The Cool Kids at the Club: Enhance Shaman Rotation
Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 3:51PM | Stoneybaby 
Ah the Enhancement Shaman spell rotation! We're up to 13 abilities already, can you believe it? If you really want to break it down you could add in wacky conditionals like LL_QE (if you have the Totem of Quaking Earth and want to set refreshing the buff as a priority) and SS_0 (for when you have 0 SS debuffs up on the boss) but really that's just overkill for rotation management. From the 13 abilities, how do you break it down and maximizes your DPS?
What follows is the best current rotation priority for Stoneybaby in a full 25-man raid environment. If you want to know your best rotation your best bet is to... sim it!
New Expanded Priority
- SR
- SW
- FE
- MW5_LB/CL
- LS
- MT
- FS
- ES_SS
- SS
- ES
- LL
- FN
Notice anything unusual? Lightning Shield moved up in the priority, but only when you have 0 or 1 stacks left. It helps that I have 2pc Tier 9 which activates Static Shock it more often. We're all about passive DPS to boost the overall output. Your mileage may vary on the priority of LS.
Yes I do use Flame Shock in there; it's a 55 DPS loss if I don't. On fights that are primarily single target encounters (i.e most bosses) Flame Shock is going to be a damage increase at little addtional mana cost.
Making Sense of It
If you're not familiar with Enhance, or even if you are, that’s a lot of jumble. I want to try and break down the rotation so it’s easier for everyone to understand. Think of Enhancement spell selection like a popular NYC club: everyone’s outside waiting to get in. When a bigtime player like Spirit Wolves or Maelstrom Weapon 5 show up they just roll right up to the front of the club and stroll on in. In the meantime you the bouncer just go down the list from cool kids like Stormstrike all the way down to lowly Lightning Shields. You’re playing favorites depending on who’s standing in front of you. Why do we play favorites? Because we’re big beefy bouncers at the hottest club in town: the Enhance DPS Dance Party. Aw yeah.
Hmm…
That analogy, while possibly fitting, is actually... how shall I say? STUPID. I can’t believe I actually wrote that—and posted it. Will someone please be embarrassed for me so that I don’t have to be embarrassed for myself? Thanks.
Let’s try that again
- If the first item on your list is not on cooldown then use it.
- If it is on cooldown move to the next item on the list.
- Repeat until you cast a spell.
- Start over from the top.
That was a lot easier wasn’t it?
Spell Rotation Explained
Even after nearly three years of playing Enhancement the spell rotation still looks like alphabet soup: SR SW FE MW5_LB LS MT FS ES_SS SS ES LL FN. What does it all mean? Let’s break it down in plain English.
Conditionals
These are the things you only use with special circumstances and not a part of the regular rotation. They's listed at the top because when it is time to use one you pop it as a priority over everything else.
How’s your mana? Topped-off? OK forget Shammy Rage. However, if you’re rocking 2pc T10 and/or mana below 50% then it’s time to use SR.
Are you going to use Heroism/Bloodlust in the next 3 minutes? If so hold off on your dogs. Otherwise show your wild side with Feral Spirit. The reason I say hold off if you're going to use Hero/BL is these puppies benefit from it and it exponentially increases their damage (and thus yours).
Are you in a good position for a Fire Elemental Totem? Will be boss be within a 15-20 yard radius of your current position? Do you want to save your FE for Heroism/BL or do you want to blow it now? When you’re ready then unleash the hotness. If you need to be mobile, your FE is on cooldown or you’re saving it for that special someone then drop a Magma Totem.
The Regular Rotation
Here's the core of our rotation that we're tearing through on a regular basis.
Do you have 5 Maelstrom Weapon procs? HIT IT! If not, keep waiting because no matter how much haste you have (and you really shouldn’t be haste stacking now anyway) a MW4 cast will reset your swing timer and put a kink in your overall output.
Next up, is Lightning Shield. Refresh this if you’re down to 1 charge or completely out. At times when when absolutely positively everything else is on cooldown I'll refresh LS so I don't have to later.
How’s that Magma Totem doing? Refreshing it is your priority it if it’s getting low (1-2 ticks left) or if it’s run out; you want to have this up at all times.
Is Flame Shock active? Get it up there. It’s a nice bit of consistent damage over 18 seconds. You don’t want to clip FS so only re-apply this if it’s run out, don’t refresh it. You could clip 1 tick and still come out ahead, but I play it safe and never clip it.
ES_SS means Earth Shock while the SS debuff is active. If you find yourself in a moment where both Earth Shock and Stormstrike are off cooldown then look to see if the SS debuff is still up on the boss, if the debuff is active then Earth Shock.
If it’s not active or if ES is on cooldown then Stormstrike.
Is SS is on cooldown then use Earth Shock, even if the debuff is not up on the boss.
Lonely ol’ Lava Lash is nearly last on our list. Get some flames from the offhand up there. HIYA!!
Ho hum. Never thought you’d get down this far did you? Right now everyone is on cooldown, can you believe it? MW5, SS, ES, FS, LL, all on CD. You’ve got MT down, LS us up and active, and you’re not going to (or already did) pop Hero, SW, and FE. It’s time to hit Fire Nova. This is our filler spell. Believe it or not, it happens often enough that FN does a decent amount of damage throughout the encounter, especially with 2/2 FN. Fire Nova ensures you’re always casting a spell or always using an ability.
That covers it for now. That's what I'm going with and having much success. Now to try out Phil's AoE trash spec...
May all your hits be crits!
Reader Comments (27)
Don't forget to drop your totems!
So SW = Feral Spirit? I've seen SW in enhsim, never could figure out what it meant. I just left it unchecked. :-)
One situation that happens frequently for me is when there are adds and you get MW5 and CL has about 1 gcd left on cd. Do you cast a LB and move on or do you cast a shock followed by CL?
Lightning shield before shocks? That's unexpected! I guess I should get the new version and try myself some day soon.
stoney, do you still use flame shock without the flame shock glyph? just wondering if that's a good idea or not.
regardless, i'll be very happy to get rid of flame shock in my rotation, i end up clipping it far too much, and i get angry at myself when i do, thus i forget other things, then it all snowballs from there. will probably be a dps increase for me.
i dont use flame shock anymore, all it does is distract me, i have had no trouble getting nova into my rotation, but flame shock just doesn't fit for me, i don't know why i cant get it in there but i do more DPS when i don't try
Stoney, your metaphor just made my day! why are you so ashamed of it :(
SW = Spirit Wolves = What the ability should of been named... I mean Feral Spirit?
Yeah our rotation is starting to get a little too complicated, its moving towards Feral Kitty DPS rotation, and I don't want that. I moved from Druid DPS to Shaman DPS because of it ¬_¬
Mind sharing your keybindings? I'd be interested in seeing how other enhancers bind their keyes.
1= LB, 2=SS, 3=LL, 4=ES, 5=nova, 6=ChainLT
Mousewheel Up=Winsheer
Mousewheel Down= magma totem
mousescrool button=vent
mouse4=Lightning shield
Mouse 5= Sham rage
R=Purge
i click everything else. except lesser heal, thats bound to Page up and page down so i can just slap at it when i need it
1= SS
2= ES
3= LL
4= LB (Alt ChL)
5= HWave
Shift 1= SRage
Shift 2= FSpirit
Shift 3= Lshield (Alt Wshield)
Shift 4= Can't remember
`= GWolf
F= Wind Shear (Alt Hex)
C= FShock
X= Purge
V= Grounding
\= Can't remember
I do quite alot of PvP, thats why Frost Shock and the like are keybinded and where I say "(Alt Ability)" I macro a second ability for when holding Alt.
"Do you have 5 Maelstrom Weapon procs? HIT IT! If not, keep waiting because no matter how much haste you have (and you really shouldn’t be haste stacking now anyway) a MW4 cast will reset your swing timer and put a kink in your overall output."
Are you sure about this? Unless this just changed as long as you have at least one charge of Maelstrom Weapon up then your swing timer is not reset. If the cast would intersect the swing its pushed back. Thats why MW3 and MW4 were in the priority list. With the 4PC T10, we want to wait for 5 charges.
Bob, With the duration of FS being extended to 18 seconds it does more damage than ES even unglyphed, provided you dont clip more than 1 tic. I used a simple FS/ES macro with a reset 18 in it, so I dont need to worry about clipping the dot.
Have you though about making a rotation macro? I have one that I tried out last night using your priority list here and it up'd my dps on single targets buy about 1.5k. The timing made it possible to keep FS up without ever cliping it. My only issue so far is adding in FN and making sure MT is still up. i use FN when my shocks are on cd but I always forget to chk if MT is still pumping away.
if i wanted it to be that easy I'd roll Ret
If I am in a caster-heavy group in particular wouldn't it be better for the group if I went with a flametongue totem? Spell power = better heals, better Warlock/Mage DPS, and it isn't as if my own DPS isn't enhanced by greater spellpower. Magma and FE might be better for my personal DPS but is it really best for the group?
Also, I'm kind of lazy . . . dropping a flametongue is set-it-and-forget-it. I can cast Nova if I want to, but I don't have to worry about the FE cooldown (as a matter of fact, it is more likely that I'll have FE if I really need it) or pulling a pat or an add.
I am just getting into 10-man and 25-man content, but I have never had anyone complain that I went with flamestrike as my fire totem, but I don't even see it mentioned on this page. Is it really that bad?
sorry meant flametongue in that last para.
if your not pulling the numbers you need to, then just use what keeps you in the raid, once you get to a gear level where you don't Need your totems to keep your place then do what is best for the group, but as far as healing goes, if you make... oh say 2 interupts you already made up for any SP boost you can give a healer
I think I have finally got the rotation going, I peak at over 9k with bloodlust and end off around 7900 on Surfang now. FN priority moves up fast when you add 1 or 2 adds into the equation.
so what glyphs are everyone rocking atm?
I glyphed from FE to FN, and I'm not sure if I like it... it's great for trash and heroics, but for raid, I much preferred the FE.
I'm rocking WF and Wolves in the other two slots.
opinions?
Stormstrike should be your #1 glyph
Ferel spirits is #2
#3 can be played around with a bit I'm using WF atm. I've also had Lightning Shiled and Flame shock there. If a fight will last 7 minutes then Fire Elemental is worth it. otherwise its a waste.
Baelor said: "I used a simple FS/ES macro with a reset 18 in it, so I dont need to worry about clipping the dot."
Can you post this or a link to a page that describes this kind of macro?
Is the macro something like this?
/castsequence reset=combat/target/18 Flame Shock, Earth Shock
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=18/target Flame Shock, Earth Shock, Earth Shock
Just on a note: Haste Stacking may still be king. EJ has the BiS list with haste gems, and my own experience is that socketing haste is a higher EnhSim DPS.
i still stack haste. their is the question, hit more, or hit harder. the idea behind staking haste is its the one stat that effects both your spells and melee hits via MS procs. im thinking stacking AP might be the more mana efficiant stat
Of course AP is more mana efficient. But if you don't run OOM, and I don't anymore, then why does efficiency matter?
i had to respec recently due to mana shortages, i was going oom 20 seconds of every min, it really messed wif my deeps