. Not matter what class of spec I've played I've always heavily undervalued int because it just doesn't do much in extended fights. However keep in mind I'm coming 100% from a raiding standpoint so if you care about other things then disregard that.

For reference, most 25 man fights in TBC are significantly longer than Pre-TBC fights, at least up to mid-AQ. The longer the fight the more int sucks.
Maulgar - 5 minutes?
Gruul - 6 minutes average
Magtheridon - 9-10 minutes
Hydross - 9-10 minutes
Lurker - 10-12 minutes
Tidewalker - 9-12 minutes
Karathress - 6-8 minutes
Leotheras - 9-10 minutes
Void Reaver - 6-8 minutes
Solarian - 5-10 minutes (depends on strat)

Again, if raiding isn't your primary concern then int greatly increases in value. Outside of raiding most battles are quite short and int is actually useful. But as you can see, with the length of 25 man raid bosses, mp5 will always be a much bigger mana return.

Here are the armory links for the two elemental shammies in my guild, might give you some ideas:
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#character-sheet.xml?r=Turalyon&n=Greuceanu
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#character-sheet.xml?r=Turalyon&n=Kuya

[rk47]

Agreed. The only difference between the two shamans in your guild is one PVE and the other is PVP talent.
Thanks, I think I've got a good idea what to shoot for now.

[Trouble]

Agreed. The only difference between the two shamans in your guild is one PVE and the other is PVP talent.
Thanks, I think I've got a good idea what to shoot for now.

One of them is in an arena group so he may have been respecced just for that.

[SurfD]

When you hit 13 start using the Barrens leveling guide at wow-pro, then switch to Jame's at 21.  I used Jame's alliance guide for my shaman, and I went from 30-45 in about a week's normal playtime. Fantastic guides.   

are these the guides you have to buy, or are there free links to these sort of things out there?

[Jayce]

are these the guides you have to buy, or are there free links to these sort of things out there?

I have seen a lot you have to buy, but these ones are free.